o the remote villages of the
Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches, which were situated far to
the south and east, on the Canadian River and its large tributaries. His
miscellaneous assortment of merchandise he transported upon pack-mules
to the Indian rendezvous, bringing back to the fort the valuable furs
he had exchanged for the goods so eagerly coveted by the savages. It was
while on one of his trading expeditions to the Cheyenne nation that
the colonel married a young squaw of that tribe, the daughter of the
principal chief.

William Bent for his day and time was an exceptionally good man. His
integrity, his truthfulness on all occasions, and his remarkable courage
endeared him to the red and white man alike, and Fort William prospered
wonderfully under his careful and just management. Both his brothers
and St. Vrain had taken up their residence in Taos, and upon the colonel
devolved the entire charge of the busy establishment. It soon became
the most popular rendezvous of the mountaineers and trappers, and in
its immediate vicinity several tribes of Indians took up their temporary
encampment.

In 1852 Fort William was destroyed under the following strange
circumstances: It appears that the United States desired to purchase it.
Colonel Bent had decided upon a price--sixteen thousand dollars--but
the representatives of the War Department offered only twelve thousand,
which, of course, Bent refused. Negotiations were still pending, when
the colonel, growing tired of the red-tape and circumlocution of the
authorities, and while in a mad mood, removed all his valuables from the
structure, excepting some barrels of gunpowder, and then deliberately
set fire to the old landmark. When the flames reached the powder, there
was an explosion which threw down portions of the walls, but did not
wholly destroy them. The remains of the once noted buildings stand
to-day, melancholy relics of a past epoch.

In the same year the indefatigable and indomitable colonel determined
upon erecting a much more important structure. He selected a site on
the same side of the Arkansas, in the locality known as Big Timbers.
Regarding this new venture, Colonel or Judge Moore of Las Animas, a
son-in-law of William Bent, tells in a letter to the author of the
history of Colorado the following facts:--

Leaving ten men in camp to get out stone for the new post,
Colonel Bent took a part of his outfit and went to a Kiowa