Page:The life and adventures of James P. Beckwourth, mountaineer, scout, pioneer, and chief of the Crow nation of Indians (IA lifeadventuresof00beckrich).pdf/300

284 supposed me dead, and she along with the rest, solely to search through the Rocky Mountains for a "red-handed Indian." I had been unsuccessful in my search, and had returned with spotted horses.

She laughed immoderately at my invention.

We now returned to the fort with our trophies, where we had a joyous time. My warriors gave a horse to each man at the fort, about fifty in number, and every woman staying there also received one. I selected the best one I had, and made little Jim present it to Mr. Tulleck, with which delicate attention he was greatly delighted. My boy could now speak quite plain. The men of the fort had taught him to swear quite fluently both in French and English, much more to their satisfaction than to mine. But I trusted he would soon forget his schooling, as the Crows never drink whisky, nor use profane language.

We left the fort, and reached our village without accident. On our arrival we found the people in mourning for the loss of two warriors, killed in the village by an attack of the Cheyennes; and, notwithstanding my recent success, we had to take part in the crying, in obedience to their forms.

The Cheyennes, in their late attack, used very good generalship; but the result was not so good as their design would seem to promise. They started with a force of three thousand warriors, and, dividing their army, five hundred marched directly over the Tongue River Mountain, where they were safe from molestation, while their main body passed round in another direction, placing themselves in ambush in a place agreed upon, so as to fall upon the Crows should they pursue their flying division. But the Crows were too wary for them, and their bright design failed.

The division of five hundred made a descent upon the horses, killing the two Crows that were among them, and unable to escape in time. It was in open day, and our stock was so immense that they actually did succeed in driving off about twelve hundred, of which our family owned about eighty. Many of our choice mares, with their foals, and a great number of our war-horses, seemed to have intelligence of the business in hand, and ran with full speed to the village, where