248 ELDORADO 



him, and with a shudder he fell back and expired. 

 Yellow Bear, an Arapahoe chief to whom the Co- 

 manches told the tale of this murder — said that for a 

 long time the warriors did not dare to approach the 

 body of the trapper, and when they did, the fierce 

 glare of his wide-open eyes so dismayed them that 

 they did not attempt to scalp him. 



Smith was, in some respects, the most remarkable 

 of all the trappers, and was certainly the most restless 

 and daring of these men. His life was one long series 

 of uninterrupted adventure, marked by more than 

 the ordinary perils of even his dangerous avocation. 

 His exploits, if properly recorded, would shame the 

 fictitious deeds of imaginary heroes of the novelist, 

 and would require many times the space here given 

 to it for the simplest and most concise recital. The 

 main features of his romantic career we have been 

 enabled to record, though its details have never be- 

 fore been seen in print. 



All of these men were men of deeds, not words, 

 and their exploits live only in the tales of their com- 

 rades ; none of them being given to vainglorious 

 boasting of personal prowess. It was from the few 

 surviving comrades that our accounts have been gar- 

 nered. Their terrible scars, and the scalps at their 

 girdle alone spoke of their brave endurance and heroic 

 courage. They were the earliest pioneers of the sun- 

 scorched plains and frowning mountains that stand 

 as unsleeping sentinels between the Mississippi valley 

 and the Pacific slope ; in both of which sections Jede- 

 diah S. Smith figured as among the most heroic and 

 brave. 



