CROSSING THE ROCKIES IN '61. 



i7 



flying shot, which made the bull shake 

 his head ; but he kept on about 200 

 yards, when he made a bad shy at some- 

 thing that had frightened him, in the 

 brush. The boys wisely concluded to 

 return to the boat and pull for the fort. 

 It was probably a lot of hostile Indians 

 that had frightened the bull, as about 

 three hours afterward three of them 

 swam the river, stole all our horses — six 

 in number — and escaped with them. 



The alarm was at once given, and a 

 party dashed out of the fort after them, 

 on foot. Lawrence and myself were 

 asleep. Cary was reading, and, grabbing 

 his rifle, ran out bare-footed, but (fortu- 

 nately for the Indians) he stepped on a 

 cactus, which prevented his aiming 

 straight. Whether all the men stepped 

 on cactus or not I don't know, but none 

 of the many shots fired at the hostiles 

 told. They went on with the horses, 

 and we were again on foot. It was 

 several days before new horses were 

 brought in from the nearest trading 

 post, and meantime we stayed close to 

 camp, keeping our rifles always at hand.'' 



* * * 



One of the best and most eloquent 

 speeches I ever heard was delivered 

 here by an Assiniboine chief, named 

 '* Broken Arm," at a council between 

 the Assiniboines and the chief factors 

 of the Fur company. When he began 

 talking he had a handsomely orna- 

 mented black buffalo robe over one 

 shoulder, and held it about his waist ; 

 but as he proceeded and got warmed 

 up with his subject, he dropped his 

 robe to the ground and stood before us 

 naked, except a breech clout. He was 

 a tall, handsome, athletic Indian, well 

 developed and straight as an arrow. 

 His gestures were graceful and forcible, 

 and though I hardly understood a word 

 he, said, I was deeply absorbed in his 

 speech from beginning to end, and was 

 sorry when he had finished. The robe 

 he wore was decorated on the inside 

 with Indian paintings, illustrating some 

 of his exploits. The next day it was 

 brought to the fort and exchanged for 

 goods, and I bought it of the Fur 

 company. 



* * * 



We attended several of the Indian 

 dances. They were the same as those 

 so well described and illustrated in 



Citlin's works. The music was very 

 monotonous. It consisted of banging a 

 drumstick on a sort of tambourine, a 

 long note and a short one, and of sing- 

 ing a song that sounded like '' Hi ya " 

 — the " Hi " a long note and the " Ya " 

 a short one. 



One of the Indians at the fort con- 

 cluded one day to be good. That is, 

 he up and died. The funeral ceremonies 

 were very impressive, and were con- 

 ducted according to the rules of the 

 highest circles of red society on the 

 upper Missouri. The relatives of the 

 dear departed mourned and howled 

 until you could have heard them 200 

 yards^, and we wished they were at least 

 1,000 yards away. Somehow we did not 

 sympathize with them, as we ought. We 

 did not seriously regret the death of the 

 defunct. In fact, since his friends had 

 stolen our horses, I don't think we 

 should have mourned so loud as these 

 mourners did if the whole band had 

 died at once. 



As a fitting close to the obsequies, a 

 fine young horse belonging to the dead 

 brave was turned out, when two of the 

 young warriors ran up to him and shot 

 him with arrows, driving the cruel 

 shafts nearly through him. The horse 

 was buried beside his late master. 



Finally, after six long weary weeks of 

 waiting at Fort Union, Mr. Dawson re- 

 turned from Benton. Our hunting party 

 bought an old Red river cart, put our 

 provisions, traps, and our skin lodge in 

 it, and started, with the train of 21 ox- 

 wagons, about August 10th, on what we 

 knew must be a long, tedious journey. 



We had bought a new skin lodge of 

 the Indians, with a set of poles. The 

 first night out we tried to set it up. At 

 first we did not succeed, so we tried 

 again, and again, and again. Meantime, 

 some Indians, who were travelling with 

 us, stood around laughing at us. The 

 weather was sultry, and we got into the 

 same condition ; but we couldn't make 

 the blooming ten pins stand. We w 

 not that kind of carpenters. Finally, 

 we had to admit our inferiority to the 

 noble red man, and employ a couple ol 

 red women to build our house every 

 night. We managed to tear it down in 

 the morning. 



On the way up the river we passed a 



