ASTOR ENCOUNTERS NEW OPPONENTS 43 



lay dead on the trappers side, as many more were 

 wounded; and the Blackfeet s loss was twice as great. 

 For years this tribe exacted heavy atonement for the 

 death of warriors behind the trenches of Pierre s 

 Hole. 



Leaving Pierre s Hole the mountaineers scattered 

 to their rocky fastnesses, but no sooner had they pitched 

 camp on good hunting-grounds than the strangers who 

 had shadowed them at the rendezvous came up. Break 

 ing camp, the Rocky Mountain men would steal aw r ay 

 by new and unknown passes to another valley. A day 

 or two later, having followed by tent-poles dragging 

 the ground, or brushwood broken by the passing pack 

 ers, the pertinacious rivals would reappear. This went 

 on persistently for three months. 



Infuriated by such tactics, the mountaineers 

 planned to lead the spies a dance. Plunging into 

 the territory of hostiles they gave their pursuers the 

 slip. Neither party probably intended that matters 

 should become serious; but that is always the fault of 

 the white man when he plays the dangerous game of 

 war with Indians. The spying party was ambushed, the 

 leader slain, his flesh torn from his body and his skele 

 ton thrown into the river. A few months later the 

 Rocky Mountain traders paid for this escapade. Fitz- 

 patrick, the same trapper who had &quot; lifted &quot; Ogden s 

 furs and led this game against the spies, was robbed 

 among Indians instigated by white men of the American 

 Fur Company. This marked the beginning of the end 

 w r ith the Rocky Mountain trappers. 



The American Fur Company, which Mr. Astor had 

 organized and stuck to through good repute and evil 

 repute, was now officered by Ramsay Crooks and Farn- 



