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Show CHAPTER XVI. THE TRAPPERS. • "Ours the wild life, in tumult still to range, From toil to rest, and joy in every change; The exulting sense, the pulse's maddening play, That thrills the wanderer of the tracldess way ; That for itself can woo the approaching fight, And turn what ~orne deem danger to delight: Come when it will we snatch the life of life ; Wl1en lost, what reeks it by disease or strife 1" THE CoRSAIR. IN speaking of the Indians, I have almost forgotten two bold adventurers of another race, the trappers Rouleau and Sara. phin. These men were bent on a most hazardous enterprise. A day's journey to the westward was the country over which the Arapahoes are accustomed to ranae and for which the 0 ) two trappers were on the point of setting out. These Ara. pahoes, of whom Shaw and I afterwards fell in with a large village, are ferocious barbarians, of a most brutal and wolfish aspect ; and of late they had declared themselves enemies to the whites, and threatened death to the first who should venture within their territory. The occasion of the declaration was as follows: THE TRAPPERS. 281 In the previous spring, 1845, Col. Kearney left Fort Leavenworth with s.everal companies of dragoons, and marching with extraordinary celerity, reached Fort Laramie, whence he passed along the foot of the mountains to Bent's Fort, and then, turning eastward again, returned to the point from whence he set out. While at Fort Laramie, he sent a part of his command as far westward as Sweetwater, while he himself re. mained at the fort, and dispatched messages to the surrounding Indians to meet him there in council. Then for the first time the tribes of that vicinity saw the white warriors, and, as might have been expected, they were lost in astonishment at their regular order, their gay attire, the completeness of their martial equipment, and the great size and power of their horses. Among the rest, the Arapahoes came in considerable numbers to the fort. They had lately committed numerous acts of out- • rage, and Col. Kearney threatened that if they killed any more white men he would turn loo e his dragoons upon them, and annihilate their whole nation. In the evening, to add effect to his speech, he ordered a howitzer to be fired and a rocket to be thrown up. Many of the Arapahoes fell prostrate on the ground, while others ran away screaming with amazement and terror. On the following day they withdrew to their mount . ams, confounded with awe at the appearance of the dragoons, at their big gun which went off twice at one shot, and the fiery messenger which they had sent up to the Great Spirit. For many months they remained quiet, and did no farther mischief. At length, just before we came into the country, one of them, by an act of the basest treachery, killed two white men, Boot and.May, who were trapping among the mountains. For this act It Was impossible to discover a motive. It seemed to spring |