Page:The life and adventures of James P. Beckwourth, mountaineer, scout, pioneer, and chief of the Crow nation of Indians (IA lifeadventuresof00beckrich).pdf/166

158 We took eleven scalps upon the field, and the Cheyennes afterward confessed to the loss of fifty-six warriors. When we lost a horse in the action, the women would immediately supply its place with a fresh one. We were nearly two hundred miles from home, and we carried our dead all the way thither.

On arriving at home, I found my father greatly irritated. He had lost two hundred and fifty head of horses from his own herd, stolen by the Black Feet, who had raised a general contribution from the whole village. His voice was still for war, and he insisted on giving immediate chase. I dissuaded him from his intention, representing to him his advanced years, and promising to go myself and obtain satisfaction for his losses. He reluctantly consented to this arrangement; but, four or five days after my departure on the errand, his medicine became so strong that he started off with a party, taking an opposite direction to the one I had gone on. My party consisted of two hundred and twenty good warriors, and my course lay for the head-waters of the Arkansas, in the Arrap-a-ho country.

We fell in with no enemies on our way until we arrived at a village which contained upward of one hundred lodges. We formed our plans for assaulting the place the next day, when we discovered four white men, whom we surrounded. The poor fellows thought their last day was come, and I was amused to overhear their conversation.

"They will surely kill us all," said one.

"In what manner will they kill us?" asked another.

"They may burn us," suggested a third.

Then they communed among themselves, little thinking there was one overhearing them who sympathized with every apprehension they expressed.

They summed up their consultation by one saying, "If they attempt to kill us, let us use our knives to the best advantage, and sell our lives as dearly as possible."

"Gentlemen," said I, "I will spare you that trouble."

"Great God!" they exclaimed, "Mr. Beckwourth, is that you?"

"Yes," I replied, "that is my name. You are perfectly safe, but you must not leave our camp till to-morrow."