Now, gentlemen, take
the matter under consideration and give us an answer to-morrow
morning after breakfast."
On the following morning one of the men from the train came to the
Fort very early to inform us that they had decided to accept our
proposition.
We told him to go back to camp and have all the teams hitched up
and we would be down after breakfast and put in a few hours
drilling the teamsters.
We numbered the wagons by putting the figures on the end-gates of
the wagons, telling each teamster to remember his number, and when
forming a corrall, no matter what the occasion might be, for the
even numbers to turn to the right and the odd numbers to the left,
forming a circle with the teams inside of the corrall or circle of
wagons.
For the benefit of the reader who has not had the fortune--or
misfortune, whichever he deems it--to have traveled in an Indian
country where the corrals are necessary in order to protect the
traveler from the Indians, I will give a more detailed description
of how they are formed:
By having each wagon numbered every man knew his place in the
train, and when it was necessary to corral, one-half of the teams
would turn to the right and the other half to the left. Each would
swing out a little distance from the road and the two front teams-
-numbers one and two--would drive up facing each other.
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