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Show i302 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 0.1!' CHAPTER XXI. Attacks of the Black Feet on the Fort.-Six White Men killed.Abandonment of Fort Cass.-Fort constructed at the Mouth of the " Rose Bud. "-Removal of the Village.-Peace concluded with the As-ne-boines.-Hair-breadth Escape.-Death of Mr. Hunter, of Kentucky. WHILE we were indulging in a display of our capture. d horses while encamped outside the fort, the Spotted Antelope, one of my relatives, came to me, and intimated that I had better visit the fort, as they had lost six men by the Black Feet. He was in mourning-paint for the victims, because the whites were his friends. I dismounted, and passed through the encampment on my way to the gate. As usual, I found my father's lodge, in which my little wife resided, pitched nearest to the fort, with the other lodges of my .various relatives grouped in a row, their contiguity to my parent's lodge being graduated by their propinquity of kin. I found Pine Leaf seated by my wife, amusing herself with the Black Panther (whose civilized patronymic was Little Jim), while almost all the other women were dancing. I delayed a moment to inquire why these two women were not dancing with the others. Pine Leaf, with solemn air and quivering lip, said, " Your .heart is crying, and I never dance when your heart cnes." · · . ''Neither do I," said the little woman. This was a greater concession than the he~oine had ever made to me before. She had told me that she would marry me, and she had frequently informed my JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 303 sisters and my little wife of a similar intention; but .~ this promise was always modified with a p:oVIso-a contumacious "if," which could never be avoided. "I will marry the Medicine Calf," she would say, "if I marry any man." A great many moons had waxed and waned since she ~first spoke of the pine leaves turning yellow, but they had not yet lost their .verdure, and I had failed to discover a red-handed Indian. In conversation with Mr. Tulleck, the commandant of the fort, I learned that they had been incessantly harassed by the Black Feet ever since our last visit, who had invested them on all sides, rendering it extremely dangerous for any of the inmates· to venture outside the gate. He further informed me that he had had six men massacred and fifty-four horses stolen. He had sent for me, he said, to come and select a new site, where they would be liable to less molestation, and be le·ss in fear of their lives. I consulted with our chiefs and braves upon the selection of a more secure location for a new fort, and it was unanimously agreed upon that the mouth of the Rose Bud, thirty miles lower down the river, offered the best situation, as the country was fair and open all round, and afforded the hostile Indians no good places of concealment. There was also a fine grazing country there, and plenty of buffalo, so that a village of the Crows could winter under the fort, and afford them the protection of their presence. As soon as the Crows had completed their purchases, I started them up the Big IIorn on their way back, with the promise that I would rejoin them in a few days. I then took a boat filled with goods, and twenty men, and dropped down the river until we came across a beautiful location for the new fort. We then return- ' |
