HOW THE INDIANS RIDE. o9 



"buffalo, tlicy live lialf their time in tlie saddle. IN'o reins are 

 used to guide their horses, but they press with their heels on 

 whicheyer side they want to turn. Both hands and arms are 

 consequently free to use the rifle, the bow, or the spear at 

 pleasure* These men were splendidly armed with rifles for 

 long ranges, bows and arrows for short distances, and spears 

 and tomahawks for hand-to-hand combat. They were tightly 

 strapped to their saddles, so that they conld bend down at 

 either side of the horse, and completely hide their bodies 

 from yiew as well as from the bullets of the enemy; and 

 when shot they did not fall to the ground, but were carried 

 off the field by their ponies, unless the latter were disabled 



also. 



. Leading on the red-skins could distinctly be seen the tall 

 warrior with the long lance on the white horse, who was so 

 conspicuous, in the fight of Saturday. As the little column 

 advanced, the Indians commenced signalling by walking their 

 horses in a circle, while the chief made signs to some 



warriors out of yiew by means of a shining insti'ument or 

 mirror, which flashed brilliantly in the sun. The savages 

 had evidently not expected to find so large a body ready to 

 meet them, or to see an additional line of tents and wagons 

 added to the fort. All this signalling seemed to result in the 

 gradual withcbawal of the attacking party from the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the fort behind a ridge some two miles distant, 

 where, as it turned out, a much larsrer number were waiting 



m 



At the first cry of ^^ Indians !'' we 



m 



Walter Hinch 



man, Crilcy, our carpenter, and myself, started immediately 

 for a rapine about two miles off on the right, which 

 formed a covered approach of six miles or more in lensrth 



o 



in the direction of our camp. General Wright 



