After staying there about two weeks we told the chief that on a
certain day we would be ready to trade with his people, putting
the date off about one week.
When the day arrived the Indians came in from all quarters to
trade furs and robes, bringing from one to one dozen robes to the
family. The squaws brought the robes, and the bucks came along to
do the trading, and we got many a first-class robe for one string
of beads, which in St. Louis would cost about ten cents. We traded
for enough furs in one day to load our entire pack-train of
thirty-two horses.
The next morning we loaded up our furs and pulled out, telling the
chief that we would be back in one moon--meaning in their
language, one month--which would keep us busy, it being about four
hundred miles to Bent's Fort, and as we were heavily loaded we
would have to travel slow. The Mexican boy would ride ahead and
the pack horses would follow him, while Jim and I brought up the
rear. We experienced no trouble in getting all the buffalo meat we
wanted, for those beasts were quite tame at this season of the
year, and they would often come near our camp. So near, in fact,
that we could sit in camp and kill our meat.
Upon our arrival at the fort Col. Bent and Mr. Roubidoux were well
pleased with the success of the trip, and we at once started back
after the second load.
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