arly everybody and everything. Many
of the cattle broke their yokes and stampeded. One big buffalo bull
became entangled in one of the heavy wagon-chains, and it is a fact that
in his desperate efforts to free himself, he not only actually snapped
the strong chain in two, but broke the ox-yoke to which it was attached,
and the last seen of him he was running towards the hills with it hanging
from his horns. A dozen other equally remarkable incidents happened
during the short time that the frantic buffaloes were playing havoc with
our train, and when they had got through and left us, our outfit was very
badly crippled and scattered. This caused us to go into camp and spend a
day in replacing the broken tongues, and repairing other damages, and
gathering up our scattered ox-teams.

The next day we rolled out of camp, and proceeded on our way towards the
setting sun. Everything ran along smoothly with us from that point until
we came within about eighteen miles of Green river, in the Rocky
mountains--where we camped at noon. At this place we had to drive our
cattle about a mile and a half to a creek to water them. Simpson, his
assistant, George Woods and myself, accompanied by the usual number of
guards, drove the cattle over to the creek, and while on our way back to
camp, we suddenly observed a party of twenty horsemen rapidly approaching
us. We were not yet in view of our wagons, as a rise of ground
intervened, and therefore we could not signal the train-men in case of
any unexpected danger befalling us. We had no suspicion, however, that we
were about to be trapped, as the strangers were white men. When they had
come up to us, one of the party, who evidently was the leader, rode out
in front and said:

"How are you, Mr. Simpson?"

"You've got the best of me, sir," said Simpson, who did not know him.

"Well, I rather think I have," coolly replied the stranger, whose words
conveyed a double meaning, as we soon learned. We had all come to a halt
by this time, and the strange horsemen had surrounded us. They were all
armed with double-barreled shot guns, rifles and revolvers. We also were
armed with revolvers, but we had had no idea of danger, and these men,
much to our surprise, had "got the drop" on us, and had covered us with
their weapons, so that we were completely at their mercy. The whole
movement of corraling us was done so quietly and quickly that it was
accomplished before we knew it.

"I'll trouble you for