ach during the night, they
would certainly be shot; which would be a very unfortunate circumstance,
and much to be deplored. To the latter remark, they fully assented; and
shortly afterward commenced a wild song, or chant, which they kept up
for a long time, and in which they very probably gave their friends, who
might be prowling round the camp, notice that the white men were on the
alert. The night passed away without disturbance. In the morning, the
three Crow guests were very pressing that Captain Bonneville and his
party should accompany them to their camp, which they said was close
by. Instead of accepting their invitation, Captain Bonneville took his
departure with all possible dispatch, eager to be out of the vicinity
of such a piratical horde; nor did he relax the diligence of his march,
until, on the second day, he reached the banks of the Sweet Water,
beyond the limits of the Crow country, and a heavy fall of snow had
obliterated all traces of his course.

He now continued on for some few days, at a slower pace, round the point
of the mountain toward Green River, and arrived once more at the caches,
on the 14th of October.

Here they found traces of the band of Indians who had hunted them in the
defile toward the head waters of Wind River. Having lost all trace of
them on their way over the mountains, they had turned and followed back
their trail down the Green River valley to the caches. One of these they
had discovered and broken open, but it fortunately contained nothing but
fragments of old iron, which they had scattered about in all directions,
and then departed. In examining their deserted camp, Captain Bonneville
discovered that it numbered thirty-nine fires, and had more reason than
ever to congratulate himself on having escaped the clutches of such a
formidable band of freebooters.

He now turned his course southward, under cover of the mountains, and on
the 25th of October reached Liberge's Ford, a tributary of the Colorado,
where he came suddenly upon the trail of this same war party, which
had crossed the stream so recently that the banks were yet wet with the
water that had been splashed upon them. To judge from their tracks, they
could not be less than three hundred warriors, and apparently of the
Crow nation.

Captain Bonneville was extremely uneasy lest this overpowering force
should come upon him in some place where he would not have the means of
fortifying himself promptly. He now moved