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Show 282 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF Fitzpatrick requested Captain Stuart to remain quiet, saying, "Beckwourth has passed his word to you that you shall have your horse. l-Ie will be forthcoming wh en you want hu. n. " The next morning they prepared to leave the village. The horses were all packed, and every thing iu readiness. "Am I to have my horse?" said Captain Stuart. " He will be here in a moment, sir," said I. High Bull then rode the horse up to the party and dismounted, giving me the reins. "Now, sir, you can mount your horse," said I, delivering him into his owner's possession. He mounted, -and the party started. I took one hundred and fifty of my choice Dog Soldiers, and escOl ·ted them a distance of fifteen miles. Before leaving them, I cautioned Fitzpatrick to keep on his journey for three days without stopping to encamp. I told him that the Indians were exasperated, and the two villages were together, and it was not in my power to keep them from following them. I was apprehensive they would dog them a considerable distance, but that a three days' journey would place them in safety. Instead of following my advice, he encamped the following aft~rnoon. Within an hour after his delay, almost all lus horses were taken by the Indians not leaving him enough to pack his goods. I after~ard learned that Stuart saved his gray horse. I saw the Crows had made free with my friends' horses, for I saw several of them about the village subsequently. However, I was satisfied I had done my duty; I could not have done more to my own father or brother. Still my life was sought after, and my character basely assailed. JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 283 The fate of the Crow warriors I will mention episodically here, as I gathered it from Fitzpatrick, and afterward from the Cheyennes. The party had encamped between two villages, hav-ing the Cheyennes on one side and the Siouxs on the other. They were in utter ignorance of their dangerous proximity. Being quickly discovered by one of the enemy, he returned and alarmed his village, anJ dispatched a messenger to the neighboring village; and in a few moments our small band was surrounded by a force of fifty times their number. Their position was a strong one, being chosen in a deep hollow or gully. They received the assault with unflinching intrepidity, and fought until they were all exterminated except their chief-they killing thirty-four of their foes. The chief seemed to wear a charmed life; neither lead nor arrows could harm him. He advanced from his position and tantalized his foes. He invited them to come and kill him, saying that the scalps of his enemies made his lodge dark, and that he had ridden their horses till he was tired of riding. They were filled with admiration of his daring. They told him he was too great a brave to be killed; that he might go, and they would not hurt him: . "No," said he, pointing to h1s dead companwns ; "you have killed all my warriors; they have gone to the land of the Great Spirit; now kill me, so that I may go with them. I am the Little Gray Bull; come and kill me. I ask not to live. My heart disdains your offers of mercy. My brothers and friends will avenge my death." . . He would frequently advance toward his swarming enemies ; as he approached, they retired. He then returned toward his dead companions, and again defied |
