Gen. Kearney said:  “You had better accept the lady’s hospitality, for you have a great deal to talk about.”

We thought this a capital idea and took supper with the emigrants, and the General returned to his quarters But before going he gave all, both ladies and gentlemen, a cordial invitation to come to the Fort the next day and pay him a friendly visit.

After all were through eating supper, Jim Bridger asked how many men they had in their train, but no one was able to tell.  When he asked who their captain was a man replied that they did not know they had to have a captain.  Jim with an oath said:  “What in the name of God do you think those soldiers over there would do without a captain, or at least an officer of some kind?”

Then he told them they had better form in line and see how many men they had, and elect five men to transact business with us.  They formed in line and counted and there were one hundred and forty men in the train, and not one of them had ever been on the plains before, and, of course, not one of them had ever seen a hostile Indian.

They then proceeded to elect the five men to transact the business with us, after which Jim turned to me and said:  “Now make your proposition.”  I suggested that as he was the oldest, he should go ahead and make the bargain, whereupon he said:  “All right.  Gentlemen, I will make you an offer; if you see fit to accept it all right, and if not there is no harm done.  We will scout for you for six dollars per day from here to the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and you board us and herd our horses with yours.  We must have charge of the entire train, and we want at least two or three days in which to organize and drill before leaving this camp, and after the lapse of five days if this community is not satisfied with our work, we will quit, and not charge you a cent for what we shall have done at that time, and if our work is satisfactory we will expect our money every Saturday night, for it is the money we are after and not the glory.  Now, gentlemen, take the matter under consideration and give us an answer to-morrow morning after breakfast.”

On the following morning one of the men from the train came to the Fort very early to inform us that they had decided to accept our proposition.

We told him to go back to camp and have all the teams hitched up and we would be down after breakfast and put in a few hours drilling the teamsters.

We numbered the wagons by putting the figures on the end-gates of the wagons, telling each teamster to remember his number, and when forming a corrall, no matter what the occasion might be, for the even numbers to turn to the right and the odd numbers to the left, forming a circle with the teams inside of the corrall or circle of wagons.

For the benefit of the reader who has not had the fortune—­or misfortune, whichever he deems it—­to have traveled in an Indian country where the corrals are necessary in order to protect the traveler from the Indians, I will give a more detailed description of how they are formed: