IN THE OLD WEST 147 



with a large portion of the flesh butchered from 

 it, part of which Forey was already greedily de- 

 vouring. The knife dropped from his hand, and 

 his heart rose to his throat. 



The next day he and his companion struck the 

 creek where Rube and the other trapper had 

 agreed to await them, and found them in camp 

 with plenty of meat, and about to start again on 

 their hunt, having given up the others for lost. 

 From the day they parted, nothing was ever 

 heard of La Bonte's other two companions, who 

 doubtless fell a prey to utter exhaustion, and 

 were unable to return to the camp. And thus 

 ended the Digger expedition. 



It may appear almost incredible that men hav- 

 ing civilized blood in their veins could perpetrate 

 such wanton and cold-blooded acts of aggression 

 on the wretched Indians as that detailed above ; 

 but it is fact that the mountaineers never lose 

 an opportunity of slaughtering these miserable 

 Diggers, and attacking their villages, often for 

 the purpose of capturing women, whom they 

 carry off, and not unfrequently sell to other 

 tribes, or to each other. In these attacks neither 

 sex nor age is spared ; and your mountaineer has 

 as little compunction in taking the life of an 

 Indian woman, as he would have in sending his 

 rifle-ball through the brain of a Crow or Black- 

 foot warrior. 



La Bonte now found himself without animals, 



