When it came in sight and the men saw the
Indians all around me they thought I had been taken prisoner. They
at once corralled their wagons for a fight, and all the talking
Jim Bridger could do would not make them believe otherwise, until
he rode out to where we were. When he told me this I thought to
have a little sport with the boys before leaving the train, and I
proposed to Jim that we start to the wagons with the Indians
riding on either side of us, so as to make it appear they had
taken both of us prisoner. But Jim thought it would not do, as
they were so excited they would shoot at our Indians before we
were near the wagons. So we rode to the train and told the
emigrants that these Indians would not molest them, and that they
were my friends.
When I told the Indians the cause of their corralling their wagons,
they all had a hearty laugh and called the men squaws. The Kiowas
said that their people would be glad to see us at their village,
and that they had plenty of robes to trade for beads, rings and
blankets. So here we bade the emigrants good-bye, they keeping the
Sante Fe trail east, while we turned due south, and in company
with the thirty Kiowas, rode that evening to their own village.
Chief Blackbird met us at the outer edge of the village and
invited us to his wick-i-up. We told him that we had come to trade
with his people, and that in four days we would be ready for
business.
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