and disappointed Umbiquas. Nor was this all: in their rage and anxiety,
our enemies had exposed themselves beyond the protection of the rock;
they presented a fair mark, and just as the chief was looking behind him
to see if there was any movement to fear from the boat-house, four more
of his men fell under our fire.

The horrible yells which followed, I can never describe, although the
events of this, my first fight, are yet fresh in my mind. The Umbiquas
took their dead, and turned to the east, in the direction of the
mountains, which they believed would be their only means of escaping
destruction. They were now reduced to only ten men, and their
appearance was melancholy and dejected. They felt that they were doomed
never more to return to their own home.

We gathered from our scouts opposite, that the six warriors of the post
had returned from the settlement, and lay somewhere in ambush; this
decided us. Descending by the ladders which the Indians had left behind
them, we entered the prairie path, so as to bar their retreat in every
direction.

Let me wind up this tale of slaughter. The Umbiquas fell headlong on
the ambush, by which four more of them were killed; the remainder
dispersed in the prairie, where they tried in vain to obtain a momentary
refuge in the chasms. Before mid-day they were all destroyed, except
one, who escaped by crossing the river. However, he never saw his home
again; for, a long time afterwards, the Umbiquas declared that not one
ever returned from that fatal horse-stealing expedition.

Thus ended my first fight; and yet I had not myself drawn a single
trigger. Many a time I took a certain aim; but my heart beat quick, and
I felt queer at the idea of taking the life of a man. This did not
prevent me from being highly complimented; henceforward Owato Wanisha
was a warrior.

The next day I left the boat-house with my own party, I mean the seven
of us who had come from Monterey. Being all well mounted, we shortly
reached the settlement, from which I had been absent more than three
months.

Events had turned out better than I had anticipated. My father seemed
to recover rapidly from the shock he had received. Our tribe, in a
fierce inroad upon the southern country of the Crows, had inflicted upon
them a severe punishment. Our men returned with a hundred and fifty
scalps, four hundred horses, and all the stock of blankets and tobacco
which the Crows had a short time before