OCR Text |
Show AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF , If a born b-shell had exploded in the fort they could not have been more astonished. "Ah," said one of them," you speak English! Where did you learn it ?" "With the white man." "How long were you with the whites?" " More than twenty years." "Where did you live with them ?" '' In St. Louis." " In St. Louis ! in St. Louis ! You have lived twenty years in St. Louis ! " Then they scanned me closely from head to foot, and Kipp said," If you have lived twenty years in St.Louis, I'll swear you are no Crow." " No, I am not." "Then what may be your name?" "My name in English is James Beckwourth." "Good heavens! why I have heard your name men-tioned a thousand times. X ou were supposed dead, and were so reported by Captain Sublet." ''I am not dead, as you see; I still move and breathe.~' "This explains the mystery," he added, turning to the clerk," of those beaver-skins being marked 'J. B.' Well, well ! if you are not a strange mortal!" All this conversation was unintelligible to my Crow brethren, who were evidently proud to see a Crow talk so fluently to the white man. "No w, "I sa1· a , "I h ave seen you transact your busi-ness without interposing with a word. You have cleared two or three thousand per cent. of your exchanges. I do not grudge it you. Were I in your place I sh'oulcl do the same. But I want a little more liberal treatment. I have toiled hard for what I have obtained, and I want the worth of my earnings." I( I . , • ' JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 179 I set my own price upon my property, and, to the great astonishment of my Indian brethren, I returned with as large a bale of goods as theirs would all together amount to. But, as I have said, an Indian is in no wise envious, and, instead of considering themselves unfairly used, they rejoiced at the white man's profusion to me, and supposed the overplus he had give11 me was an indemnity for the captivity they had held . me In. On our return I made various presents to all my wives, some of whom I did not see for months together, and to many other relatives. I had still a good stock to trade upon, and .could exchange with my brethren at any rate I offered. They placed implicit confidence in my integrity, and a beaver-skin exchanged with me for one plug of tobacco contented them better than to have exchanged it for two with the white man. I had the fairest opportunity for the acquisition of an immense fortune that ever was placed in man's way. By saying one word to the tribe I could have kept the white trader forever out of their territory, and thus have gained the monopoly of the trade of the entire nation for any term of years. That I am not now in possession of a fortune equal to that of an Astor or a Girard is solely the fault of my own indolence, and I do not to this moment see how I came to neglect the golden opportunity. While returning from the trading-post, we fell in with a party of about two hundred and fifty Cheyenne warriors, to oppose whom we numbered but two hundred warriors, besides being encumbered with a still greater number of women. As good fortune would have it, they attacked us in the daytime, while |