Page:The life and adventures of James P. Beckwourth, mountaineer, scout, pioneer, and chief of the Crow nation of Indians (IA lifeadventuresof00beckrich).pdf/197



FTER having arranged everything in the fort (which I have forgotten to mention we named after Mr. Cass), and given all needful instructions to Winters, who was in charge, I again left. My intention was to induce the Crows to devote their undivided attention to trapping, not alone for their own benefit, but for the interest of the company in whose service I was engaged. I well knew that if I was with them they would catch five beavers to one if left to themselves. I had obtained great influence in the medicine lodge, and could often exert it to prevent a war-party from making a useless excursion against their enemies. I would tell them in their council that my medicine told me not to go to war; that it was to their interest to employ their warriors in trapping all the beavers possible, so that they might have the means of purchasing ammunition and weapons for themselves, as well as beads, scarlet cloth, and blankets for the women; that by and by we should be attacked by the enemy, and be unprovided with the means of defence; that they would then kill all our warriors, and make captives of our women and children, as the Cheyennes had captured my mother when I was an infant, many winters gone; that they should save all their warriors against a time of need, and only engage in war when the safety of their village was at stake.

These representations would frequently dissuade them from their belligerent purpose, and beaver-skins would be brought