predations.

Kosato pushed forward on his foray as far as the Horse Prairie, where he
came upon a strong party of Blackfeet. Without waiting to estimate
their force, he attacked them with characteristic fury, and was bravely
seconded by his followers. The contest, for a time, was hot and bloody;
at length, as is customary with these two tribes, they paused, and held
a long parley, or rather a war of words.

"What need," said the Blackfoot chief, tauntingly, "have the Nez Perces
to leave their homes, and sally forth on war parties, when they have
danger enough at their own doors? If you want fighting, return to your
villages; you will have plenty of it there. The Blackfeet warriors have
hitherto made war upon you as children. They are now coming as men. A
great force is at hand; they are on their way to your towns, and
are determined to rub out the very name of the Nez Perces from the
mountains. Return, I say, to your towns, and fight there, if you wish to
live any longer as a people."

Kosato took him at his word; for he knew the character of his native
tribe. Hastening back with his band to the Nez Perces village, he told
all that he had seen and heard, and urged the most prompt and strenuous
measures for defence. The Nez Perces, however, heard him with their
accustomed phlegm; the threat of the Blackfeet had been often made, and
as often had proved a mere bravado; such they pronounced it to be at
present, and, of course, took no precautions.

They were soon convinced that it was no empty menace. In a few days a
band of three hundred Blackfeet warriors appeared upon the hills. All
now was consternation in the village. The force of the Nez Perces was
too small to cope with the enemy in open fight; many of the young men
having gone to their relatives on the Columbia to procure horses. The
sages met in hurried council. What was to be done to ward off a blow
which threatened annihilation? In this moment of imminent peril, a
Pierced-nose chief, named Blue John by the whites, offered to approach
secretly with a small, but chosen band, through a defile which led to
the encampment of the enemy, and, by a sudden onset, to drive off the
horses. Should this blow be successful, the spirit and strength of the
invaders would be broken, and the Nez Perces, having horses, would be
more than a match for them. Should it fail, the village would not be
worse off than at present, when destruction appeared inevitable.

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