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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7984-8.txt b/7984-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44520e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/7984-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15979 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old Santa Fe Trail, by Henry Inman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Old Santa Fe Trail + The Story of a Great Highway + +Author: Henry Inman + +Commentator: W. F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7984] +Posting Date: August 7, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL *** + + + + +Produced by Michael S. Overton + + + + + +THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL + +THE STORY OF A GREAT HIGHWAY + +By Colonel Henry Inman + +Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army + + +With a Preface by W. F. "BUFFALO BILL" CODY + + + + +PREFACE. + + +As we look into the open fire for our fancies, so we are apt to study +the dim past for the wonderful and sublime, forgetful of the fact that +the present is a constant romance, and that the happenings of to-day +which we count of little importance are sure to startle somebody in the +future, and engage the pen of the historian, philosopher, and poet. + +Accustomed as we are to think of the vast steppes of Russia and Siberia +as alike strange and boundless, and to deal with the unknown interior of +Africa as an impenetrable mystery, we lose sight of a locality in +our own country that once surpassed all these in virgin grandeur, in +majestic solitude, and in all the attributes of a tremendous wilderness. + +The story of the Old Santa Fe Trail, so truthfully recalled by Colonel +Henry Inman, ex-officer of the old Regular Army, in these pages, is a +most thrilling one. The vast area through which the famous highway ran +is still imperfectly known to most people as "The West"; a designation +once appropriate, but hardly applicable now; for in these days of easy +communication the real trail region is not so far removed from New York +as Buffalo was seventy years ago. + +At the commencement of the "commerce of the prairies," in the early +portion of the century, the Old Trail was the arena of almost constant +sanguinary struggles between the wily nomads of the desert and the hardy +white pioneers, whose eventful lives made the civilization of the vast +interior region of our continent possible. Their daring compelled its +development, which has resulted in the genesis of great states and large +cities. Their hardships gave birth to the American homestead; their +determined will was the factor of possible achievements, the most +remarkable and important of modern times. + +When the famous highway was established across the great plains as a +line of communication to the shores of the blue Pacific, the only method +of travel was by the slow freight caravan drawn by patient oxen, or the +lumbering stage coach with its complement of four or six mules. There +was ever to be feared an attack by those devils of the desert, the +Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas. Along its whole route the remains +of men, animals, and the wrecks of camps and wagons, told a story of +suffering, robbery, and outrage more impressive than any language. Now +the tourist or business man makes the journey in palace cars, and there +is nothing to remind him of the danger or desolation of Border days; on +every hand are the evidences of a powerful and advanced civilization. + +It is fortunate that one is left to tell some of its story who was a +living actor and had personal knowledge of many of the thrilling scenes +that were enacted along the line of the great route. He was familiar +with all the famous men, both white and savage, whose lives have made +the story of the Trail, his own sojourn on the plains and in the Rocky +Mountains extending over a period of nearly forty years. + +The Old Trail has more than common interest for me, and I gladly record +here my indorsement of the faithful record, compiled by a brave soldier, +old comrade, and friend. + +W. F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill." + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + + INTRODUCTION. + The First Europeans who traversed the Great Highway--Alvar Nunez + Cabeca de Vaca--Hernando de Soto, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado-- + Spanish Expedition from Santa Fe eastwardly--Escape of the Sole Survivors. + + CHAPTER I. + UNDER THE SPANIARDS. + Quaint Descriptions of Old Santa Fe--The Famous Adobe Palace-- + Santa Fe the Oldest Town in the United States--First Settlement-- + Onate's Conquest--Revolt of the Pueblo Indians--Under Pueblo Rule + --Cruelties of the Victors--The Santa Fe of To-day--Arrival of + a Caravan--The Railroad reaches the Town--Amusements--A Fandango. + + CHAPTER II. + LA LANDE AND PURSLEY. + The Beginning of the Santa Fe Trade--La Lande and Pursley, + the First Americans to cross the Plains--Pursley's Patriotism-- + Captain Ezekiel Williams--A Hungry Bear--A Midnight Alarm. + + CHAPTER III. + EARLY TRADERS. + Captain Becknell's Expedition--Sufferings from Thirst--Auguste + Chouteau--Imprisonment of McKnight and Chambers--The Caches-- + Stampeding Mules--First Military Escort across the Plains-- + Captain Zebulon Pike--Sublette and Smith--Murder of McNess-- + Indians not the Aggressors. + + CHAPTER IV. + TRAINS AND PACKERS. + The Atajo or Pack-train of Mules--Mexican Nomenclature of + Paraphernalia--Manner of Packing--The "Bell-mare"--Toughness of + Mules among Precipices--The Caravan of Wagons--Largest Wagon-train + ever on the Plains--Stampedes--Duties of Packers en route--Order of + Travelling with Pack-train--Chris. Gilson, the Famous Packer. + + CHAPTER V. + FIGHT WITH COMANCHES. + Narrative of Bryant's Party of Santa Fe Traders--The First Wagon + Expedition across the Plains--A Thrilling Story of Hardship and + Physical Suffering--Terrible Fight with the Comanches--Abandonment + of the Wagons--On Foot over the Trail--Burial of their Specie + on an Island in the Arkansas--Narrative of William Y. Hitt, + one of the Party--His Encounter with a Comanche--The First Escort + of United States Troops to the Annual Caravan of Santa Fe Traders, + in 1829--Major Bennett Riley's Official Report to the War Department + --Journal of Captain Cooke. + + CHAPTER VI. + A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY. + The Expedition of Texans to the Old Santa Fe Trail for the Purpose + of robbing Mexican Traders--Innocent Citizens of the United States + suspected, arrested, and carried to the Capital of New Mexico-- + Colonel Snively's Force--Warfield's Sacking of the Village of Mora + --Attack upon a Mexican Caravan--Kit Carson in the Fight-- + A Crime of over Sixty Years Ago--A Romance of the Tragedy. + + CHAPTER VII. + MEXICO DECLARES WAR. + Mexico declares War against the United States--Congress authorizes + the President to call for Fifty Thousand Volunteers--Organization of + the Army of the West--Phenomenon seen by Santa Fe Traders in the Sky + --First Death on the March of the Army across the Plains--Men in + a Starving Condition--Another Death--Burial near Pawnee Rock-- + Trouble at Pawnee Fork--Major Howard's Report. + + CHAPTER VIII. + THE VALLEY OF TAOS. + The Valley of Taos--First White Settler--Rebellion of the Mexicans + --A Woman discovers and informs Colonel Price of the Conspiracy-- + Assassination of Governor Bent--Horrible Butcheries by the Pueblos + and Mexicans--Turley's Ranch--Murder of Harwood and Markhead-- + Anecdote of Sir William Drummond Stewart--Fight at the Mills-- + Battle of the Pueblo of Taos--Trial of the Insurrectionists-- + Baptiste, the Juror--Execution of the Rebels. + + CHAPTER IX. + FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. + Independence--Opening of Navigation on the Mississippi--Effect of + Water Transportation upon the Trade--Establishment of Trading-forts-- + Market for Cattle and Mules--Wages paid Teamsters on the Trail-- + An Enterprising Coloured Man--Increase of the Trade at the Close of + the Mexican War--Heavy Emigration to California--First Overland Mail + --How the Guards were armed--Passenger Coaches to Santa Fe-- + Stage-coaching Days. + + CHAPTER X. + CHARLES BENT. + The Tragedy in the Canyon of the Canadian--Dragoons follow the Trail + of the Savages--Kit Carson, Dick Wooton, and Tom Tobin the Scouts + of the Expedition--More than a Hundred of the Savages killed-- + Murder of Mrs. White--White Wolf--Lieutenant Bell's Singular Duel + with the Noted Savage--Old Wolf--Satank--Murder of Peacock-- + Satanta made Chief--Kicking Bird--His Tragic Death--Charles Bent, + the Half-breed Renegade--His Terrible Acts--His Death. + + CHAPTER XI. + LA GLORIETA. + Neglect of New Mexico by the United States Government--Intended + Conquest of the Province--Conspiracy of Southern Leaders-- + Surrender by General Twiggs to the Confederate Government of the + Military Posts and Munitions of War under his Command--Only One + Soldier out of Two Thousand deserts to the Enemy--Organization + of Volunteers for the Defence of Colorado and New Mexico-- + Battle of La Glorieta--Rout of the Rebels. + + CHAPTER XII. + THE BUFFALO. + The Ancient Range of the Buffalo--Number slaughtered in Thirteen Years + for their Robes alone--Buffalo Bones--Trains stopped by Vast Herds-- + Custom of Old Hunters when caught in a Blizzard--Anecdotes of + Buffalo Hunting--Kit Carson's Dilemma--Experience of Two of Fremont's + Hunters--Wounded Buffalo Bull--O'Neil's Laughable Experience-- + Organization of a Herd of Buffalo--Stampedes--Thrilling Escapes. + + CHAPTER XIII. + INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS. + Big Timbers--Winter Camp of the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes-- + Savage Amusements--A Cheyenne Lodge--Indian Etiquette--Treatment + of Children--The Pipe of the North American Savage--Dog Feast-- + Marriage Ceremony. + + CHAPTER XIV. + TRAPPERS. + The Old Pueblo Fort--A Celebrated Rendezvous--Its Inhabitants-- + "Fontaine qui Bouille"--The Legend of its Origin--The Trappers + of the Old Santa Fe Trail and the Rocky Mountains--Beaver Trapping-- + Habits of the Beaver--Improvidence of the Old Trappers--Trading with + "Poor Lo"--The Strange Experience of a Veteran Trapper on the + Santa Fe Trail--Romantic Marriage of Baptiste Brown. + + CHAPTER XV. + UNCLE JOHN SMITH. + Uncle John Smith--A Famous Trapper, Guide, and Interpreter-- + His Marriage with a Cheyenne Squaw--An Autocrat among the People + of the Plains and Mountains--The Mexicans held him in Great Dread-- + His Wonderful Resemblance to President Andrew Johnson--Interpreter + and Guide on General Sheridan's Winter Expedition against the + Allied Plains Tribes--His Stories around the Camp-fire. + + CHAPTER XVI. + KIT CARSON. + Famous Men of the Old Santa Fe Trail--Kit Carson--Jim Bridger-- + James P. Beckwourth--Uncle Dick Wooton--Jim Baker--Lucien B. + Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin--James Hobbs. + + CHAPTER XVII. + UNCLE DICK WOOTON. + Uncle Dick Wooton--Lucien B. Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin-- + James Hobbs--William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill). + + CHAPTER XVIII. + MAXWELL'S RANCH. + Maxwell's Ranch on the Old Santa Fe Trail--A Picturesque Region-- + Maxwell a Trapper and Hunter with the American Fur Company-- + Lifelong Comrade of Kit Carson--Sources of Maxwell's Wealth-- + Fond of Horse-racing--A Disastrous Fourth-of-July Celebration + --Anecdote of Kit Carson--Discovery of Gold on the Ranch-- + The Big Ditch--Issuing Beef to the Ute Indians--Camping out with + Maxwell and Carson--A Story of the Old Santa Fe Trail. + + CHAPTER XIX. + BENT'S FORTS. + The Bents' Several Forts--Famous Trading-posts--Rendezvous of the + Rocky Mountain Trappers--Castle William and Incidents connected + with the Noted Place--Bartering with the Indians--Annual Feast + of Arapahoes and Cheyennes--Old Wolf's First Visit to Bent's Fort-- + The Surprise of the Savages--Stories told by Celebrated Frontiersmen + around the Camp-fire. + + CHAPTER XX. + PAWNEE ROCK. + Pawnee Rock--A Debatable Region of the Indian Tribes--The most + Dangerous Point on the Central Plains in the Days of the Early + Santa Fe Trade--Received its Name in a Baptism of Blood-- + Battle-ground of the Pawnees and Cheyennes--Old Graves on the + Summit of the Rock--Kit Carson's First Fight at the Rock with + the Pawnees--Kills his Mule by Mistake--Colonel St. Vrain's + Brilliant Charge--Defeat of the Savages--The Trappers' Terrible + Battle with the Pawnees--The Massacre at Cow Creek. + + CHAPTER XXI. + FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. + Wagon Mound--John L. Hatcher's Thrilling Adventure with Old Wolf, + the War-chief of the Comanches--Incidents on the Trail--A Boy + Bugler's Happy Escape from the Savages at Fort Union--A Drunken + Stage-driver--How an Officer of the Quartermaster's Department + at Washington succeeded in starting the Military Freight Caravans + a Month Earlier than the Usual Time--How John Chisholm fooled + the Stage-robbers--The Story of Half a Plug of Tobacco. + + CHAPTER XXII. + A DESPERATE RIDE. + Solitary Graves along the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Walnut + Crossing--Fort Zarah--The Graves on Hon. D. Heizer's Ranch on + the Walnut--Troops stationed at the Crossing of the Walnut-- + A Terrible Five Miles--The Cavalry Recruit's Last Ride. + + CHAPTER XXIII. + HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. + General Hancock's Expedition against the Plains Indians--Terrible + Snow-storm at Fort Larned--Meeting with the Chiefs of the + Dog-Soldiers--Bull Bear's Diplomacy--Meeting of the United States + Troops and the Savages in Line of Battle--Custer's Night Experience-- + The Surgeon and Dog Stew--Destruction of the Village by Fire-- + General Sully's Fight with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Arapahoes-- + Finding the Skeletons of the Unfortunate Men--The Savages' Report + of the Affair. + + CHAPTER XXIV. + INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. + Scenery on the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Great Plains-- + The Arkansas Valley--Over the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico-- + The Raton Range--The Spanish Peaks--Simpson's Rest--Fisher's Peak + --Raton Peak--Snowy Range--Pike's Peak--Raton Creek--The Invasion + of the Railroad--The Old Santa Fe Trail a Thing of the Past. + + FOOTNOTES. + + PUBLICATION INFORMATION. + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + +For more than three centuries, a period extending from 1541 to 1851, +historians believed, and so announced to the literary world, that +Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the celebrated Spanish explorer, in his +search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and the Kingdom of Quivira, was +the first European to travel over the intra-continent region of North +America. In the last year above referred to, however, Buckingham Smith, +of Florida, an eminent Spanish scholar, and secretary of the American +Legation at Madrid, discovered among the archives of State the +_Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca_, where for nearly three +hundred years it had lain, musty and begrimed with the dust of ages, an +unread and forgotten story of suffering that has no parallel in fiction. +The distinguished antiquarian unearthed the valuable manuscript from its +grave of oblivion, translated it into English, and gave it to the world +of letters; conferring honour upon whom honour was due, and tearing the +laurels from such grand voyageurs and discoverers as De Soto, La Salle, +and Coronado, upon whose heads history had erroneously placed them, +through no fault, or arrogance, however, of their own. + +Cabeca, beyond any question, travelled the Old Santa Fe Trail for many +miles, crossed it where it intersects the Arkansas River, a little east +of Fort William or Bent's Fort, and went thence on into New Mexico, +following the famous highway as far, at least, as Las Vegas. Cabeca's +march antedated that of Coronado by five years. To this intrepid Spanish +voyageur we are indebted for the first description of the American +bison, or buffalo as the animal is erroneously called. While not so +quaint in its language as that of Coronado's historian, a lustrum later, +the statement cannot be perverted into any other reference than to the +great shaggy monsters of the plains:-- + + Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times + and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size + of those of Spain. They have small horns like the cows + of Morocco, and the hair very long and flocky, like that + of the merino; some are light brown, others black. To my + judgment the flesh is finer and fatter than that of this + country. The Indians make blankets of the hides of those + not full grown. They range over a district of more than + four hundred leagues, and in the whole extent of plain over + which they run the people that inhabit near there descend + and live on them and scatter a vast many skins throughout + the country. + +It will be remembered by the student of the early history of our +country, that when Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, a follower of the +unfortunate Panphilo de Narvaez, and who had been long thought dead, +landed in Spain, he gave such glowing accounts of Florida[1] and the +neighbouring regions that the whole kingdom was in a ferment, and many a +heart panted to emigrate to a land where the fruits were perennial, and +where it was thought flowed the fabled fountain of youth. + +Three expeditions to that country had already been tried: one undertaken +in 1512, by Juan Ponce de Leon, formerly a companion of Columbus; +another in 1520, by Vasquez de Allyon; and another by Panphilo de +Narvaez. All of these had signally failed, the bones of most of the +leaders and their followers having been left to bleach upon the soil +they had come to conquer. + +The unfortunate issue of the former expeditions did not operate as a +check upon the aspiring mind of De Soto, but made him the more anxious +to spring as an actor into the arena which had been the scene of the +discomfiture and death of the hardy chivalry of the kingdom. He sought +an audience of the emperor, and the latter, after hearing De Soto's +proposition that, "he could conquer the country known as Florida at +his own expense," conferred upon him the title of "Governor of Cuba and +Florida." + +On the 6th of April, 1538, De Soto sailed from Spain with an armament of +ten vessels and a splendidly equipped army of nine hundred chosen men, +amidst the roar of cannons and the inspiring strains of martial music. + +It is not within the province of this work to follow De Soto through all +his terrible trials on the North American continent; the wonderful story +may be found in every well-organized library. It is recorded, however, +that some time during the year 1542, his decimated army, then under the +command of Luis de Moscoso, De Soto having died the previous May, was +camped on the Arkansas River, far upward towards what is now Kansas. It +was this command, too, of the unfortunate but cruel De Soto, that saw +the Rocky Mountains from the east. The chronicler of the disastrous +journey towards the mountains says: "The entire route became a trail of +fire and blood," as they had many a desperate struggle with the savages +of the plains, who "were of gigantic structure, and fought with heavy +strong clubs, with the desperation of demons. Such was their tremendous +strength, that one of these warriors was a match for a Spanish soldier, +though mounted on a horse, armed with a sword and cased in armour!" + +Moscoso was searching for Coronado, and he was one of the most humane +of all the officers of De Soto's command, for he evidently bent every +energy to extricate his men from the dreadful environments of their +situation; despairing of reaching the Gulf by the Mississippi, he +struck westward, hoping, as Cabeca de Vaca had done, to arrive in Mexico +overland. + +A period of six months was consumed in Moscoso's march towards the Rocky +Mountains, but he failed to find Coronado, who at that time was camped +near where Wichita, Kansas, is located; according to his historian, +"at the junction of the St. Peter and St. Paul" (the Big and Little +Arkansas?). That point was the place of separation between Coronado and +a number of his followers; many returning to Mexico, while the undaunted +commander, with as many as he could induce to accompany him, continued +easterly, still in search of the mythical Quivira. + +How far westward Moscoso travelled cannot be determined accurately, +but that his route extended up the valley of the Arkansas for more than +three hundred miles, into what is now Kansas, is proved by the statement +of his historian, who says: "They saw great chains of mountains and +forests to the west, which they understood were uninhabited." + +Another strong confirmatory fact is, that, in 1884, a group of mounds +was discovered in McPherson County, Kansas, which were thoroughly +explored by the professors of Bethany College, Lindsborg, who found, +among other interesting relics, a piece of chain-mail armour, of hard +steel; undoubtedly part of the equipment of a Spanish soldier either of +the command of Cabeca de Vaca, De Soto, or of Coronado. The probability +is, that it was worn by one of De Soto's unfortunate men, as neither +Panphilo de Narvaez, De Vaca, or Coronado experienced any difficulty +with the savages of the great plains, because those leaders were humane +and treated the Indians kindly, in contradistinction to De Soto, who was +the most inhuman of all the early Spanish explorers. He was of the same +school as Pizarro and Cortez; possessing their daring valour, their +contempt of danger, and their tenacity of purpose, as well as their +cruelty and avarice. De Soto made treaties with the Indians which he +constantly violated, and murdered the misguided creatures without mercy. +During the retreat of Moscoso's weakened command down the Arkansas +River, the Hot Springs of Arkansas were discovered. His historian +writes: + + And when they saw the foaming fountain, they thought + it was the long-searched-for "Fountain of Youth," reported + by fame to exist somewhere in the country, but ten of the + soldiers dying from excessive drinking, they were soon + convinced of their error. + +After these intrepid explorers the restless Coronado appears on the Old +Trail. In the third volume of Hakluyt's _Voyages_, published in London, +1600, Coronado's historian thus describes the great plains of Kansas and +Colorado, the bison, and a tornado:-- + + From Cicuye they went to Quivira, which after their account + is almost three hundred leagues distant, through mighty + plains, and sandy heaths so smooth and wearisome, and bare + of wood that they made heaps of ox-dung, for want of stones + and trees, that they might not lose themselves at their + return: for three horses were lost on that plain, and one + Spaniard which went from his company on hunting.... + All that way of plains are as full of crooked-back oxen as + the mountain Serrena in Spain is of sheep, but there is + no such people as keep those cattle.... They were a + great succour for the hunger and the want of bread, which + our party stood in need of.... + + One day it rained in that plain a great shower of hail, + as big as oranges, which caused many tears, weakness + and bowes. + + These oxen are of the bigness and colour of our bulls, + but their bones are not so great. They have a great bunch + upon their fore-shoulder, and more hair on their fore part + than on their hinder part, and it is like wool. They have + as it were an horse-mane upon their backbone, and much hair + and very long from their knees downward. They have great + tufts of hair hanging down on their foreheads, and it + seemeth they have beards because of the great store of hair + hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have + very long tails, and a great knob or flock at the end, + so that in some respects they resemble the lion, and in some + other the camel. They push with their horns, they run, + they overtake and kill an horse when they are in their + rage and anger. Finally it is a foul and fierce beast of + countenance and form of body. The horses fled from them, + either because of their deformed shape, or else because + they had never before seen them. + +"The number," continues the historian, "was incredible." When the +soldiers, in their excitement for the chase, began to kill them, they +rushed together in such masses that hundreds were literally crushed to +death. At one place there was a great ravine; they jumped into it +in their efforts to escape from the hunters, and so terrible was the +slaughter as they tumbled over the precipice that the depression was +completely filled up, their carcasses forming a bridge, over which the +remainder passed with ease. + +The next recorded expedition across the plains via the Old Trail was +also by the Spaniards from Santa Fe, eastwardly, in the year 1716, "for +the purpose of establishing a Military Post in the Upper Mississippi +Valley as a barrier to the further encroachments of the French in +that direction." An account of this expedition is found in _Memoires +Historiques sur La Louisiane_, published in Paris in 1858, but never +translated in its entirety. The author, Lieutenant Dumont of the French +army, was one of a party ascending the Arkansas River in search of a +supposed mass of emeralds. The narrative relates: + + There was more than half a league to traverse to gain the + other bank of the river, and our people were no sooner + arrived than they found there a party of Missouris, sent to + M. de la Harpe by M. de Bienville, then commandant general + at Louisiana, to deliver orders to the former. Consequently + they gave the signal order, and our other two canoes having + crossed the river, the savages gave to our commandant the + letters of M. de Bienville, in which he informed him that + the Spaniards had sent out a detachment from New Mexico + to go to the Missouris and to establish a post in that + country.... The success of this expedition was very + calamitous to the Spaniards. Their caravan was composed of + fifteen hundred people, men, women and soldiers, having + with them a Jacobin for a chaplain, and bringing also a + great number of horses and cattle, according to the custom + of that nation to forget nothing that might be necessary for + a settlement. Their design was to destroy the Missouris, + and to seize upon their country, and with this intention + they had resolved to go first to the Osages, a neighbouring + nation, enemies of the Missouris, to form an alliance with + them, and to engage them in their behalf for the execution + of their plan. Perhaps the map which guided them was not + correct, or they had not exactly followed it, for it chanced + that instead of going to the Osages whom they sought, they + fell, without knowing it, into a village of the Missouris, + where the Spanish commander, presenting himself to the great + chief and offering him the calumet, made him understand + through an interpreter, believing himself to be speaking + to the Osage chief, that they were enemies of the Missouris, + that they had come to destroy them, to make their women + and children slaves and to take possession of their country. + He begged the chief to be willing to form an alliance + with them, against a nation whom the Osages regarded as + their enemy, and to second them in this enterprise, promising + to recompense them liberally for the service rendered, + and always to be their friend in the future. Upon this + discourse the Missouri chief understood perfectly well + the mistake. He dissimulated and thanked the Spaniard for + the confidence he had in his nation; he consented to form + an alliance with them against the Missouris, and to join + them with all his forces to destroy them; but he represented + that his people were not armed, and that they dared not + expose themselves without arms in such an enterprise. + Deceived by so favourable a reception, the Spaniards fell + into the trap laid for them. They received with due + ceremony, in the little camp they had formed on their + arrival, the calumet which the great chief of the Missouris + presented to the Spanish commander. The alliance for war + was sworn to by both parties; they agreed upon a day for + the execution of the plan which they meditated, and the + Spaniards furnished the savages with all the munitions which + they thought were needed. After the ceremony both parties + gave themselves up equally to joy and good cheer. At the + end of three days two thousand savages were armed and in + the midst of dances and amusements; each party thought + nothing but the execution of its design. It was the evening + before their departure upon their concerted expedition, + and the Spaniards had retired to their camps as usual, + when the great chief of the Missouris, having assembled + his warriors, declared to them his intentions and exhorted + them to deal treacherously with these strangers who were come + to their home only with the design of destroying them. + At daybreak the savages divided into several bands, fell on + the Spaniards, who expected nothing of the kind, and in + less than a quarter of an hour all the caravan were murdered. + No one escaped from the massacre except the chaplain, whom + the barbarians saved because of his dress; at the same time + they took possession of all the merchandise and other + effects which they found in their camp. The Spaniards had + brought with them, as I have said, a certain number of horses, + and as the savages were ignorant of the use of these animals, + they took pleasure in making the Jacobin whom they had saved, + and who had become their slave, mount them. The priest gave + them this amusement almost every day for the five or six + months that he remained with them in their village, without + any of them daring to imitate him. Tired at last of his + slavery, and regarding the lack of daring in these barbarians + as a means of Providence to regain his liberty, he made + secretly all the provisions possible for him to make, + and which he believed necessary to his plan. At last, + having chosen the best horse and having mounted him, + after performing several of his exploits before the savages, + and while they were all occupied with his manoeuvres, + he spurred up and disappeared from their sight, taking the + road to Mexico, where doubtless he arrived. + +Charlevoix,[2] who travelled from Quebec to New Orleans in the year +1721, says in one of his letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, dated +at Kaskaskia, July 21, 1721: + + About two years ago some Spaniards, coming, as they say, + from New Mexico, and intending to get into the country of + the Illinois and drive the French from thence, whom they + saw with extreme jealousy approach so near the Missouri, + came down the river and attacked two villages of the + Octoyas,[3] who are the allies of the Ayouez,[4] and from + whom it is said also that they are derived. As the savages + had no firearms and were surprised, the Spaniards made an + easy conquest and killed a great many of them. A third + village, which was not far off from the other two, being + informed of what had passed, and not doubting but these + conquerors would attack them, laid an ambush into which + the Spaniards heedlessly fell. Others say that the savages, + having heard that the enemy were almost all drunk and + fast asleep, fell upon them in the night. However it was, + it is certain the greater part of them were killed. + There were in the party two almoners; one of them was + killed directly and the other got away to the Missouris, + who took him prisoner, but he escaped them very dexterously. + He had a very fine horse and the Missouris took pleasure + in seeing him ride it, which he did very skilfully. He took + advantage of their curiosity to get out of their hands. + + One day as he was prancing and exercising his horse before + them, he got a little distance from them insensibly; then + suddenly clapping spurs to his horse he was soon out of sight. + +The Missouri Indians once occupied all the territory near the junction +of the Kaw and Missouri rivers, but they were constantly decimated by +the continual depredations of their warlike and feudal enemies, the +Pawnees and Sioux, and at last fell a prey to that dreadful scourge, the +small-pox, which swept them off by thousands. The remnant of the once +powerful tribe then found shelter and a home with the Otoes, finally +becoming merged in that tribe. + + + + +CHAPTER I. UNDER THE SPANIARDS. + + + +The Santa Fe of the purely Mexican occupation, long before the days +of New Mexico's acquisition by the United States, and the Santa Fe of +to-day are so widely in contrast that it is difficult to find language +in which to convey to the reader the story of the phenomenal change. To +those who are acquainted with the charming place as it is now, with its +refined and cultured society, I cannot do better, perhaps, in attempting +to show what it was under the old regime, than to quote what some +traveller in the early 30's wrote for a New York leading newspaper, in +regard to it. As far as my own observation of the place is concerned, +when I first visited it a great many years ago, the writer of the +communication whose views I now present was not incorrect in his +judgment. He said:-- + + To dignify such a collection of mud hovels with the name + of "City," would be a keen irony; not greater, however, + than is the name with which its Padres have baptized it. + To call a place with its moral character, a very Sodom + in iniquity, "Holy Faith," is scarcely a venial sin; + it deserves Purgatory at least. Its health is the best + in the country, which is the first, second and third + recommendation of New Mexico by its greatest admirers. + It is a small town of about two thousand inhabitants, + crowded up against the mountains, at the end of a little + valley through which runs a mountain stream of the same + name tributary to the Rio Grande. It has a public square + in the centre, a Palace and an Alameda; as all Spanish + Roman Catholic towns have. It is true its Plaza, or + Public Square, is unfenced and uncared for, without trees + or grass. The Palace is nothing more than the biggest + mud-house in the town, and the churches, too, are unsightly + piles of the same material, and the Alameda[5] is on top of + a sand hill. Yet they have in Santa Fe all the parts and + parcels of a regal city and a Bishopric. The Bishop has a + palace also; the only two-storied shingle-roofed house in + the place. There is one public house set apart for eating, + drinking and gambling; for be it known that gambling is here + authorized by law. Hence it is as respectable to keep a + gambling house, as it is to sell rum in New Jersey; it is + a lawful business, and being lawful, and consequently + respectable and a man's right, why should not men gamble? + And gamble they do. The Generals and the Colonels and + the Majors and the Captains gamble. The judges and the + lawyers and the doctors and the priests gamble; and there + are gentlemen gamblers by profession! You will see squads + of poor peons daily, men, women and boys, sitting on the + ground around a deck of cards in the Public Square, gambling + for the smallest stakes. + + The stores of the town generally front on the Public Square. + Of these there are a dozen, more or less, of respectable + size, and most of them are kept by others than Mexicans. + The business of the place is considerable, many of the + merchants here being wholesale dealers for the vast + territory tributary. It is supposed that about $750,000 + worth of goods will be brought to this place this year, and + there may be $250,000 worth imported directly from the + United States. + + In the money market there is nothing less than a five-cent + piece. You cannot purchase anything for less than five cents. + In trade they reckon ten cents the eighth of a dollar. + If you purchase nominally a dollar's worth of an article, + you can pay for it in eight ten-cent pieces; and if you + give a dollar, you receive no change. In changing a dollar + for you, you would get but eight ten-cent pieces for it. + + Yet, although dirty and unkempt, and swarming with hungry + dogs, it has the charm of foreign flavour, and like + San Antonio retains some portion of the grace which long + lingered about it, if indeed it ever forsakes the spot + where Spain held rule for centuries, and the soft syllables + of the Spanish language are yet heard. + +Such was a description of the "drowsy old town" of Santa Fe, sixty-five +years ago. Fifteen years later Major W. H. Emory, of the United States +army, writes of it as follows:[6] + + The population of Santa Fe is from two to four thousand, + and the inhabitants are, it is said, the poorest people + of any town in the Province. The houses are mud bricks, + in the Spanish style, generally of one story, and built + on a square. The interior of the square is an open court, + and the principal rooms open into it. They are forbidding + in appearance from the outside, but nothing can exceed + the comfort and convenience of the interior. The thick + walls make them cool in summer and warm in winter. + + The better class of people are provided with excellent beds, + but the poorer class sleep on untanned skins. The women + here, as in many other parts of the world, appear to be + much before the men in refinements, intelligence, and + knowledge of the useful arts. The higher class dress like + the American women, except, instead of a bonnet, they wear + a scarf over their head, called a reboso. This they wear + asleep or awake, in the house or abroad. The dress of the + lower classes of women is a simple petticoat, with arms and + shoulders bare, except what may chance to be covered by + the reboso. + + The men who have means to do so dress after our fashion; + but by far the greater number, when they dress at all, + wear leather breeches, tight around the hips and open from + the knee down; shirt and blanket take the place of our + coat and vest. + + The city is dependent on the distant hills for wood, and + at all hours of the day may be seen jackasses passing laden + with wood, which is sold at two bits, twenty-five cents, + the load. These are the most diminutive animals, and + usually mounted from behind, after the fashion of leap-frog. + The jackass is the only animal that can be subsisted in + this barren neighbourhood without great expense; our horses + are all sent to a distance of twelve, fifteen, and thirty + miles for grass. + +I have interpolated these two somewhat similar descriptions of Santa Fe +written in that long ago when New Mexico was almost as little known as +the topography of the planet Mars, so that the intelligent visitor of +to-day may appreciate the wonderful changes which American thrift, and +that powerful civilizer, the locomotive, have wrought in a very few +years, yet it still, as one of the foregoing writers has well said, +"has the charm of foreign flavour, and the soft syllables of the Spanish +language are still heard." + +The most positive exception must be taken to the statement of the +first-quoted writer in relation to the Palace, of which he says "It is +nothing more than the biggest mud-house in the town." Now this "Palacio +del Gobernador," as the old building was called by the Spanish, was +erected at a very early day. It was the long-established seat of power +when Penalosa confined the chief inquisitor within its walls in 1663, +and when the Pueblo authorities took possession of it as the citadel of +their central authority, in 1681. + +The old building cannot well be overlooked by the most careless visitor +to the quaint town; it is a long, low structure, taking up the greater +part of one side of the Plaza, round which runs a colonnade supported +by pillars of rough pine. In this once leaky old Palace were kept, +or rather neglected, the archives of the Territory until the American +residents, appreciating the importance of preserving precious documents +containing so much of interest to the student of history and the +antiquarian, enlisted themselves enthusiastically in the good cause, +and have rescued from oblivion the annals of a relatively remote +civilization, which, but for their forethought, would have perished from +the face of the earth as completely as have the written records of that +wonderful region in Central America, whose gigantic ruins alone remain +to tell us of what was a highly cultured order of architecture in past +ages, and of a people whose intelligence was comparable to the style of +the dwellings in which they lived. + +The old adobe Palace is in itself a volume whose pages are filled +with pathos and stirring events. It has been the scene and witness of +incidents the recital of which would to us to-day seem incredible. An +old friend, once governor of New Mexico and now dead, thus graphically +spoke of the venerable building:[7] + + In it lived and ruled the Spanish captain general, so remote + and inaccessible from the viceroyalty at Mexico that he was + in effect a king, nominally accountable to the viceroy, + but practically beyond his reach and control and wholly + irresponsible to the people. Equally independent for the + same reason were the Mexican governors. Here met all the + provincial, territorial, departmental, and other legislative + bodies that have ever assembled at the capital of New Mexico. + Here have been planned all the Indian wars and measures + for defence against foreign invasion, including, as the + most noteworthy, the Navajo war of 1823, the Texan invasion + of 1842, the American of 1846, and the Confederate of 1862. + Within its walls was imprisoned, in 1809, the American + explorer Zebulon M. Pike, and innumerable state prisoners + before and since; and many a sentence of death has been + pronounced therein and the accused forthwith led away and + shot at the dictum of the man at the Palace. It has been + from time immemorial the government house with all its + branches annexed. It was such on the Fourth of July, 1776, + when the American Congress at Independence Hall in + Philadelphia proclaimed liberty throughout all the land, + not then, but now embracing it. Indeed, this old edifice + has a history. And as the history of Santa Fe is the + history of New Mexico, so is the history of the Palace + the history of Santa Fe. + +The Palace was the only building having glazed windows. At one end was +the government printing office, and at the other, the guard-house and +prison. Fearful stories were connected with the prison. Edwards[8] says +that he found, on examining the walls of the small rooms, locks of human +hair stuffed into holes, with rude crosses drawn over them. + +Fronting the Palace, on the south side of the Plaza, stood the remains +of the Capilla de los Soldados, or Military Chapel. The real name of the +church was "Our Lady of Light." It was said to be the richest church +in the Province, but had not been in use for a number of years, and +the roof had fallen in, allowing the elements to complete the work of +destruction. On each side of the altar was the remains of fine carving, +and a weather-beaten picture above gave evidence of having been a +beautiful painting. Over the door was a large oblong slab of freestone, +elaborately carved, representing "Our Lady of Light" rescuing a human +being from the jaws of Satan. A large tablet, beautifully executed in +relief, stood behind the altar, representing various saints, with an +inscription stating that it was erected by Governor Francisco Antonio +del Valle and his wife in 1761. + +Church services were held in the Parroquia, or Parish church, now the +Cathedral, which had two towers or steeples, in which hung four bells. +The music was furnished by a violin and a triangle. The wall back of +the altar was covered with innumerable mirrors, paintings, and +bright-coloured tapestry. + +The exact date of the first settlement of Santa Fe is uncertain. One +authority says: + + It was a primeval stronghold before the Spanish Conquest, + and a town of some importance to the white race when + Pennsylvania was a wilderness and the first Dutch governor + of New York was slowly drilling the Knickerbocker ancestry + in their difficult evolutions around the town-pump. + +It is claimed, on what is deemed very authentic data by some, that +Santa Fe is really the oldest settled town in the United States. St. +Augustine, Florida, was established in 1565 and was unquestionably +conceded the honour of antiquity until the acquisition of New Mexico by +the Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty. Then, of course, Santa Fe steps into the +arena and carries off the laurels. This claim of precedence for Santa +Fe is based upon the statement (whether historically correct or not is +a question) that when the Spaniards first entered the region from the +southern portion of Mexico, about 1542, they found a very large Pueblo +town on the present site of Santa Fe, and that its prior existence +extended far back into the vanished centuries. This is contradicted +by other historians, who contend that the claim of Santa Fe to be the +oldest town in the United States rests entirely on imaginary annals of +an Indian Pueblo before the Spanish Conquest, and that there are but +slight indications that the town was built on the site of one.[9] + +The reader may further satisfy himself on these mooted points by +consulting the mass of historical literature on New Mexico, and the +records of its primitive times are not surpassed in interest by those of +any other part of the continent. It was there the Europeans first made +great conquests, and some years prior to the landing of the Pilgrims, a +history of New Mexico, being the journal of Geronimo de Zarate Salmaron, +was published by the Church in the City of Mexico, early in 1600. +Salmaron was a Franciscan monk; a most zealous and indefatigable worker. +During his eight years' residence at Jemez, near Santa Fe, he claims +to have baptized over eight thousand Indians, converts to the Catholic +faith. His journal gives a description of the country, its mines, etc., +and was made public in order that other monks reading it might emulate +his pious example. + +Between 1605 and 1616 was founded the Villa of Santa Fe, or San +Francisco de la Santa Fe. "Villa," or village, was an honorary title, +always authorized and proclaimed by the king. Bancroft says that it was +first officially mentioned on the 3d of January, 1617. + +The first immigration to New Mexico was under Don Juan de Onate about +1597, and in a year afterward, according to some authorities, Santa Fe +was settled. The place, as claimed by some historians, was then named +El Teguayo, a Spanish adaptation of the word "Tegua," the name of the +Pueblo nation, which was quite numerous, and occupied Santa Fe and the +contiguous country. It very soon, from its central position and charming +climate, became the leading Spanish town, and the capital of the +Province. The Spaniards, who came at first into the country as friends, +and were apparently eager to obtain the good-will of the intelligent +natives, shortly began to claim superiority, and to insist on the +performance of services which were originally mere evidences of +hospitality and kindness. Little by little they assumed greater power +and control over the Indians, until in the course of years they had +subjected a large portion of them to servitude little differing from +actual slavery. + +The impolitic zeal of the monks gradually invoked the spirit of hatred +and resulted in a rebellion that drove the Spaniards, in 1680, from the +country. The large number of priests who were left in the midst of the +natives met with horrible fates: + + Not one escaped martyrdom. At Zuni, three Franciscans + had been stationed, and when the news of the Spanish retreat + reached the town, the people dragged them from their cells, + stripped and stoned them, and afterwards compelled the + servant of one to finish the work by shooting them. Having + thus whetted their appetite for cruelty and vengeance, + the Indians started to carry the news of their independence + to Moqui, and signalized their arrival by the barbarous + murder of the two missionaries who were living there. + Their bodies were left unburied, as a prey for the wild + beasts. At Jemez they indulged in every refinement of + cruelty. The old priest, Jesus Morador, was seized in + his bed at night, stripped naked and mounted on a hog, + and thus paraded through the streets, while the crowd + shouted and yelled around. Not satisfied with this, + they then forced him to carry them as a beast would, + crawling on his hands and feet, until, from repeated beating + and the cruel tortures of sharp spurs, he fell dead in + their midst. A similar chapter of horrors was enacted + at Acoma, where three priests were stripped, tied together + with hair rope, and so driven through the streets, and + finally stoned to death. Not a Christian remained free + within the limits of New Mexico, and those who had been + dominant a few months before were now wretched and + half-starved fugitives, huddled together in the rude huts + of San Lorenzo. + + As soon as the Spaniards had retreated from the country, + the Pueblo Indians gave themselves up for a time to + rejoicing, and to the destruction of everything which could + remind them of the Europeans, their religion, and their + domination. The army which had besieged Santa Fe quickly + entered that city, took possession of the Palace as the + seat of government, and commenced the work of demolition. + The churches and the monastery of the Franciscans were + burned with all their contents, amid the almost frantic + acclamations of the natives. The gorgeous vestments of + the priests had been dragged out before the conflagration, + and now were worn in derision by Indians, who rode through + the streets at full speed, shouting for joy. The official + documents and books in the Palace were brought forth, + and made fuel for a bonfire in the centre of the Plaza; + and here also they danced the cachina, with all the + accompanying religious ceremonies of the olden time. + Everything imaginable was done to show their detestation + of the Christian faith and their determination to utterly + eradicate even its memory. Those who had been baptized + were washed with amole in the Rio Chiquito, in order to be + cleansed from the infection of Christianity. All baptismal + names were discarded, marriages celebrated by Christian + priests were annulled, the very mention of the names Jesus + and Mary was made an offence, and estuffas were constructed + to take the place of ruined churches.[10] + +For twelve years, although many abortive attempts were made to recapture +the country, the Pueblos were left in possession. On the 16th of +October, 1693, the victorious Spaniards at last entered Santa Fe, +bearing the same banner which had been carried by Onate when he entered +the city just a century before. The conqueror this time was Don Diego +de Vargas Zapata Lujan, whom the viceroy of New Spain had appointed +governor in the spring of 1692, with the avowed purpose of having New +Mexico reconquered as speedily as possible. + +Thus it will be seen that the quaint old city has been the scene of many +important historical events, the mere outline of which I have recorded +here, as this book is not devoted to the historical view of the subject. + +In contradistinction to the quiet, sleepy old Santa Fe of half a +century ago, it now presents all the vigour, intelligence, and bustling +progressiveness of the average American city of to-day, yet still smacks +of that ancient Spanish regime, which gives it a charm that only its +blended European and Indian civilization could make possible after its +amalgamation with the United States. + +The tourist will no longer find a drowsy old town, and the Plaza is no +longer unfenced and uncared for. A beautiful park of trees is surrounded +by low palings, and inside the shady enclosure, under a group of large +cottonwoods, is a cenotaph erected to the memory of the Territory's +gallant soldiers who fell in the shock of battle to save New Mexico +to the Union in 1862, and conspicuous among the names carved on the +enduring native rock is that of Kit Carson--prince of frontiersmen, and +one of Nature's noblemen. + +Around the Plaza one sees the American style of architecture and hears +the hum of American civilization; but beyond, and outside this pretty +park, the streets are narrow, crooked, and have an ancient appearance. +There the old Santa Fe confronts the stranger; odd, foreign-looking, +and flavoured with all the peculiarities which marked the era of Mexican +rule. And now, where once was heard the excited shouts of the idle +crowd, of "Los Americanos!" "Los Carros!" "La entrada de la Caravana!" +as the great freight wagons rolled into the streets of the old town +from the Missouri, over the Santa Fe Trail, the shrill whistle of the +locomotive from its trail of steel awakens the echoes of the mighty +hills. + +As may be imagined, great excitement always prevailed whenever a caravan +of goods arrived in Santa Fe. Particularly was this the case among the +feminine portion of the community. The quaint old town turned out its +mixed population en masse the moment the shouts went up that the train +was in sight. There is nothing there to-day comparable to the anxious +looks of the masses as they watched the heavily freighted wagons rolling +into the town, the teamsters dust-begrimed, and the mules making the +place hideous with their discordant braying as they knew that their long +journey was ended and rest awaited them. The importing merchants were +obliged to turn over to the custom house officials five hundred dollars +for every wagon-load, great or small; and no matter what the intrinsic +value of the goods might be, salt or silk, velvets or sugar, it was all +the same. The nefarious duty had to be paid before a penny's worth could +be transferred to their counters. Of course, with the end of Mexican +rule and the acquisition of the Province by the United States, all +opposition to the traffic of the Old Santa Fe Trail ended, traders were +assured a profitable market and the people purchased at relatively low +prices. + +What a wonderful change has taken place in the traffic with New Mexico +in less than three-quarters of a century! In 1825 it was all carried on +with one single annual caravan of prairie-schooners, and now there are +four railroads running through the Rio Grande Valley, and one daily +freight train of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe into the town +unloads more freight than was taken there in a whole year when the +"commerce of the prairies" was at its height! + +Upon the arrival of a caravan in the days of the sleepy regime under +Mexican control, the people did everything in their power to make +the time pass pleasantly for every one connected with it during their +sojourn. Bailes, or fandangoes, as the dancing parties were called by +the natives, were given nightly, and many amusing anecdotes in regard to +them are related by the old-timers. + +The New Mexicans, both men and women, had a great fondness for jewelry, +dress, and amusements; of the latter, the fandango was the principal, +which was held in the most fashionable place of resort, where every +belle and beauty in the town presented herself, attired in the most +costly manner, and displaying her jewelled ornaments to the best +advantage. To this place of recreation and pleasure, generally a large, +capacious saloon or interior court, all classes of persons were allowed +to come, without charge and without invitation. The festivities usually +commenced about nine o'clock in the evening, and the tolling of the +church bells was the signal for the ladies to make their entrance, which +they did almost simultaneously. + +New Mexican ladies were famous for their gaudy dresses, but it must +be confessed they did not exercise good taste. Their robes were made +without bodies; a skirt only, and a long, loose, flowing scarf or reboso +dexterously thrown about the head and shoulders, so as to supersede both +the use of dress-bodies and bonnets. + +There was very little order maintained at these fandangoes, and still +less attention paid to the rules of etiquette. A kind of swinging, +gallopade waltz was the favourite dance, the cotillion not being much in +vogue. Read Byron's graphic description of the waltz, and then stretch +your imagination to its utmost tension, and you will perhaps have some +faint conception of the Mexican fandango. Such familiarity of position +as was indulged in would be repugnant to the refined rules of polite +society in the eastern cities; but with the New Mexicans, in those early +times, nothing was considered to be a greater accomplishment than that +of being able to go handsomely through all the mazes of their peculiar +dance. + +There was one republican feature about the New Mexican fandango; it was +that all classes, rich and poor alike, met and intermingled, as did the +Romans at their Saturnalia, upon terms of equality. Sumptuous repasts +or collations were rarely ever prepared for those frolicsome gatherings, +but there was always an abundance of confectionery, sweetmeats, +and native wine. It cost very little for a man to attend one of the +fandangoes in Santa Fe, but not to get away decently and sober. In that +it resembled the descent of Aeneas to Pluto's realms; it was easy enough +to get there, but when it came to return, "revocare gradum, superasque +evadere ad auras, hic labor, hoc opus est." + + + + +CHAPTER II. LA LANDE AND PURSLEY. + + + +In the beginning of the trade with New Mexico, the route across the +great plains was directly west from the Missouri River to the mountains, +thence south to Santa Fe by the circuitous trail from Taos. When the +traffic assumed an importance demanding a more easy line of way, the +road was changed, running along the left bank of the Arkansas until +that stream turned northwest, at which point it crossed the river, and +continued southwest to the Raton Pass. + +The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad track substantially follows +the Trail through the mountains, which here afford the wildest and most +picturesquely beautiful scenery on the continent. + +The Arkansas River at the fording of the Old Trail is not more than +knee-deep at an ordinary stage of water, and its bottom is well paved +with rounded pebbles of the primitive rock. + +The overland trade between the United States and the northern provinces +of Mexico seems to have had no very definite origin; having been rather +the result of an accident than of any organized plan of commercial +establishment. + +According to the best authorities, a French creole, named La Lande, +an agent of a merchant of Kaskaskia, Illinois, was the first American +adventurer to enter into the uncertain channels of trade with the people +of the ultramontane region of the centre of the continent. He began his +adventurous journey across the vast wilderness, with no companions but +the savages of the debatable land, in 1804; and following him the next +year, James Pursley undertook the same pilgrimage. Neither of these +pioneers in the "commerce of the prairies" returned to relate what +incidents marked the passage of their marvellous expeditions. Pursley +was so infatuated with the strange country he had travelled so far to +reach, that he took up his abode in the quaint old town of Santa Fe +where his subsequent life is lost sight of. La Lande, of a different +mould, forgot to render an account of his mission to the merchant who +had sent him there, and became a prosperous and wealthy man by means of +money to which he had no right. + +To Captain Zebulon Pike, who afterwards was made a general, is due the +impetus which the trade with Santa Fe received shortly after his return +to the United States. The student of American history will remember that +the expedition commanded by this soldier was inaugurated in 1806; +his report of the route he had taken was the incentive for commercial +speculation in the direction of trade with New Mexico, but it was so +handicapped by restrictions imposed by the Mexican government, that +the adventurers into the precarious traffic were not only subject to +a complete confiscation of their wares, but frequently imprisoned for +months as spies. Under such a condition of affairs, many of the earlier +expeditions, prior to 1822, resulted in disaster, and only a limited +number met with an indifferent success. + +It will not be inconsistent with my text if I herewith interpolate +an incident connected with Pursley, the second American to cross the +desert, for the purpose of trade with New Mexico, which I find in the +_Magazine of American History_: + + When Zebulon M. Pike was in Mexico, in 1807, he met, + at Santa Fe, a carpenter, Pursley by name, from Bardstown, + Kentucky, who was working at his trade. He had in a + previous year, while out hunting on the Plains, met with + a series of misfortunes, and found himself near the + mountains. The hostile Sioux drove the party into the + high ground in the rear of Pike's Peak. Near the headwaters + of the Platte River, Pursley found some gold, which he + carried in his shot-pouch for months. He was finally sent + by his companions to Santa Fe, to see if they could trade + with the Mexicans, but he chose to remain in Santa Fe + in preference to returning to his comrades. He told the + Mexicans about the gold he had found, and they tried hard + to persuade him to show them the place. They even offered + to take along a strong force of cavalry. But Pursley + refused, and his patriotic reason was that he thought the + land belonged to the United States. He told Captain Pike + that he feared they would not allow him to leave Santa Fe, + as they still hoped to learn from him where the gold was + to be found. These facts were published by Captain Pike + soon after his return east; but no one took the hint, + or the risk was too great, and thus more than a half + a century passed before those same rich fields of gold + were found and opened to the world. If Pursley had been + somewhat less patriotic, and had guided the Mexicans to + the treasures, the whole history and condition of the + western part of our continent might have been entirely + different from what it now is. That region would still + have been a part of Mexico, or Spain might have been + in possession of it, owning California; and, with the gold + that would have been poured into her coffers, would have + been the leading nation of European affairs to-day. + We can easily see how American and European history in + the nineteenth century might have been changed, if that + adventurer from Kentucky had not been a true lover of his + native country. + +The adventures of Captain Ezekiel Williams along the Old Trail, in the +early days of the century, tell a story of wonderful courage, endurance, +and persistency. Williams was a man of great perseverance, patience, and +determination of character. He set out from St. Louis in the late +spring of 1807, to trap on the Upper Missouri and the waters of the +Yellowstone, with a party of twenty men who had chosen him as their +leader. After various exciting incidents and thrilling adventures, all +of the original party, except Williams and two others, were killed by +the Indians somewhere in the vicinity of the Upper Arkansas. The three +survivors, not knowing where they were, separated, and Captain Williams +determined to take to the stream by canoe, and trap on his way toward +the settlements, while his last two companions started for the Spanish +country--that is, for the region of Santa Fe. The journal of Williams, +from which I shall quote freely, is to be found in _The Lost Trappers_, +a work long out of print.[11] As the country was an unexplored region, +he might be on a river that flowed into the Pacific, or he might be +drifting down a stream that was an affluent to the Gulf of Mexico. He +was inclined to believe that he was on the sources of the Red River. He +therefore resolved to launch his canoe, and go wherever the stream might +convey him, trapping on his descent, when beaver might be plenty. + +The first canoe he used he made of buffalo-skins. As this kind of water +conveyance soon begins to leak and rot, he made another of cottonwood, +as soon as he came to timber sufficiently large, in which he embarked +for a port, he knew not where. + +Most of his journeyings Captain Williams performed during the hours of +night, excepting when he felt it perfectly safe to travel in daylight. +His usual plan was to glide along down the stream, until he came to a +place where beaver signs were abundant. There he would push his little +bark among the willows, where he remained concealed, excepting when he +was setting his traps or visiting them in the morning. When he had +taken all the beaver in one neighbourhood, he would untie his little +conveyance, and glide onward and downward to try his luck in another +place. + +Thus for hundreds of miles did this solitary trapper float down this +unknown river, through an unknown country, here and there lashing his +canoe to the willows and planting his traps in the little tributaries +around. The upper part of the Arkansas, for this proved to be the river +he was on,[12] is very destitute of timber, and the prairie frequently +begins at the bank of the river and expands on either side as far as the +eye can reach. He saw vast herds of buffalo, and as it was the rutting +season, the bulls were making a wonderful ado; the prairie resounded +with their low, deep grunting or bellowing, as they tore up the earth +with their feet and horns, whisking their tails, and defying their +rivals to battle. Large gangs of wild horses could be seen grazing on +the plains and hillsides, and the neighing and squealing of stallions +might be heard at all times of the night. + +Captain Williams never used his rifle to procure meat, except when +it was absolutely necessary, or could be done with perfect safety. On +occasions when he had no beaver, upon which he generally subsisted, he +ventured to kill a deer, and after refreshing his empty stomach with a +portion of the flesh, he placed the carcass in one end of the canoe. It +was his invariable custom to sleep in his canoe at night, moored to the +shore, and once when he had laid in a supply of venison he was startled +in his sleep by the tramping of something in the bushes on the bank. +Tramp! tramp! tramp! went the footsteps, as they approached the canoe. +He thought at first it might be an Indian that had found out his +locality, but he knew that it could not be; a savage would not approach +him in that careless manner. Although there was beautiful starlight, yet +the trees and the dense undergrowth made it very dark on the bank of the +river, close to which he lay. He always adopted the precaution of tying +his canoe with a piece of rawhide about twenty feet long, which allowed +it to swing from the bank at that distance; he did this so that in case +of an emergency he might cut the string, and glide off without making +any noise. As the sound of the footsteps grew more distinct, he +presently observed a huge grizzly bear coming down to the water and +swimming for the canoe. The great animal held his head up as if scenting +the venison. The captain snatched his axe as the most available means +to defend himself in such a scrape, and stood with it uplifted, ready to +drive it into the brains of the monster. The bear reached the canoe, and +immediately put his fore paws upon the hind end of it, nearly turning +it over. The captain struck one of the brute's feet with the edge of +the axe, which made him let go with that foot, but he held on with +the other, and he received this time a terrific blow on the head, that +caused him to drop away from the canoe entirely. Nothing more was seen +of the bear, and the captain thought he must have sunk in the stream and +drowned. He was evidently after the fresh meat, which he scented from +a great distance. In the canoe the next morning there were two of the +bear's claws, which had been cut off by the well-directed blow of the +axe. These were carefully preserved by Williams for many years as a +trophy which he was fond of exhibiting, and the history of which he +always delighted to tell. + +As he was descending the river with his peltries, which consisted of +one hundred and twenty-five beaver-skins, besides some of the otter and +other smaller animals, he overtook three Kansas Indians, who were also +in a canoe going down the river, as he learned from them, to some post +to trade with the whites. They manifested a very friendly disposition +towards the old trapper, and expressed a wish to accompany him. He +also learned from them, to his great delight, that he was on the +Big Arkansas, and not more than five hundred miles from the white +settlements. He was well enough versed in the treachery of the Indian +character to know just how much he could repose in their confidence. He +was aware that they would not allow a solitary trapper to pass through +their country with a valuable collection of furs, without, at least, +making an effort to rob him. He knew that their plan would be to get him +into a friendly intercourse, and then, at the first opportunity, strip +him of everything he possessed; consequently he was determined to get +rid of them as soon as possible, and to effect this, he plied his oars +with all diligence. The Indians, like most North American savages, were +lazy, and had no disposition to labour in that way, but took it quite +leisurely, satisfied with being carried down by the current. Williams +soon left them in the rear, and, as he supposed, far behind him. When +night came on, however, as he had worked all day, and slept none the +night before, he resolved to turn aside into a bunch of willows to take +a few hours' rest. But he had not stopped more than forty minutes when +he heard some Indians pull to the shore just above him on the same side +of the river. He immediately loosened his canoe from its moorings, and +glided silently away. He rowed hard for two or three hours, when he +again pulled to the bank and tied up. + +Only a short time after he had landed, he heard Indians again going +on shore on the same side of the stream as himself. A second time he +repeated his tactics, slipped out of his place of concealment, and stole +softly away. He pulled on vigorously until some time after midnight, +when he supposed he could with safety stop and snatch a little sleep. +He felt apprehensive that he was in a dangerous region, and his anxiety +kept him wide awake. It was very lucky that he did not close his eyes; +for as he was lying in the bottom of his canoe he heard for the third +time a canoe land as before. He was now perfectly satisfied that he was +dogged by the Kansans whom he had passed the preceding day, and in no +very good humour, therefore, he picked up his rifle, and walked up to +the bank where he had heard the Indians land. As he suspected, there +were the three savages. When they saw the captain, they immediately +renewed their expressions of friendship, and invited him to partake of +their hospitality. He stood aloof from them, and shook his head in +a rage, charging them with their villanous purposes. In the short, +sententious manner of the Indians, he said to them: "You now follow me +three times; if you follow me again, I kill you!" and wheeling around +abruptly, returned to his canoe. A third time the solitary trapper +pushed his little craft from the shore and set off down stream, to get +away from a region where to sleep would be hazardous. He plied his oars +the remainder of the night, and solaced himself with the thought that no +evil had befallen him, except the loss of a few hours' sleep. + +While he was escaping from his villanous pursuers, he was running into +new dangers and difficulties. The following day he overtook a large +band of the same tribe, under the leadership of a chief, who were +also descending the river. Into the hands of these savages he fell a +prisoner, and was conducted to one of their villages. The principal +chief there took all of his furs, traps, and other belongings. A very +short time after his capture, the Kansans went to war with the Pawnees, +and carried Captain Williams with them. In a terrible battle in which +the Kansans gained a most decided victory, the old trapper bore a +conspicuous part, killing a great number of the enemy, and by his +excellent strategy brought about the success of his captors. When +they returned to the village, Williams, who had ever been treated with +kindness by the inhabitants, was now thought to be a wonderful warrior, +and could have been advanced to all the savage honours; he might even +have been made one of their principal chiefs. The tribe gave him his +liberty for the great service he had rendered it in its difficulty with +an inveterate foe, but declining all proffered promotions, he decided +to return to the white settlements on the Missouri, at the mouth of +the Kaw, the covetous old chief retaining all his furs, and indeed +everything he possessed excepting his rifle, with as many rounds of +ammunition as would be necessary to secure him provisions in the shape +of game on his route. The veteran trapper had learned from the Indians +while with them that they expected to go to Fort Osage on the Missouri +River to receive some annuities from the government, and he felt certain +that his furs would be there at the same time. + +After leaving the Kansans he travelled on toward the Missouri, and soon +struck the beginning of the sparse settlements. Just as evening was +coming on, he arrived at a cluster of three little log-cabins, and was +received with genuine backwoods hospitality by the proprietor, who had +married an Osage squaw. Williams was not only very hungry, but very +tired; and, after enjoying an abundant supper, he became stupid +and sleepy, and expressed a wish to lie down. The generous trapper +accordingly conducted him to one of the cabins, in which there were two +beds, standing in opposite corners of the room. He immediately threw +himself upon one, and was soon in a very deep sleep. About midnight his +slumbers were disturbed by a singular and very frightful kind of noise, +accompanied by struggling on the other bed. What it was, Williams was +entirely at a loss to understand. There were no windows in the cabin, +the door was shut, and it was as dark as Egypt. A fierce contest seemed +to be going on. There were deep groanings and hard breathings; and the +snapping of teeth appeared almost constant. For a moment the noise would +subside, then again the struggles would be renewed accompanied as before +with groaning, deep sighing, and grinding of teeth. + +The captain's bed-clothes consisted of a couple of blankets and a +buffalo-robe, and as the terrible struggles continued he raised himself +up in the bed, and threw the robe around him for protection, his rifle +having been left in the cabin where his host slept, while his knife was +attached to his coat, which he had hung on the corner post of the other +bedstead from which the horrid struggles emanated. In an instant the +robe was pulled off, and he was left uncovered and unprotected; in +another moment a violent snatch carried away the blanket upon which he +was sitting, and he was nearly tumbled off the bed with it. As the next +thing might be a blow in the dark, he felt that it was high time to +shift his quarters; so he made a desperate leap from the bed, and +alighted on the opposite side of the room, calling for his host, who +immediately came to his relief by opening the door. Williams then told +him that the devil--or something as bad, he believed--was in the room, +and he wanted a light. The accommodating trapper hurried away, and in +a moment was back with a candle, the light of which soon revealed the +awful mystery. It was an Indian, who at the time was struggling in +convulsions, which he was subject to. He was a superannuated chief, a +relative of the wife of the hospitable trapper, and generally made his +home there. Absent when Captain Williams arrived, he came into the room +at a very late hour, and went to the bed he usually occupied. No one +on the claim knew of his being there until he was discovered, in a +dreadfully mangled condition. He was removed to other quarters, and +Williams, who was not to be frightened out of a night's rest, soon sunk +into sound repose. + +Williams reached the agency by the time the Kansas Indians arrived +there, and, as he suspected, found that the wily old chief had brought +all his belongings, which he claimed, and the agent made the savages +give up the stolen property before he would pay them a cent of their +annuities. He took his furs down to St. Louis, sold them there at a good +price, and then started back to the Rocky Mountains on another trapping +tour. + + + + +CHAPTER III. EARLY TRADERS. + + + +In 1812 a Captain Becknell, who had been on a trading expedition to the +country of the Comanches in the summer of 1811, and had done remarkably +well, determined the next season to change his objective point to Santa +Fe, and instead of the tedious process of bartering with the Indians, +to sell out his stock to the New Mexicans. Successful in this, his first +venture, he returned to the Missouri River with a well-filled purse, +and intensely enthusiastic over the result of his excursion to the newly +found market. + +Excited listeners to his tales of enormous profits were not lacking, +who, inspired by the inducement he held out to them, cheerfully invested +five thousand dollars in merchandise suited to the demands of the trade, +and were eager to attempt with him the passage of the great plains. In +this expedition there were thirty men, and the amount of money in the +undertaking was the largest that had yet been ventured. The progress of +the little caravan was without extraordinary incident, until it arrived +at "The Caches" on the Upper Arkansas. There Becknell, who was in +reality a man of the then "Frontier," bold, plucky, and endowed with +excellent sense, conceived the ridiculous idea of striking directly +across the country for Santa Fe through a region absolutely unexplored; +his excuse for this rash movement being that he desired to avoid the +rough and circuitous mountain route he had travelled on his first trip +to Taos. + +His temerity in abandoning the known for the unknown was severely +punished, and his brave men suffered untold misery, barely escaping with +their lives from the terrible straits to which they were reduced. Not +having the remotest conception of the region through which their new +trail was to lead them, and naturally supposing that water would be +found in streams or springs, when they left the Arkansas they neglected +to supply themselves with more than enough of the precious fluid to last +a couple of days. At the end of that time they learned, too late, that +they were in the midst of a desert, with all the tortures of thirst +threatening them. + +Without a tree or a path to guide them, they took an irregular course by +observations of the North Star, and the unreliable needle of an azimuth +pocket-compass. There was a total absence of water, and when what they +had brought with them in their canteens from the river was exhausted, +thirst began its horrible office. In a short time both men and animals +were in a mental condition bordering on distraction. To alleviate their +acute torment, the dogs of the train were killed, and their blood, hot +and sickening, eagerly swallowed; then the ears of the mules were cut +off for the same purpose, but such a substitute for water only added +to their sufferings. They would have perished had not a superannuated +buffalo bull that had just come from the Cimarron River, where he had +gone to quench his thirst, suddenly appeared, to be immediately killed +and the contents of his stomach swallowed with avidity. It is recorded +that one of those who partook of the nauseous liquid said afterward, +"nothing had ever passed his lips which gave him such exquisite delight +as his first draught of that filthy beverage." + +Although they were near the Cimarron, where there was plenty of water, +which but for the affair of the buffalo they never would have suspected, +they decided to retrace their steps to the Arkansas. + +Before they started on their retreat, however, some of the strongest of +the party followed the trail of the animal that had saved their lives +to the river, where, filling all the canteens with pure water, they +returned to their comrades, who were, after drinking, able to march +slowly toward the Arkansas. + +Following that stream, they at last arrived at Taos, having experienced +no further trouble, but missed the trail to Santa Fe, and had their +journey greatly prolonged by the foolish endeavour of the leader to make +a short cut thither. + +As early as 1815, Auguste P. Chouteau and his partner, with a large +number of trappers and hunters, went out to the valley of the Upper +Arkansas for the purpose of trading with Indians, and trapping on the +numerous streams of the contiguous region. + +The island on which Chouteau established his trading-post, and which +bears his name even to this day, is in the Arkansas River on the +boundary line of the United States and Mexico. It was a beautiful spot, +with a rich carpet of grass and delightful groves, and on the American +side was a heavily timbered bottom. + +While occupying the island, Chouteau and his old hunters and trappers +were attacked by about three hundred Pawnees, whom they repulsed with +the loss of thirty killed and wounded. These Indians afterward declared +that it was the most fatal affair in which they were ever engaged. It +was their first acquaintance with American guns. + +The general character of the early trade with New Mexico was founded +on the system of the caravan. She depended upon the remote ports of old +Mexico, whence was transported, on the backs of the patient burro and +mule, all that was required by the primitive tastes of the primitive +people; a very tedious and slow process, as may be inferred, and the +limited traffic westwardly across the great plains was confined to this +fashion. At the date of the legitimate and substantial commerce with New +Mexico, in 1824, wheeled vehicles were introduced, and traffic assumed +an importance it could never have otherwise attained, and which now, +under the vast system of railroads, has increased to dimensions little +dreamed of by its originators nearly three-quarters of a century ago. + +It was eight years after Pursley's pilgrimage before the trade with New +Mexico attracted the attention of speculators and adventurers. Messrs. +McKnight,[13] Beard, and Chambers, with about a dozen comrades, started +with a supply of goods across the unknown plains, and by good luck +arrived safely at Santa Fe. Once under the jurisdiction of the Mexicans, +however, their trouble began. All the party were arrested as spies, +their wares confiscated, and themselves incarcerated at Chihuahua, where +the majority of them were kept for almost a decade. Beard and Chambers, +having by some means escaped, returned to St. Louis in 1822, and, +notwithstanding their dreadful experience, told of the prospects of the +trade with the Mexicans in such glowing colours that they induced some +individuals of small capital to fit out another expedition, with which +they again set out for Santa Fe. + +It was really too late in the season; they succeeded, however, in +reaching the crossing of the Arkansas without any difficulty, but there +a violent snowstorm overtook them and they were compelled to halt, as +it was impossible to proceed in the face of the blinding blizzard. On +an island[14] not far from where the town of Cimarron, on the Santa Fe +Railroad, is now situated, they were obliged to remain for more than +three months, during which time most of their animals died for want +of food and from the severe cold. When the weather had moderated +sufficiently to allow them to proceed on their journey, they had no +transportation for their goods and were compelled to hide them in pits +dug in the earth, after the manner of the old French voyageurs in the +early settlement of the continent. This method of secreting furs and +valuables of every character is called caching, from the French word "to +hide." Gregg thus describes it: + + The cache is made by digging a hole in the ground, somewhat + in the shape of a jug, which is lined with dry sticks, + grass, or anything else that will protect its contents + from the dampness of the earth. In this place the goods + to be concealed are carefully stowed away; and the aperture + is then so effectually closed as to protect them from + the rains. In caching, a great deal of skill is often + required to leave no sign whereby the cunning savage may + discover the place of deposit. To this end, the excavated + earth is carried some distance and carefully concealed, + or thrown into a stream, if one be at hand. The place + selected for a cache is usually some rolling point, + sufficiently elevated to be secure from inundations. + If it be well set with grass, a solid piece of turf is + cut out large enough for the entrance. The turf is + afterward laid back, and, taking root, in a short time + no signs remain of its ever having been molested. + However, as every locality does not afford a turfy site, + the camp-fire is sometimes built upon the place, or the + animals are penned over it, which effectually destroys + all traces. + +Father Hennepin[15] thus describes, in his quaint style, how he built a +cache on the bank of the Mississippi, in 1680: + + We took up the green sodd, and laid it by, and digg'd a hole + in the Earth where we put our Goods, and cover'd them with + pieces of Timber and Earth, and then put in again the green + Turf; so that 'twas impossible to suspect that any Hole had + been digg'd under it, for we flung the Earth into the River. + +After caching their goods, Beard and the party went on to Taos, where +they bought mules, and returning to their caches transported their +contents to their market. + +The word "cache" still lingers among the "old-timers" of the mountains +and plains, and has become a provincialism with their descendants; one +of these will tell you that he cached his vegetables in the side of +the hill; or if he is out hunting and desires to secrete himself from +approaching game, he will say, "I am going to cache behind that rock," +etc. + +The place where Beard's little expedition wintered was called "The +Caches" for years, and the name has only fallen into disuse within the +last two decades. I remember the great holes in the ground when I first +crossed the plains, a third of a century ago. + +The immense profit upon merchandise transported across the dangerous +Trail of the mid-continent to the capital of New Mexico soon excited +the cupidity of other merchants east of the Missouri. When the commonest +domestic cloth, manufactured wholly from cotton, brought from two to +three dollars a yard at Santa Fe, and other articles at the same ratio +to cost, no wonder the commerce with the far-off market appeared to +those who desired to send goods there a veritable Golconda. + +The importance of internal trade with New Mexico, and the possibilities +of its growth, were first recognized by the United States in 1824, the +originator of the movement being Mr. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, +who frequently, from his place in the Senate, prophesied the coming +greatness of the West. He introduced a bill which authorized the +President to appoint a commission to survey a road from the Missouri +River to the boundary line of New Mexico, and from thence on Mexican +territory with the consent of the Mexican government. The signing of +this bill was one of the last acts of Mr. Monroe's official life, and +it was carried into effect by his successor, Mr. John Quincy Adams, but +unfortunately a mistake was made in supposing that the Osage Indians +alone controlled the course of the proposed route. It was partially +marked out as far as the Arkansas, by raised mounds; but travellers +continued to use the old wagon trail, and as no negotiations had been +entered into with the Comanches, Cheyennes, Pawnees, or Kiowas, these +warlike tribes continued to harass the caravans when these arrived in +the broad valley of the Arkansas. + +The American fur trade was at its height at the time when the Santa Fe +trade was just beginning to assume proportions worthy of notice; the +difference between the two enterprises being very marked. The fur trade +was in the hands of immensely wealthy companies, while that to Santa +Fe was carried on by individuals with limited capital, who, purchasing +goods in the Eastern markets, had them transported to the Missouri +River, where, until the trade to New Mexico became a fixed business, +everything was packed on mules. As soon, however, as leading +merchants invested their capital, about 1824, the trade grew into vast +proportions, and wagons took the place of the patient mule. Later, +oxen were substituted for mules, it having been discovered that they +possessed many advantages over the former, particularly in being able +to draw heavier loads than an equal number of mules, especially through +sandy or muddy places. + +For a long time, the traders were in the habit of purchasing their mules +in Santa Fe and driving them to the Missouri; but as soon as that useful +animal was raised in sufficient numbers in the Southern States to supply +the demand, the importation from New Mexico ceased, for the reason that +the American mule was in all respects an immensely superior animal. + +Once mules were an important object of the trade, and those who dealt +in them and drove them across to the river on the Trail met with many +mishaps; frequently whole droves, containing from three to five hundred, +were stolen by the savages en route. The latter soon learned that it +was a very easy thing to stampede a caravan of mules, for, once +panic-stricken, it is impossible to restrain them, and the Indians +having started them kept them in a state of rampant excitement by their +blood-curdling yells, until they had driven them miles beyond the Trail. + +A story is told of a small band of twelve men, who, while encamped on +the Cimarron River, in 1826, with but four serviceable guns among them, +were visited by a party of Indians, believed to be Arapahoes, who made +at first strong demonstrations of friendship and good-will. Observing +the defenceless condition of the traders, they went away, but soon +returned about thirty strong, each provided with a lasso, and all on +foot. The chief then began by informing the Americans that his men were +tired of walking, and must have horses. Thinking it folly to offer any +resistance, the terrified traders told them if one animal apiece would +satisfy them, to go and catch them. This they soon did; but finding +their request so easily complied with, the Indians held a little parley +together, which resulted in a new demand for more--they must have two +apiece! "Well, catch them!" was the acquiescent reply of the unfortunate +band; upon which the savages mounted those they had already secured, +and, swinging their lassos over their heads, plunged among the stock +with a furious yell, and drove off the entire caballada of nearly five +hundred head of horses, mules, and asses. + +In 1829 the Indians of the plains became such a terror to the caravans +crossing to Santa Fe, that the United States government, upon petition +of the traders, ordered three companies of infantry and one of riflemen, +under command of Major Bennet Riley, to escort the annual caravan, which +that year started from the town of Franklin, Missouri, then the eastern +terminus of the Santa Fe trade, as far as Chouteau's Island, on the +Arkansas, which marked the boundary between the United States and +Mexico.[16] The caravan started from the island across the dreary route +unaccompanied by any troops, but had progressed only a few miles when +it was attacked by a band of Kiowas, then one of the most cruel and +bloodthirsty tribes on the plains.[17] + +This escort, commanded by Major Riley, and another under Captain +Wharton, composed of only sixty dragoons, five years later, were the +sole protection ever given by the government until 1843, when Captain +Philip St. George Cooke again accompanied two large caravans to the same +point on the Arkansas as did Major Riley fourteen years before. + +As the trade increased, the Comanches, Pawnees, and Arapahoes continued +to commit their depredations, and it was firmly believed by many of the +freighters that these Indians were incited to their devilish acts by the +Mexicans, who were always jealous of "Los Americanos." + +It was very rarely that a caravan, great or small, or even a detachment +of troops, no matter how large, escaped the raids of these bandits of +the Trail. If the list of those who were killed outright and scalped, +and those more unfortunate who were taken captive only to be tortured +and their bodies horribly mutilated, could be collected from the opening +of the traffic with New Mexico until the years 1868-69, when General +Sheridan inaugurated his memorable "winter campaign" against the allied +plains tribes, and completely demoralized, cowed, and forced them on +their reservations, about the time of the advent of the railroad, it +would present an appalling picture; and the number of horses, mules, +and oxen stampeded and stolen during the same period would amount to +thousands. + +As the excellent narrative of Captain Pike is not read as it should be +by the average American, a brief reference to it may not be considered +supererogatory. The celebrated officer, who was afterward promoted to +the rank of major-general, and died in the achievement of the victory of +York, Upper Canada, in 1813, was sent in 1806 on an exploring expedition +up the Arkansas River, with instructions to pass the sources of Red +River, for which those of the Canadian were then mistaken; he, however, +even went around the head of the latter, and crossing the mountains with +an almost incredible degree of peril and suffering, descended upon the +Rio del Norte with his little party, then but fifteen in number. + +Believing himself now on Red River, within the then assumed limits of +the United States, he built a small fortification for his company, until +the opening of the spring of 1807 should enable him to continue his +descent to Natchitoches. As he was really within Mexican territory, and +only about eighty miles from the northern settlements, his position +was soon discovered, and a force sent to take him to Santa Fe, which by +treachery was effected without opposition. The Spanish officer assured +him that the governor, learning that he had mistaken his way, had sent +animals and an escort to convey his men and baggage to a navigable point +on Red River (Rio Colorado), and that His Excellency desired very much +to see him at Santa Fe, which might be taken on their way. + +As soon, however, as the governor had the too confiding captain in his +power, he sent him with his men to the commandant general at Chihuahua, +where most of his papers were seized, and he and his party were sent +under an escort, via San Antonio de Bexar, to the United States. + +Many citizens of the remote Eastern States, who were contemporary with +Pike, declared that his expedition was in some way connected with the +treasonable attempt of Aaron Burr. The idea is simply preposterous; +Pike's whole line of conduct shows him to have been of the most +patriotic character; never would he for a moment have countenanced a +proposition from Aaron Burr! + +After Captain Pike's report had been published to the world, the +adventurers who were inspired by its glowing description of the country +he had been so far to explore were destined to experience trials and +disappointments of which they had formed no conception. + +Among them was a certain Captain Sublette, a famous old trapper in +the era of the great fur companies, and with him a Captain Smith, who, +although veteran pioneers of the Rocky Mountains, were mere novices in +the many complications of the Trail; but having been in the fastnesses +of the great divide of the continent, they thought that when they got +down on the plains they could go anywhere. They started with twenty +wagons, and left the Missouri without a single one of the party being +competent to guide the little caravan on the dangerous route. + +From the Missouri the Trail was broad and plain enough for a child to +follow, but when they arrived at the Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas, +not a trace of former caravans was visible; nothing but the innumerable +buffalo-trails leading from everywhere to the river. + +When the party entered the desert, or Dry Route, as it was years +afterward always, and very properly, called in certain seasons of +drought, the brave but too confident men discovered that the whole +region was burnt up. They wandered on for several days, the horrors of +death by thirst constantly confronting them. Water must be had or they +would all perish! At last Smith, in his desperation, determined to +follow one of the numerous buffalo-trails, believing that it would +conduct him to water of some character--a lake or pool or even wallow. +He left the train alone; asked for no one to accompany him; for he was +the very impersonation of courage, one of the most fearless men that +ever trapped in the mountains. + +He walked on and on for miles, when, on ascending a little divide, he +saw a stream in the valley beneath him. It was the Cimarron, and he +hurried toward it to quench his intolerable thirst. When he arrived at +its bank, to his disappointment it was nothing but a bed of sand; the +sometime clear running river was perfectly dry. + +Only for a moment was he staggered; he knew the character of many +streams in the West; that often their waters run under the ground at +a short distance from the surface, and in a moment he was on his knees +digging vigorously in the soft sand. Soon the coveted fluid began to +filter upwards into the little excavation he had made. He stooped to +drink, and in the next second a dozen arrows from an ambushed band +of Comanches entered his body. He did not die at once, however; it is +related by the Indians themselves that he killed two of their number +before death laid him low. + +Captain Sublette and Smith's other comrades did not know what had become +of him until some Mexican traders told them, having got the report from +the very savages who committed the cold-blooded murder. + +Gregg, in his report of this little expedition, says: + + Every kind of fatality seems to have attended this small + caravan. Among other casualties, a clerk in their company, + named Minter, was killed by a band of Pawnees, before they + crossed the Arkansas. This, I believe, is the only instance + of loss of life among the traders while engaged in hunting, + although the scarcity of accidents can hardly be said to be + the result of prudence. There is not a day that hunters + do not commit some indescretion; such as straying at + a distance of five and even ten miles from the caravan, + frequently alone, and seldom in bands of more than two or + three together. In this state, they must frequently be + spied by prowling savages; so that frequency of escape, + under such circumstances, must be partly attributed to + the cowardice of the Indians; indeed, generally speaking, + the latter are very loth to charge upon even a single + armed man, unless they can take him at a decided advantage. + + Not long after, this band of Captain Sublette's very + narrowly escaped total destruction. They had fallen in + with an immense horde of Blackfeet and Gros Ventres, and, + as the traders were literally but a handful among thousands + of savages, they fancied themselves for a while in imminent + peril of being virtually "eated up." But as Captain + Sublette possessed considerable experience, he was at + no loss how to deal with these treacherous savages; so that + although the latter assumed a threatening attitude, + he passed them without any serious molestation, and finally + arrived at Santa Fe in safety. + +The virtual commencement of the Santa Fe trade dates from 1822, and one +of the most remarkable events in its history was the first attempt to +introduce wagons in the expeditions. This was made in 1824 by a company +of traders, about eighty in number, among whom were several gentlemen of +intelligence from Missouri, who contributed by their superior skill +and undaunted energy to render the enterprise completely successful. A +portion of this company employed pack-mules; among the rest were +owned twenty-five wheeled vehicles, of which one or two were stout +road-wagons, two were carts, and the rest Dearborn carriages, the +whole conveying some twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars' worth of +merchandise. Colonel Marmaduke, of Missouri, was one of the party. This +caravan arrived at Santa Fe safely, experiencing much less difficulty +than they anticipated from a first attempt with wheeled vehicles. + +Gregg continues: + + The early voyageurs, having but seldom experienced any + molestation from the Indians, generally crossed the plains + in detached bands, each individual rarely carrying more than + two or three hundred dollars' worth of stock. This peaceful + season, however, did not last very long; and it is greatly + to be feared that the traders were not always innocent of + having instigated the savage hostilities that ensued in + after years. Many seemed to forget the wholesome precept, + that they should not be savages themselves because they + dealt with savages. Instead of cultivating friendly + feelings with those few who remained peaceful and honest, + there was an occasional one always disposed to kill, + even in cold blood, every Indian that fell into their power, + merely because some of the tribe had committed an outrage + either against themselves or friends. + +As an instance of this, he relates the following: + + In 1826 two young men named McNess and Monroe, having + carelessly lain down to sleep on the bank of a certain + stream, since known as McNess Creek,[18] were barbarously + shot, with their own guns, as it was supposed, in the very + sight of the caravan. When their comrades came up, + they found McNess lifeless, and the other almost expiring. + In this state the latter was carried nearly forty miles to + the Cimarron River, where he died, and was buried according + to the custom of the prairies, a very summary proceeding, + necessarily. The corpse, wrapped in a blanket, its shroud + the clothes it wore, is interred in a hole varying in depth + according to the nature of the soil, and upon the grave is + piled stones, if any are convenient, to prevent the wolves + from digging it up. Just as McNess's funeral ceremonies + were about to be concluded, six or seven Indians appeared + on the opposite side of the Cimarron. Some of the party + proposed inviting them to a parley, while the rest, burning + for revenge, evinced a desire to fire upon them at once. + It is more than probable, however, that the Indians were not + only innocent but ignorant of the outrage that had been + committed, or they would hardly have ventured to approach + the caravan. Being quick of perception, they very soon saw + the belligerent attitude assumed by the company, and + therefore wheeled round and attempted to escape. One shot + was fired, which brought an Indian to the ground, when he + was instantly riddled with balls. Almost simultaneously + another discharge of several guns followed, by which all + the rest were either killed or mortally wounded, except one, + who escaped to bear the news to his tribe. + + These wanton cruelties had a most disastrous effect upon the + prospects of the trade; for the exasperated children of + the desert became more and more hostile to the "pale-faces," + against whom they continued to wage a cruel war for many + successive years. In fact this party suffered very severely + a few days afterward. They were pursued by the enraged + comrades of the slain savages to the Arkansas River, where + they were robbed of nearly a thousand horses and mules. + +The author of this book, although having but little compassion for the +Indians, must admit that, during more than a third of a century passed +on the plains and in the mountains, he has never known of a war with the +hostile tribes that was not caused by broken faith on the part of the +United States or its agents. I will refer to two prominent instances: +that of the outbreak of the Nez Perces, and that of the allied plains +tribes. With the former a solemn treaty was made in 1856, guaranteeing +to them occupancy of the Wallola valley forever. I. I. Stevens, who +was governor of Washington Territory at the time, and ex-officio +superintendent of Indian affairs in the region, met the Nez Perces, +whose chief, "Wish-la-no-she," an octogenarian, when grasping the hand +of the governor at the council said: "I put out my hand to the white +man when Lewis and Clark crossed the continent, in 1805, and have never +taken it back since." The tribe kept its word until the white men took +forcible possession of the valley promised to the Indians, when the +latter broke out, and a prolonged war was the consequence. In 1867 +Congress appointed a commission to treat with the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and +Arapahoes, appropriating four hundred thousand dollars for the expenses +of the commission. It met at Medicine Lodge in August of the year +mentioned, and made a solemn treaty, which the members of the +commission, on the part of the United States, and the principal chiefs +of the three tribes signed. Congress failed to make any appropriation to +carry out the provisions of the treaty, and the Indians, after waiting +a reasonable time, broke out, devastated the settlements from the Platte +to the Rio Grande, destroying millions of dollars' worth of property, +and sacrificing hundreds of men, women, and children. Another war was +the result, which cost more millions, and under General Sheridan +the hostile savages were whipped into a peace, which they have been +compelled to keep. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. TRAINS AND PACKERS. + + + +As has been stated, until the year 1824 transportation across the plains +was done by means of pack-mules, the art of properly loading which seems +to be an intuitive attribute of the native Mexican. The American, +of course, soon became as expert, for nothing that the genus homo +is capable of doing is impossible to him; but his teacher was the +dark-visaged, superstitious, and profanity-expending Mexican arriero. + +A description of the equipment of a mule-train and the method of +packing, together with some of the curious facts connected with its +movements, may not be uninteresting, particularly as the whole thing, +with rare exceptions in the regular army at remote frontier posts, has +been relegated to the past, along with the caravan of the prairie and +the overland coach. To this generation, barring a few officers who +have served against the Indians on the plains and in the mountains, a +pack-mule train would be as great a curiosity as the hairy mammoth. In +the following particulars I have taken as a model the genuine Mexican +pack-train or atajo, as it was called in their Spanish dialect, always +used in the early days of the Santa Fe trade. The Americans made +many modifications, but the basis was purely Mexican in its origin. A +pack-mule was termed a mula de carga, and his equipment consisted of +several parts; first, the saddle, or aparejo, a nearly square pad of +leather stuffed with hay, which covered the animal's back on both sides +equally. The best idea of its shape will be formed by opening a book in +the middle and placing it saddle-fashion on the back of a chair. Each +half then forms a flap of the contrivance. Before the aparejo was +adjusted to the mule, a salea, or raw sheep-skin, made soft by rubbing, +was put on the animal's back, to prevent chafing, and over it the +saddle-cloth, or xerga. On top of both was placed the aparejo, which +was cinched by a wide grass-bandage. This band was drawn as tightly +as possible, to such an extent that the poor brute grunted and groaned +under the apparently painful operation, and when fastened he seemed to +be cut in two. This always appeared to be the very acme of cruelty to +the uninitiated, but it is the secret of successful packing; the firmer +the saddle, the more comfortably the mule can travel, with less risk of +being chafed and bruised. The aparejo is furnished with a huge crupper, +and this appendage is really the most cruel of all, for it is almost +sure to lacerate the tail. Hardly a Mexican mule in the old days of the +trade could be found which did not bear the scar of this rude supplement +to the immense saddle. + +The load, which is termed a carga, was generally three hundred pounds. +Two arrieros, or packers, place the goods on the mule's back, one, the +cargador, standing on the near side, his assistant on the other. The +carga is then hoisted on top of the saddle if it is a single package; or +if there are two of equal size and weight, one on each side, coupled by +a rope, which balances them on the animal. Another stout rope is then +thrown over all, drawn as tightly as possible under the belly, and laced +round the packs, securing them firmly in their place. Over the load, +to protect it from rain, is thrown a square piece of matting called a +petate. Sometimes, when a mule is a little refractory, he is blindfolded +by a thin piece of leather, generally embroidered, termed the tapojos, +and he remains perfectly quiet while the process of packing is going on. +When the load is securely fastened in its place, the blinder is removed. +The man on the near side, with his knee against the mule for a purchase, +as soon as the rope is hauled taut, cries out "Adios," and his assistant +answers "Vaya!" Then the first says again, "Anda!" upon which the mule +trots off to its companions, all of which feed around until the animals +of the whole train are packed. It seldom requires more than five minutes +for the two men to complete the packing of the animal, and in that time +is included the fastening of the aperejo. It is surprising to note the +degree of skill exercised by an experienced packer, and his apparently +abnormal strength in handling the immense bundles that are sometimes +transported. By the aid of his knees used as a fulcrum, he lifts a +package and tosses it on the mule's back without any apparent effort, +the dead weight of which he could not move from the ground. + +An old-time atajo or caravan of pack-mules generally numbered from fifty +to two hundred, and it travelled a jornado, or day's march of about +twelve or fifteen miles. This day's journey was made without any +stopping at noon, because if a pack-mule is allowed to rest, he +generally tries to lie down, and with his heavy load it is difficult +for him to get on his feet again. Sometimes he is badly strained in so +doing, perhaps ruined forever. When the train starts out on the trail, +the mules are so tightly bound with the ropes which confine the load +that they move with great difficulty; but the saddle soon settles +itself and the ropes become loosened so that they have frequently to be +tightened. On the march the arriero is kept busy nearly all the time; +the packs are constantly changing their position, frequently losing +their balance and falling off; sometimes saddle, pack, and all swing +under the animal's belly, and he must be unloaded and repacked again. + +On arriving at the camping-ground the pack-saddles with their loads +are ranged in regular order, their freight being between the saddles, +covered with the petates to protect it from the rain, and generally a +ditch is dug around to carry off the water, if the weather is stormy. +After two or three days' travel each mule knows its own pack and saddle, +and comes up to it at the proper moment with an intelligence that is +astonishing. If an animal should come whose pack is somewhere else, he +is soundly kicked in the ribs by the rightful mule, and sent bruised +and battered to his place. He rarely makes a mistake in relation to the +position of his own pack the second time. + +This method of transportation was so cheap, because of the low rate of +wages, that wagon-freighting, even in the most level region, could +not compete with it. Five dollars a month was the amount paid to the +muleteers, but it was oftener five with rations, costing almost nothing, +of corn and beans. Meat, if used at all, was found by the arrieros +themselves. + +On the trail the mule-train is under a system of discipline almost as +severe as that on board of a man-of-war. Every individual employed is +assigned to his place and has certain duties to perform. There is a +night-herder, called the savanero, whose duty it is to keep the animals +from straying too far away, as they are all turned loose to shift for +themselves, depending upon the grass alone for their subsistence. Each +herd has a mulera, or bell-mare, which wears a bell hanging to a strap +around her neck, and is kept in view of the other animals, who will +never leave her. If the mare is taken away from the herd, every mule +becomes really melancholy and is at a loss what to do or where to go. +The cook of the party, or madre (mother) as he is called, besides his +duty in preparing the food, must lead the bell-mule ahead of the train +while travelling, the pack-animals following her with a devotion that is +remarkable. + +Sometimes in traversing the narrow ledges cut around the sides of a +precipitous trail, or crossing a narrow natural bridge spanning the +frightful gorges found everywhere in the mountains, a mule will be +incontinently thrown off the slippery path, and fall hundreds of feet +into the yawning canyon below. Generally instant death is their portion, +though I recall an instance, while on an expedition against the hostile +Indians thirty years ago, where a number of mules of our pack-train, +loaded with ammunition, tumbled nearly five hundred feet down an almost +perpendicular chasm, and yet some of them got on their feet again, and +soon rejoined their companions, without having suffered any serious +injury. + +The wagons so long employed in this trade, after their first +introduction in 1824, were manufactured in Pittsburgh, their capacity +being about a ton and a half, and they were drawn by eight mules or the +same number of oxen. Later much larger wagons were employed with nearly +double the capacity of the first, hauled by ten and twelve mules or +oxen. These latter were soon called prairie-schooners, which name +continued to linger until transportation across the plains by wagons was +completely extinguished by the railroads. + +Under Mexican rule excessive tariff imposts were instituted, amounting +to about a hundred per cent upon goods brought from the United States, +and for some years, during the administration of Governor Manuel Armijo, +a purely arbitrary duty was demanded of five hundred dollars for every +wagon-load of merchandise brought into the Province, whether great or +small, and regardless of its intrinsic value. As gold and silver were +paid for the articles brought by the traders, they were also required +to pay a heavy duty on the precious metals they took out of the country. +Yankee ingenuity, however, evaded much of these unjust taxes. When the +caravan approached Santa Fe, the freight of three wagons was transferred +to one, and the empty vehicles destroyed by fire; while to avoid paying +the export duty on gold and silver, they had large false axletrees to +some of the wagons, in which the money was concealed, and the examining +officer of the customs, perfectly unconscious of the artifice, passed +them. + +The army, in its expeditions against the hostile Indian tribes, always +employed wagons in transporting its provisions and munitions of war, +except in the mountains, where the faithful pack-mule was substituted. +The American freighters, since the occupation of New Mexico by the +United States, until the transcontinental railroad usurped their +vocation, used wagons only; the Mexican nomenclature was soon dropped +and simple English terms adopted: caravan became train, and majordomo, +the person in charge, wagon-master. The latter was supreme. Upon +him rested all the responsibility, and to him the teamsters rendered +absolute obedience. He was necessarily a man of quick perception, +always fertile in expedients in times of emergency, and something of an +engineer; for to know how properly to cross a raging stream or a marshy +slough with an outfit of fifty or sixty wagons required more +than ordinary intelligence. Then in the case of a stampede, great +clear-headedness and coolness were needed to prevent loss of life. + +Stampedes were frequently very serious affairs, particularly with a +large mule-train. Notwithstanding the willingness and patient qualities +of that animal, he can act as absurdly as a Texas steer, and is as +easily frightened at nothing. Sometimes as insignificant a circumstance +as a prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, a figure in the +distance, or even the shadow of a passing cloud will start every animal +in the train, and away they go, rushing into each other, and becoming +entangled in such a manner that both drivers and mules have often been +crushed to death. It not infrequently happened that five or six of the +teams would dash off and never could be found. I remember one instance +that occurred on the trail between Fort Hays and Fort Dodge, during +General Sheridan's winter campaign against the allied plains tribes +in 1868. Three of the wagons were dragged away by the mules, in a few +moments were out of sight, and were never recovered, although diligent +search was made for them for some days. Ten years afterward a farmer, +who had taken up a claim in what is now Rush County, Kansas, discovered +in a ravine on his place the bones of some animals, decayed parts of +harness, and the remains of three army-wagons, which with other evidence +proved them to be the identical ones lost from the train so many years +before. + +The largest six-mule wagon-train that was ever strung out on the plains +transported the supplies for General Custer's command during the winter +above referred to. It comprised over eight hundred army-wagons, and was +four miles in length in one column, or one mile when in four lines--the +usual formation when in the field. + +The animals of the train were either hobbled or herded at night, +according to the locality; if in an Indian country, always hobbled or, +preferably, tied up to the tongue of the wagon to which they belonged. +The hobble is simply a strip of rawhide, with two slides of the same +material. Placed on the front legs of the mule just at the fetlock, the +slides pushed close to the limb, the animal could move around freely +enough to graze, but was not able to travel very fast in the event of +a stampede. In the Indian country, it was usual at night, or in the +daytime when halting to feed, to form a corral of the wagons, by placing +them in a circle, the wheels interlocked and the tongues run under the +axles, into which circle the mules, on the appearance of the savages, +were driven, and which also made a sort of fortress behind which the +teamsters could more effectually repel an attack. + +In the earlier trading expeditions to Santa Fe, the formation and march +of the caravan differed materially from that of the army-train in later +years. I here quote Gregg, whose authority on the subject has never been +questioned. When all was ready to move out on the broad sea of prairie, +he said: + + We held a council, at which the respective claims of the + different aspirants for office were considered, leaders + selected, and a system of government agreed upon--as is + the standing custom of these promiscuous caravans. + A captain was proclaimed elected, but his powers were not + defined by any constitutional provision; consequently, + they were very vague and uncertain. Orders being only + viewed as mere requests, they are often obeyed or neglected + at the caprice of the subordinates. It is necessary to + observe, however, that the captain is expected to direct + the order of travel during the day and to designate the + camping-ground at night, with many other functions of + general character, in the exercise of which the company + find it convenient to acquiesce. + + After this comes the task of organizing. The proprietors + are first notified by proclamation to furnish a list of + their men and wagons. The latter are generally apportioned + into four divisions, particularly when the company is large. + To each of these divisions, a lieutenant is appointed, + whose duty it is to inspect every ravine and creek on the + route, select the best crossings, and superintend what is + called in prairie parlance the forming of each encampment. + + There is nothing so much dreaded by inexperienced travellers + as the ordeal of guard duty. But no matter what the + condition or employment of the individual may be, no one + has the slightest chance of evading the common law of + the prairies. The amateur tourist and the listless loafer + are precisely in the same wholesome predicament--they must + all take their regular turn at the watch. There is usually + a set of genteel idlers attached to every caravan, whose + wits are forever at work in devising schemes for whiling + away their irksome hours at the expense of others. + By embarking in these trips of pleasure, they are enabled + to live without expense; for the hospitable traders seldom + refuse to accommodate even a loafing companion with a berth + at their mess without charge. But these lounging attaches + are expected at least to do good service by way of guard + duty. None are ever permitted to furnish a substitute, + as is frequently done in military expeditions; for he that + would undertake to stand the tour of another besides + his own would scarcely be watchful enough for dangers + of the prairies. Even the invalid must be able to produce + unequivocal proofs of his inability, or it is a chance + if the plea is admitted. + + The usual number of watchers is eight, each standing a + fourth of every alternate night. When the party is small, + the number is generally reduced, while in the case of + very small bands, they are sometimes compelled for safety's + sake to keep watch on duty half the night. With large + caravans the captain usually appoints eight sergeants + of the guard, each of whom takes an equal portion of men + under his command. + + The wild and motley aspect of the caravan can be but + imperfectly conceived without an idea of the costumes of + its various members. The most fashionable prairie dress + is the fustian frock of the city-bred merchant, furnished + with a multitude of pockets capable of accommodating a + variety of extra tackling. Then there is the backwoodsman + with his linsey or leather hunting-shirt--the farmer with + his blue jean coat--the wagoner with his flannel sleeve + vest--besides an assortment of other costumes which go + to fill up the picture. + + In the article of firearms there is also an equally + interesting medley. The frontier hunter sticks to his + rifle, as nothing could induce him to carry what he terms + in derision "the scatter-gun." The sportsman from the + interior flourishes his double-barrelled fowling-piece + with equal confidence in its superiority. A great many + were furnished beside with a bountiful supply of pistols + and knives of every description, so that the party made + altogether a very brigand-like appearance. + + "Catch up! Catch up!" is now sounded from the captain's + camp and echoed from every division and scattered group + along the valley. The woods and dales resound with the + gleeful yells of the light-hearted wagoners who, weary of + inaction and filled with joy at the prospect of getting + under way, become clamorous in the extreme. Each teamster + vies with his fellow who shall be soonest ready; and it + is a matter of boastful pride to be the first to cry out, + "All's set." + + The uproarious bustle which follows, the hallooing of those + in pursuit of animals, the exclamations which the unruly + brutes call forth from their wrathful drivers, together + with the clatter of bells, the rattle of yokes and harness, + the jingle of chains, all conspire to produce an uproarious + confusion. It is sometimes amusing to observe the athletic + wagoner hurrying an animal to its post--to see him heave + upon the halter of a stubborn mule, while the brute as + obstinately sets back, determined not to move a peg till + his own good pleasure thinks it proper to do so--his whole + manner seeming to say, "Wait till your hurry's over." + I have more than once seen a driver hitch a harnessed animal + to the halter, and by that process haul his mulishness + forward, while each of his four projected feet would leave + a furrow behind. + + "All's set!" is finally heard from some teamster-- + "All's set," is directly responded from every quarter. + "Stretch out!" immediately vociferates the captain. + Then the "heps!" to the drivers, the cracking of whips, + the trampling of feet, the occasional creak of wheels, + the rumbling of the wagons, while "Fall in" is heard from + head-quarters, and the train is strung out and in a few + moments has started on its long journey. + +With an army-train the discipline was as perfect as that of a garrison. +The wagon-master was under the orders of the commander of the troops +which escorted the caravan, the camps were formed with regard to +strategic principles, sentries walked their beats and were visited by an +officer of the day, as if stationed at a military post. + +Unquestionably the most expert packer I have known is Chris. Gilson, +of Kansas. In nearly all the expeditions on the great plains and in +the mountains he has been the master-spirit of the pack-trains. General +Sheridan, who knew Gilson long before the war, in Oregon and Washington, +regarded the celebrated packer with more than ordinary friendship. +For many years he was employed by the government at the suggestion +of General Sheridan, to teach the art of packing to the officers and +enlisted men at several military posts in the West. He received a large +salary, and for a long period was stationed at the immense cavalry depot +of Fort Riley, in Kansas. Gilson was also employed by the British army +during the Zulu war in Africa, as chief packer, at a salary of twenty +dollars a day. Now, however, since the railroads have penetrated the +once considered impenetrable fastnesses of the mountains, packing will +be relegated to the lost arts. + + + + +CHAPTER V. FIGHT WITH COMANCHES. + + + +Early in the spring of 1828, a company of young men residing in the +vicinity of Franklin, Missouri, having heard related by a neighbour who +had recently returned the wonderful story of a passage across the great +plains, and the strange things to be seen in the land of the Greasers, +determined to explore the region for themselves; making the trip in +wagons, an innovation of a startling character, as heretofore only +pack-animals had been employed in the limited trade with far-off Santa +Fe. The story of their journey can best be told in the words of one of +the party:[19]-- + + We had about one thousand miles to travel, and as there was + no wagon-road in those early days across the plains to the + mountains, we were compelled to take our chances through + the vast wilderness, seeking the best route we could. + + No signs of life were visible except the innumerable buffalo + and antelope that were constantly crossing our trail. + We moved on slowly from day to day without any incident + worth recording and arrived at the Arkansas; made the + passage and entered the Great American Desert lying beyond, + as listless, lonesome, and noiseless as a sleeping sea. + Having neglected to carry any water with us, we were obliged + to go withot a drop for two days and nights after leaving + the river. At last we reached the Cimarron, a cool, + sparkling stream, ourselves and our animals on the point + of perishing. Our joy at discovering it, however, was + short-lived. We had scarcely quenched our thirst when + we saw, to our dismay, a large band of Indians camped on + its banks. Their furtive glances at us, and significant + looks at each other, aroused our worst suspicions, and + we instinctively felt we were not to get away without + serious trouble. Contrary to our expectations, however, + they did not offer to molest us, and we at once made up + our minds they preferred to wait for our return, as we + believed they had somehow learned of our intention to bring + back from New Mexico a large herd of mules and ponies. + + We arrived in Santa Fe on the 20th of July, without further + adventure, and after having our stock of goods passed + through the custom house, were granted the privilege of + selling them. The majority of the party sold out in a + very short time and started on their road to the States, + leaving twenty-one of us behind to return later. + + On the first day of September, those of us who had remained + in Santa Fe commenced our homeward journey. We started + with one hundred and fifty mules and horses, four wagons, + and a large amount of silver coin. Nothing of an eventful + character occurred until we arrived at the Upper Cimarron + Springs, where we intended to encamp for the night. + But our anticipations of peaceable repose were rudely + dispelled; for when we rode up on the summit of the hill, + the sight that met our eyes was appalling enough to excite + the gravest apprehensions. It was a large camp of + Comanches, evidently there for the purpose of robbery + and murder. We could neither turn back nor go on either + side of them on account of the mountainous character of + the country, and we realized, when too late, that we were + in a trap. + + There was only one road open to us; that right through + the camp. Assuming the bravest look possible, and keeping + our rifles in position for immediate action, we started + on the perilous venture. The chief met us with a smile + of welcome, and said, in Spanish: "You must stay with us + to-night. Our young men will guard your stock, and we have + plenty of buffalo meat." + + Realizing the danger of our situation, we took advantage + of every moment of time to hurry through their camp. + Captain Means, Ellison, and myself were a little distance + behind the wagons, on horseback; observing that the balance + of our men were evading them, the blood-thirsty savages + at once threw off their masks of dissimulation and in an + instant we knew the time for a struggle had arrived. + + The Indians, as we rode on, seized our bridle-reins and + began to fire upon us. Ellison and I put spurs to our + horses and got away, but Captain Means, a brave man, + was ruthlessly shot and cruelly scalped while the life-blood + was pouring from his ghastly wounds. + + We succeeded in fighting them off until we had left their + camp half a mile behind, and as darkness had settled down + on us, we decided to go into camp ourselves. We tied our + gray bell-mare to a stake, and went out and jingled the + bell, whenever any of us could do so, thus keeping the + animals from stampeding. We corralled our wagons for + better protection, and the Indians kept us busy all night + resisting their furious charges. We all knew that death + at our posts would be infinitely preferable to falling + into their hands; so we resolved to sell our lives as + dearly as possible. + + The next day we made but five miles; it was a continuous + fight, and a very difficult matter to prevent their + capturing us. This annoyance was kept up for four days; + they would surround us, then let up as if taking time to + renew their strength, to suddenly charge upon us again, + and they continued thus to harass us until we were almost + exhausted from loss of sleep. + + After leaving the Cimarron, we once more emerged on the + open plains and flattered ourselves we were well rid of + the savages; but about twelve o'clock they came down on us + again, uttering their demoniacal yells, which frightened + our horses and mules so terribly, that we lost every hoof. + A member of our party, named Hitt, in endeavouring to + recapture some of the stolen stock, was taken by the + savages, but luckily escaped from their clutches, after + having been wounded in sixteen parts of his body; + he was shot, tomahawked, and speared. When the painted + demons saw that one of their number had been killed by us, + they left the field for a time, while we, taking advantage + of the temporary lull, went back to our wagons and built + breastworks of them, the harness, and saddles. From noon + until two hours in the night, when the moon went down, + the savages were apparently confident we would soon fall + a prey to them, and they made charge after charge upon + our rude fortifications. + + Darkness was now upon us. There were two alternatives + before us: should we resolve to die where we were, or + attempt to escape in the black hours of the night? + It was a desperate situation. Our little band looked + the matter squarely in the face, and, after a council + of war had been held, we determined to escape, if possible. + + In order to carry out our resolve, it was necessary to + abandon the wagons, together with a large amount of silver + coin, as it would be impossible to take all of the precious + stuff with us in our flight; so we packed up as much of it + as we could carry, and, bidding our hard-earned wealth + a reluctant farewell, stepped out in the darkness like + spectres and hurried away from the scene of death. + + Our proper course was easterly, but we went in a northerly + direction in order to avoid the Indians. We travelled + all that night, the next day, and a portion of its night + until we reached the Arkansas River, and, having eaten + nothing during that whole time excepting a few prickly-pears, + were beginning to feel weak from the weight of our burdens + and exhaustion. At this point we decided to lighten + our loads by burying all of the money we had carried + thus far, keeping only a small sum for each man. + Proceeding to a small island in the river, our treasure, + amounting to over ten thousand silver dollars, was cached + in the ground between two cottonwood trees. + + Believing now that we were out of the usual range of + the predatory Indians, we shot a buffalo and an antelope + which we cooked and ate without salt or bread; but no meal + has ever tasted better to me than that one. + + We continued our journey northward for three or four days + more, when, reaching Pawnee Fork, we travelled down it for + more than a week, arriving again on the Old Santa Fe Trail. + Following the Trail three days, we arrived at Walnut Creek, + then left the river again and went eastwardly to Cow Creek. + When we reached that point, we had become so completely + exhausted and worn out from subsisting on buffalo meat + alone, that it seemed as if there was nothing left for + us to do but lie down and die. Finally it was determined + to send five of the best-preserved men on ahead to + Independence, two hundred miles, for the purpose of + procuring assistance; the other fifteen to get along + as well as they could until succour reached them. + + I was one of the five selected to go on in advance, and + I shall never forget the terrible suffering we endured. + We had no blankets, and it was getting late in the fall. + Some of us were entirely barefooted, and our feet so sore + that we left stains of blood at every step. Deafness, too, + seized upon us so intensely, occasioned by our weak + condition, that we coud not hear the report of a gun fired + at a distance of only a few feet. + + At one place two of our men laid down their arms, declaring + they could carry them no farther, and would die if they + did not get water. We left them and went in search of some. + After following a dry branch several miles, we found + a muddy puddle from which we succeeded in getting half + a bucket full, and, although black and thick, it was life + for us and we guarded it with jealous eyes. We returned + to our comrades about daylight, and the water so refreshed + them they were able to resume the weary march. We travelled + on until we arrived at the Big Blue River, in Missouri, + on the bank of which we discovered a cabin about fifteen + miles from Independence. The occupants of the rude shanty + were women, seemingly very poor, but they freely offered us + a pot of pumpkin they were stewing. When they first saw us, + they were terribly frightened, because we looked more like + skeletons than living beings. They jumped on the bed while + we were greedily devouring the pumpkin, but we had to + refuse some salt meat which they had also proffered, + as our teeth were too sore to eat it. In a short time + two men came to the cabin and took three of our men + home with them. We had subsisted for eleven days on + one turkey, a coon, a crow, and some elm bark, with an + occasional bunch of wild grapes, and the pictures we + presented to these good people they will never, probably, + forget; we had not tasted bread or salt for thirty-two days. + + The next day our newly found friends secured horses and + guided us to Independence, all riding without saddles. + One of the party had gone on to notify the citizens of + our safety, and when we arrived general muster was going on, + the town was crowded, and when the people looked upon us + the most intense excitement prevailed. All business was + suspended; the entire population flocked around us to hear + the remarkable story of our adventures, and to render us + the assistance we so much needed. We were half-naked, + foot-sore, and haggard, presenting such a pitiable picture + that the greatest sympathy was immediately aroused in + our behalf. + + We then said that behind us on the Trail somewhere, fifteen + comrades were struggling toward Independence, or were + already dead from their sufferings. In a very few minutes + seven men with fifteen horses started out to rescue them. + + They were gone from Independence several days, but had the + good fortune to find all the men just in time to save them + from starvation and exhaustion. Two were discovered + a hundred miles from Independence, and the remainder + scattered along the Trail fifty miles further in their rear. + Not more than two of the unfortunate party were together. + The humane rescuers seemingly brought back nothing but + living skeletons wrapped in rags; but the good people of + the place vied with each other in their attentions, and + under their watchful care the sufferers rapidly recuperated. + + One would suppose that we had had enough of the great plains + after our first trip; not so, however, for in the spring + we started again on the same journey. Major Riley, with + four companies of regular soldiers, was detailed to escort + the Santa Fe traders' caravans to the boundary line between + the United States and Mexico, and we went along to recover + the money we had buried, the command having been ordered to + remain in camp to await our return until the 20th of October. + + We left Fort Leavenworth about the 10th of May, and were + soon again on the plains. Many of the troops had never + seen any buffalo before, and found great sport in wantonly + slaughtering them. At Walnut Creek we halted to secure + a cannon which had been thrown into that stream two seasons + previously, and succeeded in dragging it out. With a seine + made of brush and grape vine, we caught more fine fish than + we could possibly dispose of. One morning the camp was + thrown into the greatest state of excitement by a band of + Indians running an enormous herd of buffalo right into us. + The troops fired at them by platoons, killing hundreds + of them. + + We marched in two columns, and formed a hollow square + at night when we camped, in which all slept excepting + those on guard duty. Frequently some one would discover + a rattlesnake or a horned toad in bed with him, and it + did not take him a very long time to crawl out of his + blankets! + + On the 10th of July, we arrived at the dividing line + separating the two countries, and went into camp. The next + day Major Riley sent a squad of soldiers to escort myself + and another of our old party, who had helped bury the + ten thousand dollars, to find it. It was a few miles + further up the Arkansas than our camp, in the Mexican + limits, and when we reached the memorable spot on the + island,[20] we found the coin safe, but the water had + washed the earth away, and the silver was exposed to view + to excite the cupidity of any one passing that way; + there were not many travellers on that lonely route in + those days, however, and it would have been just as secure, + probably, had we simply poured it on the ground. + + We put the money in sacks and deposited it with Major Riley, + and, leaving the camp, started for Santa Fe with Captain + Bent as leader of the traders. We had not proceeded far + when our advanced guard met Indians. They turned, and when + within two hundred yards of us, one man named Samuel Lamme + was killed, his body being completely riddled with arrows. + His head was cut off, and all his clothes stripped from + his body. We had a cannon, but the Mexicans who hauled it + had tied it up in such a way that it could not be utilized + in time to effect anything in the first assault; but when + at last it was turned loose upon the Indians, they fled + in dismay at the terrible noise. + + The troops at the crossing of the Arkansas, hearing the + firing, came to our assistance. The next morning the + hills were covered by fully two thousand Indians, who had + evidently congregated there for the purpose of annihilating + us, and the coming of the soldiers was indeed fortunate; + for as soon as the cowardly savages discovered them + they fled. Major Riley accompanied us on our march for + a few days, and, seeing no more Indians, he returned to + his camp. + + We travelled on for a week, then met a hundred Mexicans + who were out on the plains hunting buffalo. They had + killed a great many and were drying the meat. We waited + until they were ready to return and then all started for + Santa Fe together. + + At Rabbit-Ear Mountain the Indians had constructed + breastworks in the brush, intending to fight it out there. + The Mexicans were in the advance and had one of their + number killed before discovering the enemy. We passed + Point of Rocks and camped on the river. One of the + Mexicans went out hunting and shot a huge panther; + next morning he asked a companion to go with him and help + skin the animal. They saw the Indians in the brush, and + the one who had killed the panther said to the other, + "Now for the mountains"; but his comrade retreated, + and was despatched by the savages almost within reach + of the column. + + We now decided to change our destination, intending to go + to Taos instead of Santa Fe, but the governor of the + Province sent out troops to stop us, as Taos was not a + place of entry. The soldiers remained with us a whole week, + until we arrived at Santa Fe, where we disposed of our goods + and soon began to make preparations for our return trip. + + When we were ready to start back, seven priests and a + number of wealthy families, comfortably fixed in carriages, + accompanied us. The Mexican government ordered Colonel + Viscarra of the army, with five troops of cavalry, + to guard us to the camp of Major Riley. + + We experienced no trouble until we arrived at the + Cimarron River. About sunset, just as we were preparing + to camp for the night, the sentinels saw a body of a + hundred Indians approaching; they fired at them and ran + to camp. Knowing they had been discovered, the Indians + came on and made friendly overtures; but the Pueblos who + who were with the command of Colonel Viscarra wanted to + fight them at once, saying the fellows meant mischief. + We declined to camp with them unless they would agree to + give up their arms; they pretended they were willing to + do so, when one of them put his gun at the breast of our + interpreter and pulled the trigger. In an instant a bloody + scene ensued; several of Viscarra's men were killed, + together with a number of mules. Finally the Indians + were whipped and tried to get away, but we chased them + some distance and killed thirty-five. Our friendly Pueblos + were delighted, and proceeded to scalp the savages, + hanging the bloody trophies on the points of their spears. + That night they indulged in a war-dance which lasted + until nearly morning. + + We were delighted to see a beautiful sunshiny day after + the horrors of the preceding night, and continued our march + without farther interruption, safely arriving at the camp + on the boundary line, where Major Riley was waiting for us, + as we supposed; but his time having expired the day before, + he had left for Fort Leavenworth. A courier was despatched + to him, however, as Colonel Viscarra desired to meet the + American commander and see his troops. The courier overtook + Major Riley a short distance away, and he halted for us + to come up. Both commands then went into camp, and spent + several days comparing the discipline of the armies of + the two nations, and having a general good time. + Colonel Viscarra greatly admired our small arms, and + took his leave in a very courteous manner. + + We arrived at Fort Leavenworth late in the season, and + from there we all scattered. I received my share of the + money we had cached on the island, and bade my comrades + farewell, only a few of whom I have ever seen since. + +Mr. Hitt in his notes of this same perilous trip says: + + When the grass had sufficiently started to insure the + subsistence of our teams, our wagons were loaded with + a miscellaneous assortment of merchandise and the first + trader's caravan of wagons that ever crossed the plains + left Independence. Before we had travelled three weeks + on our journey, we were one evening confronted with the + novel fact of camping in a country where not a stick of + wood could be found. The grass was too green to burn, + and we were wondering how our fire could be started + with which to boil our coffee, or cook our bread. One of + our number, however, while diligently searching for + something to utilize, suddenly discovered scattered all + around him a large quantity of buffalo-chips, and he soon + had an excellent fire under way, his coffee boiling and + his bacon sizzling over the glowing coals. + + We arrived in Santa Fe without incident, and as ours + was the first train of wagons that ever traversed the + narrow streets of the quaint old town, it was, of course, + a great curiosity to the natives. + + After a few days' rest, sight-seeing, and purchasing stock + to replace our own jaded animals, preparations were made + for the return trip. All the money we had received for + our goods was in gold and silver, principally the latter, + in consequence of which, each member of the company had + about as much as he could conveniently manage, and, + as events turned out, much more than he could take care of. + + On the morning of the third day out, when we were not + looking for the least trouble, our entire herd was + stampeded, and we were left upon the prairie without + as much as a single mule to pursue the fast-fleeing + thieves. The Mexicans and Indians had come so suddenly + upon us, and had made such an effective dash, that we + stood like children who had broken their toys on a stone + at their feet. We were so unprepared for such a stampede + that the thieves did not approach within rifle-shot range + of the camp to accomplish their object; few of them + coming within sight, even. + + After the excitement had somewhat subsided and we began + to realize what had been done, it was decided that while + some should remain to guard the camp, others must go to + Santa Fe to see if they could not recover the stock. + The party that went to Santa Fe had no difficulty in + recognizing the stolen animals; but when they claimed them, + they were laughed at by the officials of the place. + They experienced no difficulty, however, in purchasing + the same stock for a small sum, which they at once did, + and hurried back to camp. By this unpleasant episode + we learned of the stealth and treachery of the miserable + people in whose country we were. We, therefore, took every + precaution to prevent a repetition of the affair, and + kept up a vigilant guard night and day. + + Matters progressed very well, and when we had travelled + some three hundred miles eastwardly, thinking we were + out of range of any predatory bands, as we had seen no + sign of any living thing, we relaxed our vigilance somewhat. + One morning, just before dawn, the whole earth seemed to + resound with the most horrible noises that ever greeted + human ears; every blade of grass appeared to re-echo + the horrid din. In a few moments every man was at his post, + rifle in hand, ready for any emergency, and almost + immediately a large band of Indians made their appearance, + riding within rifle-shot of the wagons. A continuous + battle raged for several hours, the savages discharging + a shot, then scampering off out of range as fast as + their ponies could carry them. Some, more brave than + others would venture closer to the corral, and one of these + got the contents of an old-fashioned flint-lock musket + in his bowels. + + We were careful not all to fire at the same time, and + several of our party, who were watching the effects of + our shots declared they could see the dust fly out of + the robes of the Indians as the bullets struck them. + It was learned afterward that a number of the savages + were wounded, and that several had died. Many were armed + with bows and arrows only, and in order to do any execution + were obliged to come near the corral. The Indians soon + discovered they were getting the worst of the fight, and, + having run off all the stock, abandoned the conflict, + leaving us in possession of the camp, but it can hardly + be said masters of the situation. + + There we were; thirty-five pioneers upon the wild prairie, + surrounded by a wily and terribly cruel foe, without + transportation of any character but our own legs, and with + five hundred miles of dangerous, trackless waste between + us and the settlements. We had an abundance of money, + but the stuff was absolutely worthless for the present, + as there was nothing we could buy with it. + + After the last savage had ridden away into the sand hills + on the opposite side of the river, each one of us had a + thrilling story to relate of his individual narrow escapes. + Though none was killed, many received wounds, the scars + of which they carried through life. I was wounded six + times. Once was in the thigh by an arrow, and once while + loading my rifle I had my ramrod shot off close to the + muzzle of my piece, the ball just grazing my shoulder, + tearing away a small portion of the skin. Others had + equally curious experiences, but none were seriously injured. + + After the excitement incident to the battle had subsided, + the realization of our condition fully dawned upon us. + When we were first robbed, we were only a short distance + from Santa Fe, where our money easily procured other stock; + now there were three hundred miles behind us to that place, + and the picture was anything but pleasant to contemplate. + To transport supplies for thirty-five men seemed impossible. + Our money was now a burden greater than we could bear; + what was to be done with it? We would have no use for it + on our way to the settlements, yet the idea of abandoning + it seemed hard to accept. A vigilant guard was kept up + that day and night, during which time we all remained + in camp, fearing a renewal of the attack. + + The next morning, as there were no apparent signs of + the Indians, it was decided to reconnoitre the surrounding + country in the hope of recovering a portion, at least, + of our lost stock, which we thought might have become + separated from the main herd. Three men were detailed + to stay in the old camp to guard it while the remainder, + in squads, scoured the hills and ravines. Not a horse + or mule was visible anywhere; the stampede had been + complete--not even the direction the animals had taken + could be discovered. + + It was late in the afternoon when I, having left my + companions to continue the search and returning to camp + alone, had gotten within a mile of it, that I thought I saw + a horse feeding upon an adjoining hill. I at once turned + my steps in that direction, and had proceeded but a short + distance when three Indians jumped from their ambush in + the grass between me and the wagons and ran after me. + The men in camp had been watching my every movement, + and as soon as they saw the savages were chasing me, + they started in pursuit, running at their greatest speed + to my rescue. + + The savages soon overtook me, and the first one that + came up tackled me, but in an instant found himself flat + on the ground. Before he could get up, the second one + shared the same fate. By this time the third one arrived, + and the two I had thrown grabbed me by the legs so that + I could no longer handle myself, while the third one had + a comparatively easy task in pushing me over. Fortunately, + my head fell toward the camp and my fast-approaching + comrades. The two Indians held my legs to prevent my + rising, while the third one, who was standing over me, + drew from his belt a tomahawk, and shrugging his head + in his blanket, at the same time looking over his shoulder + at my friends, with a tremendous effort and that peculiar + grunt of all savages, plunged his hatchet, as he supposed, + into my head, but instead of scuffling to free myself + and rise to my feet, I merely turned my head to one side + and the wicked weapon was buried in the ground, just + grazing my ear. + + The Indian, seeing that he had missed, raised his hatchet + and once more shrugging his head in his blanket, and + turning to look over his other shoulder, attempted to + strike again, but the blow was evaded by a sudden toss + of his intended victim's head. Not satisfied with two + abortive trials, the third attempt must be made to brain me, + and repeating the same motions, with a great "Ugh!" he + seemed to put all his strength into the blow, which, like + the others, missed, and spent its force in the earth. + By this time the rescuing party had come near enough to + prevent the savage from risking another effort, and he then + addressed the other Indians in Spanish, which I understood, + saying, "We must run or the Americans will kill us!" + and loosening his grasp, he scampered off with his + companions as fast as his legs could take him, hurried on + by several pieces of lead fired from the old flintlocks + of the traders. + + By sundown every man had returned to the forlorn camp, + but not an animal had been recovered. Then, with tired + limbs and weary hearts, we took turns at guarding the + wagons through the long night. The next morning each man + shouldered his rifle, and having had his proportion of + the provisions and cooking utensils assigned him, + we broke camp, and again turned to take a last look at + the country behind us, in which we had experienced so much + misfortune, and started on foot for our long march through + the dangerous region ahead of us. + + Scarcely had we gotten out of sight of our abandoned camp, + when one of the party, happening to turn his eyes in that + direction, saw a large volume of smoke rising in the + vicinity; then we knew that all of our wagons, and + everything we had been forced to leave, were burning up. + This proved that, although we had been unable to discover + any signs of Indians, they had been lurking around us + all the time, and this fact warned us to exercise the + utmost vigilance in guarding our persons. + + Though our burdens were very heavy, the first few days + were passed without anything to relieve the dreadful + monotony of our wearisome march; but each succeeding + twenty-four hours our loads became visibly lighter, + as our supplies were rapidly diminishing. It had already + become apparent that even in the exercise of the greatest + frugality, our stock of provisions would not last until + we could reach the settlements, so some of the most expert + shots were selected to hunt for game; but even in this + they were not successful, the very birds seeming to have + abandoned the country in its extreme desolation. + + After eight days' travel, despite our most rigid economy, + an inventory showed that there was less than one hundred + pounds of flour left. Day after day the hunters repeated + the same old story: "No game!" For two weeks the allowance + of flour to each individual was but a spoonful, stirred + in water and taken three times a day. + + One afternoon, however, fortune smiled upon the weary party; + one of the hunters returned to camp with a turkey he had + killed. It was soon broiling over a fire which willing + hands had kindled, and our drooping spirits were revived + for a while. While the turkey was cooking, a crow flew + over the camp, and one of the company, seizing a gun, + despatched it, and in a few moments it, too, was sizzling + along with the other bird. + + Now, in addition to the pangs of hunger, a scarcity of + water confronted us, and one day we were compelled to + resort to a buffalo-wallow and suck the moist clay where + the huge animals had been stamping in the mud. We were + much reduced in strength, yet each day added new + difficulties to our forlorn situation. Some became so weak + and exhausted that it was with the greatest effort they + could travel at all. To divide the company and leave + the more feeble behind to starve, or to be murdered by + the merciless savages, was not considered for a moment; + but one alternative remained, and that was speedily accepted. + As soon as a convenient camping-ground could be found, + a halt was made, shelter established, and things made as + comfortable as possible. Here the weakest remained to rest, + while some of the strongest scoured the surrounding country + in search of game. During this temporary halt the hunters + were more successful than before, having killed two + buffaloes, besides some smaller animals, in one morning. + Again the natural dry fuel of the prairies was called + into requisition, and juicy steak was once more broiling + over the fire. + + With an abundance to eat and a few days' rest, the whole + company revived and were enabled to renew their march + homeward. We were now in the buffalo range, and every day + the hunters were fortunate enough to kill one or more of + the immense animals, thus keeping our larder in excellent + condition, and starvation averted. + + Doubting whether our good fortune in relation to food + would continue for the remainder of our march, and our + money becoming very cumbersome, it was decided by a majority + that at the first good place we came to we would bury it + and risk its being stolen by our enemies. When not more + than half of our journey had been accomplished, we came + to an island in the river to which we waded, and there, + between two large trees, dug a hole and deposited our + treasure. We replaced the sod over the spot, taking the + utmost precaution to conceal every sign of having disturbed + the ground. Though no Indians had been seen for several + days, a sharp lookout was kept in all directions for fear + that some lurking savage might have been watching our + movements. This task finished, with much lighter burdens, + but more anxious than ever, we again took up our march + eastwardly, and, thus relieved, were able to carry a + greater quantity of provisions. + + Having journeyed until we supposed we were within a few + miles of the settlements, some of our number, scarcely able + to travel, thought the best course to pursue would be to + divide the company; one portion to press on, the weaker + ones to proceed by easier stages, and when the advance + arrived at the settlements, they were to send back a relief + for those plodding on wearily behind them. Soon a few + who were stronger than the others reached Independence, + Missouri, and immediately sent a party with horses to + bring in their comrades; so, at last, all got safely to + their homes. + +In the spring of 1829, Major Bennett Riley of the United States army was +ordered with four companies of the Sixth Regular Infantry to march out +on the Trail as the first military escort ever sent for the protection +of the caravans of traders going and returning between Western Missouri +and Santa Fe. Captain Philip St. George Cooke, of the Dragoons, +accompanied the command, and kept a faithful journal of the trip, from +which, and the official report of Major Riley to the Secretary of War, I +have interpolated here copious extracts. + +The journal of Captain Cooke states that the battalion marched from Fort +Leavenworth, which was then called a cantonment, and, strange to +say, had been abandoned by the Third Infantry on account of its +unhealthiness. It was the 5th of June that Riley crossed the Missouri at +the cantonment, and recrossed the river again at a point a little above +Independence, in order to avoid the Kaw, or Kansas, which had no ferry. + +After five days' marching, the command arrived at Round Grove, where +the caravan had been ordered to rendezvous and wait for the escort. The +number of traders aggregated about seventy-nine men, and their train +consisted of thirty-eight wagons drawn by mules and horses, the former +preponderating. Five days' marching, at an average of fifteen miles a +day, brought them to Council Grove. Leaving the Grove, in a short time +Cow Creek was reached, which at that date abounded in fish; many of +which, says the journal, "weighed several pounds, and were caught as +fast as the line could be handled." The captain does not describe the +variety to which he refers; probably they were the buffalo--a species of +sucker, to be found to-day in every considerable stream in Kansas. + +Having reached the Upper Valley,[21] bordered by high sand hills, the +journal continues: + + From the tops of the hills, we saw far away, in almost + every direction, mile after mile of prairie, blackened + with buffalo. One morning, when our march was along the + natural meadows by the river, we passed through them for + miles; they opened in front and closed continually in + the rear, preserving a distance scarcely over three hundred + paces. On one occasion, a bull had approached within + two hundred yards without seeing us, until he ascended + the river bank; he stood a moment shaking his head, and + then made a charge at the column. Several officers + stepped out and fired at him, two or three dogs also rushed + to meet him; but right onward he came, snorting blood + from mouth and nostril at every leap, and, with the speed + of a horse and the momentum of a locomotive, dashed + between two wagons, which the frightened oxen nearly upset; + the dogs were at his heels and soon he came to bay, and, + with tail erect, kicked violently for a moment, and then + sank in death--the muscles retaining the dying rigidity + of tension. + +About the middle of July, the command arrived at its +destination--Chouteau's Island, then on the boundary line between the +United States and New Mexico. + + Our orders were to march no further; and, as a protection + to the trade, it was like the establishment of a ferry + to the mid-channel of a river. + + Up to this time, traders had always used mules or horses. + Our oxen were an experiment, and it succeeded admirably; + they even did better when water was very scarce, which is + an important consideration. + + A few hours after the departure of the trading company, + as we enjoyed a quiet rest on a hot afternoon, we saw + beyond the river a number of horsemen riding furiously + toward our camp. We all flocked out of the tents to hear + the news, for they were soon recognized as traders. + They stated that the caravan had been attacked, about + six miles off in the sand hills, by an innumerable host + of Indians; that some of their companions had been killed; + and they had run, of course, for help. There was not a + moment's hesitation; the word was given, and the tents + vanished as if by magic. The oxen which were grazing + near by were speedily yoked to the wagons, and into the + river we marched. Then I deemed myself the most unlucky + of men; a day or two before, while eating my breakfast, + with my coffee in a tin cup--notorious among chemists and + campaigners for keeping it hot--it was upset into my shoe, + and on pulling off the stocking, it so happened that the + skin came with it. Being thus hors de combat, I sought to + enter the combat on a horse, which was allowed; but I was + put in command of the rear guard to bring up the baggage + train. It grew late, and the wagons crossed slowly; + for the river unluckily took that particular time to + rise fast, and, before all were over, we had to swim it, + and by moonlight. We reached the encampment at one o'clock + at night. All was quiet, and remained so until dawn, + when, at the sound of our bugles, the pickets reported + they saw a number of Indians moving off. On looking + around us, we perceived ourselves and the caravan in the + most unfavorable defenceless situation possible--in the + area of a natural amphitheatre of sand hills, about fifty + feet high, and within gun-shot all around. There was + the narrowest practicable entrance and outlet. + + We ascertained that some mounted traders, in spite of all + remonstrance and command, had ridden on in advance, and + when in the narrow pass beyond this spot, had been suddenly + beset by about fifty Indians; all fled and escaped save one, + who, mounted on a mule, was abandoned by his companions, + overtaken, and slain. The Indians, perhaps, equalled the + traders in number, but notwithstanding their extraordinary + advantage of ground, dared not attack them when they + made a stand among their wagons; and the latter, all well + armed, were afraid to make a single charge, which would + have scattered their enemies like sheep. + + Having buried the poor fellow's body, and killed an ox for + breakfast, we left this sand hollow, which would soon have + been roasting hot, and advancing through the defile--of + which we took care to occupy the commanding ground-- + proceeded to escort the traders at least one day's march + further. + + When the next morning broke clear and cloudless, the command + was confronted by one of those terrible hot winds, still + frequent on the plains. The oxen with lolling tongues + were incapable of going on; the train was halted, and the + suffering animals unyoked, but they stood motionless, + making no attempt to graze. Late that afternoon, the + caravan pushed on for about ten miles, where was the + sandy bed of a dry creek, and fortunately, not far from + the Trail, up the stream, a pool of water and an acre + or two of grass was discovered. On the surface of the + water floated thick the dead bodies of small fish, which + the intense heat of the sun that day had killed. + + Arriving at this point, it was determined to march no + further into the Mexican territory. At the first light + next day we were in motion to return to the river and + the American line, and no further adventure befell us. + +While permanently encamped at Chouteau's Island, which is situated in +the Arkansas River, the term of enlistment of four of the soldiers +of Captain Cooke's command expired, and they were discharged. In his +journal he says: + + Contrary to all advice they determined to return to + Missouri. After having marched several hundred miles + over a prairie country, being often on high hills + commanding a vast prospect, without seeing a human being + or a sign of one, and, save the trail we followed, not + the slightest indication that the country had ever been + visited by man, it was exceedingly difficult to credit + that lurking foes were around us, and spying our motions. + It was so with these men; and being armed, they set out + on the first of August on foot for the settlements. + That same night three of the four returned. They reported + that, after walking about fifteen miles, they were + surrounded by thirty mounted Indians. A wary old soldier + of their number succeeded in extricating them before any + hostile act had been committed; but one of them, highly + elated and pleased at their forbearance, insisted on + returning among them to give them tobacco and shake hands. + In this friendly act he was shot down. The Indians + stripped him in an incredibly short time, and as quickly + dispersed to avoid a shot; and the old soldier, after + cautioning the others to reserve their fire, fired among + them, and probably with some effect. Had the others done + the same, the Indians would have rushed upon them before + they could have reloaded. They managed to make good + their retreat in safety to our camp. + + We were instructed to wait here for the return of the + caravan, which was expected early in October. + Our provisions consisted of salt and half rations of flour, + besides a reserve of fifteen days' full rations--as to the + rest, we were dependent upon hunting. When the buffalo + became scarce, or the grass bad, we marched to other + ground, thus roving up and down the river for eighty + miles. The first thing we did after camping was to dig + and construct, with flour barrels, a well in front of + each company; water was always found at the depth of + from two to four feet varying with the corresponding + height of the river, but clear and cool. Next we would + build sod fire-places; these, with network platforms of + buffalo hide, used for smoking and drying meat, formed a + tolerable additional defence, at least against mounted men. + + Hunting was a military duty, done by detail, parties of + fifteen or twenty going out with a wagon. Completely + isolated, and beyond support or even communication, + in the midst of many thousands of Indians, the utmost + vigilance was maintained. Officer of the guard every + fourth night; I was always awake and generally in motion + the whole time of duty. Night alarms were frequent; when, + as we all slept in our clothes, we were accustomed to + assemble instantly, and with scarcely a word spoken, + take our places in the grass in front of each face of + the camp, where, however wet, we sometimes lay for hours. + + While encamped a few miles below Chouteau's Island, on the + eleventh of August, an alarm was given, and we were under + arms for an hour until daylight. During the morning, + Indians were seen a mile or two off, leading their horses + through the ravines. A captain, however, with eighteen + men was sent across the river after buffalo, which we saw + half a mile distant. In his absence, a large body of + Indians came galloping down the river, as if to charge + the camp, but the cattle were secured in good time. + A company, of which I was lieutenant, was ordered to + cross the river and support the first. We waded in some + disorder through the quicksands and current, and just + as we neared a dry sandbar in the middle, a volley was + fired at us by a band of Indians, who that moment rode + to the water's edge. The balls whistled very near, + but without damage; I felt an involuntary twitch of + the neck, and wishing to return the compliment instantly, + I stooped down, and the company fired over my head, + with what execution was not perceived, as the Indians + immediately retired out of our view. This had passed + in half a minute, and we were astonished to see, a little + above, among some bushes on the same bar, the party we had + been sent to support, and we heard that they had abandoned + one of the hunters, who had been killed. We then saw, + on the bank we had just left, a formidable body of the + enemy in close order, and hoping to surprise them, + we ascended the bed of the river. In crossing the channel + we were up to the arm-pits, but when we emerged on the + bank, we found that the Indians had detected the movement, + and retreated. Casting eyes beyond the river, I saw a + number of the Indians riding on both sides of a wagon + and team which had been deserted, urging the animals + rapidly toward the hills. At this juncture the adjutant + sent an order to cross and recover the body of the slain + hunter, who was an old soldier and a favourite. He was + brought in with an arrow still transfixing his breast, + but his scalp was gone. + + On the fourteenth of October, we again marched on our + return. Soon after, we saw smokes arise over the distant + hills; evidently signals, indicating to different parties + of Indians our separation and march, but whether preparatory + to an attack upon the Mexicans or ourselves, or rather + our immense drove of animals, we could only guess. + + Our march was constantly attended by great collections + of buffalo, which seemed to have a general muster, perhaps + for migration. Sometimes a hundred or two--a fragment + from the multitude--would approach within two or three + hundred yards of the column, and threaten a charge which + would have proved disastrous to the mules and their drivers. + + Under the friendly cover of the shades of evening, on the + eighth of November, our tatterdemalion veterans marched + into Fort Leavenworth, and took quiet possession of the + miserable huts and sheds left by the Third Infantry in + the preceding May. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY. + + + +As early as November, 1842, a rumour was current in Santa Fe, and along +the line of the Trail, that parties of Texans had left the Republic for +the purpose of attacking and robbing the caravans to the United States +which were owned wholly by Mexicans. In consequence of this, several +Americans were accused of being spies and acting in collusion with the +Texans; many were arrested and carried to Santa Fe, but nothing could +be proved against them, and the rumours of the intended purposes of the +Texans died out. + +Very early in May, however, of the following year, 1843, a certain +Colonel Snively did organize a small force, comprising about two hundred +men, which he led from Northern Texas, his home, to the line of the +Trail, with the intention of attacking and robbing the Mexican caravans +which were expected to cross the plains that month and in June. + +When he arrived at the Arkansas River, he was there reinforced by +another Texan colonel, named Warfield with another small command. Gregg +says: + + This officer, with about twenty men, had some time + previously attacked the village of Mora, on the Mexican + frontier, killing five men, and driving off a number + of horses. They were afterward followed by a party of + Mexicans, however, who stampeded and carried away, not only + their own horses, but those of the Texans. Being left + afoot, the latter burned their saddles, and walked to + Bent's Fort, where they were disbanded; whence Warfield + passed to Snively's camp, as before mentioned. + + The Texans now advanced along the Santa Fe Trail, beyond + the sand hills south of the Arkansas, when they discovered + that a party of Mexicans had passed toward the river. + They soon came upon them, and a skirmish ensuing, eighteen + Mexicans were killed, and as many wounded, five of whom + afterward died. The Texans suffered no injury, though + the Mexicans were a hundred in number. The rest were all + taken prisoners except two, who escaped and bore the news + to General Armijo, who was encamped with a large force + at Cold Spring, one hundred and forty miles beyond. + +Kit Carson figured conspicuously in this fight, or, rather, immediately +afterward. His recital differs somewhat from Gregg's account, but the +stories substantially agree. Kit said that in April, previously to the +assault upon Armijo's caravan, he had hired out as hunter to Bent's and +Colonel St. Vrain's train caravan, which was then making its annual +tour eastwardly. When he arrived at the crossing of Walnut Creek,[22] he +found the encampment of Captain Philip St. George Cooke, of the United +States army, who had been detailed with his command to escort the +caravans to the New Mexican boundary. His force consisted of four troops +of dragoons. The captain informed Carson that coming on behind him from +the States was a caravan belonging to a very wealthy Mexican. + +It was a richly loaded train, and in order to insure its better +protection while passing through that portion of the country infested +by the blood-thirsty Comanches and Apaches, the majordomo in charge +had hired one hundred Mexicans as a guard. The teamsters and others +belonging to the caravan had heard that a large body of Texans were +lying in wait for them, and intended to murder and plunder them in +retaliation for the way Armijo had treated some Texan prisoners he had +got in his power at Santa Fe some time before. Of course, it was the +duty of the United States troops to escort this caravan to the New +Mexico line, but there their duty would end, as they had no authority to +cross the border. The Mexicans belonging to the caravan were afraid they +would be at the mercy of the Texans after they had parted company with +the soldiers, and when Kit Carson met them, they, knowing the famous +trapper and mountaineer well, asked him to take a letter to Armijo, +who was then governor of New Mexico, and resided in Santa Fe, for which +service they would give him three hundred dollars in advance. The letter +contained a statement of the fears they entertained, and requested the +general to send Mexican troops at once to meet them. + +Carson, who was then not blessed with much money, eagerly accepted the +task, and immediately started on the trail for Bent's Fort, in company +with another old mountaineer and bosom friend named Owens. In a short +time they arrived at the Fort, where Owens decided not to go any +further, because they were informed by the men at Bent's that the Utes +had broken out, and were scattered along the Trail at the most dangerous +points, and he was fearful that his life would be endangered if he +attempted to make Santa Fe. + +Kit, however, nothing daunted, and determined to do the duty for which +he had been rewarded so munificently, started out alone on his perilous +trip. Mr. Bent kindly furnished him with the best and fastest horse he +had in his stables, but Kit, realizing the dangers to which he would be +exposed, walked, leading his animal, ready to mount him at a moment's +notice; thus keeping him in a condition that would enable Carson to fly +and make his escape if the savages tried to capture him. His knowledge +of the Indian character, and wonderful alertness in moments of peril, +served him well; for he reached the village of the hostile Indians +without their discovering his proximity. Hiding himself in a rocky, +bush-covered canyon, he stayed there until night came on, when he +continued his journey in the darkness. + +He took the trail to Taos, where he arrived in two or three days, +and presented his letter to the alcalde, to be sent on to Santa Fe by +special messenger. + +He was to remain at Taos until an answer from the governor arrived, and +then return with it as rapidly as possible to the train. While at +Taos, he was informed that Armijo had already sent out a company of one +hundred soldiers to meet the caravan, and was to follow in person, with +a thousand more. + +This first hundred were those attacked by Colonel Snively, as related by +Gregg, who says that two survived, who carried the news of the disaster +to Armijo at Cold Spring; but Carson told me that only one got away, +by successfully catching, during the heat of the fight, a Texan pony +already saddled, that was grazing around loose. With him he made +Armijo's camp and related to the Mexican general the details of the +terribly unequal battle. Armijo, upon receipt of the news, "turned +tail," and retreated to Santa Fe. + +Before Armijo left Santa Fe with his command, he had received the letter +which Carson had brought from the caravan, and immediately sent one in +reply for Carson to carry back, thinking that the old mountaineer might +reach the wagons before he did. Carson, with his usual promptness, +started on the Trail for the caravan, and came up with it while it was +escorted by the dragoons, thus saving it from the fate that the Texans +intended for it, as they dared not attempt any interference in the +presence of the United States troops. + +The rumour current in Santa Fe in relation to a probable raid of parties +of Texans along the line of the Trail, for the purpose of attacking and +robbing the caravans of the wealthy Mexican traders, was received +with so little credence by the prominent citizens of the country, +that several native trains left for the Missouri River without their +proprietors having the slightest apprehension that they would not reach +their destination, and make the return trip in safety. + +Among those who had no fear of marauders was Don Antonio Jose Chavez, +who, in February, 1843, left Santa Fe for Independence with an outfit +consisting of a number of wagons, his private coach, several servants +and other retainers. Don Antonio was a very wealthy Mexican engaged in +a general mercantile business on a large scale in Albuquerque, who made +all his purchases of goods in St. Louis, which was then the depot of +supplies for the whole mountain region. He necessarily carried with +him on these journeys a large amount of money, in silver, which was the +legal currency of the country, and made but one trip yearly to replenish +the stock of goods required in his extensive trade in all parts of +Mexico. + +Upon his arrival at Westport Landing, as Kansas City was then called, +he would take the steamboat for St. Louis, leaving his coach, wagons, +servants, and other appointments of his caravan behind him in the +village of Westport, a few miles from the Landing. + +Westport was at that time, like all steamboat towns in the era of water +navigation, the harbor of as great a lot of ruffians as ever escaped the +gallows. There was especially a noted gang of land pirates, the members +of which had long indulged in speculations regarding the probable wealth +of the Mexican Don, and how much coin he generally carried with him. +They knew that it must be considerable from the quantity of goods that +always came by boat with him from St. Louis. + +At last a devilish plot was arranged to get hold of the rich trader's +money. Nine men were concerned in the robbery, nearly all of whom +were residents of the vicinity of Westport; their leader was one John +McDaniel, recently from Texas, from which government he claimed to hold +a captain's commission, and one of their number was a doctor. It was +evidently the intention of this band to join Warfield's party on the +Arkansas, and engage in a general robbery of the freight caravans of the +Santa Fe Trail belonging to the Mexicans; but they had determined that +Chavez should be their first victim, and in order to learn when he +intended to leave Santa Fe on his next trip east, they sent their spies +out on the great highway. + +They did not dare attempt their contemplated robbery, and murder if +necessary, in the State of Missouri, for there were too many citizens of +the border who would never have permitted such a thing to go unpunished; +so they knew that their only chance was to effect it in the Indian +country of Kansas, where there was little or no law. + +Cow Creek, which debouches into the Arkansas at Hutchinson, where the +Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad crosses the historic little +stream,[23] was, like Big and Little Coon creeks, a most dangerous +point in the transcontinental passage of freight caravans and overland +coaches, in the days of the commerce of the prairies. It was on this +purling little prairie brook that McDaniel's band lay in wait for the +arrival of the ill-fated Don Antonio, whose imposing equipage came +along, intending to encamp on the bank, one of the usual stopping-places +on the route. + +The Don was taken a few miles south of the Trail, and his baggage +rifled. All of his party were immediately murdered, but the wealthy +owner of the caravan was spared for a few moments in order to make a +confession of where his money was concealed, after which he was shot +down in cold blood, and his body thrown into a ravine. + +It appears, however, that the ruffians had not completed their bloody +work so effectually as they thought; for one of the Mexican's teamsters +escaped, and, making his way to Leavenworth, reported the crime, and was +soon on his way back to the Trail, guiding a detachment of United States +troops in pursuit of the murderers. + +John Hobbs, scout, trapper, and veteran plainsman, happened to be +hunting buffalo on Pawnee Fork, on the ground where Larned is now +situated, with a party from Bent's Fort. They were just on the point +of crossing the Trail at the mouth of the Pawnee when the soldiers from +Fort Leavenworth came along, and from them Hobbs and his companions +first learned of the murder of Chavez on Cow Creek. As the men who were +out hunting were all familiar with every foot of the region they were +then in, the commanding officer of the troops induced them to accompany +him in his search for the murderers. + +Hobbs and his men cheerfully accepted the invitation, and in about +four days met the band of cut-throats on the broad Trail, they little +dreaming that the government had taken a hand in the matter. The band +tried to escape by flight, but Hobbs shot the doctor's horse from under +him, and a soldier killed another member of the band, when the remainder +surrendered. + +The money, about twelve or fifteen thousand dollars,[24] was all +recovered, and the murderers taken to St. Louis, where some were hung +and some imprisoned, the doctor escaping the death penalty by turning +state's evidence. His sentence was incarceration in the penitentiary, +from which he was pardoned after remaining there two years. Hobbs met +the doctor some years after in San Francisco. He was then leading an +honest life, publishing a newspaper, and begged his captor not to expose +him. + +The money taken from the robbers was placed in charge of Colonel +Owens, a friend of the Chavez family and a leading Santa Fe trader. He +continued on to the river, purchased a stock of goods, and sent back the +caravan to Santa Fe in charge of Doctor Conley of Boonville, Missouri. + +Arriving at his destination, the widow of the deceased Chavez employed +the good doctor to sell the goods and take the sole supervision of her +immense business interests, and there is a touch of romance attached to +the terrible Kansas tragedy, which lies in the fact that the doctor in +about two years married the rich widow, and lived very happily for about +a decade, dying then on one of the large estates in New Mexico, which he +had acquired by his fortunate union with the amiable Mexican lady. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. MEXICO DECLARES WAR. + + + +Mexico declared war against the United States in April, 1846. In the +following May, Congress passed an act authorizing the President to call +into the field fifty thousand volunteers, designed to operate against +Mexico at three distinct points, and consisting of the Southern Wing, +or the Army of Occupation, the Army of the Centre, and the Army of the +West, the latter to direct its march upon the city of Santa Fe. The +original plan was, however, somewhat changed, and General Kearney, who +commanded the Army of the West, divided his forces into three separate +commands. The first he led in person to the Pacific coast. One thousand +volunteers, under command of Colonel A. W. Doniphan, were to make a +descent upon the State of Chihuahua, while the remainder and greater +part of the forces, under Colonel Sterling Price, were to garrison Santa +Fe after its capture. + +There is a pretty fiction told of the breaking out of the war between +Mexico and the United States. Early in the spring of 1846, before it was +known or even conjectured that a state of war would be declared to exist +between this government and Mexico, a caravan of twenty-nine traders, on +their way from Independence to Santa Fe, beheld, just after a storm +and a little before sunset, a perfectly distinct image of the Bird of +Liberty, the American eagle, on the disc of the sun. When they saw it +they simultaneously and almost involuntarily exclaimed that in less than +twelve months the Eagle of Liberty would spread his broad plumes over +the plains of the West, and that the flag of our country would wave over +the cities of New Mexico and Chihuahua. The student of the classics +will remember that just before the assassination of Julius Caesar, +both Brutus and Cassius, while in their places in the Roman Senate, +saw chariots of fire in the sky. One story is as true, probably, as the +other, though separated by centuries of time. + +The Army of the West, under General Stephen W. Kearney, consisted of two +batteries of artillery, commanded by Major Clark; three squadrons of +the First United States Dragoons, commanded by Major Sumner; the First +Regiment of Missouri Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Doniphan, and two +companies of infantry, commanded by Captain Aubrey. This force marched +in detached columns from Fort Leavenworth, and on the 1st of August, +1846, concentrated in camp on the Santa Fe Trail, nine miles below +Bent's Fort. + +Accompanying the expedition was a party of the United States +topographical engineers, under command of Lieutenant W. H. Emory.[25] In +writing of this expedition, so far as its march relates to the Old +Santa Fe Trail, I shall quote freely from Emory's report and Doniphan's +historian.[26] + +The practicability of marching a large army over the waste, +uncultivated, uninhabited prairie regions of the West was universally +regarded as problematical, but the expedition proved completely +successful. Provisions were conveyed in wagons, and beef-cattle driven +along for the use of the men. These animals subsisted entirely by +grazing. To secure them from straying off at night, they were driven +into corrals formed of the wagons, or tethered to an iron picket-pin +driven into the ground about fifteen inches. At the outset of the +expedition many laughable scenes took place. Our horses were generally +wild, fiery, and unused to military trappings and equipments. Amidst +the fluttering of banners, the sounding of bugles, the rattling of +artillery, the clattering of sabres and also of cooking utensils, some +of them took fright and scampered pell-mell over the wide prairie. +Rider, arms and accoutrements, saddles, saddle-bags, tin cups, and +coffee-pots, were frequently left far behind in the chase. No very +serious or fatal accident, however, occurred from this cause, and all +was right as soon as the affrighted animals were recovered. + +The Army of the West was, perhaps, composed of as fine material as any +other body of troops then in the field. The volunteer corps consisted +almost entirely of young men of the country. + +On the 9th of July, a separate detachment of the troops arrived at the +Little Arkansas, where the Santa Fe Trail crosses that stream--now in +McPherson County, Kansas. The mosquitoes, gnats, and black flies swarmed +in that locality and nearly drove the men and animals frantic. While +resting there, a courier came from the commands of General Kearney and +Colonel Doniphan, stating that their men were in a starving condition, +and asking for such provisions as could be spared. Lieutenant-Colonel +Ruff of Doniphan's regiment, in command of the troops now camped on +the Little Arkansas, was almost destitute himself. He had sent couriers +forward to Pawnee Fork to stop a train of provisions at that point and +have it wait there until he came up with his force, and he now directed +the courier from Kearney to proceed to the same place and halt as many +wagons loaded with supplies, as would suffice to furnish the three +detachments with rations. One of the couriers, in attempting to ford the +fork of the Pawnee, which was bank-full, was drowned. His body was +found and given a military funeral; he was the first man lost on the +expedition after it had reached the great plains, one having been +drowned in the Missouri, at Fort Leavenworth, before the troops left. + +The author of _Doniphan's Expedition_ says: + + In approaching the Arkansas, a landscape of the most + imposing and picturesque nature makes its appearance. + While the green, glossy undulations of the prairie to + the right seem to spread out in infinite succession, + like waves subsiding after a storm, and covered with + herds of gambolling buffalo, on the left, towering to + the height of seventy-five to a hundred feet, rise the + sun-gilt summits of the sand hills, along the base of + which winds the broad, majestic river, bespeckled with + verdant islets, thickly beset with cottonwood timber, + the sand hills resembling heaps of driven snow. + +I refer to this statement to show how wonderfully the settlement of the +region has changed the physical aspect of that portion bordering the +Arkansas River. Now those sand hills are covered with verdure, and this +metamorphosis has taken place within the last thirty years; for the +author of this work well remembers how the great sand dunes used to +shine in the sunlight, when he first saw them a third of a century ago. +In coming from Fort Leavenworth up the Smoky Hill route to the Santa Fe +Trail, where the former joined the latter at Pawnee Rock, the contour of +the Arkansas could be easily traced by the white sand hills referred to, +long before it was reached. + +On the 15th of July the combined forces formed a junction at Pawnee +Fork, now within the city limits of Larned, Kansas. The river was +impassable, but General Kearney, with the characteristic energy of his +family, determined not to be delayed, and to that end caused great trees +to be cut down and their trunks thrown across the stream, over which the +army passed, carrying in their arms the sick, the baggage, tents, and +other paraphernalia; the animals being forced to swim. The empty bodies +of the wagons, fastened to their running gear, were floated across by +means of ropes, and hauled up the slippery bank by the troops. This +required two whole days; and on the morning of the 17th, not an accident +having occurred, the entire column was en route again, the infantry, as +is declared in the official reports, keeping pace with the cavalry right +along. Their feet, however, became terribly blistered, and, like the +Continentals at Valley Forge, their tracks were marked with blood. + +In a day or two after the command had left Pawnee Fork, while camping in +a beautiful spot on the bank of the Arkansas, an officer, Major Howard, +who had been sent forward to Santa Fe some time previously by the +general to learn something of the feeling of the people in relation to +submitting to the government of the United States, returned and reported + + that the common people, or plebeians, were inclined to + favour the conditions of peace proposed by General Kearney; + viz. that if they would lay down their arms and take the + oath of allegiance to the government of the United States, + they should, to all intents and purposes, become citizens + of the same republic, receiving the protection and enjoying + the liberties guaranteed to other American citizens; but + that the patricians who held the offices and ruled the + country were hostile, and were making warlike preparations. + He added, further, that two thousand three hundred men + were already armed for the defence of the capital, and + that others were assembling at Taos. +This intelligence created quite a sensation in camp, and it was +believed, and earnestly hoped, that the entrance of the troops into +Santa Fe would be desperately opposed; such is the pugnacious character +of the average American the moment he dons the uniform of a soldier. + +The army arrived at the Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas on the 20th, +and during the march of nearly thirty miles from their last camp, a herd +of about four hundred buffalo suddenly emerged from the Arkansas, and +broke through the long column. In an instant the troops charged upon the +surprised animals with guns, pistols, and even drawn sabres, and many +of the huge beasts were slaughtered as they went dashing and thundering +among the excited troopers and infantrymen. + +On the 29th an express from Bent's Fort brought news to General Kearney +from Santa Fe that Governor Armijo had called the chief men together +to deliberate on the best means of defending the city; that hostile +preparations were rapidly going on in all parts of New Mexico; and that +the American advance would be vigorously opposed. Some Mexican prisoners +were taken near Bent's Fort, with blank letters on their persons +addressed to the general; it was supposed this piece of ingenuity was +resorted to to deceive the American residents at the fort. These men +were thought to be spies sent out from Santa Fe to get an idea of the +strength of the army; so they were shown everything in and around camp, +and then allowed to depart in peace for Santa Fe, to report what they +had seen. + +On the same date, the Army of the West crossed the Arkansas and camped +on Mexican soil about eight miles below Bent's Fort, and now the utmost +vigilance was exercised; for the troops had not only to keep a sharp +lookout for the Mexicans, but for the wily Comanches, in whose country +their camp was located. Strong picket and camp guards were posted, +and the animals turned loose to graze, guarded by a large force. +Notwithstanding the care taken to confine them within certain limits, +a pack of wolves rushed through the herd, and in an instant it was +stampeded, and there ensued a scene of the wildest confusion. More than +a thousand horses were dashing madly over the prairie, their rage and +fright increased at every jump by the lariats and picket-pins which they +had pulled up, and which lashed them like so many whips. After desperate +exertions by the troops, the majority were recovered from thirty to +fifty miles distant; nearly a hundred, however, were absolutely lost and +never seen again. + +At this camp the troops were visited by the war chief of the Arapahoes, +who manifested great surprise at the big guns, and declared that the +Mexicans would not stand a moment before such terrible instruments of +death, but would escape to the mountains with the utmost despatch. + +On the 1st of August a new camp near Bent's Fort was established, from +whence twenty men under Lieutenant de Courcy, with orders to proceed +through the mountains to the valley of Taos, to learn something of the +disposition and intentions of the people, and to rejoin General +Kearney on the road to Santa Fe. Lieutenant de Courcy, in his official +itinerary, relates the following anecdote: + + We took three pack-mules laden with provisions, and as + we did not expect to be long absent, the men took no extra + clothing. Three days after we left the column our mules + fell down, and neither gentle means nor the points of our + sabres had the least effect in inducing them to rise. + Their term of service with Uncle Sam was out. "What's to + be done?" said the sergeant. "Dismount!" said I. + "Off with your shirts and drawers, men! tie up the sleeves + and legs, and each man bag one-twentieth part of the flour!" + Having done this, the bacon was distributed to the men also, + and tied to the cruppers of their saddles. Thus loaded, + we pushed on, without the slightest fear of our provision + train being cut off. + + The march upon Santa Fe was resumed on the 2d of August. + As we passed Bent's Fort the American flag was raised, + in compliment to our troops, and, like our own, streamed + most animatingly in the gale that swept from the desert, + while the tops of the houses were crowded with Mexican girls + and Indian squaws, intently beholding the American army. + +On the 15th of the month, the army neared Las Vegas; when two spies +who had been sent on in advance to see how matters stood returned and +reported that two thousand Mexicans were camped at the pass a few miles +beyond the village, where they intended to offer battle. + +Upon receipt of this news, the general immediately formed a line of +battle. The United States dragoons with the St. Louis mounted volunteers +were stationed in front, Major Clark with the battalion of volunteer +light artillery in the centre, and Colonel Doniphan's regiment in the +rear. The companies of volunteer infantry were deployed on each side +of the line of march as flankers. The supply trains were next in order, +with Captain Walton's mounted company as rear guard. There was also +a strong advance guard. The cartridges were hastily distributed; the +cannon swabbed and rigged; the port-fires burning, and every rifle +loaded. + +In passing through the streets of the curious-looking village of Las +Vegas, the army was halted, and from the roof of a large house General +Kearney administered to the chief officers of the place the oath of +allegiance to the United States, using the sacred cross instead of the +Bible. This act completed, on marched the exultant troops toward the +canyon where it had been promised them that they should meet the enemy. + +On the night of the 16th, while encamped on the Pecos River, near the +village of San Jose, the pickets captured a son of the Mexican General +Salezar, who was acting the rôle of a spy, and two other soldiers of the +Mexican army. Salezar was kept a close prisoner; but the two privates +were by order of General Kearney escorted through the camp and shown the +cannon, after which they were allowed to depart, so that they might tell +what they had seen. It was learned afterward that they represented the +American army as composed of five thousand troops, and possessing so +many cannons that they were not able to count them. + +When Armijo was certain that the Army of the West was really approaching +Santa Fe, he assembled seven thousand troops, part of them well armed, +and the remainder indifferently so. The Mexican general had written a +note to General Kearney the day before the capture of the spies, saying +that he would meet him on the following day. + +General Kearney, at this, hastened on, arriving at the mouth of the +Apache canyon at noon, with his whole force ready and anxious to try the +mettle of the Mexicans in battle. Emory in his _Reconnoissance_ says: + + The sun shone with dazzling brightness; the guidons and + colours of each squadron, regiment, and battalion were + for the first time unfurled. The drooping horses seemed + to take courage from the gay array. The trumpeters + sounded "to horse" with spirit, and the hills multiplied + and re-echoed the call. All wore the aspect of a gala day. + About the middle of the day's march the two Pueblo Indians, + previously sent to sound the chief men of that formidable + tribe, were seen in the distance, at full speed, with arms + and legs both thumping the sides of their mules at every + stride. Something was now surely in the wind. The smaller + and foremost of the two dashed up to the general, his face + radiant with joy, and exclaimed: + + "They are in the canyon, my brave; pluck up your courage + and push them out." As soon as his extravagant delight at + the prospect of a fight, and the pleasure of communicating + the news, had subsided, he gave a pretty accurate idea + of Armijo's force and position. + + Shortly afterwards a rumour reached the camp that the + two thousand Mexicans assembled in the canyon to oppose us, + have quarrelled among themselves; and that Armijo, taking + advantage of the dissensions, has fled with his dragoons + and artillery to the south. It is well known that he has + been averse to a battle, but some of his people threatened + his life if he refused to fight. He had been, for some + days, more in fear of his own people than of the American + army, having seen what they are blind to--the hopelessness + of resistance. + + As we approached the ancient town of Pecos, a large fat + fellow, mounted on a mule, came toward us at full speed, + and, extending his hand to the general, congratulated him + on the arrival of himself and army. He said with a roar + of laughter, "Armijo and his troops have gone to h---ll, + and the canyon is all clear." + +On reaching the canyon, it was found to be true that the Mexican troops +had dispersed and fled to the mountains, just as the old Arapahoe chief +had said they would. There, however, they commenced to fortify, by +chopping away the timber so that their artillery could play to better +advantage upon the American lines, and by throwing up temporary +breastworks. It was ascertained afterward, on undoubted authority, that +Armijo had an army of nearly seven thousand Mexicans, with six pieces of +artillery, and the advantage of ground, yet he allowed General Kearney, +with a force of less than two thousand, to march through the almost +impregnable gorge, and on to the capital of the Province, without any +attempt to oppose him. + +Thus was New Mexico conquered with but little loss relatively. For the +further details of the movements of the Army of the West, the reader is +referred to general history, as this book, necessarily, treats only +of that portion of its march and the incidents connected with it while +travelling the Santa Fe Trail. