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Show 364 AUT0BIOGRAPHY OF • would have escorted them to the fort, and probably have pursued the Black Feet, an~ h. ave. retaken their property. On returning from theu cucuit, they stru~k the river a great distance below the fort~ and were still traveling down the river. in sear~h of It. ~hey had nothing to eat, and nothmg to lnll. game With to ~elieve their wants. They went on with the boats, while I and my companion resumed our "over-land route." We reached the fort several days in advance of the boats. I only rested one night there, and then proceeded directly o~ to my Indian home. Shortly after my arrival there, the illages move on up the ri~er, · proceeding leisurely, and killing buffalo and dressing robes on the way. We finally reached the mountain streams, and, as it was now near September, the beaver were getting to be in fine condition for trapping. We had at this time a visit from eight hundred lodges of the Snak who came for the purpose of trading, as they had no trading-post of their own. They remained with us several weeks, and we had a very agreeable time together. This furnished me with an opportunity of enlarging. to the Crows upon the superior delights of peace. We could visit the lodges of our Snake friends, and they could visit ours without cutting each other's throats. Our women could chatter together, our children gambol and have their shambattles together, while the old veterans could talk over their achievements, and smile at the mimic war-hoops of their children. They could also trade together, and derive mutual benefit from the fair exchange of commodities. I contrasted this with the incessant butcheries that distinguished their intercourse with some tribes, and asked them which relation was the more dec.: 1' 1' 0 \ b}o .... • .... l v . JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 365 The Crows had many things to trade away which they had no need for, or, if they had needed them, they could replace them with a fresh supply from the fort. The nation was desirous that their guests should see the trading-post, where all their goods were stored beyond the reach of their enemies, and whence they drew their supplies as often as they had need of them ; for the simple Crows supposed that the posts, with their contents, were the property of the nation, and that the whites who were in charge there were their own agents. To gra~ify their natural pride, I led a party to the fort, among whom were two hundred of our Snake visitors. On entering the fort, and looking over the store-house, they were struck dumb with astonishment; they could not comprehend the vastness of the wealth that was displayed before them. They had never before seen a depot of goo~s, and this exceeded all they had any previOus expenence of. The rows of o·uns highly polished, the battle-axes, laBce-blades, sc~rlet cloth, beads, and many curiosities they had never seen before, fill~d them with admiration ; they could not gaze suffiCiently at these indications of our wealth. They inquired of the Crows whether our nation made all those articles there. They told them that they did not; ti:at the:y were made at our great fort below, in companson With which this was but a small lodo-e · that all our supplies were manufactured there ~nd brought up the river in great boats by our white fri~nds. The.y then inquire~ by what means they had gained the alha?'lC~ of the whites; that, instead of killing them a~d banishing th~m from their hunting-ground, as they did to many natwns, they should give themselves the great troub~e to serve them with their boats, and bring them such Immense supplies. |