there, at wide intervals, all over the land. But in the
days of which we write it was not so. The fur-traders
at that time went forth in armed bands into the heart
of the Indians' country, and he who went forth did so
"with his life in his hand." As in the case of the
soldier who went out to battle, there was great probability
that he might never return.
The band of which Walter Cameron was the chief
had, many months before, started from one of the distant
posts of Oregon on a hunting expedition into the