Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/28

 16 Joseph J. Hill arms to be taken from them and stacked together around a tree while they, themselves, retired among the Indians to sleep. Against this procedure Pattie remonstrated and, persuading one Frenchman, whom he says he had known in Missouri, to accompany him, made camp at some distance from the Indian village. In the middle of the night the Indians attacked the defenseless trappers, killing all but the captain and Pattie and his companion. The next night the three survivors fell in with a company of American trappers with a "genuine American leader." "We were now thirty-two in all," Pattie records. They planned an attack upon the Indians who were so com- pletely surprised that 110 of them were killed before the rest could make their escape, and all the horses and prop- erty of the French company was recaptured. This happened near the mouth of Salt River, up which the Americans now trapped, the party separating at the mouth of the Rio Verde, part ascending that stream and the rest continuing up Salt River. After trapping to the head of both streams the two parties re-united at the junction of the two streams and then proceeded down the Salt and Gila Rivers to the junction of the latter with the Colorado, where Pattie said they found a tribe of Indians called Umene (Yuma). The trappers now turned their faces up the Colorado, passing through the territory of the "Cocomarecopper" (Cocomaricopa) and "Mohawa" (Mojave) Indians. The Mojaves demanded tribute for the privilege of trapping in the waters of their territory. The trappers would pay no tribute. In the parley an American horse and an Indian chief were killed. The next morning the Indians attacked the whites but were repulsed with the loss of sixteen of their number. A few days later they again attacked the trappers, this time killing two of the Ameri- cans. Here Pattie makes the comment : "Red River at this point bears a north course, and affords an abundance of the finest lands." The trappers were, therefore, evi-