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE VALLEY OF TAOS. + + + +The principal settlement in New Mexico, immediately after it was +reconquered from the Indians by the Spaniards, was, of course, Santa +Fe, and ranking second to it, that of the beautiful Valle de Taos, +which derived its name from the Taosa Indians, a few of whose direct +descendants are still occupying a portion of the region. As the pioneers +in the trade with Santa Fe made their first journeys to the capital of +the Province by the circuitous route of the Taos valley, and the initial +consignments of goods from the Missouri were disposed of in the little +villages scattered along the road, the story of the Trail would be +deficient in its integrity were the thrilling historical facts connected +with the romantic region omitted. + +The reader will find on all maps, from the earliest published to the +latest issued by the local railroads, a town with the name of Taos, +which never had an existence. Fernandez de Taos is the chief city, +which has been known so long by the title of the valley that perhaps the +misnomer is excusable after many years' use. + +Fernandez, or Taos as it is called, was once famous for its distilleries +of whiskey, made out of the native wheat, a raw, fiery spirit, always +known in the days of the Santa Fe trade as "Taos lightning," which was +the most profitable article of barter with the Indians, who exchanged +their buffalo robes and other valuable furs for a supply of it, at a +tremendous sacrifice. + +According to the statement of Gregg, the first white settler of +the fertile and picturesque valley was a Spaniard named Pando, who +established himself there about 1745. This primitive pioneer of the +northern part of the Province was constantly exposed to the raids of +the powerful Comanches, but succeeded in creating a temporary friendship +with the tribe by promising his daughter, then a young and beautiful +infant, to the chief in marriage when she arrived at a suitable age. At +the time for the ratification of her father's covenant with the Indians, +however, the maiden stubbornly refused to fulfil her part. The savages, +enraged at the broken faith of the Spaniard, immediately swept down upon +the little settlement and murdered everybody there except the betrothed +girl, whom they carried off into captivity. She was forced to live with +the chief as his wife, but he soon became tired of her and traded +her for another woman with the Pawnees, who, in turn, sold her to a +Frenchman, a resident of St. Louis. It is said that some of the most +respectable families of that city are descended from her, and fifty +years ago there were many people living who remembered the old lady, and +her pathetic story of trials and sufferings when with the Indians. + +The most tragic event in the history of the valley was the massacre of +the provisional governor of the Territory of New Mexico, with a number +of other Americans, shortly after its occupation by the United States. + +Upon General Kearney's taking possession of Santa Fe, acting under the +authority of the President, he established a civil government and put +it into operation. Charles Bent was appointed governor, and the other +offices filled by Americans and Mexicans who were rigidly loyal to the +political change. At this time the command of the troops devolved +upon Colonel Sterling Price, Colonel Doniphan, who ranked him, +having departed from Santa Fe on an expedition against the Navajoes. +Notwithstanding the apparent submission of the natives of New Mexico, +there were many malcontents among them and the Pueblo Indians, and early +in December, some of the leaders, dissatisfied with the change in the +order of things, held secret meetings and formulated plots to overthrow +the existing government. + +Midnight of the 24th of December was the time appointed for the +commencement of their revolutionary work, which was to be simultaneous +all over the country. The profoundest secrecy was to be preserved, +and the most influential men, whose ambition induced them to seek +preferment, were alone to be made acquainted with the plot. No woman was +to be privy to it, lest it should be divulged. The sound of the church +bell was to be the signal, and at midnight all were to enter the Plaza +at the same moment, seize the pieces of artillery, and point them into +the streets. + +The time chosen for the assault was Christmas-eve, when the soldiers and +garrison would be indulging in wine and feasting, and scattered about +through the city at the fandangoes, not having their arms in their +hands. All the Americans, without distinction, throughout the State, and +such New Mexicans as had favoured the American government and accepted +office by appointment of General Kearney, were to be massacred or driven +from the country, and the conspirators were to seize upon and occupy the +government. + +The conspiracy was detected in the following manner: a mulatto girl, +residing in Santa Fe, had married one of the conspirators, and had by +degrees obtained a knowledge of their movements and secret meetings. To +prevent the effusion of blood, which would inevitably be the result of a +revolution, she communicated to Colonel Price all the facts of which +she was in possession, and warned him to use the utmost vigilance. The +rebellion was immediately suppressed, but the restless and unsatisfied +ambition of the leaders of the conspiracy did not long permit them +to remain inactive. A second and still more dangerous conspiracy was +formed. The most powerful and influential men in the State favoured the +design, and even the officers of State and the priests gave their +aid and counsel. The people everywhere, in the towns, villages, and +settlements, were exhorted to arm and equip themselves; to strike for +their faith, their religion, and their altars; and drive the "heretics," +the "unjust invaders of the country," from their soil, and with fire and +sword pursue them to annihilation. On the 18th of January this rebellion +broke out in every part of the State simultaneously. + +On the 14th of January, Governor Bent, believing the conspiracy +completely crushed, with an escort of five persons--among whom were the +sheriff and circuit attorney--had left Santa Fe to visit his family, who +resided at Fernandez. + +On the 19th, he was early roused from sleep by the populace, who, with +the aid of the Pueblos of Taos, were collected in front of his dwelling +striving to gain admittance. While they were effecting an entrance, +he, with an axe, cut through an adobe wall into another house; and +the Mexican wife of the occupant, a clever though shiftless Canadian, +hearing him, with all her strength rendered him assistance. He +retreated to a room, but, seeing no way of escaping from the infuriated +assailants, who fired upon him from a window, he spoke to his weeping +wife and trembling children, and, taking paper from his pocket, +endeavoured to write; but fast losing strength, he commended them to God +and his brothers and fell, pierced by a ball from a Pueblo. Then rushing +in and tearing off his gray-haired scalp, the Indians bore it away in +triumph. + +The circuit attorney, T. W. Leal, was scalped alive and dragged through +the streets, his relentless persecutors pricking him with lances. After +hours of suffering, they threw him aside in the inclement weather, he +imploring them earnestly to kill him to end his misery. A compassionate +Mexican at last closed the tragic scene by shooting him. Stephen +Lee, brother to the general, was killed on his own housetop. Narcisse +Beaubien, son of the presiding judge of the district, hid in an outhouse +with his Indian slave, at the commencement of the massacre, under a +straw-covered trough. The insurgents on the search, thinking that they +had escaped, were leaving, but a woman servant of the family, going to +the housetop, called to them, "Kill the young ones, and they will never +be men to trouble us." They swarmed back and, by cruelly putting to +death and scalping him and his slave, added two more to the list of +unfortunate victims. + +The Pueblos and Mexicans, after their cruelties at Fernandez de Taos, +attacked and destroyed Turley's Ranch on the Arroyo Hondo[27] twelve +miles from Fernandez, or Taos. Arroyo Hondo runs along the base of a +ridge of a mountain of moderate elevation, which divides the valley of +Taos from that of the Rio Colorado, or Red River, both flowing into +the Del Norte. The trail from one place to the other passes over the +mountain, which is covered with pine, cedar, and a species of dwarf oak; +and numerous little streams run through the many canyons. + +On the bank of one of the creeks was a mill and distillery belonging +to an American named Turley, who did a thriving business. He possessed +herds of goats, and hogs innumerable; his barns were filled with grain, +his mill with flour, and his cellars with whiskey. He had a Mexican wife +and several children, and he bore the reputation of being one of the +most generous and kind-hearted of men. In times of scarcity, no one ever +sought his aid to be turned away empty-handed; his granaries were always +open to the hungry, and his purse to the poor. + +When on their road to Turley's, the Pueblos murdered two men, named +Harwood and Markhead. Markhead was one of the most successful trappers +and daring men among the old mountaineers. They were on their way to +Taos with their pack-animals laden with furs, when the savages, meeting +them, after stripping them of their goods, and securing their arms by +treachery, made them mount their mules under pretence of conducting +them to Taos, where they were to be given up to the leaders of the +insurrection. They had hardly proceeded a mile when a Mexican rode up +behind Harwood and discharged his gun into his back; he called out to +Markhead that he was murdered, and fell to the ground dead. + +Markhead, seeing that his own fate was sealed, made no struggle, and +was likewise shot in the back with several bullets. Both men were then +stripped naked, scalped, and horribly mutilated; their bodies thrown +into the brush to be devoured by the wolves. + +These trappers were remarkable men; Markhead, particularly, was +celebrated in the mountains for his courage, reckless daring, and many +almost miraculous escapes when in the very hands of the Indians. When +some years previously he had accompanied Sir William Drummond Stewart on +one of his expeditions across the Rockies, it happened that a half-breed +Indian employed by Sir William absconded one night with some animals, +which circumstance annoyed the nobleman so much, as it disturbed all his +plans, that he hastily offered, never dreaming that he would be taken +up, to give five hundred dollars for the scalp of the thief. The very +next evening Markhead rode into camp with the hair of the luckless +horse-thief dangling at the muzzle of his rifle. + +The wild crowd of rebels rode on to Turley's mill. Turley had been +warned of the impending uprising, but had treated the report with +indifference, until one morning a man in his employ, who had been +despatched to Santa Fe with several mule-loads of whiskey a few days +before, made his appearance at the gate on horseback, and hastily +informing the inmates of the mill that the New Mexicans had risen and +massacred Governor Bent and other Americans, galloped off. Even +then Turley felt assured that he would not be molested; but at the +solicitation of his men, he agreed to close the gate of the yard +around which were the buildings of the mill and distillery, and make +preparations for defence. + +A few hours afterward a large crowd of Mexicans and Pueblo Indians +made their appearance, all armed with guns and bows and arrows, and, +advancing with a white flag, summoned Turley to surrender his house and +the Americans in it, guaranteeing that his own life should be saved, +but that every other American in the valley must be destroyed; that the +governor and all the Americans at Fernandez had been killed, and that +not one was to be left alive in all New Mexico. + +To this summons Turley answered that he would never surrender his house +nor his men, and that if they wanted it or them, they must take them. + +The enemy then drew off, and, after a short consultation, commenced the +attack. The first day they numbered about five hundred, but were hourly +reinforced by the arrival of parties of Indians from the more distant +Pueblos, and New Mexicans from Fernandez, La Canada, and other places. + +The building lay at the foot of a gradual slope in the sierra, which was +covered with cedar bushes. In front ran the stream of the Arroyo Hondo, +about twenty yards from one side of the square, and the other side was +broken ground which rose abruptly and formed the bank of the ravine. In +the rear and behind the still-house was some garden ground enclosed by a +small fence, into which a small wicket-gate opened from the corral. + +As soon as the attack was determined upon, the assailants scattered +and concealed themselves under cover of the rocks and bushes which +surrounded the house. From these they kept up an incessant fire upon +every exposed portion of the building where they saw preparations for +defence. + +The Americans, on their part, were not idle; not a man but was an +old mountaineer, and each had his trusty rifle, with a good store of +ammunition. Whenever one of the besiegers exposed a hand's-breadth of +his person, a ball from an unerring barrel whistled. The windows had +been blockaded, loopholes having been left, and through these a lively +fire was maintained. Already several of the enemy had bitten the dust, +and parties were seen bearing off the wounded up the banks of the +Canada. Darkness came on, and during the night a continual fire was kept +up on the mill, whilst its defenders, reserving their ammunition, kept +their posts with stern and silent determination. The night was spent +in casting balls, cutting patches, and completing the defences of the +building. In the morning the fight was renewed, and it was found that +the Mexicans had effected a lodgment in a part of the stables, which +were separated from the other portions of the building by an open space +of a few feet. The assailants, during the night, had sought to break +down the wall, and thus enter the main building, but the strength of the +adobe and logs of which it was composed resisted effectually all their +attempts. + +Those in the stable seemed anxious to regain the outside, for their +position was unavailable as a means of annoyance to the besieged, and +several had darted across the narrow space which divided it from the +other part of the building, which slightly projected, and behind which +they were out of the line of fire. As soon, however, as the attention of +the defenders was called to this point, the first man who attempted to +cross, who happened to be a Pueblo chief, was dropped on the instant, +and fell dead in the centre of the intervening space. It appeared to be +an object to recover the body, for an Indian immediately dashed out to +the fallen chief, and attempted to drag him within the shelter of the +wall. The rifle which covered the spot again poured forth its deadly +contents, and the Indian, springing into the air, fell over the body +of his chief. Another and another met with a similar fate, and at last +three rushed to the spot, and, seizing the body by the legs and head, +had already lifted it from the ground, when three puffs of smoke blew +from the barricaded windows, followed by the sharp cracks of as many +rifles, and the three daring Indians were added to the pile of corpses +which now covered the body of the dead chief. + +As yet the besieged had met with no casualties; but after the fall of +the seven Indians, the whole body of the assailants, with a shout +of rage, poured in a rattling volley, and two of the defenders fell +mortally wounded. One, shot through the loins, suffered great agony, +and was removed to the still-house, where he was laid on a large pile of +grain, as being the softest bed that could be found. + +In the middle of the day the attack was renewed more fiercely than +before. The little garrison bravely stood to the defence of the mill, +never throwing away a shot, but firing coolly, and only when a fair mark +was presented to their unerring aim. Their ammunition, however, was fast +failing, and to add to the danger of their situation, the enemy set fire +to the mill, which blazed fiercely, and threatened destruction to the +whole building. Twice they succeeded in overcoming the flames, and, +while they were thus occupied, the Mexicans and Indians charged into the +corral, which was full of hogs and sheep, and vented their cowardly rage +upon the animals, spearing and shooting all that came in their way. No +sooner were the flames extinguished in one place than they broke out +more fiercely in another; and as a successful defence was perfectly +hopeless, and the numbers of the assailants increased every moment, a +council of war was held by the survivors of the little garrison, when +it was determined, as soon as night approached, that every one should +attempt to escape as best he could. + +Just at dusk a man named John Albert and another ran to the wicket-gate +which opened into a kind of enclosed space, in which were a number of +armed Mexicans. They both rushed out at the same moment, discharging +their rifles full in the face of the crowd. Albert, in the confusion, +threw himself under the fence, whence he saw his companion shot down +immediately, and heard his cries for mercy as the cowards pierced him +with knives and lances. He lay without motion under the fence, and +as soon as it was quite dark he crept over the logs and ran up the +mountain, travelled by day and night, and, scarcely stopping or resting, +reached the Greenhorn, almost dead with hunger and fatigue. Turley +himself succeeded in escaping from the mill and in reaching the mountain +unseen. Here he met a Mexican mounted on a horse, who had been a most +intimate friend of his for many years. To this man Turley offered his +watch for the use of the horse, which was ten times more than it was +worth, but was refused. The inhuman wretch, however, affected pity +and consideration for the fugitive, and advised him to go to a certain +place, where he would bring or send him assistance; but on reaching the +mill, which was a mass of fire, he immediately informed the Mexicans of +Turley's place of concealment, whither a large party instantly proceeded +and shot him to death. + +Two others escaped and reached Santa Fe in safety. The mill and Turley's +house were sacked and gutted, and all his hard-earned savings, which +were concealed in gold about the house, were discovered, and, of course, +seized upon by the victorious Mexicans. + +The following account is taken from Governor Prince's chapter on the +fight at Taos, in his excellent and authentic _History of New Mexico_:-- + + The startling news of the assassination of the governor was + swiftly carried to Santa Fe, and reached Colonel Price the + next day. Simultaneously, letters were discovered calling + on the people of the Rio Abajo to secure Albuquerque and + march northward to aid the other insurgents; and news + speedily followed that a united Mexican and Pueblo force of + large magnitude was marching down the Rio Grande valley + toward the capital, flushed with the success of the revolt + at Taos. Very few troops were in Santa Fe; in fact, the + number remaining in the whole territory was very small, + and these were scattered at Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and + other distant points. At the first-named town were Major + Edmonson and Captain Burgwin; the former in command of the + town, and the latter with a company of the First Dragoons. + + Colonel Price lost no time in taking such measures as his + limited resources permitted. Edmonson was directed to come + immediately to Santa Fe to take command of the capital; and + Burgwin to follow Price as fast as possible to the scene + of hostilities. The colonel himself collected the few + troops at Santa Fe, which were all on foot, but fortunately + included the little battalion which under Captain Aubrey + had made such extraordinary marches on the journey across + the plains as to almost outwalk the cavalry. With these + was a volunteer company formed of nearly all of the American + inhabitants of the city, under the command of Colonel Ceran + St. Vrain, who happened to be in Santa Fe, together with + Judge Beaubien, at the time of the rising at Taos. + With this little force, amounting in all to three hundred + and ten men, Colonel Price started to march to Taos, or at + all events to meet the army which was coming toward the + capital from the north and which grew as it marched by + constant accessions from the surrounding country. + The city of Santa Fe was left in charge of a garrison under + Lieutenant-Colonel Willock. While the force was small + and the volunteers without experience in regular warfare, + yet all were nerved to desperation by the belief, since + the Taos murders, that the only alternative was victory + or annihilation. + + The expedition set out on January 23d, and the next day + the Mexican army, under command of General Montoya as + commander-in-chief, aided by Generals Tafoya and Chavez, + was found occupying the heights commanding the road near + La Canada (Santa Cruz), with detachments in some strong + adobe houses near the river banks. The advance had been + seen shortly before at the rocky pass, on the road from + Pojuaque; and near there and before reaching the river, the + San Juan Pueblo Indians, who had joined the revolutionists + reluctantly and under a kind of compulsion, surrendered and + were disarmed by removing the locks from their guns. + On arriving at the Canada, Price ordered his howitzers to + the front and opened fire; and after a sharp cannonade, + directed an assault on the nearest houses by Aubrey's + battalion. Meanwhile an attempt by a Mexican detachment + to cut off the American baggage-wagons, which had not yet + come up, was frustrated by the activity of St. Vrain's + volunteers. A charge all along the line was then ordered + and handsomely executed; the houses, which, being of adobe, + had been practically so many ready-made forts, were + successively carried, and St. Vrain started in advance to + gain the Mexican rear. Seeing this manoeuvre, and fearing + its effects, the Mexicans retreated, leaving thirty-six + dead on the field. Among those killed was General Tafoya, + who bravely remained on the field after the remainder had + abandoned it, and was shot. + + Colonel Price pressed on up the river as fast as possible, + passing San Juan, and at Los Luceros, on the 28th, his + little army was rejoiced at the arrival of reinforcements, + consisting of a mounted company of cavalry, Captain Burgwin's + company, which had been pushed up by forced marches on foot + from Albuquerque, and a six-pounder brought by Lieutenant + Wilson. Thus enlarged, the American force consisted of + four hundred and eighty men, and continued its advance up + the valley to La Joya, which was as far as the river road at + that time extended. Meanwhile the Mexicans had established + themselves in a narrow pass near Embudo, where the forest + was dense, and the road impracticable for wagons or cannon, + the troops occupying the sides of the mountains on both + sides of the canyon. Burgwin was sent with three companies + to dislodge them and open a passage--no easy task. + But St. Vrain's company took the west slope, and another + the right, while Burgwin himself marched through the gorge + between. The sharp-shooting of these troops did such + terrible execution that the pass was soon cleared, though + not without the display of great heroism, and some loss; + and the Americans entered Embudo without further opposition. + The difficulties of this campaign were greatly increased by + the severity of the weather, the mountains being thickly + covered with snow, and the cold so intense that a number + of men were frost-bitten and disabled. The next day Burgwin + reached Las Trampas, where Price arrived with the remainder + of the American army on the last day of January, and all + together they marched into Chamisal. + + Notwithstanding the cold and snow they pressed on over the + mountain, and on the 3d of February reached the town of + Fernandez de Taos, only to find that the Mexican and Pueblo + force had fortified itself in the celebrated Pueblo of Taos, + about three miles distant. That force had diminished + considerably during the retreat from La Canada, many of the + Mexicans returning to their homes, and its greater part + now consisting of Pueblo Indians. The American troops were + worn out with fatigue and exposure, and in most urgent need + of rest; but their intrepid commander, desiring to give his + opponents no more time to strengthen their works, and full + of zeal and energy, if not of prudence, determined to + commence an immediate attack. + + The two great buildings at this Pueblo, certainly the most + interesting and extraordinary inhabited structures in + America, are well known from descriptions and engravings. + They are five stories high and irregularly pyramidal in + shape, each story being smaller than the one below, in order + to allow ingress to the outer rooms of each tier from the + roofs. Before the advent of artillery these buildings were + practically impregnable, as, when the exterior ladders were + drawn up, there were no means of ingress, the side walls + being solid without openings, and of immense thickness. + Between these great buildings, each of which can accommodate + a multitude of men, runs the clear water of the Taos Creek; + and to the west of the northerly building stood the old + church, with walls of adobe from three to seven and a half + feet in thickness. Outside of all, and having its northwest + corner just beyond the church, ran an adobe wall, built for + protection against hostile Indians and which now answered + for an outer earthwork. The church was turned into a + fortification, and was the point where the insurgents + concentrated their strength; and against this Colonel Price + directed his principal attack. The six-pounder and the + howitzer were brought into position without delay, under + the command of Lieutenant Dyer, then a young graduate of + West Point, and since then chief of ordnance of the + United States army, and opened a fire on the thick adobe + walls. But cannon-balls made little impression on the + massive banks of earth, in which they embedded themselves + without doing damage; and after a fire of two hours, + the battery was withdrawn, and the troops allowed to return + to the town of Taos for their much-needed rest. + + Early the next morning, the troops, now refreshed and ready + for the combat, advanced again to the Pueblo, but found + those within equally prepared. The story of the attack and + capture of this place is so interesting, both on account + of the meeting here of old and new systems of warfare--of + modern artillery with an aboriginal stronghold--and because + the precise localities can be distinguished by the modern + tourist from the description, that it seems best to insert + the official report as presented by Colonel Price. + Nothing could show more plainly how superior strong + earthworks are to many more ambitious structures of defence, + or more forcibly display the courage and heroism of those + who took part in the battle, or the signal bravery of the + accomplished Captain Burgwin which led to his untimely death. + Colonel Price writes: + + "Posting the dragoons under Captain Burgwin about two + hundred and sixty yards from the western flank of the church, + I ordered the mounted men under Captains St. Vrain and Slack + to a position on the opposite side of the town, whence they + could discover and intercept any fugitives who might attempt + to escape toward the mountains, or in the direction of + San Fernando. The residue of the troops took ground about + three hundred yards from the north wall. Here, too, + Lieutenant Dyer established himself with the six-pounder + and two howitzers, while Lieutenant Hassendaubel, of Major + Clark's battalion, light artillery, remained with Captain + Burgwin, in command of two howitzers. By this arrangement + a cross-fire was obtained, sweeping the front and eastern + flank of the church. All these arrangements being made, + the batteries opened upon the town at nine o'clock A.M. + At eleven o'clock, finding it impossible to breach the + walls of the church with the six-pounder and howitzers, + I determined to storm the building. At a signal, Captain + Burgwin, at the head of his own company and that of Captain + McMillin, charged the western flank of the church, while + Captain Aubrey, infantry battalion, and Captain Barber and + Lieutenant Boon, Second Missouri Mounted Volunteers, charged + the northern wall. As soon as the troops above mentioned + had established themselves under the western wall of the + church, axes were used in the attempt to breach it, and a + temporary ladder having been made, the roof was fired. + About this time, Captain Burgwin, at the head of a small + party, left the cover afforded by the flank of the church, + and penetrating into the corral in front of that building, + endeavoured to force the door. In this exposed situation, + Captain Burgwin received a severe wound, which deprived me + of his valuable services, and of which he died on the + 7th instant. Lieutenants McIlvaine, First United States + Dragoons, and Royall and Lackland, Second Regiment + Volunteers, accompanied Captain Burgwin into the corral, + but the attempt on the church door proved fruitless, and + they were compelled to retire behind the wall. In the + meantime, small holes had been cut in the western wall, and + shells were thrown in by hand, doing good execution. + The six-pounder was now brought around by Lieutenant Wilson, + who, at the distance of two hundred yards, poured a heavy + fire of grape into the town. The enemy, during all of + this time, kept up a destructive fire upon our troops. + About half-past three o'clock, the six-pounder was run up + within sixty yards of the church, and after ten rounds, + one of the holes which had been cut with the axes was + widened into a practicable breach. The storming party, + among whom were Lieutenant Dyer, of the ordnance, and + Lieutenant Wilson and Taylor, First Dragoons, entered and + took possession of the church without opposition. + The interior was filled with dense smoke, but for which + circumstance our storming party would have suffered great + loss. A few of the enemy were seen in the gallery, + where an open door admitted the air, but they retired + without firing a gun. The troops left to support the + battery on the north side were now ordered to charge on + that side. + + "The enemy then abandoned the western part of the town. + Many took refuge in the large houses on the east, while + others endeavoured to escape toward the mountains. + These latter were pursued by the mounted men under Captains + Slack and St. Vrain, who killed fifty-one of them, only two + or three men escaping. It was now night, and our troops + were quietly quartered in the house which the enemy had + abandoned. On the next morning the enemy sued for peace, + and thinking the severe loss they had sustained would prove + a salutary lesson, I granted their supplication, on the + condition that they should deliver up to me Tomas, one of + their principal men, who had instigated and been actively + engaged in the murder of Governor Bent and others. + The number of the enemy at the battle of Pueblo de Taos + was between six and seven hundred, and of these one hundred + and fifty were killed, wounded not known. Our own loss was + seven killed and forty-five wounded; many of the wounded + have since died." + + The capture of the Taos Pueblo practically ended the main + attempt to expel the Americans from the Territory. + Governor Montoya, who was a very influential man in the + conspiracy and styled himself the "Santa Ana of the North," + was tried by court-martial, convicted, and executed on + February 7th, in the presence of the army. Fourteen others + were tried for participating in the murder of Governor Bent + and the others who were killed on the 19th of January, and + were convicted and executed. Thus, fifteen in all were + hung, being an equal number to those murdered at Taos, the + Arroyo Hondo, and Rio Colorado. Of these, eight were + Mexicans and seven were Pueblo Indians. Several more were + sentenced to be hung for treason, but the President very + properly pardoned them, on the ground that treason against + the United States was not a crime of which a Mexican + citizen could be found guilty, while his country was + actually at war with the United States. + +There are several thrilling, as well as laughable, incidents +connected with the Taos massacre, and the succeeding trial of the +insurrectionists; in regard to which I shall quote freely from +_Wah-to-yah_, whose author, Mr. Lewis H. Garrard, accompanied Colonel +St. Vrain across the plains in 1846, and was present at the trial and +execution of the convicted participants. + +One Fitzgerald, who was a private in Captain Burgwin's company of +Dragoons, in the fight at the Pueblo de Taos, killed three Mexicans with +his own hand, and performed heroic work with the bombs that were thrown +into that strong Indian fortress. He was a man of good feeling, but +his brother having been killed, or rather murdered by Salazar, while a +prisoner in the Texan expedition against Santa Fe, he swore vengeance, +and entered the service with the hope of accomplishing it. The day +following the fight at the Pueblo, he walked up to the alcalde, and +deliberately shot him down. For this act he was confined to await a +trial for murder. + +One raw night, complaining of cold to his guard, wood was brought, +which he piled up in the middle of the room. Then mounting that, and +succeeding in breaking through the roof, he noiselessly crept to the +eaves, below which a sentinel, wrapped in a heavy cloak, paced to +and fro, to prevent his escape. He watched until the guard's back was +turned, then swung himself from the wall, and with as much ease as +possible, walked to a mess-fire, where his friends in waiting supplied +him with a pistol and clothing. When day broke, the town of Fernandez +lay far beneath him in the valley, and two days after he was safe in our +camp. + +Many a hand-to-hand encounter ensued during the fight at Taos, one of +which was by Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, whom I knew intimately; a grand +old gentleman, now sleeping peacefully in the quaint little graveyard at +Mora, New Mexico, where he resided for many years. The gallant colonel, +while riding along, noticed an Indian with whom he was well acquainted +lying stretched out on the ground as if dead. Confident that this +particular red devil had been especially prominent in the hellish acts +of the massacre, the colonel dismounted from his pony to satisfy himself +whether the savage was really dead or only shamming. He was far from +being a corpse, for the colonel had scarcely reached the spot, when the +Indian jumped to his feet and attempted to run a long, steel-pointed +lance through the officer's shoulder. Colonel St. Vrain was a large, +powerfully built man; so was the Indian, I have been told. As each of +the struggling combatants endeavoured to get the better of the other, +with the savage having a little the advantage, perhaps, it appears that +"Uncle Dick" Wooton, who was in the chase after the rebels, happened to +arrive on the scene, and hitting the Indian a terrific blow on the head +with his axe, settled the question as to his being a corpse. + +Court for the trial of the insurrectionists assembled at nine o'clock. +On entering the room, Judges Beaubien and Houghton were occupying their +official positions. After many dry preliminaries, six prisoners were +brought in--ill-favoured, half-scared, sullen fellows; and the jury of +Mexicans and Americans having been empanelled, the trial commenced. +It certainly did appear to be a great assumption on the part of +the Americans to conquer a country, and then arraign the revolting +inhabitants for treason. American judges sat on the bench. New Mexicans +and Americans filled the jury-box, and American soldiery guarded the +halls. It was a strange mixture of violence and justice--a middle ground +between the martial and common law. + +After an absence of a few minutes, the jury returned with a verdict of +"guilty in the first degree"--five for murder, one for treason. Treason, +indeed! What did the poor devil know about his new allegiance? But so it +was; and as the jail was overstocked with others awaiting trial, it +was deemed expedient to hasten the execution, and the culprits were +sentenced to be hung on the following Friday--hangman's day. + +Court was daily in session; five more Indians and four Mexicans were +sentenced to be hung on the 30th of April. In the court room, on the +occasion of the trial of these nine prisoners, were Senora Bent the late +governor's wife, and Senora Boggs, giving their evidence in regard to +the massacre, of which they were eye-witnesses. Mrs. Bent was quite +handsome; a few years previously she must have been a beautiful woman. +The wife of the renowned Kit Carson also was in attendance. Her style +of beauty was of the haughty, heart-breaking kind--such as would lead a +man, with a glance of the eye, to risk his life for one smile. + +The court room was a small, oblong apartment, dimly lighted by two +narrow windows; a thin railing keeping the bystanders from contact +with the functionaries. The prisoners faced the judges, and the three +witnesses--Senoras Bent, Boggs, and Carson--were close to them on a +bench by the wall. When Mrs. Bent gave her testimony, the eyes of the +culprits were fixed sternly upon her; when she pointed out the Indian +who had killed the governor, not a muscle of the chief's face twitched +or betrayed agitation, though he was aware her evidence settled his +death warrant; he sat with lips gently closed, eyes earnestly fixed +on her, without a show of malice or hatred--a spectacle of Indian +fortitude, and of the severe mastery to which the emotions can be +subjected. + +Among the jurors was a trapper named Baptiste Brown, a Frenchman, as +were the majority of the trappers in the early days of the border. +He was an exceptionally kind-hearted man when he first came to the +mountains, and seriously inclined to regard the Indians with that +mistaken sentimentality characterizing the average New England +philanthropist, who has never seen the untutored savage on his native +heath. His ideas, however, underwent a marked change as the years rolled +on and he became more familiar with the attributes of the noble red man. +He was with Kit Carson in the Blackfeet country many years before the +Taos massacre, when his convictions were thus modified, and it was +from the famous frontiersman himself I learned the story of Baptiste's +conversion. + +It was late one night in their camp on one of the many creeks in the +Blackfoot region, where they had been established for several weeks, and +Baptiste was on duty, guarding their meat and furs from the incursions +of a too inquisitive grizzly that had been prowling around, and the +impertinent investigations of the wolves. His attention was attracted to +something high up in a neighbouring tree, that seemed restless, changing +its position constantly like an animal of prey. The Frenchman drew a +bead upon it, and there came tumbling down at his feet a dead savage, +with his war-paint and other Indian paraphernalia adorning his body. +Baptiste was terribly hurt over the circumstance of having killed an +Indian, and it grieved him for a long time. One day, a month after the +incident, he was riding alone far away from our party, and out of sound +of their rifles as well, when a band of Blackfeet discovered him and +started for his scalp. He had no possible chance for escape except by +the endurance of his horse; so a race for life began. He experienced no +trouble in keeping out of the way of their arrows--the Indians had no +guns then--and hoped to make camp before they could possibly wear out +his horse. Just as he was congratulating himself on his luck, right in +front of him there suddenly appeared a great gorge, and not daring to +stop or to turn to the right or left, the only thing to do was to make +his animal jump it. It was his only chance; it was death if he missed +it, and death by the most horrible torture if the Indians captured him. +So he drove his heels into his horse's sides, and essayed the awful +leap. His willing animal made a desperate effort to carry out the desire +of his daring rider, but the dizzy chasm was too wide, and the pursuing +savages saw both horse and the coveted white man dash to the bottom +of the frightful canyon together. Believing that their hated enemy +had eluded them forever, they rode back on their trail, disgusted and +chagrined, without even taking the trouble of looking over the precipice +to learn the fate of Baptiste. + +The horse was instantly killed, and the Frenchman had both of his legs +badly broken. Far from camp, with the Indians in close proximity, he did +not dare discharge his rifle--the usual signal when a trapper is lost +or in danger--or to make any demonstration, so he was compelled to lie +there and suffer, hoping that his comrades, missing him, would start +out to search for him. They did so, but more than twenty-four hours had +elapsed before they found him, as the bottom of the canyon was the last +place they thought of. + +Doctors, in the wild region where their camp was located, were as +impossible as angels; so his companions set his broken bones as well as +they could, while Baptiste suffered excruciating torture. When they had +completed their crude surgery, they improvised a litter of poles, and +rigged it on a couple of pack-mules, and thus carried him around with +them from camp to camp until he recovered--a period extending over three +months. + +This affair completely cured Baptiste of his original sentimentality in +relation to the Indian, and he became one of their worst haters. + +When acting as a juror in the trials of rebel Mexicans and Indians, he +was asleep half the time, and never heard much of the evidence, and that +portion which he did was so much Greek to him. In the last nine cases, +in which the Indian who had murdered Governor Bent was tried, Baptiste, +as soon as the jury room was closed, sang out: "Hang 'em, hang 'em, +sacre enfans des garces, dey dam gran rascale!" "But wait," suggested +one of the cooler members; "let's look at the evidence and find out +whether they are really guilty." Upon this wise caution, Baptiste got +greatly excited, paced the floor, and cried out: "Hang de Indian anyhow; +he may not be guilty now--mais he vare soon will be. Hang 'em all, +parceque dey kill Monsieur Charles; dey take son topknot, vot you call +im--scalp. Hang 'em, hang 'em--sa-a-cre-e!" + +On Friday the 9th, the day for the execution, the sky was unspotted, +save by hastily fleeting clouds; and as the rising sun loomed over +the Taos Mountain, the bright rays, shining on the yellow and white +mud-houses, reflected cheerful hues, while the shades of the toppling +peaks, receding from the plain beneath, drew within themselves. The +humble valley wore an air of calm repose. The Plaza was deserted; +woe-begone burros drawled forth sacrilegious brays, as the warm sunbeams +roused them from hard, grassless ground, to scent their breakfast among +straw and bones. + +Poor Mexicans hurried to and fro, casting suspicious glances around; +los Yankees at El casa Americano drank their juleps, and puffed their +cigarettes in silence. + +The sheriff, Metcalf, formerly a mountaineer, was in want of the +wherewithal to hang the condemned criminals, so he borrowed some rawhide +lariats and picket-ropes of a teamster. + +"Hello, Met," said one of the party present, "these reatas are mighty +stiff--won't fit; eh, old feller?" + +"I've got something to make 'em fit--good 'intment--don't emit very +sweet perfume; but good enough for Greasers," said the sheriff, +producing a dollar's worth of Mexican soft soap. "This'll make 'em slip +easy--a long ways too easy for them, I 'spect." + +The prison apartment was a long chilly room, badly ventilated by one +small window and the open door, through which the sun lit up the +earth floor, and through which the poor prisoners wistfully gazed. +Two muscular Mexicans basked in its genial warmth, a tattered serape +interposing between them and the ground. The ends, once fringed but +now clear of pristine ornament, were partly drawn over their breasts, +disclosing in the openings of their fancifully colored shirts--now +glazed with filth and faded with perspiration--the bare skin, covered +with straight black hair. With hands under their heads, in the mass of +stringy locks rusty-brown from neglect, they returned the looks of +their executioners with an unmeaning stare, and unheedingly received the +salutation of--"Como le va!" + +Along the sides of the room, leaning against the walls, were crowded the +poor wretches, miserable in dress, miserable in features, miserable +in feelings--a more disgusting collection of ragged, greasy, unwashed +prisoners were, probably, never before congregated within so small a +space as the jail of Taos. + +About nine o'clock, active preparations were made for the execution, and +the soldiery mustered. Reverend padres in long black gowns, with meek +countenances, passed the sentinels, intent on spiritual consolation, or +the administration of the Blessed Sacrament. + +Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, commanding the military, ordered every +American under arms. The prison was at the edge of the town; no houses +intervened between it and the fields to the north. One hundred and fifty +yards distant, a gallows was erected. + +The word was passed, at last, that the criminals were coming. Eighteen +soldiers received them at the gate, with their muskets at "port arms"; +the six abreast, with the sheriff on the right--nine soldiers on each +side. + +The poor prisoners marched slowly, with downcast eyes, arms tied behind, +and bare heads, with the exception of white cotton caps stuck on the +back, to be pulled over the face as the last ceremony. + +The roofs of the houses in the vicinity were covered with women and +children, to witness the first execution by hanging in the valley of +Taos, save that of Montojo, the insurgent leader. No men were near; a +few stood afar off, moodily looking on. + +On the flat jail roof was placed a mountain howitzer, loaded and ranging +the gallows. Near was the complement of men to serve it, one holding in +his hand a lighted match. The two hundred and thirty soldiers, less the +eighteen forming the guard, were paraded in front of the jail, and +in sight of the gibbet, so as to secure the prisoners awaiting trial. +Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, on a handsome charger, commanded a view of +the whole. + +When within fifteen paces of the gallows, the side-guard, filing off to +the right, formed, at regular distances from each other, three sides of +a hollow square; the mountaineers composed the fourth and front side, in +full view of the trembling prisoners, who marched up to the tree under +which was a government wagon, with two mules attached. The driver and +sheriff assisted them in, ranging them on a board, placed across the +hinder end, which maintained its balance, as they were six--an even +number--two on each extremity, and two in the middle. The gallows was +so narrow that they touched. The ropes, by reason of their size +and stiffness, despite the soaping given them, were adjusted with +difficulty; but through the indefatigable efforts of the sheriff and +a lieutenant who had accompanied him, all preliminaries were arranged, +although the blue uniform looked sadly out of place on a hangman. + +With rifles at a "shoulder," the military awaited the consummation +of the tragedy. There was no crowd around to disturb; a death-like +stillness prevailed. The spectators on the roofs seemed scarcely to +move--their eyes were directed to the doomed wretches, with harsh +halters now encircling their necks. + +The sheriff and his assistant sat down; after a few moments of intense +expectation, the heart-wrung victims said a few words to their people. +Only one of them admitted he had committed murder and deserved death. +In their brief but earnest appeals, the words "mi padre, mi madre"--"my +father, my mother"--were prominent. The one sentenced for treason +showed a spirit of patriotism worthy of the cause for which he died--the +liberty of his country; and instead of the cringing recantation of the +others, his speech was a firm asseveration of his own innocence, the +unjustness of his trial, and the arbitrary conduct of his murderers. As +the cap was pulled over his face, the last words he uttered between his +teeth with a scowl were "Carajo, los Americanos!" + +At a word from the sheriff, the mules were started, and the wagon drawn +from under the tree. No fall was given, and their feet remained on the +board till the ropes drew tight. The bodies swayed back and forth, and +while thus swinging, the hands of two came together with a firm grasp +till the muscles loosened in death. + +After forty minutes' suspension, Colonel Willock ordered his command to +quarters, and the howitzer to be taken from its place on the roof of the +jail. The soldiers were called away; the women and population in general +collecting around the rear guard which the sheriff had retained for +protection while delivering the dead to their weeping relatives. + +While cutting a rope from one man's neck--for it was in a hard knot--the +owner, a government teamster standing by waiting, shouted angrily, at +the same time stepping forward: + +"Hello there! don't cut that rope; I won't have anything to tie my mules +with." + +"Oh! you darned fool," interposed a mountaineer, "the dead men's ghosts +will be after you if you use them lariats--wagh! They'll make meat of +you sartain." + +"Well, I don't care if they do. I'm in government service; and if them +picket-halters was gone, slap down goes a dollar apiece. Money's scarce +in these diggin's, and I'm going to save all I kin to take home to the +old woman and boys." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. + + + +On the summit of one of the highest plateaus bordering the Missouri +River, surrounded by a rich expanse of foliage, lies Independence, the +beautiful residence suburb of Kansas City, only ten miles distant. + +Tradition tells that early in this century there were a few pioneers +camping at long distances from each other in the seemingly interminable +woods; in summer engaged in hunting the deer, elk, and bear, and in +winter in trapping. It is a well-known fact that the Big Blue was once +a favourite resort of the beaver, and that even later their presence in +great numbers attracted many a veteran trapper to its waters. + +Before that period the quaint old cities of far-off Mexico were +forbidden to foreign traders, excepting to the favoured few who were +successful in obtaining permits from the Spanish government. In 1821, +however, the rebellion of Iturbide crushed the power of the mother +country, and established the freedom of Mexico. The embargo upon foreign +trade was at once removed, and the Santa Fe Trail, for untold ages +only a simple trace across the continent, became the busy highway of a +relatively great commerce. + +In 1817 the navigation of the Mississippi River was begun. On the 2d of +August of that year the steamer _General Pike_ arrived at St. Louis. +The first boat to ascend the Missouri River was the _Independence_; she +passed Franklin on the 28th of May, 1819, where a dinner was given to +her officers. In the same and the following month of that year, the +steamers _Western Engineer Expedition_ and _R. M. Johnson_ came +along, carrying Major Long's scientific exploring party, bound for the +Yellowstone. + +The Santa Fe trade having been inaugurated shortly after these important +events, those engaged in it soon realized the benefits of river +navigation--for it enabled them to shorten the distance which their +wagons had to travel in going across the plains--and they began to look +out for a suitable place as a shipping and outfitting point higher up +the river than Franklin, which had been the initial starting town. + +By 1827 trading-posts had been established at Blue Mills, Fort Osage, +and Independence. The first-mentioned place, which is situated about +six miles below Independence, soon became the favourite landing, and the +exchange from wagons to boats settled and defied all efforts to +remove the headquarters of the trade from there for several years. +Independence, however, being the county seat and the larger place, +succeeded in its claims to be the more suitable locality, and as early +as 1832 it was recognized as the American headquarters and the great +outfitting point for the Santa Fe commerce, which it continued to be +until 1846, when the traffic was temporarily suspended by the breaking +out of the Mexican War. + +Independence was not only the principal outfitting point for the Santa +Fe traders, but also that of the great fur companies. That powerful +association used to send out larger pack-trains than any other parties +engaged in the traffic to the Rocky Mountains; they also employed wagons +drawn by mules, and loaded with goods for the Indians with whom their +agents bartered, which also on their return trip transported the skins +and pelts of animals procured from the savages. The articles intended +for the Indian trade were always purchased in St. Louis, and usually +shipped to Independence, consigned to the firm of Aull and Company, who +outfitted the traders with mules and provisions, and in fact anything +else required by them. + +Several individual traders would frequently form joint caravans, and +travel in company for mutual protection from the Indians. After having +reached a fifty-mile limit from the State line, each trader had control +of his own men; each took care of a certain number of the pack-animals, +loaded and unloaded them in camp, and had general supervision of them. + +Frequently there would be three hundred mules in a single caravan, +carrying three hundred pounds apiece, and very large animals more. +Thousands of wagons were also sent out from Independence annually, +each drawn by twelve mules or six yoke of oxen, and loaded with general +merchandise. + +There were no packing houses in those days nearer than St. Louis, and +the bacon and beef used in the Santa Fe trade were furnished by the +farmers of the surrounding country, who killed their meat, cured it, +and transported it to the town where they sold it. Their wheat was +also ground at the local mills, and they brought the flour to market, +together with corn, dried fruit, beans, peas, and kindred provisions +used on the long route across the plains. + +Independence very soon became the best market west of St. Louis +for cattle, mules, and wagons; the trade of which the place was the +acknowledged headquarters furnishing employment to several thousand men, +including the teamsters and packers on the Trail. The wages paid varied +from twenty-five to fifty dollars a month and rations. The price charged +for hauling freight to Santa Fe was ten dollars a hundred pounds, each +wagon earning from five to six hundred dollars every trip, which was +made in eighty or ninety days; some fast caravans making quicker time. + +The merchants and general traders of Independence in those days reaped a +grand harvest. Everything to eat was in constant demand; mules and oxen +were sold in great numbers every month at excellent prices and always +for cash; while any good stockman could readily make from ten to fifty +dollars a day. + +One of the largest manufacturers and most enterprising young men in +Independence at that time was Hiram Young, a coloured man. Besides +making hundreds of wagons, he made all the ox-yokes used in the entire +traffic; fifty thousand annually during the '50's and until the breaking +out of the war. The forward yokes were sold at an average of one dollar +and a quarter, the wheel yokes a dollar higher. + +The freight transported by the wagons was always very securely loaded; +each package had its contents plainly marked on the outside. The wagons +were heavily covered and tightly closed. Every man belonging to the +caravan was thoroughly armed, and ever on the alert to repulse an attack +by the Indians. + +Sometimes at the crossing of the Arkansas the quicksands were so bad +that it was necessary to get the caravan over in a hurry; then forty or +fifty yoke of oxen were hitched to one wagon and it was quickly yanked +through the treacherous ford. This was not always the case, however; it +depended upon the stage of water and recent floods. + +After the close of the war with Mexico, the freight business across the +plains increased to a wonderful degree. The possession of the country by +the United States gave a fresh impetus to the New Mexico trade, and +the traffic then began to be divided between Westport and Kansas City. +Independence lost control of the overland commerce and Kansas City +commenced its rapid growth. Then came the discovery of gold in +California, and this gave an increased business westward; for thousands +of men and their families crossed the plains and the Rocky Mountains, +seeking their fortunes in the new El Dorado. The Old Trail was the +highway of an enormous pilgrimage, and both Independence and Kansas City +became the initial point of a wonderful emigration. + +In Independence may still be seen a few of the old landmarks when it was +the headquarters of the Santa Fe trade. + +An overland mail was started from the busy town as early as 1849. In an +old copy of the Missouri _Commonwealth_, published there under the date +of July, 1850, which I found on file in the Kansas State Historical +Society, there is the following account of the first mail stage +westward:-- + + We briefly alluded, some days since, to the Santa Fe line + of mail stages, which left this city on its first monthly + journey on the 1st instant. The stages are got up in + elegant style, and are each arranged to convey eight + passengers. The bodies are beautifully painted, and made + water-tight, with a view of using them as boats in ferrying + streams. The team consists of six mules to each coach. + The mail is guarded by eight men, armed as follows: Each man + has at his side, fastened in the stage, one of Colt's + revolving rifles; in a holster below, one of Colt's long + revolvers, and in his belt a small Colt's revolver, besides + a hunting-knife; so that these eight men are ready, in case + of attack, to discharge one hundred and thirty-six shots + without having to reload. This is equal to a small army, + armed as in the ancient times, and from the looks of this + escort, ready as they are, either for offensive or defensive + warfare with the savages, we have no fears for the safety + of the mails. + + The accommodating contractors have established a sort of + base of refitting at Council Grove, a distance of one + hundred and fifty miles from this city, and have sent out + a blacksmith, and a number of men to cut and cure hay, with + a quantity of animals, grain, and provisions; and we + understand they intend to make a sort of traveling station + there, and to commence a farm. They also, we believe, + intend to make a similar settlement at Walnut Creek next + season. Two of their stages will start from here the + first of every month. + +The old stage-coach days were times of Western romance and adventure, +and the stories told of that era of the border have a singular +fascination in this age of annihilation of distance. + +Very few, if any, of the famous men who handled the "ribbons" in those +dangerous days of the slow journey across the great plains are among +the living; like the clumsy and forgotten coaches they drove, they have +themselves been mouldering into dust these many years. + +In many places on the line of the Trail, where the hard hills have not +been subjected to the plough, the deep ruts cut by the lumbering Concord +coaches may yet be distinctly traced. Particularly are they visible from +the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe track, as the cars thunder rapidly +toward the city of Great Bend, in Kansas, three miles east of that town. +Let the tourist as he crosses Walnut Creek look out of his window toward +the east at an angle of about thirty-five degrees, and on the flint +hills which slope gradually toward the railroad, he will observe, very +distinctly, the Old Trail, where it once drew down from the divide to +make the ford at the little stream. + +The monthly stages started from each end of the route at the same time; +later the service was increased to once a week; after a while to three +times, until in the early '60's daily stages were run from both ends of +the route, and this was continued until the advent of the railroad. + +Each coach carried eleven passengers, nine closely stowed inside--three +on a seat--and two on the outside on the boot with the driver. The fare +to Santa Fe was two hundred and fifty dollars, the allowance of baggage +being limited to forty pounds; all in excess of that cost half a dollar +a pound. In this now seemingly large sum was included the board of the +travellers, but they were not catered to in any extravagant manner; +hardtack, bacon, and coffee usually exhausted the menu, save that at +times there was an abundance of antelope and buffalo. + +There was always something exciting in those journeys from the Missouri +to the mountains in the lumbering Concord coach. There was the constant +fear of meeting the wily red man, who persistently hankered after +the white man's hair. Then there was the playfulness of the sometimes +drunken driver, who loved to upset his tenderfoot travellers in some +arroya, long after the moon had sunk below the horizon. + +It required about two weeks to make the trip from the Missouri River to +Santa Fe, unless high water or a fight with the Indians made it several +days longer. The animals were changed every twenty miles at first, but +later, every ten, when faster time was made. What sleep was taken could +only be had while sitting bolt upright, because there was no laying +over; the stage continued on night and day until Santa Fe was reached. + +After a few years, the company built stations at intervals varying +from ten miles to fifty or more; and there the animals and drivers +were changed, and meals furnished to travellers, which were always +substantial, but never elegant in variety or cleanliness. + +Who can ever forget those meals at the "stations," of which you were +obliged to partake or go hungry: biscuit hard enough to serve as +"round-shot," and a vile decoction called, through courtesy, coffee--but +God help the man who disputed it! + +Some stations, however, were notable exceptions, particularly in the +mountains of New Mexico, where, aside from the bread--usually only +tortillas, made of the blue-flint corn of the country--and coffee +composed of the saints may know what, the meals were excellent. The +most delicious brook trout, alternating with venison of the black-tailed +deer, elk, bear, and all the other varieties of game abounding in the +region cost you one dollar, but the station-keeper a mere trifle; no +wonder the old residents and ranchmen on the line of the Old Trail +lament the good times of the overland stage! + +Thirteen years ago I revisited the once well-known Kosloskie's Ranch, +a picturesque cabin at the foot of the Glorieta Mountains, about half a +mile from the ruins on the Rio Pecos. The old Pole was absent, but his +wife was there; and, although I had not seen her for fifteen years, she +remembered me well, and at once began to deplore the changed condition +of the country since the advent of the railroad, declaring it had ruined +their family with many others. I could not disagree with her view of +the matter, as I looked on the debris of a former relative greatness +all around me. I recalled the fact that once Kosloskie's Ranch was the +favourite eating station on the Trail; where you were ever sure of a +substantial meal--the main feature of which was the delicious brook +trout, which were caught out of the stream which ran near the door while +you were washing the dust out of your eyes and ears. + +The trout have vacated the Pecos; the ranch is a ruin, and stands in +grim contrast with the old temple and church on the hill; and both are +monuments of civilizations that will never come again. + +Weeds and sunflowers mark the once broad trail to the quaint Aztec city, +and silence reigns in the beautiful valley, save when broken by the +passage of "The Flyer" of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railway, as +it struggles up the heavy grade of the Glorieta Mountains a mile or more +distant. + +Besides the driver, there was another employee--the conductor or +messenger, as he was called. He had charge of the mail and express +matter, collected the fares, and attended generally to the requirements +of those committed to his care during the tedious journey; for he was +not changed like the driver, but stayed with the coach from its starting +to its destination. Sometimes fourteen individuals were accommodated in +case of emergency; but it was terribly crowded and uncomfortable riding, +with no chance to stretch your limbs, save for a few moments at stations +where you ate and changed animals. + +In starting from Independence, powerful horses were attached to the +coach--generally four in number; but at the first station they were +exchanged for mules, and these animals hauled it the remainder of the +way. Drivers were changed about eight times in making the trip to +Santa Fe; and some of them were comical fellows, but full of nerve and +endurance, for it required a man of nerve to handle eight frisky mules +through the rugged passes of the mountains, when the snow was drifted +in immense masses, or when descending the curved, icy declivities to +the base of the range. A cool head was highly necessary; but frequently +accidents occurred and sometimes were serious in their results. + +A snowstorm in the mountains was a terrible thing to encounter by the +coach; all that could be done was to wait until it had abated, as there +was no going on in the face of the blinding sheets of intensely cold +vapour which the wind hurled against the sides of the mountains. +All inside of the coach had to sit still and shake with the freezing +branches of the tall trees around them. A summer hailstorm was much more +to be dreaded, however; for nowhere else on the earth do the hailstones +shoot from the clouds of greater size or with greater velocity than in +the Rocky Mountains. Such an event invariably frightened the mules and +caused them to stampede; and, to escape death from the coach rolling +down some frightful abyss, one had to jump out, only to be beaten to +a jelly by the masses of ice unless shelter could be found under some +friendly ledge of rock or the thick limbs of a tree. + +Nothing is more fatiguing than travelling for the first day and night +in a stage-coach; after that, however, one gets used to it and the +remainder of the journey is relatively comfortable. + +The only way to alleviate the monotony of riding hour after hour was +to walk; occasionally this was rendered absolutely necessary by some +accident, such as breaking a wheel or axle, or when an animal gave out +before a station was reached. In such cases, however, no deduction was +made from the fare, that having been collected in advance, so it cost +you just as much whether you rode or walked. You could exercise your +will in the matter, but you must not lag behind the coach; the savages +were always watching for such derelicts, and your hair was the forfeit! + +In the worst years, when the Indians were most decidedly on the +war-trail, the government furnished an escort of soldiers from the +military posts; they generally rode in a six-mule army-wagon, and were +commanded by a sergeant or corporal; but in the early days, before the +army had concentrated at the various forts on the great plains, +the stage had to rely on the courage and fighting qualities of its +occupants, and the nerve and the good judgment of the driver. If the +latter understood his duty thoroughly and was familiar with the methods +of the savages, he always chose the cover of darkness in which to travel +in localities where the danger from Indians was greater than elsewhere; +for it is a rare thing in savage warfare to attack at night. The early +morning seemed to be their favourite hour, when sleep oppresses most +heavily; and then it was that the utmost vigilance was demanded. + +One of the most confusing things to the novice riding over the great +plains is the idea of distance; mile after mile is travelled on the +monotonous trail, with a range of hills or a low divide in full sight, +yet hours roll by and the objects seem no nearer than when they were +first observed. The reason for this seems to be that every atom of +vapour is eliminated from the air, leaving such an absolute clearness +of atmosphere, such an indescribable transparency of space through which +distant objects are seen, that they are magnified and look nearer than +they really are. Consequently, the usual method of calculating distance +and areas by the eye is ever at fault until custom and familiarity force +a new standard of measure. + +Mirages, too, were of frequent occurrence on the great plains; some +of them wonderful examples of the refracting properties of light. They +assumed all manner of fantastic, curious shapes, sometimes ludicrously +distorting the landscape; objects, like a herd of buffalo for instance, +though forty miles away, would seem to be high in air, often reversed, +and immensely magnified in their proportions. + +Violent storms were also frequent incidents of the long ride. I well +remember one night, about thirty years ago, when the coach in which I +and one of my clerks were riding to Fort Dodge was suddenly brought to +a standstill by a terrible gale of wind and hail. The mules refused to +face it, and quickly turning around nearly overturned the stage, while +we, with the driver and conductor, were obliged to hold on to the wheels +with all our combined strength to prevent it from blowing down into +a stony ravine, on the brink of which we were brought to a halt. +Fortunately, these fearful blizzards did not last very long; the wind +ceased blowing so violently in a few moments, but the rain usually +continued until morning. + +It usually happened that you either at once took a great liking for your +driver and conductor, or the reverse. Once, on a trip from Kansas City, +nearly a third of a century ago, when I and another man were the only +occupants of the coach, we entertained quite a friendly feeling for +our driver; he was a good-natured, jolly fellow, full of anecdote +and stories of the Trail, over which he had made more than a hundred +sometimes adventurous journeys. + +When we arrived at the station at Plum Creek, the coach was a little +ahead of time, and the driver who was there to relieve ours commenced to +grumble at the idea of having to start out before the regular hour. He +found fault because we had come into the station so soon, and swore he +could drive where our man could not "drag a halter-chain," as he claimed +in his boasting. We at once took a dislike to him, and secretly wished +that he would come to grief, in order to cure him of his boasting. Sure +enough, before we had gone half a mile from the station he incontinently +tumbled the coach over into a sandy arroya, and we were delighted at the +accident. Finding ourselves free from any injury, we went to work +and assisted him to right the coach--no small task; but we took great +delight in reminding him several times of his ability to drive where our +old friend could not "drag a halter-chain." It was very dark; neither +moon or star visible, the whole heavens covered with an inky blackness +of ominous clouds; so he was not so much to be blamed after all. + +The very next coach was attacked at the crossing of Cow Creek by a band +of Kiowas. The savages had followed the stage all that afternoon, but +remained out of sight until just at dark, when they rushed over the +low divide, and mounted on their ponies commenced to circle around +the coach, making the sand dunes resound with echoes of their infernal +yelling, and shaking their buffalo-robes to stampede the mules, at the +same time firing their guns at the men who were in the coach, all of +whom made a bold stand, but were rapidly getting the worst of it, when +fortunately a company of United States cavalry came over the Trail from +the west, and drove the savages off. Two of the men in the coach were +seriously wounded, and one of the soldiers killed; but the Indian loss +was never determined, as they succeeded in carrying off both their dead +and wounded. + +Mr. W. H. Ryus, a friend of mine now residing in Kansas City, who was a +driver and messenger thirty-five years, and had many adventures, told me +the following incidents: + + I have crossed the plains sixty-five times by wagon and + coach. In July, 1861, I was employed by Barnum, Vickery, + and Neal to drive over what was known as the Long Route, + that is, from Fort Larned to Fort Lyon, two hundred and + forty miles, with no station between. We drove one set of + mules the whole distance, camped out, and made the journey, + in good weather, in four or five days. In winter we + generally encountered a great deal of snow, and very cold + air on the bleak and wind-swept desert of the Upper Arkansas, + but we employees got used to that; only the passengers did + any kicking. We had a way of managing them, however, + when they got very obstreperous; all we had to do was to + yell Indians! and that quieted them quicker than forty-rod + whiskey does a man. + + We gathered buffalo-chips, to boil our coffee and cook our + buffalo and antelope steak, smoked for a while around the + smouldering fire until the animals were through grazing, + and then started on our lonely way again. + + Sometimes the coach would travel for a hundred miles through + the buffalo herds, never for a moment getting out of sight + of them; often we saw fifty thousand to a hundred thousand + on a single journey out or in. The Indians used to call + them their cattle, and claimed to own them. They did not, + like the white man, take out only the tongue, or hump, and + leave all the rest to dry upon the prairie, but ate every + last morsel, even to the intestines. They said the whites + were welcome to all they could eat or haul away, but they + did not like to see so much meat wasted as was our custom. + + The Indians on the plains were not at all hostile in 1861-62; + we could drive into their villages, where there were tens + of thousands of them, and they would always treat us to + music or a war-dance, and set before us the choicest of + their venison and buffalo. In July of the last-mentioned + year, Colonel Leavenworth, Jr., was crossing the Trail in + my coach. He desired to see Satanta, the great Kiowa chief. + The colonel's father[28] was among the Indians a great deal + while on duty as an army officer, while the young colonel + was a small boy. The colonel said he didn't believe that + old Satanta would know him. + + Just before the arrival of the coach in the region of the + Indian village, the Comanches and the Pawnees had been + having a battle. The Comanches had taken some scalps, + and they were camping on the bank of the Arkansas River, + where Dodge City is now located. The Pawnees had killed + five of their warriors, and the Comanches were engaged in + an exciting war-dance; I think there were from twenty to + thirty thousand Indians gathered there, men, women, and + children of the several tribes--Comanches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, + Arapahoes, and others. + + When we came in sight of their camp, the colonel knew, by + the terrible noise they were making, that a war-dance was + going on; but we did not know then whether it was on account + of troubles among themselves, or because of a fight with + the whites, but we were determined to find out. If he could + get to the old chief, all would be right. So he and I + started for the place whence the noise came. We met a savage + and the colonel asked him whether Satanta was there, and + what was going on. When he told us that they had had + a fight and it was a scalp-dance, our hair lowered; for we + knew that if it was in consequence of trouble with the + whites, we stood in some danger of losing our own scalps. + + The Indian took us in, and the situation, too; and conducted + us into the presence of Satanta, who stood in the middle + of the great circle, facing the dancers. It was out on an + island in the stream; the chief stood very erect, and eyed + us closely for a few seconds, then the colonel told his + own name that the Indians had known him by when he was a boy. + Satanta gave one bound--he was at least ten feet from where + we were waiting--grasped the colonel's hand and excitedly + kissed him, then stood back for another instant, gave him + a second squeeze, offered his hand to me, which I, + of course, shook heartily, then he gazed at the man he had + known as a boy so many years ago, with a countenance + beaming with delight. I never saw any one, even among + the white race, manifest so much joy as the old chief did + over the visit of the colonel to his camp. + + He immediately ordered some of his young men to go out and + herd our mules through the night, which they brought back + to us at daylight. He then had the coach hauled to the + front of his lodge, where we could see all that was going on + to the best advantage. We had six travellers with us on + this journey, and it was a great sight for the tenderfeet. + + It was about ten o'clock at night when we arrived at + Satanta's lodge, and we saw thousands of squaws and bucks + dancing and mourning for their dead warriors. At midnight + the old chief said we must eat something at once. So he + ordered a fire built, cooked buffalo and venison, setting + before us the very best that he had, we furnishing canned + fruit, coffee, and sugar from our coach mess. There we sat, + and talked and ate until morning; then when we were ready + to start off, Satanta and the other chiefs of the various + tribes escorted us about eight miles on the Trail, where + we halted for breakfast, they remaining and eating with us. + +Colonel Leavenworth was on his way to assume command of one of the +military posts in New Mexico; the Indians begged him to come back and +take his quarters at either Fort Larned or Fort Dodge. They told him +they were afraid their agent was stealing their goods and selling them +back to them; while if the Indians took anything from the whites, a war +was started. + +Colonel A. G. Boone had made a treaty with these same Indians in 1860, +and it was agreed that he should be their agent. It was done, and the +entire savage nations were restful and kindly disposed toward the whites +during his administration; any one could then cross the plains without +fear of molestation. In 1861, however, Judge Wright, of Indiana, who +was a member of Congress at the time, charged Colonel Boone with +disloyalty.[29] He succeeded in having him removed. + +Majors Russel and Waddell, the great government freight contractors +across the plains, gave Colonel Boone fourteen hundred acres of land, +well improved, with some fine buildings on it, about fifteen miles east +of Pueblo, Colorado. It was christened Booneville, and the colonel moved +there. In the fall of 1862, fifty influential Indians of the various +tribes visited Colonel Boone at his new home, and begged that he would +come back to them and be their agent. He told the chiefs that the +President of the United States would not let him. Then they offered to +sell their horses to raise money for him to go to Washington to tell +the Great Father what their agent was doing; and to have him removed, or +there was going to be trouble. The Indians told Colonel Boone that +many of their warriors would be on the plains that fall, and they were +declaring they had as much right to take something to eat from the +trains as their agent had to steal goods from them. + +Early in the winter of the next year, a small caravan of eight or ten +wagons travelling to the Missouri River was overhauled at Nine Mile +Ridge, about fifty miles west of Fort Dodge, by a band of Indians, who +asked for something to eat. The teamsters, thinking them to be hostile, +believed it would be a good thing to kill one of them anyhow; so they +shot an inoffensive warrior, after which the train moved on to its camp +and the trouble began. Every man in the whole outfit, with the exception +of one teamster, who luckily got to the Arkansas River and hid, was +murdered, the animals all carried away, and the wagons and contents +destroyed by fire. + +This foolish act by the master of the caravan was the cause of a long +war, causing hundreds of atrocious murders and the destruction of a +great deal of property along the whole Western frontier. + +That fall, 1863, Mr. Ryus was the messenger or conductor in charge of +the coach running from Kansas City to Santa Fe. He said: + + It then required a month to make the round trip, about + eighteen hundred miles. On account of the Indian war + we had to have an escort of soldiers to go through the most + dangerous portions of the Trail; and the caravans all + joined forces for mutual safety, besides having an escort. + + My coach was attacked several times during that season, and + we had many close calls for our scalps. Sometimes the + Indians would follow us for miles, and we had to halt and + fight them; but as for myself, I had no desire to kill one + of the miserable, outraged creatures, who had been swindled + out of their just rights. + + I know of but one occasion when we were engaged in a fight + with them when our escort killed any of the attacking + savages; it was about two miles from Little Coon Creek + Station, where they surrounded the coach and commenced + hostilities. In the fight one officer and one enlisted man + were wounded. The escort chased the band for several miles, + killed nine of them, and got their horses. + + + + +CHAPTER X. CHARLES BENT. + + + +Almost immediately after the ratification of the purchase of New Mexico +by the United States under the stipulations of the "Guadalupe-Hidalgo +Treaty," the Utes, one of the most powerful tribes of mountain +Indians, inaugurated a bloody and relentless war against the civilized +inhabitants of the Territory. It was accompanied by all the horrible +atrocities which mark the tactics of savage hatred toward the white +race. It continued for several years with more or less severity; its +record a chapter of history whose pages are deluged with blood, until +finally the Indians were subdued by the power of the military. + +Along the line of the Santa Fe Trail, they were frequently in +conjunction with the Apaches, and their depredations and atrocities +were very numerous; they attacked fearlessly freight caravans, +private expeditions, and overland stage-coaches, robbing and murdering +indiscriminately. + +In January, 1847, the mail and passenger stage left Independence, +Missouri, for Santa Fe on one of its regular trips across the plains. It +had its full complement of passengers, among whom were a Mr. White and +family, consisting of his wife, one child, and a coloured nurse. + +Day after day the lumbering Concord coach rolled on, with nothing to +disturb the monotony of the vast prairies, until it had left them far +behind and crossed the Range into New Mexico. Just about dawn, as the +unsuspecting travellers were entering the "canyon of the Canadian,"[30] +and probably waking up from their long night's sleep, a band of Indians, +with blood-curdling yells and their terrific war-whoop, rode down upon +them. + +In that lonely and rock-sheltered gorge a party of the hostile savages, +led by "White Wolf," a chief of the Apaches, had been awaiting the +arrival of the coach from the East; the very hour it was due was well +known to them, and they had secreted themselves there the night before +so as to be on hand should it reach their chosen ambush a little before +the schedule time. + +Out dashed the savages, gorgeous in their feathered war-bonnets, but +looking like fiends with their paint-bedaubed faces. Stopping the +frightened mules, they pulled open the doors of the coach and, +mercilessly dragging its helpless and surprised inmates to the ground, +immediately began their butchery. They scalped and mutilated the dead +bodies of their victims in their usual sickening manner, not a single +individual escaping, apparently, to tell of their fiendish acts. + +If the Indians had been possessed of sufficient cunning to cover up the +tracks of their horrible atrocities, as probably white robbers would +have done, by dragging the coach from the road and destroying it by fire +or other means, the story of the murders committed in the deep canyon +might never have been known; but they left the tell-tale remains of +the dismantled vehicle just where they had attacked it, and the naked +corpses of its passengers where they had been ruthlessly killed. + +At the next stage station the employees were anxiously waiting for the +arrival of the coach, and wondering what could have caused the delay; +for it was due there at noon on the day of the massacre. Hour after hour +passed, and at last they began to suspect that something serious had +occurred; they sat up all through the night listening for the familiar +rumbling of wheels, but still no stage. At daylight next morning, +determined to wait no longer, as they felt satisfied that something out +of the usual course had happened, a party hurriedly mounted their horses +and rode down the broad trail leading to the canyon. + +Upon entering its gloomy mouth after a quick lope of an hour, they +discovered the ghastly remains of twelve mutilated bodies. These were +gathered up and buried in one grave, on the top of the bluff overlooking +the narrow gorge. + +They could not be sure of the number of passengers the coach had brought +until the arrival of the next, as it would have a list of those carried +by its predecessor; but it would not be due for several days. They +naturally supposed, however, that the twelve dead lying on the ground +were its full complement. + +Not waiting for the arrival of the next stage, they despatched a +messenger to the last station east that the one whose occupants had been +murdered had passed, and there learned the exact number of passengers +it had contained. Now they knew that Mrs. White, her child, and the +coloured nurse had been carried off into a captivity worse than death; +for no remains of a woman were found with the others lying in the +canyon. + +The terrible news of the massacre was conveyed to Taos, where were +stationed several companies of the Second United States Dragoons, +commanded by Major William Greer; but as the weather had grown intensely +cold and stormy since the date of the massacre, it took nearly a +fortnight for the terrible story to reach there. The Major acted +promptly when appealed to to go after and punish the savages concerned +in the outrage, but several days more were lost in getting an expedition +ready for the field. It was still stormy while the command was preparing +for its work; but at last, one bright morning, in a piercing cold wind, +five troops of the dragoons, commanded by Major Greer in person, left +their comfortable quarters to attempt the rescue of Mrs. White, her +child, and nurse. + +Kit Carson, "Uncle Dick" Wooten, Joaquin Leroux, and Tom Tobin were +the principal scouts and guides accompanying the expedition, having +volunteered their services to Major Greer, which he had gladly accepted. + +The massacre having occurred three weeks before the command had +arrived at the canyon of the Canadian, and snow having fallen almost +continuously ever since, the ground was deeply covered, making it almost +impossible to find the trail of the savages leading out of the gorge. No +one knew where they had established their winter camp--probably hundreds +of miles distant on some tributary of the Canadian far to the south. + +Carson, Wooton, and Leroux, after scanning the ground carefully at every +point, though the snow was ten inches deep, in a way of which only men +versed in savage lore are capable, were rewarded by discovering certain +signs, unintelligible to the ordinary individual[31]--that the murderers +had gone south out of the canyon immediately after completing their +bloody work, and that their camp was somewhere on the river, but how far +off none could tell. + +The command followed up the trail discovered by the scouts for nearly +four hundred miles. Early one morning when that distance had been +rounded, and just as the men were about to break camp preparatory to +the day's march, Carson went out on a little reconnoissance on his own +account, as he had noticed a flock of ravens hovering in the air when he +first got out of his blankets at dawn, which was sufficient indication +to him that an Indian camp was located somewhere in the vicinity; for +that ominous bird is always to be found in the region where the savages +take up an abode, feeding upon the carcasses of the many varieties of +game killed for food. He had not proceeded more than half a mile +from the camp when he discovered two Indians slowly riding over a low +"divide," driving a herd of ponies before them. The famous scout was +then certain their village could not be very far away. The savages did +not observe him, as he took good care they should not; so he returned +quickly to where Major Greer was standing by his camp-fire and reported +the presence of a village very close at hand. + +The Major having sent for Tom Tobin and Uncle Dick Wooton, requested +them to go and find the exact location of the savages. These scouts came +back in less than half an hour, and reported a large number of teepees +in a thick grove of timber a mile away. + +It was at once determined to surprise the savages in their winter +quarters by charging right among their lodges without allowing them time +to mount their ponies, as the gallant Custer rode, at the head of his +famous troopers of the Seventh Cavalry, into the camp of the celebrated +chief "Black Kettle" on the Washita, in the dawn of a cold November +morning twenty years afterward. + +The command succeeded in getting within good charging distance of the +village without its occupants having any knowledge of its proximity; but +at this moment Major Greer was seized with an idea that he ought to have +a parley with the Indians before he commenced to fight them, and for +that purpose he ordered a halt, just as the soldiers were eager for the +sound of the "Charge!" + +Never were a body of men more enraged. Carson gave vent to his wrath +in a series of elaborately carved English oaths, for which he was noted +when young; Leroux, whose naturally hot blood was roused, swore at the +Major in a curious mixture of bad French and worse mountain dialect, +and it appeared as if the battle would begin in the ranks of the troops +instead of those of the savages; for never was a body of soldiers so +disgusted at the act of any commanding officer. + +This delay gave the Indians, who could be seen dodging about among their +lodges and preparing for a fight that was no longer a surprise, time +to hide their women and children, mount their ponies, and get down into +deep ravines, where the soldiers could not follow them. While the Major +was trying to convince his subordinates that his course was the proper +one, the Indians opened fire without any parley, and it happened that +at the first volley a bullet struck him in the breast, but a suspender +buckle deflected its course and he was not seriously wounded. + +The change in the countenance of their commanding officer caused by the +momentary pain was just the incentive the troopers wanted, and without +waiting for the sound of the trumpet, they spurred their horses, dashed +in, and charged the thunderstruck savages with the shock of a tornado. + +In two successful charges of the gallant and impatient troopers more +than a hundred of the Indians were killed and wounded, but the time lost +had permitted many to escape, and the pursuit of the stragglers would +have been unavailing under the circumstances; so the command turned back +and returned to Taos. In the village was found the body of Mrs. White +still warm, with three arrows in her breast. Had the charge been made as +originally expected by the troopers, her life would have been saved. No +trace of the child or of the coloured nurse was ever discovered, and it +is probable that they were both killed while en route from the canyon +to the village, as being valueless to keep either as slaves or for other +purposes. + +The fate of the Apache chief, "White Wolf," who was the leader in the +outrages in the canyon of the Canadian, was fitting for his devilish +deeds. It was Lieutenant David Bell's fortune to avenge the murder +of Mrs. White and her family, and in an extraordinary manner.[32] The +action was really dramatic, or romantic; he was on a scout with his +company, which was stationed at Fort Union, New Mexico, having about +thirty men with him, and when near the canyon of the Canadian they +met about the same number of Indians. A parley was in order at once, +probably desired by the savages, who were confronted with an equal +number of troopers. Bell had assigned the baggage-mules to the care of +five or six of his command, and held a mounted interview with the chief, +who was no other than the infamous White Wolf of the Jicarilla Apaches. +As Bell approached, White Wolf was standing in front of his Indians, who +were on foot, all well armed and in perfect line. Bell was in advance +of his troopers, who were about twenty paces from the Indians, exactly +equal in number and extent of line; both parties were prepared to use +firearms. + +The parley was almost tediously long and the impending duel was +arranged, White Wolf being very bold and defiant. + +At last the leaders exchanged shots, the chief sinking on one knee and +aiming his gun, Bell throwing his body forward and making his horse +rear. Both lines, by command, fired, following the example of their +superiors, the troopers, however, spurring forward over their enemies. +The warriors, or nearly all of them, threw themselves on the ground, and +several vertical wounds were received by horse and rider. The dragoons +turned short about, and again charged through and over their enemies, +the fire being continuous. As they turned for a third charge, the +surviving Indians were seen escaping to a deep ravine, which, although +only one or two hundred paces off, had not previously been noticed. A +number of the savages thus escaped, the troopers having to pull up at +the brink, but sending a volley after the descending fugitives. + +In less than fifteen minutes twenty-one of the forty-six actors in this +strange combat were slain or disabled. Bell was not hit, but four or +five of his men were killed or wounded. He had shot White Wolf several +times, and so did others after him; but so tenacious of life was the +Apache that, to finish him, a trooper got a great stone and mashed his +head. + +This was undoubtedly the greatest duel of modern times; certainly +nothing like it ever occurred on the Santa Fe Trail before or since. + +The war chief of the Kiowa nation in the early '50's was Satank, a most +unmitigated villain; cruel and heartless as any savage that ever robbed +a stage-coach or wrenched off the hair of a helpless woman. After +serving a dozen or more years with a record for hellish atrocities +equalled by few of his compeers, he was deposed for alleged cowardice, +as his warriors claimed, under the following circumstances:-- + +The village of his tribe was established in the large bottoms, eight +miles from the Great Bend of the Arkansas, and about the same distance +from Fort Zarah.[33] All the bucks were absent on a hunting expedition, +excepting Satank and a few superannuated warriors. The troops were out +from Fort Larned on a grand scout after marauding savages, when they +suddenly came across the village and completely took the Kiowas by +surprise. Seeing the soldiers almost upon them, Satank and other +warriors jumped on their ponies and made good their escape. Had they +remained, all of them would have been killed or at least captured; +consequently Satank, thinking discretion better than valour at that +particular juncture, incontinently fled. His warriors in council, +however, did not agree with him; they thought that it was his duty to +have remained at the village in defence of the women and children, as he +had been urged to refrain from going on the hunt for that very purpose. + +Some time before Satank lost his office of chief, there was living on +Cow Creek, in a rude adobe building, a man who was ostensibly an Indian +trader, but whose traffic, in reality, consisted in selling whiskey to +the Indians, and consequently the United States troops were always after +him. He was obliged to cache his liquor in every conceivable manner so +that the soldiers should not discover it, and, of course, he dreaded +the incursions of the troops much more than he did raids of the Indian +marauders that were constantly on the Trail. + +Satank and this illicit trader, whose name was Peacock, were great +chums. One day while they were indulging in a general good time +over sundry drinks of most villanous liquor, Satank said to Peacock: +"Peacock, I want you to write me a letter; a real nice one, that I can +show to the wagon-bosses on the Trail, and get all the 'chuck' I want. +Tell them I am Satank, the great chief of the Kiowas, and for them to +treat me the best they know how." + +"All right, Satank," said Peacock; "I'll do so." Peacock then sat down +and wrote the following epistle:-- + +"The bearer of this is Satank. He is the biggest liar, beggar, and thief +on the plains. What he can't beg of you, he'll steal. Kick him out of +camp, for he is a lazy, good-for-nothing Indian." + +Satank began at once to make use of the supposed precious document, +which he really believed would assure him the dignified treatment and +courtesy due to his exalted rank. He presented it to several caravans +during the ensuing week, and, of course, received a very cool reception +in every instance, or rather a very warm one. + +One wagon-master, in fact, black-snaked him out of his camp. After +these repeated insults he sought another white friend, and told of his +grievances. "Look here," said Satank, "I asked Peacock to write me a +good letter, and he gave me this; but I don't understand it! Every time +I hand it to a wagon-boss, he gives me the devil! Read it to me and tell +me just what it does say." + +His friend read it over, and then translated it literally to Satank. The +savage assumed a countenance of extreme disgust, and after musing for a +few moments, said: "Well, I understand it all now. All right!" + +The next morning at daylight, Satank called for some of his braves and +with them rode out to Peacock's ranch. Arriving there, he called out +to Peacock, who had not yet risen: "Peacock, get up, the soldiers are +coming!" It was a warning which the illicit trader quickly obeyed, and +running out of the building with his field-glass in his hand, he started +for his lookout, but while he was ascending the ladder with his back to +Satank the latter shot him full of holes, saying, as he did so: "There, +Peacock, I guess you won't write any more letters." + +His warriors then entered the building and killed every man in it, save +one who had been gored by a buffalo bull the day before, and who was +lying in a room all by himself. He was saved by the fact that the Indian +has a holy dread of small-pox, and will never enter an apartment where +sick men lie, fearing they may have the awful disease. + +Satanta (White Bear) was the most efficient and dreaded chief of all who +have ever been at the head of the Kiowa nation. Ever restlessly active +in ordering or conducting merciless forays against an exposed frontier, +he was the very incarnation of deviltry in his determined hatred of the +whites, and his constant warfare against civilization. + +He also possessed wonderful oratorical powers; he could hurl the most +violent invectives at those whom he argued with, or he could be equally +pathetic when necessary. He was justly called "The Orator of the +Plains," rivalling the historical renown of Tecumseh or Pontiac. + +He was a short, bullet-headed Indian, full of courage and well versed in +strategy. Ordinarily, when on his visits to the various military posts +he wore a major-general's full uniform, a suit of that rank having been +given to him in the summer of 1866 by General Hancock. He also owned +an ambulance, a team of mules, and a set of harness, the last stolen, +maybe, from some caravan he had raided on the Trail. In that ambulance, +with a trained Indian driver, the wily chief travelled, wrapped in a +savage dignity that was truly laughable. In his village, too, he assumed +a great deal of style. He was very courteous to his white guests, if at +the time his tribe were at all friendly with the government; nothing +was too good for them. He always laid down a carpet on the floor of his +lodge in the post of honour, on which they were to sit. He had large +boards, twenty inches wide and three feet long, ornamented with brass +tacks driven all around the edges, which he used for tables. He also had +a French horn, which he blew vigorously when meals were ready. + +His friendship was only dissembling. During all the time that General +Sheridan was making his preparations for his intended winter campaign +against the allied plains tribes, Satanta made frequent visits to the +military posts, ostensibly to show the officers that he was heartily for +peace, but really to inform himself of what was going on. + +At that time I was stationed at Fort Harker, on the Smoky Hill. One +evening, General Sheridan, who was my guest, was sitting on the verandah +of my quarters, smoking and chatting with me and some other officers +who had come to pay him their respects, when one of my men rode up and +quietly informed me that Satanta had just driven his ambulance into the +fort, and was getting ready to camp near the mule corral. On receiving +this information, I turned to the general and suggested the propriety of +either killing or capturing the inveterate demon. Personally I believed +it would be right to get rid of such a character, and I had men under +my command who would have been delighted to execute an order to that +effect. + +Sheridan smiled when I told him of Satanta's presence and the excellent +chance to get rid of him. But he said: "That would never do; the +sentimentalists in the Eastern States would raise such a howl that the +whole country would be horrified!" + +Of course, in these "piping times of peace" the reader, in the quiet of +his own room, will think that my suggestion was brutal, and without any +palliation; my excuse, however, may be found in General Washington's own +motto: Exitus acta probat. If the suggestion had been acted upon, many +an innocent man and woman would have escaped torture, and many a maiden +a captivity worse than death. + +As a specimen of Satanta's oratory, I offer the following, to show the +hypocrisy of the subtle old villain, and his power over the minds of +too sensitive auditors. Once Congress sent out to the central plains a +commission from Washington to inquire into the causes of the continual +warfare raging with the savages on the Kansas border; to learn what +the grievances of the Indians were; and to find some remedy for the +wholesale slaughter of men, women, and children along the line of the +Old Trail. + +Satanta was sent for by the commission as the leading spirit of the +formidable Kiowa nation. When he entered the building at Fort Dodge in +which daily sessions were held, he was told by the president to speak +his mind without any reservation; to withhold nothing, but to truthfully +relate what his tribe had to complain of on the part of the whites. +The old rascal grew very pathetic as he warmed up to his subject. He +declared that he had no desire to kill the white settlers or emigrants +crossing the plains, but that those who came and lived on the land of +his tribe ruthlessly slaughtered the buffalo, allowing their carcasses +to rot on the prairie; killing them merely for the amusement it afforded +them, while the Indian only killed when necessity demanded. He also +stated that the white hunters set out fires, destroying the grass, and +causing the tribe's horses to starve to death as well as the buffalo; +that they cut down and otherwise destroyed the timber on the margins of +the streams, making large fires of it, while the Indian was satisfied to +cook his food with a few dry and dead limbs. "Only the other day," said +he, "I picked up a little switch on the Trail, and it made my heart +bleed to think that so small a green branch, ruthlessly torn out of the +ground and thoughtlessly destroyed by some white man, would in time have +grown into a stately tree for the use and benefit of my children and +grandchildren." + +After the pow-wow had ended, and Satanta had got a few drinks of red +liquor into him, his real, savage nature asserted itself, and he said to +the interpreter at the settler's store: "Now didn't I give it to those +white men who came from the Great Father? Didn't I do it in fine style? +Why, I drew tears from their eyes! The switch I saw on the Trail made my +heart glad instead of sad; for I new there was a tenderfoot ahead of me, +because an old plainsman or hunter would never have carried anything +but a good quirt or a pair of spurs. So I said to my warriors, 'Come on, +boys; we've got him!' and when we came in sight, after we had followed +him closely on the dead run, he threw away his rifle and held tightly on +to his hat for fear he should lose it!" + +Another time when Satanta had remained at Fort Dodge for a very long +period and had worn out his welcome, so that no one would give him +anything to drink, he went to the quarters of his old friend, Bill +Bennett, the overland stage agent, and begged him to give him some +liquor. Bill was mixing a bottle of medicine to drench a sick mule. The +moment he set the bottle down to do something else, Satanta seized it +off the ground and drank most of the liquid before quitting. Of course, +it made the old savage dreadfully sick as well as angry. He then started +for a certain officer's quarters and again begged for something to cure +him of the effects of the former dose; the officer refused, but Satanta +persisted in his importunities; he would not leave without it. After +a while, the officer went to a closet and took a swallow of the most +nauseating medicine, placing the bottle back on its shelf. Satanta +watched his chance, and, as soon as the officer left the room, he +snatched the bottle out of the closet and drank its contents without +stopping to breathe. It was, of course, a worse dose than the +horse-medicine. The next day, very early in the morning, he assembled +a number of his warriors, crossed the Arkansas, and went south to +his village. Before leaving, however, he burnt all of the government +contractor's hay on the bank of the river opposite the post. He then +continued on to Crooked Creek, where he murdered three wood-choppers, +all of which, he said afterward, he did in revenge for the attempt to +poison him at Fort Dodge. + +At the Comanche agency, where several of the government agents were +assembled to have a talk with chiefs of the various plains tribes, +Satanta said in his address: "I would willingly take hold of that part +of the white man's road which is represented by the breech-loading +rifles; but I don't like the corn rations--they make my teeth hurt!" + +Big Tree was another Kiowa chief. He was the ally and close friend of +Satanta, and one of the most daring and active of his warriors. The +sagacity and bravery of these two savages would have been a credit to +that of the most famous warriors of the old French and Indian Wars. Both +were at last taken, tried, and sent to the Texas penitentiary for life. +Satanta was eventually pardoned; but before he was made aware of the +efforts that were being taken for his release, he attempted to escape, +and, in jumping from a window, fell and broke his neck. His +pardon arrived the next morning. Big Tree, through the work of the +sentimentalists of Washington, was set free and sent to the Kiowa +Reservation--near Fort Sill in the Indian Territory. + +The next most audacious and terrible scourge of the plains was +"Ta-ne-on-koe" (Kicking Bird). He was a great warrior of the Kiowas, +and was the chief actor in some of the bloodiest raids on the Kansas +frontier in the history of its troublous times. + +One of his captures was that of a Miss Morgan and Mrs. White. They were +finally rescued from the savages by General Custer, under the following +circumstances: Custer, who was advancing with his column of invincible +cavalrymen--the famous Seventh United States--in search of the two +unfortunate women, had arrived near the head waters of one of the +tributaries of the Washita, and, with only his guide and interpreter, +was far in advance of the column, when, on reaching the summit of an +isolated bluff, they suddenly saw a village of the Kiowas, which +turned out to be that of Kicking Bird, whose handsome lodge was easily +distinguishable from the rest. Without waiting for his command, the +general and his guide rode boldly to the lodge of the great chief, +and both dismounted, holding cocked revolvers in their hands; Custer +presented his at Kicking Bird's head. In the meantime, Custer's column +of troopers, whom the Kiowas had good reason to remember for their +bravery in many a hard-fought battle, came in full view of the +astonished village. This threw the startled savages into the utmost +consternation, but the warriors were held in check by signs from Kicking +Bird. As the cavalry drew nearer, General Custer demanded the immediate +release of the white women. Their presence in the village was at first +denied by the lying chief, and not until he had been led to the limb of +a huge cottonwood tree near the lodge, with a rope around his neck, did +he acknowledge that he held the women and consent to give them up. + +This well-known warrior, with a foreknowledge not usually found in the +savage mind, seeing the beginning of the end of Indian sovereignty +on the plains, voluntarily came in and surrendered himself to the +authorities, and stayed on the reservation near Fort Sill. + +In June, 1867, a year before the breaking out of the great Indian war on +the central plains, the whole tribe of Kiowas, led by him, assembled at +Fort Larned. He was the cynosure of all eyes, as he was without question +one of the noblest-looking savages ever seen on the plains. On that +occasion he wore the full uniform of a major-general of the United +States army. He was as correctly moulded as a statue when on horseback, +and when mounted on his magnificent charger the morning he rode out with +General Hancock to visit the immense Indian camp a few miles above +the fort on Pawnee Fork, it would have been a difficult task to have +determined which was the finer-looking man. + +After Kicking Bird had abandoned his wicked career, he was regarded +by every army officer with whom he had a personal acquaintance as a +remarkably good Indian; for he really made the most strenuous efforts to +initiate his tribe into the idea that it was best for it to follow the +white man's road. He argued with them that the time was very near when +there would no longer be any region where the Indians could live as +they had been doing, depending on the buffalo and other game for the +sustenance of their families; they must adapt themselves to the methods +of their conquerors. + +In July, 1869, he became greatly offended with the government for +its enforced removal of his tribe from its natural and hereditary +hunting-grounds into the reservation allotted to it. At that time +many of his warriors, together with the Comanches, made a raid on the +defenceless settlements of the northern border of Texas, in which the +savages were disastrously defeated, losing a large number of their most +beloved warriors. On the return of the unsuccessful expedition, a great +council was held, consisting of all the chiefs and head men of the two +tribes which had suffered so terribly in the awful fight, to consider +the best means of avenging the loss of so many braves and friends. +Kicking Bird was summoned before that council and condemned as a coward; +they called him a squaw, because he had refused to go with the warriors +of the combined tribes on the raid into Texas. + +He told a friend of mine some time afterward that he had intended never +again to go against the whites; but the emergency of the case, and his +severe condemnation by the council, demanded that he should do something +to re-establish himself in the good graces of his tribe. He then made +one of the most destructive raids into Texas that ever occurred in the +history of its border warfare, which successfully restored him to the +respect of his warriors. + +In that raid Kicking Bird carried off vast herds of horses and a large +number of scalps. Although his tribe fairly worshipped him, he was not +at all satisfied with himself. He could look into the future as well +as any one, and from that time on to his tragic death he laboured most +zealously and earnestly in connection with the Indian agents to +bring his people to live on the reservation which the government had +established for them in the Territory. + +At the inauguration of the so-called "Quaker Policy" by President Grant, +that sect was largely intrusted with the management of Indian affairs, +particularly in the selection of agents for the various tribes. A Mr. +Tatham was appointed agent for the Kiowas in 1869. He at once gained +the confidence of Kicking Bird, who became very valuable to him as +an assistant in controlling the savages. It was through that chief's +influence that Thomas Batty, another Quaker, was allowed to take up +his residence with the tribe, the first white man ever accorded that +privilege. Batty was permitted to erect three tents, which were staked +together, converting them into an ample schoolhouse. In that crude, +temporary structure he taught the Kiowa youth the rudiments of an +education. This very successful innovation shows how earnest the former +dreaded savage was in his efforts to promote the welfare of his people, +by trying to induce them to "take the white man's road." + +Batty succeeded admirably for a year in his office of teacher, the chief +all the time nobly withstanding the taunts and jeers of his warriors and +their threats of taking his life, for daring to allow a white man within +the sacred precincts of their village--a thing unparalleled in the +annals of the tribe. + +At last trouble came; the dissatisfied members of the tribe, the +ambitious and restless young men, eager for renown, made another +unsuccessful raid into Texas. The result was that they lost nearly the +whole of the band, among which was the favourite son of Lone Wolf, a +noted chief.[34] After the death of his son, he declared that he must +and would have the scalp of a white man in revenge for the untimely +taking off of the young warrior. Of course, the most available white +man at this juncture was Batty, the Quaker teacher, and he was chosen by +Lone Wolf as the victim of savage revenge. Here the noble instincts of +Kicking Bird developed themselves. He very plainly told Lone Wolf, who +was constantly threatening and thirsting for blood, that he could not +kill Batty until he first killed him and all his band. But Lone Wolf +had fully determined to have the hair of the innocent Quaker; so Kicking +Bird, to avert any collision between the two bands of Indians, kidnapped +Batty and ran him off to the agency, arriving at Fort Sill about an hour +before Lone Wolf's band of avengers overtook them, and thus the Quaker +teacher was saved. + +One day, long after these occurrences, a friend of mine was in the +sutler's store at Fort Sill. In there was a stranger talking to Mr. Fox, +the agent of the Indians. Soon Kicking Bird entered the establishment, +and the stranger asked Mr. Fox who that fine-looking Indian was. He was +told, and then he begged the agent to say to him that he would like to +have a talk with him; for he it was who led that famous raid into Texas. +"I never saw better generalship in the field in all my experience. He +had three horses killed under him. I was the surgeon of the rangers and +was, of course, in the fight."[35] + +When Kicking Bird was told that the Texas doctor desired to talk with +him, he replied with great dignity that he did not want to revive those +troublous times. "Tell him, though," said Kicking Bird, "that was my +last raid against the whites; that I am a changed man." + +The President of the United States sent for Kicking Bird to come to +Washington, and to bring with him such other influential Indians as +he thought might aid in inducing the Kiowas to cease their continual +raiding on the border of Texas. + +In due time Kicking Bird left for the capital, taking with him Lone +Wolf, Big Bow, and Sun Boy of the Kiowas, together with several of the +head men of the Comanches. When the deputation of savages arrived in +Washington, it was received at the presidential mansion by the chief +magistrate himself. So much more attention was given to Kicking Bird +than to the others, that they became very jealous, particularly when the +President announced to them the appointment of Kicking Bird as the +head chief of the tribe.[36] But Lone Wolf would never recognize his +authority, constantly urging the young men to raid the settlements. Lone +Wolf was a genuine savage, without one redeeming trait, and his hatred +of the white race was unparalleled in its intensity. He was never known +to smile. No other Indian can show such a record of horrible massacres +as he is responsible for. His orders were rigidly obeyed, for he brooked +no disobedience on the part of his warriors. + +In the summer of 1876, a party of English gentlemen left Fort Harker +for a buffalo hunt. They soon exhausted all their rations and started +a four-mule team back to the post for more. Some of Lone Wolf's band of +cut-throats came across the unfortunate teamster, killed him, and ran +off the team. After the occurrence, Kicking Bird came into the agency at +Fort Sill and told Mr. Haworth, the agent, that he had given his word +to the Great Father at Washington he would do all he could to bring in +those Indians who had been raiding by order of Lone Wolf, particularly +the two who had killed the Englishmen's driver. + +He succeeded in bringing in twelve Indians in all, among them the +murderers of the driver. They, with Lone Wolf and Satank, were sent to +the Dry Tortugas for life. The morning they started on their journey +Satank talked very feelingly to Kicking Bird, with tears in his eyes. +He said that they might look for his bones along the road, for he would +never go to Florida. The savages were loaded into government wagons. +Satank was inside of one with a soldier on each side of him, their +legs hanging outside. Somehow the crafty villain managed to slip the +handcuffs off his wrists, at the same instant seizing the rifle of one +of his guards, and then shoved the two men out with his feet. He tried +to work the lever of the rifle, but could not move it, and one of the +soldiers, coming around the wagon to where he was still trying to get +the gun so as he could use it, shot him down, and then threw his body on +the Trail. Thus Satank made good his vow that he would never be taken to +Florida. He met his death only a mile from the post. + +After the departure of the condemned savages, the feeling in the tribe +against Kicking Bird increased to an alarming extent. Several times +the most incensed warriors tried to kill him by shooting at him from +an ambush. After he became fully aware that his life was in danger, he +never left his lodge without his carbine. He was as brave as a lion, +fearing none of the members of Lone Wolf's band; but he often said it +was only a question of a short time when he would be gotten rid of; he +did not allow the matter, however, to worry him in the least, saying +that he was conscious he had done his duty by his tribe and the Great +Father. + +In a bend of Cash Creek, about half a mile below the mill, about half +a dozen of the Kiowas had their lodges, that of their chief being among +them. At ten o'clock one Monday in June, 1876, Mr. Haworth, the agent, +came in haste to the shops, called the master mechanic, Mr. Wykes, out, +told him to jump into the carriage quickly; that Kicking Bird was dead. + +When they arrived at the home of the great chief, sure enough he was +dead, and some of the women were engaged in folding his body in robes. +Other squaws were cutting themselves in a terrible manner, as is their +custom when a relative dies, and were also breaking everything breakable +about the lodge. Kicking Bird had always been scrupulously clean and +neat in the care of his home; it was adorned with the most beautifully +dressed buffalo robes and the finest furs, while the floor was covered +with matting. + +It seems that Kicking Bird, after visiting Mr. Wykes that morning, went +immediately to his lodge, and sat down to eat something, but just as he +had finished a cup of coffee, he fell over, dead. He had in his service +a Mexican woman, and she had been bribed to poison him. + +An expensive coffin was made at the agency for his remains, fashioned +out of the finest black walnut to be found in the country where that +timber grows to such a luxuriant extent. It was eight feet long and four +feet deep, but even then it did not hold one-half of his effects, which +were, according to the savage custom, interred with his body. + +The cries and lamentations of the warriors and women of his band were +heartrending; such a manifestation of grief was never before witnessed +at the agency. A handsome fence was erected around his grave, in the +cemetery at Fort Sill, and the government ordered a beautiful marble +monument to be raised over it; but I do not know whether it was ever +done. + +Kicking Bird was only forty years old at the time of his sudden taking +off, and was very wealthy for an Indian. He knew the uses of money and +was a careful saver of it. A great roll of greenbacks was placed in his +coffin, and that fact having leaked out, it was rumoured that his grave +was robbed; but the story may not have been true. + +One of the greatest terrors of the Old Santa Fe Trail was the half-breed +Indian desperado Charles Bent. His mother was a Cheyenne squaw, and his +father the famous trader, Colonel Bent. He was born at the base of +the Rocky Mountains, and at a very early age placed in one of the best +schools that St. Louis afforded. His venerable sire, with only a limited +education himself, was determined that his boy should profit by the +culture and refinement of civilization, so he was not allowed to return +to his mountain home at Bent's Fort, and the savage conditions under +which he was born, until he had attained his majority. He then spoke no +language but English. His mother died while he was absent at school, and +his father continued to live at the old fort, where Charles, after he +had reached the age of twenty-one, joined him. + +Some Washington sentimentalist, philosophizing on the Indian character, +his knowledge being based on Cooper's novels probably, has said: +"Civilization has very marked effects upon an Indian. If he once learns +to speak English, he will soon forget all his native cunning and pride +of race." Let us see how this theory worked with Charley Bent. + +As soon as the educated half-breed set his foot on his native heath +he readily found enough ambitious young bucks of his own age who were +willing to look on him as their leader. They loved him, too, if such a +thing were possible, as Fra Diavolo was loved by his wild followers. +His band was known as the "Dog-Soldiers"; a sort of a semi-military +organization, consisting of the most daring, blood-thirsty young men +of the tribe; and sometimes "squaw-men," that is, renegade white men +married to squaws, attached themselves to his command of cut-throats. + +At the head of this collection of the worst savages, hardly ever +numbering over a hundred, Charles Bent robbed ranches, attacked +wagon-trains, overland coaches, and army caravans. He stole and murdered +indiscriminately. The history of his bloody work will never be wholly +revealed, for dead men have no tongues. + +He would visit all alone, in the guise of plainsman, hunter, or +cattleman, the emigrant trains crossing the continent, always, however, +those which had only small escorts or none at all. Feigning hunger, +while his needs were being kindly furnished, he would glance around him +to learn what kind of an outfit it was; its value, its destination, and +how well guarded. Then he would take his leave with many thanks, rejoin +his band, and with it dash down on the train and kill every human being +unfortunate enough not to have escaped before he arrived. + +He was indefatigable in his efforts to kill off the whole corps of army +scouts. He would pass himself off as a fellow-scout, as a deserter +from some military post, or as an Indian trader, for he was a wonderful +actor, and would have achieved histrionic honours had he chosen the +stage as a profession. + +He would always time his actions so as to be found apparently asleep +by a little camp-fire on the bank of Pawnee Fork, Crooked, Mulberry, or +Walnut creeks, all of which streams intercepted the trails running north +and south between the several military posts during the Indian war, when +he would seem delighted and astonished, or else simulate suspicion. Then +he would either murder the unsuspecting scout with his own hands, or +deliver him to the red fiends of his band to be tormented. + +The government offered a reward of five thousand dollars for Bent's +capture, dead or alive. It was reported currently that he was at last +killed in a battle with some deputy United States marshals, and that +they received the reward; but the whole thing was manufactured out of +whole cloth, and if the marshals received the money, Uncle Sam was most +outrageously swindled. + +The facts are that he died of malarial fever superinduced by a wound +received in a fight with the Kaws, near the mouth of the Walnut and not +far from Fort Zarah. His "Dog-Soldiers" were whipped by the Kaws, and +his band driven off. Bent lingered for some time and died. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. LA GLORIETA. + + + +New Mexico, at the breaking out of the Civil War, was abandoned by the +government at Washington, or at least so overlooked that the charge of +neglect was merited. In the report of the committee on the Conduct of +the War, under date of July 15, 1862, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel B. +S. Roberts of the regular army, major of the Third Cavalry, who was +stationed in the Territory in 1861, says: + + It appears to me to be the determination of General Thomas[37] + not to acknowledge the service of the officers who saved + the Territory of New Mexico; and the utter neglect of the + adjutant-general's department for the last year to + communicate in any way with the commanding officer of the + department of New Mexico, or to answer his urgent appeals + for reinforcements, for money and other supplies, in + connection with his repudiation of the services of all the + army there, convinces me that he is not gratified at their + loyalty and their success in saving that Territory to + the Union. + +If space could be given to the story of the carefully prepared plans of +the leaders of secession for the conquest of all the territory south of +a line drawn from Maryland directly west to the Pacific coast, in which +were California, Arizona, and New Mexico, it would reveal some startling +facts, and prove beyond question that it was the intention of Jefferson +Davis to precipitate the rebellion a decade before it actually occurred. +The basis of the scheme was to inaugurate a war between Texas--which, +when admitted into the Union, claimed all that part of New Mexico east +of the Rio Grande--and the United States, in which conflict Mississippi +and some of the other Southern States were to become participants. The +plan fell flat, because, in 1851, Mr. Davis failed of a re-election to +the governorship of Mississippi. + +So confident were many of Mr. Davis' allies in regard to the +contemplated rebellion, that they boasted to their friends of the North, +upon leaving Washington, that when they met again, it would be upon a +Southern battle-field. + +I have alluded incidentally to what is known as the Texas Santa Fe +Expedition, inaugurated by the President of what was then the republic +of Texas, Mirabeau B. Lamar. It was given out to the world that it was +merely one of commercial interest--to increase the trade between the two +countries; but that it was intended for the conquest of New Mexico, no +one now, in the light of history, doubts. It resulted in disaster, +and is a story well worthy the examination of the student of American +politics.[38] + +In 1861 General Twiggs commanded the military department of which Texas +was an important part. It will be remembered that he surrendered to the +Confederate government the troops, the munitions of war, the forts, or +posts as they were properly termed, and everything pertaining to the +United States army under his control. It was the intention of the +Confederacy to use this region as a military base from which to continue +its conquests westward, and capture the various forts in New Mexico. +Particularly they had their eyes upon Fort Union, where there was an +arsenal, which John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, had taken especial care +to have well stocked previously to the act of secession. + +But the conspirators had reckoned without their host; they imagined +the native Mexicans would eagerly accept their overtures, and readily +support the Southern Confederacy. Mr. Davis and his coadjutors had +evidently forgotten the effect of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition, in +1841, upon the people of the Province of New Mexico; but the natives +themselves had not. Besides the loyalty of the Mexicans, there was a +factor which the Confederate leaders had failed to consider, which was +that the majority of the American pioneers had come from loyal States. + +Of course, there were many secessionists both in Colorado and New Mexico +who were watching the progress of rebellion in eager anticipation; and +it is claimed that in Denver a rebel flag was raised--but how true that +is I do not know. + +John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, was one of the leading spirits of the +Confederacy. A year before the Civil War he placed in command of the +department of New Mexico a North Carolinian, Colonel Loring, who was +in perfect sympathy with his superior, and willing to carry out his +well-defined plans. In 1861 he ordered Colonel G. B. Crittenden on an +expedition against the Apaches. This officer at once tried to induce his +troops to attach themselves to the rebel army in Texas, but he was met +with an indignant refusal by Colonel Roberts and the regular soldiers +under him. The loyal colonel told Crittenden, in the most forcible +language, that he would resist any such attempt on his part, and +reported the action of Colonel Crittenden to the commander of the +department at Santa Fe. Of course, Colonel Loring paid no attention +to the complaint of disloyalty, and then Colonel Roberts conveyed the +tidings to the commanding officers of several military posts in the +Territory, whom he knew were true to the Union, and only one man out +of nearly two thousand regular soldiers renounced his flag. Some of the +officers stationed at New Mexico were of a different mind, and one of +them, Major Lynde, commanding Fort Filmore, surrendered to a detachment +of Texans, who paroled the enlisted men, as they firmly refused to join +the rebel forces. + +Upon the desertion of Colonel Loring to the Southern Confederacy, +General Edward R. S. Canby was assigned to the command of the +department; next in rank was the loyal Roberts. At this perilous +juncture in New Mexico, there were but a thousand regulars all told, +but the Territory furnished two regiments of volunteers, commanded by +officers whose names had been famous on the border for years. Among +these was Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, who had been conspicuous in the +suppression of the Mexican insurrection of 1847, fifteen years before. +Kit Carson was lieutenant-colonel; J. F. Chaves, major; and the most +prominent of the line officers Captain Albert H. Pfeiffer, with a record +as an Indian fighter equal to that of Carson. + +At the same time Colorado was girding on her armour for the impending +conflict. The governor of the prosperous Territory was William Gilpin, +an old army officer, who had spent a large part of his life on the +frontier, and had accompanied Colonel Doniphan, as major of his +regiment, across the plains, on the expedition to New Mexico in 1846. + +Colonel Gilpin at once responded to the pleadings of New Mexico for +help, by organizing two companies at first, quickly following with a +full regiment. This Colorado regiment was composed of as fine material +as any portion of the United States could furnish. John P. Slough, a +war Democrat and a lawyer, was its colonel. He afterwards became chief +justice of New Mexico, and was brutally murdered in that Territory. + +John M. Chivington, a strict Methodist and a presiding elder of that +church, was offered the chaplaincy, but firmly declined, and, like many +others who wore the clerical garb, he quickly doffed it and put on the +attire of a soldier; so he was made major, and his record as a fighter +was equal to the best. + +The commanding general knew well the plans of the rebels as to their +intended occupation of New Mexico, and, notwithstanding the weakness +of his force, determined to frustrate them if within the limits of +possibility. To that end he concentrated his little army, comprising a +thousand regular soldiers, the two regiments of New Mexico volunteers, +two companies of Colorado troops, and a portion of the territorial +militia, at Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande, to await the approach of the +Confederate troops, under the command of General H. H. Sibley, an old +regular army officer, a native of Louisiana, and the inventor of the +comfortable tent named after him. + +Sibley's brigade comprised some three thousand men, the majority of them +Texans, and he expected that many more would flock to his standard as +he moved northward. On the 19th of February, 1862, he crossed the Rio +Grande below Fort Craig, not daring to attack Canby in his intrenched +position. The Union commander, in order to keep the Texas troops from +gaining the high points overlooking the fort, placed portions of the +Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Regulars, together with Carson's and Pino's +volunteers, on the other side of the river. No collision occurred that +day, but the next afternoon Major Duncan, with his cavalry and Captain +M'Rae's light battery, having been sent across to reinforce the +infantry, a heavy artillery fire was immediately opened upon them by the +Texans. The men under Carson behaved splendidly, but the other volunteer +regiments became a little demoralized, and the general was compelled to +call back the force into the fort. Sibley's force, both men and animals, +suffered much from thirst, the latter stampeding, and many, wandering +into our lines, were caught by the scouts of the Union forces. The next +morning early Colonel Roberts was ordered to proceed about seven miles +up the river to keep the Texans away from the water at a point where +it was alone accessible, on account of the steepness of the banks +everywhere else. + +The gallant Roberts, on arriving at the ford, planted a battery there, +and at once opened fire. This was the battle of Valverde, the details +of which, however, do not belong to this book, having been only +incidentally referred to in order to lead the reader intelligently up +to that of La Glorieta, Apache Canyon, or Pigeon's Ranch, as it is +indifferently called. + +Valverde was lost to the Union troops, but never did men fight more +valiantly, with the exception of a few who did not act the part of the +true soldier. The brave M'Rae mounted one of the guns of his battery, +choosing to die rather than surrender. + +General Sibley, after his doubtful victory at Valverde, continued on +to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The old city offered no resistance to his +occupation; in fact, some of the most influential Mexicans were pleased, +their leaning being strongly toward the Southern Confederacy; but the +common people were as loyal to the Union as those of any of the Northern +States, a feeling intensified by their hatred for the Texans on account +of the expedition of conquest in 1841, twenty-one years before. They +contributed of their means to aid the United States troops, but have +never received proper credit for their action in those days of trouble +in the neglected Territory. + +The Confederate general was disappointed at the way in which affairs +were going, for he had based great hopes upon the defection of the +native residents; but he determined to march forward to Fort Union, +where his friend Floyd had placed such stores as were likely to be +needed in the campaign which he had designed. + +From Santa Fe to Fort Union, where the arsenal was located, the road +runs through the deep, rocky gorge known as Apache Canyon. It is one of +the wildest spots in the mountains, the walls on each side rising from +one to two thousand feet above the Trail, which is within the range +of ordinary cannon from every point, and in many places of point-blank +rifle-shot. Granite rocks and sands abound, and the hills are covered +with long-leafed pine. It is a gateway which, in the hands of a +skilful engineer and one hundred resolute men, can be made perfectly +impregnable. + +The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway passes directly through this +picturesque chasm, every foot of which is classic ground, and in the +season of the mountain freshets constant care is needed to keep its +bridges in place. + +At its eastern entrance is a large residence, known as Pigeon's Ranch, +from which the battle to be described derives its name, though, as +stated, it is also known as that of Apache Canyon, and La Glorieta,[39] +the latter, perhaps, the most classical, from the range of mountains +enclosing the rent in the mighty hills. + +The following detailed account of this battle I have taken from the +_History of Colorado_,[40] an admirable work: + + The sympathizers with and abettors of the Southern + Confederacy inaugurated their plans by posting handbills + in all conspicuous places between Denver and the + mining-camps, designating certain localities where the + highest prices would be paid for arms of every description, + and for powder, lead, shot, and percussion caps. + Simultaneously, a small force was collected and put under + discipline to co-operate with parties expected from Arkansas + and Texas who were to take possession, first of Colorado, + and subsequently of New Mexico, anticipating the easy + capture of the Federal troops and stores located there. + Being apprised of the movement, the governor immediately + decided to enlist a full regiment of volunteers. + John P. Slough was appointed colonel, Samuel F. Tappan + lieutenant-colonel, and John J. M. Chivington major. + + Without railroads or telegraphs nearer than the Missouri + River, and wholly dependent upon the overland mail coach + for communication with the States and the authorities at + Washington, news was at least a week old when received. + Thus the troops passed the time in a condition of doubt + and extreme anxiety, until the 6th of January, 1862, when + information arrived that an invading force under General + H. H. Sibley, from San Antonio, Texas, was approaching + the southern border of New Mexico, and had already captured + Forts Fillmore and Bliss, making prisoners of their + garrisons without firing a gun, and securing all their + stock and supplies. + + Immediately upon receipt of this intelligence, efforts + were made to obtain the consent of, or orders from, General + Hunter, commanding the department at Fort Leavenworth, + Kansas, for the regiment to go to the relief of General + Canby, then in command of the department of New Mexico. + On the 20th of February, orders came from General Hunter, + directing Colonel Slough and the First Regiment of Colorado + Volunteers to proceed with all possible despatch to + Fort Union, or Santa Fe, New Mexico, and report to General + Canby for service. + + Two days thereafter, the command marched out of Camp Weld + two miles up the Platte River, and in due time encamped + at Pueblo, on the Arkansas River. At this point further + advices were received from Canby, stating that he had + encountered the enemy at Valverde, ten miles north of + Fort Craig, but, owing to the inefficiency of the newly + raised New Mexican volunteers, was compelled to retire. + The Texans under Sibley marched on up the Rio Grande, + levying tribute upon the inhabitants for their support. + The Colorado troops were urged to the greatest possible + haste in reaching Fort Union, where they were to unite + with such regular troops as could be concentrated at that + post, and thus aid in saving the fort and its supplies + from falling into Confederate hands. Early on the + following morning the order was given to proceed to Union + by forced marches, and it is doubtful if the same number of + men ever marched a like distance in the same length of time. + + When the summit of Raton Pass was reached, another courier + from Canby met the command, who informed Colonel Slough + that the Texans had already captured Albuquerque and + Santa Fe with all the troops stationed at those places, + together with the supplies stored there, and that they + were then marching on Fort Union. + + Arriving at Red River about sundown, the regiment was + drawn up in line and this information imparted to the men. + The request was then made for all who were willing to + undertake a forced march at night to step two paces to + the front, when every man advanced to the new alignment. + After a hasty supper the march was resumed, and at sunrise + the next morning they reached Maxwell's Ranch on the + Cimarron, having made sixty-four miles in less than + twenty-four hours. At ten o'clock on the second night + thereafter, the command entered Fort Union. It was there + discovered that Colonel Paul, in charge of the post, had + mined the fort, giving orders for the removal of the women + and children, and was preparing to blow up all the supplies + and march to Fort Garland or some other post to the + northward, on the first approach of the Confederates. + + The troops remained at Union from the 13th to the 22d of + March, when by order of Colonel Slough they proceeded in + the direction of Santa Fe. The command consisted of + the First Colorado Volunteers; two Light Batteries, + one commanded by Captain Ritter and the other by Captain + Claflin; Ford's Company of Colorado Volunteers unattached; + two companies of the Fifth Regular Infantry; and two + companies of the Seventh United States Cavalry. + + The force encamped at Bernal Springs, where Colonel Slough + determined to organize a detachment to enter Santa Fe by + night with the view of surprising the enemy, spiking his + guns, and after doing what other damage could be accomplished + without bringing on a general action, falling back on the + main body. The detachment chosen comprised sixty men each + from Companies A, D, and E of the Colorado regiment, with + Company F of the same mounted, and thirty-seven men each + from the companies of Captains Ford and Howland, and of + the Seventh Cavalry, the whole commanded by Major Chivington. + + At sundown on the 25th of March it reached Kosloskie's Ranch, + where Major Chivington was informed that the enemy's pickets + were in the vicinity. He went into camp at once, and about + nine o'clock of the same evening sent out Lieutenant Nelson + of the First Colorado with thirty men of Company F, who + captured the Texan pickets while they were engaged in a game + of cards at Pigeon's Ranch, and before daylight on the + morning of the 26th, reported at camp with his prisoners. + After breakfast, the major, being apprised of the enemy's + whereabouts, proceeded cautiously, keeping his advance + guard well to the front. While passing near the summit + of the hill, the officer in command of the advance met + the Confederate advance, consisting of a first lieutenant + and thirty men, captured them without firing a gun, and + returning met the main body and turned them over to the + commanding officer. The Confederate lieutenant declared + that they had received no intimation of the advance from + Fort Union, but themselves expected to be there four days + later. + + Descending Apache Canyon for the distance of half a mile, + Chivington's force observed the approaching Texans, about + six hundred strong, with three pieces of artillery, who, + on discovering the Federals, halted, formed line and battery, + and opened fire. + + Chivington drew up his cavalry as a reserve under cover, + deployed Company D under Captain Downing to the right, + and Companies A and E under Captains Wynkoop and Anthony + to the left, directing them to ascend the mountain-side + until they were above the elevation of the enemy's artillery + and thus flank him, at the same time directing Captain + Howland, he being the ranking cavalry officer, to closely + observe the enemy, and when he retreated, without further + orders to charge with the cavalry. This disposition of + the troops proved wise and successful. The Texans soon + broke battery and retreated down the canyon a mile or more, + but from some cause Captain Howland failed to charge as + ordered, which enabled the Confederates to take up a new + and strong position, where they formed battery, threw their + supports well up the sides of the mountain, and again + opened fire. + + Chivington dismounted Captains Howland and Lord with their + regulars, leaving their horses in charge of every fourth + man, and ordered them to join Captain Downing on the left, + taking orders from him. Our skirmishers advanced, and, + flanking the enemy's supports, drove them pell-mell down + the mountain-side, when Captain Samuel Cook, with Company F, + First Colorado, having been signalled by the major, made + as gallant and successful a charge through the canyon, + through the ranks of the Confederates and back, as was + ever performed. Meanwhile, our infantry advanced rapidly; + when the enemy commenced his retreat a second time, they + were well ahead of him on the mountain-sides and poured + a galling fire into him, which thoroughly demoralized and + broke him up, compelling the entire body to seek shelter + among the rocks down the canyon and in some cabins that + stood by the wayside. + + After an hour spent in collecting the prisoners, and + caring for the wounded, both Federal and Confederate, + the latter having left in killed, wounded, and prisoners + a number equal to our whole force in the field, the first + baptism by fire of our volunteers terminated. The victory + was decided and complete. Night intervening, and there + being no water in the canyon, the little command fell back + to Pigeon's Ranch, whence a courier was despatched to + Colonel Slough, advising him of the engagement and its + result, and requesting him to bring forward the main + command as rapidly as possible, as the enemy with all his + forces had moved from Santa Fe toward Fort Union. + + After interring the dead and making a comfortable hospital + for the wounded, on the afternoon of the 27th Chivington + fell back to the Pecos River at Kosloskie's Ranch and + encamped. On receiving the news from Apache Canyon, + Colonel Slough put his forces in motion, and at eleven + o'clock at night of the 27th joined Chivington at Kosloskie's. + + At daybreak on the 28th, the assembly was sounded, and + the entire command resumed its march. Five miles out + from their encampment Major Chivington, in command of + a detachment composed of Companies A, B, H, and E of the + First Colorado, and Captain Ford's Company unattached, + with Captain Lewis' Company of the Fifth Regular Infantry, + was ordered to take the Galisteo road, and by a detour + through the mountains to gain the enemy's rear, if possible, + at the west end of Apache Canyon, while Slough advanced + slowly with the main body to gain his front about the + same time; thus devising an attack in front and rear. + + About ten o'clock, while making his way through the scrub + pine and cedar brush in the mountains, Major Chivington + and his command heard cannonading to their right, and + were thereby apprised that Colonel Slough and his men + had met the enemy. About twelve o'clock he arrived with + his men on the summit of the mountain which overlooked + the enemy's supply wagons, which had been left in the + charge of a strong guard with one piece of artillery mounted + on an elevation commanding the camp and mouth of the canyon. + With great difficulty Chivington descended the precipitous + mountain, charged, took, and spiked the gun, ran together + the enemy's supply wagons of commissary, quartermaster, + and ordnance stores, set them on fire, blew and burnt + them up, bayoneted his mules in corral, took the guard + prisoners and reascended the mountain, where about dark + he was met by Lieutenant Cobb, aide-de-camp on Colonel + Slough's staff, with the information that Slough and his + men had been defeated and had fallen back to Kosloskie's. + Upon the supposition that this information was correct, + Chivington, under the guidance of a French Catholic priest, + in the intensest darkness, with great difficulty made + his way with his command through the mountains without + a road or trail, and joined Colonel Slough about midnight. + + Meanwhile, after Chivington and his detachment had left + in the morning, Colonel Slough with the main body proceeded + up the canyon, and arriving at Pigeon's Ranch, gave orders + for the troops to stack arms in the road and supply their + canteens with water, as that would be the last opportunity + before reaching the further end of Apache Canyon. + While thus supplying themselves with water and visiting + the wounded in the hospital at Pigeon's Ranch, being + entirely off their guard, they were suddenly startled by + a courier from the advance column dashing down the road + at full speed and informing them that the enemy was close + at hand. Orders were immediately given to fall in and + take arms, but before the order could be obeyed the enemy + had formed battery and commenced shelling them. + They formed as quickly as possible, the colonel ordering + Captain Downing with Company D, First Colorado Volunteers, + to advance on the left, and Captain Kerber with Company I + First Colorado, to advance on the right. In the meantime + Ritter and Claflin opened a return fire on the enemy with + their batteries. Captain Downing advanced and fought + desperately, meeting a largely superior force in point + of numbers, until he was almost overpowered and surrounded; + when, happily, Captain Wilder of Company G of the First + Colorado, with a detachment of his command, came to his + relief, and extricated him and that portion of his Company + not already slaughtered. While on the opposite side, + the right, Company I had advanced into an open space, + feeling the enemy, and ambitious of capturing his battery, + when they were surprised by a detachment which was concealed + in an arroya, and which, when Kerber and his men were + within forty feet of it, opened a galling fire upon them. + Kerber lost heavily; Lieutenant Baker, being wounded, + fell back. In the meantime the enemy masked, and made + five successive charges on our batteries, determined to + capture them as they had captured Canby's at Valverde. + At one time they were within forty yards of Slough's + batteries, their slouch hats drawn down over their faces, + and rushing on with deafening yells. It seemed inevitable + that they would make the capture, when Captain Claflin + gave the order to cease firing, and Captain Samuel Robbins + with his company, K of the First Colorado, arose from the + ground like ghosts, delivering a galling fire, charged + bayonets, and on the double-quick put the rebels to flight. + + During the whole of this time the cavalry, under Captain + Howland, were held in reserve, never moving except to + fall back and keep out of danger, with the exception of + Captain Cook's men, who dismounted and fought as infantry. + From the opening of the battle to its close the odds were + against Colonel Slough and his forces; the enemy being + greatly superior in numbers, with a better armament of + artillery and equally well armed otherwise. But every inch + of ground was stubbornly contested. In no instance did + Slough's forces fall back until they were in danger of + being flanked and surrounded, and for nine hours, without + rest or refreshment, the battle raged incessantly. + At one time Claflin gave orders to double-shot his guns, + they being nothing but little brass howitzers, and he + counted, "One, two, three, four," until one of his own + carriages capsized and fell down into the gulch; from which + place Captain Samuel Robbins and his company, K, extricated + it and saved it from falling into the enemy's hands. + + Having been compelled to give ground all day, Colonel Slough, + between five and six o'clock in the afternoon, issued + orders to retreat. About the same time General Sibley + received information from the rear of the destruction of + his supply trains, and ordered a flag of truce to be sent + to Colonel Slough, which did not reach him, however, until + he arrived at Kosloskie's. A truce was entered into until + nine o'clock the next morning, which was afterward extended + to twenty-four hours, and under which Sibley with his + demoralized forces fell back to Santa Fe, laying that town + under tribute to supply his forces. + + The 29th was spent in burying the dead, as well as those + of the Confederates which they left on the field, and + caring for the wounded. Orders were received from General + Canby directing Colonel Slough to fall back to Fort Union, + which so incensed him that while obeying the order he + forwarded his resignation, and soon after left the command. + +Thus ended the battle of La Glorieta. + + + + +CHAPTER XII.[41] THE BUFFALO. + + + +The ancient range of the buffalo, according to history and tradition, +once extended from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, embracing +all that magnificent portion of North America known as the Mississippi +valley; from the frozen lakes above to the "Tierras Calientes" of +Mexico, far to the south. + +It seems impossible, especially to those who have seen them, as +numerous, apparently, as the sands of the seashore, feeding on the +illimitable natural pastures of the great plains, that the buffalo +should have become almost extinct. + +When I look back only twenty-five years, and recall the fact that they +roamed in immense numbers even then, as far east as Fort Harker, in +Central Kansas, a little more than two hundred miles from the Missouri +River, I ask myself, "Have they all disappeared?" + +An idea may be formed of how many buffalo were killed from 1868 to +1881, a period of only thirteen years, during which time they were +indiscriminately slaughtered for their hides. In Kansas alone there was +paid out, between the dates specified, two million five hundred thousand +dollars for their bones gathered on the prairies, to be utilized by +the various carbon works of the country, principally in St. Louis. It +required about one hundred carcasses to make one ton of bones, the price +paid averaging eight dollars a ton; so the above-quoted enormous sum +represented the skeletons of over thirty-one millions of buffalo.[42] +These figures may appear preposterous to readers not familiar with the +great plains a third of a century ago; but to those who have seen the +prairie black from horizon to horizon with the shaggy monsters, they +are not so. In the autumn of 1868 I rode with Generals Sheridan, Custer, +Sully, and others, for three consecutive days, through one continuous +herd, which must have contained millions. In the spring of 1869 the +train on the Kansas Pacific Railroad was delayed at a point between +Forts Harker and Hays, from nine o'clock in the morning until five +in the afternoon, in consequence of the passage of an immense herd of +buffalo across the track. On each side of us, and to the west as far as +we could see, our vision was only limited by the extended horizon of the +flat prairie, and the whole vast area was black with the surging mass of +affrighted buffaloes as they rushed onward to the south. + +In 1868 the Union Pacific Railroad and its branch in Kansas was nearly +completed across the plains to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, +the western limit of the buffalo range, and that year witnessed the +beginning of the wholesale and wanton slaughter of the great ruminants, +which ended only with their practical extinction seventeen years +afterward. The causes of this hecatomb of animals on the great plains +were the incursion of regular hunters into the region, for the hides of +the buffalo, and the crowds of tourists who crossed the continent for +the mere pleasure and novelty of the trip. The latter class heartlessly +killed for the excitement of the new experience as they rode along in +the cars at a low rate of speed, often never touching a particle of the +flesh of their victims, or possessing themselves of a single robe. The +former, numbering hundreds of old frontiersmen, all expert shots, with +thousands of novices, the pioneer settlers on the public domain, just +opened under the various land laws, from beyond the Platte to far south +of the Arkansas, within transporting distance of two railroads, day +after day for years made it a lucrative business to kill for the robes +alone, a market for which had suddenly sprung up all over the country. + +On either side of the track of the two lines of railroads running +through Kansas and Nebraska, within a relatively short distance and for +nearly their whole length, the most conspicuous objects in those +days were the desiccated carcasses of the noble beasts that had been +ruthlessly slaughtered by the thoughtless and excited passengers on +their way across the continent. On the open prairie, too, miles away +from the course of legitimate travel, in some places one could walk +all day on the dead bodies of the buffaloes killed by the hide-hunters, +without stepping off them to the ground. + +The best robes, in their relation to thickness of fur and lustre, were +those taken during the winter months, particularly February, at which +period the maximum of density and beauty had been reached. Then, +notwithstanding the sudden and fitful variations of temperature incident +to our mid-continent climate, the old hunters were especially active, +and accepted unusual risks to procure as many of the coveted skins +as possible. A temporary camp would be established under the friendly +shelter of some timbered stream, from which the hunters would radiate +every morning, and return at night after an arduous day's work, to +smoke their pipes and relate their varied adventures around the fire of +blazing logs. + +Sometimes when far away from camp a blizzard would come down from the +north in all its fury without ten minutes' warning, and in a few seconds +the air, full of blinding snow, precluded the possibility of finding +their shelter, an attempt at which would only result in an aimless +circular march on the prairie. On such occasions, to keep from perishing +by the intense cold, they would kill a buffalo, and, taking out its +viscera, creep inside the huge cavity, enough animal heat being retained +until the storm had sufficiently abated for them to proceed with safety +to their camp. + +Early in March, 1867, a party of my friends, all old buffalo hunters, +were camped in Paradise valley, then a famous rendezvous of the animals +they were after. One day when out on the range stalking, and widely +separated from each other, a terrible blizzard came up. Three of the +hunters reached their camp without much difficulty, but he who was +farthest away was fairly caught in it, and night overtaking him, he was +compelled to resort to the method described in the preceding paragraph. +Luckily, he soon came up with a superannuated bull that had been +abandoned by the herd; so he killed him, took out his viscera and +crawled inside the empty carcass, where he lay comparatively comfortable +until morning broke, when the storm had passed over and the sun shone +brightly. But when he attempted to get out, he found himself a prisoner, +the immense ribs of the creature having frozen together, and locked him +up as tightly as if he were in a cell. Fortunately, his companions, who +were searching for him, and firing their rifles from time to time, +heard him yell in response to the discharge of their pieces, and thus +discovered and released him from the peculiar predicament into which he +had fallen. + +At another time, several years before the acquisition of New Mexico by +the United States, two old trappers were far up on the Arkansas near the +Trail, in the foot-hills hunting buffalo, and they, as is generally the +case, became separated. In an hour or two one of them killed a fat young +cow, and, leaving his rifle on the ground, went up and commenced to skin +her. While busily engaged in his work, he suddenly heard right behind +him a suppressed snort, and looking around he saw to his dismay a +monstrous grizzly ambling along in that animal's characteristic gait, +within a few feet of him. + +In front, only a few rods away, there happened to be a clump of scrubby +pines, and he incontinently made a break for them, climbing into the +tallest in less time than it takes to tell of it. The bear deliberately +ate a hearty meal off the juicy hams of the cow, so providentially +fallen in his way, and when he had satiated himself, instead of going +away, he quietly stretched himself alongside of the half-devoured +carcass, and went to sleep, keeping one eye open, however, on the +movements of the unlucky hunter whom he had corralled in the tree. In +the early evening his partner came to the spot, and killed the impudent +bear, that, being full of tender buffalo meat, was sluggish and unwary, +and thus became an easy victim to the unerring rifle; when the unwilling +prisoner came down from his perch in the pine, feeling sheepish enough. +The last time I saw him he told me he still had the bear's hide, which +he religiously preserved as a memento of his foolishness in separating +himself from his rifle, a thing he has never been guilty of before or +since. + +Kit Carson, when with Fremont on his first exploring expedition, while +hunting for the command, at some point on the Arkansas, left a buffalo +which he had just killed and partly cut up, to pursue a large bull that +came rushing by him alone. He chased his game for nearly a quarter of a +mile, not being able, however, to gain on it rapidly, owing to the blown +condition of his horse. Coming up at length to the side of the fleeing +beast, Carson fired, but at the same instant his horse stepped into a +prairie-dog hole, fell down and threw Kit fully fifteen feet over his +head. The bullet struck the buffalo low under the shoulder, which only +served to enrage him so that the next moment the infuriated animal was +pursuing Kit, who, fortunately not much hurt, was able to run toward the +river. It was a race for life now, Carson using his nimble legs to +the utmost of their capacity, accelerated very much by the thundering, +bellowing bull bringing up the rear. For several minutes it was nip and +tuck which should reach the stream first, but Kit got there by a scratch +a little ahead. It was a big bend of the river, and the water was deep +under the bank, but it was paradise compared with the hades plunging at +his back; so Kit leaped into the water, trusting to Providence that the +bull would not follow. The trust was well placed, for the bull did +not continue the pursuit, but stood on the bank and shook his head +vehemently at the struggling hunter who had preferred deep waves to the +horns of a dilemma on shore. + +Kit swam around for some time, carefully guarded by the bull, until +his position was observed by one of his companions, who attacked the +belligerent animal successfully with a forty-four slug, and then Kit +crawled out and--skinned the enemy! + +He once killed five buffaloes during a single race, and used but four +balls, having dismounted and cut the bullet from the wound of the +fourth, and thus continued the chase. He it was, too, who established +his reputation as a famous hunter by shooting a buffalo cow during an +impetuous race down a steep hill, discharging his rifle just as the +animal was leaping on one of the low cedars peculiar to the region. +The ball struck a vital spot, and the dead cow remained in the jagged +branches. The Indians who were with him on that hunt looked upon the +circumstance as something beyond their comprehension, and insisted that +Kit should leave the carcass in the tree as "Big Medicine." Katzatoa +(Smoked Shield), a celebrated chief of the Kiowas many years ago, +who was over seven feet tall, never mounted a horse when hunting the +buffalo; he always ran after them on foot and killed them with his +lance. + +Two Lance, another famous chief, could shoot an arrow entirely through a +buffalo while hunting on horseback. He accomplished this remarkable feat +in the presence of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, who was under the +care of Buffalo Bill, near Fort Hays, Kansas. + +During one of Fremont's expeditions, two of his chasseurs, named +Archambeaux and La Jeunesse,[43] had a curious adventure on a +buffalo-hunt. One of them was mounted on a mule, the other on a horse; +they came in sight of a large band of buffalo feeding upon the open +prairie about a mile distant. The mule was not fleet enough, and the +horse was too much fatigued with the day's journey, to justify a +race, and they concluded to approach the herd on foot. Dismounting and +securing the ends of their lariats in the ground, they made a slight +detour, to take advantage of the wind, and crept stealthily in the +direction of the game, approaching unperceived until within a few +hundred yards. Some old bulls forming the outer picket guard slowly +raised their heads and gazed long and dubiously at the strange objects, +when, discovering that the intruders were not wolves, but two hunters, +they gave a significant grunt, turned about as though on pivots, and in +less than no time the whole herd--bulls, cows, and calves--were making +the gravel fly over the prairie in fine style, leaving the hunters to +their discomfiture. They had scarcely recovered from their surprise, +when, to their great consternation, they beheld the whole company of +the monsters, numbering several thousand, suddenly shape their course +to where the riding animals were picketed. The charge of the stampeded +buffalo was a magnificent one; for the buffalo, mistaking the horse +and the mule for two of their own species, came down upon them like a +tornado. A small cloud of dust arose for a moment over the spot where +the hunter's animals had been left; the black mass moved on with +accelerated speed, and in a few seconds the horizon shut them all from +view. The horse and mule, with all their trappings, saddles, bridles, +and holsters, were never seen or heard of afterward. + +Buffalo Bill, in less than eighteen months, while employed as hunter +of the construction company of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, in 1867-68, +killed nearly five thousand buffalo, which were consumed by the twelve +hundred men employed in track-laying. He tells in his autobiography +of the following remarkable experience he had at one time with his +favourite horse Brigham, on an impromptu buffalo hunt:-- + + One day we were pushed for horses to work on our scrapers, + so I hitched up Brigham, to see how he would work. He was + not much used to that kind of labour, and I was about giving + up the idea of making a work horse of him, when one of the + men called to me that there were some buffaloes coming over + the hill. As there had been no buffaloes seen anywhere + in the vicinity of the camp for several days, we had become + rather short of meat. I immediately told one of our men + to hitch his horses to a wagon and follow me, as I was going + out after the herd, and we would bring back some fresh meat + for supper. I had no saddle, as mine had been left at camp + a mile distant, so taking the harness from Brigham I mounted + him bareback, and started out after the game, being armed + with my celebrated buffalo killer Lucretia Borgia--a newly + improved breech-loading needle-gun, which I had obtained + from the government. + + While I was riding toward the buffaloes, I observed five + horsemen coming out from the fort, who had evidently seen + the buffaloes from the post, and were going out for a chase. + They proved to be some newly arrived officers in that part + of the country, and when they came up closer I could see + by the shoulder-straps that the senior was a captain, + while the others were lieutenants. + + "Hello! my friend," sang out the captain; "I see you are + after the same game we are." + + "Yes, sir; I saw those buffaloes coming over the hill, + and as we were about out of fresh meat I thought I would + go and get some," said I. + They scanned my cheap-looking outfit pretty closely, and + as my horse was not very prepossessing in appearance, having + on only a blind bridle, and otherwise looking like a work + horse, they evidently considered me a green hand at hunting. + + "Do you expect to catch those buffaloes on that Gothic + steed?" laughingly asked the captain. + + "I hope so, by pushing on the reins hard enough," was + my reply. + + "You'll never catch them in the world, my fine fellow," + said the captain. "It requires a fast horse to overtake + the animals on the prairie." + + "Does it?" asked I, as if I didn't know it. + + "Yes; but come along with us, as we are going to kill them + more for pleasure than anything else. All we want are the + tongues and a piece of tenderloin, and you may have all + that is left," said the generous man. + + "I am much obliged to you, captain, and will follow you," + I replied. + + There were eleven buffaloes in the herd, and they were not + more than a mile ahead of us. The officers dashed on as if + they had a sure thing on killing them all before I could + come up with them; but I had noticed that the herd was + making toward the creek for water, and as I knew buffalo + nature, I was perfectly aware that it would be difficult + to turn them from their direct course. Thereupon, I started + toward the creek to head them off, while the officers + came up in the rear and gave chase. + + The buffaloes came rushing past me not a hundred yards + distant, with the officers about three hundred yards in + the rear. Now, thought I, is the time to "get my work in," + as they say; and I pulled off the blind bridle from my + horse, who knew as well as I did that we were out after + buffaloes, as he was a trained hunter. The moment the + bridle was off he started at the top of his speed, running + in ahead of the officers, and with a few jumps he brought me + alongside the rear buffalo. Raising old Lucretia Borgia + to my shoulder, I fired, and killed the animal at the + first shot. My horse then carried me alongside the next + one, not ten feet away, and I dropped him at the next fire. + + As soon as one of the buffalo would fall, Brigham would + take me so close to the next that I could almost touch it + with my gun. In this manner I killed the eleven buffaloes + with twelve shots; and as the last animal dropped, my horse + stopped. I jumped off to the ground, knowing that he would + not leave me--it must be remembered that I had been riding + him without bridle, reins, or saddle--and, turning around + as the party of astonished officers rode up, I said to them:-- + + "Now, gentlemen, allow me to present to you all the tongues + and tenderloins you wish from these buffaloes." + + Captain Graham, for such I soon learned was his name, + replied: "Well, I never saw the like before. Who under + the sun are you, anyhow?" + + "My name is Cody," said I. + Captain Graham, who was considerable of a horseman, + greatly admired Brigham, and said: "That horse of yours + has running points." + + "Yes, sir; he has not only got the points, he is a runner + and knows how to use the points," said I. + "So I noticed," said the captain. + + They all finally dismounted, and we continued chatting + for some little time upon the different subjects of horses, + buffaloes, hunting, and Indians. They felt a little sore + at not getting a single shot at the buffaloes; but the way + I had killed them, they said, amply repaid them for their + disappointment. They had read of such feats in books, + but this was the first time they had ever seen anything + of the kind with their own eyes. It was the first time, + also, that they had ever witnessed or heard of a white man + running buffaloes on horseback without a saddle or bridle. + + I told them that Brigham knew nearly as much about the + business as I did, and if I had twenty bridles they would + have been of no use to me, as he understood everything, + and all that he expected of me was to do the shooting. + It is a fact that Brigham would stop if a buffalo did not + fall at the first fire, so as to give me a second chance; + but if I did not kill the animal then, he would go on, as + if to say, "You are no good, and I will not fool away my + time by giving you more than two shots." Brigham was the + best horse I ever saw or owned for buffalo chasing. + +At one time an old, experienced buffalo hunter was following at the +heels of a small herd with that reckless rush to which in the excitement +of the chase men abandon themselves, when a great bull just in front of +him tumbled into a ravine. The rider's horse fell also, throwing the old +hunter over his head sprawling, but with strange accuracy right between +the bull's horns! The first to recover from the terrible shock and to +regain his legs was the horse, which ran off with wonderful alacrity +several miles before he stopped. Next the bull rose, and shook himself +with an astonished air, as if he would like to know "how that was done?" +The hunter was on the great brute's back, who, perhaps, took the affair +as a good practical joke; but he was soon pitched to the ground, as the +buffalo commenced to jump "stiff-legged," and the latter, giving the +hunter one lingering look, which he long remembered, with remarkable +good nature ran off to join his companions. Had the bull been wounded, +the rider would have been killed, as the then enraged animal would have +gored and trampled him to death. + +An officer of the old regular army told me many years ago that in +crossing the plains a herd of buffalo were fired at by a twelve-pound +howitzer, the ball of which wounded and stunned an immense bull. +Nevertheless, heedless of a hundred shots that had been fired at him, +and of a bulldog belonging to one of the officers, which had fastened +himself to his lips, the enraged beast charged upon the whole troop of +dragoons, and tossed one of the horses like a feather. Bull, horse, and +rider all fell in a heap. Before the dust cleared away, the trooper, +who had hung for a moment to one of the bull's horns by his waistband, +crawled out safe, while the horse got a ball from a rifle through his +neck while in the air and two great rips in his flank from the bull. + +In 1839 Kit Carson and Hobbs were trapping with a party on the Arkansas +River, not far from Bent's Fort. Among the trappers was a green +Irishman, named O'Neil, who was quite anxious to become proficient in +hunting, and it was not long before he received his first lesson. Every +man who went out of camp after game was expected to bring in "meat" of +some kind. O'Neil said that he would agree to the terms, and was ready +one evening to start out on his first hunt alone. He picked up his rifle +and stalked after a small herd of buffalo in plain sight on the prairie +not more than five or six hundred yards from camp. + +All the trappers who were not engaged in setting their traps or cooking +supper were watching O'Neil. Presently they heard the report of his +rifle, and shortly after he came running into camp, bareheaded, without +his gun, and with a buffalo bull close upon his heels; both going at +full speed, and the Irishman shouting like a madman,-- + +"Here we come, by jabers. Stop us! For the love of God, stop us!" + +Just as they came in among the tents, with the bull not more than six +feet in the rear of O'Neil, who was frightened out of his wits and +puffing like a locomotive, his foot caught in a tent-rope, and over +he went into a puddle of water head foremost, and in his fall capsized +several camp-kettles, some of which contained the trappers' supper. But +the buffalo did not escape so easily; for Hobbs and Kit Carson jumped +for their rifles, and dropped the animal before he had done any further +damage. + +The whole outfit laughed heartily at O'Neil when he got up out of the +water, for a party of old trappers would show no mercy to any of their +companions who met with a mishap of that character; but as he stood +there with dripping clothes and face covered with mud, his mother-wit +came to his relief and he declared he had accomplished the hunter's +task: "For sure," said he, "haven't I fetched the mate into camp? and +there was no bargain whether it should be dead or alive!" + +Upon Kit's asking O'Neil where his gun was,-- + +"Sure," said he, "that's more than I can tell you." + +Next morning Carson and Hobbs took up O'Neil's tracks and the buffalo's, +and after hunting an hour or so found the Irishman's rifle, though he +had little use for it afterward, as he preferred to cook and help around +camp rather than expose his precious life fighting buffaloes. + +A great herd of buffaloes on the plains in the early days, when one +could approach near enough without disturbing it to quietly watch its +organization and the apparent discipline which its leaders seemed to +exact, was a very curious sight. Among the striking features of the +spectacle was the apparently uniform manner in which the immense mass of +shaggy animals moved; there was constancy of action indicating a degree +of intelligence to be found only in the most intelligent of the brute +creation. Frequently the single herd was broken up into many smaller +ones, that travelled relatively close together, each led by an +independent master. Perhaps a few rods only marked the dividing-line +between them, but it was always unmistakably plain, and each moved +synchronously in the direction in which all were going. + +The leadership of a herd was attained only by hard struggles for the +place; once reached, however, the victor was immediately recognized, and +kept his authority until some new aspirant overcame him, or he became +superannuated and was driven out of the herd to meet his inevitable +fate, a prey to those ghouls of the desert, the gray wolves. + +In the event of a stampede, every animal of the separate, yet +consolidated, herds rushed off together, as if they had all gone mad at +once; for the buffalo, like the Texas steer, mule, or domestic +horse, stampedes on the slightest provocation; frequently without any +assignable cause. The simplest affair, sometimes, will start the whole +herd; a prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, a shadow of +one of themselves or that of a passing cloud, is sufficient to make them +run for miles as if a real and dangerous enemy were at their heels. + +Like an army, a herd of buffaloes put out vedettes to give the alarm in +case anything beyond the ordinary occurred. These sentinels were always +to be seen in groups of four, five, or even six, at some distance from +the main body. When they perceived something approaching that the herd +should beware of or get away from, they started on a run directly for +the centre of the great mass of their peacefully grazing congeners. +Meanwhile, the young bulls were on duty as sentinels on the edge of +the main herd watching the vedettes; the moment the latter made for the +centre, the former raised their heads, and in the peculiar manner of +their species gazed all around and sniffed the air as if they could +smell both the direction and source of the impending danger. Should +there be something which their instinct told them to guard against, the +leader took his position in front, the cows and calves crowded in the +centre, while the rest of the males gathered on the flanks and in the +rear, indicating a gallantry that might be emulated at times by the +genus homo. + +Generally buffalo went to their drinking-places but once a day, and that +late in the afternoon. Then they ambled along, following each other in +single file, which accounts for the many trails on the plains, always +ending at some stream or lake. They frequently travelled twenty or +thirty miles for water, so the trails leading to it were often worn to +the depth of a foot or more. + +That curious depression so frequently seen on the great plains, called +a buffalo-wallow, is caused in this wise: The huge animals paw and lick +the salty, alkaline earth, and when once the sod is broken the loose +dirt drifts away under the constant action of the wind. Then, year +after year, through more pawing, licking, rolling, and wallowing by +the animals, the wind wafts more of the soil away, and soon there is a +considerable hole in the prairie. + +Many an old trapper and hunter's life has been saved by following a +buffalo-trail when he was suffering from thirst. The buffalo-wallows +retain usually a great quantity of water, and they have often saved the +lives of whole companies of cavalry, both men and horses. + +There was, however, a stranger and more wonderful spectacle to be seen +every recurring spring during the reign of the buffalo, soon after +the grass had started. There were circles trodden bare on the plains, +thousands, yes, millions of them, which the early travellers, who did +not divine their cause, called fairy-rings. From the first of April +until the middle of May was the wet season; you could depend upon its +recurrence almost as certainly as on the sun and moon rising at their +proper time. This was also the calving period of the buffalo, as +they, unlike our domestic cattle, only rutted during a single month; +consequently, the cows all calved during a certain time; this was the +wet month, and as there were a great many gray wolves that roamed singly +and in immense packs over the whole prairie region, the bulls, in their +regular beats, kept guard over the cows while in the act of parturition, +and drove the wolves away, walking in a ring around the females at a +short distance, and thus forming the curious circles. + +In every herd at each recurring season there were always ambitious young +bulls that came to their majority, so to speak, and these were ever +ready to test their claims for the leadership, so that it may be safely +stated that a month rarely passed without a bloody battle between them +for the supremacy; though, strangely enough, the struggle scarcely ever +resulted in the death of either combatant. + +Perhaps there is no animal in which maternal love is so wonderfully +developed as the buffalo cow; she is as dangerous with a calf by her +side as a she-grizzly with cubs, as all old mountaineers know. + +The buffalo bull that has outlived his usefulness is one of the most +pitiable objects in the whole range of natural history. Old age has +probably been decided in the economy of buffalo life as the unpardonable +sin. Abandoned to his fate, he may be discovered, in his dreary +isolation, near some stream or lake, where it does not tax him too +severely to find good grass; for he is now feeble, and exertion an +impossibility. In this new stage of his existence he seems to have +completely lost his courage. Frightened at his own shadow, or the +rustling of a leaf, he is the very incarnation of nervousness and +suspicion. Gregarious in his habits from birth, solitude, foreign to +his whole nature, has changed him into a new creature; and his inherent +terror of the most trivial things is intensified to such a degree +that if a man were compelled to undergo such constant alarm, it would +probably drive him insane in less than a week. Nobody ever saw one of +these miserable and helplessly forlorn creatures dying a natural death, +or ever heard of such an occurrence. The cowardly coyote and the gray +wolf had already marked him for their own; and they rarely missed their +calculations. + +Riding suddenly to the top of a divide once with a party of friends in +1866, we saw standing below us in the valley an old buffalo bull, the +very picture of despair. Surrounding him were seven gray wolves in the +act of challenging him to mortal combat. The poor beast, undoubtedly +realizing the utter hopelessness of his situation, had determined to +die game. His great shaggy head, filled with burrs, was lowered to the +ground as he confronted his would-be executioners; his tongue, black and +parched, lolled out of his mouth, and he gave utterance at intervals to +a suppressed roar. + +The wolves were sitting on their haunches in a semi-circle immediately +in front of the tortured beast, and every time that the fear-stricken +buffalo would give vent to his hoarsely modulated groan, the wolves +howled in concert in most mournful cadence. + +After contemplating his antagonists for a few moments, the bull made a +dash at the nearest wolf, tumbling him howling over the silent prairie; +but while this diversion was going on in front, the remainder of the +pack started for his hind legs, to hamstring him. Upon this the poor +brute turned to the point of attack only to receive a repetition of it +in the same vulnerable place by the wolves, who had as quickly turned +also and fastened themselves on his heels again. His hind quarters +now streamed with blood and he began to show signs of great physical +weakness. He did not dare to lie down; that would have been instantly +fatal. By this time he had killed three of the wolves or so maimed them +that they were entirely out of the fight. + +At this juncture the suffering animal was mercifully shot, and the +wolves allowed to batten on his thin and tough carcass. + +Often there are serious results growing out of a stampede, either +by mules or a herd of buffalo. A portion of the Fifth United States +Infantry had a narrow escape from a buffalo stampede on the Old Trail, +in the early summer of 1866. General George A. Sykes, who commanded the +Division of Regulars in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, +was ordered to join his regiment, stationed in New Mexico, and was +conducting a body of recruits, with their complement of officers, +to fill up the decimated ranks of the army stationed at the various +military posts, in far-off Greaser Land. + +The command numbered nearly eight hundred, including the subaltern +officers. These recruits, or the majority of them at least, were +recruits in name only; they had seen service in many a hard campaign of +the Rebellion. Some, of course, were beardless youths just out of their +teens, full of that martial ardour which induced so many young men of +the nation to follow the drum on the remote plains and in the fastnesses +of the Rocky Mountains, where the wily savages still held almost +undisputed sway, and were a constant menace to the pioneer settlers. + +One morning, when the command had just settled itself in careless repose +on the short grass of the apparently interminable prairie at the first +halt of the day's march, a short distance beyond Fort Larned, a strange +noise, like the low muttering of thunder below the horizon, greeted the +ears of the little army. + +All were startled by the ominous sound, unlike anything they had heard +before on their dreary tour. The general ordered his scouts out to learn +the cause; could it be Indians? Every eye was strained for something out +of the ordinary. Even the horses of the officers and the mules of the +supply-train were infected by something that seemed impending; they grew +restless, stamped the earth, and vainly essayed to stampede, but were +prevented by their hobbles and picket-pins. + +Presently one of the scouts returned from over the divide, and reported +to the general that an immense herd of buffalo was tearing down toward +the Trail, and from the great clouds of dust they raised, which obscured +the horizon, there must have been ten thousand of them. The roar wafted +to the command, and which seemed so mysterious, was made by their hoofs +as they rattled over the dry prairie. + +The sound increased in volume rapidly, and soon a black, surging mass +was discovered bearing right down on the Trail. Behind it could be seen +a cavalcade of about five hundred Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas, who +had maddened the shaggy brutes, hoping to capture the train without an +attack by forcing the frightened animals to overrun the command. + +Luckily, something caused the herd to open before it reached the foot +of the divide, and it passed in two masses, leaving the command between, +not two hundred feet from either division of the infuriated beasts. + +The rage of the savages was evident when they saw that their attempt to +annihilate the troops had failed, and they rode off sullenly into the +sand hills, as the number of soldiers was too great for them to think of +charging. + +Cody tells of a buffalo stampede which he witnessed in his youth on +the plains, when he was a wagon-master. The caravan was on its way +with government stores for the military posts in the mountains, and the +wagons were hauled by oxen. + +He says: The country was alive with buffalo, and besides killing + quite a number we had a rare day for sport. One morning + we pulled out of camp, and the train was strung out to a + considerable length along the Trail, which ran near the foot + of the sand hills, two miles from the river. Between the + road and the river we saw a large herd of buffalo grazing + quietly, they having been down to the stream to drink. + Just at this time we observed a party of returning + Californians coming from the west. They, too, noticed + the buffalo herd, and in another moment they were dashing + down upon them, urging their horses to their greatest speed. + The buffalo herd stampeded at once, and broke down the sides + of the hills; so hotly were they pursued by the hunters + that about five hundred of them rushed pell-mell through + our caravan, frightening both men and oxen. Some of the + wagons were turned clear around and many of the terrified + oxen attempted to run to the hills with the heavy wagons + attached to them. Others were turned around so short + that they broke the tongues off. Nearly all the teams + got entangled in their gearing and became wild and unruly, + so that the perplexed drivers were unable to manage them. + + The buffalo, the cattle, and the men were soon running + in every direction, and the excitement upset everybody + and everything. Many of the oxen broke their yokes and + stampeded. One big buffalo bull became entangled in one + of the heavy wagon-chains, and it is a fact that in his + desperate efforts to free himself, he not only snapped + the strong chain in two, but broke the ox-yoke to which + it was attached, and the last seen of him he was running + toward the hills with it hanging from his horns. + +Stampedes were a great source of profit to the Indians of the plains. +The Comanches were particularly expert and daring in this kind of +robbery. They even trained their horses to run from one point to another +in expectation of the coming of the trains. When a camp was made that +was nearly in range, they turned their trained animals loose, which at +once flew across the prairie, passing through the herd and penetrating +the very corrals of their victims. All of the picketed horses and mules +would endeavour to follow these decoys, and were invariably led right +into the haunts of the Indians, who easily secured them. Young horses +and mules were easily frightened; and, in the confusion which generally +ensued, great injury was frequently done to the runaways themselves. + +At times when the herd was very large, the horses scattered over the +prairie and were irrevocably lost; and such as did not become wild fell +a prey to the wolves. That fate was very frequently the lot of stampeded +horses bred in the States, they not having been trained by a prairie +life to take care of themselves. Instead of stopping and bravely +fighting off the blood-thirsty beasts, they would run. Then the whole +pack were sure to leave the bolder animals and make for the runaways, +which they seldom failed to overtake and despatch. + +On the Old Trail some years ago one of these stampedes occurred of a +band of government horses, in which were several valuable animals. It +was attended, however, with very little loss, through the courage and +great exertion of the men who had them in charge; many were recovered, +but none without having sustained injuries. + +Hon. R. M. Wright, of Dodge City, Kansas, one of the pioneers in the +days of the Santa Fe trade, and in the settlement of the State, has had +many exciting experiences both with the savages of the great plains, and +the buffalo. In relation to the habits of the latter, no man is better +qualified to speak. + +He was once owner of Fort Aubrey, a celebrated point on the Trail, but +was compelled to abandon it on account of constant persecution by the +Indians, or rather he was ordered to do so by the military authorities. +While occupying the once famous landmark, in connection with others, had +a contract to furnish hay to the government at Fort Lyon, seventy-five +miles further west. His journal, which he kindly placed at my disposal, +says: + + While we were preparing to commence the work, a vast herd + of buffalo stampeded through our range one night, and + took off with them about half of our work cattle. The next + day a stage-driver and conductor on the Overland Route told + us they had seen a number of our oxen twenty-five miles east + of Aubrey, and this information gave me an idea in which + direction to hunt for the missing beasts. I immediately + started after them, while my partner took those that + remained and a few wagons and left with them for Fort Lyon. + + Let me explain here that while the Indians were supposed to + be peaceable, small war-parties of young men, who could not + be controlled by their chiefs, were continually committing + depredations, and the main body of savages themselves were + very uneasy, and might be expected to break out any day. + In consequence of this unsettled state of affairs, there + had been a brisk movement among the United States troops + stationed at the various military posts, a large number of + whom were believed to be on the road from Denver to Fort Lyon. + + I filled my saddle-bags with jerked buffalo, hardtack and + ground coffee, and took with me a belt of cartridges, + my rifle and six-shooter, a field-glass and my blankets, + prepared for any emergency. The first day out, I found a + few of the lost cattle, and placed them on the river-bottom, + which I continued to do as fast as I recovered them, for a + distance of about eighty-five miles down the Arkansas. + There I met a wagon-train, the drivers of which told me + that I would find several more of my oxen with a train + that had arrived at the Cimarron crossing the day before. + I came up with this train in eight or ten hours' travel + south of the river, got my cattle, and started next morning + for home. + + I picked up those I had left on the Arkansas as I went + along, and after having made a very hard day's travel, + about sundown I concluded I would go into camp. I had + only fairly halted when the oxen began to drop down, + so completely tired out were they, as I believed. Just as + it was growing dark, I happened to look toward the west, + and I saw several fires on a big island, near what was + called "The Lone Tree," about a mile from where I had + determined to remain for the night. + + Thinking the fires were those of the soldiers that I had + heard were on the road from Denver, and anticipating and + longing for a cup of good coffee, as I had had none for + five days, knowing, too, that the troops would be full of + news, I felt good and determined to go over to their camp. + + The Arkansas was low, but the banks steep, with high, + rank grass growing to the very water's edge. I found + a buffalo-trail cut through the deep bank, narrow and + precipitous, and down this I went, arriving in a short time + within a little distance of my supposed soldiers' camp. + When I had reached the middle of another deep cut in the + bank, I looked across to the island, and, great Caesar! + saw a hundred little fires, around which an aggregation + of a thousand Indians were huddled! + + I slid backwards off my horse, and by dint of great exertion, + worked him up the river-bank as quietly and quickly as + possible, then led him gently away out on the prairie. + My first impulse was not to go back to the cattle; but as + we needed them very badly, I concluded to return, put them + all on their feet, and light out mighty lively, without + making any noise. I started them, and, oh dear! I was + afraid to tread upon a weed, lest it would snap and bring + the Indians down on my trail. Until I had put several + miles between them and me, I could not rest easy for + a moment. Tired as I was, tired as were both my horse + and the cattle, I drove them twenty-five miles before + I halted. Then daylight was upon me. I was at what is + known as Chouteau's Island, a once famous place in the + days of the Old Santa Fe Trail. + + Of course, I had to let the oxen and my horse rest and fill + themselves until the afternoon, and I lay down, and fell + asleep, but did not sleep long, as I thought it dangerous + to remain too near the cattle. I rose and walked up a big, + dry sand creek that opened into the river, and after I had + ascended it for a couple of miles, found the banks very + steep; in fact, they rose to a height of eighteen or twenty + feet, and were sharply cut up by narrow trails made by + the buffalo. + + The whole face of the earth was covered by buffalo, and + they were slowly grazing toward the Arkansas. All at once + they became frightened at something, and stampeded pell-mell + toward the very spot on which I stood. I quickly ran into + one of the precipitous little paths and up on the prairie, + to see what had scared them. They were making the ground + fairly tremble as their mighty multitude came rushing on + at full speed, the sound of their hoofs resembling thunder, + but in a continuous peal. It appeared to me that they must + sweep everything in their path, and for my own preservation + I rushed under the creek-bank, but on they came like a + tornado, with one old bull in the lead. He held up a second + to descend the narrow trail, and when he had got about + halfway down I let him have it; I was only a few steps from + him and over he tumbled. I don't know why I killed him; + out of pure wantonness, I expect, or perhaps I thought + it would frighten the others back. Not so, however; + they only quickened their pace, and came dashing down in + great numbers. Dozens of them stumbled and fell over the + dead bull; others fell over them. The top of the bank + was fairly swarming with them; they leaped, pitched, and + rolled down. I crouched as close to the bank as possible, + but many of them just grazed my head, knocking the sand + and gravel in great streams down my neck; indeed I was + half buried before the herd had passed over. That old bull + was the last buffalo I ever shot wantonly, excepting once, + from an ambulance while riding on the Old Trail, to please + a distinguished Englishman, who had never seen one shot; + then I did it only after his most earnest persuasion. + + One day a stage-driver named Frank Harris and myself started + out after buffalo; they were scarce, for a wonder, and + we were very hungry for fresh meat. The day was fine and + we rode a long way, expecting sooner or later a bunch would + jump up, but in the afternoon, having seen none, we gave + it up and started for the ranch. Of course, we didn't + care to save our ammunition, so shot it away at everything + in sight, skunks, rattlesnakes, prairie-dogs, and gophers, + until we had only a few loads left. Suddenly an old bull + jumped up that had been lying down in one of those + sugar-loaf-shaped sand hills, whose tops are hollowed out + by the action of the wind. Harris emptied his revolver + into him, and so did I; but the old fellow sullenly stood + still there on top of the sand hill, bleeding profusely + at the nose, and yet absolutely refusing to die, although + he would repeatedly stagger and nearly tumble over. + + It was getting late and we couldn't wait on him, so Harris + said: "I will dismount, creep up behind him, and cut his + hamstrings with my butcher-knife." The bull having now + lain down, Harris commenced operations, but his movement + seemed to infuse new life into the old fellow; he jumped + to his feet, his head lowered in the attitude of fight, + and away he went around the outside of the top of the + sand hill! It was a perfect circus with one ring; Harris, + who was a tall, lanky fellow, took hold of the enraged + animal's tail as he rose to his feet, and in a moment his + legs were flying higher than his head, but he did not dare + let go of his hold on the bull's tail, and around and + around they went; it was his only show for life. I could + not assist him a particle, but had to sit and hold his horse, + and be judge of the fight. I really thought that old bull + would never weaken. Finally, however, the "ring" performance + began to show symptoms of fatigue; slower and slower the + actions of the bull grew, and at last Harris succeeded + in cutting his hamstrings and the poor beast went down. + Harris said afterward, when the danger was all over, that + the only thing he feared was that perhaps the bull's tail + would pull out, and if it did, he was well aware that he + was a goner. We brought his tongue, hump, and a hindquarter + to the ranch with us, and had a glorious feast and a big + laugh that night with the boys over the ridiculous adventure. + +General Richard Irving Dodge, United States army, in his work on the big +game of America, says: + + It is almost impossible for a civilized being to realize + the value to the plains Indian of the buffalo. It furnished + him with home, food, clothing, bedding, horse equipment-- + almost everything. + + From 1869 to 1873 I was stationed at various posts along + the Arkansas River. Early in spring, as soon as the dry + and apparently desert prairie had begun to change its coat + of dingy brown to one of palest green, the horizon would + begin to be dotted with buffalo, single or in groups of two + or three, forerunners of the coming herd. Thick and thicker, + and in large groups they come, until by the time the grass + is well up, the whole vast landscape appears a mass of + buffalo, some individuals feeding, others lying down, but + the herd slowly moving to the northward; of their number, + it was impossible to form a conjecture. + + Determined as they are to pursue their journey northward, + yet they are exceedingly cautious and timid about it, + and on any alarm rush to the southward with all speed, + until that alarm is dissipated. Especially is this the case + when any unusual object appears in their rear, and so + utterly regardless of consequences are they, that an old + plainsman will not risk a wagon-train in such a herd, + where rising ground will permit those in front to get + a good view of their rear. + + In May, 1871, I drove in a buggy from old Fort Zarah + to Fort Larned, on the Arkansas River. The distance is + thirty-four miles. At least twenty-five miles of that + distance was through an immense herd. The whole country + was one mass of buffalo, apparently, and it was only when + actually among them, that the seemingly solid body was + seen to be an agglomeration of countless herds of from + fifty to two hundred animals, separated from the surrounding + herds by a greater or less space, but still separated. + + The road ran along the broad valley of the Arkansas. + Some miles from Zarah a low line of hills rises from the + plain on the right, gradually increasing in height and + approaching road and river, until they culminate in + Pawnee Rock. + + So long as I was in the broad, level valley, the herds + sullenly got out of my way, and, turning, stared stupidly + at me, some within thirty or forty yards. When, however, + I had reached a point where the hills were no more than + a mile from the road, the buffalo on the crests, seeing an + unusual object in their rear, turned, stared an instant, + then started at full speed toward me, stampeding and + bringing with them the numberless herds through which + they passed, and pouring down on me, no longer separated + but compacted into one immense mass of plunging animals, + mad with fright, irresistible as an avalanche. + + The situation was by no means pleasant. There was but + one hope of escape. My horse was, fortunately, a quiet + old beast, that had rushed with me into many a herd, and + been in at the death of many a buffalo. Reining him up, + I waited until the front of the mass was within fifty yards, + then, with a few well-directed shots, dropped some of + the leaders, split the herd and sent it off in two streams + to my right and left. When all had passed me, they stopped, + apparently satisfied, though thousands were yet within + reach of my rifle. After my servant had cut out the + tongues of the fallen, I proceeded on my journey, only to + have a similar experience within a mile or two, and this + occurred so often that I reached Fort Larned with twenty-six + tongues, representing the greatest number of buffalo that + I can blame myself with having murdered in one day. + + Some years, as in 1871, the buffalo appeared to move + northward in one immense column, oftentimes from twenty + to fifty miles in width, and of unknown depth from front + to rear. Other years the northward journey was made + in several parallel columns moving at the same rate and + with their numerous flankers covering a width of a hundred + or more miles. + + When the food in one locality fails, they go to another, + and toward fall, when the grass of the high prairies + becomes parched by the heat and drought, they gradually + work their way back to the south, concentrating on the + rich pastures of Texas and the Indian Territory, whence, + the same instinct acting on all, they are ready to start + together again on their northward march as soon as spring + starts the grass. + + Old plainsmen and the Indians aver that the buffalo never + return south; that each year's herd was composed of animals + which had never made the journey before, and would never + make it again. All admit the northern migration, that + being too pronounced for any one to dispute, but refuse + to admit the southern migration. Thousands of young calves + were caught and killed every spring that were produced + during this migration, and accompanied the herd northward; + but because the buffalo did not return south in one vast + body as they went north, it was stoutly maintained that + they did not go south at all. The plainsman could give + no reasonable hypothesis of his "No-return theory" on which + to base the origin of the vast herds which yearly made + their march northward. The Indian was, however, equal + to the occasion. Every plains Indian firmly believed that + the buffalo were produced in countless numbers in a country + under ground; that every spring the surplus swarmed, + like bees from a hive, out of the immense cave-like opening + in the region of the great Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain + of Texas. In 1879 Stone Calf, a celebrated chief, assured + me that he knew exactly where the caves were, though he had + never seen them; that the good God had provided this + means for the constant supply of food for the Indian, and + however recklessly the white men might slaughter, they could + never exterminate them. When last I saw him, the old man + was beginning to waver in this belief, and feared that + the "Bad God" had shut the entrances, and that his tribe + must starve. + +The old trappers and plainsmen themselves, even as early as the +beginning of the Santa Fe trade, noticed the gradual disappearance of +the buffalo, while they still existed in countless numbers. One veteran +French Canadian, an employee of the American Fur Company, way back in +the early '30's, used to mourn thus: "Mais, sacre! les Amarican, dey go +to de Missouri frontier, de buffalo he ron to de montaigne; de trappaire +wid his fusil, he follow to de Bayou Salade, he ron again. Dans les +Montaignes Espagnol, bang! bang! toute la journee, toute la journee, go +de sacre voleurs. De bison he leave, parceque les fusils scare im vara +moche, ici là de sem-sacré!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS. + + + +Thirty-five miles before arriving at Bent's Fort, at which point the +Old Trail crossed the Arkansas, the valley widens and the prairie falls +toward the river in gentle undulations. There for many years the +three friendly tribes of plains Indians--Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and +Kiowas--established their winter villages, in order to avail themselves +of the supply of wood, to trade with the whites, and to feed their herds +of ponies on the small limbs and bark of the cottonwood trees growing +along the margin of the stream for four or five miles. It was called Big +Timbers, and was one of the most eligible places to camp on the whole +route after leaving Council Grove. The grass, particularly on the south +side of the river, was excellent; there was an endless supply of fuel, +and cool water without stint. + +In the severe winters that sometimes were fruitful of blinding +blizzards, sweeping from the north in an intensity of fury that was +almost inconceivable, the buffalo too congregated there for shelter, and +to browse on the twigs of the great trees. + +The once famous grove, though denuded of much of its timber, may still +be seen from the car windows as the trains hurry mountainward. + +Garrard, in his _Taos Trail_, presents an interesting and amusing +account of a visit to the Cheyenne village with old John Smith, in 1847, +when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, and that with the various +tribes of savages in its golden days. + + Toward the middle of the day, the village was in a great + bustle. Every squaw, child, and man had their faces + blackened--a manifestation of joy.[44] + + Pell-mell they went--men, squaws, and dogs--into the icy + river. Some hastily jerked off their leggings, and held + moccasins and dresses high out of the water. Others, too + impatient, dashed the stream from beneath their impetuous + feet, scarce taking time to draw more closely the always + worn robe. Wondering what caused all this commotion, and + looking over the river, whither the yelling, half-frantic + savages were so speedily hurrying, we saw a band of Indians + advancing toward us. As the foremost braves reined their + champing barbs on the river-bank, mingled whoops of triumph + and delight and the repeated discharge of guns filled + the air. In the hands of three were slender willow wands, + from the smaller points of which dangled as many scalps-- + the single tuft of hair on each pronouncing them Pawnees.[45] + + These were raised aloft, amid unrestrained bursts of joy + from the thrice-happy, blood-thirsty throng. Children ran + to meet their fathers, sisters their brothers, girls their + lovers, returning from the scene of victorious strife; + decrepit matrons welcomed manly sons; and aged chiefs their + boys and braves. It was a scene of affection, and a proud + day in the Cheyenne annals of prowess. That small but + gallant band were relieved of their shields and lances by + tender-hearted squaws, and accompanied to their respective + homes, to repose by the lodge-fire, consume choice meat, + and to be the heroes of the family circle. + + The drum at night sent forth its monotony of hollow sound, + and my Mexican Pedro and I, directed by the booming, + entered a lodge, vacated for the purpose, full of young men + and squaws, following one another in a continuous circle, + keeping the left knee stiff and bending the right with a + half-forward, half-backward step, as if they wanted to go on + and could not, accompanying it, every time the right foot + was raised, with an energetic, broken song, which, dying + away, was again and again sounded--"hay-a, hay-a, hay-a," + they went, laying the emphasis on the first syllable. + A drum, similar to, though larger than a tambourine, covered + with parflêche,[46] was beaten upon with a stick, producing + with the voices a sound not altogether disagreeable. + + Throughout the entire night and succeeding day the voices + of the singers and heavy notes of the drum reached us, + and at night again the same dull sound lulled me to sleep. + Before daylight our lodge was filled with careless dancers, + and the drum and voices, so unpleasing to our wearied ears, + were giving us the full benefit of their compass. Smith, + whose policy it was not to be offended, bore the infliction + as best he could, and I looked on much amused. The lodge + was so full that they stood without dancing, in a circle + round the fire, and with a swaying motion of the body + kept time to their music. + + During the day the young men, except the dancers, piled up + dry logs in a level open space near, for a grand demonstration. + At night, when it was fired, I folded my blanket over my + shoulders, comme les sauvages, and went out. The faces + of many girls were brilliant with vermilion; others were + blacked, their robes, leggings, and skin dresses glittering + with beads and quill-work. Rings and bracelets of shining + brass encircled their taper arms and fingers, and shells + dangled from their ears. Indeed, all the finery collectable + was piled on in barbarous profusion, though a few, in good + taste through poverty, wore a single band and but few rings, + with jetty hair parted in the middle, from the forehead + to the neck, terminating in two handsome braids. + + The young men who can afford the expense trade for dollars + and silver coin of less denomination--coin as a currency + is not known among them--which they flatten thin, and fasten + to a braid of buffalo hair, attached to the crown lock, + which hangs behind, outside of the robe, and adds much to + the handsome appearance of the wearer. + + The girls, numbering two hundred, fell into line together, + and the men, of whom there were two hundred and fifty, + joining, a circle was formed, which travelled around with + the same shuffling step already described. The drummers + and other musicians--twenty or twenty-five of them--marched + in a contrary direction to and from and around the fire, + inside the large ring; for at the distance kept by the + outsiders the area was one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. + The Apollonian emulators chanted the great deeds performed + by the Cheyenne warriors. As they ended, the dying strain + was caught up by the hundreds of the outside circle, who, + in fast-swelling, loud tones, poured out the burden of + their song. At this juncture the march was quickened, + the scalps of the slain were borne aloft and shaken with + wild delight, and shrill war-notes, rising above the + furious din, accelerated the pulsation and strung high + the nerves. Time-worn shields, careering in mad holders' + hands, clashed; and keen lances, once reeking in Pawnee + blood, clanged. Braves seized one another with an iron + grip, in the heat of excitement, or chimed more tenderly + in the chant, enveloped in the same robe with some maiden + as they approvingly stepped through one of their own + original polkas. + + Thirty of the chiefs and principal men were ranged by the + pile of blazing logs. By their invitation, I sat down with + them and smoked death and its concomitant train of evils to + those audacious tribes who doubt the courage or supremacy + of the brave, the great and powerful, Cheyenne nation. + +It is Indian etiquette that the first lodge a stranger enters on +visiting a village is his home as long as he remains the guest of the +tribe. It is all the same whether he be invited or not. Upon going in, +it is customary to place all your traps in the back part, which is the +most honoured spot. The proprietor always occupies that part of his +home, but invariably gives it up to a guest. With the Cheyennes, the +white man, when the tribe was at peace with him, was ever welcome, as +in the early days of the border he generally had a supply of coffee, of +which the savage is particularly fond--Mok-ta-bo-mah-pe, as they call +it. Their salutation to the stranger coming into the presence of the +owner of a lodge is "Hook-ah-hay! Num-whit,"--"How do you do? Stay with +us." Water is then handed by a squaw, as it is supposed a traveller is +thirsty after riding; then meat, for he must be hungry, too. A pipe is +offered, and conversation follows. + +The lodge of the Cheyennes is formed of seventeen poles, about three +inches thick at the end which rests on the ground, slender in shape, +tapering symmetrically, and eighteen feet or more in length. They are +tied together at the small ends with buffalo-hide, then raised until +the frame resembles a cone, over which buffalo-skins are placed, very +skilfully fitted and made soft by having been dubbed by the women--that +is, scraped to the requisite thinness, and made supple by rubbing with +the brains of the animal that wore it. They are sewed together with +sinews of the buffalo, generally of the long and powerful muscle that +holds up the ponderous head of the shaggy beast, a narrow strip running +towards the bump. In summer the lower edges of the skin are rolled up, +and the wind blowing through, it is a cool, shady retreat. In winter +everything is closed, and I know of no more comfortable place than a +well-made Indian lodge. The army tent known as the Sibley is modelled +after it, and is the best winter shelter for troops in the field that +can be made. Many times while the military post where I had been ordered +was in process of building, I have chosen the Sibley tent in preference +to any other domicile. + +When a village is to be moved, it is an interesting sight. The young and +unfledged boys drive up the herd of ponies, and then the squaws catch +them. The women, too, take down the lodges, and, tying the poles in two +bundles, fasten them on each side of an animal, the long ends dragging +on the ground. Just behind the pony or mule, as the case may be, a +basket is placed and held there by buffalo-hide thongs, and into these +novel carriages the little children are put, besides such traps as are +not easily packed on the animal's back. + +The women do all the work both in camp and when moving. They are doomed +to a hopeless bondage of slavery, the fate of their sex in every savage +race; but they accept their condition stoically, and there is as much +affection among them for their husbands and children as I have ever +witnessed among the white race. Here are two instances of their +devotion, both of which came under my personal observation, and I could +give hundreds of others. + +Late in the fall of 1858, I was one of a party on the trail of a band of +Indians who had been committing some horrible murders in a mining-camp +in the northern portion of Washington Territory. On the fourth day out, +just about dusk, we struck their moccasin tracks, which we followed all +night, and surprised their camp in the gray light of the early morning. +In less than ten minutes the fight was over, and besides the killed we +captured six prisoners. Then as the rising sun commenced to gild the +peaks of the lofty range on the west, having granted our captives half +an hour to take leave of their families, the ankles of each were bound; +they were made to kneel on the prairie, a squad of soldiers, with loaded +rifles, were drawn up eight paces in front of them, and at the instant +the signal--a white handkerchief--was dropped the savages tumbled over +on the sod a heap of corpses. The parting between the condemned men and +their young wives and children, I shall never forget. It was the +most perfect exhibition of marital and filial love that I have ever +witnessed. Such harsh measures may seem cruel and heartless in the +light of to-day, but there was none other than martial law then in the +wilderness of the Northern Pacific coast, and the execution was a stern +necessity. + +The other instance was ten years later. During the Indian campaign in +the winter of 1868-69 I was riding with a party of officers and enlisted +men, south of the Arkansas, about fourty miles from Fort Dodge. We were +watching some cavalrymen unearth three or four dead warriors who had +been killed by two scouts in a fierce unequal fight a few weeks before, +and as we rode into a small ravine among the sand hills, we suddenly +came upon a rudely constructed Cheyenne lodge. Entering, we discovered +on a rough platform, fashioned of green poles, a dead warrior in full +war-dress; his shield of buffalo-hide, pipe ornamented with eagles' +feathers, and medicine bag, were lying on the ground beside him. At his +head, on her knees, with hands clasped in the attitude of prayer, was a +squaw frozen to death. Which had first succumbed, the wounded chief, or +the devoted wife in the awful cold of that winter prairie, will never be +known, but it proved her love for the man who had perhaps beaten her a +hundred times. Such tender and sympathetic affection is characteristic +of the sex everywhere, no less with the poor savage than in the dominant +white race. + +To return to our description of the average Indian village: Each lodge +at the grand encampment of Big Timbers in the era of traffic with the +nomads of the great plains, owned its separate herd of ponies and mules. +In the exodus to some other favoured spot, two dozen or more of these +individual herds travelled close to each other but never mixed, each +drove devotedly following its bell-mare, as in a pack-train. This useful +animal is generally the most worthless and wicked beast in the entire +outfit. + +The animals with the lodge-pole carriages go as they please, no special +care being taken to guide them, but they too instinctively keep +within sound of the leader. I will again quote Garrard for an accurate +description of the moving camp when he was with the Cheyennes in 1847:-- + + The young squaws take much care of their dress and horse + equipments; they dash furiously past on wild steeds, + astride of the high-pommelled saddles. A fancifully + coloured cover, worked with beads or porcupine quills, + making a flashy, striking appearance, extended from withers + to rump of the horse, while the riders evinced an admirable + daring, worthy of Amazons. Their dresses were made of + buckskin, high at the neck, with short sleeves, or rather + none at all, fitting loosely, and reaching obliquely to + the knee, giving a Diana look to the costume; the edges + scalloped, worked with beads, and fringed. From the knee + downward the limb was encased in a tightly fitting legging, + terminating in a neat moccasin--both handsomely wrought + with beads. On the arms were bracelets of brass, which + glittered and reflected in the radiant morning sun, adding + much to their attractions. In their pierced ears, shells + from the Pacific shore were pendent; and to complete the + picture of savage taste and profusion, their fine + complexions were eclipsed by a coat of flaming vermilion. + + Many of the largest dogs were packed with a small quantity + of meat, or something not easily injured. They looked + queerly, trotting industriously under their burdens; and, + judging from a small stock of canine physiological + information, not a little of the wolf was in their + composition. + + We crossed the river on our way to the new camp. The alarm + manifested by the children in the lodge-pole drays, as they + dipped in the water, was amusing. The little fellows, + holding their breath, not daring to cry, looked imploringly + at their inexorable mothers, and were encouraged by words + of approbation from their stern fathers. + + After a ride of two hours we stopped, and the chiefs, + fastening their horses, collected in circles to smoke their + pipe and talk, letting their squaws unpack the animals, + pitch the lodges, build the fires, and arrange the robes. + When all was ready, these lords of creation dispersed to + their several homes, to wait until their patient and + enduring spouses prepared some food. I was provoked, nay, + angry, to see the lazy, overgrown men do nothing to help + their wives; and when the young women pulled off their + bracelets and finery to chop wood, the cup of my wrath was + full to overflowing, and, in a fit of honest indignation, + I pronounced them ungallant and savage in the true sense + of the word. + +The treatment of Indian children, particularly boys, is something +startling to the gentle sentiments of refined white mothers. The girls +receive hardly any attention from their fathers. Implicit obedience is +the watchword of the lodge with them, and they are constantly taught +to appreciate their inferiority of sex. The daughter is a mere slave; +unnoticed and neglected--a mere hewer of wood and drawer of water. With +a son, it is entirely different; the father from his birth dotes on him +and manifests his affection in the most demonstrative manner. + +Garrard tells of two instances that came under his observation while +staying at the chief's lodge, and at John Smith's, in the Cheyenne +village, of the discipline to which the boys are subjected. + + In Vi-po-nah's lodge was his grandson, a boy six or seven + months old. Every morning his mother washed him in cold + water, and set him out in the air to make him hardy; + he would come in, perfectly nude, from his airing, about + half-frozen. How he would laugh and brighten up, as he felt + the warmth of the fire! + + Smith's son Jack took a crying fit one cold night, much to + the annoyance of four or five chiefs, who had come to our + lodge to talk and smoke. In vain did the mother shake and + scold him with the severest Cheyenne words, until Smith, + provoked beyond endurance, took the squalling youngster in + his hands; he shu-ed and shouted and swore, but Jack had + gone too far to be easily pacified. He then sent for a + bucket of water from the river and poured cupful after + cupful on Jack, who stamped and screamed and bit in his + tiny rage. Notwithstanding, the icy stream slowly descended + until the bucket was emptied, another was sent for, and + again and again the cup was replenished and emptied on the + blubbering youth. At last, exhausted with exertion and + completely cooled down, he received the remaining water + in silence, and, with a few words of admonition, was + delivered over to his mother, in whose arms he stifled his + sobs, until his heartbreaking grief and cares were drowned + in sleep. What a devilish mixture Indian and American + blood is! + +The Indians never chastise a boy, as they think his spirit would be +broken and cowed down; instead of a warrior he would be a squaw--a +harsh epithet indicative of cowardice--and they resort to any method but +infliction of blows to subdue a refractory scion. + +Before most of the lodges is a tripod of three sticks, about seven feet +in length and an inch in diameter, fastened at the top, and the lower +ends brought out, so that it stands alone. On this is hung the +shield and a small square bag of parflêche, containing pipes, with an +accompanying pendent roll of stems, carefully wrapped in blue or red +cloth, and decorated with beads and porcupine quills. This collection is +held in great veneration, for the pipe is their only religion. Through +its agency they invoke the Great Spirit; through it they render homage +to the winds, to the earth, and to the sky. + +Every one has his peculiar notion on this subject; and, in passing the +pipe, one must have it presented stem downward, another the reverse; +some with the bowl resting on the ground; and as this is a matter +of great solemnity, their several fancies are respected. Sometimes I +required them to hand it to me, when smoking, in imitation of their +custom; on this, a faint smile, half mingled with respect and pity for +my folly in tampering with their sacred ceremony, would appear on their +faces, and with a slow negative shake of the head, they would ejaculate, +"I-sto-met-mah-son-ne-wah-hein"--"Pshaw! that's foolish; don't do so." + +Religion the Cheyennes have none, if, indeed, we except the respect paid +to the pipe; nor do we see any sign or vestige of spiritual worship; +except one remarkable thing--in offering the pipe, before every fresh +filling, to the sky, the earth, and the winds, the motion made in so +doing describes the form of a cross; and, in blowing the first four +whiffs, the smoke is invariably sent in the same four directions. It is +undoubtedly void of meaning in reference to Christian worship, yet it is +a superstition, founded on ancient tradition. This tribe once lived +near the head waters of the Mississippi; and, as the early Jesuit +missionaries were energetic zealots, in the diffusion of their religious +sentiments, probably to make their faith more acceptable to the Indians, +the Roman Catholic rites were blended with the homage shown to the pipe, +which custom of offering, in the form of a cross, is still retained by +them; but as every custom is handed down by tradition merely, the true +source has been forgotten. + +In every tribe in whose country I have been stationed, which comprises +nearly all the continent excepting the extreme southwestern portion, +his pipe is the Indian's constant companion through life. It is his +messenger of peace; he pledges his friends through its stem and its +bowl, and when he is dead, it has a place in his solitary grave, with +his war-club and arrows--companions on his journey to his long-fancied +beautiful hunting-grounds. The pipe of peace is a sacred thing; so held +by all Indian nations, and kept in possession of chiefs, to be smoked +only at times of peacemaking. When the terms of treaty have been agreed +upon, this sacred emblem, the stem of which is ornamented with eagle's +quills, is brought forward, and the solemn pledge to keep the peace is +passed through the sacred stem by each chief and warrior drawing the +smoke once through it. After the ceremony is over, the warriors of the +two tribes unite in the dance, with the pipe of peace held in the left +hand of the chief and in his other a rattle. + +Thousands of years ago, the primitive savage of the American continent +carried masses of pipe-stone from the sacred quarry in Minnesota across +the vast wilderness of plains, to trade with the people of the far +Southwest, over the same route that long afterward became the Santa Fe +Trail; therefore, it will be consistent with the character of this work +to relate the history of the quarry from which all the tribes procured +their material for fashioning their pipes, and the curious legends +connected with it. I have met with the red sandstone pipes on the +remotest portions of the Pacific coast, and east, west, north and south, +in every tribe that it has been my fortune to know. + +The word "Dakotah" means allied or confederated, and is the family +name now comprising some thirty bands, numbering about thirty thousand +Indians. They are generally designated Sioux, but that title is seldom +willingly acknowledged by them. It was first given to them by the +French, though its original interpretation is by no means clear. The +accepted theory, because it is the most plausible, is that it is a +corruption or rather an abbreviation of "Nadouessioux," a Chippewa word +for enemies. + +Many of the Sioux are semi-civilized; some are "blanket-Indians," so +called, but there are no longer any murderous or predatory bands, and +all save a few stragglers are on the reservations. From 1812 to 1876, +more than half a century, they were the scourge of the West and the +Northwest, but another outbreak is highly improbable. They once +occupied the vast region included between the Mississippi and the Rocky +Mountains, and were always migratory in their methods of living. Over +fifty years ago, when the whites first became acquainted with them, they +were divided into nearly fifty bands of families, each with its +separate chief, but all acknowledging a superior chief to whom they were +subordinate. They were at that time the happiest and most wealthy tribe +on the continent, regarded from an Indian standpoint; but then the great +plains were stocked with buffalo and wild horses, and that fact alone +warrants the assertion of contentment and riches. No finer-looking tribe +existed; they could then muster more than ten thousand warriors, +every one of whom would measure six feet, and all their movements were +graceful and elastic. + +According to their legends, they came from the Pacific and encountered +the Algonquins about the head waters of the Mississippi, where they +were held in check, a portion of them, however, pushing on through +their enemies and securing a foothold on the shores of Lake +Michigan. This bold band was called by the Chippewas Winnebagook +(men-from-the-salt-water). In their original habitat on the great +northern plains was located the celebrated "red pipe-stone quarry," a +relatively limited area, owned by all tribes, but occupied permanently +by none; a purely neutral ground--so designated by the Great +Spirit--where no war could possibly occur, and where mortal enemies +might meet to procure the material for their pipes, but the hatchet was +invariably buried during that time on the consecrated spot. + +The quarry has long since passed out of the control and jurisdiction +of the Indians and is not included in any of their reservations, though +near the Sisseton agency. It is located on the summit of the high divide +between the Missouri and St. Peter's rivers in Minnesota, at a point not +far from where the ninety-seventh meridian of longitude (from Greenwich) +intersects the forty-fifth parallel of latitude. The divide was named +by the French Coteau des Prairies, and the quarry is near its southern +extremity. Not a tree or bush could be seen from the majestic mound +when I last was there, some twenty years ago--nothing but the apparently +interminable plains, until they were lost in the deep blue of the +horizon. + +The luxury of smoking appears to have been known to all the tribes on +the continent in their primitive state, and they indulge in the habit +to excess; any one familiar with their life can assert that the American +savage smokes half of his time. Where so much attention is given to a +mere pleasure, it naturally follows that he would devote his leisure and +ingenuity to the construction of his pipe. The bowls of these were, from +time immemorial, made of the peculiar red stone from the famous quarry +referred to, which, until only a little over fifty years ago, was never +visited by a white man, its sanctity forbidding any such sacrilege. + +That the spot should have been visited for untold centuries by all the +Indian nations, who hid their weapons as they approached it, under fear +of the vengeance of the Great Spirit, will not seem strange when the +religion of the race is understood. One of the principal features of the +quarry is a perpendicular wall of granite about thirty feet high, facing +the west, and nearly two miles long. At the base of the wall there is +a level prairie, running parallel to it, half a mile wide. Under this +strip of land, after digging through several slaty layers of rock, the +red sandstone is found. Old graves, fortifications, and excavations +abound, all confirmatory of the traditions clustering around the weird +place. + +Within a few rods of the base of the wall is a group of immense gneiss +boulders, five in number, weighing probably many hundred tons each, and +under these are two holes in which two imaginary old women reside--the +guardian spirits of the quarry--who were always consulted before any +pipe-stone could be dug up. The veneration for this group of boulders +was something wonderful; not a spear of grass was broken or bent by his +feet within sixty or seventy paces from them, where the trembling Indian +halted, and throwing gifts to them in humble supplication, solicited +permission to dig and take away the red stone for his pipes. + +Near this spot, too, on a high mound, was the "Thunder's nest," where +a very small bird sat upon her eggs during fair weather. When the skies +were rent with thunder at the approach of a storm, she was hatching her +brood, which caused the terrible commotion in the heavens. The bird was +eternal. The "medicine men" claimed that they had often seen her, and +she was about as large as a little finger. Her mate was a serpent whose +fiery tongue destroyed the young ones as soon as they were born, and the +awful noise accompanying the act darted through the clouds. + +On the wall of rocks at the quarry are thousands of inscriptions and +paintings, the totems and arms of various tribes who have visited there; +but no idea can be formed of their antiquity. + +Of the various traditions of the many tribes, I here present a few. The +Great Spirit at a remote period called all the Indian nations together +at this place, and, standing on the brink of the precipice of red-stone +rock, broke from its walls a piece and fashioned a pipe by simply +turning it in his hands. He then smoked over them to the north, the +south, the east, and the west, and told them the stone was red, that it +was their flesh, that they must use it for their pipes of peace, that +it belonged to all alike, and that the war-club and scalping-knife must +never be raised on its ground. At the last whiff of his pipe his head +went into a great cloud, and the whole surface of the ledge for miles +was melted and glazed; two great ovens were opened beneath, and two +women--the guardian spirits of the place--entered them in a blaze of +fire, and they are heard there yet answering to the conjurations of the +medicine men, who consult them when they visit the sacred place. + +The legend of the Knis-te-neu's tribe (Crees), a very small band in the +British possessions, in relation to the quarry is this: In the time of +a great freshet that occurred years ago and destroyed all the nations of +the earth, every tribe of Indians assembled on the top of the Coteau des +Prairies to get out of the way of the rushing and seething waters. When +they had arrived there from all parts of the world, the water continued +to rise until it covered them completely, forming one solid mass of +drowned Indians, and their flesh was converted by the Great Spirit into +red pipe-stone; therefore, it was always considered neutral ground, +belonging to all tribes alike, and all were to make their pipes out of +it and smoke together. While they were drowning together, a young woman, +Kwaptan, a virgin, caught hold of the foot of a very large bird that was +flying over at the time, and was carried to the top of a hill that was +not far away and above the water. There she had twins, their father +being the war-eagle that had carried her off, and her children have +since peopled the earth. The pipe-stone, which is the flesh of their +ancestors, is smoked by them as the symbol of peace, and the eagle +quills decorate the heads of their warriors. + +Severed about seven or eight feet from the main wall of the quarry by +some convulsion of nature ages ago, there is an immense column just +equal in height to the wall, seven feet in diameter and beautifully +polished on its top and sides. It is called The Medicine, or Leaping +Rock, and considerable nerve is required to jump on it from the main +ledge and back again. Many an Indian's heart, in the past, has sighed +for the honour of the feat without daring to attempt it. A few, +according to the records of the tribes, have tried it with success, and +left their arrows standing up in its crevice; others have made the leap +and reached its slippery surface only to slide off, and suffer instant +death on the craggy rocks in the awful chasm below. Every young man of +the many tribes was ambitious to perform the feat, and those who had +successfully accomplished it were permitted to boast of it all their +lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. TRAPPERS. + + + +The initial opening of the trade with New Mexico from the Missouri +River, as has been related, was not direct to Santa Fe. The limited +number of pack-trains at first passed to the north of the Raton Range, +and travelled to the Spanish settlements in the valley of Taos. + +On this original Trail, where now is situated the beautiful city of +Pueblo, the second place of importance in Colorado, there was a little +Indian trading-post called "the Pueblo," from which the present thriving +place derives its name. