to perform sentinel duty.  Near their camp there was a very lofty hill which commanded a fine view of the surrounding country.  Upon this eminence they posted a sentinel throughout the day time.  Their arrangements having been all determined upon and plans laid, the execution of them, to men so well skilled in frontier life, occupied but little time.  Notwithstanding this celerity in their movements they had been none too quick.  Soon after their preparations were fully made, the sentinel on the hill gave his signal indicating the approach of the Indians, showing that their precaution in this respect had been a wise one.  The order was immediately given to erect strong breastworks.  This task was so successfully accomplished, that, in a few hours, they had prepared a little fortress, which, covered with their unerring rifles, was impregnable against any force the Indians could bring against it.  The advance party of the savages soon appeared in sight, but when they discovered the strength of the trappers, they halted and awaited, distant about half a mile from the breastwork, the arrival of the rest of the band.  It was three days before the whole force of the Indians had arrived.  They mustered about one thousand warriors.  It was a sight which few white men of the American nation have looked upon.  Arrayed in their fantastic war costume and bedaubed with paint, armed with lances, bows and arrows, rifles, tomahawks, knives, etc., some mounted and some on foot, they presented a wild and fearful scene of barbaric strength and fancy.  Soon after their last company had reported, the frightful war-dance, peculiar to the American savages, was enacted in sight of the trappers’ position.  The battle songs and shouts which accompanied the dance reached the ears of the whites with fearful distinctness.  Any other than hearts of oak with courage of steel would have quailed before this terrible display of savage enmity and ferocity.  This dance, to men so well skilled in the ways of the Indian warrior, was a sure signal that the next day would be certain to have a fearful history for one party or the other and doubtless for both.  The odds, most assuredly, were apparently greatly in favor of the savage host and against the little band of hardy mountaineers.

The following day the expectations of the trappers were realized.  The Indians, at the first dawn of day, approached the breastwork, eager for the battle.  They were, evidently, very much astonished at beholding the invincibility of the trappers’ position.  It was what they had not calculated upon and seemed to cast a perfect damper upon their courage.  After firing a few shots which did no harm, and seeing that nothing could be accomplished except by a charge, they commenced a retreat.  The trappers, though only sixty strong, were filled with disappointment and chagrin at the course taken by their wary foes.  They began to shout to their enemies in derisive terms, hoping the taunts would exasperate and draw them into