, who fought
bravely, and seemed determined to annihilate the little band that
defended it.

After the investment had been completed, and there appeared no
probability of the attacking party's abandoning their purpose, "One
d----d fool Delaware" (as Black Beaver expressed it) proposed to his
countrymen to make a sortie, and thereby endeavor to effect an
impression upon the Blackfeet. This, Beaver said, was the last thing he
would ever have thought of suggesting, and it startled him
prodigiously, causing him to tremble so much that it was with
difficulty he could stand.

He had, however, started from home with the fixed purpose of becoming a
distinguished brave, and made a great effort to stifle his emotion. He
assumed an air of determination, saying that was the very idea he was
just about to propose; and, slapping his comrades upon the back,
started toward the gate, telling them to follow. As soon as the gate
was passed, he says, he took particular care to keep in the rear of the
others, so that, in the event of a retreat, he would be able to reach
the stockade first.

They had not proceeded far before a perfect shower of arrows came
falling around them on all sides, but, fortunately, without doing them
harm. Not fancying this hot reception, those in front proposed an
immediate retreat, to which he most gladly acceded, and at once set off
at his utmost speed, expecting to reach the fort first. But he soon
discovered that his comrades were more fleet, and were rapidly passing
and leaving him behind. Suddenly he stopped and called out to them,
"Come back here, you cowards, you squaws; what for you run away and
leave brave man to fight alone?" This taunting appeal to their courage
turned them back, and, with their united efforts, they succeeded in
beating off the enemy immediately around them, securing their entrance
into the fort.

Beaver says when the gate was closed the captain in charge of the
establishment grasped him warmly by the hand, saying, "Black Beaver,
you are a brave man; you have done this day what no other man in the
fort would have the courage to do, and I thank you from the bottom of
my heart."

In relating the circumstance to me he laughed most heartily, thinking
it a very good joke, and said after that he was regarded as a brave
warrior.

The truth is, my friend Beaver was one of those few heroes who never
sounded his own trumpet; yet no one that knows him ever presumed to
question his courag