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad +practically follows the same route that the traders did to reach Pueblo, +as it also does that which the freight caravans later followed from the +Missouri River direct to Santa Fe. + +The old Pueblo fort, as nearly as can be determined now, was built as +early as 1840, or not later than 1842, and, as one authority asserts, by +George Simpson and his associates, Barclay and Doyle. Beckwourth claims +to have been the original projector of the fort, and to have given the +general plan and its name, in which I am inclined to believe that he is +correct; perhaps Barclay, Doyle, and Simpson were connected with him, as +he states that there were other trappers, though he mentions no names. +It was a square fort of adobe, with circular bastions at the corners, no +part of the walls being more than eight feet high. Around the inside of +the plaza, or corral, were half a dozen small rooms inhabited by as many +Indian traders and mountain-men. + +One of the earlier Indian agents, Mr. Fitzpatrick, in writing from +Bent's Fort in 1847, thus describes the old Pueblo:-- + + About seventy-five miles above this place, and immediately + on the Arkansas River, there is a small settlement, chiefly + composed of old trappers and hunters; the male part of it + are mostly Americans (Missourians), French Canadians, and + Mexicans. It numbers about one hundred and fifty, and of + this number about sixty men have wives, and some have two. + These wives are of various Indian tribes, as follows; viz. + Blackfeet, Assiniboines, Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, + Snakes, and Comanches. The American women are Mormons, + a party of Mormons having wintered there, and then departed + for California. + +The old trappers and hunters of the Pueblo fort lived entirely upon +game, and a greater part of the year without bread. As soon as their +supply of meat was exhausted, they started to the mountains with two +or three pack-animals, and brought back in two or three days loads of +venison and buffalo. + +The Arkansas at the Pueblo is a clear, rapid river about a hundred yards +wide. The bottom, which is enclosed on each side by high bluffs, is +about a quarter of a mile across. In the early days of which I write, +the margin of the stream was heavily timbered with cottonwood, and the +tourist to-day may see the remnant of the primitive great woods, in the +huge isolated trees scattered around the bottom in the vicinity of the +Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad station of the charming mountain +city. + +On each side vast rolling prairies stretch away for hundreds of miles, +gradually ascending on the side towards the mountains, where the +highlands are sparsely covered with pinyon and cedar. The lofty +banks through which the Arkansas occasionally passes are of shale and +sandstone, rising precipitously from the water. Ascending the river the +country is wild and broken, until it enters the mountain region, where +the scenery is incomparably grand and imposing. The surrounding prairies +are naturally arid and sterile, producing but little vegetation, and +the primitive grass, though of good quality, is thin and scarce. Now, +however, under a competent system of irrigation, the whole aspect of the +landscape is changed from what it was thirty years ago, and it has all +the luxuriance of a garden. + +The whole country, it is claimed, was once possessed by the Shos-shones, +or Snake Indians, of whom the Comanches of the Southern plains are a +branch; and, although many hundred miles divide their hunting-grounds, +they were once, if not the same people, tribes or bands of that great +and powerful nation. They retain a language in common, and there is also +a striking analogy in many of their religious rites and ceremonies, +in their folk-lore, and in some of their everyday customs. These facts +prove, at least, that there was at one time a very close alliance which +bound the two tribes together. Half a century ago they were, in point of +numbers, the two most powerful nations in all the numerous aggregations +of Indians in the West; the Comanches ruling almost supreme on the +Eastern plains, while the Shos-shones were the dominant tribe in the +country beyond the Rocky Mountains, and in the mountains themselves. +Once, many years ago, before the problem of the relative strength of the +various tribes was as well solved as now, the Shos-shones were supposed +to be the most powerful, and numerically the most populous, tribe of +Indians on the North American continent. + +In the immediate vicinity of the old Pueblo fort at the time of its +greatest business prosperity, game was scarce; the buffalo had for some +years deserted the neighbouring prairies, but they were always to be +found in the mountain-valleys, particularly in one known as "Bayou +Salado," which forty-five years ago abounded in elk, bear, deer, and +antelope. + +The fort was situated a few hundred yards above the mouth of the +"Fontaine qui Bouille" River,[47] so called from two springs of mineral +water near its head, under Pike's Peak, about sixty miles above its +mouth. + +As is the case with all the savage races of the world, the American +Indians possess hereditary legends, accounting for all the phenomena +of nature, or any occurrence which is beyond their comprehension. The +Shos-shones had the following story to account for the presence of these +wonderful springs in the midst of their favourite hunting-ground. The +two fountains, one pouring forth the sweetest water imaginable, the +other a stream as bitter as gall, are intimately connected with the +cause of the separation of the two tribes. Their legend thus runs: Many +hundreds of winters ago, when the cottonwoods on the big river were no +higher than arrows, and the prairies were crowded with game, the red +men who hunted the deer in the forests and the buffalo on the plains +all spoke the same language, and the pipe of peace breathed its soothing +cloud whenever two parties of hunters met on the boundless prairie. + +It happened one day that two hunters of different nations met on the +bank of a small rivulet, to which both had resorted to quench their +thirst. A small stream of water, rising from a spring on a rock within +a few feet of the bank, trickled over it and fell splashing into the +river. One hunter sought the spring itself; the other, tired by his +exertions in the chase, threw himself at once to the ground, and plunged +his face into the running stream. + +The latter had been unsuccessful in the hunt, and perhaps his bad +fortune, and the sight of the fat deer which the other threw from his +back before he drank at the crystal spring, caused a feeling of jealousy +and ill-humour to take possession of his mind. The other, on the +contrary, before he satisfied his thirst, raised in the hollow of his +hand a portion of the water, and, lifting it toward the sun, reversed +his hand, and allowed it to fall upon the ground, as a libation to the +Great Spirit, who had vouch-safed him a successful hunt and the blessing +of the refreshing water with which he was about to quench his thirst. + +This reminder that he had neglected the usual offering only increased +the feeling of envy and annoyance which filled the unsuccessful hunter's +heart. The Evil Spirit at that moment entering his body, his temper +fairly flew away, and he sought some pretence to provoke a quarrel with +the other Indian. + +"Why does a stranger," he asked, rising from the stream, "drink at the +spring-head, when one to whom the fountain belongs contents himself with +the water that runs from it?" + +"The Great Spirit places the cool water at the spring," answered the +other hunter, "that his children may drink it pure and undefiled. The +running water is for the beasts which scour the plains. Ausaqua is a +chief of the Shos-shones; he drinks at the head water." + +"The Shos-shones is but a tribe of the Comanches," returned the other: +"Wacomish leads the whole nation. Why does a Shos-shone dare to drink +above him?" + +"When the Manitou made his children, whether Shos-shone or Comanche, +Arapaho, Cheyenne, or Pawnee, he gave them buffalo to eat, and the pure +water of the fountain to quench their thirst. He said not to one, 'Drink +here,' and to another, 'Drink there'; but gave the crystal spring to +all, that all might drink." + +Wacomish almost burst with rage as the other spoke; but his coward heart +prevented him from provoking an encounter with the calm Shos-shone. The +latter, made thirsty by the words he had spoken--for the Indian is ever +sparing of his tongue--again stooped down to the spring to drink, when +the subtle warrior of the Comanches suddenly threw himself upon the +kneeling hunter and, forcing his head into the bubbling water, held him +down with all his strength until his victim no longer struggled; his +stiffened limbs relaxed, and he fell forward over the spring, drowned. + +Mechanically the Comanche dragged the body a few paces from the water, +and, as soon as the head of the dead Indian was withdrawn, the spring +was suddenly and strangely disturbed. Bubbles sprang up from the bottom, +and, rising to the surface, escaped in hissing gas. A thin vapour +arose, and, gradually dissolving, displayed to the eyes of the trembling +murderer the figure of an aged Indian, whose long, snowy hair and +venerable beard, blown aside from his breast, discovered the well-known +totem of the great Wankanaga, the father of the Comanche and Shos-shone +nation. + +Stretching out a war-club toward the Comanche, the figure thus addressed +him:-- + +"Accursed murderer! While the blood of the brave Shos-shone cries to +the Great Spirit for vengeance, may the water of thy tribe be rank +and bitter in their throats!" Thus saying, and swinging his ponderous +war-club round his head, he dashed out the brains of the Comanche, who +fell headlong into the spring, which from that day to this remains rank +and nauseous, so that not even when half dead with thirst, can one drink +from it. + +The good Wankanaga, however, to perpetuate the memory of the Shos-shone +warrior, who was renowned in his tribe for valour and nobleness of +heart, struck with the same avenging club a hard, flat rock which +overhung the rivulet, and forthwith a round clear basin opened, which +instantly filled with bubbling, sparkling water, sweet and cool. + +From that day the two mighty tribes of the Shos-shones and Comanches +have remained severed and apart, although a long and bloody war followed +the treacherous murder. + +The Indians regarded these wonderful springs with awe. The Arapahoes, +especially, attributed to the Spirit of the springs the power of +ordaining the success or failure of their war expeditions. As their +warriors passed by the mysterious pools when hunting their hereditary +enemies, the Utes, they never failed to bestow their votive offerings +upon the spring, in order to propitiate the Manitou of the strange +fountain, and insure a fortunate issue to their path of war. As late as +twenty-five years ago, the visitor to the place could always find the +basin of the spring filled with beads and wampum, pieces of red cloth +and knives, while the surrounding trees were hung with strips of +deerskin, cloth, and moccasins. Signs were frequently observed in the +vicinity of the waters unmistakably indicating that a war-dance had +been executed there by the Arapahoes on their way to the Valley of Salt, +occupied by the powerful Utes. + +Never was there such a paradise for hunters as this lone and solitary +spot in the days when the region was known only to them and the trappers +of the great fur companies. The shelving prairie, at the bottom of which +the springs are situated, is entirely surrounded by rugged mountains +and contained two or three acres of excellent grass, affording a safe +pasture for their animals, which hardly cared to wander from such +feeding and the salt they loved to lick. + +The trappers of the Rocky Mountains belonged to a genus that has +disappeared. Forty years ago there was not a hole or corner in the vast +wilderness of the far West that had not been explored by these hardy +men. From the Mississippi to the mouth of the Colorado of the West, from +the frozen regions of the north to the Gila in Mexico, the beaver hunter +has set his traps in every creek and stream. The mountains and waters, +in many instances, still retain the names assigned them by those rude +hunters, who were veritable pioneers paving the way for the settlement +of the stern country. + +A trapper's camp in the old days was quite a picture, as were all its +surroundings. He did not always take the trouble to build a shelter, +unless in the winter. A couple of deerskins stretched over a willow +frame was considered sufficient to protect him from the storm. Sometimes +he contented himself with a mere "breakwind," the rocky wall of a +canyon, or large ravine. Near at hand he set up two poles, in the crotch +of which another was laid, where he kept, out of reach of the hungry +wolf and coyote, his meat, consisting of every variety afforded by the +region in which he had pitched his camp. Under cover of the skins of +the animals he had killed hung his old-fashioned powder-horn and +bullet-pouch, while his trusty rifle, carefully defended from the damp, +was always within reach of his hand. Round his blazing fire at night his +companions, if he had any, were other trappers on the same stream; and, +while engaged in cleaning their arms, making and mending moccasins, or +running bullets, they told long yarns, until the lateness of the hour +warned them to crawl under their blankets. + +Not far from the camp, his animals, well hobbled, fed in sight; for +nothing did a hunter dread more than a visit from horse-stealing +Indians, and to be afoot was the acme of misery. + +Some hunters who had married squaws carried about with them regular +buffalo-skin lodges, which their wives took care of, according to Indian +etiquette. + +The old-time trappers more nearly approximated the primitive savage, +perhaps, than any other class of civilized men. Their lives being spent +in the remote wilderness of the mountains, frequently with no other +companion than Nature herself, their habits and character often assumed +a most singular cast of simplicity, mingled with ferocity, that appeared +to take its colouring from the scenes and objects which surrounded them. +Having no wants save those of nature, their sole concern was to provide +sufficient food to support life, and the necessary clothing to protect +them from the sometimes rigorous climate. + +The costume of the average trapper was a hunting-shirt of dressed +buckskin, with long, fringed trousers of the same material, decorated +with porcupine quills. A flexible hat and moccasins covered his +extremities, and over his left shoulder and under his right arm hung his +powder-horn and bullet-pouch, in which he also carried flint, steel, and +other odds and ends. Round his waist he wore a belt, in which was stuck +a large knife in a sheath of buffalo-hide, made fast to the belt by a +chain or guard of steel. It also supported a little buckskin case, which +contained a whetstone, a very necessary article; for in taking off the +hides of the beaver a sharp knife was required. His pipe-holder hung +around his neck, and was generally a gage d'amour, a triumph of squaw +workmanship, wrought with beads and porcupine quills, often made in the +shape of a heart. + +Necessarily keen observers of nature, they rivalled the beasts of prey +in discovering the haunts and habits of game, and in their skill and +cunning in capturing it outwitted the Indian himself. Constantly exposed +to perils of all kinds, they became callous to any feeling of danger, +and were firm friends or bitter enemies. It was a "word and a blow," the +blow often coming first. Strong, active, hardy as bears, expert in the +use of their weapons, they were just what an uncivilized white man +might be supposed to be under conditions where he must depend upon his +instincts for the support of life. + +Having determined upon the locality of his trapping-ground, the hunter +started off, sometimes alone, sometimes three or four of them in +company, as soon as the breaking of the ice in the streams would permit, +if he was to go very far north. Arriving on the spot he has selected +for his permanent camp, the first thing to be done, after he had settled +himself, was to follow the windings of the creeks and rivers, keeping +a sharp lookout for "signs." If he saw a prostrate cottonwood tree, he +carefully examined it to learn whether it was the work of beaver, and +if so whether thrown for the purpose of food, or to dam the stream. +The track of the animal on the mud or sand under the banks was also +examined; if the sign was fresh, he set his trap in the run of the +animal, hiding it under water, and attaching it by a stout chain to a +picket driven in the bank, or to a bush or tree. A float-stick was made +fast to the trap by a cord a few feet long, which, if the animal carried +away the trap, would float on the water and point out its position. The +trap was baited with "medicine," an oily substance obtained from the +beaver. A stick was dipped in this and planted over the trap, and +the beaver, attracted by the smell, put his leg into the trap and was +caught. + +When a beaver lodge was discovered, the trap was set at the edge of the +dam, at a point where the animal passed from deep to shoal water, and +always under the surface. Early in the morning, the hunter mounted his +mule and examined all his traps. + +The beaver is exceedingly wily, and if by scent or sound or sight he +had any intimation of the presence of a trapper, he put at defiance all +efforts to capture him, consequently it was necessary to practise great +caution when in the neighbourhood of one of their lodges. The trapper +then avoided riding for fear the sound of his horse's feet might strike +dismay among the furry inhabitants under the water, and, instead of +walking on the ground, he waded in the stream, lest he should leave a +scent behind by which he might be discovered. + +In the days of the great fur companies, trappers were of two kinds--the +hired hand and the free trapper. The former was hired by the company, +which supplied him with everything necessary, and paid him a certain +price for his furs and peltries. The other hunted on his own hook, owned +his animals and traps, went where he pleased, and sold to whom he chose. + +During the hunting season, regardless of the Indians, the fearless +trapper wandered far and near in search of signs. His nerves were in a +state of tension, his mind always clear, and his head cool. His trained +eye scrutinized every part of the country, and in an instant he could +detect anything that was strange. A turned leaf, a blade of grass +pressed down, the uneasiness of wild animals, the actions of the birds, +were all to him paragraphs written in Nature's legible hand. + +All the wits of the wily savage were called into play to gain an +advantage over the plucky white man; but with the resources natural to +a civilized mind, the hunter seldom failed, under equal chance, to +circumvent the cunning of the red man. Sometimes, following his trail +for weeks, the Indian watched him set his traps on some timbered stream, +and crawling up the bed of it, so that he left no tracks, he lay in +the bushes until his victim came to examine his traps. Then, when he +approached within a few feet of the ambush, whiz! flew the home-drawn +arrow, which never failed at such close quarters to bring the +unsuspecting hunter to the ground. But for one white scalp that dangled +in the smoke of an Indian's lodge, a dozen black ones, at the end of the +season, ornamented the camp-fires of the rendezvous where the furs were +sold. + +In the camp, if he was a very successful hunter, all the appliances for +preparing the skins for market were at hand; if he had a squaw for a +wife, she did all the hard work, as usual. Close to the entrance of +their skin lodge was the "graining-block," a log of wood with the bark +stripped off and perfectly smooth, set obliquely in the ground, on which +the hair was removed from the deerskins which furnished moccasins and +dresses for both herself and her husband. Then there were stretching +frames on which the skins were placed to undergo the process of +"dubbing"; that is, the removal of all flesh and fatty particles +adhering to the skin. The "dubber" was made of the stock of an elk's +horn, with a piece of iron or steel inserted in the end, forming a sharp +knife. The last process the deerskin underwent before it was soft and +pliable enough for making into garments, was the "smoking." This was +effected by digging a round hole in the ground, and lighting in it an +armful of rotten wood or punk; then sticks were planted around the hole, +and their tops brought together and tied. The skins were placed on this +frame, and all openings by which the smoke might escape being carefully +stopped, in ten or twelve hours they were thoroughly cured and ready for +immediate use. + +The beaver was the main object of the hunter's quest; its skins were +once worth from six to eight dollars a pound; then they fell to only one +dollar, which hardly paid the expenses of traps, animals, and equipment +for the hunt, and was certainly no adequate remuneration for the +hardships, toil, and danger undergone by the trappers. + +The beaver was once found in every part of North America, from Canada +to the Gulf of Mexico, but has so retired from the encroachments of +civilized man, that it is only to be met with occasionally on some +tributary to the remote mountain streams. + +The old trappers always aimed to set their traps so that the beaver +would drown when taken. This was accomplished by sinking the trap +several inches under water, and driving a stake through a ring on the +end of the chain into the bottom of the creek. When the beaver finds +himself caught, he pitches and plunges about until his strength is +exhausted, when he sinks down and is drowned, but if he succeeds in +getting to the shore, he always extricates himself by gnawing off the +leg that is in the jaws of the trap. + +The captured animals were skinned, and the tails, which are a great +dainty, carefully packed into camp. The skin was then stretched over +a hoop or framework of willow twigs and allowed to dry, the flesh and +fatty substance adhering being first carefully scraped off. When dry, it +was folded into a square sheet, the fur turned inwards, and the bundle, +containing twenty skins, tightly pressed and tied, was ready for +transportation. The beaver after the hide is taken off weighs about +twelve pounds, and its flesh, although a little musky, is very fine. Its +tail which is flat and oval in shape, is covered with scales about the +size of those of a salmon. It was a great delicacy in the estimation of +the old trapper; he separated it from the body, thrust a stick in one +end of it, and held it before the fire with the scales on. In a few +moments large blisters rose on the surface, which were very easily +removed. The tail was then perfectly white, and delicious. Next to the +tail the liver was another favourite of the trapper, and when properly +cooked it constituted a delightful repast. + +After the season was over, or the hunter had loaded all his +pack-animals, he proceeded to the "rendezvous," where the buyers were to +congregate for the purchase of the fur, the locality of which had been +agreed upon when the hunters started out on their expedition. One of +these was at Bent's old fort and one at Pueblo; another at "Brown's +Hole" on Green River, and there were many more on the great streams +and in the mountains. There the agents of the fur companies and traders +waited for the arrival of the trappers, with such an assortment of goods +as the hardy men required, including, of course, an immense supply of +whiskey. The trappers dropped in day after day, in small bands, packing +their loads of beaver-skins, not infrequently to the value of a thousand +dollars each, the result of one hunt. + +The rendezvous was frequently a continuous scene of gambling, brawling, +and fighting, so long as the improvident trapper's money lasted. Seated +around the large camp-fires, cross-legged in Indian fashion, with +a blanket or buffalo-robe spread before them, groups were playing +cards--euchre, seven-up, and poker, the regular mountain games. The +usual stakes were beaver-skins, which were current as coin. When their +fur was all gone, their horses, mules, rifles, shirts, hunting packs, +and trousers were staked. Daring professional gamblers made the rounds +of the camps, challenging each other to play for the trapper's highest +stakes--his horse, or his squaw, if he had one--and it is told of one +great time that two old trappers played for one another's scalps! "There +goes hoss and beaver," was a common mountain expression when any severe +loss was sustained, and shortly "hoss and beaver" found their way into +the pockets of the unconscionable gamblers. + +Frequently a trapper would squander the entire product of his hunt, +amounting to hundreds of dollars, in a couple of hours. Then, supplied +with another outfit, he left the rendezvous for another expedition, +which had the same result time after time, although one good hunt +would have enabled him to return to the settlements and live a life of +comparative ease. + +It is told of one old Canadian trapper, who had received as much as +fifteen thousand dollars for beaver during his life in the mountains, +extending over twenty years, that each season he had resolved in his +mind to go back to Canada, and with this object in view always converted +his furs into cash; but a fortnight at the rendezvous always "cleaned +him out," and at the end of the twenty years he had not even enough +credit to get a plug of tobacco. + +Trading with the Indians in the primitive days of the border was just +what the word signifies in its radical interpretation--a system of +barter exclusively. No money was used in the transaction, as it was long +afterward before the savages began to learn something of the value +of currency from their connection with the sutler's and agency stores +established on reservations and at military posts on the plains and in +the mountains. In the early days, if an Indian by any chance happened to +get possession of a piece of money (only gold or silver was recognized +as a medium of exchange in the remote West), he would immediately +fashion it into some kind of an ornament with which to adorn his person. +Some tribes, however, did indulge in a sort of currency, worthless +except among themselves. This consisted of rare shells, such as the +Oligachuck, so called, of the Pacific coast nations, used by them within +my own recollection, as late as 1858. + +The poor Indian, as might have been expected, was generally outrageously +swindled; in fact, I am inclined to believe, always. I never was present +on an occasion when he was not. + +The savage's idea of values was very crude until the government, in +attempting to civilize and make a gentleman of him, has transformed him +into a bewildered child. Very soon after his connection with the white +trader, he learned that a gun was more valuable than a knife; but of +their relative cost to manufacture he had no idea. For these reasons, +obviously, he was always at the mercy of the unscrupulous trader who +came to his village, or met him at the rendezvous to barter for his +furs. I know that the price of every article he desired was fixed by the +trader, and never by the Indian, consequently he rarely got the best of +the bargain. + +Uncle John Smith, Kit Carson, L. B. Maxwell, Uncle Dick Wooton, and a +host of other well-known Indian traders, long since dead, have often +told me that the first thing they did on entering a village with a +pack-load of trinkets to barter, in the earlier days before the whites +had encroached to any great extent, was to arrange a schedule of prices. +They would gather a large number of sticks, each one representing an +article they had brought. With these crude symbols the Indian +made himself familiar in a little while, and when this preliminary +arrangement had been completed, the trading began. The Indian, for +instance, would place a buffalo-robe on the ground; then the trader +commenced to lay down a number of the sticks, representing what he was +willing to give for the robe. The Indian revolved the transaction in his +mind until he thought he was getting a fair equivalent according to his +ideas, then the bargain was made. It was claimed by these old traders, +when they related this to me, that the savage generally was not +satisfied, always insisting upon having more sticks placed on the pile. +I suspect, however, that the trader was ever prepared for this, and +never gave more than he originally intended. The price of that initial +robe having been determined on, it governed the price of all the rest +for the whole trade, regardless of size or fineness, for that day. What +was traded for was then placed by the Indian on one side of the lodge, +and the trader put what he was to give on the other. After prices had +been agreed upon, business went on very rapidly, and many thousand +dollars' worth of valuable furs were soon collected by the successful +trader, which he shipped to St. Louis and converted into gold. + +In a few years, relatively, the Indian began to appreciate the value of +our medium of exchange and the power it gave him to secure at the stores +in the widely scattered hamlets and at the military posts on the plains, +those things he coveted, at a fairer equivalent than in the uncertain +and complicated method of direct barter. It was not very long after the +advent of the overland coaches on the Santa Fe Trail, that our currency, +even the greenbacks, had assumed a value to the savage, which he at +least partially understood. Whenever the Indians successfully raided the +stages the mail sacks were no longer torn to pieces or thrown aside +as worthless, but every letter was carefully scrutinized for possible +bills. + +I well remember, when the small copper cent, with its spread eagle +upon it, was first issued, about the year 1857, how the soldiers of a +frontier garrison where I was stationed at the time palmed them off +upon the simple savages as two dollar and a half gold pieces, which they +resembled as long as they retained their brightness, and with which +the Indians were familiar, as many were received by the troops from +the paymaster every two months, the savages receiving them in turn for +horses and other things purchased of them by the soldiers. + +I have known of Indians who gave nuggets of gold for common calico +shirts costing two dollars in that region and seventy-five cents in the +States, while the lump of precious metal was worth, perhaps, five or +seven dollars. As late as twenty-eight years ago, I have traded for +beautifully smoke-tanned and porcupine-embroidered buffalo-robes for my +own use, giving in exchange a mere loaf of bread or a cupful of brown +sugar. + +Very early in the history of the United States, in 1786, the government, +under the authority of Congress, established a plan of trade with the +Indians. It comprised supplying all their physical wants without profit; +factories, or stations as they were called, were erected at points +that were then on the remote frontier; where factors, clerks, and +interpreters were stationed. The factors furnished goods of all kinds to +the Indians, and received from them in exchange furs and peltries. There +was an officer in charge of all these stations called the superintendent +of Indian trade, appointed by the President. As far back as 1821, +there were stations at Prairie du Chien, Fort Edward, Fort Osage, with +branches at Chicago, Green Bay in Arkansas, on the Red River, and other +places in the then far West. These stations were movable, and changed +from time to time to suit the convenience of the Indians. In 1822 the +whole system was abolished by act of Congress, and its affairs wound up, +the American Fur Company, the Missouri Fur Company, and a host of others +having by that time become powerful. Like the great corporations of +to-day, they succeeded in supplanting the government establishments. Of +course, the Indians of the remote plains, which included all the +vast region west of the Missouri River, never had the benefits of the +government trading establishments, but were left to the tender mercies +of the old plainsmen and trappers. + +Until the railroad reached the mountains, when the march of a wonderful +immigration closely followed, usurping the lands claimed by the savages, +and the latter were driven, perforce, upon reservations, the winter +camps of the Kiowas, Arapahoes, and Cheyennes were strung along the +Old Trail for miles, wherever a belt of timber on the margin of the +Arkansas, or its tributaries, could be found large enough to furnish +fuel for domestic purposes and cottonwood bark for the vast herds of +ponies in the severe snow-storms. + +At these various points the Indians congregated to trade with the +whites. As stated, Bent's Fort, the Pueblo Fort, and Big Timbers were +favourite resorts, and the trappers and old hunters passed a lively +three or four months every year, indulging in the amusements I have +referred to. They were also wonderful story-tellers, and around their +camp-fires many a tale of terrible adventure with Indians and vicious +animals was nightly related. + +Baptiste Brown was one of the most famous trappers. Few men had seen +more of wild life in the great prairie wilderness. He had hunted with +nearly every tribe of Indians on the plains and in the mountains, was +often at Bent's Fort, and his soul-stirring narratives made him a most +welcome guest at the camp-fire. + +He lived most of his time in the Wind River Mountains, in a beautiful +little valley named after him "Brown's Hole." It has a place on the maps +to-day, and is on what was then called Prairie River, or Sheetskadee, +by the Indians; it is now known as Green River, and is the source of the +great Colorado. + +The valley, which is several thousand feet above the sea-level, is about +fifteen miles in circumference, surrounded by lofty hills, and is aptly, +though not elegantly, characterized as a "hole." The mountain-grass is +of the most nutritious quality; groves of cottonwood trees and willows +are scattered through the sequestered spot, and the river, which enters +it from the north, is a magnificent stream; in fact, it is the very +ideal of a hunter's headquarters. + +The temperature is very equable, and at one time, years ago, hundreds +of trappers made it their winter quarters. Indians, too, of all the +northern tribes, but more especially the Arapahoes, frequented it to +trade with the white men. + +Baptiste Brown was a Canadian who spoke villanous French and worse +English; his vocabulary being largely interspersed with "enfant de +garce," "sacre," "sacre enfant," and "damn" until it was a difficult +matter to tell what he was talking about. + +He was married to an Arapahoe squaw, and his strange wooing and winning +of the dusky maiden is a thrilling love-story. + +Among the maidens who came with the Arapahoes, when that tribe made a +visit to "Brown's Hole" one winter for the purpose of trading with the +whites, was a young, merry, and very handsome girl, named "Unami," who +after a few interviews completely captured Baptiste's heart. Nothing was +more common, as I have stated, than marriages between the trappers and a +beautiful redskin. Isolated absolutely from women of his own colour, the +poor mountaineer forgets he is white, which, considering the embrowning +influence of constant exposure and sunlight, is not so marvellous after +all. For a portion of the year there is no hunting, and then idleness is +the order of the day. At such times the mountaineer visits the lodges +of his dark neighbours for amusement, and in the spirited dance many +a heart is lost to the squaws. The young trapper, like other enamoured +ones of his sex in civilization, lingers around the house of his fair +sweetheart while she transforms the soft skin of the doe into moccasins, +ornamenting them richly with glittering beads or the coloured quills +of the porcupine, all the time lightening the long hours with the +plain-songs of their tribe. It was upon an occasion of this character +that Baptiste, then in the prime of his youthful manhood, first loved +the dark-eyed Arapahoe. + +The course open to him was to woo and win her; but alas! savage papas +are just like fathers in the best civilization--the only difference +between them is that the former are more open and matter-of-fact, since +in savage etiquette a consideration is required in exchange for the +daughter, which belongs exclusively to the parent, and must be of equal +marketable value to the girl. + +The usual method is to select your best horse, take him to the lodge +of your inamorata's parents, tie him to a tree, and walk away. If +the animal is considered a fair exchange, matters are soon settled +satisfactorily; if not, other gifts must be added. + +At this juncture poor Baptiste was in a bad fix; he had disposed of +all his season's earnings for his winter's subsistence, much of which +consisted of an ample supply of whiskey and tobacco; so he had nothing +left wherewith to purchase the indispensable horse. Without the animal +no wife was to be had, and he was in a terrible predicament; for the +hunting season was long since over, and it wanted a whole month of the +time for a new starting out. + +Baptiste was a very determined man, however, and he shouldered his +rifle, intent on accomplishing by a laborious prosecution of the chase +the means of winning his loved one from her parents, notwithstanding +that the elements and the times were against him. He worked +industriously, and after many days was rewarded by a goodly supply of +beavers, otters, and mink which he had trapped, besides many a deerskin +whose wearer he had shot. Returning to his lodge, where he cached his +peltry, he again started out for the forest with hope filling his heart. +Three weeks passed in indifferent success, when one morning, having +entered a deep canyon, which evidently led out to an open prairie where +he thought game might be found, while busy cutting his way through a +thicket of briers with his knife, he suddenly came upon a little valley, +where he saw what caused him to retrace his footsteps into the thicket. + +And here it is necessary to relate a custom peculiar to all Indian +tribes. No young man, though his father were the greatest chief in the +nation, can range himself among the warriors, be entitled to enter the +marriage state, or enjoy any other rights of savage citizenship until +he shall have performed some act of personal bravery and daring, or +be sprinkled with the blood of his enemies. In the early springtime, +therefore, all the young men who are of the proper age band themselves +together and take to the forest in search--like the knight-errant of +old--of adventure and danger. Having decided upon a secluded and secret +spot, they collect a number of poles from twenty to thirty feet in +length, and, lashing them together at the small ends, form a huge +conical lodge, which they cover with grass and boughs. Inside they +deposit various articles, with which to "make medicine," or as a +propitiatory offering to the Great Spirit; generally a green buffalo +head, kettles, scalps, blankets, and other things of value, of which the +most prominent and revered is the sacred pipe. The party then enters the +lodge and the first ceremony is smoking this pipe. One of the young men +fills it with tobacco and herbs, places a coal on it from the fire +that has been already kindled in the lodge, and, taking the stem in his +mouth, inhales the smoke and expels it through his nostrils. The ground +is touched with the bowl, the four points of the compass are in turn +saluted, and with various ceremonies it makes the round of the lodge. +After many days of feasting and dancing the party is ready for a +campaign, when they abandon the lodge, and it is death for any one +else to enter, or by any means to desecrate it while its projectors are +absent. + +It was upon one of these mystic lodges that Baptiste had accidentally +stumbled, and strange thoughts flashed through his mind; for within the +sacred place were articles, doubtless, of value more than sufficient +to purchase the necessary horse with which he could win the fair Unami. +Baptiste was sorely tempted, but there was an instinctive respect for +religion in the minds of the old trappers, and Brown had too much honour +to think of robbing the Indian temple, although he distinctly remembered +a time when a poor white trapper, having been robbed of his poncho at +the beginning of winter, made free with a blanket he had found in one +of these Arapahoe sacred lodges. When he was brought before the medicine +men of the tribe, charged with the sacrilege, his defence, that, having +been robbed, the Great Spirit took pity on him and pointed out the +blanket and ordered him to clothe himself, was considered good, on the +theory that the Great Spirit had an undoubted right to give away his own +property; consequently the trapper was set free. + +Brown, after considering the case, was about to move away, when a hand +was laid on his shoulder, and turning round there stood before him an +Indian in full war-paint. + +The greeting was friendly, for the young savage was the brother of +Baptiste's love, to whom he had given many valuable presents during the +past season. + +"My white brother is very wakeful; he rises early." + +Baptiste laughed, and replied: "Yes, because my lodge is empty. If I +had Unami for a wife, I would not have to get out before the sun; and +I would always have a soft seat for her brother; he will be a great +warrior." + +The young brave shook his head gravely, as he pointed to his belt, where +not a scalp was to be seen, and said: "Five moons have gone to sleep and +the Arapahoe hatchet has not been raised. The Blackfeet are dogs, and +hide in their holes." + +Without adding anything to this hint that none of the young men had been +able to fulfil their vows, the disconsolate savage led the way to the +camp of the other Arapahoes, his companions in the quest for scalps. +Baptiste was very glad to see the face of a fellow-creature once more, +and he cheerfully followed the footsteps of the young brave, which were +directed away from the medicine lodge toward the rocky canyon which he +had already travelled that morning, where in the very centre of the dark +defile, and within twenty feet of where he had recently passed, was +the camp of the disappointed band. Baptiste was cordially received, +and invited to share the meal of which the party were about to partake, +after which the pipe was passed around. In a little while the Indians +began to talk among themselves by signs, which made Baptiste feel +somewhat uncomfortable, for it was apparent that he was the object of +their interest. + +They had argued that Brown's skin indicated that he belonged to the +great tribe of their natural enemies, and with the blood of a white +on their garments, they would have fulfilled the terms of their vow to +their friends and the Great Spirit. + +Noticing the trend of the debate, which would lead his friend into +trouble, the brother of Unami arose, and waving his hand said:-- + +"The Arapahoe is a warrior; his feet outstrip the fleetest horse; his +arrow is as the lightning of the Great Spirit; he is very brave. But a +cloud is between him and the sun; he cannot see his enemy; there is yet +no scalp in his lodge. The Great Spirit is good; he sends a victim, a +man whose skin is white, but his heart is very red; the pale-face is a +brother, and his long knife is turned from his friends, the Arapahoes; +but the Great Spirit is all-powerful. My brother"--pointing to +Baptiste--"is very full of blood; he can spare a little to stain the +blankets of the young men, and his heart shall still be warm; I have +spoken." + +As Baptiste expressed it: "Sacre enfant de garce; damn, de ting vas agin +my grain, but de young Arapahoe he have saved my life." + +Loud acclamation followed the speech of Unami's brother, and many of +those most clamorous against the white trapper, being actuated by the +earnest desire of returning home with their vow accomplished, when they +would be received into the list of warriors, and have wives and other +honours, were unanimous in agreeing to the proposed plan. + +A flint lancet was produced, Baptiste's arm was bared, and the blood +which flowed from the slight wound was carefully distributed, and +scattered over the robes of the delighted Arapahoes. + +The scene which followed was quite unexpected to Baptiste, who was +only glad to escape the death to which the majority had doomed him. The +Indians, perfectly satisfied that their vow of shedding an enemy's blood +had been fulfilled, were all gratitude; and to testify that gratitude in +a substantial manner each man sought his pack, and laid at the feet of +the surprised Baptiste a rich present. One gave an otter skin, another +that of a buffalo, and so on until his wealth in furs outstripped his +most sanguine expectations from his hunt. The brother of Unami stood +passively looking on until all the others had successively honoured +his guest, when he advanced toward Baptiste, leading by its bridle a +magnificent horse, fully caparisoned, and a large pack-mule. To refuse +would have been the most flagrant breach of Indian etiquette, and +beside, Brown was too alive to the advantage that would accrue to him to +be other than very thankful. + +The camp was then broken up, and the kind savages were soon lost to +Baptiste's sight as they passed down the canyon; and he, as soon as he +had gained a little strength, for he was weak from the blood he had shed +in the good cause, mounted his horse, after loading the mule with +his gifts, and made the best of his way to his lonely lodge, where he +remained several days. He then sold his furs at a good price, as it was +so early in the season, bartered for a large quantity of knives, beads, +powder, and balls, and returned to the Arapahoe village, where the horse +was considered a fair exchange for the pretty Unami; and from that day, +for over thirty years, they lived as happy as any couple in the highest +civilization. + +The fate of the Pueblo, where the trappers and hunters had such good +times in the halcyon days of the border, like that which befell nearly +all the trading-posts and ranches on the Old Santa Fe Trail, was to +be partially destroyed by the savages. During the early months of the +winter of 1854, the Utes swept down through the Arkansas valley, leaving +a track of blood behind them, and frightening the settlers so thoroughly +that many left the country never to return. The outbreak was as sudden +as it was devastating. The Pueblo was captured by the savages, and every +man, woman, and child in it murdered, with the exception of one aged +Mexican, and he was so badly wounded that he died in a few days. + +His story was that the Utes came to the gates of the fort on Christmas +morning, professing the greatest friendship, and asking permission to be +allowed to come inside and hold a peace conference. All who were in +the fort at the time were Mexicans, and as their cupidity led them to +believe that they could do some advantageous trading with the Indians, +they foolishly permitted the whole band to enter. The result was that +a wholesale massacre followed. There were seventeen persons in all +quartered there, only one of whom escaped death--the old man referred +to--and a woman and her two children, who were carried off as captives; +but even she was killed before the savages had gone a mile from the +place. What became of the children was never known; they probably met +the same fate. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. UNCLE JOHN SMITH. + + + +Many of the men of the border were blunt in manners, rude in speech, +driven to the absolute liberty of the far West with better natures +shattered and hopes blasted, to seek in the exciting life of the +plainsman and mountaineer oblivion of some incidents of their youthful +days, which were better forgotten. Yet these aliens from society, these +strangers to the refinements of civilization, who would tear off a +bloody scalp even with grim smiles of satisfaction, were fine fellows, +full of the milk of human kindness, and would share their last slapjack +with a hungry stranger. + +Uncle John Smith, as he was known to every trapper, trader, and hunter +from the Yellowstone to the Gila, was one of the most famous and +eccentric men of the early days. In 1826, as a boy, he ran away from St. +Louis with a party of Santa Fe traders, and so fascinated was he with +the desultory and exciting life, that he chose to sit cross-legged, +smoking the long Indian pipe, in the comfortable buffalo-skin teepee, +rather than cross legs on the broad table of his master, a tailor to +whom he had been apprenticed when he took French leave from St. Louis. + +He spent his first winter with the Blackfeet Indians, but came very +near losing his scalp in their continual quarrels, and therefore allied +himself with the more peaceable Sioux. Once while on the trail of a +horse-stealing band of Arapahoes near the head waters of the Arkansas, +the susceptible young hunter fell in love with a very pretty Cheyenne +squaw, married her, and remained true to the object of his early +affection during all his long and eventful life, extending over a period +of forty years. For many decades he lived with his dusky wife as the +Indians did, having been adopted by the tribe. He owned a large number +of horses, which constituted the wealth of the plains Indians, upon the +sale of which he depended almost entirely for his subsistence. He became +very powerful in the Cheyenne nation; was regarded as a chief, taking +an active part in the councils, and exercising much authority. His +excellent judgment as a trader with the various bands of Indians while +he was employed by the great fur companies made his services invaluable +in the strange business complications of the remote border. Besides +understanding the Cheyenne language as well as his native tongue, he +also spoke three other Indian dialects, French, and Spanish, but +with many Western expressions that sometimes grated harshly upon the +grammatical ear. + +He became a sort of autocrat on the plains and in the mountains; and +for an Indian or Mexican to attempt to effect a trade without Uncle John +Smith having something to say about it, and its conditions, was hardly +possible. The New Mexicans often came in small parties to his Indian +village, their burros packed with dry pumpkin, corn, etc., to trade +for buffalo-robes, bearskins, meat, and ponies; and Smith, who knew his +power, exacted tribute, which was always paid. At one time, however, +when for some reason a party of strange Mexicans refused, Uncle John +harangued the people of the village, and called the young warriors +together, who emptied every sack of goods belonging to the cowering +Mexicans on the ground, Smith ordering the women and children to help +themselves, an order which was obeyed with alacrity. The frightened +Mexicans left hurriedly for El Valle de Taos, whence they had come, +crossing themselves and uttering thanks to Heaven for having retained +their scalps. This and other similar cases so intimidated the poor +Greasers, and impressed them so deeply with a sense of Smith's power, +that, ever after, his permission to trade was craved by a special +deputation of the parties, accompanied by peace-offerings of corn, +pumpkin, and pinole. At one time, when Smith was journeying by himself a +day's ride from the Cheyenne village, he was met by a party of forty +or more corn traders, who, instead of putting such a bane to their +prospects speedily out of the way, gravely asked him if they could +proceed, and offered him every third robe they had to accompany them, +which he did. Indeed, he became so regardless of justice, in his +condescension to the natives of New Mexico, that the governor of that +province offered a reward of five hundred dollars for him alive or dead, +but fear of the Cheyennes was so prevalent that his capture was never +even attempted. + +During Sheridan's memorable winter campaign against the allied tribes +in 1868-69, the old man, for he was then about sixty, was my guide and +interpreter. He shared my tent and mess, a most welcome addition to the +few who sat at my table, and beguiled many a weary hour at night, after +our tedious marches through the apparently interminable sand dunes and +barren stretches of our monotonous route, with his tales of that period, +more than half a century ago, when our mid-continent region was as +little known as the topography of the planet Mars. + +At the close of December, 1868, a few weeks after the battle of the +Washita, I was camping with my command on the bank of that historic +stream in the Indian Territory, waiting with an immense wagon-train of +supplies for the arrival of General Custer's command, the famous Seventh +Cavalry, and also the Nineteenth Kansas, which were supposed to be lost, +or wandering aimlessly somewhere in the region south of us. + +I had been ordered to that point by General Sheridan, with instructions +to keep fires constantly burning on three or four of the highest peaks +in the vicinity of our camp, until the lost troops should be guided to +the spot by our signals. These signals were veritable pillars of fire +by night and pillars of cloud by day; for there was an abundance of wood +and hundreds of men ready to feed the hungry flames. + +It was more than two weeks before General Custer and his famished +troopers began to straggle in. During that period of anxious waiting +we lived almost exclusively on wild turkey, and longed for nature's +meat--the buffalo; but there were none of the shaggy beasts at that time +in the vicinity, so we had to content ourselves with the birds, of which +we became heartily tired. + +For several days after our arrival on the creek, the men had been urging +Uncle John to tell them another story of his early adventures; but the +old trapper was in one of his silent moods--he frequently had them--and +could not be persuaded to emerge from his shell of reticence despite +their most earnest entreaties. I knew it would be of no use for me +to press him. I could, of course, order him to any duty, and he would +promptly obey; but his tongue, like the hand of Douglas, was his own. I +knew, also, that when he got ready, which would be when some incident of +camp-life inspired him, he would be as garrulous as ever. + +One evening just before supper, a party of enlisted men who had been up +the creek to catch fish, but had failed to take anything owing to the +frozen condition of the stream, returned with the skeleton of a +Cheyenne Indian which they had picked up on the battle-ground of a month +previously--one of Custer's victims in his engagement with Black Kettle. +This was the incentive Uncle John required. As he gazed on the bleached +bones of the warrior, he said: "Boys, I'm going to tell you a good long +story to-night. Them Ingin's bones has put me in mind of it. After we've +eat, if you fellows wants to hear it, come down to headquarters tent, +and I'll give it to you." + +Of course word was rapidly passed from one to another, as the whole camp +was eager to hear the old trapper again. In a short time, every man not +on guard or detailed to keep up the signals on the hills gathered around +the dying embers of the cook's fire in front of my tent; the enlisted +men and teamsters in groups by themselves, the officers a little closer +in a circle, in the centre of which Uncle John sat. + +The night was cold, the sky covered with great fleecy patches, through +which the full moon, just fairly risen, appeared to be racing, under the +effect of that optical illusion caused by the rapidly moving clouds. The +coyotes had commenced their nocturnal concert in the timbered recesses +of the creek not far away, and on the battle-field a short distance +beyond, as they battened and fought over the dead warriors and the +carcasses of twelve hundred ponies killed in that terrible slaughter by +the intrepid Custer and his troopers. The signals on the hills leaped +into the crisp air like the tongues of dragons in the myths of the +ancients; in fact, the whole aspect of the place, as we sat around the +blazing logs of our camp-fire, was weird and uncanny. + +Every one was eager for the veteran guide to begin his tale; but as I +knew he could not proceed without smoking, I passed him my pouch of Lone +Jack--the brand par excellence in the army at that time. + +Uncle John loaded his corn-cob, picked up a live coal, and, pressing +it down on the tobacco with his thumb, commenced to puff vigorously. As +soon as his withered old face was half hidden in a cloud of smoke, he +opened his story in his stereotyped way. I relate it just as he told it, +but divested of much of its dialect, so difficult to write:-- + +"Well, boys, it's a good many years ago, in June, 1845, if I don't +disremember. I was about forty-three, and had been in the mountains and +on the plains more than nineteen seasons. You see, I went out there in +1826. There warn't no roads, nuthin' but the Santa Fe Trail, in them +days, and Ingins and varmints. + +"There was four of us. Me, Bill Comstock, Dick Curtis, and Al Thorpe. +Dick was took in by the Utes two years afterwards at the foot of the +Spanish Peaks, and Al was killed by the Apaches at Pawnee Rock, in 1847. + +"We'd been trapping up on Medicine Bow for more than three years +together, and had a pile of beaver, otter, mink, and other varmint's +skins cached in the hills, which we know'd was worth a heap of money; so +we concluded to take them to the river that summer. We started from our +trapping camp in April, and 'long 'bout the middle of June reached the +Arkansas, near what is know'd as Point o' Rocks. You all know where them +is on the Trail west of Fort Dodge, and how them rocks rises up out of +the prairie sudden-like. We was a travelling 'long mighty easy, for +we was all afoot, and had hoofed it the whole distance, more than six +hundred miles, driving five good mules ahead of us. Our furs was packed +on four of them, and the other carried our blankets, extry ammunition, +frying-pan, coffee-pot, and what little grub we had, for we was obliged +to depend upon buffalo, antelope, and jack-rabbits; but, boys, I tell +you there was millions of 'em in them days. + +"We had just got into camp at Point o' Rocks. It was 'bout four o'clock +in the afternoon; none of us carried watches, we always reckoned time +by the sun, and could generally guess mighty close, too. It was powerful +hot, I remember. We'd hobbled our mules close to the ledge, where the +grass was good, so they couldn't be stampeded, as we know'd we was in +the Pawnee country, and they was the most ornery Ingins on the plains. +We know'd nothing that was white ever came by that part of the Trail +without having a scrimmage with the red devils. + +"Well, we hadn't more than took our dinner, when them mules give a +terrible snort, and tried to break and run, getting awful oneasy all to +once. Them critters can tell when Ingins is around. They's better than a +dozen dogs. I don't know how they can tell, but they just naturally do. + +"In less than five minutes after them mules began to worry, stopped +eating, and had their ears pricked up a trying to look over the ledge +towards the river, we heard a sharp firing down on the Trail, which +didn't appear to be more than a hundred yards off. You ought to seen us +grab our rifles sudden, and run out from behind them rocks, where we was +a camping, so comfortable-like, and just going to light our pipes for a +good smoke. It didn't take us no time to get down on to the Trail, where +we seen a Mexican bull train, that we know'd must have come from Santa +Fe, and which had stopped and was trying to corral. More than sixty +painted Pawnees was a circling around the outfit, howling as only them +can howl, and pouring a shower of arrows into the oxen. Some was shaking +their buffalo-robes, trying to stampede the critters, so they could kill +the men easier. + +"We lit out mighty lively, soon as we seen what was going on, and +reached the head of the train just as the last wagon, that was +furtherest down the Trail, nigh a quarter of a mile off, was cut out +by part of the band. Then we seen a man, a woman, and a little boy jump +out, and run to get shet of the Ingins what had cut out the wagon from +the rest of the train. One of the red devils killed the man and scalped +him, while the other pulled the woman up in front of him, and rid off +into the sand hills, and out of sight in a minute. Then the one what had +killed her husband started for the boy, who was a running for the train +as fast as his little legs could go. But we was nigh enough then; +and just as the Ingin was reaching down from his pony for the kid, Al +Thorpe--he was a powerful fine shot--draw'd up his gun and took the +red cuss off his critter without the paint-bedaubed devil know'n' what +struck him. + +"The boy, seeing us, broke and run for where we was, and I reckon the +rest of the Ingins seen us then for the first time, too. We was up with +the train now, which was kind o' halfway corralled, and Dick Curtis +picked up the child--he warn't more than seven years old--and throw'd +him gently into one of the wagons, where he'd be out of the way; for we +know'd there was going to be considerable more fighting before night. +We know'd, too, we Americans would have to do the heft of it, as them +Mexican bull-whackers warn't much account, nohow, except to cavort +around and swear in Spanish, which they hadn't done nothing else since +we'd come up to the train; besides, their miserable guns warn't much +better than so many bows and arrows. + +"We Americans talked together for a few moments as to what was best to +be did, while the Ingins all this time was keeping up a lively fire for +them. We made as strong a corral of the wagons as we could, driving out +what oxen the Mexicans had put in the one they had made, but you can't +do much with only nine wagons, nohow. Fortunately, while we was fixing +things, the red cusses suddenly retreated out of the range of our +rifles, and we first thought they had cleared out for good. We soon +discovered, however, they were only holding a pow-wow; for in a few +minutes back they come, mounted on their ponies, with all their fixin's +and fresh war-paint on. + +"Then they commenced to circle around us again, coming a little +nearer--Ingin fashion--every time they rid off and back. It wasn't +long before they got in easy range, when they slung themselves on the +off-side of their ponies and let fly their arrows and balls from under +their critters' necks. Their guns warn't much 'count, being only old +English muskets what had come from the Hudson Bay Fur Company, so +they didn't do no harm that round, except to scare the Mexicans, which +commenced to cross themselves and pray and swear. + +"We four Americans warn't idle when them Ingins come a charging up; we +kept our eye skinned, and whenever we could draw a bead, one of +them tumbled off his pony, you bet! When they'd come back for their +dead--we'd already killed three of them--we had a big advantage, wasted +no shots, and dropped four of them; one apiece, and you never heard +Ingins howl so. It was getting kind o' dark by this time, and the +varmints didn't seem anxious to fight any more, but went down to the +river and scooted off into the sand hills on the other side. We waited +more than half an hour for them, but as they didn't come back, concluded +we'd better light out too. We told the Mexicans to yoke up, and as good +luck would have it they found all the cattle close by, excepting them +what pulled the wagon what the Ingins had cut out, and as it was way +down the Trail, we had to abandon it; for it was too dark to hunt it up, +as we had no time to fool away. + +"We put all our outfit into the train; it wasn't loaded, but going empty +to the Missouri, to fetch back a sawmill for New Mexico. Then we made a +soft bed in the middle wagon out of blankets for the kid, and rolled +out 'bout ten o'clock, meaning to put as many miles between us and them +Ingins as the oxen could stand. We four hoofed it along for a while, +then rid a piece, catching a nap now and then as best we could, for +we was monstrous tired. By daylight we'd made fourteen miles, and was +obliged to stop to let the cattle graze. We boiled our coffee, fried +some meat, and by that time the little boy waked. He'd slept like a top +all night and hadn't no supper either; so when I went to the wagon where +he was to fetch him out, he just put them baby arms of his'n around my +neck, and says, 'Where's mamma?' + +"I tell you, boys, that nigh played me out. He had no idee, 'cause he +was too young to realize what had happened; we know'd his pa was killed, +but where his ma was, God only know'd!" + +Here the old man stopped short in his narrative, made two or three +efforts as if to swallow something that would not go down, while his +eyes had a far-away look. Presently he picked up a fresh coal from the +fire, placed it on his pipe, which had gone out, then puffing vigorously +for a few seconds, until his head was again enveloped in smoke, he +continued:-- + +"After I'd washed the little fellow's face and hands, I gave him a +tin cup of coffee and some meat. You'd ought to seen him eat; he +was hungrier than a coyote. Then while the others was a watering and +picketing the mules, I sot down on the grass and took the kid into +my lap to have a good look at him; for until now none of us had had a +chance. + +"He was the purtiest child I'd ever seen; great black eyes, and +eyelashes that laid right on to his cheeks; his hair, too, was black, +and as curly as a young big-horn. I asked him what his name was, and he +says, 'Paul.' 'Hain't you got no other name?' says I to him again, and +he answered, 'Yes, sir,' for he was awful polite; I noticed that. 'Paul +Dale,' says he prompt-like, and them big eyes of his'n looked up into +mine, as he says 'What be yourn?' I told him he must call me 'Uncle +John,' and then he says again, as he put his arms around my neck, his +little lips all a quivering, and looking so sorrowful, 'Uncle John, +where's mamma; why don't she come?' + +"Boys, I don't really know what I did say. A kind o' mist came before +my eyes, and for a minute or two I didn't know nothing. I come to in a +little while, and seeing Thorpe bringing up the mules from the river, +where he'd been watering them, I says to Paul, to get his mind on to +something else besides his mother, 'Don't you want to ride one of them +mules when we pull out again?' The little fellow jumped off my lap, +clapped his hands, forgetting his trouble all at once, child-like, and +replied, 'I do, Uncle John, can I?' + +"After we'd camped there 'bout three hours, the cattle full of grass and +all laying down chewing their cud, we concluded to move on and make a +few miles before it grow'd too hot, and to get further from the Ingins, +which we expected would tackle us again, as soon as they could get back +from their camp, where we felt sure they had gone for reinforcements. + +"While the Mexicans was yoking up, me and Thorpe rigged an easy saddle +on one of the mules, out of blankets, for the kid to ride on, and when +we was all ready to pull out, I histed him on, and you never see a +youngster so tickled. + +"We had to travel mighty slow; couldn't make more than eighteen miles a +day with oxen, and that was in two drives, one early in the morning, and +one in the evening when it was cool, a laying by and grazing when it +was hot. We Americans walked along the Trail, and mighty slow walking +it was; 'bout two and a half miles an hour. I kept close to Paul, for I +began to set a good deal of store by him; he seemed to cotton to me more +than he did to the rest, wanting to stick near me most of the time as he +rid on the mule. I wanted to find out something 'bout his folks, where +they'd come from; so that when we got to Independence, perhaps I could +turn him over to them as ought to have him; though in my own mind I was +ornery enough to wish I might never find them, and he'd be obliged to +stay with me. The boy was too young to tell what I wanted to find out; +all I could get out of him was they'd been living in Santa Fe since +he was a baby, and that his papa was a preacher. I 'spect one of them +missionaries 'mong the heathenish Greasers. He said they was going back +to his grandma's in the States, but he could not tell where. I couldn't +get nothing out of them Mexican bull-whackers neither--what they know'd +wasn't half as much as the kid--and I had to give it up. + +"Well, we kept moving along without having any more trouble for a week; +them Ingins never following us as we 'lowed they would. I really enjoyed +the trip such as I never had before. Paul he was so 'fectionate and +smart, that he 'peared to fill a spot in my heart what had always been +hollow until then. When he'd got tired of riding the mule or in one +of the wagons, he'd come and walk along the Trail with me, a picking +flowers, chasing the prairie-owls and such, until his little legs 'bout +played out, when I'd hist him on his mule again. When we'd go into camp, +Paul, he'd run and pick up buffalo-chips for the fire, and wanted to +help all he could. Then when it came time to go to sleep, the boy would +always get under my blankets and cuddle up close to me. He'd be sure to +say his prayers first, though; but it seemed so strange to me who hadn't +heard a prayer for thirty years. I never tried to stop him, you may be +certain of that. He'd ask God to bless his pa and ma, and wind up +with 'Bless Uncle John too.' Then I couldn't help hugging him right up +tighter; for it carried me back to Old Missouri, to the log-cabin in the +woods where I was born, and used to say 'Now I lay me,' and 'Our Father' +at my ma's knee, when I was a kid like him. I tell you, boys, there +ain't nothing that will take the conceit out of a man here on the +plains, like the company of a kid what has been brought up right. + +"I reckon we'd been travelling about ten days since we left Point o' +Rocks, and was on the other side of the Big Bend of the Arkansas, near +the mouth of the Walnut, where Fort Zarah is now. We had went into camp +at sundown, close to a big spring that's there yet. We drawed up the +wagons into a corral on the edge of the river where there wasn't +no grass for quite a long stretch; we done this to kind o' fortify +ourselves, for we expected to have trouble with the Ingins there, if +anywhere, as we warn't but seventeen miles from Pawnee Rock, the worst +place on the whole Trail for them; so we picked out that bare spot where +they couldn't set fire to the prairie. It was long after dark when we +eat our supper; then we smoked our pipes, waiting for the oxen to fill +themselves, which had been driven about a mile off where there was good +grass. The Mexicans was herding them, and when they'd eat all they could +hold, and was commencing to lay down, they was driven into the corral. +Then all of us, except Comstock and Curtis, turned in; they was to stand +guard until 'bout one o'clock, when me and Thorpe was to change places +with them and stay up until morning; for, you see, we was afraid to +trust them Mexicans. + +"It seemed like we hadn't been asleep more than an hour when me and +Thorpe was called to take our turn on guard. We got out of our blankets, +I putting Paul into one of the wagons, then me and Thorpe lighted our +pipes and walked around, keeping our eyes and ears open, watching the +heavy fringe of timber on the creek mighty close, I tell you. Just as +daylight was coming, we noticed that our mules, what was tied to a wagon +in the corral, was getting uneasy, a pawing and snorting, with their +long ears cocked up and looking toward the Walnut. Before I could finish +saying to Thorpe, 'Them mules smells Ingins,' half a dozen or more of +the darned cusses dashed out of the timber, yelling and shaking their +robes, which, of course, waked up the whole camp. Me and Thorpe sent a +couple of shots after them, that scattered the devils for a minute; but +we hadn't hit nary one, because it was too dark yet to draw a bead on +them. We was certain there was a good many more of them behind the first +that had charged us; so we got all the men on the side of the corral +next to the Trail. The Ingins we know'd couldn't get behind us, on +account of the river, and we was bound to make them fight where we +wanted them to, if they meant to fight at all. + +"In less than a minute, quicker than I can tell you, sure enough, out +they came again, only there was 'bout eighty of them this time. They +made a dash at once, and their arrows fell like a shower of hail on +the ground and against the wagon-sheets as the cusses swept by on their +ponies. There wasn't anybody hurt, and our turn soon came. Just as they +circled back, we poured it into them, killing six and wounding two. You +see them Mexican guns had did some work that we didn't expect, and then +we Americans felt better. Well, boys, them varmints made four charges +like that on to us before we could get shet of them; but we killed as +many as sixteen or eighteen, and they got mighty sick of it and quit; +they had only knocked over one Mexican, and put an arrow into Thorpe's +arm. + +"I was amused at little Paul all the time the scrimmage was going on. +He stood up in the wagon where I'd put him, a looking out of the hole +behind where the sheet was drawed together, and every time an Ingin +was tumbled off his pony, he would clap his hands and yell, 'There goes +another one, Uncle John!' + +"After their last charge, they rode off out of range, where they stood +in little bunches talking to each other, holding some sort of a pow-wow. +It riled us to see the darned cusses keep so far away from our rifles, +because we wanted to lay a few more of them out, but was obliged to keep +still and watch out for some new deviltry. We waited there until it +was plumb night, not daring to move out yet; but we managed to boil our +coffee and fry slap-jacks and meat. + +"The oxen kept up a bellowing and pawing around the corral, for they was +desperate hungry and thirsty, hadn't had nothing since the night before; +yet we couldn't help them any, as we didn't know whether we was shet of +the Ingins or not. We staid, patient-like, for two or three hours more +after dark to see what the Ingins was going to do, as while we sot round +our little fire of buffalo-chips, smoking our pipes, we could still hear +the red devils a howling and chanting, while they picked up their dead +laying along the river-bottom. + +"As soon as morning broke--we'd ketched a nap now and then during the +night--we got ready for another charge of the Ingins, their favourite +time being just 'bout daylight; but there warn't hide or hair of an +Ingin in sight. They'd sneaked off in the darkness long before the +first streak of dawn; had enough of fighting, I expect. As soon as we +discovered they'd all cleared out, we told the drivers to hitch up, and +while they was yoking and watering, me 'n' Curtis and Comstock buried +the dead Mexican on the bank of the river, as we didn't want to leave +his bones to be picked by the coyotes, which was already setting on the +sand hills watching and waiting for us to break camp. By the time we'd +finished our job, and piled some rocks on his grave, so as the varmints +couldn't dig him up, the train was strung out on the Trail, and then we +rolled out mighty lively for oxen; for the critters was hungry, and we +had to travel three or four miles the other side of the Walnut, where +the grass was green, before they could feed. The oxen seen it on the +hills and they lit out almost at a trot. It was 'bout sun-up when we got +there, when we turned the animals loose, corralled, and had breakfast. + +"After we'd had our smoke, all we had to do was to put in the time until +five o'clock; for we couldn't move before then, as it would be too hot +by the time the oxen got filled. Paul and me went down to the creek +fishing; there was tremendous cat in the Walnut them days, and by noon +we'd ketched five big beauties, which we took to camp and cooked for +dinner. After I'd had my smoke, Paul and me went back to the creek, +where we stretched ourselves under a good-sized box-elder tree--there +wasn't no shade nowhere else--and took a sleep, while Comstock and +Curtis went jack-rabbit hunting across the river, as we was getting +scarce of meat. + +"Thorpe, who was hit in the arm with an arrow, couldn't do much but +nuss his wound; so him and the Mexicans stood guard, a looking out for +Ingins, as we didn't know but what the cusses might come back and make +another raid on us, though we really didn't expect they would have the +gall to bother us any more--least not the same outfit what had fought us +the day before. That evening, 'bout six o'clock, we rolled out again and +went into camp late, having made twelve miles, and didn't see a sign of +Ingins. + +"In ten days more we got to Independence without having no more trouble +of no kind, and was surprised at our luck. At Independence we Americans +left the train, sold our furs, got a big price, too--each of us had a +shot-bag full of gold and silver, more money than we know'd what to do +with. Me, Curtis, and Thorpe concluded we'd buy a new outfit, consisting +of another six-mule wagon, and harness, so we'd have a full team, +meaning to go back to the mountains with the first big caravan what +left. + +"All the folks in the settlement what seen Paul took a great fancy to +him. Some wanted to adopt him, and some said I'd ought to take him to +St. Louis and place him in an orphan asylum; but I 'lowed if there was +going to be any adopting done, I'd do it myself, 'cause the kid seemed +now just as if he was my own; besides the little fellow I know'd loved +me and didn't want me to leave him. I had kin-folks in Independence, an +old aunt, and me and Paul staid there. She had a young gal with her, and +she learned Paul out of books; so he picked up considerable, as we had +to wait more than two months before Colonel St. Vrain's caravan was +ready to start for New Mexico. + +"I bought Paul a coal-black pony, and had a suit of fine buckskin made +for him out of the pelt of a black-tail deer I'd shot the winter before +on Powder River. The seams of his trousers was heavily fringed, and with +his white sombrero, a riding around town on his pony, he looked like one +of them Spanish Dons what the papers nowadays has pictures of; only he +was smarter-looking than any Don I ever see in my life. + +"It was 'bout the last of August when we pulled out from Independence. +Comstock staid with us until we got ready to go, and then lit out +for St. Louis, and I hain't never seen him since. The caravan had +seventy-five six-mule teams in it, without counting ours, loaded with +dry-goods and groceries for Mora, New Mexico, where Colonel St. Vrain, +the owner, lived and had a big store. We had no trouble with the Ingins +going back across the plains; we seen lots, to be sure, hanging on our +trail, but they never attacked us; we was too strong for them. + +"'Bout the last of September we reached Bent's Old Fort, on the +Arkansas, where the Santa Fe Trail crosses the river into New Mexico, +and we camped there the night we got to it. + +"I know'd they had cows up to the fort; so just before we was ready for +supper, I took Paul and started to see if we couldn't get some milk for +our coffee. It wasn't far, and we was camped a few hundred yards from +the gate, just outside the wall. Well, we went into the kitchen, Paul +right alongside of me, and there I seen a white woman leaning over the +adobe hearth a cooking--they had always only been squaws before. She +naturally looked up to find out who was coming in, and when she seen the +kid, all at once she give a scream, dropped the dish-cloth she had +in her hand, made a break for Paul, throw'd her arms around him, +nigh upsetting me, and says, while she was a sobbing and taking on +dreadful,-- + +"'My boy! My boy! Then I hain't prayed and begged the good Lord all +these days and nights for nothing!' Then she kind o' choked again, while +Paul, he says, as he hung on to her,-- + +"'O mamma! O mamma! I know'd you'd come back! I know'd you'd come back!' + +"Well, there, boys, I just walked out of that kitchen a heap faster +than I'd come into it, and shut the door. When I got outside, for a few +minutes I couldn't see nothing, I was worked up so. As soon as I come +to, I went through the gate down to camp as quick as my legs would carry +me, to tell Thorpe and Curtis that Paul had found his ma. They wanted to +know all about it, but I couldn't tell them nothing, I was so dumfounded +at the way things had turned out. We talked among ourselves a moment, +then reckoned it was the best to go up to the fort together, and ask the +woman how on earth she'd got shet of the Ingins what had took her off, +and how it come she was cooking there. We started out and when we got +into the kitchen, there was Paul and Mrs. Dale, and you never see no +people so happy. They was just as wild as a stampeded steer; she seemed +to have growed ten years younger than when I first went up there, and as +for Paul, he was in heaven for certain. + +"First we had to tell her how we'd got the kid, and how we'd learned to +love him. All the time we was telling of it, and our scrimmages with +the Ingins, she was a crying and hugging Paul as if her heart was broke. +After we'd told all we know'd, we asked her to tell us her story, which +she did, and it showed she was a woman of grit and education. + +"She said the Ingins what had captured her took her up to their camp on +the Saw Log, a little creek north of Fort Dodge--you all know where +it is--and there she staid that night. Early in the morning they all +started for the north. She watched their ponies mighty close as they +rid along that day, so as to find out which was the fastest; for she had +made up her mind to make her escape the first chance she got. She looked +at the sun once in a while, to learn what course they was taking; so +that she could go back when she got ready, strike the Sante Fe Trail, +and get to some ranch, as she had seen several while passing through the +foot-hills of the Raton Range when she was with the Mexican train. + +"It was on the night of the fourth day after they had left Saw Log, +and had rid a long distance--was more than a hundred miles on their +journey--when she determined to try and light out. The whole camp was +fast asleep, for the Ingins was monstrous tired. She crawled out of the +lodge where she'd been put with some old squaws, and going to where the +ponies had been picketed, she took a little iron-gray she'd had her eye +on, jumped on his back, with only the lariat for a bridle and without +any saddle, not even a blanket, took her bearings from the north star, +and cautiously moved out. She started on a walk, until she'd got 'bout +four miles from camp, and then struck a lope, keeping it up all night. +By next morning she'd made some forty miles, and then for the first time +since she'd left her lodge, pulled up and looked back, to see if any of +the Ingins was following her. When she seen there wasn't a living thing +in sight, she got off her pony, watered him out of a small branch, took +a drink herself, but not daring to rest yet, mounted her animal again +and rid on as fast as she could without wearing him out too quickly. + +"Hour after hour she rid on, the pony appearing to have miraculous +endurance, until sundown. By that time she'd crossed the Saline, the +Smoky Hill, and got to the top of the divide between that river and the +Arkansas, or not more than forty miles from the Santa Fe Trail. Then her +wonderful animal seemed to weaken; she couldn't even make him trot, and +she was so nearly played out herself, she could hardly set steady. What +to do, she didn't know. The pony was barely able to move at a slow walk. +She was afraid he would drop dead under her, and she was compelled +to dismount, and in almost a minute, as soon as she laid down on the +prairie, was fast asleep. + +"She had no idee how long she had slept when she woke up. The sun was +only 'bout two hours high. Then she know'd she had been unconscious +since sundown of the day before, or nigh twenty-four hours. Rubbing her +eyes, for she was kind o' bewildered, and looking around, there she saw +her pony as fresh, seemingly, as when she'd started. He'd had plenty to +eat, for the grass was good, but she'd had nothing. She pulled a little +piece of dried buffalo-meat out of her bosom, which she'd brought along, +all she could find at the lodge, and now nibbled at that, for she was +mighty hungry. She was terribly sore and stiff too, but she mounted at +once and pushed on, loping and walking him by spells. Just at daylight +she could make out the Arkansas right in front of her in the dim gray +of the early morning, not very far off. On the west, the Raton Mountains +loomed up like a great pile of blue clouds, the sight of which cheered +her; for she know'd she would soon reach the Trail. + +"It wasn't quite noon when she struck the Santa Fe Trail. When she got +there, looking to the east, she saw in the distance, not more than three +miles away, a large caravan coming, and then, almost wild with delight, +she dismounted, sot down on the grass, and waited for it to arrive. In +less than an hour, the train come up to where she was, and as good luck +would have it, it happened to be an American outfit, going to Taos with +merchandise. As soon as the master of the caravan seen her setting on +the prairie, he rid up ahead of the wagons, and she told him her story. +He was a kind-hearted man; had the train stop right there on the bank of +the river, though he wasn't half through his day's drive, so as to make +her comfortable as possible, and give her something to eat; for she was +'bout played out. He bought the Ingin pony, giving her thirty dollars +for it, and after she had rested for some time, the caravan moved out. +She rid in one of the wagons, on a bed of blankets, and the next evening +arrived at Bent's Old Fort. There she found women-folks, who cared for +her and nussed her; for she was dreadfully sore and tired after her long +ride. Then she was hired to cook, meaning to work until she'd earned +enough to take her back to Pennsylvany, to her mother's, where she had +started for when the Ingins attackted the train. + +"That night, after listening to her mirac'lous escape, we made up a +'pot' for her, collecting 'bout eight hundred dollars. The master of +Colonel St. Vrain's caravan, what had come out with us, told her he was +going back again to the river in a couple of weeks, and he'd take her +and Paul in without costing her a cent; besides, she'd be safer than +with any other outfit, as his train was a big one, and he had all +American teamsters. + +"Next morning the caravan went on to Mora, and after we'd bid good-by to +Mrs. Dale and Paul, before which I give the boy two hundred dollars +for himself, me, Thorpe, and Curtis pulled out with our team north for +Frenchman's Creek, and I never felt so miserable before nor since as I +did parting with the kid that morning. I hain't never seen him since; +but he must be nigh forty now. Mebby he went into the war and was +killed; mebby he got to be a general, but I hain't forgot him." + +Uncle John knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and without saying another +word went into the tent. In a few moments the camp was as quiet as a +country village on Sunday, excepting the occasional howling of a hungry +wolf down in the timbered recesses of the Washita, or the crackling and +sputtering of the signal fires on the hilltops. + +In a few days afterward, we were camping on Hackberry Creek, in the +Indian Territory. We had been living on wild turkey, as before for some +time, and still longed for a change. At last one of my hunters succeeded +in bagging a dozen or more quails. Late that evening, when my cook +brought the delicious little birds, beautifully spitted and broiled on +peeled willow twigs, into my tent, I passed one to Uncle John. Much to +the surprise of every one, he refused. He said, "Boys, I don't eat no +quail!" + +We looked at him in astonishment; for he was somewhat of a gourmand, and +prided himself upon the "faculty," as he termed it, of being able to +eat anything, from a piece of jerked buffalo-hide to the juiciest young +antelope steak. + +I remonstrated with the venerable guide; said to him, "You are making a +terrible mistake, Uncle John. Tomorrow I expect to leave here, and as we +are going directly away from the buffalo country, we don't know when +we shall strike fresh meat again. You'd better try one," and I again +proffered one of the birds. + +"Boys," said he again, "I don't tech quail; I hain't eat one for more +than twenty years. One of the little cusses saved my life once, and I +swore right thar and then that I would starve first; and I have kept my +oath, though I've seen the time mighty often sence I could a killed 'em +with my quirt, when all I had to chaw on for four days was the soles of +a greasy pair of old moccasins. + +"Well, boys, it's a good many years ago--in June, if I don't +disremember, 1847. We was a coming in from way up in Cache le Poudre and +from Yellowstone Lake, whar we'd been a trapping for two seasons. We was +a working our way slowly back to Independence, Missouri, where we was +a going to get a new outfit. Let's see, there was me, and a man by the +name of Boyd, and Lew Thorp--Lew was a working for Colonel Boone at +the time--and two more men, whose names I disremember now, and a nigger +wench we had for a cook. We had mighty good luck, and had a big pile +of skins; and the Indians never troubled us till we got down on Pawnee +Bottom, this side of Pawnee Rock. We all of us had mighty good ponies, +but Thorp had a team and wagon, which he was driving for Colonel Boone. + +"We had went into camp on Pawnee Bottom airly in the afternoon, and I +told the boys to look out for Ingins--for I knowed ef we was to have any +trouble with them it would be somewhere in that vicinity. But we didn't +see a darned redskin that night, nor the sign of one. + +"The wolves howled considerable, and come pretty close to the fire for +the bacon rinds we'd throwed away after supper. + +"You see the buffalo was scurse right thar then--it was the wrong time +o' year. They generally don't get down on to the Arkansas till about +September, and when they're scurse the wolves and coyotes are mighty +sassy, and will steal a piece of bacon rind right out of the pan, if +you don't watch 'em. So we picketed our ponies a little closer before we +turned in, and we all went to sleep except one, who sort o' kept watch +on the stock. + +"I was out o' my blankets mighty airly next morning, for I was kind o' +suspicious. I could always tell when Ingins was prowling around, and I +had a sort of present'ment something was going to happen--I didn't like +the way the coyotes kept yelling--so I rested kind o' oneasy like, and +was out among the ponies by the first streak o' daylight. + +"About the time I could see things, I discovered three or four buffalo +grazing off on the creek bottom, about a half-mile away, and I started +for my rifle, thinking I would examine her. + +"Pretty soon I seed Thorp and Boyd crawl out o' their blankets, too, +and I called their attention to the buffalo, which was still feeding +undisturbed. + +"We'd been kind o' scurse of fresh meat for a couple of weeks--ever +since we left the Platte--except a jack-rabbit or cottontail, and I +knowed the boys would be wanting to get a quarter or two of a good fat +cow, if we could find one in the herd, so that was the reason I pointed +'em out to 'em. + +"The dew, you see, was mighty heavy, and the grass in the bottom was as +wet as if it had been raining for a month, and I didn't care to go down +whar the buffalo was just then--I knowed we had plenty of time, and as +soon as the sun was up it would dry right off. So I got on to one of +the ponies and led the others down to the spring near camp to water them +while the wench was a getting breakfast, and some o' the rest o' the +outfit was a fixing the saddles and greasing the wagon. + +"Just as I was coming back--it had growed quite light then--I seed +Boyd and Thorp start out from camp with their rifles and make for the +buffalo; so I picketed the ponies, gets my rifle, and starts off too. + +"By the time I'd reached the edge of the bottom, Thorp and Boyd was a +crawling up on to a young bull way off to the right, and I lit out for a +fat cow I seen bunched up with the rest of the herd on the left. + +"The grass was mighty tall on some parts of the Arkansas bottom in them +days, and I got within easy shooting range without the herd seeing me. + +"The buffalo was now between me and Thorp and Boyd, and they was +furtherest from camp. I could see them over the top of the grass kind +o' edging up to the bull, and I kept a crawling on my hands and knees +toward the cow, and when I got about a hundred and fifty yards of her, I +pulled up my rifle and drawed a bead. + +"Just as I was running my eyes along the bar'l, a darned little quail +flew right out from under my feet and lit exactly on my front sight and +of course cut off my aim--we didn't shoot reckless in those days; every +shot had to tell, or a man was the laughing-stock for a month if he +missed his game. + +"I shook the little critter off and brought up my rifle again when, durn +my skin, if the bird didn't light right on to the same place; at the +same time my eyes grow'd kind o' hazy-like and in a minute I didn't know +nothing. + +"When I come to, the quail was gone, I heerd a couple of rifle shots, +and right in front of where the bull had stood and close to Thorp and +Boyd, half a dozen Ingins jumped up out o' the tall grass and, firing +into the two men, killed Thorp instantly and wounded Boyd. + +"He and me got to camp--keeping off the Ingins, who knowed I was +loaded--when we, with the rest of the outfit, drove the red devils away. + +"They was Apaches, and the fellow that shot Thorp was a half-breed +nigger and Apache. He scalped Thorp and carred off the whole upper part +of his skull with it. He got Thorp's rifle and bullet-pouch too, and his +knife. + +"We buried Thorp in the bottom there, and some of the party cut their +names on the stones that they covered his body up with, to keep the +coyotes from eating up his bones. + +"Boyd got on to the river with us all right, and I never heerd of him +after we separated at Booneville. We pulled out soon after the Indians +left, but we didn't get no buffalo-meat. + +"You see, boys, if I'd a fired into that cow, the devils would a had me +before I could a got a patch on my ball--didn't have no breech-loaders +in them days, and it took as much judgment to know how to load a rifle +properly as it did to shoot it. + +"Them Ingins knowed all that--they knowed I hadn't fired, so they kept +a respectable distance. I would a fired, but the quail saved my life by +interfering with my sight--and that's the reason I don't eat no quail. I +hain't superstitious, but I don't believe they was meant to be eat." + +Uncle John stuck to his text, I believe, until he died, and you could +never disabuse his mind of the idea that the quail lighting on his rifle +was not a special interposition of Providence. + +Only four years after he told his story, in 1872, one of the newly +established settlers, living a few miles west of Larned on Pawnee +Bottom, having observed in one of his fields a singular depression, +resembling an old grave, determined to dig down and see if there was any +special cause for the strange indentation on his land. + +A couple of feet below the surface he discovered several flat pieces +of stone, on one of which the words "Washington" and "J. Hildreth" +were rudely cut, also a line separating them, and underneath: "December +tenth" and "J. M., 1850." On another was carved the name "J. H. Shell," +with other characters that could not be deciphered. On a third stone +were the initials "H. R., 1847"; underneath which was plainly cut "J. +R. Boyd," and still beneath "J. R. Pring." At the very bottom of the +excavation were found the lower portion of the skull, one or two ribs, +and one of the bones of the leg of a human being. The piece of skull was +found near the centre of the grave, for such it certainly was. + +At the time of the discovery I was in Larned, and I immediately +consulted my book of notes and memoranda taken hurriedly at intervals on +the plains and in the mountains, during more than half my lifetime, to +see if I could find anything that would solve the mystery attached to +the quiet prairie-grave and its contents, and I then recalled Uncle +John Smith's story of the quail as related to me at my camp. I also +met Colonel A. G. Boone that winter in Washington; he remembered the +circumstances well. Thorp was working for him, as Smith had said, and +was killed by an Apache, who, in scalping him, tore the half of his head +away, and it was thus found mutilated, so many years afterward. + +Uncle John was in one of his garrulous moods that night, and as we were +not by any means tired of hearing the veteran trapper talk, without much +urging he told us the following tale:-- + +"Well, boys, thirty years ago, beaver, mink, and otter was found in +abundacious quantities on all the streams in the Rocky Mountains. The +trade in them furs was a paying business, for the little army of us +fellows called trappers. They ain't any of 'em left now, no mor'n the +animals we used to hunt. We had to move about from place to place, just +as if we was so many Ingins. Sometimes we'd construct little cabins in +the timber, or a dugout where the game was plenty, where we'd stay maybe +for a month or two, and once in a while--though not often--a whole year. + +"The Ingins was our mortal enemies; they'd get a scalp from our fellows +occasionally, but for every one they had of ours we had a dozen of +theirs. + +"In the summer of 1846, there was a little half dugout, half cabin, +opposite the mouth of Frenchman's Creek, put up by Bill Thorpe, Al Boyd, +and Rube Stevens. Bill and Al was men grown, and know'd more 'bout the +prairies and timber than the Ingins themselves. They'd hired out to the +Northwest Fur Company when they was mere kids, and kept on trapping +ever since. Rube--'Little Rube' as all the old men called him--was +'bout nineteen, and plumb dumb; he could hear well enough though, for +he wasn't born that way. When he was seventeen his father moved from his +farm in Pennsylvany, to take up a claim in Oregon, and the whole family +was compelled to cross the plains to get there; for there wasn't no +other way. While they was camped in the Bitter-Root valley one evening, +just 'bout sundown, a party of Blackfeet surprised the outfit, and +massacred all of them but Rube. They carried him off, kept him as a +slave, and, to make sure of him, cut out his tongue at the roots. But +some of the women who wasn't quite so devilish as their husbands, and +who took pity on him, went to work and cured him of his awful wound. He +was used mighty mean by the bucks of the tribe, and made up his mind to +get away from them or kill himself; for he could not live under their +harsh treatment. After he'd been with them for mor'n a year, the tribe +had a terrible battle with the Sioux, and in the scrimmage Rube stole +a pony and lit out. He rode on night and day until he came across the +cabin of the two trappers I have told you 'bout, and they, of course, +took the poor boy in and cared for him. + +"Rube was a splendid shot with the rifle, and he swore to himself that +he would never leave the prairies and do nothing for the rest of +his life but kill Ingins, who had made him a homeless orphan, and so +mutilated him. + +"After Rube had been with Boyd and Thorpe a year, they was all one day +in the winter examining their traps which was scattered 'long the stream +for miles. After re-baiting them, they concluded to hunt for meat, which +was getting scarce at the cabin; they let Rube go down to the creek +where it widened out lake-like, to fish through a hole in the ice, and +Al and Bill took their rifles and hunted in the timber for deer. They +all got separated of course, Rube being furtherest away, while Al and +Bill did not wander so far from each other that they could not be heard +if one wanted his companion. + +"Al shot a fat black-tail deer, and just as he was going to stoop down +to cut its throat, Bill yelled out to him:-- + +"'Drop everything Al, for God's sake, and let's make for the dugout; +they're coming, a whole band of Sioux!' + +"'If we can get to the cabin,' replied Al, 'we can keep off the whole +nation. I wonder where Rube is? I hope he'll get here and save his +scalp.' + +"At this instant, poor Rube dashed up to them, an Ingin close upon his +tracks; he had unfortunately forgotten to take his rifle with him when +he went to the creek, and now he was at the mercy of the savage; at +least both he and his pursuer so thought. But before the Ingin had +fairly uttered his yell of exultation, Al who with Bill had held his +rifle in readiness for an emergency, lifted the red devil off his feet, +and he fell dead without ever knowing what had struck him. + +"Rube, thus delivered from a sudden death, ran at the top of his speed +with his two friends for the cabin, for, if they could reach it, they +did not fear a hundred paint-bedaubed savages. + +"Luckily they arrived in time. Where they lived was part dugout and part +cabin. It was about ten feet high, and right back of it was a big ledge +of rock, which made it impossible for any one to get into it from that +side. The place had no door; they did not dare to put one there when +it was built, for they were likely to be surprised at any moment by +a prowling band, so the only entrance was a square hole in the roof, +through which one at a time had to crawl to enter. + +"The boys got inside all right just as the Ingins came a yelling up. +Bill looked out of a hole in the wall and counted thirty of the devils, +and said at once: 'Off with your coats; don't let them have anything +to catch hold of but our naked bodies if they get in, and we can handle +ourselves better.' + +"'Thirty to three,' said Al. 'Whew! this ain't going to be any boy's +play; we've got to fight for all there is in it, and the chances are +mightily agin us.' + +"Rube he took an axe, and stood right under the hole in the roof, so +that if any of the devils got in he could brain them. In a minute five +rifles cracked; for the Ingins was pretty well armed for them times, and +their bullets rattled agin the logs like hail agin a tent. Some of 'em +was on top the roof by this time, and soon the leader of the party, a +big painted devil, thrust his ugly face into the hole; but he had hardly +got a good look before Bill dropped him by a well-directed shot and he +tumbled in on the floor. + +"'You darned fool,' said Bill, as he saw the effect of his shot; 'did +you think we was asleep?' + +"There was one opening that served for air, and a savage, seeing the +boys had forgotten to barricade it, tried to push himself through, an' +not succeeding, tried to back out, but at that instant Bill caught him +by the wrist--Bill was a powerful man--and picking up a beaver-trap that +laid on the floor, actually beat his brains out with it. + +"While this circus was going on inside, three more of the Ingins got on +the roof and wrenched off a couple of the logs that covered it; but in a +minute they came tumbling down and lay dead on the floor. + +"'That leaves only twenty-five, don't it?' inquired Al, as he mopped his +face with his shirt-sleeve. + +"'Howl, you red devils,' said Bill, as the Ingins commenced their awful +yelling when they saw their comrades fall into the room. 'Don't you +know, you blame fools, you've fell in with experienced hands at the +shooting business?' + +"Spat! Something hit Al, and he was the first wounded, but it was only a +scratch, and he kept right on attending to business. + +"'By gosh! look at Rube, will you?' said Al. The dumb boy had in his +grasp the very chief of the band, who had just then discovered the hole +in the roof made by the three Ingins who had passed in their checks for +their impudence, and was trying his best to push himself down. Rube had +made a strike at him with an axe, but the edge was turned aside, and the +savage was getting the better of the boy; he had grappled Rube by the +hair and one arm, and they was flying 'round like a wild cat and a +hound. Bill tried three times to sink his knife into the old chief, but +there was such a cavortin' in the wrastle between him and the boy, he +was afraid to try any more, for fear it might hit Rube instead. Suddenly +the Ingin fell to the floor as dead as a trapped beaver what's been +drowned; Rube had struck his buckhorn-handled hunting-knife right into +the heart of the brute. + +"'Set him agin the hole in the side of the building,' said Bill; 'he +ain't fit for nothing else than to stop a gap'; so Rube set him agin the +hole, and pinned him there with half a dozen knives what was lying round +loose. + +"Just as they had fastened the dead body of the old chief to the side +of the cabin, a perfect shower of bullets came rattling round like a +hailstorm. 'All right, let's have your waste lead,' said Bill. + +"'A few more of these dead Ingins and we can make a regular fort of this +old cabin; we want two for that chunk,' said Al, as he pointed with his +rifle to a large gap on the west side of the wall; but before he had +fairly got the words out of his mouth, two of the attacking party jumped +down into the room. Al, being a regular giant, as soon as they landed, +surprised them by seizing one with each hand by the throat, and he +actually held them at arm's-length till he had squeezed the very life +out of them, and they both fell corpses. + +"While Al was performing his two-Ingin act, a great light burst into the +cabin, and by the time he had choked his enemies to death, he saw, while +the Ingins outside gave a terrible yell of exultation, that they had +fired the place. + +"'Damn 'em,' shouted Bill, as he pitched the corpse of the chief from +the gap where Rube had set him. 'Fellows, we've got to get out of here +right quick; follow me, boys!' + +"Holding their rifles in hand, and clutching a hunting-knife also, they +stepped out into the brush surrounding the place, and started on a run +for the heavy timber on the bank of the creek. + +"They had reckoned onluckily; a wild war-whoop greeted the flying men as +they reached the edge of the forest, and without being able to use their +arms, they were taken prisoners. Bill and Al, fastened with their backs +against each other, and Little Rube by himself, were bound to separate +trees, but not so far apart that they could not speak to each other, +and some of the Ingins began to gather sticks and pile them around the +trees. + +"'What are they going to do with us?' anxiously inquired Bill of Al. + +"'Roast us, you bet,' replied the other. 'They'll find me tough enough, +anyhow.' + +"'It must be a painful death,' soliloquized Bill. + +"'Well, it isn't the most pleasant one, you can gamble on that,' said +Al, turning his looks toward Bill; 'but see what the devils are doing to +poor Rube.' + +"Bill cast his eyes in the direction of the dumb boy, who was fastened +to a small pine, about a hundred feet distant. Standing directly in +front of it was a gigantic Ingin, flourishing his scalping-knife within +an inch of Rube's head, trying to make the boy flinch. But the young +fellow merely scowled at him in a rage, his muscles never quivering for +an instant. + +"While the men were trying to console each other, two of the savages, +who had gone away for a short time, returned, bearing the carcass of the +deer that Al had killed in the morning, and commenced to cut it up. They +had made several small fires, and roasting the meat before them, began +to gorge themselves, Indian fashion, with the savoury morsels. The men +were awfully hungry, too, but not a mouthful did they get of their own +game. + +"The Ingins were more'n an hour feasting, while their prisoners kept a +looking for some help to get 'em out of the scrape they was in. + +"'Bout a mile down the creek, me and six other trappers had a camp, and +that morning, being scarce of meat, we all went a hunting. We had killed +two or three elk and was 'bout going back to camp with our game, when we +heard firing, and supposed it was a party of hunters, like ourselves, +so we did not pay any attention to it at first; but when it kept up so +long, and there was such a constant volley, I told our boys it might be +a scrimmage with a party of red devils, and we concluded to go and see. + +"We left our elk where they were, and started in the direction of the +shooting, taking mighty good care not to be surprised ourselves. We +crept carefully on, and a little before sundown seen a camp-fire burning +in the timber quite a smart piece ahead of us. We stopped then, and Ike +Pettet and myself crept on cautiously on our hands and knees through the +brush to learn what the fire meant. In a little while we seen it was an +Ingin camp, and we counted twenty-two warriors seated 'round their fires +a eating as unconcernedly as if we warn't nowhere near 'em. We didn't +feel like tackling so many, so just as we was 'bout to crawl away and +leave 'em in ondisturbed possession of their camp, we heard some parties +talking in English. Then we pricked up our ears and listened mighty +interested I tell you. Looking 'round, we seen the men tied to the trees +and the wood piled against 'em, and then we knowed what was up. We had +to be mighty wary, for if we snapped a twig even, it was all day with us +and the prisoners too; so we dragged ourselves back, and after getting +out of sound of the Ingins, we just got up and lit out mighty lively for +the place we'd left our companions. We met them coming slowly on 'bout +two miles from the Ingin camp, and telling 'em what was up we started to +help the trappers what the devils was agoing to burn. We wasn't half so +long in getting at the camp as Ike and me was in going, and we soon come +within good range for our rifles. + +"The Ingins was still unsuspicious, and we spread ourselves in a sort +of half circle so as to kind o' surround them, and at a signal I give, +seven rifles cracked at once, and as many of the Injins was dropped +right in their tracks; a second volley, for the red devils had not got +their senses yet, tumbled seven more corpses upon the pile, and then we +white men jumped in with our knives and clubbed rifles, and there was +a lively scrimmage for a few minutes. The few Ingins what wasn't killed +fought like devils, but as we was getting the best of 'em every second +they turned tail and ran. + +"We'd heard the firing of the fight at the cabin just in time; and as +we cut the rawhide strings that bound the fellows to the trees, Ike, who +was a right fine shot and had killed three at one time, said: 'I always +like to get two or three of the red devils in a line before I pull the +trigger; it saves lead.' + +"Then we all went back to our camp and made a night of it, feasting on +the elk we had killed, and talking over the wonderful escape of the boys +and Little Rube." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. KIT CARSON. + + + +Of the famous men whose lives are so interwoven with the history of the +Old Santa Fe Trail that the story of the great highway is largely made +up of their individual exploits and acts of bravery, it has been my +fortune to have known nearly all intimately, during more than a third of +a century passed on the great plains and in the Rocky Mountains. + +First of all, Christopher, or Kit, Carson, as he is familiarly known +to the world, stands at the head and front of celebrated frontiersmen, +trappers, scouts, guides, and Indian fighters. + +I knew him well through a series of years, to the date of his death in +1868, but I shall confine myself to the events of his remarkable career +along the line of the Trail and its immediate environs. In 1826 a party +of Santa Fe traders passing near his father's home in Howard County, +Missouri, young Kit, who was then but seventeen years old, joined the +caravan as hunter. He was already an expert with the rifle, and thus +commenced his life of adventure on the great plains and in the Rocky +Mountains. + +His first exhibition of that nerve and coolness in the presence of +danger which marked his whole life was in this initial trip across the +plains. When the caravan had arrived at the Arkansas River, somewhere +in the vicinity of the great bend of that stream, one of the teamsters, +while carelessly pulling his rifle toward him by the barrel, discharged +the weapon and received the ball in his arm, completely crushing the +bones. The blood from the wound flowed so copiously that he nearly lost +his life before it could be arrested. He was fixed up, however, and the +caravan proceeded on its journey, the man thinking no more seriously +of his injured arm. In a few days, however, the wound began to indicate +that gangrene had set in, and it was determined that only by an +amputation was it possible for him to live beyond a few days. Every +one of the older men of the caravan positively declined to attempt the +operation, as there were no instruments of any kind. At this juncture +Kit, realizing the extreme necessity of prompt action, stepped forward +and offered to do the job. He told the unfortunate sufferer that he had +had no experience in such matters, but that as no one else would do +it, he would take the chances. All the tools that Kit could find were +a razor, a saw, and the king-bolt of a wagon. He cut the flesh with the +razor, sawed through the bone as if it had been a piece of joist, and +seared the horrible wound with the king-bolt, which he had heated to a +white glow, for the purpose of stopping the flow of blood that naturally +followed such rude surgery. The operation was a complete success; the +man lived many years afterward, and was with his surgeon in many an +expedition. + +In the early days of the commerce of the prairies, Carson was the hunter +at Bent's Fort for a period of eight years. There were about forty men +employed at the place; and when the game was found in abundance in the +mountains, it was a relatively easy task and just suited to his love of +sport, but when it grew scarce, as it often did, his prowess was tasked +to its utmost to keep the forty mouths from crying for food. He became +such an unerring shot with the rifle during that time that he was called +the "Nestor of the Rocky Mountains." His favourite game was the buffalo, +although he killed countless numbers of other animals. + +All of the plains tribes of Indians, as did the powerful Utes of the +mountains, knew him well; for he had often visited in their camps, sat +in their lodges, smoked the pipe, and played with their little boys. The +latter fact may not appear of much consequence, but there are no people +on earth who have a greater love for their boy children than the savages +of America. The Indians all feared him, too, at the same time that they +respected his excellent judgment, and frequently were governed by his +wise counsel. The following story will show his power in this direction. +The Sioux, one of the most numerous and warlike tribes at that time, +had encroached upon the hunting-grounds of the southern Indians, and the +latter had many a skirmish with them on the banks of the Arkansas along +the line of the Trail. Carson, who was in the upper valley of the river, +was sent for to come down and help them drive the obnoxious Sioux back +to their own stamping-ground. He left Fort Bent, and went with the party +of Comanche messengers to the main camp of that tribe and the Arapahoes, +with whom they had united. Upon his arrival, he was told that the Sioux +had a thousand warriors and many rifles, and the Comanches and Arapahoes +were afraid of them on account of the great disparity of numbers, but +that if he would go with them on the war-path, they felt assured they +could overcome their enemies. Carson, however, instead of encouraging +the Comanches and Arapahoes to fight, induced them to negotiate with +the Sioux. He was sent as mediator, and so successfully accomplished his +mission that the intruding tribe consented to leave the hunting-grounds +of the Comanches as soon as the buffalo season was over; which they did, +and there was no more trouble. + +After many adventures in California with Fremont, Carson, with his +inseparable friend, L. B. Maxwell, embarked in the wool-raising +industry. Shortly after they had established themselves on their ranch, +the Apaches made one of their frequent murdering and plundering raids +through Northern New Mexico, killing defenceless women and children, +running off stock of all kinds, and laying waste every little ranch they +came across in their wild foray. Not very far from the city of Santa Fe, +they ruthlessly butchered a Mr. White and his son, though three of their +number were slain by the brave gentlemen before they were overpowered. +Other of the blood-thirsty savages carried away the women and children +of the desolated home and took them to their mountain retreat in the +vicinity of Las Vegas. Mr. White was a highly respected merchant, and +news of this outrage spreading rapidly through the settlements, it was +determined that the savages should not go without punishment this time, +at least. Carson's reputation as an Indian fighter was at its height, so +the natives of the country sent for him, and declined to move until he +came. For some unexplained reason, after he arrived at Las Vegas, he +was not placed in charge of the posse, that position having already +been given to a Frenchman. Carson, as was usual with him, never murmured +because he was assigned to a subordinate position, but took his place, +ready to do his part in whatever capacity. + +The party set out for the stronghold of the savages, and rode night and +day on the trail of the murderers, hoping to surprise them and recapture +the women and children; but so much time had been wasted in delays, +that Carson feared they would only find the mutilated bodies of the +poor captives. In a few days after leaving Las Vegas, the retreat of the +savages was discovered in the fastness of the mountains, where they had +fortified themselves in such a manner that they could resist ten times +the number of their pursuers. Carson, as soon as he saw them, without +a second's hesitation, and giving a characteristic yell, dashed in, +expecting, of course, that the men would follow him; but they only stood +in gaping wonderment at his bravery, not daring to venture after him. +He did not discover his dilemma until he had advanced so far alone that +escape seemed impossible. But here his coolness, which always served him +in the moment of supreme danger, saved his scalp. As the savages turned +on him, he threw himself on the off side of his horse, Indian fashion, +for he was as expert in a trick of that kind as the savages themselves, +and rode back to the little command. He had six arrows in his horse and +a bullet through his coat! + +The Indians in those days were poorly armed, and did not long follow up +the pursuit after Carson; for, observing the squad of mounted Mexicans, +they retreated to the top of a rocky prominence, from which point they +could watch every movement of the whites. Carson was raging at the +apathy, not to say cowardice, of the men who had sent for him to join +them, but he kept his counsel to himself; for he was anxious to save +the captured women and children. He talked to the men very earnestly, +however, exhorting them not to flinch in the duty they had come so +far to perform, and for which he had come at their call. This had +the desired effect; for he induced them to make a charge, which was +gallantly performed, and in such a brave manner that the Indians fled, +scarcely making an effort to defend themselves. Five of their number +were killed at the furious onset of the Mexicans, but unfortunately, as +he anticipated, only the murdered corpses of the women and children were +the result of the victory. + +President Polk appointed Carson to a second lieutenancy,[48] and his +first official duty was conducting fifty soldiers under his command +through the country of the Comanches, who were then at war with the +whites. A fight occurred at a place known as Point of Rocks,[49] where +on arriving, Carson found a company of volunteers for the Mexican War, +and camped near them. About dawn the next morning, all the animals of +the volunteers were captured by a band of Indians, while the herders +were conducting them to the river-bottom to graze. The herders had no +weapons, and luckily, in the confusion attending the bold theft, ran +into Carson's camp; and as he, with his men, were ready with their +rifles, they recaptured the oxen, but the horses were successfully +driven off by their captors. + +Several of the savages were mortally wounded by Carson's prompt charge, +as signs after they had cleared out proved; but the Indian custom of +tying the wounded on their ponies precluded the chance of taking any +scalps. The wily Comanche, like the Arab of the desert, is generally +successful in his sudden assaults, but Carson, who was never surprised, +was always equal to his tactics. + +One of the two soldiers whose turn it had been to stand guard that +morning was discovered to have been asleep when the alarm of Indians was +given, and Carson at once administered the Indian method of punishment, +making the man wear the dress of a squaw for that day. Then going on, he +arrived at Santa Fe, where he turned over his little command. + +While there, he heard that a gang of those desperadoes so frequently the +nuisance of a new country had formed a conspiracy to murder and rob two +wealthy citizens whom they had volunteered to accompany over the Trail +to the States. The caravan was already many miles on its way when Carson +was informed of the plot. In less than an hour he had hired sixteen +picked men and was on his march to intercept them. He took a short cut +across the mountains, taking especial care to keep out of the way of +the Indians, who were on the war-path, but as to whose movements he +was always posted. In two days he came upon a camp of United States +recruits, en route to the military posts in New Mexico, whose commander +offered to accompany him with twenty men. Carson accepted the generous +proposal, by forced marches soon overtook the caravan of traders, and +at once placed one Fox, the leader of the gang, in irons, after which he +informed the owners of the caravan of the escape they had made from the +wretches whom they were treating so kindly. At first the gentlemen were +astounded at the disclosures made to them, but soon admitted that +they had noticed many things which convinced them that the plot really +existed, and but for the opportune arrival of the brave frontiersman it +would shortly have been carried out. + +The members of the caravan who were perfectly trustworthy were then +ordered to corral the rest of the conspirators, thirty-five in number, +and they were driven out of camp, with the exception of Fox, the leader, +whom Carson conveyed to Taos. He was imprisoned for several months, but +as a crime in intent only could be proved against him, and as the adobe +walls of the house where he was confined were not secure enough to +retain a man who desired to release himself, he was finally liberated, +and cleared out. + +The traders were profuse in their thanks to Carson for his timely +interference, but he refused every offer of remuneration. On their +return to Santa Fe from St. Louis, however, they presented him with +a magnificent pair of pistols, upon whose silver mounting was an +inscription commemorating his brave deed and the gratitude of the +donors. + +The following summer was spent in a visit to St. Louis, and early in the +fall he returned over the Trail, arriving at the Cheyenne village on +the Upper Arkansas without meeting with any incident worthy of note. On +reaching that point, he learned that the Indians had received a terrible +affront from an officer commanding a detachment of United States troops, +who had whipped one of their chiefs; and that consequently the whole +tribe was enraged, and burning for revenge upon the whites. Carson was +the first white man to approach the place since the insult, and so +many years had elapsed since he was the hunter at Bent's Fort, and +so grievously had the Indians been offended, that his name no longer +guaranteed safety to the party with whom he was travelling, nor even +insured respect to himself, in the state of excitement existing in the +village. Carson, however, deliberately pushed himself into the presence +of a war council which was just then in session to consider the question +of attacking the caravan, giving orders to his men to keep close +together, and guard against a surprise. + +The savages, supposing that he could not understand their language, +talked without restraint, and unfolded their plans to capture his party +and kill them all, particularly the leader. After they had reached this +decision, Carson coolly rose and addressed the council in the Cheyenne +language, informing the Indians who he was, of his former associations +with and kindness to their tribe, and that now he was ready to render +them any assistance they might require; but as to their taking his +scalp, he claimed the right to say a word. + +The Indians departed, and Carson went on his way; but there were +hundreds of savages in sight on the sand hills, and, though they made +no attack, he was well aware that he was in their power, nor had they +abandoned the idea of capturing his train. His coolness and deliberation +kept his men in spirit, and yet out of the whole fifteen, which was the +total number of his force, there were only two or three on whom he could +place any reliance in case of an emergency. + +When the train camped for the night, the wagons were corralled, and +the men and mules all brought inside the circle. Grass was cut with +sheath-knives and fed to the animals, instead of their being picketed +out as usual, and as large a guard as possible detailed. When the camp +had settled down to perfect quiet, Carson crawled outside it, taking +with him a Mexican boy, and after explaining to him the danger which +threatened them all, told him that it was in his power to save the lives +of the company. Then he sent him on alone to Rayedo, a journey of nearly +three hundred miles, to ask for an escort of United States troops to be +sent out to meet the train, impressing upon the brave little Mexican +the importance of putting a good many miles between himself and the +camp before morning. And so he started him, with a few rations of food, +without letting the rest of his party know that such measures were +necessary. The boy had been in Carson's service for some time, and was +known to him as a faithful and active messenger, and in a wild country +like New Mexico, with the outdoor life and habits of its people, such a +journey was not an unusual occurrence. + +Carson now returned to the camp, to watch all night himself, and at +daybreak all were on the Trail again. No Indians made their appearance +until nearly noon, when five warriors came galloping up toward the +train. As soon as they came close enough to hear his voice, Carson +ordered them to halt, and going up to them, told how he had sent a +messenger to Rayedo the night before to inform the troops that their +tribe were annoying him, and that if he or his men were molested, +terrible punishment would be inflicted by those who would surely come +to his relief. The savages replied that they would look for the moccasin +tracks, which they undoubtedly found, and the whole village passed away +toward the hills after a little while, evidently seeking a place of +safety from an expected attack by the troops. + +The young Mexican overtook the detachment of soldiers whose officer had +caused all the trouble with the Indians, to whom he told his story; but +failing to secure any sympathy, he continued his journey to Rayedo, and +procured from the garrison of that place immediate assistance. Major +Grier, commanding the post, at once despatched a troop of his regiment, +which, by forced marches, met Carson twenty-five miles below Bent's +Fort, and though it encountered no Indians, the rapid movement had +a good effect upon the savages, impressing them with the power and +promptness of the government. + +Early in the spring of 1865, Carson was ordered, with three companies, +to put a stop to the depredations of marauding bands of Cheyennes, +Kiowas, and Comanches upon the caravans and emigrant outfits travelling +the Santa Fe Trail. He left Fort Union with his command and marched +over the Dry or Cimarron route to the Arkansas River, for the purpose of +establishing a fortified camp at Cedar Bluffs, or Cold Spring, to afford +a refuge for the freight trains on that dangerous part of the Trail. The +Indians had for some time been harassing not only the caravans of +the citizen traders, but also those of the government, which carried +supplies to the several military posts in the Territory of New Mexico. +An expedition was therefore planned by Carson to punish them, and he +soon found an opportunity to strike a blow near the adobe fort on the +Canadian River. His force consisted of the First Regiment of New Mexican +Volunteer Cavalry and seventy-five friendly Indians, his entire +command numbering fourteen commissioned officers and three hundred +and ninety-six enlisted men. With these he attacked the Kiowa village, +consisting of about one hundred and fifty lodges. The fight was a very +severe one, and lasted from half-past eight in the morning until after +sundown. The savages, with more than ordinary intrepidity and boldness, +made repeated stands against the fierce onslaughts of Carson's +cavalrymen, but were at last forced to give way, and were cut down as +they stubbornly retreated, suffering a loss of sixty killed and wounded. +In this battle only two privates and one noncommissioned officer were +killed, and one non-commissioned officer and thirteen privates, four of +whom were friendly Indians, wounded. The command destroyed one hundred +and fifty lodges, a large amount of dried meats, berries, buffalo-robes, +cooking utensils, and also a buggy and spring-wagon, the property of +Sierrito,[50] the Kiowa chief. + +In his official account of the fight, Carson states that he found +ammunition in the village, which had been furnished, no doubt, by +unscrupulous Mexican traders. + +He told me that he never was deceived by Indian tactics but once in his +life. He said that he was hunting with six others after buffalo, in +the summer of 1835; that they had been successful, and came into +their little bivouac one night very tired, intending to start for the +rendezvous at Bent's Fort the next morning. They had a number of dogs, +among them some excellent animals. These barked a good deal, and seemed +restless, and the men heard wolves. + +"I saw," said Kit, "two big wolves sneaking about, one of them quite +close to us. Gordon, one of my men, wanted to fire his rifle at it, but +I did not let him, for fear he would hit a dog. I admit that I had a +sort of an idea that those wolves might be Indians; but when I noticed +one of them turn short around, and heard the clashing of his teeth as he +rushed at one of the dogs, I felt easy then, and was certain that they +were wolves sure enough. But the red devil fooled me, after all, for +he had two dried buffalo bones in his hands under the wolfskin, and he +rattled them together every time he turned to make a dash at the dogs! +Well, by and by we all dozed off, and it wasn't long before I was +suddenly aroused by a noise and a big blaze. I rushed out the first +thing for our mules, and held them. If the savages had been at all +smart, they could have killed us in a trice, but they ran as soon as +they fired at us. They killed one of my men, putting five bullets in his +body and eight in his buffalo-robe. The Indians were a band of Sioux on +the war-trail after a band of Snakes, and found us by sheer accident. +They endeavoured to ambush us the next morning, but we got wind of their +little game and killed three of them, including the chief." + +Carson's nature was made up of some very noble attributes. He was +brave, but not reckless like Custer; a veritable exponent of Christian +altruism, and as true to his friends as the needle to the pole. Under +the average stature, and rather delicate-looking in his physical +proportions, he was nevertheless a quick, wiry man, with nerves of +steel, and possessing an indomitable will. He was full of caution, +but showed a coolness in the moment of supreme danger that was good to +witness. + +During a short visit at Fort Lyon, Colorado, where a favourite son of +his was living, early in the morning of May 23, 1868, while mounting his +horse in front of his quarters (he was still fond of riding), an +artery in his neck was suddenly ruptured, from the effects of which, +notwithstanding the medical assistance rendered by the fort surgeons, he +died in a few moments. + +His remains, after reposing for some time at Fort Lyon, were taken to +Taos, so long his home in New Mexico, where an appropriate monument was +erected over them. In the Plaza at Santa Fe, his name also appears cut +on a cenotaph raised to commemorate the services of the soldiers of the +Territory. As an Indian fighter he was matchless. The identical rifle +used by him for more than thirty-five years, and which never failed him, +he bequeathed, just before his death, to Montezuma Lodge, A. F. & A. M., +Santa Fe, of which he was a member. + +James Bridger, "Major Bridger," or "Old Jim Bridger," as we was called, +another of the famous coterie of pioneer frontiersmen, was born in +Washington, District of Columbia, in 1807. When very young, a mere boy +in fact, he joined the great trapping expedition under the leadership +of James Ashley, and with it travelled to the far West, remote from the +extreme limit of border civilization, where he became the compeer and +comrade of Carson, and certainly the foremost mountaineer, strictly +speaking, the United States has produced. + +Having left behind him all possibilities of education at such an +early age, he was illiterate in his speech and as ignorant of the +conventionalities of polite society as an Indian; but he possessed a +heart overflowing with the milk of human kindness, was generous in the +extreme, and honest and true as daylight. + +He was especially distinguished for the discovery of a defile through +the intricate mazes of the Rocky Mountains, which bears his name, +Bridger's Pass. He rendered important services as guide and scout during +the early preliminary surveys for a transcontinental railroad, and for a +series of years was in the employ of the government, in the old regular +army on the great plains and in the mountains, long before the breaking +out of the Civil War. To Bridger also belongs the honour of having seen, +first of all white men, the Great Salt Lake of Utah, in the winter of +1824-25. + +After a series of adventures, hairbreadth escapes, and terrible +encounters with the Indians, in 1856 he purchased a farm near Westport, +Missouri; but soon left it in his hunger for the mountains, to return +to it only when worn-out and blind, to be buried there without even the +rudest tablet to mark the spot. + +"I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country +churchyard, than in the tomb of the Capulets." This quotation came to +my mind one Sunday morning two or three years ago, as I mused over +Bridger's neglected grave among the low hills beyond the quaint old town +of Westport. I thought I knew, as I stood there, that he whose bones +were mouldering beneath the blossoming clover at my feet, would have +wished for his last couch a more perfect solitude and isolation from the +wearisome world's busy sound than even the immortal Burke. + +The grassy mound, over which there was no stone to record the name +of its occupant, covered the remains of the last of his class, a type +vanished forever, for the border is a thing of the past; and upon the +gentle breeze of that delightful morning, like the droning of bees in +a full flowered orchard, was wafted to my ears the hum of Kansas City's +civilization, only three or four miles distant, in all of which I +was sure there was nothing that would have been congenial to the old +frontiersman. + +At one time early in the '60's, while the engineers of the proposed +Union Pacific Railway were temporarily in Denver, then an insignificant +mushroom-hamlet, they became somewhat confused as to the most +practicable point in the range over which to run their line. After +debating the question, they determined, upon a suggestion from some of +the old settlers, to send for Jim Bridger, who was then visiting in St. +Louis. A pass, via the overland stage, was enclosed in a letter to him, +and he was urged to start for Denver at once, though nothing of the +business for which his presence was required was told him in the text. + +In about two weeks the old man arrived, and the next morning, after he +had rested, asked why he had been sent for from such a distance. + +The engineers then began to explain their dilemma. The old mountaineer +waited patiently until they had finished, when, with a look of disgust +on his withered countenance, he demanded a large piece of paper, +remarking at the same time,-- + +"I could a told you fellers all that in St. Louis, and saved you the +expense of bringing me out here." + +He was handed a sheet of manilla paper, used for drawing the details of +bridge plans. The veteran pathfinder spread it on the ground before him, +took a dead coal from the ashes of the fire, drew a rough outline map, +and pointing to a certain peak just visible on the serrated horizon, +said,-- + +"There's where you fellers can cross with your road, and nowhere else, +without more diggin' an' cuttin' than you think of." + +That crude map is preserved, I have been told, in the archives of the +great corporation, and its line crosses the main spurs of the Rocky +Mountains, just where Bridger said it could with the least work. + +The resemblance of old John Smith, another of the coterie, to President +Andrew Johnson was absolutely astonishing. When that chief magistrate, +in his "swinging around the circle," had arrived at St. Louis, and was +riding through the streets of that city in an open barouche, he was +pointed out to Bridger, who happened to be there. But the venerable +guide and scout, with supreme disgust depicted on his countenance at the +idea of any one attempting to deceive him, said to his informant,-- + +"H---l! Bill, you can't fool me! That's old John Smith." + +At one time many years ago, during Bridger's first visit to St. Louis, +then a relatively small place, a friend accidentally came across him +sitting on a dry-goods box in one of the narrow streets, evidently +disgusted with his situation. To the inquiry as to what he was doing +there all alone, the old man replied,-- + +"I've been settin' in this infernal canyon ever sence mornin', waitin' +for some one to come along an' invite me to take a drink. Hundreds of +fellers has passed both ways, but none of 'em has opened his head. I +never seen sich a onsociable crowd!" + +Bridger had a fund of most remarkable stories, which he had drawn upon +so often that he really believed them to be true. + +General Gatlin,[51] who was graduated from West Point in the early +'30's, and commanded Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation over sixty years +ago, told me that he remembered Bridger very well; and had once asked +the old guide whether he had ever been in the great canyon of the +Colorado River. + +"Yes, sir," replied the mountaineer, "I have, many a time. There's where +the oranges and lemons bear all the time, and the only place I was ever +at where the moon's always full!" + +He told me and also many others, at various times, that in the winter +of 1830 it began to snow in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and +continued for seventy days without cessation. The whole country was +covered to a depth of seventy feet, and all the vast herds of buffalo +were caught in the storm and died, but their carcasses were perfectly +preserved. + +"When spring came, all I had to do," declared he, "was to tumble 'em +into Salt Lake, an' I had pickled buffalo enough for myself and the +whole Ute Nation for years!" + +He said that on account of that terrible storm, which annihilated them, +there have been no buffalo in that region since. + +Bridger had been the guide, interpreter, and companion of that +distinguished Irish sportsman, Sir George Gore, whose strange tastes +led him in 1855 to abandon life in Europe and bury himself for over two +years among the savages in the wildest and most unfrequented glens of +the Rocky Mountains. + +The outfit and adventures of this titled Nimrod, conducted as they were +on the largest scale, exceeded anything of the kind ever before seen +on this continent, and the results of his wanderings will compare +favourably with those of Gordon Cumming in Africa. + +Some idea may be formed of the magnitude of his outfit when it is +stated that his retinue consisted of about fifty individuals, including +secretaries, steward, cooks, fly-makers, dog-tenders, servants, etc. +He was borne over the country with a train of thirty wagons, besides +numerous saddle-horses and dogs. + +During his lengthened hunt he killed the enormous aggregate of forty +grizzly bears and twenty-five hundred buffalo, besides numerous antelope +and other small game. + +Bridger said of Sir George that he was a bold, dashing, and successful +hunter, and an agreeable gentleman. His habit was to lie in bed until +about ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, then he took a bath, ate his +breakfast, and set out, generally alone, for the day's hunt, and it was +not unusual for him to remain out until ten at night, seldom returning +to the tents without augmenting the catalogue of his beasts. His +dinner was then served, to which he generally extended an invitation to +Bridger, and after the meal was over, and a few glasses of wine had been +drunk, he was in the habit of reading from some book, and eliciting +from Bridger his comments thereon. His favourite author was Shakespeare, +which Bridger "reckin'd was too highfalutin" for him; moreover he +remarked, "thet he rather calcerlated that thar big Dutchman, Mr. +Full-stuff, was a leetle too fond of lager beer," and thought it would +have been better for the old man if he had "stuck to Bourbon whiskey +straight." + +Bridger seemed very much interested in the adventures of Baron +Munchausen, but admitted after Sir George had finished reading them, +that "he be dog'oned ef he swallered everything that thar Baron +Munchausen said," and thought he was "a darned liar," yet he +acknowledged that some of his own adventures among the Blackfeet woul be +equally marvellous "if writ down in a book." + +A man whose one act had made him awe-inspiring was Belzy Dodd. Uncle +Dick Wooton, in relating the story, says: "I don't know what his first +name was, but Belzy was what we called him. His head was as bald as a +billiard ball, and he wore a wig. One day while we were all at Bent's +Fort, while there were a great number of Indians about, Belzy concluded +to have a bit of fun. He walked around, eying the Indians fiercely +for some time, and finally, dashing in among them, he gave a series of +war-whoops which discounted a Comanche yell, and pulling off his wig, +threw it down at the feet of the astonished and terror-stricken red men. + +"The savages thought the fellow had jerked off his own scalp, and not +one of them wanted to stay and see what would happen next. They left the +fort, running like so many scared jack-rabbits, and after that none of +them could be induced to approach anywhere near Dodd." + +They called him "The-white-man-who-scalps-himself," and Uncle Dick said +that he believed he could have travelled across the plains alone with +perfect safety. + +Jim Baker was another noted mountaineer and hunter of the same era as +Carson, Bridger, Wooton, Hobbs, and many others. Next to Kit Carson, +Baker was General Fremont's most valued scout. + +He was born in Illinois, and lived at home until he was eighteen years +of age, when he enlisted in the service of the American Fur Company, +went immediately to the Rocky Mountains, and remained there until his +death. He married a wife according to the Indian custom, from the Snake +tribe, living with her relatives many years and cultivating many of +their habits, ideas, and superstitions. He firmly believed in the +efficacy of the charms and incantations of the medicine men in curing +diseases, divining where their enemy was to be found, forecasting +the result of war expeditions, and other such ridiculous matters. +Unfortunately, too, Baker would sometimes take a little more whiskey +than he could conveniently carry, and often made a fool of himself, but +he was a generous, noble-hearted fellow, who would risk his life for a +friend at any time, or divide his last morsel of food. + +Like mountaineers generally, Baker was liberal to a fault, and eminently +improvident. He made a fortune by his work, but at the annual rendezvous +of the traders, at Bent's Fort or the old Pueblo, would throw away the +earnings of months in a few days' jollification. + +He told General Marcy, who was a warm friend of his, that after one +season in which he had been unusually successful in accumulating a large +amount of valuable furs, from the sale of which he had realized the +handsome sum of nine thousand dollars, he resolved to abandon his +mountain life, return to the settlements, buy a farm, and live +comfortably during the remainder of his days. He accordingly made ready +to leave, and was on the eve of starting when a friend invited him to +visit a monte-bank which had been organized at the rendezvous. He was +easily led away, determined to take a little social amusement with his +old comrade, whom he might never see again, and followed him; the result +of which was that the whiskey circulated freely, and the next morning +found Baker without a cent of money; he had lost everything. His entire +plans were thus frustrated, and he returned to the mountains, hunting +with the Indians until he died. + +Jim Baker's opinions of the wild Indians of the great plains and +the mountains were very decided: "That they are the most onsartinist +varmints in all creation, an' I reckon thar not more'n half human; for +you never seed a human, arter you'd fed an' treated him to the best +fixin's in your lodge, jis turn round and steal all your horses, or ary +other thing he could lay his hands on. No, not adzactly. He would feel +kind o' grateful, and ask you to spread a blanket in his lodge ef you +ever came his way. But the Injin don't care shucks for you, and is ready +to do you a lot of mischief as soon as he quits your feed. No, Cap.," +he said to Marcy when relating this, "it's not the right way to make 'em +gifts to buy a peace; but ef I war gov'nor of these United States, I'll +tell what I'd do. I'd invite 'em all to a big feast, and make 'em think +I wanted to have a talk; and as soon as I got 'em together, I'd light in +and raise the har of half of 'em, and then t'other half would be mighty +glad to make terms that would stick. That's the way I'd make a treaty +with the dog'oned red-bellied varmints; and as sure as you're born, +Cap., that's the only way." + +The general, when he first met Baker, inquired of him if he had +travelled much over the settlements of the United States before he came +to the mountains; to which he said: "Right smart, right smart, Cap." +He then asked whether he had visited New York or New Orleans. "No, I +hasn't, Cap., but I'll tell you whar I have been. I've been mighty nigh +all over four counties in the State of Illinois!" + +He was very fond of his squaw and children, and usually treated them +kindly; only when he was in liquor did he at all maltreat them. + +Once he came over into New Mexico, where General Marcy was stationed at +the time, and determined that for the time being he would cast aside +his leggings, moccasins, and other mountain dress, and wear a civilized +wardrobe. Accordingly, he fitted himself out with one. When Marcy met +him shortly after he had donned the strange clothes, he had undergone +such an entire change that the general remarked he should hardly have +known him. He did not take kindly to this, and said: "Consarn these +store butes, Cap.; they choke my feet like h---l." It was the first time +in twenty years that he had worn anything on his feet but moccasins, and +they were not ready for the torture inflicted by breaking in a new pair +of absurdly fitting boots. He soon threw them away, and resumed the +softer foot-gear of the mountains. + +Baker was a famous bear hunter, and had been at the death of many a +grizzly. On one occasion he was setting his traps with a comrade on the +head waters of the Arkansas, when they suddenly met two young grizzly +bears about the size of full-grown dogs. Baker remarked to his friend +that if they could "light in and kill the varmints" with their knives, +it would be a big thing to boast of. They both accordingly laid aside +their rifles and "lit in," Baker attacking one and his comrade the +other. The bears immediately raised themselves on their haunches, and +were ready for the encounter. Baker ran around, endeavouring to get in a +blow from behind with his long knife; but the young brute he had tackled +was too quick for him, and turned as he went around so as always to +confront him face to face. He knew if he came within reach of his claws, +that although young, he could inflict a formidable wound; moreover, he +was in fear that the howls of the cubs would bring the infuriated mother +to their rescue, when the hunters' chances of getting away would be +slim. These thoughts floated hurriedly through his mind, and made him +desirous to end the fight as soon as he could. He made many vicious +lunges at the bear, but the animal invariably warded them off with his +strong fore legs like a boxer. This kind of tactics, however, cost the +lively beast several severe cuts on his shoulders, which made him +the more furious. At length he took the offensive, and with his month +frothing with rage, bounded toward Baker, who caught and wrestled with +him, succeeding in giving him a death-wound under the ribs. + +While all this was going on, his comrade had been furiously engaged with +the other bear, and by this time had become greatly exhausted, with the +odds decidedly against him. He entreated Baker to come to his assistance +at once, which he did; but much to his astonishment, as soon as he +entered the second contest his comrade ran off, leaving him to fight +the battle alone. He was, however, again victorious, and soon had the +satisfaction of seeing his two antagonists stretched out in front of +him, but as he expressed it, "I made my mind up I'd never fight nary +nother grizzly without a good shootin'-iron in my paws." + +He established a little store at the crossing of Green River, and +had for some time been doing a fair business in trafficking with the +emigrants and trading with the Indians; but shortly a Frenchman came to +the same locality and set up a rival establishment, which, of course, +divided the limited trade, and naturally reduced the income of Baker's +business. + +This engendered a bitter feeling of hostility, which soon culminated in +a cessation of all social intercourse between the two men. About this +time General Marcy arrived there on his way to California, and he +describes the situation of affairs thus:-- + +"I found Baker standing in his door, with a revolver loaded and cocked +in each hand, very drunk and immensely excited. I dismounted and +asked him the cause of all this disturbance. He answered: 'That thar +yaller-bellied, toad-eatin' Parly Voo, over thar, an' me, we've been +havin' a small chance of a scrimmage to-day. The sneakin' pole-cat, I'll +raise his har yet, ef he don't quit these diggins'!' + +"It seems that they had an altercation in the morning, which ended in +a challenge, when they ran to their cabins, seized their revolvers, and +from the doors, which were only about a hundred yards from each other, +fired. Then they retired to their cabins, took a drink of whiskey, +reloaded their revolvers, and again renewed the combat. This strange +duel had been going on for several hours when I arrived, but, +fortunately for them, the whiskey had such an effect on their nerves +that their aim was very unsteady, and none of the shots had as yet taken +effect. + +"I took away Baker's revolvers, telling him how ashamed I was to find a +man of his usually good sense making such a fool of himself. He gave in +quietly, saying that he knew I was his friend, but did not think I would +wish to have him take insults from a cowardly Frenchman. + +"The following morning at daylight Jim called at my tent to bid me +good-by, and seemed very sorry for what had occurred the day before. +He stated that this was the first time since his return from New Mexico +that he had allowed himself to drink whiskey, and when the whiskey was +in him he had 'nary sense.'" + +Among the many men who have distinguished themselves as mountaineers, +traders, and Indian fighters along the line of the Old Trail, was one +who eventually became the head chief of one of the most numerous +and valorous tribes of North American savages--James P. Beckwourth. +Estimates of him vary considerably. Francis Parkman, the historian, who +I think never saw him and writes merely from hearsay, says: "He is a +ruffian of the worst class; bloody and treacherous, without honor or +honesty; such, at least, is the character he bears on the great plains. +Yet in his case the standard rules of character fail; for though he will +stab a man in his slumber, he will also do the most desperate and daring +acts." + +I never saw Beckwourth, but I have heard of him from those of my +mountaineer friends who knew him intimately; I think that he died long +before Parkman made his tour to the Rocky Mountains. Colonel Boone, the +Bents, Carson, Maxwell, and others ascribed to him no such traits as +those given by Parkman, and as to his honesty, it is an unquestioned +fact that Beckwourth was the most honest trader among the Indians of all +who were then engaged in the business. As Kit Carson and Colonel Boone +were the only Indian agents whom I ever knew or heard of that dealt +honestly with the various tribes, as they were always ready to +acknowledge, and the withdrawal of the former by the government was the +cause of a great war, so also Beckwourth was an honest Indian trader. + +He was a born leader of men, and was known from the Yellowstone to the +Rio Grande, from Santa Fe to Independence, and in St. Louis. From the +latter town he ran away when a boy with a party of trappers, and himself +became one of the most successful of that hardy class. The woman who +bore him had played in her childhood beneath the palm trees of Africa; +his father was a native of France, and went to the banks of the wild +Mississippi of his own free will, but probably also from reasons of +political interest to his government. + +In person Beckwourth was of medium height and great muscular power, +quick of apprehension, and with courage of the highest order. Probably +no man ever met with more personal adventures involving danger to life, +even among the mountaineers and trappers who early in the century +faced the perils of the remote frontier. From his neck he always wore +suspended a perforated bullet, with a large oblong bead on each side of +it, tied in place by a single thread of sinew. This amulet he obtained +while chief of the Crows,[52] and it was his "medicine," with which he +excited the superstition of his warriors. + +His success as a trader among the various tribes of Indians has never +been surpassed; for his close intimacy with them made him know what +would best please their taste, and they bought of him when other traders +stood idly at their stockades, waiting almost hopelessly for customers. + +But Beckwourth himself said: "The traffic in whiskey for Indian property +was one of the most infernal practices ever entered into by man. Let the +most casual thinker sit down and figure up the profits on a forty-gallon +cask of alcohol, and he will be thunderstruck, or rather whiskey-struck. +When it was to be disposed of, four gallons of water were added to each +gallon of alcohol. In two hundred gallons there are sixteen hundred +pints, for each one of which the trader got a buffalo-robe worth five +dollars. The Indian women toiled many long weeks to dress those sixteen +hundred robes. The white traders got them for worse than nothing; for +the poor Indian mother hid herself and her children until the effect of +the poison passed away from the husband and father, who loved them when +he had no whiskey, and abused and killed them when he had. Six thousand +dollars for sixty gallons of alcohol! Is it a wonder with such profits +that men got rich who were engaged in the fur trade? Or was it a miracle +that the buffalo were gradually exterminated?--killed with so little +remorse that the hides, among the Indians themselves, were known by the +appellation of 'A pint of whiskey.'" + +Beckwourth claims to have established the Pueblo where the beautiful +city of Pueblo, Colorado, is now situated. He says: "On the 1st of +October, 1842, on the Upper Arkansas, I erected a trading-post and +opened a successful business. In a very short time I was joined by from +fifteen to twenty free trappers, with their families. We all united +our labour and constructed an adobe fort sixty yards square. By the +following spring it had grown into quite a little settlement, and we +gave it the name of Pueblo." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. UNCLE DICK WOOTON. + + + +Immediately after Kit Carson, the second wreath of pioneer laurels, for +bravery and prowess as an Indian fighter, and trapper, must be conceded +to Richens Lacy Wooton, known first as "Dick," in his younger days on +the plains, then, when age had overtaken him, as "Uncle Dick." + +Born in Virginia, his father, when he was but seven years of age, +removed with his family to Kentucky, where he cultivated a tobacco +plantation. Like his predecessor and lifelong friend Carson, young +Wooton tired of the monotony of farming, and in the summer of 1836 made +a trip to the busy frontier town of Independence, Missouri, where he +found a caravan belonging to Colonel St. Vrain and the Bents, already +loaded, and ready to pull out for the fort built by the latter, and +named for them. + +Wooton had a fair business education, and was superior in this respect +to his companions in the caravan to which he had attached himself. It +was by those rough, but kind-hearted, men that he was called "Dick," as +they could not readily master the more complicated name of "Richens." + +When he started from Independence on his initial trip across the plains, +he was only nineteen, but, like all Kentuckians, perfectly familiar with +a rifle, and could shoot out a squirrel's eye with the certainty which +long practice and hardened nerves assures. + +The caravan, in which he was employed as a teamster, was composed of +only seven wagons; but a larger one, in which were more than fifty, had +preceded it, and as that was heavily laden, and the smaller one only +lightly, it was intended to overtake the former before the dangerous +portions of the Trail were reached, which it did in a few days and was +assigned a place in the long line. + +Every man had to take his turn in standing guard, and the first night +that it fell to young Wooton was at Little Cow Creek, in the Upper +Arkansas valley. Nothing had occurred thus far during the trip to +imperil the safety of the caravan, nor was any attack by the savages +looked for. + +Wooton's post comprehended the whole length of one side of the corral, +and his instructions were to shoot anything he saw moving outside of +the line of mules farthest from the wagons. The young sentry was +very vigilant. He did not feel at all sleepy, but eagerly watched for +something that might possibly come within the prescribed distance, +though not really expecting such a contingency. + +About two o'clock he heard a slight noise, and saw something moving +about, sixty or seventy yards from where he was lying on the ground, to +which he had dropped the moment the strange sound reached his ears. +Of course, his first thoughts were of Indians, and the more he peered +through the darkness at the slowly moving object, the more convinced he +was that it must be a blood-thirsty savage. + +He rose to his feet and blazed away, the shot rousing everbody, and all +came rushing with their guns to learn what the matter was. + +Wooton told the wagon-master that he had seen what he supposed was an +Indian trying to slip up to the mules, and that he had killed him. Some +of the men crept very circumspectly to the spot where the supposed +dead savage was lying, while young Wooton remained at his post eagerly +waiting for their report. Presently he heard a voice cry out: "I'll be +d---d ef he hain't killed 'Old Jack!'" + +"Old Jack" was one of the lead mules of one of the wagons. He had torn +up his picket-pin and strayed outside of the lines, with the result +that the faithful brute met his death at the hands of the sentry. Wooton +declared that he was not to be blamed; for the animal had disobeyed +orders, while he had strictly observed them![53] + +At Pawnee Fork, a few days later, the caravan had a genuine tussle with +the Comanches. It was a bright moonlight night, and about two hundred +of the mounted savages attacked them. It was a rare thing for Indians +to begin a raid after dark, but they swept down on the unsuspecting +teamsters, yelling like a host of demons. They were armed with bows and +arrows generally, though a few of them had fusees.[54] They received a +warm greeting, although they were not expected, the guard noticing the +savages in time to prevent a stampede of the animals, which evidently +was the sole purpose for which they came, as they did not attempt to +break through the corral to get at the wagons. It was the mules they +were after. They charged among the men, vainly endeavouring to frighten +the animals and make them break loose, discharging showers of arrows as +they rode by. The camp was too hot for them, however, defended as it was +by old teamsters who had made the dangerous passage of the plains many +times before, and were up to all the Indian tactics. They failed to get +a single mule, but paid for their temerity by leaving three of their +party dead, just where they had been tumbled off their horses, not even +having time to carry the bodies off, as they usually do. + +Wooton passed some time during the early days of his career at Bent's +Fort, in 1836-37. He was a great favourite with both of the proprietors, +and with them went to the several Indian villages, where he learned the +art of trading with the savages. + +The winters of the years mentioned were noted for the incursions of the +Pawnees into the region of the fort. They always pretended friendship +for the whites, when any of them were inside of its sacred precincts, +but their whole manner changed when they by some stroke of fortune +caught a trapper or hunter alone on the prairie or in the foot-hills; he +was a dead man sure, and his scalp was soon dangling at the belt of his +cowardly assassins. Hardly a day passed without witnessing some poor +fellow running for the fort with a band of the red devils after him; +frequently he escaped the keen edge of their scalping-knife, but every +once in a while a man was killed. At one time, two herders who were with +their animals within fifty yards of the fort, going out to the grazing +ground, were killed and every hoof of stock run off. + +A party from the fort, comprising only eight men, among whom was young +Wooton, made up for lost time with the Indians, at the crossing of +Pawnee Fork, the same place where he had had his first fight. The men +had set out from the fort for the purpose of meeting a small caravan of +wagons from the East, loaded with supplies for the Bents' trading post. +It happened that a band of sixteen Pawnees were watching for the arrival +of the train, too.[55] Wooton's party were well mounted, while the +Pawnees were on foot, and although the savages were two to one, the +advantage was decidedly in favour of the whites. + +The Indians were armed with bows and arrows only, and while it was +an easy matter for the whites to keep out of the way of the shower of +missiles which the Indians commenced to hurl at them, the latter became +an easy prey to the unerring rifles of their assailants, who killed +thirteen out of the sixteen in a very short time. The remaining three +took French leave of their comrades at the beginning of the conflict, +and abandoning their arms rushed up to the caravan, which was just +appearing over a small divide, and gave themselves up. The Indian +custom was observed in their case,[56] although it was rarely that any +prisoners were taken in these conflicts on the Trail. Another curious +custom was also followed.[57] When the party encamped they were well +fed, and the next morning supplied with rations enough to last them +until they could reach one of their villages, and sent off to tell their +head chief what had become of the rest of his warriors. + +Wooton had an adventure once while he was stationed at Bent's Fort +during a trading expedition with the Utes, on the Purgatoire, or +Purgatory River,[58] about ten or twelve miles from Trinidad. He had +taken with him, with others, a Shawnee Indian. Only a short time before +their departure from the fort, an Indian of that tribe had been murdered +by a Ute, and one day this Shawnee who was with Wooton spied a Ute, when +revenge inspired him, and he forthwith killed his enemy. Knowing that as +soon as the news of the shooting reached the Ute village, which was not +a great distance off, the whole tribe would be down upon him, Wooton +abandoned any attempt to trade with them and tried to get out of their +country as quickly as he could. + +As he expected, the Utes followed on his trail, and came up with his +little party on a prairie where there was not the slightest chance to +ambush or hide. They had to fight, because they could not help it, +but resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible, as the Utes +outnumbered them twenty to one; Wooton having only eight men with him, +including the Shawnee. + +The pack-animals, of which they had a great many, loaded with the goods +intended for the savages, were corralled in a circle, inside of which +the men hurried themselves and awaited the first assault of the foe. +In a few moments the Utes began to circle around the trappers and open +fire. The trappers promptly responded, and they made every shot count; +for all of the men, not even excepting the Shawnee, were experts with +the rifle. They did not mind the arrows which the Utes showered upon +them, as few, if any, reached to where they stood. The savages had a few +guns, but they were of the poorest quality; besides, they did not know +how to handle them then as they learned to do later, so their bullets +were almost as harmless as their arrows. + +The trappers made terrible havoc among the Utes' horses, killing so many +of them that the savages in despair abandoned the fight and gave Wooton +and his men an opportunity to get away, which they did as rapidly as +possible. + +The Raton Pass, through which the Old Trail ran, was a relatively fair +mountain road, but originally it was almost impossible for anything +in the shape of a wheeled vehicle to get over the narrow rock-ribbed +barrier; saddle horses and pack-mules could, however, make the trip +without much difficulty. It was the natural highway to southeastern +Colorado and northeastern New Mexico, but the overland coaches could not +get to Trinidad by the shortest route, and as the caravans also desired +to make the same line, it occurred to Uncle Dick that he would undertake +to hew out a road through the pass, which, barring grades, should be as +good as the average turnpike. He could see money in it for him, as he +expected to charge toll, keeping the road in repair at his own expense, +and he succeeded in procuring from the legislatures of Colorado and New +Mexico charters covering the rights and privileges which he demanded for +his project. + +In the spring of 1866, Uncle Dick took up his abode on the top of the +mountains, built his home, and lived there until two years ago, when he +died at a very ripe old age. + +The old trapper had imposed on himself anything but an easy task in +constructing his toll-road. There were great hillsides to cut out, +immense ledges of rocks to blast, bridges to build by the dozen, and +huge trees to fell, besides long lines of difficult grading to engineer. + +Eventually Uncle Dick's road was a fact, but when it was completed, how +to make it pay was a question that seriously disturbed his mind. The +method he employed to solve the problem I will quote in his own words: +"Such a thing as a toll-road was unknown in the country at that time. +People who had come from the States understood, of course, that the +object of building a turnpike was to enable the owner to collect toll +from those who travelled over it, but I had to deal with a great many +people who seemed to think that they should be as free to travel over my +well-graded and bridged roadway as they were to follow an ordinary cow +path. + +"I may say that I had five classes of patrons to do business with. There +was the stage company and its employees, the freighters, the military +authorities, who marched troops and transported supplies over the road, +the Mexicans, and the Indians. + +"With the stage company, the military authorities, and the American +freighters I had no trouble. With the Indians, when a band came through +now and then, I didn't care to have any controversy about so small a +matter as a few dollars toll! Whenever they came along, the toll-gate +went up, and any other little thing I could do to hurry them on was done +promptly and cheerfully. While the Indians didn't understand anything +about the system of collecting tolls, they seemed to recognize the fact +that I had a right to control the road, and they would generally ride up +to the gate and ask permission to go through. Once in a while the chief +of a band would think compensation for the privilege of going through +in order, and would make me a present of a buckskin or something of that +sort. + +"My Mexican patrons were the hardest to get along with. Paying for the +privilege of travelling over any road was something they were totally +unused to, and they did not take to it kindly. They were pleased with my +road and liked to travel over it, until they came to the toll-gate. This +they seemed to look upon as an obstruction that no man had a right to +place in the way of a free-born native of the mountain region. They +appeared to regard the toll-gate as a new scheme for holding up +travellers for the purpose of robbery, and many of them evidently +thought me a kind of freebooter, who ought to be suppressed by law. + +"Holding these views, when I asked them for a certain amount of money, +before raising the toll-gate, they naturally differed with me very +frequently about the propriety of complying with the request. + +"In other words, there would be at such times probably an honest +difference of opinion between the man who kept the toll-gate and the man +who wanted to get through it. Anyhow, there was a difference, and such +differences had to be adjusted. Sometimes I did it through diplomacy, +and sometimes I did it with a club. It was always settled one way, +however, and that was in accordance with the toll schedule, so that I +could never have been charged with unjust discrimination of rates." + +Soon after the road was opened a company composed of Californians and +Mexicans, commanded by a Captain Haley, passed Uncle Dick's toll-gate +and house, escorting a large caravan of about a hundred and fifty +wagons. While they stopped there, a non-commissioned officer of the +party was brutally murdered by three soldiers, and Uncle Dick came very +near being a witness to the atrocious deed. + +The murdered man was a Mexican, and his slayers were Mexicans too. The +trouble originated at Las Vegas, where the privates had been bound +and gagged, by order of the corporal, for creating a disturbance at a +fandango the evening before. + +The name of the corporal was Juan Torres, and he came down to Uncle +Dick's one evening while the command was encamped on the top of the +mountain, accompanied by the three privates, who had already plotted to +kill him, though he had not the slightest suspicion of it. + +Uncle Dick, in telling the story, said: "They left at an early hour, +going in an opposite direction from their camp, and I closed my doors +soon after, for the night. They had not been gone more than half an +hour, when I heard them talking not far from my house, and a few seconds +later I heard the half-suppressed cry of a man who has received his +death-blow. + +"I had gone to bed, and lay for a minute or two thinking whether I +should get up and go to the rescue or insure my own safety by remaining +where I was. + +"A little reflection convinced me that the murderers were undoubtedly +watching my house, to prevent any interference with the carrying out +of their plot, and that if I ventured out I should only endanger my own +life, while there was scarcely a possibility of my being able to save +the life of the man who had been assailed. + +"In the morning, when I got up, I found the dead body of the corporal +stretched across Raton Creek, not more than a hundred yards from my +house. + +"As I surmised, he had been struck with a heavy club or stone, and it +was at that time that I heard his cry. After that his brains had been +beaten out, and the body left where I had found it. + +"I at once notified Captain Haley of the occurrence, and identified the +men who had been in company with the corporal, and who were undoubtedly +his murderers. + +"They were taken into custody, and made a confession, in which they +stated that one of their number had stood at my door on the night of the +murder to shoot me if I had ventured out to assist the corporal. Two of +the scoundrels were hung afterward at Las Vegas, and the third sent to +prison for life." + +The corporal was buried near where the soldiers were encamped at +the time of the tragedy, and it is his lonely grave which frequently +attracts the attention of the passengers on the Atchison, Topeka, and +Santa Fe trains, just before the Raton tunnel is reached, as they travel +southward. + +In 1866-67 the Indians broke out, infesting all the most prominent +points of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and watching an opportunity to rob and +murder, so that the government freight caravans and the stages had to +be escorted by detachments of troops. Fort Larned was the western limit +where these escorts joined the outfits going over into New Mexico. + +There were other dangers attending the passage of the Trail to +travellers by the stage besides the attacks of the savages. These were +the so-called road agents--masked robbers who regarded life as of little +worth in the accomplishment of their nefarious purposes. Particularly +were they common after the mines of New Mexico began to be operated by +Americans. The object of the bandits was generally the strong box of +the express company, which contained money and other valuables. They +did not, of course, hesitate to take what ready cash and jewelry the +passengers might happen to have upon their persons, and frequently their +hauls amounted to large sums. + +When the coaches began to travel over Uncle Dick's toll-road, his house +was made a station, and he had many stage stories. He said:-- + +"Tavern-keepers in those days couldn't choose their guests, and we +entertained them just as they came along. The knights of the road would +come by now and then, order a meal, eat it hurriedly, pay for it, +and move on to where they had arranged to hold up a stage that night. +Sometimes they did not wait for it to get dark, but halted the stage, +went through the treasure box in broad daylight, and then ordered the +driver to move on in one direction, while they went off in another. + +"One of the most daring and successful stage robberies that I remember +was perpetrated by two men, when the east-bound coach was coming up on +the south side of the Raton Mountains, one day about ten o'clock in the +forenoon. + +"On the morning of the same day, a little after sunrise, two rather +genteel-looking fellows, mounted on fine horses, rode up to my house and +ordered breakfast. Being informed that breakfast would be ready in a few +minutes, they dismounted, hitched their horses near the door, and came +into the house. + +"I knew then, just as well as I do now, they were robbers, but I had no +warrant for their arrest, and I should have hesitated about serving it +if I had, because they looked like very unpleasant men to transact that +kind of business with. + +"Each of them had four pistols sticking in his belt and a repeating +rifle strapped on to his saddle. When they dismounted, they left their +rifles with the horses, but walked into the house and sat down at the +table, without laying aside the arsenal which they carried in their +belts. + +"They had little to say while eating, but were courteous in their +behaviour, and very polite to the waiters. When they had finished +breakfast, they paid their bills, and rode leisurely up the mountain. + +"It did not occur to me that they would take chances on stopping the +stage in daylight, or I should have sent some one to meet the incoming +coach, which I knew would be along shortly, to warn the driver and +passengers to be on the lookout for robbers. + +"It turned out, however, that a daylight robbery was just what they had +in mind, and they made a success of it. + +"About halfway down the New Mexico side of the mountain, where the +canyon is very narrow, and was then heavily wooded on either side, the +robbers stopped and waited for the coach. It came lumbering along by and +by, neither the driver nor the passengers dreaming of a hold-up. + +"The first intimation they had of such a thing was when they saw two men +step into the road, one on each side of the stage, each of them holding +two cocked revolvers, one of which was brought to bear on the passengers +and the other on the driver, who were politely but very positively told +that they must throw up their hands without any unnecessary delay, and +the stage came to a standstill. + +"There were four passengers in the coach, all men, but their hands went +up at the same instant that the driver dropped his reins and struck an +attitude that suited the robbers. + +"Then, while one of the men stood guard, the other stepped up to the +stage and ordered the treasure box thrown off. This demand was +complied with, and the box was broken and rifled of its contents, which +fortunately were not of very great value. + +"The passengers were compelled to hand out their watches and other +jewelry, as well as what money they had in their pockets, and then the +driver was directed to move up the road. In a minute after this the +robbers had disappeared with their booty, and that was the last seen of +them by that particular coach-load of passengers. + +"The men who planned and executed that robbery were two cool, +level-headed, and daring scoundrels, known as 'Chuckle-luck' and +'Magpie.' They were killed soon after this occurrence, by a member of +their own band, whose name was Seward. A reward of a thousand dollars +had been offered for their capture, an this tempted Seward to kill them, +one night when they were asleep in camp. + +"He then secured a wagon, into which he loaded the dead robbers, +and hauled them to Cimarron City, where he turned them over to the +authorities and received his reward." + +Among the Arapahoes Wooton was called "Cut Hand," from the fact that he +had lost two fingers on his left hand by an accident in his childhood. +The tribe had the utmost veneration for the old trapper, and he was +perfectly safe at any time in their villages or camps; it had been the +request of a dying chief, who was once greatly favoured by Wooton, that +his warriors should never injure him although the nation might be at war +with all the rest of the whites in the world. + +Uncle Dick died a few seasons ago, at the age of nearly ninety. He was +blind for some time, but a surgical operation partly restored his sight, +which made the old man happy, because he could look again upon the +beautiful scenery surrounding his mountain home, really the grandest in +the entire Raton Range. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad +had one of its freight locomotives named "Uncle Dick," in honour of the +veteran mountaineer, past whose house it hauled the heavy-laden trains +up the steep grade crossing into the valley beyond. At the time of its +baptism, now fifteen or sixteen years ago, it was the largest freight +engine in the world. + +Old Bill Williams was another character of the early days of the Trail, +and was called so when Carson, Uncle Dick Wooton, and Maxwell were +comparatively young in the mountains. He was, at the time of their +advent in the remote West, one of the best known men there, and had been +famous for years as a hunter and trapper. Williams was better acquainted +with every pass in the Rockies than any other man of his time, and +only surpassed by Jim Bridger later. He was with General Fremont on his +exploring expedition across the continent; but the statement of the old +trappers, and that of General Fremont, in relation to his services then, +differ widely. Fremont admits Williams' knowledge of the country over +which he had wandered to have been very extensive, but when put to the +test on the expedition, he came very near sacrificing the lives of all. +This was probably owing to Williams' failing intellect, for when he +joined the great explorer he was past the meridian of life. Now the +old mountaineers contend that if Fremont had profited by the old man's +advice, he would never have run into the deathtrap which cost him three +men, and in which he lost all his valuable papers, his instruments, +and the animals which he and his party were riding. The expedition had +followed the Arkansas River to its source, and the general had selected +a route which he desired to pursue in crossing the mountains. It +was winter, and Williams explained to him that it was perfectly +impracticable to get over at that season. The general, however, ignoring +the statement, listened to another of his party, a man who had no such +experience but said that he could pilot the expedition. Before they had +fairly started, they were caught in one of the most terrible snowstorms +the region had ever witnessed, in which all their horses and mules were +literally frozen to death. Then, when it was too late, they turned +back, abandoning their instruments, and able only to carry along a +very limited stock of food. The storm continued to rage, so that even +Williams failed to prevent them from getting lost, and they wandered +about aimlessly for many days before they luckily arrived at Taos, +suffering seriously from exhaustion and hunger. Three of the men were +frozen to death on the return trip, and the remaining fifteen were +little better than dead when Uncle Dick Wooton happened to run across +them and piloted them into the village. It was immediately after +this disaster that the three most noted men in the mountains--Carson, +Maxwell, and Dick Owens--became the guides of the pathfinder, with whom +he had no trouble, and to whom he owed more of his success than history +has given them credit for. + +At one period of his eventful career, while he lived in Missouri, +before he wandered to the mountains, Old Bill Williams was a Methodist +preacher; of which fact he boasted frequently while he trapped and +hunted with other pioneers. Whenever he related that portion of his +early life, he declared that he "was so well known in his circuit, +that the chickens recognized him as he came riding by the scattered +farmhouses, and the old roosters would crow 'Here comes Parson Williams! +One of us must be made ready for dinner.'" + +Upon leaving the States, he travelled very extensively among the various +tribes of Indians who roamed over the great plains and in the mountains. +When sojourning with a certain band, he would invariably adopt their +manners and customs. Whenever he grew tired of that nation, he would +seek another and live as they lived. He had been so long among the +savages that he looked and talked like one, and had imbibed many of +their strange notions and curious superstitions. + +To the missionaries he was very useful. He possessed the faculty of +easily acquiring languages that other white men failed to learn, and +could readily translate the Bible into several Indian dialects. His own +conduct, however, was in strange contrast with the precepts of the Holy +Book with which he was so familiar. + +To the native Mexicans he was a holy terror and an unsolvable riddle. +They thought him possessed of an evil spirit. He at one time took up +his residence among them and commenced to trade. Shortly after he had +established himself and gathered in a stock of goods, he became involved +in a dispute with some of his customers in relation to his prices. Upon +this he apparently took an intense dislike to the people whom he had +begun to traffic with, and in his disgust tossed his whole mass of +goods into the street, and, taking up his rifle, left at once for the +mountains. + +Among the many wild ideas he had imbibed from his long association with +the Indians, was faith in their belief in the transmigration of souls. +He used so to worry his brain for hours cogitating upon this intricate +problem concerning a future state, that he actually pretended to know +exactly the animal whose place he was destined to fill in the world +after he had shaken off this mortal human coil. + +Uncle Dick Wooton told how once, when he, Old Bill Williams, and many +other trappers, were lying around the camp-fire one night, the strange +fellow, in a preaching style of delivery, related to them all how he was +to be changed into a buck elk and intended to make his pasture in the +very region where they then were. He described certain peculiarities +which would distinguish him from the common run of elk, and was very +careful to caution all those present never to shoot such an animal, +should they ever run across him. + +Williams was regarded as a warm-hearted, brave, and generous man. He was +at last killed by the Indians, while trading with them, but has left his +name to many mountain peaks, rivers, and passes discovered by him. + +Tom Tobin, one of the last of the famous trappers, hunters, and Indian +fighters to cross the dark river, flourished in the early days, when the +Rocky Mountains were a veritable terra incognita to nearly all excepting +the hardy employees of the several fur companies and the limited number +of United States troops stationed in their remote wilds. + +Tom was an Irishman, quick-tempered, and a dead shot with either rifle, +revolver, or the formidable bowie-knife. He would fight at the drop of +the hat, but no man ever went away from his cabin hungry, if he had a +crust to divide; or penniless, if there was anything remaining in his +purse. + +He, like Carson, was rather under the average stature, red-faced, and +lacking much of being an Adonis, but whole-souled, and as quick in his +movements as an antelope. + +Tobin played an important rôle in avenging the death of the Americans +killed in the Taos massacre, at the storming of the Indian pueblo, but +his greatest achievement was the ending of the noted bandit Espinosa's +life, who, at the height of his career of blood, was the terror of the +whole mountain region. + +At the time of the acquisition of New Mexico by the United States, +Espinosa, who was a Mexican, owning vast herds of cattle and sheep, +resided upon his ancestral hacienda in a sort of barbaric luxury, with a +host of semi-serfs, known as Peons, to do his bidding, as did the other +"Muy Ricos," the "Dons," so called, of his class of natives. These +self-styled aristocrats of the wild country all boasted of their +Castilian blue blood, claiming descent from the nobles of Cortez' +army, but the fact is, however, with rare exceptions, that their male +ancestors, the rank and file of that army, intermarried with the Aztec +women, and they were really only a mixture of Indian and Spanish. + +It so happened that Espinosa met an adventurous American, who, with +hundreds of others, had been attached to the "Army of Occupation" in the +Mexican War, or had emigrated from the States to seek their fortunes in +the newly acquired and much over-rated territory. + +The Mexican Don and the American became fast friends, the latter making +his home with his newly found acquaintance at the beautiful ranch in the +mountains, where they played the rôle of a modern Damon and Pythias. + +Now with Don Espinosa lived his sister, a dark-eyed, bewitchingly +beautiful girl about seventeen years old, with whom the susceptible +American fell deeply in love, and his affection was reciprocated by the +maiden, with a fervour of which only the women of the race from which +she sprang are capable. + +The fascinating American had brought with him from his home in one of +the New England States a large amount of money, for his parents were +rich, and spared no indulgence to their only son. He very soon unwisely +made Espinosa his confidant, and told him of the wealth he possessed. + +One night after the American had retired to his chamber, adjoining that +of his host, he was surprised, shortly after he had gone to bed, by +discovering a man standing over him, whose hand had already grasped the +buckskin bag under his pillow which contained a considerable portion of +his gold and silver. He sprang from his couch and fired his pistol at +random in the darkness at the would-be robber. + +Espinosa, for it was he, was wounded slightly, and, being either enraged +or frightened, he stabbed with his keen-pointed stiletto, which all +Mexicans then carried, the young man whom he had invited to become +his guest, and the blade entered the American's heart, killing him +instantly. + +The report of the pistol-shot awakened the other members of the +household, who came rushing into the room just as the victim was +breathing his last. Among them was the sister of the murderer, who, +throwing herself on the body of her dead lover, poured forth the most +bitter curses upon her brother. + +Espinosa, realizing the terrible position in which he had placed +himself, then and there determined to become an outlaw, as he could +frame no excuse for his wicked deed. He therefore hid himself at once +in the mountains, carrying with him, of course, the sack containing the +murdered American's money. + +Some time necessarily passed before he could get together a sufficient +number of cut-throats and renegades from justice to enable him wholly +to defy the authorities; but at last he succeeded in rallying a strong +force to his standard of blood, and became the terror of the whole +region, equalling in boldness and audacity the terrible Joaquin, of +California notoriety in after years. + +His headquarters were in the almost impregnable fastnesses of the Sangre +de Cristo Mountains, from which he made his invariably successful raids +into the rich valleys below. There was nothing too bloody for him to +shrink from; he robbed indiscriminately the overland coaches to Santa +Fe, the freight caravans of the traders and government, the ranches of +the Mexicans, or stole from the poorer classes, without any compunction. +He ran off horses, cattle, sheep--in fact, anything that he could +utilize. If murder was necessary to the completion of his work, he never +for a moment hesitated. Kidnapping, too, was a favourite pastime; but he +rarely carried away to his rendezvous any other than the most beautiful +of the New Mexican young girls, whom he held in his mountain den until +they were ransomed, or subjected to a fate more terrible. + +In 1864 the bandit, after nearly ten years of unparalleled outlawry, was +killed by Tobin. Tom had been on his trail for some time, and at last +tracked him to a temporary camp in the foot-hills, which he accidentally +discovered in a grove of cottonwoods, by the smoke of the little +camp-fire as it curled in light wreaths above the trees. + +Tobin knew that at the time there was but one of Espinosa's followers +with him, as he had watched them both for some days, waiting for an +opportunity to get the drop on them. To capture the pair of outlaws +alive never entered his thoughts; he was as cautious as brave, and to +get them dead was much safer and easier; so he crept up to the grove on +his belly, Indian fashion, and lying behind the cover of a friendly log, +waited until the noted desperado stood up, when he pulled the trigger +of his never-erring rifle, and Espinosa fell dead. A second shot +quickly disposed of his companion, and the old trapper's mission was +accomplished. + +To be able to claim the reward offered by the authorities, Tom had to +prove, beyond the possibility of doubt, that those whom he had killed +were the dreaded bandit and one of his gang. He thought it best to cut +off their heads, which he deliberately did, and packing them on his mule +in a gunny-sack, he brought them into old Fort Massachusetts, afterward +Fort Garland, where they were speedily recognized; but whether Tom ever +received the reward, I have my doubts, as he never claimed that he did. +Tobin died only a short time ago, gray, grizzled, and venerable, his +memory respected by all who had ever met him. + +James Hobbs, among all the men of whom I have presented a hurried +sketch, had perhaps a more varied experience than any of his colleagues. +During his long life on the frontier, he was in turn a prisoner among +the savages, and held for years by them; an excellent soldier in the war +with Mexico; an efficient officer in the revolt against Maximilian, when +the attempt of Napoleon to establish an empire on this continent, with +that unfortunate prince at its head, was defeated; an Indian fighter; a +miner; a trapper; a trader, and a hunter. + +Hobbs was born in the Shawnee nation, on the Big Blue, about +twenty-three miles from Independence, Missouri. His early childhood was +entrusted to one of his father's slaves. Reared on the eastern limit of +the border, he very soon became familiar with the use of the rifle and +shot-gun; in fact, he was the principal provider of all the meat which +the family consumed. + +In 1835, when only sixteen, he joined a fur-trading expedition under +Charles Bent, destined for the fort on the Arkansas River built by him +and his brothers. + +They arrived at the crossing of the Santa Fe Trail over Pawnee Fork +without special adventure, but there they had the usual tussle with +the savages, and Hobbs killed his first Indian. Two of the traders were +pierced with arrows, but not seriously hurt, and the Pawnees--the tribe +which had attacked the outfit--were driven away discomfited, not having +been successful in stampeding a single animal. + +When the party reached the Caches, on the Upper Arkansas, a smoke rising +on the distant horizon, beyond the sand hills south of the river, made +them proceed cautiously; for to the old plainsmen, that far-off wreath +indicated either the presence of the savages, or a signal to others at a +greater distance of the approach of the trappers. + +The next morning, nothing having occurred to delay the march, buffalo +began to appear, and Hobbs killed three of them. A cow, which he had +wounded, ran across the Trail in front of the train, and Hobbs dashed +after her, wounding her with his pistol, and then she started to swim +the river. Hobbs, mad at the jeers which greeted him from the men at his +missing the animal, started for the last wagon, in which was his rifle, +determined to kill the brute that had enraged him. As he was riding +along rapidly, Bent cried out to him,-- + +"Don't try to follow that cow; she is going straight for that smoke, and +it means Injuns, and no good in 'em either." + +"But I'll get her," answered Hobbs, and he called to his closest +comrade, John Baptiste, a boy of about his own age, to go and get his +pack-mule and come along. "All right," responded John; and together the +two inexperienced youngsters crossed the river against the protests of +the veteran leader of the party. + +After a chase of about three miles, the boys came up with the cow, but +she turned and showed fight. Finally Hobbs, by riding around her, got +in a good shot, which killed her. Jumping off their animals, both boys +busied themselves in cutting out the choice pieces for their supper, +packed them on the mule, and started back for the train. But it had +suddenly become very dark, and they were in doubt as to the direction of +the Trail. + +Soon night came on so rapidly that neither could they see their own +tracks by which they had come, nor the thin fringe of cottonwoods that +lined the bank of the stream. Then they disagreed as to which was the +right way. John succeeded in persuading Hobbs that he was correct, and +the latter gave in, very much against his own belief on the subject. + +They travelled all night, and when morning came, were bewilderingly +lost. Then Hobbs resolved to retrace the tracks by which, now that the +sun was up, he saw that they had been going south, right away from the +Arkansas. Suddenly an immense herd of buffalo, containing at least two +thousand, dashed by the boys, filling the air with the dust raised by +their clattering hoofs, and right behind them rode a hundred Indians, +shooting at the stampeded animals with their arrows. + +"Get into that ravine!" shouted Hobbs to his companion. "Throw away that +meat, and run for your life!" + +It was too late; just as they arrived at the brink of the hollow, they +looked back, and close behind them were a dozen Comanches. + +The savages rode up, and one of the party said in very good English, +"How d' do?" + +"How d' do?" Hobbs replied, thinking it would be better to be as polite +as the Indian, though the state of the latter's health just then was a +matter of small concern. + +"Texas?" inquired the Indian. The Comanches had good reasons to hate the +citizens of that country, and it was a lucky thing for Hobbs that he had +heard of their prejudice from the trappers, and possessed presence +of mind to remember it. He replied promptly: "No, friendly; going to +establish a trading-post for the Comanches." + +"Friendly? Better go with us, though. Got any tobacco?" + +Hobbs had some of the desired article, and he was not long in handing it +over to his newly found friend. + +Both of the boys were escorted to the temporary camp of the savages, but +the original number of their captors was increased to over a thousand +before they arrived there. They were supplied with some dried +buffalo-meat, and then taken to the lodge of Old Wolf, the head chief of +the tribe. + +A council was called immediately to consider what disposition should be +made of them, but nothing was decided upon, and the assembly of warriors +adjourned until morning. Hobbs told me that it was because Old Wolf had +imbibed too much brandy, a bottle of which Baptiste had brought with +him from the train, and which the thirsty warrior saw suspended from +his saddle-bow as they rode up to the chief's lodge; the aged rascal got +beastly drunk. + +About noon of the next day, after the dispersion of the council, +the boys were informed that if they were not Texans, would behave +themselves, and not attempt to run away, they might stay with the +Indians, who would not kill them; but a string of dried scalps was +pointed out, hanging on a lodge pole, of some Mexicans whom they had +captured and put to herding their ponies, and who had tried to get away. +They succeeded in making a few miles; the Indians chased them, after +deciding in council, that, if caught, only their scalps were to be +brought back. The moral of this was that the same fate awaited the boys +if they followed the example of the foolish Mexicans. + +Hobbs had excellent sense and judgment, and he knew that it would be the +height of folly for him and Baptiste, mere boys, to try and reach either +Bent's Fort or the Missouri River, not having the slightest knowledge of +where they were situated. + +Hobbs grew to be a great favourite with the Comanches; was given the +daughter of Old Wolf in marriage, became a great chief, fought many hard +battles with his savage companions, and at last, four years after, was +redeemed by Colonel Bent, who paid Old Wolf a small ransom for him +at the Fort, where the Indians had come to trade. Baptiste, whom the +Indians never took a great fancy to, because he did not develop into +a great warrior, was also ransomed by Bent, his price being only an +antiquated mule. + +At Bent's Fort Hobbs went out trapping under the leadership of Kit +Carson, and they became lifelong friends. In a short time Hobbs earned +the reputation of being an excellent mountaineer, trapper, and as an +Indian fighter he was second to none, his education among the Comanches +having trained him in all the strategy of the savages. + +After going through the Mexican War with an excellent record, Hobbs +wandered about the country, now engaged in mining in old Mexico, then +fighting the Apaches under the orders of the governor of Chihuahua, and +at the end of the campaign going back to the Pacific coast, where he +entered into new pursuits. Sometimes he was rich, then as poor as one +can imagine. He returned to old Mexico in time to become an active +partisan in the revolt which overthrew the short-lived dynasty of +Maximilian, and was present at the execution of that unfortunate prince. +Finally he retired to the home of his childhood in the States, where he +died a few months ago, full of years and honours. + +William F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," is one of the famous plainsmen, of +later days, however, than Carson, Bridger, John Smith, Maxwell, and +others whom I have mentioned. The mantle of Kit Carson, perhaps, fits +more perfectly the shoulders of Cody than those of any other of the +great frontiersman's successors, and he has had some experiences that +surpassed anything which fell to their lot. + +He was born in Iowa, in 1845, and when barely seven years old his father +emigrated to Kansas, then far remote from civilization. + +Thirty-six years ago, he was employed as guide and scout in an +expedition against the Kiowas and Comanches, and his line of duty took +him along the Santa Fe Trail all one summer when not out as a scout, +carrying despatches between Fort Lyon and Fort Larned, the most +important military posts on the great highway as well as to far-off Fort +Leavenworth on the Missouri River, the headquarters of the department. +Fort Larned was the general rendezvous of all the scouts on the Kansas +and Colorado plains, the chief of whom was a veteran interpreter and +guide, named Dick Curtis. + +When Cody first reported there for his responsible duty, a large camp of +the Kiowas and Comanches was established within sight of the fort, +whose warriors had not as yet put on their war-paint, but were evidently +restless and discontented under the restraint of their chiefs. Soon +those leading men, Satanta, Lone Wolf, Satank, and others of lesser +note, grew rather impudent and haughty in their deportment, and they +were watched with much concern. The post was garrisoned by only two +companies of infantry and one of cavalry. + +General Hazen, afterward chief of the signal service in Washington, was +at Fort Larned at the time, endeavouring to patch up a peace with the +savages, who seemed determined to break out. Cody was special scout to +the general, and one morning he was ordered to accompany him as far as +Fort Zarah, on the Arkansas, near the mouth of Walnut Creek, in what +is now Barton County, Kansas, the general intending to go on to Fort +Harker, on the Smoky Hill. In making these trips of inspection, with +incidental collateral duties, the general usually travelled in an +ambulance, but on this journey he rode in a six-mule army-wagon, +escorted by a detachment of a score of infantry. It was a warm August +day, and an early start was made, which enabled them to reach Fort +Zarah, over thirty miles distant, by noon. After dinner, the general +proposed to go on to Fort Harker, forty-one miles away, without any +escort, leaving orders for Cody to return to Fort Larned the next day, +with the soldiers. But Cody, ever impatient of delay when there was work +to do, notified the sergeant in charge of the men that he was going back +that very afternoon. I tell the story of his trip as he has often told +it to me, and as he has written it in his autobiography. + +"I accordingly saddled up my mule and set out for Fort Larned. I +proceeded on uninterruptedly until I got about halfway between the +two posts, when, at Pawnee Rock, I was suddenly jumped by about forty +Indians, who came dashing up to me, extending their hands and saying, +'How! How!' They were some of the Indians who had been hanging around +Fort Larned in the morning. I saw they had on their war-paint, and were +evidently now out on the war-path. + +"My first impulse was to shake hands with them, as they seemed so +desirous of it. I accordingly reached out my hand to one of them, who +grasped it with a tight grip, and jerked me violently forward; +then pulled my mule by the bridle, and in a moment I was completely +surrounded. Before I could do anything at all, they had seized my +revolvers from the holsters, and I received a blow on the head from a +tomahawk which nearly rendered me senseless. My gun, which was lying +across the saddle, was snatched from its place, and finally the Indian +who had hold of the bridle started off toward the Arkansas River, +leading the mule, which was being lashed by the other Indians, who were +following. The savages were all singing, yelling, and whooping, as only +Indians can do, when they are having their little game all their own +way. While looking toward the river, I saw on the opposite side an +immense village moving along the bank, and then I became convinced that +the Indians had left the post and were now starting out on the war-path. +My captors crossed the stream with me, and as we waded through the +shallow water they continued to lash the mule and myself. Finally they +brought me before an important-looking body of Indians, who proved to be +the chiefs and principal warriors. I soon recognized old Satanta among +them, as well as others whom I knew, and supposed it was all over with +me. + +"The Indians were jabbering away so rapidly among themselves that I +could not understand what they were saying. Satanta at last asked me +where I had been. As good luck would have it, a happy thought struck me. +I told him I had been after a herd of cattle, or 'whoa-haws,' as they +called them. It so happened that the Indians had been out of meat for +several weeks, as the large herd of cattle which had been promised them +had not yet arrived, although they expected them. + +"The moment I mentioned that I had been searching for 'whoa-haws,' old +Satanta began questioning me in a very eager manner. He asked me where +the cattle were, and I replied that they were back a few miles, and +that I had been sent by General Hazen to inform him that the cattle +were coming, and that they were intended for his people. This seemed +to please the old rascal, who also wanted to know if there were any +soldiers with the herd, and my reply was that there were. Thereupon the +chiefs held a consultation, and presently Satanta asked me if General +Hazen had really said that they should have the cattle. I replied in the +affirmative, and added that I had been directed to bring the cattle to +them. I followed this up with a very dignified inquiry, asking why his +young men had treated me so. The old wretch intimated that it was only a +'freak of the boys'; that the young men wanted to see if I was brave; in +fact, they had only meant to test me, and the whole thing was a joke. + +"The veteran liar was now beating me at my own game of lying, but I +was very glad, as it was in my favour. I did not let him suspect that +I doubted his veracity, but I remarked that it was a rough way to treat +friends. He immediately ordered his young men to give back my arms, and +scolded them for what they had done. Of course, the sly old dog was now +playing it very fine, as he was anxious to get possession of the cattle, +with which he believed there was a 'heap' of soldiers coming. He had +concluded it was not best to fight the soldiers if he could get the +cattle peaceably. + +"Another council was held by the chiefs, and in a few minutes old +Satanta came and asked me if I would go to the river and bring the +cattle down to the opposite side, so that they could get them. I +replied, 'Of course; that's my instruction from General Hazen.' + +"Satanta said I must not feel angry at his young men, for they had +only been acting in fun. He then inquired if I wished any of his men to +accompany me to the cattle herd. I replied that it would be better +for me to go alone, and then the soldiers could keep right on to Fort +Larned, while I could drive the herd down on the bottom. Then wheeling +my mule around, I was soon recrossing the river, leaving old Satanta +in the firm belief that I had told him a straight story, and that I was +going for the cattle which existed only in my imagination. + +"I hardly knew what to do, but thought that if I could get the river +between the Indians and myself, I would have a good three-quarters of a +mile the start of them, and could then make a run for Fort Larned, as my +mule was a good one. + +"Thus far my cattle story had panned out all right; but just as I +reached the opposite bank of the river, I looked behind me and saw that +ten or fifteen Indians, who had begun to suspect something crooked, were +following me. The moment that my mule secured a good foothold on the +bank, I urged him into a gentle lope toward the place where, according +to my statement, the cattle were to be brought. Upon reaching a little +ridge and riding down the other side out of view, I turned my mule and +headed him westward for Fort Larned. I let him out for all that he was +worth, and when I came out on a little rise of ground, I looked back and +saw the Indian village in plain sight. My pursuers were now on the ridge +which I had passed over, and were looking for me in every direction. + +"Presently they spied me, and seeing that I was running away, they +struck out in swift pursuit, and in a few minutes it became painfully +evident they were gaining on me. They kept up the chase as far as Ash +Creek, six miles from Fort Larned. I still led them half a mile, as +their horses had not gained much during the last half of the race. My +mule seemed to have gotten his second wind, and as I was on the old +road, I played the spurs and whip on him without much cessation; the +Indians likewise urged their steeds to the utmost. + +"Finally, upon reaching the dividing ridge between Ash Creek and Pawnee +Fork, I saw Fort Larned only four miles away. It was now sundown, and I +heard the evening gun. The troops of the small garrison little dreamed +there was a man flying for his life and trying to reach the post. The +Indians were once more gaining on me, and when I crossed the Pawnee Fork +two miles from the post, two or three of them were only a quarter of a +mile behind me. Just as I gained the opposite bank of the stream, I +was overjoyed to see some soldiers in a government wagon only a short +distance off. I yelled at the top of my voice, and riding up to them, +told them that the Indians were after me. + +"'Denver Jim,' a well-known scout, asked me how many there were, and +upon my informing him that there were about a dozen, he said: 'Let's +drive the wagon into the trees, and we'll lay for 'em.' The team was +hurriedly driven among the trees and low box-elder bushes, and there +secreted. + +"We did not have to wait long for the Indians, who came dashing up, +lashing their ponies, which were panting and blowing. We let two of them +pass by, but we opened a lively fire on the next three or four, killing +two of them at the first crack. The others following discovered that +they had run into an ambush, and whirling off into the brush, they +turned and ran back in the direction whence they had come. The two who +had passed by heard the firing and made their escape. We scalped the two +that we had killed, and appropriated their arms and equipments; then, +catching their ponies, we made our way into the Post." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. MAXWELL'S RANCH. + + + +One of the most interesting and picturesque regions of all New Mexico is +the immense tract of nearly two million acres known as Maxwell's Ranch, +through which the Old Trail ran, and the title to which was some years +since determined by the Supreme Court of the United States in favour of +an alien company.[59] Dead long ago, Maxwell belonged to a generation +and a class almost completely extinct, and the like of which will, in +all probability, never be seen again; for there is no more frontier to +develop them. + +Several years prior to the acquisition of the territory by the United +States, the immense tract comprised in the geographical limits of +the ranch was granted to Carlos Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda, both +citizens of the province of New Mexico, and agents of the American Fur +Company. Attached to the company as an employer, a trapper, and hunter, +was Lucien B. Maxwell, an Illinoisan by birth, who married a daughter +of Beaubien. After the death of the latter Maxwell purchased all the +interest of the joint proprietor, Miranda, and that of the heirs of +Beaubien, thus at once becoming the largest landowner in the United +States. + +At the zenith of his influence and wealth, during the War of the +Rebellion, when New Mexico was isolated and almost independent of +care or thought by the government at Washington, he lived in a sort of +barbaric splendour, akin to that of the nobles of England at the time of +the Norman conquest. + +The thousands of arable acres comprised in the many fertile valleys of +his immense estate were farmed in a primitive, feudal sort of way, by +native Mexicans principally, under the system of peonage then existing +in the Territory. He employed about five hundred men, and they were as +much his thralls as were Gurth and Wamba of Cedric of Rotherwood, only +they wore no engraved collars around their necks bearing their names and +that of their master. Maxwell was not a hard governor, and his people +really loved him, as he was ever their friend and adviser. + +His house was a palace when compared with the prevailing style of +architecture in that country, and cost an immense sum of money. It was +large and roomy, purely American in its construction, but the manner of +conducting it was strictly Mexican, varying between the customs of the +higher and lower classes of that curious people. + +Some of its apartments were elaborately furnished, others devoid of +everything except a table for card-playing and a game's complement of +chairs. The principal room, an extended rectangular affair, which might +properly have been termed the Baronial Hall, was almost bare except +for a few chairs, a couple of tables, and an antiquated bureau. There +Maxwell received his friends, transacted business with his vassals, and +held high carnival at times. + +I have slept on its hardwood floor, rolled up in my blanket, with the +mighty men of the Ute nation lying heads and points all around me, as +close as they could possibly crowd, after a day's fatiguing hunt in the +mountains. I have sat there in the long winter evenings, when the +great room was lighted only by the cheerful blaze of the crackling +logs roaring up the huge throats of its two fireplaces built diagonally +across opposite corners, watching Maxwell, Kit Carson, and half a dozen +chiefs silently interchange ideas in the wonderful sign language, until +the glimmer of Aurora announced the advent of another day. But not a +sound had been uttered during the protracted hours, save an occasional +grunt of satisfaction on the part of the Indians, or when we white men +exchanged a sentence. + +Frequently Maxwell and Carson would play the game of seven-up for hours +at a time, seated at one of the tables. Kit was usually the victor, for +he was the greatest expert in that old and popular pastime I have +ever met. Maxwell was an inveterate gambler, but not by any means in a +professional sense; he indulged in the hazard of the cards simply for +the amusement it afforded him in his rough life of ease, and he could +very well afford the losses which the pleasure sometimes entailed. His +special penchant, however, was betting on a horse race, and his own stud +comprised some of the fleetest animals in the Territory. Had he lived in +England he might have ruled the turf, but many jobs were put up on +him by unscrupulous jockeys, by which he was outrageously defrauded of +immense sums. + +He was fond of cards, as I have said, both of the purely American game +of poker, and also of old sledge, but rarely played except with personal +friends, and never without stakes. He always exacted the last cent he +had won, though the next morning, perhaps, he would present or loan his +unsuccessful opponent of the night before five hundred or a thousand +dollars, if he needed it; an immensely greater sum, in all probability, +than had been gained in the game. + +The kitchen and dining-rooms of his princely establishment were detached +from the main residence. There was one of the latter for the male +portion of his retinue and guests of that sex, and another for the +female, as, in accordance with the severe, and to us strange, Mexican +etiquette, men rarely saw a woman about the premises, though there were +many. Only the quick rustle of a skirt, or a hurried view of a reboso, +as its wearer flashed for an instant before some window or half-open +door, told of their presence. + +The greater portion of his table-service was solid silver, and at his +hospitable board there were rarely any vacant chairs. Covers were laid +daily for about thirty persons; for he had always many guests, invited +or forced upon him in consequence of his proverbial munificence, or +by the peculiar location of his manor-house which stood upon a +magnificently shaded plateau at the foot of mighty mountains, a short +distance from a ford on the Old Trail. As there were no bridges over +the uncertain streams of the great overland route in those days, the +ponderous Concord coaches, with their ever-full burden of passengers, +were frequently water-bound, and Maxwell's the only asylum from the +storm and flood; consequently he entertained many. + +At all times, and in all seasons, the group of buildings, houses, +stables, mill, store, and their surrounding grounds, were a constant +resort and loafing-place of Indians. From the superannuated chiefs, who +revelled lazily during the sunny hours in the shady peacefulness of the +broad porches; the young men of the tribe, who gazed with covetous eyes +upon the sleek-skinned, blooded colts sporting in the spacious corrals; +the squaws, fascinated by the gaudy calicoes, bright ribbons, and +glittering strings of beads on the counters or shelves of the large +store, to the half-naked, chubby little pappooses around the kitchen +doors, waiting with expectant mouths for some delicious morsel of refuse +to be thrown to them--all assumed, in bearing and manner, a vested right +of proprietorship in their agreeable environment. + +To this motley group, always under his feet, as it were, Maxwell was +ever passively gracious, although they were battening in idleness on his +prodigal bounty from year to year. + +His retinue of servants, necessarily large, was made up of a +heterogeneous mixture of Indians, Mexicans, and half-breeds. The +kitchens were presided over by dusky maidens under the tutelage of +experienced old crones, and its precincts were sacred to them; but the +dining-rooms were forbidden to women during the hours of meals, which +were served by boys. + +Maxwell was rarely, as far as my observation extended, without a large +amount of money in his possession. He had no safe, however, his only +place of temporary deposit for the accumulated cash being the bottom +drawer of the old bureau in the large room to which I have referred, +which was the most antiquated concern of common pine imaginable. There +were only two other drawers in this old-fashioned piece of furniture, +and neither of them possessed a lock. The third, or lower, the one that +contained the money, did, but it was absolutely worthless, being one of +the cheapest pattern and affording not the slightest security; besides, +the drawers above it could be pulled out, exposing the treasure +immediately beneath to the cupidity of any one. + +I have frequently seen as much as thirty thousand dollars--gold, silver, +greenbacks, and government checks--at one time in that novel depository. +Occasionally these large sums remained there for several days, yet there +was never any extra precaution taken to prevent its abstraction; doors +were always open and the room free of access to every one, as usual. + +I once suggested to Maxwell the propriety of purchasing a safe for +the better security of his money, but he only smiled, while a strange, +resolute look flashed from his dark eyes, as he said: "God help the man +who attempted to rob me and I knew him!" + +The sources of his wealth were his cattle, sheep, and the products of +his area of cultivated acres--barley, oats, and corn principally--which +he disposed of to the quartermaster and commissary departments of the +army, in the large military district of New Mexico. His wool-clip must +have been enormous, too; but I doubt whether he could have told the +number of animals that furnished it or the aggregate of his vast herds. +He had a thousand horses, ten thousand cattle, and forty thousand sheep +at the time I knew him well, according to the best estimates of his +Mexican relatives. + +He also possessed a large and perfectly appointed gristmill, which was +a great source of revenue, for wheat was one of the staple crops of his +many farms. + +Maxwell was fond of travelling all over the Territory, his equipages +comprising everything in the shape of a vehicle, through all their +varieties, from the most plainly constructed buckboard to the lumbering, +but comfortable and expensive, Concord coach, mounted on thorough braces +instead of springs, and drawn by four or six horses. He was perfectly +reckless in his driving, dashing through streams, over irrigating +ditches, stones, and stumps like a veritable Jehu, regardless of +consequences, but, as is usually the fortune of such precipitate +horsemen, rarely coming to grief. + +The headquarters of the Ute agency were established at Maxwell's Ranch +in early days, and the government detailed a company of cavalry to camp +there, more, however, to impress the plains tribes who roamed along the +Old Trail east of the Raton Range, than for any effect on the Utes, whom +Maxwell could always control, and who regarded him as a father. + +On the 4th of July, 1867, Maxwell, who owned an antiquated and rusty +six-pound field howitzer, suggested to the captain of the troop +stationed there the propriety of celebrating the day. So the old piece +was dragged from its place under a clump of elms, where it had been +hidden in the grass and weeds ever since the Mexican War probably, +and brought near the house. The captain and Maxwell acted the rôle +of gunners, the former at the muzzle, the latter at the breech; the +discharge was premature, blowing out the captain's eye and taking off +his arm, while Maxwell escaped with a shattered thumb. As soon as the +accident occurred, a sergeant was despatched to Fort Union on one of the +fastest horses on the ranch, the faithful animal falling dead the moment +he stopped in front of the surgeon's quarters, having made the journey +of fifty-five miles in little more than four hours. + +The surgeon left the post immediately, arriving at Maxwell's late that +night, but in time to save the officer's life, after which he dressed +Maxwell's apparently inconsiderable wound. In a few days, however, the +thumb grew angry-looking; it would not yield to the doctor's careful +treatment, so he reluctantly decided that amputation was necessary. +After an operation was determined upon, I prevailed upon Maxwell to come +to the fort and remain with me, inviting Kit Carson at the same time, +that he might assist in catering to the amusement of my suffering guest. +Maxwell and Carson arrived at my quarters late in the day, after a +tedious ride in the big coach, and the surgeon, in order to allow a +prolonged rest on account of Maxwell's feverish condition, postponed the +operation until the following evening. + +The next night, as soon as it grew dark--we waited for coolness, as the +days were excessively hot--the necessary preliminaries were arranged, +and when everything was ready the surgeon commenced. Maxwell declined +the anaesthetic prepared for him, and sitting in a common office chair +put out his hand, while Carson and myself stood on opposite sides, each +holding an ordinary kerosene lamp. In a few seconds the operation was +concluded, and after the silver-wire ligatures were twisted in their +places, I offered Maxwell, who had not as yet permitted a single sigh to +escape his lips, half a tumblerful of whiskey; but before I had fairly +put it to his mouth, he fell over, having fainted dead away, while great +beads of perspiration stood on his forehead, indicative of the pain he +had suffered, as the amputation of the thumb, the surgeon told us then, +was as bad as that of a leg. + +He returned to his ranch as soon as the surgeon pronounced him well, and +Carson to his home in Taos. I saw the latter but once more at Maxwell's; +but he was en route to visit me at Fort Harker, in Kansas, when he was +taken ill at Fort Lyon, where he died. + + A boy's will is the wind's will, + And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. + +How true it now seems to me, as the recollections of my boyish days, +when I read of the exploits of Kit Carson, crowd upon my memory! I +firmly believed him to be at least ten feet tall, carrying a rifle +so heavy that, like Bruce's sword, it required two men to lift it. I +imagined he drank out of nothing smaller than a river, and picked the +carcass of a whole buffalo as easily as a lady does the wing of a quail. +Ten years later I made the acquaintance of the foremost frontiersman, +and found him a delicate, reticent, under-sized, wiry man, as perfectly +the opposite of the type my childish brain had created as it is possible +to conceive. + +At Fort Union our mail arrived every morning by coach over the Trail, +generally pulling up at the sutler's store, whose proprietor was +postmaster, about daylight. While Maxwell and Kit were my guests, I +sauntered down after breakfast one morning to get my mail, and while +waiting for the letters to be distributed, happened to glance at some +papers lying on the counter, among which I saw a new periodical--the +_Day's Doings_, I think it was--that had a full-page illustration of a +scene in a forest. In the foreground stood a gigantic figure dressed in +the traditional buckskin; on one arm rested an immense rifle; his other +arm was around the waist of the conventional female of such sensational +journals, while in front, lying prone upon the ground, were half a +dozen Indians, evidently slain by the singular hero in defending the +impossibly attired female. The legend related how all this had been +effected by the famous Kit Carson. I purchased the paper, returned with +it to my room, and after showing it to several officers who had called +upon Maxwell, I handed it to Kit. He wiped his spectacles, studied the +picture intently for a few seconds, turned round, and said: "Gentlemen, +that thar may be true, but I hain't got no recollection of it." + +I passed a delightful two weeks with Maxwell, late in the summer of +1867, at the time that the excitement over the discovery of gold on his +ranch had just commenced, and adventurers were beginning to congregate +in the hills and gulches from everywhere. The discovery of the precious +metal on his estate was the first cause of his financial embarrassment. +It was the ruin also of many other prominent men in New Mexico, who +expended their entire fortune in the construction of an immense ditch, +forty miles in length--from the Little Canadian or Red River--to supply +the placer diggings in the Moreno valley with water, when the melted +snow of Old Baldy range had exhausted itself in the late summer. The +scheme was a stupendous failure; its ruins may be seen to-day in the +deserted valleys, a monument to man's engineering skill, but the wreck +of his hopes. + +For some years previous to the discovery of gold in the mountains and +gulches of Maxwell's Ranch, it was known that copper existed in the +region; several shafts had been sunk and tunnels driven in various +places, and gold had been found from time to time, but was kept a secret +for many months. Its presence was at last revealed to Maxwell by a party +of his own miners, who were boring into the heart of Old Baldy for a +copper lead that had cropped out and was then lost. + +Of course, to keep the knowledge of the discovery of gold from the +world is an impossibility; such was the case in this instance, and soon +commenced that squatter immigration out of which, after the ranch was +sold and Maxwell died, grew that litigation which has resulted in favour +of the company who purchased from or through the first owners after +Maxwell's death. + +He was a representative man of the border of the same class as his +compeers--"wild-civilized men," to borrow an expressive term from John +Burroughs--of strong local attachments, and overflowing with the milk of +human kindness. To such as he there was an unconquerable infatuation in +life on the remote plains and in the solitude of the mountains. There +was never anything of the desperado in their character, while the +adventurers who at times have made the far West infamous, since the +advent of the railroad, were bad men originally. + +Occasionally such men turn up everywhere, and become a terror to the +community, but they are always wound up sooner or later; they die with +their boots on; Western graveyards are full of them. + +Maxwell, under contract with the Interior Department, furnished live +beeves to the Ute nation, the issue of which was made weekly from his +own vast herds. The cattle, as wild as those from the Texas prairies, +were driven by his herders into an immense enclosed field, and there +turned loose to be slaughtered by the savages. + +Once when at the ranch I told Maxwell I should like to have a horse +to witness the novel sight. He immediately ordered a Mexican groom to +procure one; but I did not see the peculiar smile that lighted up +his face, as he whispered something to the man which I did not catch. +Presently the groom returned leading a magnificent gray, which I +mounted, Maxwell suggesting that I should ride down to the large field +and wait there until the herd arrived. I entered the great corral, +patting my horse on the neck now and then, to make him familiar with +my touch, and attempted to converse with some of the chiefs, who were +dressed in their best, painted as if for the war-path, gaily bedecked +with feathers and armed with rifles and gaudily appointed bows and +arrows; but I did not succeed very well in drawing them from their +normal reticence. The squaws, a hundred of them, were sitting on the +ground, their knives in hand ready for the labour which is the fate +of their sex in all savage tribes, while their lords' portion of the +impending business was to end with the more manly efforts of the chase. + +Suddenly a great cloud of dust rose on the trail from the mountains, and +on came the maddened animals, fairly shaking the earth with their +mighty tread. As soon as the gate was closed behind them, and uttering a +characteristic yell that was blood-curdling in its ferocity, the Indians +charged upon the now doubly frightened herd, and commenced to discharge +their rifles, regardless of the presence of any one but themselves. My +horse became paralyzed for an instant and stood poised on his hind legs, +like the steed represented in that old lithographic print of Napoleon +crossing the Alps; then taking the bit in his teeth, he rushed aimlessly +into the midst of the flying herd, while the bullets from the guns of +the excited savages rained around my head. I had always boasted of my +equestrian accomplishments--I was never thrown but once in my life, and +that was years afterward--but in this instance it taxed all my powers to +keep my seat. In less than twenty minutes the last beef had fallen; +and the warriors, inflated with the pride of their achievement, rode +silently out of the field, leaving the squaws to cut up and carry away +the meat to their lodges, more than three miles distant, which they soon +accomplished, to the last quivering morsel. + +As I rode leisurely back to the house, I saw Maxwell and Kit standing +on the broad porch, their sides actually shaking with laughter at my +discomfiture, they having been watching me from the very moment the herd +entered the corral. It appeared that the horse Maxwell ordered the groom +to bring me was a recent importation from St. Louis, had never before +seen an Indian, and was as unused to the prairies and mountains as a +street-car mule. Kit said that my mount reminded him of one that his +antagonist in a duel rode a great many years ago when he was young. +If the animal had not been such "a fourth-of-July" brute, his opponent +would in all probability have finished him, as he was a splendid shot; +but Kit fortunately escaped, the bullet merely grazing him under the +ear, leaving a scar which he then showed me. + +One night Kit Carson, Maxwell, and I were up in the Raton Mountains +above the Old Trail, and having lingered too long, were caught above +the clouds against our will, darkness having overtaken us before we were +ready to descend into the valley. It was dangerous to undertake the trip +over such a precipitous and rocky trail, so we were compelled to make +the best of our situation. It was awfully cold, and as we had brought no +blankets, we dared not go to sleep for fear our fire might go out, +and we should freeze. We therefore determined to make a night of it by +telling yarns, smoking our pipes, and walking around at times. After +sitting awhile, Maxwell pointed toward the Spanish Peaks, whose +snow-white tops cast a diffused light in the heavens above them, and +remarked that in the deep canyon which separates them, he had had one of +the "closest calls" of his life, willingly complying when I asked him to +tell us the story. + +"It was in 1847. I came down from Taos with a party to go to the +Cimarron crossing of the Santa Fe Trail to pick up a large herd of +horses for the United States Quartermaster's Department. We succeeded in +gathering about a hundred and started back with them, letting them graze +slowly along, as we were in no hurry. When we arrived at the foot-hills +north of Bent's Fort, we came suddenly upon the trail of a large +war-band of Utes, none of whom we saw, but from subsequent developments +the savages must have discovered us days before we reached the +mountains. I knew we were not strong enough to cope with the whole Ute +nation, and concluded the best thing for us to do under the ticklish +circumstances was to make a detour, and put them off our trail. So we +turned abruptly down the Arkansas, intending to try and get to Taos +in that direction, more than one hundred and fifty miles around. It +appeared afterward that the Indians had been following us all the way. +When we found this out, some of the men believed they were another +party, and not the same whose trail we came upon when we turned down +the river, but I always insisted they were. When we arrived within a few +days' drive of Taos, we were ambushed in one of the narrow passes of the +range, and had the bloodiest fight with the Utes on record. There were +thirteen of us, all told, and two little children whom we were escorting +to their friends at Taos, having received them at the Cimarron crossing. + +"While we were quietly taking our breakfast one morning, and getting +ready to pull out for the day's march, perfectly unsuspicious of the +proximity of any Indians, they dashed in upon us, and in less than a +minute stampeded all our stock--loose animals as well as those we were +riding. While part of the savages were employed in running off the +animals, fifty of their most noted warriors, splendidly mounted and +horribly painted, rushed into the camp, around the fire of which the men +and the little children were peacefully sitting, and, discharging their +guns as they rode up, killed one man and wounded another. + +"Terribly surprised as we were, it did not turn the heads of the old +mountaineers, and I immediately told them to make a break for a clump of +timber near by, and that we would fight them as long as one of us could +stand up. There we fought and fought against fearful odds, until all +were wounded except two. The little children were captured at the +beginning of the trouble and carried off at once. After a while the +savages got tired of the hard work, and, as is frequently the case, went +away of their own free will; but they left us in a terrible plight. All +were sore, stiff, and weak from their many wounds; on foot, and without +any food or ammunition to procure game with, having exhausted our supply +in the awfully unequal battle; besides, we were miles from home, with +every prospect of starving to death. + +"We could not remain where we were, so as soon as darkness came on, we +started out to walk to some settlement. We dared not show ourselves by +daylight, and all through the long hours when the sun was up, we were +obliged to hide in the brush and ravines until night overtook us again, +and we could start on our painful march. + +"We had absolutely nothing to eat, and our wounds began to fester, so +that we could hardly move at all. We should undoubtedly have perished, +if, on the third day, a band of friendly Indians of another tribe had +not gone to Taos and reported the fight to the commanding officer of the +troops there. These Indians had heard of our trouble with the Utes, and +knowing how strong they were, and our weakness, surmised our condition, +and so hastened to convey the bad news. + +"A company of dragoons was immediately sent to our rescue, under the +guidance of Dick Wooton, who was and has ever been a warm personal +friend of mine. They came upon us about forty miles from Taos, and never +were we more surprised; we had become so starved and emaciated that +we had abandoned all hope of escaping what seemed to be our inevitable +fate. + +"When the troops found us, we had only a few rags, our clothes having +been completely stripped from our bodies while struggling through the +heavy underbrush on our trail, and we were so far exhausted that we +could not stand on our feet. One more day, and we would have been laid +out. + +"The little children were, fortunately, saved from the horror of that +terrible march after the fight, as the Indians carried them to their +winter camp, where, if not absolutely happy, they were under shelter and +fed; escaping the starvation which would certainly have been their fate +if they had remained with us. They were eventually ransomed for a cash +payment by the government, and altogether had not been very harshly +treated." