TWO TRADERS KILLED. 27 



to offer any resistance, the terrified traders told 

 them if one animal apiece would satisfy them, 

 to go and catch them. This they soon did ; 

 but finding their requests so easily complied 

 with, the Indians held a Httle parley together, 

 which resulted in a new demand for more 

 they must now have two apiece. "AVell, 

 catch tliem !" was the acquiescent reply of the 

 unfortunate band — ^upon wliich the savages 

 mounted those they had already secured, and, 

 swmging their lazos over their heads, plunged 

 among the stock ^\T.th a furious yell, and 

 drove off the entire cahcdlada of near five hun- 

 dred head of horses, mules and asses. 



The fall of 1828 proved still more fatal to 

 the traders on their homeward trip ; for by this 

 time the Indians had learned to form a cor- 

 rect estimate of the stock with which the re- 

 turn comparues were generally provided. 

 Two young men named McNees and Monroe, 

 having carelessly lain down to sleep on the 

 banks of a stream, since known as McNees's 

 creek, were barbarously shot, with their own 

 guns, as it Avas supposed, in very sight of the 

 caravan. When their comrades came up, they 

 found McNees lifeless, and the other almost 

 expiring. In this state the latter was carried 

 nearly fortj" miles to the Cimarron river, 

 where he died, and was buried according to 

 the custom of the Prairies.* 



♦ ITiese funerals are usually performed in a very summary 

 manner. A grave is dug in a convenient spot, and the corpse, 

 ■with no other shroud than its own clothes, and only a blanket for 

 a coffin, is consigned to the earth. The grave is then usually filled 

 up with stones or poles, as a safe-guard against the voracious 

 wolves of tlie prairies. ' 



