The early fur traders were men who accepted death as a normal hazard of their chosen profession. Those who could not live with the idea usually deserted or were on the first boat back to St. Louis. When Hugh Glass was mauled by the grizzly bear it is safe to assume that his comrades resigned themselves to his fate and turned their thoughts toward their own safety and the journey west to the Yellowstone River.
John Myers states that Hugh had as many as fifteen serious wounds and "First aid on the Plains consisted of bracing a man with brandy and tying him up with strips of a probably not laundered shirt." One of the other trappers might have tried to stitch some of Hugh's worst wounds with thread made from deer sinew but beyond these primitive procedures nothing much could be done to save Hugh Glass. Still, Old Hugh refused to die.
After a day or two of waiting for Hugh to take his last breath, Major Henry, the expedition leader, decided to move his men out of the area. Because Hugh was still clinging to life, the trappers made an attempt to carry him to safety by fashioning a litter from the boughs of trees. How long they carried him is not known, it might have been as few as two days or as long as six days. Finally, Major Henry's concern over the pallbearer-like pace of his expedition in such hostile territory forced him to make a decision. A clearing was reached near a large spring and it was deemed a logical spot for Hugh to find his final resting place. Major Henry could not, however, bring himself to abandon Hugh altogether while the old trapper was still breathing. He called for two volunteers to stay behind to provide Hugh a proper burial.
The two "volunteers" according to both Frederick Manfred and John Myers were the youth Jim Bridger and a man named John Fitzgerald. Frederick Manfred has the two staying out of loyalty to Hugh for not reporting them for falling asleep on guard duty. John Myers points out that Bridger and Fitzgerald were probably paid a decent bonus to stay behind.
As the expedition hurried on west, John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridger waited with increasing anxiety for Hugh Glass to die. They may have waited for as many as six days before the older man, Fitzgerald, cracked under the pressure of falling so far behind his comrades in such dangerous territory. John Myers writes in The Saga of Hugh Glass that Hugh himself heard Fitzgerald arguing with young Bridger until the lad gave in and agreed to Fitzgerald's plan.
In order to make their story plausible, Fitzgerald and Bridger took Hugh's gun and all his "necessarys." Their reasoning was that a man who could not lift himself up from a makeshift litter would have no use for a weapon and no Mountain Man would leave such valuable equipment behind to the elements or to fall into the hands of hostile Natives. Also, having possession Of Hugh's property would be proof to the other trappers that Hugh had, indeed, died.
The only favor the two did for Hugh Glass was to move him down by the stream before they left. When Hugh finally regained full consciousness some time later he saw three things; the stream, his grave, and a rattlesnake curled up nearby.
