If I could discover a tribe whose
confidence in the pale-faces, as they call us, has not been abused, I
would settle down among them and endeavour by kindness and justice to
work upon their better feelings and induce them to become friends."

The garrison remained under arms during the night, but it passed off in
quietness, and the next day the scouts who went out reported that the
enemy had moved off to a distance. It was hoped that their chief, who
had instigated them to attack the fort, being dead, they would be
inclined in the future to leave it unmolested.

We were now all fully prepared to continue our journey, still, anxious
as was my father to proceed, he was unwilling to expose my mother and
the rest of us to the dangers we might have to encounter. On finding
that the country to the westward was at present free from hostile
Indians, we made several hunting expeditions, by which we supplied
ourselves and the fort with fresh provisions. While one day in chase of
a deer which I had wounded, I got separated from my companions. The
animal plunged into a willow brake, and I thought had escaped me.
Finding, however, an opening in the wood, I made my way through it, on
the chance of coming again upon the deer. Calculating the course it was
likely to take, I pushed forward so as to cross it. Coming upon several
splashes of blood, which showed me the direction the deer had gone, I
was following up the trail, when just before me a person rose suddenly
from behind a bush, and to my surprise I recognised the solitary hunter.
I rode towards him, putting out my hand: "I am glad to meet you again,"
I said; "though I little expected to do so: I wish to thank you for the
warning you gave us; had it not been for you, we should probably have
been killed by the Indians."

"I require no thanks," he answered somewhat coldly.

"We gave the Cheyennes and Arapahoes a lesson they will not forget, and
have been able to hunt since without fear of interruption," I observed.

I asked him whether he considered that our train could pass on towards
the Rocky Mountains without the risk of being attacked.

"If you make haste, you may get through; but you must not idle on the
way," he answered; "the savages have united in a grand expedition
against the forts to the southward, and although they will probably be
defeated, it will give them employment for some time to come."

This was satisfactory intelligence. I thanked him for it. I