Were such precautions generally observed by traders and
hunters, we should not so often hear of parties being surprised by the
Indians.
Having stated the military arrangements of the captain, we may here
mention a mode of defence on the open prairie, which we have heard from
a veteran in the Indian trade. When a party of trappers is on a journey
with a convoy of goods or peltries, every man has three pack-horses
under his care; each horse laden with three packs. Every man is provided
with a picket with an iron head, a mallet, and hobbles, or leathern
fetters for the horses. The trappers proceed across the prairie in a
long line; or sometimes three parallel lines, sufficiently distant from
each other to prevent the packs from interfering. At an alarm, when
there is no covert at hand, the line wheels so as to bring the front to
the rear and form a circle. All then dismount, drive their pickets into
the ground in the centre, fasten the horses to them, and hobble their
forelegs, so that, in case of alarm, they cannot break away. Then they
unload them, and dispose of their packs as breastworks on the periphery
of the circle; each man having nine packs behind which to shelter
himself. In this promptly-formed fortress, they await the assault of the
enemy, and are enabled to set large bands of Indians at defiance.
The first night of his march, Captain Bonneville encamped upon Henry's
Fork; an upper branch of Snake River, called after the first American
trader that erected a fort beyond the mountains.
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