These men looked very happy and comfortable. Unquestionably the proper way for a man to travel with ease and luxury in these deserts is for him to take unto himself a helpmate chosen from the native population. No amount of art, industry, and study can rival the instinct displayed by savages in making themselves comfortable, and in utilizing for their own benefit all the accidents of Nature. Nobody can choose a camp as they can: nobody knows how to make a fire so quickly or so well: nobody can so wisely pick a shady, cool place in summer heat, or choose one sheltered from wind and storms in winter. With an Indian wife to look after his bodily comforts, a man may devote himself to hunting, fishing, or trapping without a thought or care. He may make his mind quite easy about all household matters. His camp will be well arranged, the tent-pegs driven securely home, the stock watered, picketed, and properly cared for, a good supper cooked, his bed spread out, and everything made comfortable; his clothes and hunting-gear looked after, the buttons sewn on his shirt—if he has got any shirt or any buttons; and all the little trivial incidents of life which, if neglected, wear out one’s existence, he will find carefully attended to by a willing and affectionate slave. They had a lot to tell us also about their travels and adventures, about the wood and water supply, and the abundance or deficiency of game. So we sat down on bales of beaver-skins and retailed all the civilized intelligence we could think of; and the women came and brought us ember for our pipes, spread out robes for us and made us at home; and the little fat, chubby children, wild and shy as young wolves, peered at us from behind the tent out of their round, black, beady eyes.[83] The premier social event among mountain men was the annual rendezvous. This institution was inaugurated on Green River in July, 1824, by General William H. Ashley, owner of the interests that evolved into the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The Ashley men traveled to the fur region in concert. Upon arrival, they were divided into “brigades” and dispersed into various districts with instructions to reassemble at an appointed time and place. In this manner the rendezvous became a sort of roving trading place; it served in lieu of a post. These shifting locations were occasioned by the need of forage for large numbers of horses. For sixteen years this combination of market, fiesta, and carousal held sway in such romantic spots as Green River, Ogden’s Hole, Pierre’s Hole—now Teton Basin in Idaho—and the Horse Creek-Green River country south of Jackson’s Hole in Wyoming. In her book, _The River of the West_, Frances Fuller Victor tells of a rendezvous held by Jim Bridger and his trappers. The place was Hayden Valley; the season, 1838.[84]