Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1872-11-30
For the Dallas Herald.
ROCKY MOUNTAINS, NO. /.
Personal Adventure.

| quarters. Care, caution ana UNIFORM sue
cess, elected the praise of his employers,
and induced them to give him frequent
employment in expeditions of this kind.
The amount of force sent was always de-
termined by the leader Of the company,
but tho partizaps Of these squads always
had the privaledge of selecting his own as
sietants. On one occasion he was ordered
to take five men and ten pack horses and
raise cache of furs about three hun lred
miles distant. The course lay directly
through the country occupied by power
full tribe of Indians, the Aarrappahoes
who were at the time hostile. The value
| Of the pack horses and fur was about tif-
teen thousand dollars. Having chosen
two Delawares, a Shawnee and two Cana
dian Frenchmen, all men who had seen
| death in all its forms and could look it
steadily in the face if necessary, yet men
of great caution nud'vigilance who had all
shown great presence Of mind on trying
occasions, the preliminaries being settled
we set out generally haltiug at twelv,
o'clock and remaining until two in
order to give our horses ample time TO
| Craze. At such times some one of the par
| ty was always stationed out on some emi-
/ ntuCe WUtTt COulu thu "uNS-
ments of game or the approach of Indians
| At two hours before sun set we again halt
| cd and remained until dark, then sGddled
up our horses and proceeded ten or twelve
miles after night, turning loose or hob
| bling our horses, we slept on tta spot
| where we halted, This course prevented
any struggling indians who might have
seen US curing the day from following US
| 10 our encampmenls. 1t also gave us
great advantage Of war parties, as we
would necessa rily see their fires when in
| the vicinity of our course and determine
| the extent Of our night marches SO as to
| avoid them, altogether. In this manner
we proceeded on to the "caches," raised
them and returned as far ms Salt River,
about halfway to the main encampment
Three or four days previously, we had
crossed the great lodge trail Of the Appa-
hoes, going south east into the detiles Of
the great chain of mountains that were
nearly parallel to our course about half
| days march to the eastward and in
which are seen Long . and Pixies peaks aud
many other conspicuous land marks.
The Arrappahoes had hunted out the coun-
try leaving little or no game behind them
together with small probability of our
meeting any considerable party Of lndi-
ans. After passing the great trail we
saw no further sign of Indians and began
Immediately to greatly relax our vigilance.
Salt River some fifty miles west unites
with Snake River forming Grand River
which last unites with Green River, form
ing the Colorado Of the West which by
the by is muddy stream like the Mis-.
souri, the Columbia River being on tho
contrary as clear as the Ohio. We were
cncamped on Salt River, Snake River was
about thirty miles from our encampment
n distance too great for days march
with pack horses. However, about mid
way between the two rivers span of the
great mountain chain projected down into
the plain, reaching quite to the trail gen
orally followed and near its termination
was famous spring having clusters of
willows sufficient for fire wood along its
margin. This was n noted place for en-
camping both by white men and Indians.
In the morning it rained heavily for half
an hour, cleared off and the sun came out
giving promise iof beautiful day; We
leasurely packed up our horses intending
to proceed as far as the spring and halt
there during the following night, So
soon as we crossed Sal; River we found
Buffalo and Antelopes in great numbers
that had certainly not recently been dis
.urbed. The strong mist arising after
the shower from the hot arid plain rem
dered distant objects very indistinct and
the great refraction caused distant Buffa
10 TO appear as tall as pine trees. We
proceeded slowly and killed several TAT
and fine Buffalo; the choice meat was
fastened to our pack horses and we pro.
ceeded on our march. All at once we dis
covered eighty or ninety red objects We
supposed 10 be Antelopes, far as the eye
could reach ahead of us. They were run
ming from us in the direction of the
spring. We Immediately halted and ex
amined them with great care. soon as
certained that they did not retain their
places as herl of Deer or Antelopes
generally do, but the hindmost would pas
up the line another dropping in his place
and we soon noticed that they were con-
tinua!ly passing each other more
than this, we could see no reason why
herd of Antelopes should be running from
us at so great distance. The conclusion
arrived at, was that they were Indians,
and we instantly comprehended their de
signs. They were SO far off that they be
lieved themselved undiscovered
They we're running to reach the point
of mountain undiscovered; once there,
they would be secure from discovery or
observation. They knew, from our course,
that we we're aiming to reach the spring.
From this place Of concealment they could
watch our every movement After night,
when we had gone TO rest, they would sur
round our encampment, secure our horses,
ard crawl up around our camp, and fire
upon us according to their custom at day.
break. All this we instantly compre-
hen1td. The question now with us was
how should we manage to save our pack
horses and furs. After some time spent
in consultation, we adopted a course thatt
we believed we could make successful, by
good management. We knew too well
that if we attempted to save ourselves by
changing our course, the Indians would
at once know that they were discovered
and give chase; that in the course of
two or three hours they would certainly
oyertake us and we should necessarily be
compelled 10 abandon our pack horses TO
save ourselves. Our course was to pro-
ceed on to The spring and encamp as If
we were wholly unconscious of the prox-
unity of an enemy; TO appear as careless
as possible; to build fires, cook our supper,
keep our riding horses close about camp,
SO as to throw our saddles upon them and
make our escape in case the Indians
should attempt to make raid upon US by
daylight; but above AL, to place hawk
eyed Indian behind rock on neighbor-
ing eminence to watch the point Of noun
tain, distant about three hundred yards,
with unremitted vigilance. All this was
duly accomplished, we reached the spring
whilst the sun was yet far above the ho-
rizon; our packs we're thrown of with the
greatest apparent carelessness, yet every
thing was so placed that it could be in
stantly found and used; our pack horses
we're permitted to stray some distance
from camp, yet our riding horses were
herded close al hand. We built large fires,
cooked and ate as heartily as we should
have done had we known ourselves per-
fectly free Of danger, and as soon as II
became sufficiently dark to prevent OBJ
servation from the point Of mountain, We
hurriedly, but securely, packed upour hors-