Page:The life and adventures of James P. Beckwourth, mountaineer, scout, pioneer, and chief of the Crow nation of Indians (IA lifeadventuresof00beckrich).pdf/198

188 into the village by the pack; but they would soon tire of their pacific occupation, and their enemies' horses would offer them temptations which they could not resist.

Nearly all the Crows having left the fort before I did, only a few warriors remained to bear me company. I engaged to meet them at the mouth of the Little Horn within a given number of nights, and I knew I should be expected. We arrived in safety at the place appointed, and within the time I had specified.

Soon after our arrival, it was proposed to send out a war-party, not so much to fight as to reconnoitre; to see where horses could with least difficulty be procured, and gain a general intelligence of how matters stood. We set out, and had travelled slowly along for nearly two weeks, when our scouts returned to apprise us that there was a large crowd of women approaching towards us. We were then in a forest of plum-trees, bearing large red plums, which were fully ripe, and were very delicious. Feeling satisfied that the women were coming to gather fruit, we secreted ourselves, intending, at a given signal, to surround them while they were busily employed. Accordingly, we waited until they all set themselves about their task, they keeping up an incessant jabber among themselves like so many blackbirds or bob-o-links, and having no suspicion that the Crows would so soon come in for their share. At a sound from the whistle, they were entirely surrounded, and their merry chatter was hushed in an instant. We marched them to an open piece of ground, made them form a line, and proceeded to make a selection. The aged, the ill-favoured, and the matrons we withdrew from the body, telling them to return to the village, and depart without clamour. They went away in sullenness, with their eyes flashing fire. The remainder, to the number of fifty-nine, very attractive looking young women, we carried along with us; and as we were but three miles distant from their village, and could plainly see the smoke of their lodges, we deemed it prudent to lose no time in making our way home. There were three warriors in the company of the women when first descried, but they were not enclosed in our surround, and we could find no traces of them in any direction.