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. BENT'S FORTS. + + + +The famous Bent brothers, William, George, Robert, and Charles, were +French-Canadian hunters and trappers, and had been employed almost from +boyhood, in the early days of the border, by the American Fur Company in +the mountains of the Northwest. + +In 1826, almost immediately after the transference of the fur trade to +the valley of the Arkansas, when the commerce of the prairies was fairly +initiated, the three Bents and Ceran St. Vrain, also a French-Canadian +and trapper, settled on the Upper Arkansas, where they erected a +stockade. It was, of course, a rude affair, formed of long stakes or +pickets driven into the ground, after the Mexican style known as jacal. +The sides were then ceiled and roofed, and it served its purpose of a +trading-post. This primitive fort was situated on the left or north +bank of the river, about halfway between Pueblo and Canyon City, those +beautiful mountain towns of to-day. + +Two years afterward, in 1828, the proprietors of the primitive stockade +in the remote wilderness found it necessary to move closer to the +great hunting-grounds lower down the valley. There, about twelve miles +northeast of the now thriving town of Las Animas, the Bents commenced +the construction of a relatively large and more imposing-looking +structure than the first. The principal material used in the new +building, or rather in its walls, was adobe, or sun-dried brick, so +common even to-day in New Mexican architecture. Four years elapsed +before the new fort was completed, during which period its owners, like +other trappers, lived in tents or teepees fashioned of buffalo-skins, +after the manner of the Indians. + +When at last the new station was completed, it was named Fort William, +in honour of Colonel William Bent, who was the leader of the family +and the most active trader among the four partners in the concern. +The colonel frequently made long trips to the remote villages of the +Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches, which were situated far to +the south and east, on the Canadian River and its large tributaries. His +miscellaneous assortment of merchandise he transported upon pack-mules +to the Indian rendezvous, bringing back to the fort the valuable furs +he had exchanged for the goods so eagerly coveted by the savages. It was +while on one of his trading expeditions to the Cheyenne nation that +the colonel married a young squaw of that tribe, the daughter of the +principal chief. + +William Bent for his day and time was an exceptionally good man. His +integrity, his truthfulness on all occasions, and his remarkable courage +endeared him to the red and white man alike, and Fort William prospered +wonderfully under his careful and just management. Both his brothers +and St. Vrain had taken up their residence in Taos, and upon the colonel +devolved the entire charge of the busy establishment. It soon became +the most popular rendezvous of the mountaineers and trappers, and in +its immediate vicinity several tribes of Indians took up their temporary +encampment. + +In 1852 Fort William was destroyed under the following strange +circumstances: It appears that the United States desired to purchase it. +Colonel Bent had decided upon a price--sixteen thousand dollars--but +the representatives of the War Department offered only twelve thousand, +which, of course, Bent refused. Negotiations were still pending, when +the colonel, growing tired of the red-tape and circumlocution of the +authorities, and while in a mad mood, removed all his valuables from the +structure, excepting some barrels of gunpowder, and then deliberately +set fire to the old landmark. When the flames reached the powder, there +was an explosion which threw down portions of the walls, but did not +wholly destroy them. The remains of the once noted buildings stand +to-day, melancholy relics of a past epoch. + +In the same year the indefatigable and indomitable colonel determined +upon erecting a much more important structure. He selected a site on +the same side of the Arkansas, in the locality known as Big Timbers. +Regarding this new venture, Colonel or Judge Moore of Las Animas, a +son-in-law of William Bent, tells in a letter to the author of the +history of Colorado the following facts:-- + + Leaving ten men in camp to get out stone for the new post, + Colonel Bent took a part of his outfit and went to a Kiowa + village, about two hundred miles southwest, and remained + there all winter, trading with the Kiowas and Comanches. + In the spring of 1853 he returned to Big Timbers, when + the construction of the new post was begun, and the work + continued until completed in the summer of 1854; and it + was used as a trading-post until the owner leased it to + the government in the autumn of 1859. Colonel Sedgwick had + been sent out to fight the Kiowas that year, and in the fall + a large quantity of commissary stores had been sent him. + Colonel Bent then moved up the river to a point just above + the mouth of the Purgatoire, and built several rooms of + cottonwood pickets, and there spent the winter. In the + spring of 1860, Colonel Sedgwick began the construction of + officers' buildings, company quarters, corrals, and stables, + all of stone, and named the place Fort Wise, in honour of + Governor Wise of Virginia. In 1861 the name was changed to + Fort Lyon, in honour of General Lyon, who was killed at the + battle of Wilson Creek, Missouri. In the spring of 1866, + the Arkansas River overflowed its banks, swept up into the + fort, and, undermining the walls, rendered it untenable for + military purposes. The camp was moved to a point twenty + miles below, and the new Fort Lyon established. The old + post was repaired, and used as a stage station by Barlow, + Sanderson, and Company, who ran a mail, express, and + passenger line between Kansas City and Santa Fe. + +The contiguous region to Fort William was in the early days a famous +hunting-ground. It abounded in nearly every variety of animal indigenous +to the mountains and plains, among which were the panther--the so-called +California lion of to-day--the lynx, erroneously termed wild cat, white +wolf, prairie wolf, silver-gray fox, prairie fox, antelope, buffalo, +gray, grizzly and cinnamon bears, together with the common brown and +black species, the red deer and the black-tail, the latter the finest +venison in the world. Of birds there were wild turkeys, quail, and +grouse, besides an endless variety of the smaller-sized families, not +regarded as belonging to the domain of game in a hunter's sense. It was +a veritable paradise, too, for the trappers. Its numerous streams and +creeks were famous for beaver, otter, and mink. + +Scarcely an acre of the surrounding area within the radius of hundreds +of miles but has been the scene of many deadly encounters with the +wily red man, stories of which are still current among the few old +mountaineers yet living. + +The fort was six hundred and fifty miles west of Fort Leavenworth, in +latitude thirty-eight degrees and two minutes north, and longitude one +hundred and three degrees and three minutes west, from Greenwich. The +exterior walls of the fort, whose figure was that of a parallelogram, +were fifteen feet high and four feet thick. It was a hundred and +thirty-five feet wide and divided into various compartments. On the +northwest and southeast corners were hexagonal bastions, in which were +mounted a number of cannon. The walls of the building served as the +walls of the rooms, all of which faced inwards on a plaza, after the +general style of Mexican architecture. The roofs of the rooms were made +of poles, on which was a heavy layer of dirt, as in the houses of native +Mexicans to-day. The fort possessed a billiard table, that visitors +might amuse themselves, and in the office was a small telescope with a +fair range of seven miles. + +The occupants of the far-away establishment, in its palmy days (for +years it was the only building between Council Grove and the mountains), +were traders, Indians, hunters, and French trappers, who were the +employees of the great fur companies. Many of the latter had Indian +wives. Later, after a stage line had been put in operation across the +plains to Santa Fe, the fort was relegated to a mere station for +the overland route, and with the march of civilization in its course +westward, the trappers, hunters, and traders vanished from the once +famous rendezvous. + +The walls were loopholed for musketry, and the entrance to the plaza, or +corral, was guarded by large wooden gates. During the war with Mexico, +the fort was headquarters for the commissary department, and many +supplies were stored there, though the troops camped below on the +beautiful river-bottom. In the centre of the corral, in the early days +when the place was a rendezvous of the trappers, a large buffalo-robe +press was erected. When the writer first saw the famous fort, now over a +third of a century ago, one of the cannon, that burst in firing a salute +to General Kearney, could be seen half buried in the dirt of the plaza. + +By barometrical measurements taken by the engineer officers of the army +at different times, the height of Bent's Fort above the ocean level is +approximately eight thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight feet, and +the fall of the Arkansas River from the fort to the great bend of that +stream, about three hundred and eleven miles east, is seven feet and +four-tenths per mile. + +It was in a relatively fair state of preservation thirty-three years +ago, but now not a vestige of it remains, excepting perhaps a mound +of dirt, the disintegration of the mud bricks of which the historical +structure was built. + +The Indians whose villages were located a few miles below the fort, or +at least the chief men of the various tribes, passed much of their time +within the shelter of the famous structure. They were bountifully fed, +and everything they needed furnished them. This was purely from policy, +however; for if their wishes were not gratified, their hunters would not +bring in their furs to trade. The principal chiefs never failed to +be present when a meal was announced as ready, and however scarce +provisions might be, the Indians must be fed. + +The first farm in the fertile and now valuable lands of the valley of +the Rio de las Animas[60] was opened by the Bents. The area selected for +cultivation was in the beautiful bottom between the fort and the ford, +a strip about a mile in length, and from one hundred and fifty to six +hundred feet in width. Nothing could be grown without irrigation, and +to that end an acequia, as the Mexicans call the ditch through which the +water flows, was constructed, and a crop put in. Before the enterprising +projectors of the scheme could reap a harvest, the hostile savages +dashed in and destroyed everything. + +Uncle John Smith was one of the principal traders back in the '30's, +and he was very successful, perhaps because he was undoubtedly the +most perfect master of the Cheyenne language at that time in the whole +mountain region. + +Among those who frequently came to the fort were Kit Carson, L. B. +Maxwell, Uncle Dick Wooton, Baptiste Brown, Jim Bridger, Old Bill +Williams, James Beckwourth, Shawnee Spiebuck, Shawnee Jake--the latter +two, noted Indian trappers--besides a host of others. + +The majority of the old trappers, to a stranger, until he knew their +peculiar characteristics, were seemingly of an unsociable disposition. +It was an erroneous idea, however; for they were the most genial +companions imaginable, generous to a fault, and to fall into one of +their camps was indeed a lucky thing for the lost traveller. Everything +the host had was at his guest's disposal, and though coffee and sugar +were the dearest of his luxuries, often purchased with a whole season's +trapping, the black fluid was offered with genuine free-heartedness, +and the last plug of tobacco placed at the disposition of his chance +visitor, as though it could be picked up on the ground anywhere. + +Goods brought by the traders to the rendezvous for sale to the trappers +and hunters, although of the most inferior quality, were sold at +enormously high prices. + +Coffee, by the pint-cup, which was the usual measure for everything, +cost from a dollar and twenty cents to three dollars; tobacco a dollar +and a half a plug; alcohol from two dollars to five dollars a pint; +gunpowder one dollar and sixty cents a pint-cup, and all other articles +at proportionably exorbitant rates. + +The annual gatherings of the trappers at the rendezvous were often the +scene of bloody duels; for over their cups and cards no men were more +quarrelsome than the old-time mountaineers. Rifles at twenty paces +settled all difficulties, and, as may be imagined, the fall of one or +the other of the combatants was certain, or, as sometimes happened, both +fell at the word "Fire!" + +The trapper's visits to the Mexican settlements, or to the lodges of +a tribe of Indians, for the purpose of trading, often resulted in his +returning to his quiet camp with a woman to grace his solitary home, +the loving and lonely couple as devoted to each other in the midst of +blood-thirsty enemies, howling wolves, and panthers, as if they were in +some quiet country village. + +The easy manners of the harum-scarum, reckless trappers at the +rendezvous, and the simple, unsuspecting hearts of those nymphs of the +mountains, the squaws, caused their husbands to be very jealous of the +attentions bestowed upon them by strangers. Often serious difficulties +arose, in the course of which the poor wife received a severe whipping +with the knot of a lariat, or no very light lodge-poling at the hands of +her imperious sovereign. Sometimes the affair ended in a more tragical +way than a mere beating, not infrequently the gallant paying the penalty +of his interference with his life. + +Garrard, a traveller on the great plains and in the Rocky Mountains +half a century ago, from whose excellent diary I have frequently quoted, +passed many days and nights at Bent's Fort fifty years ago, and his +quaint description of life there in that remote period of the extreme +frontier is very amusing. Its truth has often been confirmed by Uncle +John Smith, who was my guide and interpreter in the Indian expedition of +1868-69, only two decades after Garrard's experience. + +Rosalie, a half-breed French and Indian squaw, wife of the carpenter, +and Charlotte, the culinary divinity, were, as a Missouri teamster +remarked, "the only female women here." They were nightly led to the +floor to trip the light fantastic toe, and swung rudely or gently in the +mazes of the contra-dance, but such a medley of steps is seldom seen +out of the mountains--the halting, irregular march of the war-dance, +the slipping gallopade, the boisterous pitching of the Missouri +backwoodsman, and the more nice gyrations of the Frenchman; for +all, irrespective of rank, age, or colour, went pell-mell into +the excitement, in a manner that would have rendered a leveller of +aristocracies and select companies frantic with delight. And the airs +assumed by the fair ones, more particularly Charlotte, who took pattern +from life in the States, were amusing. She acted her part to perfection; +she was the centre of attraction, the belle of the evening. She treated +the suitors for the pleasure of the next set with becoming ease and +suavity of manner; she knew her worth, and managed accordingly. When the +favoured gallant stood by her side waiting for the rudely scraped tune +from a screeching fiddle, satisfaction, joy, and triumph over his rivals +were pictured on his radiant face. + +James Hobbs, of whom I have already spoken, once gave me a graphic +description of the annual feast of the Comanches, Cheyennes, and +Arapahoes, which always took place at Big Timbers, near Fort William. + +Hobbs was married to the daughter of Old Wolf, the chief of the +Comanches, a really beautiful Indian girl, with whom he lived faithfully +many years. In the early summer of 1835, he went with his father-in-law +and the rest of the tribe to the great feast of that season. He stated +that on that occasion there were forty thousand Indians assembled, and +consequently large hunting parties were sent out daily to procure food +for such a vast host. The entertainment was kept up for fifteen days, +enlivened by horse races, foot races, and playing ball. In these races +the tribes would bet their horses on the result, the Comanches generally +winning, for they are the best riders in the world. By the time the +feast was ended, the Arapahoes and Cheyennes usually found themselves +afoot, but Old Wolf, who was a generous fellow, always gave them back +enough animals to get home with. + +The game of ball was played with crooked sticks, and is very much like +the American boys' "shinny." The participants are dressed in a simple +breech-cloth and moccasins. It is played with great enthusiasm and +affords much amusement. + +At these annual feasts a council of the great chiefs of the three tribes +is always held, and at the one during the season referred to, Hobbs said +the Cheyenne chiefs wanted Old Wolf to visit Bent's Fort, where he had +never been. Upon the arrival of the delegation there, it was heartily +welcomed by all the famous men who happened to be at the place, among +whom were Kit Carson, Old John Smith, and several noted trappers. +Whiskey occupied a prominent place in the rejoicing, and "I found it +hard work," said Hobbs, "to stand the many toasts drank to my good +health." The whole party, including Old Wolf and his companion the +Cheyenne chief, got very much elated, and every person in the fort smelt +whiskey, if they did not get their feet tangled with it. + +About midnight a messenger came inside, reporting that a thousand +Comanche warriors were gathering around the fort. They demanded their +leaders, fearing treachery, and desired to know why their chief had +not returned. Hobbs went out and explained that he was safe; but +they insisted on seeing him, so he and Hobbs showed themselves to the +assembled Indians, and Old Wolf made a speech, telling them that he and +the Cheyenne chief were among good friends to the Indians, and presents +would be given to them the next morning. The warriors were pacified with +these assurances, though they did not leave the vicinity of the fort. + +It was at this time that Hobbs was ransomed by Colonel Bent, who gave +Old Wolf, for him, six yards of red flannel, a pound of tobacco, and an +ounce of beads. + +The chief was taken in charge by a lieutenant, who showed him all over +the fort, letting him see the rifle port-holes, and explaining how the +place could stand a siege against a thousand Indians. Finally, he was +taken out on the parapet, where there was a six-pounder at each angle. +The old savage inquired how they could shoot such a thing, and at Hobbs' +request, a blank cartridge was put in the piece and fired. Old Wolf +sprang back in amazement, and the Indians on the outside, under the +walls, knowing nothing of what was going on, ran away as fast as their +legs could carry them, convinced that their chief must be dead now and +their own safety dependent upon flight. Old Wolf and Hobbs sprang upon +the wall and signalled and shouted to them, and they returned, asking in +great astonishment what kind of a monstrous gun it was. + +About noon trading commenced. The Indians wished to come into the fort, +but Bent would not let any enter but the chiefs. At the back door the +colonel displayed his goods, and the Indians brought forward their +ponies, buffalo-robes, deer and other skins, which they traded for +tobacco, beads, calico, flannel, knives, spoons, whistles, jews'-harps, +etc. + +Whiskey was sold to them the first day, but as it caused several fights +among them before night, Bent stopped its sale, at Hobbs' suggestion and +with Old Wolf's consent. Indians, when they get drunk, do not waste time +by fighting with fists, like white men, but use knives and tomahawks; +so that a general scrimmage is a serious affair. Two or three deaths +resulted the first day, and there would have been many more if the sale +of whiskey had not been stopped. + +The trading continued for eight days, and Colonel Bent reaped a rich +harvest of what he could turn into gold at St. Louis. Old Wolf slept +in the fort each night except one during that time, and every time his +warriors aroused him about twelve o'clock and compelled him to show +himself on the walls to satisfy them of his safety. + +About a hundred trappers were in the employ of Bent and his partners. +Sometimes one-half of the company were off on a hunt, leaving but a +small force at the fort for its protection, but with the small battery +there its defence was considered sufficient. + +One day a trapping party, consisting of Kit Carson, "Peg-leg" Smith, and +James Hobbs, together with some Shawnee Indians, all under the lead of +Carson, started out from Bent's Fort for the Picketwire to trap beaver. + +Grizzlies were very abundant in that region then, and one of the party, +named McIntire, having killed an elk the evening before, said to Hobbs +that they might stand a good chance to find a grizzly by the elk he had +shot but had not brought in. Hobbs said that he was willing to go with +him, but as McIntire was a very green man in the mountains, Hobbs had +some doubts of depending on him in case of an attack by a grizzly bear. + +The two men left for the ravine in which McIntire had killed the elk +very early in the morning, taking with them tomahawks, hunting-knives, +rifles, and a good dog. On arriving at the ravine, Hobbs told McIntire +to cross over to the other side and climb the hill, but on no account +to go down into the ravine, as a grizzly is more dangerous when he has +a man on the downhill side. Hobbs then went to where he thought the elk +might be if he had died by the bank of the stream; but as soon as he +came near the water, he saw that a large grizzly had got there before +him, having scented the animal, and was already making his breakfast. + +The bear was in thick, scrubby oak brush, and Hobbs, making his dog lie +down, crawled behind a rock to get a favourable shot at the beast. He +drew a bead on him and fired, but the bear only snarled at the wound +made by the ball and started tearing through the brush, biting furiously +at it as he went. Hobbs reloaded his rifle carefully, and as quickly as +he could, in order to get a second shot; but, to his amazement, he saw +the bear rushing down the ravine chasing McIntire, who was only about +ten feet in advance of the enraged beast, running for his life, and +making as much noise as a mad bull. He was terribly scared, and Hobbs +hastened to his rescue, first sending his dog ahead. + +Just as the dog reached the bear, McIntire darted behind a tree and +flung his hat in the bear's face, at the same time sticking his rifle +toward him. The old grizzly seized the muzzle of the gun in his teeth, +and, as it was loaded and cocked, it either went off accidentally or +otherwise and blew the bear's head open, just as the dog had fastened +on his hindquarters. Hobbs ran to the assistance of his comrade with all +haste, but he was out of danger and had sat down a few rods away, with +his face as white as a sheet, a badly frightened man. + +After that fearful scare, McIntire would cook or do anything, but said +he never intended to make a business of bear-hunting; he had only wished +for one adventure, and this one had satisfied him. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. PAWNEE ROCK. + + + +That portion of the great central plains which radiates from Pawnee +Rock, including the Big Bend of the Arkansas, thirteen miles distant, +where that river makes a sudden sweep to the southeast, and the +beautiful valley of the Walnut, in all its vast area of more than a +million square acres, was from time immemorial a sort of debatable land, +occupied by none of the Indian tribes, but claimed by all to hunt in; +for it was a famous pasturage of the buffalo. + +None of the various bands had the temerity to attempt its permanent +occupancy; for whenever hostile tribes met there, which was of frequent +occurrence, in their annual hunt for their winter's supply of meat, a +bloody battle was certain to ensue. The region referred to has been the +scene of more sanguinary conflicts between the different Indians of the +plains, perhaps, than any other portion of the continent. Particularly +was it the arena of war to the death, when the Pawnees met their +hereditary enemies, the Cheyennes. + +Pawnee Rock was a spot well calculated by nature to form, as it has +done, an important rendezvous and ambuscade for the prowling savages of +the prairies, and often afforded them, especially the once powerful and +murderous Pawnees whose name it perpetuates, a pleasant little retreat +or eyrie from which to watch the passing Santa Fe traders, and dash down +upon them like hawks, to carry off their plunder and their scalps. + +Through this once dangerous region, close to the silent Arkansas, and +running under the very shadow of the rock, the Old Trail wound its +course. Now, at this point, it is the actual road-bed of the Atchison, +Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, so strangely are the past and present +transcontinental highways connected here. + +Who, among bearded and grizzled old fellows like myself, has forgotten +that most sensational of all the miserably executed illustrations in +the geographies of fifty years ago, "The Santa Fe Traders attacked by +Indians"? The picture located the scene of the fight at Pawnee Rock, +which formed a sort of nondescript shadow in the background of a crudely +drawn representation of the dangers of the Trail. + +If this once giant sentinel[61] of the plains might speak, what a story +it could tell of the events that have happened on the beautiful prairie +stretching out for miles at its feet! + +In the early fall, when the rock was wrapped in the soft amber haze +which is a distinguishing characteristic of the incomparable Indian +summer on the plains; or in the spring, when the mirage weaves its +mysterious shapes, it loomed up in the landscape as if it were a huge +mountain, and to the inexperienced eye appeared as if it were the abrupt +ending of a well-defined range. But when the frost came, and the mists +were dispelled; when the thin fringe of timber on the Walnut, a few +miles distant, had doffed its emerald mantle, and the grass had grown +yellow and rusty, then in the golden sunlight of winter, the rock sank +down to its normal proportions, and cut the clear blue of the sky with +sharply marked lines. + +In the days when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, the Pawnees +were the most formidable tribe on the eastern central plains, and the +freighters and trappers rarely escaped a skirmish with them either at +the crossing of the Walnut, Pawnee Rock, the Fork of the Pawnee, or at +Little and Big Coon creeks. To-day what is left of the historic hill +looks down only upon peaceful homes and fruitful fields, whereas for +hundreds of years it witnessed nothing but battle and death, and almost +every yard of brown sod at its base covered a skeleton. In place of the +horrid yell of the infuriated savage, as he wrenched off the reeking +scalp of his victim, the whistle of the locomotive and the pleasant +whirr of the reaping-machine is heard; where the death-cry of the +painted warrior rang mournfully over the silent prairie, the waving +grain is singing in beautiful rhythm as it bows to the summer breeze. + +Pawnee Rock received its name in a baptism of blood, but there are +many versions as to the time and sponsors. It was there that Kit Carson +killed his first Indian, and from that fight, as he told me himself, the +broken mass of red sandstone was given its distinctive title. + +It was late in the spring of 1826; Kit was then a mere boy, only +seventeen years old, and as green as any boy of his age who had never +been forty miles from the place where he was born. Colonel Ceran St. +Vrain, then a prominent agent of one of the great fur companies, was +fitting out an expedition destined for the far-off Rocky Mountains, the +members of which, all trappers, were to obtain the skins of the buffalo, +beaver, otter, mink, and other valuable fur-bearing animals that then +roamed in immense numbers on the vast plains or in the hills, and were +also to trade with the various tribes of Indians on the borders of +Mexico. + +Carson joined this expedition, which was composed of twenty-six mule +wagons, some loose stock, and forty-two men. The boy was hired to help +drive the extra animals, hunt game, stand guard, and to make himself +generally useful, which, of course, included fighting Indians if any +were met with on the long route. + +The expedition left Fort Osage one bright morning in May in excellent +spirits, and in a few hours turned abruptly to the west on the broad +Trail to the mountains. The great plains in those early days were +solitary and desolate beyond the power of description; the Arkansas +River sluggishly followed the tortuous windings of its treeless banks +with a placidness that was awful in its very silence; and whoso traced +the wanderings of that stream with no companion but his own thoughts, +realized in all its intensity the depth of solitude from which Robinson +Crusoe suffered on his lonely island. Illimitable as the ocean, the +weary waste stretched away until lost in the purple of the horizon, and +the mirage created weird pictures in the landscape, distorted distances +and objects which continually annoyed and deceived. Despite its +loneliness, however, there was then, and ever has been for many men, an +infatuation for those majestic prairies that once experienced is never +lost, and it came to the boyish heart of Kit, who left them but with +life, and full of years. + +There was not much variation in the eternal sameness of things during +the first two weeks, as the little train moved day after day through +the wilderness of grass, its ever-rattling wheels only intensifying +the surrounding monotony. Occasionally, however, a herd of buffalo was +discovered in the distance, their brown, shaggy sides contrasting with +the never-ending sea of verdure around them. Then young Kit, and two or +three others of the party who were detailed to supply the teamsters and +trappers with meat, would ride out after them on the best of the extra +horses which were always kept saddled and tied together behind the +last wagon for services of this kind. Kit, who was already an excellent +horseman and a splendid shot with the rifle, would soon overtake them, +and topple one after another of their huge fat carcasses over on the +prairie until half a dozen or more were lying dead. The tender humps, +tongues, and other choice portions were then cut out and put in a wagon +which had by that time reached them from the train, and the expedition +rolled on. + +So they marched for about three weeks, when they arrived at the crossing +of the Walnut, where they saw the first signs of Indians. They had +halted for that day; the mules were unharnessed, the camp-fires lighted, +and the men just about to indulge in their refreshing coffee, when +suddenly half a dozen Pawnees, mounted on their ponies, hideously +painted and uttering the most demoniacal yells, rushed out of the tall +grass on the river-bottom, where they had been ambushed, and swinging +their buffalo-robes, attempted to stampede the herd picketed near the +camp. The whole party were on their feet in an instant with rifles in +hand, and all the savages got for their trouble were a few well-deserved +shots as they hurriedly scampered back to the river and over into the +sand hills on the other side, soon to be out of sight. + +The expedition travelled sixteen miles next day, and camped at +Pawnee Rock, where, after the experience of the evening before, every +precaution was taken to prevent a surprise by the savages. The wagons +were formed into a corral, so that the animals could be secured in the +event of a prolonged fight; the guards were drilled by the colonel, and +every man slept with his rifle for a bed-fellow, for the old trappers +knew that the Indians would never remain satisfied with their defeat on +the Walnut, but would seize the first favourable opportunity to renew +their attack. + +At dark the sentinels were placed in position, and to young Kit fell +the important post immediately in front of the south face of the Rock, +nearly two hundred yards from the corral; the others being at prominent +points on top, and on the open prairie on either side. All who were not +on duty had long since been snoring heavily, rolled up in their blankets +and buffalo-robes, when at about half-past eleven, one of the guard gave +the alarm, "Indians!" and ran the mules that were nearest him into the +corral. In a moment the whole company turned out at the report of a +rifle ringing on the clear night air, coming from the direction of the +rock. The men had gathered at the opening to the corral, waiting for +developments, when Kit came running in, and as soon as he was near +enough, the colonel asked him whether he had seen any Indians. "Yes," +Kit replied, "I killed one of the red devils; I saw him fall!" + +The alarm proved to be false; there was no further disturbance that +night, so the party returned to their beds, and the sentinels to their +several posts, Kit of course to his place in front of the Rock. + +Early the next morning, before breakfast even, all were so anxious to +see Kit's dead Indian, that they went out en masse to where he was still +stationed, and instead of finding a painted Pawnee, as was expected, +they found the boy's riding mule dead, shot right through the head. + +Kit felt terribly mortified over his ridiculous blunder, and it was a +long time before he heard the last of his midnight adventure and his +raid on his own mule. But he always liked to tell the "balance of the +story," as he termed it, and this is his version: "I had not slept +any the night before, for I stayed awake watching to get a shot at the +Pawnees that tried to stampede our animals, expecting they would return; +and I hadn't caught a wink all day, as I was out buffalo hunting, so +I was awfully tired and sleepy when we arrived at Pawnee Rock that +evening, and when I was posted at my place at night, I must have gone +to sleep leaning against the rocks; at any rate, I was wide enough awake +when the cry of Indians was given by one of the guard. I had picketed +my mule about twenty steps from where I stood, and I presume he had been +lying down; all I remember is that the first thing I saw after the alarm +was something rising up out of the grass, which I thought was an Indian. +I pulled the trigger; it was a centre shot, and I don't believe the mule +ever kicked after he was hit!" + +The next morning about daylight, a band of Pawnees attacked the train in +earnest, and kept the little command busy all that day, the next night, +and until the following midnight, nearly three whole days, the mules all +the time being shut in the corral without food or water. At midnight of +the second day the colonel ordered the men to hitch up and attempt to +drive on to the crossing of Pawnee Fork, thirteen miles distant.[62] +They succeeded in getting there, fighting their way without the loss of +any of their men or animals. The Trail crossed the creek in the shape of +a horseshoe, or rather, in consequence of the double bend of the stream +as it empties into the Arkansas, the road crossed it twice. In making +this passage, dangerous on account of its crookedness, Kit said many +of the wagons were badly mashed up; for the mules were so thirsty that +their drivers could not control them. The train was hardly strung out on +the opposite bank when the Indians poured in a volley of bullets and +a shower of arrows from both sides of the Trail; but before they could +load and fire again, a terrific charge was on them, led by Colonel St. +Vrain and Carson. It required only a few moments more to clean out the +persistent savages, and the train went on. During the whole fight the +little party lost four men killed and seven wounded, and eleven mules +killed (not counting Kit's), and twenty badly wounded. + +A great many years ago, very early in the days of the trade with New +Mexico, seven Americans were surprised by a large band of Pawnees in +the vicinity of the Rock and were compelled to retreat to it for safety. +There, without water, and with but a small quantity of provisions, they +were besieged by their blood-thirsty foes for two days, when a party of +traders coming on the Trail relieved them from their perilous situation +and the presence of their enemy. There were several graves on its summit +when I first saw Pawnee Rock; but whether they contained the bones of +savages or those of white men, I do not know. + +Carson related to me another terrible fight that took place at the rock, +when he first became a trapper. He was not a participant, but knew the +parties well. About twenty-nine years ago, Kit, Jack Henderson, who +was agent for the Ute Indians, Lucien B. Maxwell, General Carleton and +myself were camped halfway up the rugged sides of Old Baldy, in the +Raton Range. The night was intensely cold, although in midsummer, and +we were huddled around a little fire of pine knots, more than seven +thousand feet above the level of the sea, close to the snow limit. + +Kit, or "the General," as every one called him, was in a good humour for +talking, and we naturally took advantage of this to draw him out; for +usually he was the most reticent of men in relating his own exploits. +A casual remark made by Maxwell opened Carson's mouth, and he said he +remembered one of the "worst difficults" a man ever got into.[63] So he +made a fresh corn-shuck cigarette, and related the following; but the +names of the old trappers who were the principals in the fight I have +unfortunately forgotten. + +Two men had been trapping in the Powder River country during one winter +with unusually good luck, and they got an early start with their furs, +which they were going to take to Weston, on the Missouri, one of the +principal trading points in those days. They walked the whole distance, +driving their pack-mules before them, and experienced no trouble +until they struck the Arkansas valley at Pawnee Rock. There they were +intercepted by a war-party of about sixty Pawnees. Both of the trappers +were notoriously brave and both dead shots. Before they arrived at the +rock, to which they were finally driven, they killed two of the Indians, +and had not themselves received a scratch. They had plenty of powder, a +pouch full of balls each, and two good rifles. They also had a couple of +jack-rabbits for food in case of a siege, and the perpendicular walls +of the front of the rock made them a natural fortification, an almost +impregnable one against Indians. + +They succeeded in securely picketing their animals at the side of the +rock, where they could protect them by their unerring rifles from being +stampeded. After the Pawnees had "treed" the two trappers on the rock, +they picked up their dead, and packed them off to their camp at the +mouth of a little ravine a short distance away. In a few moments back +they all came, mounted on fast ponies, with their war-paint and other +fixings on, ready to renew the fight. They commenced to circle around +the place, coming closer, Indian fashion, every time, until they got +within easy rifle-range, when they slung themselves on the opposite +sides of their horses, and in that position opened fire. Their arrows +fell like a hailstorm, but as good luck would have it, none of them +struck, and the balls from their rifles were wild, as the Indians in +those days were not very good shots; the rifle was a new weapon to them. +The trappers at first were afraid the savages would surely try to kill +the mules, but soon reflected that the Indians believed they had the +"dead-wood" on them, and the mules would come handy after they had been +scalped; so they felt satisfied their animals were safe for a while +anyhow. The men were taking in all the chances, however; both kept their +eyes skinned, and whenever one of them saw a stray leg or head, he drew +a bead on it and when he pulled the trigger, its owner tumbled over with +a yell of rage from his companions. + +Whenever the savages attempted to carry off their dead,[64] the two +trappers took advantage of the opportunity, and poured in their shots +every time with telling effect. + +By this time night had fallen, and the Indians did not seem anxious to +renew the fight after dark; but they kept their mounted patrols on +every side of the rock, at a respectable distance from such dead shots, +watching to prevent the escape of the besieged. As they were hungry, +one of the men went down under cover of the darkness to get a few +buffalo-chips with which to cook their rabbit, and to change the animals +to where they could get fresh grass. He returned safely to the summit of +the rock, where a little fire was made and their supper prepared. They +had to go without water all the time, and so did the mules; the men +did not mind the want of it themselves, but they could not help pitying +their poor animals that had had none since they left camp early that +morning. It was no use to worry, though; the nearest water was at the +river, and it would have been certain death to have attempted to go +there unless the savages cleared out, and from all appearances they had +no idea of doing that. + +What gave the trappers more cause for alarm than anything else, was +the fear that the Indians would fire the prairie in the morning, and +endeavour to smoke them out or burn them up. The grass was in just the +condition to make a lively blaze, and they might escape the flames, and +then they might not. It can well be imagined how eagerly they watched +for the dawn of another day, perhaps the last for them. + +The first gray streaks of light had hardly peeped above the horizon, +when, with an infernal yell, the Indians broke for the rock, and the +trappers were certain that some new project had entered their heads. The +wind was springing up pretty freshly, and nature seemed to conspire with +the red devils, if they really meant to burn the trappers out; and from +the movements of the savages, that was what they expected. The Indians +kept at a respectful distance from the range of the trappers' rifles, +who chafed because they could not stop some of the infernal yelling with +a few well-directed bullets, but they had to choke their rage, and +watch events closely. During a temporary lull in hostilities, one of the +trappers took occasion to crawl down to where the mules were, and shift +them to the west side of the rock, where the wall was the highest; so +that the flame and smoke might possibly pass by them without so much +danger as where they were picketed before. He had just succeeded in +doing this, and, tearing up the long grass for several yards around the +animals, was in the act of going back, when his partner yelled out to +him: "Look out! D---n 'em, they've fired the prairie!" He was back on +the top of the rock in another moment, and took in at a glance what was +coming. + +The spectacle for a short interval was indescribably grand; the sun was +shining with all the power of its rays on the huge clouds of smoke as +they rolled down from the north, tinting them a glorious crimson. +The two trappers had barely time to get under the shelter of a large +projecting point of the rocky wall, when the wind and smoke swept down +to the ground, and instantly they were enveloped in the darkness of +midnight. They could not discern a single object; neither Indians, +horses, the prairie, nor the sun; and what a terrible wind! + +The trappers stood breathless, clinging to the projections of rock, and +did not realize the fire was so near them until they were struck in the +face by pieces of burning buffalo-chips that were carried toward them +with the rapidity of the awful wind. They were now badly scared, for +it seemed as if they were to be suffocated. They were saved, however, +almost miraculously; the sheet of flame passed them twenty yards away, +as the wind fortunately shifted at the moment the fire reached the foot +of the rock. The darkness was so intense that they did not discover the +flame; they only knew that they were saved as the clear sky greeted them +from behind the dense smoke-cloud. + +Two of the Indians and their horses were caught in their own trap, and +perished miserably. They had attempted to reach the east side of the +rock, so as to steal around to the other side where the mules were, and +either cut them loose or crawl up on the trappers while bewildered in +the smoke and kill them, if they were not already dead. But they had +proceeded only a few rods on their little expedition, when the terrible +darkness of the smoke-cloud overtook them and soon the flames, from +which there was no possible escape. + +All the game on the prairie which the fire swept over was killed too. +Only a few buffalo were visible in that region before the fire, but +even they were killed. The path of the flames, as was discovered by the +caravans that passed over the Trail a few days afterward, was marked +with the crisp and blackened carcasses of wolves, coyotes, turkeys, +grouse, and every variety of small birds indigenous to the region. +Indeed, it seemed as if no living thing it had met escaped its fury. +The fire assumed such gigantic proportions, and moved with such rapidity +before the wind, that even the Arkansas River did not check its path for +a moment; it was carried as readily across as if the stream had not been +in its way. + +The first thought of the trappers on the rock was for their poor mules. +One crawled to where they were, and found them badly singed, but not +seriously injured. The men began to brighten up again when they knew +that their means of transportation were relatively all right, and +themselves also, and they took fresh courage, beginning to believe they +should get out of their bad scrape after all. + +In the meantime the Indians, with the exception of three or four left +to guard the rock, so as to prevent the trappers from getting away, had +gone back to their camp in the ravine, and were evidently concocting +some new scheme for the discomfort of the besieged trappers. The latter +waited patiently two or three hours for the development of events, +snatching a little sleep by turns, which they needed much; for both +were worn out by their constant watching. At last when the sun was about +three hours high, the Indians commenced their infernal howling again, +and then the trappers knew they had decided upon something; so they were +on the alert in a moment to discover what it was, and euchre them if +possible. + +The devils this time had tied all their ponies together, covered them +with branches of trees that they had gone up on the Walnut for, packed +some lodge-skins on these, and then, driving the living breastworks +before them, moved toward the rock. They proceeded cautiously but +surely, and matters began to look very serious for the trappers. As the +strange cavalcade approached, a trapper raised his rifle, and a masked +pony tumbled over on the scorched sod dead. As one of the Indians ran +to cut him loose, the other trapper took him off his feet by a +well-directed shot; he never uttered a groan. The besieged now saw their +only salvation was to kill the ponies and so demoralize the Indians that +they would have to abandon such tactics, and quicker than I can tell it, +they had stretched four more out on the prairie, and made it so hot for +the savages that they ran out of range and began to hold a council of +war. + +Finding that their plan would not work--for as the last pony was shot, +the rest stampeded and were running wild over the prairie--the Indians +soon went back to their camp again, and the trappers now had a few spare +moments in which to take an account of stock. They discovered, much to +their chagrin, that they had used up all their ammunition except three +or four loads, and despair hovered over them once more. + +The Indians did not reappear that evening, and the cause was apparent; +for in the distance could be seen a long line of wagons, one of the +large American caravans en route to Santa Fe. The savages had seen +it before the trappers, and had cleared out. When the train arrived +opposite the rock, the relieved men came down from their little +fortress, joined the caravan, and camped with the Americans that night +on the Walnut. While they were resting around their camp-fire, smoking +and telling of their terrible experience on the top of the rock, the +Indians could be heard chanting the death-song while they were burying +their warriors under the blackened sod of the prairie. + +I witnessed a spirited encounter between a small band of Cheyennes and +Pawnees in the fall of 1867. It occurred on the open prairie north of +the mouth of the Walnut, and not a great distance from Pawnee Rock. Both +tribes were hunting buffalo, and when they, by accident, discovered the +presence of each other, with a yell that fairly shook the sand dunes on +the Arkansas, they rushed at once into the shock of battle. + +That night, in a timbered bend of the Walnut, the victors had a grand +dance, in which scalps, ears, and fingers of their enemies, suspended by +strings to long poles, were important accessories to their weird orgies +around their huge camp-fires.[65] + +One of the most horrible massacres in the history of the Trail occurred +at Little Cow Creek in the summer of 1864. In July of that year a +government caravan, loaded with military stores for Fort Union in New +Mexico, left Fort Leavenworth for the long and dangerous journey of more +than seven hundred miles over the great plains, which that season were +infested by Indians to a degree almost without precedent in the annals +of freight traffic. + +The train was owned by a Mr. H. C. Barret, a contractor with the +quartermaster's department; but he declined to take the chances of the +trip unless the government would lease the outfit in its entirety, or +give him an indemnifying bond as assurance against any loss. The chief +quartermaster executed the bond as demanded, and Barret hired his +teamsters for the hazardous journey; but he found it a difficult matter +to induce men to go out that season. + +Among those whom he persuaded to enter his employ was a mere boy, named +McGee, who came wandering into Leavenworth a few weeks before the train +was ready to leave, seeking work of any description. His parents had +died on their way to Kansas, and on his arrival at Westport Landing, the +emigrant outfit that had extended to him shelter and protection in his +utter loneliness was disbanded; so the youthful orphan was thrown on his +own resources. At that time the Indians of the great plains, especially +along the line of the Santa Fe Trail, were very hostile, and continually +harassing the freight caravans and stage-coaches of the overland route. +Companies of men were enlisting and being mustered into the United +States service to go out after the savages, and young Robert McGee +volunteered with hundreds of others for the dangerous duty. The +government needed men badly, but McGee's youth militated against +him, and he was below the required stature; so he was rejected by the +mustering officer. + +Mr. Barret, in hunting for teamsters to drive his caravan, came across +McGee, who, supposing that he was hiring as a government employee, +accepted Mr. Barret's offer. + +By the last day of June the caravan was all ready, and on the morning of +the next day, July 1, the wagons rolled out of the fort, escorted by a +company of United States troops, from the volunteers referred to. + +The caravan wound its weary way over the lonesome Trail with nothing +to relieve the monotony save a few skirmishes with the Indians; but no +casualties occurred in these insignificant battles, the savages being +afraid to venture too near on account of the presence of the military +escort. + +On the 18th of July, the caravan arrived in the vicinity of Fort Larned. +There it was supposed that the proximity of that military post would be +a sufficient guarantee from any attack of the savages; so the men of +the train became careless, and as the day was excessively hot, they went +into camp early in the afternoon, the escort remaining in bivouac about +a mile in the rear of the train. + +About five o'clock, a hundred and fifty painted savages, under the +command of Little Turtle of the Brule Sioux, swooped down on the +unsuspecting caravan while the men were enjoying their evening meal. Not +a moment was given them to rally to the defence of their lives, and of +all belonging to the outfit, with the exception of one boy, not a soul +came out alive. + +The teamsters were every one of them shot dead and their bodies horribly +mutilated. After their successful raid, the savages destroyed everything +they found in the wagons, tearing the covers into shreds, throwing +the flour on the trail, and winding up by burning everything that was +combustible. + +On the same day the commanding officer of Fort Larned had learned from +some of his scouts that the Brule Sioux were on the war-path, and +the chief of the scouts with a handful of soldiers was sent out to +reconnoitre. They soon struck the trail of Little Turtle and followed it +to the scene of the massacre on Cow Creek, arriving there only two hours +after the savages had finished their devilish work. Dead men were lying +about in the short buffalo-grass which had been stained and matted by +their flowing blood, and the agonized posture of their bodies told far +more forcibly than any language the tortures which had come before a +welcome death. All had been scalped; all had been mutilated in that +nameless manner which seems to delight the brutal instincts of the North +American savage. + +Moving slowly from one to the other of the lifeless forms which still +showed the agony of their death-throes, the chief of the scouts came +across the bodies of two boys, both of whom had been scalped and +shockingly wounded, besides being mutilated, yet, strange to say, both +of them were alive. As tenderly as the men could lift them, they were +conveyed at once back to Fort Larned and given in charge of the post +surgeon. One of the boys died in a few hours after his arrival in the +hospital, but the other, Robert McGee, slowly regained his strength, and +came out of the ordeal in fairly good health. + +The story of the massacre was related by young McGee, after he was +able to talk, while in the hospital at the fort; for he had not lost +consciousness during the suffering to which he was subjected by the +savages. + +He was compelled to witness the tortures inflicted on his wounded and +captive companions, after which he was dragged into the presence of the +chief, Little Turtle, who determined that he would kill the boy with his +own hands. He shot him in the back with his own revolver, having first +knocked him down with a lance handle. He then drove two arrows through +the unfortunate boy's body, fastening him to the ground, and stooping +over his prostrate form ran his knife around his head, lifting +sixty-four square inches of his scalp, trimming it off just behind his +ears. + +Believing him dead by that time, Little Turtle abandoned his victim; but +the other savages, as they went by his supposed corpse, could not resist +their infernal delight in blood, so they thrust their knives into him, +and bored great holes in his body with their lances. + +After the savages had done all that their devilish ingenuity could +contrive, they exultingly rode away, yelling as they bore off the +reeking scalps of their victims, and drove away the hundreds of mules +they had captured. + +When the tragedy was ended, the soldiers, who had from their +vantage-ground witnessed the whole diabolical transaction, came up +to the bloody camp by order of their commander, to learn whether the +teamsters had driven away their assailants, and saw too late what their +cowardice had allowed to take place. The officer in command of the +escort was dismissed the service, as he could not give any satisfactory +reason for not going to the rescue of the caravan he had been ordered to +guard. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. + + + +The Wagon Mound, so called from its resemblance to a covered army-wagon, +is a rocky mesa forty miles from Point of Rocks, westwardly. The stretch +of the Trail from the latter to the mound has been the scene of some +desperate encounters, only exceeded in number and sanguinary results by +those which have occurred in the region of Pawnee Rock, the crossing of +the Walnut, Pawnee Fork, and Cow Creek. + +One of the most remarkable stories of this Wagon Mound country dealt +with the nerve and bravery exhibited by John L. Hatcher in defence of +his life, and those of the men in his caravan, about 1858. + +Hatcher was a noted trader and merchant of New Mexico. He was also +celebrated as an Indian fighter, and his name was a terror to the +savages who infested the settlements of New Mexico and raided the Trail. + +He left Taos, where he then resided, in the summer, with his caravan +loaded with furs and pelts destined for Westport Landing; to be +forwarded from there to St. Louis, the only market for furs in the far +West. His train was a small one, comprising about fifteen wagons and +handled by about as many men, including himself. At the date of his +adventure the Indians were believed to be at peace with everybody; a +false idea, as Hatcher well knew, for there never was such a condition +of affairs as absolute immunity from their attacks. While it might be +true that the old men refrained for a time from starting out on the +war-path, there were ever the vastly greater number of restless young +warriors who had not yet earned their eagle feathers, who could not be +controlled by their chiefs, and who were always engaged in marauding, +either among the border settlements or along the line of the Trail. + +When Hatcher was approaching the immediate vicinity of Wagon Mound,[66] +with his train strung out in single column, to his great astonishment +there suddenly charged on him from over the hill about three hundred +savages, all feather-bedecked and painted in the highest style of Indian +art. As they rode toward the caravan, they gave the sign of peace, +which Hatcher accepted for the time as true, although he knew them well. +However, he invited the head men to some refreshment, as was usual on +such occasions in those days, throwing a blanket on the ground, on which +sugar in abundance was served out. The sweet-toothed warriors helped +themselves liberally, and affected much delight at the way they were +being treated; but Hatcher, with his knowledge of the savage character, +was firm in the belief that they came for no other purpose than to rob +the caravan and kill him and his men. + +They were Comanches, and one of the most noted chiefs of the tribe was +in command of the band, with some inferior chiefs under him. I think it +was Old Wolf, a very old man then, whose raids into Texas had made his +name a terror to the Mexicans living on the border. + +While the chiefs were eating their saccharine lunch, Hatcher was losing +no time in forming his wagons into a corral, but he told his friends +afterward that he had no idea that either he or any of his men would +escape; only fifteen or sixteen men against over three hundred merciless +savages, and those the worst on the continent, and a small corral--the +chances were totally hopeless! Nothing but a desperate action could +avail, and maybe not even that.[67] Hatcher, after the other head men +had finished eating, asked the old chief to send his young warriors away +over the hill. They were all sitting close to one of the wagons, Old +Wolf, in fact, leaning against the wheel resting on his blanket, with +Hatcher next him on his right. Hatcher was so earnest in his appeal to +have the young men sent away, that both the venerable villain and his +other chiefs rose and were standing. Without a moment's notice or the +slightest warning, Hatcher reached with his left hand and grabbed Old +Wolf by his scalp-lock, and with his right drew his butcher-knife from +its scabbard and thrust it at the throat of the chief. All this was +done in an instant, as quick as lightning; no one had time to move. The +situation was remarkable. The little, wiry man, surrounded by eight or +nine of the most renowned warriors of the dreaded Comanches, stood firm; +everybody was breathless; not a word did the savages say. Hatcher then +said again to Old Wolf, in the most determined manner: "Send your +young men over the hill at once, or I'll kill you right where you are!" +holding on to the hair of the savage with his left hand and keeping the +knife at his throat. + +The other Indians did not dare to make a move; they knew what kind of a +man Hatcher was; they knew he would do as he had said, and that if they +attempted a rescue he would kill their favourite chief in a second. + +Old Wolf shook his head defiantly in the negative. Hatcher repeated his +order, getting madder all the time: "Send your young men over the hill; +I tell you!" Old Wolf was still stubborn; he shook his head again. +Hatcher gave him another chance: "Send your young men over the hill, I +tell you, or I'll scalp you alive as you are!" Again the chief shook his +head. Then Hatcher, still holding on the hair of his stubborn victim, +commenced to make an incision in the head of Old Wolf, for the +determined man was bound to carry out his threat; but he began very +slowly. + +As the chief felt the blood trickle down his forehead, he weakened. He +ordered his next in command to send the young men over the hill and out +of sight. The order was repeated immediately to the warriors, who were +astonished spectators of the strange scene, and they quickly mounted +their horses and rode away over the hill as fast as they could thump +their animals' sides with their legs, leaving only five or six chiefs +with Old Wolf and Hatcher. + +Hatcher held on like grim death to the old chief's head, and immediately +ordered his men to throw the robes out of the wagons as quickly as they +could, and get inside themselves. This was promptly obeyed, and when +they were all under the cover of the wagon sheets, Hatcher let go of his +victim's hair, and, with a last kick, told him and his friends that they +could leave. They went off, and did not return. + +Some laughable incidents have enlivened the generally sanguinary history +of the Old Santa Fe Trail, but they were very serious at the time to +those who were the actors, and their ludicrousness came after all was +over. + +In the late summer of 1866, a thieving band of Apaches came into the +vicinity of Fort Union, New Mexico, and after carefully reconnoitring +the whole region and getting at the manner in which the stock belonging +to the fort was herded, they secreted themselves in the Turkey Mountains +overlooking the entire reservation, and lay in wait for several days, +watching for a favourable moment to make a raid into the valley and +drive off the herd. + +Selecting an occasion when the guard was weak and not very alert, they +in broad daylight crawled under the cover of a hill, and, mounting their +horses, dashed out with the most unearthly yells and down among the +animals that were quietly grazing close to the fort, which terrified +these so greatly that they broke away from the herders, and started at +their best gait toward the mountains, closely followed by the savages. + +The astonished soldiers used every effort to avert the evident loss of +their charge, and many shots were exchanged in the running fight that +ensued; but the Indians were too strong for them, and they were forced +to abandon the chase. + +Among the herders was a bugler boy, who was remarkable for his bravery +in the skirmish and for his untiring endeavours to turn the animals back +toward the fort, but all without avail; on they went, with the savages, +close to their heels, giving vent to the most vociferous shouts of +exultation, and directing the most obscene and insulting gesticulations +to the soldiers that were after them. + +While this exciting contest for the mastery was going on, an old Apache +chief dashed in the rear of the bold bugler boy, and could, without +doubt, easily have killed the little fellow; but instead of doing +this, from some idea of a good joke, or for some other incomprehensible +reason, his natural blood-thirsty instinct was changed, and he merely +knocked the bugler's hat from his head with the flat of his hand, and +at the same time encouragingly stroked his hair, as much as to say: "You +are a brave boy," and then rode off without doing him any harm. + +Thirty years ago last August, I was riding from Fort Larned to Fort +Union, New Mexico, in the overland coach. I had one of my clerks with +me; we were the only passengers, and arrived at Fort Dodge, which was +the commencement of the "long route," at midnight. There we changed +drivers, and at the break of day were some twenty-four miles on our +lonely journey. The coach was rattling along at a breakneck gait, and I +saw that something was evidently wrong. Looking out of one of the doors, +I noticed that our Jehu was in a beastly state of intoxication. It was a +most dangerous portion of the Trail; the Indians were not in the best +of humours, and an attack was not at all improbable before we arrived at +the next station, Fort Lyon. + +I said to my clerk that something must be done; so I ordered the +driver to halt, which he did willingly, got out, and found that, +notwithstanding his drunken mood, he was very affable and disposed to +be full of fun. I suggested that he get inside the coach and lie down +to sleep off his potations, to which he readily assented, while I and +my clerk, after snugly fixing him on the cushions, got on the boot, I +taking the lines, he seizing an old trace-chain, with which he pounded +the mules along; for we felt ourselves in a ticklish predicament should +we come across any of the brigands of the plains, on that lonely route, +with the animals to look out for, and only two of us to do the fighting. + +Suddenly we saw sitting on the bank of the Arkansas River, about a dozen +rods from the Trail, an antiquated-looking savage with his war-bonnet +on, and armed with a long lance and his bow and arrows. We did not care +a cent for him, but I thought he might be one of the tribe's runners, +lying in wait to discover the condition of the coach--whether it had an +escort, and how many were riding in it, and that then he would go and +tell how ridiculously small the outfit was, and swoop down on us with +a band of his colleagues, that were hidden somewhere in the sand hills +south of the river. He rose as we came near, and made the sign, after +he had given vent to a series of "How's!" that he wanted to talk; but +we were not anxious for any general conversation with his savage majesty +just then, so my clerk applied the trace-chain more vigorously to the +tired mules, in order to get as many miles between him and the coach as +we could before he could get over into the sand hills and back. + +It was, fortunately, a false alarm; the old warrior perhaps had no +intentions of disturbing us. We arrived at Fort Lyon in good season, +with our valorous driver absolutely sobered, requesting me to say +nothing about his accident, which, of course, I did not. + +As has been stated, the caravans bound for Santa Fe and the various +forts along the line of the Old Trail did not leave the eastern end of +the route until the grass on the plains, on which the animals depended +solely for subsistence the whole way, grew sufficiently to sustain them, +which was usually about the middle of May. But a great many years +ago, one of the high officials of the quartermaster's department at +Washington, who had never been for a moment on duty on the frontier +in his life, found a good deal of fault with what he thought the +dilatoriness of the officer in charge at Fort Leavenworth, who +controlled the question of transportation for the several forts +scattered all over the West, for not getting the freight caravans +started earlier, which the functionary at the capital said must and +should be done. He insisted that they must leave the Missouri River by +the middle of April, a month earlier than usual, and came out himself +to superintend the matter. He made the contracts accordingly, easily +finding contractors that suited him. He then wrote to headquarters in +a triumphant manner that he had revolutionized the whole system of army +transportation of supplies to the military posts. Delighted with his +success, he rode out about the second week of May to Salt Creek, only +three miles from the fort, and, very much to his astonishment, found his +teams, which he had believed to be on the way to Santa Fe a month ago, +snugly encamped. They had "started," just as was agreed. + +There are, or rather were, hundreds of stories current thirty-five years +ago of stage-coach adventures on the Trail; a volume could be filled +with them, but I must confine myself to a few. + +John Chisholm was a famous ranchman a long while ago, who had so many +cattle that it was said he did not know their number himself. At one +time he had a large contract to furnish beef to an Indian agency in +Arizona; he had just delivered an immense herd there, and very wisely, +after receiving his cash for them, sent most of it on to Santa Fe in +advance of his own journey. When he arrived there, he started for the +Missouri River with a thousand dollars and sufficient small change to +meet his current expenses on the road. + +The very first night out from Santa Fe, the coach was halted by a band +of men who had been watching Chisholm's movements from the time he +left the agency in Arizona. The instant the stage came to a standstill, +Chisholm divined what it meant, and had time to thrust a roll of money +down one of the legs of his trousers before the door was thrown back and +he was ordered to fork over what he had. + +He invited the robbers to search him, and to take what they might find, +but said he was not in a financial condition at that juncture to turn +over much. The thieves found his watch, took that, and then began to +search him. As luck would have it, they entirely missed the roll that +was down his leg, and discovered but a two-dollar bill in his vest. +When he told them it was all he had to buy grub on the road, one of the +robbers handed him a silver dollar, remarking as he did so: "That a man +who was mean enough to travel with only two dollars ought to starve, but +he would give him the dollar just to let him know that he was dealing +with gentlemen!" + +One of the essentials to the comfort of the average soldier is tobacco. +He must have it; he would sooner forego any component part of his ration +than give it up. + +In November, 1865, a detachment of Company L, of the Eleventh Kansas +Volunteers, and of the Second Colorado were ordered from Fort Larned +to Fort Lyon on a scouting expedition along the line of the Trail, the +savages having been very active in their raids on the freight caravans. + +In a short time their tobacco began to run low, and as there was no +settlement of any kind between the two military posts, there was no +chance to replenish their stock. One night, while encamped on the +Arkansas, the only piece that was left in the whole command, about half +a plug, was unfortunately lost, and there was dismay in the camp when +the fact was announced. Hours were spent in searching for the missing +treasure. The next morning the march was delayed for some time, while +further diligent search was instituted by all hands, but without result, +and the command set out on its weary tramp, as disconsolate as may well +be imagined by those who are victims to the habit of chewing the weed. + +Arriving at Fort Lyon, to their greater discomfort it was learned that +the sutler at that post was entirely out of the coveted article, and +the troops began their return journey more disconsolate than ever. +Dry leaves, grass, and even small bits of twigs, were chewed as a +substitute, until, reaching the spot where they had lost the part of +a plug, they determined to remain there that night and begin a more +vigorous hunt for the missing piece. Just before dark their efforts were +rewarded; one of the men found it, and such a scramble occurred for even +the smallest nibble at it! Enormous prices were given for a single chew. +It opened at one dollar for a mere sliver, rose to five, and closed at +ten dollars when the last morsel was left. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. A DESPERATE RIDE. + + + +In the Rocky Mountains and on the great plains along the line of the Old +Trail are many rude and widely separated graves. The sequestered little +valleys, the lonely gulches, and the broad prairies through which the +highway to New Mexico wound its course, hide the bones of hundreds of +whom the world will never have any more knowledge. The number of these +solitary, and almost obliterated mounds is small when compared with the +vast multitude in the cemeteries of our towns, though if the host of +those whose bones are mouldering under the short buffalo-grass and tall +blue-stem of the prairies between the Missouri and the mountains were +tabulated, the list would be appalling. Their aggregate will never be +known; for the once remote region of the mid-continent, like the ocean, +rarely gave up its victims. Lives went out there as goes an expiring +candle, suddenly, swiftly, and silently; no record was kept of time or +place. All those who thus died are graveless and monumentless, the great +circle of the heavens is the dome of their sepulchre, and the recurring +blossoms of springtime their only epitaph. + +Sometimes the traveller over the Old Trail will suddenly, in the most +unexpected places, come across a little mound, perhaps covered with +stones, under which lie the mouldering bones of some unfortunate +adventurer. Above, now on a rude board, then on a detached rock, or +maybe on the wall of a beetling canyon, he may frequently read, in crude +pencilling or rougher carving, the legend of the dead man's ending. + +The line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, which +practically runs over the Old Trail for nearly its whole length to +the mountains, is a fertile field of isolated graves. The savage and +soldier, the teamster and scout, the solitary trapper or hunter, +and many others who have gone down to their death fighting with the +relentless nomad of the plains, or have been otherwise ruthlessly cut +off, mark with their last resting-places that well-worn pathway across +the continent. + +The tourist, looking from his car-window as he is whirled with the speed +of a tornado toward the snow-capped peaks of the "Great Divide," may +see as he approaches Walnut Creek, three miles east of the town of Great +Bend in Kansas, on the beautiful ranch of Hon. D. Heizer, not far from +the stream, and close to the house, a series of graves, numbering, +perhaps, a score. These have been most religiously cared for by the +patriotic proprietor of the place during all the long years since 1864, +as he believes them to be the last resting-place of soldiers who were +once a portion of the garrison of Fort Zarah, the ruins of which (now +a mere hole in the earth) are but a few hundred yards away, on the +opposite side of the railroad track, plainly visible from the train. + +The Walnut debouches into the Arkansas a short distance from where the +railroad crosses the creek, and at this point, too, the trail from Fort +Leavenworth merges into the Old Santa Fe. The broad pathway is very +easily recognized here; for it runs over a hard, flinty, low divide, +that has never been disturbed by the plough, and the traveller has +only to cast his eyes in a northeasterly direction in order to see it +plainly. + +The creek is fairly well timbered to-day, as it has been ever since +the first caravan crossed the clear water of the little stream. It was +always a favourite place of ambush by the Indians, and many a conflict +has occurred in the beautiful bottom bounded by a margin of trees on two +sides, between the traders, trappers, troops, and the Indians, and also +between the several tribes that were hereditary enemies, particularly +the Pawnees and the Cheyennes. It is only about sixteen miles east of +Pawnee Rock, and included in that region of debatable ground where no +band of Indians dared establish a permanent village; for it was claimed +by all the tribes, but really owned by none. + +In 1864 the commerce of the great plains had reached enormous +proportions, and immense caravans rolled day after day toward the blue +hills which guard the portals of New Mexico, and the precious freight +constantly tempted the wily savages to plunder. + +To protect the caravans on their monotonous route through the "Desert," +as this portion of the plains was then termed, troops were stationed, +a mere handful relatively, at intervals on the Trail, to escort the +freighters and mail coaches over the most exposed and dangerous portions +of the way. + +On the bank of the Walnut, at this time, were stationed three hundred +unassigned recruits of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, under the command +of Captain Conkey. This point was rightly regarded as one of the most +important on the whole overland route; for near it passed the favourite +highway of the Indians on their yearly migrations north and south, in +the wake of the strange elliptical march of the buffalo far beyond the +Platte, and back to the sunny knolls of the Canadian. + +This primitive cantonment which grew rapidly in strategical importance, +was two years later made quite formidable defensively, and named Fort +Zarah, in memory of the youngest son of Major General Curtis, who +was killed by guerillas somewhere south of Fort Scott, Kansas, while +escorting General James G. Blunt, of frontier fame during the Civil War. + +Captain Henry Booth, during the year above mentioned, was chief of +cavalry and inspecting officer of the military district of the Upper +Arkansas, the western geographical limits of which extended to the +foot-hills of the mountains. + +One day he received an order from the head-quarters of the department to +make a special inspection of all the outposts on the Santa Fe Trail. +He was stationed at Fort Riley at the time, and the evening the order +arrived, active preparations were immediately commenced for his extended +and hazardous trip across the plains. Lieutenant Hallowell, of the Ninth +Wisconsin Battery, was to accompany him, and both officers went at once +to their quarters, took down from the walls, where they had been hanging +idly for weeks, their rifles and pistols, and carefully examined and +brushed them up for possible service in the dreary Arkansas bottom. +Camp-kettles, until late in the night, sizzled and sputtered over +crackling log-fires; for their proposed ride beyond the settlements +demanded cooked rations for many a weary day. All the preliminaries +arranged, the question of the means of transportation was determined, +and, curiously enough, it saved the lives of the two officers in the +terrible gauntlet they were destined to run. + +Hallowell was a famous whip, and prided himself upon the exceptionally +fine turnout which he daily drove among the picturesque hills around the +fort. + +"Booth," said he in the evening, "let's not take a great lumbering +ambulance on this trip; if you will get a good way-up team of mules +from the quartermaster, we'll use my light rig, and we'll do our own +driving." + +To this proposition Booth readily assented, procured the mules, and, as +it turned out, they were a "good way-up team." + +Hallowell had a set of bows fitted to his light wagon, over which was +thrown an army-wagon-sheet, drawn up behind with a cord, similar to +those of the ordinary emigrant outfit to be seen daily on the roads of +the Western prairies. A round hole was necessarily left in the rear end, +serving the purpose of a lookout. + +Two grip-sacks, containing their dress uniforms, a box of crackers and +cheese, meat and sardines, together with a bottle of anti-snake bite, +made up the principal freight for the long journey, and in the clear +cold of the early morning they rolled out of the gates of the fort, +escorted by Company L, of the Eleventh Kansas, commanded by Lieutenant +Van Antwerp. + +The company of one hundred mounted men acting as escort was too +formidable a number for the Indians, and not a sign of one was seen as +the dangerous flats of Plum Creek and the rolling country beyond were +successively passed, and early in the afternoon the cantonment on Walnut +Creek was reached. At this important outpost Captain Conkey's command +was living in a rude but comfortable sort of a way, in the simplest of +dugouts, constructed along the right bank of the stream; the officers, a +little more in accordance with military dignity, in tents a few rods in +rear of the line of huts. + +A stockade stable had been built, with a capacity for two hundred and +fifty horses, and sufficient hay had been put up by the men in the fall +to carry the animals through the winter. + +Captain Conkey was a brusque but kind-hearted man, and with him were +stationed other officers, one of whom was a son of Admiral Goldsborough. +The morning after the arrival of the inspecting officers a rigid +examination of all the appointments and belongings of the place +was made, and, as an immense amount of property had accumulated +for condemnation, when evening came the books and papers were still +untouched; so that branch of the inspection had to be postponed until +the next morning. + +After dark, while sitting around the camp-fire, discussing the war, +telling stories, etc., Captain Conkey said to Booth: "Captain, it won't +require more than half an hour in the morning to inspect the papers and +finish up what you have to do; why don't you start your escort out very +early, so it won't be obliged to trot after the ambulance, or you to +poke along with it? You can then move out briskly and make time." + +Booth, acting upon what he thought at the time an excellent suggestion, +in a few moments went over the creek to Lieutenant Van Antwerp's camp, +to tell him that he need not wait for the wagon in the morning, but to +start out early, at half-past six, in advance. + +According to instructions, the escort marched out of camp at daylight +next morning, while Booth and Hallowell remained to finish their +inspection. It was soon discovered, however, that either Captain +Conkey had underrated the amount of work to be done, or misjudged the +inspecting officers' ability to complete it in a certain time; so almost +three hours elapsed after the cavalry had departed before the task +ended. + +At last everything was closed up, much to Hallowell's satisfaction, who +had been chafing under the vexatious delay ever since the escort left. +When all was in readiness, the little wagon drawn up in front of the +commanding officer's quarters, and farewells said, Hallowell suggested +to Booth the propriety of taking a few of the troops stationed there +to go with them until they overtook their own escort, which must now be +several miles on the Trail to Fort Larned. Booth asked Captain Conkey +what he thought of Hallowell's suggestion. Captain Conkey replied: +"Oh! there's not the slightest danger; there hasn't been an Indian seen +around here for over ten days." + +If either Booth or Hallowell had been as well acquainted with the +methods and character of the plains Indians then as they afterward +became, they would have insisted upon an escort; but both were satisfied +that Captain Conkey knew what he was talking about, so they concluded to +push on. + +Jumping into their wagon, Lieutenant Hallowell took the reins and away +they went rattling over the old log bridge that used to span the Walnut +at the crossing of the Old Santa Fe Trail, as light of heart as if +riding to a dance. + +The morning was bright and clear with a stiff breeze blowing from the +northwest, and the Trail was frozen hard in places, which made it very +rough, as it had been cut up by the travel of the heavily laden caravans +when it was wet. Booth sat on the left side of Hallowell with the whip +in his hand, now and then striking the mules, to keep up their speed. +Hallowell started up a tune--he was a good singer--and Booth joined in +as they rolled along, as oblivious of any danger as though they were in +their quarters at Fort Riley. + +After they had proceeded some distance, Hallowell remarked to Booth: +"The buffalo are grazing a long way from the road to-day; a circumstance +that I think bodes no good." He had been on the plains the summer +before, and was better acquainted with the Indians and their +peculiarities than Captain Booth; but the latter replied that he +thought it was because their escort had gone on ahead, and had probably +frightened them off. + +The next mile or two was passed, and still they saw no buffalo between +the Trail and the Arkansas, though nothing more was said by either +regarding the suspicious circumstance, and they rode rapidly on. + +When they had gone about five or six miles from the Walnut, Booth, +happening to glance toward the river, saw something that looked +strangely like a flock of turkeys. He watched them intently for a +moment, when the objects rose up and he discovered they were horsemen. +He grasped Hallowell by the arm, directing his attention to them, and +said, "What are they?" Hallowell gave a hasty look toward the point +indicated, and replied, "Indians! by George!" and immediately turning +the mules around on the Trail, started them back toward the cantonment +on the Walnut at a full gallop.[68] + +"Hold on!" said Booth to Hallowell when he understood the latter's +movement; "maybe it's part of our escort." + +"No! no!" replied Hallowell. "I know they are Indians; I've seen too +many of them to be mistaken." + +"Well," rejoined Booth, "I'm going to know for certain"; so, stepping +out on the foot-board, and with one hand holding on to the front bow, +he looked back over the top of the wagon-sheet. They were Indians, sure +enough; they had fully emerged from the ravine in which they had hidden, +and while he was looking at them they were slipping off their buffalo +robes from their shoulders, taking arrows out of their quivers, drawing +up their spears, and making ready generally for a red-hot time. + +While Booth was intently regarding the movements of the savages, +Hallowell inquired of him: "They're Indians, aren't they, Booth?" + +"Yes," was Booth's answer, "and they're coming down on us like a +whirlwind." + +"Then I shall never see poor Lizzie again!" said Hallowell. He had been +married only a few weeks before starting out on this trip, and his young +wife's name came to his lips. + +"Never mind Lizzie," responded Booth; "let's get out of here!" He was +as badly frightened as Hallowell, but had no bride at Riley, and, as he +tells it, "was selfishly thinking of himself only, and escape." + +In answer to Booth's remark, Hallowell, in a firm, clear voice, said: +"All right! You do the shooting, and I'll do the driving," and suiting +the action to the words, he snatched the whip out of Booth's hand, +slipped from the seat to the front of the wagon, and commenced lashing +the mules furiously. + +Booth then crawled back, pulled out one of his revolvers, crept, or +rather fell, over the "lazy-back" of the seat, and reaching the hole +made by puckering the wagon-sheet, looked out of it, and counted the +Indians; thirty-four feather-bedecked, paint-bedaubed savages, as +vicious a set as ever scalped a white man, swooping down on them like a +hawk upon a chicken. + +Hallowell, between his yells at the mules, cried out, "How far are they +off now, Booth?" for of course he could see nothing of what was going on +in his rear. + +Booth replied as well as he could judge of the distance, while Hallowell +renewed his yelling at the animals and redoubled his efforts with the +lash. + +Noiselessly the Indians gained on the little wagon, for they had not as +yet uttered a whoop, and the determined driver, anxious to know how far +the red devils were from him, again asked Booth. The latter told him how +near they were, guessing at the distance, from which Hallowell gathered +inspiration for fresh cries and still more vigorous blows with his whip. + +Booth, all this time, was sitting on the box containing the crackers +and sardines, watching the rapid approach of the cut-throats, and seeing +with fear and trembling the ease with which they gained upon the little +mules. + +Once more Hallowell made his stereotyped inquiry of Booth; but before +the latter could reply, two shots were fired from the rifles of the +Indians, accompanied by a yell that was demoniacal enough to cause the +blood to curdle in one's veins. Hallowell yelled at the mules, and Booth +yelled too; for what reason he could not tell, unless to keep company +with his comrade, who plied the whip more mercilessly than ever upon +the poor animals' backs, and the wagon flew over the rough road, nearly +upsetting at every jump. + +In another moment the bullets from two of the Indians' rifles passed +between Booth and Hallowell, doing no damage, and almost instantly the +savages charged upon them, at the same time dividing into two parties, +one going on one side and one on the other, both delivering a volley of +arrows into the wagon as they rode by. + +Just as the savages rushed past the wagon, Hallowell cried out to Booth, +"Cap, I'm hit!" and turning around to look, Booth saw an arrow sticking +in Hallowell's head above his right ear. His arm was still plying the +whip, which was going on unceasingly as the sails of a windmill, and his +howling at the mules only stopped long enough to answer, "Not much!" in +response to Booth's inquiry of "Does it hurt?" as he grabbed the arrow +and pulled it out of his head. + +The Indians had by this time passed on, and then, circling back, +prepared for another charge. Down they came, again dividing as before +into two bands, and delivering another shower of arrows. Hallowell +ceased his yelling long enough to cry out, "I'm hit once more, Cap!" +Looking at the plucky driver, Booth saw this time an arrow sticking over +his left ear, and hanging down his back. He snatched it out, inquiring +if it hurt, but received the same answer: "No, not much." + +Both men were now yelling at the top of their voices; and the mules were +jerking the wagon along the rough trail at a fearful rate, frightened +nearly out of their wits at the sight of the Indians and the terrible +shouting and whipping of the driver. + +Booth crawled to the back end of the wagon again, looked out of the hole +in the cover, and saw the Indians moving across the Trail, preparing +for another charge. One old fellow, mounted on a black pony, was +jogging along in the centre of the road behind them, but near enough and +evidently determined to send an arrow through the puckered hole of the +sheet. In a moment the savage stopped his pony and let fly. Booth +dodged sideways--the arrow sped on its course, and whizzing through +the opening, struck the black-walnut "lazy-back" of the seat, the +head sticking out on the other side, and the sudden check causing the +feathered end to vibrate rapidly with a vro-o-o-ing sound. With a quick +blow Booth struck it, and broke the shaft from the head, leaving the +latter embedded in the wood. + +As quickly as possible, Booth rushed to the hole and fired his revolver +at the old devil, but failed to hit him. While he was trying to get in +another shot, an arrow came flying through from the left side of the +Trail, and striking him on the inside of the elbow, or "crazy-bone," so +completely benumbed his hand that he could not hold on to the pistol, +and it dropped into the road with one load still in its chamber. Just +then the mules gave an extraordinary jump to one side, which jerked +the wagon nearly from under him, and he fell sprawling on the end-gate, +evenly balanced, with his hands on the outside, attempting to clutch at +something to save himself! Seeing his predicament, the Indians thought +they had him sure, so they gave a yell of exultation, supposing he must +tumble out, but he didn't; he fortunately succeeded in grabbing one of +the wagon-bows with his right hand and pulled himself in; but it was a +close call. + +While all this was going on, Hallowell had not been neglected by the +Indians; about a dozen of them had devoted their time to him, but he +never flinched. Just as Booth had regained his equilibrium and drawn his +second revolver from its holster, Hallowell yelled to him: "Right off to +your right, Cap, quick!" + +Booth tumbled over the back of the seat, and, clutching at a wagon-bow +to steady himself, he saw, "off to the right," an Indian who was in the +act of letting an arrow drive at Hallowell; it struck the side of the +box, and at the same instant Booth fired, scaring the red devil badly. + +Back over the seat again he rushed to guard the rear, only to find a +young buck riding close to the side of the wagon, his pony running +in the deep path made by the ox-drivers in walking alongside of their +teams. Putting his left arm around one of the wagon-bows to prevent his +being jerked out, Booth quietly stuck his revolver through the hole in +the sheet; but before he could pull the trigger, the Indian flopped over +on the off side of his pony, and nothing could be seen of him excepting +one arm around his animal's neck and from the knee to the toes of one +leg. Booth did not wait for him to ride up; he could almost hit the +pony's head with his hand, so close was he to the wagon. Booth struck at +the beast several times, but the Indian kept him right up in his place +by whipping him on the opposite of his neck. Presently the plucky +savage's arm began to move. Booth watched him intently, and saw that he +had fixed an arrow in his bow under the pony's shoulder; just as he was +on the point of letting go the bowstring, with the head of the arrow not +three feet from Booth's breast as he leaned out of the hole, the latter +struck frantically at the weapon, dodged back into the wagon, and up +came the Indian. Whenever Booth looked out, down went the Indian on the +other side of his pony, to rise again in a moment, and Booth, afraid to +risk himself with his head and breast exposed at this game of hide and +seek, drew suddenly back as the Indian went down the third time, and +in a second came up; but this was once too often. Booth had not dodged +completely into the wagon, nor dropped his revolver, and as the Indian +rose he fired. + +The savage was naked to the waist; the ball struck him in the left +nipple, the blood spirted out of the wound, his bow and arrows and +lariat, with himself, rolled off the pony, falling heavily on the +ground, and with one convulsive contraction of his legs and an "Ugh!" he +was as dead as a stone. + +"I've killed one of 'em!" called out Booth to Hallowell, as he saw his +victim tumble from his pony. + +"Bully for you, Cap!" came Hallowell's response as he continued his +shouting, and the blows of that tireless whip fell incessantly on the +backs of the poor mules. + +After he had killed the warrior, Booth kept his seat on the cracker +box, watching to see what the Indians were going to do next, when he was +suddenly interrupted by Hallowell's crying out to him: "Off to the right +again, Cap, quick!" and, whirling around instantly, he saw an Indian +within three feet of the wagon, with his bow and arrow almost ready to +shoot; there was no time to get over the seat, and as he could not fire +so close to Hallowell, he cried to the latter: "Hit him with the +whip! Hit him with the whip!" The lieutenant diverted one of the blows +intended for the mules, and struck the savage fairly across the face. +The whip had a knot in the end of it to prevent its unravelling, and +this knot must have hit the Indian squarely in the eye; for he dropped +his bow, put both hands up to his face, rubbed his eyes, and digging his +heels into his pony's sides was soon out of range of a revolver; but, +nevertheless, he was given a parting shot as a sort of salute. + +A terrific yell from the rear at this moment caused both Booth and +Hallowell to look around, and the latter to inquire: "What's the matter +now, Booth?" "They are coming down on us like lightning," said he; and, +sure enough, those who had been prancing around their dead comrade were +tearing along the Trail toward the wagon with a more hideous noise than +when they began. + +Hallowell yelled louder than ever and lashed the mules more furiously +still, but the Indians gained upon them as easily as a blooded racer on +a common farm plug. Separating as before, and passing on each side of +the wagon, they delivered another volley of bullets and arrows as they +rushed on. + +When this charge was made, Booth drew away from the hole in the rear and +turned toward the Indians, but forgot that as he was sitting, with his +back pressed against the sheet, his body was plainly outlined on the +canvas. + +When the Indians dashed by Hallowell cried out, "I'm hit again, Cap!" +and Booth, in turning around to go to his relief, felt something pulling +at him; and glancing over his left shoulder he discovered an arrow +sticking into him and out through the wagon-sheet. With a jerk of his +body, he tore himself loose, and going to Hallowell, asked him where +he was hit. "In the back," was the reply; where Booth saw an arrow +extending under the "lazy-back" of the seat. Taking hold of it, Booth +gave a pull, but Hallowell squirmed so that he desisted. "Pull it out!" +cried the plucky driver. Booth thereupon took hold of it again, and +giving a jerk or two, out it came. He was thoroughly frightened as he +saw it leave the lieutenant's body; it seemed to have entered at least +six inches, and the wound appeared to be a dangerous one. Hallowell, +however, did not cease for a moment belabouring the mules, and his yells +rang out as clear and defiant as before. + +After extracting the arrow from Hallowell's back, Booth turned again to +the opening in the rear of the wagon to see what new tricks the devils +were up to, when Hallowell again called out, "Off to the left, Cap, +quick!" + +Rushing to the front as soon as possible, Booth saw one of the savages +in the very act of shooting at Hallowell from the left side of the +wagon, not ten feet away. The last revolver was empty, but something +had to be done at once; so, levelling the weapon at him, Booth shouted +"Bang! you son-of-a-gun!" Down the Indian ducked his head; rap, rap, +went his knees against his pony's sides, and away he flew over the +prairie! + +Back to his old place in the rear tumbled Booth, to load his +revolver. The cartridges they used in the army in those days were the +old-fashioned kind made of paper. Biting off one end, he endeavoured +to pour the powder into the chamber of the pistol; but as the wagon was +tumbling from side to side, and jumping up and down, as it fairly flew +over the rough Trail, more fell into the bottom of the wagon than into +the revolver. Just as he was inserting a ball, Hallowell yelled, "To the +left, Cap, quick!" + +Over the seat Booth piled once more, and there was another Indian with +his bow and arrow all ready to pinion the brave lieutenant. Pointing his +revolver at him, Booth yelled as he had at the other, but this savage +had evidently noticed the first failure, and concluded there were no +more loads left; so, instead of taking a hasty departure, he grinned +demoniacally and endeavoured to fix the arrow in his bow. Booth rose up +in the wagon, and grasping hold of one of its bows with his left hand, +seized the revolver by the muzzle, and with all the force he could +muster hurled it at the impudent brute. It was a Remington, its barrel +octagon-shaped, with sharp corners, and when it was thrown, it turned +in the air, and striking the Indian muzzle-first on the ribs, cut a long +gash. + +"Ugh!" he grunted, as, dropping his bow and spear, he flung himself over +the side of his pony, and away he went across the prairie. + +Only one revolver remaining now, and that empty, with the savages still +howling around the apparently doomed men like so many demons! Booth fell +over the seat, as was his usual fate whenever he attempted to get to the +back of the wagon, picked up the empty revolver, and tried to load it; +but before he could bite the end of a cartridge, Hallowell yelled, + +"Cap, I'm hit again!" + +"Where this time?" inquired Booth, anxiously. "In the hand," replied +Hallowell; and, looking around, Booth noticed that although his right +arm was still thrashing at the now lagging mules with as much energy +as ever, through the fleshy part of the thumb was an arrow, which was +flopping up and down as he raised and lowered his hand in ceaseless +efforts to keep up the speed of the almost exhausted animals. + +"Let me pull it out," said Booth, as he came forward to do so. + +"No, never mind," replied Hallowell; "can't stop! can't stop!" and up +and down went the arm, and flip, flap, went the arrow with it, until +finally it tore through the flesh and fell to the ground. + +Along they bowled, the Indians yelling, and the occupants of the little +wagon defiantly answering them, while Booth continued to struggle +desperately with that empty pistol, in his vain efforts to load it. In +another moment Hallowell shouted, "Booth, they are trying to crowd the +mules into the sunflowers!" + +Alongside of the Trail huge sunflowers had grown the previous summer, +and now their dry stalks stood as thick as a cane-brake; if the wagon +once got among them, it would be impossible for the mules to keep up +their gallop. The savages seemed to realize this; for one huge old +fellow kept riding alongside the off mule, throwing his spear at him and +then jerking it back with the thong, one end of which was fastened to +his wrist. The near mule was constantly pushed further and further from +the Trail by his mate, which was jumping frantically, scared out of his +senses by the Indian. + +At this perilous juncture, Booth stepped out on the foot-board of the +wagon, and, holding on by a bow, commenced to kick the frightened mule +vigorously, while Hallowell pulled on one line, whipping and yelling at +the same time; so together they succeeded in forcing the animals back +into the Trail. + +The Indians kept close to the mules in their efforts to force them into +the sunflowers, and Booth made several attempts to scare the old fellow +that was nearest by pointing his empty revolver at him, but he would not +scare; so in his desperation Booth threw it at him. He missed the old +brute, but hit his pony just behind its rider's leg, which started the +animal into a sort of a stampede; his ugly master could not control him, +and thus the immediate peril from the persistent cuss was delayed. + +Now the pair were absolutely without firearms of any kind, with nothing +left except their sabres and valises, and the savages came closer and +closer. In turn the two swords were thrown at them as they came almost +within striking distance; then followed the scabbards, as the +howling fiends surrounded the wagon and attempted to spear the mules. +Fortunately their arrows were exhausted. + +The cantonment on the Walnut was still a mile and a half away, and there +was nothing for our luckless travellers to do but whip and kick, both +of which they did most vigorously. Hallowell sat as immovable as the +Sphinx, excepting his right arm, which from the moment they had started +on the back trail had not once ceased its incessant motion. + +Happening to cast his eyes back on the Trail, Booth saw to his dismay +twelve or fifteen of the savages coming up on the run with fresh energy, +their spears poised ready for action, and he felt that something must +be done very speedily to divert them; for if these added their number to +those already surrounding the wagon, the chances were they would succeed +in forcing the mules into the sunflowers, and his scalp and Hallowell's +would dangle at the belt of the leader. + +Glancing around in the bottom of the wagon for some kind of weapon, his +eye fell on the two valises containing the dress-suits. He snatched up +his own, and threw it out while the pursuers were yet five or six rods +in the rear. The Indians noticed this new trick with a great yell of +satisfaction, and the moment they arrived at the spot where the valise +lay, all dismounted; one of them, seizing it by the two handles, pulled +with all his strength to open it, and when he failed, another drew a +long knife from under his blanket and ripped it apart. He then put his +hand in, pulling out a sash, which he began to wind around his head, +like a negress with a bandanna, letting the tassels hang down his back. +While he was thus amusing himself, one of the others had taken out a +dress-coat, a third a pair of drawers, and still another a shirt, which +they proceeded to put on, meanwhile dancing around and howling. + +Booth told Hallowell of the sacrifice of the valise, and said, "I'm +going to throw out yours." "All right," replied Hallowell; "all we want +is time." So out it went on the Trail, and shared the same fate as the +other. + +The lull in hostilities caused by their outstripping their pursuers gave +the almost despairing men time to talk over their situation. Hallowell +said he did not propose to be captured and then butchered or burned at +the pleasure of the Indians. He said to Booth: "If they kill one of the +mules, and so stop us, let's kick, strike, throw dirt or anything, and +compel them to kill us on the spot." So it was agreed, if the worst came +to the worst, to stand back to back and fight. + +During this discussion the arm of Hallowell still plied the effective +lash, and they drew perceptibly nearer the camp, and as they caught the +first glimpse of its tents and dugouts, hope sprang up within them. +The mules were panting like a hound after a deer; wherever the harness +touched them, it was white with lather, and it was evident they could +keep on their feet but a short time longer. Would they hold out until +the bridge was reached? The whipping and the kicking had but little +effect on them now. They still continued their gallop, but it was slower +and more laboured than before. + +The Indians who had torn open the valises had not returned to the chase, +and although there were still a sufficient number of the fiends pursuing +to make it interesting, they did not succeed in spearing the mules, as +at every attempt the plucky animals would jump sideways or forward and +evade the impending blow. + +The little log bridge was reached; the savages had all retreated, but +the valorous Hallowell kept the mules at their fastest pace. The bridge +was constructed of half-round logs, and of course was extremely rough; +the wagon bounded up and down enough to shake the teeth out of one's +head as the little animals went flying over it. Booth called out to +Hallowell, "No need to drive so fast now, the Indians have all left us"; +but he replied, "I ain't going to stop until I get across"; and down +came the whip, on sped the mules, not breaking their short gallop until +they were pulled up in front of Captain Conkey's quarters. + +The rattling of the wagon on the bridge was the first intimation the +garrison had of its return. + +The officers came running out of their tents, the enlisted men poured +out of their dugouts like a lot of ants, and Booth and Hallowell were +surrounded by their friends in a moment. Captain Conkey ordered his +bugler to sound "Boots and Saddles," and in less than ten minutes ninety +troopers were mounted, and with the captain at their head started after +the Indians. + +When Hallowell tried to rise from his seat so as to get out every effort +only resulted in his falling back. Some one stepped around to the +other side to assist him, when it was discovered that the skirt of his +overcoat had worked outside of the wagon-sheet and hung over the edge, +and that three or four of the arrows fired at him by the savages had +struck the side of the wagon, and, passing through the flap of his coat, +had pinned him down. Booth pulled the arrows out and helped him up; he +was pretty stiff from sitting in his cramped position so long, and his +right arm dropped by his side as if paralysed. + +Booth stood looking on while his comrade's wounds were being dressed, +when the adjutant asked him: "What makes you shrug your shoulder so?" He +answered, "I don't know; something makes it smart." The officer looked +at him and said, "Well, I don't wonder; I should think it would smart; +here's an arrow-head sticking into you," and he tried to pull it out, +but it would not come. Captain Goldsborough then attempted it, but was +not any more successful. The doctor then told them to let it alone, +and he would attend to Booth after he had done with Hallowell. When he +examined Booth's shoulder, he found that the arrow-head had struck the +thick portion of the shoulder-blade, and had made two complete turns, +wrapping itself around the muscles, which had to be cut apart before the +sharp point could be withdrawn. + +Booth was not seriously hurt. Hallowell, however, had received two +severe wounds; the arrow that had lodged in his back had penetrated +almost to his kidneys, and the wound in his thumb was very painful, not +so much from the simple impact of the arrow as from the tearing away of +the muscle by the shaft while he was whipping his mules; his right arm, +too, was swollen terribly, and so stiff from the incessant use of it +during the drive that for more than a month he required assistance in +dressing and undressing. + +The mules who had saved their lives were of small account after their +memorable trip; they remained stiff and sore from the rough road and +their continued forced speed. Booth and Hallowell went out to look at +them the next morning, as they hobbled around the corral, and from the +bottom of their hearts wished them well. + +Captain Conkey's command returned to the cantonment about midnight. But +one Indian had been seen, and he was south of the Arkansas in the sand +hills. + +The next morning a scouting-party of forty men, under command of a +sergeant, started out to scour the country toward Cow Creek, northeast +from the Walnut. + +As I have stated, the troopers stationed at the cantonment on the Walnut +were mostly recruits. Now the cavalry recruit of the old regular army on +the frontier, thirty or forty years ago, mounted on a great big American +horse and sent out with well-trained comrades on a scout after the +hostile savages of the plains, was the most helpless individual +imaginable. Coming fresh from some large city probably, as soon as he +arrived at his station he was placed on the back of an animal of whose +habits he knew as little as he did of the differential calculus; loaded +down with a carbine, the muzzle of which he could hardly distinguish +from the breech; a sabre buckled around his waist; a couple of enormous +pistols stuck in his holsters; his blankets strapped to the cantle of +his saddle, and, to complete the hopelessness of his condition in a +possible encounter with a savage enemy who was ever on the alert, he was +often handicapped by a camp-kettle or two, a frying-pan, and ten days' +rations. No wonder this doughty representative of Uncle Sam's power was +an easy prey for "Poor Lo," who, when he caught the unfortunate soldier +away from his command and started after him, must have laughed at the +ridiculous appearance of his enemy, with both hands glued to the pommel +of his saddle, his hair on end, his sabre flying and striking his horse +at every jump as the animal tore down the trail toward camp, while the +Indian, rapidly gaining, in a few minutes had the scalp of the hapless +rider dangling at his belt, and another of the "boys in blue" had joined +the majority. + +The scouting-party had proceeded about four or five miles, when one of +the corporals asked permission for himself and a recruit to go over to +the Upper Walnut to find out whether they could discover any signs of +Indians. + +While they were carelessly riding along the big curve which the northern +branch of the Walnut makes at that point, there suddenly sprang from +their ambush in the timber on the margin of the stream about three +hundred Indians, whooping and yelling. The two troopers of course, +immediately whirled their horses and started down the creek toward the +camp, hotly pursued by the howling savages. + +The corporal was an excellent rider; a well-trained and disciplined +soldier, having seen much service on the plains. He led in the flight, +closely followed by the unfortunate recruit, who had been enlisted but a +short time. Not more than an eighth of a mile had been covered, when the +corporal heard his companion exclaim,-- + +"Don't leave me! Don't leave me!" + +Looking back, the corporal saw that the poor recruit was losing ground +rapidly; his horse was rearing and plunging, making very little headway, +while his rider was jerking and pulling on the bit, a curb of the +severest kind. Perceiving the strait his comrade was in, the corporal +reined up for a moment and called out,-- + +"Let him go! Let him go! Don't jerk on the bit so!" + +The Indians were gaining ground rapidly, and in another moment the +corporal heard the recruit again cry out,-- + +"Oh! Don't--" + +Realizing that it would be fatal to delay, and that he could be of +no assistance to his companion, already killed and scalped, he leaned +forward on his horse, and sinking his spurs deep in the animal's flanks +fairly flew down the valley, with the three hundred savages close in his +wake. + +The officers at the camp were sitting in their tents when the sentinel +on post No. 1 fired his piece, upon which all rushed out to learn the +cause of the alarm; for there was no random shooting in those days +allowed around camp or in garrison. Looking up the valley of the Walnut, +they could see the lucky corporal, with his long hair streaming in the +wind, and his heels rapping his horse's sides, as he dashed over the +brown sod of the winter prairie. + +The corporal now slackened his pace, rode up to the commanding officer's +tent, reported the affair, and then was allowed to go to his own +quarters for the rest he so much needed. + +Captain Conkey immediately ordered a mounted squad, accompanied by an +ambulance, to go up the creek to recover the body of the unfortunate +recruit. The party were absent a little over an hour, and brought back +with them the remains of the dead soldier. He had been shot with +an arrow, the point of which was still sticking out through his +breast-bone. His scalp had been torn completely off, and the lapels of +his coat and the legs of his trousers carried away by the savages. +He was buried the next morning with military honours, in the little +graveyard on the bank of the Walnut, where his body still rests in the +dooryard of the ranch. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. + + + +In the spring of 1867, General Hancock, who then commanded the military +division of the Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, +organized an expedition against the Indians of the great plains, which +he led in person. With him was General Custer, second ranking officer, +from whom I quote the story of the march and some of the incidents of +the raid. + +General Hancock, with the artillery and six companies of infantry, +arrived at Fort Riley, Kansas, the last week in March, where he was +joined by four companies of the Seventh Cavalry, commanded by the +intrepid Custer. + +From Fort Riley the expedition marched to Fort Harker, seventy-two miles +farther west, on the Smoky Hill, where the force was increased by the +addition of two more troops of cavalry. Remaining there only long enough +to replenish their commissary supplies, the march was directed to +Fort Larned on the Old Santa Fe Trail. On the 7th of April the command +reached the latter post, accompanied by the agent of the Comanches and +Kiowas; at the fort the agent of the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches +was waiting for the arrival of the general. The agent of the three +last-mentioned tribes had already sent runners to the head chiefs, +inviting them to a grand council which was to assemble near the fort on +the 10th of the month, and he requested General Hancock to remain at the +fort with his command until that date. + +On the 9th of April a terrible snow-storm came on while the troops +were encamped waiting for the head men of the various tribes to arrive. +Custer says: + + It was our good fortune to be in camp rather than on the + march; had it been otherwise, we could not well have escaped + without loss of life. The cavalry horses suffered severely, + and were only preserved by doubling their rations of oats, + while to prevent their being frozen during the intensely + cold night which followed, the guards were instructed to + pass along the picket lines with a whip, and keep the + horses moving constantly. The snow was eight inches deep. + The council, which was to take place the next day, had to be + postponed until the return of good weather. Now began the + display of a kind of diplomacy for which the Indian is + peculiar. The Cheyennes and a band of Sioux were encamped + on Pawnee Fork, about thirty miles above Fort Larned. + They neither desired to move nearer to us or have us + approach nearer to them. On the morning of the 11th, + they sent us word that they had started to visit us, but, + discovering a large herd of buffalo near their camp, + they had stopped to procure a supply of meat. This message + was not received with much confidence, nor was a buffalo + hunt deemed of sufficient importance to justify the Indians + in breaking their engagement. General Hancock decided, + however, to delay another day, when, if the Indians still + failed to come in, he would move his command to the vicinity + of their village and hold the conference there. + + Orders were issued on the evening of the 12th for the march + to be resumed on the following day. Late in the evening + two chiefs of the "Dog-Soldiers," a band composed of the + most warlike and troublesome Indians on the plains, + chiefly made up of Cheyennes, visited our camp. They were + accompanied by a dozen warriors, and expressed a desire to + hold a conference with General Hancock, to which he assented. + A large council-fire was built in front of the general's + tent, and all the officers of his command assembled there. + A tent had been erected for the accommodation of the chiefs + a short distance from the general's. Before they could + feel equal to the occasion, and in order to obtain time to + collect their thoughts, they desired that supper might be + prepared for them, which was done. When finally ready, + they advanced from their tent to the council-fire in single + file, accompanied by their agent and an interpreter. + Arrived at the fire, another brief delay ensued. No matter + how pressing or momentous the occasion, an Indian invariably + declines to engage in a council until he has filled his pipe + and gone through with the important ceremony of a smoke. + This attended to, the chiefs announced that they were ready + "to talk." They were then introduced to the principal + officers of the group, and seemed much struck with the + flashy uniforms of the few artillery officers, who were + present in all the glory of red horsehair plumes, + aiguillettes, etc. The chiefs seemed puzzled to determine + whether these insignia designated chieftains or medicine men. + General Hancock began the conference by a speech, in which + he explained to the Indians his purpose in coming to see + them, and what he expected of them in the future. + He particularly informed them that he was not there to make + war, but to promote peace. Then, expressing his regrets + that more of the chiefs had not visited him, he announced + his intention of proceeding on the morrow with his command + to the vicinity of their village, and there holding a + council with all the chiefs. Tall Bull, a fine, warlike-looking + chieftain, replied to General Hancock, but his speech + contained nothing important, being made up of allusions to + the growing scarcity of the buffalo, his love for the white + man, and the usual hint that a donation in the way of + refreshments would be highly acceptable; he added that he + would have nothing new to say at the village. + + Rightly concluding that the Indians did not intend to come + to our camp, as they had at first agreed to, it was decided + to move nearer their village. On the morning following the + conference our entire force, therefore, marched from + Fort Larned up Pawnee Fork in the direction of the main + village, encamping the first night about twenty-one miles + from Larned. Several parties of Indians were seen in our + advance during the day, evidently watching our movements, + while a heavy smoke, seen to rise in the direction of the + Indian village, indicated that something more than usual + was going on. The smoke, we afterward learned, arose from + burning grass. The Indians, thinking to prevent us from + encamping in their vicinity, had set fire to and burned all + the grass for miles in the direction from which they + expected us. Before we arrived at our camping-ground, + we were met by several chiefs and warriors belonging to the + Cheyennes and Sioux. Among the chiefs were Pawnee Killer, + of the Sioux, and White Horse, of the Cheyennes. It was + arranged that these chiefs should accept our hospitality + and remain with us during the night, and in the morning all + the chiefs of the two tribes then in the village were to + come to General Hancock's head-quarters and hold a council. + On the morning of the 14th, Pawnee Killer left our camp at + an early hour, as he said for the purpose of going to the + village to bring in the other chiefs to the council. + Nine o'clock had been agreed upon as the time at which the + council should assemble. The hour came, but the chiefs + did not. Now an Indian council is not only often an + important, but always an interesting, occasion. At this + juncture, Bull Bear, an influential chief among the + Cheyennes, came in and reported that the chiefs were on + their way to our camp, but would not be able to reach it + for some time. This was a mere artifice to secure delay. + General Hancock informed Bull Bear that, as the chiefs + could not arrive for some time, he would move his forces + up the stream nearer the village, and the council could be + held at our camp that night. To this proposition Bull Bear + gave his consent. + + At 11 A.M. we resumed the march, and had proceeded but a few + miles when we witnessed one of the finest and most imposing + military displays, according to the Indian art of war, + which it has been my lot to behold. It was nothing more + nor less than an Indian line of battle drawn directly + across our line of march, as if to say, "Thus far and no + further." Most of the Indians were mounted; all were + bedecked in their brightest colours, their heads crowned + with the brilliant war-bonnet, their lances bearing the + crimson pennant, bows strung, and quivers full of barbed + arrows. In addition to these weapons, which, with the + hunting-knife and tomahawk, are considered as forming the + armament of the warrior, each one was supplied with either + a breech-loading rifle or revolver, sometimes with both- + the latter obtained through the wise forethought and strong + love of fair play which prevails in the Indian department, + which, seeing that its wards are determined to fight, + is equally determined that there shall be no advantage taken, + but that the two sides shall be armed alike; proving, too, + in this manner, the wonderful liberality of our government, + which is not only able to furnish its soldiers with the + latest style of breech-loaders to defend it and themselves, + but is equally able and willing to give the same pattern + of arms to the common foe. The only difference is, that if + the soldier loses his weapon, he is charged double price + for it, while to avoid making any such charge against the + Indian, his weapons are given him without conditions attached. + + In the line of battle before us there were several hundred + Indians, while further to the rear and at different + distances were other organized bodies, acting apparently + as reserves. Still further behind were small detachments + who seemed to perform the duty of couriers, and were held + in readiness to convey messages to the village. The ground + beyond was favourable for an extended view, and as far as + the eye could reach, small groups of individuals could be + seen in the direction of the village; these were evidently + parties of observation, whose sole object was to learn the + result of our meeting with the main body and hasten with + the news to the village. + + For a few moments appearances seemed to foreshadow anything + but a peaceable issue. The infantry was in the advance, + followed closely by the artillery, while my command, + the cavalry, was marching on the flank. General Hancock, + who was riding with his staff at the head of the column, + coming suddenly in view of the wild, fantastic battle array, + which extended far to our right and left, and was not more + than half a mile in our front, hastily sent orders to the + infantry, artillery, and cavalry to form in line of battle, + evidently determined that, if war was intended, we should be + prepared. The cavalry being the last to form on the right, + came into line on a gallop, and without waiting to align + the ranks carefully, the command was given to "Draw sabre." + As the bright blades flashed from their scabbards into the + morning sunlight, and the infantry brought their muskets + to a carry, a contrast was presented which, to a military + eye, could but be striking. Here in battle array, facing + each other, were the representatives of civilized and + barbarous warfare. The one, with few modifications, stood + clothed in the same rude style of dress, bearing the same + patterned shield and weapon that his ancestors had borne + centuries before; the other confronted him in the dress + and supplied with the implements of war which an advanced + stage of civilization had pronounced the most perfect. + Was the comparative superiority of these two classes to be + subjected to the mere test of war here? All was eager + anxiety and expectation. Neither side seemed to comprehend + the object or intentions of the other; each was waiting + for the other to deliver the first blow. A more beautiful + battle-ground could not have been chosen. Not a bush or + even the slightest irregularity of ground intervened between + the two lines, which now stood frowning and facing each other. + Chiefs could be seen riding along the line, as if directing + and exhorting their braves to deeds of heroism. + + After a few moments of painful suspense, General Hancock, + accompanied by General A. J. Smith and other officers, + rode forward, and through an interpreter invited the chiefs + to meet us midway for the purpose of an interview. + In response to this invitation, Roman Nose, bearing a white + flag, accompanied by Bull Bear, White Horse, Gray Beard, + and Medicine Wolf, on the part of the Cheyennes, and Pawnee + Killer, Bad Wound, Tall-Bear-That-Walks-under-the-Ground, + Left Hand, Little Bear, and Little Bull, on the part of the + Sioux, rode forward to the middle of the open space between + the two lines. Here we shook hands with all the chiefs, + most of them exhibiting unmistakable signs of gratification + at this apparently peaceful termination of our rencounter. + General Hancock very naturally inquired the object of the + hostile attitude displayed before us, saying to the chiefs + that if war was their object, we were ready then and there + to participate. Their immediate answer was that they did + not desire war, but were peacefully disposed. They were + then told that we would continue our march toward the + village, and encamp near it, but would establish such + regulations that none of the soldiers would be permitted + to approach or disturb them. An arrangement was then + effected by which the chiefs were to assemble at General + Hancock's headquarters as soon as our camp was pitched. + The interview then terminated, and the Indians moved off + in the direction of their village, we following leisurely + in the rear. + + A march of a few miles brought us in sight of the village, + which was situated in a beautiful grove on the bank of the + stream up which we had been marching. It consisted of + upwards of three hundred lodges, a small fraction over half + belonging to the Cheyennes, the remainder to the Sioux. + Like all Indian encampments, the ground chosen was a most + romantic spot, and at the same time fulfilled in every + respect the requirements of a good camping-ground; wood, + water, and grass were abundant. The village was placed on + a wide, level plateau, while on the north and west, at a + short distance off, rose high bluffs, which admirably served + as a shelter against the cold winds which at that season of + the year prevail from those directions. Our tents were + pitched within a mile of the village. Guards were placed + between to prevent intrusion upon our part. We had scarcely + pitched our tents when Roman Nose, Bull Bear, Gray Beard, + and Medicine Wolf, all prominent chiefs of the Cheyenne + nation, came into camp with the information that upon our + approach their women and children had all fled from the + village, alarmed by the presence of so many soldiers, and + imagining a second Chivington massacre to be intended. + General Hancock insisted that they should all return, + promising protection and good treatment to all; that if + the camp was abandoned, he would hold it responsible. + The chiefs then stated their belief in their ability to + recall the fugitives, could they be furnished with horses + to overtake them. This was accordingly done, and two of + them set out mounted on two of our horses. An agreement + was also entered into at the same time, that one of our + interpreters, Ed Gurrier, a half-breed Cheyenne, who was in + the employ of the government, should remain in the village + and report every two hours as to whether any Indians were + leaving there. This was about seven o'clock in the evening. + At half-past nine the half-breed returned to head-quarters + with the intelligence that all the chiefs and warriors were + saddling up to leave, under circumstances showing that they + had no intention of returning, such as packing up every + article that could be carried with them, and cutting and + destroying their lodges--this last being done to obtain + small pieces for temporary shelter. + + I had retired to my tent, which was some few hundred yards + from that of General Hancock, when a messenger from the + latter awakened me with the information that the general + desired my presence in his tent. He briefly stated the + situation of affairs, and directed me to mount my command + as quickly and as silently as possible, surround the Indian + village, and prevent the departure of its inhabitants. + Easily said, but not so easily done. Under ordinary + circumstances, silence not being necessary, I could have + returned to my camp, and by a few blasts from the trumpet, + placed every soldier on his saddle almost as quickly as it + has taken time to write this short sentence. No bugle calls + must be sounded; we were to adopt some of the stealth of the + Indians--how successfully remained to be seen. By this time + every soldier and officer was in his tent sound asleep. + First going to the tent of the adjutant and arousing him, + I procured an experienced assistant in my labours. Next the + captains of companies were awakened and orders imparted + to them. They in turn transmitted the order to the first + sergeant, who similarly aroused the men. It has often + surprised me to observe the alacrity with which disciplined + soldiers, experienced in campaigning, will hasten to prepare + themselves for the march in an emergency like this. + No questions are asked, no time is wasted. A soldier's + toilet, on an Indian campaign, is a simple affair, and + requires little time for arranging. His clothes are + gathered up hurriedly, no matter how, so long as he retains + possession of them. The first object is to get his horse + saddled and bridled, and until this is done his own dress + is a matter of secondary importance, and one button or hook + must do the duty of half a dozen. When his horse is ready + for the mount, the rider will be seen completing his own + equipment; stray buttons will receive attention, arms will + be overhauled, spurs restrapped; then, if there still remain + a few spare moments, the homely black pipe is filled and + lighted, and the soldier's preparation is complete. + + The night was all that could be desired for the success of + our enterprise. The air was mild and pleasant; the moon, + although nearly full, kept almost constantly behind the + clouds, as if to screen us in our hazardous undertaking. + I say hazardous, because none of us imagined for one moment + that if the Indians discovered us in our attempt to surround + them and their village, we should escape without a fight-- + a fight, too, in which the Indians, sheltered behind the + trunks of the stately forest trees under which their lodges + were pitched, would possess all the advantage. General + Hancock, anticipating that the Indians would discover our + approach, and that a fight would ensue, ordered the + artillery and infantry under arms, to await the result of + our moonlight adventure. My command was soon in the saddle, + and silently making its way toward the village. + Instructions had been given forbidding all conversation + except in a whisper. Sabres were disposed of to prevent + clanging. Taking a camp-fire which we could see in the + village as our guiding point, we made a detour so as to + place the village between ourselves and the infantry. + Occasionally the moon would peep out from the clouds and + enable us to catch a hasty glance at the village. Here and + there under the thick foliage we could see the white, + conical-shaped lodges. Were the inmates slumbering, + unaware of our close proximity, or were their dusky defenders + concealed, as well they might have been, along the banks of + the Pawnee, quietly awaiting our approach, and prepared to + greet us with their well-known war-whoop? These were + questions that were probably suggested to the mind of each + individual of my command. If we were discovered approaching + in the stealthy, suspicious manner which characterized our + movements, the hour being midnight, it would require a more + confiding nature than that of the Indian to assign a + friendly or peaceful motive to our conduct. The same + flashes of moonlight which gave us hurried glimpses of the + village enabled us to see our own column of horsemen + stretching its silent length far into the dim darkness, and + winding its course, like some huge anaconda about to envelop + its victim. + + The method by which it was determined to establish a cordon + of armed troopers about the fated village, was to direct + the march in a circle, with the village in the centre, + the commanding officer of each rear troop halting his + command at the proper point, and deploying his men similarly + to a line of skirmishers--the entire circle, when thus formed, + facing toward the village, and, distant from it perhaps a + few hundred yards. No sooner was our line completely formed + than the moon, as if deeming darkness no longer essential + to our success, appeared from behind her screen and lighted + up the entire scene. And beautiful it was! The great + circle of troops, each individual of which sat on his steed + silent as a statue, the dense foliage of the cotton trees + sheltering the bleached, skin-clad lodges of the red men, + the little stream in the midst murmuring undisturbedly in + its channel, all combined to produce an artistic effect, + as striking as it was interesting. But we were not there + to study artistic effects. The next step was to determine + whether we had captured an inhabited village, involving + almost necessarily a severe conflict with its savage + occupants, or whether the red man had again proven too + wily and crafty for his more civilized brothers. + + Directing the entire line of troopers to remain mounted + with carbines held at the "Advance," I dismounted, and + taking with me Gurrier, the half-breed, Dr. Coates, one of + our medical staff, and Lieutenant Moylan, the adjutant, + we proceeded on our hands and knees toward the village. + The prevailing opinion was that the Indians were still + asleep. I desired to approach near enough to the lodges + to enable the half-breed to hail the village in the Indian + tongue, and if possible establish friendly relations at once. + It became a question of prudence with us, which we discussed + in whispers as we proceeded on our "Tramp, tramp, tramp, + the boys are creeping," how far from our horses and how + near to the village we dared to go. If so few of us were + discovered entering the village in this questionable manner, + it was more than probable that, like the returners of stolen + property, we should be suitably rewarded and no questions + asked. The opinion of Gurrier, the half-breed, was eagerly + sought for and generally deferred to. His wife, + a full-blooded Cheyenne, was a resident of the village. + This with him was an additional reason for wishing a peaceful + termination to our efforts. When we had passed over + two-thirds of the distance between our horses and the + village, it was thought best to make our presence known. + Thus far not a sound had been heard to disturb the stillness + of the night. Gurrier called out at the top of his voice + in the Cheyenne tongue. The only response came from the + throats of a score or more of Indian dogs which set up a + fierce barking. At the same time one or two of our party + asserted that they saw figure moving beneath the trees. + Gurrier repeated his summons, but with no better results + than before. + + A hurried consultation ensued. The presence of so many dogs + in the village was regarded by the half-breed as almost + positive assurance that the Indians were still there. + Yet it was difficult to account for their silence. Gurrier + in a loud tone repeated who he was, and that our mission was + friendly. Still no answer. He then gave it as his opinion + that the Indians were on the alert, and were probably + waiting in the shadow of the trees for us to approach nearer, + when they would pounce upon us. This comforting opinion + induced another conference. We must ascertain the truth of + the matter; our party could do this as well as a larger + number, and to go back and send another party in our stead + could not be thought of. + + Forward! was the verdict. Each one grasped his revolver, + resolved to do his best, whether it was in running or + fighting. I think most of us would have preferred to take + our own chances at running. We had approached near enough + to see that some of the lodges were detached some distance + from the main encampment. Selecting the nearest of these, + we directed our advance on it. While all of us were full + of the spirit of adventure, and were further encouraged + with the idea that we were in the discharge of our duty, + there was scarcely one of us who would not have felt more + comfortable if we could have got back to our horses without + loss of pride. Yet nothing, under the circumstances, but + a positive order would have induced any one to withdraw. + + Cautiously approaching, on all fours, to within a few yards + of the nearest lodge, occasionally halting and listening to + discover whether the village was deserted or not, we finally + decided that the Indians had fled before the arrival of the + cavalry, and that none but empty lodges were before us. + This conclusion somewhat emboldened as well as accelerated + our progress. Arriving at the first lodge, one of our party + raised the curtain or mat which served as a door, and the + doctor and myself entered. The interior of the lodge was + dimly lighted by the dying embers of a small fire built in + the centre. All around us were to be seen the usual + adornments and articles which constitute the household + effects of an Indian family. Buffalo-robes were spread like + carpets over the floor; head-mats, used to recline on, were + arranged as if for the comfort of their owners; parflêches, + a sort of Indian band-box, with their contents apparently + undisturbed, were carefully stowed away under the edges or + borders of the lodge. These, with the door-mats, paint-bags, + rawhide ropes, and other articles of Indian equipment, + were left as if the owners had only absented themselves for + a brief period. To complete the picture of an Indian lodge, + over the fire hung a camp-kettle, in which, by means of the + dim light of the fire, we could see what had been intended + for the supper of the late occupants of the lodge. + The doctor, ever on the alert to discover additional items + of knowledge, whether pertaining to history or science, + snuffed the savoury odours which arose from the dark + recesses of the mysterious kettle. Casting about the lodge + for some instrument to aid him in his pursuit of knowledge, + he found a horn spoon, with which he began his investigation + of the contents, finally succeeding in getting possession + of a fragment which might have been the half of a duck or + rabbit, judging from its size merely. "Ah!" said the doctor, + in his most complacent manner, "here is the opportunity I + have long been waiting for. I have often desired to test + the Indian mode of cooking. What do you suppose this is?" + holding up the dripping morsel. Unable to obtain the + desired information, the doctor, whose naturally good + appetite had been sensibly sharpened by his recent exercise, + set to with a will and ate heartily of the mysterious + contents of the kettle. He was only satisfied on one point, + that it was delicious--a dish fit for a king. Just then + Gurrier, the half-breed, entered the lodge. He could solve + the mystery, having spent years among the Indians. To him + the doctor appealed for information. Fishing out a huge + piece, and attacking it with the voracity of a hungry wolf, + he was not long in determining what the doctor had supped + heartily upon. His first words settled the mystery: "Why, + this is dog." I will not attempt to repeat the few but + emphatic words uttered by the heartily disgusted member of + the medical fraternity as he rushed from the lodge. + + Other members of our small party had entered other lodges, + only to find them, like the first, deserted. But little of + the furniture belonging to the lodges had been taken, + showing how urgent and hasty had been the flight of the + owners. To aid in the examination of the village, + reinforcements were added to our party, and an exploration + of each lodge was determined upon. At the same time a + messenger was despatched to General Hancock, informing him + of the flight of the Indians. Some of the lodges were + closed by having brush or timber piled up against the + entrance, as if to preserve the contents. Others had huge + pieces cut from their sides, these pieces evidently being + carried away to furnish temporary shelter for the fugitives. + In most of the lodges the fires were still burning. I had + entered several without discovering anything important. + Finally, in company with the doctor, I arrived at one the + interior of which was quite dark, the fire having almost + died out. Procuring a lighted fagot, I prepared to explore it, + as I had done the others; but no sooner had I entered the + lodge than my fagot failed me, leaving me in total darkness. + Handing it to the doctor to be relighted, I began to feel + my way about the interior of the lodge. I had almost made + the circuit when my hand came in contact with a human foot; + at the same time a voice unmistakably Indian, and which + evidently came from the owner of the foot, convinced me that + I was not alone. My first impressions were that in their + hasty flight the Indians had gone off, leaving this one + asleep. My next, very naturally, related to myself. + I would gladly have placed myself on the outside of the + lodge, and there matured plans for interviewing its occupant; + but unfortunately to reach the entrance of the lodge, I must + either pass over or around the owner of the before-mentioned + foot and voice. Could I have been convinced that among + its other possessions there was neither tomahawk nor + scalping-knife, pistol nor war-club, or any similar article + of the noble red-man's toilet, I would have risked an attempt + to escape through the low narrow opening of the lodge; + but who ever saw an Indian without one or all of these + interesting trinkets? Had I made the attempt, I should + have expected to encounter either the keen edge of the + scalping-knife or the blow of the tomahawk, and to have + engaged in a questionable struggle for life. This would + not do. I crouched in silence for a few moments, hoping + the doctor would return with the lighted fagot. I need not + say that each succeeding moment spent in the darkness of + that lodge seemed an age. I could hear a slight movement + on the part of my unknown neighbour, which did not add to + my comfort. Why does not the doctor return? At last I + discovered the approach of a light on the outside. When it + neared the entrance, I called the doctor and informed him + that an Indian was in the lodge, and that he had better + have his weapons ready for a conflict. I had, upon + discovering the foot, drawn my hunting-knife from its + scabbard, and now stood waiting the denouement. With his + lighted fagot in one hand and cocked revolver in the other, + the doctor cautiously entered the lodge. And there directly + between us, wrapped in a buffalo-robe, lay the cause of my + anxiety--a little Indian girl, probably ten years old; + not a full-blood, but a half-breed. She was terribly + frightened at finding herself in our hands, with none of + her people near. Other parties in exploring the deserted + village found an old, decrepit Indian of the Sioux tribe, + who had also been deserted, owing to his infirmities and + inability to travel with the tribe. Nothing was gleaned + from our search of the village which might indicate the + direction of the flight. General Hancock, on learning the + situation of affairs, despatched some companies of infantry + with orders to replace the cavalry and protect the village + and its contents from disturbance until its final disposition + could be determined upon, and it was decided that with eight + troops of cavalry I should start in pursuit of the Indians + at early dawn on the following morning. + + The Indians, after leaving their village, went up on the + Smoky Hill, and committed the most horrible depredations + upon the scattered settlers in that region. Upon this news, + General Hancock issued the following order:-- + + "As a punishment of the bad faith practised by the Cheyennes + and Sioux who occupied the Indian village at this place, and + as a chastisement for murders and depredations committed + since the arrival of the command at this point, by the + people of these tribes, the village recently occupied by + them, which is now in our hands, will be utterly destroyed." + + The Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches had been united under + one agency; the Kiowas and Comanches under another. + As General Hancock's expedition had reference to all these + tribes, he had invited both the agents to accompany him + into the Indian country and be present at all interviews + with the representatives of these tribes, for the purpose, + as the invitation stated, of showing the Indians "that the + officers of the government are acting in harmony." + + In conversation with the general the agents admitted that + Indians had been guilty of all the outrages charged against + them, but each asserted the innocence of the particular + tribes under his charge, and endeavoured to lay their crimes + at the door of their neighbours. + + Here was positive evidence from the agents themselves that + the Indians against whom we were operating were deserving + of severe punishment. The only conflicting portion of the + testimony was as to which tribe was most guilty. Subsequent + events proved, however, that all of the five tribes named, + as well as the Sioux, had combined for a general war + throughout the plains and along our frontier. Such a war + had been threatened to our post commanders along the + Arkansas on many occasions during the winter. The movement + of the Sioux and Cheyennes toward the north indicated that + the principal theatre of military operations during the + summer would be between the Smoky Hill and Platte rivers. + General Hancock accordingly assembled the principal chiefs + of the Kiowas and Arapahoes in council at Fort Dodge, + hoping to induce them to remain at peace and observe their + treaty obligations. + + The most prominent chiefs in council were Satanta, Lone Wolf, + and Kicking Bird of the Kiowas, and Little Raven and Yellow + Bear of the Arapahoes. During the council extravagant + promises of future good behaviour were made by these chiefs. + So effective and convincing was the oratorical effort of + Satanta, that at the termination of his address, the + department commander and his staff presented him with the + uniform coat, sash, and hat of a major-general. In return + for this compliment, Satanta, within a few weeks, attacked + the post at which the council was held, arrayed in his + new uniform. + +In the spring of 1878, the Indians commenced a series of depredations +along the Santa Fe Trail and against the scattered settlers of the +frontier, that were unparalleled in their barbarity. General Alfred +Sully, a noted Indian fighter, who commanded the district of the Upper +Arkansas, early concentrated a portion of the Seventh and Tenth Cavalry +and Third Infantry along the line of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and kept +out small expeditions of scouting parties to protect the overland +coaches and freight caravans; but the troops effected very little in +stopping the devilish acts of the Indians, who were now fully determined +to carry out their threats of a general war, which culminated in the +winter expedition of General Sheridan, who completely subdued them, and +forced all the tribes on reservations; since which time there has never +been any trouble with the plains Indians worthy of mention.[69] + +General Sully, about the 1st of September, with eight companies of the +Seventh Cavalry and five companies of infantry, left Fort Dodge, on the +Arkansas, on a hurried expedition against the Kiowas, Arapahoes, and +Cheyennes. The command marched in a general southeasterly direction, and +reached the sand hills of the Beaver and Wolf rivers, by a circuitous +route, on the fifth day. When nearly through that barren region, they +were attacked by a force of eight hundred of the allied tribes under the +leadership of the famous Kiowa chief, Satanta. A running fight was kept +up with the savages on the first day, in which two of the cavalry were +killed and one wounded. + +That night the savages came close enough to camp to fire into it (an +unusual proceeding in Indian warfare, as they rarely molest troops +during the night), I now quote from Custer again: + + The next day General Sully directed his march down the + valley of the Beaver; but just as his troops were breaking + camp, the long wagon-train having already "pulled out," and + the rear guard of the command having barely got into their + saddles, a party of between two and three hundred warriors, + who had evidently in some inexplicable manner contrived to + conceal themselves until the proper moment, dashed into the + deserted camp within a few yards of the rear of the troops, + and succeeded in cutting off a few led horses and two of + the cavalrymen who, as is often the case, had lingered a + moment behind the column. + + Fortunately, the acting adjutant of the cavalry, Brevet + Captain A. E. Smith, was riding at the rear of the column + and witnessed the attack of the Indians. Captain Hamilton,[70] + of the Seventh Cavalry, was also present in command of the + rear guard. Wheeling to the rightabout, he at once prepared + to charge the Indians and attempt the rescue of the two + troopers who were being carried off before his very eyes. + At the same time, Captain Smith, as representative of the + commanding officer of the cavalry, promptly took the + responsibility of directing a squadron of the cavalry to + wheel out of column and advance in support of Captain + Hamilton's guard. With this hastily formed detachment, + the Indians, still within pistol-range, but moving off with + their prisoners, were gallantly charged and so closely + pressed that they were forced to relinquish one of their + prisoners, but not before shooting him through the body and + leaving him on the ground, as they supposed, mortally wounded. + The troops continued to charge the retreating Indians, + upon whom they were gaining, determined, if possible, + to effect the rescue of their remaining comrade. They were + advancing down one slope while the Indians, just across + a ravine, were endeavouring to escape with their prisoner + up the opposite ascent, when a peremptory order reached the + officers commanding the pursuing force to withdraw their men + and reform the column at once. The terrible fate awaiting + the unfortunate trooper carried off by the Indians spread + a deep gloom throughout the command. All were too familiar + with the horrid customs of the savages to hope for a moment + that the captive would be reserved for aught but a slow, + lingering death, from tortures the most horrible and painful + which blood-thirsty minds could suggest. Such was the truth + in his case, as we learned afterwards when peace (?) was + established with the tribes then engaged in war. + + The expedition proceeded down the valley of the Beaver, + the Indians contesting every step of the way. In the + afternoon, about three o'clock, the troops arrived at + a ridge of sand hills a few miles southeast of the + presentsite of Camp Supply, where quite a determined + engagement took place between the command and the three + tribes, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowas, the Indians + being the assailants. The Indians seemed to have reserved + their strongest efforts until the troops and train had + advanced well into the sand hills, when a most obstinate + resistance--and well conducted, too--was offered the + farther advance of the troops. It was evident that the + troops were probably nearing the Indian villages, and that + this opposition to further advance was to save them. The + character of the country immediately about the troops was + not favourable to the operations of cavalry; the surface + of the rolling plain was cut up by irregular and closely + located sand hills, too steep and sandy to allow cavalry + to move with freedom, yet capable of being easily cleared + of savages by troops fighting on foot. The Indians took + post on the hilltops and began a harassing fire on the + troops and train. Captain Yates, with a single troop of + cavalry, was ordered forward to drive them away. This was + a proceeding which did not seem to meet with favour from + the savages. Captain Yates could drive them wherever he + encountered them, but they appeared in increased numbers + at some other threatened point. After contending in this + non-effective manner for a couple of hours, the impression + arose in the minds of some that the train could not be + conducted through the sand hills in the face of the strong + opposition offered by the Indians. The order was issued + to turn about and withdraw. The order was executed, and + the troop and train, followed by the exultant Indians, + retired a few miles to the Beaver, and encamped for the + night on the ground afterward known as Camp Supply. + + Captain Yates had caused to be brought off the field, when + his troop was ordered to retire, the body of one of his men, + who had been slain in the fight. As the troops were to + continue their backward march next day, and it was impossible + to transport the dead body further, Captain Yates ordered + preparations made for interring it in camp that night. + Knowing that the Indians would thoroughly search the deserted + camp-ground almost before the troops should get out of sight, + and would be quick, with their watchful eyes, to detect a + grave, and, if successful in discovering it, would unearth + the body in order to get the scalp, directions were given + to prepare the grave after nightfall; and the spot selected + would have baffled any one but an Indian. The grave was + dug under the picket line to which the seventy or eighty + horses of the troop would be tethered during the night, + so that their constant tramping and pawing should completely + cover up and obliterate all traces. The following morning, + even those who had performed the sad rites of burial to + their fallen comrade could scarcely have indicated the exact + location of the grave. Yet when we returned to that point + a few weeks later, it was discovered that the wily savages + had found the place, unearthed the body, and removed the + scalp of their victim on the day following the interment.[71] + +After leaving the camp at Supply, the Indians gradually increased their +force, until they mustered about two thousand warriors. For four days +and nights they hovered around the command, and by the time it reached +Mulberry Creek there were not one thousand rounds of ammunition left in +the whole force of troopers and infantrymen. At the creek, the incessant +charges of the now infuriated savages compelled the troops to use this +small amount held in reserve, and they found themselves almost at the +mercy of the Indians. But before they were absolutely defenceless, +Colonel Keogh had sent a trusty messenger in the night to Fort Dodge +for a supply of cartridges to meet the command at the creek, which +fortunately arrived there in time to save that spot from being a +veritable "last ditch." + +The savages, in the little but exciting encounter at the creek before +the ammunition arrived, would ride up boldly toward the squadrons of +cavalry, discharge the shots from their revolvers, and then, in their +rage, throw them at the skirmishers on the flanks of the supply-train, +while the latter, nearly out of ammunition, were compelled to sit +quietly in their saddles, idle spectators of the extraordinary +scene.[72] + +Many of the Indians were killed on their ponies, however, by those +who were fortunate enough to have a few cartridges left; but none +were captured, as the savages had taken their usual precaution to tie +themselves to their animals, and as soon as dead were dragged away by +them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. + + + +The tourist who to-day, in a palace car, surrounded by all the +conveniences of our American railway service, commences his tour of the +prairies at the Missouri River, enters classic ground the moment the +train leaves the muddy flood of that stream on its swift flight toward +the golden shores of the Pacific. + +He finds a large city at the very portals of the once far West, with all +the bustle and energy which is so characteristic of American enterprise. + +Gradually, as he is whirled along the iron trail, the woods lessen; he +catches views of beautiful intervales; a bright little stream flashes +and foams in the sunlight as the trees grow fewer, and soon he emerges +on the broad sea of prairie, shut in only by the great circle of the +heavens. + +Dotting this motionless ocean everywhere, like whitened sails, are quiet +homes, real argosies ventured by the sturdy and industrious people who +have fought their way through almost insurmountable difficulties to the +tranquillity which now surrounds them. + +A few miles west of Topeka, the capital of Kansas, when the train +reaches the little hamlet of Wakarusa, the track of the railroad +commences to follow the route of the Old Santa Fe Trail. At that point, +too, the Oregon Trail branches off for the heavily timbered regions of +the Columbia. Now begins the classic ground of the once famous highway +to New Mexico; nearly every stream, hill, and wooded dell has its +story of adventure in those days when the railroad was regarded as an +impossibility, and the region beyond the Missouri as a veritable desert. + +After some hours' rapid travelling, if our tourist happens to be a +passenger on the "California Limited," the swift train that annihilates +distance, he will pass by towns, hamlets, and immense cattle ranches, +stopping only at county-seats, and enter the justly famous Arkansas +valley at the city of Hutchinson. The Old Trail now passes a few miles +north of this busy place, which is noted for its extensive salt works, +nor does the railroad again meet with it until the site of old Fort +Zarah is reached, forty-seven miles west of Hutchinson, though it runs +nearly parallel to the once great highway at varying distances for the +whole detour. + +The ruins of the once important military post may be seen from the +car-windows on the right, as the train crosses the iron bridge spanning +the Walnut, and here the Old Trail exactly coincides with the railroad, +the track of the latter running immediately on the old highway. + +Three miles westward from the classic little Walnut the Old Trail ran +through what is now the Court House Square of the town of Great Bend; +it may be seen from the station, and on that very spot occurred the +terrible fight of Captains Booth and Hallowell in 1864. + +Thirteen miles further mountainward, on the right of the railroad, not +far from the track, stands all that remains of the once dreaded Pawnee +Rock. It lies just beyond the limits of the little hamlet bearing its +name. It would not be recognized by any of the old plainsmen were they +to come out of their isolated graves; for it is only a disintegrated, +low mass of sandstone now, utilized for the base purposes of a corral, +in which the village herd of milch cows lie down at night and chew +their cuds, such peaceful transformation has that great civilizer, the +locomotive, wrought in less than two decades. + +Another five or six miles, and the train crosses Ash Creek, which, too, +was once one of the favourite haunts of the Pawnee and Comanche on their +predatory excursions, in the days when the mules and horses of passing +freight caravans excited their cupidity. A short whirl again, and the +town of Larned, lying peacefully on the Arkansas and Pawnee Fork, is +reached. Immediately opposite the centre of the street through which the +railroad runs, and which was also the course of the Old Trail, lying +in the Arkansas River, close to its northern bank, is a small +thickly-wooded island, now reached by a bridge, that is famous as the +battle-ground of a terrible conflict thirty years ago, between the +Pawnees and Cheyennes, hereditary enemies, in which the latter tribe was +cruelly defeated. + +The railroad bridge crosses Pawnee Fork at the precise spot where the +Old Trail did. This locality has been the scene of some of the bloodiest +encounters between the various tribes of savages themselves, and between +them and the freight caravans, the overland coaches, and every other +kind of outfit that formerly attempted the passage of the now peaceful +stream. In fact, the whole region from Walnut Creek to the mouth of the +Pawnee, which includes in its area Ash Creek and Pawnee Rock, seemed to +be the greatest resort for the Indians, who hovered about the Santa Fe +Trail for the sole purpose of robbery and murder; it was a very lucky +caravan or coach, indeed, that passed through that portion of the route +without being attacked. + +All the once dangerous points of the Old Trail having been successively +passed--Cow Creek, Big and Little Coon, and Ash Creek, Fort Dodge, +Fort Aubrey,[73] and Point of Rocks--the tourist arrives at last at the +foot-hills. At La Junta the railroad separates into two branches; one +going to Denver, the other on to New Mexico. Here, a relatively short +distance to the northwest, on the right of the train, may be seen the +ruins of Bent's Fort, the tourist having already passed the site of +the once famous Big Timbers, a favourite winter camping-ground of the +Cheyennes and Arapahoes; but everywhere around him there reigns such +perfect quiet and pastoral beauty, he might imagine that the peaceful +landscape upon which he looks had never been a bloody arena. + +I suggest to the lover of nature that he should cross the Raton Range +in the early morning, or late in the afternoon; for then the magnificent +scenery of the Trail over the high divide into New Mexico assumes its +most beautiful aspect. + +In approaching the range from the Old Trail, or now from the railroad, +their snow-clad peaks may be seen at a distance of sixty miles. In the +era of caravans and pack-trains, for hour after hour, as they moved +slowly toward the goal of their ambition, the summit of the fearful +pathway on the divide, the huge forms of the mountains seemed to recede, +and yet ascend higher. On the next day's journey their outlines appeared +more irregular and ragged. Drawing still nearer, their base presented a +long, dark strip stretching throughout their whole course, ever widening +until it seemed like a fathomless gulf, separating the world of reality +from the realms of imagination beyond. + +Another weary twenty miles of dusty travel, and the black void slowly +dissolved, and out of the shadows lines of broken, sterile, ferruginous +buttes and detached masses of rocks, whose soilless surface refuses +sustenance, save to a few scattered, stunted pines and lifeless mosses, +emerged to view. + +The progress of the weary-footed mules or oxen was now through ravines +and around rocks; up narrow paths which the melting snows have washed +out; sometimes between beetling cliffs, often to their very edge, where +hundreds of feet below the Trail the tall trees seemed diminished into +shrubs. Then again the road led over an immense broad terrace, for +thousands of yards around, with a bright lake gleaming in the refracted +light, and brilliant Alpine plants waving their beautiful flowers on its +margin. Still the coveted summit appeared so far off as to be beyond the +range of vision, and it seemed as if, instead of ascending, the entire +mass underneath had been receding, like the mountains of ice over which +Arctic explorers attempt to reach the pole. Now the tortuous +Trail passed through snow-wreaths which the winds had eddied into +indentations; then over bright, glassy surfaces of ice and fragments +of rocks, until the pinnacle was reached. Nearer, along the broad +successive terraces of the opposite mountains, the evergreen pine, the +cedar, with its stiff, angular branches, and the cottonwood, with its +varied curves and bright colours, were crowded into bunches or strung +into zigzag lines, interspersed with shrubs and mountain plants, among +which the flaming cactus was conspicuous. To the right and left, the +bare cones of the barren peaks rose in multitude, with their calm, awful +forms shrouded in snow, and their dark shadows reflected far into the +valleys, like spectres from a chaotic world. + +In going through the Raton Pass, the Old Santa Fe Trail meandered up a +steep valley, enclosed on either side by abrupt hills covered with +pine and masses of gray rock. The road ran along the points of varying +elevations, now in the stony bed of Raton Creek, which it crossed +fifty-three times, the sparkling, flitting waters of the bubbling stream +leaping and foaming against the animals' feet as they hauled the great +wagons of the freight caravans over the tortuous passage. The creek +often rushed rapidly under large flat stones, lost to sight for a +moment, then reappearing with a fresh impetus and dashing over +its flinty, uneven bed until it mingled with the pure waters of Le +Purgatoire. + +Still ascending, the scenery assumed a bolder, rougher cast; then sudden +turns gave you hurried glimpses of the great valley below. A gentle dell +sloped to the summit of the pass on the west, then, rising on the +east by a succession of terraces, the bald, bare cliff was reached, +overlooking the whole region for many miles, and this is Raton Peak.[74] + +The extreme top of this famous peak was only reached after more than +an hour's arduous struggle. On the lofty plateau the caravans and +pack-trains rested their tired animals. Here, too, the lonely trapper, +when crossing the range in quest of beaver, often chose this lofty +spot on which to kindle his little fire and broil juicy steaks of the +black-tail deer, the finest venison in the world; but before he indulged +in the savoury morsels, if he was in the least superstitious or devout, +or inspired by the sublime scene around him, he lighted his pipe, and +after saluting the elevated ridge on which he sat by the first whiff of +the fragrant kinnikinick, Indian-fashion, he in turn offered homage +in the same manner to the sky above him, the earth beneath, and to +the cardinal points of the compass, and was then prepared to eat his +solitary meal in a spirit of thankfulness. + +Far below this magnificent vantage-ground lies the valley of the Rio +Las Animas Perdidas. On the other verge of the great depression rise +the peerless, everlastingly snow-wreathed Spanish Peaks,[75] whose giant +summits are grim sentinels that for untold ages have witnessed hundreds +of sanguinary conflicts between the wily nomads of the vast plains +watered by the silent Arkansas. + +All around you snow-clad mountains lift their serrated crowns above +the horizon, dim, white, and indistinct, like icebergs seen at sea by +moonlight; others, nearer, more rugged, naked of verdure, and irregular +in contour, seem to lose their lofty summits in the intense blue of the +sky. + +Fisher's Peak, which is in full view from the train, was named from the +following circumstance: Captain Fisher was a German artillery officer +commanding a battery in General Kearney's Army of the West in the +conquest of New Mexico and was encamped at the base of the peak to which +he involuntarily gave his name. He was intently gazing at the lofty +summit wrapped in the early mist, and not being familiar with the +illusory atmospheric effects of the region, he thought that to go there +would be merely a pleasant promenade. So, leaving word that he would +return to breakfast, he struck out at a brisk walk for the crest. That +whole day, the following night, and the succeeding day, dragged their +weary hours on, but no tidings of the commanding officer were received +at the battery, and ill rumours were current of his death by Indians +or bears, when, just as his mess were about to take their seats at the +table for the evening meal, their captain put in an appearance, a very +tired but a wiser man. He started to go to the peak, and he went there! + +On the summit of another rock-ribbed elevation close by, the tourist +will notice the shaft of an obelisk. It is over the grave of George +Simpson, once a noted mountaineer in the days of the great fur +companies. For a long time he made his home there, and it was his dying +request that the lofty peak he loved so well while living should be his +last resting-place. The peak is known as "Simpson's Rest," and is one of +the notable features of the rugged landscape. + +Pike's Peak, far away to the north, intensely white and silvery in the +clear sky, hangs like a great dome high in the region of the clouds, a +marked object, worthy to commemorate the indefatigable efforts of the +early voyageur whose name it bears. + +In this wonderful locality, both Pike's Peak and the snowy range over +two hundred miles from our point of observation really seem to the +uninitiated as if a brisk walk of an hour or two would enable one to +reach them, so deceptive is the atmosphere of these elevated regions. + +About two miles from the crest of the range, yet over seven thousand +feet above the sea-level, in a pretty little depression about as large +as a medium-sized corn-field in the Eastern States, Uncle Dick Wooton +lived, and here, too, was his toll-gate. The veteran mountaineer erected +a substantial house of adobe, after the style of one of the old-time +Southern plantation residences, a memory, perhaps, of his youth, when he +raised tobacco in his father's fields in Kentucky.[76] + +The most charming hour in which to be on the crest of Raton Range is in +the afternoon, when the weather is clear and calm. As the night comes +on apace in the distant valley beneath, the evening shadows drop down, +pencilled with broad bands of rosy light as they creep slowly across +the beautiful landscape, while the rugged vista below is enveloped in a +diffused haze like that which marks the season of the Indian summer +in the lower great plains. Above, the sky curves toward the relatively +restricted horizon, with not a cloud to dim its intense blue, nowhere so +beautiful as in these lofty altitudes. + +The sun, however, does not always shine resplendently; there are times +when the most terrific storms of wind, hail, and rain change the entire +aspect of the scene. Fortunately, these violent bursts never last long; +they vanish as rapidly as they come, leaving in their wake the most +phenomenally beautiful rainbows, whose trailing splendours which they +owe to the dry and rare air of the region, and its high refractory +power, are gorgeous in the extreme. + +In 1872 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad entered the valley +of the Upper Arkansas. Twenty-four years ago, on a delicious October +afternoon, I stood on the absolutely level plateau at the mouth of +Pawnee Fork where that historic creek debouches into the great river. +The remembrance of that view will never pass from my memory, for it +showed a curious temporary blending of two distinct civilizations. One, +the new, marking the course of empire in its restless march westward; +the other, that of the aboriginal, which, like a dissolving view, was +soon to fade away and be forgotten. + +The box-elders and cottonwoods thinly covering the creek-bottom were +gradually donning their autumn dress of russet, and the mirage had +already commenced its fantastic play with the landscape. On the sides +and crests of the sparsely grassed sand hills south of the Arkansas a +few buffaloes were grazing in company with hundreds of Texas cattle, +while in the broad valley beneath, small flocks of graceful antelope +were lying down, quietly ruminating their midday meal. + +In the distance, far eastwardly, a train of cars could be seen +approaching; as far as the eye could reach, on either side of the track, +the virgin sod had been turned to the sun; the "empire of the plough" +was established, and the march of immigration in its hunger for the +horizon had begun. + +Half a mile away from the bridge spanning the Fork, under the grateful +shade of the largest trees, about twenty skin lodges were irregularly +grouped; on the brown sod of the sun-cured grass a herd of a hundred +ponies were lazily feeding, while a troop of dusky little children were +chasing the yellow butterflies from the dried and withered sunflower +stalks which once so conspicuously marked the well-worn highway to the +mountains. These Indians, the remnant of a tribe powerful in the years +of savage sovereignty, were on their way, in charge of their agent, +to their new homes, on the reservation just allotted to them by the +government, a hundred miles south of the Arkansas. + +Their primitive lodges contrasted strangely with the peaceful little +sod-houses, dugouts, and white cottages of the incoming settlers on the +public lands, with the villages struggling into existence, and above +all with the rapidly moving cars; unmistakable evidences that the new +civilization was soon to sweep the red men before it like chaff before +the wind. + +Farther to the west, a caravan of white-covered wagons loaded with +supplies for some remote military post, the last that would ever travel +the Old Trail, was slowly crawling toward the setting sun. I watched it +until only a cloud of dust marked its place low down on the horizon, +and it was soon lost sight of in the purple mist that was rapidly +overspreading the far-reaching prairie. + +It was the beginning of the end; on the 9th of February, 1880, the first +train over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad arrived at Santa +Fe and the Old Trail as a route of commerce was closed forever. The once +great highway is now only a picture in the memory of the few who +have travelled its weary course, following the windings of the silent +Arkansas, on to the portals that guard the rugged pathway leading to the +shores of the blue Pacific. + + + + +FOOTNOTES. + + +[Footnote 1: The whole country watered by the Mississippi and Missouri was called +Florida at that time.] + +[Footnote 2: The celebrated Jesuit, author of _The History of New France_, +_Journals of a Voyage to North America_, _Letters to the Duchess_, etc.] + +[Footnote 3: Otoes.] + +[Footnote 4: Iowas.] + +[Footnote 5: Boulevard, Promenade.] + +[Footnote 6: Notes of a Military Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in +Missouri, to San Diego, in California, including parts of the Arkansas, +Del Norte, and Gila Rivers. Brevet Major W. H. Emory, Corps of +Topographical Engineers, United States Army, 1846.] + +[Footnote 7: Hon. W. F. Arny, in his Centennial Celebration Address at Santa Fe, +July 4, 1876.] + +[Footnote 8: Edwards, _Conquest of New Mexico_.] + +[Footnote 9: I think this is Bancroft's idea.] + +[Footnote 10: _Historical Sketches of New Mexico_, L. Bradford Prince, late Chief +Justice of New Mexico, 1883.] + +[Footnote 11: D. H. Coyner, 1847.] + +[Footnote 12: He was travelling parallel to the Old Santa Fe Trail all the time, +but did not know it until he was overtaken by a band of Kaw Indians.] + +[Footnote 13: McKnight was murdered south of the Arkansas by the Comanches in the +winter of 1822.] + +[Footnote 14: Chouteau's Island.] + +[Footnote 15: _Hennepin's Journal_.] + +[Footnote 16: The line between the United States and Mexico (or New Spain, as +it was called) was defined by a treaty negotiated in 1819, between the +Chevalier de Onis, then Spanish minister at Washington, and John Quincy +Adams, Secretary of State. According to its provisions, the boundary +between Mexico and Louisiana, which had been added to the Union, +commenced with the river Sabine at its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico, +at about the twenty-ninth degree of north latitude and the ninety-fourth +degree of longitude, west from Greenwich, and followed it as far as its +junction with the Red River of Natchitoches, which then served to mark +the frontier up to the one hundredth degree of west longitude, where the +line ran directly north to the Arkansas, which it followed to its source +at the forty-second degree of north latitude, whence another straight +line was drawn up the same parallel to the Pacific coast.] + +[Footnote 17: This tribe kept up its reputation under the dreaded Satanta, until +1868--a period of forty years--when it was whipped into submission by +the gallant Custer. Satanta was its war chief, one of the most cruel +savages the great plains ever produced. He died a few years ago in the +state prison of Texas.] + +[Footnote 18: McNess Creek is on the old Cimarron Trail to Santa Fe, a little +east of a line drawn south from Bent's Fort.] + +[Footnote 19: Mr. Bryant, of Kansas, who died a few years ago, was one of the +pioneers in the trade with Santa Fe. Previous to his decease he wrote +for a Kansas newspaper a narrative of his first trip across the great +plains; an interesting monograph of hardship and suffering. For the use +of this document I am indebted to Hon. Sol. Miller, the editor of +the journal in which it originally appeared. I have also used very +extensively the notes of Mr. William Y. Hitt, one of the Bryant party, +whose son kindly placed them at my disposal, and copied liberally from +the official report of Major Bennett Riley--afterward the celebrated +general of Mexican War fame, and for whom the Cavalry Depot in Kansas is +named; as also from the journal of Captain Philip St. George Cooke, who +accompanied Major Riley on his expedition.] + +[Footnote 20: Chouteau's Island, at the mouth of Sand Creek.] + +[Footnote 21: Valley of the Upper Arkansas.] + +[Footnote 22: About three miles east of the town of Great Bend, Barton County, +Kansas.] + +[Footnote 23: The Old Santa Fe Trail crosses the creek some miles north of +Hutchinson, and coincides with the track again at the mouth of Walnut +Creek, three miles east of Great Bend.] + +[Footnote 24: There are many conflicting accounts in regard to the sum Don +Antonio carried with him on that unfortunate trip. Some authorities put +it as high as sixty thousand; I have taken a mean of the various +sums, and as this method will suffice in mathematics, perhaps we can +approximate the truth in this instance.] + +[Footnote 25: General Emory of the Union army during the Civil War. He made +an official report of the country through which the Army of the West +passed, accompanied by maps, and his _Reconnoissance in New Mexico and +California_, published by the government in 1848, is the first authentic +record of the region, considered topographically and geologically.] + +[Footnote 26: _Doniphan's Expedition, containing an account of the Conquest +of New Mexico_, etc. John T. Hughes, A.B., of the First Regiment of +Missouri Cavalry. 1850.] + +[Footnote 27: Deep Gorge.] + +[Footnote 28: Colonel Leavenworth, for whom Fort Leavenworth is named, and who +built several army posts in the far West.] + +[Footnote 29: Colonel A. G. Boone, a grandson of the immortal Daniel, was one of +the grandest old mountaineers I ever knew. He was as loyal as anybody, +but honest in his dealings with the Indians, and that was often a fault +in the eyes of those at Washington who controlled these agents. Kit +Carson was of the same honest class as Boone, and he, too, was removed +for the same cause.] + +[Footnote 30: A narrow defile on the Trail, about ninety miles east of Fort +Union. It is called the "canyon of the Canadian, or Red, River," and +is situated between high walls of earth and rock. It was once a very +dangerous spot on account of the ease and rapidity with which the +savages could ambush themselves.] + +[Footnote 31: Carson, Wooton, and all other expert mountaineers, when following +a trail, could always tell just what time had elapsed since it was +made. This may seem strange to the uninitiated, but it was part of their +necessary education. They could tell what kind of a track it was, which +way the person or animal had walked, and even the tribe to which the +savage belonged, either by the shape of the moccasin or the arrows which +were occasionally dropped.] + +[Footnote 32: Lieutenant Bell belonged to the Second Dragoons. He was conspicuous +in extraordinary marches and in action, and also an accomplished +horseman and shot, once running and killing five buffalo in a quarter +of a mile. He died early in 1861, and his death was a great loss to the +service.] + +[Footnote 33: Known to this day as "The Cheyenne Bottoms."] + +[Footnote 34: Lone Wolf was really the head chief of the Kiowas.] + +[Footnote 35: The battle lasted three days.] + +[Footnote 36: Kicking Bird was ever afterward so regarded by the authorities of +the Indian department.] + +[Footnote 37: Lorenzo Thomas, adjutant-general of the United States army.] + +[Footnote 38: Kendall's _Santa Fe Expedition_ may be found in all the large +libraries.] + +[Footnote 39: A summer-house, bower, or arbour.] + +[Footnote 40: Frank Hall, Chicago, 1885.] + +[Footnote 41: The greater portion of this chapter I originally wrote for +_Harper's Weekly_. By the kind permission of the publishers, I am +permitted to use it here.] + +[Footnote 42: These statistics I have carefully gathered from the freight +departments of the railroads, which kept a record of all the bones that +were shipped, and from the purchasers of the carbon works, who paid out +the money at various points. Some of the bones, however, may have been +on the ground for a longer time, as decay is very slow in the dry air of +the plains.] + +[Footnote 43: La Jeunesse was one of the bravest of the old French Canadian +trappers. He was a warm friend of Kit Carson and was killed by the +Indians in the following manner. They were camping one night in the +mountains; Kit, La Jeunesse, and others had wrapped themselves up in +their blankets near the fire, and were sleeping soundly; Fremont sat +up until after midnight reading letters he had received from the United +States, after finishing which, he, too, turned in and fell asleep. +Everything was quiet for a while, when Kit was awakened by a noise that +sounded like the stroke of an axe. Rising cautiously, he discovered +Indians in the camp; he gave the alarm at once, but two of his +companions were dead. One of them was La Jeunesse, and the noise he had +heard was the tomahawk as it buried itself in the brave fellow's head.] + +[Footnote 44: This black is made from a species of plumbago found on the hills of +the region.] + +[Footnote 45: The Pawnees and Cheyennes were hereditary enemies, and they +frequently met in sanguinary conflict.] + +[Footnote 46: A French term Anglicised, as were many other foreign words by the +trappers in the mountains. Its literal meaning is, arrow fender, for +from it the plains Indians construct their shields; it is buffalo-hide +prepared in a certain manner.] + +[Footnote 47: Boiling Spring River.] + +[Footnote 48: For some reason the Senate refused to confirm the appointment, and +he had consequently no connection with the regular army.] + +[Footnote 49: Point of Rocks is six hundred and forty seven miles from +Independence, and was always a favourite place of resort for the Indians +of the great plains; consequently it was one of the most dangerous +camping-spots for the freight caravans on the Trail. It comprises a +series of continuous hills, which project far out on the prairie in +bold relief. They end abruptly in a mass of rocks, out of which gushes a +cold, refreshing spring, which is, of course, the main attraction of the +place. The Trail winds about near this point, and many encounters with +the various tribes have occurred there.] + +[Footnote 50: "Little Mountain."] + +[Footnote 51: General Gatlin was a North Carolinian, and seceded with his State +at the breaking out of the Rebellion, but refused to leave his native +heath to fight, so indelibly was he impressed with the theory of +State rights. He was willing to defend the soil of North Carolina, but +declined to step across its boundary to repel invasion in other States.] + +[Footnote 52: The name of "Crow," as applied to the once powerful nation of +mountain Indians, is a misnomer, the fault of some early interpreter. +The proper appellation is "Sparrowhawks," but they are officially +recognized as "Crows."] + +[Footnote 53: Kit Carson, ten years before, when on his first journey, met with +the same adventure while on post at Pawnee Rock.] + +[Footnote 54: The fusee was a fire-lock musket with an immense bore, from which +either slugs or balls could be shot, although not with any great degree +of accuracy.] + +[Footnote 55: The Indians always knew when the caravans were to pass certain +points on the Trail, by their runners or spies probably.] + +[Footnote 56: It was one of the rigid laws of Indian hospitality always to +respect the person of any one who voluntarily entered their camps +or temporary halting-places. As long as the stranger, red or white, +remained with them, he enjoyed perfect immunity from harm; but after +he had left, although he had progressed but half a mile, it was just as +honourable to follow and kill him.] + +[Footnote 57: In their own fights with their enemies one or two of the defeated +party are always spared, and sent back to their tribe to carry the news +of the slaughter.] + +[Footnote 58: The story of the way in which this name became corrupted into +"Picketwire," by which it is generally known in New Mexico, is this: +When Spain owned all Mexico and Florida, as the vast region of the +Mississippi valley was called, long before the United States had an +existence as a separate government, the commanding officer at Santa Fe +received an order to open communication with the country of Florida. For +this purpose an infantry regiment was selected. It left Santa Fe rather +late in the season, and wintered at a point on the Old Trail now known +as Trinidad. In the spring, the colonel, leaving all camp-followers +behind him, both men and women, marched down the stream, which flows +for many miles through a magnificent canyon. Not one of the regiment +returned or was ever heard of. When all hope had departed from the +wives, children, and friends left behind at Trinidad, information was +sent to Santa Fe, and a wail went up through the land. The priests and +people then called this stream "El Rio de las Animas Perditas" ("The +river of lost souls"). Years after, when the Spanish power was weakened, +and French trappers came into the country under the auspices of the +great fur companies, they adopted a more concise name; they called +the river "Le Purgatoire." Then came the Great American Bull-Whacker. +Utterly unable to twist his tongue into any such Frenchified expression, +he called the stream with its sad story "Picketwire," and by that name +it is known to all frontiersmen, trappers, and the settlers along its +banks.] + +[Footnote 59: The ranch is now in charge of Mr. Harry Whigham, an English +gentleman, who keeps up the old hospitality of the famous place.] + +[Footnote 60: "River of Souls." The stream is also called Le Purgatoire, +corrupted by the Americans into Picketwire.] + +[Footnote 61: Pawnee Rock is no longer conspicuous. Its material has been torn +away by both the railroad and the settlers in the vicinity, to +build foundations for water-tanks, in the one instance, and for the +construction of their houses, barns, and sheds, in the other. Nothing +remains of the once famous landmark; its site is occupied as a cattle +corral by the owner of the claim in which it is included.] + +[Footnote 62: The crossing of the Old Santa Fe Trail at Pawnee Fork is now +within the corporate limits of the pretty little town of Larned, the +county-seat of Pawnee County. The tourist from his car-window may look +right down upon one of the worst places for Indians that there was in +those days of the commerce of the prairies, as the road crosses the +stream at the exact spot where the Trail crossed it.] + +[Footnote 63: This was a favourite expression of his whenever he referred to any +trouble with the Indians.] + +[Footnote 64: Indians will risk the lives of a dozen of their best warriors to +prevent the body of any one of their number from falling into the white +man's possession. The reason for this is the belief, which prevails +among all tribes, that if a warrior loses his scalp he forfeits his hope +of ever reaching the happy hunting-ground.] + +[Footnote 65: It was in this fight that the infamous Charles Bent received his +death-wound.] + +[Footnote 66: The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad track runs very close +to the mound, and there is a station named for the great mesa.] + +[Footnote 67: The venerable Colonel A. S. Johnson, of Topeka, Kansas, the first +white child born on the great State's soil, who related to me this +adventure of Hatcher's, knew him well. He says that he was a small man, +full of muscle, and as fearless as can be conceived.] + +[Footnote 68: The place where they turned is about a hundred yards east of the +Court House Square, in the present town of Great Bend; it may be seen +from the cars.] + +[Footnote 69: See Sheridan's _Memoirs_, Custer's _Life on the Plains_, +and Buffalo Bill's book, in which all the stirring events of that +campaign--nearly every fight of which was north or far south of the +Santa Fe Trail--are graphically told.] + +[Footnote 70: A grandson of Alexander Hamilton; killed at the battle of the +Washita, in the charge on Black Kettle's camp under Custer.] + +[Footnote 71: This ends Custer's narrative. The following fight, which occurred +a few days afterward, at the mouth of Mulberry Creek, twelve miles below +Fort Dodge, and within a stone's throw of the Old Trail, was related +to me personally by Colonel Keogh, who was killed at the Rosebud, in +Custer's disastrous battle with Sitting Bull. We were both attached to +General Sully's staff.] + +[Footnote 72: It was in this fight that Colonel Keogh's celebrated horse Comanche +received his first wound. It will be remembered that Comanche and a Crow +Indian were the only survivors of that unequal contest in the valley of +the Big Horn, commonly called the battle of the Rosebud, where Custer +and his command was massacred.] + +[Footnote 73: Now Kendall, a little village in Hamilton County, Kansas.] + +[Footnote 74: Raton is the name given by the early Spaniards to this range, +meaning both mouse and squirrel. It had its origin either in the fact +that one of its several peaks bore a fanciful resemblance to a squirrel, +or because of the immense numbers of that little rodent always to be +found in its pine forests.] + +[Footnote 75: In the beautiful language of the country's early conquerors, "Las +Cumbres Espanolas," or "Las dos Hermanas" (The Two Sisters), and in the +Ute tongue, "Wahtoya" (The Twins).] + +[Footnote 76: The house was destroyed by fire two or three years ago.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old Santa Fe Trail, by Henry Inman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL *** + +***** This file should be named 7984-8.txt or 7984-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/9/8/7984/ + +Produced by Michael S. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/7984-8.zip b/7984-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddf8c17 --- /dev/null +++ b/7984-8.zip diff --git a/7984-h.zip b/7984-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..10b1949 --- /dev/null +++ b/7984-h.zip diff --git a/7984-h/7984-h.htm b/7984-h/7984-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..634d2cf --- /dev/null +++ b/7984-h/7984-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,17719 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Old Santa Fe Trail, by Colonel Henry Inman + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old Santa Fe Trail, by Henry Inman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Old Santa Fe Trail + The Story of a Great Highway + +Author: Henry Inman + +Commentator: W. F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody + +Release Date: August 7, 2009 [EBook #7984] +Last Updated: January 26, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL *** + + + + +Produced by Michael S. Overton, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL + </h1> + <h2> + THE STORY OF A GREAT HIGHWAY + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Colonel Henry Inman + </h2> + <h4> + Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army + </h4> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + With a Preface by W. F. "BUFFALO BILL" CODY + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + PREFACE. + </h2> + <p> + As we look into the open fire for our fancies, so we are apt to study the + dim past for the wonderful and sublime, forgetful of the fact that the + present is a constant romance, and that the happenings of to-day which we + count of little importance are sure to startle somebody in the future, and + engage the pen of the historian, philosopher, and poet. + </p> + <p> + Accustomed as we are to think of the vast steppes of Russia and Siberia as + alike strange and boundless, and to deal with the unknown interior of + Africa as an impenetrable mystery, we lose sight of a locality in our own + country that once surpassed all these in virgin grandeur, in majestic + solitude, and in all the attributes of a tremendous wilderness. + </p> + <p> + The story of the Old Santa Fe Trail, so truthfully recalled by Colonel + Henry Inman, ex-officer of the old Regular Army, in these pages, is a most + thrilling one. The vast area through which the famous highway ran is still + imperfectly known to most people as "The West"; a designation once + appropriate, but hardly applicable now; for in these days of easy + communication the real trail region is not so far removed from New York as + Buffalo was seventy years ago. + </p> + <p> + At the commencement of the "commerce of the prairies," in the early + portion of the century, the Old Trail was the arena of almost constant + sanguinary struggles between the wily nomads of the desert and the hardy + white pioneers, whose eventful lives made the civilization of the vast + interior region of our continent possible. Their daring compelled its + development, which has resulted in the genesis of great states and large + cities. Their hardships gave birth to the American homestead; their + determined will was the factor of possible achievements, the most + remarkable and important of modern times. + </p> + <p> + When the famous highway was established across the great plains as a line + of communication to the shores of the blue Pacific, the only method of + travel was by the slow freight caravan drawn by patient oxen, or the + lumbering stage coach with its complement of four or six mules. There was + ever to be feared an attack by those devils of the desert, the Cheyennes, + Comanches, and Kiowas. Along its whole route the remains of men, animals, + and the wrecks of camps and wagons, told a story of suffering, robbery, + and outrage more impressive than any language. Now the tourist or business + man makes the journey in palace cars, and there is nothing to remind him + of the danger or desolation of Border days; on every hand are the + evidences of a powerful and advanced civilization. + </p> + <p> + It is fortunate that one is left to tell some of its story who was a + living actor and had personal knowledge of many of the thrilling scenes + that were enacted along the line of the great route. He was familiar with + all the famous men, both white and savage, whose lives have made the story + of the Trail, his own sojourn on the plains and in the Rocky Mountains + extending over a period of nearly forty years. + </p> + <p> + The Old Trail has more than common interest for me, and I gladly record + here my indorsement of the faithful record, compiled by a brave soldier, + old comrade, and friend. + </p> + <p> + W. F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill." + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_TOC"> DETAILED CONTENTS. </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION. </a><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> + CHAPTER I. </a> UNDER THE SPANIARDS <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> LA LANDE AND PURSLEY + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> EARLY + TRADERS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> TRAINS + AND PACKERS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> FIGHT + WITH COMANCHES <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> A + ROMANTIC TRAGEDY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> MEXICO + DECLARES WAR <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a> THE + VALLEY OF TAOS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a> FIRST + OVERLAND MAIL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a> CHARLES + BENT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a> LA + GLORIETA <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a> THE + BUFFALO <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a> INDIAN + CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. + </a> TRAPPERS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. + </a> UNCLE JOHN SMITH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> + CHAPTER XVI. </a> KIT CARSON <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a> UNCLE DICK WOOTON + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a> MAXWELL'S + RANCH <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a> BENT'S + FORTS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a> PAWNEE + ROCK <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. </a> FOOLING + STAGE ROBBERS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a> A + DESPERATE RIDE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a> HANCOCK'S + EXPEDITION <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a> INVASION + OF THE RAILROAD <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_FOOT"> FOOTNOTES. </a><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_TOC" id="link2H_TOC"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + DETAILED CONTENTS. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + INTRODUCTION. + The First Europeans who traversed the Great Highway—Alvar Nunez + Cabeca de Vaca—Hernando de Soto, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado— + Spanish Expedition from Santa Fe eastwardly—Escape of the Sole Survivors. + + CHAPTER I. + UNDER THE SPANIARDS. + Quaint Descriptions of Old Santa Fe—The Famous Adobe Palace— + Santa Fe the Oldest Town in the United States—First Settlement— + Onate's Conquest—Revolt of the Pueblo Indians—Under Pueblo Rule + —Cruelties of the Victors—The Santa Fe of To-day—Arrival of + a Caravan—The Railroad reaches the Town—Amusements—A Fandango. + + CHAPTER II. + LA LANDE AND PURSLEY. + The Beginning of the Santa Fe Trade—La Lande and Pursley, + the First Americans to cross the Plains—Pursley's Patriotism— + Captain Ezekiel Williams—A Hungry Bear—A Midnight Alarm. + + CHAPTER III. + EARLY TRADERS. + Captain Becknell's Expedition—Sufferings from Thirst—Auguste + Chouteau—Imprisonment of McKnight and Chambers—The Caches— + Stampeding Mules—First Military Escort across the Plains— + Captain Zebulon Pike—Sublette and Smith—Murder of McNess— + Indians not the Aggressors. + + CHAPTER IV. + TRAINS AND PACKERS. + The Atajo or Pack-train of Mules—Mexican Nomenclature of + Paraphernalia—Manner of Packing—The "Bell-mare"—Toughness of + Mules among Precipices—The Caravan of Wagons—Largest Wagon-train + ever on the Plains—Stampedes—Duties of Packers en route—Order of + Travelling with Pack-train—Chris. Gilson, the Famous Packer. + + CHAPTER V. + FIGHT WITH COMANCHES. + Narrative of Bryant's Party of Santa Fe Traders—The First Wagon + Expedition across the Plains—A Thrilling Story of Hardship and + Physical Suffering—Terrible Fight with the Comanches—Abandonment + of the Wagons—On Foot over the Trail—Burial of their Specie + on an Island in the Arkansas—Narrative of William Y. Hitt, + one of the Party—His Encounter with a Comanche—The First Escort + of United States Troops to the Annual Caravan of Santa Fe Traders, + in 1829—Major Bennett Riley's Official Report to the War Department + —Journal of Captain Cooke. + + CHAPTER VI. + A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY. + The Expedition of Texans to the Old Santa Fe Trail for the Purpose + of robbing Mexican Traders—Innocent Citizens of the United States + suspected, arrested, and carried to the Capital of New Mexico— + Colonel Snively's Force—Warfield's Sacking of the Village of Mora + —Attack upon a Mexican Caravan—Kit Carson in the Fight— + A Crime of over Sixty Years Ago—A Romance of the Tragedy. + + CHAPTER VII. + MEXICO DECLARES WAR. + Mexico declares War against the United States—Congress authorizes + the President to call for Fifty Thousand Volunteers—Organization of + the Army of the West—Phenomenon seen by Santa Fe Traders in the Sky + —First Death on the March of the Army across the Plains—Men in + a Starving Condition—Another Death—Burial near Pawnee Rock— + Trouble at Pawnee Fork—Major Howard's Report. + + CHAPTER VIII. + THE VALLEY OF TAOS. + The Valley of Taos—First White Settler—Rebellion of the Mexicans + —A Woman discovers and informs Colonel Price of the Conspiracy— + Assassination of Governor Bent—Horrible Butcheries by the Pueblos + and Mexicans—Turley's Ranch—Murder of Harwood and Markhead— + Anecdote of Sir William Drummond Stewart—Fight at the Mills— + Battle of the Pueblo of Taos—Trial of the Insurrectionists— + Baptiste, the Juror—Execution of the Rebels. + + CHAPTER IX. + FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. + Independence—Opening of Navigation on the Mississippi—Effect of + Water Transportation upon the Trade—Establishment of Trading-forts— + Market for Cattle and Mules—Wages paid Teamsters on the Trail— + An Enterprising Coloured Man—Increase of the Trade at the Close of + the Mexican War—Heavy Emigration to California—First Overland Mail + —How the Guards were armed—Passenger Coaches to Santa Fe— + Stage-coaching Days. + + CHAPTER X. + CHARLES BENT. + The Tragedy in the Canyon of the Canadian—Dragoons follow the Trail + of the Savages—Kit Carson, Dick Wooton, and Tom Tobin the Scouts + of the Expedition—More than a Hundred of the Savages killed— + Murder of Mrs. White—White Wolf—Lieutenant Bell's Singular Duel + with the Noted Savage—Old Wolf—Satank—Murder of Peacock— + Satanta made Chief—Kicking Bird—His Tragic Death—Charles Bent, + the Half-breed Renegade—His Terrible Acts—His Death. + + CHAPTER XI. + LA GLORIETA. + Neglect of New Mexico by the United States Government—Intended + Conquest of the Province—Conspiracy of Southern Leaders— + Surrender by General Twiggs to the Confederate Government of the + Military Posts and Munitions of War under his Command—Only One + Soldier out of Two Thousand deserts to the Enemy—Organization + of Volunteers for the Defence of Colorado and New Mexico— + Battle of La Glorieta—Rout of the Rebels. + + CHAPTER XII. + THE BUFFALO. + The Ancient Range of the Buffalo—Number slaughtered in Thirteen Years + for their Robes alone—Buffalo Bones—Trains stopped by Vast Herds— + Custom of Old Hunters when caught in a Blizzard—Anecdotes of + Buffalo Hunting—Kit Carson's Dilemma—Experience of Two of Fremont's + Hunters—Wounded Buffalo Bull—O'Neil's Laughable Experience— + Organization of a Herd of Buffalo—Stampedes—Thrilling Escapes. + + CHAPTER XIII. + INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS. + Big Timbers—Winter Camp of the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes— + Savage Amusements—A Cheyenne Lodge—Indian Etiquette—Treatment + of Children—The Pipe of the North American Savage—Dog Feast— + Marriage Ceremony. + + CHAPTER XIV. + TRAPPERS. + The Old Pueblo Fort—A Celebrated Rendezvous—Its Inhabitants— + "Fontaine qui Bouille"—The Legend of its Origin—The Trappers + of the Old Santa Fe Trail and the Rocky Mountains—Beaver Trapping— + Habits of the Beaver—Improvidence of the Old Trappers—Trading with + "Poor Lo"—The Strange Experience of a Veteran Trapper on the + Santa Fe Trail—Romantic Marriage of Baptiste Brown. + + CHAPTER XV. + UNCLE JOHN SMITH. + Uncle John Smith—A Famous Trapper, Guide, and Interpreter— + His Marriage with a Cheyenne Squaw—An Autocrat among the People + of the Plains and Mountains—The Mexicans held him in Great Dread— + His Wonderful Resemblance to President Andrew Johnson—Interpreter + and Guide on General Sheridan's Winter Expedition against the + Allied Plains Tribes—His Stories around the Camp-fire. + + CHAPTER XVI. + KIT CARSON. + Famous Men of the Old Santa Fe Trail—Kit Carson—Jim Bridger— + James P. Beckwourth—Uncle Dick Wooton—Jim Baker—Lucien B. + Maxwell—Old Bill Williams—Tom Tobin—James Hobbs. + + CHAPTER XVII. + UNCLE DICK WOOTON. + Uncle Dick Wooton—Lucien B. Maxwell—Old Bill Williams—Tom Tobin— + James Hobbs—William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill). + + CHAPTER XVIII. + MAXWELL'S RANCH. + Maxwell's Ranch on the Old Santa Fe Trail—A Picturesque Region— + Maxwell a Trapper and Hunter with the American Fur Company— + Lifelong Comrade of Kit Carson—Sources of Maxwell's Wealth— + Fond of Horse-racing—A Disastrous Fourth-of-July Celebration + —Anecdote of Kit Carson—Discovery of Gold on the Ranch— + The Big Ditch—Issuing Beef to the Ute Indians—Camping out with + Maxwell and Carson—A Story of the Old Santa Fe Trail. + + CHAPTER XIX. + BENT'S FORTS. + The Bents' Several Forts—Famous Trading-posts—Rendezvous of the + Rocky Mountain Trappers—Castle William and Incidents connected + with the Noted Place—Bartering with the Indians—Annual Feast + of Arapahoes and Cheyennes—Old Wolf's First Visit to Bent's Fort— + The Surprise of the Savages—Stories told by Celebrated Frontiersmen + around the Camp-fire. + + CHAPTER XX. + PAWNEE ROCK. + Pawnee Rock—A Debatable Region of the Indian Tribes—The most + Dangerous Point on the Central Plains in the Days of the Early + Santa Fe Trade—Received its Name in a Baptism of Blood— + Battle-ground of the Pawnees and Cheyennes—Old Graves on the + Summit of the Rock—Kit Carson's First Fight at the Rock with + the Pawnees—Kills his Mule by Mistake—Colonel St. Vrain's + Brilliant Charge—Defeat of the Savages—The Trappers' Terrible + Battle with the Pawnees—The Massacre at Cow Creek. + + CHAPTER XXI. + FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. + Wagon Mound—John L. Hatcher's Thrilling Adventure with Old Wolf, + the War-chief of the Comanches—Incidents on the Trail—A Boy + Bugler's Happy Escape from the Savages at Fort Union—A Drunken + Stage-driver—How an Officer of the Quartermaster's Department + at Washington succeeded in starting the Military Freight Caravans + a Month Earlier than the Usual Time—How John Chisholm fooled + the Stage-robbers—The Story of Half a Plug of Tobacco. + + CHAPTER XXII. + A DESPERATE RIDE. + Solitary Graves along the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail—The Walnut + Crossing—Fort Zarah—The Graves on Hon. D. Heizer's Ranch on + the Walnut—Troops stationed at the Crossing of the Walnut— + A Terrible Five Miles—The Cavalry Recruit's Last Ride. + + CHAPTER XXIII. + HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. + General Hancock's Expedition against the Plains Indians—Terrible + Snow-storm at Fort Larned—Meeting with the Chiefs of the + Dog-Soldiers—Bull Bear's Diplomacy—Meeting of the United States + Troops and the Savages in Line of Battle—Custer's Night Experience— + The Surgeon and Dog Stew—Destruction of the Village by Fire— + General Sully's Fight with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Arapahoes— + Finding the Skeletons of the Unfortunate Men—The Savages' Report + of the Affair. + + CHAPTER XXIV. + INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. + Scenery on the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail—The Great Plains— + The Arkansas Valley—Over the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico— + The Raton Range—The Spanish Peaks—Simpson's Rest—Fisher's Peak + —Raton Peak—Snowy Range—Pike's Peak—Raton Creek—The Invasion + of the Railroad—The Old Santa Fe Trail a Thing of the Past. + + FOOTNOTES. + + PUBLICATION INFORMATION. