134 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



dangling from their rifles, in payment for the loss of their 

 unfortunate companion.* 



In their further advance, hunger and thirst were their 

 daily companions : they were compelled to kill several of 

 their animals for food, but were fortunate enough to re- 

 place them by a stroke of good-luck in meeting a party 

 of Indians returning from an excursion against one of 

 the Californian settlements with a tolerably large band 

 of horses. Our hunters met this band one fine morning, 

 and dashed into the midst at once ; half-a-dozen Indians 

 bit the dust, and twenty horses were turned over from red 

 to white masters in as many seconds, which remounted 

 those whose animals had been eaten, and enabled the 

 others to exchange their worn-out steeds for fresh ones. 

 This fortunate event was considered a coup, and the event 

 was celebrated by the slaughter of a fat young horse, which 

 furnished an excellent supper that night a memorable 

 event in these starveling regions. 



They were now devouring their horses and mules at the 

 rate of one every alternate day ; for so poor were the ani- 

 mals that one scarcely furnished an ample meal for the 

 thirteen hungry hunters. They were once more reduced 

 to the animals they rode on ; and after a fast of twenty- 

 four hours 1 duration, were debating on the propriety of 

 drawing lots as to whose Rosinarite should fill the kettle, 

 when some Indians suddenly appeared making signs of 

 peace upon the bluff, and indicating a disposition to enter 

 the camp for the purpose of trading. Being invited to ap- 

 proach, they offered to trade a few dressed elk-skins ; but 

 being asked for meat, they said that their village was a 

 long way off, and they had nothing with them but a small 



* In Fremont's expedition to California, on a somewhat similar oc- 

 casion, two mountaineers one the celebrated Kit Carson, the other 

 a St Louis Frenchman named Godey, and both old trappers per- 

 formed a feat surpassing the one described above, inasmuch as they 

 were but two. They charged into an Indian village to rescue some 

 stolen horses, and avenge the slaughter of two New Mexicans who 

 had been butchered by the Indians ; both which objects they effect- 

 ed, returning to camp with the lost animals and a couple of propi- 

 tiatory scalps. 



