self-defence.

In the meantime, Sublette and Campbell, with their fellow traveller,
Wyeth, had pursued their march unmolested, and arrived in the Green
River valley, totally unconscious that there was any lurking enemy at
hand. They had encamped one night on the banks of a small stream, which
came down from the Wind River Mountains, when about midnight, a band
of Indians burst upon their camp, with horrible yells and whoops, and
a discharge of guns and arrows. Happily no other harm was done than
wounding one mule, and causing several horses to break loose from their
pickets. The camp was instantly in arms; but the Indians retreated with
yells of exultation, carrying off several of the horses under cover of
the night.

This was somewhat of a disagreeable foretaste of mountain life to some
of Wyeth's band, accustomed only to the regular and peaceful life of New
England; nor was it altogether to the taste of Captain Sublette's men,
who were chiefly creoles and townsmen from St. Louis. They continued
their march the next morning, keeping scouts ahead and upon their
flanks, and arrived without further molestation at Pierre's Hole.

The first inquiry of Captain Sublette, on reaching the rendezvous,
was for Fitzpatrick. He had not arrived, nor had any intelligence been
received concerning him. Great uneasiness was now entertained, lest
he should have fallen into the hands of the Blackfeet who had made
the midnight attack upon the camp. It was a matter of general joy,
therefore, when he made his appearance, conducted by two half-breed
Iroquois hunters. He had lurked for several days among the mountains,
until almost starved; at length he escaped the vigilance of his enemies
in the night, and was so fortunate as to meet the two Iroquois hunters,
who, being on horseback, conveyed him without further difficulty to
the rendezvous. He arrived there so emaciated that he could scarcely be
recognized.

The valley called Pierre's Hole is about thirty miles in length and
fifteen in width, bounded to the west and south by low and broken
ridges, and overlooked to the east by three lofty mountains, called the
three Tetons, which domineer as landmarks over a vast extent of country.

A fine stream, fed by rivulets and mountain springs, pours through
the valley toward the north, dividing it into nearly equal parts. The
meadows on its borders are broad and extensive, covered with willow and
cotton-wood trees, so closely interlocked and ma