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + INTRODUCTION. + </h2> + <p> + For more than three centuries, a period extending from 1541 to 1851, + historians believed, and so announced to the literary world, that + Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the celebrated Spanish explorer, in his + search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and the Kingdom of Quivira, was the + first European to travel over the intra-continent region of North America. + In the last year above referred to, however, Buckingham Smith, of Florida, + an eminent Spanish scholar, and secretary of the American Legation at + Madrid, discovered among the archives of State the <i>Narrative of Alvar + Nunez Cabeca de Vaca</i>, where for nearly three hundred years it had + lain, musty and begrimed with the dust of ages, an unread and forgotten + story of suffering that has no parallel in fiction. The distinguished + antiquarian unearthed the valuable manuscript from its grave of oblivion, + translated it into English, and gave it to the world of letters; + conferring honour upon whom honour was due, and tearing the laurels from + such grand voyageurs and discoverers as De Soto, La Salle, and Coronado, + upon whose heads history had erroneously placed them, through no fault, or + arrogance, however, of their own. + </p> + <p> + Cabeca, beyond any question, travelled the Old Santa Fe Trail for many + miles, crossed it where it intersects the Arkansas River, a little east of + Fort William or Bent's Fort, and went thence on into New Mexico, following + the famous highway as far, at least, as Las Vegas. Cabeca's march + antedated that of Coronado by five years. To this intrepid Spanish + voyageur we are indebted for the first description of the American bison, + or buffalo as the animal is erroneously called. While not so quaint in its + language as that of Coronado's historian, a lustrum later, the statement + cannot be perverted into any other reference than to the great shaggy + monsters of the plains:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times + and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size + of those of Spain. They have small horns like the cows + of Morocco, and the hair very long and flocky, like that + of the merino; some are light brown, others black. To my + judgment the flesh is finer and fatter than that of this + country. The Indians make blankets of the hides of those + not full grown. They range over a district of more than + four hundred leagues, and in the whole extent of plain over + which they run the people that inhabit near there descend + and live on them and scatter a vast many skins throughout + the country. +</pre> + <p> + It will be remembered by the student of the early history of our country, + that when Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, a follower of the unfortunate + Panphilo de Narvaez, and who had been long thought dead, landed in Spain, + he gave such glowing accounts of Florida<a href="#linknote-1" + name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> and the + neighbouring regions that the whole kingdom was in a ferment, and many a + heart panted to emigrate to a land where the fruits were perennial, and + where it was thought flowed the fabled fountain of youth. + </p> + <p> + Three expeditions to that country had already been tried: one undertaken + in 1512, by Juan Ponce de Leon, formerly a companion of Columbus; another + in 1520, by Vasquez de Allyon; and another by Panphilo de Narvaez. All of + these had signally failed, the bones of most of the leaders and their + followers having been left to bleach upon the soil they had come to + conquer. + </p> + <p> + The unfortunate issue of the former expeditions did not operate as a check + upon the aspiring mind of De Soto, but made him the more anxious to spring + as an actor into the arena which had been the scene of the discomfiture + and death of the hardy chivalry of the kingdom. He sought an audience of + the emperor, and the latter, after hearing De Soto's proposition that, "he + could conquer the country known as Florida at his own expense," conferred + upon him the title of "Governor of Cuba and Florida." + </p> + <p> + On the 6th of April, 1538, De Soto sailed from Spain with an armament of + ten vessels and a splendidly equipped army of nine hundred chosen men, + amidst the roar of cannons and the inspiring strains of martial music. + </p> + <p> + It is not within the province of this work to follow De Soto through all + his terrible trials on the North American continent; the wonderful story + may be found in every well-organized library. It is recorded, however, + that some time during the year 1542, his decimated army, then under the + command of Luis de Moscoso, De Soto having died the previous May, was + camped on the Arkansas River, far upward towards what is now Kansas. It + was this command, too, of the unfortunate but cruel De Soto, that saw the + Rocky Mountains from the east. The chronicler of the disastrous journey + towards the mountains says: "The entire route became a trail of fire and + blood," as they had many a desperate struggle with the savages of the + plains, who "were of gigantic structure, and fought with heavy strong + clubs, with the desperation of demons. Such was their tremendous strength, + that one of these warriors was a match for a Spanish soldier, though + mounted on a horse, armed with a sword and cased in armour!" + </p> + <p> + Moscoso was searching for Coronado, and he was one of the most humane of + all the officers of De Soto's command, for he evidently bent every energy + to extricate his men from the dreadful environments of their situation; + despairing of reaching the Gulf by the Mississippi, he struck westward, + hoping, as Cabeca de Vaca had done, to arrive in Mexico overland. + </p> + <p> + A period of six months was consumed in Moscoso's march towards the Rocky + Mountains, but he failed to find Coronado, who at that time was camped + near where Wichita, Kansas, is located; according to his historian, "at + the junction of the St. Peter and St. Paul" (the Big and Little + Arkansas?). That point was the place of separation between Coronado and a + number of his followers; many returning to Mexico, while the undaunted + commander, with as many as he could induce to accompany him, continued + easterly, still in search of the mythical Quivira. + </p> + <p> + How far westward Moscoso travelled cannot be determined accurately, but + that his route extended up the valley of the Arkansas for more than three + hundred miles, into what is now Kansas, is proved by the statement of his + historian, who says: "They saw great chains of mountains and forests to + the west, which they understood were uninhabited." + </p> + <p> + Another strong confirmatory fact is, that, in 1884, a group of mounds was + discovered in McPherson County, Kansas, which were thoroughly explored by + the professors of Bethany College, Lindsborg, who found, among other + interesting relics, a piece of chain-mail armour, of hard steel; + undoubtedly part of the equipment of a Spanish soldier either of the + command of Cabeca de Vaca, De Soto, or of Coronado. The probability is, + that it was worn by one of De Soto's unfortunate men, as neither Panphilo + de Narvaez, De Vaca, or Coronado experienced any difficulty with the + savages of the great plains, because those leaders were humane and treated + the Indians kindly, in contradistinction to De Soto, who was the most + inhuman of all the early Spanish explorers. He was of the same school as + Pizarro and Cortez; possessing their daring valour, their contempt of + danger, and their tenacity of purpose, as well as their cruelty and + avarice. De Soto made treaties with the Indians which he constantly + violated, and murdered the misguided creatures without mercy. During the + retreat of Moscoso's weakened command down the Arkansas River, the Hot + Springs of Arkansas were discovered. His historian writes: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + And when they saw the foaming fountain, they thought + it was the long-searched-for "Fountain of Youth," reported + by fame to exist somewhere in the country, but ten of the + soldiers dying from excessive drinking, they were soon + convinced of their error. +</pre> + <p> + After these intrepid explorers the restless Coronado appears on the Old + Trail. In the third volume of Hakluyt's <i>Voyages</i>, published in + London, 1600, Coronado's historian thus describes the great plains of + Kansas and Colorado, the bison, and a tornado:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + From Cicuye they went to Quivira, which after their account + is almost three hundred leagues distant, through mighty + plains, and sandy heaths so smooth and wearisome, and bare + of wood that they made heaps of ox-dung, for want of stones + and trees, that they might not lose themselves at their + return: for three horses were lost on that plain, and one + Spaniard which went from his company on hunting.... + All that way of plains are as full of crooked-back oxen as + the mountain Serrena in Spain is of sheep, but there is + no such people as keep those cattle.... They were a + great succour for the hunger and the want of bread, which + our party stood in need of.... + + One day it rained in that plain a great shower of hail, + as big as oranges, which caused many tears, weakness + and bowes. + + These oxen are of the bigness and colour of our bulls, + but their bones are not so great. They have a great bunch + upon their fore-shoulder, and more hair on their fore part + than on their hinder part, and it is like wool. They have + as it were an horse-mane upon their backbone, and much hair + and very long from their knees downward. They have great + tufts of hair hanging down on their foreheads, and it + seemeth they have beards because of the great store of hair + hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have + very long tails, and a great knob or flock at the end, + so that in some respects they resemble the lion, and in some + other the camel. They push with their horns, they run, + they overtake and kill an horse when they are in their + rage and anger. Finally it is a foul and fierce beast of + countenance and form of body. The horses fled from them, + either because of their deformed shape, or else because + they had never before seen them. +</pre> + <p> + "The number," continues the historian, "was incredible." When the + soldiers, in their excitement for the chase, began to kill them, they + rushed together in such masses that hundreds were literally crushed to + death. At one place there was a great ravine; they jumped into it in their + efforts to escape from the hunters, and so terrible was the slaughter as + they tumbled over the precipice that the depression was completely filled + up, their carcasses forming a bridge, over which the remainder passed with + ease. + </p> + <p> + The next recorded expedition across the plains via the Old Trail was also + by the Spaniards from Santa Fe, eastwardly, in the year 1716, "for the + purpose of establishing a Military Post in the Upper Mississippi Valley as + a barrier to the further encroachments of the French in that direction." + An account of this expedition is found in <i>Memoires Historiques sur La + Louisiane</i>, published in Paris in 1858, but never translated in its + entirety. The author, Lieutenant Dumont of the French army, was one of a + party ascending the Arkansas River in search of a supposed mass of + emeralds. The narrative relates: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + There was more than half a league to traverse to gain the + other bank of the river, and our people were no sooner + arrived than they found there a party of Missouris, sent to + M. de la Harpe by M. de Bienville, then commandant general + at Louisiana, to deliver orders to the former. Consequently + they gave the signal order, and our other two canoes having + crossed the river, the savages gave to our commandant the + letters of M. de Bienville, in which he informed him that + the Spaniards had sent out a detachment from New Mexico + to go to the Missouris and to establish a post in that + country.... The success of this expedition was very + calamitous to the Spaniards. Their caravan was composed of + fifteen hundred people, men, women and soldiers, having + with them a Jacobin for a chaplain, and bringing also a + great number of horses and cattle, according to the custom + of that nation to forget nothing that might be necessary for + a settlement. Their design was to destroy the Missouris, + and to seize upon their country, and with this intention + they had resolved to go first to the Osages, a neighbouring + nation, enemies of the Missouris, to form an alliance with + them, and to engage them in their behalf for the execution + of their plan. Perhaps the map which guided them was not + correct, or they had not exactly followed it, for it chanced + that instead of going to the Osages whom they sought, they + fell, without knowing it, into a village of the Missouris, + where the Spanish commander, presenting himself to the great + chief and offering him the calumet, made him understand + through an interpreter, believing himself to be speaking + to the Osage chief, that they were enemies of the Missouris, + that they had come to destroy them, to make their women + and children slaves and to take possession of their country. + He begged the chief to be willing to form an alliance + with them, against a nation whom the Osages regarded as + their enemy, and to second them in this enterprise, promising + to recompense them liberally for the service rendered, + and always to be their friend in the future. Upon this + discourse the Missouri chief understood perfectly well + the mistake. He dissimulated and thanked the Spaniard for + the confidence he had in his nation; he consented to form + an alliance with them against the Missouris, and to join + them with all his forces to destroy them; but he represented + that his people were not armed, and that they dared not + expose themselves without arms in such an enterprise. + Deceived by so favourable a reception, the Spaniards fell + into the trap laid for them. They received with due + ceremony, in the little camp they had formed on their + arrival, the calumet which the great chief of the Missouris + presented to the Spanish commander. The alliance for war + was sworn to by both parties; they agreed upon a day for + the execution of the plan which they meditated, and the + Spaniards furnished the savages with all the munitions which + they thought were needed. After the ceremony both parties + gave themselves up equally to joy and good cheer. At the + end of three days two thousand savages were armed and in + the midst of dances and amusements; each party thought + nothing but the execution of its design. It was the evening + before their departure upon their concerted expedition, + and the Spaniards had retired to their camps as usual, + when the great chief of the Missouris, having assembled + his warriors, declared to them his intentions and exhorted + them to deal treacherously with these strangers who were come + to their home only with the design of destroying them. + At daybreak the savages divided into several bands, fell on + the Spaniards, who expected nothing of the kind, and in + less than a quarter of an hour all the caravan were murdered. + No one escaped from the massacre except the chaplain, whom + the barbarians saved because of his dress; at the same time + they took possession of all the merchandise and other + effects which they found in their camp. The Spaniards had + brought with them, as I have said, a certain number of horses, + and as the savages were ignorant of the use of these animals, + they took pleasure in making the Jacobin whom they had saved, + and who had become their slave, mount them. The priest gave + them this amusement almost every day for the five or six + months that he remained with them in their village, without + any of them daring to imitate him. Tired at last of his + slavery, and regarding the lack of daring in these barbarians + as a means of Providence to regain his liberty, he made + secretly all the provisions possible for him to make, + and which he believed necessary to his plan. At last, + having chosen the best horse and having mounted him, + after performing several of his exploits before the savages, + and while they were all occupied with his manoeuvres, + he spurred up and disappeared from their sight, taking the + road to Mexico, where doubtless he arrived. +</pre> + <p> + Charlevoix,<a href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2" id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a> + who travelled from Quebec to New Orleans in the year 1721, says in one of + his letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, dated at Kaskaskia, July 21, + 1721: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + About two years ago some Spaniards, coming, as they say, + from New Mexico, and intending to get into the country of + the Illinois and drive the French from thence, whom they + saw with extreme jealousy approach so near the Missouri, + came down the river and attacked two villages of the + Octoyas,<a href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3" id="linknoteref-3">3</a> who are the allies of the Ayouez,<a + href="#linknote-4" name="linknoteref-4" id="linknoteref-4">4</a> and from + whom it is said also that they are derived. As the savages + had no firearms and were surprised, the Spaniards made an + easy conquest and killed a great many of them. A third + village, which was not far off from the other two, being + informed of what had passed, and not doubting but these + conquerors would attack them, laid an ambush into which + the Spaniards heedlessly fell. Others say that the savages, + having heard that the enemy were almost all drunk and + fast asleep, fell upon them in the night. However it was, + it is certain the greater part of them were killed. + There were in the party two almoners; one of them was + killed directly and the other got away to the Missouris, + who took him prisoner, but he escaped them very dexterously. + He had a very fine horse and the Missouris took pleasure + in seeing him ride it, which he did very skilfully. He took + advantage of their curiosity to get out of their hands. + + One day as he was prancing and exercising his horse before + them, he got a little distance from them insensibly; then + suddenly clapping spurs to his horse he was soon out of sight. +</pre> + <p> + The Missouri Indians once occupied all the territory near the junction of + the Kaw and Missouri rivers, but they were constantly decimated by the + continual depredations of their warlike and feudal enemies, the Pawnees + and Sioux, and at last fell a prey to that dreadful scourge, the + small-pox, which swept them off by thousands. The remnant of the once + powerful tribe then found shelter and a home with the Otoes, finally + becoming merged in that tribe. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. UNDER THE SPANIARDS. + </h2> + <p> + The Santa Fe of the purely Mexican occupation, long before the days of New + Mexico's acquisition by the United States, and the Santa Fe of to-day are + so widely in contrast that it is difficult to find language in which to + convey to the reader the story of the phenomenal change. To those who are + acquainted with the charming place as it is now, with its refined and + cultured society, I cannot do better, perhaps, in attempting to show what + it was under the old regime, than to quote what some traveller in the + early 30's wrote for a New York leading newspaper, in regard to it. As far + as my own observation of the place is concerned, when I first visited it a + great many years ago, the writer of the communication whose views I now + present was not incorrect in his judgment. He said:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + To dignify such a collection of mud hovels with the name + of "City," would be a keen irony; not greater, however, + than is the name with which its Padres have baptized it. + To call a place with its moral character, a very Sodom + in iniquity, "Holy Faith," is scarcely a venial sin; + it deserves Purgatory at least. Its health is the best + in the country, which is the first, second and third + recommendation of New Mexico by its greatest admirers. + It is a small town of about two thousand inhabitants, + crowded up against the mountains, at the end of a little + valley through which runs a mountain stream of the same + name tributary to the Rio Grande. It has a public square + in the centre, a Palace and an Alameda; as all Spanish + Roman Catholic towns have. It is true its Plaza, or + Public Square, is unfenced and uncared for, without trees + or grass. The Palace is nothing more than the biggest + mud-house in the town, and the churches, too, are unsightly + piles of the same material, and the Alameda<a href="#linknote-5" + name="linknoteref-5" id="linknoteref-5">5</a> is on top of + a sand hill. Yet they have in Santa Fe all the parts and + parcels of a regal city and a Bishopric. The Bishop has a + palace also; the only two-storied shingle-roofed house in + the place. There is one public house set apart for eating, + drinking and gambling; for be it known that gambling is here + authorized by law. Hence it is as respectable to keep a + gambling house, as it is to sell rum in New Jersey; it is + a lawful business, and being lawful, and consequently + respectable and a man's right, why should not men gamble? + And gamble they do. The Generals and the Colonels and + the Majors and the Captains gamble. The judges and the + lawyers and the doctors and the priests gamble; and there + are gentlemen gamblers by profession! You will see squads + of poor peons daily, men, women and boys, sitting on the + ground around a deck of cards in the Public Square, gambling + for the smallest stakes. + + The stores of the town generally front on the Public Square. + Of these there are a dozen, more or less, of respectable + size, and most of them are kept by others than Mexicans. + The business of the place is considerable, many of the + merchants here being wholesale dealers for the vast + territory tributary. It is supposed that about $750,000 + worth of goods will be brought to this place this year, and + there may be $250,000 worth imported directly from the + United States. + + In the money market there is nothing less than a five-cent + piece. You cannot purchase anything for less than five cents. + In trade they reckon ten cents the eighth of a dollar. + If you purchase nominally a dollar's worth of an article, + you can pay for it in eight ten-cent pieces; and if you + give a dollar, you receive no change. In changing a dollar + for you, you would get but eight ten-cent pieces for it. + + Yet, although dirty and unkempt, and swarming with hungry + dogs, it has the charm of foreign flavour, and like + San Antonio retains some portion of the grace which long + lingered about it, if indeed it ever forsakes the spot + where Spain held rule for centuries, and the soft syllables + of the Spanish language are yet heard. +</pre> + <p> + Such was a description of the "drowsy old town" of Santa Fe, sixty-five + years ago. Fifteen years later Major W. H. Emory, of the United States + army, writes of it as follows:<a href="#linknote-6" name="linknoteref-6" + id="linknoteref-6"><small>6</small></a> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The population of Santa Fe is from two to four thousand, + and the inhabitants are, it is said, the poorest people + of any town in the Province. The houses are mud bricks, + in the Spanish style, generally of one story, and built + on a square. The interior of the square is an open court, + and the principal rooms open into it. They are forbidding + in appearance from the outside, but nothing can exceed + the comfort and convenience of the interior. The thick + walls make them cool in summer and warm in winter. + + The better class of people are provided with excellent beds, + but the poorer class sleep on untanned skins. The women + here, as in many other parts of the world, appear to be + much before the men in refinements, intelligence, and + knowledge of the useful arts. The higher class dress like + the American women, except, instead of a bonnet, they wear + a scarf over their head, called a reboso. This they wear + asleep or awake, in the house or abroad. The dress of the + lower classes of women is a simple petticoat, with arms and + shoulders bare, except what may chance to be covered by + the reboso. + + The men who have means to do so dress after our fashion; + but by far the greater number, when they dress at all, + wear leather breeches, tight around the hips and open from + the knee down; shirt and blanket take the place of our + coat and vest. + + The city is dependent on the distant hills for wood, and + at all hours of the day may be seen jackasses passing laden + with wood, which is sold at two bits, twenty-five cents, + the load. These are the most diminutive animals, and + usually mounted from behind, after the fashion of leap-frog. + The jackass is the only animal that can be subsisted in + this barren neighbourhood without great expense; our horses + are all sent to a distance of twelve, fifteen, and thirty + miles for grass. +</pre> + <p> + I have interpolated these two somewhat similar descriptions of Santa Fe + written in that long ago when New Mexico was almost as little known as the + topography of the planet Mars, so that the intelligent visitor of to-day + may appreciate the wonderful changes which American thrift, and that + powerful civilizer, the locomotive, have wrought in a very few years, yet + it still, as one of the foregoing writers has well said, "has the charm of + foreign flavour, and the soft syllables of the Spanish language are still + heard." + </p> + <p> + The most positive exception must be taken to the statement of the + first-quoted writer in relation to the Palace, of which he says "It is + nothing more than the biggest mud-house in the town." Now this "Palacio + del Gobernador," as the old building was called by the Spanish, was + erected at a very early day. It was the long-established seat of power + when Penalosa confined the chief inquisitor within its walls in 1663, and + when the Pueblo authorities took possession of it as the citadel of their + central authority, in 1681. + </p> + <p> + The old building cannot well be overlooked by the most careless visitor to + the quaint town; it is a long, low structure, taking up the greater part + of one side of the Plaza, round which runs a colonnade supported by + pillars of rough pine. In this once leaky old Palace were kept, or rather + neglected, the archives of the Territory until the American residents, + appreciating the importance of preserving precious documents containing so + much of interest to the student of history and the antiquarian, enlisted + themselves enthusiastically in the good cause, and have rescued from + oblivion the annals of a relatively remote civilization, which, but for + their forethought, would have perished from the face of the earth as + completely as have the written records of that wonderful region in Central + America, whose gigantic ruins alone remain to tell us of what was a highly + cultured order of architecture in past ages, and of a people whose + intelligence was comparable to the style of the dwellings in which they + lived. + </p> + <p> + The old adobe Palace is in itself a volume whose pages are filled with + pathos and stirring events. It has been the scene and witness of incidents + the recital of which would to us to-day seem incredible. An old friend, + once governor of New Mexico and now dead, thus graphically spoke of the + venerable building:<a href="#linknote-7" name="linknoteref-7" + id="linknoteref-7"><small>7</small></a> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + In it lived and ruled the Spanish captain general, so remote + and inaccessible from the viceroyalty at Mexico that he was + in effect a king, nominally accountable to the viceroy, + but practically beyond his reach and control and wholly + irresponsible to the people. Equally independent for the + same reason were the Mexican governors. Here met all the + provincial, territorial, departmental, and other legislative + bodies that have ever assembled at the capital of New Mexico. + Here have been planned all the Indian wars and measures + for defence against foreign invasion, including, as the + most noteworthy, the Navajo war of 1823, the Texan invasion + of 1842, the American of 1846, and the Confederate of 1862. + Within its walls was imprisoned, in 1809, the American + explorer Zebulon M. Pike, and innumerable state prisoners + before and since; and many a sentence of death has been + pronounced therein and the accused forthwith led away and + shot at the dictum of the man at the Palace. It has been + from time immemorial the government house with all its + branches annexed. It was such on the Fourth of July, 1776, + when the American Congress at Independence Hall in + Philadelphia proclaimed liberty throughout all the land, + not then, but now embracing it. Indeed, this old edifice + has a history. And as the history of Santa Fe is the + history of New Mexico, so is the history of the Palace + the history of Santa Fe. +</pre> + <p> + The Palace was the only building having glazed windows. At one end was the + government printing office, and at the other, the guard-house and prison. + Fearful stories were connected with the prison. Edwards<a + href="#linknote-8" name="linknoteref-8" id="linknoteref-8"><small>8</small></a> + says that he found, on examining the walls of the small rooms, locks of + human hair stuffed into holes, with rude crosses drawn over them. + </p> + <p> + Fronting the Palace, on the south side of the Plaza, stood the remains of + the Capilla de los Soldados, or Military Chapel. The real name of the + church was "Our Lady of Light." It was said to be the richest church in + the Province, but had not been in use for a number of years, and the roof + had fallen in, allowing the elements to complete the work of destruction. + On each side of the altar was the remains of fine carving, and a + weather-beaten picture above gave evidence of having been a beautiful + painting. Over the door was a large oblong slab of freestone, elaborately + carved, representing "Our Lady of Light" rescuing a human being from the + jaws of Satan. A large tablet, beautifully executed in relief, stood + behind the altar, representing various saints, with an inscription stating + that it was erected by Governor Francisco Antonio del Valle and his wife + in 1761. + </p> + <p> + Church services were held in the Parroquia, or Parish church, now the + Cathedral, which had two towers or steeples, in which hung four bells. The + music was furnished by a violin and a triangle. The wall back of the altar + was covered with innumerable mirrors, paintings, and bright-coloured + tapestry. + </p> + <p> + The exact date of the first settlement of Santa Fe is uncertain. One + authority says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + It was a primeval stronghold before the Spanish Conquest, + and a town of some importance to the white race when + Pennsylvania was a wilderness and the first Dutch governor + of New York was slowly drilling the Knickerbocker ancestry + in their difficult evolutions around the town-pump. +</pre> + <p> + It is claimed, on what is deemed very authentic data by some, that Santa + Fe is really the oldest settled town in the United States. St. Augustine, + Florida, was established in 1565 and was unquestionably conceded the + honour of antiquity until the acquisition of New Mexico by the + Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty. Then, of course, Santa Fe steps into the arena + and carries off the laurels. This claim of precedence for Santa Fe is + based upon the statement (whether historically correct or not is a + question) that when the Spaniards first entered the region from the + southern portion of Mexico, about 1542, they found a very large Pueblo + town on the present site of Santa Fe, and that its prior existence + extended far back into the vanished centuries. This is contradicted by + other historians, who contend that the claim of Santa Fe to be the oldest + town in the United States rests entirely on imaginary annals of an Indian + Pueblo before the Spanish Conquest, and that there are but slight + indications that the town was built on the site of one.<a + href="#linknote-9" name="linknoteref-9" id="linknoteref-9"><small>9</small></a> + </p> + <p> + The reader may further satisfy himself on these mooted points by + consulting the mass of historical literature on New Mexico, and the + records of its primitive times are not surpassed in interest by those of + any other part of the continent. It was there the Europeans first made + great conquests, and some years prior to the landing of the Pilgrims, a + history of New Mexico, being the journal of Geronimo de Zarate Salmaron, + was published by the Church in the City of Mexico, early in 1600. Salmaron + was a Franciscan monk; a most zealous and indefatigable worker. During his + eight years' residence at Jemez, near Santa Fe, he claims to have baptized + over eight thousand Indians, converts to the Catholic faith. His journal + gives a description of the country, its mines, etc., and was made public + in order that other monks reading it might emulate his pious example. + </p> + <p> + Between 1605 and 1616 was founded the Villa of Santa Fe, or San Francisco + de la Santa Fe. "Villa," or village, was an honorary title, always + authorized and proclaimed by the king. Bancroft says that it was first + officially mentioned on the 3d of January, 1617. + </p> + <p> + The first immigration to New Mexico was under Don Juan de Onate about + 1597, and in a year afterward, according to some authorities, Santa Fe was + settled. The place, as claimed by some historians, was then named El + Teguayo, a Spanish adaptation of the word "Tegua," the name of the Pueblo + nation, which was quite numerous, and occupied Santa Fe and the contiguous + country. It very soon, from its central position and charming climate, + became the leading Spanish town, and the capital of the Province. The + Spaniards, who came at first into the country as friends, and were + apparently eager to obtain the good-will of the intelligent natives, + shortly began to claim superiority, and to insist on the performance of + services which were originally mere evidences of hospitality and kindness. + Little by little they assumed greater power and control over the Indians, + until in the course of years they had subjected a large portion of them to + servitude little differing from actual slavery. + </p> + <p> + The impolitic zeal of the monks gradually invoked the spirit of hatred and + resulted in a rebellion that drove the Spaniards, in 1680, from the + country. The large number of priests who were left in the midst of the + natives met with horrible fates: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Not one escaped martyrdom. At Zuni, three Franciscans + had been stationed, and when the news of the Spanish retreat + reached the town, the people dragged them from their cells, + stripped and stoned them, and afterwards compelled the + servant of one to finish the work by shooting them. Having + thus whetted their appetite for cruelty and vengeance, + the Indians started to carry the news of their independence + to Moqui, and signalized their arrival by the barbarous + murder of the two missionaries who were living there. + Their bodies were left unburied, as a prey for the wild + beasts. At Jemez they indulged in every refinement of + cruelty. The old priest, Jesus Morador, was seized in + his bed at night, stripped naked and mounted on a hog, + and thus paraded through the streets, while the crowd + shouted and yelled around. Not satisfied with this, + they then forced him to carry them as a beast would, + crawling on his hands and feet, until, from repeated beating + and the cruel tortures of sharp spurs, he fell dead in + their midst. A similar chapter of horrors was enacted + at Acoma, where three priests were stripped, tied together + with hair rope, and so driven through the streets, and + finally stoned to death. Not a Christian remained free + within the limits of New Mexico, and those who had been + dominant a few months before were now wretched and + half-starved fugitives, huddled together in the rude huts + of San Lorenzo. + + As soon as the Spaniards had retreated from the country, + the Pueblo Indians gave themselves up for a time to + rejoicing, and to the destruction of everything which could + remind them of the Europeans, their religion, and their + domination. The army which had besieged Santa Fe quickly + entered that city, took possession of the Palace as the + seat of government, and commenced the work of demolition. + The churches and the monastery of the Franciscans were + burned with all their contents, amid the almost frantic + acclamations of the natives. The gorgeous vestments of + the priests had been dragged out before the conflagration, + and now were worn in derision by Indians, who rode through + the streets at full speed, shouting for joy. The official + documents and books in the Palace were brought forth, + and made fuel for a bonfire in the centre of the Plaza; + and here also they danced the cachina, with all the + accompanying religious ceremonies of the olden time. + Everything imaginable was done to show their detestation + of the Christian faith and their determination to utterly + eradicate even its memory. Those who had been baptized + were washed with amole in the Rio Chiquito, in order to be + cleansed from the infection of Christianity. All baptismal + names were discarded, marriages celebrated by Christian + priests were annulled, the very mention of the names Jesus + and Mary was made an offence, and estuffas were constructed + to take the place of ruined churches.<a href="#linknote-10" + name="linknoteref-10" id="linknoteref-10">10</a> +</pre> + <p> + For twelve years, although many abortive attempts were made to recapture + the country, the Pueblos were left in possession. On the 16th of October, + 1693, the victorious Spaniards at last entered Santa Fe, bearing the same + banner which had been carried by Onate when he entered the city just a + century before. The conqueror this time was Don Diego de Vargas Zapata + Lujan, whom the viceroy of New Spain had appointed governor in the spring + of 1692, with the avowed purpose of having New Mexico reconquered as + speedily as possible. + </p> + <p> + Thus it will be seen that the quaint old city has been the scene of many + important historical events, the mere outline of which I have recorded + here, as this book is not devoted to the historical view of the subject. + </p> + <p> + In contradistinction to the quiet, sleepy old Santa Fe of half a century + ago, it now presents all the vigour, intelligence, and bustling + progressiveness of the average American city of to-day, yet still smacks + of that ancient Spanish regime, which gives it a charm that only its + blended European and Indian civilization could make possible after its + amalgamation with the United States. + </p> + <p> + The tourist will no longer find a drowsy old town, and the Plaza is no + longer unfenced and uncared for. A beautiful park of trees is surrounded + by low palings, and inside the shady enclosure, under a group of large + cottonwoods, is a cenotaph erected to the memory of the Territory's + gallant soldiers who fell in the shock of battle to save New Mexico to the + Union in 1862, and conspicuous among the names carved on the enduring + native rock is that of Kit Carson—prince of frontiersmen, and one of + Nature's noblemen. + </p> + <p> + Around the Plaza one sees the American style of architecture and hears the + hum of American civilization; but beyond, and outside this pretty park, + the streets are narrow, crooked, and have an ancient appearance. There the + old Santa Fe confronts the stranger; odd, foreign-looking, and flavoured + with all the peculiarities which marked the era of Mexican rule. And now, + where once was heard the excited shouts of the idle crowd, of "Los + Americanos!" "Los Carros!" "La entrada de la Caravana!" as the great + freight wagons rolled into the streets of the old town from the Missouri, + over the Santa Fe Trail, the shrill whistle of the locomotive from its + trail of steel awakens the echoes of the mighty hills. + </p> + <p> + As may be imagined, great excitement always prevailed whenever a caravan + of goods arrived in Santa Fe. Particularly was this the case among the + feminine portion of the community. The quaint old town turned out its + mixed population en masse the moment the shouts went up that the train was + in sight. There is nothing there to-day comparable to the anxious looks of + the masses as they watched the heavily freighted wagons rolling into the + town, the teamsters dust-begrimed, and the mules making the place hideous + with their discordant braying as they knew that their long journey was + ended and rest awaited them. The importing merchants were obliged to turn + over to the custom house officials five hundred dollars for every + wagon-load, great or small; and no matter what the intrinsic value of the + goods might be, salt or silk, velvets or sugar, it was all the same. The + nefarious duty had to be paid before a penny's worth could be transferred + to their counters. Of course, with the end of Mexican rule and the + acquisition of the Province by the United States, all opposition to the + traffic of the Old Santa Fe Trail ended, traders were assured a profitable + market and the people purchased at relatively low prices. + </p> + <p> + What a wonderful change has taken place in the traffic with New Mexico in + less than three-quarters of a century! In 1825 it was all carried on with + one single annual caravan of prairie-schooners, and now there are four + railroads running through the Rio Grande Valley, and one daily freight + train of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe into the town unloads more + freight than was taken there in a whole year when the "commerce of the + prairies" was at its height! + </p> + <p> + Upon the arrival of a caravan in the days of the sleepy regime under + Mexican control, the people did everything in their power to make the time + pass pleasantly for every one connected with it during their sojourn. + Bailes, or fandangoes, as the dancing parties were called by the natives, + were given nightly, and many amusing anecdotes in regard to them are + related by the old-timers. + </p> + <p> + The New Mexicans, both men and women, had a great fondness for jewelry, + dress, and amusements; of the latter, the fandango was the principal, + which was held in the most fashionable place of resort, where every belle + and beauty in the town presented herself, attired in the most costly + manner, and displaying her jewelled ornaments to the best advantage. To + this place of recreation and pleasure, generally a large, capacious saloon + or interior court, all classes of persons were allowed to come, without + charge and without invitation. The festivities usually commenced about + nine o'clock in the evening, and the tolling of the church bells was the + signal for the ladies to make their entrance, which they did almost + simultaneously. + </p> + <p> + New Mexican ladies were famous for their gaudy dresses, but it must be + confessed they did not exercise good taste. Their robes were made without + bodies; a skirt only, and a long, loose, flowing scarf or reboso + dexterously thrown about the head and shoulders, so as to supersede both + the use of dress-bodies and bonnets. + </p> + <p> + There was very little order maintained at these fandangoes, and still less + attention paid to the rules of etiquette. A kind of swinging, gallopade + waltz was the favourite dance, the cotillion not being much in vogue. Read + Byron's graphic description of the waltz, and then stretch your + imagination to its utmost tension, and you will perhaps have some faint + conception of the Mexican fandango. Such familiarity of position as was + indulged in would be repugnant to the refined rules of polite society in + the eastern cities; but with the New Mexicans, in those early times, + nothing was considered to be a greater accomplishment than that of being + able to go handsomely through all the mazes of their peculiar dance. + </p> + <p> + There was one republican feature about the New Mexican fandango; it was + that all classes, rich and poor alike, met and intermingled, as did the + Romans at their Saturnalia, upon terms of equality. Sumptuous repasts or + collations were rarely ever prepared for those frolicsome gatherings, but + there was always an abundance of confectionery, sweetmeats, and native + wine. It cost very little for a man to attend one of the fandangoes in + Santa Fe, but not to get away decently and sober. In that it resembled the + descent of Aeneas to Pluto's realms; it was easy enough to get there, but + when it came to return, "revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, hic + labor, hoc opus est." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. LA LANDE AND PURSLEY. + </h2> + <p> + In the beginning of the trade with New Mexico, the route across the great + plains was directly west from the Missouri River to the mountains, thence + south to Santa Fe by the circuitous trail from Taos. When the traffic + assumed an importance demanding a more easy line of way, the road was + changed, running along the left bank of the Arkansas until that stream + turned northwest, at which point it crossed the river, and continued + southwest to the Raton Pass. + </p> + <p> + The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad track substantially follows + the Trail through the mountains, which here afford the wildest and most + picturesquely beautiful scenery on the continent. + </p> + <p> + The Arkansas River at the fording of the Old Trail is not more than + knee-deep at an ordinary stage of water, and its bottom is well paved with + rounded pebbles of the primitive rock. + </p> + <p> + The overland trade between the United States and the northern provinces of + Mexico seems to have had no very definite origin; having been rather the + result of an accident than of any organized plan of commercial + establishment. + </p> + <p> + According to the best authorities, a French creole, named La Lande, an + agent of a merchant of Kaskaskia, Illinois, was the first American + adventurer to enter into the uncertain channels of trade with the people + of the ultramontane region of the centre of the continent. He began his + adventurous journey across the vast wilderness, with no companions but the + savages of the debatable land, in 1804; and following him the next year, + James Pursley undertook the same pilgrimage. Neither of these pioneers in + the "commerce of the prairies" returned to relate what incidents marked + the passage of their marvellous expeditions. Pursley was so infatuated + with the strange country he had travelled so far to reach, that he took up + his abode in the quaint old town of Santa Fe where his subsequent life is + lost sight of. La Lande, of a different mould, forgot to render an account + of his mission to the merchant who had sent him there, and became a + prosperous and wealthy man by means of money to which he had no right. + </p> + <p> + To Captain Zebulon Pike, who afterwards was made a general, is due the + impetus which the trade with Santa Fe received shortly after his return to + the United States. The student of American history will remember that the + expedition commanded by this soldier was inaugurated in 1806; his report + of the route he had taken was the incentive for commercial speculation in + the direction of trade with New Mexico, but it was so handicapped by + restrictions imposed by the Mexican government, that the adventurers into + the precarious traffic were not only subject to a complete confiscation of + their wares, but frequently imprisoned for months as spies. Under such a + condition of affairs, many of the earlier expeditions, prior to 1822, + resulted in disaster, and only a limited number met with an indifferent + success. + </p> + <p> + It will not be inconsistent with my text if I herewith interpolate an + incident connected with Pursley, the second American to cross the desert, + for the purpose of trade with New Mexico, which I find in the <i>Magazine + of American History</i>: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + When Zebulon M. Pike was in Mexico, in 1807, he met, + at Santa Fe, a carpenter, Pursley by name, from Bardstown, + Kentucky, who was working at his trade. He had in a + previous year, while out hunting on the Plains, met with + a series of misfortunes, and found himself near the + mountains. The hostile Sioux drove the party into the + high ground in the rear of Pike's Peak. Near the headwaters + of the Platte River, Pursley found some gold, which he + carried in his shot-pouch for months. He was finally sent + by his companions to Santa Fe, to see if they could trade + with the Mexicans, but he chose to remain in Santa Fe + in preference to returning to his comrades. He told the + Mexicans about the gold he had found, and they tried hard + to persuade him to show them the place. They even offered + to take along a strong force of cavalry. But Pursley + refused, and his patriotic reason was that he thought the + land belonged to the United States. He told Captain Pike + that he feared they would not allow him to leave Santa Fe, + as they still hoped to learn from him where the gold was + to be found. These facts were published by Captain Pike + soon after his return east; but no one took the hint, + or the risk was too great, and thus more than a half + a century passed before those same rich fields of gold + were found and opened to the world. If Pursley had been + somewhat less patriotic, and had guided the Mexicans to + the treasures, the whole history and condition of the + western part of our continent might have been entirely + different from what it now is. That region would still + have been a part of Mexico, or Spain might have been + in possession of it, owning California; and, with the gold + that would have been poured into her coffers, would have + been the leading nation of European affairs to-day. + We can easily see how American and European history in + the nineteenth century might have been changed, if that + adventurer from Kentucky had not been a true lover of his + native country. +</pre> + <p> + The adventures of Captain Ezekiel Williams along the Old Trail, in the + early days of the century, tell a story of wonderful courage, endurance, + and persistency. Williams was a man of great perseverance, patience, and + determination of character. He set out from St. Louis in the late spring + of 1807, to trap on the Upper Missouri and the waters of the Yellowstone, + with a party of twenty men who had chosen him as their leader. After + various exciting incidents and thrilling adventures, all of the original + party, except Williams and two others, were killed by the Indians + somewhere in the vicinity of the Upper Arkansas. The three survivors, not + knowing where they were, separated, and Captain Williams determined to + take to the stream by canoe, and trap on his way toward the settlements, + while his last two companions started for the Spanish country—that + is, for the region of Santa Fe. The journal of Williams, from which I + shall quote freely, is to be found in <i>The Lost Trappers</i>, a work + long out of print.<a href="#linknote-11" name="linknoteref-11" + id="linknoteref-11"><small>11</small></a> As the country was an unexplored + region, he might be on a river that flowed into the Pacific, or he might + be drifting down a stream that was an affluent to the Gulf of Mexico. He + was inclined to believe that he was on the sources of the Red River. He + therefore resolved to launch his canoe, and go wherever the stream might + convey him, trapping on his descent, when beaver might be plenty. + </p> + <p> + The first canoe he used he made of buffalo-skins. As this kind of water + conveyance soon begins to leak and rot, he made another of cottonwood, as + soon as he came to timber sufficiently large, in which he embarked for a + port, he knew not where. + </p> + <p> + Most of his journeyings Captain Williams performed during the hours of + night, excepting when he felt it perfectly safe to travel in daylight. His + usual plan was to glide along down the stream, until he came to a place + where beaver signs were abundant. There he would push his little bark + among the willows, where he remained concealed, excepting when he was + setting his traps or visiting them in the morning. When he had taken all + the beaver in one neighbourhood, he would untie his little conveyance, and + glide onward and downward to try his luck in another place. + </p> + <p> + Thus for hundreds of miles did this solitary trapper float down this + unknown river, through an unknown country, here and there lashing his + canoe to the willows and planting his traps in the little tributaries + around. The upper part of the Arkansas, for this proved to be the river he + was on,<a href="#linknote-12" name="linknoteref-12" id="linknoteref-12"><small>12</small></a> + is very destitute of timber, and the prairie frequently begins at the bank + of the river and expands on either side as far as the eye can reach. He + saw vast herds of buffalo, and as it was the rutting season, the bulls + were making a wonderful ado; the prairie resounded with their low, deep + grunting or bellowing, as they tore up the earth with their feet and + horns, whisking their tails, and defying their rivals to battle. Large + gangs of wild horses could be seen grazing on the plains and hillsides, + and the neighing and squealing of stallions might be heard at all times of + the night. + </p> + <p> + Captain Williams never used his rifle to procure meat, except when it was + absolutely necessary, or could be done with perfect safety. On occasions + when he had no beaver, upon which he generally subsisted, he ventured to + kill a deer, and after refreshing his empty stomach with a portion of the + flesh, he placed the carcass in one end of the canoe. It was his + invariable custom to sleep in his canoe at night, moored to the shore, and + once when he had laid in a supply of venison he was startled in his sleep + by the tramping of something in the bushes on the bank. Tramp! tramp! + tramp! went the footsteps, as they approached the canoe. He thought at + first it might be an Indian that had found out his locality, but he knew + that it could not be; a savage would not approach him in that careless + manner. Although there was beautiful starlight, yet the trees and the + dense undergrowth made it very dark on the bank of the river, close to + which he lay. He always adopted the precaution of tying his canoe with a + piece of rawhide about twenty feet long, which allowed it to swing from + the bank at that distance; he did this so that in case of an emergency he + might cut the string, and glide off without making any noise. As the sound + of the footsteps grew more distinct, he presently observed a huge grizzly + bear coming down to the water and swimming for the canoe. The great animal + held his head up as if scenting the venison. The captain snatched his axe + as the most available means to defend himself in such a scrape, and stood + with it uplifted, ready to drive it into the brains of the monster. The + bear reached the canoe, and immediately put his fore paws upon the hind + end of it, nearly turning it over. The captain struck one of the brute's + feet with the edge of the axe, which made him let go with that foot, but + he held on with the other, and he received this time a terrific blow on + the head, that caused him to drop away from the canoe entirely. Nothing + more was seen of the bear, and the captain thought he must have sunk in + the stream and drowned. He was evidently after the fresh meat, which he + scented from a great distance. In the canoe the next morning there were + two of the bear's claws, which had been cut off by the well-directed blow + of the axe. These were carefully preserved by Williams for many years as a + trophy which he was fond of exhibiting, and the history of which he always + delighted to tell. + </p> + <p> + As he was descending the river with his peltries, which consisted of one + hundred and twenty-five beaver-skins, besides some of the otter and other + smaller animals, he overtook three Kansas Indians, who were also in a + canoe going down the river, as he learned from them, to some post to trade + with the whites. They manifested a very friendly disposition towards the + old trapper, and expressed a wish to accompany him. He also learned from + them, to his great delight, that he was on the Big Arkansas, and not more + than five hundred miles from the white settlements. He was well enough + versed in the treachery of the Indian character to know just how much he + could repose in their confidence. He was aware that they would not allow a + solitary trapper to pass through their country with a valuable collection + of furs, without, at least, making an effort to rob him. He knew that + their plan would be to get him into a friendly intercourse, and then, at + the first opportunity, strip him of everything he possessed; consequently + he was determined to get rid of them as soon as possible, and to effect + this, he plied his oars with all diligence. The Indians, like most North + American savages, were lazy, and had no disposition to labour in that way, + but took it quite leisurely, satisfied with being carried down by the + current. Williams soon left them in the rear, and, as he supposed, far + behind him. When night came on, however, as he had worked all day, and + slept none the night before, he resolved to turn aside into a bunch of + willows to take a few hours' rest. But he had not stopped more than forty + minutes when he heard some Indians pull to the shore just above him on the + same side of the river. He immediately loosened his canoe from its + moorings, and glided silently away. He rowed hard for two or three hours, + when he again pulled to the bank and tied up. + </p> + <p> + Only a short time after he had landed, he heard Indians again going on + shore on the same side of the stream as himself. A second time he repeated + his tactics, slipped out of his place of concealment, and stole softly + away. He pulled on vigorously until some time after midnight, when he + supposed he could with safety stop and snatch a little sleep. He felt + apprehensive that he was in a dangerous region, and his anxiety kept him + wide awake. It was very lucky that he did not close his eyes; for as he + was lying in the bottom of his canoe he heard for the third time a canoe + land as before. He was now perfectly satisfied that he was dogged by the + Kansans whom he had passed the preceding day, and in no very good humour, + therefore, he picked up his rifle, and walked up to the bank where he had + heard the Indians land. As he suspected, there were the three savages. + When they saw the captain, they immediately renewed their expressions of + friendship, and invited him to partake of their hospitality. He stood + aloof from them, and shook his head in a rage, charging them with their + villanous purposes. In the short, sententious manner of the Indians, he + said to them: "You now follow me three times; if you follow me again, I + kill you!" and wheeling around abruptly, returned to his canoe. A third + time the solitary trapper pushed his little craft from the shore and set + off down stream, to get away from a region where to sleep would be + hazardous. He plied his oars the remainder of the night, and solaced + himself with the thought that no evil had befallen him, except the loss of + a few hours' sleep. + </p> + <p> + While he was escaping from his villanous pursuers, he was running into new + dangers and difficulties. The following day he overtook a large band of + the same tribe, under the leadership of a chief, who were also descending + the river. Into the hands of these savages he fell a prisoner, and was + conducted to one of their villages. The principal chief there took all of + his furs, traps, and other belongings. A very short time after his + capture, the Kansans went to war with the Pawnees, and carried Captain + Williams with them. In a terrible battle in which the Kansans gained a + most decided victory, the old trapper bore a conspicuous part, killing a + great number of the enemy, and by his excellent strategy brought about the + success of his captors. When they returned to the village, Williams, who + had ever been treated with kindness by the inhabitants, was now thought to + be a wonderful warrior, and could have been advanced to all the savage + honours; he might even have been made one of their principal chiefs. The + tribe gave him his liberty for the great service he had rendered it in its + difficulty with an inveterate foe, but declining all proffered promotions, + he decided to return to the white settlements on the Missouri, at the + mouth of the Kaw, the covetous old chief retaining all his furs, and + indeed everything he possessed excepting his rifle, with as many rounds of + ammunition as would be necessary to secure him provisions in the shape of + game on his route. The veteran trapper had learned from the Indians while + with them that they expected to go to Fort Osage on the Missouri River to + receive some annuities from the government, and he felt certain that his + furs would be there at the same time. + </p> + <p> + After leaving the Kansans he travelled on toward the Missouri, and soon + struck the beginning of the sparse settlements. Just as evening was coming + on, he arrived at a cluster of three little log-cabins, and was received + with genuine backwoods hospitality by the proprietor, who had married an + Osage squaw. Williams was not only very hungry, but very tired; and, after + enjoying an abundant supper, he became stupid and sleepy, and expressed a + wish to lie down. The generous trapper accordingly conducted him to one of + the cabins, in which there were two beds, standing in opposite corners of + the room. He immediately threw himself upon one, and was soon in a very + deep sleep. About midnight his slumbers were disturbed by a singular and + very frightful kind of noise, accompanied by struggling on the other bed. + What it was, Williams was entirely at a loss to understand. There were no + windows in the cabin, the door was shut, and it was as dark as Egypt. A + fierce contest seemed to be going on. There were deep groanings and hard + breathings; and the snapping of teeth appeared almost constant. For a + moment the noise would subside, then again the struggles would be renewed + accompanied as before with groaning, deep sighing, and grinding of teeth. + </p> + <p> + The captain's bed-clothes consisted of a couple of blankets and a + buffalo-robe, and as the terrible struggles continued he raised himself up + in the bed, and threw the robe around him for protection, his rifle having + been left in the cabin where his host slept, while his knife was attached + to his coat, which he had hung on the corner post of the other bedstead + from which the horrid struggles emanated. In an instant the robe was + pulled off, and he was left uncovered and unprotected; in another moment a + violent snatch carried away the blanket upon which he was sitting, and he + was nearly tumbled off the bed with it. As the next thing might be a blow + in the dark, he felt that it was high time to shift his quarters; so he + made a desperate leap from the bed, and alighted on the opposite side of + the room, calling for his host, who immediately came to his relief by + opening the door. Williams then told him that the devil—or something + as bad, he believed—was in the room, and he wanted a light. The + accommodating trapper hurried away, and in a moment was back with a + candle, the light of which soon revealed the awful mystery. It was an + Indian, who at the time was struggling in convulsions, which he was + subject to. He was a superannuated chief, a relative of the wife of the + hospitable trapper, and generally made his home there. Absent when Captain + Williams arrived, he came into the room at a very late hour, and went to + the bed he usually occupied. No one on the claim knew of his being there + until he was discovered, in a dreadfully mangled condition. He was removed + to other quarters, and Williams, who was not to be frightened out of a + night's rest, soon sunk into sound repose. + </p> + <p> + Williams reached the agency by the time the Kansas Indians arrived there, + and, as he suspected, found that the wily old chief had brought all his + belongings, which he claimed, and the agent made the savages give up the + stolen property before he would pay them a cent of their annuities. He + took his furs down to St. Louis, sold them there at a good price, and then + started back to the Rocky Mountains on another trapping tour. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. EARLY TRADERS. + </h2> + <p> + In 1812 a Captain Becknell, who had been on a trading expedition to the + country of the Comanches in the summer of 1811, and had done remarkably + well, determined the next season to change his objective point to Santa + Fe, and instead of the tedious process of bartering with the Indians, to + sell out his stock to the New Mexicans. Successful in this, his first + venture, he returned to the Missouri River with a well-filled purse, and + intensely enthusiastic over the result of his excursion to the newly found + market. + </p> + <p> + Excited listeners to his tales of enormous profits were not lacking, who, + inspired by the inducement he held out to them, cheerfully invested five + thousand dollars in merchandise suited to the demands of the trade, and + were eager to attempt with him the passage of the great plains. In this + expedition there were thirty men, and the amount of money in the + undertaking was the largest that had yet been ventured. The progress of + the little caravan was without extraordinary incident, until it arrived at + "The Caches" on the Upper Arkansas. There Becknell, who was in reality a + man of the then "Frontier," bold, plucky, and endowed with excellent + sense, conceived the ridiculous idea of striking directly across the + country for Santa Fe through a region absolutely unexplored; his excuse + for this rash movement being that he desired to avoid the rough and + circuitous mountain route he had travelled on his first trip to Taos. + </p> + <p> + His temerity in abandoning the known for the unknown was severely + punished, and his brave men suffered untold misery, barely escaping with + their lives from the terrible straits to which they were reduced. Not + having the remotest conception of the region through which their new trail + was to lead them, and naturally supposing that water would be found in + streams or springs, when they left the Arkansas they neglected to supply + themselves with more than enough of the precious fluid to last a couple of + days. At the end of that time they learned, too late, that they were in + the midst of a desert, with all the tortures of thirst threatening them. + </p> + <p> + Without a tree or a path to guide them, they took an irregular course by + observations of the North Star, and the unreliable needle of an azimuth + pocket-compass. There was a total absence of water, and when what they had + brought with them in their canteens from the river was exhausted, thirst + began its horrible office. In a short time both men and animals were in a + mental condition bordering on distraction. To alleviate their acute + torment, the dogs of the train were killed, and their blood, hot and + sickening, eagerly swallowed; then the ears of the mules were cut off for + the same purpose, but such a substitute for water only added to their + sufferings. They would have perished had not a superannuated buffalo bull + that had just come from the Cimarron River, where he had gone to quench + his thirst, suddenly appeared, to be immediately killed and the contents + of his stomach swallowed with avidity. It is recorded that one of those + who partook of the nauseous liquid said afterward, "nothing had ever + passed his lips which gave him such exquisite delight as his first draught + of that filthy beverage." + </p> + <p> + Although they were near the Cimarron, where there was plenty of water, + which but for the affair of the buffalo they never would have suspected, + they decided to retrace their steps to the Arkansas. + </p> + <p> + Before they started on their retreat, however, some of the strongest of + the party followed the trail of the animal that had saved their lives to + the river, where, filling all the canteens with pure water, they returned + to their comrades, who were, after drinking, able to march slowly toward + the Arkansas. + </p> + <p> + Following that stream, they at last arrived at Taos, having experienced no + further trouble, but missed the trail to Santa Fe, and had their journey + greatly prolonged by the foolish endeavour of the leader to make a short + cut thither. + </p> + <p> + As early as 1815, Auguste P. Chouteau and his partner, with a large number + of trappers and hunters, went out to the valley of the Upper Arkansas for + the purpose of trading with Indians, and trapping on the numerous streams + of the contiguous region. + </p> + <p> + The island on which Chouteau established his trading-post, and which bears + his name even to this day, is in the Arkansas River on the boundary line + of the United States and Mexico. It was a beautiful spot, with a rich + carpet of grass and delightful groves, and on the American side was a + heavily timbered bottom. + </p> + <p> + While occupying the island, Chouteau and his old hunters and trappers were + attacked by about three hundred Pawnees, whom they repulsed with the loss + of thirty killed and wounded. These Indians afterward declared that it was + the most fatal affair in which they were ever engaged. It was their first + acquaintance with American guns. + </p> + <p> + The general character of the early trade with New Mexico was founded on + the system of the caravan. She depended upon the remote ports of old + Mexico, whence was transported, on the backs of the patient burro and + mule, all that was required by the primitive tastes of the primitive + people; a very tedious and slow process, as may be inferred, and the + limited traffic westwardly across the great plains was confined to this + fashion. At the date of the legitimate and substantial commerce with New + Mexico, in 1824, wheeled vehicles were introduced, and traffic assumed an + importance it could never have otherwise attained, and which now, under + the vast system of railroads, has increased to dimensions little dreamed + of by its originators nearly three-quarters of a century ago. + </p> + <p> + It was eight years after Pursley's pilgrimage before the trade with New + Mexico attracted the attention of speculators and adventurers. Messrs. + McKnight,<a href="#linknote-13" name="linknoteref-13" id="linknoteref-13"><small>13</small></a> + Beard, and Chambers, with about a dozen comrades, started with a supply of + goods across the unknown plains, and by good luck arrived safely at Santa + Fe. Once under the jurisdiction of the Mexicans, however, their trouble + began. All the party were arrested as spies, their wares confiscated, and + themselves incarcerated at Chihuahua, where the majority of them were kept + for almost a decade. Beard and Chambers, having by some means escaped, + returned to St. Louis in 1822, and, notwithstanding their dreadful + experience, told of the prospects of the trade with the Mexicans in such + glowing colours that they induced some individuals of small capital to fit + out another expedition, with which they again set out for Santa Fe. + </p> + <p> + It was really too late in the season; they succeeded, however, in reaching + the crossing of the Arkansas without any difficulty, but there a violent + snowstorm overtook them and they were compelled to halt, as it was + impossible to proceed in the face of the blinding blizzard. On an island<a + href="#linknote-14" name="linknoteref-14" id="linknoteref-14"><small>14</small></a> + not far from where the town of Cimarron, on the Santa Fe Railroad, is now + situated, they were obliged to remain for more than three months, during + which time most of their animals died for want of food and from the severe + cold. When the weather had moderated sufficiently to allow them to proceed + on their journey, they had no transportation for their goods and were + compelled to hide them in pits dug in the earth, after the manner of the + old French voyageurs in the early settlement of the continent. This method + of secreting furs and valuables of every character is called caching, from + the French word "to hide." Gregg thus describes it: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The cache is made by digging a hole in the ground, somewhat + in the shape of a jug, which is lined with dry sticks, + grass, or anything else that will protect its contents + from the dampness of the earth. In this place the goods + to be concealed are carefully stowed away; and the aperture + is then so effectually closed as to protect them from + the rains. In caching, a great deal of skill is often + required to leave no sign whereby the cunning savage may + discover the place of deposit. To this end, the excavated + earth is carried some distance and carefully concealed, + or thrown into a stream, if one be at hand. The place + selected for a cache is usually some rolling point, + sufficiently elevated to be secure from inundations. + If it be well set with grass, a solid piece of turf is + cut out large enough for the entrance. The turf is + afterward laid back, and, taking root, in a short time + no signs remain of its ever having been molested. + However, as every locality does not afford a turfy site, + the camp-fire is sometimes built upon the place, or the + animals are penned over it, which effectually destroys + all traces. +</pre> + <p> + Father Hennepin<a href="#linknote-15" name="linknoteref-15" + id="linknoteref-15"><small>15</small></a> thus describes, in his quaint + style, how he built a cache on the bank of the Mississippi, in 1680: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + We took up the green sodd, and laid it by, and digg'd a hole + in the Earth where we put our Goods, and cover'd them with + pieces of Timber and Earth, and then put in again the green + Turf; so that 'twas impossible to suspect that any Hole had + been digg'd under it, for we flung the Earth into the River. +</pre> + <p> + After caching their goods, Beard and the party went on to Taos, where they + bought mules, and returning to their caches transported their contents to + their market. + </p> + <p> + The word "cache" still lingers among the "old-timers" of the mountains and + plains, and has become a provincialism with their descendants; one of + these will tell you that he cached his vegetables in the side of the hill; + or if he is out hunting and desires to secrete himself from approaching + game, he will say, "I am going to cache behind that rock," etc. + </p> + <p> + The place where Beard's little expedition wintered was called "The Caches" + for years, and the name has only fallen into disuse within the last two + decades. I remember the great holes in the ground when I first crossed the + plains, a third of a century ago. + </p> + <p> + The immense profit upon merchandise transported across the dangerous Trail + of the mid-continent to the capital of New Mexico soon excited the + cupidity of other merchants east of the Missouri. When the commonest + domestic cloth, manufactured wholly from cotton, brought from two to three + dollars a yard at Santa Fe, and other articles at the same ratio to cost, + no wonder the commerce with the far-off market appeared to those who + desired to send goods there a veritable Golconda. + </p> + <p> + The importance of internal trade with New Mexico, and the possibilities of + its growth, were first recognized by the United States in 1824, the + originator of the movement being Mr. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, who + frequently, from his place in the Senate, prophesied the coming greatness + of the West. He introduced a bill which authorized the President to + appoint a commission to survey a road from the Missouri River to the + boundary line of New Mexico, and from thence on Mexican territory with the + consent of the Mexican government. The signing of this bill was one of the + last acts of Mr. Monroe's official life, and it was carried into effect by + his successor, Mr. John Quincy Adams, but unfortunately a mistake was made + in supposing that the Osage Indians alone controlled the course of the + proposed route. It was partially marked out as far as the Arkansas, by + raised mounds; but travellers continued to use the old wagon trail, and as + no negotiations had been entered into with the Comanches, Cheyennes, + Pawnees, or Kiowas, these warlike tribes continued to harass the caravans + when these arrived in the broad valley of the Arkansas. + </p> + <p> + The American fur trade was at its height at the time when the Santa Fe + trade was just beginning to assume proportions worthy of notice; the + difference between the two enterprises being very marked. The fur trade + was in the hands of immensely wealthy companies, while that to Santa Fe + was carried on by individuals with limited capital, who, purchasing goods + in the Eastern markets, had them transported to the Missouri River, where, + until the trade to New Mexico became a fixed business, everything was + packed on mules. As soon, however, as leading merchants invested their + capital, about 1824, the trade grew into vast proportions, and wagons took + the place of the patient mule. Later, oxen were substituted for mules, it + having been discovered that they possessed many advantages over the + former, particularly in being able to draw heavier loads than an equal + number of mules, especially through sandy or muddy places. + </p> + <p> + For a long time, the traders were in the habit of purchasing their mules + in Santa Fe and driving them to the Missouri; but as soon as that useful + animal was raised in sufficient numbers in the Southern States to supply + the demand, the importation from New Mexico ceased, for the reason that + the American mule was in all respects an immensely superior animal. + </p> + <p> + Once mules were an important object of the trade, and those who dealt in + them and drove them across to the river on the Trail met with many + mishaps; frequently whole droves, containing from three to five hundred, + were stolen by the savages en route. The latter soon learned that it was a + very easy thing to stampede a caravan of mules, for, once panic-stricken, + it is impossible to restrain them, and the Indians having started them + kept them in a state of rampant excitement by their blood-curdling yells, + until they had driven them miles beyond the Trail. + </p> + <p> + A story is told of a small band of twelve men, who, while encamped on the + Cimarron River, in 1826, with but four serviceable guns among them, were + visited by a party of Indians, believed to be Arapahoes, who made at first + strong demonstrations of friendship and good-will. Observing the + defenceless condition of the traders, they went away, but soon returned + about thirty strong, each provided with a lasso, and all on foot. The + chief then began by informing the Americans that his men were tired of + walking, and must have horses. Thinking it folly to offer any resistance, + the terrified traders told them if one animal apiece would satisfy them, + to go and catch them. This they soon did; but finding their request so + easily complied with, the Indians held a little parley together, which + resulted in a new demand for more—they must have two apiece! "Well, + catch them!" was the acquiescent reply of the unfortunate band; upon which + the savages mounted those they had already secured, and, swinging their + lassos over their heads, plunged among the stock with a furious yell, and + drove off the entire caballada of nearly five hundred head of horses, + mules, and asses. + </p> + <p> + In 1829 the Indians of the plains became such a terror to the caravans + crossing to Santa Fe, that the United States government, upon petition of + the traders, ordered three companies of infantry and one of riflemen, + under command of Major Bennet Riley, to escort the annual caravan, which + that year started from the town of Franklin, Missouri, then the eastern + terminus of the Santa Fe trade, as far as Chouteau's Island, on the + Arkansas, which marked the boundary between the United States and Mexico.<a + href="#linknote-16" name="linknoteref-16" id="linknoteref-16"><small>16</small></a> + The caravan started from the island across the dreary route unaccompanied + by any troops, but had progressed only a few miles when it was attacked by + a band of Kiowas, then one of the most cruel and bloodthirsty tribes on + the plains.<a href="#linknote-17" name="linknoteref-17" id="linknoteref-17"><small>17</small></a> + </p> + <p> + This escort, commanded by Major Riley, and another under Captain Wharton, + composed of only sixty dragoons, five years later, were the sole + protection ever given by the government until 1843, when Captain Philip + St. George Cooke again accompanied two large caravans to the same point on + the Arkansas as did Major Riley fourteen years before. + </p> + <p> + As the trade increased, the Comanches, Pawnees, and Arapahoes continued to + commit their depredations, and it was firmly believed by many of the + freighters that these Indians were incited to their devilish acts by the + Mexicans, who were always jealous of "Los Americanos." + </p> + <p> + It was very rarely that a caravan, great or small, or even a detachment of + troops, no matter how large, escaped the raids of these bandits of the + Trail. If the list of those who were killed outright and scalped, and + those more unfortunate who were taken captive only to be tortured and + their bodies horribly mutilated, could be collected from the opening of + the traffic with New Mexico until the years 1868-69, when General Sheridan + inaugurated his memorable "winter campaign" against the allied plains + tribes, and completely demoralized, cowed, and forced them on their + reservations, about the time of the advent of the railroad, it would + present an appalling picture; and the number of horses, mules, and oxen + stampeded and stolen during the same period would amount to thousands. + </p> + <p> + As the excellent narrative of Captain Pike is not read as it should be by + the average American, a brief reference to it may not be considered + supererogatory. The celebrated officer, who was afterward promoted to the + rank of major-general, and died in the achievement of the victory of York, + Upper Canada, in 1813, was sent in 1806 on an exploring expedition up the + Arkansas River, with instructions to pass the sources of Red River, for + which those of the Canadian were then mistaken; he, however, even went + around the head of the latter, and crossing the mountains with an almost + incredible degree of peril and suffering, descended upon the Rio del Norte + with his little party, then but fifteen in number. + </p> + <p> + Believing himself now on Red River, within the then assumed limits of the + United States, he built a small fortification for his company, until the + opening of the spring of 1807 should enable him to continue his descent to + Natchitoches. As he was really within Mexican territory, and only about + eighty miles from the northern settlements, his position was soon + discovered, and a force sent to take him to Santa Fe, which by treachery + was effected without opposition. The Spanish officer assured him that the + governor, learning that he had mistaken his way, had sent animals and an + escort to convey his men and baggage to a navigable point on Red River + (Rio Colorado), and that His Excellency desired very much to see him at + Santa Fe, which might be taken on their way. + </p> + <p> + As soon, however, as the governor had the too confiding captain in his + power, he sent him with his men to the commandant general at Chihuahua, + where most of his papers were seized, and he and his party were sent under + an escort, via San Antonio de Bexar, to the United States. + </p> + <p> + Many citizens of the remote Eastern States, who were contemporary with + Pike, declared that his expedition was in some way connected with the + treasonable attempt of Aaron Burr. The idea is simply preposterous; Pike's + whole line of conduct shows him to have been of the most patriotic + character; never would he for a moment have countenanced a proposition + from Aaron Burr! + </p> + <p> + After Captain Pike's report had been published to the world, the + adventurers who were inspired by its glowing description of the country he + had been so far to explore were destined to experience trials and + disappointments of which they had formed no conception. + </p> + <p> + Among them was a certain Captain Sublette, a famous old trapper in the era + of the great fur companies, and with him a Captain Smith, who, although + veteran pioneers of the Rocky Mountains, were mere novices in the many + complications of the Trail; but having been in the fastnesses of the great + divide of the continent, they thought that when they got down on the + plains they could go anywhere. They started with twenty wagons, and left + the Missouri without a single one of the party being competent to guide + the little caravan on the dangerous route. + </p> + <p> + From the Missouri the Trail was broad and plain enough for a child to + follow, but when they arrived at the Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas, + not a trace of former caravans was visible; nothing but the innumerable + buffalo-trails leading from everywhere to the river. + </p> + <p> + When the party entered the desert, or Dry Route, as it was years afterward + always, and very properly, called in certain seasons of drought, the brave + but too confident men discovered that the whole region was burnt up. They + wandered on for several days, the horrors of death by thirst constantly + confronting them. Water must be had or they would all perish! At last + Smith, in his desperation, determined to follow one of the numerous + buffalo-trails, believing that it would conduct him to water of some + character—a lake or pool or even wallow. He left the train alone; + asked for no one to accompany him; for he was the very impersonation of + courage, one of the most fearless men that ever trapped in the mountains. + </p> + <p> + He walked on and on for miles, when, on ascending a little divide, he saw + a stream in the valley beneath him. It was the Cimarron, and he hurried + toward it to quench his intolerable thirst. When he arrived at its bank, + to his disappointment it was nothing but a bed of sand; the sometime clear + running river was perfectly dry. + </p> + <p> + Only for a moment was he staggered; he knew the character of many streams + in the West; that often their waters run under the ground at a short + distance from the surface, and in a moment he was on his knees digging + vigorously in the soft sand. Soon the coveted fluid began to filter + upwards into the little excavation he had made. He stooped to drink, and + in the next second a dozen arrows from an ambushed band of Comanches + entered his body. He did not die at once, however; it is related by the + Indians themselves that he killed two of their number before death laid + him low. + </p> + <p> + Captain Sublette and Smith's other comrades did not know what had become + of him until some Mexican traders told them, having got the report from + the very savages who committed the cold-blooded murder. + </p> + <p> + Gregg, in his report of this little expedition, says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Every kind of fatality seems to have attended this small + caravan. Among other casualties, a clerk in their company, + named Minter, was killed by a band of Pawnees, before they + crossed the Arkansas. This, I believe, is the only instance + of loss of life among the traders while engaged in hunting, + although the scarcity of accidents can hardly be said to be + the result of prudence. There is not a day that hunters + do not commit some indescretion; such as straying at + a distance of five and even ten miles from the caravan, + frequently alone, and seldom in bands of more than two or + three together. In this state, they must frequently be + spied by prowling savages; so that frequency of escape, + under such circumstances, must be partly attributed to + the cowardice of the Indians; indeed, generally speaking, + the latter are very loth to charge upon even a single + armed man, unless they can take him at a decided advantage. + + Not long after, this band of Captain Sublette's very + narrowly escaped total destruction. They had fallen in + with an immense horde of Blackfeet and Gros Ventres, and, + as the traders were literally but a handful among thousands + of savages, they fancied themselves for a while in imminent + peril of being virtually "eated up." But as Captain + Sublette possessed considerable experience, he was at + no loss how to deal with these treacherous savages; so that + although the latter assumed a threatening attitude, + he passed them without any serious molestation, and finally + arrived at Santa Fe in safety. +</pre> + <p> + The virtual commencement of the Santa Fe trade dates from 1822, and one of + the most remarkable events in its history was the first attempt to + introduce wagons in the expeditions. This was made in 1824 by a company of + traders, about eighty in number, among whom were several gentlemen of + intelligence from Missouri, who contributed by their superior skill and + undaunted energy to render the enterprise completely successful. A portion + of this company employed pack-mules; among the rest were owned twenty-five + wheeled vehicles, of which one or two were stout road-wagons, two were + carts, and the rest Dearborn carriages, the whole conveying some + twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars' worth of merchandise. Colonel + Marmaduke, of Missouri, was one of the party. This caravan arrived at + Santa Fe safely, experiencing much less difficulty than they anticipated + from a first attempt with wheeled vehicles. + </p> + <p> + Gregg continues: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The early voyageurs, having but seldom experienced any + molestation from the Indians, generally crossed the plains + in detached bands, each individual rarely carrying more than + two or three hundred dollars' worth of stock. This peaceful + season, however, did not last very long; and it is greatly + to be feared that the traders were not always innocent of + having instigated the savage hostilities that ensued in + after years. Many seemed to forget the wholesome precept, + that they should not be savages themselves because they + dealt with savages. Instead of cultivating friendly + feelings with those few who remained peaceful and honest, + there was an occasional one always disposed to kill, + even in cold blood, every Indian that fell into their power, + merely because some of the tribe had committed an outrage + either against themselves or friends. +</pre> + <p> + As an instance of this, he relates the following: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + In 1826 two young men named McNess and Monroe, having + carelessly lain down to sleep on the bank of a certain + stream, since known as McNess Creek,<a href="#linknote-18" + name="linknoteref-18" id="linknoteref-18">18</a> were barbarously + shot, with their own guns, as it was supposed, in the very + sight of the caravan. When their comrades came up, + they found McNess lifeless, and the other almost expiring. + In this state the latter was carried nearly forty miles to + the Cimarron River, where he died, and was buried according + to the custom of the prairies, a very summary proceeding, + necessarily. The corpse, wrapped in a blanket, its shroud + the clothes it wore, is interred in a hole varying in depth + according to the nature of the soil, and upon the grave is + piled stones, if any are convenient, to prevent the wolves + from digging it up. Just as McNess's funeral ceremonies + were about to be concluded, six or seven Indians appeared + on the opposite side of the Cimarron. Some of the party + proposed inviting them to a parley, while the rest, burning + for revenge, evinced a desire to fire upon them at once. + It is more than probable, however, that the Indians were not + only innocent but ignorant of the outrage that had been + committed, or they would hardly have ventured to approach + the caravan. Being quick of perception, they very soon saw + the belligerent attitude assumed by the company, and + therefore wheeled round and attempted to escape. One shot + was fired, which brought an Indian to the ground, when he + was instantly riddled with balls. Almost simultaneously + another discharge of several guns followed, by which all + the rest were either killed or mortally wounded, except one, + who escaped to bear the news to his tribe. + + These wanton cruelties had a most disastrous effect upon the + prospects of the trade; for the exasperated children of + the desert became more and more hostile to the "pale-faces," + against whom they continued to wage a cruel war for many + successive years. In fact this party suffered very severely + a few days afterward. They were pursued by the enraged + comrades of the slain savages to the Arkansas River, where + they were robbed of nearly a thousand horses and mules. +</pre> + <p> + The author of this book, although having but little compassion for the + Indians, must admit that, during more than a third of a century passed on + the plains and in the mountains, he has never known of a war with the + hostile tribes that was not caused by broken faith on the part of the + United States or its agents. I will refer to two prominent instances: that + of the outbreak of the Nez Perces, and that of the allied plains tribes. + With the former a solemn treaty was made in 1856, guaranteeing to them + occupancy of the Wallola valley forever. I. I. Stevens, who was governor + of Washington Territory at the time, and ex-officio superintendent of + Indian affairs in the region, met the Nez Perces, whose chief, + "Wish-la-no-she," an octogenarian, when grasping the hand of the governor + at the council said: "I put out my hand to the white man when Lewis and + Clark crossed the continent, in 1805, and have never taken it back since." + The tribe kept its word until the white men took forcible possession of + the valley promised to the Indians, when the latter broke out, and a + prolonged war was the consequence. In 1867 Congress appointed a commission + to treat with the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes, appropriating four + hundred thousand dollars for the expenses of the commission. It met at + Medicine Lodge in August of the year mentioned, and made a solemn treaty, + which the members of the commission, on the part of the United States, and + the principal chiefs of the three tribes signed. Congress failed to make + any appropriation to carry out the provisions of the treaty, and the + Indians, after waiting a reasonable time, broke out, devastated the + settlements from the Platte to the Rio Grande, destroying millions of + dollars' worth of property, and sacrificing hundreds of men, women, and + children. Another war was the result, which cost more millions, and under + General Sheridan the hostile savages were whipped into a peace, which they + have been compelled to keep. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. TRAINS AND PACKERS. + </h2> + <p> + As has been stated, until the year 1824 transportation across the plains + was done by means of pack-mules, the art of properly loading which seems + to be an intuitive attribute of the native Mexican. The American, of + course, soon became as expert, for nothing that the genus homo is capable + of doing is impossible to him; but his teacher was the dark-visaged, + superstitious, and profanity-expending Mexican arriero. + </p> + <p> + A description of the equipment of a mule-train and the method of packing, + together with some of the curious facts connected with its movements, may + not be uninteresting, particularly as the whole thing, with rare + exceptions in the regular army at remote frontier posts, has been + relegated to the past, along with the caravan of the prairie and the + overland coach. To this generation, barring a few officers who have served + against the Indians on the plains and in the mountains, a pack-mule train + would be as great a curiosity as the hairy mammoth. In the following + particulars I have taken as a model the genuine Mexican pack-train or + atajo, as it was called in their Spanish dialect, always used in the early + days of the Santa Fe trade. The Americans made many modifications, but the + basis was purely Mexican in its origin. A pack-mule was termed a mula de + carga, and his equipment consisted of several parts; first, the saddle, or + aparejo, a nearly square pad of leather stuffed with hay, which covered + the animal's back on both sides equally. The best idea of its shape will + be formed by opening a book in the middle and placing it saddle-fashion on + the back of a chair. Each half then forms a flap of the contrivance. + Before the aparejo was adjusted to the mule, a salea, or raw sheep-skin, + made soft by rubbing, was put on the animal's back, to prevent chafing, + and over it the saddle-cloth, or xerga. On top of both was placed the + aparejo, which was cinched by a wide grass-bandage. This band was drawn as + tightly as possible, to such an extent that the poor brute grunted and + groaned under the apparently painful operation, and when fastened he + seemed to be cut in two. This always appeared to be the very acme of + cruelty to the uninitiated, but it is the secret of successful packing; + the firmer the saddle, the more comfortably the mule can travel, with less + risk of being chafed and bruised. The aparejo is furnished with a huge + crupper, and this appendage is really the most cruel of all, for it is + almost sure to lacerate the tail. Hardly a Mexican mule in the old days of + the trade could be found which did not bear the scar of this rude + supplement to the immense saddle. + </p> + <p> + The load, which is termed a carga, was generally three hundred pounds. Two + arrieros, or packers, place the goods on the mule's back, one, the + cargador, standing on the near side, his assistant on the other. The carga + is then hoisted on top of the saddle if it is a single package; or if + there are two of equal size and weight, one on each side, coupled by a + rope, which balances them on the animal. Another stout rope is then thrown + over all, drawn as tightly as possible under the belly, and laced round + the packs, securing them firmly in their place. Over the load, to protect + it from rain, is thrown a square piece of matting called a petate. + Sometimes, when a mule is a little refractory, he is blindfolded by a thin + piece of leather, generally embroidered, termed the tapojos, and he + remains perfectly quiet while the process of packing is going on. When the + load is securely fastened in its place, the blinder is removed. The man on + the near side, with his knee against the mule for a purchase, as soon as + the rope is hauled taut, cries out "Adios," and his assistant answers + "Vaya!" Then the first says again, "Anda!" upon which the mule trots off + to its companions, all of which feed around until the animals of the whole + train are packed. It seldom requires more than five minutes for the two + men to complete the packing of the animal, and in that time is included + the fastening of the aperejo. It is surprising to note the degree of skill + exercised by an experienced packer, and his apparently abnormal strength + in handling the immense bundles that are sometimes transported. By the aid + of his knees used as a fulcrum, he lifts a package and tosses it on the + mule's back without any apparent effort, the dead weight of which he could + not move from the ground. + </p> + <p> + An old-time atajo or caravan of pack-mules generally numbered from fifty + to two hundred, and it travelled a jornado, or day's march of about twelve + or fifteen miles. This day's journey was made without any stopping at + noon, because if a pack-mule is allowed to rest, he generally tries to lie + down, and with his heavy load it is difficult for him to get on his feet + again. Sometimes he is badly strained in so doing, perhaps ruined forever. + When the train starts out on the trail, the mules are so tightly bound + with the ropes which confine the load that they move with great + difficulty; but the saddle soon settles itself and the ropes become + loosened so that they have frequently to be tightened. On the march the + arriero is kept busy nearly all the time; the packs are constantly + changing their position, frequently losing their balance and falling off; + sometimes saddle, pack, and all swing under the animal's belly, and he + must be unloaded and repacked again. + </p> + <p> + On arriving at the camping-ground the pack-saddles with their loads are + ranged in regular order, their freight being between the saddles, covered + with the petates to protect it from the rain, and generally a ditch is dug + around to carry off the water, if the weather is stormy. After two or + three days' travel each mule knows its own pack and saddle, and comes up + to it at the proper moment with an intelligence that is astonishing. If an + animal should come whose pack is somewhere else, he is soundly kicked in + the ribs by the rightful mule, and sent bruised and battered to his place. + He rarely makes a mistake in relation to the position of his own pack the + second time. + </p> + <p> + This method of transportation was so cheap, because of the low rate of + wages, that wagon-freighting, even in the most level region, could not + compete with it. Five dollars a month was the amount paid to the + muleteers, but it was oftener five with rations, costing almost nothing, + of corn and beans. Meat, if used at all, was found by the arrieros + themselves. + </p> + <p> + On the trail the mule-train is under a system of discipline almost as + severe as that on board of a man-of-war. Every individual employed is + assigned to his place and has certain duties to perform. There is a + night-herder, called the savanero, whose duty it is to keep the animals + from straying too far away, as they are all turned loose to shift for + themselves, depending upon the grass alone for their subsistence. Each + herd has a mulera, or bell-mare, which wears a bell hanging to a strap + around her neck, and is kept in view of the other animals, who will never + leave her. If the mare is taken away from the herd, every mule becomes + really melancholy and is at a loss what to do or where to go. The cook of + the party, or madre (mother) as he is called, besides his duty in + preparing the food, must lead the bell-mule ahead of the train while + travelling, the pack-animals following her with a devotion that is + remarkable. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes in traversing the narrow ledges cut around the sides of a + precipitous trail, or crossing a narrow natural bridge spanning the + frightful gorges found everywhere in the mountains, a mule will be + incontinently thrown off the slippery path, and fall hundreds of feet into + the yawning canyon below. Generally instant death is their portion, though + I recall an instance, while on an expedition against the hostile Indians + thirty years ago, where a number of mules of our pack-train, loaded with + ammunition, tumbled nearly five hundred feet down an almost perpendicular + chasm, and yet some of them got on their feet again, and soon rejoined + their companions, without having suffered any serious injury. + </p> + <p> + The wagons so long employed in this trade, after their first introduction + in 1824, were manufactured in Pittsburgh, their capacity being about a ton + and a half, and they were drawn by eight mules or the same number of oxen. + Later much larger wagons were employed with nearly double the capacity of + the first, hauled by ten and twelve mules or oxen. These latter were soon + called prairie-schooners, which name continued to linger until + transportation across the plains by wagons was completely extinguished by + the railroads. + </p> + <p> + Under Mexican rule excessive tariff imposts were instituted, amounting to + about a hundred per cent upon goods brought from the United States, and + for some years, during the administration of Governor Manuel Armijo, a + purely arbitrary duty was demanded of five hundred dollars for every + wagon-load of merchandise brought into the Province, whether great or + small, and regardless of its intrinsic value. As gold and silver were paid + for the articles brought by the traders, they were also required to pay a + heavy duty on the precious metals they took out of the country. Yankee + ingenuity, however, evaded much of these unjust taxes. When the caravan + approached Santa Fe, the freight of three wagons was transferred to one, + and the empty vehicles destroyed by fire; while to avoid paying the export + duty on gold and silver, they had large false axletrees to some of the + wagons, in which the money was concealed, and the examining officer of the + customs, perfectly unconscious of the artifice, passed them. + </p> + <p> + The army, in its expeditions against the hostile Indian tribes, always + employed wagons in transporting its provisions and munitions of war, + except in the mountains, where the faithful pack-mule was substituted. The + American freighters, since the occupation of New Mexico by the United + States, until the transcontinental railroad usurped their vocation, used + wagons only; the Mexican nomenclature was soon dropped and simple English + terms adopted: caravan became train, and majordomo, the person in charge, + wagon-master. The latter was supreme. Upon him rested all the + responsibility, and to him the teamsters rendered absolute obedience. He + was necessarily a man of quick perception, always fertile in expedients in + times of emergency, and something of an engineer; for to know how properly + to cross a raging stream or a marshy slough with an outfit of fifty or + sixty wagons required more than ordinary intelligence. Then in the case of + a stampede, great clear-headedness and coolness were needed to prevent + loss of life. + </p> + <p> + Stampedes were frequently very serious affairs, particularly with a large + mule-train. Notwithstanding the willingness and patient qualities of that + animal, he can act as absurdly as a Texas steer, and is as easily + frightened at nothing. Sometimes as insignificant a circumstance as a + prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, a figure in the + distance, or even the shadow of a passing cloud will start every animal in + the train, and away they go, rushing into each other, and becoming + entangled in such a manner that both drivers and mules have often been + crushed to death. It not infrequently happened that five or six of the + teams would dash off and never could be found. I remember one instance + that occurred on the trail between Fort Hays and Fort Dodge, during + General Sheridan's winter campaign against the allied plains tribes in + 1868. Three of the wagons were dragged away by the mules, in a few moments + were out of sight, and were never recovered, although diligent search was + made for them for some days. Ten years afterward a farmer, who had taken + up a claim in what is now Rush County, Kansas, discovered in a ravine on + his place the bones of some animals, decayed parts of harness, and the + remains of three army-wagons, which with other evidence proved them to be + the identical ones lost from the train so many years before. + </p> + <p> + The largest six-mule wagon-train that was ever strung out on the plains + transported the supplies for General Custer's command during the winter + above referred to. It comprised over eight hundred army-wagons, and was + four miles in length in one column, or one mile when in four lines—the + usual formation when in the field. + </p> + <p> + The animals of the train were either hobbled or herded at night, according + to the locality; if in an Indian country, always hobbled or, preferably, + tied up to the tongue of the wagon to which they belonged. The hobble is + simply a strip of rawhide, with two slides of the same material. Placed on + the front legs of the mule just at the fetlock, the slides pushed close to + the limb, the animal could move around freely enough to graze, but was not + able to travel very fast in the event of a stampede. In the Indian + country, it was usual at night, or in the daytime when halting to feed, to + form a corral of the wagons, by placing them in a circle, the wheels + interlocked and the tongues run under the axles, into which circle the + mules, on the appearance of the savages, were driven, and which also made + a sort of fortress behind which the teamsters could more effectually repel + an attack. + </p> + <p> + In the earlier trading expeditions to Santa Fe, the formation and march of + the caravan differed materially from that of the army-train in later + years. I here quote Gregg, whose authority on the subject has never been + questioned. When all was ready to move out on the broad sea of prairie, he + said: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + We held a council, at which the respective claims of the + different aspirants for office were considered, leaders + selected, and a system of government agreed upon—as is + the standing custom of these promiscuous caravans. + A captain was proclaimed elected, but his powers were not + defined by any constitutional provision; consequently, + they were very vague and uncertain. Orders being only + viewed as mere requests, they are often obeyed or neglected + at the caprice of the subordinates. It is necessary to + observe, however, that the captain is expected to direct + the order of travel during the day and to designate the + camping-ground at night, with many other functions of + general character, in the exercise of which the company + find it convenient to acquiesce. + + After this comes the task of organizing. The proprietors + are first notified by proclamation to furnish a list of + their men and wagons. The latter are generally apportioned + into four divisions, particularly when the company is large. + To each of these divisions, a lieutenant is appointed, + whose duty it is to inspect every ravine and creek on the + route, select the best crossings, and superintend what is + called in prairie parlance the forming of each encampment. + + There is nothing so much dreaded by inexperienced travellers + as the ordeal of guard duty. But no matter what the + condition or employment of the individual may be, no one + has the slightest chance of evading the common law of + the prairies. The amateur tourist and the listless loafer + are precisely in the same wholesome predicament—they must + all take their regular turn at the watch. There is usually + a set of genteel idlers attached to every caravan, whose + wits are forever at work in devising schemes for whiling + away their irksome hours at the expense of others. + By embarking in these trips of pleasure, they are enabled + to live without expense; for the hospitable traders seldom + refuse to accommodate even a loafing companion with a berth + at their mess without charge. But these lounging attaches + are expected at least to do good service by way of guard + duty. None are ever permitted to furnish a substitute, + as is frequently done in military expeditions; for he that + would undertake to stand the tour of another besides + his own would scarcely be watchful enough for dangers + of the prairies. Even the invalid must be able to produce + unequivocal proofs of his inability, or it is a chance + if the plea is admitted. + + The usual number of watchers is eight, each standing a + fourth of every alternate night. When the party is small, + the number is generally reduced, while in the case of + very small bands, they are sometimes compelled for safety's + sake to keep watch on duty half the night. With large + caravans the captain usually appoints eight sergeants + of the guard, each of whom takes an equal portion of men + under his command. + + The wild and motley aspect of the caravan can be but + imperfectly conceived without an idea of the costumes of + its various members. The most fashionable prairie dress + is the fustian frock of the city-bred merchant, furnished + with a multitude of pockets capable of accommodating a + variety of extra tackling. Then there is the backwoodsman + with his linsey or leather hunting-shirt—the farmer with + his blue jean coat—the wagoner with his flannel sleeve + vest—besides an assortment of other costumes which go + to fill up the picture. + + In the article of firearms there is also an equally + interesting medley. The frontier hunter sticks to his + rifle, as nothing could induce him to carry what he terms + in derision "the scatter-gun." The sportsman from the + interior flourishes his double-barrelled fowling-piece + with equal confidence in its superiority. A great many + were furnished beside with a bountiful supply of pistols + and knives of every description, so that the party made + altogether a very brigand-like appearance. + + "Catch up! Catch up!" is now sounded from the captain's + camp and echoed from every division and scattered group + along the valley. The woods and dales resound with the + gleeful yells of the light-hearted wagoners who, weary of + inaction and filled with joy at the prospect of getting + under way, become clamorous in the extreme. Each teamster + vies with his fellow who shall be soonest ready; and it + is a matter of boastful pride to be the first to cry out, + "All's set." + + The uproarious bustle which follows, the hallooing of those + in pursuit of animals, the exclamations which the unruly + brutes call forth from their wrathful drivers, together + with the clatter of bells, the rattle of yokes and harness, + the jingle of chains, all conspire to produce an uproarious + confusion. It is sometimes amusing to observe the athletic + wagoner hurrying an animal to its post—to see him heave + upon the halter of a stubborn mule, while the brute as + obstinately sets back, determined not to move a peg till + his own good pleasure thinks it proper to do so—his whole + manner seeming to say, "Wait till your hurry's over." + I have more than once seen a driver hitch a harnessed animal + to the halter, and by that process haul his mulishness + forward, while each of his four projected feet would leave + a furrow behind. + + "All's set!" is finally heard from some teamster— + "All's set," is directly responded from every quarter. + "Stretch out!" immediately vociferates the captain. + Then the "heps!" to the drivers, the cracking of whips, + the trampling of feet, the occasional creak of wheels, + the rumbling of the wagons, while "Fall in" is heard from + head-quarters, and the train is strung out and in a few + moments has started on its long journey. +</pre> + <p> + With an army-train the discipline was as perfect as that of a garrison. + The wagon-master was under the orders of the commander of the troops which + escorted the caravan, the camps were formed with regard to strategic + principles, sentries walked their beats and were visited by an officer of + the day, as if stationed at a military post. + </p> + <p> + Unquestionably the most expert packer I have known is Chris. Gilson, of + Kansas. In nearly all the expeditions on the great plains and in the + mountains he has been the master-spirit of the pack-trains. General + Sheridan, who knew Gilson long before the war, in Oregon and Washington, + regarded the celebrated packer with more than ordinary friendship. For + many years he was employed by the government at the suggestion of General + Sheridan, to teach the art of packing to the officers and enlisted men at + several military posts in the West. He received a large salary, and for a + long period was stationed at the immense cavalry depot of Fort Riley, in + Kansas. Gilson was also employed by the British army during the Zulu war + in Africa, as chief packer, at a salary of twenty dollars a day. Now, + however, since the railroads have penetrated the once considered + impenetrable fastnesses of the mountains, packing will be relegated to the + lost arts. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. FIGHT WITH COMANCHES. + </h2> + <p> + Early in the spring of 1828, a company of young men residing in the + vicinity of Franklin, Missouri, having heard related by a neighbour who + had recently returned the wonderful story of a passage across the great + plains, and the strange things to be seen in the land of the Greasers, + determined to explore the region for themselves; making the trip in + wagons, an innovation of a startling character, as heretofore only + pack-animals had been employed in the limited trade with far-off Santa Fe. + The story of their journey can best be told in the words of one of the + party:<a href="#linknote-19" name="linknoteref-19" id="linknoteref-19"><small>19</small></a>— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + We had about one thousand miles to travel, and as there was + no wagon-road in those early days across the plains to the + mountains, we were compelled to take our chances through + the vast wilderness, seeking the best route we could. + + No signs of life were visible except the innumerable buffalo + and antelope that were constantly crossing our trail. + We moved on slowly from day to day without any incident + worth recording and arrived at the Arkansas; made the + passage and entered the Great American Desert lying beyond, + as listless, lonesome, and noiseless as a sleeping sea. + Having neglected to carry any water with us, we were obliged + to go withot a drop for two days and nights after leaving + the river. At last we reached the Cimarron, a cool, + sparkling stream, ourselves and our animals on the point + of perishing. Our joy at discovering it, however, was + short-lived. We had scarcely quenched our thirst when + we saw, to our dismay, a large band of Indians camped on + its banks. Their furtive glances at us, and significant + looks at each other, aroused our worst suspicions, and + we instinctively felt we were not to get away without + serious trouble. Contrary to our expectations, however, + they did not offer to molest us, and we at once made up + our minds they preferred to wait for our return, as we + believed they had somehow learned of our intention to bring + back from New Mexico a large herd of mules and ponies. + + We arrived in Santa Fe on the 20th of July, without further + adventure, and after having our stock of goods passed + through the custom house, were granted the privilege of + selling them. The majority of the party sold out in a + very short time and started on their road to the States, + leaving twenty-one of us behind to return later. + + On the first day of September, those of us who had remained + in Santa Fe commenced our homeward journey. We started + with one hundred and fifty mules and horses, four wagons, + and a large amount of silver coin. Nothing of an eventful + character occurred until we arrived at the Upper Cimarron + Springs, where we intended to encamp for the night. + But our anticipations of peaceable repose were rudely + dispelled; for when we rode up on the summit of the hill, + the sight that met our eyes was appalling enough to excite + the gravest apprehensions. It was a large camp of + Comanches, evidently there for the purpose of robbery + and murder. We could neither turn back nor go on either + side of them on account of the mountainous character of + the country, and we realized, when too late, that we were + in a trap. + + There was only one road open to us; that right through + the camp. Assuming the bravest look possible, and keeping + our rifles in position for immediate action, we started + on the perilous venture. The chief met us with a smile + of welcome, and said, in Spanish: "You must stay with us + to-night. Our young men will guard your stock, and we have + plenty of buffalo meat." + + Realizing the danger of our situation, we took advantage + of every moment of time to hurry through their camp. + Captain Means, Ellison, and myself were a little distance + behind the wagons, on horseback; observing that the balance + of our men were evading them, the blood-thirsty savages + at once threw off their masks of dissimulation and in an + instant we knew the time for a struggle had arrived. + + The Indians, as we rode on, seized our bridle-reins and + began to fire upon us. Ellison and I put spurs to our + horses and got away, but Captain Means, a brave man, + was ruthlessly shot and cruelly scalped while the life-blood + was pouring from his ghastly wounds. + + We succeeded in fighting them off until we had left their + camp half a mile behind, and as darkness had settled down + on us, we decided to go into camp ourselves. We tied our + gray bell-mare to a stake, and went out and jingled the + bell, whenever any of us could do so, thus keeping the + animals from stampeding. We corralled our wagons for + better protection, and the Indians kept us busy all night + resisting their furious charges. We all knew that death + at our posts would be infinitely preferable to falling + into their hands; so we resolved to sell our lives as + dearly as possible. + + The next day we made but five miles; it was a continuous + fight, and a very difficult matter to prevent their + capturing us. This annoyance was kept up for four days; + they would surround us, then let up as if taking time to + renew their strength, to suddenly charge upon us again, + and they continued thus to harass us until we were almost + exhausted from loss of sleep. + + After leaving the Cimarron, we once more emerged on the + open plains and flattered ourselves we were well rid of + the savages; but about twelve o'clock they came down on us + again, uttering their demoniacal yells, which frightened + our horses and mules so terribly, that we lost every hoof. + A member of our party, named Hitt, in endeavouring to + recapture some of the stolen stock, was taken by the + savages, but luckily escaped from their clutches, after + having been wounded in sixteen parts of his body; + he was shot, tomahawked, and speared. When the painted + demons saw that one of their number had been killed by us, + they left the field for a time, while we, taking advantage + of the temporary lull, went back to our wagons and built + breastworks of them, the harness, and saddles. From noon + until two hours in the night, when the moon went down, + the savages were apparently confident we would soon fall + a prey to them, and they made charge after charge upon + our rude fortifications. + + Darkness was now upon us. There were two alternatives + before us: should we resolve to die where we were, or + attempt to escape in the black hours of the night? + It was a desperate situation. Our little band looked + the matter squarely in the face, and, after a council + of war had been held, we determined to escape, if possible. + + In order to carry out our resolve, it was necessary to + abandon the wagons, together with a large amount of silver + coin, as it would be impossible to take all of the precious + stuff with us in our flight; so we packed up as much of it + as we could carry, and, bidding our hard-earned wealth + a reluctant farewell, stepped out in the darkness like + spectres and hurried away from the scene of death. + + Our proper course was easterly, but we went in a northerly + direction in order to avoid the Indians. We travelled + all that night, the next day, and a portion of its night + until we reached the Arkansas River, and, having eaten + nothing during that whole time excepting a few prickly-pears, + were beginning to feel weak from the weight of our burdens + and exhaustion. At this point we decided to lighten + our loads by burying all of the money we had carried + thus far, keeping only a small sum for each man. + Proceeding to a small island in the river, our treasure, + amounting to over ten thousand silver dollars, was cached + in the ground between two cottonwood trees. + + Believing now that we were out of the usual range of + the predatory Indians, we shot a buffalo and an antelope + which we cooked and ate without salt or bread; but no meal + has ever tasted better to me than that one. + + We continued our journey northward for three or four days + more, when, reaching Pawnee Fork, we travelled down it for + more than a week, arriving again on the Old Santa Fe Trail. + Following the Trail three days, we arrived at Walnut Creek, + then left the river again and went eastwardly to Cow Creek. + When we reached that point, we had become so completely + exhausted and worn out from subsisting on buffalo meat + alone, that it seemed as if there was nothing left for + us to do but lie down and die. Finally it was determined + to send five of the best-preserved men on ahead to + Independence, two hundred miles, for the purpose of + procuring assistance; the other fifteen to get along + as well as they could until succour reached them. + + I was one of the five selected to go on in advance, and + I shall never forget the terrible suffering we endured. + We had no blankets, and it was getting late in the fall. + Some of us were entirely barefooted, and our feet so sore + that we left stains of blood at every step. Deafness, too, + seized upon us so intensely, occasioned by our weak + condition, that we coud not hear the report of a gun fired + at a distance of only a few feet. + + At one place two of our men laid down their arms, declaring + they could carry them no farther, and would die if they + did not get water. We left them and went in search of some. + After following a dry branch several miles, we found + a muddy puddle from which we succeeded in getting half + a bucket full, and, although black and thick, it was life + for us and we guarded it with jealous eyes. We returned + to our comrades about daylight, and the water so refreshed + them they were able to resume the weary march. We travelled + on until we arrived at the Big Blue River, in Missouri, + on the bank of which we discovered a cabin about fifteen + miles from Independence. The occupants of the rude shanty + were women, seemingly very poor, but they freely offered us + a pot of pumpkin they were stewing. When they first saw us, + they were terribly frightened, because we looked more like + skeletons than living beings. They jumped on the bed while + we were greedily devouring the pumpkin, but we had to + refuse some salt meat which they had also proffered, + as our teeth were too sore to eat it. In a short time + two men came to the cabin and took three of our men + home with them. We had subsisted for eleven days on + one turkey, a coon, a crow, and some elm bark, with an + occasional bunch of wild grapes, and the pictures we + presented to these good people they will never, probably, + forget; we had not tasted bread or salt for thirty-two days. + + The next day our newly found friends secured horses and + guided us to Independence, all riding without saddles. + One of the party had gone on to notify the citizens of + our safety, and when we arrived general muster was going on, + the town was crowded, and when the people looked upon us + the most intense excitement prevailed. All business was + suspended; the entire population flocked around us to hear + the remarkable story of our adventures, and to render us + the assistance we so much needed. We were half-naked, + foot-sore, and haggard, presenting such a pitiable picture + that the greatest sympathy was immediately aroused in + our behalf. + + We then said that behind us on the Trail somewhere, fifteen + comrades were struggling toward Independence, or were + already dead from their sufferings. In a very few minutes + seven men with fifteen horses started out to rescue them. + + They were gone from Independence several days, but had the + good fortune to find all the men just in time to save them + from starvation and exhaustion. Two were discovered + a hundred miles from Independence, and the remainder + scattered along the Trail fifty miles further in their rear. + Not more than two of the unfortunate party were together. + The humane rescuers seemingly brought back nothing but + living skeletons wrapped in rags; but the good people of + the place vied with each other in their attentions, and + under their watchful care the sufferers rapidly recuperated. + + One would suppose that we had had enough of the great plains + after our first trip; not so, however, for in the spring + we started again on the same journey. Major Riley, with + four companies of regular soldiers, was detailed to escort + the Santa Fe traders' caravans to the boundary line between + the United States and Mexico, and we went along to recover + the money we had buried, the command having been ordered to + remain in camp to await our return until the 20th of October. + + We left Fort Leavenworth about the 10th of May, and were + soon again on the plains. Many of the troops had never + seen any buffalo before, and found great sport in wantonly + slaughtering them. At Walnut Creek we halted to secure + a cannon which had been thrown into that stream two seasons + previously, and succeeded in dragging it out. With a seine + made of brush and grape vine, we caught more fine fish than + we could possibly dispose of. One morning the camp was + thrown into the greatest state of excitement by a band of + Indians running an enormous herd of buffalo right into us. + The troops fired at them by platoons, killing hundreds + of them. + + We marched in two columns, and formed a hollow square + at night when we camped, in which all slept excepting + those on guard duty. Frequently some one would discover + a rattlesnake or a horned toad in bed with him, and it + did not take him a very long time to crawl out of his + blankets! + + On the 10th of July, we arrived at the dividing line + separating the two countries, and went into camp. The next + day Major Riley sent a squad of soldiers to escort myself + and another of our old party, who had helped bury the + ten thousand dollars, to find it. It was a few miles + further up the Arkansas than our camp, in the Mexican + limits, and when we reached the memorable spot on the + island,<a href="#linknote-20" name="linknoteref-20" id="linknoteref-20">20</a> we found the coin safe, but the water had + washed the earth away, and the silver was exposed to view + to excite the cupidity of any one passing that way; + there were not many travellers on that lonely route in + those days, however, and it would have been just as secure, + probably, had we simply poured it on the ground. + + We put the money in sacks and deposited it with Major Riley, + and, leaving the camp, started for Santa Fe with Captain + Bent as leader of the traders. We had not proceeded far + when our advanced guard met Indians. They turned, and when + within two hundred yards of us, one man named Samuel Lamme + was killed, his body being completely riddled with arrows. + His head was cut off, and all his clothes stripped from + his body. We had a cannon, but the Mexicans who hauled it + had tied it up in such a way that it could not be utilized + in time to effect anything in the first assault; but when + at last it was turned loose upon the Indians, they fled + in dismay at the terrible noise. + + The troops at the crossing of the Arkansas, hearing the + firing, came to our assistance. The next morning the + hills were covered by fully two thousand Indians, who had + evidently congregated there for the purpose of annihilating + us, and the coming of the soldiers was indeed fortunate; + for as soon as the cowardly savages discovered them + they fled. Major Riley accompanied us on our march for + a few days, and, seeing no more Indians, he returned to + his camp. + + We travelled on for a week, then met a hundred Mexicans + who were out on the plains hunting buffalo. They had + killed a great many and were drying the meat. We waited + until they were ready to return and then all started for + Santa Fe together. + + At Rabbit-Ear Mountain the Indians had constructed + breastworks in the brush, intending to fight it out there. + The Mexicans were in the advance and had one of their + number killed before discovering the enemy. We passed + Point of Rocks and camped on the river. One of the + Mexicans went out hunting and shot a huge panther; + next morning he asked a companion to go with him and help + skin the animal. They saw the Indians in the brush, and + the one who had killed the panther said to the other, + "Now for the mountains"; but his comrade retreated, + and was despatched by the savages almost within reach + of the column. + + We now decided to change our destination, intending to go + to Taos instead of Santa Fe, but the governor of the + Province sent out troops to stop us, as Taos was not a + place of entry. The soldiers remained with us a whole week, + until we arrived at Santa Fe, where we disposed of our goods + and soon began to make preparations for our return trip. + + When we were ready to start back, seven priests and a + number of wealthy families, comfortably fixed in carriages, + accompanied us. The Mexican government ordered Colonel + Viscarra of the army, with five troops of cavalry, + to guard us to the camp of Major Riley. + + We experienced no trouble until we arrived at the + Cimarron River. About sunset, just as we were preparing + to camp for the night, the sentinels saw a body of a + hundred Indians approaching; they fired at them and ran + to camp. Knowing they had been discovered, the Indians + came on and made friendly overtures; but the Pueblos who + who were with the command of Colonel Viscarra wanted to + fight them at once, saying the fellows meant mischief. + We declined to camp with them unless they would agree to + give up their arms; they pretended they were willing to + do so, when one of them put his gun at the breast of our + interpreter and pulled the trigger. In an instant a bloody + scene ensued; several of Viscarra's men were killed, + together with a number of mules. Finally the Indians + were whipped and tried to get away, but we chased them + some distance and killed thirty-five. Our friendly Pueblos + were delighted, and proceeded to scalp the savages, + hanging the bloody trophies on the points of their spears. + That night they indulged in a war-dance which lasted + until nearly morning. + + We were delighted to see a beautiful sunshiny day after + the horrors of the preceding night, and continued our march + without farther interruption, safely arriving at the camp + on the boundary line, where Major Riley was waiting for us, + as we supposed; but his time having expired the day before, + he had left for Fort Leavenworth. A courier was despatched + to him, however, as Colonel Viscarra desired to meet the + American commander and see his troops. The courier overtook + Major Riley a short distance away, and he halted for us + to come up. Both commands then went into camp, and spent + several days comparing the discipline of the armies of + the two nations, and having a general good time. + Colonel Viscarra greatly admired our small arms, and + took his leave in a very courteous manner. + + We arrived at Fort Leavenworth late in the season, and + from there we all scattered. I received my share of the + money we had cached on the island, and bade my comrades + farewell, only a few of whom I have ever seen since. +</pre> + <p> + Mr. Hitt in his notes of this same perilous trip says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + When the grass had sufficiently started to insure the + subsistence of our teams, our wagons were loaded with + a miscellaneous assortment of merchandise and the first + trader's caravan of wagons that ever crossed the plains + left Independence. Before we had travelled three weeks + on our journey, we were one evening confronted with the + novel fact of camping in a country where not a stick of + wood could be found. The grass was too green to burn, + and we were wondering how our fire could be started + with which to boil our coffee, or cook our bread. One of + our number, however, while diligently searching for + something to utilize, suddenly discovered scattered all + around him a large quantity of buffalo-chips, and he soon + had an excellent fire under way, his coffee boiling and + his bacon sizzling over the glowing coals. + + We arrived in Santa Fe without incident, and as ours + was the first train of wagons that ever traversed the + narrow streets of the quaint old town, it was, of course, + a great curiosity to the natives. + + After a few days' rest, sight-seeing, and purchasing stock + to replace our own jaded animals, preparations were made + for the return trip. All the money we had received for + our goods was in gold and silver, principally the latter, + in consequence of which, each member of the company had + about as much as he could conveniently manage, and, + as events turned out, much more than he could take care of. + + On the morning of the third day out, when we were not + looking for the least trouble, our entire herd was + stampeded, and we were left upon the prairie without + as much as a single mule to pursue the fast-fleeing + thieves. The Mexicans and Indians had come so suddenly + upon us, and had made such an effective dash, that we + stood like children who had broken their toys on a stone + at their feet. We were so unprepared for such a stampede + that the thieves did not approach within rifle-shot range + of the camp to accomplish their object; few of them + coming within sight, even. + + After the excitement had somewhat subsided and we began + to realize what had been done, it was decided that while + some should remain to guard the camp, others must go to + Santa Fe to see if they could not recover the stock. + The party that went to Santa Fe had no difficulty in + recognizing the stolen animals; but when they claimed them, + they were laughed at by the officials of the place. + They experienced no difficulty, however, in purchasing + the same stock for a small sum, which they at once did, + and hurried back to camp. By this unpleasant episode + we learned of the stealth and treachery of the miserable + people in whose country we were. We, therefore, took every + precaution to prevent a repetition of the affair, and + kept up a vigilant guard night and day. + + Matters progressed very well, and when we had travelled + some three hundred miles eastwardly, thinking we were + out of range of any predatory bands, as we had seen no + sign of any living thing, we relaxed our vigilance somewhat. + One morning, just before dawn, the whole earth seemed to + resound with the most horrible noises that ever greeted + human ears; every blade of grass appeared to re-echo + the horrid din. In a few moments every man was at his post, + rifle in hand, ready for any emergency, and almost + immediately a large band of Indians made their appearance, + riding within rifle-shot of the wagons. A continuous + battle raged for several hours, the savages discharging + a shot, then scampering off out of range as fast as + their ponies could carry them. Some, more brave than + others would venture closer to the corral, and one of these + got the contents of an old-fashioned flint-lock musket + in his bowels. + + We were careful not all to fire at the same time, and + several of our party, who were watching the effects of + our shots declared they could see the dust fly out of + the robes of the Indians as the bullets struck them. + It was learned afterward that a number of the savages + were wounded, and that several had died. Many were armed + with bows and arrows only, and in order to do any execution + were obliged to come near the corral. The Indians soon + discovered they were getting the worst of the fight, and, + having run off all the stock, abandoned the conflict, + leaving us in possession of the camp, but it can hardly + be said masters of the situation. + + There we were; thirty-five pioneers upon the wild prairie, + surrounded by a wily and terribly cruel foe, without + transportation of any character but our own legs, and with + five hundred miles of dangerous, trackless waste between + us and the settlements. We had an abundance of money, + but the stuff was absolutely worthless for the present, + as there was nothing we could buy with it. + + After the last savage had ridden away into the sand hills + on the opposite side of the river, each one of us had a + thrilling story to relate of his individual narrow escapes. + Though none was killed, many received wounds, the scars + of which they carried through life. I was wounded six + times. Once was in the thigh by an arrow, and once while + loading my rifle I had my ramrod shot off close to the + muzzle of my piece, the ball just grazing my shoulder, + tearing away a small portion of the skin. Others had + equally curious experiences, but none were seriously injured. + + After the excitement incident to the battle had subsided, + the realization of our condition fully dawned upon us. + When we were first robbed, we were only a short distance + from Santa Fe, where our money easily procured other stock; + now there were three hundred miles behind us to that place, + and the picture was anything but pleasant to contemplate. + To transport supplies for thirty-five men seemed impossible. + Our money was now a burden greater than we could bear; + what was to be done with it? We would have no use for it + on our way to the settlements, yet the idea of abandoning + it seemed hard to accept. A vigilant guard was kept up + that day and night, during which time we all remained + in camp, fearing a renewal of the attack. + + The next morning, as there were no apparent signs of + the Indians, it was decided to reconnoitre the surrounding + country in the hope of recovering a portion, at least, + of our lost stock, which we thought might have become + separated from the main herd. Three men were detailed + to stay in the old camp to guard it while the remainder, + in squads, scoured the hills and ravines. Not a horse + or mule was visible anywhere; the stampede had been + complete—not even the direction the animals had taken + could be discovered. + + It was late in the afternoon when I, having left my + companions to continue the search and returning to camp + alone, had gotten within a mile of it, that I thought I saw + a horse feeding upon an adjoining hill. I at once turned + my steps in that direction, and had proceeded but a short + distance when three Indians jumped from their ambush in + the grass between me and the wagons and ran after me. + The men in camp had been watching my every movement, + and as soon as they saw the savages were chasing me, + they started in pursuit, running at their greatest speed + to my rescue. + + The savages soon overtook me, and the first one that + came up tackled me, but in an instant found himself flat + on the ground. Before he could get up, the second one + shared the same fate. By this time the third one arrived, + and the two I had thrown grabbed me by the legs so that + I could no longer handle myself, while the third one had + a comparatively easy task in pushing me over. Fortunately, + my head fell toward the camp and my fast-approaching + comrades. The two Indians held my legs to prevent my + rising, while the third one, who was standing over me, + drew from his belt a tomahawk, and shrugging his head + in his blanket, at the same time looking over his shoulder + at my friends, with a tremendous effort and that peculiar + grunt of all savages, plunged his hatchet, as he supposed, + into my head, but instead of scuffling to free myself + and rise to my feet, I merely turned my head to one side + and the wicked weapon was buried in the ground, just + grazing my ear. + + The Indian, seeing that he had missed, raised his hatchet + and once more shrugging his head in his blanket, and + turning to look over his other shoulder, attempted to + strike again, but the blow was evaded by a sudden toss + of his intended victim's head. Not satisfied with two + abortive trials, the third attempt must be made to brain me, + and repeating the same motions, with a great "Ugh!" he + seemed to put all his strength into the blow, which, like + the others, missed, and spent its force in the earth. + By this time the rescuing party had come near enough to + prevent the savage from risking another effort, and he then + addressed the other Indians in Spanish, which I understood, + saying, "We must run or the Americans will kill us!" + and loosening his grasp, he scampered off with his + companions as fast as his legs could take him, hurried on + by several pieces of lead fired from the old flintlocks + of the traders. + + By sundown every man had returned to the forlorn camp, + but not an animal had been recovered. Then, with tired + limbs and weary hearts, we took turns at guarding the + wagons through the long night. The next morning each man + shouldered his rifle, and having had his proportion of + the provisions and cooking utensils assigned him, + we broke camp, and again turned to take a last look at + the country behind us, in which we had experienced so much + misfortune, and started on foot for our long march through + the dangerous region ahead of us. + + Scarcely had we gotten out of sight of our abandoned camp, + when one of the party, happening to turn his eyes in that + direction, saw a large volume of smoke rising in the + vicinity; then we knew that all of our wagons, and + everything we had been forced to leave, were burning up. + This proved that, although we had been unable to discover + any signs of Indians, they had been lurking around us + all the time, and this fact warned us to exercise the + utmost vigilance in guarding our persons. + + Though our burdens were very heavy, the first few days + were passed without anything to relieve the dreadful + monotony of our wearisome march; but each succeeding + twenty-four hours our loads became visibly lighter, + as our supplies were rapidly diminishing. It had already + become apparent that even in the exercise of the greatest + frugality, our stock of provisions would not last until + we could reach the settlements, so some of the most expert + shots were selected to hunt for game; but even in this + they were not successful, the very birds seeming to have + abandoned the country in its extreme desolation. + + After eight days' travel, despite our most rigid economy, + an inventory showed that there was less than one hundred + pounds of flour left. Day after day the hunters repeated + the same old story: "No game!" For two weeks the allowance + of flour to each individual was but a spoonful, stirred + in water and taken three times a day. + + One afternoon, however, fortune smiled upon the weary party; + one of the hunters returned to camp with a turkey he had + killed. It was soon broiling over a fire which willing + hands had kindled, and our drooping spirits were revived + for a while. While the turkey was cooking, a crow flew + over the camp, and one of the company, seizing a gun, + despatched it, and in a few moments it, too, was sizzling + along with the other bird. + + Now, in addition to the pangs of hunger, a scarcity of + water confronted us, and one day we were compelled to + resort to a buffalo-wallow and suck the moist clay where + the huge animals had been stamping in the mud. We were + much reduced in strength, yet each day added new + difficulties to our forlorn situation. Some became so weak + and exhausted that it was with the greatest effort they + could travel at all. To divide the company and leave + the more feeble behind to starve, or to be murdered by + the merciless savages, was not considered for a moment; + but one alternative remained, and that was speedily accepted. + As soon as a convenient camping-ground could be found, + a halt was made, shelter established, and things made as + comfortable as possible. Here the weakest remained to rest, + while some of the strongest scoured the surrounding country + in search of game. During this temporary halt the hunters + were more successful than before, having killed two + buffaloes, besides some smaller animals, in one morning. + Again the natural dry fuel of the prairies was called + into requisition, and juicy steak was once more broiling + over the fire. + + With an abundance to eat and a few days' rest, the whole + company revived and were enabled to renew their march + homeward. We were now in the buffalo range, and every day + the hunters were fortunate enough to kill one or more of + the immense animals, thus keeping our larder in excellent + condition, and starvation averted. + + Doubting whether our good fortune in relation to food + would continue for the remainder of our march, and our + money becoming very cumbersome, it was decided by a majority + that at the first good place we came to we would bury it + and risk its being stolen by our enemies. When not more + than half of our journey had been accomplished, we came + to an island in the river to which we waded, and there, + between two large trees, dug a hole and deposited our + treasure. We replaced the sod over the spot, taking the + utmost precaution to conceal every sign of having disturbed + the ground. Though no Indians had been seen for several + days, a sharp lookout was kept in all directions for fear + that some lurking savage might have been watching our + movements. This task finished, with much lighter burdens, + but more anxious than ever, we again took up our march + eastwardly, and, thus relieved, were able to carry a + greater quantity of provisions. + + Having journeyed until we supposed we were within a few + miles of the settlements, some of our number, scarcely able + to travel, thought the best course to pursue would be to + divide the company; one portion to press on, the weaker + ones to proceed by easier stages, and when the advance + arrived at the settlements, they were to send back a relief + for those plodding on wearily behind them. Soon a few + who were stronger than the others reached Independence, + Missouri, and immediately sent a party with horses to + bring in their comrades; so, at last, all got safely to + their homes. +</pre> + <p> + In the spring of 1829, Major Bennett Riley of the United States army was + ordered with four companies of the Sixth Regular Infantry to march out on + the Trail as the first military escort ever sent for the protection of the + caravans of traders going and returning between Western Missouri and Santa + Fe. Captain Philip St. George Cooke, of the Dragoons, accompanied the + command, and kept a faithful journal of the trip, from which, and the + official report of Major Riley to the Secretary of War, I have + interpolated here copious extracts. + </p> + <p> + The journal of Captain Cooke states that the battalion marched from Fort + Leavenworth, which was then called a cantonment, and, strange to say, had + been abandoned by the Third Infantry on account of its unhealthiness. It + was the 5th of June that Riley crossed the Missouri at the cantonment, and + recrossed the river again at a point a little above Independence, in order + to avoid the Kaw, or Kansas, which had no ferry. + </p> + <p> + After five days' marching, the command arrived at Round Grove, where the + caravan had been ordered to rendezvous and wait for the escort. The number + of traders aggregated about seventy-nine men, and their train consisted of + thirty-eight wagons drawn by mules and horses, the former preponderating. + Five days' marching, at an average of fifteen miles a day, brought them to + Council Grove. Leaving the Grove, in a short time Cow Creek was reached, + which at that date abounded in fish; many of which, says the journal, + "weighed several pounds, and were caught as fast as the line could be + handled." The captain does not describe the variety to which he refers; + probably they were the buffalo—a species of sucker, to be found + to-day in every considerable stream in Kansas. + </p> + <p> + Having reached the Upper Valley,<a href="#linknote-21" + name="linknoteref-21" id="linknoteref-21"><small>21</small></a> bordered + by high sand hills, the journal continues: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + From the tops of the hills, we saw far away, in almost + every direction, mile after mile of prairie, blackened + with buffalo. One morning, when our march was along the + natural meadows by the river, we passed through them for + miles; they opened in front and closed continually in + the rear, preserving a distance scarcely over three hundred + paces. On one occasion, a bull had approached within + two hundred yards without seeing us, until he ascended + the river bank; he stood a moment shaking his head, and + then made a charge at the column. Several officers + stepped out and fired at him, two or three dogs also rushed + to meet him; but right onward he came, snorting blood + from mouth and nostril at every leap, and, with the speed + of a horse and the momentum of a locomotive, dashed + between two wagons, which the frightened oxen nearly upset; + the dogs were at his heels and soon he came to bay, and, + with tail erect, kicked violently for a moment, and then + sank in death—the muscles retaining the dying rigidity + of tension. +</pre> + <p> + About the middle of July, the command arrived at its destination—Chouteau's + Island, then on the boundary line between the United States and New + Mexico. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Our orders were to march no further; and, as a protection + to the trade, it was like the establishment of a ferry + to the mid-channel of a river. + + Up to this time, traders had always used mules or horses. + Our oxen were an experiment, and it succeeded admirably; + they even did better when water was very scarce, which is + an important consideration. + + A few hours after the departure of the trading company, + as we enjoyed a quiet rest on a hot afternoon, we saw + beyond the river a number of horsemen riding furiously + toward our camp. We all flocked out of the tents to hear + the news, for they were soon recognized as traders. + They stated that the caravan had been attacked, about + six miles off in the sand hills, by an innumerable host + of Indians; that some of their companions had been killed; + and they had run, of course, for help. There was not a + moment's hesitation; the word was given, and the tents + vanished as if by magic. The oxen which were grazing + near by were speedily yoked to the wagons, and into the + river we marched. Then I deemed myself the most unlucky + of men; a day or two before, while eating my breakfast, + with my coffee in a tin cup—notorious among chemists and + campaigners for keeping it hot—it was upset into my shoe, + and on pulling off the stocking, it so happened that the + skin came with it. Being thus hors de combat, I sought to + enter the combat on a horse, which was allowed; but I was + put in command of the rear guard to bring up the baggage + train. It grew late, and the wagons crossed slowly; + for the river unluckily took that particular time to + rise fast, and, before all were over, we had to swim it, + and by moonlight. We reached the encampment at one o'clock + at night. All was quiet, and remained so until dawn, + when, at the sound of our bugles, the pickets reported + they saw a number of Indians moving off. On looking + around us, we perceived ourselves and the caravan in the + most unfavorable defenceless situation possible—in the + area of a natural amphitheatre of sand hills, about fifty + feet high, and within gun-shot all around. There was + the narrowest practicable entrance and outlet. + + We ascertained that some mounted traders, in spite of all + remonstrance and command, had ridden on in advance, and + when in the narrow pass beyond this spot, had been suddenly + beset by about fifty Indians; all fled and escaped save one, + who, mounted on a mule, was abandoned by his companions, + overtaken, and slain. The Indians, perhaps, equalled the + traders in number, but notwithstanding their extraordinary + advantage of ground, dared not attack them when they + made a stand among their wagons; and the latter, all well + armed, were afraid to make a single charge, which would + have scattered their enemies like sheep. + + Having buried the poor fellow's body, and killed an ox for + breakfast, we left this sand hollow, which would soon have + been roasting hot, and advancing through the defile—of + which we took care to occupy the commanding ground— + proceeded to escort the traders at least one day's march + further. + + When the next morning broke clear and cloudless, the command + was confronted by one of those terrible hot winds, still + frequent on the plains. The oxen with lolling tongues + were incapable of going on; the train was halted, and the + suffering animals unyoked, but they stood motionless, + making no attempt to graze. Late that afternoon, the + caravan pushed on for about ten miles, where was the + sandy bed of a dry creek, and fortunately, not far from + the Trail, up the stream, a pool of water and an acre + or two of grass was discovered. On the surface of the + water floated thick the dead bodies of small fish, which + the intense heat of the sun that day had killed. + + Arriving at this point, it was determined to march no + further into the Mexican territory. At the first light + next day we were in motion to return to the river and + the American line, and no further adventure befell us. +</pre> + <p> + While permanently encamped at Chouteau's Island, which is situated in the + Arkansas River, the term of enlistment of four of the soldiers of Captain + Cooke's command expired, and they were discharged. In his journal he says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Contrary to all advice they determined to return to + Missouri. After having marched several hundred miles + over a prairie country, being often on high hills + commanding a vast prospect, without seeing a human being + or a sign of one, and, save the trail we followed, not + the slightest indication that the country had ever been + visited by man, it was exceedingly difficult to credit + that lurking foes were around us, and spying our motions. + It was so with these men; and being armed, they set out + on the first of August on foot for the settlements. + That same night three of the four returned. They reported + that, after walking about fifteen miles, they were + surrounded by thirty mounted Indians. A wary old soldier + of their number succeeded in extricating them before any + hostile act had been committed; but one of them, highly + elated and pleased at their forbearance, insisted on + returning among them to give them tobacco and shake hands. + In this friendly act he was shot down. The Indians + stripped him in an incredibly short time, and as quickly + dispersed to avoid a shot; and the old soldier, after + cautioning the others to reserve their fire, fired among + them, and probably with some effect. Had the others done + the same, the Indians would have rushed upon them before + they could have reloaded. They managed to make good + their retreat in safety to our camp. + + We were instructed to wait here for the return of the + caravan, which was expected early in October. + Our provisions consisted of salt and half rations of flour, + besides a reserve of fifteen days' full rations—as to the + rest, we were dependent upon hunting. When the buffalo + became scarce, or the grass bad, we marched to other + ground, thus roving up and down the river for eighty + miles. The first thing we did after camping was to dig + and construct, with flour barrels, a well in front of + each company; water was always found at the depth of + from two to four feet varying with the corresponding + height of the river, but clear and cool. Next we would + build sod fire-places; these, with network platforms of + buffalo hide, used for smoking and drying meat, formed a + tolerable additional defence, at least against mounted men. + + Hunting was a military duty, done by detail, parties of + fifteen or twenty going out with a wagon. Completely + isolated, and beyond support or even communication, + in the midst of many thousands of Indians, the utmost + vigilance was maintained. Officer of the guard every + fourth night; I was always awake and generally in motion + the whole time of duty. Night alarms were frequent; when, + as we all slept in our clothes, we were accustomed to + assemble instantly, and with scarcely a word spoken, + take our places in the grass in front of each face of + the camp, where, however wet, we sometimes lay for hours. + + While encamped a few miles below Chouteau's Island, on the + eleventh of August, an alarm was given, and we were under + arms for an hour until daylight. During the morning, + Indians were seen a mile or two off, leading their horses + through the ravines. A captain, however, with eighteen + men was sent across the river after buffalo, which we saw + half a mile distant. In his absence, a large body of + Indians came galloping down the river, as if to charge + the camp, but the cattle were secured in good time. + A company, of which I was lieutenant, was ordered to + cross the river and support the first. We waded in some + disorder through the quicksands and current, and just + as we neared a dry sandbar in the middle, a volley was + fired at us by a band of Indians, who that moment rode + to the water's edge. The balls whistled very near, + but without damage; I felt an involuntary twitch of + the neck, and wishing to return the compliment instantly, + I stooped down, and the company fired over my head, + with what execution was not perceived, as the Indians + immediately retired out of our view. This had passed + in half a minute, and we were astonished to see, a little + above, among some bushes on the same bar, the party we had + been sent to support, and we heard that they had abandoned + one of the hunters, who had been killed. We then saw, + on the bank we had just left, a formidable body of the + enemy in close order, and hoping to surprise them, + we ascended the bed of the river. In crossing the channel + we were up to the arm-pits, but when we emerged on the + bank, we found that the Indians had detected the movement, + and retreated. Casting eyes beyond the river, I saw a + number of the Indians riding on both sides of a wagon + and team which had been deserted, urging the animals + rapidly toward the hills. At this juncture the adjutant + sent an order to cross and recover the body of the slain + hunter, who was an old soldier and a favourite. He was + brought in with an arrow still transfixing his breast, + but his scalp was gone. + + On the fourteenth of October, we again marched on our + return. Soon after, we saw smokes arise over the distant + hills; evidently signals, indicating to different parties + of Indians our separation and march, but whether preparatory + to an attack upon the Mexicans or ourselves, or rather + our immense drove of animals, we could only guess. + + Our march was constantly attended by great collections + of buffalo, which seemed to have a general muster, perhaps + for migration. Sometimes a hundred or two—a fragment + from the multitude—would approach within two or three + hundred yards of the column, and threaten a charge which + would have proved disastrous to the mules and their drivers. + + Under the friendly cover of the shades of evening, on the + eighth of November, our tatterdemalion veterans marched + into Fort Leavenworth, and took quiet possession of the + miserable huts and sheds left by the Third Infantry in + the preceding May. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY. + </h2> + <p> + As early as November, 1842, a rumour was current in Santa Fe, and along + the line of the Trail, that parties of Texans had left the Republic for + the purpose of attacking and robbing the caravans to the United States + which were owned wholly by Mexicans. In consequence of this, several + Americans were accused of being spies and acting in collusion with the + Texans; many were arrested and carried to Santa Fe, but nothing could be + proved against them, and the rumours of the intended purposes of the + Texans died out. + </p> + <p> + Very early in May, however, of the following year, 1843, a certain Colonel + Snively did organize a small force, comprising about two hundred men, + which he led from Northern Texas, his home, to the line of the Trail, with + the intention of attacking and robbing the Mexican caravans which were + expected to cross the plains that month and in June. + </p> + <p> + When he arrived at the Arkansas River, he was there reinforced by another + Texan colonel, named Warfield with another small command. Gregg says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + This officer, with about twenty men, had some time + previously attacked the village of Mora, on the Mexican + frontier, killing five men, and driving off a number + of horses. They were afterward followed by a party of + Mexicans, however, who stampeded and carried away, not only + their own horses, but those of the Texans. Being left + afoot, the latter burned their saddles, and walked to + Bent's Fort, where they were disbanded; whence Warfield + passed to Snively's camp, as before mentioned. + + The Texans now advanced along the Santa Fe Trail, beyond + the sand hills south of the Arkansas, when they discovered + that a party of Mexicans had passed toward the river. + They soon came upon them, and a skirmish ensuing, eighteen + Mexicans were killed, and as many wounded, five of whom + afterward died. The Texans suffered no injury, though + the Mexicans were a hundred in number. The rest were all + taken prisoners except two, who escaped and bore the news + to General Armijo, who was encamped with a large force + at Cold Spring, one hundred and forty miles beyond. +</pre> + <p> + Kit Carson figured conspicuously in this fight, or, rather, immediately + afterward. His recital differs somewhat from Gregg's account, but the + stories substantially agree. Kit said that in April, previously to the + assault upon Armijo's caravan, he had hired out as hunter to Bent's and + Colonel St. Vrain's train caravan, which was then making its annual tour + eastwardly. When he arrived at the crossing of Walnut Creek,<a + href="#linknote-22" name="linknoteref-22" id="linknoteref-22"><small>22</small></a> + he found the encampment of Captain Philip St. George Cooke, of the United + States army, who had been detailed with his command to escort the caravans + to the New Mexican boundary. His force consisted of four troops of + dragoons. The captain informed Carson that coming on behind him from the + States was a caravan belonging to a very wealthy Mexican. + </p> + <p> + It was a richly loaded train, and in order to insure its better protection + while passing through that portion of the country infested by the + blood-thirsty Comanches and Apaches, the majordomo in charge had hired one + hundred Mexicans as a guard. The teamsters and others belonging to the + caravan had heard that a large body of Texans were lying in wait for them, + and intended to murder and plunder them in retaliation for the way Armijo + had treated some Texan prisoners he had got in his power at Santa Fe some + time before. Of course, it was the duty of the United States troops to + escort this caravan to the New Mexico line, but there their duty would + end, as they had no authority to cross the border. The Mexicans belonging + to the caravan were afraid they would be at the mercy of the Texans after + they had parted company with the soldiers, and when Kit Carson met them, + they, knowing the famous trapper and mountaineer well, asked him to take a + letter to Armijo, who was then governor of New Mexico, and resided in + Santa Fe, for which service they would give him three hundred dollars in + advance. The letter contained a statement of the fears they entertained, + and requested the general to send Mexican troops at once to meet them. + </p> + <p> + Carson, who was then not blessed with much money, eagerly accepted the + task, and immediately started on the trail for Bent's Fort, in company + with another old mountaineer and bosom friend named Owens. In a short time + they arrived at the Fort, where Owens decided not to go any further, + because they were informed by the men at Bent's that the Utes had broken + out, and were scattered along the Trail at the most dangerous points, and + he was fearful that his life would be endangered if he attempted to make + Santa Fe. + </p> + <p> + Kit, however, nothing daunted, and determined to do the duty for which he + had been rewarded so munificently, started out alone on his perilous trip. + Mr. Bent kindly furnished him with the best and fastest horse he had in + his stables, but Kit, realizing the dangers to which he would be exposed, + walked, leading his animal, ready to mount him at a moment's notice; thus + keeping him in a condition that would enable Carson to fly and make his + escape if the savages tried to capture him. His knowledge of the Indian + character, and wonderful alertness in moments of peril, served him well; + for he reached the village of the hostile Indians without their + discovering his proximity. Hiding himself in a rocky, bush-covered canyon, + he stayed there until night came on, when he continued his journey in the + darkness. + </p> + <p> + He took the trail to Taos, where he arrived in two or three days, and + presented his letter to the alcalde, to be sent on to Santa Fe by special + messenger. + </p> + <p> + He was to remain at Taos until an answer from the governor arrived, and + then return with it as rapidly as possible to the train. While at Taos, he + was informed that Armijo had already sent out a company of one hundred + soldiers to meet the caravan, and was to follow in person, with a thousand + more. + </p> + <p> + This first hundred were those attacked by Colonel Snively, as related by + Gregg, who says that two survived, who carried the news of the disaster to + Armijo at Cold Spring; but Carson told me that only one got away, by + successfully catching, during the heat of the fight, a Texan pony already + saddled, that was grazing around loose. With him he made Armijo's camp and + related to the Mexican general the details of the terribly unequal battle. + Armijo, upon receipt of the news, "turned tail," and retreated to Santa + Fe. + </p> + <p> + Before Armijo left Santa Fe with his command, he had received the letter + which Carson had brought from the caravan, and immediately sent one in + reply for Carson to carry back, thinking that the old mountaineer might + reach the wagons before he did. Carson, with his usual promptness, started + on the Trail for the caravan, and came up with it while it was escorted by + the dragoons, thus saving it from the fate that the Texans intended for + it, as they dared not attempt any interference in the presence of the + United States troops. + </p> + <p> + The rumour current in Santa Fe in relation to a probable raid of parties + of Texans along the line of the Trail, for the purpose of attacking and + robbing the caravans of the wealthy Mexican traders, was received with so + little credence by the prominent citizens of the country, that several + native trains left for the Missouri River without their proprietors having + the slightest apprehension that they would not reach their destination, + and make the return trip in safety. + </p> + <p> + Among those who had no fear of marauders was Don Antonio Jose Chavez, who, + in February, 1843, left Santa Fe for Independence with an outfit + consisting of a number of wagons, his private coach, several servants and + other retainers. Don Antonio was a very wealthy Mexican engaged in a + general mercantile business on a large scale in Albuquerque, who made all + his purchases of goods in St. Louis, which was then the depot of supplies + for the whole mountain region. He necessarily carried with him on these + journeys a large amount of money, in silver, which was the legal currency + of the country, and made but one trip yearly to replenish the stock of + goods required in his extensive trade in all parts of Mexico. + </p> + <p> + Upon his arrival at Westport Landing, as Kansas City was then called, he + would take the steamboat for St. Louis, leaving his coach, wagons, + servants, and other appointments of his caravan behind him in the village + of Westport, a few miles from the Landing. + </p> + <p> + Westport was at that time, like all steamboat towns in the era of water + navigation, the harbor of as great a lot of ruffians as ever escaped the + gallows. There was especially a noted gang of land pirates, the members of + which had long indulged in speculations regarding the probable wealth of + the Mexican Don, and how much coin he generally carried with him. They + knew that it must be considerable from the quantity of goods that always + came by boat with him from St. Louis. + </p> + <p> + At last a devilish plot was arranged to get hold of the rich trader's + money. Nine men were concerned in the robbery, nearly all of whom were + residents of the vicinity of Westport; their leader was one John McDaniel, + recently from Texas, from which government he claimed to hold a captain's + commission, and one of their number was a doctor. It was evidently the + intention of this band to join Warfield's party on the Arkansas, and + engage in a general robbery of the freight caravans of the Santa Fe Trail + belonging to the Mexicans; but they had determined that Chavez should be + their first victim, and in order to learn when he intended to leave Santa + Fe on his next trip east, they sent their spies out on the great highway. + </p> + <p> + They did not dare attempt their contemplated robbery, and murder if + necessary, in the State of Missouri, for there were too many citizens of + the border who would never have permitted such a thing to go unpunished; + so they knew that their only chance was to effect it in the Indian country + of Kansas, where there was little or no law. + </p> + <p> + Cow Creek, which debouches into the Arkansas at Hutchinson, where the + Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad crosses the historic little stream,<a + href="#linknote-23" name="linknoteref-23" id="linknoteref-23"><small>23</small></a> + was, like Big and Little Coon creeks, a most dangerous point in the + transcontinental passage of freight caravans and overland coaches, in the + days of the commerce of the prairies. It was on this purling little + prairie brook that McDaniel's band lay in wait for the arrival of the + ill-fated Don Antonio, whose imposing equipage came along, intending to + encamp on the bank, one of the usual stopping-places on the route. + </p> + <p> + The Don was taken a few miles south of the Trail, and his baggage rifled. + All of his party were immediately murdered, but the wealthy owner of the + caravan was spared for a few moments in order to make a confession of + where his money was concealed, after which he was shot down in cold blood, + and his body thrown into a ravine. + </p> + <p> + It appears, however, that the ruffians had not completed their bloody work + so effectually as they thought; for one of the Mexican's teamsters + escaped, and, making his way to Leavenworth, reported the crime, and was + soon on his way back to the Trail, guiding a detachment of United States + troops in pursuit of the murderers. + </p> + <p> + John Hobbs, scout, trapper, and veteran plainsman, happened to be hunting + buffalo on Pawnee Fork, on the ground where Larned is now situated, with a + party from Bent's Fort. They were just on the point of crossing the Trail + at the mouth of the Pawnee when the soldiers from Fort Leavenworth came + along, and from them Hobbs and his companions first learned of the murder + of Chavez on Cow Creek. As the men who were out hunting were all familiar + with every foot of the region they were then in, the commanding officer of + the troops induced them to accompany him in his search for the murderers. + </p> + <p> + Hobbs and his men cheerfully accepted the invitation, and in about four + days met the band of cut-throats on the broad Trail, they little dreaming + that the government had taken a hand in the matter. The band tried to + escape by flight, but Hobbs shot the doctor's horse from under him, and a + soldier killed another member of the band, when the remainder surrendered. + </p> + <p> + The money, about twelve or fifteen thousand dollars,<a href="#linknote-24" + name="linknoteref-24" id="linknoteref-24"><small>24</small></a> was all + recovered, and the murderers taken to St. Louis, where some were hung and + some imprisoned, the doctor escaping the death penalty by turning state's + evidence. His sentence was incarceration in the penitentiary, from which + he was pardoned after remaining there two years. Hobbs met the doctor some + years after in San Francisco. He was then leading an honest life, + publishing a newspaper, and begged his captor not to expose him. + </p> + <p> + The money taken from the robbers was placed in charge of Colonel Owens, a + friend of the Chavez family and a leading Santa Fe trader. He continued on + to the river, purchased a stock of goods, and sent back the caravan to + Santa Fe in charge of Doctor Conley of Boonville, Missouri. + </p> + <p> + Arriving at his destination, the widow of the deceased Chavez employed the + good doctor to sell the goods and take the sole supervision of her immense + business interests, and there is a touch of romance attached to the + terrible Kansas tragedy, which lies in the fact that the doctor in about + two years married the rich widow, and lived very happily for about a + decade, dying then on one of the large estates in New Mexico, which he had + acquired by his fortunate union with the amiable Mexican lady. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. MEXICO DECLARES WAR. + </h2> + <p> + Mexico declared war against the United States in April, 1846. In the + following May, Congress passed an act authorizing the President to call + into the field fifty thousand volunteers, designed to operate against + Mexico at three distinct points, and consisting of the Southern Wing, or + the Army of Occupation, the Army of the Centre, and the Army of the West, + the latter to direct its march upon the city of Santa Fe. The original + plan was, however, somewhat changed, and General Kearney, who commanded + the Army of the West, divided his forces into three separate commands. The + first he led in person to the Pacific coast. One thousand volunteers, + under command of Colonel A. W. Doniphan, were to make a descent upon the + State of Chihuahua, while the remainder and greater part of the forces, + under Colonel Sterling Price, were to garrison Santa Fe after its capture. + </p> + <p> + There is a pretty fiction told of the breaking out of the war between + Mexico and the United States. Early in the spring of 1846, before it was + known or even conjectured that a state of war would be declared to exist + between this government and Mexico, a caravan of twenty-nine traders, on + their way from Independence to Santa Fe, beheld, just after a storm and a + little before sunset, a perfectly distinct image of the Bird of Liberty, + the American eagle, on the disc of the sun. When they saw it they + simultaneously and almost involuntarily exclaimed that in less than twelve + months the Eagle of Liberty would spread his broad plumes over the plains + of the West, and that the flag of our country would wave over the cities + of New Mexico and Chihuahua. The student of the classics will remember + that just before the assassination of Julius Caesar, both Brutus and + Cassius, while in their places in the Roman Senate, saw chariots of fire + in the sky. One story is as true, probably, as the other, though separated + by centuries of time. + </p> + <p> + The Army of the West, under General Stephen W. Kearney, consisted of two + batteries of artillery, commanded by Major Clark; three squadrons of the + First United States Dragoons, commanded by Major Sumner; the First + Regiment of Missouri Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Doniphan, and two + companies of infantry, commanded by Captain Aubrey. This force marched in + detached columns from Fort Leavenworth, and on the 1st of August, 1846, + concentrated in camp on the Santa Fe Trail, nine miles below Bent's Fort. + </p> + <p> + Accompanying the expedition was a party of the United States topographical + engineers, under command of Lieutenant W. H. Emory.<a href="#linknote-25" + name="linknoteref-25" id="linknoteref-25"><small>25</small></a> In writing + of this expedition, so far as its march relates to the Old Santa Fe Trail, + I shall quote freely from Emory's report and Doniphan's historian.<a + href="#linknote-26" name="linknoteref-26" id="linknoteref-26"><small>26</small></a> + </p> + <p> + The practicability of marching a large army over the waste, uncultivated, + uninhabited prairie regions of the West was universally regarded as + problematical, but the expedition proved completely successful. Provisions + were conveyed in wagons, and beef-cattle driven along for the use of the + men. These animals subsisted entirely by grazing. To secure them from + straying off at night, they were driven into corrals formed of the wagons, + or tethered to an iron picket-pin driven into the ground about fifteen + inches. At the outset of the expedition many laughable scenes took place. + Our horses were generally wild, fiery, and unused to military trappings + and equipments. Amidst the fluttering of banners, the sounding of bugles, + the rattling of artillery, the clattering of sabres and also of cooking + utensils, some of them took fright and scampered pell-mell over the wide + prairie. Rider, arms and accoutrements, saddles, saddle-bags, tin cups, + and coffee-pots, were frequently left far behind in the chase. No very + serious or fatal accident, however, occurred from this cause, and all was + right as soon as the affrighted animals were recovered. + </p> + <p> + The Army of the West was, perhaps, composed of as fine material as any + other body of troops then in the field. The volunteer corps consisted + almost entirely of young men of the country. + </p> + <p> + On the 9th of July, a separate detachment of the troops arrived at the + Little Arkansas, where the Santa Fe Trail crosses that stream—now in + McPherson County, Kansas. The mosquitoes, gnats, and black flies swarmed + in that locality and nearly drove the men and animals frantic. While + resting there, a courier came from the commands of General Kearney and + Colonel Doniphan, stating that their men were in a starving condition, and + asking for such provisions as could be spared. Lieutenant-Colonel Ruff of + Doniphan's regiment, in command of the troops now camped on the Little + Arkansas, was almost destitute himself. He had sent couriers forward to + Pawnee Fork to stop a train of provisions at that point and have it wait + there until he came up with his force, and he now directed the courier + from Kearney to proceed to the same place and halt as many wagons loaded + with supplies, as would suffice to furnish the three detachments with + rations. One of the couriers, in attempting to ford the fork of the + Pawnee, which was bank-full, was drowned. His body was found and given a + military funeral; he was the first man lost on the expedition after it had + reached the great plains, one having been drowned in the Missouri, at Fort + Leavenworth, before the troops left. + </p> + <p> + The author of <i>Doniphan's Expedition</i> says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + In approaching the Arkansas, a landscape of the most + imposing and picturesque nature makes its appearance. + While the green, glossy undulations of the prairie to + the right seem to spread out in infinite succession, + like waves subsiding after a storm, and covered with + herds of gambolling buffalo, on the left, towering to + the height of seventy-five to a hundred feet, rise the + sun-gilt summits of the sand hills, along the base of + which winds the broad, majestic river, bespeckled with + verdant islets, thickly beset with cottonwood timber, + the sand hills resembling heaps of driven snow. +</pre> + <p> + I refer to this statement to show how wonderfully the settlement of the + region has changed the physical aspect of that portion bordering the + Arkansas River. Now those sand hills are covered with verdure, and this + metamorphosis has taken place within the last thirty years; for the author + of this work well remembers how the great sand dunes used to shine in the + sunlight, when he first saw them a third of a century ago. In coming from + Fort Leavenworth up the Smoky Hill route to the Santa Fe Trail, where the + former joined the latter at Pawnee Rock, the contour of the Arkansas could + be easily traced by the white sand hills referred to, long before it was + reached. + </p> + <p> + On the 15th of July the combined forces formed a junction at Pawnee Fork, + now within the city limits of Larned, Kansas. The river was impassable, + but General Kearney, with the characteristic energy of his family, + determined not to be delayed, and to that end caused great trees to be cut + down and their trunks thrown across the stream, over which the army + passed, carrying in their arms the sick, the baggage, tents, and other + paraphernalia; the animals being forced to swim. The empty bodies of the + wagons, fastened to their running gear, were floated across by means of + ropes, and hauled up the slippery bank by the troops. This required two + whole days; and on the morning of the 17th, not an accident having + occurred, the entire column was en route again, the infantry, as is + declared in the official reports, keeping pace with the cavalry right + along. Their feet, however, became terribly blistered, and, like the + Continentals at Valley Forge, their tracks were marked with blood. + </p> + <p> + In a day or two after the command had left Pawnee Fork, while camping in a + beautiful spot on the bank of the Arkansas, an officer, Major Howard, who + had been sent forward to Santa Fe some time previously by the general to + learn something of the feeling of the people in relation to submitting to + the government of the United States, returned and reported + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + that the common people, or plebeians, were inclined to + favour the conditions of peace proposed by General Kearney; + viz. that if they would lay down their arms and take the + oath of allegiance to the government of the United States, + they should, to all intents and purposes, become citizens + of the same republic, receiving the protection and enjoying + the liberties guaranteed to other American citizens; but + that the patricians who held the offices and ruled the + country were hostile, and were making warlike preparations. + He added, further, that two thousand three hundred men + were already armed for the defence of the capital, and + that others were assembling at Taos. +This intelligence created quite a sensation in camp, and it was +believed, and earnestly hoped, that the entrance of the troops into +Santa Fe would be desperately opposed; such is the pugnacious character +of the average American the moment he dons the uniform of a soldier. +</pre> + <p> + The army arrived at the Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas on the 20th, and + during the march of nearly thirty miles from their last camp, a herd of + about four hundred buffalo suddenly emerged from the Arkansas, and broke + through the long column. In an instant the troops charged upon the + surprised animals with guns, pistols, and even drawn sabres, and many of + the huge beasts were slaughtered as they went dashing and thundering among + the excited troopers and infantrymen. + </p> + <p> + On the 29th an express from Bent's Fort brought news to General Kearney + from Santa Fe that Governor Armijo had called the chief men together to + deliberate on the best means of defending the city; that hostile + preparations were rapidly going on in all parts of New Mexico; and that + the American advance would be vigorously opposed. Some Mexican prisoners + were taken near Bent's Fort, with blank letters on their persons addressed + to the general; it was supposed this piece of ingenuity was resorted to to + deceive the American residents at the fort. These men were thought to be + spies sent out from Santa Fe to get an idea of the strength of the army; + so they were shown everything in and around camp, and then allowed to + depart in peace for Santa Fe, to report what they had seen. + </p> + <p> + On the same date, the Army of the West crossed the Arkansas and camped on + Mexican soil about eight miles below Bent's Fort, and now the utmost + vigilance was exercised; for the troops had not only to keep a sharp + lookout for the Mexicans, but for the wily Comanches, in whose country + their camp was located. Strong picket and camp guards were posted, and the + animals turned loose to graze, guarded by a large force. Notwithstanding + the care taken to confine them within certain limits, a pack of wolves + rushed through the herd, and in an instant it was stampeded, and there + ensued a scene of the wildest confusion. More than a thousand horses were + dashing madly over the prairie, their rage and fright increased at every + jump by the lariats and picket-pins which they had pulled up, and which + lashed them like so many whips. After desperate exertions by the troops, + the majority were recovered from thirty to fifty miles distant; nearly a + hundred, however, were absolutely lost and never seen again. + </p> + <p> + At this camp the troops were visited by the war chief of the Arapahoes, + who manifested great surprise at the big guns, and declared that the + Mexicans would not stand a moment before such terrible instruments of + death, but would escape to the mountains with the utmost despatch. + </p> + <p> + On the 1st of August a new camp near Bent's Fort was established, from + whence twenty men under Lieutenant de Courcy, with orders to proceed + through the mountains to the valley of Taos, to learn something of the + disposition and intentions of the people, and to rejoin General Kearney on + the road to Santa Fe. Lieutenant de Courcy, in his official itinerary, + relates the following anecdote: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + We took three pack-mules laden with provisions, and as + we did not expect to be long absent, the men took no extra + clothing. Three days after we left the column our mules + fell down, and neither gentle means nor the points of our + sabres had the least effect in inducing them to rise. + Their term of service with Uncle Sam was out. "What's to + be done?" said the sergeant. "Dismount!" said I. + "Off with your shirts and drawers, men! tie up the sleeves + and legs, and each man bag one-twentieth part of the flour!" + Having done this, the bacon was distributed to the men also, + and tied to the cruppers of their saddles. Thus loaded, + we pushed on, without the slightest fear of our provision + train being cut off. + + The march upon Santa Fe was resumed on the 2d of August. + As we passed Bent's Fort the American flag was raised, + in compliment to our troops, and, like our own, streamed + most animatingly in the gale that swept from the desert, + while the tops of the houses were crowded with Mexican girls + and Indian squaws, intently beholding the American army. +</pre> + <p> + On the 15th of the month, the army neared Las Vegas; when two spies who + had been sent on in advance to see how matters stood returned and reported + that two thousand Mexicans were camped at the pass a few miles beyond the + village, where they intended to offer battle. + </p> + <p> + Upon receipt of this news, the general immediately formed a line of + battle. The United States dragoons with the St. Louis mounted volunteers + were stationed in front, Major Clark with the battalion of volunteer light + artillery in the centre, and Colonel Doniphan's regiment in the rear. The + companies of volunteer infantry were deployed on each side of the line of + march as flankers. The supply trains were next in order, with Captain + Walton's mounted company as rear guard. There was also a strong advance + guard. The cartridges were hastily distributed; the cannon swabbed and + rigged; the port-fires burning, and every rifle loaded. + </p> + <p> + In passing through the streets of the curious-looking village of Las + Vegas, the army was halted, and from the roof of a large house General + Kearney administered to the chief officers of the place the oath of + allegiance to the United States, using the sacred cross instead of the + Bible. This act completed, on marched the exultant troops toward the + canyon where it had been promised them that they should meet the enemy. + </p> + <p> + On the night of the 16th, while encamped on the Pecos River, near the + village of San Jose, the pickets captured a son of the Mexican General + Salezar, who was acting the rôle of a spy, and two other soldiers of the + Mexican army. Salezar was kept a close prisoner; but the two privates were + by order of General Kearney escorted through the camp and shown the + cannon, after which they were allowed to depart, so that they might tell + what they had seen. It was learned afterward that they represented the + American army as composed of five thousand troops, and possessing so many + cannons that they were not able to count them. + </p> + <p> + When Armijo was certain that the Army of the West was really approaching + Santa Fe, he assembled seven thousand troops, part of them well armed, and + the remainder indifferently so. The Mexican general had written a note to + General Kearney the day before the capture of the spies, saying that he + would meet him on the following day. + </p> + <p> + General Kearney, at this, hastened on, arriving at the mouth of the Apache + canyon at noon, with his whole force ready and anxious to try the mettle + of the Mexicans in battle. Emory in his <i>Reconnoissance</i> says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The sun shone with dazzling brightness; the guidons and + colours of each squadron, regiment, and battalion were + for the first time unfurled. The drooping horses seemed + to take courage from the gay array. The trumpeters + sounded "to horse" with spirit, and the hills multiplied + and re-echoed the call. All wore the aspect of a gala day. + About the middle of the day's march the two Pueblo Indians, + previously sent to sound the chief men of that formidable + tribe, were seen in the distance, at full speed, with arms + and legs both thumping the sides of their mules at every + stride. Something was now surely in the wind. The smaller + and foremost of the two dashed up to the general, his face + radiant with joy, and exclaimed: + + "They are in the canyon, my brave; pluck up your courage + and push them out." As soon as his extravagant delight at + the prospect of a fight, and the pleasure of communicating + the news, had subsided, he gave a pretty accurate idea + of Armijo's force and position. + + Shortly afterwards a rumour reached the camp that the + two thousand Mexicans assembled in the canyon to oppose us, + have quarrelled among themselves; and that Armijo, taking + advantage of the dissensions, has fled with his dragoons + and artillery to the south. It is well known that he has + been averse to a battle, but some of his people threatened + his life if he refused to fight. He had been, for some + days, more in fear of his own people than of the American + army, having seen what they are blind to—the hopelessness + of resistance. + + As we approached the ancient town of Pecos, a large fat + fellow, mounted on a mule, came toward us at full speed, + and, extending his hand to the general, congratulated him + on the arrival of himself and army. He said with a roar + of laughter, "Armijo and his troops have gone to h—-ll, + and the canyon is all clear." +</pre> + <p> + On reaching the canyon, it was found to be true that the Mexican troops + had dispersed and fled to the mountains, just as the old Arapahoe chief + had said they would. There, however, they commenced to fortify, by + chopping away the timber so that their artillery could play to better + advantage upon the American lines, and by throwing up temporary + breastworks. It was ascertained afterward, on undoubted authority, that + Armijo had an army of nearly seven thousand Mexicans, with six pieces of + artillery, and the advantage of ground, yet he allowed General Kearney, + with a force of less than two thousand, to march through the almost + impregnable gorge, and on to the capital of the Province, without any + attempt to oppose him. + </p> + <p> + Thus was New Mexico conquered with but little loss relatively. For the + further details of the movements of the Army of the West, the reader is + referred to general history, as this book, necessarily, treats only of + that portion of its march and the incidents connected with it while + travelling the Santa Fe Trail. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. THE VALLEY OF TAOS. + </h2> + <p> + The principal settlement in New Mexico, immediately after it was + reconquered from the Indians by the Spaniards, was, of course, Santa Fe, + and ranking second to it, that of the beautiful Valle de Taos, which + derived its name from the Taosa Indians, a few of whose direct descendants + are still occupying a portion of the region. As the pioneers in the trade + with Santa Fe made their first journeys to the capital of the Province by + the circuitous route of the Taos valley, and the initial consignments of + goods from the Missouri were disposed of in the little villages scattered + along the road, the story of the Trail would be deficient in its integrity + were the thrilling historical facts connected with the romantic region + omitted. + </p> + <p> + The reader will find on all maps, from the earliest published to the + latest issued by the local railroads, a town with the name of Taos, which + never had an existence. Fernandez de Taos is the chief city, which has + been known so long by the title of the valley that perhaps the misnomer is + excusable after many years' use. + </p> + <p> + Fernandez, or Taos as it is called, was once famous for its distilleries + of whiskey, made out of the native wheat, a raw, fiery spirit, always + known in the days of the Santa Fe trade as "Taos lightning," which was the + most profitable article of barter with the Indians, who exchanged their + buffalo robes and other valuable furs for a supply of it, at a tremendous + sacrifice. + </p> + <p> + According to the statement of Gregg, the first white settler of the + fertile and picturesque valley was a Spaniard named Pando, who established + himself there about 1745. This primitive pioneer of the northern part of + the Province was constantly exposed to the raids of the powerful + Comanches, but succeeded in creating a temporary friendship with the tribe + by promising his daughter, then a young and beautiful infant, to the chief + in marriage when she arrived at a suitable age. At the time for the + ratification of her father's covenant with the Indians, however, the + maiden stubbornly refused to fulfil her part. The savages, enraged at the + broken faith of the Spaniard, immediately swept down upon the little + settlement and murdered everybody there except the betrothed girl, whom + they carried off into captivity. She was forced to live with the chief as + his wife, but he soon became tired of her and traded her for another woman + with the Pawnees, who, in turn, sold her to a Frenchman, a resident of St. + Louis. It is said that some of the most respectable families of that city + are descended from her, and fifty years ago there were many people living + who remembered the old lady, and her pathetic story of trials and + sufferings when with the Indians. + </p> + <p> + The most tragic event in the history of the valley was the massacre of the + provisional governor of the Territory of New Mexico, with a number of + other Americans, shortly after its occupation by the United States. + </p> + <p> + Upon General Kearney's taking possession of Santa Fe, acting under the + authority of the President, he established a civil government and put it + into operation. Charles Bent was appointed governor, and the other offices + filled by Americans and Mexicans who were rigidly loyal to the political + change. At this time the command of the troops devolved upon Colonel + Sterling Price, Colonel Doniphan, who ranked him, having departed from + Santa Fe on an expedition against the Navajoes. Notwithstanding the + apparent submission of the natives of New Mexico, there were many + malcontents among them and the Pueblo Indians, and early in December, some + of the leaders, dissatisfied with the change in the order of things, held + secret meetings and formulated plots to overthrow the existing government. + </p> + <p> + Midnight of the 24th of December was the time appointed for the + commencement of their revolutionary work, which was to be simultaneous all + over the country. The profoundest secrecy was to be preserved, and the + most influential men, whose ambition induced them to seek preferment, were + alone to be made acquainted with the plot. No woman was to be privy to it, + lest it should be divulged. The sound of the church bell was to be the + signal, and at midnight all were to enter the Plaza at the same moment, + seize the pieces of artillery, and point them into the streets. + </p> + <p> + The time chosen for the assault was Christmas-eve, when the soldiers and + garrison would be indulging in wine and feasting, and scattered about + through the city at the fandangoes, not having their arms in their hands. + All the Americans, without distinction, throughout the State, and such New + Mexicans as had favoured the American government and accepted office by + appointment of General Kearney, were to be massacred or driven from the + country, and the conspirators were to seize upon and occupy the + government. + </p> + <p> + The conspiracy was detected in the following manner: a mulatto girl, + residing in Santa Fe, had married one of the conspirators, and had by + degrees obtained a knowledge of their movements and secret meetings. To + prevent the effusion of blood, which would inevitably be the result of a + revolution, she communicated to Colonel Price all the facts of which she + was in possession, and warned him to use the utmost vigilance. The + rebellion was immediately suppressed, but the restless and unsatisfied + ambition of the leaders of the conspiracy did not long permit them to + remain inactive. A second and still more dangerous conspiracy was formed. + The most powerful and influential men in the State favoured the design, + and even the officers of State and the priests gave their aid and counsel. + The people everywhere, in the towns, villages, and settlements, were + exhorted to arm and equip themselves; to strike for their faith, their + religion, and their altars; and drive the "heretics," the "unjust invaders + of the country," from their soil, and with fire and sword pursue them to + annihilation. On the 18th of January this rebellion broke out in every + part of the State simultaneously. + </p> + <p> + On the 14th of January, Governor Bent, believing the conspiracy completely + crushed, with an escort of five persons—among whom were the sheriff + and circuit attorney—had left Santa Fe to visit his family, who + resided at Fernandez. + </p> + <p> + On the 19th, he was early roused from sleep by the populace, who, with the + aid of the Pueblos of Taos, were collected in front of his dwelling + striving to gain admittance. While they were effecting an entrance, he, + with an axe, cut through an adobe wall into another house; and the Mexican + wife of the occupant, a clever though shiftless Canadian, hearing him, + with all her strength rendered him assistance. He retreated to a room, + but, seeing no way of escaping from the infuriated assailants, who fired + upon him from a window, he spoke to his weeping wife and trembling + children, and, taking paper from his pocket, endeavoured to write; but + fast losing strength, he commended them to God and his brothers and fell, + pierced by a ball from a Pueblo. Then rushing in and tearing off his + gray-haired scalp, the Indians bore it away in triumph. + </p> + <p> + The circuit attorney, T. W. Leal, was scalped alive and dragged through + the streets, his relentless persecutors pricking him with lances. After + hours of suffering, they threw him aside in the inclement weather, he + imploring them earnestly to kill him to end his misery. A compassionate + Mexican at last closed the tragic scene by shooting him. Stephen Lee, + brother to the general, was killed on his own housetop. Narcisse Beaubien, + son of the presiding judge of the district, hid in an outhouse with his + Indian slave, at the commencement of the massacre, under a straw-covered + trough. The insurgents on the search, thinking that they had escaped, were + leaving, but a woman servant of the family, going to the housetop, called + to them, "Kill the young ones, and they will never be men to trouble us." + They swarmed back and, by cruelly putting to death and scalping him and + his slave, added two more to the list of unfortunate victims. + </p> + <p> + The Pueblos and Mexicans, after their cruelties at Fernandez de Taos, + attacked and destroyed Turley's Ranch on the Arroyo Hondo<a + href="#linknote-27" name="linknoteref-27" id="linknoteref-27"><small>27</small></a> + twelve miles from Fernandez, or Taos. Arroyo Hondo runs along the base of + a ridge of a mountain of moderate elevation, which divides the valley of + Taos from that of the Rio Colorado, or Red River, both flowing into the + Del Norte. The trail from one place to the other passes over the mountain, + which is covered with pine, cedar, and a species of dwarf oak; and + numerous little streams run through the many canyons. + </p> + <p> + On the bank of one of the creeks was a mill and distillery belonging to an + American named Turley, who did a thriving business. He possessed herds of + goats, and hogs innumerable; his barns were filled with grain, his mill + with flour, and his cellars with whiskey. He had a Mexican wife and + several children, and he bore the reputation of being one of the most + generous and kind-hearted of men. In times of scarcity, no one ever sought + his aid to be turned away empty-handed; his granaries were always open to + the hungry, and his purse to the poor. + </p> + <p> + When on their road to Turley's, the Pueblos murdered two men, named + Harwood and Markhead. Markhead was one of the most successful trappers and + daring men among the old mountaineers. They were on their way to Taos with + their pack-animals laden with furs, when the savages, meeting them, after + stripping them of their goods, and securing their arms by treachery, made + them mount their mules under pretence of conducting them to Taos, where + they were to be given up to the leaders of the insurrection. They had + hardly proceeded a mile when a Mexican rode up behind Harwood and + discharged his gun into his back; he called out to Markhead that he was + murdered, and fell to the ground dead. + </p> + <p> + Markhead, seeing that his own fate was sealed, made no struggle, and was + likewise shot in the back with several bullets. Both men were then + stripped naked, scalped, and horribly mutilated; their bodies thrown into + the brush to be devoured by the wolves. + </p> + <p> + These trappers were remarkable men; Markhead, particularly, was celebrated + in the mountains for his courage, reckless daring, and many almost + miraculous escapes when in the very hands of the Indians. When some years + previously he had accompanied Sir William Drummond Stewart on one of his + expeditions across the Rockies, it happened that a half-breed Indian + employed by Sir William absconded one night with some animals, which + circumstance annoyed the nobleman so much, as it disturbed all his plans, + that he hastily offered, never dreaming that he would be taken up, to give + five hundred dollars for the scalp of the thief. The very next evening + Markhead rode into camp with the hair of the luckless horse-thief dangling + at the muzzle of his rifle. + </p> + <p> + The wild crowd of rebels rode on to Turley's mill. Turley had been warned + of the impending uprising, but had treated the report with indifference, + until one morning a man in his employ, who had been despatched to Santa Fe + with several mule-loads of whiskey a few days before, made his appearance + at the gate on horseback, and hastily informing the inmates of the mill + that the New Mexicans had risen and massacred Governor Bent and other + Americans, galloped off. Even then Turley felt assured that he would not + be molested; but at the solicitation of his men, he agreed to close the + gate of the yard around which were the buildings of the mill and + distillery, and make preparations for defence. + </p> + <p> + A few hours afterward a large crowd of Mexicans and Pueblo Indians made + their appearance, all armed with guns and bows and arrows, and, advancing + with a white flag, summoned Turley to surrender his house and the + Americans in it, guaranteeing that his own life should be saved, but that + every other American in the valley must be destroyed; that the governor + and all the Americans at Fernandez had been killed, and that not one was + to be left alive in all New Mexico. + </p> + <p> + To this summons Turley answered that he would never surrender his house + nor his men, and that if they wanted it or them, they must take them. + </p> + <p> + The enemy then drew off, and, after a short consultation, commenced the + attack. The first day they numbered about five hundred, but were hourly + reinforced by the arrival of parties of Indians from the more distant + Pueblos, and New Mexicans from Fernandez, La Canada, and other places. + </p> + <p> + The building lay at the foot of a gradual slope in the sierra, which was + covered with cedar bushes. In front ran the stream of the Arroyo Hondo, + about twenty yards from one side of the square, and the other side was + broken ground which rose abruptly and formed the bank of the ravine. In + the rear and behind the still-house was some garden ground enclosed by a + small fence, into which a small wicket-gate opened from the corral. + </p> + <p> + As soon as the attack was determined upon, the assailants scattered and + concealed themselves under cover of the rocks and bushes which surrounded + the house. From these they kept up an incessant fire upon every exposed + portion of the building where they saw preparations for defence. + </p> + <p> + The Americans, on their part, were not idle; not a man but was an old + mountaineer, and each had his trusty rifle, with a good store of + ammunition. Whenever one of the besiegers exposed a hand's-breadth of his + person, a ball from an unerring barrel whistled. The windows had been + blockaded, loopholes having been left, and through these a lively fire was + maintained. Already several of the enemy had bitten the dust, and parties + were seen bearing off the wounded up the banks of the Canada. Darkness + came on, and during the night a continual fire was kept up on the mill, + whilst its defenders, reserving their ammunition, kept their posts with + stern and silent determination. The night was spent in casting balls, + cutting patches, and completing the defences of the building. In the + morning the fight was renewed, and it was found that the Mexicans had + effected a lodgment in a part of the stables, which were separated from + the other portions of the building by an open space of a few feet. The + assailants, during the night, had sought to break down the wall, and thus + enter the main building, but the strength of the adobe and logs of which + it was composed resisted effectually all their attempts. + </p> + <p> + Those in the stable seemed anxious to regain the outside, for their + position was unavailable as a means of annoyance to the besieged, and + several had darted across the narrow space which divided it from the other + part of the building, which slightly projected, and behind which they were + out of the line of fire. As soon, however, as the attention of the + defenders was called to this point, the first man who attempted to cross, + who happened to be a Pueblo chief, was dropped on the instant, and fell + dead in the centre of the intervening space. It appeared to be an object + to recover the body, for an Indian immediately dashed out to the fallen + chief, and attempted to drag him within the shelter of the wall. The rifle + which covered the spot again poured forth its deadly contents, and the + Indian, springing into the air, fell over the body of his chief. Another + and another met with a similar fate, and at last three rushed to the spot, + and, seizing the body by the legs and head, had already lifted it from the + ground, when three puffs of smoke blew from the barricaded windows, + followed by the sharp cracks of as many rifles, and the three daring + Indians were added to the pile of corpses which now covered the body of + the dead chief. + </p> + <p> + As yet the besieged had met with no casualties; but after the fall of the + seven Indians, the whole body of the assailants, with a shout of rage, + poured in a rattling volley, and two of the defenders fell mortally + wounded. One, shot through the loins, suffered great agony, and was + removed to the still-house, where he was laid on a large pile of grain, as + being the softest bed that could be found. + </p> + <p> + In the middle of the day the attack was renewed more fiercely than before. + The little garrison bravely stood to the defence of the mill, never + throwing away a shot, but firing coolly, and only when a fair mark was + presented to their unerring aim. Their ammunition, however, was fast + failing, and to add to the danger of their situation, the enemy set fire + to the mill, which blazed fiercely, and threatened destruction to the + whole building. Twice they succeeded in overcoming the flames, and, while + they were thus occupied, the Mexicans and Indians charged into the corral, + which was full of hogs and sheep, and vented their cowardly rage upon the + animals, spearing and shooting all that came in their way. No sooner were + the flames extinguished in one place than they broke out more fiercely in + another; and as a successful defence was perfectly hopeless, and the + numbers of the assailants increased every moment, a council of war was + held by the survivors of the little garrison, when it was determined, as + soon as night approached, that every one should attempt to escape as best + he could. + </p> + <p> + Just at dusk a man named John Albert and another ran to the wicket-gate + which opened into a kind of enclosed space, in which were a number of + armed Mexicans. They both rushed out at the same moment, discharging their + rifles full in the face of the crowd. Albert, in the confusion, threw + himself under the fence, whence he saw his companion shot down + immediately, and heard his cries for mercy as the cowards pierced him with + knives and lances. He lay without motion under the fence, and as soon as + it was quite dark he crept over the logs and ran up the mountain, + travelled by day and night, and, scarcely stopping or resting, reached the + Greenhorn, almost dead with hunger and fatigue. Turley himself succeeded + in escaping from the mill and in reaching the mountain unseen. Here he met + a Mexican mounted on a horse, who had been a most intimate friend of his + for many years. To this man Turley offered his watch for the use of the + horse, which was ten times more than it was worth, but was refused. The + inhuman wretch, however, affected pity and consideration for the fugitive, + and advised him to go to a certain place, where he would bring or send him + assistance; but on reaching the mill, which was a mass of fire, he + immediately informed the Mexicans of Turley's place of concealment, + whither a large party instantly proceeded and shot him to death. + </p> + <p> + Two others escaped and reached Santa Fe in safety. The mill and Turley's + house were sacked and gutted, and all his hard-earned savings, which were + concealed in gold about the house, were discovered, and, of course, seized + upon by the victorious Mexicans. + </p> + <p> + The following account is taken from Governor Prince's chapter on the fight + at Taos, in his excellent and authentic <i>History of New Mexico</i>:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The startling news of the assassination of the governor was + swiftly carried to Santa Fe, and reached Colonel Price the + next day. Simultaneously, letters were discovered calling + on the people of the Rio Abajo to secure Albuquerque and + march northward to aid the other insurgents; and news + speedily followed that a united Mexican and Pueblo force of + large magnitude was marching down the Rio Grande valley + toward the capital, flushed with the success of the revolt + at Taos. Very few troops were in Santa Fe; in fact, the + number remaining in the whole territory was very small, + and these were scattered at Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and + other distant points. At the first-named town were Major + Edmonson and Captain Burgwin; the former in command of the + town, and the latter with a company of the First Dragoons. + + Colonel Price lost no time in taking such measures as his + limited resources permitted. Edmonson was directed to come + immediately to Santa Fe to take command of the capital; and + Burgwin to follow Price as fast as possible to the scene + of hostilities. The colonel himself collected the few + troops at Santa Fe, which were all on foot, but fortunately + included the little battalion which under Captain Aubrey + had made such extraordinary marches on the journey across + the plains as to almost outwalk the cavalry. With these + was a volunteer company formed of nearly all of the American + inhabitants of the city, under the command of Colonel Ceran + St. Vrain, who happened to be in Santa Fe, together with + Judge Beaubien, at the time of the rising at Taos. + With this little force, amounting in all to three hundred + and ten men, Colonel Price started to march to Taos, or at + all events to meet the army which was coming toward the + capital from the north and which grew as it marched by + constant accessions from the surrounding country. + The city of Santa Fe was left in charge of a garrison under + Lieutenant-Colonel Willock. While the force was small + and the volunteers without experience in regular warfare, + yet all were nerved to desperation by the belief, since + the Taos murders, that the only alternative was victory + or annihilation. + + The expedition set out on January 23d, and the next day + the Mexican army, under command of General Montoya as + commander-in-chief, aided by Generals Tafoya and Chavez, + was found occupying the heights commanding the road near + La Canada (Santa Cruz), with detachments in some strong + adobe houses near the river banks. The advance had been + seen shortly before at the rocky pass, on the road from + Pojuaque; and near there and before reaching the river, the + San Juan Pueblo Indians, who had joined the revolutionists + reluctantly and under a kind of compulsion, surrendered and + were disarmed by removing the locks from their guns. + On arriving at the Canada, Price ordered his howitzers to + the front and opened fire; and after a sharp cannonade, + directed an assault on the nearest houses by Aubrey's + battalion. Meanwhile an attempt by a Mexican detachment + to cut off the American baggage-wagons, which had not yet + come up, was frustrated by the activity of St. Vrain's + volunteers. A charge all along the line was then ordered + and handsomely executed; the houses, which, being of adobe, + had been practically so many ready-made forts, were + successively carried, and St. Vrain started in advance to + gain the Mexican rear. Seeing this manoeuvre, and fearing + its effects, the Mexicans retreated, leaving thirty-six + dead on the field. Among those killed was General Tafoya, + who bravely remained on the field after the remainder had + abandoned it, and was shot. + + Colonel Price pressed on up the river as fast as possible, + passing San Juan, and at Los Luceros, on the 28th, his + little army was rejoiced at the arrival of reinforcements, + consisting of a mounted company of cavalry, Captain Burgwin's + company, which had been pushed up by forced marches on foot + from Albuquerque, and a six-pounder brought by Lieutenant + Wilson. Thus enlarged, the American force consisted of + four hundred and eighty men, and continued its advance up + the valley to La Joya, which was as far as the river road at + that time extended. Meanwhile the Mexicans had established + themselves in a narrow pass near Embudo, where the forest + was dense, and the road impracticable for wagons or cannon, + the troops occupying the sides of the mountains on both + sides of the canyon. Burgwin was sent with three companies + to dislodge them and open a passage—no easy task. + But St. Vrain's company took the west slope, and another + the right, while Burgwin himself marched through the gorge + between. The sharp-shooting of these troops did such + terrible execution that the pass was soon cleared, though + not without the display of great heroism, and some loss; + and the Americans entered Embudo without further opposition. + The difficulties of this campaign were greatly increased by + the severity of the weather, the mountains being thickly + covered with snow, and the cold so intense that a number + of men were frost-bitten and disabled. The next day Burgwin + reached Las Trampas, where Price arrived with the remainder + of the American army on the last day of January, and all + together they marched into Chamisal. + + Notwithstanding the cold and snow they pressed on over the + mountain, and on the 3d of February reached the town of + Fernandez de Taos, only to find that the Mexican and Pueblo + force had fortified itself in the celebrated Pueblo of Taos, + about three miles distant. That force had diminished + considerably during the retreat from La Canada, many of the + Mexicans returning to their homes, and its greater part + now consisting of Pueblo Indians. The American troops were + worn out with fatigue and exposure, and in most urgent need + of rest; but their intrepid commander, desiring to give his + opponents no more time to strengthen their works, and full + of zeal and energy, if not of prudence, determined to + commence an immediate attack. + + The two great buildings at this Pueblo, certainly the most + interesting and extraordinary inhabited structures in + America, are well known from descriptions and engravings. + They are five stories high and irregularly pyramidal in + shape, each story being smaller than the one below, in order + to allow ingress to the outer rooms of each tier from the + roofs. Before the advent of artillery these buildings were + practically impregnable, as, when the exterior ladders were + drawn up, there were no means of ingress, the side walls + being solid without openings, and of immense thickness. + Between these great buildings, each of which can accommodate + a multitude of men, runs the clear water of the Taos Creek; + and to the west of the northerly building stood the old + church, with walls of adobe from three to seven and a half + feet in thickness. Outside of all, and having its northwest + corner just beyond the church, ran an adobe wall, built for + protection against hostile Indians and which now answered + for an outer earthwork. The church was turned into a + fortification, and was the point where the insurgents + concentrated their strength; and against this Colonel Price + directed his principal attack. The six-pounder and the + howitzer were brought into position without delay, under + the command of Lieutenant Dyer, then a young graduate of + West Point, and since then chief of ordnance of the + United States army, and opened a fire on the thick adobe + walls. But cannon-balls made little impression on the + massive banks of earth, in which they embedded themselves + without doing damage; and after a fire of two hours, + the battery was withdrawn, and the troops allowed to return + to the town of Taos for their much-needed rest. + + Early the next morning, the troops, now refreshed and ready + for the combat, advanced again to the Pueblo, but found + those within equally prepared. The story of the attack and + capture of this place is so interesting, both on account + of the meeting here of old and new systems of warfare—of + modern artillery with an aboriginal stronghold—and because + the precise localities can be distinguished by the modern + tourist from the description, that it seems best to insert + the official report as presented by Colonel Price. + Nothing could show more plainly how superior strong + earthworks are to many more ambitious structures of defence, + or more forcibly display the courage and heroism of those + who took part in the battle, or the signal bravery of the + accomplished Captain Burgwin which led to his untimely death. + Colonel Price writes: + + "Posting the dragoons under Captain Burgwin about two + hundred and sixty yards from the western flank of the church, + I ordered the mounted men under Captains St. Vrain and Slack + to a position on the opposite side of the town, whence they + could discover and intercept any fugitives who might attempt + to escape toward the mountains, or in the direction of + San Fernando. The residue of the troops took ground about + three hundred yards from the north wall. Here, too, + Lieutenant Dyer established himself with the six-pounder + and two howitzers, while Lieutenant Hassendaubel, of Major + Clark's battalion, light artillery, remained with Captain + Burgwin, in command of two howitzers. By this arrangement + a cross-fire was obtained, sweeping the front and eastern + flank of the church. All these arrangements being made, + the batteries opened upon the town at nine o'clock A.M. + At eleven o'clock, finding it impossible to breach the + walls of the church with the six-pounder and howitzers, + I determined to storm the building. At a signal, Captain + Burgwin, at the head of his own company and that of Captain + McMillin, charged the western flank of the church, while + Captain Aubrey, infantry battalion, and Captain Barber and + Lieutenant Boon, Second Missouri Mounted Volunteers, charged + the northern wall. As soon as the troops above mentioned + had established themselves under the western wall of the + church, axes were used in the attempt to breach it, and a + temporary ladder having been made, the roof was fired. + About this time, Captain Burgwin, at the head of a small + party, left the cover afforded by the flank of the church, + and penetrating into the corral in front of that building, + endeavoured to force the door. In this exposed situation, + Captain Burgwin received a severe wound, which deprived me + of his valuable services, and of which he died on the + 7th instant. Lieutenants McIlvaine, First United States + Dragoons, and Royall and Lackland, Second Regiment + Volunteers, accompanied Captain Burgwin into the corral, + but the attempt on the church door proved fruitless, and + they were compelled to retire behind the wall. In the + meantime, small holes had been cut in the western wall, and + shells were thrown in by hand, doing good execution. + The six-pounder was now brought around by Lieutenant Wilson, + who, at the distance of two hundred yards, poured a heavy + fire of grape into the town. The enemy, during all of + this time, kept up a destructive fire upon our troops. + About half-past three o'clock, the six-pounder was run up + within sixty yards of the church, and after ten rounds, + one of the holes which had been cut with the axes was + widened into a practicable breach. The storming party, + among whom were Lieutenant Dyer, of the ordnance, and + Lieutenant Wilson and Taylor, First Dragoons, entered and + took possession of the church without opposition. + The interior was filled with dense smoke, but for which + circumstance our storming party would have suffered great + loss. A few of the enemy were seen in the gallery, + where an open door admitted the air, but they retired + without firing a gun. The troops left to support the + battery on the north side were now ordered to charge on + that side. + + "The enemy then abandoned the western part of the town. + Many took refuge in the large houses on the east, while + others endeavoured to escape toward the mountains. + These latter were pursued by the mounted men under Captains + Slack and St. Vrain, who killed fifty-one of them, only two + or three men escaping. It was now night, and our troops + were quietly quartered in the house which the enemy had + abandoned. On the next morning the enemy sued for peace, + and thinking the severe loss they had sustained would prove + a salutary lesson, I granted their supplication, on the + condition that they should deliver up to me Tomas, one of + their principal men, who had instigated and been actively + engaged in the murder of Governor Bent and others. + The number of the enemy at the battle of Pueblo de Taos + was between six and seven hundred, and of these one hundred + and fifty were killed, wounded not known. Our own loss was + seven killed and forty-five wounded; many of the wounded + have since died." + + The capture of the Taos Pueblo practically ended the main + attempt to expel the Americans from the Territory. + Governor Montoya, who was a very influential man in the + conspiracy and styled himself the "Santa Ana of the North," + was tried by court-martial, convicted, and executed on + February 7th, in the presence of the army. Fourteen others + were tried for participating in the murder of Governor Bent + and the others who were killed on the 19th of January, and + were convicted and executed. Thus, fifteen in all were + hung, being an equal number to those murdered at Taos, the + Arroyo Hondo, and Rio Colorado. Of these, eight were + Mexicans and seven were Pueblo Indians. Several more were + sentenced to be hung for treason, but the President very + properly pardoned them, on the ground that treason against + the United States was not a crime of which a Mexican + citizen could be found guilty, while his country was + actually at war with the United States. +</pre> + <p> + There are several thrilling, as well as laughable, incidents connected + with the Taos massacre, and the succeeding trial of the insurrectionists; + in regard to which I shall quote freely from <i>Wah-to-yah</i>, whose + author, Mr. Lewis H. Garrard, accompanied Colonel St. Vrain across the + plains in 1846, and was present at the trial and execution of the + convicted participants. + </p> + <p> + One Fitzgerald, who was a private in Captain Burgwin's company of + Dragoons, in the fight at the Pueblo de Taos, killed three Mexicans with + his own hand, and performed heroic work with the bombs that were thrown + into that strong Indian fortress. He was a man of good feeling, but his + brother having been killed, or rather murdered by Salazar, while a + prisoner in the Texan expedition against Santa Fe, he swore vengeance, and + entered the service with the hope of accomplishing it. The day following + the fight at the Pueblo, he walked up to the alcalde, and deliberately + shot him down. For this act he was confined to await a trial for murder. + </p> + <p> + One raw night, complaining of cold to his guard, wood was brought, which + he piled up in the middle of the room. Then mounting that, and succeeding + in breaking through the roof, he noiselessly crept to the eaves, below + which a sentinel, wrapped in a heavy cloak, paced to and fro, to prevent + his escape. He watched until the guard's back was turned, then swung + himself from the wall, and with as much ease as possible, walked to a + mess-fire, where his friends in waiting supplied him with a pistol and + clothing. When day broke, the town of Fernandez lay far beneath him in the + valley, and two days after he was safe in our camp. + </p> + <p> + Many a hand-to-hand encounter ensued during the fight at Taos, one of + which was by Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, whom I knew intimately; a grand old + gentleman, now sleeping peacefully in the quaint little graveyard at Mora, + New Mexico, where he resided for many years. The gallant colonel, while + riding along, noticed an Indian with whom he was well acquainted lying + stretched out on the ground as if dead. Confident that this particular red + devil had been especially prominent in the hellish acts of the massacre, + the colonel dismounted from his pony to satisfy himself whether the savage + was really dead or only shamming. He was far from being a corpse, for the + colonel had scarcely reached the spot, when the Indian jumped to his feet + and attempted to run a long, steel-pointed lance through the officer's + shoulder. Colonel St. Vrain was a large, powerfully built man; so was the + Indian, I have been told. As each of the struggling combatants endeavoured + to get the better of the other, with the savage having a little the + advantage, perhaps, it appears that "Uncle Dick" Wooton, who was in the + chase after the rebels, happened to arrive on the scene, and hitting the + Indian a terrific blow on the head with his axe, settled the question as + to his being a corpse. + </p> + <p> + Court for the trial of the insurrectionists assembled at nine o'clock. On + entering the room, Judges Beaubien and Houghton were occupying their + official positions. After many dry preliminaries, six prisoners were + brought in—ill-favoured, half-scared, sullen fellows; and the jury + of Mexicans and Americans having been empanelled, the trial commenced. It + certainly did appear to be a great assumption on the part of the Americans + to conquer a country, and then arraign the revolting inhabitants for + treason. American judges sat on the bench. New Mexicans and Americans + filled the jury-box, and American soldiery guarded the halls. It was a + strange mixture of violence and justice—a middle ground between the + martial and common law. + </p> + <p> + After an absence of a few minutes, the jury returned with a verdict of + "guilty in the first degree"—five for murder, one for treason. + Treason, indeed! What did the poor devil know about his new allegiance? + But so it was; and as the jail was overstocked with others awaiting trial, + it was deemed expedient to hasten the execution, and the culprits were + sentenced to be hung on the following Friday—hangman's day. + </p> + <p> + Court was daily in session; five more Indians and four Mexicans were + sentenced to be hung on the 30th of April. In the court room, on the + occasion of the trial of these nine prisoners, were Senora Bent the late + governor's wife, and Senora Boggs, giving their evidence in regard to the + massacre, of which they were eye-witnesses. Mrs. Bent was quite handsome; + a few years previously she must have been a beautiful woman. The wife of + the renowned Kit Carson also was in attendance. Her style of beauty was of + the haughty, heart-breaking kind—such as would lead a man, with a + glance of the eye, to risk his life for one smile. + </p> + <p> + The court room was a small, oblong apartment, dimly lighted by two narrow + windows; a thin railing keeping the bystanders from contact with the + functionaries. The prisoners faced the judges, and the three witnesses—Senoras + Bent, Boggs, and Carson—were close to them on a bench by the wall. + When Mrs. Bent gave her testimony, the eyes of the culprits were fixed + sternly upon her; when she pointed out the Indian who had killed the + governor, not a muscle of the chief's face twitched or betrayed agitation, + though he was aware her evidence settled his death warrant; he sat with + lips gently closed, eyes earnestly fixed on her, without a show of malice + or hatred—a spectacle of Indian fortitude, and of the severe mastery + to which the emotions can be subjected. + </p> + <p> + Among the jurors was a trapper named Baptiste Brown, a Frenchman, as were + the majority of the trappers in the early days of the border. He was an + exceptionally kind-hearted man when he first came to the mountains, and + seriously inclined to regard the Indians with that mistaken sentimentality + characterizing the average New England philanthropist, who has never seen + the untutored savage on his native heath. His ideas, however, underwent a + marked change as the years rolled on and he became more familiar with the + attributes of the noble red man. He was with Kit Carson in the Blackfeet + country many years before the Taos massacre, when his convictions were + thus modified, and it was from the famous frontiersman himself I learned + the story of Baptiste's conversion. + </p> + <p> + It was late one night in their camp on one of the many creeks in the + Blackfoot region, where they had been established for several weeks, and + Baptiste was on duty, guarding their meat and furs from the incursions of + a too inquisitive grizzly that had been prowling around, and the + impertinent investigations of the wolves. His attention was attracted to + something high up in a neighbouring tree, that seemed restless, changing + its position constantly like an animal of prey. The Frenchman drew a bead + upon it, and there came tumbling down at his feet a dead savage, with his + war-paint and other Indian paraphernalia adorning his body. Baptiste was + terribly hurt over the circumstance of having killed an Indian, and it + grieved him for a long time. One day, a month after the incident, he was + riding alone far away from our party, and out of sound of their rifles as + well, when a band of Blackfeet discovered him and started for his scalp. + He had no possible chance for escape except by the endurance of his horse; + so a race for life began. He experienced no trouble in keeping out of the + way of their arrows—the Indians had no guns then—and hoped to + make camp before they could possibly wear out his horse. Just as he was + congratulating himself on his luck, right in front of him there suddenly + appeared a great gorge, and not daring to stop or to turn to the right or + left, the only thing to do was to make his animal jump it. It was his only + chance; it was death if he missed it, and death by the most horrible + torture if the Indians captured him. So he drove his heels into his + horse's sides, and essayed the awful leap. His willing animal made a + desperate effort to carry out the desire of his daring rider, but the + dizzy chasm was too wide, and the pursuing savages saw both horse and the + coveted white man dash to the bottom of the frightful canyon together. + Believing that their hated enemy had eluded them forever, they rode back + on their trail, disgusted and chagrined, without even taking the trouble + of looking over the precipice to learn the fate of Baptiste. + </p> + <p> + The horse was instantly killed, and the Frenchman had both of his legs + badly broken. Far from camp, with the Indians in close proximity, he did + not dare discharge his rifle—the usual signal when a trapper is lost + or in danger—or to make any demonstration, so he was compelled to + lie there and suffer, hoping that his comrades, missing him, would start + out to search for him. They did so, but more than twenty-four hours had + elapsed before they found him, as the bottom of the canyon was the last + place they thought of. + </p> + <p> + Doctors, in the wild region where their camp was located, were as + impossible as angels; so his companions set his broken bones as well as + they could, while Baptiste suffered excruciating torture. When they had + completed their crude surgery, they improvised a litter of poles, and + rigged it on a couple of pack-mules, and thus carried him around with them + from camp to camp until he recovered—a period extending over three + months. + </p> + <p> + This affair completely cured Baptiste of his original sentimentality in + relation to the Indian, and he became one of their worst haters. + </p> + <p> + When acting as a juror in the trials of rebel Mexicans and Indians, he was + asleep half the time, and never heard much of the evidence, and that + portion which he did was so much Greek to him. In the last nine cases, in + which the Indian who had murdered Governor Bent was tried, Baptiste, as + soon as the jury room was closed, sang out: "Hang 'em, hang 'em, sacre + enfans des garces, dey dam gran rascale!" "But wait," suggested one of the + cooler members; "let's look at the evidence and find out whether they are + really guilty." Upon this wise caution, Baptiste got greatly excited, + paced the floor, and cried out: "Hang de Indian anyhow; he may not be + guilty now—mais he vare soon will be. Hang 'em all, parceque dey + kill Monsieur Charles; dey take son topknot, vot you call im—scalp. + Hang 'em, hang 'em—sa-a-cre-e!" + </p> + <p> + On Friday the 9th, the day for the execution, the sky was unspotted, save + by hastily fleeting clouds; and as the rising sun loomed over the Taos + Mountain, the bright rays, shining on the yellow and white mud-houses, + reflected cheerful hues, while the shades of the toppling peaks, receding + from the plain beneath, drew within themselves. The humble valley wore an + air of calm repose. The Plaza was deserted; woe-begone burros drawled + forth sacrilegious brays, as the warm sunbeams roused them from hard, + grassless ground, to scent their breakfast among straw and bones. + </p> + <p> + Poor Mexicans hurried to and fro, casting suspicious glances around; los + Yankees at El casa Americano drank their juleps, and puffed their + cigarettes in silence. + </p> + <p> + The sheriff, Metcalf, formerly a mountaineer, was in want of the + wherewithal to hang the condemned criminals, so he borrowed some rawhide + lariats and picket-ropes of a teamster. + </p> + <p> + "Hello, Met," said one of the party present, "these reatas are mighty + stiff—won't fit; eh, old feller?" + </p> + <p> + "I've got something to make 'em fit—good 'intment—don't emit + very sweet perfume; but good enough for Greasers," said the sheriff, + producing a dollar's worth of Mexican soft soap. "This'll make 'em slip + easy—a long ways too easy for them, I 'spect." + </p> + <p> + The prison apartment was a long chilly room, badly ventilated by one small + window and the open door, through which the sun lit up the earth floor, + and through which the poor prisoners wistfully gazed. Two muscular + Mexicans basked in its genial warmth, a tattered serape interposing + between them and the ground. The ends, once fringed but now clear of + pristine ornament, were partly drawn over their breasts, disclosing in the + openings of their fancifully colored shirts—now glazed with filth + and faded with perspiration—the bare skin, covered with straight + black hair. With hands under their heads, in the mass of stringy locks + rusty-brown from neglect, they returned the looks of their executioners + with an unmeaning stare, and unheedingly received the salutation of—"Como + le va!" + </p> + <p> + Along the sides of the room, leaning against the walls, were crowded the + poor wretches, miserable in dress, miserable in features, miserable in + feelings—a more disgusting collection of ragged, greasy, unwashed + prisoners were, probably, never before congregated within so small a space + as the jail of Taos. + </p> + <p> + About nine o'clock, active preparations were made for the execution, and + the soldiery mustered. Reverend padres in long black gowns, with meek + countenances, passed the sentinels, intent on spiritual consolation, or + the administration of the Blessed Sacrament. + </p> + <p> + Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, commanding the military, ordered every + American under arms. The prison was at the edge of the town; no houses + intervened between it and the fields to the north. One hundred and fifty + yards distant, a gallows was erected. + </p> + <p> + The word was passed, at last, that the criminals were coming. Eighteen + soldiers received them at the gate, with their muskets at "port arms"; the + six abreast, with the sheriff on the right—nine soldiers on each + side. + </p> + <p> + The poor prisoners marched slowly, with downcast eyes, arms tied behind, + and bare heads, with the exception of white cotton caps stuck on the back, + to be pulled over the face as the last ceremony. + </p> + <p> + The roofs of the houses in the vicinity were covered with women and + children, to witness the first execution by hanging in the valley of Taos, + save that of Montojo, the insurgent leader. No men were near; a few stood + afar off, moodily looking on. + </p> + <p> + On the flat jail roof was placed a mountain howitzer, loaded and ranging + the gallows. Near was the complement of men to serve it, one holding in + his hand a lighted match. The two hundred and thirty soldiers, less the + eighteen forming the guard, were paraded in front of the jail, and in + sight of the gibbet, so as to secure the prisoners awaiting trial. + Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, on a handsome charger, commanded a view of the + whole. + </p> + <p> + When within fifteen paces of the gallows, the side-guard, filing off to + the right, formed, at regular distances from each other, three sides of a + hollow square; the mountaineers composed the fourth and front side, in + full view of the trembling prisoners, who marched up to the tree under + which was a government wagon, with two mules attached. The driver and + sheriff assisted them in, ranging them on a board, placed across the + hinder end, which maintained its balance, as they were six—an even + number—two on each extremity, and two in the middle. The gallows was + so narrow that they touched. The ropes, by reason of their size and + stiffness, despite the soaping given them, were adjusted with difficulty; + but through the indefatigable efforts of the sheriff and a lieutenant who + had accompanied him, all preliminaries were arranged, although the blue + uniform looked sadly out of place on a hangman. + </p> + <p> + With rifles at a "shoulder," the military awaited the consummation of the + tragedy. There was no crowd around to disturb; a death-like stillness + prevailed. The spectators on the roofs seemed scarcely to move—their + eyes were directed to the doomed wretches, with harsh halters now + encircling their necks. + </p> + <p> + The sheriff and his assistant sat down; after a few moments of intense + expectation, the heart-wrung victims said a few words to their people. + Only one of them admitted he had committed murder and deserved death. In + their brief but earnest appeals, the words "mi padre, mi madre"—"my + father, my mother"—were prominent. The one sentenced for treason + showed a spirit of patriotism worthy of the cause for which he died—the + liberty of his country; and instead of the cringing recantation of the + others, his speech was a firm asseveration of his own innocence, the + unjustness of his trial, and the arbitrary conduct of his murderers. As + the cap was pulled over his face, the last words he uttered between his + teeth with a scowl were "Carajo, los Americanos!" + </p> + <p> + At a word from the sheriff, the mules were started, and the wagon drawn + from under the tree. No fall was given, and their feet remained on the + board till the ropes drew tight. The bodies swayed back and forth, and + while thus swinging, the hands of two came together with a firm grasp till + the muscles loosened in death. + </p> + <p> + After forty minutes' suspension, Colonel Willock ordered his command to + quarters, and the howitzer to be taken from its place on the roof of the + jail. The soldiers were called away; the women and population in general + collecting around the rear guard which the sheriff had retained for + protection while delivering the dead to their weeping relatives. + </p> + <p> + While cutting a rope from one man's neck—for it was in a hard knot—the + owner, a government teamster standing by waiting, shouted angrily, at the + same time stepping forward: + </p> + <p> + "Hello there! don't cut that rope; I won't have anything to tie my mules + with." + </p> + <p> + "Oh! you darned fool," interposed a mountaineer, "the dead men's ghosts + will be after you if you use them lariats—wagh! They'll make meat of + you sartain." + </p> + <p> + "Well, I don't care if they do. I'm in government service; and if them + picket-halters was gone, slap down goes a dollar apiece. Money's scarce in + these diggin's, and I'm going to save all I kin to take home to the old + woman and boys." