After leaving here we would be compelled to pass over a small
portion of the Ute country, and game being plentiful at this time,
we feared they might be out on a hunt, and just at present we were
not hankering after sport of the Indian fighting kind. So I
proposed to Jim Bridger that we hire four of these young Pimas to
accompany us through the Ute country, knowing that the Pimas were
on good terms with all their neighboring tribes. Jim said that we
had nothing to give them, having neither jewelry or beads with us.
I told him that I would spare them a horse if we could get them to
go, I had four horses with me, while Jim only had three. He told
me to go ahead and make any kind of a bargain with them I liked
and he would stand his portion.
That night after supper while we were sitting around the camp
fire, smoking and cracking jokes--for an Indian enjoys a joke as
well as any one--I got up and told them that we would, after
leaving their country, have to travel over a small portion of the
Ute country, and they being hostile towards the white people, we
did not feel safe to try to cross their country alone, I told them
we were very poor, having no beads nor blankets to spare, but if
four of their men would accompany us for three days, I would give
them a good horse.
The young Indian said: "You have been a good friend to me, and me
and my friend will go with you across the Ute country.
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