Shortly after, the advance party of Blackfeet came in sight and made a reconnaissance which apprised them of the nature of the defences.

They did not fire a shot but waited until the arrival of the main band.
When that came in sight, it was enough to strike dismay into every heart.

There were few if any less than a thousand warriors.

Dr.Peters, the biographer of Carson, says: "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 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.