wamp and approached the fort. All was silent. They advanced up to
it without opposition. They entered: it had been abandoned in the night,
and the Blackfeet had effected their retreat, carrying off their wounded
on litters made of branches, leaving bloody traces on the herbage. The
bodies of ten Indians were found within the fort; among them the one
shot in the eye by Sublette. The Blackfeet afterward reported that they
had lost twenty-six warriors in this battle. Thirty-two horses were
likewise found killed; among them were some of those recently carried
off from Sublette's party, in the night; which showed that these were
the very savages that had attacked him. They proved to be an advance
party of the main body of Blackfeet, which had been upon the trail of
Sublette's party. Five white men and one halfbreed were killed, and
several wounded. Seven of the Nez Perces were also killed, and six
wounded. They had an old chief, who was reputed as invulnerable. In the
course of the action he was hit by a spent ball, and threw up blood; but
his skin was unbroken. His people were now fully convinced that he was
proof against powder and ball.

A striking circumstance is related as having occurred the morning
after the battle. As some of the trappers and their Indian allies were
approaching the fort through the woods, they beheld an Indian woman, of
noble form and features, leaning against a tree. Their surprise at
her lingering here alone, to fall into the hands of her enemies, was
dispelled, when they saw the corpse of a warrior at her feet. Either
she was so lost in grief as not to perceive their approach; or a proud
spirit kept her silent and motionless. The Indians set up a yell, on
discovering her, and before the trappers could interfere, her mangled
body fell upon the corpse which she had refused to abandon. We have
heard this anecdote discredited by one of the leaders who had been in
the battle: but the fact may have taken place without his seeing it, and
been concealed from him. It is an instance of female devotion, even to
the death, which we are well disposed to believe and to record.

After the battle, the brigade of Milton Sublette, together with the
free trappers, and Wyeth's New England band, remained some days at the
rendezvous, to see if the main body of Blackfeet intended to make an
attack; nothing of the kind occurring, they once more put themselves
in motion, and proceeded on their route toward the southwest.