The trappers purchased of the Mission sixty horses, paying for them in beaver skins, which always had a cash value.  These horses were indispensable to the trapper.  It required a large number to carry the packs of a successful trapping party.  It would be impossible for the trappers to transport the packs upon their own backs.  A party of forty trappers would need each a horse to ride.  Then generally each man led a spare horse, lest the one he rode should break a limb or in any other way give out in the midst of the wilderness.  If the expedition were successful, each trapper would have three or four horses or mules to lead or drive, laden with the packs of skins, the traps, camping utensils and a supply of food for an emergency.  Thus a party of forty men would sometimes be accompanied by more than two hundred horses.  Horses were cheap, and their food on the rich prairies cost nothing.  But it was necessary to guard the animals with the greatest care, for the Indians were continually watching for opportunities to steal them.

Soon after Mr. Young, whose party it will be remembered now consisted of eighteen men, had made his purchase of horses, in preparation for a return, as the animals were feeding on the open prairie, a band of Indians succeeded one night in stealing sixty of them, and with their booty, like the wind they fled towards the valleys of the Snow mountains.  Such a cavalcade of horses in one band, travelling over the turf of the prairie, would leave a trail behind which could easily be followed.  The number of the Indian thieves was not known, though the boldness of the robbery and their tracks indicated that the band must have been large.

Twelve men were immediately detached to pursue the gang.  Young Carson was then appointed leader.  There were but fourteen horses left in the camp.  Carson, having mounted his twelve men, had the other two horses led, to meet any emergency.  Vigorously the pursuit was pressed.  There was no difficulty in keeping the track.  The Indian with all his cunning was never the equal of the far more intelligent white man.  Indeed the ordinary savage was often but a grown-up child.

For more than one hundred miles Carson continued his pursuit before he came up with the robbers.  They had already entered the green valleys of the Snowy mountains.  The eagle eye of the pursuer saw some smoke circling up in the distance.  No ordinary eye would have perceived it.  Immediately he dismounted his men, and tethered the horses.  The rifles were carefully examined, that every one might be loaded, primed, and in perfect order.  The band then cautiously pressed forward, led by their boy captain, till they came to the entrance of a wild but lovely glen, where at the distance of perhaps a mile, they saw these savage warriors, enjoying all the luxury of a barbaric encampment.  A mountain stream, rippled through the valley.  The horses were grazing in the rich pasture.  The thieves had killed six of the fat young horses, and having cooked them and feasted to utter repletion, were lounging around, basking in the sun, in the fullness of savage felicity.  Little were they aware of the tempest of destruction and death about to burst upon them.