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Show 356 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF my 111en were so excited I could hardly restrain them from rushing out and defeating my purpose. ~y plan succeeded admirably. The Black Feet, havmg suffered themselves to be decoyed from their position by the flight of the fifty warriors, I sounded a charge, and my men rushed upon the unprote~ted village like a thunderbolt. We swept every thmg before us ; the women took to the bush like partridges ; the waniors fled in every direction. They were so paralyzed at our unexpected descent that no defense was attempted. I threw myself among the thickest group I could see, and positively hacked down seventeen who pretended to be warriors without receiving a scratch, although my shield was pretty well cut with arrows. If my warriors had all come to their work according to the example that even the heroine set them, not one of the Black ]Teet who ventured to show fight would have escaped. The heroine killed three warriors with her lance, and took two fine little boys prisoners. vV e found but about a thousand warriors to oppose us, while there were lodges enough to contain three times · the number. . We only took sixty-eight scalps after all our trouble-a thing I could not account for. We took thirty women and children prisoners, and drove home near two thousand head of horses, among which ·were many of our own. As I had never seen the Black Feet fight so well as at the fort, I expected an equal display of valor on this occasion, but they offered nothing worthy the name of defense. I learned from my prisoners that my old father-in-law was in that village, whose daughter I had nearly killed for dancing over the scalps of the white men. We had only one warrior wounded, who was shot through the thigh; but it was not broken, and, JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 357 like all Indian wounds, it soon got well. We reached home in less than four days; and, after our arrival, singing and dancing were kept up for a week. In taking prisoners from an enemy we gain much useful information, as there are always more or less of their tribe domiciliated with us, to whom the captives impart confidence; these relate all that they hear to the chiefs, thus affording much serviceable information that could not otherwise be obtained. The women seem to care but little for their captivity, more particularly the young women, who have neither husbands nor children to attach them to their own tribe. They like Crow husbands, because they keep them painted most of the time with the emblems of triumph, and do not whip them like their Black Foot husbands. Certain it is that, when once captured by us, none of them ever wished to return to their own nation. In our numerous campaigns that winter we also took an unusual number of boys, all of whom make excellent Crow warriors, so that our numbers considerably increased from our prisoners alone. Some of the best warriors in the Crow nation had been boys taken from th.e surrounding tribes. They had been brought up With us, had played with our children, and fouo-ht their miniature sham-battles together, had grown i~to men, become warriors, braves, and so on to the council, until they were far enough advanced to become expert horse-thieves. That winter was an e4ceedingly fortunate one for the Crow nation ; success crowned almost every exp~ dition. Long Hair's warriors achieved some great tnumphs over the Black Feet, and in one battle took nearly a hundred scalps. When Long Hair heard of our. misfortune at the ':'<;/ |