Michel, Pierre Detaye, and Pierre Delaunay. Trappers generally go in
pairs, that they may assist, protect, and comfort each other in their
lonely and perilous occupations. Thus Carson and St. Michel formed
one couple, and Detaye and Delaunay another. They were fitted out with
traps, arms, ammunition, horses, and every other requisite, and were to
trap upon the upper part of Mad River, and upon the neighboring streams
of the mountains. This would probably occupy them for some months; and,
when they should have collected a sufficient quantity of peltries, they
were to pack them upon their horses and make the best of their way to
the mouth of Columbia River, or to any intermediate post which might
be established by the company. They took leave of their comrades and
started off on their several courses with stout hearts and cheerful
countenances; though these lonely cruisings into a wild and hostile
wilderness seem to the uninitiated equivalent to being cast adrift in
the ship's yawl in the midst of the ocean.
Of the perils that attend the lonely trapper, the reader will have
sufficient proof, when he comes, in the after part of this work, to
learn the hard fortunes of these poor fellows in the course of their
wild peregrinations.
The trappers had not long departed, when two Snake Indians wandered
into the camp.
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