CHAPTER XVI.
At Brown's Hole--Trading in the Navajoe Country--Carson Serves as Hunter at Brown's Hole--Trapping in the Black Hills--On the Yellowstone--Fight with the Blackfeet--Their Retreat to an Island--Their Flight During the Night--An Imposing Array of Warriors.
The fight between the Blackfeet and trappers was one of the most important in which Kit Carson, previous to the late war, was ever engaged.

The forces must have included several hundred, and the lesson administered to the aggressive red men was remembered by them a long time.
After burying their dead, looking after the wounded and setting matters to rights, the hunters resumed trapping through the Blackfoot country.
They were scarcely disturbed by their old enemies who dreaded rousing the resentment of such a formidable body of daring and unerring marksmen.
Our friends were very successful, and, when they made their way to the rendezvous, a week's journey away, they carried with them an immense stock of peltries.

When the trading was finished, the parties made new combinations and departed in different directions.

Instead of attaching himself to a large company, Kit Carson and seven choice spirits started for a trading post known at that time as Brown's Hole.

They reached there just in time for the leader to join an expedition, numbering only two beside himself, which went into the Navajoe country for purposes of barter.