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Show 374 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF I had so admirable an opportunity to catch them on the Mussel Shell. I took a party, therefore, forded the river near the fort, and went on straight to the Mussel Shell, where I posted my men. Our unsuspecting victims came up, singing in great merriment, and driving our horses before them, all of which were jaded. I suffered them to approach close upon us, and then gave the word to charge. Never was a party taken more. by surprise; they were too dumbfoundered to offer resistance, and all we had to do was to chop them down. We had their twenty-four scalps in little more than the same number of seconds. When the other party came up and found the work done, they thought we had been rained down there. They knew they had left us at the fort, and we had not passed them on the way, and where did we come from? • Pine Leaf was with the party, and she was ready to blow me off my horse. It was unfair to take the job out of their hands, after they had almost run their horses off their legs in the chase. I expressed my regret at the fortunate turn affairs had taken, and promised never to offend in the same manner again; but it was a long while before I could banter her into good humor. I remained at the fort all the summer (as before stated),. int~nding to go down the river on my way to St. Louis With the last boats in the fall. While idling there, I found the five men whom I had rescued from starvation ir: a penniless condition, and unable to go to work agmn. It seemed the company had issued orders to their agents to furnish no more outfits to free trappers on their personal credit, as the risk was too great, from their extreme liability to be killed by the Indians. To engage to work for the company at the JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 375 price they were paying hands was only perpetuating their poverty ; for they were running the same risk of their lives as if trapping for themselves, and their remuneration was but as one to ten. They were downhearted, and knew not what to do. Considering their sad condition, I determined to befriend them, and risk the chances. I therefore offered to give them an excellent outfit, and direct them to the best beaver-ground in the Crow nation, where they would be protected from all harm by my Crow warriors as my friends, my interest to be one half of the proceeds. This offer was chemfully accepted by the five men, and they were highly elated at the prospect. I then acquainted the Crows that those men were my friends; that they were the remains of a party of eleven, of whom six had been killed by the Black Feet, who had despoiled them of every thing they had, and that I had found these in the prairie almost famished to death. I had engaged them to stay in the nation and trap for me, and I wished my faithful Crow braves to protect them in their pursuit, and suffer none to offer them molestation. This they all readily promised to do, and were even pleased with the trust; for it was a belief with the Crows that the beavers in their streams were too numerous ever to be diminished. My bosom friend. offered to remain with them, to show thmn the best streams, and render them all the assistance in his power. He was a most valuable auxiliary, as his skill in trapping I never saw excelled. They went to work, and met with extraordinary success ; my share of their labors of less than three months amounted to five thousand dollars. |