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. + </h2> + <p> + On the summit of one of the highest plateaus bordering the Missouri River, + surrounded by a rich expanse of foliage, lies Independence, the beautiful + residence suburb of Kansas City, only ten miles distant. + </p> + <p> + Tradition tells that early in this century there were a few pioneers + camping at long distances from each other in the seemingly interminable + woods; in summer engaged in hunting the deer, elk, and bear, and in winter + in trapping. It is a well-known fact that the Big Blue was once a + favourite resort of the beaver, and that even later their presence in + great numbers attracted many a veteran trapper to its waters. + </p> + <p> + Before that period the quaint old cities of far-off Mexico were forbidden + to foreign traders, excepting to the favoured few who were successful in + obtaining permits from the Spanish government. In 1821, however, the + rebellion of Iturbide crushed the power of the mother country, and + established the freedom of Mexico. The embargo upon foreign trade was at + once removed, and the Santa Fe Trail, for untold ages only a simple trace + across the continent, became the busy highway of a relatively great + commerce. + </p> + <p> + In 1817 the navigation of the Mississippi River was begun. On the 2d of + August of that year the steamer <i>General Pike</i> arrived at St. Louis. + The first boat to ascend the Missouri River was the <i>Independence</i>; + she passed Franklin on the 28th of May, 1819, where a dinner was given to + her officers. In the same and the following month of that year, the + steamers <i>Western Engineer Expedition</i> and <i>R. M. Johnson</i> came + along, carrying Major Long's scientific exploring party, bound for the + Yellowstone. + </p> + <p> + The Santa Fe trade having been inaugurated shortly after these important + events, those engaged in it soon realized the benefits of river navigation—for + it enabled them to shorten the distance which their wagons had to travel + in going across the plains—and they began to look out for a suitable + place as a shipping and outfitting point higher up the river than + Franklin, which had been the initial starting town. + </p> + <p> + By 1827 trading-posts had been established at Blue Mills, Fort Osage, and + Independence. The first-mentioned place, which is situated about six miles + below Independence, soon became the favourite landing, and the exchange + from wagons to boats settled and defied all efforts to remove the + headquarters of the trade from there for several years. Independence, + however, being the county seat and the larger place, succeeded in its + claims to be the more suitable locality, and as early as 1832 it was + recognized as the American headquarters and the great outfitting point for + the Santa Fe commerce, which it continued to be until 1846, when the + traffic was temporarily suspended by the breaking out of the Mexican War. + </p> + <p> + Independence was not only the principal outfitting point for the Santa Fe + traders, but also that of the great fur companies. That powerful + association used to send out larger pack-trains than any other parties + engaged in the traffic to the Rocky Mountains; they also employed wagons + drawn by mules, and loaded with goods for the Indians with whom their + agents bartered, which also on their return trip transported the skins and + pelts of animals procured from the savages. The articles intended for the + Indian trade were always purchased in St. Louis, and usually shipped to + Independence, consigned to the firm of Aull and Company, who outfitted the + traders with mules and provisions, and in fact anything else required by + them. + </p> + <p> + Several individual traders would frequently form joint caravans, and + travel in company for mutual protection from the Indians. After having + reached a fifty-mile limit from the State line, each trader had control of + his own men; each took care of a certain number of the pack-animals, + loaded and unloaded them in camp, and had general supervision of them. + </p> + <p> + Frequently there would be three hundred mules in a single caravan, + carrying three hundred pounds apiece, and very large animals more. + Thousands of wagons were also sent out from Independence annually, each + drawn by twelve mules or six yoke of oxen, and loaded with general + merchandise. + </p> + <p> + There were no packing houses in those days nearer than St. Louis, and the + bacon and beef used in the Santa Fe trade were furnished by the farmers of + the surrounding country, who killed their meat, cured it, and transported + it to the town where they sold it. Their wheat was also ground at the + local mills, and they brought the flour to market, together with corn, + dried fruit, beans, peas, and kindred provisions used on the long route + across the plains. + </p> + <p> + Independence very soon became the best market west of St. Louis for + cattle, mules, and wagons; the trade of which the place was the + acknowledged headquarters furnishing employment to several thousand men, + including the teamsters and packers on the Trail. The wages paid varied + from twenty-five to fifty dollars a month and rations. The price charged + for hauling freight to Santa Fe was ten dollars a hundred pounds, each + wagon earning from five to six hundred dollars every trip, which was made + in eighty or ninety days; some fast caravans making quicker time. + </p> + <p> + The merchants and general traders of Independence in those days reaped a + grand harvest. Everything to eat was in constant demand; mules and oxen + were sold in great numbers every month at excellent prices and always for + cash; while any good stockman could readily make from ten to fifty dollars + a day. + </p> + <p> + One of the largest manufacturers and most enterprising young men in + Independence at that time was Hiram Young, a coloured man. Besides making + hundreds of wagons, he made all the ox-yokes used in the entire traffic; + fifty thousand annually during the '50's and until the breaking out of the + war. The forward yokes were sold at an average of one dollar and a + quarter, the wheel yokes a dollar higher. + </p> + <p> + The freight transported by the wagons was always very securely loaded; + each package had its contents plainly marked on the outside. The wagons + were heavily covered and tightly closed. Every man belonging to the + caravan was thoroughly armed, and ever on the alert to repulse an attack + by the Indians. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes at the crossing of the Arkansas the quicksands were so bad that + it was necessary to get the caravan over in a hurry; then forty or fifty + yoke of oxen were hitched to one wagon and it was quickly yanked through + the treacherous ford. This was not always the case, however; it depended + upon the stage of water and recent floods. + </p> + <p> + After the close of the war with Mexico, the freight business across the + plains increased to a wonderful degree. The possession of the country by + the United States gave a fresh impetus to the New Mexico trade, and the + traffic then began to be divided between Westport and Kansas City. + Independence lost control of the overland commerce and Kansas City + commenced its rapid growth. Then came the discovery of gold in California, + and this gave an increased business westward; for thousands of men and + their families crossed the plains and the Rocky Mountains, seeking their + fortunes in the new El Dorado. The Old Trail was the highway of an + enormous pilgrimage, and both Independence and Kansas City became the + initial point of a wonderful emigration. + </p> + <p> + In Independence may still be seen a few of the old landmarks when it was + the headquarters of the Santa Fe trade. + </p> + <p> + An overland mail was started from the busy town as early as 1849. In an + old copy of the Missouri <i>Commonwealth</i>, published there under the + date of July, 1850, which I found on file in the Kansas State Historical + Society, there is the following account of the first mail stage westward:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + We briefly alluded, some days since, to the Santa Fe line + of mail stages, which left this city on its first monthly + journey on the 1st instant. The stages are got up in + elegant style, and are each arranged to convey eight + passengers. The bodies are beautifully painted, and made + water-tight, with a view of using them as boats in ferrying + streams. The team consists of six mules to each coach. + The mail is guarded by eight men, armed as follows: Each man + has at his side, fastened in the stage, one of Colt's + revolving rifles; in a holster below, one of Colt's long + revolvers, and in his belt a small Colt's revolver, besides + a hunting-knife; so that these eight men are ready, in case + of attack, to discharge one hundred and thirty-six shots + without having to reload. This is equal to a small army, + armed as in the ancient times, and from the looks of this + escort, ready as they are, either for offensive or defensive + warfare with the savages, we have no fears for the safety + of the mails. + + The accommodating contractors have established a sort of + base of refitting at Council Grove, a distance of one + hundred and fifty miles from this city, and have sent out + a blacksmith, and a number of men to cut and cure hay, with + a quantity of animals, grain, and provisions; and we + understand they intend to make a sort of traveling station + there, and to commence a farm. They also, we believe, + intend to make a similar settlement at Walnut Creek next + season. Two of their stages will start from here the + first of every month. +</pre> + <p> + The old stage-coach days were times of Western romance and adventure, and + the stories told of that era of the border have a singular fascination in + this age of annihilation of distance. + </p> + <p> + Very few, if any, of the famous men who handled the "ribbons" in those + dangerous days of the slow journey across the great plains are among the + living; like the clumsy and forgotten coaches they drove, they have + themselves been mouldering into dust these many years. + </p> + <p> + In many places on the line of the Trail, where the hard hills have not + been subjected to the plough, the deep ruts cut by the lumbering Concord + coaches may yet be distinctly traced. Particularly are they visible from + the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe track, as the cars thunder rapidly + toward the city of Great Bend, in Kansas, three miles east of that town. + Let the tourist as he crosses Walnut Creek look out of his window toward + the east at an angle of about thirty-five degrees, and on the flint hills + which slope gradually toward the railroad, he will observe, very + distinctly, the Old Trail, where it once drew down from the divide to make + the ford at the little stream. + </p> + <p> + The monthly stages started from each end of the route at the same time; + later the service was increased to once a week; after a while to three + times, until in the early '60's daily stages were run from both ends of + the route, and this was continued until the advent of the railroad. + </p> + <p> + Each coach carried eleven passengers, nine closely stowed inside—three + on a seat—and two on the outside on the boot with the driver. The + fare to Santa Fe was two hundred and fifty dollars, the allowance of + baggage being limited to forty pounds; all in excess of that cost half a + dollar a pound. In this now seemingly large sum was included the board of + the travellers, but they were not catered to in any extravagant manner; + hardtack, bacon, and coffee usually exhausted the menu, save that at times + there was an abundance of antelope and buffalo. + </p> + <p> + There was always something exciting in those journeys from the Missouri to + the mountains in the lumbering Concord coach. There was the constant fear + of meeting the wily red man, who persistently hankered after the white + man's hair. Then there was the playfulness of the sometimes drunken + driver, who loved to upset his tenderfoot travellers in some arroya, long + after the moon had sunk below the horizon. + </p> + <p> + It required about two weeks to make the trip from the Missouri River to + Santa Fe, unless high water or a fight with the Indians made it several + days longer. The animals were changed every twenty miles at first, but + later, every ten, when faster time was made. What sleep was taken could + only be had while sitting bolt upright, because there was no laying over; + the stage continued on night and day until Santa Fe was reached. + </p> + <p> + After a few years, the company built stations at intervals varying from + ten miles to fifty or more; and there the animals and drivers were + changed, and meals furnished to travellers, which were always substantial, + but never elegant in variety or cleanliness. + </p> + <p> + Who can ever forget those meals at the "stations," of which you were + obliged to partake or go hungry: biscuit hard enough to serve as + "round-shot," and a vile decoction called, through courtesy, coffee—but + God help the man who disputed it! + </p> + <p> + Some stations, however, were notable exceptions, particularly in the + mountains of New Mexico, where, aside from the bread—usually only + tortillas, made of the blue-flint corn of the country—and coffee + composed of the saints may know what, the meals were excellent. The most + delicious brook trout, alternating with venison of the black-tailed deer, + elk, bear, and all the other varieties of game abounding in the region + cost you one dollar, but the station-keeper a mere trifle; no wonder the + old residents and ranchmen on the line of the Old Trail lament the good + times of the overland stage! + </p> + <p> + Thirteen years ago I revisited the once well-known Kosloskie's Ranch, a + picturesque cabin at the foot of the Glorieta Mountains, about half a mile + from the ruins on the Rio Pecos. The old Pole was absent, but his wife was + there; and, although I had not seen her for fifteen years, she remembered + me well, and at once began to deplore the changed condition of the country + since the advent of the railroad, declaring it had ruined their family + with many others. I could not disagree with her view of the matter, as I + looked on the debris of a former relative greatness all around me. I + recalled the fact that once Kosloskie's Ranch was the favourite eating + station on the Trail; where you were ever sure of a substantial meal—the + main feature of which was the delicious brook trout, which were caught out + of the stream which ran near the door while you were washing the dust out + of your eyes and ears. + </p> + <p> + The trout have vacated the Pecos; the ranch is a ruin, and stands in grim + contrast with the old temple and church on the hill; and both are + monuments of civilizations that will never come again. + </p> + <p> + Weeds and sunflowers mark the once broad trail to the quaint Aztec city, + and silence reigns in the beautiful valley, save when broken by the + passage of "The Flyer" of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railway, as + it struggles up the heavy grade of the Glorieta Mountains a mile or more + distant. + </p> + <p> + Besides the driver, there was another employee—the conductor or + messenger, as he was called. He had charge of the mail and express matter, + collected the fares, and attended generally to the requirements of those + committed to his care during the tedious journey; for he was not changed + like the driver, but stayed with the coach from its starting to its + destination. Sometimes fourteen individuals were accommodated in case of + emergency; but it was terribly crowded and uncomfortable riding, with no + chance to stretch your limbs, save for a few moments at stations where you + ate and changed animals. + </p> + <p> + In starting from Independence, powerful horses were attached to the coach—generally + four in number; but at the first station they were exchanged for mules, + and these animals hauled it the remainder of the way. Drivers were changed + about eight times in making the trip to Santa Fe; and some of them were + comical fellows, but full of nerve and endurance, for it required a man of + nerve to handle eight frisky mules through the rugged passes of the + mountains, when the snow was drifted in immense masses, or when descending + the curved, icy declivities to the base of the range. A cool head was + highly necessary; but frequently accidents occurred and sometimes were + serious in their results. + </p> + <p> + A snowstorm in the mountains was a terrible thing to encounter by the + coach; all that could be done was to wait until it had abated, as there + was no going on in the face of the blinding sheets of intensely cold + vapour which the wind hurled against the sides of the mountains. All + inside of the coach had to sit still and shake with the freezing branches + of the tall trees around them. A summer hailstorm was much more to be + dreaded, however; for nowhere else on the earth do the hailstones shoot + from the clouds of greater size or with greater velocity than in the Rocky + Mountains. Such an event invariably frightened the mules and caused them + to stampede; and, to escape death from the coach rolling down some + frightful abyss, one had to jump out, only to be beaten to a jelly by the + masses of ice unless shelter could be found under some friendly ledge of + rock or the thick limbs of a tree. + </p> + <p> + Nothing is more fatiguing than travelling for the first day and night in a + stage-coach; after that, however, one gets used to it and the remainder of + the journey is relatively comfortable. + </p> + <p> + The only way to alleviate the monotony of riding hour after hour was to + walk; occasionally this was rendered absolutely necessary by some + accident, such as breaking a wheel or axle, or when an animal gave out + before a station was reached. In such cases, however, no deduction was + made from the fare, that having been collected in advance, so it cost you + just as much whether you rode or walked. You could exercise your will in + the matter, but you must not lag behind the coach; the savages were always + watching for such derelicts, and your hair was the forfeit! + </p> + <p> + In the worst years, when the Indians were most decidedly on the war-trail, + the government furnished an escort of soldiers from the military posts; + they generally rode in a six-mule army-wagon, and were commanded by a + sergeant or corporal; but in the early days, before the army had + concentrated at the various forts on the great plains, the stage had to + rely on the courage and fighting qualities of its occupants, and the nerve + and the good judgment of the driver. If the latter understood his duty + thoroughly and was familiar with the methods of the savages, he always + chose the cover of darkness in which to travel in localities where the + danger from Indians was greater than elsewhere; for it is a rare thing in + savage warfare to attack at night. The early morning seemed to be their + favourite hour, when sleep oppresses most heavily; and then it was that + the utmost vigilance was demanded. + </p> + <p> + One of the most confusing things to the novice riding over the great + plains is the idea of distance; mile after mile is travelled on the + monotonous trail, with a range of hills or a low divide in full sight, yet + hours roll by and the objects seem no nearer than when they were first + observed. The reason for this seems to be that every atom of vapour is + eliminated from the air, leaving such an absolute clearness of atmosphere, + such an indescribable transparency of space through which distant objects + are seen, that they are magnified and look nearer than they really are. + Consequently, the usual method of calculating distance and areas by the + eye is ever at fault until custom and familiarity force a new standard of + measure. + </p> + <p> + Mirages, too, were of frequent occurrence on the great plains; some of + them wonderful examples of the refracting properties of light. They + assumed all manner of fantastic, curious shapes, sometimes ludicrously + distorting the landscape; objects, like a herd of buffalo for instance, + though forty miles away, would seem to be high in air, often reversed, and + immensely magnified in their proportions. + </p> + <p> + Violent storms were also frequent incidents of the long ride. I well + remember one night, about thirty years ago, when the coach in which I and + one of my clerks were riding to Fort Dodge was suddenly brought to a + standstill by a terrible gale of wind and hail. The mules refused to face + it, and quickly turning around nearly overturned the stage, while we, with + the driver and conductor, were obliged to hold on to the wheels with all + our combined strength to prevent it from blowing down into a stony ravine, + on the brink of which we were brought to a halt. Fortunately, these + fearful blizzards did not last very long; the wind ceased blowing so + violently in a few moments, but the rain usually continued until morning. + </p> + <p> + It usually happened that you either at once took a great liking for your + driver and conductor, or the reverse. Once, on a trip from Kansas City, + nearly a third of a century ago, when I and another man were the only + occupants of the coach, we entertained quite a friendly feeling for our + driver; he was a good-natured, jolly fellow, full of anecdote and stories + of the Trail, over which he had made more than a hundred sometimes + adventurous journeys. + </p> + <p> + When we arrived at the station at Plum Creek, the coach was a little ahead + of time, and the driver who was there to relieve ours commenced to grumble + at the idea of having to start out before the regular hour. He found fault + because we had come into the station so soon, and swore he could drive + where our man could not "drag a halter-chain," as he claimed in his + boasting. We at once took a dislike to him, and secretly wished that he + would come to grief, in order to cure him of his boasting. Sure enough, + before we had gone half a mile from the station he incontinently tumbled + the coach over into a sandy arroya, and we were delighted at the accident. + Finding ourselves free from any injury, we went to work and assisted him + to right the coach—no small task; but we took great delight in + reminding him several times of his ability to drive where our old friend + could not "drag a halter-chain." It was very dark; neither moon or star + visible, the whole heavens covered with an inky blackness of ominous + clouds; so he was not so much to be blamed after all. + </p> + <p> + The very next coach was attacked at the crossing of Cow Creek by a band of + Kiowas. The savages had followed the stage all that afternoon, but + remained out of sight until just at dark, when they rushed over the low + divide, and mounted on their ponies commenced to circle around the coach, + making the sand dunes resound with echoes of their infernal yelling, and + shaking their buffalo-robes to stampede the mules, at the same time firing + their guns at the men who were in the coach, all of whom made a bold + stand, but were rapidly getting the worst of it, when fortunately a + company of United States cavalry came over the Trail from the west, and + drove the savages off. Two of the men in the coach were seriously wounded, + and one of the soldiers killed; but the Indian loss was never determined, + as they succeeded in carrying off both their dead and wounded. + </p> + <p> + Mr. W. H. Ryus, a friend of mine now residing in Kansas City, who was a + driver and messenger thirty-five years, and had many adventures, told me + the following incidents: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I have crossed the plains sixty-five times by wagon and + coach. In July, 1861, I was employed by Barnum, Vickery, + and Neal to drive over what was known as the Long Route, + that is, from Fort Larned to Fort Lyon, two hundred and + forty miles, with no station between. We drove one set of + mules the whole distance, camped out, and made the journey, + in good weather, in four or five days. In winter we + generally encountered a great deal of snow, and very cold + air on the bleak and wind-swept desert of the Upper Arkansas, + but we employees got used to that; only the passengers did + any kicking. We had a way of managing them, however, + when they got very obstreperous; all we had to do was to + yell Indians! and that quieted them quicker than forty-rod + whiskey does a man. + + We gathered buffalo-chips, to boil our coffee and cook our + buffalo and antelope steak, smoked for a while around the + smouldering fire until the animals were through grazing, + and then started on our lonely way again. + + Sometimes the coach would travel for a hundred miles through + the buffalo herds, never for a moment getting out of sight + of them; often we saw fifty thousand to a hundred thousand + on a single journey out or in. The Indians used to call + them their cattle, and claimed to own them. They did not, + like the white man, take out only the tongue, or hump, and + leave all the rest to dry upon the prairie, but ate every + last morsel, even to the intestines. They said the whites + were welcome to all they could eat or haul away, but they + did not like to see so much meat wasted as was our custom. + + The Indians on the plains were not at all hostile in 1861-62; + we could drive into their villages, where there were tens + of thousands of them, and they would always treat us to + music or a war-dance, and set before us the choicest of + their venison and buffalo. In July of the last-mentioned + year, Colonel Leavenworth, Jr., was crossing the Trail in + my coach. He desired to see Satanta, the great Kiowa chief. + The colonel's father<a href="#linknote-28" name="linknoteref-28" + id="linknoteref-28">28</a> was among the Indians a great deal + while on duty as an army officer, while the young colonel + was a small boy. The colonel said he didn't believe that + old Satanta would know him. + + Just before the arrival of the coach in the region of the + Indian village, the Comanches and the Pawnees had been + having a battle. The Comanches had taken some scalps, + and they were camping on the bank of the Arkansas River, + where Dodge City is now located. The Pawnees had killed + five of their warriors, and the Comanches were engaged in + an exciting war-dance; I think there were from twenty to + thirty thousand Indians gathered there, men, women, and + children of the several tribes—Comanches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, + Arapahoes, and others. + + When we came in sight of their camp, the colonel knew, by + the terrible noise they were making, that a war-dance was + going on; but we did not know then whether it was on account + of troubles among themselves, or because of a fight with + the whites, but we were determined to find out. If he could + get to the old chief, all would be right. So he and I + started for the place whence the noise came. We met a savage + and the colonel asked him whether Satanta was there, and + what was going on. When he told us that they had had + a fight and it was a scalp-dance, our hair lowered; for we + knew that if it was in consequence of trouble with the + whites, we stood in some danger of losing our own scalps. + + The Indian took us in, and the situation, too; and conducted + us into the presence of Satanta, who stood in the middle + of the great circle, facing the dancers. It was out on an + island in the stream; the chief stood very erect, and eyed + us closely for a few seconds, then the colonel told his + own name that the Indians had known him by when he was a boy. + Satanta gave one bound—he was at least ten feet from where + we were waiting—grasped the colonel's hand and excitedly + kissed him, then stood back for another instant, gave him + a second squeeze, offered his hand to me, which I, + of course, shook heartily, then he gazed at the man he had + known as a boy so many years ago, with a countenance + beaming with delight. I never saw any one, even among + the white race, manifest so much joy as the old chief did + over the visit of the colonel to his camp. + + He immediately ordered some of his young men to go out and + herd our mules through the night, which they brought back + to us at daylight. He then had the coach hauled to the + front of his lodge, where we could see all that was going on + to the best advantage. We had six travellers with us on + this journey, and it was a great sight for the tenderfeet. + + It was about ten o'clock at night when we arrived at + Satanta's lodge, and we saw thousands of squaws and bucks + dancing and mourning for their dead warriors. At midnight + the old chief said we must eat something at once. So he + ordered a fire built, cooked buffalo and venison, setting + before us the very best that he had, we furnishing canned + fruit, coffee, and sugar from our coach mess. There we sat, + and talked and ate until morning; then when we were ready + to start off, Satanta and the other chiefs of the various + tribes escorted us about eight miles on the Trail, where + we halted for breakfast, they remaining and eating with us. +</pre> + <p> + Colonel Leavenworth was on his way to assume command of one of the + military posts in New Mexico; the Indians begged him to come back and take + his quarters at either Fort Larned or Fort Dodge. They told him they were + afraid their agent was stealing their goods and selling them back to them; + while if the Indians took anything from the whites, a war was started. + </p> + <p> + Colonel A. G. Boone had made a treaty with these same Indians in 1860, and + it was agreed that he should be their agent. It was done, and the entire + savage nations were restful and kindly disposed toward the whites during + his administration; any one could then cross the plains without fear of + molestation. In 1861, however, Judge Wright, of Indiana, who was a member + of Congress at the time, charged Colonel Boone with disloyalty.<a + href="#linknote-29" name="linknoteref-29" id="linknoteref-29"><small>29</small></a> + He succeeded in having him removed. + </p> + <p> + Majors Russel and Waddell, the great government freight contractors across + the plains, gave Colonel Boone fourteen hundred acres of land, well + improved, with some fine buildings on it, about fifteen miles east of + Pueblo, Colorado. It was christened Booneville, and the colonel moved + there. In the fall of 1862, fifty influential Indians of the various + tribes visited Colonel Boone at his new home, and begged that he would + come back to them and be their agent. He told the chiefs that the + President of the United States would not let him. Then they offered to + sell their horses to raise money for him to go to Washington to tell the + Great Father what their agent was doing; and to have him removed, or there + was going to be trouble. The Indians told Colonel Boone that many of their + warriors would be on the plains that fall, and they were declaring they + had as much right to take something to eat from the trains as their agent + had to steal goods from them. + </p> + <p> + Early in the winter of the next year, a small caravan of eight or ten + wagons travelling to the Missouri River was overhauled at Nine Mile Ridge, + about fifty miles west of Fort Dodge, by a band of Indians, who asked for + something to eat. The teamsters, thinking them to be hostile, believed it + would be a good thing to kill one of them anyhow; so they shot an + inoffensive warrior, after which the train moved on to its camp and the + trouble began. Every man in the whole outfit, with the exception of one + teamster, who luckily got to the Arkansas River and hid, was murdered, the + animals all carried away, and the wagons and contents destroyed by fire. + </p> + <p> + This foolish act by the master of the caravan was the cause of a long war, + causing hundreds of atrocious murders and the destruction of a great deal + of property along the whole Western frontier. + </p> + <p> + That fall, 1863, Mr. Ryus was the messenger or conductor in charge of the + coach running from Kansas City to Santa Fe. He said: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + It then required a month to make the round trip, about + eighteen hundred miles. On account of the Indian war + we had to have an escort of soldiers to go through the most + dangerous portions of the Trail; and the caravans all + joined forces for mutual safety, besides having an escort. + + My coach was attacked several times during that season, and + we had many close calls for our scalps. Sometimes the + Indians would follow us for miles, and we had to halt and + fight them; but as for myself, I had no desire to kill one + of the miserable, outraged creatures, who had been swindled + out of their just rights. + + I know of but one occasion when we were engaged in a fight + with them when our escort killed any of the attacking + savages; it was about two miles from Little Coon Creek + Station, where they surrounded the coach and commenced + hostilities. In the fight one officer and one enlisted man + were wounded. The escort chased the band for several miles, + killed nine of them, and got their horses. +</pre> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. CHARLES BENT. + </h2> + <p> + Almost immediately after the ratification of the purchase of New Mexico by + the United States under the stipulations of the "Guadalupe-Hidalgo + Treaty," the Utes, one of the most powerful tribes of mountain Indians, + inaugurated a bloody and relentless war against the civilized inhabitants + of the Territory. It was accompanied by all the horrible atrocities which + mark the tactics of savage hatred toward the white race. It continued for + several years with more or less severity; its record a chapter of history + whose pages are deluged with blood, until finally the Indians were subdued + by the power of the military. + </p> + <p> + Along the line of the Santa Fe Trail, they were frequently in conjunction + with the Apaches, and their depredations and atrocities were very + numerous; they attacked fearlessly freight caravans, private expeditions, + and overland stage-coaches, robbing and murdering indiscriminately. + </p> + <p> + In January, 1847, the mail and passenger stage left Independence, + Missouri, for Santa Fe on one of its regular trips across the plains. It + had its full complement of passengers, among whom were a Mr. White and + family, consisting of his wife, one child, and a coloured nurse. + </p> + <p> + Day after day the lumbering Concord coach rolled on, with nothing to + disturb the monotony of the vast prairies, until it had left them far + behind and crossed the Range into New Mexico. Just about dawn, as the + unsuspecting travellers were entering the "canyon of the Canadian,"<a + href="#linknote-30" name="linknoteref-30" id="linknoteref-30"><small>30</small></a> + and probably waking up from their long night's sleep, a band of Indians, + with blood-curdling yells and their terrific war-whoop, rode down upon + them. + </p> + <p> + In that lonely and rock-sheltered gorge a party of the hostile savages, + led by "White Wolf," a chief of the Apaches, had been awaiting the arrival + of the coach from the East; the very hour it was due was well known to + them, and they had secreted themselves there the night before so as to be + on hand should it reach their chosen ambush a little before the schedule + time. + </p> + <p> + Out dashed the savages, gorgeous in their feathered war-bonnets, but + looking like fiends with their paint-bedaubed faces. Stopping the + frightened mules, they pulled open the doors of the coach and, mercilessly + dragging its helpless and surprised inmates to the ground, immediately + began their butchery. They scalped and mutilated the dead bodies of their + victims in their usual sickening manner, not a single individual escaping, + apparently, to tell of their fiendish acts. + </p> + <p> + If the Indians had been possessed of sufficient cunning to cover up the + tracks of their horrible atrocities, as probably white robbers would have + done, by dragging the coach from the road and destroying it by fire or + other means, the story of the murders committed in the deep canyon might + never have been known; but they left the tell-tale remains of the + dismantled vehicle just where they had attacked it, and the naked corpses + of its passengers where they had been ruthlessly killed. + </p> + <p> + At the next stage station the employees were anxiously waiting for the + arrival of the coach, and wondering what could have caused the delay; for + it was due there at noon on the day of the massacre. Hour after hour + passed, and at last they began to suspect that something serious had + occurred; they sat up all through the night listening for the familiar + rumbling of wheels, but still no stage. At daylight next morning, + determined to wait no longer, as they felt satisfied that something out of + the usual course had happened, a party hurriedly mounted their horses and + rode down the broad trail leading to the canyon. + </p> + <p> + Upon entering its gloomy mouth after a quick lope of an hour, they + discovered the ghastly remains of twelve mutilated bodies. These were + gathered up and buried in one grave, on the top of the bluff overlooking + the narrow gorge. + </p> + <p> + They could not be sure of the number of passengers the coach had brought + until the arrival of the next, as it would have a list of those carried by + its predecessor; but it would not be due for several days. They naturally + supposed, however, that the twelve dead lying on the ground were its full + complement. + </p> + <p> + Not waiting for the arrival of the next stage, they despatched a messenger + to the last station east that the one whose occupants had been murdered + had passed, and there learned the exact number of passengers it had + contained. Now they knew that Mrs. White, her child, and the coloured + nurse had been carried off into a captivity worse than death; for no + remains of a woman were found with the others lying in the canyon. + </p> + <p> + The terrible news of the massacre was conveyed to Taos, where were + stationed several companies of the Second United States Dragoons, + commanded by Major William Greer; but as the weather had grown intensely + cold and stormy since the date of the massacre, it took nearly a fortnight + for the terrible story to reach there. The Major acted promptly when + appealed to to go after and punish the savages concerned in the outrage, + but several days more were lost in getting an expedition ready for the + field. It was still stormy while the command was preparing for its work; + but at last, one bright morning, in a piercing cold wind, five troops of + the dragoons, commanded by Major Greer in person, left their comfortable + quarters to attempt the rescue of Mrs. White, her child, and nurse. + </p> + <p> + Kit Carson, "Uncle Dick" Wooten, Joaquin Leroux, and Tom Tobin were the + principal scouts and guides accompanying the expedition, having + volunteered their services to Major Greer, which he had gladly accepted. + </p> + <p> + The massacre having occurred three weeks before the command had arrived at + the canyon of the Canadian, and snow having fallen almost continuously + ever since, the ground was deeply covered, making it almost impossible to + find the trail of the savages leading out of the gorge. No one knew where + they had established their winter camp—probably hundreds of miles + distant on some tributary of the Canadian far to the south. + </p> + <p> + Carson, Wooton, and Leroux, after scanning the ground carefully at every + point, though the snow was ten inches deep, in a way of which only men + versed in savage lore are capable, were rewarded by discovering certain + signs, unintelligible to the ordinary individual<a href="#linknote-31" + name="linknoteref-31" id="linknoteref-31"><small>31</small></a>—that + the murderers had gone south out of the canyon immediately after + completing their bloody work, and that their camp was somewhere on the + river, but how far off none could tell. + </p> + <p> + The command followed up the trail discovered by the scouts for nearly four + hundred miles. Early one morning when that distance had been rounded, and + just as the men were about to break camp preparatory to the day's march, + Carson went out on a little reconnoissance on his own account, as he had + noticed a flock of ravens hovering in the air when he first got out of his + blankets at dawn, which was sufficient indication to him that an Indian + camp was located somewhere in the vicinity; for that ominous bird is + always to be found in the region where the savages take up an abode, + feeding upon the carcasses of the many varieties of game killed for food. + He had not proceeded more than half a mile from the camp when he + discovered two Indians slowly riding over a low "divide," driving a herd + of ponies before them. The famous scout was then certain their village + could not be very far away. The savages did not observe him, as he took + good care they should not; so he returned quickly to where Major Greer was + standing by his camp-fire and reported the presence of a village very + close at hand. + </p> + <p> + The Major having sent for Tom Tobin and Uncle Dick Wooton, requested them + to go and find the exact location of the savages. These scouts came back + in less than half an hour, and reported a large number of teepees in a + thick grove of timber a mile away. + </p> + <p> + It was at once determined to surprise the savages in their winter quarters + by charging right among their lodges without allowing them time to mount + their ponies, as the gallant Custer rode, at the head of his famous + troopers of the Seventh Cavalry, into the camp of the celebrated chief + "Black Kettle" on the Washita, in the dawn of a cold November morning + twenty years afterward. + </p> + <p> + The command succeeded in getting within good charging distance of the + village without its occupants having any knowledge of its proximity; but + at this moment Major Greer was seized with an idea that he ought to have a + parley with the Indians before he commenced to fight them, and for that + purpose he ordered a halt, just as the soldiers were eager for the sound + of the "Charge!" + </p> + <p> + Never were a body of men more enraged. Carson gave vent to his wrath in a + series of elaborately carved English oaths, for which he was noted when + young; Leroux, whose naturally hot blood was roused, swore at the Major in + a curious mixture of bad French and worse mountain dialect, and it + appeared as if the battle would begin in the ranks of the troops instead + of those of the savages; for never was a body of soldiers so disgusted at + the act of any commanding officer. + </p> + <p> + This delay gave the Indians, who could be seen dodging about among their + lodges and preparing for a fight that was no longer a surprise, time to + hide their women and children, mount their ponies, and get down into deep + ravines, where the soldiers could not follow them. While the Major was + trying to convince his subordinates that his course was the proper one, + the Indians opened fire without any parley, and it happened that at the + first volley a bullet struck him in the breast, but a suspender buckle + deflected its course and he was not seriously wounded. + </p> + <p> + The change in the countenance of their commanding officer caused by the + momentary pain was just the incentive the troopers wanted, and without + waiting for the sound of the trumpet, they spurred their horses, dashed + in, and charged the thunderstruck savages with the shock of a tornado. + </p> + <p> + In two successful charges of the gallant and impatient troopers more than + a hundred of the Indians were killed and wounded, but the time lost had + permitted many to escape, and the pursuit of the stragglers would have + been unavailing under the circumstances; so the command turned back and + returned to Taos. In the village was found the body of Mrs. White still + warm, with three arrows in her breast. Had the charge been made as + originally expected by the troopers, her life would have been saved. No + trace of the child or of the coloured nurse was ever discovered, and it is + probable that they were both killed while en route from the canyon to the + village, as being valueless to keep either as slaves or for other + purposes. + </p> + <p> + The fate of the Apache chief, "White Wolf," who was the leader in the + outrages in the canyon of the Canadian, was fitting for his devilish + deeds. It was Lieutenant David Bell's fortune to avenge the murder of Mrs. + White and her family, and in an extraordinary manner.<a href="#linknote-32" + name="linknoteref-32" id="linknoteref-32"><small>32</small></a> The action + was really dramatic, or romantic; he was on a scout with his company, + which was stationed at Fort Union, New Mexico, having about thirty men + with him, and when near the canyon of the Canadian they met about the same + number of Indians. A parley was in order at once, probably desired by the + savages, who were confronted with an equal number of troopers. Bell had + assigned the baggage-mules to the care of five or six of his command, and + held a mounted interview with the chief, who was no other than the + infamous White Wolf of the Jicarilla Apaches. As Bell approached, White + Wolf was standing in front of his Indians, who were on foot, all well + armed and in perfect line. Bell was in advance of his troopers, who were + about twenty paces from the Indians, exactly equal in number and extent of + line; both parties were prepared to use firearms. + </p> + <p> + The parley was almost tediously long and the impending duel was arranged, + White Wolf being very bold and defiant. + </p> + <p> + At last the leaders exchanged shots, the chief sinking on one knee and + aiming his gun, Bell throwing his body forward and making his horse rear. + Both lines, by command, fired, following the example of their superiors, + the troopers, however, spurring forward over their enemies. The warriors, + or nearly all of them, threw themselves on the ground, and several + vertical wounds were received by horse and rider. The dragoons turned + short about, and again charged through and over their enemies, the fire + being continuous. As they turned for a third charge, the surviving Indians + were seen escaping to a deep ravine, which, although only one or two + hundred paces off, had not previously been noticed. A number of the + savages thus escaped, the troopers having to pull up at the brink, but + sending a volley after the descending fugitives. + </p> + <p> + In less than fifteen minutes twenty-one of the forty-six actors in this + strange combat were slain or disabled. Bell was not hit, but four or five + of his men were killed or wounded. He had shot White Wolf several times, + and so did others after him; but so tenacious of life was the Apache that, + to finish him, a trooper got a great stone and mashed his head. + </p> + <p> + This was undoubtedly the greatest duel of modern times; certainly nothing + like it ever occurred on the Santa Fe Trail before or since. + </p> + <p> + The war chief of the Kiowa nation in the early '50's was Satank, a most + unmitigated villain; cruel and heartless as any savage that ever robbed a + stage-coach or wrenched off the hair of a helpless woman. After serving a + dozen or more years with a record for hellish atrocities equalled by few + of his compeers, he was deposed for alleged cowardice, as his warriors + claimed, under the following circumstances:— + </p> + <p> + The village of his tribe was established in the large bottoms, eight miles + from the Great Bend of the Arkansas, and about the same distance from Fort + Zarah.<a href="#linknote-33" name="linknoteref-33" id="linknoteref-33"><small>33</small></a> + All the bucks were absent on a hunting expedition, excepting Satank and a + few superannuated warriors. The troops were out from Fort Larned on a + grand scout after marauding savages, when they suddenly came across the + village and completely took the Kiowas by surprise. Seeing the soldiers + almost upon them, Satank and other warriors jumped on their ponies and + made good their escape. Had they remained, all of them would have been + killed or at least captured; consequently Satank, thinking discretion + better than valour at that particular juncture, incontinently fled. His + warriors in council, however, did not agree with him; they thought that it + was his duty to have remained at the village in defence of the women and + children, as he had been urged to refrain from going on the hunt for that + very purpose. + </p> + <p> + Some time before Satank lost his office of chief, there was living on Cow + Creek, in a rude adobe building, a man who was ostensibly an Indian + trader, but whose traffic, in reality, consisted in selling whiskey to the + Indians, and consequently the United States troops were always after him. + He was obliged to cache his liquor in every conceivable manner so that the + soldiers should not discover it, and, of course, he dreaded the incursions + of the troops much more than he did raids of the Indian marauders that + were constantly on the Trail. + </p> + <p> + Satank and this illicit trader, whose name was Peacock, were great chums. + One day while they were indulging in a general good time over sundry + drinks of most villanous liquor, Satank said to Peacock: "Peacock, I want + you to write me a letter; a real nice one, that I can show to the + wagon-bosses on the Trail, and get all the 'chuck' I want. Tell them I am + Satank, the great chief of the Kiowas, and for them to treat me the best + they know how." + </p> + <p> + "All right, Satank," said Peacock; "I'll do so." Peacock then sat down and + wrote the following epistle:— + </p> + <p> + "The bearer of this is Satank. He is the biggest liar, beggar, and thief + on the plains. What he can't beg of you, he'll steal. Kick him out of + camp, for he is a lazy, good-for-nothing Indian." + </p> + <p> + Satank began at once to make use of the supposed precious document, which + he really believed would assure him the dignified treatment and courtesy + due to his exalted rank. He presented it to several caravans during the + ensuing week, and, of course, received a very cool reception in every + instance, or rather a very warm one. + </p> + <p> + One wagon-master, in fact, black-snaked him out of his camp. After these + repeated insults he sought another white friend, and told of his + grievances. "Look here," said Satank, "I asked Peacock to write me a good + letter, and he gave me this; but I don't understand it! Every time I hand + it to a wagon-boss, he gives me the devil! Read it to me and tell me just + what it does say." + </p> + <p> + His friend read it over, and then translated it literally to Satank. The + savage assumed a countenance of extreme disgust, and after musing for a + few moments, said: "Well, I understand it all now. All right!" + </p> + <p> + The next morning at daylight, Satank called for some of his braves and + with them rode out to Peacock's ranch. Arriving there, he called out to + Peacock, who had not yet risen: "Peacock, get up, the soldiers are + coming!" It was a warning which the illicit trader quickly obeyed, and + running out of the building with his field-glass in his hand, he started + for his lookout, but while he was ascending the ladder with his back to + Satank the latter shot him full of holes, saying, as he did so: "There, + Peacock, I guess you won't write any more letters." + </p> + <p> + His warriors then entered the building and killed every man in it, save + one who had been gored by a buffalo bull the day before, and who was lying + in a room all by himself. He was saved by the fact that the Indian has a + holy dread of small-pox, and will never enter an apartment where sick men + lie, fearing they may have the awful disease. + </p> + <p> + Satanta (White Bear) was the most efficient and dreaded chief of all who + have ever been at the head of the Kiowa nation. Ever restlessly active in + ordering or conducting merciless forays against an exposed frontier, he + was the very incarnation of deviltry in his determined hatred of the + whites, and his constant warfare against civilization. + </p> + <p> + He also possessed wonderful oratorical powers; he could hurl the most + violent invectives at those whom he argued with, or he could be equally + pathetic when necessary. He was justly called "The Orator of the Plains," + rivalling the historical renown of Tecumseh or Pontiac. + </p> + <p> + He was a short, bullet-headed Indian, full of courage and well versed in + strategy. Ordinarily, when on his visits to the various military posts he + wore a major-general's full uniform, a suit of that rank having been given + to him in the summer of 1866 by General Hancock. He also owned an + ambulance, a team of mules, and a set of harness, the last stolen, maybe, + from some caravan he had raided on the Trail. In that ambulance, with a + trained Indian driver, the wily chief travelled, wrapped in a savage + dignity that was truly laughable. In his village, too, he assumed a great + deal of style. He was very courteous to his white guests, if at the time + his tribe were at all friendly with the government; nothing was too good + for them. He always laid down a carpet on the floor of his lodge in the + post of honour, on which they were to sit. He had large boards, twenty + inches wide and three feet long, ornamented with brass tacks driven all + around the edges, which he used for tables. He also had a French horn, + which he blew vigorously when meals were ready. + </p> + <p> + His friendship was only dissembling. During all the time that General + Sheridan was making his preparations for his intended winter campaign + against the allied plains tribes, Satanta made frequent visits to the + military posts, ostensibly to show the officers that he was heartily for + peace, but really to inform himself of what was going on. + </p> + <p> + At that time I was stationed at Fort Harker, on the Smoky Hill. One + evening, General Sheridan, who was my guest, was sitting on the verandah + of my quarters, smoking and chatting with me and some other officers who + had come to pay him their respects, when one of my men rode up and quietly + informed me that Satanta had just driven his ambulance into the fort, and + was getting ready to camp near the mule corral. On receiving this + information, I turned to the general and suggested the propriety of either + killing or capturing the inveterate demon. Personally I believed it would + be right to get rid of such a character, and I had men under my command + who would have been delighted to execute an order to that effect. + </p> + <p> + Sheridan smiled when I told him of Satanta's presence and the excellent + chance to get rid of him. But he said: "That would never do; the + sentimentalists in the Eastern States would raise such a howl that the + whole country would be horrified!" + </p> + <p> + Of course, in these "piping times of peace" the reader, in the quiet of + his own room, will think that my suggestion was brutal, and without any + palliation; my excuse, however, may be found in General Washington's own + motto: Exitus acta probat. If the suggestion had been acted upon, many an + innocent man and woman would have escaped torture, and many a maiden a + captivity worse than death. + </p> + <p> + As a specimen of Satanta's oratory, I offer the following, to show the + hypocrisy of the subtle old villain, and his power over the minds of too + sensitive auditors. Once Congress sent out to the central plains a + commission from Washington to inquire into the causes of the continual + warfare raging with the savages on the Kansas border; to learn what the + grievances of the Indians were; and to find some remedy for the wholesale + slaughter of men, women, and children along the line of the Old Trail. + </p> + <p> + Satanta was sent for by the commission as the leading spirit of the + formidable Kiowa nation. When he entered the building at Fort Dodge in + which daily sessions were held, he was told by the president to speak his + mind without any reservation; to withhold nothing, but to truthfully + relate what his tribe had to complain of on the part of the whites. The + old rascal grew very pathetic as he warmed up to his subject. He declared + that he had no desire to kill the white settlers or emigrants crossing the + plains, but that those who came and lived on the land of his tribe + ruthlessly slaughtered the buffalo, allowing their carcasses to rot on the + prairie; killing them merely for the amusement it afforded them, while the + Indian only killed when necessity demanded. He also stated that the white + hunters set out fires, destroying the grass, and causing the tribe's + horses to starve to death as well as the buffalo; that they cut down and + otherwise destroyed the timber on the margins of the streams, making large + fires of it, while the Indian was satisfied to cook his food with a few + dry and dead limbs. "Only the other day," said he, "I picked up a little + switch on the Trail, and it made my heart bleed to think that so small a + green branch, ruthlessly torn out of the ground and thoughtlessly + destroyed by some white man, would in time have grown into a stately tree + for the use and benefit of my children and grandchildren." + </p> + <p> + After the pow-wow had ended, and Satanta had got a few drinks of red + liquor into him, his real, savage nature asserted itself, and he said to + the interpreter at the settler's store: "Now didn't I give it to those + white men who came from the Great Father? Didn't I do it in fine style? + Why, I drew tears from their eyes! The switch I saw on the Trail made my + heart glad instead of sad; for I new there was a tenderfoot ahead of me, + because an old plainsman or hunter would never have carried anything but a + good quirt or a pair of spurs. So I said to my warriors, 'Come on, boys; + we've got him!' and when we came in sight, after we had followed him + closely on the dead run, he threw away his rifle and held tightly on to + his hat for fear he should lose it!" + </p> + <p> + Another time when Satanta had remained at Fort Dodge for a very long + period and had worn out his welcome, so that no one would give him + anything to drink, he went to the quarters of his old friend, Bill + Bennett, the overland stage agent, and begged him to give him some liquor. + Bill was mixing a bottle of medicine to drench a sick mule. The moment he + set the bottle down to do something else, Satanta seized it off the ground + and drank most of the liquid before quitting. Of course, it made the old + savage dreadfully sick as well as angry. He then started for a certain + officer's quarters and again begged for something to cure him of the + effects of the former dose; the officer refused, but Satanta persisted in + his importunities; he would not leave without it. After a while, the + officer went to a closet and took a swallow of the most nauseating + medicine, placing the bottle back on its shelf. Satanta watched his + chance, and, as soon as the officer left the room, he snatched the bottle + out of the closet and drank its contents without stopping to breathe. It + was, of course, a worse dose than the horse-medicine. The next day, very + early in the morning, he assembled a number of his warriors, crossed the + Arkansas, and went south to his village. Before leaving, however, he burnt + all of the government contractor's hay on the bank of the river opposite + the post. He then continued on to Crooked Creek, where he murdered three + wood-choppers, all of which, he said afterward, he did in revenge for the + attempt to poison him at Fort Dodge. + </p> + <p> + At the Comanche agency, where several of the government agents were + assembled to have a talk with chiefs of the various plains tribes, Satanta + said in his address: "I would willingly take hold of that part of the + white man's road which is represented by the breech-loading rifles; but I + don't like the corn rations—they make my teeth hurt!" + </p> + <p> + Big Tree was another Kiowa chief. He was the ally and close friend of + Satanta, and one of the most daring and active of his warriors. The + sagacity and bravery of these two savages would have been a credit to that + of the most famous warriors of the old French and Indian Wars. Both were + at last taken, tried, and sent to the Texas penitentiary for life. Satanta + was eventually pardoned; but before he was made aware of the efforts that + were being taken for his release, he attempted to escape, and, in jumping + from a window, fell and broke his neck. His pardon arrived the next + morning. Big Tree, through the work of the sentimentalists of Washington, + was set free and sent to the Kiowa Reservation—near Fort Sill in the + Indian Territory. + </p> + <p> + The next most audacious and terrible scourge of the plains was + "Ta-ne-on-koe" (Kicking Bird). He was a great warrior of the Kiowas, and + was the chief actor in some of the bloodiest raids on the Kansas frontier + in the history of its troublous times. + </p> + <p> + One of his captures was that of a Miss Morgan and Mrs. White. They were + finally rescued from the savages by General Custer, under the following + circumstances: Custer, who was advancing with his column of invincible + cavalrymen—the famous Seventh United States—in search of the + two unfortunate women, had arrived near the head waters of one of the + tributaries of the Washita, and, with only his guide and interpreter, was + far in advance of the column, when, on reaching the summit of an isolated + bluff, they suddenly saw a village of the Kiowas, which turned out to be + that of Kicking Bird, whose handsome lodge was easily distinguishable from + the rest. Without waiting for his command, the general and his guide rode + boldly to the lodge of the great chief, and both dismounted, holding + cocked revolvers in their hands; Custer presented his at Kicking Bird's + head. In the meantime, Custer's column of troopers, whom the Kiowas had + good reason to remember for their bravery in many a hard-fought battle, + came in full view of the astonished village. This threw the startled + savages into the utmost consternation, but the warriors were held in check + by signs from Kicking Bird. As the cavalry drew nearer, General Custer + demanded the immediate release of the white women. Their presence in the + village was at first denied by the lying chief, and not until he had been + led to the limb of a huge cottonwood tree near the lodge, with a rope + around his neck, did he acknowledge that he held the women and consent to + give them up. + </p> + <p> + This well-known warrior, with a foreknowledge not usually found in the + savage mind, seeing the beginning of the end of Indian sovereignty on the + plains, voluntarily came in and surrendered himself to the authorities, + and stayed on the reservation near Fort Sill. + </p> + <p> + In June, 1867, a year before the breaking out of the great Indian war on + the central plains, the whole tribe of Kiowas, led by him, assembled at + Fort Larned. He was the cynosure of all eyes, as he was without question + one of the noblest-looking savages ever seen on the plains. On that + occasion he wore the full uniform of a major-general of the United States + army. He was as correctly moulded as a statue when on horseback, and when + mounted on his magnificent charger the morning he rode out with General + Hancock to visit the immense Indian camp a few miles above the fort on + Pawnee Fork, it would have been a difficult task to have determined which + was the finer-looking man. + </p> + <p> + After Kicking Bird had abandoned his wicked career, he was regarded by + every army officer with whom he had a personal acquaintance as a + remarkably good Indian; for he really made the most strenuous efforts to + initiate his tribe into the idea that it was best for it to follow the + white man's road. He argued with them that the time was very near when + there would no longer be any region where the Indians could live as they + had been doing, depending on the buffalo and other game for the sustenance + of their families; they must adapt themselves to the methods of their + conquerors. + </p> + <p> + In July, 1869, he became greatly offended with the government for its + enforced removal of his tribe from its natural and hereditary + hunting-grounds into the reservation allotted to it. At that time many of + his warriors, together with the Comanches, made a raid on the defenceless + settlements of the northern border of Texas, in which the savages were + disastrously defeated, losing a large number of their most beloved + warriors. On the return of the unsuccessful expedition, a great council + was held, consisting of all the chiefs and head men of the two tribes + which had suffered so terribly in the awful fight, to consider the best + means of avenging the loss of so many braves and friends. Kicking Bird was + summoned before that council and condemned as a coward; they called him a + squaw, because he had refused to go with the warriors of the combined + tribes on the raid into Texas. + </p> + <p> + He told a friend of mine some time afterward that he had intended never + again to go against the whites; but the emergency of the case, and his + severe condemnation by the council, demanded that he should do something + to re-establish himself in the good graces of his tribe. He then made one + of the most destructive raids into Texas that ever occurred in the history + of its border warfare, which successfully restored him to the respect of + his warriors. + </p> + <p> + In that raid Kicking Bird carried off vast herds of horses and a large + number of scalps. Although his tribe fairly worshipped him, he was not at + all satisfied with himself. He could look into the future as well as any + one, and from that time on to his tragic death he laboured most zealously + and earnestly in connection with the Indian agents to bring his people to + live on the reservation which the government had established for them in + the Territory. + </p> + <p> + At the inauguration of the so-called "Quaker Policy" by President Grant, + that sect was largely intrusted with the management of Indian affairs, + particularly in the selection of agents for the various tribes. A Mr. + Tatham was appointed agent for the Kiowas in 1869. He at once gained the + confidence of Kicking Bird, who became very valuable to him as an + assistant in controlling the savages. It was through that chief's + influence that Thomas Batty, another Quaker, was allowed to take up his + residence with the tribe, the first white man ever accorded that + privilege. Batty was permitted to erect three tents, which were staked + together, converting them into an ample schoolhouse. In that crude, + temporary structure he taught the Kiowa youth the rudiments of an + education. This very successful innovation shows how earnest the former + dreaded savage was in his efforts to promote the welfare of his people, by + trying to induce them to "take the white man's road." + </p> + <p> + Batty succeeded admirably for a year in his office of teacher, the chief + all the time nobly withstanding the taunts and jeers of his warriors and + their threats of taking his life, for daring to allow a white man within + the sacred precincts of their village—a thing unparalleled in the + annals of the tribe. + </p> + <p> + At last trouble came; the dissatisfied members of the tribe, the ambitious + and restless young men, eager for renown, made another unsuccessful raid + into Texas. The result was that they lost nearly the whole of the band, + among which was the favourite son of Lone Wolf, a noted chief.<a + href="#linknote-34" name="linknoteref-34" id="linknoteref-34"><small>34</small></a> + After the death of his son, he declared that he must and would have the + scalp of a white man in revenge for the untimely taking off of the young + warrior. Of course, the most available white man at this juncture was + Batty, the Quaker teacher, and he was chosen by Lone Wolf as the victim of + savage revenge. Here the noble instincts of Kicking Bird developed + themselves. He very plainly told Lone Wolf, who was constantly threatening + and thirsting for blood, that he could not kill Batty until he first + killed him and all his band. But Lone Wolf had fully determined to have + the hair of the innocent Quaker; so Kicking Bird, to avert any collision + between the two bands of Indians, kidnapped Batty and ran him off to the + agency, arriving at Fort Sill about an hour before Lone Wolf's band of + avengers overtook them, and thus the Quaker teacher was saved. + </p> + <p> + One day, long after these occurrences, a friend of mine was in the + sutler's store at Fort Sill. In there was a stranger talking to Mr. Fox, + the agent of the Indians. Soon Kicking Bird entered the establishment, and + the stranger asked Mr. Fox who that fine-looking Indian was. He was told, + and then he begged the agent to say to him that he would like to have a + talk with him; for he it was who led that famous raid into Texas. "I never + saw better generalship in the field in all my experience. He had three + horses killed under him. I was the surgeon of the rangers and was, of + course, in the fight."<a href="#linknote-35" name="linknoteref-35" + id="linknoteref-35"><small>35</small></a> + </p> + <p> + When Kicking Bird was told that the Texas doctor desired to talk with him, + he replied with great dignity that he did not want to revive those + troublous times. "Tell him, though," said Kicking Bird, "that was my last + raid against the whites; that I am a changed man." + </p> + <p> + The President of the United States sent for Kicking Bird to come to + Washington, and to bring with him such other influential Indians as he + thought might aid in inducing the Kiowas to cease their continual raiding + on the border of Texas. + </p> + <p> + In due time Kicking Bird left for the capital, taking with him Lone Wolf, + Big Bow, and Sun Boy of the Kiowas, together with several of the head men + of the Comanches. When the deputation of savages arrived in Washington, it + was received at the presidential mansion by the chief magistrate himself. + So much more attention was given to Kicking Bird than to the others, that + they became very jealous, particularly when the President announced to + them the appointment of Kicking Bird as the head chief of the tribe.<a + href="#linknote-36" name="linknoteref-36" id="linknoteref-36"><small>36</small></a> + But Lone Wolf would never recognize his authority, constantly urging the + young men to raid the settlements. Lone Wolf was a genuine savage, without + one redeeming trait, and his hatred of the white race was unparalleled in + its intensity. He was never known to smile. No other Indian can show such + a record of horrible massacres as he is responsible for. His orders were + rigidly obeyed, for he brooked no disobedience on the part of his + warriors. + </p> + <p> + In the summer of 1876, a party of English gentlemen left Fort Harker for a + buffalo hunt. They soon exhausted all their rations and started a + four-mule team back to the post for more. Some of Lone Wolf's band of + cut-throats came across the unfortunate teamster, killed him, and ran off + the team. After the occurrence, Kicking Bird came into the agency at Fort + Sill and told Mr. Haworth, the agent, that he had given his word to the + Great Father at Washington he would do all he could to bring in those + Indians who had been raiding by order of Lone Wolf, particularly the two + who had killed the Englishmen's driver. + </p> + <p> + He succeeded in bringing in twelve Indians in all, among them the + murderers of the driver. They, with Lone Wolf and Satank, were sent to the + Dry Tortugas for life. The morning they started on their journey Satank + talked very feelingly to Kicking Bird, with tears in his eyes. He said + that they might look for his bones along the road, for he would never go + to Florida. The savages were loaded into government wagons. Satank was + inside of one with a soldier on each side of him, their legs hanging + outside. Somehow the crafty villain managed to slip the handcuffs off his + wrists, at the same instant seizing the rifle of one of his guards, and + then shoved the two men out with his feet. He tried to work the lever of + the rifle, but could not move it, and one of the soldiers, coming around + the wagon to where he was still trying to get the gun so as he could use + it, shot him down, and then threw his body on the Trail. Thus Satank made + good his vow that he would never be taken to Florida. He met his death + only a mile from the post. + </p> + <p> + After the departure of the condemned savages, the feeling in the tribe + against Kicking Bird increased to an alarming extent. Several times the + most incensed warriors tried to kill him by shooting at him from an + ambush. After he became fully aware that his life was in danger, he never + left his lodge without his carbine. He was as brave as a lion, fearing + none of the members of Lone Wolf's band; but he often said it was only a + question of a short time when he would be gotten rid of; he did not allow + the matter, however, to worry him in the least, saying that he was + conscious he had done his duty by his tribe and the Great Father. + </p> + <p> + In a bend of Cash Creek, about half a mile below the mill, about half a + dozen of the Kiowas had their lodges, that of their chief being among + them. At ten o'clock one Monday in June, 1876, Mr. Haworth, the agent, + came in haste to the shops, called the master mechanic, Mr. Wykes, out, + told him to jump into the carriage quickly; that Kicking Bird was dead. + </p> + <p> + When they arrived at the home of the great chief, sure enough he was dead, + and some of the women were engaged in folding his body in robes. Other + squaws were cutting themselves in a terrible manner, as is their custom + when a relative dies, and were also breaking everything breakable about + the lodge. Kicking Bird had always been scrupulously clean and neat in the + care of his home; it was adorned with the most beautifully dressed buffalo + robes and the finest furs, while the floor was covered with matting. + </p> + <p> + It seems that Kicking Bird, after visiting Mr. Wykes that morning, went + immediately to his lodge, and sat down to eat something, but just as he + had finished a cup of coffee, he fell over, dead. He had in his service a + Mexican woman, and she had been bribed to poison him. + </p> + <p> + An expensive coffin was made at the agency for his remains, fashioned out + of the finest black walnut to be found in the country where that timber + grows to such a luxuriant extent. It was eight feet long and four feet + deep, but even then it did not hold one-half of his effects, which were, + according to the savage custom, interred with his body. + </p> + <p> + The cries and lamentations of the warriors and women of his band were + heartrending; such a manifestation of grief was never before witnessed at + the agency. A handsome fence was erected around his grave, in the cemetery + at Fort Sill, and the government ordered a beautiful marble monument to be + raised over it; but I do not know whether it was ever done. + </p> + <p> + Kicking Bird was only forty years old at the time of his sudden taking + off, and was very wealthy for an Indian. He knew the uses of money and was + a careful saver of it. A great roll of greenbacks was placed in his + coffin, and that fact having leaked out, it was rumoured that his grave + was robbed; but the story may not have been true. + </p> + <p> + One of the greatest terrors of the Old Santa Fe Trail was the half-breed + Indian desperado Charles Bent. His mother was a Cheyenne squaw, and his + father the famous trader, Colonel Bent. He was born at the base of the + Rocky Mountains, and at a very early age placed in one of the best schools + that St. Louis afforded. His venerable sire, with only a limited education + himself, was determined that his boy should profit by the culture and + refinement of civilization, so he was not allowed to return to his + mountain home at Bent's Fort, and the savage conditions under which he was + born, until he had attained his majority. He then spoke no language but + English. His mother died while he was absent at school, and his father + continued to live at the old fort, where Charles, after he had reached the + age of twenty-one, joined him. + </p> + <p> + Some Washington sentimentalist, philosophizing on the Indian character, + his knowledge being based on Cooper's novels probably, has said: + "Civilization has very marked effects upon an Indian. If he once learns to + speak English, he will soon forget all his native cunning and pride of + race." Let us see how this theory worked with Charley Bent. + </p> + <p> + As soon as the educated half-breed set his foot on his native heath he + readily found enough ambitious young bucks of his own age who were willing + to look on him as their leader. They loved him, too, if such a thing were + possible, as Fra Diavolo was loved by his wild followers. His band was + known as the "Dog-Soldiers"; a sort of a semi-military organization, + consisting of the most daring, blood-thirsty young men of the tribe; and + sometimes "squaw-men," that is, renegade white men married to squaws, + attached themselves to his command of cut-throats. + </p> + <p> + At the head of this collection of the worst savages, hardly ever numbering + over a hundred, Charles Bent robbed ranches, attacked wagon-trains, + overland coaches, and army caravans. He stole and murdered + indiscriminately. The history of his bloody work will never be wholly + revealed, for dead men have no tongues. + </p> + <p> + He would visit all alone, in the guise of plainsman, hunter, or cattleman, + the emigrant trains crossing the continent, always, however, those which + had only small escorts or none at all. Feigning hunger, while his needs + were being kindly furnished, he would glance around him to learn what kind + of an outfit it was; its value, its destination, and how well guarded. + Then he would take his leave with many thanks, rejoin his band, and with + it dash down on the train and kill every human being unfortunate enough + not to have escaped before he arrived. + </p> + <p> + He was indefatigable in his efforts to kill off the whole corps of army + scouts. He would pass himself off as a fellow-scout, as a deserter from + some military post, or as an Indian trader, for he was a wonderful actor, + and would have achieved histrionic honours had he chosen the stage as a + profession. + </p> + <p> + He would always time his actions so as to be found apparently asleep by a + little camp-fire on the bank of Pawnee Fork, Crooked, Mulberry, or Walnut + creeks, all of which streams intercepted the trails running north and + south between the several military posts during the Indian war, when he + would seem delighted and astonished, or else simulate suspicion. Then he + would either murder the unsuspecting scout with his own hands, or deliver + him to the red fiends of his band to be tormented. + </p> + <p> + The government offered a reward of five thousand dollars for Bent's + capture, dead or alive. It was reported currently that he was at last + killed in a battle with some deputy United States marshals, and that they + received the reward; but the whole thing was manufactured out of whole + cloth, and if the marshals received the money, Uncle Sam was most + outrageously swindled. + </p> + <p> + The facts are that he died of malarial fever superinduced by a wound + received in a fight with the Kaws, near the mouth of the Walnut and not + far from Fort Zarah. His "Dog-Soldiers" were whipped by the Kaws, and his + band driven off. Bent lingered for some time and died. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. LA GLORIETA. + </h2> + <p> + New Mexico, at the breaking out of the Civil War, was abandoned by the + government at Washington, or at least so overlooked that the charge of + neglect was merited. In the report of the committee on the Conduct of the + War, under date of July 15, 1862, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel B. S. Roberts + of the regular army, major of the Third Cavalry, who was stationed in the + Territory in 1861, says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + It appears to me to be the determination of General Thomas<a + href="#linknote-37" name="linknoteref-37" id="linknoteref-37">37</a> + not to acknowledge the service of the officers who saved + the Territory of New Mexico; and the utter neglect of the + adjutant-general's department for the last year to + communicate in any way with the commanding officer of the + department of New Mexico, or to answer his urgent appeals + for reinforcements, for money and other supplies, in + connection with his repudiation of the services of all the + army there, convinces me that he is not gratified at their + loyalty and their success in saving that Territory to + the Union. +</pre> + <p> + If space could be given to the story of the carefully prepared plans of + the leaders of secession for the conquest of all the territory south of a + line drawn from Maryland directly west to the Pacific coast, in which were + California, Arizona, and New Mexico, it would reveal some startling facts, + and prove beyond question that it was the intention of Jefferson Davis to + precipitate the rebellion a decade before it actually occurred. The basis + of the scheme was to inaugurate a war between Texas—which, when + admitted into the Union, claimed all that part of New Mexico east of the + Rio Grande—and the United States, in which conflict Mississippi and + some of the other Southern States were to become participants. The plan + fell flat, because, in 1851, Mr. Davis failed of a re-election to the + governorship of Mississippi. + </p> + <p> + So confident were many of Mr. Davis' allies in regard to the contemplated + rebellion, that they boasted to their friends of the North, upon leaving + Washington, that when they met again, it would be upon a Southern + battle-field. + </p> + <p> + I have alluded incidentally to what is known as the Texas Santa Fe + Expedition, inaugurated by the President of what was then the republic of + Texas, Mirabeau B. Lamar. It was given out to the world that it was merely + one of commercial interest—to increase the trade between the two + countries; but that it was intended for the conquest of New Mexico, no one + now, in the light of history, doubts. It resulted in disaster, and is a + story well worthy the examination of the student of American politics.<a + href="#linknote-38" name="linknoteref-38" id="linknoteref-38"><small>38</small></a> + </p> + <p> + In 1861 General Twiggs commanded the military department of which Texas + was an important part. It will be remembered that he surrendered to the + Confederate government the troops, the munitions of war, the forts, or + posts as they were properly termed, and everything pertaining to the + United States army under his control. It was the intention of the + Confederacy to use this region as a military base from which to continue + its conquests westward, and capture the various forts in New Mexico. + Particularly they had their eyes upon Fort Union, where there was an + arsenal, which John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, had taken especial care to + have well stocked previously to the act of secession. + </p> + <p> + But the conspirators had reckoned without their host; they imagined the + native Mexicans would eagerly accept their overtures, and readily support + the Southern Confederacy. Mr. Davis and his coadjutors had evidently + forgotten the effect of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition, in 1841, upon the + people of the Province of New Mexico; but the natives themselves had not. + Besides the loyalty of the Mexicans, there was a factor which the + Confederate leaders had failed to consider, which was that the majority of + the American pioneers had come from loyal States. + </p> + <p> + Of course, there were many secessionists both in Colorado and New Mexico + who were watching the progress of rebellion in eager anticipation; and it + is claimed that in Denver a rebel flag was raised—but how true that + is I do not know. + </p> + <p> + John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, was one of the leading spirits of the + Confederacy. A year before the Civil War he placed in command of the + department of New Mexico a North Carolinian, Colonel Loring, who was in + perfect sympathy with his superior, and willing to carry out his + well-defined plans. In 1861 he ordered Colonel G. B. Crittenden on an + expedition against the Apaches. This officer at once tried to induce his + troops to attach themselves to the rebel army in Texas, but he was met + with an indignant refusal by Colonel Roberts and the regular soldiers + under him. The loyal colonel told Crittenden, in the most forcible + language, that he would resist any such attempt on his part, and reported + the action of Colonel Crittenden to the commander of the department at + Santa Fe. Of course, Colonel Loring paid no attention to the complaint of + disloyalty, and then Colonel Roberts conveyed the tidings to the + commanding officers of several military posts in the Territory, whom he + knew were true to the Union, and only one man out of nearly two thousand + regular soldiers renounced his flag. Some of the officers stationed at New + Mexico were of a different mind, and one of them, Major Lynde, commanding + Fort Filmore, surrendered to a detachment of Texans, who paroled the + enlisted men, as they firmly refused to join the rebel forces. + </p> + <p> + Upon the desertion of Colonel Loring to the Southern Confederacy, General + Edward R. S. Canby was assigned to the command of the department; next in + rank was the loyal Roberts. At this perilous juncture in New Mexico, there + were but a thousand regulars all told, but the Territory furnished two + regiments of volunteers, commanded by officers whose names had been famous + on the border for years. Among these was Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, who had + been conspicuous in the suppression of the Mexican insurrection of 1847, + fifteen years before. Kit Carson was lieutenant-colonel; J. F. Chaves, + major; and the most prominent of the line officers Captain Albert H. + Pfeiffer, with a record as an Indian fighter equal to that of Carson. + </p> + <p> + At the same time Colorado was girding on her armour for the impending + conflict. The governor of the prosperous Territory was William Gilpin, an + old army officer, who had spent a large part of his life on the frontier, + and had accompanied Colonel Doniphan, as major of his regiment, across the + plains, on the expedition to New Mexico in 1846. + </p> + <p> + Colonel Gilpin at once responded to the pleadings of New Mexico for help, + by organizing two companies at first, quickly following with a full + regiment. This Colorado regiment was composed of as fine material as any + portion of the United States could furnish. John P. Slough, a war Democrat + and a lawyer, was its colonel. He afterwards became chief justice of New + Mexico, and was brutally murdered in that Territory. + </p> + <p> + John M. Chivington, a strict Methodist and a presiding elder of that + church, was offered the chaplaincy, but firmly declined, and, like many + others who wore the clerical garb, he quickly doffed it and put on the + attire of a soldier; so he was made major, and his record as a fighter was + equal to the best. + </p> + <p> + The commanding general knew well the plans of the rebels as to their + intended occupation of New Mexico, and, notwithstanding the weakness of + his force, determined to frustrate them if within the limits of + possibility. To that end he concentrated his little army, comprising a + thousand regular soldiers, the two regiments of New Mexico volunteers, two + companies of Colorado troops, and a portion of the territorial militia, at + Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande, to await the approach of the Confederate + troops, under the command of General H. H. Sibley, an old regular army + officer, a native of Louisiana, and the inventor of the comfortable tent + named after him. + </p> + <p> + Sibley's brigade comprised some three thousand men, the majority of them + Texans, and he expected that many more would flock to his standard as he + moved northward. On the 19th of February, 1862, he crossed the Rio Grande + below Fort Craig, not daring to attack Canby in his intrenched position. + The Union commander, in order to keep the Texas troops from gaining the + high points overlooking the fort, placed portions of the Fifth, Seventh, + and Tenth Regulars, together with Carson's and Pino's volunteers, on the + other side of the river. No collision occurred that day, but the next + afternoon Major Duncan, with his cavalry and Captain M'Rae's light + battery, having been sent across to reinforce the infantry, a heavy + artillery fire was immediately opened upon them by the Texans. The men + under Carson behaved splendidly, but the other volunteer regiments became + a little demoralized, and the general was compelled to call back the force + into the fort. Sibley's force, both men and animals, suffered much from + thirst, the latter stampeding, and many, wandering into our lines, were + caught by the scouts of the Union forces. The next morning early Colonel + Roberts was ordered to proceed about seven miles up the river to keep the + Texans away from the water at a point where it was alone accessible, on + account of the steepness of the banks everywhere else. + </p> + <p> + The gallant Roberts, on arriving at the ford, planted a battery there, and + at once opened fire. This was the battle of Valverde, the details of + which, however, do not belong to this book, having been only incidentally + referred to in order to lead the reader intelligently up to that of La + Glorieta, Apache Canyon, or Pigeon's Ranch, as it is indifferently called. + </p> + <p> + Valverde was lost to the Union troops, but never did men fight more + valiantly, with the exception of a few who did not act the part of the + true soldier. The brave M'Rae mounted one of the guns of his battery, + choosing to die rather than surrender. + </p> + <p> + General Sibley, after his doubtful victory at Valverde, continued on to + Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The old city offered no resistance to his + occupation; in fact, some of the most influential Mexicans were pleased, + their leaning being strongly toward the Southern Confederacy; but the + common people were as loyal to the Union as those of any of the Northern + States, a feeling intensified by their hatred for the Texans on account of + the expedition of conquest in 1841, twenty-one years before. They + contributed of their means to aid the United States troops, but have never + received proper credit for their action in those days of trouble in the + neglected Territory. + </p> + <p> + The Confederate general was disappointed at the way in which affairs were + going, for he had based great hopes upon the defection of the native + residents; but he determined to march forward to Fort Union, where his + friend Floyd had placed such stores as were likely to be needed in the + campaign which he had designed. + </p> + <p> + From Santa Fe to Fort Union, where the arsenal was located, the road runs + through the deep, rocky gorge known as Apache Canyon. It is one of the + wildest spots in the mountains, the walls on each side rising from one to + two thousand feet above the Trail, which is within the range of ordinary + cannon from every point, and in many places of point-blank rifle-shot. + Granite rocks and sands abound, and the hills are covered with long-leafed + pine. It is a gateway which, in the hands of a skilful engineer and one + hundred resolute men, can be made perfectly impregnable. + </p> + <p> + The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway passes directly through this + picturesque chasm, every foot of which is classic ground, and in the + season of the mountain freshets constant care is needed to keep its + bridges in place. + </p> + <p> + At its eastern entrance is a large residence, known as Pigeon's Ranch, + from which the battle to be described derives its name, though, as stated, + it is also known as that of Apache Canyon, and La Glorieta,<a + href="#linknote-39" name="linknoteref-39" id="linknoteref-39"><small>39</small></a> + the latter, perhaps, the most classical, from the range of mountains + enclosing the rent in the mighty hills. + </p> + <p> + The following detailed account of this battle I have taken from the <i>History + of Colorado</i>,<a href="#linknote-40" name="linknoteref-40" + id="linknoteref-40"><small>40</small></a> an admirable work: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The sympathizers with and abettors of the Southern + Confederacy inaugurated their plans by posting handbills + in all conspicuous places between Denver and the + mining-camps, designating certain localities where the + highest prices would be paid for arms of every description, + and for powder, lead, shot, and percussion caps. + Simultaneously, a small force was collected and put under + discipline to co-operate with parties expected from Arkansas + and Texas who were to take possession, first of Colorado, + and subsequently of New Mexico, anticipating the easy + capture of the Federal troops and stores located there. + Being apprised of the movement, the governor immediately + decided to enlist a full regiment of volunteers. + John P. Slough was appointed colonel, Samuel F. Tappan + lieutenant-colonel, and John J. M. Chivington major. + + Without railroads or telegraphs nearer than the Missouri + River, and wholly dependent upon the overland mail coach + for communication with the States and the authorities at + Washington, news was at least a week old when received. + Thus the troops passed the time in a condition of doubt + and extreme anxiety, until the 6th of January, 1862, when + information arrived that an invading force under General + H. H. Sibley, from San Antonio, Texas, was approaching + the southern border of New Mexico, and had already captured + Forts Fillmore and Bliss, making prisoners of their + garrisons without firing a gun, and securing all their + stock and supplies. + + Immediately upon receipt of this intelligence, efforts + were made to obtain the consent of, or orders from, General + Hunter, commanding the department at Fort Leavenworth, + Kansas, for the regiment to go to the relief of General + Canby, then in command of the department of New Mexico. + On the 20th of February, orders came from General Hunter, + directing Colonel Slough and the First Regiment of Colorado + Volunteers to proceed with all possible despatch to + Fort Union, or Santa Fe, New Mexico, and report to General + Canby for service. + + Two days thereafter, the command marched out of Camp Weld + two miles up the Platte River, and in due time encamped + at Pueblo, on the Arkansas River. At this point further + advices were received from Canby, stating that he had + encountered the enemy at Valverde, ten miles north of + Fort Craig, but, owing to the inefficiency of the newly + raised New Mexican volunteers, was compelled to retire. + The Texans under Sibley marched on up the Rio Grande, + levying tribute upon the inhabitants for their support. + The Colorado troops were urged to the greatest possible + haste in reaching Fort Union, where they were to unite + with such regular troops as could be concentrated at that + post, and thus aid in saving the fort and its supplies + from falling into Confederate hands. Early on the + following morning the order was given to proceed to Union + by forced marches, and it is doubtful if the same number of + men ever marched a like distance in the same length of time. + + When the summit of Raton Pass was reached, another courier + from Canby met the command, who informed Colonel Slough + that the Texans had already captured Albuquerque and + Santa Fe with all the troops stationed at those places, + together with the supplies stored there, and that they + were then marching on Fort Union. + + Arriving at Red River about sundown, the regiment was + drawn up in line and this information imparted to the men. + The request was then made for all who were willing to + undertake a forced march at night to step two paces to + the front, when every man advanced to the new alignment. + After a hasty supper the march was resumed, and at sunrise + the next morning they reached Maxwell's Ranch on the + Cimarron, having made sixty-four miles in less than + twenty-four hours. At ten o'clock on the second night + thereafter, the command entered Fort Union. It was there + discovered that Colonel Paul, in charge of the post, had + mined the fort, giving orders for the removal of the women + and children, and was preparing to blow up all the supplies + and march to Fort Garland or some other post to the + northward, on the first approach of the Confederates. + + The troops remained at Union from the 13th to the 22d of + March, when by order of Colonel Slough they proceeded in + the direction of Santa Fe. The command consisted of + the First Colorado Volunteers; two Light Batteries, + one commanded by Captain Ritter and the other by Captain + Claflin; Ford's Company of Colorado Volunteers unattached; + two companies of the Fifth Regular Infantry; and two + companies of the Seventh United States Cavalry. + + The force encamped at Bernal Springs, where Colonel Slough + determined to organize a detachment to enter Santa Fe by + night with the view of surprising the enemy, spiking his + guns, and after doing what other damage could be accomplished + without bringing on a general action, falling back on the + main body. The detachment chosen comprised sixty men each + from Companies A, D, and E of the Colorado regiment, with + Company F of the same mounted, and thirty-seven men each + from the companies of Captains Ford and Howland, and of + the Seventh Cavalry, the whole commanded by Major Chivington. + + At sundown on the 25th of March it reached Kosloskie's Ranch, + where Major Chivington was informed that the enemy's pickets + were in the vicinity. He went into camp at once, and about + nine o'clock of the same evening sent out Lieutenant Nelson + of the First Colorado with thirty men of Company F, who + captured the Texan pickets while they were engaged in a game + of cards at Pigeon's Ranch, and before daylight on the + morning of the 26th, reported at camp with his prisoners. + After breakfast, the major, being apprised of the enemy's + whereabouts, proceeded cautiously, keeping his advance + guard well to the front. While passing near the summit + of the hill, the officer in command of the advance met + the Confederate advance, consisting of a first lieutenant + and thirty men, captured them without firing a gun, and + returning met the main body and turned them over to the + commanding officer. The Confederate lieutenant declared + that they had received no intimation of the advance from + Fort Union, but themselves expected to be there four days + later. + + Descending Apache Canyon for the distance of half a mile, + Chivington's force observed the approaching Texans, about + six hundred strong, with three pieces of artillery, who, + on discovering the Federals, halted, formed line and battery, + and opened fire. + + Chivington drew up his cavalry as a reserve under cover, + deployed Company D under Captain Downing to the right, + and Companies A and E under Captains Wynkoop and Anthony + to the left, directing them to ascend the mountain-side + until they were above the elevation of the enemy's artillery + and thus flank him, at the same time directing Captain + Howland, he being the ranking cavalry officer, to closely + observe the enemy, and when he retreated, without further + orders to charge with the cavalry. This disposition of + the troops proved wise and successful. The Texans soon + broke battery and retreated down the canyon a mile or more, + but from some cause Captain Howland failed to charge as + ordered, which enabled the Confederates to take up a new + and strong position, where they formed battery, threw their + supports well up the sides of the mountain, and again + opened fire. + + Chivington dismounted Captains Howland and Lord with their + regulars, leaving their horses in charge of every fourth + man, and ordered them to join Captain Downing on the left, + taking orders from him. Our skirmishers advanced, and, + flanking the enemy's supports, drove them pell-mell down + the mountain-side, when Captain Samuel Cook, with Company F, + First Colorado, having been signalled by the major, made + as gallant and successful a charge through the canyon, + through the ranks of the Confederates and back, as was + ever performed. Meanwhile, our infantry advanced rapidly; + when the enemy commenced his retreat a second time, they + were well ahead of him on the mountain-sides and poured + a galling fire into him, which thoroughly demoralized and + broke him up, compelling the entire body to seek shelter + among the rocks down the canyon and in some cabins that + stood by the wayside. + + After an hour spent in collecting the prisoners, and + caring for the wounded, both Federal and Confederate, + the latter having left in killed, wounded, and prisoners + a number equal to our whole force in the field, the first + baptism by fire of our volunteers terminated. The victory + was decided and complete. Night intervening, and there + being no water in the canyon, the little command fell back + to Pigeon's Ranch, whence a courier was despatched to + Colonel Slough, advising him of the engagement and its + result, and requesting him to bring forward the main + command as rapidly as possible, as the enemy with all his + forces had moved from Santa Fe toward Fort Union. + + After interring the dead and making a comfortable hospital + for the wounded, on the afternoon of the 27th Chivington + fell back to the Pecos River at Kosloskie's Ranch and + encamped. On receiving the news from Apache Canyon, + Colonel Slough put his forces in motion, and at eleven + o'clock at night of the 27th joined Chivington at Kosloskie's. + + At daybreak on the 28th, the assembly was sounded, and + the entire command resumed its march. Five miles out + from their encampment Major Chivington, in command of + a detachment composed of Companies A, B, H, and E of the + First Colorado, and Captain Ford's Company unattached, + with Captain Lewis' Company of the Fifth Regular Infantry, + was ordered to take the Galisteo road, and by a detour + through the mountains to gain the enemy's rear, if possible, + at the west end of Apache Canyon, while Slough advanced + slowly with the main body to gain his front about the + same time; thus devising an attack in front and rear. + + About ten o'clock, while making his way through the scrub + pine and cedar brush in the mountains, Major Chivington + and his command heard cannonading to their right, and + were thereby apprised that Colonel Slough and his men + had met the enemy. About twelve o'clock he arrived with + his men on the summit of the mountain which overlooked + the enemy's supply wagons, which had been left in the + charge of a strong guard with one piece of artillery mounted + on an elevation commanding the camp and mouth of the canyon. + With great difficulty Chivington descended the precipitous + mountain, charged, took, and spiked the gun, ran together + the enemy's supply wagons of commissary, quartermaster, + and ordnance stores, set them on fire, blew and burnt + them up, bayoneted his mules in corral, took the guard + prisoners and reascended the mountain, where about dark + he was met by Lieutenant Cobb, aide-de-camp on Colonel + Slough's staff, with the information that Slough and his + men had been defeated and had fallen back to Kosloskie's. + Upon the supposition that this information was correct, + Chivington, under the guidance of a French Catholic priest, + in the intensest darkness, with great difficulty made + his way with his command through the mountains without + a road or trail, and joined Colonel Slough about midnight. + + Meanwhile, after Chivington and his detachment had left + in the morning, Colonel Slough with the main body proceeded + up the canyon, and arriving at Pigeon's Ranch, gave orders + for the troops to stack arms in the road and supply their + canteens with water, as that would be the last opportunity + before reaching the further end of Apache Canyon. + While thus supplying themselves with water and visiting + the wounded in the hospital at Pigeon's Ranch, being + entirely off their guard, they were suddenly startled by + a courier from the advance column dashing down the road + at full speed and informing them that the enemy was close + at hand. Orders were immediately given to fall in and + take arms, but before the order could be obeyed the enemy + had formed battery and commenced shelling them. + They formed as quickly as possible, the colonel ordering + Captain Downing with Company D, First Colorado Volunteers, + to advance on the left, and Captain Kerber with Company I + First Colorado, to advance on the right. In the meantime + Ritter and Claflin opened a return fire on the enemy with + their batteries. Captain Downing advanced and fought + desperately, meeting a largely superior force in point + of numbers, until he was almost overpowered and surrounded; + when, happily, Captain Wilder of Company G of the First + Colorado, with a detachment of his command, came to his + relief, and extricated him and that portion of his Company + not already slaughtered. While on the opposite side, + the right, Company I had advanced into an open space, + feeling the enemy, and ambitious of capturing his battery, + when they were surprised by a detachment which was concealed + in an arroya, and which, when Kerber and his men were + within forty feet of it, opened a galling fire upon them. + Kerber lost heavily; Lieutenant Baker, being wounded, + fell back. In the meantime the enemy masked, and made + five successive charges on our batteries, determined to + capture them as they had captured Canby's at Valverde. + At one time they were within forty yards of Slough's + batteries, their slouch hats drawn down over their faces, + and rushing on with deafening yells. It seemed inevitable + that they would make the capture, when Captain Claflin + gave the order to cease firing, and Captain Samuel Robbins + with his company, K of the First Colorado, arose from the + ground like ghosts, delivering a galling fire, charged + bayonets, and on the double-quick put the rebels to flight. + + During the whole of this time the cavalry, under Captain + Howland, were held in reserve, never moving except to + fall back and keep out of danger, with the exception of + Captain Cook's men, who dismounted and fought as infantry. + From the opening of the battle to its close the odds were + against Colonel Slough and his forces; the enemy being + greatly superior in numbers, with a better armament of + artillery and equally well armed otherwise. But every inch + of ground was stubbornly contested. In no instance did + Slough's forces fall back until they were in danger of + being flanked and surrounded, and for nine hours, without + rest or refreshment, the battle raged incessantly. + At one time Claflin gave orders to double-shot his guns, + they being nothing but little brass howitzers, and he + counted, "One, two, three, four," until one of his own + carriages capsized and fell down into the gulch; from which + place Captain Samuel Robbins and his company, K, extricated + it and saved it from falling into the enemy's hands. + + Having been compelled to give ground all day, Colonel Slough, + between five and six o'clock in the afternoon, issued + orders to retreat. About the same time General Sibley + received information from the rear of the destruction of + his supply trains, and ordered a flag of truce to be sent + to Colonel Slough, which did not reach him, however, until + he arrived at Kosloskie's. A truce was entered into until + nine o'clock the next morning, which was afterward extended + to twenty-four hours, and under which Sibley with his + demoralized forces fell back to Santa Fe, laying that town + under tribute to supply his forces. + + The 29th was spent in burying the dead, as well as those + of the Confederates which they left on the field, and + caring for the wounded. Orders were received from General + Canby directing Colonel Slough to fall back to Fort Union, + which so incensed him that while obeying the order he + forwarded his resignation, and soon after left the command. +</pre> + <p> + Thus ended the battle of La Glorieta. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII.<a href="#linknote-41" name="linknoteref-41" + id="linknoteref-41"><small>41</small></a> THE BUFFALO. + </h2> + <p> + The ancient range of the buffalo, according to history and tradition, once + extended from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, embracing all that + magnificent portion of North America known as the Mississippi valley; from + the frozen lakes above to the "Tierras Calientes" of Mexico, far to the + south. + </p> + <p> + It seems impossible, especially to those who have seen them, as numerous, + apparently, as the sands of the seashore, feeding on the illimitable + natural pastures of the great plains, that the buffalo should have become + almost extinct. + </p> + <p> + When I look back only twenty-five years, and recall the fact that they + roamed in immense numbers even then, as far east as Fort Harker, in + Central Kansas, a little more than two hundred miles from the Missouri + River, I ask myself, "Have they all disappeared?" + </p> + <p> + An idea may be formed of how many buffalo were killed from 1868 to 1881, a + period of only thirteen years, during which time they were + indiscriminately slaughtered for their hides. In Kansas alone there was + paid out, between the dates specified, two million five hundred thousand + dollars for their bones gathered on the prairies, to be utilized by the + various carbon works of the country, principally in St. Louis. It required + about one hundred carcasses to make one ton of bones, the price paid + averaging eight dollars a ton; so the above-quoted enormous sum + represented the skeletons of over thirty-one millions of buffalo.<a + href="#linknote-42" name="linknoteref-42" id="linknoteref-42"><small>42</small></a> + These figures may appear preposterous to readers not familiar with the + great plains a third of a century ago; but to those who have seen the + prairie black from horizon to horizon with the shaggy monsters, they are + not so. In the autumn of 1868 I rode with Generals Sheridan, Custer, + Sully, and others, for three consecutive days, through one continuous + herd, which must have contained millions. In the spring of 1869 the train + on the Kansas Pacific Railroad was delayed at a point between Forts Harker + and Hays, from nine o'clock in the morning until five in the afternoon, in + consequence of the passage of an immense herd of buffalo across the track. + On each side of us, and to the west as far as we could see, our vision was + only limited by the extended horizon of the flat prairie, and the whole + vast area was black with the surging mass of affrighted buffaloes as they + rushed onward to the south. + </p> + <p> + In 1868 the Union Pacific Railroad and its branch in Kansas was nearly + completed across the plains to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the + western limit of the buffalo range, and that year witnessed the beginning + of the wholesale and wanton slaughter of the great ruminants, which ended + only with their practical extinction seventeen years afterward. The causes + of this hecatomb of animals on the great plains were the incursion of + regular hunters into the region, for the hides of the buffalo, and the + crowds of tourists who crossed the continent for the mere pleasure and + novelty of the trip. The latter class heartlessly killed for the + excitement of the new experience as they rode along in the cars at a low + rate of speed, often never touching a particle of the flesh of their + victims, or possessing themselves of a single robe. The former, numbering + hundreds of old frontiersmen, all expert shots, with thousands of novices, + the pioneer settlers on the public domain, just opened under the various + land laws, from beyond the Platte to far south of the Arkansas, within + transporting distance of two railroads, day after day for years made it a + lucrative business to kill for the robes alone, a market for which had + suddenly sprung up all over the country. + </p> + <p> + On either side of the track of the two lines of railroads running through + Kansas and Nebraska, within a relatively short distance and for nearly + their whole length, the most conspicuous objects in those days were the + desiccated carcasses of the noble beasts that had been ruthlessly + slaughtered by the thoughtless and excited passengers on their way across + the continent. On the open prairie, too, miles away from the course of + legitimate travel, in some places one could walk all day on the dead + bodies of the buffaloes killed by the hide-hunters, without stepping off + them to the ground. + </p> + <p> + The best robes, in their relation to thickness of fur and lustre, were + those taken during the winter months, particularly February, at which + period the maximum of density and beauty had been reached. Then, + notwithstanding the sudden and fitful variations of temperature incident + to our mid-continent climate, the old hunters were especially active, and + accepted unusual risks to procure as many of the coveted skins as + possible. A temporary camp would be established under the friendly shelter + of some timbered stream, from which the hunters would radiate every + morning, and return at night after an arduous day's work, to smoke their + pipes and relate their varied adventures around the fire of blazing logs. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes when far away from camp a blizzard would come down from the + north in all its fury without ten minutes' warning, and in a few seconds + the air, full of blinding snow, precluded the possibility of finding their + shelter, an attempt at which would only result in an aimless circular + march on the prairie. On such occasions, to keep from perishing by the + intense cold, they would kill a buffalo, and, taking out its viscera, + creep inside the huge cavity, enough animal heat being retained until the + storm had sufficiently abated for them to proceed with safety to their + camp. + </p> + <p> + Early in March, 1867, a party of my friends, all old buffalo hunters, were + camped in Paradise valley, then a famous rendezvous of the animals they + were after. One day when out on the range stalking, and widely separated + from each other, a terrible blizzard came up. Three of the hunters reached + their camp without much difficulty, but he who was farthest away was + fairly caught in it, and night overtaking him, he was compelled to resort + to the method described in the preceding paragraph. Luckily, he soon came + up with a superannuated bull that had been abandoned by the herd; so he + killed him, took out his viscera and crawled inside the empty carcass, + where he lay comparatively comfortable until morning broke, when the storm + had passed over and the sun shone brightly. But when he attempted to get + out, he found himself a prisoner, the immense ribs of the creature having + frozen together, and locked him up as tightly as if he were in a cell. + Fortunately, his companions, who were searching for him, and firing their + rifles from time to time, heard him yell in response to the discharge of + their pieces, and thus discovered and released him from the peculiar + predicament into which he had fallen. + </p> + <p> + At another time, several years before the acquisition of New Mexico by the + United States, two old trappers were far up on the Arkansas near the + Trail, in the foot-hills hunting buffalo, and they, as is generally the + case, became separated. In an hour or two one of them killed a fat young + cow, and, leaving his rifle on the ground, went up and commenced to skin + her. While busily engaged in his work, he suddenly heard right behind him + a suppressed snort, and looking around he saw to his dismay a monstrous + grizzly ambling along in that animal's characteristic gait, within a few + feet of him. + </p> + <p> + In front, only a few rods away, there happened to be a clump of scrubby + pines, and he incontinently made a break for them, climbing into the + tallest in less time than it takes to tell of it. The bear deliberately + ate a hearty meal off the juicy hams of the cow, so providentially fallen + in his way, and when he had satiated himself, instead of going away, he + quietly stretched himself alongside of the half-devoured carcass, and went + to sleep, keeping one eye open, however, on the movements of the unlucky + hunter whom he had corralled in the tree. In the early evening his partner + came to the spot, and killed the impudent bear, that, being full of tender + buffalo meat, was sluggish and unwary, and thus became an easy victim to + the unerring rifle; when the unwilling prisoner came down from his perch + in the pine, feeling sheepish enough. The last time I saw him he told me + he still had the bear's hide, which he religiously preserved as a memento + of his foolishness in separating himself from his rifle, a thing he has + never been guilty of before or since. + </p> + <p> + Kit Carson, when with Fremont on his first exploring expedition, while + hunting for the command, at some point on the Arkansas, left a buffalo + which he had just killed and partly cut up, to pursue a large bull that + came rushing by him alone. He chased his game for nearly a quarter of a + mile, not being able, however, to gain on it rapidly, owing to the blown + condition of his horse. Coming up at length to the side of the fleeing + beast, Carson fired, but at the same instant his horse stepped into a + prairie-dog hole, fell down and threw Kit fully fifteen feet over his + head. The bullet struck the buffalo low under the shoulder, which only + served to enrage him so that the next moment the infuriated animal was + pursuing Kit, who, fortunately not much hurt, was able to run toward the + river. It was a race for life now, Carson using his nimble legs to the + utmost of their capacity, accelerated very much by the thundering, + bellowing bull bringing up the rear. For several minutes it was nip and + tuck which should reach the stream first, but Kit got there by a scratch a + little ahead. It was a big bend of the river, and the water was deep under + the bank, but it was paradise compared with the hades plunging at his + back; so Kit leaped into the water, trusting to Providence that the bull + would not follow. The trust was well placed, for the bull did not continue + the pursuit, but stood on the bank and shook his head vehemently at the + struggling hunter who had preferred deep waves to the horns of a dilemma + on shore. + </p> + <p> + Kit swam around for some time, carefully guarded by the bull, until his + position was observed by one of his companions, who attacked the + belligerent animal successfully with a forty-four slug, and then Kit + crawled out and—skinned the enemy! + </p> + <p> + He once killed five buffaloes during a single race, and used but four + balls, having dismounted and cut the bullet from the wound of the fourth, + and thus continued the chase. He it was, too, who established his + reputation as a famous hunter by shooting a buffalo cow during an + impetuous race down a steep hill, discharging his rifle just as the animal + was leaping on one of the low cedars peculiar to the region. The ball + struck a vital spot, and the dead cow remained in the jagged branches. The + Indians who were with him on that hunt looked upon the circumstance as + something beyond their comprehension, and insisted that Kit should leave + the carcass in the tree as "Big Medicine." Katzatoa (Smoked Shield), a + celebrated chief of the Kiowas many years ago, who was over seven feet + tall, never mounted a horse when hunting the buffalo; he always ran after + them on foot and killed them with his lance. + </p> + <p> + Two Lance, another famous chief, could shoot an arrow entirely through a + buffalo while hunting on horseback. He accomplished this remarkable feat + in the presence of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, who was under the care + of Buffalo Bill, near Fort Hays, Kansas. + </p> + <p> + During one of Fremont's expeditions, two of his chasseurs, named + Archambeaux and La Jeunesse,<a href="#linknote-43" name="linknoteref-43" + id="linknoteref-43"><small>43</small></a> had a curious adventure on a + buffalo-hunt. One of them was mounted on a mule, the other on a horse; + they came in sight of a large band of buffalo feeding upon the open + prairie about a mile distant. The mule was not fleet enough, and the horse + was too much fatigued with the day's journey, to justify a race, and they + concluded to approach the herd on foot. Dismounting and securing the ends + of their lariats in the ground, they made a slight detour, to take + advantage of the wind, and crept stealthily in the direction of the game, + approaching unperceived until within a few hundred yards. Some old bulls + forming the outer picket guard slowly raised their heads and gazed long + and dubiously at the strange objects, when, discovering that the intruders + were not wolves, but two hunters, they gave a significant grunt, turned + about as though on pivots, and in less than no time the whole herd—bulls, + cows, and calves—were making the gravel fly over the prairie in fine + style, leaving the hunters to their discomfiture. They had scarcely + recovered from their surprise, when, to their great consternation, they + beheld the whole company of the monsters, numbering several thousand, + suddenly shape their course to where the riding animals were picketed. The + charge of the stampeded buffalo was a magnificent one; for the buffalo, + mistaking the horse and the mule for two of their own species, came down + upon them like a tornado. A small cloud of dust arose for a moment over + the spot where the hunter's animals had been left; the black mass moved on + with accelerated speed, and in a few seconds the horizon shut them all + from view. The horse and mule, with all their trappings, saddles, bridles, + and holsters, were never seen or heard of afterward. + </p> + <p> + Buffalo Bill, in less than eighteen months, while employed as hunter of + the construction company of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, in 1867-68, + killed nearly five thousand buffalo, which were consumed by the twelve + hundred men employed in track-laying. He tells in his autobiography of the + following remarkable experience he had at one time with his favourite + horse Brigham, on an impromptu buffalo hunt:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + One day we were pushed for horses to work on our scrapers, + so I hitched up Brigham, to see how he would work. He was + not much used to that kind of labour, and I was about giving + up the idea of making a work horse of him, when one of the + men called to me that there were some buffaloes coming over + the hill. As there had been no buffaloes seen anywhere + in the vicinity of the camp for several days, we had become + rather short of meat. I immediately told one of our men + to hitch his horses to a wagon and follow me, as I was going + out after the herd, and we would bring back some fresh meat + for supper. I had no saddle, as mine had been left at camp + a mile distant, so taking the harness from Brigham I mounted + him bareback, and started out after the game, being armed + with my celebrated buffalo killer Lucretia Borgia—a newly + improved breech-loading needle-gun, which I had obtained + from the government. + + While I was riding toward the buffaloes, I observed five + horsemen coming out from the fort, who had evidently seen + the buffaloes from the post, and were going out for a chase. + They proved to be some newly arrived officers in that part + of the country, and when they came up closer I could see + by the shoulder-straps that the senior was a captain, + while the others were lieutenants. + + "Hello! my friend," sang out the captain; "I see you are + after the same game we are." + + "Yes, sir; I saw those buffaloes coming over the hill, + and as we were about out of fresh meat I thought I would + go and get some," said I. + They scanned my cheap-looking outfit pretty closely, and + as my horse was not very prepossessing in appearance, having + on only a blind bridle, and otherwise looking like a work + horse, they evidently considered me a green hand at hunting. + + "Do you expect to catch those buffaloes on that Gothic + steed?" laughingly asked the captain. + + "I hope so, by pushing on the reins hard enough," was + my reply. + + "You'll never catch them in the world, my fine fellow," + said the captain. "It requires a fast horse to overtake + the animals on the prairie." + + "Does it?" asked I, as if I didn't know it. + + "Yes; but come along with us, as we are going to kill them + more for pleasure than anything else. All we want are the + tongues and a piece of tenderloin, and you may have all + that is left," said the generous man. + + "I am much obliged to you, captain, and will follow you," + I replied. + + There were eleven buffaloes in the herd, and they were not + more than a mile ahead of us. The officers dashed on as if + they had a sure thing on killing them all before I could + come up with them; but I had noticed that the herd was + making toward the creek for water, and as I knew buffalo + nature, I was perfectly aware that it would be difficult + to turn them from their direct course. Thereupon, I started + toward the creek to head them off, while the officers + came up in the rear and gave chase. + + The buffaloes came rushing past me not a hundred yards + distant, with the officers about three hundred yards in + the rear. Now, thought I, is the time to "get my work in," + as they say; and I pulled off the blind bridle from my + horse, who knew as well as I did that we were out after + buffaloes, as he was a trained hunter. The moment the + bridle was off he started at the top of his speed, running + in ahead of the officers, and with a few jumps he brought me + alongside the rear buffalo. Raising old Lucretia Borgia + to my shoulder, I fired, and killed the animal at the + first shot. My horse then carried me alongside the next + one, not ten feet away, and I dropped him at the next fire. + + As soon as one of the buffalo would fall, Brigham would + take me so close to the next that I could almost touch it + with my gun. In this manner I killed the eleven buffaloes + with twelve shots; and as the last animal dropped, my horse + stopped. I jumped off to the ground, knowing that he would + not leave me—it must be remembered that I had been riding + him without bridle, reins, or saddle—and, turning around + as the party of astonished officers rode up, I said to them:— + + "Now, gentlemen, allow me to present to you all the tongues + and tenderloins you wish from these buffaloes." + + Captain Graham, for such I soon learned was his name, + replied: "Well, I never saw the like before. Who under + the sun are you, anyhow?" + + "My name is Cody," said I. + Captain Graham, who was considerable of a horseman, + greatly admired Brigham, and said: "That horse of yours + has running points." + + "Yes, sir; he has not only got the points, he is a runner + and knows how to use the points," said I. + "So I noticed," said the captain. + + They all finally dismounted, and we continued chatting + for some little time upon the different subjects of horses, + buffaloes, hunting, and Indians. They felt a little sore + at not getting a single shot at the buffaloes; but the way + I had killed them, they said, amply repaid them for their + disappointment. They had read of such feats in books, + but this was the first time they had ever seen anything + of the kind with their own eyes. It was the first time, + also, that they had ever witnessed or heard of a white man + running buffaloes on horseback without a saddle or bridle. + + I told them that Brigham knew nearly as much about the + business as I did, and if I had twenty bridles they would + have been of no use to me, as he understood everything, + and all that he expected of me was to do the shooting. + It is a fact that Brigham would stop if a buffalo did not + fall at the first fire, so as to give me a second chance; + but if I did not kill the animal then, he would go on, as + if to say, "You are no good, and I will not fool away my + time by giving you more than two shots." Brigham was the + best horse I ever saw or owned for buffalo chasing. +</pre> + <p> + At one time an old, experienced buffalo hunter was following at the heels + of a small herd with that reckless rush to which in the excitement of the + chase men abandon themselves, when a great bull just in front of him + tumbled into a ravine. The rider's horse fell also, throwing the old + hunter over his head sprawling, but with strange accuracy right between + the bull's horns! The first to recover from the terrible shock and to + regain his legs was the horse, which ran off with wonderful alacrity + several miles before he stopped. Next the bull rose, and shook himself + with an astonished air, as if he would like to know "how that was done?" + The hunter was on the great brute's back, who, perhaps, took the affair as + a good practical joke; but he was soon pitched to the ground, as the + buffalo commenced to jump "stiff-legged," and the latter, giving the + hunter one lingering look, which he long remembered, with remarkable good + nature ran off to join his companions. Had the bull been wounded, the + rider would have been killed, as the then enraged animal would have gored + and trampled him to death. + </p> + <p> + An officer of the old regular army told me many years ago that in crossing + the plains a herd of buffalo were fired at by a twelve-pound howitzer, the + ball of which wounded and stunned an immense bull. Nevertheless, heedless + of a hundred shots that had been fired at him, and of a bulldog belonging + to one of the officers, which had fastened himself to his lips, the + enraged beast charged upon the whole troop of dragoons, and tossed one of + the horses like a feather. Bull, horse, and rider all fell in a heap. + Before the dust cleared away, the trooper, who had hung for a moment to + one of the bull's horns by his waistband, crawled out safe, while the + horse got a ball from a rifle through his neck while in the air and two + great rips in his flank from the bull. + </p> + <p> + In 1839 Kit Carson and Hobbs were trapping with a party on the Arkansas + River, not far from Bent's Fort. Among the trappers was a green Irishman, + named O'Neil, who was quite anxious to become proficient in hunting, and + it was not long before he received his first lesson. Every man who went + out of camp after game was expected to bring in "meat" of some kind. + O'Neil said that he would agree to the terms, and was ready one evening to + start out on his first hunt alone. He picked up his rifle and stalked + after a small herd of buffalo in plain sight on the prairie not more than + five or six hundred yards from camp. + </p> + <p> + All the trappers who were not engaged in setting their traps or cooking + supper were watching O'Neil. Presently they heard the report of his rifle, + and shortly after he came running into camp, bareheaded, without his gun, + and with a buffalo bull close upon his heels; both going at full speed, + and the Irishman shouting like a madman,— + </p> + <p> + "Here we come, by jabers. Stop us! For the love of God, stop us!" + </p> + <p> + Just as they came in among the tents, with the bull not more than six feet + in the rear of O'Neil, who was frightened out of his wits and puffing like + a locomotive, his foot caught in a tent-rope, and over he went into a + puddle of water head foremost, and in his fall capsized several + camp-kettles, some of which contained the trappers' supper. But the + buffalo did not escape so easily; for Hobbs and Kit Carson jumped for + their rifles, and dropped the animal before he had done any further + damage. + </p> + <p> + The whole outfit laughed heartily at O'Neil when he got up out of the + water, for a party of old trappers would show no mercy to any of their + companions who met with a mishap of that character; but as he stood there + with dripping clothes and face covered with mud, his mother-wit came to + his relief and he declared he had accomplished the hunter's task: "For + sure," said he, "haven't I fetched the mate into camp? and there was no + bargain whether it should be dead or alive!" + </p> + <p> + Upon Kit's asking O'Neil where his gun was,— + </p> + <p> + "Sure," said he, "that's more than I can tell you." + </p> + <p> + Next morning Carson and Hobbs took up O'Neil's tracks and the buffalo's, + and after hunting an hour or so found the Irishman's rifle, though he had + little use for it afterward, as he preferred to cook and help around camp + rather than expose his precious life fighting buffaloes. + </p> + <p> + A great herd of buffaloes on the plains in the early days, when one could + approach near enough without disturbing it to quietly watch its + organization and the apparent discipline which its leaders seemed to + exact, was a very curious sight. Among the striking features of the + spectacle was the apparently uniform manner in which the immense mass of + shaggy animals moved; there was constancy of action indicating a degree of + intelligence to be found only in the most intelligent of the brute + creation. Frequently the single herd was broken up into many smaller ones, + that travelled relatively close together, each led by an independent + master. Perhaps a few rods only marked the dividing-line between them, but + it was always unmistakably plain, and each moved synchronously in the + direction in which all were going. + </p> + <p> + The leadership of a herd was attained only by hard struggles for the + place; once reached, however, the victor was immediately recognized, and + kept his authority until some new aspirant overcame him, or he became + superannuated and was driven out of the herd to meet his inevitable fate, + a prey to those ghouls of the desert, the gray wolves. + </p> + <p> + In the event of a stampede, every animal of the separate, yet + consolidated, herds rushed off together, as if they had all gone mad at + once; for the buffalo, like the Texas steer, mule, or domestic horse, + stampedes on the slightest provocation; frequently without any assignable + cause. The simplest affair, sometimes, will start the whole herd; a + prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, a shadow of one of + themselves or that of a passing cloud, is sufficient to make them run for + miles as if a real and dangerous enemy were at their heels. + </p> + <p> + Like an army, a herd of buffaloes put out vedettes to give the alarm in + case anything beyond the ordinary occurred. These sentinels were always to + be seen in groups of four, five, or even six, at some distance from the + main body. When they perceived something approaching that the herd should + beware of or get away from, they started on a run directly for the centre + of the great mass of their peacefully grazing congeners. Meanwhile, the + young bulls were on duty as sentinels on the edge of the main herd + watching the vedettes; the moment the latter made for the centre, the + former raised their heads, and in the peculiar manner of their species + gazed all around and sniffed the air as if they could smell both the + direction and source of the impending danger. Should there be something + which their instinct told them to guard against, the leader took his + position in front, the cows and calves crowded in the centre, while the + rest of the males gathered on the flanks and in the rear, indicating a + gallantry that might be emulated at times by the genus homo. + </p> + <p> + Generally buffalo went to their drinking-places but once a day, and that + late in the afternoon. Then they ambled along, following each other in + single file, which accounts for the many trails on the plains, always + ending at some stream or lake. They frequently travelled twenty or thirty + miles for water, so the trails leading to it were often worn to the depth + of a foot or more. + </p> + <p> + That curious depression so frequently seen on the great plains, called a + buffalo-wallow, is caused in this wise: The huge animals paw and lick the + salty, alkaline earth, and when once the sod is broken the loose dirt + drifts away under the constant action of the wind. Then, year after year, + through more pawing, licking, rolling, and wallowing by the animals, the + wind wafts more of the soil away, and soon there is a considerable hole in + the prairie. + </p> + <p> + Many an old trapper and hunter's life has been saved by following a + buffalo-trail when he was suffering from thirst. The buffalo-wallows + retain usually a great quantity of water, and they have often saved the + lives of whole companies of cavalry, both men and horses. + </p> + <p> + There was, however, a stranger and more wonderful spectacle to be seen + every recurring spring during the reign of the buffalo, soon after the + grass had started. There were circles trodden bare on the plains, + thousands, yes, millions of them, which the early travellers, who did not + divine their cause, called fairy-rings. From the first of April until the + middle of May was the wet season; you could depend upon its recurrence + almost as certainly as on the sun and moon rising at their proper time. + This was also the calving period of the buffalo, as they, unlike our + domestic cattle, only rutted during a single month; consequently, the cows + all calved during a certain time; this was the wet month, and as there + were a great many gray wolves that roamed singly and in immense packs over + the whole prairie region, the bulls, in their regular beats, kept guard + over the cows while in the act of parturition, and drove the wolves away, + walking in a ring around the females at a short distance, and thus forming + the curious circles. + </p> + <p> + In every herd at each recurring season there were always ambitious young + bulls that came to their majority, so to speak, and these were ever ready + to test their claims for the leadership, so that it may be safely stated + that a month rarely passed without a bloody battle between them for the + supremacy; though, strangely enough, the struggle scarcely ever resulted + in the death of either combatant. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps there is no animal in which maternal love is so wonderfully + developed as the buffalo cow; she is as dangerous with a calf by her side + as a she-grizzly with cubs, as all old mountaineers know. + </p> + <p> + The buffalo bull that has outlived his usefulness is one of the most + pitiable objects in the whole range of natural history. Old age has + probably been decided in the economy of buffalo life as the unpardonable + sin. Abandoned to his fate, he may be discovered, in his dreary isolation, + near some stream or lake, where it does not tax him too severely to find + good grass; for he is now feeble, and exertion an impossibility. In this + new stage of his existence he seems to have completely lost his courage. + Frightened at his own shadow, or the rustling of a leaf, he is the very + incarnation of nervousness and suspicion. Gregarious in his habits from + birth, solitude, foreign to his whole nature, has changed him into a new + creature; and his inherent terror of the most trivial things is + intensified to such a degree that if a man were compelled to undergo such + constant alarm, it would probably drive him insane in less than a week. + Nobody ever saw one of these miserable and helplessly forlorn creatures + dying a natural death, or ever heard of such an occurrence. The cowardly + coyote and the gray wolf had already marked him for their own; and they + rarely missed their calculations. + </p> + <p> + Riding suddenly to the top of a divide once with a party of friends in + 1866, we saw standing below us in the valley an old buffalo bull, the very + picture of despair. Surrounding him were seven gray wolves in the act of + challenging him to mortal combat. The poor beast, undoubtedly realizing + the utter hopelessness of his situation, had determined to die game. His + great shaggy head, filled with burrs, was lowered to the ground as he + confronted his would-be executioners; his tongue, black and parched, + lolled out of his mouth, and he gave utterance at intervals to a + suppressed roar. + </p> + <p> + The wolves were sitting on their haunches in a semi-circle immediately in + front of the tortured beast, and every time that the fear-stricken buffalo + would give vent to his hoarsely modulated groan, the wolves howled in + concert in most mournful cadence. + </p> + <p> + After contemplating his antagonists for a few moments, the bull made a + dash at the nearest wolf, tumbling him howling over the silent prairie; + but while this diversion was going on in front, the remainder of the pack + started for his hind legs, to hamstring him. Upon this the poor brute + turned to the point of attack only to receive a repetition of it in the + same vulnerable place by the wolves, who had as quickly turned also and + fastened themselves on his heels again. His hind quarters now streamed + with blood and he began to show signs of great physical weakness. He did + not dare to lie down; that would have been instantly fatal. By this time + he had killed three of the wolves or so maimed them that they were + entirely out of the fight. + </p> + <p> + At this juncture the suffering animal was mercifully shot, and the wolves + allowed to batten on his thin and tough carcass. + </p> + <p> + Often there are serious results growing out of a stampede, either by mules + or a herd of buffalo. A portion of the Fifth United States Infantry had a + narrow escape from a buffalo stampede on the Old Trail, in the early + summer of 1866. General George A. Sykes, who commanded the Division of + Regulars in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, was ordered to + join his regiment, stationed in New Mexico, and was conducting a body of + recruits, with their complement of officers, to fill up the decimated + ranks of the army stationed at the various military posts, in far-off + Greaser Land. + </p> + <p> + The command numbered nearly eight hundred, including the subaltern + officers. These recruits, or the majority of them at least, were recruits + in name only; they had seen service in many a hard campaign of the + Rebellion. Some, of course, were beardless youths just out of their teens, + full of that martial ardour which induced so many young men of the nation + to follow the drum on the remote plains and in the fastnesses of the Rocky + Mountains, where the wily savages still held almost undisputed sway, and + were a constant menace to the pioneer settlers. + </p> + <p> + One morning, when the command had just settled itself in careless repose + on the short grass of the apparently interminable prairie at the first + halt of the day's march, a short distance beyond Fort Larned, a strange + noise, like the low muttering of thunder below the horizon, greeted the + ears of the little army. + </p> + <p> + All were startled by the ominous sound, unlike anything they had heard + before on their dreary tour. The general ordered his scouts out to learn + the cause; could it be Indians? Every eye was strained for something out + of the ordinary. Even the horses of the officers and the mules of the + supply-train were infected by something that seemed impending; they grew + restless, stamped the earth, and vainly essayed to stampede, but were + prevented by their hobbles and picket-pins. + </p> + <p> + Presently one of the scouts returned from over the divide, and reported to + the general that an immense herd of buffalo was tearing down toward the + Trail, and from the great clouds of dust they raised, which obscured the + horizon, there must have been ten thousand of them. The roar wafted to the + command, and which seemed so mysterious, was made by their hoofs as they + rattled over the dry prairie. + </p> + <p> + The sound increased in volume rapidly, and soon a black, surging mass was + discovered bearing right down on the Trail. Behind it could be seen a + cavalcade of about five hundred Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas, who had + maddened the shaggy brutes, hoping to capture the train without an attack + by forcing the frightened animals to overrun the command. + </p> + <p> + Luckily, something caused the herd to open before it reached the foot of + the divide, and it passed in two masses, leaving the command between, not + two hundred feet from either division of the infuriated beasts. + </p> + <p> + The rage of the savages was evident when they saw that their attempt to + annihilate the troops had failed, and they rode off sullenly into the sand + hills, as the number of soldiers was too great for them to think of + charging. + </p> + <p> + Cody tells of a buffalo stampede which he witnessed in his youth on the + plains, when he was a wagon-master. The caravan was on its way with + government stores for the military posts in the mountains, and the wagons + were hauled by oxen. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +He says: The country was alive with buffalo, and besides killing + quite a number we had a rare day for sport. One morning + we pulled out of camp, and the train was strung out to a + considerable length along the Trail, which ran near the foot + of the sand hills, two miles from the river. Between the + road and the river we saw a large herd of buffalo grazing + quietly, they having been down to the stream to drink. + Just at this time we observed a party of returning + Californians coming from the west. They, too, noticed + the buffalo herd, and in another moment they were dashing + down upon them, urging their horses to their greatest speed. + The buffalo herd stampeded at once, and broke down the sides + of the hills; so hotly were they pursued by the hunters + that about five hundred of them rushed pell-mell through + our caravan, frightening both men and oxen. Some of the + wagons were turned clear around and many of the terrified + oxen attempted to run to the hills with the heavy wagons + attached to them. Others were turned around so short + that they broke the tongues off. Nearly all the teams + got entangled in their gearing and became wild and unruly, + so that the perplexed drivers were unable to manage them. + + The buffalo, the cattle, and the men were soon running + in every direction, and the excitement upset everybody + and everything. Many of the oxen broke their yokes and + stampeded. One big buffalo bull became entangled in one + of the heavy wagon-chains, and it is a fact that in his + desperate efforts to free himself, he not only snapped + the strong chain in two, but broke the ox-yoke to which + it was attached, and the last seen of him he was running + toward the hills with it hanging from his horns. +</pre> + <p> + Stampedes were a great source of profit to the Indians of the plains. The + Comanches were particularly expert and daring in this kind of robbery. + They even trained their horses to run from one point to another in + expectation of the coming of the trains. When a camp was made that was + nearly in range, they turned their trained animals loose, which at once + flew across the prairie, passing through the herd and penetrating the very + corrals of their victims. All of the picketed horses and mules would + endeavour to follow these decoys, and were invariably led right into the + haunts of the Indians, who easily secured them. Young horses and mules + were easily frightened; and, in the confusion which generally ensued, + great injury was frequently done to the runaways themselves. + </p> + <p> + At times when the herd was very large, the horses scattered over the + prairie and were irrevocably lost; and such as did not become wild fell a + prey to the wolves. That fate was very frequently the lot of stampeded + horses bred in the States, they not having been trained by a prairie life + to take care of themselves. Instead of stopping and bravely fighting off + the blood-thirsty beasts, they would run. Then the whole pack were sure to + leave the bolder animals and make for the runaways, which they seldom + failed to overtake and despatch. + </p> + <p> + On the Old Trail some years ago one of these stampedes occurred of a band + of government horses, in which were several valuable animals. It was + attended, however, with very little loss, through the courage and great + exertion of the men who had them in charge; many were recovered, but none + without having sustained injuries. + </p> + <p> + Hon. R. M. Wright, of Dodge City, Kansas, one of the pioneers in the days + of the Santa Fe trade, and in the settlement of the State, has had many + exciting experiences both with the savages of the great plains, and the + buffalo. In relation to the habits of the latter, no man is better + qualified to speak. + </p> + <p> + He was once owner of Fort Aubrey, a celebrated point on the Trail, but was + compelled to abandon it on account of constant persecution by the Indians, + or rather he was ordered to do so by the military authorities. While + occupying the once famous landmark, in connection with others, had a + contract to furnish hay to the government at Fort Lyon, seventy-five miles + further west. His journal, which he kindly placed at my disposal, says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + While we were preparing to commence the work, a vast herd + of buffalo stampeded through our range one night, and + took off with them about half of our work cattle. The next + day a stage-driver and conductor on the Overland Route told + us they had seen a number of our oxen twenty-five miles east + of Aubrey, and this information gave me an idea in which + direction to hunt for the missing beasts. I immediately + started after them, while my partner took those that + remained and a few wagons and left with them for Fort Lyon. + + Let me explain here that while the Indians were supposed to + be peaceable, small war-parties of young men, who could not + be controlled by their chiefs, were continually committing + depredations, and the main body of savages themselves were + very uneasy, and might be expected to break out any day. + In consequence of this unsettled state of affairs, there + had been a brisk movement among the United States troops + stationed at the various military posts, a large number of + whom were believed to be on the road from Denver to Fort Lyon. + + I filled my saddle-bags with jerked buffalo, hardtack and + ground coffee, and took with me a belt of cartridges, + my rifle and six-shooter, a field-glass and my blankets, + prepared for any emergency. The first day out, I found a + few of the lost cattle, and placed them on the river-bottom, + which I continued to do as fast as I recovered them, for a + distance of about eighty-five miles down the Arkansas. + There I met a wagon-train, the drivers of which told me + that I would find several more of my oxen with a train + that had arrived at the Cimarron crossing the day before. + I came up with this train in eight or ten hours' travel + south of the river, got my cattle, and started next morning + for home. + + I picked up those I had left on the Arkansas as I went + along, and after having made a very hard day's travel, + about sundown I concluded I would go into camp. I had + only fairly halted when the oxen began to drop down, + so completely tired out were they, as I believed. Just as + it was growing dark, I happened to look toward the west, + and I saw several fires on a big island, near what was + called "The Lone Tree," about a mile from where I had + determined to remain for the night. + + Thinking the fires were those of the soldiers that I had + heard were on the road from Denver, and anticipating and + longing for a cup of good coffee, as I had had none for + five days, knowing, too, that the troops would be full of + news, I felt good and determined to go over to their camp. + + The Arkansas was low, but the banks steep, with high, + rank grass growing to the very water's edge. I found + a buffalo-trail cut through the deep bank, narrow and + precipitous, and down this I went, arriving in a short time + within a little distance of my supposed soldiers' camp. + When I had reached the middle of another deep cut in the + bank, I looked across to the island, and, great Caesar! + saw a hundred little fires, around which an aggregation + of a thousand Indians were huddled! + + I slid backwards off my horse, and by dint of great exertion, + worked him up the river-bank as quietly and quickly as + possible, then led him gently away out on the prairie. + My first impulse was not to go back to the cattle; but as + we needed them very badly, I concluded to return, put them + all on their feet, and light out mighty lively, without + making any noise. I started them, and, oh dear! I was + afraid to tread upon a weed, lest it would snap and bring + the Indians down on my trail. Until I had put several + miles between them and me, I could not rest easy for + a moment. Tired as I was, tired as were both my horse + and the cattle, I drove them twenty-five miles before + I halted. Then daylight was upon me. I was at what is + known as Chouteau's Island, a once famous place in the + days of the Old Santa Fe Trail. + + Of course, I had to let the oxen and my horse rest and fill + themselves until the afternoon, and I lay down, and fell + asleep, but did not sleep long, as I thought it dangerous + to remain too near the cattle. I rose and walked up a big, + dry sand creek that opened into the river, and after I had + ascended it for a couple of miles, found the banks very + steep; in fact, they rose to a height of eighteen or twenty + feet, and were sharply cut up by narrow trails made by + the buffalo. + + The whole face of the earth was covered by buffalo, and + they were slowly grazing toward the Arkansas. All at once + they became frightened at something, and stampeded pell-mell + toward the very spot on which I stood. I quickly ran into + one of the precipitous little paths and up on the prairie, + to see what had scared them. They were making the ground + fairly tremble as their mighty multitude came rushing on + at full speed, the sound of their hoofs resembling thunder, + but in a continuous peal. It appeared to me that they must + sweep everything in their path, and for my own preservation + I rushed under the creek-bank, but on they came like a + tornado, with one old bull in the lead. He held up a second + to descend the narrow trail, and when he had got about + halfway down I let him have it; I was only a few steps from + him and over he tumbled. I don't know why I killed him; + out of pure wantonness, I expect, or perhaps I thought + it would frighten the others back. Not so, however; + they only quickened their pace, and came dashing down in + great numbers. Dozens of them stumbled and fell over the + dead bull; others fell over them. The top of the bank + was fairly swarming with them; they leaped, pitched, and + rolled down. I crouched as close to the bank as possible, + but many of them just grazed my head, knocking the sand + and gravel in great streams down my neck; indeed I was + half buried before the herd had passed over. That old bull + was the last buffalo I ever shot wantonly, excepting once, + from an ambulance while riding on the Old Trail, to please + a distinguished Englishman, who had never seen one shot; + then I did it only after his most earnest persuasion. + + One day a stage-driver named Frank Harris and myself started + out after buffalo; they were scarce, for a wonder, and + we were very hungry for fresh meat. The day was fine and + we rode a long way, expecting sooner or later a bunch would + jump up, but in the afternoon, having seen none, we gave + it up and started for the ranch. Of course, we didn't + care to save our ammunition, so shot it away at everything + in sight, skunks, rattlesnakes, prairie-dogs, and gophers, + until we had only a few loads left. Suddenly an old bull + jumped up that had been lying down in one of those + sugar-loaf-shaped sand hills, whose tops are hollowed out + by the action of the wind. Harris emptied his revolver + into him, and so did I; but the old fellow sullenly stood + still there on top of the sand hill, bleeding profusely + at the nose, and yet absolutely refusing to die, although + he would repeatedly stagger and nearly tumble over. + + It was getting late and we couldn't wait on him, so Harris + said: "I will dismount, creep up behind him, and cut his + hamstrings with my butcher-knife." The bull having now + lain down, Harris commenced operations, but his movement + seemed to infuse new life into the old fellow; he jumped + to his feet, his head lowered in the attitude of fight, + and away he went around the outside of the top of the + sand hill! It was a perfect circus with one ring; Harris, + who was a tall, lanky fellow, took hold of the enraged + animal's tail as he rose to his feet, and in a moment his + legs were flying higher than his head, but he did not dare + let go of his hold on the bull's tail, and around and + around they went; it was his only show for life. I could + not assist him a particle, but had to sit and hold his horse, + and be judge of the fight. I really thought that old bull + would never weaken. Finally, however, the "ring" performance + began to show symptoms of fatigue; slower and slower the + actions of the bull grew, and at last Harris succeeded + in cutting his hamstrings and the poor beast went down. + Harris said afterward, when the danger was all over, that + the only thing he feared was that perhaps the bull's tail + would pull out, and if it did, he was well aware that he + was a goner. We brought his tongue, hump, and a hindquarter + to the ranch with us, and had a glorious feast and a big + laugh that night with the boys over the ridiculous adventure. +</pre> + <p> + General Richard Irving Dodge, United States army, in his work on the big + game of America, says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + It is almost impossible for a civilized being to realize + the value to the plains Indian of the buffalo. It furnished + him with home, food, clothing, bedding, horse equipment— + almost everything. + + From 1869 to 1873 I was stationed at various posts along + the Arkansas River. Early in spring, as soon as the dry + and apparently desert prairie had begun to change its coat + of dingy brown to one of palest green, the horizon would + begin to be dotted with buffalo, single or in groups of two + or three, forerunners of the coming herd. Thick and thicker, + and in large groups they come, until by the time the grass + is well up, the whole vast landscape appears a mass of + buffalo, some individuals feeding, others lying down, but + the herd slowly moving to the northward; of their number, + it was impossible to form a conjecture. + + Determined as they are to pursue their journey northward, + yet they are exceedingly cautious and timid about it, + and on any alarm rush to the southward with all speed, + until that alarm is dissipated. Especially is this the case + when any unusual object appears in their rear, and so + utterly regardless of consequences are they, that an old + plainsman will not risk a wagon-train in such a herd, + where rising ground will permit those in front to get + a good view of their rear. + + In May, 1871, I drove in a buggy from old Fort Zarah + to Fort Larned, on the Arkansas River. The distance is + thirty-four miles. At least twenty-five miles of that + distance was through an immense herd. The whole country + was one mass of buffalo, apparently, and it was only when + actually among them, that the seemingly solid body was + seen to be an agglomeration of countless herds of from + fifty to two hundred animals, separated from the surrounding + herds by a greater or less space, but still separated. + + The road ran along the broad valley of the Arkansas. + Some miles from Zarah a low line of hills rises from the + plain on the right, gradually increasing in height and + approaching road and river, until they culminate in + Pawnee Rock. + + So long as I was in the broad, level valley, the herds + sullenly got out of my way, and, turning, stared stupidly + at me, some within thirty or forty yards. When, however, + I had reached a point where the hills were no more than + a mile from the road, the buffalo on the crests, seeing an + unusual object in their rear, turned, stared an instant, + then started at full speed toward me, stampeding and + bringing with them the numberless herds through which + they passed, and pouring down on me, no longer separated + but compacted into one immense mass of plunging animals, + mad with fright, irresistible as an avalanche. + + The situation was by no means pleasant. There was but + one hope of escape. My horse was, fortunately, a quiet + old beast, that had rushed with me into many a herd, and + been in at the death of many a buffalo. Reining him up, + I waited until the front of the mass was within fifty yards, + then, with a few well-directed shots, dropped some of + the leaders, split the herd and sent it off in two streams + to my right and left. When all had passed me, they stopped, + apparently satisfied, though thousands were yet within + reach of my rifle. After my servant had cut out the + tongues of the fallen, I proceeded on my journey, only to + have a similar experience within a mile or two, and this + occurred so often that I reached Fort Larned with twenty-six + tongues, representing the greatest number of buffalo that + I can blame myself with having murdered in one day. + + Some years, as in 1871, the buffalo appeared to move + northward in one immense column, oftentimes from twenty + to fifty miles in width, and of unknown depth from front + to rear. Other years the northward journey was made + in several parallel columns moving at the same rate and + with their numerous flankers covering a width of a hundred + or more miles. + + When the food in one locality fails, they go to another, + and toward fall, when the grass of the high prairies + becomes parched by the heat and drought, they gradually + work their way back to the south, concentrating on the + rich pastures of Texas and the Indian Territory, whence, + the same instinct acting on all, they are ready to start + together again on their northward march as soon as spring + starts the grass. + + Old plainsmen and the Indians aver that the buffalo never + return south; that each year's herd was composed of animals + which had never made the journey before, and would never + make it again. All admit the northern migration, that + being too pronounced for any one to dispute, but refuse + to admit the southern migration. Thousands of young calves + were caught and killed every spring that were produced + during this migration, and accompanied the herd northward; + but because the buffalo did not return south in one vast + body as they went north, it was stoutly maintained that + they did not go south at all. The plainsman could give + no reasonable hypothesis of his "No-return theory" on which + to base the origin of the vast herds which yearly made + their march northward. The Indian was, however, equal + to the occasion. Every plains Indian firmly believed that + the buffalo were produced in countless numbers in a country + under ground; that every spring the surplus swarmed, + like bees from a hive, out of the immense cave-like opening + in the region of the great Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain + of Texas. In 1879 Stone Calf, a celebrated chief, assured + me that he knew exactly where the caves were, though he had + never seen them; that the good God had provided this + means for the constant supply of food for the Indian, and + however recklessly the white men might slaughter, they could + never exterminate them. When last I saw him, the old man + was beginning to waver in this belief, and feared that + the "Bad God" had shut the entrances, and that his tribe + must starve. +</pre> + <p> + The old trappers and plainsmen themselves, even as early as the beginning + of the Santa Fe trade, noticed the gradual disappearance of the buffalo, + while they still existed in countless numbers. One veteran French + Canadian, an employee of the American Fur Company, way back in the early + '30's, used to mourn thus: "Mais, sacre! les Amarican, dey go to de + Missouri frontier, de buffalo he ron to de montaigne; de trappaire wid his + fusil, he follow to de Bayou Salade, he ron again. Dans les Montaignes + Espagnol, bang! bang! toute la journee, toute la journee, go de sacre + voleurs. De bison he leave, parceque les fusils scare im vara moche, ici + là de sem-sacré!" + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS. + </h2> + <p> + Thirty-five miles before arriving at Bent's Fort, at which point the Old + Trail crossed the Arkansas, the valley widens and the prairie falls toward + the river in gentle undulations. There for many years the three friendly + tribes of plains Indians—Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowas—established + their winter villages, in order to avail themselves of the supply of wood, + to trade with the whites, and to feed their herds of ponies on the small + limbs and bark of the cottonwood trees growing along the margin of the + stream for four or five miles. It was called Big Timbers, and was one of + the most eligible places to camp on the whole route after leaving Council + Grove. The grass, particularly on the south side of the river, was + excellent; there was an endless supply of fuel, and cool water without + stint. + </p> + <p> + In the severe winters that sometimes were fruitful of blinding blizzards, + sweeping from the north in an intensity of fury that was almost + inconceivable, the buffalo too congregated there for shelter, and to + browse on the twigs of the great trees. + </p> + <p> + The once famous grove, though denuded of much of its timber, may still be + seen from the car windows as the trains hurry mountainward. + </p> + <p> + Garrard, in his <i>Taos Trail</i>, presents an interesting and amusing + account of a visit to the Cheyenne village with old John Smith, in 1847, + when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, and that with the various + tribes of savages in its golden days. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Toward the middle of the day, the village was in a great + bustle. Every squaw, child, and man had their faces + blackened—a manifestation of joy.<a href="#linknote-44" + name="linknoteref-44" id="linknoteref-44">44</a> + + Pell-mell they went—men, squaws, and dogs—into the icy + river. Some hastily jerked off their leggings, and held + moccasins and dresses high out of the water. Others, too + impatient, dashed the stream from beneath their impetuous + feet, scarce taking time to draw more closely the always + worn robe. Wondering what caused all this commotion, and + looking over the river, whither the yelling, half-frantic + savages were so speedily hurrying, we saw a band of Indians + advancing toward us. As the foremost braves reined their + champing barbs on the river-bank, mingled whoops of triumph + and delight and the repeated discharge of guns filled + the air. In the hands of three were slender willow wands, + from the smaller points of which dangled as many scalps— + the single tuft of hair on each pronouncing them Pawnees.<a + href="#linknote-45" name="linknoteref-45" id="linknoteref-45">45</a> + + These were raised aloft, amid unrestrained bursts of joy + from the thrice-happy, blood-thirsty throng. Children ran + to meet their fathers, sisters their brothers, girls their + lovers, returning from the scene of victorious strife; + decrepit matrons welcomed manly sons; and aged chiefs their + boys and braves. It was a scene of affection, and a proud + day in the Cheyenne annals of prowess. That small but + gallant band were relieved of their shields and lances by + tender-hearted squaws, and accompanied to their respective + homes, to repose by the lodge-fire, consume choice meat, + and to be the heroes of the family circle. + + The drum at night sent forth its monotony of hollow sound, + and my Mexican Pedro and I, directed by the booming, + entered a lodge, vacated for the purpose, full of young men + and squaws, following one another in a continuous circle, + keeping the left knee stiff and bending the right with a + half-forward, half-backward step, as if they wanted to go on + and could not, accompanying it, every time the right foot + was raised, with an energetic, broken song, which, dying + away, was again and again sounded—"hay-a, hay-a, hay-a," + they went, laying the emphasis on the first syllable. + A drum, similar to, though larger than a tambourine, covered + with parflêche,<a href="#linknote-46" name="linknoteref-46" + id="linknoteref-46">46</a> was beaten upon with a stick, producing + with the voices a sound not altogether disagreeable. + + Throughout the entire night and succeeding day the voices + of the singers and heavy notes of the drum reached us, + and at night again the same dull sound lulled me to sleep. + Before daylight our lodge was filled with careless dancers, + and the drum and voices, so unpleasing to our wearied ears, + were giving us the full benefit of their compass. Smith, + whose policy it was not to be offended, bore the infliction + as best he could, and I looked on much amused. The lodge + was so full that they stood without dancing, in a circle + round the fire, and with a swaying motion of the body + kept time to their music. + + During the day the young men, except the dancers, piled up + dry logs in a level open space near, for a grand demonstration. + At night, when it was fired, I folded my blanket over my + shoulders, comme les sauvages, and went out. The faces + of many girls were brilliant with vermilion; others were + blacked, their robes, leggings, and skin dresses glittering + with beads and quill-work. Rings and bracelets of shining + brass encircled their taper arms and fingers, and shells + dangled from their ears. Indeed, all the finery collectable + was piled on in barbarous profusion, though a few, in good + taste through poverty, wore a single band and but few rings, + with jetty hair parted in the middle, from the forehead + to the neck, terminating in two handsome braids. + + The young men who can afford the expense trade for dollars + and silver coin of less denomination—coin as a currency + is not known among them—which they flatten thin, and fasten + to a braid of buffalo hair, attached to the crown lock, + which hangs behind, outside of the robe, and adds much to + the handsome appearance of the wearer. + + The girls, numbering two hundred, fell into line together, + and the men, of whom there were two hundred and fifty, + joining, a circle was formed, which travelled around with + the same shuffling step already described. The drummers + and other musicians—twenty or twenty-five of them—marched + in a contrary direction to and from and around the fire, + inside the large ring; for at the distance kept by the + outsiders the area was one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. + The Apollonian emulators chanted the great deeds performed + by the Cheyenne warriors. As they ended, the dying strain + was caught up by the hundreds of the outside circle, who, + in fast-swelling, loud tones, poured out the burden of + their song. At this juncture the march was quickened, + the scalps of the slain were borne aloft and shaken with + wild delight, and shrill war-notes, rising above the + furious din, accelerated the pulsation and strung high + the nerves. Time-worn shields, careering in mad holders' + hands, clashed; and keen lances, once reeking in Pawnee + blood, clanged. Braves seized one another with an iron + grip, in the heat of excitement, or chimed more tenderly + in the chant, enveloped in the same robe with some maiden + as they approvingly stepped through one of their own + original polkas. + + Thirty of the chiefs and principal men were ranged by the + pile of blazing logs. By their invitation, I sat down with + them and smoked death and its concomitant train of evils to + those audacious tribes who doubt the courage or supremacy + of the brave, the great and powerful, Cheyenne nation. +</pre> + <p> + It is Indian etiquette that the first lodge a stranger enters on visiting + a village is his home as long as he remains the guest of the tribe. It is + all the same whether he be invited or not. Upon going in, it is customary + to place all your traps in the back part, which is the most honoured spot. + The proprietor always occupies that part of his home, but invariably gives + it up to a guest. With the Cheyennes, the white man, when the tribe was at + peace with him, was ever welcome, as in the early days of the border he + generally had a supply of coffee, of which the savage is particularly fond—Mok-ta-bo-mah-pe, + as they call it. Their salutation to the stranger coming into the presence + of the owner of a lodge is "Hook-ah-hay! Num-whit,"—"How do you do? + Stay with us." Water is then handed by a squaw, as it is supposed a + traveller is thirsty after riding; then meat, for he must be hungry, too. + A pipe is offered, and conversation follows. + </p> + <p> + The lodge of the Cheyennes is formed of seventeen poles, about three + inches thick at the end which rests on the ground, slender in shape, + tapering symmetrically, and eighteen feet or more in length. They are tied + together at the small ends with buffalo-hide, then raised until the frame + resembles a cone, over which buffalo-skins are placed, very skilfully + fitted and made soft by having been dubbed by the women—that is, + scraped to the requisite thinness, and made supple by rubbing with the + brains of the animal that wore it. They are sewed together with sinews of + the buffalo, generally of the long and powerful muscle that holds up the + ponderous head of the shaggy beast, a narrow strip running towards the + bump. In summer the lower edges of the skin are rolled up, and the wind + blowing through, it is a cool, shady retreat. In winter everything is + closed, and I know of no more comfortable place than a well-made Indian + lodge. The army tent known as the Sibley is modelled after it, and is the + best winter shelter for troops in the field that can be made. Many times + while the military post where I had been ordered was in process of + building, I have chosen the Sibley tent in preference to any other + domicile. + </p> + <p> + When a village is to be moved, it is an interesting sight. The young and + unfledged boys drive up the herd of ponies, and then the squaws catch + them. The women, too, take down the lodges, and, tying the poles in two + bundles, fasten them on each side of an animal, the long ends dragging on + the ground. Just behind the pony or mule, as the case may be, a basket is + placed and held there by buffalo-hide thongs, and into these novel + carriages the little children are put, besides such traps as are not + easily packed on the animal's back. + </p> + <p> + The women do all the work both in camp and when moving. They are doomed to + a hopeless bondage of slavery, the fate of their sex in every savage race; + but they accept their condition stoically, and there is as much affection + among them for their husbands and children as I have ever witnessed among + the white race. Here are two instances of their devotion, both of which + came under my personal observation, and I could give hundreds of others. + </p> + <p> + Late in the fall of 1858, I was one of a party on the trail of a band of + Indians who had been committing some horrible murders in a mining-camp in + the northern portion of Washington Territory. On the fourth day out, just + about dusk, we struck their moccasin tracks, which we followed all night, + and surprised their camp in the gray light of the early morning. In less + than ten minutes the fight was over, and besides the killed we captured + six prisoners. Then as the rising sun commenced to gild the peaks of the + lofty range on the west, having granted our captives half an hour to take + leave of their families, the ankles of each were bound; they were made to + kneel on the prairie, a squad of soldiers, with loaded rifles, were drawn + up eight paces in front of them, and at the instant the signal—a + white handkerchief—was dropped the savages tumbled over on the sod a + heap of corpses. The parting between the condemned men and their young + wives and children, I shall never forget. It was the most perfect + exhibition of marital and filial love that I have ever witnessed. Such + harsh measures may seem cruel and heartless in the light of to-day, but + there was none other than martial law then in the wilderness of the + Northern Pacific coast, and the execution was a stern necessity. + </p> + <p> + The other instance was ten years later. During the Indian campaign in the + winter of 1868-69 I was riding with a party of officers and enlisted men, + south of the Arkansas, about fourty miles from Fort Dodge. We were + watching some cavalrymen unearth three or four dead warriors who had been + killed by two scouts in a fierce unequal fight a few weeks before, and as + we rode into a small ravine among the sand hills, we suddenly came upon a + rudely constructed Cheyenne lodge. Entering, we discovered on a rough + platform, fashioned of green poles, a dead warrior in full war-dress; his + shield of buffalo-hide, pipe ornamented with eagles' feathers, and + medicine bag, were lying on the ground beside him. At his head, on her + knees, with hands clasped in the attitude of prayer, was a squaw frozen to + death. Which had first succumbed, the wounded chief, or the devoted wife + in the awful cold of that winter prairie, will never be known, but it + proved her love for the man who had perhaps beaten her a hundred times. + Such tender and sympathetic affection is characteristic of the sex + everywhere, no less with the poor savage than in the dominant white race. + </p> + <p> + To return to our description of the average Indian village: Each lodge at + the grand encampment of Big Timbers in the era of traffic with the nomads + of the great plains, owned its separate herd of ponies and mules. In the + exodus to some other favoured spot, two dozen or more of these individual + herds travelled close to each other but never mixed, each drove devotedly + following its bell-mare, as in a pack-train. This useful animal is + generally the most worthless and wicked beast in the entire outfit. + </p> + <p> + The animals with the lodge-pole carriages go as they please, no special + care being taken to guide them, but they too instinctively keep within + sound of the leader. I will again quote Garrard for an accurate + description of the moving camp when he was with the Cheyennes in 1847:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The young squaws take much care of their dress and horse + equipments; they dash furiously past on wild steeds, + astride of the high-pommelled saddles. A fancifully + coloured cover, worked with beads or porcupine quills, + making a flashy, striking appearance, extended from withers + to rump of the horse, while the riders evinced an admirable + daring, worthy of Amazons. Their dresses were made of + buckskin, high at the neck, with short sleeves, or rather + none at all, fitting loosely, and reaching obliquely to + the knee, giving a Diana look to the costume; the edges + scalloped, worked with beads, and fringed. From the knee + downward the limb was encased in a tightly fitting legging, + terminating in a neat moccasin—both handsomely wrought + with beads. On the arms were bracelets of brass, which + glittered and reflected in the radiant morning sun, adding + much to their attractions. In their pierced ears, shells + from the Pacific shore were pendent; and to complete the + picture of savage taste and profusion, their fine + complexions were eclipsed by a coat of flaming vermilion. + + Many of the largest dogs were packed with a small quantity + of meat, or something not easily injured. They looked + queerly, trotting industriously under their burdens; and, + judging from a small stock of canine physiological + information, not a little of the wolf was in their + composition. + + We crossed the river on our way to the new camp. The alarm + manifested by the children in the lodge-pole drays, as they + dipped in the water, was amusing. The little fellows, + holding their breath, not daring to cry, looked imploringly + at their inexorable mothers, and were encouraged by words + of approbation from their stern fathers. + + After a ride of two hours we stopped, and the chiefs, + fastening their horses, collected in circles to smoke their + pipe and talk, letting their squaws unpack the animals, + pitch the lodges, build the fires, and arrange the robes. + When all was ready, these lords of creation dispersed to + their several homes, to wait until their patient and + enduring spouses prepared some food. I was provoked, nay, + angry, to see the lazy, overgrown men do nothing to help + their wives; and when the young women pulled off their + bracelets and finery to chop wood, the cup of my wrath was + full to overflowing, and, in a fit of honest indignation, + I pronounced them ungallant and savage in the true sense + of the word. +</pre> + <p> + The treatment of Indian children, particularly boys, is something + startling to the gentle sentiments of refined white mothers. The girls + receive hardly any attention from their fathers. Implicit obedience is the + watchword of the lodge with them, and they are constantly taught to + appreciate their inferiority of sex. The daughter is a mere slave; + unnoticed and neglected—a mere hewer of wood and drawer of water. + With a son, it is entirely different; the father from his birth dotes on + him and manifests his affection in the most demonstrative manner. + </p> + <p> + Garrard tells of two instances that came under his observation while + staying at the chief's lodge, and at John Smith's, in the Cheyenne + village, of the discipline to which the boys are subjected. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + In Vi-po-nah's lodge was his grandson, a boy six or seven + months old. Every morning his mother washed him in cold + water, and set him out in the air to make him hardy; + he would come in, perfectly nude, from his airing, about + half-frozen. How he would laugh and brighten up, as he felt + the warmth of the fire! + + Smith's son Jack took a crying fit one cold night, much to + the annoyance of four or five chiefs, who had come to our + lodge to talk and smoke. In vain did the mother shake and + scold him with the severest Cheyenne words, until Smith, + provoked beyond endurance, took the squalling youngster in + his hands; he shu-ed and shouted and swore, but Jack had + gone too far to be easily pacified. He then sent for a + bucket of water from the river and poured cupful after + cupful on Jack, who stamped and screamed and bit in his + tiny rage. Notwithstanding, the icy stream slowly descended + until the bucket was emptied, another was sent for, and + again and again the cup was replenished and emptied on the + blubbering youth. At last, exhausted with exertion and + completely cooled down, he received the remaining water + in silence, and, with a few words of admonition, was + delivered over to his mother, in whose arms he stifled his + sobs, until his heartbreaking grief and cares were drowned + in sleep. What a devilish mixture Indian and American + blood is! +</pre> + <p> + The Indians never chastise a boy, as they think his spirit would be broken + and cowed down; instead of a warrior he would be a squaw—a harsh + epithet indicative of cowardice—and they resort to any method but + infliction of blows to subdue a refractory scion. + </p> + <p> + Before most of the lodges is a tripod of three sticks, about seven feet in + length and an inch in diameter, fastened at the top, and the lower ends + brought out, so that it stands alone. On this is hung the shield and a + small square bag of parflêche, containing pipes, with an accompanying + pendent roll of stems, carefully wrapped in blue or red cloth, and + decorated with beads and porcupine quills. This collection is held in + great veneration, for the pipe is their only religion. Through its agency + they invoke the Great Spirit; through it they render homage to the winds, + to the earth, and to the sky. + </p> + <p> + Every one has his peculiar notion on this subject; and, in passing the + pipe, one must have it presented stem downward, another the reverse; some + with the bowl resting on the ground; and as this is a matter of great + solemnity, their several fancies are respected. Sometimes I required them + to hand it to me, when smoking, in imitation of their custom; on this, a + faint smile, half mingled with respect and pity for my folly in tampering + with their sacred ceremony, would appear on their faces, and with a slow + negative shake of the head, they would ejaculate, + "I-sto-met-mah-son-ne-wah-hein"—"Pshaw! that's foolish; don't do + so." + </p> + <p> + Religion the Cheyennes have none, if, indeed, we except the respect paid + to the pipe; nor do we see any sign or vestige of spiritual worship; + except one remarkable thing—in offering the pipe, before every fresh + filling, to the sky, the earth, and the winds, the motion made in so doing + describes the form of a cross; and, in blowing the first four whiffs, the + smoke is invariably sent in the same four directions. It is undoubtedly + void of meaning in reference to Christian worship, yet it is a + superstition, founded on ancient tradition. This tribe once lived near the + head waters of the Mississippi; and, as the early Jesuit missionaries were + energetic zealots, in the diffusion of their religious sentiments, + probably to make their faith more acceptable to the Indians, the Roman + Catholic rites were blended with the homage shown to the pipe, which + custom of offering, in the form of a cross, is still retained by them; but + as every custom is handed down by tradition merely, the true source has + been forgotten. + </p> + <p> + In every tribe in whose country I have been stationed, which comprises + nearly all the continent excepting the extreme southwestern portion, his + pipe is the Indian's constant companion through life. It is his messenger + of peace; he pledges his friends through its stem and its bowl, and when + he is dead, it has a place in his solitary grave, with his war-club and + arrows—companions on his journey to his long-fancied beautiful + hunting-grounds. The pipe of peace is a sacred thing; so held by all + Indian nations, and kept in possession of chiefs, to be smoked only at + times of peacemaking. When the terms of treaty have been agreed upon, this + sacred emblem, the stem of which is ornamented with eagle's quills, is + brought forward, and the solemn pledge to keep the peace is passed through + the sacred stem by each chief and warrior drawing the smoke once through + it. After the ceremony is over, the warriors of the two tribes unite in + the dance, with the pipe of peace held in the left hand of the chief and + in his other a rattle. + </p> + <p> + Thousands of years ago, the primitive savage of the American continent + carried masses of pipe-stone from the sacred quarry in Minnesota across + the vast wilderness of plains, to trade with the people of the far + Southwest, over the same route that long afterward became the Santa Fe + Trail; therefore, it will be consistent with the character of this work to + relate the history of the quarry from which all the tribes procured their + material for fashioning their pipes, and the curious legends connected + with it. I have met with the red sandstone pipes on the remotest portions + of the Pacific coast, and east, west, north and south, in every tribe that + it has been my fortune to know. + </p> + <p> + The word "Dakotah" means allied or confederated, and is the family name + now comprising some thirty bands, numbering about thirty thousand Indians. + They are generally designated Sioux, but that title is seldom willingly + acknowledged by them. It was first given to them by the French, though its + original interpretation is by no means clear. The accepted theory, because + it is the most plausible, is that it is a corruption or rather an + abbreviation of "Nadouessioux," a Chippewa word for enemies. + </p> + <p> + Many of the Sioux are semi-civilized; some are "blanket-Indians," so + called, but there are no longer any murderous or predatory bands, and all + save a few stragglers are on the reservations. From 1812 to 1876, more + than half a century, they were the scourge of the West and the Northwest, + but another outbreak is highly improbable. They once occupied the vast + region included between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, and were + always migratory in their methods of living. Over fifty years ago, when + the whites first became acquainted with them, they were divided into + nearly fifty bands of families, each with its separate chief, but all + acknowledging a superior chief to whom they were subordinate. They were at + that time the happiest and most wealthy tribe on the continent, regarded + from an Indian standpoint; but then the great plains were stocked with + buffalo and wild horses, and that fact alone warrants the assertion of + contentment and riches. No finer-looking tribe existed; they could then + muster more than ten thousand warriors, every one of whom would measure + six feet, and all their movements were graceful and elastic. + </p> + <p> + According to their legends, they came from the Pacific and encountered the + Algonquins about the head waters of the Mississippi, where they were held + in check, a portion of them, however, pushing on through their enemies and + securing a foothold on the shores of Lake Michigan. This bold band was + called by the Chippewas Winnebagook (men-from-the-salt-water). In their + original habitat on the great northern plains was located the celebrated + "red pipe-stone quarry," a relatively limited area, owned by all tribes, + but occupied permanently by none; a purely neutral ground—so + designated by the Great Spirit—where no war could possibly occur, + and where mortal enemies might meet to procure the material for their + pipes, but the hatchet was invariably buried during that time on the + consecrated spot. + </p> + <p> + The quarry has long since passed out of the control and jurisdiction of + the Indians and is not included in any of their reservations, though near + the Sisseton agency. It is located on the summit of the high divide + between the Missouri and St. Peter's rivers in Minnesota, at a point not + far from where the ninety-seventh meridian of longitude (from Greenwich) + intersects the forty-fifth parallel of latitude. The divide was named by + the French Coteau des Prairies, and the quarry is near its southern + extremity. Not a tree or bush could be seen from the majestic mound when I + last was there, some twenty years ago—nothing but the apparently + interminable plains, until they were lost in the deep blue of the horizon. + </p> + <p> + The luxury of smoking appears to have been known to all the tribes on the + continent in their primitive state, and they indulge in the habit to + excess; any one familiar with their life can assert that the American + savage smokes half of his time. Where so much attention is given to a mere + pleasure, it naturally follows that he would devote his leisure and + ingenuity to the construction of his pipe. The bowls of these were, from + time immemorial, made of the peculiar red stone from the famous quarry + referred to, which, until only a little over fifty years ago, was never + visited by a white man, its sanctity forbidding any such sacrilege. + </p> + <p> + That the spot should have been visited for untold centuries by all the + Indian nations, who hid their weapons as they approached it, under fear of + the vengeance of the Great Spirit, will not seem strange when the religion + of the race is understood. One of the principal features of the quarry is + a perpendicular wall of granite about thirty feet high, facing the west, + and nearly two miles long. At the base of the wall there is a level + prairie, running parallel to it, half a mile wide. Under this strip of + land, after digging through several slaty layers of rock, the red + sandstone is found. Old graves, fortifications, and excavations abound, + all confirmatory of the traditions clustering around the weird place. + </p> + <p> + Within a few rods of the base of the wall is a group of immense gneiss + boulders, five in number, weighing probably many hundred tons each, and + under these are two holes in which two imaginary old women reside—the + guardian spirits of the quarry—who were always consulted before any + pipe-stone could be dug up. The veneration for this group of boulders was + something wonderful; not a spear of grass was broken or bent by his feet + within sixty or seventy paces from them, where the trembling Indian + halted, and throwing gifts to them in humble supplication, solicited + permission to dig and take away the red stone for his pipes. + </p> + <p> + Near this spot, too, on a high mound, was the "Thunder's nest," where a + very small bird sat upon her eggs during fair weather. When the skies were + rent with thunder at the approach of a storm, she was hatching her brood, + which caused the terrible commotion in the heavens. The bird was eternal. + The "medicine men" claimed that they had often seen her, and she was about + as large as a little finger. Her mate was a serpent whose fiery tongue + destroyed the young ones as soon as they were born, and the awful noise + accompanying the act darted through the clouds. + </p> + <p> + On the wall of rocks at the quarry are thousands of inscriptions and + paintings, the totems and arms of various tribes who have visited there; + but no idea can be formed of their antiquity. + </p> + <p> + Of the various traditions of the many tribes, I here present a few. The + Great Spirit at a remote period called all the Indian nations together at + this place, and, standing on the brink of the precipice of red-stone rock, + broke from its walls a piece and fashioned a pipe by simply turning it in + his hands. He then smoked over them to the north, the south, the east, and + the west, and told them the stone was red, that it was their flesh, that + they must use it for their pipes of peace, that it belonged to all alike, + and that the war-club and scalping-knife must never be raised on its + ground. At the last whiff of his pipe his head went into a great cloud, + and the whole surface of the ledge for miles was melted and glazed; two + great ovens were opened beneath, and two women—the guardian spirits + of the place—entered them in a blaze of fire, and they are heard + there yet answering to the conjurations of the medicine men, who consult + them when they visit the sacred place. + </p> + <p> + The legend of the Knis-te-neu's tribe (Crees), a very small band in the + British possessions, in relation to the quarry is this: In the time of a + great freshet that occurred years ago and destroyed all the nations of the + earth, every tribe of Indians assembled on the top of the Coteau des + Prairies to get out of the way of the rushing and seething waters. When + they had arrived there from all parts of the world, the water continued to + rise until it covered them completely, forming one solid mass of drowned + Indians, and their flesh was converted by the Great Spirit into red + pipe-stone; therefore, it was always considered neutral ground, belonging + to all tribes alike, and all were to make their pipes out of it and smoke + together. While they were drowning together, a young woman, Kwaptan, a + virgin, caught hold of the foot of a very large bird that was flying over + at the time, and was carried to the top of a hill that was not far away + and above the water. There she had twins, their father being the war-eagle + that had carried her off, and her children have since peopled the earth. + The pipe-stone, which is the flesh of their ancestors, is smoked by them + as the symbol of peace, and the eagle quills decorate the heads of their + warriors. + </p> + <p> + Severed about seven or eight feet from the main wall of the quarry by some + convulsion of nature ages ago, there is an immense column just equal in + height to the wall, seven feet in diameter and beautifully polished on its + top and sides. It is called The Medicine, or Leaping Rock, and + considerable nerve is required to jump on it from the main ledge and back + again. Many an Indian's heart, in the past, has sighed for the honour of + the feat without daring to attempt it. A few, according to the records of + the tribes, have tried it with success, and left their arrows standing up + in its crevice; others have made the leap and reached its slippery surface + only to slide off, and suffer instant death on the craggy rocks in the + awful chasm below. Every young man of the many tribes was ambitious to + perform the feat, and those who had successfully accomplished it were + permitted to boast of it all their lives. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV. TRAPPERS. + </h2> + <p> + The initial opening of the trade with New Mexico from the Missouri River, + as has been related, was not direct to Santa Fe. The limited number of + pack-trains at first passed to the north of the Raton Range, and travelled + to the Spanish settlements in the valley of Taos. + </p> + <p> + On this original Trail, where now is situated the beautiful city of + Pueblo, the second place of importance in Colorado, there was a little + Indian trading-post called "the Pueblo," from which the present thriving + place derives its name. