Chapter 49

49.

Rendezvous at Wind River Campaign of Montero and his brigade in

the Crow country Wars between the Crows and Blackfeet Death

of Arapooish Blackfeet lurkers Sagacity of the horse

Dependence of the hunter on his horse Return to the

settlements.

ON the 22d of June Captain Bonneville raised his camp, and moved

to the forks of Wind River; the appointed place of rendezvous.

In a few days he was joined there by the brigade of Montero,

which had been sent, in the preceding year, to beat up the Crow

country, and afterward proceed to the Arkansas. Montero had

followed the early part of his instructions; after trapping upon

some of the upper streams, he proceeded to Powder River. Here he

fell in with the Crow villages or bands, who treated him with

unusual kindness, and prevailed upon him to take up his winter

quarters among them.

The Crows at that time were struggling almost for existence with

their old enemies, the Blackfeet; who, in the past year, had

picked off the flower of their warriors in various engagements,

and among the rest, Arapooish, the friend of the white men. That

sagacious and magnanimous chief had beheld, with grief, the

ravages which war was making in his tribe, and that it was

declining in force, and must eventually be destroyed unless some

signal blow could be struck to retrieve its fortunes. In a

pitched battle of the two tribes, he made a speech to his

warriors, urging them to set everything at hazard in one furious

charge; which done, he led the way into the thickest of the foe.

He was soon separated from his men, and fell covered with wounds,

but his self-devotion was not in vain. The Blackfeet were

defeated; and from that time the Crows plucked up fresh heart,

and were frequently successful.

Montero had not been long encamped among them, when he discovered

that the Blackfeet were hovering about the neighborhood. One day

the hunters came galloping into the camp, and proclaimed that a

band of the enemy was at hand. The Crows flew to arms, leaped on

their horses, and dashed out in squadrons in pursuit. They

overtook the retreating enemy in the midst of a plain. A

desperate fight ensued. The Crows had the advantage of numbers,

and of fighting on horseback. The greater part of the Blackfeet

were slain; the remnant took shelter in a close thicket of

willows, where the horse could not enter; whence they plied their

bows vigorously.

The Crows drew off out of bow-shot, and endeavored, by taunts and

bravadoes, to draw the warriors Out of their retreat. A few of