th both of the proprietors,
and with them went to the several Indian villages, where he learned the
art of trading with the savages.

The winters of the years mentioned were noted for the incursions of the
Pawnees into the region of the fort. They always pretended friendship
for the whites, when any of them were inside of its sacred precincts,
but their whole manner changed when they by some stroke of fortune
caught a trapper or hunter alone on the prairie or in the foot-hills; he
was a dead man sure, and his scalp was soon dangling at the belt of his
cowardly assassins. Hardly a day passed without witnessing some poor
fellow running for the fort with a band of the red devils after him;
frequently he escaped the keen edge of their scalping-knife, but every
once in a while a man was killed. At one time, two herders who were with
their animals within fifty yards of the fort, going out to the grazing
ground, were killed and every hoof of stock run off.

A party from the fort, comprising only eight men, among whom was young
Wooton, made up for lost time with the Indians, at the crossing of
Pawnee Fork, the same place where he had had his first fight. The men
had set out from the fort for the purpose of meeting a small caravan of
wagons from the East, loaded with supplies for the Bents' trading post.
It happened that a band of sixteen Pawnees were watching for the arrival
of the train, too.[55] Wooton's party were well mounted, while the
Pawnees were on foot, and although the savages were two to one, the
advantage was decidedly in favour of the whites.

The Indians were armed with bows and arrows only, and while it was
an easy matter for the whites to keep out of the way of the shower of
missiles which the Indians commenced to hurl at them, the latter became
an easy prey to the unerring rifles of their assailants, who killed
thirteen out of the sixteen in a very short time. The remaining three
took French leave of their comrades at the beginning of the conflict,
and abandoning their arms rushed up to the caravan, which was just
appearing over a small divide, and gave themselves up. The Indian
custom was observed in their case,[56] although it was rarely that any
prisoners were taken in these conflicts on the Trail. Another curious
custom was also followed.[57] When the party encamped they were well
fed, and the next morning supplied with rations enough to last them
until they could reach one of their villages, and sent off