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad + practically follows the same route that the traders did to reach Pueblo, + as it also does that which the freight caravans later followed from the + Missouri River direct to Santa Fe. + </p> + <p> + The old Pueblo fort, as nearly as can be determined now, was built as + early as 1840, or not later than 1842, and, as one authority asserts, by + George Simpson and his associates, Barclay and Doyle. Beckwourth claims to + have been the original projector of the fort, and to have given the + general plan and its name, in which I am inclined to believe that he is + correct; perhaps Barclay, Doyle, and Simpson were connected with him, as + he states that there were other trappers, though he mentions no names. It + was a square fort of adobe, with circular bastions at the corners, no part + of the walls being more than eight feet high. Around the inside of the + plaza, or corral, were half a dozen small rooms inhabited by as many + Indian traders and mountain-men. + </p> + <p> + One of the earlier Indian agents, Mr. Fitzpatrick, in writing from Bent's + Fort in 1847, thus describes the old Pueblo:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + About seventy-five miles above this place, and immediately + on the Arkansas River, there is a small settlement, chiefly + composed of old trappers and hunters; the male part of it + are mostly Americans (Missourians), French Canadians, and + Mexicans. It numbers about one hundred and fifty, and of + this number about sixty men have wives, and some have two. + These wives are of various Indian tribes, as follows; viz. + Blackfeet, Assiniboines, Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, + Snakes, and Comanches. The American women are Mormons, + a party of Mormons having wintered there, and then departed + for California. +</pre> + <p> + The old trappers and hunters of the Pueblo fort lived entirely upon game, + and a greater part of the year without bread. As soon as their supply of + meat was exhausted, they started to the mountains with two or three + pack-animals, and brought back in two or three days loads of venison and + buffalo. + </p> + <p> + The Arkansas at the Pueblo is a clear, rapid river about a hundred yards + wide. The bottom, which is enclosed on each side by high bluffs, is about + a quarter of a mile across. In the early days of which I write, the margin + of the stream was heavily timbered with cottonwood, and the tourist to-day + may see the remnant of the primitive great woods, in the huge isolated + trees scattered around the bottom in the vicinity of the Atchison, Topeka, + and Santa Fe Railroad station of the charming mountain city. + </p> + <p> + On each side vast rolling prairies stretch away for hundreds of miles, + gradually ascending on the side towards the mountains, where the highlands + are sparsely covered with pinyon and cedar. The lofty banks through which + the Arkansas occasionally passes are of shale and sandstone, rising + precipitously from the water. Ascending the river the country is wild and + broken, until it enters the mountain region, where the scenery is + incomparably grand and imposing. The surrounding prairies are naturally + arid and sterile, producing but little vegetation, and the primitive + grass, though of good quality, is thin and scarce. Now, however, under a + competent system of irrigation, the whole aspect of the landscape is + changed from what it was thirty years ago, and it has all the luxuriance + of a garden. + </p> + <p> + The whole country, it is claimed, was once possessed by the Shos-shones, + or Snake Indians, of whom the Comanches of the Southern plains are a + branch; and, although many hundred miles divide their hunting-grounds, + they were once, if not the same people, tribes or bands of that great and + powerful nation. They retain a language in common, and there is also a + striking analogy in many of their religious rites and ceremonies, in their + folk-lore, and in some of their everyday customs. These facts prove, at + least, that there was at one time a very close alliance which bound the + two tribes together. Half a century ago they were, in point of numbers, + the two most powerful nations in all the numerous aggregations of Indians + in the West; the Comanches ruling almost supreme on the Eastern plains, + while the Shos-shones were the dominant tribe in the country beyond the + Rocky Mountains, and in the mountains themselves. Once, many years ago, + before the problem of the relative strength of the various tribes was as + well solved as now, the Shos-shones were supposed to be the most powerful, + and numerically the most populous, tribe of Indians on the North American + continent. + </p> + <p> + In the immediate vicinity of the old Pueblo fort at the time of its + greatest business prosperity, game was scarce; the buffalo had for some + years deserted the neighbouring prairies, but they were always to be found + in the mountain-valleys, particularly in one known as "Bayou Salado," + which forty-five years ago abounded in elk, bear, deer, and antelope. + </p> + <p> + The fort was situated a few hundred yards above the mouth of the "Fontaine + qui Bouille" River,<a href="#linknote-47" name="linknoteref-47" + id="linknoteref-47"><small>47</small></a> so called from two springs of + mineral water near its head, under Pike's Peak, about sixty miles above + its mouth. + </p> + <p> + As is the case with all the savage races of the world, the American + Indians possess hereditary legends, accounting for all the phenomena of + nature, or any occurrence which is beyond their comprehension. The + Shos-shones had the following story to account for the presence of these + wonderful springs in the midst of their favourite hunting-ground. The two + fountains, one pouring forth the sweetest water imaginable, the other a + stream as bitter as gall, are intimately connected with the cause of the + separation of the two tribes. Their legend thus runs: Many hundreds of + winters ago, when the cottonwoods on the big river were no higher than + arrows, and the prairies were crowded with game, the red men who hunted + the deer in the forests and the buffalo on the plains all spoke the same + language, and the pipe of peace breathed its soothing cloud whenever two + parties of hunters met on the boundless prairie. + </p> + <p> + It happened one day that two hunters of different nations met on the bank + of a small rivulet, to which both had resorted to quench their thirst. A + small stream of water, rising from a spring on a rock within a few feet of + the bank, trickled over it and fell splashing into the river. One hunter + sought the spring itself; the other, tired by his exertions in the chase, + threw himself at once to the ground, and plunged his face into the running + stream. + </p> + <p> + The latter had been unsuccessful in the hunt, and perhaps his bad fortune, + and the sight of the fat deer which the other threw from his back before + he drank at the crystal spring, caused a feeling of jealousy and + ill-humour to take possession of his mind. The other, on the contrary, + before he satisfied his thirst, raised in the hollow of his hand a portion + of the water, and, lifting it toward the sun, reversed his hand, and + allowed it to fall upon the ground, as a libation to the Great Spirit, who + had vouch-safed him a successful hunt and the blessing of the refreshing + water with which he was about to quench his thirst. + </p> + <p> + This reminder that he had neglected the usual offering only increased the + feeling of envy and annoyance which filled the unsuccessful hunter's + heart. The Evil Spirit at that moment entering his body, his temper fairly + flew away, and he sought some pretence to provoke a quarrel with the other + Indian. + </p> + <p> + "Why does a stranger," he asked, rising from the stream, "drink at the + spring-head, when one to whom the fountain belongs contents himself with + the water that runs from it?" + </p> + <p> + "The Great Spirit places the cool water at the spring," answered the other + hunter, "that his children may drink it pure and undefiled. The running + water is for the beasts which scour the plains. Ausaqua is a chief of the + Shos-shones; he drinks at the head water." + </p> + <p> + "The Shos-shones is but a tribe of the Comanches," returned the other: + "Wacomish leads the whole nation. Why does a Shos-shone dare to drink + above him?" + </p> + <p> + "When the Manitou made his children, whether Shos-shone or Comanche, + Arapaho, Cheyenne, or Pawnee, he gave them buffalo to eat, and the pure + water of the fountain to quench their thirst. He said not to one, 'Drink + here,' and to another, 'Drink there'; but gave the crystal spring to all, + that all might drink." + </p> + <p> + Wacomish almost burst with rage as the other spoke; but his coward heart + prevented him from provoking an encounter with the calm Shos-shone. The + latter, made thirsty by the words he had spoken—for the Indian is + ever sparing of his tongue—again stooped down to the spring to + drink, when the subtle warrior of the Comanches suddenly threw himself + upon the kneeling hunter and, forcing his head into the bubbling water, + held him down with all his strength until his victim no longer struggled; + his stiffened limbs relaxed, and he fell forward over the spring, drowned. + </p> + <p> + Mechanically the Comanche dragged the body a few paces from the water, + and, as soon as the head of the dead Indian was withdrawn, the spring was + suddenly and strangely disturbed. Bubbles sprang up from the bottom, and, + rising to the surface, escaped in hissing gas. A thin vapour arose, and, + gradually dissolving, displayed to the eyes of the trembling murderer the + figure of an aged Indian, whose long, snowy hair and venerable beard, + blown aside from his breast, discovered the well-known totem of the great + Wankanaga, the father of the Comanche and Shos-shone nation. + </p> + <p> + Stretching out a war-club toward the Comanche, the figure thus addressed + him:— + </p> + <p> + "Accursed murderer! While the blood of the brave Shos-shone cries to the + Great Spirit for vengeance, may the water of thy tribe be rank and bitter + in their throats!" Thus saying, and swinging his ponderous war-club round + his head, he dashed out the brains of the Comanche, who fell headlong into + the spring, which from that day to this remains rank and nauseous, so that + not even when half dead with thirst, can one drink from it. + </p> + <p> + The good Wankanaga, however, to perpetuate the memory of the Shos-shone + warrior, who was renowned in his tribe for valour and nobleness of heart, + struck with the same avenging club a hard, flat rock which overhung the + rivulet, and forthwith a round clear basin opened, which instantly filled + with bubbling, sparkling water, sweet and cool. + </p> + <p> + From that day the two mighty tribes of the Shos-shones and Comanches have + remained severed and apart, although a long and bloody war followed the + treacherous murder. + </p> + <p> + The Indians regarded these wonderful springs with awe. The Arapahoes, + especially, attributed to the Spirit of the springs the power of ordaining + the success or failure of their war expeditions. As their warriors passed + by the mysterious pools when hunting their hereditary enemies, the Utes, + they never failed to bestow their votive offerings upon the spring, in + order to propitiate the Manitou of the strange fountain, and insure a + fortunate issue to their path of war. As late as twenty-five years ago, + the visitor to the place could always find the basin of the spring filled + with beads and wampum, pieces of red cloth and knives, while the + surrounding trees were hung with strips of deerskin, cloth, and moccasins. + Signs were frequently observed in the vicinity of the waters unmistakably + indicating that a war-dance had been executed there by the Arapahoes on + their way to the Valley of Salt, occupied by the powerful Utes. + </p> + <p> + Never was there such a paradise for hunters as this lone and solitary spot + in the days when the region was known only to them and the trappers of the + great fur companies. The shelving prairie, at the bottom of which the + springs are situated, is entirely surrounded by rugged mountains and + contained two or three acres of excellent grass, affording a safe pasture + for their animals, which hardly cared to wander from such feeding and the + salt they loved to lick. + </p> + <p> + The trappers of the Rocky Mountains belonged to a genus that has + disappeared. Forty years ago there was not a hole or corner in the vast + wilderness of the far West that had not been explored by these hardy men. + From the Mississippi to the mouth of the Colorado of the West, from the + frozen regions of the north to the Gila in Mexico, the beaver hunter has + set his traps in every creek and stream. The mountains and waters, in many + instances, still retain the names assigned them by those rude hunters, who + were veritable pioneers paving the way for the settlement of the stern + country. + </p> + <p> + A trapper's camp in the old days was quite a picture, as were all its + surroundings. He did not always take the trouble to build a shelter, + unless in the winter. A couple of deerskins stretched over a willow frame + was considered sufficient to protect him from the storm. Sometimes he + contented himself with a mere "breakwind," the rocky wall of a canyon, or + large ravine. Near at hand he set up two poles, in the crotch of which + another was laid, where he kept, out of reach of the hungry wolf and + coyote, his meat, consisting of every variety afforded by the region in + which he had pitched his camp. Under cover of the skins of the animals he + had killed hung his old-fashioned powder-horn and bullet-pouch, while his + trusty rifle, carefully defended from the damp, was always within reach of + his hand. Round his blazing fire at night his companions, if he had any, + were other trappers on the same stream; and, while engaged in cleaning + their arms, making and mending moccasins, or running bullets, they told + long yarns, until the lateness of the hour warned them to crawl under + their blankets. + </p> + <p> + Not far from the camp, his animals, well hobbled, fed in sight; for + nothing did a hunter dread more than a visit from horse-stealing Indians, + and to be afoot was the acme of misery. + </p> + <p> + Some hunters who had married squaws carried about with them regular + buffalo-skin lodges, which their wives took care of, according to Indian + etiquette. + </p> + <p> + The old-time trappers more nearly approximated the primitive savage, + perhaps, than any other class of civilized men. Their lives being spent in + the remote wilderness of the mountains, frequently with no other companion + than Nature herself, their habits and character often assumed a most + singular cast of simplicity, mingled with ferocity, that appeared to take + its colouring from the scenes and objects which surrounded them. Having no + wants save those of nature, their sole concern was to provide sufficient + food to support life, and the necessary clothing to protect them from the + sometimes rigorous climate. + </p> + <p> + The costume of the average trapper was a hunting-shirt of dressed + buckskin, with long, fringed trousers of the same material, decorated with + porcupine quills. A flexible hat and moccasins covered his extremities, + and over his left shoulder and under his right arm hung his powder-horn + and bullet-pouch, in which he also carried flint, steel, and other odds + and ends. Round his waist he wore a belt, in which was stuck a large knife + in a sheath of buffalo-hide, made fast to the belt by a chain or guard of + steel. It also supported a little buckskin case, which contained a + whetstone, a very necessary article; for in taking off the hides of the + beaver a sharp knife was required. His pipe-holder hung around his neck, + and was generally a gage d'amour, a triumph of squaw workmanship, wrought + with beads and porcupine quills, often made in the shape of a heart. + </p> + <p> + Necessarily keen observers of nature, they rivalled the beasts of prey in + discovering the haunts and habits of game, and in their skill and cunning + in capturing it outwitted the Indian himself. Constantly exposed to perils + of all kinds, they became callous to any feeling of danger, and were firm + friends or bitter enemies. It was a "word and a blow," the blow often + coming first. Strong, active, hardy as bears, expert in the use of their + weapons, they were just what an uncivilized white man might be supposed to + be under conditions where he must depend upon his instincts for the + support of life. + </p> + <p> + Having determined upon the locality of his trapping-ground, the hunter + started off, sometimes alone, sometimes three or four of them in company, + as soon as the breaking of the ice in the streams would permit, if he was + to go very far north. Arriving on the spot he has selected for his + permanent camp, the first thing to be done, after he had settled himself, + was to follow the windings of the creeks and rivers, keeping a sharp + lookout for "signs." If he saw a prostrate cottonwood tree, he carefully + examined it to learn whether it was the work of beaver, and if so whether + thrown for the purpose of food, or to dam the stream. The track of the + animal on the mud or sand under the banks was also examined; if the sign + was fresh, he set his trap in the run of the animal, hiding it under + water, and attaching it by a stout chain to a picket driven in the bank, + or to a bush or tree. A float-stick was made fast to the trap by a cord a + few feet long, which, if the animal carried away the trap, would float on + the water and point out its position. The trap was baited with "medicine," + an oily substance obtained from the beaver. A stick was dipped in this and + planted over the trap, and the beaver, attracted by the smell, put his leg + into the trap and was caught. + </p> + <p> + When a beaver lodge was discovered, the trap was set at the edge of the + dam, at a point where the animal passed from deep to shoal water, and + always under the surface. Early in the morning, the hunter mounted his + mule and examined all his traps. + </p> + <p> + The beaver is exceedingly wily, and if by scent or sound or sight he had + any intimation of the presence of a trapper, he put at defiance all + efforts to capture him, consequently it was necessary to practise great + caution when in the neighbourhood of one of their lodges. The trapper then + avoided riding for fear the sound of his horse's feet might strike dismay + among the furry inhabitants under the water, and, instead of walking on + the ground, he waded in the stream, lest he should leave a scent behind by + which he might be discovered. + </p> + <p> + In the days of the great fur companies, trappers were of two kinds—the + hired hand and the free trapper. The former was hired by the company, + which supplied him with everything necessary, and paid him a certain price + for his furs and peltries. The other hunted on his own hook, owned his + animals and traps, went where he pleased, and sold to whom he chose. + </p> + <p> + During the hunting season, regardless of the Indians, the fearless trapper + wandered far and near in search of signs. His nerves were in a state of + tension, his mind always clear, and his head cool. His trained eye + scrutinized every part of the country, and in an instant he could detect + anything that was strange. A turned leaf, a blade of grass pressed down, + the uneasiness of wild animals, the actions of the birds, were all to him + paragraphs written in Nature's legible hand. + </p> + <p> + All the wits of the wily savage were called into play to gain an advantage + over the plucky white man; but with the resources natural to a civilized + mind, the hunter seldom failed, under equal chance, to circumvent the + cunning of the red man. Sometimes, following his trail for weeks, the + Indian watched him set his traps on some timbered stream, and crawling up + the bed of it, so that he left no tracks, he lay in the bushes until his + victim came to examine his traps. Then, when he approached within a few + feet of the ambush, whiz! flew the home-drawn arrow, which never failed at + such close quarters to bring the unsuspecting hunter to the ground. But + for one white scalp that dangled in the smoke of an Indian's lodge, a + dozen black ones, at the end of the season, ornamented the camp-fires of + the rendezvous where the furs were sold. + </p> + <p> + In the camp, if he was a very successful hunter, all the appliances for + preparing the skins for market were at hand; if he had a squaw for a wife, + she did all the hard work, as usual. Close to the entrance of their skin + lodge was the "graining-block," a log of wood with the bark stripped off + and perfectly smooth, set obliquely in the ground, on which the hair was + removed from the deerskins which furnished moccasins and dresses for both + herself and her husband. Then there were stretching frames on which the + skins were placed to undergo the process of "dubbing"; that is, the + removal of all flesh and fatty particles adhering to the skin. The + "dubber" was made of the stock of an elk's horn, with a piece of iron or + steel inserted in the end, forming a sharp knife. The last process the + deerskin underwent before it was soft and pliable enough for making into + garments, was the "smoking." This was effected by digging a round hole in + the ground, and lighting in it an armful of rotten wood or punk; then + sticks were planted around the hole, and their tops brought together and + tied. The skins were placed on this frame, and all openings by which the + smoke might escape being carefully stopped, in ten or twelve hours they + were thoroughly cured and ready for immediate use. + </p> + <p> + The beaver was the main object of the hunter's quest; its skins were once + worth from six to eight dollars a pound; then they fell to only one + dollar, which hardly paid the expenses of traps, animals, and equipment + for the hunt, and was certainly no adequate remuneration for the + hardships, toil, and danger undergone by the trappers. + </p> + <p> + The beaver was once found in every part of North America, from Canada to + the Gulf of Mexico, but has so retired from the encroachments of civilized + man, that it is only to be met with occasionally on some tributary to the + remote mountain streams. + </p> + <p> + The old trappers always aimed to set their traps so that the beaver would + drown when taken. This was accomplished by sinking the trap several inches + under water, and driving a stake through a ring on the end of the chain + into the bottom of the creek. When the beaver finds himself caught, he + pitches and plunges about until his strength is exhausted, when he sinks + down and is drowned, but if he succeeds in getting to the shore, he always + extricates himself by gnawing off the leg that is in the jaws of the trap. + </p> + <p> + The captured animals were skinned, and the tails, which are a great + dainty, carefully packed into camp. The skin was then stretched over a + hoop or framework of willow twigs and allowed to dry, the flesh and fatty + substance adhering being first carefully scraped off. When dry, it was + folded into a square sheet, the fur turned inwards, and the bundle, + containing twenty skins, tightly pressed and tied, was ready for + transportation. The beaver after the hide is taken off weighs about twelve + pounds, and its flesh, although a little musky, is very fine. Its tail + which is flat and oval in shape, is covered with scales about the size of + those of a salmon. It was a great delicacy in the estimation of the old + trapper; he separated it from the body, thrust a stick in one end of it, + and held it before the fire with the scales on. In a few moments large + blisters rose on the surface, which were very easily removed. The tail was + then perfectly white, and delicious. Next to the tail the liver was + another favourite of the trapper, and when properly cooked it constituted + a delightful repast. + </p> + <p> + After the season was over, or the hunter had loaded all his pack-animals, + he proceeded to the "rendezvous," where the buyers were to congregate for + the purchase of the fur, the locality of which had been agreed upon when + the hunters started out on their expedition. One of these was at Bent's + old fort and one at Pueblo; another at "Brown's Hole" on Green River, and + there were many more on the great streams and in the mountains. There the + agents of the fur companies and traders waited for the arrival of the + trappers, with such an assortment of goods as the hardy men required, + including, of course, an immense supply of whiskey. The trappers dropped + in day after day, in small bands, packing their loads of beaver-skins, not + infrequently to the value of a thousand dollars each, the result of one + hunt. + </p> + <p> + The rendezvous was frequently a continuous scene of gambling, brawling, + and fighting, so long as the improvident trapper's money lasted. Seated + around the large camp-fires, cross-legged in Indian fashion, with a + blanket or buffalo-robe spread before them, groups were playing cards—euchre, + seven-up, and poker, the regular mountain games. The usual stakes were + beaver-skins, which were current as coin. When their fur was all gone, + their horses, mules, rifles, shirts, hunting packs, and trousers were + staked. Daring professional gamblers made the rounds of the camps, + challenging each other to play for the trapper's highest stakes—his + horse, or his squaw, if he had one—and it is told of one great time + that two old trappers played for one another's scalps! "There goes hoss + and beaver," was a common mountain expression when any severe loss was + sustained, and shortly "hoss and beaver" found their way into the pockets + of the unconscionable gamblers. + </p> + <p> + Frequently a trapper would squander the entire product of his hunt, + amounting to hundreds of dollars, in a couple of hours. Then, supplied + with another outfit, he left the rendezvous for another expedition, which + had the same result time after time, although one good hunt would have + enabled him to return to the settlements and live a life of comparative + ease. + </p> + <p> + It is told of one old Canadian trapper, who had received as much as + fifteen thousand dollars for beaver during his life in the mountains, + extending over twenty years, that each season he had resolved in his mind + to go back to Canada, and with this object in view always converted his + furs into cash; but a fortnight at the rendezvous always "cleaned him + out," and at the end of the twenty years he had not even enough credit to + get a plug of tobacco. + </p> + <p> + Trading with the Indians in the primitive days of the border was just what + the word signifies in its radical interpretation—a system of barter + exclusively. No money was used in the transaction, as it was long + afterward before the savages began to learn something of the value of + currency from their connection with the sutler's and agency stores + established on reservations and at military posts on the plains and in the + mountains. In the early days, if an Indian by any chance happened to get + possession of a piece of money (only gold or silver was recognized as a + medium of exchange in the remote West), he would immediately fashion it + into some kind of an ornament with which to adorn his person. Some tribes, + however, did indulge in a sort of currency, worthless except among + themselves. This consisted of rare shells, such as the Oligachuck, so + called, of the Pacific coast nations, used by them within my own + recollection, as late as 1858. + </p> + <p> + The poor Indian, as might have been expected, was generally outrageously + swindled; in fact, I am inclined to believe, always. I never was present + on an occasion when he was not. + </p> + <p> + The savage's idea of values was very crude until the government, in + attempting to civilize and make a gentleman of him, has transformed him + into a bewildered child. Very soon after his connection with the white + trader, he learned that a gun was more valuable than a knife; but of their + relative cost to manufacture he had no idea. For these reasons, obviously, + he was always at the mercy of the unscrupulous trader who came to his + village, or met him at the rendezvous to barter for his furs. I know that + the price of every article he desired was fixed by the trader, and never + by the Indian, consequently he rarely got the best of the bargain. + </p> + <p> + Uncle John Smith, Kit Carson, L. B. Maxwell, Uncle Dick Wooton, and a host + of other well-known Indian traders, long since dead, have often told me + that the first thing they did on entering a village with a pack-load of + trinkets to barter, in the earlier days before the whites had encroached + to any great extent, was to arrange a schedule of prices. They would + gather a large number of sticks, each one representing an article they had + brought. With these crude symbols the Indian made himself familiar in a + little while, and when this preliminary arrangement had been completed, + the trading began. The Indian, for instance, would place a buffalo-robe on + the ground; then the trader commenced to lay down a number of the sticks, + representing what he was willing to give for the robe. The Indian revolved + the transaction in his mind until he thought he was getting a fair + equivalent according to his ideas, then the bargain was made. It was + claimed by these old traders, when they related this to me, that the + savage generally was not satisfied, always insisting upon having more + sticks placed on the pile. I suspect, however, that the trader was ever + prepared for this, and never gave more than he originally intended. The + price of that initial robe having been determined on, it governed the + price of all the rest for the whole trade, regardless of size or fineness, + for that day. What was traded for was then placed by the Indian on one + side of the lodge, and the trader put what he was to give on the other. + After prices had been agreed upon, business went on very rapidly, and many + thousand dollars' worth of valuable furs were soon collected by the + successful trader, which he shipped to St. Louis and converted into gold. + </p> + <p> + In a few years, relatively, the Indian began to appreciate the value of + our medium of exchange and the power it gave him to secure at the stores + in the widely scattered hamlets and at the military posts on the plains, + those things he coveted, at a fairer equivalent than in the uncertain and + complicated method of direct barter. It was not very long after the advent + of the overland coaches on the Santa Fe Trail, that our currency, even the + greenbacks, had assumed a value to the savage, which he at least partially + understood. Whenever the Indians successfully raided the stages the mail + sacks were no longer torn to pieces or thrown aside as worthless, but + every letter was carefully scrutinized for possible bills. + </p> + <p> + I well remember, when the small copper cent, with its spread eagle upon + it, was first issued, about the year 1857, how the soldiers of a frontier + garrison where I was stationed at the time palmed them off upon the simple + savages as two dollar and a half gold pieces, which they resembled as long + as they retained their brightness, and with which the Indians were + familiar, as many were received by the troops from the paymaster every two + months, the savages receiving them in turn for horses and other things + purchased of them by the soldiers. + </p> + <p> + I have known of Indians who gave nuggets of gold for common calico shirts + costing two dollars in that region and seventy-five cents in the States, + while the lump of precious metal was worth, perhaps, five or seven + dollars. As late as twenty-eight years ago, I have traded for beautifully + smoke-tanned and porcupine-embroidered buffalo-robes for my own use, + giving in exchange a mere loaf of bread or a cupful of brown sugar. + </p> + <p> + Very early in the history of the United States, in 1786, the government, + under the authority of Congress, established a plan of trade with the + Indians. It comprised supplying all their physical wants without profit; + factories, or stations as they were called, were erected at points that + were then on the remote frontier; where factors, clerks, and interpreters + were stationed. The factors furnished goods of all kinds to the Indians, + and received from them in exchange furs and peltries. There was an officer + in charge of all these stations called the superintendent of Indian trade, + appointed by the President. As far back as 1821, there were stations at + Prairie du Chien, Fort Edward, Fort Osage, with branches at Chicago, Green + Bay in Arkansas, on the Red River, and other places in the then far West. + These stations were movable, and changed from time to time to suit the + convenience of the Indians. In 1822 the whole system was abolished by act + of Congress, and its affairs wound up, the American Fur Company, the + Missouri Fur Company, and a host of others having by that time become + powerful. Like the great corporations of to-day, they succeeded in + supplanting the government establishments. Of course, the Indians of the + remote plains, which included all the vast region west of the Missouri + River, never had the benefits of the government trading establishments, + but were left to the tender mercies of the old plainsmen and trappers. + </p> + <p> + Until the railroad reached the mountains, when the march of a wonderful + immigration closely followed, usurping the lands claimed by the savages, + and the latter were driven, perforce, upon reservations, the winter camps + of the Kiowas, Arapahoes, and Cheyennes were strung along the Old Trail + for miles, wherever a belt of timber on the margin of the Arkansas, or its + tributaries, could be found large enough to furnish fuel for domestic + purposes and cottonwood bark for the vast herds of ponies in the severe + snow-storms. + </p> + <p> + At these various points the Indians congregated to trade with the whites. + As stated, Bent's Fort, the Pueblo Fort, and Big Timbers were favourite + resorts, and the trappers and old hunters passed a lively three or four + months every year, indulging in the amusements I have referred to. They + were also wonderful story-tellers, and around their camp-fires many a tale + of terrible adventure with Indians and vicious animals was nightly + related. + </p> + <p> + Baptiste Brown was one of the most famous trappers. Few men had seen more + of wild life in the great prairie wilderness. He had hunted with nearly + every tribe of Indians on the plains and in the mountains, was often at + Bent's Fort, and his soul-stirring narratives made him a most welcome + guest at the camp-fire. + </p> + <p> + He lived most of his time in the Wind River Mountains, in a beautiful + little valley named after him "Brown's Hole." It has a place on the maps + to-day, and is on what was then called Prairie River, or Sheetskadee, by + the Indians; it is now known as Green River, and is the source of the + great Colorado. + </p> + <p> + The valley, which is several thousand feet above the sea-level, is about + fifteen miles in circumference, surrounded by lofty hills, and is aptly, + though not elegantly, characterized as a "hole." The mountain-grass is of + the most nutritious quality; groves of cottonwood trees and willows are + scattered through the sequestered spot, and the river, which enters it + from the north, is a magnificent stream; in fact, it is the very ideal of + a hunter's headquarters. + </p> + <p> + The temperature is very equable, and at one time, years ago, hundreds of + trappers made it their winter quarters. Indians, too, of all the northern + tribes, but more especially the Arapahoes, frequented it to trade with the + white men. + </p> + <p> + Baptiste Brown was a Canadian who spoke villanous French and worse + English; his vocabulary being largely interspersed with "enfant de garce," + "sacre," "sacre enfant," and "damn" until it was a difficult matter to + tell what he was talking about. + </p> + <p> + He was married to an Arapahoe squaw, and his strange wooing and winning of + the dusky maiden is a thrilling love-story. + </p> + <p> + Among the maidens who came with the Arapahoes, when that tribe made a + visit to "Brown's Hole" one winter for the purpose of trading with the + whites, was a young, merry, and very handsome girl, named "Unami," who + after a few interviews completely captured Baptiste's heart. Nothing was + more common, as I have stated, than marriages between the trappers and a + beautiful redskin. Isolated absolutely from women of his own colour, the + poor mountaineer forgets he is white, which, considering the embrowning + influence of constant exposure and sunlight, is not so marvellous after + all. For a portion of the year there is no hunting, and then idleness is + the order of the day. At such times the mountaineer visits the lodges of + his dark neighbours for amusement, and in the spirited dance many a heart + is lost to the squaws. The young trapper, like other enamoured ones of his + sex in civilization, lingers around the house of his fair sweetheart while + she transforms the soft skin of the doe into moccasins, ornamenting them + richly with glittering beads or the coloured quills of the porcupine, all + the time lightening the long hours with the plain-songs of their tribe. It + was upon an occasion of this character that Baptiste, then in the prime of + his youthful manhood, first loved the dark-eyed Arapahoe. + </p> + <p> + The course open to him was to woo and win her; but alas! savage papas are + just like fathers in the best civilization—the only difference + between them is that the former are more open and matter-of-fact, since in + savage etiquette a consideration is required in exchange for the daughter, + which belongs exclusively to the parent, and must be of equal marketable + value to the girl. + </p> + <p> + The usual method is to select your best horse, take him to the lodge of + your inamorata's parents, tie him to a tree, and walk away. If the animal + is considered a fair exchange, matters are soon settled satisfactorily; if + not, other gifts must be added. + </p> + <p> + At this juncture poor Baptiste was in a bad fix; he had disposed of all + his season's earnings for his winter's subsistence, much of which + consisted of an ample supply of whiskey and tobacco; so he had nothing + left wherewith to purchase the indispensable horse. Without the animal no + wife was to be had, and he was in a terrible predicament; for the hunting + season was long since over, and it wanted a whole month of the time for a + new starting out. + </p> + <p> + Baptiste was a very determined man, however, and he shouldered his rifle, + intent on accomplishing by a laborious prosecution of the chase the means + of winning his loved one from her parents, notwithstanding that the + elements and the times were against him. He worked industriously, and + after many days was rewarded by a goodly supply of beavers, otters, and + mink which he had trapped, besides many a deerskin whose wearer he had + shot. Returning to his lodge, where he cached his peltry, he again started + out for the forest with hope filling his heart. Three weeks passed in + indifferent success, when one morning, having entered a deep canyon, which + evidently led out to an open prairie where he thought game might be found, + while busy cutting his way through a thicket of briers with his knife, he + suddenly came upon a little valley, where he saw what caused him to + retrace his footsteps into the thicket. + </p> + <p> + And here it is necessary to relate a custom peculiar to all Indian tribes. + No young man, though his father were the greatest chief in the nation, can + range himself among the warriors, be entitled to enter the marriage state, + or enjoy any other rights of savage citizenship until he shall have + performed some act of personal bravery and daring, or be sprinkled with + the blood of his enemies. In the early springtime, therefore, all the + young men who are of the proper age band themselves together and take to + the forest in search—like the knight-errant of old—of + adventure and danger. Having decided upon a secluded and secret spot, they + collect a number of poles from twenty to thirty feet in length, and, + lashing them together at the small ends, form a huge conical lodge, which + they cover with grass and boughs. Inside they deposit various articles, + with which to "make medicine," or as a propitiatory offering to the Great + Spirit; generally a green buffalo head, kettles, scalps, blankets, and + other things of value, of which the most prominent and revered is the + sacred pipe. The party then enters the lodge and the first ceremony is + smoking this pipe. One of the young men fills it with tobacco and herbs, + places a coal on it from the fire that has been already kindled in the + lodge, and, taking the stem in his mouth, inhales the smoke and expels it + through his nostrils. The ground is touched with the bowl, the four points + of the compass are in turn saluted, and with various ceremonies it makes + the round of the lodge. After many days of feasting and dancing the party + is ready for a campaign, when they abandon the lodge, and it is death for + any one else to enter, or by any means to desecrate it while its + projectors are absent. + </p> + <p> + It was upon one of these mystic lodges that Baptiste had accidentally + stumbled, and strange thoughts flashed through his mind; for within the + sacred place were articles, doubtless, of value more than sufficient to + purchase the necessary horse with which he could win the fair Unami. + Baptiste was sorely tempted, but there was an instinctive respect for + religion in the minds of the old trappers, and Brown had too much honour + to think of robbing the Indian temple, although he distinctly remembered a + time when a poor white trapper, having been robbed of his poncho at the + beginning of winter, made free with a blanket he had found in one of these + Arapahoe sacred lodges. When he was brought before the medicine men of the + tribe, charged with the sacrilege, his defence, that, having been robbed, + the Great Spirit took pity on him and pointed out the blanket and ordered + him to clothe himself, was considered good, on the theory that the Great + Spirit had an undoubted right to give away his own property; consequently + the trapper was set free. + </p> + <p> + Brown, after considering the case, was about to move away, when a hand was + laid on his shoulder, and turning round there stood before him an Indian + in full war-paint. + </p> + <p> + The greeting was friendly, for the young savage was the brother of + Baptiste's love, to whom he had given many valuable presents during the + past season. + </p> + <p> + "My white brother is very wakeful; he rises early." + </p> + <p> + Baptiste laughed, and replied: "Yes, because my lodge is empty. If I had + Unami for a wife, I would not have to get out before the sun; and I would + always have a soft seat for her brother; he will be a great warrior." + </p> + <p> + The young brave shook his head gravely, as he pointed to his belt, where + not a scalp was to be seen, and said: "Five moons have gone to sleep and + the Arapahoe hatchet has not been raised. The Blackfeet are dogs, and hide + in their holes." + </p> + <p> + Without adding anything to this hint that none of the young men had been + able to fulfil their vows, the disconsolate savage led the way to the camp + of the other Arapahoes, his companions in the quest for scalps. Baptiste + was very glad to see the face of a fellow-creature once more, and he + cheerfully followed the footsteps of the young brave, which were directed + away from the medicine lodge toward the rocky canyon which he had already + travelled that morning, where in the very centre of the dark defile, and + within twenty feet of where he had recently passed, was the camp of the + disappointed band. Baptiste was cordially received, and invited to share + the meal of which the party were about to partake, after which the pipe + was passed around. In a little while the Indians began to talk among + themselves by signs, which made Baptiste feel somewhat uncomfortable, for + it was apparent that he was the object of their interest. + </p> + <p> + They had argued that Brown's skin indicated that he belonged to the great + tribe of their natural enemies, and with the blood of a white on their + garments, they would have fulfilled the terms of their vow to their + friends and the Great Spirit. + </p> + <p> + Noticing the trend of the debate, which would lead his friend into + trouble, the brother of Unami arose, and waving his hand said:— + </p> + <p> + "The Arapahoe is a warrior; his feet outstrip the fleetest horse; his + arrow is as the lightning of the Great Spirit; he is very brave. But a + cloud is between him and the sun; he cannot see his enemy; there is yet no + scalp in his lodge. The Great Spirit is good; he sends a victim, a man + whose skin is white, but his heart is very red; the pale-face is a + brother, and his long knife is turned from his friends, the Arapahoes; but + the Great Spirit is all-powerful. My brother"—pointing to Baptiste—"is + very full of blood; he can spare a little to stain the blankets of the + young men, and his heart shall still be warm; I have spoken." + </p> + <p> + As Baptiste expressed it: "Sacre enfant de garce; damn, de ting vas agin + my grain, but de young Arapahoe he have saved my life." + </p> + <p> + Loud acclamation followed the speech of Unami's brother, and many of those + most clamorous against the white trapper, being actuated by the earnest + desire of returning home with their vow accomplished, when they would be + received into the list of warriors, and have wives and other honours, were + unanimous in agreeing to the proposed plan. + </p> + <p> + A flint lancet was produced, Baptiste's arm was bared, and the blood which + flowed from the slight wound was carefully distributed, and scattered over + the robes of the delighted Arapahoes. + </p> + <p> + The scene which followed was quite unexpected to Baptiste, who was only + glad to escape the death to which the majority had doomed him. The + Indians, perfectly satisfied that their vow of shedding an enemy's blood + had been fulfilled, were all gratitude; and to testify that gratitude in a + substantial manner each man sought his pack, and laid at the feet of the + surprised Baptiste a rich present. One gave an otter skin, another that of + a buffalo, and so on until his wealth in furs outstripped his most + sanguine expectations from his hunt. The brother of Unami stood passively + looking on until all the others had successively honoured his guest, when + he advanced toward Baptiste, leading by its bridle a magnificent horse, + fully caparisoned, and a large pack-mule. To refuse would have been the + most flagrant breach of Indian etiquette, and beside, Brown was too alive + to the advantage that would accrue to him to be other than very thankful. + </p> + <p> + The camp was then broken up, and the kind savages were soon lost to + Baptiste's sight as they passed down the canyon; and he, as soon as he had + gained a little strength, for he was weak from the blood he had shed in + the good cause, mounted his horse, after loading the mule with his gifts, + and made the best of his way to his lonely lodge, where he remained + several days. He then sold his furs at a good price, as it was so early in + the season, bartered for a large quantity of knives, beads, powder, and + balls, and returned to the Arapahoe village, where the horse was + considered a fair exchange for the pretty Unami; and from that day, for + over thirty years, they lived as happy as any couple in the highest + civilization. + </p> + <p> + The fate of the Pueblo, where the trappers and hunters had such good times + in the halcyon days of the border, like that which befell nearly all the + trading-posts and ranches on the Old Santa Fe Trail, was to be partially + destroyed by the savages. During the early months of the winter of 1854, + the Utes swept down through the Arkansas valley, leaving a track of blood + behind them, and frightening the settlers so thoroughly that many left the + country never to return. The outbreak was as sudden as it was devastating. + The Pueblo was captured by the savages, and every man, woman, and child in + it murdered, with the exception of one aged Mexican, and he was so badly + wounded that he died in a few days. + </p> + <p> + His story was that the Utes came to the gates of the fort on Christmas + morning, professing the greatest friendship, and asking permission to be + allowed to come inside and hold a peace conference. All who were in the + fort at the time were Mexicans, and as their cupidity led them to believe + that they could do some advantageous trading with the Indians, they + foolishly permitted the whole band to enter. The result was that a + wholesale massacre followed. There were seventeen persons in all quartered + there, only one of whom escaped death—the old man referred to—and + a woman and her two children, who were carried off as captives; but even + she was killed before the savages had gone a mile from the place. What + became of the children was never known; they probably met the same fate. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV. UNCLE JOHN SMITH. + </h2> + <p> + Many of the men of the border were blunt in manners, rude in speech, + driven to the absolute liberty of the far West with better natures + shattered and hopes blasted, to seek in the exciting life of the plainsman + and mountaineer oblivion of some incidents of their youthful days, which + were better forgotten. Yet these aliens from society, these strangers to + the refinements of civilization, who would tear off a bloody scalp even + with grim smiles of satisfaction, were fine fellows, full of the milk of + human kindness, and would share their last slapjack with a hungry + stranger. + </p> + <p> + Uncle John Smith, as he was known to every trapper, trader, and hunter + from the Yellowstone to the Gila, was one of the most famous and eccentric + men of the early days. In 1826, as a boy, he ran away from St. Louis with + a party of Santa Fe traders, and so fascinated was he with the desultory + and exciting life, that he chose to sit cross-legged, smoking the long + Indian pipe, in the comfortable buffalo-skin teepee, rather than cross + legs on the broad table of his master, a tailor to whom he had been + apprenticed when he took French leave from St. Louis. + </p> + <p> + He spent his first winter with the Blackfeet Indians, but came very near + losing his scalp in their continual quarrels, and therefore allied himself + with the more peaceable Sioux. Once while on the trail of a horse-stealing + band of Arapahoes near the head waters of the Arkansas, the susceptible + young hunter fell in love with a very pretty Cheyenne squaw, married her, + and remained true to the object of his early affection during all his long + and eventful life, extending over a period of forty years. For many + decades he lived with his dusky wife as the Indians did, having been + adopted by the tribe. He owned a large number of horses, which constituted + the wealth of the plains Indians, upon the sale of which he depended + almost entirely for his subsistence. He became very powerful in the + Cheyenne nation; was regarded as a chief, taking an active part in the + councils, and exercising much authority. His excellent judgment as a + trader with the various bands of Indians while he was employed by the + great fur companies made his services invaluable in the strange business + complications of the remote border. Besides understanding the Cheyenne + language as well as his native tongue, he also spoke three other Indian + dialects, French, and Spanish, but with many Western expressions that + sometimes grated harshly upon the grammatical ear. + </p> + <p> + He became a sort of autocrat on the plains and in the mountains; and for + an Indian or Mexican to attempt to effect a trade without Uncle John Smith + having something to say about it, and its conditions, was hardly possible. + The New Mexicans often came in small parties to his Indian village, their + burros packed with dry pumpkin, corn, etc., to trade for buffalo-robes, + bearskins, meat, and ponies; and Smith, who knew his power, exacted + tribute, which was always paid. At one time, however, when for some reason + a party of strange Mexicans refused, Uncle John harangued the people of + the village, and called the young warriors together, who emptied every + sack of goods belonging to the cowering Mexicans on the ground, Smith + ordering the women and children to help themselves, an order which was + obeyed with alacrity. The frightened Mexicans left hurriedly for El Valle + de Taos, whence they had come, crossing themselves and uttering thanks to + Heaven for having retained their scalps. This and other similar cases so + intimidated the poor Greasers, and impressed them so deeply with a sense + of Smith's power, that, ever after, his permission to trade was craved by + a special deputation of the parties, accompanied by peace-offerings of + corn, pumpkin, and pinole. At one time, when Smith was journeying by + himself a day's ride from the Cheyenne village, he was met by a party of + forty or more corn traders, who, instead of putting such a bane to their + prospects speedily out of the way, gravely asked him if they could + proceed, and offered him every third robe they had to accompany them, + which he did. Indeed, he became so regardless of justice, in his + condescension to the natives of New Mexico, that the governor of that + province offered a reward of five hundred dollars for him alive or dead, + but fear of the Cheyennes was so prevalent that his capture was never even + attempted. + </p> + <p> + During Sheridan's memorable winter campaign against the allied tribes in + 1868-69, the old man, for he was then about sixty, was my guide and + interpreter. He shared my tent and mess, a most welcome addition to the + few who sat at my table, and beguiled many a weary hour at night, after + our tedious marches through the apparently interminable sand dunes and + barren stretches of our monotonous route, with his tales of that period, + more than half a century ago, when our mid-continent region was as little + known as the topography of the planet Mars. + </p> + <p> + At the close of December, 1868, a few weeks after the battle of the + Washita, I was camping with my command on the bank of that historic stream + in the Indian Territory, waiting with an immense wagon-train of supplies + for the arrival of General Custer's command, the famous Seventh Cavalry, + and also the Nineteenth Kansas, which were supposed to be lost, or + wandering aimlessly somewhere in the region south of us. + </p> + <p> + I had been ordered to that point by General Sheridan, with instructions to + keep fires constantly burning on three or four of the highest peaks in the + vicinity of our camp, until the lost troops should be guided to the spot + by our signals. These signals were veritable pillars of fire by night and + pillars of cloud by day; for there was an abundance of wood and hundreds + of men ready to feed the hungry flames. + </p> + <p> + It was more than two weeks before General Custer and his famished troopers + began to straggle in. During that period of anxious waiting we lived + almost exclusively on wild turkey, and longed for nature's meat—the + buffalo; but there were none of the shaggy beasts at that time in the + vicinity, so we had to content ourselves with the birds, of which we + became heartily tired. + </p> + <p> + For several days after our arrival on the creek, the men had been urging + Uncle John to tell them another story of his early adventures; but the old + trapper was in one of his silent moods—he frequently had them—and + could not be persuaded to emerge from his shell of reticence despite their + most earnest entreaties. I knew it would be of no use for me to press him. + I could, of course, order him to any duty, and he would promptly obey; but + his tongue, like the hand of Douglas, was his own. I knew, also, that when + he got ready, which would be when some incident of camp-life inspired him, + he would be as garrulous as ever. + </p> + <p> + One evening just before supper, a party of enlisted men who had been up + the creek to catch fish, but had failed to take anything owing to the + frozen condition of the stream, returned with the skeleton of a Cheyenne + Indian which they had picked up on the battle-ground of a month previously—one + of Custer's victims in his engagement with Black Kettle. This was the + incentive Uncle John required. As he gazed on the bleached bones of the + warrior, he said: "Boys, I'm going to tell you a good long story to-night. + Them Ingin's bones has put me in mind of it. After we've eat, if you + fellows wants to hear it, come down to headquarters tent, and I'll give it + to you." + </p> + <p> + Of course word was rapidly passed from one to another, as the whole camp + was eager to hear the old trapper again. In a short time, every man not on + guard or detailed to keep up the signals on the hills gathered around the + dying embers of the cook's fire in front of my tent; the enlisted men and + teamsters in groups by themselves, the officers a little closer in a + circle, in the centre of which Uncle John sat. + </p> + <p> + The night was cold, the sky covered with great fleecy patches, through + which the full moon, just fairly risen, appeared to be racing, under the + effect of that optical illusion caused by the rapidly moving clouds. The + coyotes had commenced their nocturnal concert in the timbered recesses of + the creek not far away, and on the battle-field a short distance beyond, + as they battened and fought over the dead warriors and the carcasses of + twelve hundred ponies killed in that terrible slaughter by the intrepid + Custer and his troopers. The signals on the hills leaped into the crisp + air like the tongues of dragons in the myths of the ancients; in fact, the + whole aspect of the place, as we sat around the blazing logs of our + camp-fire, was weird and uncanny. + </p> + <p> + Every one was eager for the veteran guide to begin his tale; but as I knew + he could not proceed without smoking, I passed him my pouch of Lone Jack—the + brand par excellence in the army at that time. + </p> + <p> + Uncle John loaded his corn-cob, picked up a live coal, and, pressing it + down on the tobacco with his thumb, commenced to puff vigorously. As soon + as his withered old face was half hidden in a cloud of smoke, he opened + his story in his stereotyped way. I relate it just as he told it, but + divested of much of its dialect, so difficult to write:— + </p> + <p> + "Well, boys, it's a good many years ago, in June, 1845, if I don't + disremember. I was about forty-three, and had been in the mountains and on + the plains more than nineteen seasons. You see, I went out there in 1826. + There warn't no roads, nuthin' but the Santa Fe Trail, in them days, and + Ingins and varmints. + </p> + <p> + "There was four of us. Me, Bill Comstock, Dick Curtis, and Al Thorpe. Dick + was took in by the Utes two years afterwards at the foot of the Spanish + Peaks, and Al was killed by the Apaches at Pawnee Rock, in 1847. + </p> + <p> + "We'd been trapping up on Medicine Bow for more than three years together, + and had a pile of beaver, otter, mink, and other varmint's skins cached in + the hills, which we know'd was worth a heap of money; so we concluded to + take them to the river that summer. We started from our trapping camp in + April, and 'long 'bout the middle of June reached the Arkansas, near what + is know'd as Point o' Rocks. You all know where them is on the Trail west + of Fort Dodge, and how them rocks rises up out of the prairie sudden-like. + We was a travelling 'long mighty easy, for we was all afoot, and had + hoofed it the whole distance, more than six hundred miles, driving five + good mules ahead of us. Our furs was packed on four of them, and the other + carried our blankets, extry ammunition, frying-pan, coffee-pot, and what + little grub we had, for we was obliged to depend upon buffalo, antelope, + and jack-rabbits; but, boys, I tell you there was millions of 'em in them + days. + </p> + <p> + "We had just got into camp at Point o' Rocks. It was 'bout four o'clock in + the afternoon; none of us carried watches, we always reckoned time by the + sun, and could generally guess mighty close, too. It was powerful hot, I + remember. We'd hobbled our mules close to the ledge, where the grass was + good, so they couldn't be stampeded, as we know'd we was in the Pawnee + country, and they was the most ornery Ingins on the plains. We know'd + nothing that was white ever came by that part of the Trail without having + a scrimmage with the red devils. + </p> + <p> + "Well, we hadn't more than took our dinner, when them mules give a + terrible snort, and tried to break and run, getting awful oneasy all to + once. Them critters can tell when Ingins is around. They's better than a + dozen dogs. I don't know how they can tell, but they just naturally do. + </p> + <p> + "In less than five minutes after them mules began to worry, stopped + eating, and had their ears pricked up a trying to look over the ledge + towards the river, we heard a sharp firing down on the Trail, which didn't + appear to be more than a hundred yards off. You ought to seen us grab our + rifles sudden, and run out from behind them rocks, where we was a camping, + so comfortable-like, and just going to light our pipes for a good smoke. + It didn't take us no time to get down on to the Trail, where we seen a + Mexican bull train, that we know'd must have come from Santa Fe, and which + had stopped and was trying to corral. More than sixty painted Pawnees was + a circling around the outfit, howling as only them can howl, and pouring a + shower of arrows into the oxen. Some was shaking their buffalo-robes, + trying to stampede the critters, so they could kill the men easier. + </p> + <p> + "We lit out mighty lively, soon as we seen what was going on, and reached + the head of the train just as the last wagon, that was furtherest down the + Trail, nigh a quarter of a mile off, was cut out by part of the band. Then + we seen a man, a woman, and a little boy jump out, and run to get shet of + the Ingins what had cut out the wagon from the rest of the train. One of + the red devils killed the man and scalped him, while the other pulled the + woman up in front of him, and rid off into the sand hills, and out of + sight in a minute. Then the one what had killed her husband started for + the boy, who was a running for the train as fast as his little legs could + go. But we was nigh enough then; and just as the Ingin was reaching down + from his pony for the kid, Al Thorpe—he was a powerful fine shot—draw'd + up his gun and took the red cuss off his critter without the + paint-bedaubed devil know'n' what struck him. + </p> + <p> + "The boy, seeing us, broke and run for where we was, and I reckon the rest + of the Ingins seen us then for the first time, too. We was up with the + train now, which was kind o' halfway corralled, and Dick Curtis picked up + the child—he warn't more than seven years old—and throw'd him + gently into one of the wagons, where he'd be out of the way; for we know'd + there was going to be considerable more fighting before night. We know'd, + too, we Americans would have to do the heft of it, as them Mexican + bull-whackers warn't much account, nohow, except to cavort around and + swear in Spanish, which they hadn't done nothing else since we'd come up + to the train; besides, their miserable guns warn't much better than so + many bows and arrows. + </p> + <p> + "We Americans talked together for a few moments as to what was best to be + did, while the Ingins all this time was keeping up a lively fire for them. + We made as strong a corral of the wagons as we could, driving out what + oxen the Mexicans had put in the one they had made, but you can't do much + with only nine wagons, nohow. Fortunately, while we was fixing things, the + red cusses suddenly retreated out of the range of our rifles, and we first + thought they had cleared out for good. We soon discovered, however, they + were only holding a pow-wow; for in a few minutes back they come, mounted + on their ponies, with all their fixin's and fresh war-paint on. + </p> + <p> + "Then they commenced to circle around us again, coming a little nearer—Ingin + fashion—every time they rid off and back. It wasn't long before they + got in easy range, when they slung themselves on the off-side of their + ponies and let fly their arrows and balls from under their critters' + necks. Their guns warn't much 'count, being only old English muskets what + had come from the Hudson Bay Fur Company, so they didn't do no harm that + round, except to scare the Mexicans, which commenced to cross themselves + and pray and swear. + </p> + <p> + "We four Americans warn't idle when them Ingins come a charging up; we + kept our eye skinned, and whenever we could draw a bead, one of them + tumbled off his pony, you bet! When they'd come back for their dead—we'd + already killed three of them—we had a big advantage, wasted no + shots, and dropped four of them; one apiece, and you never heard Ingins + howl so. It was getting kind o' dark by this time, and the varmints didn't + seem anxious to fight any more, but went down to the river and scooted off + into the sand hills on the other side. We waited more than half an hour + for them, but as they didn't come back, concluded we'd better light out + too. We told the Mexicans to yoke up, and as good luck would have it they + found all the cattle close by, excepting them what pulled the wagon what + the Ingins had cut out, and as it was way down the Trail, we had to + abandon it; for it was too dark to hunt it up, as we had no time to fool + away. + </p> + <p> + "We put all our outfit into the train; it wasn't loaded, but going empty + to the Missouri, to fetch back a sawmill for New Mexico. Then we made a + soft bed in the middle wagon out of blankets for the kid, and rolled out + 'bout ten o'clock, meaning to put as many miles between us and them Ingins + as the oxen could stand. We four hoofed it along for a while, then rid a + piece, catching a nap now and then as best we could, for we was monstrous + tired. By daylight we'd made fourteen miles, and was obliged to stop to + let the cattle graze. We boiled our coffee, fried some meat, and by that + time the little boy waked. He'd slept like a top all night and hadn't no + supper either; so when I went to the wagon where he was to fetch him out, + he just put them baby arms of his'n around my neck, and says, 'Where's + mamma?' + </p> + <p> + "I tell you, boys, that nigh played me out. He had no idee, 'cause he was + too young to realize what had happened; we know'd his pa was killed, but + where his ma was, God only know'd!" + </p> + <p> + Here the old man stopped short in his narrative, made two or three efforts + as if to swallow something that would not go down, while his eyes had a + far-away look. Presently he picked up a fresh coal from the fire, placed + it on his pipe, which had gone out, then puffing vigorously for a few + seconds, until his head was again enveloped in smoke, he continued:— + </p> + <p> + "After I'd washed the little fellow's face and hands, I gave him a tin cup + of coffee and some meat. You'd ought to seen him eat; he was hungrier than + a coyote. Then while the others was a watering and picketing the mules, I + sot down on the grass and took the kid into my lap to have a good look at + him; for until now none of us had had a chance. + </p> + <p> + "He was the purtiest child I'd ever seen; great black eyes, and eyelashes + that laid right on to his cheeks; his hair, too, was black, and as curly + as a young big-horn. I asked him what his name was, and he says, 'Paul.' + 'Hain't you got no other name?' says I to him again, and he answered, + 'Yes, sir,' for he was awful polite; I noticed that. 'Paul Dale,' says he + prompt-like, and them big eyes of his'n looked up into mine, as he says + 'What be yourn?' I told him he must call me 'Uncle John,' and then he says + again, as he put his arms around my neck, his little lips all a quivering, + and looking so sorrowful, 'Uncle John, where's mamma; why don't she come?' + </p> + <p> + "Boys, I don't really know what I did say. A kind o' mist came before my + eyes, and for a minute or two I didn't know nothing. I come to in a little + while, and seeing Thorpe bringing up the mules from the river, where he'd + been watering them, I says to Paul, to get his mind on to something else + besides his mother, 'Don't you want to ride one of them mules when we pull + out again?' The little fellow jumped off my lap, clapped his hands, + forgetting his trouble all at once, child-like, and replied, 'I do, Uncle + John, can I?' + </p> + <p> + "After we'd camped there 'bout three hours, the cattle full of grass and + all laying down chewing their cud, we concluded to move on and make a few + miles before it grow'd too hot, and to get further from the Ingins, which + we expected would tackle us again, as soon as they could get back from + their camp, where we felt sure they had gone for reinforcements. + </p> + <p> + "While the Mexicans was yoking up, me and Thorpe rigged an easy saddle on + one of the mules, out of blankets, for the kid to ride on, and when we was + all ready to pull out, I histed him on, and you never see a youngster so + tickled. + </p> + <p> + "We had to travel mighty slow; couldn't make more than eighteen miles a + day with oxen, and that was in two drives, one early in the morning, and + one in the evening when it was cool, a laying by and grazing when it was + hot. We Americans walked along the Trail, and mighty slow walking it was; + 'bout two and a half miles an hour. I kept close to Paul, for I began to + set a good deal of store by him; he seemed to cotton to me more than he + did to the rest, wanting to stick near me most of the time as he rid on + the mule. I wanted to find out something 'bout his folks, where they'd + come from; so that when we got to Independence, perhaps I could turn him + over to them as ought to have him; though in my own mind I was ornery + enough to wish I might never find them, and he'd be obliged to stay with + me. The boy was too young to tell what I wanted to find out; all I could + get out of him was they'd been living in Santa Fe since he was a baby, and + that his papa was a preacher. I 'spect one of them missionaries 'mong the + heathenish Greasers. He said they was going back to his grandma's in the + States, but he could not tell where. I couldn't get nothing out of them + Mexican bull-whackers neither—what they know'd wasn't half as much + as the kid—and I had to give it up. + </p> + <p> + "Well, we kept moving along without having any more trouble for a week; + them Ingins never following us as we 'lowed they would. I really enjoyed + the trip such as I never had before. Paul he was so 'fectionate and smart, + that he 'peared to fill a spot in my heart what had always been hollow + until then. When he'd got tired of riding the mule or in one of the + wagons, he'd come and walk along the Trail with me, a picking flowers, + chasing the prairie-owls and such, until his little legs 'bout played out, + when I'd hist him on his mule again. When we'd go into camp, Paul, he'd + run and pick up buffalo-chips for the fire, and wanted to help all he + could. Then when it came time to go to sleep, the boy would always get + under my blankets and cuddle up close to me. He'd be sure to say his + prayers first, though; but it seemed so strange to me who hadn't heard a + prayer for thirty years. I never tried to stop him, you may be certain of + that. He'd ask God to bless his pa and ma, and wind up with 'Bless Uncle + John too.' Then I couldn't help hugging him right up tighter; for it + carried me back to Old Missouri, to the log-cabin in the woods where I was + born, and used to say 'Now I lay me,' and 'Our Father' at my ma's knee, + when I was a kid like him. I tell you, boys, there ain't nothing that will + take the conceit out of a man here on the plains, like the company of a + kid what has been brought up right. + </p> + <p> + "I reckon we'd been travelling about ten days since we left Point o' + Rocks, and was on the other side of the Big Bend of the Arkansas, near the + mouth of the Walnut, where Fort Zarah is now. We had went into camp at + sundown, close to a big spring that's there yet. We drawed up the wagons + into a corral on the edge of the river where there wasn't no grass for + quite a long stretch; we done this to kind o' fortify ourselves, for we + expected to have trouble with the Ingins there, if anywhere, as we warn't + but seventeen miles from Pawnee Rock, the worst place on the whole Trail + for them; so we picked out that bare spot where they couldn't set fire to + the prairie. It was long after dark when we eat our supper; then we smoked + our pipes, waiting for the oxen to fill themselves, which had been driven + about a mile off where there was good grass. The Mexicans was herding + them, and when they'd eat all they could hold, and was commencing to lay + down, they was driven into the corral. Then all of us, except Comstock and + Curtis, turned in; they was to stand guard until 'bout one o'clock, when + me and Thorpe was to change places with them and stay up until morning; + for, you see, we was afraid to trust them Mexicans. + </p> + <p> + "It seemed like we hadn't been asleep more than an hour when me and Thorpe + was called to take our turn on guard. We got out of our blankets, I + putting Paul into one of the wagons, then me and Thorpe lighted our pipes + and walked around, keeping our eyes and ears open, watching the heavy + fringe of timber on the creek mighty close, I tell you. Just as daylight + was coming, we noticed that our mules, what was tied to a wagon in the + corral, was getting uneasy, a pawing and snorting, with their long ears + cocked up and looking toward the Walnut. Before I could finish saying to + Thorpe, 'Them mules smells Ingins,' half a dozen or more of the darned + cusses dashed out of the timber, yelling and shaking their robes, which, + of course, waked up the whole camp. Me and Thorpe sent a couple of shots + after them, that scattered the devils for a minute; but we hadn't hit nary + one, because it was too dark yet to draw a bead on them. We was certain + there was a good many more of them behind the first that had charged us; + so we got all the men on the side of the corral next to the Trail. The + Ingins we know'd couldn't get behind us, on account of the river, and we + was bound to make them fight where we wanted them to, if they meant to + fight at all. + </p> + <p> + "In less than a minute, quicker than I can tell you, sure enough, out they + came again, only there was 'bout eighty of them this time. They made a + dash at once, and their arrows fell like a shower of hail on the ground + and against the wagon-sheets as the cusses swept by on their ponies. There + wasn't anybody hurt, and our turn soon came. Just as they circled back, we + poured it into them, killing six and wounding two. You see them Mexican + guns had did some work that we didn't expect, and then we Americans felt + better. Well, boys, them varmints made four charges like that on to us + before we could get shet of them; but we killed as many as sixteen or + eighteen, and they got mighty sick of it and quit; they had only knocked + over one Mexican, and put an arrow into Thorpe's arm. + </p> + <p> + "I was amused at little Paul all the time the scrimmage was going on. He + stood up in the wagon where I'd put him, a looking out of the hole behind + where the sheet was drawed together, and every time an Ingin was tumbled + off his pony, he would clap his hands and yell, 'There goes another one, + Uncle John!' + </p> + <p> + "After their last charge, they rode off out of range, where they stood in + little bunches talking to each other, holding some sort of a pow-wow. It + riled us to see the darned cusses keep so far away from our rifles, + because we wanted to lay a few more of them out, but was obliged to keep + still and watch out for some new deviltry. We waited there until it was + plumb night, not daring to move out yet; but we managed to boil our coffee + and fry slap-jacks and meat. + </p> + <p> + "The oxen kept up a bellowing and pawing around the corral, for they was + desperate hungry and thirsty, hadn't had nothing since the night before; + yet we couldn't help them any, as we didn't know whether we was shet of + the Ingins or not. We staid, patient-like, for two or three hours more + after dark to see what the Ingins was going to do, as while we sot round + our little fire of buffalo-chips, smoking our pipes, we could still hear + the red devils a howling and chanting, while they picked up their dead + laying along the river-bottom. + </p> + <p> + "As soon as morning broke—we'd ketched a nap now and then during the + night—we got ready for another charge of the Ingins, their favourite + time being just 'bout daylight; but there warn't hide or hair of an Ingin + in sight. They'd sneaked off in the darkness long before the first streak + of dawn; had enough of fighting, I expect. As soon as we discovered they'd + all cleared out, we told the drivers to hitch up, and while they was + yoking and watering, me 'n' Curtis and Comstock buried the dead Mexican on + the bank of the river, as we didn't want to leave his bones to be picked + by the coyotes, which was already setting on the sand hills watching and + waiting for us to break camp. By the time we'd finished our job, and piled + some rocks on his grave, so as the varmints couldn't dig him up, the train + was strung out on the Trail, and then we rolled out mighty lively for + oxen; for the critters was hungry, and we had to travel three or four + miles the other side of the Walnut, where the grass was green, before they + could feed. The oxen seen it on the hills and they lit out almost at a + trot. It was 'bout sun-up when we got there, when we turned the animals + loose, corralled, and had breakfast. + </p> + <p> + "After we'd had our smoke, all we had to do was to put in the time until + five o'clock; for we couldn't move before then, as it would be too hot by + the time the oxen got filled. Paul and me went down to the creek fishing; + there was tremendous cat in the Walnut them days, and by noon we'd ketched + five big beauties, which we took to camp and cooked for dinner. After I'd + had my smoke, Paul and me went back to the creek, where we stretched + ourselves under a good-sized box-elder tree—there wasn't no shade + nowhere else—and took a sleep, while Comstock and Curtis went + jack-rabbit hunting across the river, as we was getting scarce of meat. + </p> + <p> + "Thorpe, who was hit in the arm with an arrow, couldn't do much but nuss + his wound; so him and the Mexicans stood guard, a looking out for Ingins, + as we didn't know but what the cusses might come back and make another + raid on us, though we really didn't expect they would have the gall to + bother us any more—least not the same outfit what had fought us the + day before. That evening, 'bout six o'clock, we rolled out again and went + into camp late, having made twelve miles, and didn't see a sign of Ingins. + </p> + <p> + "In ten days more we got to Independence without having no more trouble of + no kind, and was surprised at our luck. At Independence we Americans left + the train, sold our furs, got a big price, too—each of us had a + shot-bag full of gold and silver, more money than we know'd what to do + with. Me, Curtis, and Thorpe concluded we'd buy a new outfit, consisting + of another six-mule wagon, and harness, so we'd have a full team, meaning + to go back to the mountains with the first big caravan what left. + </p> + <p> + "All the folks in the settlement what seen Paul took a great fancy to him. + Some wanted to adopt him, and some said I'd ought to take him to St. Louis + and place him in an orphan asylum; but I 'lowed if there was going to be + any adopting done, I'd do it myself, 'cause the kid seemed now just as if + he was my own; besides the little fellow I know'd loved me and didn't want + me to leave him. I had kin-folks in Independence, an old aunt, and me and + Paul staid there. She had a young gal with her, and she learned Paul out + of books; so he picked up considerable, as we had to wait more than two + months before Colonel St. Vrain's caravan was ready to start for New + Mexico. + </p> + <p> + "I bought Paul a coal-black pony, and had a suit of fine buckskin made for + him out of the pelt of a black-tail deer I'd shot the winter before on + Powder River. The seams of his trousers was heavily fringed, and with his + white sombrero, a riding around town on his pony, he looked like one of + them Spanish Dons what the papers nowadays has pictures of; only he was + smarter-looking than any Don I ever see in my life. + </p> + <p> + "It was 'bout the last of August when we pulled out from Independence. + Comstock staid with us until we got ready to go, and then lit out for St. + Louis, and I hain't never seen him since. The caravan had seventy-five + six-mule teams in it, without counting ours, loaded with dry-goods and + groceries for Mora, New Mexico, where Colonel St. Vrain, the owner, lived + and had a big store. We had no trouble with the Ingins going back across + the plains; we seen lots, to be sure, hanging on our trail, but they never + attacked us; we was too strong for them. + </p> + <p> + "'Bout the last of September we reached Bent's Old Fort, on the Arkansas, + where the Santa Fe Trail crosses the river into New Mexico, and we camped + there the night we got to it. + </p> + <p> + "I know'd they had cows up to the fort; so just before we was ready for + supper, I took Paul and started to see if we couldn't get some milk for + our coffee. It wasn't far, and we was camped a few hundred yards from the + gate, just outside the wall. Well, we went into the kitchen, Paul right + alongside of me, and there I seen a white woman leaning over the adobe + hearth a cooking—they had always only been squaws before. She + naturally looked up to find out who was coming in, and when she seen the + kid, all at once she give a scream, dropped the dish-cloth she had in her + hand, made a break for Paul, throw'd her arms around him, nigh upsetting + me, and says, while she was a sobbing and taking on dreadful,— + </p> + <p> + "'My boy! My boy! Then I hain't prayed and begged the good Lord all these + days and nights for nothing!' Then she kind o' choked again, while Paul, + he says, as he hung on to her,— + </p> + <p> + "'O mamma! O mamma! I know'd you'd come back! I know'd you'd come back!' + </p> + <p> + "Well, there, boys, I just walked out of that kitchen a heap faster than + I'd come into it, and shut the door. When I got outside, for a few minutes + I couldn't see nothing, I was worked up so. As soon as I come to, I went + through the gate down to camp as quick as my legs would carry me, to tell + Thorpe and Curtis that Paul had found his ma. They wanted to know all + about it, but I couldn't tell them nothing, I was so dumfounded at the way + things had turned out. We talked among ourselves a moment, then reckoned + it was the best to go up to the fort together, and ask the woman how on + earth she'd got shet of the Ingins what had took her off, and how it come + she was cooking there. We started out and when we got into the kitchen, + there was Paul and Mrs. Dale, and you never see no people so happy. They + was just as wild as a stampeded steer; she seemed to have growed ten years + younger than when I first went up there, and as for Paul, he was in heaven + for certain. + </p> + <p> + "First we had to tell her how we'd got the kid, and how we'd learned to + love him. All the time we was telling of it, and our scrimmages with the + Ingins, she was a crying and hugging Paul as if her heart was broke. After + we'd told all we know'd, we asked her to tell us her story, which she did, + and it showed she was a woman of grit and education. + </p> + <p> + "She said the Ingins what had captured her took her up to their camp on + the Saw Log, a little creek north of Fort Dodge—you all know where + it is—and there she staid that night. Early in the morning they all + started for the north. She watched their ponies mighty close as they rid + along that day, so as to find out which was the fastest; for she had made + up her mind to make her escape the first chance she got. She looked at the + sun once in a while, to learn what course they was taking; so that she + could go back when she got ready, strike the Sante Fe Trail, and get to + some ranch, as she had seen several while passing through the foot-hills + of the Raton Range when she was with the Mexican train. + </p> + <p> + "It was on the night of the fourth day after they had left Saw Log, and + had rid a long distance—was more than a hundred miles on their + journey—when she determined to try and light out. The whole camp was + fast asleep, for the Ingins was monstrous tired. She crawled out of the + lodge where she'd been put with some old squaws, and going to where the + ponies had been picketed, she took a little iron-gray she'd had her eye + on, jumped on his back, with only the lariat for a bridle and without any + saddle, not even a blanket, took her bearings from the north star, and + cautiously moved out. She started on a walk, until she'd got 'bout four + miles from camp, and then struck a lope, keeping it up all night. By next + morning she'd made some forty miles, and then for the first time since + she'd left her lodge, pulled up and looked back, to see if any of the + Ingins was following her. When she seen there wasn't a living thing in + sight, she got off her pony, watered him out of a small branch, took a + drink herself, but not daring to rest yet, mounted her animal again and + rid on as fast as she could without wearing him out too quickly. + </p> + <p> + "Hour after hour she rid on, the pony appearing to have miraculous + endurance, until sundown. By that time she'd crossed the Saline, the Smoky + Hill, and got to the top of the divide between that river and the + Arkansas, or not more than forty miles from the Santa Fe Trail. Then her + wonderful animal seemed to weaken; she couldn't even make him trot, and + she was so nearly played out herself, she could hardly set steady. What to + do, she didn't know. The pony was barely able to move at a slow walk. She + was afraid he would drop dead under her, and she was compelled to + dismount, and in almost a minute, as soon as she laid down on the prairie, + was fast asleep. + </p> + <p> + "She had no idee how long she had slept when she woke up. The sun was only + 'bout two hours high. Then she know'd she had been unconscious since + sundown of the day before, or nigh twenty-four hours. Rubbing her eyes, + for she was kind o' bewildered, and looking around, there she saw her pony + as fresh, seemingly, as when she'd started. He'd had plenty to eat, for + the grass was good, but she'd had nothing. She pulled a little piece of + dried buffalo-meat out of her bosom, which she'd brought along, all she + could find at the lodge, and now nibbled at that, for she was mighty + hungry. She was terribly sore and stiff too, but she mounted at once and + pushed on, loping and walking him by spells. Just at daylight she could + make out the Arkansas right in front of her in the dim gray of the early + morning, not very far off. On the west, the Raton Mountains loomed up like + a great pile of blue clouds, the sight of which cheered her; for she + know'd she would soon reach the Trail. + </p> + <p> + "It wasn't quite noon when she struck the Santa Fe Trail. When she got + there, looking to the east, she saw in the distance, not more than three + miles away, a large caravan coming, and then, almost wild with delight, + she dismounted, sot down on the grass, and waited for it to arrive. In + less than an hour, the train come up to where she was, and as good luck + would have it, it happened to be an American outfit, going to Taos with + merchandise. As soon as the master of the caravan seen her setting on the + prairie, he rid up ahead of the wagons, and she told him her story. He was + a kind-hearted man; had the train stop right there on the bank of the + river, though he wasn't half through his day's drive, so as to make her + comfortable as possible, and give her something to eat; for she was 'bout + played out. He bought the Ingin pony, giving her thirty dollars for it, + and after she had rested for some time, the caravan moved out. She rid in + one of the wagons, on a bed of blankets, and the next evening arrived at + Bent's Old Fort. There she found women-folks, who cared for her and nussed + her; for she was dreadfully sore and tired after her long ride. Then she + was hired to cook, meaning to work until she'd earned enough to take her + back to Pennsylvany, to her mother's, where she had started for when the + Ingins attackted the train. + </p> + <p> + "That night, after listening to her mirac'lous escape, we made up a 'pot' + for her, collecting 'bout eight hundred dollars. The master of Colonel St. + Vrain's caravan, what had come out with us, told her he was going back + again to the river in a couple of weeks, and he'd take her and Paul in + without costing her a cent; besides, she'd be safer than with any other + outfit, as his train was a big one, and he had all American teamsters. + </p> + <p> + "Next morning the caravan went on to Mora, and after we'd bid good-by to + Mrs. Dale and Paul, before which I give the boy two hundred dollars for + himself, me, Thorpe, and Curtis pulled out with our team north for + Frenchman's Creek, and I never felt so miserable before nor since as I did + parting with the kid that morning. I hain't never seen him since; but he + must be nigh forty now. Mebby he went into the war and was killed; mebby + he got to be a general, but I hain't forgot him." + </p> + <p> + Uncle John knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and without saying another + word went into the tent. In a few moments the camp was as quiet as a + country village on Sunday, excepting the occasional howling of a hungry + wolf down in the timbered recesses of the Washita, or the crackling and + sputtering of the signal fires on the hilltops. + </p> + <p> + In a few days afterward, we were camping on Hackberry Creek, in the Indian + Territory. We had been living on wild turkey, as before for some time, and + still longed for a change. At last one of my hunters succeeded in bagging + a dozen or more quails. Late that evening, when my cook brought the + delicious little birds, beautifully spitted and broiled on peeled willow + twigs, into my tent, I passed one to Uncle John. Much to the surprise of + every one, he refused. He said, "Boys, I don't eat no quail!" + </p> + <p> + We looked at him in astonishment; for he was somewhat of a gourmand, and + prided himself upon the "faculty," as he termed it, of being able to eat + anything, from a piece of jerked buffalo-hide to the juiciest young + antelope steak. + </p> + <p> + I remonstrated with the venerable guide; said to him, "You are making a + terrible mistake, Uncle John. Tomorrow I expect to leave here, and as we + are going directly away from the buffalo country, we don't know when we + shall strike fresh meat again. You'd better try one," and I again + proffered one of the birds. + </p> + <p> + "Boys," said he again, "I don't tech quail; I hain't eat one for more than + twenty years. One of the little cusses saved my life once, and I swore + right thar and then that I would starve first; and I have kept my oath, + though I've seen the time mighty often sence I could a killed 'em with my + quirt, when all I had to chaw on for four days was the soles of a greasy + pair of old moccasins. + </p> + <p> + "Well, boys, it's a good many years ago—in June, if I don't + disremember, 1847. We was a coming in from way up in Cache le Poudre and + from Yellowstone Lake, whar we'd been a trapping for two seasons. We was a + working our way slowly back to Independence, Missouri, where we was a + going to get a new outfit. Let's see, there was me, and a man by the name + of Boyd, and Lew Thorp—Lew was a working for Colonel Boone at the + time—and two more men, whose names I disremember now, and a nigger + wench we had for a cook. We had mighty good luck, and had a big pile of + skins; and the Indians never troubled us till we got down on Pawnee + Bottom, this side of Pawnee Rock. We all of us had mighty good ponies, but + Thorp had a team and wagon, which he was driving for Colonel Boone. + </p> + <p> + "We had went into camp on Pawnee Bottom airly in the afternoon, and I told + the boys to look out for Ingins—for I knowed ef we was to have any + trouble with them it would be somewhere in that vicinity. But we didn't + see a darned redskin that night, nor the sign of one. + </p> + <p> + "The wolves howled considerable, and come pretty close to the fire for the + bacon rinds we'd throwed away after supper. + </p> + <p> + "You see the buffalo was scurse right thar then—it was the wrong + time o' year. They generally don't get down on to the Arkansas till about + September, and when they're scurse the wolves and coyotes are mighty + sassy, and will steal a piece of bacon rind right out of the pan, if you + don't watch 'em. So we picketed our ponies a little closer before we + turned in, and we all went to sleep except one, who sort o' kept watch on + the stock. + </p> + <p> + "I was out o' my blankets mighty airly next morning, for I was kind o' + suspicious. I could always tell when Ingins was prowling around, and I had + a sort of present'ment something was going to happen—I didn't like + the way the coyotes kept yelling—so I rested kind o' oneasy like, + and was out among the ponies by the first streak o' daylight. + </p> + <p> + "About the time I could see things, I discovered three or four buffalo + grazing off on the creek bottom, about a half-mile away, and I started for + my rifle, thinking I would examine her. + </p> + <p> + "Pretty soon I seed Thorp and Boyd crawl out o' their blankets, too, and I + called their attention to the buffalo, which was still feeding + undisturbed. + </p> + <p> + "We'd been kind o' scurse of fresh meat for a couple of weeks—ever + since we left the Platte—except a jack-rabbit or cottontail, and I + knowed the boys would be wanting to get a quarter or two of a good fat + cow, if we could find one in the herd, so that was the reason I pointed + 'em out to 'em. + </p> + <p> + "The dew, you see, was mighty heavy, and the grass in the bottom was as + wet as if it had been raining for a month, and I didn't care to go down + whar the buffalo was just then—I knowed we had plenty of time, and + as soon as the sun was up it would dry right off. So I got on to one of + the ponies and led the others down to the spring near camp to water them + while the wench was a getting breakfast, and some o' the rest o' the + outfit was a fixing the saddles and greasing the wagon. + </p> + <p> + "Just as I was coming back—it had growed quite light then—I + seed Boyd and Thorp start out from camp with their rifles and make for the + buffalo; so I picketed the ponies, gets my rifle, and starts off too. + </p> + <p> + "By the time I'd reached the edge of the bottom, Thorp and Boyd was a + crawling up on to a young bull way off to the right, and I lit out for a + fat cow I seen bunched up with the rest of the herd on the left. + </p> + <p> + "The grass was mighty tall on some parts of the Arkansas bottom in them + days, and I got within easy shooting range without the herd seeing me. + </p> + <p> + "The buffalo was now between me and Thorp and Boyd, and they was + furtherest from camp. I could see them over the top of the grass kind o' + edging up to the bull, and I kept a crawling on my hands and knees toward + the cow, and when I got about a hundred and fifty yards of her, I pulled + up my rifle and drawed a bead. + </p> + <p> + "Just as I was running my eyes along the bar'l, a darned little quail flew + right out from under my feet and lit exactly on my front sight and of + course cut off my aim—we didn't shoot reckless in those days; every + shot had to tell, or a man was the laughing-stock for a month if he missed + his game. + </p> + <p> + "I shook the little critter off and brought up my rifle again when, durn + my skin, if the bird didn't light right on to the same place; at the same + time my eyes grow'd kind o' hazy-like and in a minute I didn't know + nothing. + </p> + <p> + "When I come to, the quail was gone, I heerd a couple of rifle shots, and + right in front of where the bull had stood and close to Thorp and Boyd, + half a dozen Ingins jumped up out o' the tall grass and, firing into the + two men, killed Thorp instantly and wounded Boyd. + </p> + <p> + "He and me got to camp—keeping off the Ingins, who knowed I was + loaded—when we, with the rest of the outfit, drove the red devils + away. + </p> + <p> + "They was Apaches, and the fellow that shot Thorp was a half-breed nigger + and Apache. He scalped Thorp and carred off the whole upper part of his + skull with it. He got Thorp's rifle and bullet-pouch too, and his knife. + </p> + <p> + "We buried Thorp in the bottom there, and some of the party cut their + names on the stones that they covered his body up with, to keep the + coyotes from eating up his bones. + </p> + <p> + "Boyd got on to the river with us all right, and I never heerd of him + after we separated at Booneville. We pulled out soon after the Indians + left, but we didn't get no buffalo-meat. + </p> + <p> + "You see, boys, if I'd a fired into that cow, the devils would a had me + before I could a got a patch on my ball—didn't have no + breech-loaders in them days, and it took as much judgment to know how to + load a rifle properly as it did to shoot it. + </p> + <p> + "Them Ingins knowed all that—they knowed I hadn't fired, so they + kept a respectable distance. I would a fired, but the quail saved my life + by interfering with my sight—and that's the reason I don't eat no + quail. I hain't superstitious, but I don't believe they was meant to be + eat." + </p> + <p> + Uncle John stuck to his text, I believe, until he died, and you could + never disabuse his mind of the idea that the quail lighting on his rifle + was not a special interposition of Providence. + </p> + <p> + Only four years after he told his story, in 1872, one of the newly + established settlers, living a few miles west of Larned on Pawnee Bottom, + having observed in one of his fields a singular depression, resembling an + old grave, determined to dig down and see if there was any special cause + for the strange indentation on his land. + </p> + <p> + A couple of feet below the surface he discovered several flat pieces of + stone, on one of which the words "Washington" and "J. Hildreth" were + rudely cut, also a line separating them, and underneath: "December tenth" + and "J. M., 1850." On another was carved the name "J. H. Shell," with + other characters that could not be deciphered. On a third stone were the + initials "H. R., 1847"; underneath which was plainly cut "J. R. Boyd," and + still beneath "J. R. Pring." At the very bottom of the excavation were + found the lower portion of the skull, one or two ribs, and one of the + bones of the leg of a human being. The piece of skull was found near the + centre of the grave, for such it certainly was. + </p> + <p> + At the time of the discovery I was in Larned, and I immediately consulted + my book of notes and memoranda taken hurriedly at intervals on the plains + and in the mountains, during more than half my lifetime, to see if I could + find anything that would solve the mystery attached to the quiet + prairie-grave and its contents, and I then recalled Uncle John Smith's + story of the quail as related to me at my camp. I also met Colonel A. G. + Boone that winter in Washington; he remembered the circumstances well. + Thorp was working for him, as Smith had said, and was killed by an Apache, + who, in scalping him, tore the half of his head away, and it was thus + found mutilated, so many years afterward. + </p> + <p> + Uncle John was in one of his garrulous moods that night, and as we were + not by any means tired of hearing the veteran trapper talk, without much + urging he told us the following tale:— + </p> + <p> + "Well, boys, thirty years ago, beaver, mink, and otter was found in + abundacious quantities on all the streams in the Rocky Mountains. The + trade in them furs was a paying business, for the little army of us + fellows called trappers. They ain't any of 'em left now, no mor'n the + animals we used to hunt. We had to move about from place to place, just as + if we was so many Ingins. Sometimes we'd construct little cabins in the + timber, or a dugout where the game was plenty, where we'd stay maybe for a + month or two, and once in a while—though not often—a whole + year. + </p> + <p> + "The Ingins was our mortal enemies; they'd get a scalp from our fellows + occasionally, but for every one they had of ours we had a dozen of theirs. + </p> + <p> + "In the summer of 1846, there was a little half dugout, half cabin, + opposite the mouth of Frenchman's Creek, put up by Bill Thorpe, Al Boyd, + and Rube Stevens. Bill and Al was men grown, and know'd more 'bout the + prairies and timber than the Ingins themselves. They'd hired out to the + Northwest Fur Company when they was mere kids, and kept on trapping ever + since. Rube—'Little Rube' as all the old men called him—was + 'bout nineteen, and plumb dumb; he could hear well enough though, for he + wasn't born that way. When he was seventeen his father moved from his farm + in Pennsylvany, to take up a claim in Oregon, and the whole family was + compelled to cross the plains to get there; for there wasn't no other way. + While they was camped in the Bitter-Root valley one evening, just 'bout + sundown, a party of Blackfeet surprised the outfit, and massacred all of + them but Rube. They carried him off, kept him as a slave, and, to make + sure of him, cut out his tongue at the roots. But some of the women who + wasn't quite so devilish as their husbands, and who took pity on him, went + to work and cured him of his awful wound. He was used mighty mean by the + bucks of the tribe, and made up his mind to get away from them or kill + himself; for he could not live under their harsh treatment. After he'd + been with them for mor'n a year, the tribe had a terrible battle with the + Sioux, and in the scrimmage Rube stole a pony and lit out. He rode on + night and day until he came across the cabin of the two trappers I have + told you 'bout, and they, of course, took the poor boy in and cared for + him. + </p> + <p> + "Rube was a splendid shot with the rifle, and he swore to himself that he + would never leave the prairies and do nothing for the rest of his life but + kill Ingins, who had made him a homeless orphan, and so mutilated him. + </p> + <p> + "After Rube had been with Boyd and Thorpe a year, they was all one day in + the winter examining their traps which was scattered 'long the stream for + miles. After re-baiting them, they concluded to hunt for meat, which was + getting scarce at the cabin; they let Rube go down to the creek where it + widened out lake-like, to fish through a hole in the ice, and Al and Bill + took their rifles and hunted in the timber for deer. They all got + separated of course, Rube being furtherest away, while Al and Bill did not + wander so far from each other that they could not be heard if one wanted + his companion. + </p> + <p> + "Al shot a fat black-tail deer, and just as he was going to stoop down to + cut its throat, Bill yelled out to him:— + </p> + <p> + "'Drop everything Al, for God's sake, and let's make for the dugout; + they're coming, a whole band of Sioux!' + </p> + <p> + "'If we can get to the cabin,' replied Al, 'we can keep off the whole + nation. I wonder where Rube is? I hope he'll get here and save his scalp.' + </p> + <p> + "At this instant, poor Rube dashed up to them, an Ingin close upon his + tracks; he had unfortunately forgotten to take his rifle with him when he + went to the creek, and now he was at the mercy of the savage; at least + both he and his pursuer so thought. But before the Ingin had fairly + uttered his yell of exultation, Al who with Bill had held his rifle in + readiness for an emergency, lifted the red devil off his feet, and he fell + dead without ever knowing what had struck him. + </p> + <p> + "Rube, thus delivered from a sudden death, ran at the top of his speed + with his two friends for the cabin, for, if they could reach it, they did + not fear a hundred paint-bedaubed savages. + </p> + <p> + "Luckily they arrived in time. Where they lived was part dugout and part + cabin. It was about ten feet high, and right back of it was a big ledge of + rock, which made it impossible for any one to get into it from that side. + The place had no door; they did not dare to put one there when it was + built, for they were likely to be surprised at any moment by a prowling + band, so the only entrance was a square hole in the roof, through which + one at a time had to crawl to enter. + </p> + <p> + "The boys got inside all right just as the Ingins came a yelling up. Bill + looked out of a hole in the wall and counted thirty of the devils, and + said at once: 'Off with your coats; don't let them have anything to catch + hold of but our naked bodies if they get in, and we can handle ourselves + better.' + </p> + <p> + "'Thirty to three,' said Al. 'Whew! this ain't going to be any boy's play; + we've got to fight for all there is in it, and the chances are mightily + agin us.' + </p> + <p> + "Rube he took an axe, and stood right under the hole in the roof, so that + if any of the devils got in he could brain them. In a minute five rifles + cracked; for the Ingins was pretty well armed for them times, and their + bullets rattled agin the logs like hail agin a tent. Some of 'em was on + top the roof by this time, and soon the leader of the party, a big painted + devil, thrust his ugly face into the hole; but he had hardly got a good + look before Bill dropped him by a well-directed shot and he tumbled in on + the floor. + </p> + <p> + "'You darned fool,' said Bill, as he saw the effect of his shot; 'did you + think we was asleep?' + </p> + <p> + "There was one opening that served for air, and a savage, seeing the boys + had forgotten to barricade it, tried to push himself through, an' not + succeeding, tried to back out, but at that instant Bill caught him by the + wrist—Bill was a powerful man—and picking up a beaver-trap + that laid on the floor, actually beat his brains out with it. + </p> + <p> + "While this circus was going on inside, three more of the Ingins got on + the roof and wrenched off a couple of the logs that covered it; but in a + minute they came tumbling down and lay dead on the floor. + </p> + <p> + "'That leaves only twenty-five, don't it?' inquired Al, as he mopped his + face with his shirt-sleeve. + </p> + <p> + "'Howl, you red devils,' said Bill, as the Ingins commenced their awful + yelling when they saw their comrades fall into the room. 'Don't you know, + you blame fools, you've fell in with experienced hands at the shooting + business?' + </p> + <p> + "Spat! Something hit Al, and he was the first wounded, but it was only a + scratch, and he kept right on attending to business. + </p> + <p> + "'By gosh! look at Rube, will you?' said Al. The dumb boy had in his grasp + the very chief of the band, who had just then discovered the hole in the + roof made by the three Ingins who had passed in their checks for their + impudence, and was trying his best to push himself down. Rube had made a + strike at him with an axe, but the edge was turned aside, and the savage + was getting the better of the boy; he had grappled Rube by the hair and + one arm, and they was flying 'round like a wild cat and a hound. Bill + tried three times to sink his knife into the old chief, but there was such + a cavortin' in the wrastle between him and the boy, he was afraid to try + any more, for fear it might hit Rube instead. Suddenly the Ingin fell to + the floor as dead as a trapped beaver what's been drowned; Rube had struck + his buckhorn-handled hunting-knife right into the heart of the brute. + </p> + <p> + "'Set him agin the hole in the side of the building,' said Bill; 'he ain't + fit for nothing else than to stop a gap'; so Rube set him agin the hole, + and pinned him there with half a dozen knives what was lying round loose. + </p> + <p> + "Just as they had fastened the dead body of the old chief to the side of + the cabin, a perfect shower of bullets came rattling round like a + hailstorm. 'All right, let's have your waste lead,' said Bill. + </p> + <p> + "'A few more of these dead Ingins and we can make a regular fort of this + old cabin; we want two for that chunk,' said Al, as he pointed with his + rifle to a large gap on the west side of the wall; but before he had + fairly got the words out of his mouth, two of the attacking party jumped + down into the room. Al, being a regular giant, as soon as they landed, + surprised them by seizing one with each hand by the throat, and he + actually held them at arm's-length till he had squeezed the very life out + of them, and they both fell corpses. + </p> + <p> + "While Al was performing his two-Ingin act, a great light burst into the + cabin, and by the time he had choked his enemies to death, he saw, while + the Ingins outside gave a terrible yell of exultation, that they had fired + the place. + </p> + <p> + "'Damn 'em,' shouted Bill, as he pitched the corpse of the chief from the + gap where Rube had set him. 'Fellows, we've got to get out of here right + quick; follow me, boys!' + </p> + <p> + "Holding their rifles in hand, and clutching a hunting-knife also, they + stepped out into the brush surrounding the place, and started on a run for + the heavy timber on the bank of the creek. + </p> + <p> + "They had reckoned onluckily; a wild war-whoop greeted the flying men as + they reached the edge of the forest, and without being able to use their + arms, they were taken prisoners. Bill and Al, fastened with their backs + against each other, and Little Rube by himself, were bound to separate + trees, but not so far apart that they could not speak to each other, and + some of the Ingins began to gather sticks and pile them around the trees. + </p> + <p> + "'What are they going to do with us?' anxiously inquired Bill of Al. + </p> + <p> + "'Roast us, you bet,' replied the other. 'They'll find me tough enough, + anyhow.' + </p> + <p> + "'It must be a painful death,' soliloquized Bill. + </p> + <p> + "'Well, it isn't the most pleasant one, you can gamble on that,' said Al, + turning his looks toward Bill; 'but see what the devils are doing to poor + Rube.' + </p> + <p> + "Bill cast his eyes in the direction of the dumb boy, who was fastened to + a small pine, about a hundred feet distant. Standing directly in front of + it was a gigantic Ingin, flourishing his scalping-knife within an inch of + Rube's head, trying to make the boy flinch. But the young fellow merely + scowled at him in a rage, his muscles never quivering for an instant. + </p> + <p> + "While the men were trying to console each other, two of the savages, who + had gone away for a short time, returned, bearing the carcass of the deer + that Al had killed in the morning, and commenced to cut it up. They had + made several small fires, and roasting the meat before them, began to + gorge themselves, Indian fashion, with the savoury morsels. The men were + awfully hungry, too, but not a mouthful did they get of their own game. + </p> + <p> + "The Ingins were more'n an hour feasting, while their prisoners kept a + looking for some help to get 'em out of the scrape they was in. + </p> + <p> + "'Bout a mile down the creek, me and six other trappers had a camp, and + that morning, being scarce of meat, we all went a hunting. We had killed + two or three elk and was 'bout going back to camp with our game, when we + heard firing, and supposed it was a party of hunters, like ourselves, so + we did not pay any attention to it at first; but when it kept up so long, + and there was such a constant volley, I told our boys it might be a + scrimmage with a party of red devils, and we concluded to go and see. + </p> + <p> + "We left our elk where they were, and started in the direction of the + shooting, taking mighty good care not to be surprised ourselves. We crept + carefully on, and a little before sundown seen a camp-fire burning in the + timber quite a smart piece ahead of us. We stopped then, and Ike Pettet + and myself crept on cautiously on our hands and knees through the brush to + learn what the fire meant. In a little while we seen it was an Ingin camp, + and we counted twenty-two warriors seated 'round their fires a eating as + unconcernedly as if we warn't nowhere near 'em. We didn't feel like + tackling so many, so just as we was 'bout to crawl away and leave 'em in + ondisturbed possession of their camp, we heard some parties talking in + English. Then we pricked up our ears and listened mighty interested I tell + you. Looking 'round, we seen the men tied to the trees and the wood piled + against 'em, and then we knowed what was up. We had to be mighty wary, for + if we snapped a twig even, it was all day with us and the prisoners too; + so we dragged ourselves back, and after getting out of sound of the + Ingins, we just got up and lit out mighty lively for the place we'd left + our companions. We met them coming slowly on 'bout two miles from the + Ingin camp, and telling 'em what was up we started to help the trappers + what the devils was agoing to burn. We wasn't half so long in getting at + the camp as Ike and me was in going, and we soon come within good range + for our rifles. + </p> + <p> + "The Ingins was still unsuspicious, and we spread ourselves in a sort of + half circle so as to kind o' surround them, and at a signal I give, seven + rifles cracked at once, and as many of the Injins was dropped right in + their tracks; a second volley, for the red devils had not got their senses + yet, tumbled seven more corpses upon the pile, and then we white men + jumped in with our knives and clubbed rifles, and there was a lively + scrimmage for a few minutes. The few Ingins what wasn't killed fought like + devils, but as we was getting the best of 'em every second they turned + tail and ran. + </p> + <p> + "We'd heard the firing of the fight at the cabin just in time; and as we + cut the rawhide strings that bound the fellows to the trees, Ike, who was + a right fine shot and had killed three at one time, said: 'I always like + to get two or three of the red devils in a line before I pull the trigger; + it saves lead.' + </p> + <p> + "Then we all went back to our camp and made a night of it, feasting on the + elk we had killed, and talking over the wonderful escape of the boys and + Little Rube." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI. KIT CARSON. + </h2> + <p> + Of the famous men whose lives are so interwoven with the history of the + Old Santa Fe Trail that the story of the great highway is largely made up + of their individual exploits and acts of bravery, it has been my fortune + to have known nearly all intimately, during more than a third of a century + passed on the great plains and in the Rocky Mountains. + </p> + <p> + First of all, Christopher, or Kit, Carson, as he is familiarly known to + the world, stands at the head and front of celebrated frontiersmen, + trappers, scouts, guides, and Indian fighters. + </p> + <p> + I knew him well through a series of years, to the date of his death in + 1868, but I shall confine myself to the events of his remarkable career + along the line of the Trail and its immediate environs. In 1826 a party of + Santa Fe traders passing near his father's home in Howard County, + Missouri, young Kit, who was then but seventeen years old, joined the + caravan as hunter. He was already an expert with the rifle, and thus + commenced his life of adventure on the great plains and in the Rocky + Mountains. + </p> + <p> + His first exhibition of that nerve and coolness in the presence of danger + which marked his whole life was in this initial trip across the plains. + When the caravan had arrived at the Arkansas River, somewhere in the + vicinity of the great bend of that stream, one of the teamsters, while + carelessly pulling his rifle toward him by the barrel, discharged the + weapon and received the ball in his arm, completely crushing the bones. + The blood from the wound flowed so copiously that he nearly lost his life + before it could be arrested. He was fixed up, however, and the caravan + proceeded on its journey, the man thinking no more seriously of his + injured arm. In a few days, however, the wound began to indicate that + gangrene had set in, and it was determined that only by an amputation was + it possible for him to live beyond a few days. Every one of the older men + of the caravan positively declined to attempt the operation, as there were + no instruments of any kind. At this juncture Kit, realizing the extreme + necessity of prompt action, stepped forward and offered to do the job. He + told the unfortunate sufferer that he had had no experience in such + matters, but that as no one else would do it, he would take the chances. + All the tools that Kit could find were a razor, a saw, and the king-bolt + of a wagon. He cut the flesh with the razor, sawed through the bone as if + it had been a piece of joist, and seared the horrible wound with the + king-bolt, which he had heated to a white glow, for the purpose of + stopping the flow of blood that naturally followed such rude surgery. The + operation was a complete success; the man lived many years afterward, and + was with his surgeon in many an expedition. + </p> + <p> + In the early days of the commerce of the prairies, Carson was the hunter + at Bent's Fort for a period of eight years. There were about forty men + employed at the place; and when the game was found in abundance in the + mountains, it was a relatively easy task and just suited to his love of + sport, but when it grew scarce, as it often did, his prowess was tasked to + its utmost to keep the forty mouths from crying for food. He became such + an unerring shot with the rifle during that time that he was called the + "Nestor of the Rocky Mountains." His favourite game was the buffalo, + although he killed countless numbers of other animals. + </p> + <p> + All of the plains tribes of Indians, as did the powerful Utes of the + mountains, knew him well; for he had often visited in their camps, sat in + their lodges, smoked the pipe, and played with their little boys. The + latter fact may not appear of much consequence, but there are no people on + earth who have a greater love for their boy children than the savages of + America. The Indians all feared him, too, at the same time that they + respected his excellent judgment, and frequently were governed by his wise + counsel. The following story will show his power in this direction. The + Sioux, one of the most numerous and warlike tribes at that time, had + encroached upon the hunting-grounds of the southern Indians, and the + latter had many a skirmish with them on the banks of the Arkansas along + the line of the Trail. Carson, who was in the upper valley of the river, + was sent for to come down and help them drive the obnoxious Sioux back to + their own stamping-ground. He left Fort Bent, and went with the party of + Comanche messengers to the main camp of that tribe and the Arapahoes, with + whom they had united. Upon his arrival, he was told that the Sioux had a + thousand warriors and many rifles, and the Comanches and Arapahoes were + afraid of them on account of the great disparity of numbers, but that if + he would go with them on the war-path, they felt assured they could + overcome their enemies. Carson, however, instead of encouraging the + Comanches and Arapahoes to fight, induced them to negotiate with the + Sioux. He was sent as mediator, and so successfully accomplished his + mission that the intruding tribe consented to leave the hunting-grounds of + the Comanches as soon as the buffalo season was over; which they did, and + there was no more trouble. + </p> + <p> + After many adventures in California with Fremont, Carson, with his + inseparable friend, L. B. Maxwell, embarked in the wool-raising industry. + Shortly after they had established themselves on their ranch, the Apaches + made one of their frequent murdering and plundering raids through Northern + New Mexico, killing defenceless women and children, running off stock of + all kinds, and laying waste every little ranch they came across in their + wild foray. Not very far from the city of Santa Fe, they ruthlessly + butchered a Mr. White and his son, though three of their number were slain + by the brave gentlemen before they were overpowered. Other of the + blood-thirsty savages carried away the women and children of the desolated + home and took them to their mountain retreat in the vicinity of Las Vegas. + Mr. White was a highly respected merchant, and news of this outrage + spreading rapidly through the settlements, it was determined that the + savages should not go without punishment this time, at least. Carson's + reputation as an Indian fighter was at its height, so the natives of the + country sent for him, and declined to move until he came. For some + unexplained reason, after he arrived at Las Vegas, he was not placed in + charge of the posse, that position having already been given to a + Frenchman. Carson, as was usual with him, never murmured because he was + assigned to a subordinate position, but took his place, ready to do his + part in whatever capacity. + </p> + <p> + The party set out for the stronghold of the savages, and rode night and + day on the trail of the murderers, hoping to surprise them and recapture + the women and children; but so much time had been wasted in delays, that + Carson feared they would only find the mutilated bodies of the poor + captives. In a few days after leaving Las Vegas, the retreat of the + savages was discovered in the fastness of the mountains, where they had + fortified themselves in such a manner that they could resist ten times the + number of their pursuers. Carson, as soon as he saw them, without a + second's hesitation, and giving a characteristic yell, dashed in, + expecting, of course, that the men would follow him; but they only stood + in gaping wonderment at his bravery, not daring to venture after him. He + did not discover his dilemma until he had advanced so far alone that + escape seemed impossible. But here his coolness, which always served him + in the moment of supreme danger, saved his scalp. As the savages turned on + him, he threw himself on the off side of his horse, Indian fashion, for he + was as expert in a trick of that kind as the savages themselves, and rode + back to the little command. He had six arrows in his horse and a bullet + through his coat! + </p> + <p> + The Indians in those days were poorly armed, and did not long follow up + the pursuit after Carson; for, observing the squad of mounted Mexicans, + they retreated to the top of a rocky prominence, from which point they + could watch every movement of the whites. Carson was raging at the apathy, + not to say cowardice, of the men who had sent for him to join them, but he + kept his counsel to himself; for he was anxious to save the captured women + and children. He talked to the men very earnestly, however, exhorting them + not to flinch in the duty they had come so far to perform, and for which + he had come at their call. This had the desired effect; for he induced + them to make a charge, which was gallantly performed, and in such a brave + manner that the Indians fled, scarcely making an effort to defend + themselves. Five of their number were killed at the furious onset of the + Mexicans, but unfortunately, as he anticipated, only the murdered corpses + of the women and children were the result of the victory. + </p> + <p> + President Polk appointed Carson to a second lieutenancy,<a + href="#linknote-48" name="linknoteref-48" id="linknoteref-48"><small>48</small></a> + and his first official duty was conducting fifty soldiers under his + command through the country of the Comanches, who were then at war with + the whites. A fight occurred at a place known as Point of Rocks,<a + href="#linknote-49" name="linknoteref-49" id="linknoteref-49"><small>49</small></a> + where on arriving, Carson found a company of volunteers for the Mexican + War, and camped near them. About dawn the next morning, all the animals of + the volunteers were captured by a band of Indians, while the herders were + conducting them to the river-bottom to graze. The herders had no weapons, + and luckily, in the confusion attending the bold theft, ran into Carson's + camp; and as he, with his men, were ready with their rifles, they + recaptured the oxen, but the horses were successfully driven off by their + captors. + </p> + <p> + Several of the savages were mortally wounded by Carson's prompt charge, as + signs after they had cleared out proved; but the Indian custom of tying + the wounded on their ponies precluded the chance of taking any scalps. The + wily Comanche, like the Arab of the desert, is generally successful in his + sudden assaults, but Carson, who was never surprised, was always equal to + his tactics. + </p> + <p> + One of the two soldiers whose turn it had been to stand guard that morning + was discovered to have been asleep when the alarm of Indians was given, + and Carson at once administered the Indian method of punishment, making + the man wear the dress of a squaw for that day. Then going on, he arrived + at Santa Fe, where he turned over his little command. + </p> + <p> + While there, he heard that a gang of those desperadoes so frequently the + nuisance of a new country had formed a conspiracy to murder and rob two + wealthy citizens whom they had volunteered to accompany over the Trail to + the States. The caravan was already many miles on its way when Carson was + informed of the plot. In less than an hour he had hired sixteen picked men + and was on his march to intercept them. He took a short cut across the + mountains, taking especial care to keep out of the way of the Indians, who + were on the war-path, but as to whose movements he was always posted. In + two days he came upon a camp of United States recruits, en route to the + military posts in New Mexico, whose commander offered to accompany him + with twenty men. Carson accepted the generous proposal, by forced marches + soon overtook the caravan of traders, and at once placed one Fox, the + leader of the gang, in irons, after which he informed the owners of the + caravan of the escape they had made from the wretches whom they were + treating so kindly. At first the gentlemen were astounded at the + disclosures made to them, but soon admitted that they had noticed many + things which convinced them that the plot really existed, and but for the + opportune arrival of the brave frontiersman it would shortly have been + carried out. + </p> + <p> + The members of the caravan who were perfectly trustworthy were then + ordered to corral the rest of the conspirators, thirty-five in number, and + they were driven out of camp, with the exception of Fox, the leader, whom + Carson conveyed to Taos. He was imprisoned for several months, but as a + crime in intent only could be proved against him, and as the adobe walls + of the house where he was confined were not secure enough to retain a man + who desired to release himself, he was finally liberated, and cleared out. + </p> + <p> + The traders were profuse in their thanks to Carson for his timely + interference, but he refused every offer of remuneration. On their return + to Santa Fe from St. Louis, however, they presented him with a magnificent + pair of pistols, upon whose silver mounting was an inscription + commemorating his brave deed and the gratitude of the donors. + </p> + <p> + The following summer was spent in a visit to St. Louis, and early in the + fall he returned over the Trail, arriving at the Cheyenne village on the + Upper Arkansas without meeting with any incident worthy of note. On + reaching that point, he learned that the Indians had received a terrible + affront from an officer commanding a detachment of United States troops, + who had whipped one of their chiefs; and that consequently the whole tribe + was enraged, and burning for revenge upon the whites. Carson was the first + white man to approach the place since the insult, and so many years had + elapsed since he was the hunter at Bent's Fort, and so grievously had the + Indians been offended, that his name no longer guaranteed safety to the + party with whom he was travelling, nor even insured respect to himself, in + the state of excitement existing in the village. Carson, however, + deliberately pushed himself into the presence of a war council which was + just then in session to consider the question of attacking the caravan, + giving orders to his men to keep close together, and guard against a + surprise. + </p> + <p> + The savages, supposing that he could not understand their language, talked + without restraint, and unfolded their plans to capture his party and kill + them all, particularly the leader. After they had reached this decision, + Carson coolly rose and addressed the council in the Cheyenne language, + informing the Indians who he was, of his former associations with and + kindness to their tribe, and that now he was ready to render them any + assistance they might require; but as to their taking his scalp, he + claimed the right to say a word. + </p> + <p> + The Indians departed, and Carson went on his way; but there were hundreds + of savages in sight on the sand hills, and, though they made no attack, he + was well aware that he was in their power, nor had they abandoned the idea + of capturing his train. His coolness and deliberation kept his men in + spirit, and yet out of the whole fifteen, which was the total number of + his force, there were only two or three on whom he could place any + reliance in case of an emergency. + </p> + <p> + When the train camped for the night, the wagons were corralled, and the + men and mules all brought inside the circle. Grass was cut with + sheath-knives and fed to the animals, instead of their being picketed out + as usual, and as large a guard as possible detailed. When the camp had + settled down to perfect quiet, Carson crawled outside it, taking with him + a Mexican boy, and after explaining to him the danger which threatened + them all, told him that it was in his power to save the lives of the + company. Then he sent him on alone to Rayedo, a journey of nearly three + hundred miles, to ask for an escort of United States troops to be sent out + to meet the train, impressing upon the brave little Mexican the importance + of putting a good many miles between himself and the camp before morning. + And so he started him, with a few rations of food, without letting the + rest of his party know that such measures were necessary. The boy had been + in Carson's service for some time, and was known to him as a faithful and + active messenger, and in a wild country like New Mexico, with the outdoor + life and habits of its people, such a journey was not an unusual + occurrence. + </p> + <p> + Carson now returned to the camp, to watch all night himself, and at + daybreak all were on the Trail again. No Indians made their appearance + until nearly noon, when five warriors came galloping up toward the train. + As soon as they came close enough to hear his voice, Carson ordered them + to halt, and going up to them, told how he had sent a messenger to Rayedo + the night before to inform the troops that their tribe were annoying him, + and that if he or his men were molested, terrible punishment would be + inflicted by those who would surely come to his relief. The savages + replied that they would look for the moccasin tracks, which they + undoubtedly found, and the whole village passed away toward the hills + after a little while, evidently seeking a place of safety from an expected + attack by the troops. + </p> + <p> + The young Mexican overtook the detachment of soldiers whose officer had + caused all the trouble with the Indians, to whom he told his story; but + failing to secure any sympathy, he continued his journey to Rayedo, and + procured from the garrison of that place immediate assistance. Major + Grier, commanding the post, at once despatched a troop of his regiment, + which, by forced marches, met Carson twenty-five miles below Bent's Fort, + and though it encountered no Indians, the rapid movement had a good effect + upon the savages, impressing them with the power and promptness of the + government. + </p> + <p> + Early in the spring of 1865, Carson was ordered, with three companies, to + put a stop to the depredations of marauding bands of Cheyennes, Kiowas, + and Comanches upon the caravans and emigrant outfits travelling the Santa + Fe Trail. He left Fort Union with his command and marched over the Dry or + Cimarron route to the Arkansas River, for the purpose of establishing a + fortified camp at Cedar Bluffs, or Cold Spring, to afford a refuge for the + freight trains on that dangerous part of the Trail. The Indians had for + some time been harassing not only the caravans of the citizen traders, but + also those of the government, which carried supplies to the several + military posts in the Territory of New Mexico. An expedition was therefore + planned by Carson to punish them, and he soon found an opportunity to + strike a blow near the adobe fort on the Canadian River. His force + consisted of the First Regiment of New Mexican Volunteer Cavalry and + seventy-five friendly Indians, his entire command numbering fourteen + commissioned officers and three hundred and ninety-six enlisted men. With + these he attacked the Kiowa village, consisting of about one hundred and + fifty lodges. The fight was a very severe one, and lasted from half-past + eight in the morning until after sundown. The savages, with more than + ordinary intrepidity and boldness, made repeated stands against the fierce + onslaughts of Carson's cavalrymen, but were at last forced to give way, + and were cut down as they stubbornly retreated, suffering a loss of sixty + killed and wounded. In this battle only two privates and one + noncommissioned officer were killed, and one non-commissioned officer and + thirteen privates, four of whom were friendly Indians, wounded. The + command destroyed one hundred and fifty lodges, a large amount of dried + meats, berries, buffalo-robes, cooking utensils, and also a buggy and + spring-wagon, the property of Sierrito,<a href="#linknote-50" + name="linknoteref-50" id="linknoteref-50"><small>50</small></a> the Kiowa + chief. + </p> + <p> + In his official account of the fight, Carson states that he found + ammunition in the village, which had been furnished, no doubt, by + unscrupulous Mexican traders. + </p> + <p> + He told me that he never was deceived by Indian tactics but once in his + life. He said that he was hunting with six others after buffalo, in the + summer of 1835; that they had been successful, and came into their little + bivouac one night very tired, intending to start for the rendezvous at + Bent's Fort the next morning. They had a number of dogs, among them some + excellent animals. These barked a good deal, and seemed restless, and the + men heard wolves. + </p> + <p> + "I saw," said Kit, "two big wolves sneaking about, one of them quite close + to us. Gordon, one of my men, wanted to fire his rifle at it, but I did + not let him, for fear he would hit a dog. I admit that I had a sort of an + idea that those wolves might be Indians; but when I noticed one of them + turn short around, and heard the clashing of his teeth as he rushed at one + of the dogs, I felt easy then, and was certain that they were wolves sure + enough. But the red devil fooled me, after all, for he had two dried + buffalo bones in his hands under the wolfskin, and he rattled them + together every time he turned to make a dash at the dogs! Well, by and by + we all dozed off, and it wasn't long before I was suddenly aroused by a + noise and a big blaze. I rushed out the first thing for our mules, and + held them. If the savages had been at all smart, they could have killed us + in a trice, but they ran as soon as they fired at us. They killed one of + my men, putting five bullets in his body and eight in his buffalo-robe. + The Indians were a band of Sioux on the war-trail after a band of Snakes, + and found us by sheer accident. They endeavoured to ambush us the next + morning, but we got wind of their little game and killed three of them, + including the chief." + </p> + <p> + Carson's nature was made up of some very noble attributes. He was brave, + but not reckless like Custer; a veritable exponent of Christian altruism, + and as true to his friends as the needle to the pole. Under the average + stature, and rather delicate-looking in his physical proportions, he was + nevertheless a quick, wiry man, with nerves of steel, and possessing an + indomitable will. He was full of caution, but showed a coolness in the + moment of supreme danger that was good to witness. + </p> + <p> + During a short visit at Fort Lyon, Colorado, where a favourite son of his + was living, early in the morning of May 23, 1868, while mounting his horse + in front of his quarters (he was still fond of riding), an artery in his + neck was suddenly ruptured, from the effects of which, notwithstanding the + medical assistance rendered by the fort surgeons, he died in a few + moments. + </p> + <p> + His remains, after reposing for some time at Fort Lyon, were taken to + Taos, so long his home in New Mexico, where an appropriate monument was + erected over them. In the Plaza at Santa Fe, his name also appears cut on + a cenotaph raised to commemorate the services of the soldiers of the + Territory. As an Indian fighter he was matchless. The identical rifle used + by him for more than thirty-five years, and which never failed him, he + bequeathed, just before his death, to Montezuma Lodge, A. F. & A. M., + Santa Fe, of which he was a member. + </p> + <p> + James Bridger, "Major Bridger," or "Old Jim Bridger," as we was called, + another of the famous coterie of pioneer frontiersmen, was born in + Washington, District of Columbia, in 1807. When very young, a mere boy in + fact, he joined the great trapping expedition under the leadership of + James Ashley, and with it travelled to the far West, remote from the + extreme limit of border civilization, where he became the compeer and + comrade of Carson, and certainly the foremost mountaineer, strictly + speaking, the United States has produced. + </p> + <p> + Having left behind him all possibilities of education at such an early + age, he was illiterate in his speech and as ignorant of the + conventionalities of polite society as an Indian; but he possessed a heart + overflowing with the milk of human kindness, was generous in the extreme, + and honest and true as daylight. + </p> + <p> + He was especially distinguished for the discovery of a defile through the + intricate mazes of the Rocky Mountains, which bears his name, Bridger's + Pass. He rendered important services as guide and scout during the early + preliminary surveys for a transcontinental railroad, and for a series of + years was in the employ of the government, in the old regular army on the + great plains and in the mountains, long before the breaking out of the + Civil War. To Bridger also belongs the honour of having seen, first of all + white men, the Great Salt Lake of Utah, in the winter of 1824-25. + </p> + <p> + After a series of adventures, hairbreadth escapes, and terrible encounters + with the Indians, in 1856 he purchased a farm near Westport, Missouri; but + soon left it in his hunger for the mountains, to return to it only when + worn-out and blind, to be buried there without even the rudest tablet to + mark the spot. + </p> + <p> + "I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country + churchyard, than in the tomb of the Capulets." This quotation came to my + mind one Sunday morning two or three years ago, as I mused over Bridger's + neglected grave among the low hills beyond the quaint old town of + Westport. I thought I knew, as I stood there, that he whose bones were + mouldering beneath the blossoming clover at my feet, would have wished for + his last couch a more perfect solitude and isolation from the wearisome + world's busy sound than even the immortal Burke. + </p> + <p> + The grassy mound, over which there was no stone to record the name of its + occupant, covered the remains of the last of his class, a type vanished + forever, for the border is a thing of the past; and upon the gentle breeze + of that delightful morning, like the droning of bees in a full flowered + orchard, was wafted to my ears the hum of Kansas City's civilization, only + three or four miles distant, in all of which I was sure there was nothing + that would have been congenial to the old frontiersman. + </p> + <p> + At one time early in the '60's, while the engineers of the proposed Union + Pacific Railway were temporarily in Denver, then an insignificant + mushroom-hamlet, they became somewhat confused as to the most practicable + point in the range over which to run their line. After debating the + question, they determined, upon a suggestion from some of the old + settlers, to send for Jim Bridger, who was then visiting in St. Louis. A + pass, via the overland stage, was enclosed in a letter to him, and he was + urged to start for Denver at once, though nothing of the business for + which his presence was required was told him in the text. + </p> + <p> + In about two weeks the old man arrived, and the next morning, after he had + rested, asked why he had been sent for from such a distance. + </p> + <p> + The engineers then began to explain their dilemma. The old mountaineer + waited patiently until they had finished, when, with a look of disgust on + his withered countenance, he demanded a large piece of paper, remarking at + the same time,— + </p> + <p> + "I could a told you fellers all that in St. Louis, and saved you the + expense of bringing me out here." + </p> + <p> + He was handed a sheet of manilla paper, used for drawing the details of + bridge plans. The veteran pathfinder spread it on the ground before him, + took a dead coal from the ashes of the fire, drew a rough outline map, and + pointing to a certain peak just visible on the serrated horizon, said,— + </p> + <p> + "There's where you fellers can cross with your road, and nowhere else, + without more diggin' an' cuttin' than you think of." + </p> + <p> + That crude map is preserved, I have been told, in the archives of the + great corporation, and its line crosses the main spurs of the Rocky + Mountains, just where Bridger said it could with the least work. + </p> + <p> + The resemblance of old John Smith, another of the coterie, to President + Andrew Johnson was absolutely astonishing. When that chief magistrate, in + his "swinging around the circle," had arrived at St. Louis, and was riding + through the streets of that city in an open barouche, he was pointed out + to Bridger, who happened to be there. But the venerable guide and scout, + with supreme disgust depicted on his countenance at the idea of any one + attempting to deceive him, said to his informant,— + </p> + <p> + "H—-l! Bill, you can't fool me! That's old John Smith." + </p> + <p> + At one time many years ago, during Bridger's first visit to St. Louis, + then a relatively small place, a friend accidentally came across him + sitting on a dry-goods box in one of the narrow streets, evidently + disgusted with his situation. To the inquiry as to what he was doing there + all alone, the old man replied,— + </p> + <p> + "I've been settin' in this infernal canyon ever sence mornin', waitin' for + some one to come along an' invite me to take a drink. Hundreds of fellers + has passed both ways, but none of 'em has opened his head. I never seen + sich a onsociable crowd!" + </p> + <p> + Bridger had a fund of most remarkable stories, which he had drawn upon so + often that he really believed them to be true. + </p> + <p> + General Gatlin,<a href="#linknote-51" name="linknoteref-51" + id="linknoteref-51"><small>51</small></a> who was graduated from West + Point in the early '30's, and commanded Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation + over sixty years ago, told me that he remembered Bridger very well; and + had once asked the old guide whether he had ever been in the great canyon + of the Colorado River. + </p> + <p> + "Yes, sir," replied the mountaineer, "I have, many a time. There's where + the oranges and lemons bear all the time, and the only place I was ever at + where the moon's always full!" + </p> + <p> + He told me and also many others, at various times, that in the winter of + 1830 it began to snow in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and continued + for seventy days without cessation. The whole country was covered to a + depth of seventy feet, and all the vast herds of buffalo were caught in + the storm and died, but their carcasses were perfectly preserved. + </p> + <p> + "When spring came, all I had to do," declared he, "was to tumble 'em into + Salt Lake, an' I had pickled buffalo enough for myself and the whole Ute + Nation for years!" + </p> + <p> + He said that on account of that terrible storm, which annihilated them, + there have been no buffalo in that region since. + </p> + <p> + Bridger had been the guide, interpreter, and companion of that + distinguished Irish sportsman, Sir George Gore, whose strange tastes led + him in 1855 to abandon life in Europe and bury himself for over two years + among the savages in the wildest and most unfrequented glens of the Rocky + Mountains. + </p> + <p> + The outfit and adventures of this titled Nimrod, conducted as they were on + the largest scale, exceeded anything of the kind ever before seen on this + continent, and the results of his wanderings will compare favourably with + those of Gordon Cumming in Africa. + </p> + <p> + Some idea may be formed of the magnitude of his outfit when it is stated + that his retinue consisted of about fifty individuals, including + secretaries, steward, cooks, fly-makers, dog-tenders, servants, etc. He + was borne over the country with a train of thirty wagons, besides numerous + saddle-horses and dogs. + </p> + <p> + During his lengthened hunt he killed the enormous aggregate of forty + grizzly bears and twenty-five hundred buffalo, besides numerous antelope + and other small game. + </p> + <p> + Bridger said of Sir George that he was a bold, dashing, and successful + hunter, and an agreeable gentleman. His habit was to lie in bed until + about ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, then he took a bath, ate his + breakfast, and set out, generally alone, for the day's hunt, and it was + not unusual for him to remain out until ten at night, seldom returning to + the tents without augmenting the catalogue of his beasts. His dinner was + then served, to which he generally extended an invitation to Bridger, and + after the meal was over, and a few glasses of wine had been drunk, he was + in the habit of reading from some book, and eliciting from Bridger his + comments thereon. His favourite author was Shakespeare, which Bridger + "reckin'd was too highfalutin" for him; moreover he remarked, "thet he + rather calcerlated that thar big Dutchman, Mr. Full-stuff, was a leetle + too fond of lager beer," and thought it would have been better for the old + man if he had "stuck to Bourbon whiskey straight." + </p> + <p> + Bridger seemed very much interested in the adventures of Baron Munchausen, + but admitted after Sir George had finished reading them, that "he be + dog'oned ef he swallered everything that thar Baron Munchausen said," and + thought he was "a darned liar," yet he acknowledged that some of his own + adventures among the Blackfeet woul be equally marvellous "if writ down in + a book." + </p> + <p> + A man whose one act had made him awe-inspiring was Belzy Dodd. Uncle Dick + Wooton, in relating the story, says: "I don't know what his first name + was, but Belzy was what we called him. His head was as bald as a billiard + ball, and he wore a wig. One day while we were all at Bent's Fort, while + there were a great number of Indians about, Belzy concluded to have a bit + of fun. He walked around, eying the Indians fiercely for some time, and + finally, dashing in among them, he gave a series of war-whoops which + discounted a Comanche yell, and pulling off his wig, threw it down at the + feet of the astonished and terror-stricken red men. + </p> + <p> + "The savages thought the fellow had jerked off his own scalp, and not one + of them wanted to stay and see what would happen next. They left the fort, + running like so many scared jack-rabbits, and after that none of them + could be induced to approach anywhere near Dodd." + </p> + <p> + They called him "The-white-man-who-scalps-himself," and Uncle Dick said + that he believed he could have travelled across the plains alone with + perfect safety. + </p> + <p> + Jim Baker was another noted mountaineer and hunter of the same era as + Carson, Bridger, Wooton, Hobbs, and many others. Next to Kit Carson, Baker + was General Fremont's most valued scout. + </p> + <p> + He was born in Illinois, and lived at home until he was eighteen years of + age, when he enlisted in the service of the American Fur Company, went + immediately to the Rocky Mountains, and remained there until his death. He + married a wife according to the Indian custom, from the Snake tribe, + living with her relatives many years and cultivating many of their habits, + ideas, and superstitions. He firmly believed in the efficacy of the charms + and incantations of the medicine men in curing diseases, divining where + their enemy was to be found, forecasting the result of war expeditions, + and other such ridiculous matters. Unfortunately, too, Baker would + sometimes take a little more whiskey than he could conveniently carry, and + often made a fool of himself, but he was a generous, noble-hearted fellow, + who would risk his life for a friend at any time, or divide his last + morsel of food. + </p> + <p> + Like mountaineers generally, Baker was liberal to a fault, and eminently + improvident. He made a fortune by his work, but at the annual rendezvous + of the traders, at Bent's Fort or the old Pueblo, would throw away the + earnings of months in a few days' jollification. + </p> + <p> + He told General Marcy, who was a warm friend of his, that after one season + in which he had been unusually successful in accumulating a large amount + of valuable furs, from the sale of which he had realized the handsome sum + of nine thousand dollars, he resolved to abandon his mountain life, return + to the settlements, buy a farm, and live comfortably during the remainder + of his days. He accordingly made ready to leave, and was on the eve of + starting when a friend invited him to visit a monte-bank which had been + organized at the rendezvous. He was easily led away, determined to take a + little social amusement with his old comrade, whom he might never see + again, and followed him; the result of which was that the whiskey + circulated freely, and the next morning found Baker without a cent of + money; he had lost everything. His entire plans were thus frustrated, and + he returned to the mountains, hunting with the Indians until he died. + </p> + <p> + Jim Baker's opinions of the wild Indians of the great plains and the + mountains were very decided: "That they are the most onsartinist varmints + in all creation, an' I reckon thar not more'n half human; for you never + seed a human, arter you'd fed an' treated him to the best fixin's in your + lodge, jis turn round and steal all your horses, or ary other thing he + could lay his hands on. No, not adzactly. He would feel kind o' grateful, + and ask you to spread a blanket in his lodge ef you ever came his way. But + the Injin don't care shucks for you, and is ready to do you a lot of + mischief as soon as he quits your feed. No, Cap.," he said to Marcy when + relating this, "it's not the right way to make 'em gifts to buy a peace; + but ef I war gov'nor of these United States, I'll tell what I'd do. I'd + invite 'em all to a big feast, and make 'em think I wanted to have a talk; + and as soon as I got 'em together, I'd light in and raise the har of half + of 'em, and then t'other half would be mighty glad to make terms that + would stick. That's the way I'd make a treaty with the dog'oned + red-bellied varmints; and as sure as you're born, Cap., that's the only + way." + </p> + <p> + The general, when he first met Baker, inquired of him if he had travelled + much over the settlements of the United States before he came to the + mountains; to which he said: "Right smart, right smart, Cap." He then + asked whether he had visited New York or New Orleans. "No, I hasn't, Cap., + but I'll tell you whar I have been. I've been mighty nigh all over four + counties in the State of Illinois!" + </p> + <p> + He was very fond of his squaw and children, and usually treated them + kindly; only when he was in liquor did he at all maltreat them. + </p> + <p> + Once he came over into New Mexico, where General Marcy was stationed at + the time, and determined that for the time being he would cast aside his + leggings, moccasins, and other mountain dress, and wear a civilized + wardrobe. Accordingly, he fitted himself out with one. When Marcy met him + shortly after he had donned the strange clothes, he had undergone such an + entire change that the general remarked he should hardly have known him. + He did not take kindly to this, and said: "Consarn these store butes, + Cap.; they choke my feet like h—-l." It was the first time in twenty + years that he had worn anything on his feet but moccasins, and they were + not ready for the torture inflicted by breaking in a new pair of absurdly + fitting boots. He soon threw them away, and resumed the softer foot-gear + of the mountains. + </p> + <p> + Baker was a famous bear hunter, and had been at the death of many a + grizzly. On one occasion he was setting his traps with a comrade on the + head waters of the Arkansas, when they suddenly met two young grizzly + bears about the size of full-grown dogs. Baker remarked to his friend that + if they could "light in and kill the varmints" with their knives, it would + be a big thing to boast of. They both accordingly laid aside their rifles + and "lit in," Baker attacking one and his comrade the other. The bears + immediately raised themselves on their haunches, and were ready for the + encounter. Baker ran around, endeavouring to get in a blow from behind + with his long knife; but the young brute he had tackled was too quick for + him, and turned as he went around so as always to confront him face to + face. He knew if he came within reach of his claws, that although young, + he could inflict a formidable wound; moreover, he was in fear that the + howls of the cubs would bring the infuriated mother to their rescue, when + the hunters' chances of getting away would be slim. These thoughts floated + hurriedly through his mind, and made him desirous to end the fight as soon + as he could. He made many vicious lunges at the bear, but the animal + invariably warded them off with his strong fore legs like a boxer. This + kind of tactics, however, cost the lively beast several severe cuts on his + shoulders, which made him the more furious. At length he took the + offensive, and with his month frothing with rage, bounded toward Baker, + who caught and wrestled with him, succeeding in giving him a death-wound + under the ribs. + </p> + <p> + While all this was going on, his comrade had been furiously engaged with + the other bear, and by this time had become greatly exhausted, with the + odds decidedly against him. He entreated Baker to come to his assistance + at once, which he did; but much to his astonishment, as soon as he entered + the second contest his comrade ran off, leaving him to fight the battle + alone. He was, however, again victorious, and soon had the satisfaction of + seeing his two antagonists stretched out in front of him, but as he + expressed it, "I made my mind up I'd never fight nary nother grizzly + without a good shootin'-iron in my paws." + </p> + <p> + He established a little store at the crossing of Green River, and had for + some time been doing a fair business in trafficking with the emigrants and + trading with the Indians; but shortly a Frenchman came to the same + locality and set up a rival establishment, which, of course, divided the + limited trade, and naturally reduced the income of Baker's business. + </p> + <p> + This engendered a bitter feeling of hostility, which soon culminated in a + cessation of all social intercourse between the two men. About this time + General Marcy arrived there on his way to California, and he describes the + situation of affairs thus:— + </p> + <p> + "I found Baker standing in his door, with a revolver loaded and cocked in + each hand, very drunk and immensely excited. I dismounted and asked him + the cause of all this disturbance. He answered: 'That thar yaller-bellied, + toad-eatin' Parly Voo, over thar, an' me, we've been havin' a small chance + of a scrimmage to-day. The sneakin' pole-cat, I'll raise his har yet, ef + he don't quit these diggins'!' + </p> + <p> + "It seems that they had an altercation in the morning, which ended in a + challenge, when they ran to their cabins, seized their revolvers, and from + the doors, which were only about a hundred yards from each other, fired. + Then they retired to their cabins, took a drink of whiskey, reloaded their + revolvers, and again renewed the combat. This strange duel had been going + on for several hours when I arrived, but, fortunately for them, the + whiskey had such an effect on their nerves that their aim was very + unsteady, and none of the shots had as yet taken effect. + </p> + <p> + "I took away Baker's revolvers, telling him how ashamed I was to find a + man of his usually good sense making such a fool of himself. He gave in + quietly, saying that he knew I was his friend, but did not think I would + wish to have him take insults from a cowardly Frenchman. + </p> + <p> + "The following morning at daylight Jim called at my tent to bid me + good-by, and seemed very sorry for what had occurred the day before. He + stated that this was the first time since his return from New Mexico that + he had allowed himself to drink whiskey, and when the whiskey was in him + he had 'nary sense.'" + </p> + <p> + Among the many men who have distinguished themselves as mountaineers, + traders, and Indian fighters along the line of the Old Trail, was one who + eventually became the head chief of one of the most numerous and valorous + tribes of North American savages—James P. Beckwourth. Estimates of + him vary considerably. Francis Parkman, the historian, who I think never + saw him and writes merely from hearsay, says: "He is a ruffian of the + worst class; bloody and treacherous, without honor or honesty; such, at + least, is the character he bears on the great plains. Yet in his case the + standard rules of character fail; for though he will stab a man in his + slumber, he will also do the most desperate and daring acts." + </p> + <p> + I never saw Beckwourth, but I have heard of him from those of my + mountaineer friends who knew him intimately; I think that he died long + before Parkman made his tour to the Rocky Mountains. Colonel Boone, the + Bents, Carson, Maxwell, and others ascribed to him no such traits as those + given by Parkman, and as to his honesty, it is an unquestioned fact that + Beckwourth was the most honest trader among the Indians of all who were + then engaged in the business. As Kit Carson and Colonel Boone were the + only Indian agents whom I ever knew or heard of that dealt honestly with + the various tribes, as they were always ready to acknowledge, and the + withdrawal of the former by the government was the cause of a great war, + so also Beckwourth was an honest Indian trader. + </p> + <p> + He was a born leader of men, and was known from the Yellowstone to the Rio + Grande, from Santa Fe to Independence, and in St. Louis. From the latter + town he ran away when a boy with a party of trappers, and himself became + one of the most successful of that hardy class. The woman who bore him had + played in her childhood beneath the palm trees of Africa; his father was a + native of France, and went to the banks of the wild Mississippi of his own + free will, but probably also from reasons of political interest to his + government. + </p> + <p> + In person Beckwourth was of medium height and great muscular power, quick + of apprehension, and with courage of the highest order. Probably no man + ever met with more personal adventures involving danger to life, even + among the mountaineers and trappers who early in the century faced the + perils of the remote frontier. From his neck he always wore suspended a + perforated bullet, with a large oblong bead on each side of it, tied in + place by a single thread of sinew. This amulet he obtained while chief of + the Crows,<a href="#linknote-52" name="linknoteref-52" id="linknoteref-52"><small>52</small></a> + and it was his "medicine," with which he excited the superstition of his + warriors. + </p> + <p> + His success as a trader among the various tribes of Indians has never been + surpassed; for his close intimacy with them made him know what would best + please their taste, and they bought of him when other traders stood idly + at their stockades, waiting almost hopelessly for customers. + </p> + <p> + But Beckwourth himself said: "The traffic in whiskey for Indian property + was one of the most infernal practices ever entered into by man. Let the + most casual thinker sit down and figure up the profits on a forty-gallon + cask of alcohol, and he will be thunderstruck, or rather whiskey-struck. + When it was to be disposed of, four gallons of water were added to each + gallon of alcohol. In two hundred gallons there are sixteen hundred pints, + for each one of which the trader got a buffalo-robe worth five dollars. + The Indian women toiled many long weeks to dress those sixteen hundred + robes. The white traders got them for worse than nothing; for the poor + Indian mother hid herself and her children until the effect of the poison + passed away from the husband and father, who loved them when he had no + whiskey, and abused and killed them when he had. Six thousand dollars for + sixty gallons of alcohol! Is it a wonder with such profits that men got + rich who were engaged in the fur trade? Or was it a miracle that the + buffalo were gradually exterminated?—killed with so little remorse + that the hides, among the Indians themselves, were known by the + appellation of 'A pint of whiskey.'" + </p> + <p> + Beckwourth claims to have established the Pueblo where the beautiful city + of Pueblo, Colorado, is now situated. He says: "On the 1st of October, + 1842, on the Upper Arkansas, I erected a trading-post and opened a + successful business. In a very short time I was joined by from fifteen to + twenty free trappers, with their families. We all united our labour and + constructed an adobe fort sixty yards square. By the following spring it + had grown into quite a little settlement, and we gave it the name of + Pueblo." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII. UNCLE DICK WOOTON. + </h2> + <p> + Immediately after Kit Carson, the second wreath of pioneer laurels, for + bravery and prowess as an Indian fighter, and trapper, must be conceded to + Richens Lacy Wooton, known first as "Dick," in his younger days on the + plains, then, when age had overtaken him, as "Uncle Dick." + </p> + <p> + Born in Virginia, his father, when he was but seven years of age, removed + with his family to Kentucky, where he cultivated a tobacco plantation. + Like his predecessor and lifelong friend Carson, young Wooton tired of the + monotony of farming, and in the summer of 1836 made a trip to the busy + frontier town of Independence, Missouri, where he found a caravan + belonging to Colonel St. Vrain and the Bents, already loaded, and ready to + pull out for the fort built by the latter, and named for them. + </p> + <p> + Wooton had a fair business education, and was superior in this respect to + his companions in the caravan to which he had attached himself. It was by + those rough, but kind-hearted, men that he was called "Dick," as they + could not readily master the more complicated name of "Richens." + </p> + <p> + When he started from Independence on his initial trip across the plains, + he was only nineteen, but, like all Kentuckians, perfectly familiar with a + rifle, and could shoot out a squirrel's eye with the certainty which long + practice and hardened nerves assures. + </p> + <p> + The caravan, in which he was employed as a teamster, was composed of only + seven wagons; but a larger one, in which were more than fifty, had + preceded it, and as that was heavily laden, and the smaller one only + lightly, it was intended to overtake the former before the dangerous + portions of the Trail were reached, which it did in a few days and was + assigned a place in the long line. + </p> + <p> + Every man had to take his turn in standing guard, and the first night that + it fell to young Wooton was at Little Cow Creek, in the Upper Arkansas + valley. Nothing had occurred thus far during the trip to imperil the + safety of the caravan, nor was any attack by the savages looked for. + </p> + <p> + Wooton's post comprehended the whole length of one side of the corral, and + his instructions were to shoot anything he saw moving outside of the line + of mules farthest from the wagons. The young sentry was very vigilant. He + did not feel at all sleepy, but eagerly watched for something that might + possibly come within the prescribed distance, though not really expecting + such a contingency. + </p> + <p> + About two o'clock he heard a slight noise, and saw something moving about, + sixty or seventy yards from where he was lying on the ground, to which he + had dropped the moment the strange sound reached his ears. Of course, his + first thoughts were of Indians, and the more he peered through the + darkness at the slowly moving object, the more convinced he was that it + must be a blood-thirsty savage. + </p> + <p> + He rose to his feet and blazed away, the shot rousing everbody, and all + came rushing with their guns to learn what the matter was. + </p> + <p> + Wooton told the wagon-master that he had seen what he supposed was an + Indian trying to slip up to the mules, and that he had killed him. Some of + the men crept very circumspectly to the spot where the supposed dead + savage was lying, while young Wooton remained at his post eagerly waiting + for their report. Presently he heard a voice cry out: "I'll be d—-d + ef he hain't killed 'Old Jack!'" + </p> + <p> + "Old Jack" was one of the lead mules of one of the wagons. He had torn up + his picket-pin and strayed outside of the lines, with the result that the + faithful brute met his death at the hands of the sentry. Wooton declared + that he was not to be blamed; for the animal had disobeyed orders, while + he had strictly observed them!<a href="#linknote-53" name="linknoteref-53" + id="linknoteref-53"><small>53</small></a> + </p> + <p> + At Pawnee Fork, a few days later, the caravan had a genuine tussle with + the Comanches. It was a bright moonlight night, and about two hundred of + the mounted savages attacked them. It was a rare thing for Indians to + begin a raid after dark, but they swept down on the unsuspecting + teamsters, yelling like a host of demons. They were armed with bows and + arrows generally, though a few of them had fusees.<a href="#linknote-54" + name="linknoteref-54" id="linknoteref-54"><small>54</small></a> They + received a warm greeting, although they were not expected, the guard + noticing the savages in time to prevent a stampede of the animals, which + evidently was the sole purpose for which they came, as they did not + attempt to break through the corral to get at the wagons. It was the mules + they were after. They charged among the men, vainly endeavouring to + frighten the animals and make them break loose, discharging showers of + arrows as they rode by. The camp was too hot for them, however, defended + as it was by old teamsters who had made the dangerous passage of the + plains many times before, and were up to all the Indian tactics. They + failed to get a single mule, but paid for their temerity by leaving three + of their party dead, just where they had been tumbled off their horses, + not even having time to carry the bodies off, as they usually do. + </p> + <p> + Wooton passed some time during the early days of his career at Bent's + Fort, in 1836-37. He was a great favourite with both of the proprietors, + and with them went to the several Indian villages, where he learned the + art of trading with the savages. + </p> + <p> + The winters of the years mentioned were noted for the incursions of the + Pawnees into the region of the fort. They always pretended friendship for + the whites, when any of them were inside of its sacred precincts, but + their whole manner changed when they by some stroke of fortune caught a + trapper or hunter alone on the prairie or in the foot-hills; he was a dead + man sure, and his scalp was soon dangling at the belt of his cowardly + assassins. Hardly a day passed without witnessing some poor fellow running + for the fort with a band of the red devils after him; frequently he + escaped the keen edge of their scalping-knife, but every once in a while a + man was killed. At one time, two herders who were with their animals + within fifty yards of the fort, going out to the grazing ground, were + killed and every hoof of stock run off. + </p> + <p> + A party from the fort, comprising only eight men, among whom was young + Wooton, made up for lost time with the Indians, at the crossing of Pawnee + Fork, the same place where he had had his first fight. The men had set out + from the fort for the purpose of meeting a small caravan of wagons from + the East, loaded with supplies for the Bents' trading post. It happened + that a band of sixteen Pawnees were watching for the arrival of the train, + too.<a href="#linknote-55" name="linknoteref-55" id="linknoteref-55"><small>55</small></a> + Wooton's party were well mounted, while the Pawnees were on foot, and + although the savages were two to one, the advantage was decidedly in + favour of the whites. + </p> + <p> + The Indians were armed with bows and arrows only, and while it was an easy + matter for the whites to keep out of the way of the shower of missiles + which the Indians commenced to hurl at them, the latter became an easy + prey to the unerring rifles of their assailants, who killed thirteen out + of the sixteen in a very short time. The remaining three took French leave + of their comrades at the beginning of the conflict, and abandoning their + arms rushed up to the caravan, which was just appearing over a small + divide, and gave themselves up. The Indian custom was observed in their + case,<a href="#linknote-56" name="linknoteref-56" id="linknoteref-56"><small>56</small></a> + although it was rarely that any prisoners were taken in these conflicts on + the Trail. Another curious custom was also followed.<a href="#linknote-57" + name="linknoteref-57" id="linknoteref-57"><small>57</small></a> When the + party encamped they were well fed, and the next morning supplied with + rations enough to last them until they could reach one of their villages, + and sent off to tell their head chief what had become of the rest of his + warriors. + </p> + <p> + Wooton had an adventure once while he was stationed at Bent's Fort during + a trading expedition with the Utes, on the Purgatoire, or Purgatory River,<a + href="#linknote-58" name="linknoteref-58" id="linknoteref-58"><small>58</small></a> + about ten or twelve miles from Trinidad. He had taken with him, with + others, a Shawnee Indian. Only a short time before their departure from + the fort, an Indian of that tribe had been murdered by a Ute, and one day + this Shawnee who was with Wooton spied a Ute, when revenge inspired him, + and he forthwith killed his enemy. Knowing that as soon as the news of the + shooting reached the Ute village, which was not a great distance off, the + whole tribe would be down upon him, Wooton abandoned any attempt to trade + with them and tried to get out of their country as quickly as he could. + </p> + <p> + As he expected, the Utes followed on his trail, and came up with his + little party on a prairie where there was not the slightest chance to + ambush or hide. They had to fight, because they could not help it, but + resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible, as the Utes + outnumbered them twenty to one; Wooton having only eight men with him, + including the Shawnee. + </p> + <p> + The pack-animals, of which they had a great many, loaded with the goods + intended for the savages, were corralled in a circle, inside of which the + men hurried themselves and awaited the first assault of the foe. In a few + moments the Utes began to circle around the trappers and open fire. The + trappers promptly responded, and they made every shot count; for all of + the men, not even excepting the Shawnee, were experts with the rifle. They + did not mind the arrows which the Utes showered upon them, as few, if any, + reached to where they stood. The savages had a few guns, but they were of + the poorest quality; besides, they did not know how to handle them then as + they learned to do later, so their bullets were almost as harmless as + their arrows. + </p> + <p> + The trappers made terrible havoc among the Utes' horses, killing so many + of them that the savages in despair abandoned the fight and gave Wooton + and his men an opportunity to get away, which they did as rapidly as + possible. + </p> + <p> + The Raton Pass, through which the Old Trail ran, was a relatively fair + mountain road, but originally it was almost impossible for anything in the + shape of a wheeled vehicle to get over the narrow rock-ribbed barrier; + saddle horses and pack-mules could, however, make the trip without much + difficulty. It was the natural highway to southeastern Colorado and + northeastern New Mexico, but the overland coaches could not get to + Trinidad by the shortest route, and as the caravans also desired to make + the same line, it occurred to Uncle Dick that he would undertake to hew + out a road through the pass, which, barring grades, should be as good as + the average turnpike. He could see money in it for him, as he expected to + charge toll, keeping the road in repair at his own expense, and he + succeeded in procuring from the legislatures of Colorado and New Mexico + charters covering the rights and privileges which he demanded for his + project. + </p> + <p> + In the spring of 1866, Uncle Dick took up his abode on the top of the + mountains, built his home, and lived there until two years ago, when he + died at a very ripe old age. + </p> + <p> + The old trapper had imposed on himself anything but an easy task in + constructing his toll-road. There were great hillsides to cut out, immense + ledges of rocks to blast, bridges to build by the dozen, and huge trees to + fell, besides long lines of difficult grading to engineer. + </p> + <p> + Eventually Uncle Dick's road was a fact, but when it was completed, how to + make it pay was a question that seriously disturbed his mind. The method + he employed to solve the problem I will quote in his own words: "Such a + thing as a toll-road was unknown in the country at that time. People who + had come from the States understood, of course, that the object of + building a turnpike was to enable the owner to collect toll from those who + travelled over it, but I had to deal with a great many people who seemed + to think that they should be as free to travel over my well-graded and + bridged roadway as they were to follow an ordinary cow path. + </p> + <p> + "I may say that I had five classes of patrons to do business with. There + was the stage company and its employees, the freighters, the military + authorities, who marched troops and transported supplies over the road, + the Mexicans, and the Indians. + </p> + <p> + "With the stage company, the military authorities, and the American + freighters I had no trouble. With the Indians, when a band came through + now and then, I didn't care to have any controversy about so small a + matter as a few dollars toll! Whenever they came along, the toll-gate went + up, and any other little thing I could do to hurry them on was done + promptly and cheerfully. While the Indians didn't understand anything + about the system of collecting tolls, they seemed to recognize the fact + that I had a right to control the road, and they would generally ride up + to the gate and ask permission to go through. Once in a while the chief of + a band would think compensation for the privilege of going through in + order, and would make me a present of a buckskin or something of that + sort. + </p> + <p> + "My Mexican patrons were the hardest to get along with. Paying for the + privilege of travelling over any road was something they were totally + unused to, and they did not take to it kindly. They were pleased with my + road and liked to travel over it, until they came to the toll-gate. This + they seemed to look upon as an obstruction that no man had a right to + place in the way of a free-born native of the mountain region. They + appeared to regard the toll-gate as a new scheme for holding up travellers + for the purpose of robbery, and many of them evidently thought me a kind + of freebooter, who ought to be suppressed by law. + </p> + <p> + "Holding these views, when I asked them for a certain amount of money, + before raising the toll-gate, they naturally differed with me very + frequently about the propriety of complying with the request. + </p> + <p> + "In other words, there would be at such times probably an honest + difference of opinion between the man who kept the toll-gate and the man + who wanted to get through it. Anyhow, there was a difference, and such + differences had to be adjusted. Sometimes I did it through diplomacy, and + sometimes I did it with a club. It was always settled one way, however, + and that was in accordance with the toll schedule, so that I could never + have been charged with unjust discrimination of rates." + </p> + <p> + Soon after the road was opened a company composed of Californians and + Mexicans, commanded by a Captain Haley, passed Uncle Dick's toll-gate and + house, escorting a large caravan of about a hundred and fifty wagons. + While they stopped there, a non-commissioned officer of the party was + brutally murdered by three soldiers, and Uncle Dick came very near being a + witness to the atrocious deed. + </p> + <p> + The murdered man was a Mexican, and his slayers were Mexicans too. The + trouble originated at Las Vegas, where the privates had been bound and + gagged, by order of the corporal, for creating a disturbance at a fandango + the evening before. + </p> + <p> + The name of the corporal was Juan Torres, and he came down to Uncle Dick's + one evening while the command was encamped on the top of the mountain, + accompanied by the three privates, who had already plotted to kill him, + though he had not the slightest suspicion of it. + </p> + <p> + Uncle Dick, in telling the story, said: "They left at an early hour, going + in an opposite direction from their camp, and I closed my doors soon + after, for the night. They had not been gone more than half an hour, when + I heard them talking not far from my house, and a few seconds later I + heard the half-suppressed cry of a man who has received his death-blow. + </p> + <p> + "I had gone to bed, and lay for a minute or two thinking whether I should + get up and go to the rescue or insure my own safety by remaining where I + was. + </p> + <p> + "A little reflection convinced me that the murderers were undoubtedly + watching my house, to prevent any interference with the carrying out of + their plot, and that if I ventured out I should only endanger my own life, + while there was scarcely a possibility of my being able to save the life + of the man who had been assailed. + </p> + <p> + "In the morning, when I got up, I found the dead body of the corporal + stretched across Raton Creek, not more than a hundred yards from my house. + </p> + <p> + "As I surmised, he had been struck with a heavy club or stone, and it was + at that time that I heard his cry. After that his brains had been beaten + out, and the body left where I had found it. + </p> + <p> + "I at once notified Captain Haley of the occurrence, and identified the + men who had been in company with the corporal, and who were undoubtedly + his murderers. + </p> + <p> + "They were taken into custody, and made a confession, in which they stated + that one of their number had stood at my door on the night of the murder + to shoot me if I had ventured out to assist the corporal. Two of the + scoundrels were hung afterward at Las Vegas, and the third sent to prison + for life." + </p> + <p> + The corporal was buried near where the soldiers were encamped at the time + of the tragedy, and it is his lonely grave which frequently attracts the + attention of the passengers on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe trains, + just before the Raton tunnel is reached, as they travel southward. + </p> + <p> + In 1866-67 the Indians broke out, infesting all the most prominent points + of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and watching an opportunity to rob and murder, + so that the government freight caravans and the stages had to be escorted + by detachments of troops. Fort Larned was the western limit where these + escorts joined the outfits going over into New Mexico. + </p> + <p> + There were other dangers attending the passage of the Trail to travellers + by the stage besides the attacks of the savages. These were the so-called + road agents—masked robbers who regarded life as of little worth in + the accomplishment of their nefarious purposes. Particularly were they + common after the mines of New Mexico began to be operated by Americans. + The object of the bandits was generally the strong box of the express + company, which contained money and other valuables. They did not, of + course, hesitate to take what ready cash and jewelry the passengers might + happen to have upon their persons, and frequently their hauls amounted to + large sums. + </p> + <p> + When the coaches began to travel over Uncle Dick's toll-road, his house + was made a station, and he had many stage stories. He said:— + </p> + <p> + "Tavern-keepers in those days couldn't choose their guests, and we + entertained them just as they came along. The knights of the road would + come by now and then, order a meal, eat it hurriedly, pay for it, and move + on to where they had arranged to hold up a stage that night. Sometimes + they did not wait for it to get dark, but halted the stage, went through + the treasure box in broad daylight, and then ordered the driver to move on + in one direction, while they went off in another. + </p> + <p> + "One of the most daring and successful stage robberies that I remember was + perpetrated by two men, when the east-bound coach was coming up on the + south side of the Raton Mountains, one day about ten o'clock in the + forenoon. + </p> + <p> + "On the morning of the same day, a little after sunrise, two rather + genteel-looking fellows, mounted on fine horses, rode up to my house and + ordered breakfast. Being informed that breakfast would be ready in a few + minutes, they dismounted, hitched their horses near the door, and came + into the house. + </p> + <p> + "I knew then, just as well as I do now, they were robbers, but I had no + warrant for their arrest, and I should have hesitated about serving it if + I had, because they looked like very unpleasant men to transact that kind + of business with. + </p> + <p> + "Each of them had four pistols sticking in his belt and a repeating rifle + strapped on to his saddle. When they dismounted, they left their rifles + with the horses, but walked into the house and sat down at the table, + without laying aside the arsenal which they carried in their belts. + </p> + <p> + "They had little to say while eating, but were courteous in their + behaviour, and very polite to the waiters. When they had finished + breakfast, they paid their bills, and rode leisurely up the mountain. + </p> + <p> + "It did not occur to me that they would take chances on stopping the stage + in daylight, or I should have sent some one to meet the incoming coach, + which I knew would be along shortly, to warn the driver and passengers to + be on the lookout for robbers. + </p> + <p> + "It turned out, however, that a daylight robbery was just what they had in + mind, and they made a success of it. + </p> + <p> + "About halfway down the New Mexico side of the mountain, where the canyon + is very narrow, and was then heavily wooded on either side, the robbers + stopped and waited for the coach. It came lumbering along by and by, + neither the driver nor the passengers dreaming of a hold-up. + </p> + <p> + "The first intimation they had of such a thing was when they saw two men + step into the road, one on each side of the stage, each of them holding + two cocked revolvers, one of which was brought to bear on the passengers + and the other on the driver, who were politely but very positively told + that they must throw up their hands without any unnecessary delay, and the + stage came to a standstill. + </p> + <p> + "There were four passengers in the coach, all men, but their hands went up + at the same instant that the driver dropped his reins and struck an + attitude that suited the robbers. + </p> + <p> + "Then, while one of the men stood guard, the other stepped up to the stage + and ordered the treasure box thrown off. This demand was complied with, + and the box was broken and rifled of its contents, which fortunately were + not of very great value. + </p> + <p> + "The passengers were compelled to hand out their watches and other + jewelry, as well as what money they had in their pockets, and then the + driver was directed to move up the road. In a minute after this the + robbers had disappeared with their booty, and that was the last seen of + them by that particular coach-load of passengers. + </p> + <p> + "The men who planned and executed that robbery were two cool, + level-headed, and daring scoundrels, known as 'Chuckle-luck' and 'Magpie.' + They were killed soon after this occurrence, by a member of their own + band, whose name was Seward. A reward of a thousand dollars had been + offered for their capture, an this tempted Seward to kill them, one night + when they were asleep in camp. + </p> + <p> + "He then secured a wagon, into which he loaded the dead robbers, and + hauled them to Cimarron City, where he turned them over to the authorities + and received his reward." + </p> + <p> + Among the Arapahoes Wooton was called "Cut Hand," from the fact that he + had lost two fingers on his left hand by an accident in his childhood. The + tribe had the utmost veneration for the old trapper, and he was perfectly + safe at any time in their villages or camps; it had been the request of a + dying chief, who was once greatly favoured by Wooton, that his warriors + should never injure him although the nation might be at war with all the + rest of the whites in the world. + </p> + <p> + Uncle Dick died a few seasons ago, at the age of nearly ninety. He was + blind for some time, but a surgical operation partly restored his sight, + which made the old man happy, because he could look again upon the + beautiful scenery surrounding his mountain home, really the grandest in + the entire Raton Range. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad had + one of its freight locomotives named "Uncle Dick," in honour of the + veteran mountaineer, past whose house it hauled the heavy-laden trains up + the steep grade crossing into the valley beyond. At the time of its + baptism, now fifteen or sixteen years ago, it was the largest freight + engine in the world. + </p> + <p> + Old Bill Williams was another character of the early days of the Trail, + and was called so when Carson, Uncle Dick Wooton, and Maxwell were + comparatively young in the mountains. He was, at the time of their advent + in the remote West, one of the best known men there, and had been famous + for years as a hunter and trapper. Williams was better acquainted with + every pass in the Rockies than any other man of his time, and only + surpassed by Jim Bridger later. He was with General Fremont on his + exploring expedition across the continent; but the statement of the old + trappers, and that of General Fremont, in relation to his services then, + differ widely. Fremont admits Williams' knowledge of the country over + which he had wandered to have been very extensive, but when put to the + test on the expedition, he came very near sacrificing the lives of all. + This was probably owing to Williams' failing intellect, for when he joined + the great explorer he was past the meridian of life. Now the old + mountaineers contend that if Fremont had profited by the old man's advice, + he would never have run into the deathtrap which cost him three men, and + in which he lost all his valuable papers, his instruments, and the animals + which he and his party were riding. The expedition had followed the + Arkansas River to its source, and the general had selected a route which + he desired to pursue in crossing the mountains. It was winter, and + Williams explained to him that it was perfectly impracticable to get over + at that season. The general, however, ignoring the statement, listened to + another of his party, a man who had no such experience but said that he + could pilot the expedition. Before they had fairly started, they were + caught in one of the most terrible snowstorms the region had ever + witnessed, in which all their horses and mules were literally frozen to + death. Then, when it was too late, they turned back, abandoning their + instruments, and able only to carry along a very limited stock of food. + The storm continued to rage, so that even Williams failed to prevent them + from getting lost, and they wandered about aimlessly for many days before + they luckily arrived at Taos, suffering seriously from exhaustion and + hunger. Three of the men were frozen to death on the return trip, and the + remaining fifteen were little better than dead when Uncle Dick Wooton + happened to run across them and piloted them into the village. It was + immediately after this disaster that the three most noted men in the + mountains—Carson, Maxwell, and Dick Owens—became the guides of + the pathfinder, with whom he had no trouble, and to whom he owed more of + his success than history has given them credit for. + </p> + <p> + At one period of his eventful career, while he lived in Missouri, before + he wandered to the mountains, Old Bill Williams was a Methodist preacher; + of which fact he boasted frequently while he trapped and hunted with other + pioneers. Whenever he related that portion of his early life, he declared + that he "was so well known in his circuit, that the chickens recognized + him as he came riding by the scattered farmhouses, and the old roosters + would crow 'Here comes Parson Williams! One of us must be made ready for + dinner.'" + </p> + <p> + Upon leaving the States, he travelled very extensively among the various + tribes of Indians who roamed over the great plains and in the mountains. + When sojourning with a certain band, he would invariably adopt their + manners and customs. Whenever he grew tired of that nation, he would seek + another and live as they lived. He had been so long among the savages that + he looked and talked like one, and had imbibed many of their strange + notions and curious superstitions. + </p> + <p> + To the missionaries he was very useful. He possessed the faculty of easily + acquiring languages that other white men failed to learn, and could + readily translate the Bible into several Indian dialects. His own conduct, + however, was in strange contrast with the precepts of the Holy Book with + which he was so familiar. + </p> + <p> + To the native Mexicans he was a holy terror and an unsolvable riddle. They + thought him possessed of an evil spirit. He at one time took up his + residence among them and commenced to trade. Shortly after he had + established himself and gathered in a stock of goods, he became involved + in a dispute with some of his customers in relation to his prices. Upon + this he apparently took an intense dislike to the people whom he had begun + to traffic with, and in his disgust tossed his whole mass of goods into + the street, and, taking up his rifle, left at once for the mountains. + </p> + <p> + Among the many wild ideas he had imbibed from his long association with + the Indians, was faith in their belief in the transmigration of souls. He + used so to worry his brain for hours cogitating upon this intricate + problem concerning a future state, that he actually pretended to know + exactly the animal whose place he was destined to fill in the world after + he had shaken off this mortal human coil. + </p> + <p> + Uncle Dick Wooton told how once, when he, Old Bill Williams, and many + other trappers, were lying around the camp-fire one night, the strange + fellow, in a preaching style of delivery, related to them all how he was + to be changed into a buck elk and intended to make his pasture in the very + region where they then were. He described certain peculiarities which + would distinguish him from the common run of elk, and was very careful to + caution all those present never to shoot such an animal, should they ever + run across him. + </p> + <p> + Williams was regarded as a warm-hearted, brave, and generous man. He was + at last killed by the Indians, while trading with them, but has left his + name to many mountain peaks, rivers, and passes discovered by him. + </p> + <p> + Tom Tobin, one of the last of the famous trappers, hunters, and Indian + fighters to cross the dark river, flourished in the early days, when the + Rocky Mountains were a veritable terra incognita to nearly all excepting + the hardy employees of the several fur companies and the limited number of + United States troops stationed in their remote wilds. + </p> + <p> + Tom was an Irishman, quick-tempered, and a dead shot with either rifle, + revolver, or the formidable bowie-knife. He would fight at the drop of the + hat, but no man ever went away from his cabin hungry, if he had a crust to + divide; or penniless, if there was anything remaining in his purse. + </p> + <p> + He, like Carson, was rather under the average stature, red-faced, and + lacking much of being an Adonis, but whole-souled, and as quick in his + movements as an antelope. + </p> + <p> + Tobin played an important rôle in avenging the death of the Americans + killed in the Taos massacre, at the storming of the Indian pueblo, but his + greatest achievement was the ending of the noted bandit Espinosa's life, + who, at the height of his career of blood, was the terror of the whole + mountain region. + </p> + <p> + At the time of the acquisition of New Mexico by the United States, + Espinosa, who was a Mexican, owning vast herds of cattle and sheep, + resided upon his ancestral hacienda in a sort of barbaric luxury, with a + host of semi-serfs, known as Peons, to do his bidding, as did the other + "Muy Ricos," the "Dons," so called, of his class of natives. These + self-styled aristocrats of the wild country all boasted of their Castilian + blue blood, claiming descent from the nobles of Cortez' army, but the fact + is, however, with rare exceptions, that their male ancestors, the rank and + file of that army, intermarried with the Aztec women, and they were really + only a mixture of Indian and Spanish. + </p> + <p> + It so happened that Espinosa met an adventurous American, who, with + hundreds of others, had been attached to the "Army of Occupation" in the + Mexican War, or had emigrated from the States to seek their fortunes in + the newly acquired and much over-rated territory. + </p> + <p> + The Mexican Don and the American became fast friends, the latter making + his home with his newly found acquaintance at the beautiful ranch in the + mountains, where they played the rôle of a modern Damon and Pythias. + </p> + <p> + Now with Don Espinosa lived his sister, a dark-eyed, bewitchingly + beautiful girl about seventeen years old, with whom the susceptible + American fell deeply in love, and his affection was reciprocated by the + maiden, with a fervour of which only the women of the race from which she + sprang are capable. + </p> + <p> + The fascinating American had brought with him from his home in one of the + New England States a large amount of money, for his parents were rich, and + spared no indulgence to their only son. He very soon unwisely made + Espinosa his confidant, and told him of the wealth he possessed. + </p> + <p> + One night after the American had retired to his chamber, adjoining that of + his host, he was surprised, shortly after he had gone to bed, by + discovering a man standing over him, whose hand had already grasped the + buckskin bag under his pillow which contained a considerable portion of + his gold and silver. He sprang from his couch and fired his pistol at + random in the darkness at the would-be robber. + </p> + <p> + Espinosa, for it was he, was wounded slightly, and, being either enraged + or frightened, he stabbed with his keen-pointed stiletto, which all + Mexicans then carried, the young man whom he had invited to become his + guest, and the blade entered the American's heart, killing him instantly. + </p> + <p> + The report of the pistol-shot awakened the other members of the household, + who came rushing into the room just as the victim was breathing his last. + Among them was the sister of the murderer, who, throwing herself on the + body of her dead lover, poured forth the most bitter curses upon her + brother. + </p> + <p> + Espinosa, realizing the terrible position in which he had placed himself, + then and there determined to become an outlaw, as he could frame no excuse + for his wicked deed. He therefore hid himself at once in the mountains, + carrying with him, of course, the sack containing the murdered American's + money. + </p> + <p> + Some time necessarily passed before he could get together a sufficient + number of cut-throats and renegades from justice to enable him wholly to + defy the authorities; but at last he succeeded in rallying a strong force + to his standard of blood, and became the terror of the whole region, + equalling in boldness and audacity the terrible Joaquin, of California + notoriety in after years. + </p> + <p> + His headquarters were in the almost impregnable fastnesses of the Sangre + de Cristo Mountains, from which he made his invariably successful raids + into the rich valleys below. There was nothing too bloody for him to + shrink from; he robbed indiscriminately the overland coaches to Santa Fe, + the freight caravans of the traders and government, the ranches of the + Mexicans, or stole from the poorer classes, without any compunction. He + ran off horses, cattle, sheep—in fact, anything that he could + utilize. If murder was necessary to the completion of his work, he never + for a moment hesitated. Kidnapping, too, was a favourite pastime; but he + rarely carried away to his rendezvous any other than the most beautiful of + the New Mexican young girls, whom he held in his mountain den until they + were ransomed, or subjected to a fate more terrible. + </p> + <p> + In 1864 the bandit, after nearly ten years of unparalleled outlawry, was + killed by Tobin. Tom had been on his trail for some time, and at last + tracked him to a temporary camp in the foot-hills, which he accidentally + discovered in a grove of cottonwoods, by the smoke of the little camp-fire + as it curled in light wreaths above the trees. + </p> + <p> + Tobin knew that at the time there was but one of Espinosa's followers with + him, as he had watched them both for some days, waiting for an opportunity + to get the drop on them. To capture the pair of outlaws alive never + entered his thoughts; he was as cautious as brave, and to get them dead + was much safer and easier; so he crept up to the grove on his belly, + Indian fashion, and lying behind the cover of a friendly log, waited until + the noted desperado stood up, when he pulled the trigger of his + never-erring rifle, and Espinosa fell dead. A second shot quickly disposed + of his companion, and the old trapper's mission was accomplished. + </p> + <p> + To be able to claim the reward offered by the authorities, Tom had to + prove, beyond the possibility of doubt, that those whom he had killed were + the dreaded bandit and one of his gang. He thought it best to cut off + their heads, which he deliberately did, and packing them on his mule in a + gunny-sack, he brought them into old Fort Massachusetts, afterward Fort + Garland, where they were speedily recognized; but whether Tom ever + received the reward, I have my doubts, as he never claimed that he did. + Tobin died only a short time ago, gray, grizzled, and venerable, his + memory respected by all who had ever met him. + </p> + <p> + James Hobbs, among all the men of whom I have presented a hurried sketch, + had perhaps a more varied experience than any of his colleagues. During + his long life on the frontier, he was in turn a prisoner among the + savages, and held for years by them; an excellent soldier in the war with + Mexico; an efficient officer in the revolt against Maximilian, when the + attempt of Napoleon to establish an empire on this continent, with that + unfortunate prince at its head, was defeated; an Indian fighter; a miner; + a trapper; a trader, and a hunter. + </p> + <p> + Hobbs was born in the Shawnee nation, on the Big Blue, about twenty-three + miles from Independence, Missouri. His early childhood was entrusted to + one of his father's slaves. Reared on the eastern limit of the border, he + very soon became familiar with the use of the rifle and shot-gun; in fact, + he was the principal provider of all the meat which the family consumed. + </p> + <p> + In 1835, when only sixteen, he joined a fur-trading expedition under + Charles Bent, destined for the fort on the Arkansas River built by him and + his brothers. + </p> + <p> + They arrived at the crossing of the Santa Fe Trail over Pawnee Fork + without special adventure, but there they had the usual tussle with the + savages, and Hobbs killed his first Indian. Two of the traders were + pierced with arrows, but not seriously hurt, and the Pawnees—the + tribe which had attacked the outfit—were driven away discomfited, + not having been successful in stampeding a single animal. + </p> + <p> + When the party reached the Caches, on the Upper Arkansas, a smoke rising + on the distant horizon, beyond the sand hills south of the river, made + them proceed cautiously; for to the old plainsmen, that far-off wreath + indicated either the presence of the savages, or a signal to others at a + greater distance of the approach of the trappers. + </p> + <p> + The next morning, nothing having occurred to delay the march, buffalo + began to appear, and Hobbs killed three of them. A cow, which he had + wounded, ran across the Trail in front of the train, and Hobbs dashed + after her, wounding her with his pistol, and then she started to swim the + river. Hobbs, mad at the jeers which greeted him from the men at his + missing the animal, started for the last wagon, in which was his rifle, + determined to kill the brute that had enraged him. As he was riding along + rapidly, Bent cried out to him,— + </p> + <p> + "Don't try to follow that cow; she is going straight for that smoke, and + it means Injuns, and no good in 'em either." + </p> + <p> + "But I'll get her," answered Hobbs, and he called to his closest comrade, + John Baptiste, a boy of about his own age, to go and get his pack-mule and + come along. "All right," responded John; and together the two + inexperienced youngsters crossed the river against the protests of the + veteran leader of the party. + </p> + <p> + After a chase of about three miles, the boys came up with the cow, but she + turned and showed fight. Finally Hobbs, by riding around her, got in a + good shot, which killed her. Jumping off their animals, both boys busied + themselves in cutting out the choice pieces for their supper, packed them + on the mule, and started back for the train. But it had suddenly become + very dark, and they were in doubt as to the direction of the Trail. + </p> + <p> + Soon night came on so rapidly that neither could they see their own tracks + by which they had come, nor the thin fringe of cottonwoods that lined the + bank of the stream. Then they disagreed as to which was the right way. + John succeeded in persuading Hobbs that he was correct, and the latter + gave in, very much against his own belief on the subject. + </p> + <p> + They travelled all night, and when morning came, were bewilderingly lost. + Then Hobbs resolved to retrace the tracks by which, now that the sun was + up, he saw that they had been going south, right away from the Arkansas. + Suddenly an immense herd of buffalo, containing at least two thousand, + dashed by the boys, filling the air with the dust raised by their + clattering hoofs, and right behind them rode a hundred Indians, shooting + at the stampeded animals with their arrows. + </p> + <p> + "Get into that ravine!" shouted Hobbs to his companion. "Throw away that + meat, and run for your life!" + </p> + <p> + It was too late; just as they arrived at the brink of the hollow, they + looked back, and close behind them were a dozen Comanches. + </p> + <p> + The savages rode up, and one of the party said in very good English, "How + d' do?" + </p> + <p> + "How d' do?" Hobbs replied, thinking it would be better to be as polite as + the Indian, though the state of the latter's health just then was a matter + of small concern. + </p> + <p> + "Texas?" inquired the Indian. The Comanches had good reasons to hate the + citizens of that country, and it was a lucky thing for Hobbs that he had + heard of their prejudice from the trappers, and possessed presence of mind + to remember it. He replied promptly: "No, friendly; going to establish a + trading-post for the Comanches." + </p> + <p> + "Friendly? Better go with us, though. Got any tobacco?" + </p> + <p> + Hobbs had some of the desired article, and he was not long in handing it + over to his newly found friend. + </p> + <p> + Both of the boys were escorted to the temporary camp of the savages, but + the original number of their captors was increased to over a thousand + before they arrived there. They were supplied with some dried + buffalo-meat, and then taken to the lodge of Old Wolf, the head chief of + the tribe. + </p> + <p> + A council was called immediately to consider what disposition should be + made of them, but nothing was decided upon, and the assembly of warriors + adjourned until morning. Hobbs told me that it was because Old Wolf had + imbibed too much brandy, a bottle of which Baptiste had brought with him + from the train, and which the thirsty warrior saw suspended from his + saddle-bow as they rode up to the chief's lodge; the aged rascal got + beastly drunk. + </p> + <p> + About noon of the next day, after the dispersion of the council, the boys + were informed that if they were not Texans, would behave themselves, and + not attempt to run away, they might stay with the Indians, who would not + kill them; but a string of dried scalps was pointed out, hanging on a + lodge pole, of some Mexicans whom they had captured and put to herding + their ponies, and who had tried to get away. They succeeded in making a + few miles; the Indians chased them, after deciding in council, that, if + caught, only their scalps were to be brought back. The moral of this was + that the same fate awaited the boys if they followed the example of the + foolish Mexicans. + </p> + <p> + Hobbs had excellent sense and judgment, and he knew that it would be the + height of folly for him and Baptiste, mere boys, to try and reach either + Bent's Fort or the Missouri River, not having the slightest knowledge of + where they were situated. + </p> + <p> + Hobbs grew to be a great favourite with the Comanches; was given the + daughter of Old Wolf in marriage, became a great chief, fought many hard + battles with his savage companions, and at last, four years after, was + redeemed by Colonel Bent, who paid Old Wolf a small ransom for him at the + Fort, where the Indians had come to trade. Baptiste, whom the Indians + never took a great fancy to, because he did not develop into a great + warrior, was also ransomed by Bent, his price being only an antiquated + mule. + </p> + <p> + At Bent's Fort Hobbs went out trapping under the leadership of Kit Carson, + and they became lifelong friends. In a short time Hobbs earned the + reputation of being an excellent mountaineer, trapper, and as an Indian + fighter he was second to none, his education among the Comanches having + trained him in all the strategy of the savages. + </p> + <p> + After going through the Mexican War with an excellent record, Hobbs + wandered about the country, now engaged in mining in old Mexico, then + fighting the Apaches under the orders of the governor of Chihuahua, and at + the end of the campaign going back to the Pacific coast, where he entered + into new pursuits. Sometimes he was rich, then as poor as one can imagine. + He returned to old Mexico in time to become an active partisan in the + revolt which overthrew the short-lived dynasty of Maximilian, and was + present at the execution of that unfortunate prince. Finally he retired to + the home of his childhood in the States, where he died a few months ago, + full of years and honours. + </p> + <p> + William F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," is one of the famous plainsmen, of later + days, however, than Carson, Bridger, John Smith, Maxwell, and others whom + I have mentioned. The mantle of Kit Carson, perhaps, fits more perfectly + the shoulders of Cody than those of any other of the great frontiersman's + successors, and he has had some experiences that surpassed anything which + fell to their lot. + </p> + <p> + He was born in Iowa, in 1845, and when barely seven years old his father + emigrated to Kansas, then far remote from civilization. + </p> + <p> + Thirty-six years ago, he was employed as guide and scout in an expedition + against the Kiowas and Comanches, and his line of duty took him along the + Santa Fe Trail all one summer when not out as a scout, carrying despatches + between Fort Lyon and Fort Larned, the most important military posts on + the great highway as well as to far-off Fort Leavenworth on the Missouri + River, the headquarters of the department. Fort Larned was the general + rendezvous of all the scouts on the Kansas and Colorado plains, the chief + of whom was a veteran interpreter and guide, named Dick Curtis. + </p> + <p> + When Cody first reported there for his responsible duty, a large camp of + the Kiowas and Comanches was established within sight of the fort, whose + warriors had not as yet put on their war-paint, but were evidently + restless and discontented under the restraint of their chiefs. Soon those + leading men, Satanta, Lone Wolf, Satank, and others of lesser note, grew + rather impudent and haughty in their deportment, and they were watched + with much concern. The post was garrisoned by only two companies of + infantry and one of cavalry. + </p> + <p> + General Hazen, afterward chief of the signal service in Washington, was at + Fort Larned at the time, endeavouring to patch up a peace with the + savages, who seemed determined to break out. Cody was special scout to the + general, and one morning he was ordered to accompany him as far as Fort + Zarah, on the Arkansas, near the mouth of Walnut Creek, in what is now + Barton County, Kansas, the general intending to go on to Fort Harker, on + the Smoky Hill. In making these trips of inspection, with incidental + collateral duties, the general usually travelled in an ambulance, but on + this journey he rode in a six-mule army-wagon, escorted by a detachment of + a score of infantry. It was a warm August day, and an early start was + made, which enabled them to reach Fort Zarah, over thirty miles distant, + by noon. After dinner, the general proposed to go on to Fort Harker, + forty-one miles away, without any escort, leaving orders for Cody to + return to Fort Larned the next day, with the soldiers. But Cody, ever + impatient of delay when there was work to do, notified the sergeant in + charge of the men that he was going back that very afternoon. I tell the + story of his trip as he has often told it to me, and as he has written it + in his autobiography. + </p> + <p> + "I accordingly saddled up my mule and set out for Fort Larned. I proceeded + on uninterruptedly until I got about halfway between the two posts, when, + at Pawnee Rock, I was suddenly jumped by about forty Indians, who came + dashing up to me, extending their hands and saying, 'How! How!' They were + some of the Indians who had been hanging around Fort Larned in the + morning. I saw they had on their war-paint, and were evidently now out on + the war-path. + </p> + <p> + "My first impulse was to shake hands with them, as they seemed so desirous + of it. I accordingly reached out my hand to one of them, who grasped it + with a tight grip, and jerked me violently forward; then pulled my mule by + the bridle, and in a moment I was completely surrounded. Before I could do + anything at all, they had seized my revolvers from the holsters, and I + received a blow on the head from a tomahawk which nearly rendered me + senseless. My gun, which was lying across the saddle, was snatched from + its place, and finally the Indian who had hold of the bridle started off + toward the Arkansas River, leading the mule, which was being lashed by the + other Indians, who were following. The savages were all singing, yelling, + and whooping, as only Indians can do, when they are having their little + game all their own way. While looking toward the river, I saw on the + opposite side an immense village moving along the bank, and then I became + convinced that the Indians had left the post and were now starting out on + the war-path. My captors crossed the stream with me, and as we waded + through the shallow water they continued to lash the mule and myself. + Finally they brought me before an important-looking body of Indians, who + proved to be the chiefs and principal warriors. I soon recognized old + Satanta among them, as well as others whom I knew, and supposed it was all + over with me. + </p> + <p> + "The Indians were jabbering away so rapidly among themselves that I could + not understand what they were saying. Satanta at last asked me where I had + been. As good luck would have it, a happy thought struck me. I told him I + had been after a herd of cattle, or 'whoa-haws,' as they called them. It + so happened that the Indians had been out of meat for several weeks, as + the large herd of cattle which had been promised them had not yet arrived, + although they expected them. + </p> + <p> + "The moment I mentioned that I had been searching for 'whoa-haws,' old + Satanta began questioning me in a very eager manner. He asked me where the + cattle were, and I replied that they were back a few miles, and that I had + been sent by General Hazen to inform him that the cattle were coming, and + that they were intended for his people. This seemed to please the old + rascal, who also wanted to know if there were any soldiers with the herd, + and my reply was that there were. Thereupon the chiefs held a + consultation, and presently Satanta asked me if General Hazen had really + said that they should have the cattle. I replied in the affirmative, and + added that I had been directed to bring the cattle to them. I followed + this up with a very dignified inquiry, asking why his young men had + treated me so. The old wretch intimated that it was only a 'freak of the + boys'; that the young men wanted to see if I was brave; in fact, they had + only meant to test me, and the whole thing was a joke. + </p> + <p> + "The veteran liar was now beating me at my own game of lying, but I was + very glad, as it was in my favour. I did not let him suspect that I + doubted his veracity, but I remarked that it was a rough way to treat + friends. He immediately ordered his young men to give back my arms, and + scolded them for what they had done. Of course, the sly old dog was now + playing it very fine, as he was anxious to get possession of the cattle, + with which he believed there was a 'heap' of soldiers coming. He had + concluded it was not best to fight the soldiers if he could get the cattle + peaceably. + </p> + <p> + "Another council was held by the chiefs, and in a few minutes old Satanta + came and asked me if I would go to the river and bring the cattle down to + the opposite side, so that they could get them. I replied, 'Of course; + that's my instruction from General Hazen.' + </p> + <p> + "Satanta said I must not feel angry at his young men, for they had only + been acting in fun. He then inquired if I wished any of his men to + accompany me to the cattle herd. I replied that it would be better for me + to go alone, and then the soldiers could keep right on to Fort Larned, + while I could drive the herd down on the bottom. Then wheeling my mule + around, I was soon recrossing the river, leaving old Satanta in the firm + belief that I had told him a straight story, and that I was going for the + cattle which existed only in my imagination. + </p> + <p> + "I hardly knew what to do, but thought that if I could get the river + between the Indians and myself, I would have a good three-quarters of a + mile the start of them, and could then make a run for Fort Larned, as my + mule was a good one. + </p> + <p> + "Thus far my cattle story had panned out all right; but just as I reached + the opposite bank of the river, I looked behind me and saw that ten or + fifteen Indians, who had begun to suspect something crooked, were + following me. The moment that my mule secured a good foothold on the bank, + I urged him into a gentle lope toward the place where, according to my + statement, the cattle were to be brought. Upon reaching a little ridge and + riding down the other side out of view, I turned my mule and headed him + westward for Fort Larned. I let him out for all that he was worth, and + when I came out on a little rise of ground, I looked back and saw the + Indian village in plain sight. My pursuers were now on the ridge which I + had passed over, and were looking for me in every direction. + </p> + <p> + "Presently they spied me, and seeing that I was running away, they struck + out in swift pursuit, and in a few minutes it became painfully evident + they were gaining on me. They kept up the chase as far as Ash Creek, six + miles from Fort Larned. I still led them half a mile, as their horses had + not gained much during the last half of the race. My mule seemed to have + gotten his second wind, and as I was on the old road, I played the spurs + and whip on him without much cessation; the Indians likewise urged their + steeds to the utmost. + </p> + <p> + "Finally, upon reaching the dividing ridge between Ash Creek and Pawnee + Fork, I saw Fort Larned only four miles away. It was now sundown, and I + heard the evening gun. The troops of the small garrison little dreamed + there was a man flying for his life and trying to reach the post. The + Indians were once more gaining on me, and when I crossed the Pawnee Fork + two miles from the post, two or three of them were only a quarter of a + mile behind me. Just as I gained the opposite bank of the stream, I was + overjoyed to see some soldiers in a government wagon only a short distance + off. I yelled at the top of my voice, and riding up to them, told them + that the Indians were after me. + </p> + <p> + "'Denver Jim,' a well-known scout, asked me how many there were, and upon + my informing him that there were about a dozen, he said: 'Let's drive the + wagon into the trees, and we'll lay for 'em.' The team was hurriedly + driven among the trees and low box-elder bushes, and there secreted. + </p> + <p> + "We did not have to wait long for the Indians, who came dashing up, + lashing their ponies, which were panting and blowing. We let two of them + pass by, but we opened a lively fire on the next three or four, killing + two of them at the first crack. The others following discovered that they + had run into an ambush, and whirling off into the brush, they turned and + ran back in the direction whence they had come. The two who had passed by + heard the firing and made their escape. We scalped the two that we had + killed, and appropriated their arms and equipments; then, catching their + ponies, we made our way into the Post." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII. MAXWELL'S RANCH. + </h2> + <p> + One of the most interesting and picturesque regions of all New Mexico is + the immense tract of nearly two million acres known as Maxwell's Ranch, + through which the Old Trail ran, and the title to which was some years + since determined by the Supreme Court of the United States in favour of an + alien company.<a href="#linknote-59" name="linknoteref-59" + id="linknoteref-59"><small>59</small></a> Dead long ago, Maxwell belonged + to a generation and a class almost completely extinct, and the like of + which will, in all probability, never be seen again; for there is no more + frontier to develop them. + </p> + <p> + Several years prior to the acquisition of the territory by the United + States, the immense tract comprised in the geographical limits of the + ranch was granted to Carlos Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda, both citizens + of the province of New Mexico, and agents of the American Fur Company. + Attached to the company as an employer, a trapper, and hunter, was Lucien + B. Maxwell, an Illinoisan by birth, who married a daughter of Beaubien. + After the death of the latter Maxwell purchased all the interest of the + joint proprietor, Miranda, and that of the heirs of Beaubien, thus at once + becoming the largest landowner in the United States. + </p> + <p> + At the zenith of his influence and wealth, during the War of the + Rebellion, when New Mexico was isolated and almost independent of care or + thought by the government at Washington, he lived in a sort of barbaric + splendour, akin to that of the nobles of England at the time of the Norman + conquest. + </p> + <p> + The thousands of arable acres comprised in the many fertile valleys of his + immense estate were farmed in a primitive, feudal sort of way, by native + Mexicans principally, under the system of peonage then existing in the + Territory. He employed about five hundred men, and they were as much his + thralls as were Gurth and Wamba of Cedric of Rotherwood, only they wore no + engraved collars around their necks bearing their names and that of their + master. Maxwell was not a hard governor, and his people really loved him, + as he was ever their friend and adviser. + </p> + <p> + His house was a palace when compared with the prevailing style of + architecture in that country, and cost an immense sum of money. It was + large and roomy, purely American in its construction, but the manner of + conducting it was strictly Mexican, varying between the customs of the + higher and lower classes of that curious people. + </p> + <p> + Some of its apartments were elaborately furnished, others devoid of + everything except a table for card-playing and a game's complement of + chairs. The principal room, an extended rectangular affair, which might + properly have been termed the Baronial Hall, was almost bare except for a + few chairs, a couple of tables, and an antiquated bureau. There Maxwell + received his friends, transacted business with his vassals, and held high + carnival at times. + </p> + <p> + I have slept on its hardwood floor, rolled up in my blanket, with the + mighty men of the Ute nation lying heads and points all around me, as + close as they could possibly crowd, after a day's fatiguing hunt in the + mountains. I have sat there in the long winter evenings, when the great + room was lighted only by the cheerful blaze of the crackling logs roaring + up the huge throats of its two fireplaces built diagonally across opposite + corners, watching Maxwell, Kit Carson, and half a dozen chiefs silently + interchange ideas in the wonderful sign language, until the glimmer of + Aurora announced the advent of another day. But not a sound had been + uttered during the protracted hours, save an occasional grunt of + satisfaction on the part of the Indians, or when we white men exchanged a + sentence. + </p> + <p> + Frequently Maxwell and Carson would play the game of seven-up for hours at + a time, seated at one of the tables. Kit was usually the victor, for he + was the greatest expert in that old and popular pastime I have ever met. + Maxwell was an inveterate gambler, but not by any means in a professional + sense; he indulged in the hazard of the cards simply for the amusement it + afforded him in his rough life of ease, and he could very well afford the + losses which the pleasure sometimes entailed. His special penchant, + however, was betting on a horse race, and his own stud comprised some of + the fleetest animals in the Territory. Had he lived in England he might + have ruled the turf, but many jobs were put up on him by unscrupulous + jockeys, by which he was outrageously defrauded of immense sums. + </p> + <p> + He was fond of cards, as I have said, both of the purely American game of + poker, and also of old sledge, but rarely played except with personal + friends, and never without stakes. He always exacted the last cent he had + won, though the next morning, perhaps, he would present or loan his + unsuccessful opponent of the night before five hundred or a thousand + dollars, if he needed it; an immensely greater sum, in all probability, + than had been gained in the game. + </p> + <p> + The kitchen and dining-rooms of his princely establishment were detached + from the main residence. There was one of the latter for the male portion + of his retinue and guests of that sex, and another for the female, as, in + accordance with the severe, and to us strange, Mexican etiquette, men + rarely saw a woman about the premises, though there were many. Only the + quick rustle of a skirt, or a hurried view of a reboso, as its wearer + flashed for an instant before some window or half-open door, told of their + presence. + </p> + <p> + The greater portion of his table-service was solid silver, and at his + hospitable board there were rarely any vacant chairs. Covers were laid + daily for about thirty persons; for he had always many guests, invited or + forced upon him in consequence of his proverbial munificence, or by the + peculiar location of his manor-house which stood upon a magnificently + shaded plateau at the foot of mighty mountains, a short distance from a + ford on the Old Trail. As there were no bridges over the uncertain streams + of the great overland route in those days, the ponderous Concord coaches, + with their ever-full burden of passengers, were frequently water-bound, + and Maxwell's the only asylum from the storm and flood; consequently he + entertained many. + </p> + <p> + At all times, and in all seasons, the group of buildings, houses, stables, + mill, store, and their surrounding grounds, were a constant resort and + loafing-place of Indians. From the superannuated chiefs, who revelled + lazily during the sunny hours in the shady peacefulness of the broad + porches; the young men of the tribe, who gazed with covetous eyes upon the + sleek-skinned, blooded colts sporting in the spacious corrals; the squaws, + fascinated by the gaudy calicoes, bright ribbons, and glittering strings + of beads on the counters or shelves of the large store, to the half-naked, + chubby little pappooses around the kitchen doors, waiting with expectant + mouths for some delicious morsel of refuse to be thrown to them—all + assumed, in bearing and manner, a vested right of proprietorship in their + agreeable environment. + </p> + <p> + To this motley group, always under his feet, as it were, Maxwell was ever + passively gracious, although they were battening in idleness on his + prodigal bounty from year to year. + </p> + <p> + His retinue of servants, necessarily large, was made up of a heterogeneous + mixture of Indians, Mexicans, and half-breeds. The kitchens were presided + over by dusky maidens under the tutelage of experienced old crones, and + its precincts were sacred to them; but the dining-rooms were forbidden to + women during the hours of meals, which were served by boys. + </p> + <p> + Maxwell was rarely, as far as my observation extended, without a large + amount of money in his possession. He had no safe, however, his only place + of temporary deposit for the accumulated cash being the bottom drawer of + the old bureau in the large room to which I have referred, which was the + most antiquated concern of common pine imaginable. There were only two + other drawers in this old-fashioned piece of furniture, and neither of + them possessed a lock. The third, or lower, the one that contained the + money, did, but it was absolutely worthless, being one of the cheapest + pattern and affording not the slightest security; besides, the drawers + above it could be pulled out, exposing the treasure immediately beneath to + the cupidity of any one. + </p> + <p> + I have frequently seen as much as thirty thousand dollars—gold, + silver, greenbacks, and government checks—at one time in that novel + depository. Occasionally these large sums remained there for several days, + yet there was never any extra precaution taken to prevent its abstraction; + doors were always open and the room free of access to every one, as usual. + </p> + <p> + I once suggested to Maxwell the propriety of purchasing a safe for the + better security of his money, but he only smiled, while a strange, + resolute look flashed from his dark eyes, as he said: "God help the man + who attempted to rob me and I knew him!" + </p> + <p> + The sources of his wealth were his cattle, sheep, and the products of his + area of cultivated acres—barley, oats, and corn principally—which + he disposed of to the quartermaster and commissary departments of the + army, in the large military district of New Mexico. His wool-clip must + have been enormous, too; but I doubt whether he could have told the number + of animals that furnished it or the aggregate of his vast herds. He had a + thousand horses, ten thousand cattle, and forty thousand sheep at the time + I knew him well, according to the best estimates of his Mexican relatives. + </p> + <p> + He also possessed a large and perfectly appointed gristmill, which was a + great source of revenue, for wheat was one of the staple crops of his many + farms. + </p> + <p> + Maxwell was fond of travelling all over the Territory, his equipages + comprising everything in the shape of a vehicle, through all their + varieties, from the most plainly constructed buckboard to the lumbering, + but comfortable and expensive, Concord coach, mounted on thorough braces + instead of springs, and drawn by four or six horses. He was perfectly + reckless in his driving, dashing through streams, over irrigating ditches, + stones, and stumps like a veritable Jehu, regardless of consequences, but, + as is usually the fortune of such precipitate horsemen, rarely coming to + grief. + </p> + <p> + The headquarters of the Ute agency were established at Maxwell's Ranch in + early days, and the government detailed a company of cavalry to camp + there, more, however, to impress the plains tribes who roamed along the + Old Trail east of the Raton Range, than for any effect on the Utes, whom + Maxwell could always control, and who regarded him as a father. + </p> + <p> + On the 4th of July, 1867, Maxwell, who owned an antiquated and rusty + six-pound field howitzer, suggested to the captain of the troop stationed + there the propriety of celebrating the day. So the old piece was dragged + from its place under a clump of elms, where it had been hidden in the + grass and weeds ever since the Mexican War probably, and brought near the + house. The captain and Maxwell acted the rôle of gunners, the former at + the muzzle, the latter at the breech; the discharge was premature, blowing + out the captain's eye and taking off his arm, while Maxwell escaped with a + shattered thumb. As soon as the accident occurred, a sergeant was + despatched to Fort Union on one of the fastest horses on the ranch, the + faithful animal falling dead the moment he stopped in front of the + surgeon's quarters, having made the journey of fifty-five miles in little + more than four hours. + </p> + <p> + The surgeon left the post immediately, arriving at Maxwell's late that + night, but in time to save the officer's life, after which he dressed + Maxwell's apparently inconsiderable wound. In a few days, however, the + thumb grew angry-looking; it would not yield to the doctor's careful + treatment, so he reluctantly decided that amputation was necessary. After + an operation was determined upon, I prevailed upon Maxwell to come to the + fort and remain with me, inviting Kit Carson at the same time, that he + might assist in catering to the amusement of my suffering guest. Maxwell + and Carson arrived at my quarters late in the day, after a tedious ride in + the big coach, and the surgeon, in order to allow a prolonged rest on + account of Maxwell's feverish condition, postponed the operation until the + following evening. + </p> + <p> + The next night, as soon as it grew dark—we waited for coolness, as + the days were excessively hot—the necessary preliminaries were + arranged, and when everything was ready the surgeon commenced. Maxwell + declined the anaesthetic prepared for him, and sitting in a common office + chair put out his hand, while Carson and myself stood on opposite sides, + each holding an ordinary kerosene lamp. In a few seconds the operation was + concluded, and after the silver-wire ligatures were twisted in their + places, I offered Maxwell, who had not as yet permitted a single sigh to + escape his lips, half a tumblerful of whiskey; but before I had fairly put + it to his mouth, he fell over, having fainted dead away, while great beads + of perspiration stood on his forehead, indicative of the pain he had + suffered, as the amputation of the thumb, the surgeon told us then, was as + bad as that of a leg. + </p> + <p> + He returned to his ranch as soon as the surgeon pronounced him well, and + Carson to his home in Taos. I saw the latter but once more at Maxwell's; + but he was en route to visit me at Fort Harker, in Kansas, when he was + taken ill at Fort Lyon, where he died. