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Show • 220 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XVI. Departure from Fort Cass.-Capture of Squaws.-Battle with the Black Feet; with the Cheyennes.-Great Success of the.Crows in stealing Horscs.-A successful Fall for Beaver.-Return to the Fort with Peltry. • AFTER having arranged every thing in the fort (which I have forgotten to mention we named after J\Ir. Cass), and given all needful instructions to Win- 1ers, who was in charge, I again left. J\iy inten-tion was to induce the Crows to devote their undivided attention to trapping, not alone for their own bene·fit, but for the interest of the company in whose service I was engaged. I well knew that if I was with them they would capture five beavers to one if left to themselves. I had obtained great influe~ce in the medicine lodge, and could often exert it to prevent a 1var-party from making a useless excursion against their enemies. I would tell them in their council that my medicine told me not to go to war; that it was to their interest to employ their warriors in trapping all the beavers possible, so that they might have the means of purchasing ammunition and weapons for themselves, as well as beads, scarlet cloth, and blankets for the women ; that by-and-by we should be attacked by the enemy, and be unprovided with the means of defense; that they would then kill all our warriors, and make captives of our women and chil( 1ren, as the Cheyennes had captured my mother when I was an infant, many winters gone; that they should save all their warriors against a time of need, and only JAMES P. BECKvYOGRTH. 221 engage in war when the safety of their village was at stake. These representations would frequent! y dissuade them from their belligerent purpose, and beaver-skins would be brought into the village by the pack; but they would soon tire of their pacific occupation, ancl their enemies' horses · would offer them temptations which they could not resist. Nearly all the Crows having left the fort before I did, only a few warriors remained to bear me company. I engaged to meet them at the mouth of the Little llorn within a given number of nights, and I knew I should be expected. We arrived in safety at the place appointed, and within the time I had specified. Soon after our. arrival, it was proposed to send out a war-party, not so much to fight as to reconnoitre; to see where horses could with least difficulty be procured, and gain a general intelligence of how matters stood. We set out, and had traveled slowly along for nearly two weeks, when our scouts returned to apprise us that there was a large crowd of women approaching toward us. We were then in a forest of plum-trees, bearing large red plums, which were fully ripe, and were very delicious. Feeling satisfied that the women were coming to gather fruit, we secreted ourselves, intend- - ing, at a given signal, to surround them while they were busily employed. Accordingly, we waited until they all set themselves about their task, they keeping up an incessant jabber among themselves like so many blackbirds or bob-o-links, and having no suspicion that the Crows would so soon come in for their share. At a sound from the whistle, they were entirely surrounded, and their merry chatter was hushed in an instant. We marched them to an open piece of |
