In 1837 Thomas Fitzpatrick again led the supply train across the plains, picking up Fontenelle at Fort Laramie, and arriving at the rendezvous on July 18. After the business of that year was transacted, Drips returned east with Fitzpatrick’s caravan, and Fontenelle and Bridger made up a strong company of 110 men to invade the hostile Blackfoot country. Osborne Russell and five others started off separately “to hunt the headwaters of the Yellowstone, Missouri and Bighorn Rivers.” Going due north up Green River, they were attacked by “sixty or seventy” Blackfeet, but managed to escape to the rendezvous. Here they wisely decided to throw in with Fontenelle’s party, as Russell explains, “intending to keep in their company five or six days and then branch off to our first intended route.” After descending the Hoback, Russell and three others left the main party at the ford of “Lewis Fork” in “Jackson’s Big Hole” and took the same route to Yellowstone Lake used the preceding year, then went northeast over the mountains to gain the “Stinking Water.” In the spring of 1838 the company moved westward from Powder River, trapping the Bighorn and other tributaries of the Yellowstone. Russell and Meek report another fight with the Blackfeet on the Madison, followed by a gathering of the brigade on the north fork of the Yellowstone, near the lake. Afterward, Meek reports: Bridger’s brigade of trappers met with no other serious interruptions on their summer’s march. They proceeded to Henry’s Lake, and crossing the Rocky Mountains, traveled through the Pine Woods, always a favorite region, to Lewis’ Lake on Lewis’ Fork of the Snake River [Jackson Lake]; and finally up the Grovant Fork, recrossing the mountains to Wind River, where the rendezvous was appointed. Osborne Russell describes this rendezvous of 1838: ... [July] 4th—We encamped at the Oil Spring on Popo-azia, and the next day we arrived at the camp. There we found Mr. Dripps from St. Louis, with twenty horse carts loaded with supplies, and again met Captain Stewart, likewise several missionaries with their families on their way to the Columbia River. On the 8th Mr. F. Ermatinger arrived with a small party from the Columbia, accompanied by the Rev. John Lee, who was on his way to the United States. On the 20th of July the meeting broke up and the parties again dispersed for the fall hunt. The Captain Stewart referred to by Russell was an English veteran of Waterloo, Sir William Drummond Stewart, ostensibly a wealthy sportsman, who became a perennial visitor to the annual conclaves of the “mountain men,” beginning in 1833. He probably entered Jackson’s Hole on more than one occasion, in company with the trapper bands, but of this there is no proof, except the following passage to be found in Altowan, a romantic novel based on his experiences: