Wyeth and his men found themselves completely at a loss when they reached Independence, the then frontier post.  None of them except the leader had ever seen an Indian or handled a rifle.  They had neither guide nor interpreter, and were totally ignorant of the way to deal with the savages, or provide food for themselves during long marches over barren plains and wild mountains.  In this predicament Captain Sublette found them, and in the bigness of his heart kindly took them in tow.  Both parties travelled amicably together, and they arrived without accident on the upper branches of the Platte.

Sublette, Campbell, Wyeth, and their parties pursued their march westward unmolested, and arrived in the Green River Valley.  While in camp one night on the bank of a small stream, toward morning a band of Indians burst upon them, yelling, whooping, and discharging a flight of arrows.  No harm was done, however, excepting the wounding of a mule and the stampeding of several of their horses.

On the 17th of July, a small party of fourteen, led by Milton Sublette, brother of the captain, set out with the intention of proceeding to the southwest.  They were accompanied by Sinclair and fifteen free trappers.  Wyeth, also, and his New England band of beaver hunters and salmon fishers, now dwindled down to eleven, took this opportunity to prosecute their cruise in the wilderness, accompanied by such experienced pilots.

On the first day they proceeded about eight miles to the southeast, and encamped for the night.  On the following morning, just as they were preparing to leave camp, they observed a moving mass pouring down a defile of the mountains.  They at first supposed them to be another party of trappers, whose arrival had been daily expected.  Wyeth, however, reconnoitred them with a spy-glass, and soon perceived they were Indians.  They were divided into two bands, forming, in the whole, about one hundred and fifty persons, men, women, and children.  Some were on horseback, fantastically painted and arrayed, with scarlet blankets fluttering in the wind.  The greater part, however, were on foot.  They had perceived the trappers before they were themselves discovered, and came down yelling and whooping into the plain.  On nearer approach, they were ascertained to be Blackfeet.

One of the trappers of Sublette’s brigade, a half-breed, named Antoine Godin,[11] now mounted his horse, and rode forth as if to hold a conference.  In company with Antoine was a Flathead Indian, whose once powerful tribe had been completely broken down in their wars with the Blackfeet.  Both of them, however, cherished the most vengeful hostility against these marauders of the mountains.  The Blackfeet came to a halt.  One of the chiefs advanced singly and unarmed, bearing the pipe of peace.  This overture was certainly pacific; but Antoine and the Flathead were predisposed to hostility, and pretended to consider it a treacherous movement.