my good friends, the Shoshones, who, after our absence of nine months,
received us with almost a childish joy. They had given us up for dead,
and suspecting the Crows of having had a hand in our disappearance,
they had made an invasion into their territory.

Six days after our arrival our three horses were perceived swimming
across the river; the faithful animals had also escaped from our
enemies, and found their way back to their masters and their
native prairies.




CHAPTER XV.


During my long absence and captivity among the Arrapahoes, I had often
reflected upon the great advantages which would accrue if, by any
possibility, the various tribes which were of Shoshone origin could be
induced to unite with them in one confederacy; and the more I reflected
upon the subject, the more resolved I became, that if ever I returned to
the settlement, I would make the proposition to our chiefs in council.

The numbers composing these tribes were as follows:--The Shoshones
amounting to about 60,000, independent of the mountain tribes, which we
might compute at 10,000 more; the Apaches, about 40,000; the Arrapahoes,
about 20,000; the Comanches and the tribes springing from them, at the
lowest computation, amounting to 60,000 more. Speaking the same
language, having the same religious formula, the same manners and
customs; nothing appeared to me to be more feasible. The Arrapahoes were