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Show 240 VALLEY OF THE MUDDT. flight, the residue escaping only by abandoning their horses and hiding in the bushes; Intelligence of this onslaught reached Major Bridger, then occupied in erecting a trading^ post on Green River; he sent Frappe advice to abandon his post at once, for fear of worse consequences. The advice, however, was neglected, when, about ten days after, as his party was on their Way to join his partner, they were again suddenly attacked by another large party of the savage allies. He had but forty men; but they instantly " fotted" in the corral attached to the trading- post, and- stood on their defence. The assault lasted from noon until sundown, the Indians charging the pickets several times with great bravery; but they were finally repulsed with the loss of forty men. Frappe, himself was killed, with sdven or eight of his people. I give this as a sample of the perilous adventures in which these rpde and daring men, almost as wild as their savage foes, were engaged, as things of course, and which they related around their camp- fires with a relish quite professional. The only vegetation at this camp was a few scattering clumps of small willows and some black currant- bushes: the supply of grass was scanty. Muddy Creek runs between perpendicular cut day- banks, forty feet apart; the water at the present stage being only four f^ et wide and four inches deep. Day's travel, very direct as to course, twenty and a- half miles. Lat. 41° 27' 06", 1; long. 107° 52' 41". , x Thursday^ September 19.- Slight frost in the night. Ther. at sunrise, 85°. The night passed without alarm; and, crossing the creek, we continued np its left bank, and soon reached a point where it made a long cafion through the hills. The ground was rough; and filled with gullies made by the rush of the spring freshets. The soil was loose and sandy, and the waters had cut numerous deep and narrow channels across the valley, whose perpendicular banks obliged us to pass along the base of the blufis, in order to head, and thus avoid them. The creek had to be crossed some six or eight times, and, upon the whole, this has been the roughest and most difficult part of the route. Before noon we passed a spot where a party of fourteen fur- traders, under- Mr. Vasquez, had " forted" and fought forty Ogallalah Sioux for four hours, successfully defending themselves and repulsing the Indians. One of our men, a half- breed hunter, had hmiself been in the fight, and pointed out to me the localities with the most minfct* particularity of bloody detail. |