20 THE STORY OP THE TRAPPER 



savages muskets enough to blow out the brains of the 

 next comers. Lisa himself was charged with this by 

 Crooks and MacLellan.* Perhaps that was his reason 

 for pushing ahead at all speed to overtake Hunt before 

 either party had reached Sioux territory. 



Hunt got wind of the pursuit. The faster Lisa 

 came,, the harder Hunt fled. This curious race lasted 

 for a thousand miles and ended in Lisa coming up with 

 the Astorians on June 2d. For a second time the Span 

 iard tampered with Dorion. Had not two English 

 travellers intervened, Hunt and Lisa would have set 

 tled their quarrel with pistols for two. Thereafter the 

 rival parties proceeded in friendly fashion, Lisa helping 

 to gather horses for Hunt s party to cross the 

 mountains. 



That overland journey was one of the most pitiful, 

 fatuous, mismanaged expeditions in the fur trade. 

 Why a party of sixty-four well-armed, well-provisioned 

 men failed in doing what any two voyageurs or trappers 

 were doing every day, can only be explained by compari 

 son to a bronco in a blizzard. Give the half-wild 

 prairie creature the bit, and it will carry its rider 

 through any storm. Jerk it to right, to left, east, and 

 west till it loses its confidence, and the bronco is as 

 helpless as the rider. So with the voyageur. Crossing 

 the mountains alone in his own way, he could evade 

 famine and danger and attack by lifting a brother 

 trader s cache hidden provisions or tarrying in In 

 dian lodges till game crossed his path, or marrying the 

 daughter of a hostile chief, or creeping so quietly 



* A partner in trade with Crooks, both of whom lost every 

 thing going up the Missouri in Lisa s wake. 



