Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/82

 of some trees, with a long rope, at the end of which was a running noose. Having quietly waited for some time until a proper opportunity offered, he at length threw the rope, and succeeded in catching a young cow. On feeling the noose round her neck, she became quite furious, and made a desperate plunge at him, which he skilfully avoided by running up a cocoa-nut tree; having previously fastened one end of the rope round the trunk. We had intrenched ourselves with the chiefs behind a stone wall, close to the herd; and being apprehensive that the captive might break loose, we fired, and shot her. Upon hearing the report, the herd rushed furiously out of the inclosure, and ran at the natives; but as they had anticipated such a result, each man secured a retreat behind a tree; and in a moment after the furious animals had gained their freedom three hundred cocoa-nut trees might have been seen, each manned with a native, who looked down with the full confidence of security on the enraged herd below. Finding it impossible to catch another, we were obliged to fire among them, and killed a second. A few shots without ball were then discharged, which drove them to their old pasture, and enabled the natives to descend. The king preserved these cattle for the