A Little
After This Time They Became So Numerous And Audacious, That Scarcely
A Single Party, However Large, Passed Between The Fort And The
Frontier Without Some Token Of Their Hostility.
The newspapers of
the time sufficiently display this state of things.
Many men were
killed, and great numbers of horses and mules carried off. Not long
since I met with the gentleman, who, during the autumn, came from
Santa Fe to Bent's Fort, when he found a party of seventy men, who
thought themselves too weak to go down to the settlements alone, and
were waiting there for a re-enforcement. Though this excessive
timidity fully proves the ignorance and credulity of the men, it may
also evince the state of alarm which prevailed in the country. When
we were there in the month of August, the danger had not become so
great. There was nothing very attractive in the neighborhood. We
supposed, moreover, that we might wait there half the winter without
finding any party to go down with us; for Mr. Sublette and the others
whom we had relied upon had, as Richard told us, already left Bent's
Fort. Thus far on our journey Fortune had kindly befriended us. We
resolved therefore to take advantage of her gracious mood and
trusting for a continuance of her favors, to set out with Henry and
Delorier, and run the gauntlet of the Indians in the best way we
could.
Bent's Fort stands on the river, about seventy-five miles below the
Pueblo.
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