do, or Green River, without accident, on the banks of which they
remained during the residue of the spring. During this time, they were
conscious that a band of hostile Indians were hovering about their
vicinity, watching for an opportunity to slay or steal; but the vigilant
precautions of Captain Bonneville baffled all their manoeuvres. In such
dangerous times, the experienced mountaineer is never without his rifle
even in camp. On going from lodge to lodge to visit his comrades, he
takes it with him. On seating himself in a lodge, he lays it beside him,
ready to be snatched up; when he goes out, he takes it up as regularly
as a citizen would his walking-staff. His rifle is his constant friend
and protector.

On the 10th of June, the party was a little to the east of the Wind
River Mountains, where they halted for a time in excellent pasturage, to
give their horses a chance to recruit their strength for a long journey;
for it was Captain Bonneville's intention to shape his course to the
settlements; having already been detained by the complication of his
duties, and by various losses and impediments, far beyond the time
specified in his leave of absence.

While the party was thus reposing in the neighborhood of the Wind River
Mountains, a solitary free trapper rode one day into the camp, and
accosted Captain Bonneville. He belonged, he said, to a party of thirty
hunters, who had just passed through the neighborhood, but whom he had
abandoned in consequence of their ill treatment of a brother trapper;
whom they had cast off from their party, and left with his bag and
baggage, and an Indian wife into the bargain, in the midst of a desolate
prairie. The horseman gave a piteous account of the situation of this
helpless pair, and solicited the loan of horses to bring them and their
effects to the camp.

The captain was not a man to refuse assistance to any one in distress,
especially when there was a woman in the case; horses were immediately
dispatched, with an escort, to aid the unfortunate couple. The next day
they made their appearance with all their effects; the man, a stalwart
mountaineer, with a peculiarly game look; the woman, a young Blackfoot
beauty, arrayed in the trappings and trinketry of a free trapper's
bride.

Finding the woman to be quick-witted and communicative, Captain
Bonneville entered into conversation with her, and obtained from
her many particulars concerning the habits and customs of her tribe;