80 ON THE FEONT1EE. 



dents and resources. Over his camp-fire, behind his glass 

 of grog and glowing meerschaum, he told us the story of his 

 late adventures. 



He had started out, three weeks before we had, with a 

 small band of picked hunters twenty and as many boys 

 to wait upon them, herd the hacks, buffalo-runners, and 

 pack-horses, and perform camp duty. 



The Delawares being at peace with the tribes of the 

 Plains, no hostile acts were to be looked for from them ; 

 indeed the Delawares did not expect to be molested in any 

 way, as it was their intention to confine their hunting to a 

 district which through long prescription and usage had in 

 a certain sense become their special hunting-ground. They 

 had met with the success a party of such able and ex- 

 perienced hunters were entitled to calculate upon, and 

 were nearly ready to return, when, one night at twilight, 

 while eating their supper, they were swooped down upon 

 by a large well-armed band of Cheyennes and Kiowas. A 

 cloud of arrows and some rifle shots were discharged at 

 them at long range by their assailants as they swept round 

 the Delawares' camp ; the stock surrounded, two herders 

 killed, one taken prisoner, and every hoof " lifted " before 

 their eyes. The whole thing done, too, so suddenly and 

 quickly as not to afford a chance of resistance. And Connor 

 and his men found themselves set a-foot in the wide prairies, 

 over a hundred and fifty miles from the nearest point of 

 safety the Pottowattomie encampments encumbered with 

 two wounded men, and with a loss of as many boys killed 

 and one taken prisoner. 



The position was not only humiliating but dangerous. 