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + A boy's will is the wind's will, + And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. +</pre> + <p> + How true it now seems to me, as the recollections of my boyish days, when + I read of the exploits of Kit Carson, crowd upon my memory! I firmly + believed him to be at least ten feet tall, carrying a rifle so heavy that, + like Bruce's sword, it required two men to lift it. I imagined he drank + out of nothing smaller than a river, and picked the carcass of a whole + buffalo as easily as a lady does the wing of a quail. Ten years later I + made the acquaintance of the foremost frontiersman, and found him a + delicate, reticent, under-sized, wiry man, as perfectly the opposite of + the type my childish brain had created as it is possible to conceive. + </p> + <p> + At Fort Union our mail arrived every morning by coach over the Trail, + generally pulling up at the sutler's store, whose proprietor was + postmaster, about daylight. While Maxwell and Kit were my guests, I + sauntered down after breakfast one morning to get my mail, and while + waiting for the letters to be distributed, happened to glance at some + papers lying on the counter, among which I saw a new periodical—the + <i>Day's Doings</i>, I think it was—that had a full-page + illustration of a scene in a forest. In the foreground stood a gigantic + figure dressed in the traditional buckskin; on one arm rested an immense + rifle; his other arm was around the waist of the conventional female of + such sensational journals, while in front, lying prone upon the ground, + were half a dozen Indians, evidently slain by the singular hero in + defending the impossibly attired female. The legend related how all this + had been effected by the famous Kit Carson. I purchased the paper, + returned with it to my room, and after showing it to several officers who + had called upon Maxwell, I handed it to Kit. He wiped his spectacles, + studied the picture intently for a few seconds, turned round, and said: + "Gentlemen, that thar may be true, but I hain't got no recollection of + it." + </p> + <p> + I passed a delightful two weeks with Maxwell, late in the summer of 1867, + at the time that the excitement over the discovery of gold on his ranch + had just commenced, and adventurers were beginning to congregate in the + hills and gulches from everywhere. The discovery of the precious metal on + his estate was the first cause of his financial embarrassment. It was the + ruin also of many other prominent men in New Mexico, who expended their + entire fortune in the construction of an immense ditch, forty miles in + length—from the Little Canadian or Red River—to supply the + placer diggings in the Moreno valley with water, when the melted snow of + Old Baldy range had exhausted itself in the late summer. The scheme was a + stupendous failure; its ruins may be seen to-day in the deserted valleys, + a monument to man's engineering skill, but the wreck of his hopes. + </p> + <p> + For some years previous to the discovery of gold in the mountains and + gulches of Maxwell's Ranch, it was known that copper existed in the + region; several shafts had been sunk and tunnels driven in various places, + and gold had been found from time to time, but was kept a secret for many + months. Its presence was at last revealed to Maxwell by a party of his own + miners, who were boring into the heart of Old Baldy for a copper lead that + had cropped out and was then lost. + </p> + <p> + Of course, to keep the knowledge of the discovery of gold from the world + is an impossibility; such was the case in this instance, and soon + commenced that squatter immigration out of which, after the ranch was sold + and Maxwell died, grew that litigation which has resulted in favour of the + company who purchased from or through the first owners after Maxwell's + death. + </p> + <p> + He was a representative man of the border of the same class as his + compeers—"wild-civilized men," to borrow an expressive term from + John Burroughs—of strong local attachments, and overflowing with the + milk of human kindness. To such as he there was an unconquerable + infatuation in life on the remote plains and in the solitude of the + mountains. There was never anything of the desperado in their character, + while the adventurers who at times have made the far West infamous, since + the advent of the railroad, were bad men originally. + </p> + <p> + Occasionally such men turn up everywhere, and become a terror to the + community, but they are always wound up sooner or later; they die with + their boots on; Western graveyards are full of them. + </p> + <p> + Maxwell, under contract with the Interior Department, furnished live + beeves to the Ute nation, the issue of which was made weekly from his own + vast herds. The cattle, as wild as those from the Texas prairies, were + driven by his herders into an immense enclosed field, and there turned + loose to be slaughtered by the savages. + </p> + <p> + Once when at the ranch I told Maxwell I should like to have a horse to + witness the novel sight. He immediately ordered a Mexican groom to procure + one; but I did not see the peculiar smile that lighted up his face, as he + whispered something to the man which I did not catch. Presently the groom + returned leading a magnificent gray, which I mounted, Maxwell suggesting + that I should ride down to the large field and wait there until the herd + arrived. I entered the great corral, patting my horse on the neck now and + then, to make him familiar with my touch, and attempted to converse with + some of the chiefs, who were dressed in their best, painted as if for the + war-path, gaily bedecked with feathers and armed with rifles and gaudily + appointed bows and arrows; but I did not succeed very well in drawing them + from their normal reticence. The squaws, a hundred of them, were sitting + on the ground, their knives in hand ready for the labour which is the fate + of their sex in all savage tribes, while their lords' portion of the + impending business was to end with the more manly efforts of the chase. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly a great cloud of dust rose on the trail from the mountains, and + on came the maddened animals, fairly shaking the earth with their mighty + tread. As soon as the gate was closed behind them, and uttering a + characteristic yell that was blood-curdling in its ferocity, the Indians + charged upon the now doubly frightened herd, and commenced to discharge + their rifles, regardless of the presence of any one but themselves. My + horse became paralyzed for an instant and stood poised on his hind legs, + like the steed represented in that old lithographic print of Napoleon + crossing the Alps; then taking the bit in his teeth, he rushed aimlessly + into the midst of the flying herd, while the bullets from the guns of the + excited savages rained around my head. I had always boasted of my + equestrian accomplishments—I was never thrown but once in my life, + and that was years afterward—but in this instance it taxed all my + powers to keep my seat. In less than twenty minutes the last beef had + fallen; and the warriors, inflated with the pride of their achievement, + rode silently out of the field, leaving the squaws to cut up and carry + away the meat to their lodges, more than three miles distant, which they + soon accomplished, to the last quivering morsel. + </p> + <p> + As I rode leisurely back to the house, I saw Maxwell and Kit standing on + the broad porch, their sides actually shaking with laughter at my + discomfiture, they having been watching me from the very moment the herd + entered the corral. It appeared that the horse Maxwell ordered the groom + to bring me was a recent importation from St. Louis, had never before seen + an Indian, and was as unused to the prairies and mountains as a street-car + mule. Kit said that my mount reminded him of one that his antagonist in a + duel rode a great many years ago when he was young. If the animal had not + been such "a fourth-of-July" brute, his opponent would in all probability + have finished him, as he was a splendid shot; but Kit fortunately escaped, + the bullet merely grazing him under the ear, leaving a scar which he then + showed me. + </p> + <p> + One night Kit Carson, Maxwell, and I were up in the Raton Mountains above + the Old Trail, and having lingered too long, were caught above the clouds + against our will, darkness having overtaken us before we were ready to + descend into the valley. It was dangerous to undertake the trip over such + a precipitous and rocky trail, so we were compelled to make the best of + our situation. It was awfully cold, and as we had brought no blankets, we + dared not go to sleep for fear our fire might go out, and we should + freeze. We therefore determined to make a night of it by telling yarns, + smoking our pipes, and walking around at times. After sitting awhile, + Maxwell pointed toward the Spanish Peaks, whose snow-white tops cast a + diffused light in the heavens above them, and remarked that in the deep + canyon which separates them, he had had one of the "closest calls" of his + life, willingly complying when I asked him to tell us the story. + </p> + <p> + "It was in 1847. I came down from Taos with a party to go to the Cimarron + crossing of the Santa Fe Trail to pick up a large herd of horses for the + United States Quartermaster's Department. We succeeded in gathering about + a hundred and started back with them, letting them graze slowly along, as + we were in no hurry. When we arrived at the foot-hills north of Bent's + Fort, we came suddenly upon the trail of a large war-band of Utes, none of + whom we saw, but from subsequent developments the savages must have + discovered us days before we reached the mountains. I knew we were not + strong enough to cope with the whole Ute nation, and concluded the best + thing for us to do under the ticklish circumstances was to make a detour, + and put them off our trail. So we turned abruptly down the Arkansas, + intending to try and get to Taos in that direction, more than one hundred + and fifty miles around. It appeared afterward that the Indians had been + following us all the way. When we found this out, some of the men believed + they were another party, and not the same whose trail we came upon when we + turned down the river, but I always insisted they were. When we arrived + within a few days' drive of Taos, we were ambushed in one of the narrow + passes of the range, and had the bloodiest fight with the Utes on record. + There were thirteen of us, all told, and two little children whom we were + escorting to their friends at Taos, having received them at the Cimarron + crossing. + </p> + <p> + "While we were quietly taking our breakfast one morning, and getting ready + to pull out for the day's march, perfectly unsuspicious of the proximity + of any Indians, they dashed in upon us, and in less than a minute + stampeded all our stock—loose animals as well as those we were + riding. While part of the savages were employed in running off the + animals, fifty of their most noted warriors, splendidly mounted and + horribly painted, rushed into the camp, around the fire of which the men + and the little children were peacefully sitting, and, discharging their + guns as they rode up, killed one man and wounded another. + </p> + <p> + "Terribly surprised as we were, it did not turn the heads of the old + mountaineers, and I immediately told them to make a break for a clump of + timber near by, and that we would fight them as long as one of us could + stand up. There we fought and fought against fearful odds, until all were + wounded except two. The little children were captured at the beginning of + the trouble and carried off at once. After a while the savages got tired + of the hard work, and, as is frequently the case, went away of their own + free will; but they left us in a terrible plight. All were sore, stiff, + and weak from their many wounds; on foot, and without any food or + ammunition to procure game with, having exhausted our supply in the + awfully unequal battle; besides, we were miles from home, with every + prospect of starving to death. + </p> + <p> + "We could not remain where we were, so as soon as darkness came on, we + started out to walk to some settlement. We dared not show ourselves by + daylight, and all through the long hours when the sun was up, we were + obliged to hide in the brush and ravines until night overtook us again, + and we could start on our painful march. + </p> + <p> + "We had absolutely nothing to eat, and our wounds began to fester, so that + we could hardly move at all. We should undoubtedly have perished, if, on + the third day, a band of friendly Indians of another tribe had not gone to + Taos and reported the fight to the commanding officer of the troops there. + These Indians had heard of our trouble with the Utes, and knowing how + strong they were, and our weakness, surmised our condition, and so + hastened to convey the bad news. + </p> + <p> + "A company of dragoons was immediately sent to our rescue, under the + guidance of Dick Wooton, who was and has ever been a warm personal friend + of mine. They came upon us about forty miles from Taos, and never were we + more surprised; we had become so starved and emaciated that we had + abandoned all hope of escaping what seemed to be our inevitable fate. + </p> + <p> + "When the troops found us, we had only a few rags, our clothes having been + completely stripped from our bodies while struggling through the heavy + underbrush on our trail, and we were so far exhausted that we could not + stand on our feet. One more day, and we would have been laid out. + </p> + <p> + "The little children were, fortunately, saved from the horror of that + terrible march after the fight, as the Indians carried them to their + winter camp, where, if not absolutely happy, they were under shelter and + fed; escaping the starvation which would certainly have been their fate if + they had remained with us. They were eventually ransomed for a cash + payment by the government, and altogether had not been very harshly + treated." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX. BENT'S FORTS. + </h2> + <p> + The famous Bent brothers, William, George, Robert, and Charles, were + French-Canadian hunters and trappers, and had been employed almost from + boyhood, in the early days of the border, by the American Fur Company in + the mountains of the Northwest. + </p> + <p> + In 1826, almost immediately after the transference of the fur trade to the + valley of the Arkansas, when the commerce of the prairies was fairly + initiated, the three Bents and Ceran St. Vrain, also a French-Canadian and + trapper, settled on the Upper Arkansas, where they erected a stockade. It + was, of course, a rude affair, formed of long stakes or pickets driven + into the ground, after the Mexican style known as jacal. The sides were + then ceiled and roofed, and it served its purpose of a trading-post. This + primitive fort was situated on the left or north bank of the river, about + halfway between Pueblo and Canyon City, those beautiful mountain towns of + to-day. + </p> + <p> + Two years afterward, in 1828, the proprietors of the primitive stockade in + the remote wilderness found it necessary to move closer to the great + hunting-grounds lower down the valley. There, about twelve miles northeast + of the now thriving town of Las Animas, the Bents commenced the + construction of a relatively large and more imposing-looking structure + than the first. The principal material used in the new building, or rather + in its walls, was adobe, or sun-dried brick, so common even to-day in New + Mexican architecture. Four years elapsed before the new fort was + completed, during which period its owners, like other trappers, lived in + tents or teepees fashioned of buffalo-skins, after the manner of the + Indians. + </p> + <p> + When at last the new station was completed, it was named Fort William, in + honour of Colonel William Bent, who was the leader of the family and the + most active trader among the four partners in the concern. The colonel + frequently made long trips to the remote villages of the Arapahoes, + Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches, which were situated far to the south and + east, on the Canadian River and its large tributaries. His miscellaneous + assortment of merchandise he transported upon pack-mules to the Indian + rendezvous, bringing back to the fort the valuable furs he had exchanged + for the goods so eagerly coveted by the savages. It was while on one of + his trading expeditions to the Cheyenne nation that the colonel married a + young squaw of that tribe, the daughter of the principal chief. + </p> + <p> + William Bent for his day and time was an exceptionally good man. His + integrity, his truthfulness on all occasions, and his remarkable courage + endeared him to the red and white man alike, and Fort William prospered + wonderfully under his careful and just management. Both his brothers and + St. Vrain had taken up their residence in Taos, and upon the colonel + devolved the entire charge of the busy establishment. It soon became the + most popular rendezvous of the mountaineers and trappers, and in its + immediate vicinity several tribes of Indians took up their temporary + encampment. + </p> + <p> + In 1852 Fort William was destroyed under the following strange + circumstances: It appears that the United States desired to purchase it. + Colonel Bent had decided upon a price—sixteen thousand dollars—but + the representatives of the War Department offered only twelve thousand, + which, of course, Bent refused. Negotiations were still pending, when the + colonel, growing tired of the red-tape and circumlocution of the + authorities, and while in a mad mood, removed all his valuables from the + structure, excepting some barrels of gunpowder, and then deliberately set + fire to the old landmark. When the flames reached the powder, there was an + explosion which threw down portions of the walls, but did not wholly + destroy them. The remains of the once noted buildings stand to-day, + melancholy relics of a past epoch. + </p> + <p> + In the same year the indefatigable and indomitable colonel determined upon + erecting a much more important structure. He selected a site on the same + side of the Arkansas, in the locality known as Big Timbers. Regarding this + new venture, Colonel or Judge Moore of Las Animas, a son-in-law of William + Bent, tells in a letter to the author of the history of Colorado the + following facts:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Leaving ten men in camp to get out stone for the new post, + Colonel Bent took a part of his outfit and went to a Kiowa + village, about two hundred miles southwest, and remained + there all winter, trading with the Kiowas and Comanches. + In the spring of 1853 he returned to Big Timbers, when + the construction of the new post was begun, and the work + continued until completed in the summer of 1854; and it + was used as a trading-post until the owner leased it to + the government in the autumn of 1859. Colonel Sedgwick had + been sent out to fight the Kiowas that year, and in the fall + a large quantity of commissary stores had been sent him. + Colonel Bent then moved up the river to a point just above + the mouth of the Purgatoire, and built several rooms of + cottonwood pickets, and there spent the winter. In the + spring of 1860, Colonel Sedgwick began the construction of + officers' buildings, company quarters, corrals, and stables, + all of stone, and named the place Fort Wise, in honour of + Governor Wise of Virginia. In 1861 the name was changed to + Fort Lyon, in honour of General Lyon, who was killed at the + battle of Wilson Creek, Missouri. In the spring of 1866, + the Arkansas River overflowed its banks, swept up into the + fort, and, undermining the walls, rendered it untenable for + military purposes. The camp was moved to a point twenty + miles below, and the new Fort Lyon established. The old + post was repaired, and used as a stage station by Barlow, + Sanderson, and Company, who ran a mail, express, and + passenger line between Kansas City and Santa Fe. +</pre> + <p> + The contiguous region to Fort William was in the early days a famous + hunting-ground. It abounded in nearly every variety of animal indigenous + to the mountains and plains, among which were the panther—the + so-called California lion of to-day—the lynx, erroneously termed + wild cat, white wolf, prairie wolf, silver-gray fox, prairie fox, + antelope, buffalo, gray, grizzly and cinnamon bears, together with the + common brown and black species, the red deer and the black-tail, the + latter the finest venison in the world. Of birds there were wild turkeys, + quail, and grouse, besides an endless variety of the smaller-sized + families, not regarded as belonging to the domain of game in a hunter's + sense. It was a veritable paradise, too, for the trappers. Its numerous + streams and creeks were famous for beaver, otter, and mink. + </p> + <p> + Scarcely an acre of the surrounding area within the radius of hundreds of + miles but has been the scene of many deadly encounters with the wily red + man, stories of which are still current among the few old mountaineers yet + living. + </p> + <p> + The fort was six hundred and fifty miles west of Fort Leavenworth, in + latitude thirty-eight degrees and two minutes north, and longitude one + hundred and three degrees and three minutes west, from Greenwich. The + exterior walls of the fort, whose figure was that of a parallelogram, were + fifteen feet high and four feet thick. It was a hundred and thirty-five + feet wide and divided into various compartments. On the northwest and + southeast corners were hexagonal bastions, in which were mounted a number + of cannon. The walls of the building served as the walls of the rooms, all + of which faced inwards on a plaza, after the general style of Mexican + architecture. The roofs of the rooms were made of poles, on which was a + heavy layer of dirt, as in the houses of native Mexicans to-day. The fort + possessed a billiard table, that visitors might amuse themselves, and in + the office was a small telescope with a fair range of seven miles. + </p> + <p> + The occupants of the far-away establishment, in its palmy days (for years + it was the only building between Council Grove and the mountains), were + traders, Indians, hunters, and French trappers, who were the employees of + the great fur companies. Many of the latter had Indian wives. Later, after + a stage line had been put in operation across the plains to Santa Fe, the + fort was relegated to a mere station for the overland route, and with the + march of civilization in its course westward, the trappers, hunters, and + traders vanished from the once famous rendezvous. + </p> + <p> + The walls were loopholed for musketry, and the entrance to the plaza, or + corral, was guarded by large wooden gates. During the war with Mexico, the + fort was headquarters for the commissary department, and many supplies + were stored there, though the troops camped below on the beautiful + river-bottom. In the centre of the corral, in the early days when the + place was a rendezvous of the trappers, a large buffalo-robe press was + erected. When the writer first saw the famous fort, now over a third of a + century ago, one of the cannon, that burst in firing a salute to General + Kearney, could be seen half buried in the dirt of the plaza. + </p> + <p> + By barometrical measurements taken by the engineer officers of the army at + different times, the height of Bent's Fort above the ocean level is + approximately eight thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight feet, and the + fall of the Arkansas River from the fort to the great bend of that stream, + about three hundred and eleven miles east, is seven feet and four-tenths + per mile. + </p> + <p> + It was in a relatively fair state of preservation thirty-three years ago, + but now not a vestige of it remains, excepting perhaps a mound of dirt, + the disintegration of the mud bricks of which the historical structure was + built. + </p> + <p> + The Indians whose villages were located a few miles below the fort, or at + least the chief men of the various tribes, passed much of their time + within the shelter of the famous structure. They were bountifully fed, and + everything they needed furnished them. This was purely from policy, + however; for if their wishes were not gratified, their hunters would not + bring in their furs to trade. The principal chiefs never failed to be + present when a meal was announced as ready, and however scarce provisions + might be, the Indians must be fed. + </p> + <p> + The first farm in the fertile and now valuable lands of the valley of the + Rio de las Animas<a href="#linknote-60" name="linknoteref-60" + id="linknoteref-60"><small>60</small></a> was opened by the Bents. The + area selected for cultivation was in the beautiful bottom between the fort + and the ford, a strip about a mile in length, and from one hundred and + fifty to six hundred feet in width. Nothing could be grown without + irrigation, and to that end an acequia, as the Mexicans call the ditch + through which the water flows, was constructed, and a crop put in. Before + the enterprising projectors of the scheme could reap a harvest, the + hostile savages dashed in and destroyed everything. + </p> + <p> + Uncle John Smith was one of the principal traders back in the '30's, and + he was very successful, perhaps because he was undoubtedly the most + perfect master of the Cheyenne language at that time in the whole mountain + region. + </p> + <p> + Among those who frequently came to the fort were Kit Carson, L. B. + Maxwell, Uncle Dick Wooton, Baptiste Brown, Jim Bridger, Old Bill + Williams, James Beckwourth, Shawnee Spiebuck, Shawnee Jake—the + latter two, noted Indian trappers—besides a host of others. + </p> + <p> + The majority of the old trappers, to a stranger, until he knew their + peculiar characteristics, were seemingly of an unsociable disposition. It + was an erroneous idea, however; for they were the most genial companions + imaginable, generous to a fault, and to fall into one of their camps was + indeed a lucky thing for the lost traveller. Everything the host had was + at his guest's disposal, and though coffee and sugar were the dearest of + his luxuries, often purchased with a whole season's trapping, the black + fluid was offered with genuine free-heartedness, and the last plug of + tobacco placed at the disposition of his chance visitor, as though it + could be picked up on the ground anywhere. + </p> + <p> + Goods brought by the traders to the rendezvous for sale to the trappers + and hunters, although of the most inferior quality, were sold at + enormously high prices. + </p> + <p> + Coffee, by the pint-cup, which was the usual measure for everything, cost + from a dollar and twenty cents to three dollars; tobacco a dollar and a + half a plug; alcohol from two dollars to five dollars a pint; gunpowder + one dollar and sixty cents a pint-cup, and all other articles at + proportionably exorbitant rates. + </p> + <p> + The annual gatherings of the trappers at the rendezvous were often the + scene of bloody duels; for over their cups and cards no men were more + quarrelsome than the old-time mountaineers. Rifles at twenty paces settled + all difficulties, and, as may be imagined, the fall of one or the other of + the combatants was certain, or, as sometimes happened, both fell at the + word "Fire!" + </p> + <p> + The trapper's visits to the Mexican settlements, or to the lodges of a + tribe of Indians, for the purpose of trading, often resulted in his + returning to his quiet camp with a woman to grace his solitary home, the + loving and lonely couple as devoted to each other in the midst of + blood-thirsty enemies, howling wolves, and panthers, as if they were in + some quiet country village. + </p> + <p> + The easy manners of the harum-scarum, reckless trappers at the rendezvous, + and the simple, unsuspecting hearts of those nymphs of the mountains, the + squaws, caused their husbands to be very jealous of the attentions + bestowed upon them by strangers. Often serious difficulties arose, in the + course of which the poor wife received a severe whipping with the knot of + a lariat, or no very light lodge-poling at the hands of her imperious + sovereign. Sometimes the affair ended in a more tragical way than a mere + beating, not infrequently the gallant paying the penalty of his + interference with his life. + </p> + <p> + Garrard, a traveller on the great plains and in the Rocky Mountains half a + century ago, from whose excellent diary I have frequently quoted, passed + many days and nights at Bent's Fort fifty years ago, and his quaint + description of life there in that remote period of the extreme frontier is + very amusing. Its truth has often been confirmed by Uncle John Smith, who + was my guide and interpreter in the Indian expedition of 1868-69, only two + decades after Garrard's experience. + </p> + <p> + Rosalie, a half-breed French and Indian squaw, wife of the carpenter, and + Charlotte, the culinary divinity, were, as a Missouri teamster remarked, + "the only female women here." They were nightly led to the floor to trip + the light fantastic toe, and swung rudely or gently in the mazes of the + contra-dance, but such a medley of steps is seldom seen out of the + mountains—the halting, irregular march of the war-dance, the + slipping gallopade, the boisterous pitching of the Missouri backwoodsman, + and the more nice gyrations of the Frenchman; for all, irrespective of + rank, age, or colour, went pell-mell into the excitement, in a manner that + would have rendered a leveller of aristocracies and select companies + frantic with delight. And the airs assumed by the fair ones, more + particularly Charlotte, who took pattern from life in the States, were + amusing. She acted her part to perfection; she was the centre of + attraction, the belle of the evening. She treated the suitors for the + pleasure of the next set with becoming ease and suavity of manner; she + knew her worth, and managed accordingly. When the favoured gallant stood + by her side waiting for the rudely scraped tune from a screeching fiddle, + satisfaction, joy, and triumph over his rivals were pictured on his + radiant face. + </p> + <p> + James Hobbs, of whom I have already spoken, once gave me a graphic + description of the annual feast of the Comanches, Cheyennes, and + Arapahoes, which always took place at Big Timbers, near Fort William. + </p> + <p> + Hobbs was married to the daughter of Old Wolf, the chief of the Comanches, + a really beautiful Indian girl, with whom he lived faithfully many years. + In the early summer of 1835, he went with his father-in-law and the rest + of the tribe to the great feast of that season. He stated that on that + occasion there were forty thousand Indians assembled, and consequently + large hunting parties were sent out daily to procure food for such a vast + host. The entertainment was kept up for fifteen days, enlivened by horse + races, foot races, and playing ball. In these races the tribes would bet + their horses on the result, the Comanches generally winning, for they are + the best riders in the world. By the time the feast was ended, the + Arapahoes and Cheyennes usually found themselves afoot, but Old Wolf, who + was a generous fellow, always gave them back enough animals to get home + with. + </p> + <p> + The game of ball was played with crooked sticks, and is very much like the + American boys' "shinny." The participants are dressed in a simple + breech-cloth and moccasins. It is played with great enthusiasm and affords + much amusement. + </p> + <p> + At these annual feasts a council of the great chiefs of the three tribes + is always held, and at the one during the season referred to, Hobbs said + the Cheyenne chiefs wanted Old Wolf to visit Bent's Fort, where he had + never been. Upon the arrival of the delegation there, it was heartily + welcomed by all the famous men who happened to be at the place, among whom + were Kit Carson, Old John Smith, and several noted trappers. Whiskey + occupied a prominent place in the rejoicing, and "I found it hard work," + said Hobbs, "to stand the many toasts drank to my good health." The whole + party, including Old Wolf and his companion the Cheyenne chief, got very + much elated, and every person in the fort smelt whiskey, if they did not + get their feet tangled with it. + </p> + <p> + About midnight a messenger came inside, reporting that a thousand Comanche + warriors were gathering around the fort. They demanded their leaders, + fearing treachery, and desired to know why their chief had not returned. + Hobbs went out and explained that he was safe; but they insisted on seeing + him, so he and Hobbs showed themselves to the assembled Indians, and Old + Wolf made a speech, telling them that he and the Cheyenne chief were among + good friends to the Indians, and presents would be given to them the next + morning. The warriors were pacified with these assurances, though they did + not leave the vicinity of the fort. + </p> + <p> + It was at this time that Hobbs was ransomed by Colonel Bent, who gave Old + Wolf, for him, six yards of red flannel, a pound of tobacco, and an ounce + of beads. + </p> + <p> + The chief was taken in charge by a lieutenant, who showed him all over the + fort, letting him see the rifle port-holes, and explaining how the place + could stand a siege against a thousand Indians. Finally, he was taken out + on the parapet, where there was a six-pounder at each angle. The old + savage inquired how they could shoot such a thing, and at Hobbs' request, + a blank cartridge was put in the piece and fired. Old Wolf sprang back in + amazement, and the Indians on the outside, under the walls, knowing + nothing of what was going on, ran away as fast as their legs could carry + them, convinced that their chief must be dead now and their own safety + dependent upon flight. Old Wolf and Hobbs sprang upon the wall and + signalled and shouted to them, and they returned, asking in great + astonishment what kind of a monstrous gun it was. + </p> + <p> + About noon trading commenced. The Indians wished to come into the fort, + but Bent would not let any enter but the chiefs. At the back door the + colonel displayed his goods, and the Indians brought forward their ponies, + buffalo-robes, deer and other skins, which they traded for tobacco, beads, + calico, flannel, knives, spoons, whistles, jews'-harps, etc. + </p> + <p> + Whiskey was sold to them the first day, but as it caused several fights + among them before night, Bent stopped its sale, at Hobbs' suggestion and + with Old Wolf's consent. Indians, when they get drunk, do not waste time + by fighting with fists, like white men, but use knives and tomahawks; so + that a general scrimmage is a serious affair. Two or three deaths resulted + the first day, and there would have been many more if the sale of whiskey + had not been stopped. + </p> + <p> + The trading continued for eight days, and Colonel Bent reaped a rich + harvest of what he could turn into gold at St. Louis. Old Wolf slept in + the fort each night except one during that time, and every time his + warriors aroused him about twelve o'clock and compelled him to show + himself on the walls to satisfy them of his safety. + </p> + <p> + About a hundred trappers were in the employ of Bent and his partners. + Sometimes one-half of the company were off on a hunt, leaving but a small + force at the fort for its protection, but with the small battery there its + defence was considered sufficient. + </p> + <p> + One day a trapping party, consisting of Kit Carson, "Peg-leg" Smith, and + James Hobbs, together with some Shawnee Indians, all under the lead of + Carson, started out from Bent's Fort for the Picketwire to trap beaver. + </p> + <p> + Grizzlies were very abundant in that region then, and one of the party, + named McIntire, having killed an elk the evening before, said to Hobbs + that they might stand a good chance to find a grizzly by the elk he had + shot but had not brought in. Hobbs said that he was willing to go with + him, but as McIntire was a very green man in the mountains, Hobbs had some + doubts of depending on him in case of an attack by a grizzly bear. + </p> + <p> + The two men left for the ravine in which McIntire had killed the elk very + early in the morning, taking with them tomahawks, hunting-knives, rifles, + and a good dog. On arriving at the ravine, Hobbs told McIntire to cross + over to the other side and climb the hill, but on no account to go down + into the ravine, as a grizzly is more dangerous when he has a man on the + downhill side. Hobbs then went to where he thought the elk might be if he + had died by the bank of the stream; but as soon as he came near the water, + he saw that a large grizzly had got there before him, having scented the + animal, and was already making his breakfast. + </p> + <p> + The bear was in thick, scrubby oak brush, and Hobbs, making his dog lie + down, crawled behind a rock to get a favourable shot at the beast. He drew + a bead on him and fired, but the bear only snarled at the wound made by + the ball and started tearing through the brush, biting furiously at it as + he went. Hobbs reloaded his rifle carefully, and as quickly as he could, + in order to get a second shot; but, to his amazement, he saw the bear + rushing down the ravine chasing McIntire, who was only about ten feet in + advance of the enraged beast, running for his life, and making as much + noise as a mad bull. He was terribly scared, and Hobbs hastened to his + rescue, first sending his dog ahead. + </p> + <p> + Just as the dog reached the bear, McIntire darted behind a tree and flung + his hat in the bear's face, at the same time sticking his rifle toward + him. The old grizzly seized the muzzle of the gun in his teeth, and, as it + was loaded and cocked, it either went off accidentally or otherwise and + blew the bear's head open, just as the dog had fastened on his + hindquarters. Hobbs ran to the assistance of his comrade with all haste, + but he was out of danger and had sat down a few rods away, with his face + as white as a sheet, a badly frightened man. + </p> + <p> + After that fearful scare, McIntire would cook or do anything, but said he + never intended to make a business of bear-hunting; he had only wished for + one adventure, and this one had satisfied him. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XX. PAWNEE ROCK. + </h2> + <p> + That portion of the great central plains which radiates from Pawnee Rock, + including the Big Bend of the Arkansas, thirteen miles distant, where that + river makes a sudden sweep to the southeast, and the beautiful valley of + the Walnut, in all its vast area of more than a million square acres, was + from time immemorial a sort of debatable land, occupied by none of the + Indian tribes, but claimed by all to hunt in; for it was a famous + pasturage of the buffalo. + </p> + <p> + None of the various bands had the temerity to attempt its permanent + occupancy; for whenever hostile tribes met there, which was of frequent + occurrence, in their annual hunt for their winter's supply of meat, a + bloody battle was certain to ensue. The region referred to has been the + scene of more sanguinary conflicts between the different Indians of the + plains, perhaps, than any other portion of the continent. Particularly was + it the arena of war to the death, when the Pawnees met their hereditary + enemies, the Cheyennes. + </p> + <p> + Pawnee Rock was a spot well calculated by nature to form, as it has done, + an important rendezvous and ambuscade for the prowling savages of the + prairies, and often afforded them, especially the once powerful and + murderous Pawnees whose name it perpetuates, a pleasant little retreat or + eyrie from which to watch the passing Santa Fe traders, and dash down upon + them like hawks, to carry off their plunder and their scalps. + </p> + <p> + Through this once dangerous region, close to the silent Arkansas, and + running under the very shadow of the rock, the Old Trail wound its course. + Now, at this point, it is the actual road-bed of the Atchison, Topeka, and + Santa Fe Railroad, so strangely are the past and present transcontinental + highways connected here. + </p> + <p> + Who, among bearded and grizzled old fellows like myself, has forgotten + that most sensational of all the miserably executed illustrations in the + geographies of fifty years ago, "The Santa Fe Traders attacked by + Indians"? The picture located the scene of the fight at Pawnee Rock, which + formed a sort of nondescript shadow in the background of a crudely drawn + representation of the dangers of the Trail. + </p> + <p> + If this once giant sentinel<a href="#linknote-61" name="linknoteref-61" + id="linknoteref-61"><small>61</small></a> of the plains might speak, what + a story it could tell of the events that have happened on the beautiful + prairie stretching out for miles at its feet! + </p> + <p> + In the early fall, when the rock was wrapped in the soft amber haze which + is a distinguishing characteristic of the incomparable Indian summer on + the plains; or in the spring, when the mirage weaves its mysterious + shapes, it loomed up in the landscape as if it were a huge mountain, and + to the inexperienced eye appeared as if it were the abrupt ending of a + well-defined range. But when the frost came, and the mists were dispelled; + when the thin fringe of timber on the Walnut, a few miles distant, had + doffed its emerald mantle, and the grass had grown yellow and rusty, then + in the golden sunlight of winter, the rock sank down to its normal + proportions, and cut the clear blue of the sky with sharply marked lines. + </p> + <p> + In the days when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, the Pawnees were + the most formidable tribe on the eastern central plains, and the + freighters and trappers rarely escaped a skirmish with them either at the + crossing of the Walnut, Pawnee Rock, the Fork of the Pawnee, or at Little + and Big Coon creeks. To-day what is left of the historic hill looks down + only upon peaceful homes and fruitful fields, whereas for hundreds of + years it witnessed nothing but battle and death, and almost every yard of + brown sod at its base covered a skeleton. In place of the horrid yell of + the infuriated savage, as he wrenched off the reeking scalp of his victim, + the whistle of the locomotive and the pleasant whirr of the + reaping-machine is heard; where the death-cry of the painted warrior rang + mournfully over the silent prairie, the waving grain is singing in + beautiful rhythm as it bows to the summer breeze. + </p> + <p> + Pawnee Rock received its name in a baptism of blood, but there are many + versions as to the time and sponsors. It was there that Kit Carson killed + his first Indian, and from that fight, as he told me himself, the broken + mass of red sandstone was given its distinctive title. + </p> + <p> + It was late in the spring of 1826; Kit was then a mere boy, only seventeen + years old, and as green as any boy of his age who had never been forty + miles from the place where he was born. Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, then a + prominent agent of one of the great fur companies, was fitting out an + expedition destined for the far-off Rocky Mountains, the members of which, + all trappers, were to obtain the skins of the buffalo, beaver, otter, + mink, and other valuable fur-bearing animals that then roamed in immense + numbers on the vast plains or in the hills, and were also to trade with + the various tribes of Indians on the borders of Mexico. + </p> + <p> + Carson joined this expedition, which was composed of twenty-six mule + wagons, some loose stock, and forty-two men. The boy was hired to help + drive the extra animals, hunt game, stand guard, and to make himself + generally useful, which, of course, included fighting Indians if any were + met with on the long route. + </p> + <p> + The expedition left Fort Osage one bright morning in May in excellent + spirits, and in a few hours turned abruptly to the west on the broad Trail + to the mountains. The great plains in those early days were solitary and + desolate beyond the power of description; the Arkansas River sluggishly + followed the tortuous windings of its treeless banks with a placidness + that was awful in its very silence; and whoso traced the wanderings of + that stream with no companion but his own thoughts, realized in all its + intensity the depth of solitude from which Robinson Crusoe suffered on his + lonely island. Illimitable as the ocean, the weary waste stretched away + until lost in the purple of the horizon, and the mirage created weird + pictures in the landscape, distorted distances and objects which + continually annoyed and deceived. Despite its loneliness, however, there + was then, and ever has been for many men, an infatuation for those + majestic prairies that once experienced is never lost, and it came to the + boyish heart of Kit, who left them but with life, and full of years. + </p> + <p> + There was not much variation in the eternal sameness of things during the + first two weeks, as the little train moved day after day through the + wilderness of grass, its ever-rattling wheels only intensifying the + surrounding monotony. Occasionally, however, a herd of buffalo was + discovered in the distance, their brown, shaggy sides contrasting with the + never-ending sea of verdure around them. Then young Kit, and two or three + others of the party who were detailed to supply the teamsters and trappers + with meat, would ride out after them on the best of the extra horses which + were always kept saddled and tied together behind the last wagon for + services of this kind. Kit, who was already an excellent horseman and a + splendid shot with the rifle, would soon overtake them, and topple one + after another of their huge fat carcasses over on the prairie until half a + dozen or more were lying dead. The tender humps, tongues, and other choice + portions were then cut out and put in a wagon which had by that time + reached them from the train, and the expedition rolled on. + </p> + <p> + So they marched for about three weeks, when they arrived at the crossing + of the Walnut, where they saw the first signs of Indians. They had halted + for that day; the mules were unharnessed, the camp-fires lighted, and the + men just about to indulge in their refreshing coffee, when suddenly half a + dozen Pawnees, mounted on their ponies, hideously painted and uttering the + most demoniacal yells, rushed out of the tall grass on the river-bottom, + where they had been ambushed, and swinging their buffalo-robes, attempted + to stampede the herd picketed near the camp. The whole party were on their + feet in an instant with rifles in hand, and all the savages got for their + trouble were a few well-deserved shots as they hurriedly scampered back to + the river and over into the sand hills on the other side, soon to be out + of sight. + </p> + <p> + The expedition travelled sixteen miles next day, and camped at Pawnee + Rock, where, after the experience of the evening before, every precaution + was taken to prevent a surprise by the savages. The wagons were formed + into a corral, so that the animals could be secured in the event of a + prolonged fight; the guards were drilled by the colonel, and every man + slept with his rifle for a bed-fellow, for the old trappers knew that the + Indians would never remain satisfied with their defeat on the Walnut, but + would seize the first favourable opportunity to renew their attack. + </p> + <p> + At dark the sentinels were placed in position, and to young Kit fell the + important post immediately in front of the south face of the Rock, nearly + two hundred yards from the corral; the others being at prominent points on + top, and on the open prairie on either side. All who were not on duty had + long since been snoring heavily, rolled up in their blankets and + buffalo-robes, when at about half-past eleven, one of the guard gave the + alarm, "Indians!" and ran the mules that were nearest him into the corral. + In a moment the whole company turned out at the report of a rifle ringing + on the clear night air, coming from the direction of the rock. The men had + gathered at the opening to the corral, waiting for developments, when Kit + came running in, and as soon as he was near enough, the colonel asked him + whether he had seen any Indians. "Yes," Kit replied, "I killed one of the + red devils; I saw him fall!" + </p> + <p> + The alarm proved to be false; there was no further disturbance that night, + so the party returned to their beds, and the sentinels to their several + posts, Kit of course to his place in front of the Rock. + </p> + <p> + Early the next morning, before breakfast even, all were so anxious to see + Kit's dead Indian, that they went out en masse to where he was still + stationed, and instead of finding a painted Pawnee, as was expected, they + found the boy's riding mule dead, shot right through the head. + </p> + <p> + Kit felt terribly mortified over his ridiculous blunder, and it was a long + time before he heard the last of his midnight adventure and his raid on + his own mule. But he always liked to tell the "balance of the story," as + he termed it, and this is his version: "I had not slept any the night + before, for I stayed awake watching to get a shot at the Pawnees that + tried to stampede our animals, expecting they would return; and I hadn't + caught a wink all day, as I was out buffalo hunting, so I was awfully + tired and sleepy when we arrived at Pawnee Rock that evening, and when I + was posted at my place at night, I must have gone to sleep leaning against + the rocks; at any rate, I was wide enough awake when the cry of Indians + was given by one of the guard. I had picketed my mule about twenty steps + from where I stood, and I presume he had been lying down; all I remember + is that the first thing I saw after the alarm was something rising up out + of the grass, which I thought was an Indian. I pulled the trigger; it was + a centre shot, and I don't believe the mule ever kicked after he was hit!" + </p> + <p> + The next morning about daylight, a band of Pawnees attacked the train in + earnest, and kept the little command busy all that day, the next night, + and until the following midnight, nearly three whole days, the mules all + the time being shut in the corral without food or water. At midnight of + the second day the colonel ordered the men to hitch up and attempt to + drive on to the crossing of Pawnee Fork, thirteen miles distant.<a + href="#linknote-62" name="linknoteref-62" id="linknoteref-62"><small>62</small></a> + They succeeded in getting there, fighting their way without the loss of + any of their men or animals. The Trail crossed the creek in the shape of a + horseshoe, or rather, in consequence of the double bend of the stream as + it empties into the Arkansas, the road crossed it twice. In making this + passage, dangerous on account of its crookedness, Kit said many of the + wagons were badly mashed up; for the mules were so thirsty that their + drivers could not control them. The train was hardly strung out on the + opposite bank when the Indians poured in a volley of bullets and a shower + of arrows from both sides of the Trail; but before they could load and + fire again, a terrific charge was on them, led by Colonel St. Vrain and + Carson. It required only a few moments more to clean out the persistent + savages, and the train went on. During the whole fight the little party + lost four men killed and seven wounded, and eleven mules killed (not + counting Kit's), and twenty badly wounded. + </p> + <p> + A great many years ago, very early in the days of the trade with New + Mexico, seven Americans were surprised by a large band of Pawnees in the + vicinity of the Rock and were compelled to retreat to it for safety. + There, without water, and with but a small quantity of provisions, they + were besieged by their blood-thirsty foes for two days, when a party of + traders coming on the Trail relieved them from their perilous situation + and the presence of their enemy. There were several graves on its summit + when I first saw Pawnee Rock; but whether they contained the bones of + savages or those of white men, I do not know. + </p> + <p> + Carson related to me another terrible fight that took place at the rock, + when he first became a trapper. He was not a participant, but knew the + parties well. About twenty-nine years ago, Kit, Jack Henderson, who was + agent for the Ute Indians, Lucien B. Maxwell, General Carleton and myself + were camped halfway up the rugged sides of Old Baldy, in the Raton Range. + The night was intensely cold, although in midsummer, and we were huddled + around a little fire of pine knots, more than seven thousand feet above + the level of the sea, close to the snow limit. + </p> + <p> + Kit, or "the General," as every one called him, was in a good humour for + talking, and we naturally took advantage of this to draw him out; for + usually he was the most reticent of men in relating his own exploits. A + casual remark made by Maxwell opened Carson's mouth, and he said he + remembered one of the "worst difficults" a man ever got into.<a + href="#linknote-63" name="linknoteref-63" id="linknoteref-63"><small>63</small></a> + So he made a fresh corn-shuck cigarette, and related the following; but + the names of the old trappers who were the principals in the fight I have + unfortunately forgotten. + </p> + <p> + Two men had been trapping in the Powder River country during one winter + with unusually good luck, and they got an early start with their furs, + which they were going to take to Weston, on the Missouri, one of the + principal trading points in those days. They walked the whole distance, + driving their pack-mules before them, and experienced no trouble until + they struck the Arkansas valley at Pawnee Rock. There they were + intercepted by a war-party of about sixty Pawnees. Both of the trappers + were notoriously brave and both dead shots. Before they arrived at the + rock, to which they were finally driven, they killed two of the Indians, + and had not themselves received a scratch. They had plenty of powder, a + pouch full of balls each, and two good rifles. They also had a couple of + jack-rabbits for food in case of a siege, and the perpendicular walls of + the front of the rock made them a natural fortification, an almost + impregnable one against Indians. + </p> + <p> + They succeeded in securely picketing their animals at the side of the + rock, where they could protect them by their unerring rifles from being + stampeded. After the Pawnees had "treed" the two trappers on the rock, + they picked up their dead, and packed them off to their camp at the mouth + of a little ravine a short distance away. In a few moments back they all + came, mounted on fast ponies, with their war-paint and other fixings on, + ready to renew the fight. They commenced to circle around the place, + coming closer, Indian fashion, every time, until they got within easy + rifle-range, when they slung themselves on the opposite sides of their + horses, and in that position opened fire. Their arrows fell like a + hailstorm, but as good luck would have it, none of them struck, and the + balls from their rifles were wild, as the Indians in those days were not + very good shots; the rifle was a new weapon to them. The trappers at first + were afraid the savages would surely try to kill the mules, but soon + reflected that the Indians believed they had the "dead-wood" on them, and + the mules would come handy after they had been scalped; so they felt + satisfied their animals were safe for a while anyhow. The men were taking + in all the chances, however; both kept their eyes skinned, and whenever + one of them saw a stray leg or head, he drew a bead on it and when he + pulled the trigger, its owner tumbled over with a yell of rage from his + companions. + </p> + <p> + Whenever the savages attempted to carry off their dead,<a + href="#linknote-64" name="linknoteref-64" id="linknoteref-64"><small>64</small></a> + the two trappers took advantage of the opportunity, and poured in their + shots every time with telling effect. + </p> + <p> + By this time night had fallen, and the Indians did not seem anxious to + renew the fight after dark; but they kept their mounted patrols on every + side of the rock, at a respectable distance from such dead shots, watching + to prevent the escape of the besieged. As they were hungry, one of the men + went down under cover of the darkness to get a few buffalo-chips with + which to cook their rabbit, and to change the animals to where they could + get fresh grass. He returned safely to the summit of the rock, where a + little fire was made and their supper prepared. They had to go without + water all the time, and so did the mules; the men did not mind the want of + it themselves, but they could not help pitying their poor animals that had + had none since they left camp early that morning. It was no use to worry, + though; the nearest water was at the river, and it would have been certain + death to have attempted to go there unless the savages cleared out, and + from all appearances they had no idea of doing that. + </p> + <p> + What gave the trappers more cause for alarm than anything else, was the + fear that the Indians would fire the prairie in the morning, and endeavour + to smoke them out or burn them up. The grass was in just the condition to + make a lively blaze, and they might escape the flames, and then they might + not. It can well be imagined how eagerly they watched for the dawn of + another day, perhaps the last for them. + </p> + <p> + The first gray streaks of light had hardly peeped above the horizon, when, + with an infernal yell, the Indians broke for the rock, and the trappers + were certain that some new project had entered their heads. The wind was + springing up pretty freshly, and nature seemed to conspire with the red + devils, if they really meant to burn the trappers out; and from the + movements of the savages, that was what they expected. The Indians kept at + a respectful distance from the range of the trappers' rifles, who chafed + because they could not stop some of the infernal yelling with a few + well-directed bullets, but they had to choke their rage, and watch events + closely. During a temporary lull in hostilities, one of the trappers took + occasion to crawl down to where the mules were, and shift them to the west + side of the rock, where the wall was the highest; so that the flame and + smoke might possibly pass by them without so much danger as where they + were picketed before. He had just succeeded in doing this, and, tearing up + the long grass for several yards around the animals, was in the act of + going back, when his partner yelled out to him: "Look out! D—-n 'em, + they've fired the prairie!" He was back on the top of the rock in another + moment, and took in at a glance what was coming. + </p> + <p> + The spectacle for a short interval was indescribably grand; the sun was + shining with all the power of its rays on the huge clouds of smoke as they + rolled down from the north, tinting them a glorious crimson. The two + trappers had barely time to get under the shelter of a large projecting + point of the rocky wall, when the wind and smoke swept down to the ground, + and instantly they were enveloped in the darkness of midnight. They could + not discern a single object; neither Indians, horses, the prairie, nor the + sun; and what a terrible wind! + </p> + <p> + The trappers stood breathless, clinging to the projections of rock, and + did not realize the fire was so near them until they were struck in the + face by pieces of burning buffalo-chips that were carried toward them with + the rapidity of the awful wind. They were now badly scared, for it seemed + as if they were to be suffocated. They were saved, however, almost + miraculously; the sheet of flame passed them twenty yards away, as the + wind fortunately shifted at the moment the fire reached the foot of the + rock. The darkness was so intense that they did not discover the flame; + they only knew that they were saved as the clear sky greeted them from + behind the dense smoke-cloud. + </p> + <p> + Two of the Indians and their horses were caught in their own trap, and + perished miserably. They had attempted to reach the east side of the rock, + so as to steal around to the other side where the mules were, and either + cut them loose or crawl up on the trappers while bewildered in the smoke + and kill them, if they were not already dead. But they had proceeded only + a few rods on their little expedition, when the terrible darkness of the + smoke-cloud overtook them and soon the flames, from which there was no + possible escape. + </p> + <p> + All the game on the prairie which the fire swept over was killed too. Only + a few buffalo were visible in that region before the fire, but even they + were killed. The path of the flames, as was discovered by the caravans + that passed over the Trail a few days afterward, was marked with the crisp + and blackened carcasses of wolves, coyotes, turkeys, grouse, and every + variety of small birds indigenous to the region. Indeed, it seemed as if + no living thing it had met escaped its fury. The fire assumed such + gigantic proportions, and moved with such rapidity before the wind, that + even the Arkansas River did not check its path for a moment; it was + carried as readily across as if the stream had not been in its way. + </p> + <p> + The first thought of the trappers on the rock was for their poor mules. + One crawled to where they were, and found them badly singed, but not + seriously injured. The men began to brighten up again when they knew that + their means of transportation were relatively all right, and themselves + also, and they took fresh courage, beginning to believe they should get + out of their bad scrape after all. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime the Indians, with the exception of three or four left to + guard the rock, so as to prevent the trappers from getting away, had gone + back to their camp in the ravine, and were evidently concocting some new + scheme for the discomfort of the besieged trappers. The latter waited + patiently two or three hours for the development of events, snatching a + little sleep by turns, which they needed much; for both were worn out by + their constant watching. At last when the sun was about three hours high, + the Indians commenced their infernal howling again, and then the trappers + knew they had decided upon something; so they were on the alert in a + moment to discover what it was, and euchre them if possible. + </p> + <p> + The devils this time had tied all their ponies together, covered them with + branches of trees that they had gone up on the Walnut for, packed some + lodge-skins on these, and then, driving the living breastworks before + them, moved toward the rock. They proceeded cautiously but surely, and + matters began to look very serious for the trappers. As the strange + cavalcade approached, a trapper raised his rifle, and a masked pony + tumbled over on the scorched sod dead. As one of the Indians ran to cut + him loose, the other trapper took him off his feet by a well-directed + shot; he never uttered a groan. The besieged now saw their only salvation + was to kill the ponies and so demoralize the Indians that they would have + to abandon such tactics, and quicker than I can tell it, they had + stretched four more out on the prairie, and made it so hot for the savages + that they ran out of range and began to hold a council of war. + </p> + <p> + Finding that their plan would not work—for as the last pony was + shot, the rest stampeded and were running wild over the prairie—the + Indians soon went back to their camp again, and the trappers now had a few + spare moments in which to take an account of stock. They discovered, much + to their chagrin, that they had used up all their ammunition except three + or four loads, and despair hovered over them once more. + </p> + <p> + The Indians did not reappear that evening, and the cause was apparent; for + in the distance could be seen a long line of wagons, one of the large + American caravans en route to Santa Fe. The savages had seen it before the + trappers, and had cleared out. When the train arrived opposite the rock, + the relieved men came down from their little fortress, joined the caravan, + and camped with the Americans that night on the Walnut. While they were + resting around their camp-fire, smoking and telling of their terrible + experience on the top of the rock, the Indians could be heard chanting the + death-song while they were burying their warriors under the blackened sod + of the prairie. + </p> + <p> + I witnessed a spirited encounter between a small band of Cheyennes and + Pawnees in the fall of 1867. It occurred on the open prairie north of the + mouth of the Walnut, and not a great distance from Pawnee Rock. Both + tribes were hunting buffalo, and when they, by accident, discovered the + presence of each other, with a yell that fairly shook the sand dunes on + the Arkansas, they rushed at once into the shock of battle. + </p> + <p> + That night, in a timbered bend of the Walnut, the victors had a grand + dance, in which scalps, ears, and fingers of their enemies, suspended by + strings to long poles, were important accessories to their weird orgies + around their huge camp-fires.<a href="#linknote-65" name="linknoteref-65" + id="linknoteref-65"><small>65</small></a> + </p> + <p> + One of the most horrible massacres in the history of the Trail occurred at + Little Cow Creek in the summer of 1864. In July of that year a government + caravan, loaded with military stores for Fort Union in New Mexico, left + Fort Leavenworth for the long and dangerous journey of more than seven + hundred miles over the great plains, which that season were infested by + Indians to a degree almost without precedent in the annals of freight + traffic. + </p> + <p> + The train was owned by a Mr. H. C. Barret, a contractor with the + quartermaster's department; but he declined to take the chances of the + trip unless the government would lease the outfit in its entirety, or give + him an indemnifying bond as assurance against any loss. The chief + quartermaster executed the bond as demanded, and Barret hired his + teamsters for the hazardous journey; but he found it a difficult matter to + induce men to go out that season. + </p> + <p> + Among those whom he persuaded to enter his employ was a mere boy, named + McGee, who came wandering into Leavenworth a few weeks before the train + was ready to leave, seeking work of any description. His parents had died + on their way to Kansas, and on his arrival at Westport Landing, the + emigrant outfit that had extended to him shelter and protection in his + utter loneliness was disbanded; so the youthful orphan was thrown on his + own resources. At that time the Indians of the great plains, especially + along the line of the Santa Fe Trail, were very hostile, and continually + harassing the freight caravans and stage-coaches of the overland route. + Companies of men were enlisting and being mustered into the United States + service to go out after the savages, and young Robert McGee volunteered + with hundreds of others for the dangerous duty. The government needed men + badly, but McGee's youth militated against him, and he was below the + required stature; so he was rejected by the mustering officer. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Barret, in hunting for teamsters to drive his caravan, came across + McGee, who, supposing that he was hiring as a government employee, + accepted Mr. Barret's offer. + </p> + <p> + By the last day of June the caravan was all ready, and on the morning of + the next day, July 1, the wagons rolled out of the fort, escorted by a + company of United States troops, from the volunteers referred to. + </p> + <p> + The caravan wound its weary way over the lonesome Trail with nothing to + relieve the monotony save a few skirmishes with the Indians; but no + casualties occurred in these insignificant battles, the savages being + afraid to venture too near on account of the presence of the military + escort. + </p> + <p> + On the 18th of July, the caravan arrived in the vicinity of Fort Larned. + There it was supposed that the proximity of that military post would be a + sufficient guarantee from any attack of the savages; so the men of the + train became careless, and as the day was excessively hot, they went into + camp early in the afternoon, the escort remaining in bivouac about a mile + in the rear of the train. + </p> + <p> + About five o'clock, a hundred and fifty painted savages, under the command + of Little Turtle of the Brule Sioux, swooped down on the unsuspecting + caravan while the men were enjoying their evening meal. Not a moment was + given them to rally to the defence of their lives, and of all belonging to + the outfit, with the exception of one boy, not a soul came out alive. + </p> + <p> + The teamsters were every one of them shot dead and their bodies horribly + mutilated. After their successful raid, the savages destroyed everything + they found in the wagons, tearing the covers into shreds, throwing the + flour on the trail, and winding up by burning everything that was + combustible. + </p> + <p> + On the same day the commanding officer of Fort Larned had learned from + some of his scouts that the Brule Sioux were on the war-path, and the + chief of the scouts with a handful of soldiers was sent out to + reconnoitre. They soon struck the trail of Little Turtle and followed it + to the scene of the massacre on Cow Creek, arriving there only two hours + after the savages had finished their devilish work. Dead men were lying + about in the short buffalo-grass which had been stained and matted by + their flowing blood, and the agonized posture of their bodies told far + more forcibly than any language the tortures which had come before a + welcome death. All had been scalped; all had been mutilated in that + nameless manner which seems to delight the brutal instincts of the North + American savage. + </p> + <p> + Moving slowly from one to the other of the lifeless forms which still + showed the agony of their death-throes, the chief of the scouts came + across the bodies of two boys, both of whom had been scalped and + shockingly wounded, besides being mutilated, yet, strange to say, both of + them were alive. As tenderly as the men could lift them, they were + conveyed at once back to Fort Larned and given in charge of the post + surgeon. One of the boys died in a few hours after his arrival in the + hospital, but the other, Robert McGee, slowly regained his strength, and + came out of the ordeal in fairly good health. + </p> + <p> + The story of the massacre was related by young McGee, after he was able to + talk, while in the hospital at the fort; for he had not lost consciousness + during the suffering to which he was subjected by the savages. + </p> + <p> + He was compelled to witness the tortures inflicted on his wounded and + captive companions, after which he was dragged into the presence of the + chief, Little Turtle, who determined that he would kill the boy with his + own hands. He shot him in the back with his own revolver, having first + knocked him down with a lance handle. He then drove two arrows through the + unfortunate boy's body, fastening him to the ground, and stooping over his + prostrate form ran his knife around his head, lifting sixty-four square + inches of his scalp, trimming it off just behind his ears. + </p> + <p> + Believing him dead by that time, Little Turtle abandoned his victim; but + the other savages, as they went by his supposed corpse, could not resist + their infernal delight in blood, so they thrust their knives into him, and + bored great holes in his body with their lances. + </p> + <p> + After the savages had done all that their devilish ingenuity could + contrive, they exultingly rode away, yelling as they bore off the reeking + scalps of their victims, and drove away the hundreds of mules they had + captured. + </p> + <p> + When the tragedy was ended, the soldiers, who had from their + vantage-ground witnessed the whole diabolical transaction, came up to the + bloody camp by order of their commander, to learn whether the teamsters + had driven away their assailants, and saw too late what their cowardice + had allowed to take place. The officer in command of the escort was + dismissed the service, as he could not give any satisfactory reason for + not going to the rescue of the caravan he had been ordered to guard. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXI. FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. + </h2> + <p> + The Wagon Mound, so called from its resemblance to a covered army-wagon, + is a rocky mesa forty miles from Point of Rocks, westwardly. The stretch + of the Trail from the latter to the mound has been the scene of some + desperate encounters, only exceeded in number and sanguinary results by + those which have occurred in the region of Pawnee Rock, the crossing of + the Walnut, Pawnee Fork, and Cow Creek. + </p> + <p> + One of the most remarkable stories of this Wagon Mound country dealt with + the nerve and bravery exhibited by John L. Hatcher in defence of his life, + and those of the men in his caravan, about 1858. + </p> + <p> + Hatcher was a noted trader and merchant of New Mexico. He was also + celebrated as an Indian fighter, and his name was a terror to the savages + who infested the settlements of New Mexico and raided the Trail. + </p> + <p> + He left Taos, where he then resided, in the summer, with his caravan + loaded with furs and pelts destined for Westport Landing; to be forwarded + from there to St. Louis, the only market for furs in the far West. His + train was a small one, comprising about fifteen wagons and handled by + about as many men, including himself. At the date of his adventure the + Indians were believed to be at peace with everybody; a false idea, as + Hatcher well knew, for there never was such a condition of affairs as + absolute immunity from their attacks. While it might be true that the old + men refrained for a time from starting out on the war-path, there were + ever the vastly greater number of restless young warriors who had not yet + earned their eagle feathers, who could not be controlled by their chiefs, + and who were always engaged in marauding, either among the border + settlements or along the line of the Trail. + </p> + <p> + When Hatcher was approaching the immediate vicinity of Wagon Mound,<a + href="#linknote-66" name="linknoteref-66" id="linknoteref-66"><small>66</small></a> + with his train strung out in single column, to his great astonishment + there suddenly charged on him from over the hill about three hundred + savages, all feather-bedecked and painted in the highest style of Indian + art. As they rode toward the caravan, they gave the sign of peace, which + Hatcher accepted for the time as true, although he knew them well. + However, he invited the head men to some refreshment, as was usual on such + occasions in those days, throwing a blanket on the ground, on which sugar + in abundance was served out. The sweet-toothed warriors helped themselves + liberally, and affected much delight at the way they were being treated; + but Hatcher, with his knowledge of the savage character, was firm in the + belief that they came for no other purpose than to rob the caravan and + kill him and his men. + </p> + <p> + They were Comanches, and one of the most noted chiefs of the tribe was in + command of the band, with some inferior chiefs under him. I think it was + Old Wolf, a very old man then, whose raids into Texas had made his name a + terror to the Mexicans living on the border. + </p> + <p> + While the chiefs were eating their saccharine lunch, Hatcher was losing no + time in forming his wagons into a corral, but he told his friends + afterward that he had no idea that either he or any of his men would + escape; only fifteen or sixteen men against over three hundred merciless + savages, and those the worst on the continent, and a small corral—the + chances were totally hopeless! Nothing but a desperate action could avail, + and maybe not even that.<a href="#linknote-67" name="linknoteref-67" + id="linknoteref-67"><small>67</small></a> Hatcher, after the other head + men had finished eating, asked the old chief to send his young warriors + away over the hill. They were all sitting close to one of the wagons, Old + Wolf, in fact, leaning against the wheel resting on his blanket, with + Hatcher next him on his right. Hatcher was so earnest in his appeal to + have the young men sent away, that both the venerable villain and his + other chiefs rose and were standing. Without a moment's notice or the + slightest warning, Hatcher reached with his left hand and grabbed Old Wolf + by his scalp-lock, and with his right drew his butcher-knife from its + scabbard and thrust it at the throat of the chief. All this was done in an + instant, as quick as lightning; no one had time to move. The situation was + remarkable. The little, wiry man, surrounded by eight or nine of the most + renowned warriors of the dreaded Comanches, stood firm; everybody was + breathless; not a word did the savages say. Hatcher then said again to Old + Wolf, in the most determined manner: "Send your young men over the hill at + once, or I'll kill you right where you are!" holding on to the hair of the + savage with his left hand and keeping the knife at his throat. + </p> + <p> + The other Indians did not dare to make a move; they knew what kind of a + man Hatcher was; they knew he would do as he had said, and that if they + attempted a rescue he would kill their favourite chief in a second. + </p> + <p> + Old Wolf shook his head defiantly in the negative. Hatcher repeated his + order, getting madder all the time: "Send your young men over the hill; I + tell you!" Old Wolf was still stubborn; he shook his head again. Hatcher + gave him another chance: "Send your young men over the hill, I tell you, + or I'll scalp you alive as you are!" Again the chief shook his head. Then + Hatcher, still holding on the hair of his stubborn victim, commenced to + make an incision in the head of Old Wolf, for the determined man was bound + to carry out his threat; but he began very slowly. + </p> + <p> + As the chief felt the blood trickle down his forehead, he weakened. He + ordered his next in command to send the young men over the hill and out of + sight. The order was repeated immediately to the warriors, who were + astonished spectators of the strange scene, and they quickly mounted their + horses and rode away over the hill as fast as they could thump their + animals' sides with their legs, leaving only five or six chiefs with Old + Wolf and Hatcher. + </p> + <p> + Hatcher held on like grim death to the old chief's head, and immediately + ordered his men to throw the robes out of the wagons as quickly as they + could, and get inside themselves. This was promptly obeyed, and when they + were all under the cover of the wagon sheets, Hatcher let go of his + victim's hair, and, with a last kick, told him and his friends that they + could leave. They went off, and did not return. + </p> + <p> + Some laughable incidents have enlivened the generally sanguinary history + of the Old Santa Fe Trail, but they were very serious at the time to those + who were the actors, and their ludicrousness came after all was over. + </p> + <p> + In the late summer of 1866, a thieving band of Apaches came into the + vicinity of Fort Union, New Mexico, and after carefully reconnoitring the + whole region and getting at the manner in which the stock belonging to the + fort was herded, they secreted themselves in the Turkey Mountains + overlooking the entire reservation, and lay in wait for several days, + watching for a favourable moment to make a raid into the valley and drive + off the herd. + </p> + <p> + Selecting an occasion when the guard was weak and not very alert, they in + broad daylight crawled under the cover of a hill, and, mounting their + horses, dashed out with the most unearthly yells and down among the + animals that were quietly grazing close to the fort, which terrified these + so greatly that they broke away from the herders, and started at their + best gait toward the mountains, closely followed by the savages. + </p> + <p> + The astonished soldiers used every effort to avert the evident loss of + their charge, and many shots were exchanged in the running fight that + ensued; but the Indians were too strong for them, and they were forced to + abandon the chase. + </p> + <p> + Among the herders was a bugler boy, who was remarkable for his bravery in + the skirmish and for his untiring endeavours to turn the animals back + toward the fort, but all without avail; on they went, with the savages, + close to their heels, giving vent to the most vociferous shouts of + exultation, and directing the most obscene and insulting gesticulations to + the soldiers that were after them. + </p> + <p> + While this exciting contest for the mastery was going on, an old Apache + chief dashed in the rear of the bold bugler boy, and could, without doubt, + easily have killed the little fellow; but instead of doing this, from some + idea of a good joke, or for some other incomprehensible reason, his + natural blood-thirsty instinct was changed, and he merely knocked the + bugler's hat from his head with the flat of his hand, and at the same time + encouragingly stroked his hair, as much as to say: "You are a brave boy," + and then rode off without doing him any harm. + </p> + <p> + Thirty years ago last August, I was riding from Fort Larned to Fort Union, + New Mexico, in the overland coach. I had one of my clerks with me; we were + the only passengers, and arrived at Fort Dodge, which was the commencement + of the "long route," at midnight. There we changed drivers, and at the + break of day were some twenty-four miles on our lonely journey. The coach + was rattling along at a breakneck gait, and I saw that something was + evidently wrong. Looking out of one of the doors, I noticed that our Jehu + was in a beastly state of intoxication. It was a most dangerous portion of + the Trail; the Indians were not in the best of humours, and an attack was + not at all improbable before we arrived at the next station, Fort Lyon. + </p> + <p> + I said to my clerk that something must be done; so I ordered the driver to + halt, which he did willingly, got out, and found that, notwithstanding his + drunken mood, he was very affable and disposed to be full of fun. I + suggested that he get inside the coach and lie down to sleep off his + potations, to which he readily assented, while I and my clerk, after + snugly fixing him on the cushions, got on the boot, I taking the lines, he + seizing an old trace-chain, with which he pounded the mules along; for we + felt ourselves in a ticklish predicament should we come across any of the + brigands of the plains, on that lonely route, with the animals to look out + for, and only two of us to do the fighting. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly we saw sitting on the bank of the Arkansas River, about a dozen + rods from the Trail, an antiquated-looking savage with his war-bonnet on, + and armed with a long lance and his bow and arrows. We did not care a cent + for him, but I thought he might be one of the tribe's runners, lying in + wait to discover the condition of the coach—whether it had an + escort, and how many were riding in it, and that then he would go and tell + how ridiculously small the outfit was, and swoop down on us with a band of + his colleagues, that were hidden somewhere in the sand hills south of the + river. He rose as we came near, and made the sign, after he had given vent + to a series of "How's!" that he wanted to talk; but we were not anxious + for any general conversation with his savage majesty just then, so my + clerk applied the trace-chain more vigorously to the tired mules, in order + to get as many miles between him and the coach as we could before he could + get over into the sand hills and back. + </p> + <p> + It was, fortunately, a false alarm; the old warrior perhaps had no + intentions of disturbing us. We arrived at Fort Lyon in good season, with + our valorous driver absolutely sobered, requesting me to say nothing about + his accident, which, of course, I did not. + </p> + <p> + As has been stated, the caravans bound for Santa Fe and the various forts + along the line of the Old Trail did not leave the eastern end of the route + until the grass on the plains, on which the animals depended solely for + subsistence the whole way, grew sufficiently to sustain them, which was + usually about the middle of May. But a great many years ago, one of the + high officials of the quartermaster's department at Washington, who had + never been for a moment on duty on the frontier in his life, found a good + deal of fault with what he thought the dilatoriness of the officer in + charge at Fort Leavenworth, who controlled the question of transportation + for the several forts scattered all over the West, for not getting the + freight caravans started earlier, which the functionary at the capital + said must and should be done. He insisted that they must leave the + Missouri River by the middle of April, a month earlier than usual, and + came out himself to superintend the matter. He made the contracts + accordingly, easily finding contractors that suited him. He then wrote to + headquarters in a triumphant manner that he had revolutionized the whole + system of army transportation of supplies to the military posts. Delighted + with his success, he rode out about the second week of May to Salt Creek, + only three miles from the fort, and, very much to his astonishment, found + his teams, which he had believed to be on the way to Santa Fe a month ago, + snugly encamped. They had "started," just as was agreed. + </p> + <p> + There are, or rather were, hundreds of stories current thirty-five years + ago of stage-coach adventures on the Trail; a volume could be filled with + them, but I must confine myself to a few. + </p> + <p> + John Chisholm was a famous ranchman a long while ago, who had so many + cattle that it was said he did not know their number himself. At one time + he had a large contract to furnish beef to an Indian agency in Arizona; he + had just delivered an immense herd there, and very wisely, after receiving + his cash for them, sent most of it on to Santa Fe in advance of his own + journey. When he arrived there, he started for the Missouri River with a + thousand dollars and sufficient small change to meet his current expenses + on the road. + </p> + <p> + The very first night out from Santa Fe, the coach was halted by a band of + men who had been watching Chisholm's movements from the time he left the + agency in Arizona. The instant the stage came to a standstill, Chisholm + divined what it meant, and had time to thrust a roll of money down one of + the legs of his trousers before the door was thrown back and he was + ordered to fork over what he had. + </p> + <p> + He invited the robbers to search him, and to take what they might find, + but said he was not in a financial condition at that juncture to turn over + much. The thieves found his watch, took that, and then began to search + him. As luck would have it, they entirely missed the roll that was down + his leg, and discovered but a two-dollar bill in his vest. When he told + them it was all he had to buy grub on the road, one of the robbers handed + him a silver dollar, remarking as he did so: "That a man who was mean + enough to travel with only two dollars ought to starve, but he would give + him the dollar just to let him know that he was dealing with gentlemen!" + </p> + <p> + One of the essentials to the comfort of the average soldier is tobacco. He + must have it; he would sooner forego any component part of his ration than + give it up. + </p> + <p> + In November, 1865, a detachment of Company L, of the Eleventh Kansas + Volunteers, and of the Second Colorado were ordered from Fort Larned to + Fort Lyon on a scouting expedition along the line of the Trail, the + savages having been very active in their raids on the freight caravans. + </p> + <p> + In a short time their tobacco began to run low, and as there was no + settlement of any kind between the two military posts, there was no chance + to replenish their stock. One night, while encamped on the Arkansas, the + only piece that was left in the whole command, about half a plug, was + unfortunately lost, and there was dismay in the camp when the fact was + announced. Hours were spent in searching for the missing treasure. The + next morning the march was delayed for some time, while further diligent + search was instituted by all hands, but without result, and the command + set out on its weary tramp, as disconsolate as may well be imagined by + those who are victims to the habit of chewing the weed. + </p> + <p> + Arriving at Fort Lyon, to their greater discomfort it was learned that the + sutler at that post was entirely out of the coveted article, and the + troops began their return journey more disconsolate than ever. Dry leaves, + grass, and even small bits of twigs, were chewed as a substitute, until, + reaching the spot where they had lost the part of a plug, they determined + to remain there that night and begin a more vigorous hunt for the missing + piece. Just before dark their efforts were rewarded; one of the men found + it, and such a scramble occurred for even the smallest nibble at it! + Enormous prices were given for a single chew. It opened at one dollar for + a mere sliver, rose to five, and closed at ten dollars when the last + morsel was left. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXII. A DESPERATE RIDE. + </h2> + <p> + In the Rocky Mountains and on the great plains along the line of the Old + Trail are many rude and widely separated graves. The sequestered little + valleys, the lonely gulches, and the broad prairies through which the + highway to New Mexico wound its course, hide the bones of hundreds of whom + the world will never have any more knowledge. The number of these + solitary, and almost obliterated mounds is small when compared with the + vast multitude in the cemeteries of our towns, though if the host of those + whose bones are mouldering under the short buffalo-grass and tall + blue-stem of the prairies between the Missouri and the mountains were + tabulated, the list would be appalling. Their aggregate will never be + known; for the once remote region of the mid-continent, like the ocean, + rarely gave up its victims. Lives went out there as goes an expiring + candle, suddenly, swiftly, and silently; no record was kept of time or + place. All those who thus died are graveless and monumentless, the great + circle of the heavens is the dome of their sepulchre, and the recurring + blossoms of springtime their only epitaph. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes the traveller over the Old Trail will suddenly, in the most + unexpected places, come across a little mound, perhaps covered with + stones, under which lie the mouldering bones of some unfortunate + adventurer. Above, now on a rude board, then on a detached rock, or maybe + on the wall of a beetling canyon, he may frequently read, in crude + pencilling or rougher carving, the legend of the dead man's ending. + </p> + <p> + The line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, which practically + runs over the Old Trail for nearly its whole length to the mountains, is a + fertile field of isolated graves. The savage and soldier, the teamster and + scout, the solitary trapper or hunter, and many others who have gone down + to their death fighting with the relentless nomad of the plains, or have + been otherwise ruthlessly cut off, mark with their last resting-places + that well-worn pathway across the continent. + </p> + <p> + The tourist, looking from his car-window as he is whirled with the speed + of a tornado toward the snow-capped peaks of the "Great Divide," may see + as he approaches Walnut Creek, three miles east of the town of Great Bend + in Kansas, on the beautiful ranch of Hon. D. Heizer, not far from the + stream, and close to the house, a series of graves, numbering, perhaps, a + score. These have been most religiously cared for by the patriotic + proprietor of the place during all the long years since 1864, as he + believes them to be the last resting-place of soldiers who were once a + portion of the garrison of Fort Zarah, the ruins of which (now a mere hole + in the earth) are but a few hundred yards away, on the opposite side of + the railroad track, plainly visible from the train. + </p> + <p> + The Walnut debouches into the Arkansas a short distance from where the + railroad crosses the creek, and at this point, too, the trail from Fort + Leavenworth merges into the Old Santa Fe. The broad pathway is very easily + recognized here; for it runs over a hard, flinty, low divide, that has + never been disturbed by the plough, and the traveller has only to cast his + eyes in a northeasterly direction in order to see it plainly. + </p> + <p> + The creek is fairly well timbered to-day, as it has been ever since the + first caravan crossed the clear water of the little stream. It was always + a favourite place of ambush by the Indians, and many a conflict has + occurred in the beautiful bottom bounded by a margin of trees on two + sides, between the traders, trappers, troops, and the Indians, and also + between the several tribes that were hereditary enemies, particularly the + Pawnees and the Cheyennes. It is only about sixteen miles east of Pawnee + Rock, and included in that region of debatable ground where no band of + Indians dared establish a permanent village; for it was claimed by all the + tribes, but really owned by none. + </p> + <p> + In 1864 the commerce of the great plains had reached enormous proportions, + and immense caravans rolled day after day toward the blue hills which + guard the portals of New Mexico, and the precious freight constantly + tempted the wily savages to plunder. + </p> + <p> + To protect the caravans on their monotonous route through the "Desert," as + this portion of the plains was then termed, troops were stationed, a mere + handful relatively, at intervals on the Trail, to escort the freighters + and mail coaches over the most exposed and dangerous portions of the way. + </p> + <p> + On the bank of the Walnut, at this time, were stationed three hundred + unassigned recruits of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, under the command of + Captain Conkey. This point was rightly regarded as one of the most + important on the whole overland route; for near it passed the favourite + highway of the Indians on their yearly migrations north and south, in the + wake of the strange elliptical march of the buffalo far beyond the Platte, + and back to the sunny knolls of the Canadian. + </p> + <p> + This primitive cantonment which grew rapidly in strategical importance, + was two years later made quite formidable defensively, and named Fort + Zarah, in memory of the youngest son of Major General Curtis, who was + killed by guerillas somewhere south of Fort Scott, Kansas, while escorting + General James G. Blunt, of frontier fame during the Civil War. + </p> + <p> + Captain Henry Booth, during the year above mentioned, was chief of cavalry + and inspecting officer of the military district of the Upper Arkansas, the + western geographical limits of which extended to the foot-hills of the + mountains. + </p> + <p> + One day he received an order from the head-quarters of the department to + make a special inspection of all the outposts on the Santa Fe Trail. He + was stationed at Fort Riley at the time, and the evening the order + arrived, active preparations were immediately commenced for his extended + and hazardous trip across the plains. Lieutenant Hallowell, of the Ninth + Wisconsin Battery, was to accompany him, and both officers went at once to + their quarters, took down from the walls, where they had been hanging idly + for weeks, their rifles and pistols, and carefully examined and brushed + them up for possible service in the dreary Arkansas bottom. Camp-kettles, + until late in the night, sizzled and sputtered over crackling log-fires; + for their proposed ride beyond the settlements demanded cooked rations for + many a weary day. All the preliminaries arranged, the question of the + means of transportation was determined, and, curiously enough, it saved + the lives of the two officers in the terrible gauntlet they were destined + to run. + </p> + <p> + Hallowell was a famous whip, and prided himself upon the exceptionally + fine turnout which he daily drove among the picturesque hills around the + fort. + </p> + <p> + "Booth," said he in the evening, "let's not take a great lumbering + ambulance on this trip; if you will get a good way-up team of mules from + the quartermaster, we'll use my light rig, and we'll do our own driving." + </p> + <p> + To this proposition Booth readily assented, procured the mules, and, as it + turned out, they were a "good way-up team." + </p> + <p> + Hallowell had a set of bows fitted to his light wagon, over which was + thrown an army-wagon-sheet, drawn up behind with a cord, similar to those + of the ordinary emigrant outfit to be seen daily on the roads of the + Western prairies. A round hole was necessarily left in the rear end, + serving the purpose of a lookout. + </p> + <p> + Two grip-sacks, containing their dress uniforms, a box of crackers and + cheese, meat and sardines, together with a bottle of anti-snake bite, made + up the principal freight for the long journey, and in the clear cold of + the early morning they rolled out of the gates of the fort, escorted by + Company L, of the Eleventh Kansas, commanded by Lieutenant Van Antwerp. + </p> + <p> + The company of one hundred mounted men acting as escort was too formidable + a number for the Indians, and not a sign of one was seen as the dangerous + flats of Plum Creek and the rolling country beyond were successively + passed, and early in the afternoon the cantonment on Walnut Creek was + reached. At this important outpost Captain Conkey's command was living in + a rude but comfortable sort of a way, in the simplest of dugouts, + constructed along the right bank of the stream; the officers, a little + more in accordance with military dignity, in tents a few rods in rear of + the line of huts. + </p> + <p> + A stockade stable had been built, with a capacity for two hundred and + fifty horses, and sufficient hay had been put up by the men in the fall to + carry the animals through the winter. + </p> + <p> + Captain Conkey was a brusque but kind-hearted man, and with him were + stationed other officers, one of whom was a son of Admiral Goldsborough. + The morning after the arrival of the inspecting officers a rigid + examination of all the appointments and belongings of the place was made, + and, as an immense amount of property had accumulated for condemnation, + when evening came the books and papers were still untouched; so that + branch of the inspection had to be postponed until the next morning. + </p> + <p> + After dark, while sitting around the camp-fire, discussing the war, + telling stories, etc., Captain Conkey said to Booth: "Captain, it won't + require more than half an hour in the morning to inspect the papers and + finish up what you have to do; why don't you start your escort out very + early, so it won't be obliged to trot after the ambulance, or you to poke + along with it? You can then move out briskly and make time." + </p> + <p> + Booth, acting upon what he thought at the time an excellent suggestion, in + a few moments went over the creek to Lieutenant Van Antwerp's camp, to + tell him that he need not wait for the wagon in the morning, but to start + out early, at half-past six, in advance. + </p> + <p> + According to instructions, the escort marched out of camp at daylight next + morning, while Booth and Hallowell remained to finish their inspection. It + was soon discovered, however, that either Captain Conkey had underrated + the amount of work to be done, or misjudged the inspecting officers' + ability to complete it in a certain time; so almost three hours elapsed + after the cavalry had departed before the task ended. + </p> + <p> + At last everything was closed up, much to Hallowell's satisfaction, who + had been chafing under the vexatious delay ever since the escort left. + When all was in readiness, the little wagon drawn up in front of the + commanding officer's quarters, and farewells said, Hallowell suggested to + Booth the propriety of taking a few of the troops stationed there to go + with them until they overtook their own escort, which must now be several + miles on the Trail to Fort Larned. Booth asked Captain Conkey what he + thought of Hallowell's suggestion. Captain Conkey replied: "Oh! there's + not the slightest danger; there hasn't been an Indian seen around here for + over ten days." + </p> + <p> + If either Booth or Hallowell had been as well acquainted with the methods + and character of the plains Indians then as they afterward became, they + would have insisted upon an escort; but both were satisfied that Captain + Conkey knew what he was talking about, so they concluded to push on. + </p> + <p> + Jumping into their wagon, Lieutenant Hallowell took the reins and away + they went rattling over the old log bridge that used to span the Walnut at + the crossing of the Old Santa Fe Trail, as light of heart as if riding to + a dance. + </p> + <p> + The morning was bright and clear with a stiff breeze blowing from the + northwest, and the Trail was frozen hard in places, which made it very + rough, as it had been cut up by the travel of the heavily laden caravans + when it was wet. Booth sat on the left side of Hallowell with the whip in + his hand, now and then striking the mules, to keep up their speed. + Hallowell started up a tune—he was a good singer—and Booth + joined in as they rolled along, as oblivious of any danger as though they + were in their quarters at Fort Riley. + </p> + <p> + After they had proceeded some distance, Hallowell remarked to Booth: "The + buffalo are grazing a long way from the road to-day; a circumstance that I + think bodes no good." He had been on the plains the summer before, and was + better acquainted with the Indians and their peculiarities than Captain + Booth; but the latter replied that he thought it was because their escort + had gone on ahead, and had probably frightened them off. + </p> + <p> + The next mile or two was passed, and still they saw no buffalo between the + Trail and the Arkansas, though nothing more was said by either regarding + the suspicious circumstance, and they rode rapidly on. + </p> + <p> + When they had gone about five or six miles from the Walnut, Booth, + happening to glance toward the river, saw something that looked strangely + like a flock of turkeys. He watched them intently for a moment, when the + objects rose up and he discovered they were horsemen. He grasped Hallowell + by the arm, directing his attention to them, and said, "What are they?" + Hallowell gave a hasty look toward the point indicated, and replied, + "Indians! by George!" and immediately turning the mules around on the + Trail, started them back toward the cantonment on the Walnut at a full + gallop.<a href="#linknote-68" name="linknoteref-68" id="linknoteref-68"><small>68</small></a> + </p> + <p> + "Hold on!" said Booth to Hallowell when he understood the latter's + movement; "maybe it's part of our escort." + </p> + <p> + "No! no!" replied Hallowell. "I know they are Indians; I've seen too many + of them to be mistaken." + </p> + <p> + "Well," rejoined Booth, "I'm going to know for certain"; so, stepping out + on the foot-board, and with one hand holding on to the front bow, he + looked back over the top of the wagon-sheet. They were Indians, sure + enough; they had fully emerged from the ravine in which they had hidden, + and while he was looking at them they were slipping off their buffalo + robes from their shoulders, taking arrows out of their quivers, drawing up + their spears, and making ready generally for a red-hot time. + </p> + <p> + While Booth was intently regarding the movements of the savages, Hallowell + inquired of him: "They're Indians, aren't they, Booth?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes," was Booth's answer, "and they're coming down on us like a + whirlwind." + </p> + <p> + "Then I shall never see poor Lizzie again!" said Hallowell. He had been + married only a few weeks before starting out on this trip, and his young + wife's name came to his lips. + </p> + <p> + "Never mind Lizzie," responded Booth; "let's get out of here!" He was as + badly frightened as Hallowell, but had no bride at Riley, and, as he tells + it, "was selfishly thinking of himself only, and escape." + </p> + <p> + In answer to Booth's remark, Hallowell, in a firm, clear voice, said: "All + right! You do the shooting, and I'll do the driving," and suiting the + action to the words, he snatched the whip out of Booth's hand, slipped + from the seat to the front of the wagon, and commenced lashing the mules + furiously. + </p> + <p> + Booth then crawled back, pulled out one of his revolvers, crept, or rather + fell, over the "lazy-back" of the seat, and reaching the hole made by + puckering the wagon-sheet, looked out of it, and counted the Indians; + thirty-four feather-bedecked, paint-bedaubed savages, as vicious a set as + ever scalped a white man, swooping down on them like a hawk upon a + chicken. + </p> + <p> + Hallowell, between his yells at the mules, cried out, "How far are they + off now, Booth?" for of course he could see nothing of what was going on + in his rear. + </p> + <p> + Booth replied as well as he could judge of the distance, while Hallowell + renewed his yelling at the animals and redoubled his efforts with the + lash. + </p> + <p> + Noiselessly the Indians gained on the little wagon, for they had not as + yet uttered a whoop, and the determined driver, anxious to know how far + the red devils were from him, again asked Booth. The latter told him how + near they were, guessing at the distance, from which Hallowell gathered + inspiration for fresh cries and still more vigorous blows with his whip. + </p> + <p> + Booth, all this time, was sitting on the box containing the crackers and + sardines, watching the rapid approach of the cut-throats, and seeing with + fear and trembling the ease with which they gained upon the little mules. + </p> + <p> + Once more Hallowell made his stereotyped inquiry of Booth; but before the + latter could reply, two shots were fired from the rifles of the Indians, + accompanied by a yell that was demoniacal enough to cause the blood to + curdle in one's veins. Hallowell yelled at the mules, and Booth yelled + too; for what reason he could not tell, unless to keep company with his + comrade, who plied the whip more mercilessly than ever upon the poor + animals' backs, and the wagon flew over the rough road, nearly upsetting + at every jump. + </p> + <p> + In another moment the bullets from two of the Indians' rifles passed + between Booth and Hallowell, doing no damage, and almost instantly the + savages charged upon them, at the same time dividing into two parties, one + going on one side and one on the other, both delivering a volley of arrows + into the wagon as they rode by. + </p> + <p> + Just as the savages rushed past the wagon, Hallowell cried out to Booth, + "Cap, I'm hit!" and turning around to look, Booth saw an arrow sticking in + Hallowell's head above his right ear. His arm was still plying the whip, + which was going on unceasingly as the sails of a windmill, and his howling + at the mules only stopped long enough to answer, "Not much!" in response + to Booth's inquiry of "Does it hurt?" as he grabbed the arrow and pulled + it out of his head. + </p> + <p> + The Indians had by this time passed on, and then, circling back, prepared + for another charge. Down they came, again dividing as before into two + bands, and delivering another shower of arrows. Hallowell ceased his + yelling long enough to cry out, "I'm hit once more, Cap!" Looking at the + plucky driver, Booth saw this time an arrow sticking over his left ear, + and hanging down his back. He snatched it out, inquiring if it hurt, but + received the same answer: "No, not much." + </p> + <p> + Both men were now yelling at the top of their voices; and the mules were + jerking the wagon along the rough trail at a fearful rate, frightened + nearly out of their wits at the sight of the Indians and the terrible + shouting and whipping of the driver. + </p> + <p> + Booth crawled to the back end of the wagon again, looked out of the hole + in the cover, and saw the Indians moving across the Trail, preparing for + another charge. One old fellow, mounted on a black pony, was jogging along + in the centre of the road behind them, but near enough and evidently + determined to send an arrow through the puckered hole of the sheet. In a + moment the savage stopped his pony and let fly. Booth dodged sideways—the + arrow sped on its course, and whizzing through the opening, struck the + black-walnut "lazy-back" of the seat, the head sticking out on the other + side, and the sudden check causing the feathered end to vibrate rapidly + with a vro-o-o-ing sound. With a quick blow Booth struck it, and broke the + shaft from the head, leaving the latter embedded in the wood. + </p> + <p> + As quickly as possible, Booth rushed to the hole and fired his revolver at + the old devil, but failed to hit him. While he was trying to get in + another shot, an arrow came flying through from the left side of the + Trail, and striking him on the inside of the elbow, or "crazy-bone," so + completely benumbed his hand that he could not hold on to the pistol, and + it dropped into the road with one load still in its chamber. Just then the + mules gave an extraordinary jump to one side, which jerked the wagon + nearly from under him, and he fell sprawling on the end-gate, evenly + balanced, with his hands on the outside, attempting to clutch at something + to save himself! Seeing his predicament, the Indians thought they had him + sure, so they gave a yell of exultation, supposing he must tumble out, but + he didn't; he fortunately succeeded in grabbing one of the wagon-bows with + his right hand and pulled himself in; but it was a close call. + </p> + <p> + While all this was going on, Hallowell had not been neglected by the + Indians; about a dozen of them had devoted their time to him, but he never + flinched. Just as Booth had regained his equilibrium and drawn his second + revolver from its holster, Hallowell yelled to him: "Right off to your + right, Cap, quick!" + </p> + <p> + Booth tumbled over the back of the seat, and, clutching at a wagon-bow to + steady himself, he saw, "off to the right," an Indian who was in the act + of letting an arrow drive at Hallowell; it struck the side of the box, and + at the same instant Booth fired, scaring the red devil badly. + </p> + <p> + Back over the seat again he rushed to guard the rear, only to find a young + buck riding close to the side of the wagon, his pony running in the deep + path made by the ox-drivers in walking alongside of their teams. Putting + his left arm around one of the wagon-bows to prevent his being jerked out, + Booth quietly stuck his revolver through the hole in the sheet; but before + he could pull the trigger, the Indian flopped over on the off side of his + pony, and nothing could be seen of him excepting one arm around his + animal's neck and from the knee to the toes of one leg. Booth did not wait + for him to ride up; he could almost hit the pony's head with his hand, so + close was he to the wagon. Booth struck at the beast several times, but + the Indian kept him right up in his place by whipping him on the opposite + of his neck. Presently the plucky savage's arm began to move. Booth + watched him intently, and saw that he had fixed an arrow in his bow under + the pony's shoulder; just as he was on the point of letting go the + bowstring, with the head of the arrow not three feet from Booth's breast + as he leaned out of the hole, the latter struck frantically at the weapon, + dodged back into the wagon, and up came the Indian. Whenever Booth looked + out, down went the Indian on the other side of his pony, to rise again in + a moment, and Booth, afraid to risk himself with his head and breast + exposed at this game of hide and seek, drew suddenly back as the Indian + went down the third time, and in a second came up; but this was once too + often. Booth had not dodged completely into the wagon, nor dropped his + revolver, and as the Indian rose he fired. + </p> + <p> + The savage was naked to the waist; the ball struck him in the left nipple, + the blood spirted out of the wound, his bow and arrows and lariat, with + himself, rolled off the pony, falling heavily on the ground, and with one + convulsive contraction of his legs and an "Ugh!" he was as dead as a + stone. + </p> + <p> + "I've killed one of 'em!" called out Booth to Hallowell, as he saw his + victim tumble from his pony. + </p> + <p> + "Bully for you, Cap!" came Hallowell's response as he continued his + shouting, and the blows of that tireless whip fell incessantly on the + backs of the poor mules. + </p> + <p> + After he had killed the warrior, Booth kept his seat on the cracker box, + watching to see what the Indians were going to do next, when he was + suddenly interrupted by Hallowell's crying out to him: "Off to the right + again, Cap, quick!" and, whirling around instantly, he saw an Indian + within three feet of the wagon, with his bow and arrow almost ready to + shoot; there was no time to get over the seat, and as he could not fire so + close to Hallowell, he cried to the latter: "Hit him with the whip! Hit + him with the whip!" The lieutenant diverted one of the blows intended for + the mules, and struck the savage fairly across the face. The whip had a + knot in the end of it to prevent its unravelling, and this knot must have + hit the Indian squarely in the eye; for he dropped his bow, put both hands + up to his face, rubbed his eyes, and digging his heels into his pony's + sides was soon out of range of a revolver; but, nevertheless, he was given + a parting shot as a sort of salute. + </p> + <p> + A terrific yell from the rear at this moment caused both Booth and + Hallowell to look around, and the latter to inquire: "What's the matter + now, Booth?" "They are coming down on us like lightning," said he; and, + sure enough, those who had been prancing around their dead comrade were + tearing along the Trail toward the wagon with a more hideous noise than + when they began. + </p> + <p> + Hallowell yelled louder than ever and lashed the mules more furiously + still, but the Indians gained upon them as easily as a blooded racer on a + common farm plug. Separating as before, and passing on each side of the + wagon, they delivered another volley of bullets and arrows as they rushed + on. + </p> + <p> + When this charge was made, Booth drew away from the hole in the rear and + turned toward the Indians, but forgot that as he was sitting, with his + back pressed against the sheet, his body was plainly outlined on the + canvas. + </p> + <p> + When the Indians dashed by Hallowell cried out, "I'm hit again, Cap!" and + Booth, in turning around to go to his relief, felt something pulling at + him; and glancing over his left shoulder he discovered an arrow sticking + into him and out through the wagon-sheet. With a jerk of his body, he tore + himself loose, and going to Hallowell, asked him where he was hit. "In the + back," was the reply; where Booth saw an arrow extending under the + "lazy-back" of the seat. Taking hold of it, Booth gave a pull, but + Hallowell squirmed so that he desisted. "Pull it out!" cried the plucky + driver. Booth thereupon took hold of it again, and giving a jerk or two, + out it came. He was thoroughly frightened as he saw it leave the + lieutenant's body; it seemed to have entered at least six inches, and the + wound appeared to be a dangerous one. Hallowell, however, did not cease + for a moment belabouring the mules, and his yells rang out as clear and + defiant as before. + </p> + <p> + After extracting the arrow from Hallowell's back, Booth turned again to + the opening in the rear of the wagon to see what new tricks the devils + were up to, when Hallowell again called out, "Off to the left, Cap, + quick!" + </p> + <p> + Rushing to the front as soon as possible, Booth saw one of the savages in + the very act of shooting at Hallowell from the left side of the wagon, not + ten feet away. The last revolver was empty, but something had to be done + at once; so, levelling the weapon at him, Booth shouted "Bang! you + son-of-a-gun!" Down the Indian ducked his head; rap, rap, went his knees + against his pony's sides, and away he flew over the prairie! + </p> + <p> + Back to his old place in the rear tumbled Booth, to load his revolver. The + cartridges they used in the army in those days were the old-fashioned kind + made of paper. Biting off one end, he endeavoured to pour the powder into + the chamber of the pistol; but as the wagon was tumbling from side to + side, and jumping up and down, as it fairly flew over the rough Trail, + more fell into the bottom of the wagon than into the revolver. Just as he + was inserting a ball, Hallowell yelled, "To the left, Cap, quick!" + </p> + <p> + Over the seat Booth piled once more, and there was another Indian with his + bow and arrow all ready to pinion the brave lieutenant. Pointing his + revolver at him, Booth yelled as he had at the other, but this savage had + evidently noticed the first failure, and concluded there were no more + loads left; so, instead of taking a hasty departure, he grinned + demoniacally and endeavoured to fix the arrow in his bow. Booth rose up in + the wagon, and grasping hold of one of its bows with his left hand, seized + the revolver by the muzzle, and with all the force he could muster hurled + it at the impudent brute. It was a Remington, its barrel octagon-shaped, + with sharp corners, and when it was thrown, it turned in the air, and + striking the Indian muzzle-first on the ribs, cut a long gash. + </p> + <p> + "Ugh!" he grunted, as, dropping his bow and spear, he flung himself over + the side of his pony, and away he went across the prairie. + </p> + <p> + Only one revolver remaining now, and that empty, with the savages still + howling around the apparently doomed men like so many demons! Booth fell + over the seat, as was his usual fate whenever he attempted to get to the + back of the wagon, picked up the empty revolver, and tried to load it; but + before he could bite the end of a cartridge, Hallowell yelled, + </p> + <p> + "Cap, I'm hit again!" + </p> + <p> + "Where this time?" inquired Booth, anxiously. "In the hand," replied + Hallowell; and, looking around, Booth noticed that although his right arm + was still thrashing at the now lagging mules with as much energy as ever, + through the fleshy part of the thumb was an arrow, which was flopping up + and down as he raised and lowered his hand in ceaseless efforts to keep up + the speed of the almost exhausted animals. + </p> + <p> + "Let me pull it out," said Booth, as he came forward to do so. + </p> + <p> + "No, never mind," replied Hallowell; "can't stop! can't stop!" and up and + down went the arm, and flip, flap, went the arrow with it, until finally + it tore through the flesh and fell to the ground. + </p> + <p> + Along they bowled, the Indians yelling, and the occupants of the little + wagon defiantly answering them, while Booth continued to struggle + desperately with that empty pistol, in his vain efforts to load it. In + another moment Hallowell shouted, "Booth, they are trying to crowd the + mules into the sunflowers!" + </p> + <p> + Alongside of the Trail huge sunflowers had grown the previous summer, and + now their dry stalks stood as thick as a cane-brake; if the wagon once got + among them, it would be impossible for the mules to keep up their gallop. + The savages seemed to realize this; for one huge old fellow kept riding + alongside the off mule, throwing his spear at him and then jerking it back + with the thong, one end of which was fastened to his wrist. The near mule + was constantly pushed further and further from the Trail by his mate, + which was jumping frantically, scared out of his senses by the Indian. + </p> + <p> + At this perilous juncture, Booth stepped out on the foot-board of the + wagon, and, holding on by a bow, commenced to kick the frightened mule + vigorously, while Hallowell pulled on one line, whipping and yelling at + the same time; so together they succeeded in forcing the animals back into + the Trail. + </p> + <p> + The Indians kept close to the mules in their efforts to force them into + the sunflowers, and Booth made several attempts to scare the old fellow + that was nearest by pointing his empty revolver at him, but he would not + scare; so in his desperation Booth threw it at him. He missed the old + brute, but hit his pony just behind its rider's leg, which started the + animal into a sort of a stampede; his ugly master could not control him, + and thus the immediate peril from the persistent cuss was delayed. + </p> + <p> + Now the pair were absolutely without firearms of any kind, with nothing + left except their sabres and valises, and the savages came closer and + closer. In turn the two swords were thrown at them as they came almost + within striking distance; then followed the scabbards, as the howling + fiends surrounded the wagon and attempted to spear the mules. Fortunately + their arrows were exhausted. + </p> + <p> + The cantonment on the Walnut was still a mile and a half away, and there + was nothing for our luckless travellers to do but whip and kick, both of + which they did most vigorously. Hallowell sat as immovable as the Sphinx, + excepting his right arm, which from the moment they had started on the + back trail had not once ceased its incessant motion. + </p> + <p> + Happening to cast his eyes back on the Trail, Booth saw to his dismay + twelve or fifteen of the savages coming up on the run with fresh energy, + their spears poised ready for action, and he felt that something must be + done very speedily to divert them; for if these added their number to + those already surrounding the wagon, the chances were they would succeed + in forcing the mules into the sunflowers, and his scalp and Hallowell's + would dangle at the belt of the leader. + </p> + <p> + Glancing around in the bottom of the wagon for some kind of weapon, his + eye fell on the two valises containing the dress-suits. He snatched up his + own, and threw it out while the pursuers were yet five or six rods in the + rear. The Indians noticed this new trick with a great yell of + satisfaction, and the moment they arrived at the spot where the valise + lay, all dismounted; one of them, seizing it by the two handles, pulled + with all his strength to open it, and when he failed, another drew a long + knife from under his blanket and ripped it apart. He then put his hand in, + pulling out a sash, which he began to wind around his head, like a negress + with a bandanna, letting the tassels hang down his back. While he was thus + amusing himself, one of the others had taken out a dress-coat, a third a + pair of drawers, and still another a shirt, which they proceeded to put + on, meanwhile dancing around and howling. + </p> + <p> + Booth told Hallowell of the sacrifice of the valise, and said, "I'm going + to throw out yours." "All right," replied Hallowell; "all we want is + time." So out it went on the Trail, and shared the same fate as the other. + </p> + <p> + The lull in hostilities caused by their outstripping their pursuers gave + the almost despairing men time to talk over their situation. Hallowell + said he did not propose to be captured and then butchered or burned at the + pleasure of the Indians. He said to Booth: "If they kill one of the mules, + and so stop us, let's kick, strike, throw dirt or anything, and compel + them to kill us on the spot." So it was agreed, if the worst came to the + worst, to stand back to back and fight. + </p> + <p> + During this discussion the arm of Hallowell still plied the effective + lash, and they drew perceptibly nearer the camp, and as they caught the + first glimpse of its tents and dugouts, hope sprang up within them. The + mules were panting like a hound after a deer; wherever the harness touched + them, it was white with lather, and it was evident they could keep on + their feet but a short time longer. Would they hold out until the bridge + was reached? The whipping and the kicking had but little effect on them + now. They still continued their gallop, but it was slower and more + laboured than before. + </p> + <p> + The Indians who had torn open the valises had not returned to the chase, + and although there were still a sufficient number of the fiends pursuing + to make it interesting, they did not succeed in spearing the mules, as at + every attempt the plucky animals would jump sideways or forward and evade + the impending blow. + </p> + <p> + The little log bridge was reached; the savages had all retreated, but the + valorous Hallowell kept the mules at their fastest pace. The bridge was + constructed of half-round logs, and of course was extremely rough; the + wagon bounded up and down enough to shake the teeth out of one's head as + the little animals went flying over it. Booth called out to Hallowell, "No + need to drive so fast now, the Indians have all left us"; but he replied, + "I ain't going to stop until I get across"; and down came the whip, on + sped the mules, not breaking their short gallop until they were pulled up + in front of Captain Conkey's quarters. + </p> + <p> + The rattling of the wagon on the bridge was the first intimation the + garrison had of its return. + </p> + <p> + The officers came running out of their tents, the enlisted men poured out + of their dugouts like a lot of ants, and Booth and Hallowell were + surrounded by their friends in a moment. Captain Conkey ordered his bugler + to sound "Boots and Saddles," and in less than ten minutes ninety troopers + were mounted, and with the captain at their head started after the + Indians. + </p> + <p> + When Hallowell tried to rise from his seat so as to get out every effort + only resulted in his falling back. Some one stepped around to the other + side to assist him, when it was discovered that the skirt of his overcoat + had worked outside of the wagon-sheet and hung over the edge, and that + three or four of the arrows fired at him by the savages had struck the + side of the wagon, and, passing through the flap of his coat, had pinned + him down. Booth pulled the arrows out and helped him up; he was pretty + stiff from sitting in his cramped position so long, and his right arm + dropped by his side as if paralysed. + </p> + <p> + Booth stood looking on while his comrade's wounds were being dressed, when + the adjutant asked him: "What makes you shrug your shoulder so?" He + answered, "I don't know; something makes it smart." The officer looked at + him and said, "Well, I don't wonder; I should think it would smart; here's + an arrow-head sticking into you," and he tried to pull it out, but it + would not come. Captain Goldsborough then attempted it, but was not any + more successful. The doctor then told them to let it alone, and he would + attend to Booth after he had done with Hallowell. When he examined Booth's + shoulder, he found that the arrow-head had struck the thick portion of the + shoulder-blade, and had made two complete turns, wrapping itself around + the muscles, which had to be cut apart before the sharp point could be + withdrawn. + </p> + <p> + Booth was not seriously hurt. Hallowell, however, had received two severe + wounds; the arrow that had lodged in his back had penetrated almost to his + kidneys, and the wound in his thumb was very painful, not so much from the + simple impact of the arrow as from the tearing away of the muscle by the + shaft while he was whipping his mules; his right arm, too, was swollen + terribly, and so stiff from the incessant use of it during the drive that + for more than a month he required assistance in dressing and undressing. + </p> + <p> + The mules who had saved their lives were of small account after their + memorable trip; they remained stiff and sore from the rough road and their + continued forced speed. Booth and Hallowell went out to look at them the + next morning, as they hobbled around the corral, and from the bottom of + their hearts wished them well. + </p> + <p> + Captain Conkey's command returned to the cantonment about midnight. But + one Indian had been seen, and he was south of the Arkansas in the sand + hills. + </p> + <p> + The next morning a scouting-party of forty men, under command of a + sergeant, started out to scour the country toward Cow Creek, northeast + from the Walnut. + </p> + <p> + As I have stated, the troopers stationed at the cantonment on the Walnut + were mostly recruits. Now the cavalry recruit of the old regular army on + the frontier, thirty or forty years ago, mounted on a great big American + horse and sent out with well-trained comrades on a scout after the hostile + savages of the plains, was the most helpless individual imaginable. Coming + fresh from some large city probably, as soon as he arrived at his station + he was placed on the back of an animal of whose habits he knew as little + as he did of the differential calculus; loaded down with a carbine, the + muzzle of which he could hardly distinguish from the breech; a sabre + buckled around his waist; a couple of enormous pistols stuck in his + holsters; his blankets strapped to the cantle of his saddle, and, to + complete the hopelessness of his condition in a possible encounter with a + savage enemy who was ever on the alert, he was often handicapped by a + camp-kettle or two, a frying-pan, and ten days' rations. No wonder this + doughty representative of Uncle Sam's power was an easy prey for "Poor + Lo," who, when he caught the unfortunate soldier away from his command and + started after him, must have laughed at the ridiculous appearance of his + enemy, with both hands glued to the pommel of his saddle, his hair on end, + his sabre flying and striking his horse at every jump as the animal tore + down the trail toward camp, while the Indian, rapidly gaining, in a few + minutes had the scalp of the hapless rider dangling at his belt, and + another of the "boys in blue" had joined the majority. + </p> + <p> + The scouting-party had proceeded about four or five miles, when one of the + corporals asked permission for himself and a recruit to go over to the + Upper Walnut to find out whether they could discover any signs of Indians. + </p> + <p> + While they were carelessly riding along the big curve which the northern + branch of the Walnut makes at that point, there suddenly sprang from their + ambush in the timber on the margin of the stream about three hundred + Indians, whooping and yelling. The two troopers of course, immediately + whirled their horses and started down the creek toward the camp, hotly + pursued by the howling savages. + </p> + <p> + The corporal was an excellent rider; a well-trained and disciplined + soldier, having seen much service on the plains. He led in the flight, + closely followed by the unfortunate recruit, who had been enlisted but a + short time. Not more than an eighth of a mile had been covered, when the + corporal heard his companion exclaim,— + </p> + <p> + "Don't leave me! Don't leave me!" + </p> + <p> + Looking back, the corporal saw that the poor recruit was losing ground + rapidly; his horse was rearing and plunging, making very little headway, + while his rider was jerking and pulling on the bit, a curb of the severest + kind. Perceiving the strait his comrade was in, the corporal reined up for + a moment and called out,— + </p> + <p> + "Let him go! Let him go! Don't jerk on the bit so!" + </p> + <p> + The Indians were gaining ground rapidly, and in another moment the + corporal heard the recruit again cry out,— + </p> + <p> + "Oh! Don't—" + </p> + <p> + Realizing that it would be fatal to delay, and that he could be of no + assistance to his companion, already killed and scalped, he leaned forward + on his horse, and sinking his spurs deep in the animal's flanks fairly + flew down the valley, with the three hundred savages close in his wake. + </p> + <p> + The officers at the camp were sitting in their tents when the sentinel on + post No. 1 fired his piece, upon which all rushed out to learn the cause + of the alarm; for there was no random shooting in those days allowed + around camp or in garrison. Looking up the valley of the Walnut, they + could see the lucky corporal, with his long hair streaming in the wind, + and his heels rapping his horse's sides, as he dashed over the brown sod + of the winter prairie. + </p> + <p> + The corporal now slackened his pace, rode up to the commanding officer's + tent, reported the affair, and then was allowed to go to his own quarters + for the rest he so much needed. + </p> + <p> + Captain Conkey immediately ordered a mounted squad, accompanied by an + ambulance, to go up the creek to recover the body of the unfortunate + recruit. The party were absent a little over an hour, and brought back + with them the remains of the dead soldier. He had been shot with an arrow, + the point of which was still sticking out through his breast-bone. His + scalp had been torn completely off, and the lapels of his coat and the + legs of his trousers carried away by the savages. He was buried the next + morning with military honours, in the little graveyard on the bank of the + Walnut, where his body still rests in the dooryard of the ranch. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIII. HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. + </h2> + <p> + In the spring of 1867, General Hancock, who then commanded the military + division of the Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, + organized an expedition against the Indians of the great plains, which he + led in person. With him was General Custer, second ranking officer, from + whom I quote the story of the march and some of the incidents of the raid. + </p> + <p> + General Hancock, with the artillery and six companies of infantry, arrived + at Fort Riley, Kansas, the last week in March, where he was joined by four + companies of the Seventh Cavalry, commanded by the intrepid Custer. + </p> + <p> + From Fort Riley the expedition marched to Fort Harker, seventy-two miles + farther west, on the Smoky Hill, where the force was increased by the + addition of two more troops of cavalry. Remaining there only long enough + to replenish their commissary supplies, the march was directed to Fort + Larned on the Old Santa Fe Trail. On the 7th of April the command reached + the latter post, accompanied by the agent of the Comanches and Kiowas; at + the fort the agent of the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches was waiting + for the arrival of the general. The agent of the three last-mentioned + tribes had already sent runners to the head chiefs, inviting them to a + grand council which was to assemble near the fort on the 10th of the + month, and he requested General Hancock to remain at the fort with his + command until that date. + </p> + <p> + On the 9th of April a terrible snow-storm came on while the troops were + encamped waiting for the head men of the various tribes to arrive. Custer + says: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + It was our good fortune to be in camp rather than on the + march; had it been otherwise, we could not well have escaped + without loss of life. The cavalry horses suffered severely, + and were only preserved by doubling their rations of oats, + while to prevent their being frozen during the intensely + cold night which followed, the guards were instructed to + pass along the picket lines with a whip, and keep the + horses moving constantly. The snow was eight inches deep. + The council, which was to take place the next day, had to be + postponed until the return of good weather. Now began the + display of a kind of diplomacy for which the Indian is + peculiar. The Cheyennes and a band of Sioux were encamped + on Pawnee Fork, about thirty miles above Fort Larned. + They neither desired to move nearer to us or have us + approach nearer to them. On the morning of the 11th, + they sent us word that they had started to visit us, but, + discovering a large herd of buffalo near their camp, + they had stopped to procure a supply of meat. This message + was not received with much confidence, nor was a buffalo + hunt deemed of sufficient importance to justify the Indians + in breaking their engagement. General Hancock decided, + however, to delay another day, when, if the Indians still + failed to come in, he would move his command to the vicinity + of their village and hold the conference there. + + Orders were issued on the evening of the 12th for the march + to be resumed on the following day. Late in the evening + two chiefs of the "Dog-Soldiers," a band composed of the + most warlike and troublesome Indians on the plains, + chiefly made up of Cheyennes, visited our camp. They were + accompanied by a dozen warriors, and expressed a desire to + hold a conference with General Hancock, to which he assented. + A large council-fire was built in front of the general's + tent, and all the officers of his command assembled there. + A tent had been erected for the accommodation of the chiefs + a short distance from the general's. Before they could + feel equal to the occasion, and in order to obtain time to + collect their thoughts, they desired that supper might be + prepared for them, which was done. When finally ready, + they advanced from their tent to the council-fire in single + file, accompanied by their agent and an interpreter. + Arrived at the fire, another brief delay ensued. No matter + how pressing or momentous the occasion, an Indian invariably + declines to engage in a council until he has filled his pipe + and gone through with the important ceremony of a smoke. + This attended to, the chiefs announced that they were ready + "to talk." They were then introduced to the principal + officers of the group, and seemed much struck with the + flashy uniforms of the few artillery officers, who were + present in all the glory of red horsehair plumes, + aiguillettes, etc. The chiefs seemed puzzled to determine + whether these insignia designated chieftains or medicine men. + General Hancock began the conference by a speech, in which + he explained to the Indians his purpose in coming to see + them, and what he expected of them in the future. + He particularly informed them that he was not there to make + war, but to promote peace. Then, expressing his regrets + that more of the chiefs had not visited him, he announced + his intention of proceeding on the morrow with his command + to the vicinity of their village, and there holding a + council with all the chiefs. Tall Bull, a fine, warlike-looking + chieftain, replied to General Hancock, but his speech + contained nothing important, being made up of allusions to + the growing scarcity of the buffalo, his love for the white + man, and the usual hint that a donation in the way of + refreshments would be highly acceptable; he added that he + would have nothing new to say at the village. + + Rightly concluding that the Indians did not intend to come + to our camp, as they had at first agreed to, it was decided + to move nearer their village. On the morning following the + conference our entire force, therefore, marched from + Fort Larned up Pawnee Fork in the direction of the main + village, encamping the first night about twenty-one miles + from Larned. Several parties of Indians were seen in our + advance during the day, evidently watching our movements, + while a heavy smoke, seen to rise in the direction of the + Indian village, indicated that something more than usual + was going on. The smoke, we afterward learned, arose from + burning grass. The Indians, thinking to prevent us from + encamping in their vicinity, had set fire to and burned all + the grass for miles in the direction from which they + expected us. Before we arrived at our camping-ground, + we were met by several chiefs and warriors belonging to the + Cheyennes and Sioux. Among the chiefs were Pawnee Killer, + of the Sioux, and White Horse, of the Cheyennes. It was + arranged that these chiefs should accept our hospitality + and remain with us during the night, and in the morning all + the chiefs of the two tribes then in the village were to + come to General Hancock's head-quarters and hold a council. + On the morning of the 14th, Pawnee Killer left our camp at + an early hour, as he said for the purpose of going to the + village to bring in the other chiefs to the council. + Nine o'clock had been agreed upon as the time at which the + council should assemble. The hour came, but the chiefs + did not. Now an Indian council is not only often an + important, but always an interesting, occasion. At this + juncture, Bull Bear, an influential chief among the + Cheyennes, came in and reported that the chiefs were on + their way to our camp, but would not be able to reach it + for some time. This was a mere artifice to secure delay. + General Hancock informed Bull Bear that, as the chiefs + could not arrive for some time, he would move his forces + up the stream nearer the village, and the council could be + held at our camp that night. To this proposition Bull Bear + gave his consent. + + At 11 A.M. we resumed the march, and had proceeded but a few + miles when we witnessed one of the finest and most imposing + military displays, according to the Indian art of war, + which it has been my lot to behold. It was nothing more + nor less than an Indian line of battle drawn directly + across our line of march, as if to say, "Thus far and no + further." Most of the Indians were mounted; all were + bedecked in their brightest colours, their heads crowned + with the brilliant war-bonnet, their lances bearing the + crimson pennant, bows strung, and quivers full of barbed + arrows. In addition to these weapons, which, with the + hunting-knife and tomahawk, are considered as forming the + armament of the warrior, each one was supplied with either + a breech-loading rifle or revolver, sometimes with both- + the latter obtained through the wise forethought and strong + love of fair play which prevails in the Indian department, + which, seeing that its wards are determined to fight, + is equally determined that there shall be no advantage taken, + but that the two sides shall be armed alike; proving, too, + in this manner, the wonderful liberality of our government, + which is not only able to furnish its soldiers with the + latest style of breech-loaders to defend it and themselves, + but is equally able and willing to give the same pattern + of arms to the common foe. The only difference is, that if + the soldier loses his weapon, he is charged double price + for it, while to avoid making any such charge against the + Indian, his weapons are given him without conditions attached. + + In the line of battle before us there were several hundred + Indians, while further to the rear and at different + distances were other organized bodies, acting apparently + as reserves. Still further behind were small detachments + who seemed to perform the duty of couriers, and were held + in readiness to convey messages to the village. The ground + beyond was favourable for an extended view, and as far as + the eye could reach, small groups of individuals could be + seen in the direction of the village; these were evidently + parties of observation, whose sole object was to learn the + result of our meeting with the main body and hasten with + the news to the village. + + For a few moments appearances seemed to foreshadow anything + but a peaceable issue. The infantry was in the advance, + followed closely by the artillery, while my command, + the cavalry, was marching on the flank. General Hancock, + who was riding with his staff at the head of the column, + coming suddenly in view of the wild, fantastic battle array, + which extended far to our right and left, and was not more + than half a mile in our front, hastily sent orders to the + infantry, artillery, and cavalry to form in line of battle, + evidently determined that, if war was intended, we should be + prepared. The cavalry being the last to form on the right, + came into line on a gallop, and without waiting to align + the ranks carefully, the command was given to "Draw sabre." + As the bright blades flashed from their scabbards into the + morning sunlight, and the infantry brought their muskets + to a carry, a contrast was presented which, to a military + eye, could but be striking. Here in battle array, facing + each other, were the representatives of civilized and + barbarous warfare. The one, with few modifications, stood + clothed in the same rude style of dress, bearing the same + patterned shield and weapon that his ancestors had borne + centuries before; the other confronted him in the dress + and supplied with the implements of war which an advanced + stage of civilization had pronounced the most perfect. + Was the comparative superiority of these two classes to be + subjected to the mere test of war here? All was eager + anxiety and expectation. Neither side seemed to comprehend + the object or intentions of the other; each was waiting + for the other to deliver the first blow. A more beautiful + battle-ground could not have been chosen. Not a bush or + even the slightest irregularity of ground intervened between + the two lines, which now stood frowning and facing each other. + Chiefs could be seen riding along the line, as if directing + and exhorting their braves to deeds of heroism. + + After a few moments of painful suspense, General Hancock, + accompanied by General A. J. Smith and other officers, + rode forward, and through an interpreter invited the chiefs + to meet us midway for the purpose of an interview. + In response to this invitation, Roman Nose, bearing a white + flag, accompanied by Bull Bear, White Horse, Gray Beard, + and Medicine Wolf, on the part of the Cheyennes, and Pawnee + Killer, Bad Wound, Tall-Bear-That-Walks-under-the-Ground, + Left Hand, Little Bear, and Little Bull, on the part of the + Sioux, rode forward to the middle of the open space between + the two lines. Here we shook hands with all the chiefs, + most of them exhibiting unmistakable signs of gratification + at this apparently peaceful termination of our rencounter. + General Hancock very naturally inquired the object of the + hostile attitude displayed before us, saying to the chiefs + that if war was their object, we were ready then and there + to participate. Their immediate answer was that they did + not desire war, but were peacefully disposed. They were + then told that we would continue our march toward the + village, and encamp near it, but would establish such + regulations that none of the soldiers would be permitted + to approach or disturb them. An arrangement was then + effected by which the chiefs were to assemble at General + Hancock's headquarters as soon as our camp was pitched. + The interview then terminated, and the Indians moved off + in the direction of their village, we following leisurely + in the rear. + + A march of a few miles brought us in sight of the village, + which was situated in a beautiful grove on the bank of the + stream up which we had been marching. It consisted of + upwards of three hundred lodges, a small fraction over half + belonging to the Cheyennes, the remainder to the Sioux. + Like all Indian encampments, the ground chosen was a most + romantic spot, and at the same time fulfilled in every + respect the requirements of a good camping-ground; wood, + water, and grass were abundant. The village was placed on + a wide, level plateau, while on the north and west, at a + short distance off, rose high bluffs, which admirably served + as a shelter against the cold winds which at that season of + the year prevail from those directions. Our tents were + pitched within a mile of the village. Guards were placed + between to prevent intrusion upon our part. We had scarcely + pitched our tents when Roman Nose, Bull Bear, Gray Beard, + and Medicine Wolf, all prominent chiefs of the Cheyenne + nation, came into camp with the information that upon our + approach their women and children had all fled from the + village, alarmed by the presence of so many soldiers, and + imagining a second Chivington massacre to be intended. + General Hancock insisted that they should all return, + promising protection and good treatment to all; that if + the camp was abandoned, he would hold it responsible. + The chiefs then stated their belief in their ability to + recall the fugitives, could they be furnished with horses + to overtake them. This was accordingly done, and two of + them set out mounted on two of our horses. An agreement + was also entered into at the same time, that one of our + interpreters, Ed Gurrier, a half-breed Cheyenne, who was in + the employ of the government, should remain in the village + and report every two hours as to whether any Indians were + leaving there. This was about seven o'clock in the evening. + At half-past nine the half-breed returned to head-quarters + with the intelligence that all the chiefs and warriors were + saddling up to leave, under circumstances showing that they + had no intention of returning, such as packing up every + article that could be carried with them, and cutting and + destroying their lodges—this last being done to obtain + small pieces for temporary shelter. + + I had retired to my tent, which was some few hundred yards + from that of General Hancock, when a messenger from the + latter awakened me with the information that the general + desired my presence in his tent. He briefly stated the + situation of affairs, and directed me to mount my command + as quickly and as silently as possible, surround the Indian + village, and prevent the departure of its inhabitants. + Easily said, but not so easily done. Under ordinary + circumstances, silence not being necessary, I could have + returned to my camp, and by a few blasts from the trumpet, + placed every soldier on his saddle almost as quickly as it + has taken time to write this short sentence. No bugle calls + must be sounded; we were to adopt some of the stealth of the + Indians—how successfully remained to be seen. By this time + every soldier and officer was in his tent sound asleep. + First going to the tent of the adjutant and arousing him, + I procured an experienced assistant in my labours. Next the + captains of companies were awakened and orders imparted + to them. They in turn transmitted the order to the first + sergeant, who similarly aroused the men. It has often + surprised me to observe the alacrity with which disciplined + soldiers, experienced in campaigning, will hasten to prepare + themselves for the march in an emergency like this. + No questions are asked, no time is wasted. A soldier's + toilet, on an Indian campaign, is a simple affair, and + requires little time for arranging. His clothes are + gathered up hurriedly, no matter how, so long as he retains + possession of them. The first object is to get his horse + saddled and bridled, and until this is done his own dress + is a matter of secondary importance, and one button or hook + must do the duty of half a dozen. When his horse is ready + for the mount, the rider will be seen completing his own + equipment; stray buttons will receive attention, arms will + be overhauled, spurs restrapped; then, if there still remain + a few spare moments, the homely black pipe is filled and + lighted, and the soldier's preparation is complete. + + The night was all that could be desired for the success of + our enterprise. The air was mild and pleasant; the moon, + although nearly full, kept almost constantly behind the + clouds, as if to screen us in our hazardous undertaking. + I say hazardous, because none of us imagined for one moment + that if the Indians discovered us in our attempt to surround + them and their village, we should escape without a fight— + a fight, too, in which the Indians, sheltered behind the + trunks of the stately forest trees under which their lodges + were pitched, would possess all the advantage. General + Hancock, anticipating that the Indians would discover our + approach, and that a fight would ensue, ordered the + artillery and infantry under arms, to await the result of + our moonlight adventure. My command was soon in the saddle, + and silently making its way toward the village. + Instructions had been given forbidding all conversation + except in a whisper. Sabres were disposed of to prevent + clanging. Taking a camp-fire which we could see in the + village as our guiding point, we made a detour so as to + place the village between ourselves and the infantry. + Occasionally the moon would peep out from the clouds and + enable us to catch a hasty glance at the village. Here and + there under the thick foliage we could see the white, + conical-shaped lodges. Were the inmates slumbering, + unaware of our close proximity, or were their dusky defenders + concealed, as well they might have been, along the banks of + the Pawnee, quietly awaiting our approach, and prepared to + greet us with their well-known war-whoop? These were + questions that were probably suggested to the mind of each + individual of my command. If we were discovered approaching + in the stealthy, suspicious manner which characterized our + movements, the hour being midnight, it would require a more + confiding nature than that of the Indian to assign a + friendly or peaceful motive to our conduct. The same + flashes of moonlight which gave us hurried glimpses of the + village enabled us to see our own column of horsemen + stretching its silent length far into the dim darkness, and + winding its course, like some huge anaconda about to envelop + its victim. + + The method by which it was determined to establish a cordon + of armed troopers about the fated village, was to direct + the march in a circle, with the village in the centre, + the commanding officer of each rear troop halting his + command at the proper point, and deploying his men similarly + to a line of skirmishers—the entire circle, when thus formed, + facing toward the village, and, distant from it perhaps a + few hundred yards. No sooner was our line completely formed + than the moon, as if deeming darkness no longer essential + to our success, appeared from behind her screen and lighted + up the entire scene. And beautiful it was! The great + circle of troops, each individual of which sat on his steed + silent as a statue, the dense foliage of the cotton trees + sheltering the bleached, skin-clad lodges of the red men, + the little stream in the midst murmuring undisturbedly in + its channel, all combined to produce an artistic effect, + as striking as it was interesting. But we were not there + to study artistic effects. The next step was to determine + whether we had captured an inhabited village, involving + almost necessarily a severe conflict with its savage + occupants, or whether the red man had again proven too + wily and crafty for his more civilized brothers. + + Directing the entire line of troopers to remain mounted + with carbines held at the "Advance," I dismounted, and + taking with me Gurrier, the half-breed, Dr. Coates, one of + our medical staff, and Lieutenant Moylan, the adjutant, + we proceeded on our hands and knees toward the village. + The prevailing opinion was that the Indians were still + asleep. I desired to approach near enough to the lodges + to enable the half-breed to hail the village in the Indian + tongue, and if possible establish friendly relations at once. + It became a question of prudence with us, which we discussed + in whispers as we proceeded on our "Tramp, tramp, tramp, + the boys are creeping," how far from our horses and how + near to the village we dared to go. If so few of us were + discovered entering the village in this questionable manner, + it was more than probable that, like the returners of stolen + property, we should be suitably rewarded and no questions + asked. The opinion of Gurrier, the half-breed, was eagerly + sought for and generally deferred to. His wife, + a full-blooded Cheyenne, was a resident of the village. + This with him was an additional reason for wishing a peaceful + termination to our efforts. When we had passed over + two-thirds of the distance between our horses and the + village, it was thought best to make our presence known. + Thus far not a sound had been heard to disturb the stillness + of the night. Gurrier called out at the top of his voice + in the Cheyenne tongue. The only response came from the + throats of a score or more of Indian dogs which set up a + fierce barking. At the same time one or two of our party + asserted that they saw figure moving beneath the trees. + Gurrier repeated his summons, but with no better results + than before. + + A hurried consultation ensued. The presence of so many dogs + in the village was regarded by the half-breed as almost + positive assurance that the Indians were still there. + Yet it was difficult to account for their silence. Gurrier + in a loud tone repeated who he was, and that our mission was + friendly. Still no answer. He then gave it as his opinion + that the Indians were on the alert, and were probably + waiting in the shadow of the trees for us to approach nearer, + when they would pounce upon us. This comforting opinion + induced another conference. We must ascertain the truth of + the matter; our party could do this as well as a larger + number, and to go back and send another party in our stead + could not be thought of. + + Forward! was the verdict. Each one grasped his revolver, + resolved to do his best, whether it was in running or + fighting. I think most of us would have preferred to take + our own chances at running. We had approached near enough + to see that some of the lodges were detached some distance + from the main encampment. Selecting the nearest of these, + we directed our advance on it. While all of us were full + of the spirit of adventure, and were further encouraged + with the idea that we were in the discharge of our duty, + there was scarcely one of us who would not have felt more + comfortable if we could have got back to our horses without + loss of pride. Yet nothing, under the circumstances, but + a positive order would have induced any one to withdraw. + + Cautiously approaching, on all fours, to within a few yards + of the nearest lodge, occasionally halting and listening to + discover whether the village was deserted or not, we finally + decided that the Indians had fled before the arrival of the + cavalry, and that none but empty lodges were before us. + This conclusion somewhat emboldened as well as accelerated + our progress. Arriving at the first lodge, one of our party + raised the curtain or mat which served as a door, and the + doctor and myself entered. The interior of the lodge was + dimly lighted by the dying embers of a small fire built in + the centre. All around us were to be seen the usual + adornments and articles which constitute the household + effects of an Indian family. Buffalo-robes were spread like + carpets over the floor; head-mats, used to recline on, were + arranged as if for the comfort of their owners; parflêches, + a sort of Indian band-box, with their contents apparently + undisturbed, were carefully stowed away under the edges or + borders of the lodge. These, with the door-mats, paint-bags, + rawhide ropes, and other articles of Indian equipment, + were left as if the owners had only absented themselves for + a brief period. To complete the picture of an Indian lodge, + over the fire hung a camp-kettle, in which, by means of the + dim light of the fire, we could see what had been intended + for the supper of the late occupants of the lodge. + The doctor, ever on the alert to discover additional items + of knowledge, whether pertaining to history or science, + snuffed the savoury odours which arose from the dark + recesses of the mysterious kettle. Casting about the lodge + for some instrument to aid him in his pursuit of knowledge, + he found a horn spoon, with which he began his investigation + of the contents, finally succeeding in getting possession + of a fragment which might have been the half of a duck or + rabbit, judging from its size merely. "Ah!" said the doctor, + in his most complacent manner, "here is the opportunity I + have long been waiting for. I have often desired to test + the Indian mode of cooking. What do you suppose this is?" + holding up the dripping morsel. Unable to obtain the + desired information, the doctor, whose naturally good + appetite had been sensibly sharpened by his recent exercise, + set to with a will and ate heartily of the mysterious + contents of the kettle. He was only satisfied on one point, + that it was delicious—a dish fit for a king. Just then + Gurrier, the half-breed, entered the lodge. He could solve + the mystery, having spent years among the Indians. To him + the doctor appealed for information. Fishing out a huge + piece, and attacking it with the voracity of a hungry wolf, + he was not long in determining what the doctor had supped + heartily upon. His first words settled the mystery: "Why, + this is dog." I will not attempt to repeat the few but + emphatic words uttered by the heartily disgusted member of + the medical fraternity as he rushed from the lodge. + + Other members of our small party had entered other lodges, + only to find them, like the first, deserted. But little of + the furniture belonging to the lodges had been taken, + showing how urgent and hasty had been the flight of the + owners. To aid in the examination of the village, + reinforcements were added to our party, and an exploration + of each lodge was determined upon. At the same time a + messenger was despatched to General Hancock, informing him + of the flight of the Indians. Some of the lodges were + closed by having brush or timber piled up against the + entrance, as if to preserve the contents. Others had huge + pieces cut from their sides, these pieces evidently being + carried away to furnish temporary shelter for the fugitives. + In most of the lodges the fires were still burning. I had + entered several without discovering anything important. + Finally, in company with the doctor, I arrived at one the + interior of which was quite dark, the fire having almost + died out. Procuring a lighted fagot, I prepared to explore it, + as I had done the others; but no sooner had I entered the + lodge than my fagot failed me, leaving me in total darkness. + Handing it to the doctor to be relighted, I began to feel + my way about the interior of the lodge. I had almost made + the circuit when my hand came in contact with a human foot; + at the same time a voice unmistakably Indian, and which + evidently came from the owner of the foot, convinced me that + I was not alone. My first impressions were that in their + hasty flight the Indians had gone off, leaving this one + asleep. My next, very naturally, related to myself. + I would gladly have placed myself on the outside of the + lodge, and there matured plans for interviewing its occupant; + but unfortunately to reach the entrance of the lodge, I must + either pass over or around the owner of the before-mentioned + foot and voice. Could I have been convinced that among + its other possessions there was neither tomahawk nor + scalping-knife, pistol nor war-club, or any similar article + of the noble red-man's toilet, I would have risked an attempt + to escape through the low narrow opening of the lodge; + but who ever saw an Indian without one or all of these + interesting trinkets? Had I made the attempt, I should + have expected to encounter either the keen edge of the + scalping-knife or the blow of the tomahawk, and to have + engaged in a questionable struggle for life. This would + not do. I crouched in silence for a few moments, hoping + the doctor would return with the lighted fagot. I need not + say that each succeeding moment spent in the darkness of + that lodge seemed an age. I could hear a slight movement + on the part of my unknown neighbour, which did not add to + my comfort. Why does not the doctor return? At last I + discovered the approach of a light on the outside. When it + neared the entrance, I called the doctor and informed him + that an Indian was in the lodge, and that he had better + have his weapons ready for a conflict. I had, upon + discovering the foot, drawn my hunting-knife from its + scabbard, and now stood waiting the denouement. With his + lighted fagot in one hand and cocked revolver in the other, + the doctor cautiously entered the lodge. And there directly + between us, wrapped in a buffalo-robe, lay the cause of my + anxiety—a little Indian girl, probably ten years old; + not a full-blood, but a half-breed. She was terribly + frightened at finding herself in our hands, with none of + her people near. Other parties in exploring the deserted + village found an old, decrepit Indian of the Sioux tribe, + who had also been deserted, owing to his infirmities and + inability to travel with the tribe. Nothing was gleaned + from our search of the village which might indicate the + direction of the flight. General Hancock, on learning the + situation of affairs, despatched some companies of infantry + with orders to replace the cavalry and protect the village + and its contents from disturbance until its final disposition + could be determined upon, and it was decided that with eight + troops of cavalry I should start in pursuit of the Indians + at early dawn on the following morning. + + The Indians, after leaving their village, went up on the + Smoky Hill, and committed the most horrible depredations + upon the scattered settlers in that region. Upon this news, + General Hancock issued the following order:— + + "As a punishment of the bad faith practised by the Cheyennes + and Sioux who occupied the Indian village at this place, and + as a chastisement for murders and depredations committed + since the arrival of the command at this point, by the + people of these tribes, the village recently occupied by + them, which is now in our hands, will be utterly destroyed." + + The Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches had been united under + one agency; the Kiowas and Comanches under another. + As General Hancock's expedition had reference to all these + tribes, he had invited both the agents to accompany him + into the Indian country and be present at all interviews + with the representatives of these tribes, for the purpose, + as the invitation stated, of showing the Indians "that the + officers of the government are acting in harmony." + + In conversation with the general the agents admitted that + Indians had been guilty of all the outrages charged against + them, but each asserted the innocence of the particular + tribes under his charge, and endeavoured to lay their crimes + at the door of their neighbours. + + Here was positive evidence from the agents themselves that + the Indians against whom we were operating were deserving + of severe punishment. The only conflicting portion of the + testimony was as to which tribe was most guilty. Subsequent + events proved, however, that all of the five tribes named, + as well as the Sioux, had combined for a general war + throughout the plains and along our frontier. Such a war + had been threatened to our post commanders along the + Arkansas on many occasions during the winter. The movement + of the Sioux and Cheyennes toward the north indicated that + the principal theatre of military operations during the + summer would be between the Smoky Hill and Platte rivers. + General Hancock accordingly assembled the principal chiefs + of the Kiowas and Arapahoes in council at Fort Dodge, + hoping to induce them to remain at peace and observe their + treaty obligations. + + The most prominent chiefs in council were Satanta, Lone Wolf, + and Kicking Bird of the Kiowas, and Little Raven and Yellow + Bear of the Arapahoes. During the council extravagant + promises of future good behaviour were made by these chiefs. + So effective and convincing was the oratorical effort of + Satanta, that at the termination of his address, the + department commander and his staff presented him with the + uniform coat, sash, and hat of a major-general. In return + for this compliment, Satanta, within a few weeks, attacked + the post at which the council was held, arrayed in his + new uniform. +</pre> + <p> + In the spring of 1878, the Indians commenced a series of depredations + along the Santa Fe Trail and against the scattered settlers of the + frontier, that were unparalleled in their barbarity. General Alfred Sully, + a noted Indian fighter, who commanded the district of the Upper Arkansas, + early concentrated a portion of the Seventh and Tenth Cavalry and Third + Infantry along the line of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and kept out small + expeditions of scouting parties to protect the overland coaches and + freight caravans; but the troops effected very little in stopping the + devilish acts of the Indians, who were now fully determined to carry out + their threats of a general war, which culminated in the winter expedition + of General Sheridan, who completely subdued them, and forced all the + tribes on reservations; since which time there has never been any trouble + with the plains Indians worthy of mention.<a href="#linknote-69" + name="linknoteref-69" id="linknoteref-69"><small>69</small></a> + </p> + <p> + General Sully, about the 1st of September, with eight companies of the + Seventh Cavalry and five companies of infantry, left Fort Dodge, on the + Arkansas, on a hurried expedition against the Kiowas, Arapahoes, and + Cheyennes. The command marched in a general southeasterly direction, and + reached the sand hills of the Beaver and Wolf rivers, by a circuitous + route, on the fifth day. When nearly through that barren region, they were + attacked by a force of eight hundred of the allied tribes under the + leadership of the famous Kiowa chief, Satanta. A running fight was kept up + with the savages on the first day, in which two of the cavalry were killed + and one wounded. + </p> + <p> + That night the savages came close enough to camp to fire into it (an + unusual proceeding in Indian warfare, as they rarely molest troops during + the night), I now quote from Custer again: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + The next day General Sully directed his march down the + valley of the Beaver; but just as his troops were breaking + camp, the long wagon-train having already "pulled out," and + the rear guard of the command having barely got into their + saddles, a party of between two and three hundred warriors, + who had evidently in some inexplicable manner contrived to + conceal themselves until the proper moment, dashed into the + deserted camp within a few yards of the rear of the troops, + and succeeded in cutting off a few led horses and two of + the cavalrymen who, as is often the case, had lingered a + moment behind the column. + + Fortunately, the acting adjutant of the cavalry, Brevet + Captain A. E. Smith, was riding at the rear of the column + and witnessed the attack of the Indians. Captain Hamilton,<a + href="#linknote-70" name="linknoteref-70" id="linknoteref-70">70</a> + of the Seventh Cavalry, was also present in command of the + rear guard. Wheeling to the rightabout, he at once prepared + to charge the Indians and attempt the rescue of the two + troopers who were being carried off before his very eyes. + At the same time, Captain Smith, as representative of the + commanding officer of the cavalry, promptly took the + responsibility of directing a squadron of the cavalry to + wheel out of column and advance in support of Captain + Hamilton's guard. With this hastily formed detachment, + the Indians, still within pistol-range, but moving off with + their prisoners, were gallantly charged and so closely + pressed that they were forced to relinquish one of their + prisoners, but not before shooting him through the body and + leaving him on the ground, as they supposed, mortally wounded. + The troops continued to charge the retreating Indians, + upon whom they were gaining, determined, if possible, + to effect the rescue of their remaining comrade. They were + advancing down one slope while the Indians, just across + a ravine, were endeavouring to escape with their prisoner + up the opposite ascent, when a peremptory order reached the + officers commanding the pursuing force to withdraw their men + and reform the column at once. The terrible fate awaiting + the unfortunate trooper carried off by the Indians spread + a deep gloom throughout the command. All were too familiar + with the horrid customs of the savages to hope for a moment + that the captive would be reserved for aught but a slow, + lingering death, from tortures the most horrible and painful + which blood-thirsty minds could suggest. Such was the truth + in his case, as we learned afterwards when peace (?) was + established with the tribes then engaged in war. + + The expedition proceeded down the valley of the Beaver, + the Indians contesting every step of the way. In the + afternoon, about three o'clock, the troops arrived at + a ridge of sand hills a few miles southeast of the + presentsite of Camp Supply, where quite a determined + engagement took place between the command and the three + tribes, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowas, the Indians + being the assailants. The Indians seemed to have reserved + their strongest efforts until the troops and train had + advanced well into the sand hills, when a most obstinate + resistance—and well conducted, too—was offered the + farther advance of the troops. It was evident that the + troops were probably nearing the Indian villages, and that + this opposition to further advance was to save them. The + character of the country immediately about the troops was + not favourable to the operations of cavalry; the surface + of the rolling plain was cut up by irregular and closely + located sand hills, too steep and sandy to allow cavalry + to move with freedom, yet capable of being easily cleared + of savages by troops fighting on foot. The Indians took + post on the hilltops and began a harassing fire on the + troops and train. Captain Yates, with a single troop of + cavalry, was ordered forward to drive them away. This was + a proceeding which did not seem to meet with favour from + the savages. Captain Yates could drive them wherever he + encountered them, but they appeared in increased numbers + at some other threatened point. After contending in this + non-effective manner for a couple of hours, the impression + arose in the minds of some that the train could not be + conducted through the sand hills in the face of the strong + opposition offered by the Indians. The order was issued + to turn about and withdraw. The order was executed, and + the troop and train, followed by the exultant Indians, + retired a few miles to the Beaver, and encamped for the + night on the ground afterward known as Camp Supply. + + Captain Yates had caused to be brought off the field, when + his troop was ordered to retire, the body of one of his men, + who had been slain in the fight. As the troops were to + continue their backward march next day, and it was impossible + to transport the dead body further, Captain Yates ordered + preparations made for interring it in camp that night. + Knowing that the Indians would thoroughly search the deserted + camp-ground almost before the troops should get out of sight, + and would be quick, with their watchful eyes, to detect a + grave, and, if successful in discovering it, would unearth + the body in order to get the scalp, directions were given + to prepare the grave after nightfall; and the spot selected + would have baffled any one but an Indian. The grave was + dug under the picket line to which the seventy or eighty + horses of the troop would be tethered during the night, + so that their constant tramping and pawing should completely + cover up and obliterate all traces. The following morning, + even those who had performed the sad rites of burial to + their fallen comrade could scarcely have indicated the exact + location of the grave. Yet when we returned to that point + a few weeks later, it was discovered that the wily savages + had found the place, unearthed the body, and removed the + scalp of their victim on the day following the interment.<a + href="#linknote-71" name="linknoteref-71" id="linknoteref-71">71</a> +</pre> + <p> + After leaving the camp at Supply, the Indians gradually increased their + force, until they mustered about two thousand warriors. For four days and + nights they hovered around the command, and by the time it reached + Mulberry Creek there were not one thousand rounds of ammunition left in + the whole force of troopers and infantrymen. At the creek, the incessant + charges of the now infuriated savages compelled the troops to use this + small amount held in reserve, and they found themselves almost at the + mercy of the Indians. But before they were absolutely defenceless, Colonel + Keogh had sent a trusty messenger in the night to Fort Dodge for a supply + of cartridges to meet the command at the creek, which fortunately arrived + there in time to save that spot from being a veritable "last ditch." + </p> + <p> + The savages, in the little but exciting encounter at the creek before the + ammunition arrived, would ride up boldly toward the squadrons of cavalry, + discharge the shots from their revolvers, and then, in their rage, throw + them at the skirmishers on the flanks of the supply-train, while the + latter, nearly out of ammunition, were compelled to sit quietly in their + saddles, idle spectators of the extraordinary scene.<a href="#linknote-72" + name="linknoteref-72" id="linknoteref-72"><small>72</small></a> + </p> + <p> + Many of the Indians were killed on their ponies, however, by those who + were fortunate enough to have a few cartridges left; but none were + captured, as the savages had taken their usual precaution to tie + themselves to their animals, and as soon as dead were dragged away by + them. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIV. INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. + </h2> + <p> + The tourist who to-day, in a palace car, surrounded by all the + conveniences of our American railway service, commences his tour of the + prairies at the Missouri River, enters classic ground the moment the train + leaves the muddy flood of that stream on its swift flight toward the + golden shores of the Pacific. + </p> + <p> + He finds a large city at the very portals of the once far West, with all + the bustle and energy which is so characteristic of American enterprise. + </p> + <p> + Gradually, as he is whirled along the iron trail, the woods lessen; he + catches views of beautiful intervales; a bright little stream flashes and + foams in the sunlight as the trees grow fewer, and soon he emerges on the + broad sea of prairie, shut in only by the great circle of the heavens. + </p> + <p> + Dotting this motionless ocean everywhere, like whitened sails, are quiet + homes, real argosies ventured by the sturdy and industrious people who + have fought their way through almost insurmountable difficulties to the + tranquillity which now surrounds them. + </p> + <p> + A few miles west of Topeka, the capital of Kansas, when the train reaches + the little hamlet of Wakarusa, the track of the railroad commences to + follow the route of the Old Santa Fe Trail. At that point, too, the Oregon + Trail branches off for the heavily timbered regions of the Columbia. Now + begins the classic ground of the once famous highway to New Mexico; nearly + every stream, hill, and wooded dell has its story of adventure in those + days when the railroad was regarded as an impossibility, and the region + beyond the Missouri as a veritable desert. + </p> + <p> + After some hours' rapid travelling, if our tourist happens to be a + passenger on the "California Limited," the swift train that annihilates + distance, he will pass by towns, hamlets, and immense cattle ranches, + stopping only at county-seats, and enter the justly famous Arkansas valley + at the city of Hutchinson. The Old Trail now passes a few miles north of + this busy place, which is noted for its extensive salt works, nor does the + railroad again meet with it until the site of old Fort Zarah is reached, + forty-seven miles west of Hutchinson, though it runs nearly parallel to + the once great highway at varying distances for the whole detour. + </p> + <p> + The ruins of the once important military post may be seen from the + car-windows on the right, as the train crosses the iron bridge spanning + the Walnut, and here the Old Trail exactly coincides with the railroad, + the track of the latter running immediately on the old highway. + </p> + <p> + Three miles westward from the classic little Walnut the Old Trail ran + through what is now the Court House Square of the town of Great Bend; it + may be seen from the station, and on that very spot occurred the terrible + fight of Captains Booth and Hallowell in 1864. + </p> + <p> + Thirteen miles further mountainward, on the right of the railroad, not far + from the track, stands all that remains of the once dreaded Pawnee Rock. + It lies just beyond the limits of the little hamlet bearing its name. It + would not be recognized by any of the old plainsmen were they to come out + of their isolated graves; for it is only a disintegrated, low mass of + sandstone now, utilized for the base purposes of a corral, in which the + village herd of milch cows lie down at night and chew their cuds, such + peaceful transformation has that great civilizer, the locomotive, wrought + in less than two decades. + </p> + <p> + Another five or six miles, and the train crosses Ash Creek, which, too, + was once one of the favourite haunts of the Pawnee and Comanche on their + predatory excursions, in the days when the mules and horses of passing + freight caravans excited their cupidity. A short whirl again, and the town + of Larned, lying peacefully on the Arkansas and Pawnee Fork, is reached. + Immediately opposite the centre of the street through which the railroad + runs, and which was also the course of the Old Trail, lying in the + Arkansas River, close to its northern bank, is a small thickly-wooded + island, now reached by a bridge, that is famous as the battle-ground of a + terrible conflict thirty years ago, between the Pawnees and Cheyennes, + hereditary enemies, in which the latter tribe was cruelly defeated. + </p> + <p> + The railroad bridge crosses Pawnee Fork at the precise spot where the Old + Trail did. This locality has been the scene of some of the bloodiest + encounters between the various tribes of savages themselves, and between + them and the freight caravans, the overland coaches, and every other kind + of outfit that formerly attempted the passage of the now peaceful stream. + In fact, the whole region from Walnut Creek to the mouth of the Pawnee, + which includes in its area Ash Creek and Pawnee Rock, seemed to be the + greatest resort for the Indians, who hovered about the Santa Fe Trail for + the sole purpose of robbery and murder; it was a very lucky caravan or + coach, indeed, that passed through that portion of the route without being + attacked. + </p> + <p> + All the once dangerous points of the Old Trail having been successively + passed—Cow Creek, Big and Little Coon, and Ash Creek, Fort Dodge, + Fort Aubrey,<a href="#linknote-73" name="linknoteref-73" + id="linknoteref-73"><small>73</small></a> and Point of Rocks—the + tourist arrives at last at the foot-hills. At La Junta the railroad + separates into two branches; one going to Denver, the other on to New + Mexico. Here, a relatively short distance to the northwest, on the right + of the train, may be seen the ruins of Bent's Fort, the tourist having + already passed the site of the once famous Big Timbers, a favourite winter + camping-ground of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes; but everywhere around him + there reigns such perfect quiet and pastoral beauty, he might imagine that + the peaceful landscape upon which he looks had never been a bloody arena. + </p> + <p> + I suggest to the lover of nature that he should cross the Raton Range in + the early morning, or late in the afternoon; for then the magnificent + scenery of the Trail over the high divide into New Mexico assumes its most + beautiful aspect. + </p> + <p> + In approaching the range from the Old Trail, or now from the railroad, + their snow-clad peaks may be seen at a distance of sixty miles. In the era + of caravans and pack-trains, for hour after hour, as they moved slowly + toward the goal of their ambition, the summit of the fearful pathway on + the divide, the huge forms of the mountains seemed to recede, and yet + ascend higher. On the next day's journey their outlines appeared more + irregular and ragged. Drawing still nearer, their base presented a long, + dark strip stretching throughout their whole course, ever widening until + it seemed like a fathomless gulf, separating the world of reality from the + realms of imagination beyond. + </p> + <p> + Another weary twenty miles of dusty travel, and the black void slowly + dissolved, and out of the shadows lines of broken, sterile, ferruginous + buttes and detached masses of rocks, whose soilless surface refuses + sustenance, save to a few scattered, stunted pines and lifeless mosses, + emerged to view. + </p> + <p> + The progress of the weary-footed mules or oxen was now through ravines and + around rocks; up narrow paths which the melting snows have washed out; + sometimes between beetling cliffs, often to their very edge, where + hundreds of feet below the Trail the tall trees seemed diminished into + shrubs. Then again the road led over an immense broad terrace, for + thousands of yards around, with a bright lake gleaming in the refracted + light, and brilliant Alpine plants waving their beautiful flowers on its + margin. Still the coveted summit appeared so far off as to be beyond the + range of vision, and it seemed as if, instead of ascending, the entire + mass underneath had been receding, like the mountains of ice over which + Arctic explorers attempt to reach the pole. Now the tortuous Trail passed + through snow-wreaths which the winds had eddied into indentations; then + over bright, glassy surfaces of ice and fragments of rocks, until the + pinnacle was reached. Nearer, along the broad successive terraces of the + opposite mountains, the evergreen pine, the cedar, with its stiff, angular + branches, and the cottonwood, with its varied curves and bright colours, + were crowded into bunches or strung into zigzag lines, interspersed with + shrubs and mountain plants, among which the flaming cactus was + conspicuous. To the right and left, the bare cones of the barren peaks + rose in multitude, with their calm, awful forms shrouded in snow, and + their dark shadows reflected far into the valleys, like spectres from a + chaotic world. + </p> + <p> + In going through the Raton Pass, the Old Santa Fe Trail meandered up a + steep valley, enclosed on either side by abrupt hills covered with pine + and masses of gray rock. The road ran along the points of varying + elevations, now in the stony bed of Raton Creek, which it crossed + fifty-three times, the sparkling, flitting waters of the bubbling stream + leaping and foaming against the animals' feet as they hauled the great + wagons of the freight caravans over the tortuous passage. The creek often + rushed rapidly under large flat stones, lost to sight for a moment, then + reappearing with a fresh impetus and dashing over its flinty, uneven bed + until it mingled with the pure waters of Le Purgatoire. + </p> + <p> + Still ascending, the scenery assumed a bolder, rougher cast; then sudden + turns gave you hurried glimpses of the great valley below. A gentle dell + sloped to the summit of the pass on the west, then, rising on the east by + a succession of terraces, the bald, bare cliff was reached, overlooking + the whole region for many miles, and this is Raton Peak.<a + href="#linknote-74" name="linknoteref-74" id="linknoteref-74"><small>74</small></a> + </p> + <p> + The extreme top of this famous peak was only reached after more than an + hour's arduous struggle. On the lofty plateau the caravans and pack-trains + rested their tired animals. Here, too, the lonely trapper, when crossing + the range in quest of beaver, often chose this lofty spot on which to + kindle his little fire and broil juicy steaks of the black-tail deer, the + finest venison in the world; but before he indulged in the savoury + morsels, if he was in the least superstitious or devout, or inspired by + the sublime scene around him, he lighted his pipe, and after saluting the + elevated ridge on which he sat by the first whiff of the fragrant + kinnikinick, Indian-fashion, he in turn offered homage in the same manner + to the sky above him, the earth beneath, and to the cardinal points of the + compass, and was then prepared to eat his solitary meal in a spirit of + thankfulness. + </p> + <p> + Far below this magnificent vantage-ground lies the valley of the Rio Las + Animas Perdidas. On the other verge of the great depression rise the + peerless, everlastingly snow-wreathed Spanish Peaks,<a href="#linknote-75" + name="linknoteref-75" id="linknoteref-75"><small>75</small></a> whose + giant summits are grim sentinels that for untold ages have witnessed + hundreds of sanguinary conflicts between the wily nomads of the vast + plains watered by the silent Arkansas. + </p> + <p> + All around you snow-clad mountains lift their serrated crowns above the + horizon, dim, white, and indistinct, like icebergs seen at sea by + moonlight; others, nearer, more rugged, naked of verdure, and irregular in + contour, seem to lose their lofty summits in the intense blue of the sky. + </p> + <p> + Fisher's Peak, which is in full view from the train, was named from the + following circumstance: Captain Fisher was a German artillery officer + commanding a battery in General Kearney's Army of the West in the conquest + of New Mexico and was encamped at the base of the peak to which he + involuntarily gave his name. He was intently gazing at the lofty summit + wrapped in the early mist, and not being familiar with the illusory + atmospheric effects of the region, he thought that to go there would be + merely a pleasant promenade. So, leaving word that he would return to + breakfast, he struck out at a brisk walk for the crest. That whole day, + the following night, and the succeeding day, dragged their weary hours on, + but no tidings of the commanding officer were received at the battery, and + ill rumours were current of his death by Indians or bears, when, just as + his mess were about to take their seats at the table for the evening meal, + their captain put in an appearance, a very tired but a wiser man. He + started to go to the peak, and he went there! + </p> + <p> + On the summit of another rock-ribbed elevation close by, the tourist will + notice the shaft of an obelisk. It is over the grave of George Simpson, + once a noted mountaineer in the days of the great fur companies. For a + long time he made his home there, and it was his dying request that the + lofty peak he loved so well while living should be his last resting-place. + The peak is known as "Simpson's Rest," and is one of the notable features + of the rugged landscape. + </p> + <p> + Pike's Peak, far away to the north, intensely white and silvery in the + clear sky, hangs like a great dome high in the region of the clouds, a + marked object, worthy to commemorate the indefatigable efforts of the + early voyageur whose name it bears. + </p> + <p> + In this wonderful locality, both Pike's Peak and the snowy range over two + hundred miles from our point of observation really seem to the uninitiated + as if a brisk walk of an hour or two would enable one to reach them, so + deceptive is the atmosphere of these elevated regions. + </p> + <p> + About two miles from the crest of the range, yet over seven thousand feet + above the sea-level, in a pretty little depression about as large as a + medium-sized corn-field in the Eastern States, Uncle Dick Wooton lived, + and here, too, was his toll-gate. The veteran mountaineer erected a + substantial house of adobe, after the style of one of the old-time + Southern plantation residences, a memory, perhaps, of his youth, when he + raised tobacco in his father's fields in Kentucky.<a href="#linknote-76" + name="linknoteref-76" id="linknoteref-76"><small>76</small></a> + </p> + <p> + The most charming hour in which to be on the crest of Raton Range is in + the afternoon, when the weather is clear and calm. As the night comes on + apace in the distant valley beneath, the evening shadows drop down, + pencilled with broad bands of rosy light as they creep slowly across the + beautiful landscape, while the rugged vista below is enveloped in a + diffused haze like that which marks the season of the Indian summer in the + lower great plains. Above, the sky curves toward the relatively restricted + horizon, with not a cloud to dim its intense blue, nowhere so beautiful as + in these lofty altitudes. + </p> + <p> + The sun, however, does not always shine resplendently; there are times + when the most terrific storms of wind, hail, and rain change the entire + aspect of the scene. Fortunately, these violent bursts never last long; + they vanish as rapidly as they come, leaving in their wake the most + phenomenally beautiful rainbows, whose trailing splendours which they owe + to the dry and rare air of the region, and its high refractory power, are + gorgeous in the extreme. + </p> + <p> + In 1872 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad entered the valley of + the Upper Arkansas. Twenty-four years ago, on a delicious October + afternoon, I stood on the absolutely level plateau at the mouth of Pawnee + Fork where that historic creek debouches into the great river. The + remembrance of that view will never pass from my memory, for it showed a + curious temporary blending of two distinct civilizations. One, the new, + marking the course of empire in its restless march westward; the other, + that of the aboriginal, which, like a dissolving view, was soon to fade + away and be forgotten. + </p> + <p> + The box-elders and cottonwoods thinly covering the creek-bottom were + gradually donning their autumn dress of russet, and the mirage had already + commenced its fantastic play with the landscape. On the sides and crests + of the sparsely grassed sand hills south of the Arkansas a few buffaloes + were grazing in company with hundreds of Texas cattle, while in the broad + valley beneath, small flocks of graceful antelope were lying down, quietly + ruminating their midday meal. + </p> + <p> + In the distance, far eastwardly, a train of cars could be seen + approaching; as far as the eye could reach, on either side of the track, + the virgin sod had been turned to the sun; the "empire of the plough" was + established, and the march of immigration in its hunger for the horizon + had begun. + </p> + <p> + Half a mile away from the bridge spanning the Fork, under the grateful + shade of the largest trees, about twenty skin lodges were irregularly + grouped; on the brown sod of the sun-cured grass a herd of a hundred + ponies were lazily feeding, while a troop of dusky little children were + chasing the yellow butterflies from the dried and withered sunflower + stalks which once so conspicuously marked the well-worn highway to the + mountains. These Indians, the remnant of a tribe powerful in the years of + savage sovereignty, were on their way, in charge of their agent, to their + new homes, on the reservation just allotted to them by the government, a + hundred miles south of the Arkansas. + </p> + <p> + Their primitive lodges contrasted strangely with the peaceful little + sod-houses, dugouts, and white cottages of the incoming settlers on the + public lands, with the villages struggling into existence, and above all + with the rapidly moving cars; unmistakable evidences that the new + civilization was soon to sweep the red men before it like chaff before the + wind. + </p> + <p> + Farther to the west, a caravan of white-covered wagons loaded with + supplies for some remote military post, the last that would ever travel + the Old Trail, was slowly crawling toward the setting sun. I watched it + until only a cloud of dust marked its place low down on the horizon, and + it was soon lost sight of in the purple mist that was rapidly + overspreading the far-reaching prairie. + </p> + <p> + It was the beginning of the end; on the 9th of February, 1880, the first + train over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad arrived at Santa Fe + and the Old Trail as a route of commerce was closed forever. The once + great highway is now only a picture in the memory of the few who have + travelled its weary course, following the windings of the silent Arkansas, + on to the portals that guard the rugged pathway leading to the shores of + the blue Pacific. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_FOOT" id="link2H_FOOT"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FOOTNOTES. + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ The whole country watered + by the Mississippi and Missouri was called Florida at that time.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ The celebrated Jesuit, + author of <i>The History of New France</i>, <i>Journals of a Voyage to + North America</i>, <i>Letters to the Duchess</i>, etc.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ Otoes.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ Iowas.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ Boulevard, Promenade.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ Notes of a Military + Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in + California, including parts of the Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila Rivers. + Brevet Major W. H. Emory, Corps of Topographical Engineers, United States + Army, 1846.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ Hon. W. F. Arny, in his + Centennial Celebration Address at Santa Fe, July 4, 1876.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ Edwards, <i>Conquest of New + Mexico</i>.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-9" id="linknote-9"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ I think this is Bancroft's + idea.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-10" id="linknote-10"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 10 (<a href="#linknoteref-10">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Historical Sketches of + New Mexico</i>, L. Bradford Prince, late Chief Justice of New Mexico, + 1883.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-11" id="linknote-11"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ D. H. Coyner, 1847.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-12" id="linknote-12"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 12 (<a href="#linknoteref-12">return</a>)<br /> [ He was travelling + parallel to the Old Santa Fe Trail all the time, but did not know it until + he was overtaken by a band of Kaw Indians.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-13" id="linknote-13"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 13 (<a href="#linknoteref-13">return</a>)<br /> [ McKnight was murdered + south of the Arkansas by the Comanches in the winter of 1822.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-14" id="linknote-14"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 14 (<a href="#linknoteref-14">return</a>)<br /> [ Chouteau's Island.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-15" id="linknote-15"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 15 (<a href="#linknoteref-15">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Hennepin's Journal</i>.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-16" id="linknote-16"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 16 (<a href="#linknoteref-16">return</a>)<br /> [ The line between the + United States and Mexico (or New Spain, as it was called) was defined by a + treaty negotiated in 1819, between the Chevalier de Onis, then Spanish + minister at Washington, and John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State. + According to its provisions, the boundary between Mexico and Louisiana, + which had been added to the Union, commenced with the river Sabine at its + entrance into the Gulf of Mexico, at about the twenty-ninth degree of + north latitude and the ninety-fourth degree of longitude, west from + Greenwich, and followed it as far as its junction with the Red River of + Natchitoches, which then served to mark the frontier up to the one + hundredth degree of west longitude, where the line ran directly north to + the Arkansas, which it followed to its source at the forty-second degree + of north latitude, whence another straight line was drawn up the same + parallel to the Pacific coast.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-17" id="linknote-17"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 17 (<a href="#linknoteref-17">return</a>)<br /> [ This tribe kept up its + reputation under the dreaded Satanta, until 1868—a period of forty + years—when it was whipped into submission by the gallant Custer. + Satanta was its war chief, one of the most cruel savages the great plains + ever produced. He died a few years ago in the state prison of Texas.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-18" id="linknote-18"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 18 (<a href="#linknoteref-18">return</a>)<br /> [ McNess Creek is on the + old Cimarron Trail to Santa Fe, a little east of a line drawn south from + Bent's Fort.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-19" id="linknote-19"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 19 (<a href="#linknoteref-19">return</a>)<br /> [ Mr. Bryant, of Kansas, + who died a few years ago, was one of the pioneers in the trade with Santa + Fe. Previous to his decease he wrote for a Kansas newspaper a narrative of + his first trip across the great plains; an interesting monograph of + hardship and suffering. For the use of this document I am indebted to Hon. + Sol. Miller, the editor of the journal in which it originally appeared. I + have also used very extensively the notes of Mr. William Y. Hitt, one of + the Bryant party, whose son kindly placed them at my disposal, and copied + liberally from the official report of Major Bennett Riley—afterward + the celebrated general of Mexican War fame, and for whom the Cavalry Depot + in Kansas is named; as also from the journal of Captain Philip St. George + Cooke, who accompanied Major Riley on his expedition.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-20" id="linknote-20"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 20 (<a href="#linknoteref-20">return</a>)<br /> [ Chouteau's Island, at the + mouth of Sand Creek.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-21" id="linknote-21"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 21 (<a href="#linknoteref-21">return</a>)<br /> [ Valley of the Upper + Arkansas.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-22" id="linknote-22"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 22 (<a href="#linknoteref-22">return</a>)<br /> [ About three miles east of + the town of Great Bend, Barton County, Kansas.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-23" id="linknote-23"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 23 (<a href="#linknoteref-23">return</a>)<br /> [ The Old Santa Fe Trail + crosses the creek some miles north of Hutchinson, and coincides with the + track again at the mouth of Walnut Creek, three miles east of Great Bend.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-24" id="linknote-24"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 24 (<a href="#linknoteref-24">return</a>)<br /> [ There are many + conflicting accounts in regard to the sum Don Antonio carried with him on + that unfortunate trip. Some authorities put it as high as sixty thousand; + I have taken a mean of the various sums, and as this method will suffice + in mathematics, perhaps we can approximate the truth in this instance.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-25" id="linknote-25"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 25 (<a href="#linknoteref-25">return</a>)<br /> [ General Emory of the + Union army during the Civil War. He made an official report of the country + through which the Army of the West passed, accompanied by maps, and his <i>Reconnoissance + in New Mexico and California</i>, published by the government in 1848, is + the first authentic record of the region, considered topographically and + geologically.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-26" id="linknote-26"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 26 (<a href="#linknoteref-26">return</a>)<br /> [ <i>Doniphan's Expedition, + containing an account of the Conquest of New Mexico</i>, etc. John T. + Hughes, A.B., of the First Regiment of Missouri Cavalry. 1850.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-27" id="linknote-27"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 27 (<a href="#linknoteref-27">return</a>)<br /> [ Deep Gorge.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-28" id="linknote-28"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 28 (<a href="#linknoteref-28">return</a>)<br /> [ Colonel Leavenworth, for + whom Fort Leavenworth is named, and who built several army posts in the + far West.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-29" id="linknote-29"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 29 (<a href="#linknoteref-29">return</a>)<br /> [ Colonel A. G. Boone, a + grandson of the immortal Daniel, was one of the grandest old mountaineers + I ever knew. He was as loyal as anybody, but honest in his dealings with + the Indians, and that was often a fault in the eyes of those at Washington + who controlled these agents. Kit Carson was of the same honest class as + Boone, and he, too, was removed for the same cause.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-30" id="linknote-30"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 30 (<a href="#linknoteref-30">return</a>)<br /> [ A narrow defile on the + Trail, about ninety miles east of Fort Union. It is called the "canyon of + the Canadian, or Red, River," and is situated between high walls of earth + and rock. It was once a very dangerous spot on account of the ease and + rapidity with which the savages could ambush themselves.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-31" id="linknote-31"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 31 (<a href="#linknoteref-31">return</a>)<br /> [ Carson, Wooton, and all + other expert mountaineers, when following a trail, could always tell just + what time had elapsed since it was made. This may seem strange to the + uninitiated, but it was part of their necessary education. They could tell + what kind of a track it was, which way the person or animal had walked, + and even the tribe to which the savage belonged, either by the shape of + the moccasin or the arrows which were occasionally dropped.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-32" id="linknote-32"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 32 (<a href="#linknoteref-32">return</a>)<br /> [ Lieutenant Bell belonged + to the Second Dragoons. He was conspicuous in extraordinary marches and in + action, and also an accomplished horseman and shot, once running and + killing five buffalo in a quarter of a mile. He died early in 1861, and + his death was a great loss to the service.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-33" id="linknote-33"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 33 (<a href="#linknoteref-33">return</a>)<br /> [ Known to this day as "The + Cheyenne Bottoms."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-34" id="linknote-34"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 34 (<a href="#linknoteref-34">return</a>)<br /> [ Lone Wolf was really the + head chief of the Kiowas.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-35" id="linknote-35"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 35 (<a href="#linknoteref-35">return</a>)<br /> [ The battle lasted three + days.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-36" id="linknote-36"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 36 (<a href="#linknoteref-36">return</a>)<br /> [ Kicking Bird was ever + afterward so regarded by the authorities of the Indian department.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-37" id="linknote-37"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 37 (<a href="#linknoteref-37">return</a>)<br /> [ Lorenzo Thomas, + adjutant-general of the United States army.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-38" id="linknote-38"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 38 (<a href="#linknoteref-38">return</a>)<br /> [ Kendall's <i>Santa Fe + Expedition</i> may be found in all the large libraries.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-39" id="linknote-39"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 39 (<a href="#linknoteref-39">return</a>)<br /> [ A summer-house, bower, or + arbour.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-40" id="linknote-40"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 40 (<a href="#linknoteref-40">return</a>)<br /> [ Frank Hall, Chicago, + 1885.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-41" id="linknote-41"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 41 (<a href="#linknoteref-41">return</a>)<br /> [ The greater portion of + this chapter I originally wrote for <i>Harper's Weekly</i>. By the kind + permission of the publishers, I am permitted to use it here.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-42" id="linknote-42"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 42 (<a href="#linknoteref-42">return</a>)<br /> [ These statistics I have + carefully gathered from the freight departments of the railroads, which + kept a record of all the bones that were shipped, and from the purchasers + of the carbon works, who paid out the money at various points. Some of the + bones, however, may have been on the ground for a longer time, as decay is + very slow in the dry air of the plains.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-43" id="linknote-43"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 43 (<a href="#linknoteref-43">return</a>)<br /> [ La Jeunesse was one of + the bravest of the old French Canadian trappers. He was a warm friend of + Kit Carson and was killed by the Indians in the following manner. They + were camping one night in the mountains; Kit, La Jeunesse, and others had + wrapped themselves up in their blankets near the fire, and were sleeping + soundly; Fremont sat up until after midnight reading letters he had + received from the United States, after finishing which, he, too, turned in + and fell asleep. Everything was quiet for a while, when Kit was awakened + by a noise that sounded like the stroke of an axe. Rising cautiously, he + discovered Indians in the camp; he gave the alarm at once, but two of his + companions were dead. One of them was La Jeunesse, and the noise he had + heard was the tomahawk as it buried itself in the brave fellow's head.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-44" id="linknote-44"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 44 (<a href="#linknoteref-44">return</a>)<br /> [ This black is made from a + species of plumbago found on the hills of the region.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-45" id="linknote-45"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 45 (<a href="#linknoteref-45">return</a>)<br /> [ The Pawnees and Cheyennes + were hereditary enemies, and they frequently met in sanguinary conflict.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-46" id="linknote-46"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 46 (<a href="#linknoteref-46">return</a>)<br /> [ A French term Anglicised, + as were many other foreign words by the trappers in the mountains. Its + literal meaning is, arrow fender, for from it the plains Indians construct + their shields; it is buffalo-hide prepared in a certain manner.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-47" id="linknote-47"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 47 (<a href="#linknoteref-47">return</a>)<br /> [ Boiling Spring River.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-48" id="linknote-48"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 48 (<a href="#linknoteref-48">return</a>)<br /> [ For some reason the + Senate refused to confirm the appointment, and he had consequently no + connection with the regular army.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-49" id="linknote-49"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 49 (<a href="#linknoteref-49">return</a>)<br /> [ Point of Rocks is six + hundred and forty seven miles from Independence, and was always a + favourite place of resort for the Indians of the great plains; + consequently it was one of the most dangerous camping-spots for the + freight caravans on the Trail. It comprises a series of continuous hills, + which project far out on the prairie in bold relief. They end abruptly in + a mass of rocks, out of which gushes a cold, refreshing spring, which is, + of course, the main attraction of the place. The Trail winds about near + this point, and many encounters with the various tribes have occurred + there.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-50" id="linknote-50"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 50 (<a href="#linknoteref-50">return</a>)<br /> [ "Little Mountain."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-51" id="linknote-51"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 51 (<a href="#linknoteref-51">return</a>)<br /> [ General Gatlin was a + North Carolinian, and seceded with his State at the breaking out of the + Rebellion, but refused to leave his native heath to fight, so indelibly + was he impressed with the theory of State rights. He was willing to defend + the soil of North Carolina, but declined to step across its boundary to + repel invasion in other States.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-52" id="linknote-52"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 52 (<a href="#linknoteref-52">return</a>)<br /> [ The name of "Crow," as + applied to the once powerful nation of mountain Indians, is a misnomer, + the fault of some early interpreter. The proper appellation is + "Sparrowhawks," but they are officially recognized as "Crows."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-53" id="linknote-53"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 53 (<a href="#linknoteref-53">return</a>)<br /> [ Kit Carson, ten years + before, when on his first journey, met with the same adventure while on + post at Pawnee Rock.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-54" id="linknote-54"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 54 (<a href="#linknoteref-54">return</a>)<br /> [ The fusee was a fire-lock + musket with an immense bore, from which either slugs or balls could be + shot, although not with any great degree of accuracy.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-55" id="linknote-55"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 55 (<a href="#linknoteref-55">return</a>)<br /> [ The Indians always knew + when the caravans were to pass certain points on the Trail, by their + runners or spies probably.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-56" id="linknote-56"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 56 (<a href="#linknoteref-56">return</a>)<br /> [ It was one of the rigid + laws of Indian hospitality always to respect the person of any one who + voluntarily entered their camps or temporary halting-places. As long as + the stranger, red or white, remained with them, he enjoyed perfect + immunity from harm; but after he had left, although he had progressed but + half a mile, it was just as honourable to follow and kill him.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-57" id="linknote-57"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 57 (<a href="#linknoteref-57">return</a>)<br /> [ In their own fights with + their enemies one or two of the defeated party are always spared, and sent + back to their tribe to carry the news of the slaughter.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-58" id="linknote-58"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 58 (<a href="#linknoteref-58">return</a>)<br /> [ The story of the way in + which this name became corrupted into "Picketwire," by which it is + generally known in New Mexico, is this: When Spain owned all Mexico and + Florida, as the vast region of the Mississippi valley was called, long + before the United States had an existence as a separate government, the + commanding officer at Santa Fe received an order to open communication + with the country of Florida. For this purpose an infantry regiment was + selected. It left Santa Fe rather late in the season, and wintered at a + point on the Old Trail now known as Trinidad. In the spring, the colonel, + leaving all camp-followers behind him, both men and women, marched down + the stream, which flows for many miles through a magnificent canyon. Not + one of the regiment returned or was ever heard of. When all hope had + departed from the wives, children, and friends left behind at Trinidad, + information was sent to Santa Fe, and a wail went up through the land. The + priests and people then called this stream "El Rio de las Animas Perditas" + ("The river of lost souls"). Years after, when the Spanish power was + weakened, and French trappers came into the country under the auspices of + the great fur companies, they adopted a more concise name; they called the + river "Le Purgatoire." Then came the Great American Bull-Whacker. Utterly + unable to twist his tongue into any such Frenchified expression, he called + the stream with its sad story "Picketwire," and by that name it is known + to all frontiersmen, trappers, and the settlers along its banks.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-59" id="linknote-59"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 59 (<a href="#linknoteref-59">return</a>)<br /> [ The ranch is now in + charge of Mr. Harry Whigham, an English gentleman, who keeps up the old + hospitality of the famous place.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-60" id="linknote-60"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 60 (<a href="#linknoteref-60">return</a>)<br /> [ "River of Souls." The + stream is also called Le Purgatoire, corrupted by the Americans into + Picketwire.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-61" id="linknote-61"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 61 (<a href="#linknoteref-61">return</a>)<br /> [ Pawnee Rock is no longer + conspicuous. Its material has been torn away by both the railroad and the + settlers in the vicinity, to build foundations for water-tanks, in the one + instance, and for the construction of their houses, barns, and sheds, in + the other. Nothing remains of the once famous landmark; its site is + occupied as a cattle corral by the owner of the claim in which it is + included.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-62" id="linknote-62"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 62 (<a href="#linknoteref-62">return</a>)<br /> [ The crossing of the Old + Santa Fe Trail at Pawnee Fork is now within the corporate limits of the + pretty little town of Larned, the county-seat of Pawnee County. The + tourist from his car-window may look right down upon one of the worst + places for Indians that there was in those days of the commerce of the + prairies, as the road crosses the stream at the exact spot where the Trail + crossed it.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-63" id="linknote-63"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 63 (<a href="#linknoteref-63">return</a>)<br /> [ This was a favourite + expression of his whenever he referred to any trouble with the Indians.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-64" id="linknote-64"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 64 (<a href="#linknoteref-64">return</a>)<br /> [ Indians will risk the + lives of a dozen of their best warriors to prevent the body of any one of + their number from falling into the white man's possession. The reason for + this is the belief, which prevails among all tribes, that if a warrior + loses his scalp he forfeits his hope of ever reaching the happy + hunting-ground.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-65" id="linknote-65"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 65 (<a href="#linknoteref-65">return</a>)<br /> [ It was in this fight that + the infamous Charles Bent received his death-wound.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-66" id="linknote-66"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 66 (<a href="#linknoteref-66">return</a>)<br /> [ The Atchison, Topeka, and + Santa Fe Railroad track runs very close to the mound, and there is a + station named for the great mesa.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-67" id="linknote-67"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 67 (<a href="#linknoteref-67">return</a>)<br /> [ The venerable Colonel A. + S. Johnson, of Topeka, Kansas, the first white child born on the great + State's soil, who related to me this adventure of Hatcher's, knew him + well. He says that he was a small man, full of muscle, and as fearless as + can be conceived.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-68" id="linknote-68"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 68 (<a href="#linknoteref-68">return</a>)<br /> [ The place where they + turned is about a hundred yards east of the Court House Square, in the + present town of Great Bend; it may be seen from the cars.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-69" id="linknote-69"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 69 (<a href="#linknoteref-69">return</a>)<br /> [ See Sheridan's <i>Memoirs</i>, + Custer's <i>Life on the Plains</i>, and Buffalo Bill's book, in which all + the stirring events of that campaign—nearly every fight of which was + north or far south of the Santa Fe Trail—are graphically told.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-70" id="linknote-70"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 70 (<a href="#linknoteref-70">return</a>)<br /> [ A grandson of Alexander + Hamilton; killed at the battle of the Washita, in the charge on Black + Kettle's camp under Custer.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-71" id="linknote-71"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 71 (<a href="#linknoteref-71">return</a>)<br /> [ This ends Custer's + narrative. The following fight, which occurred a few days afterward, at + the mouth of Mulberry Creek, twelve miles below Fort Dodge, and within a + stone's throw of the Old Trail, was related to me personally by Colonel + Keogh, who was killed at the Rosebud, in Custer's disastrous battle with + Sitting Bull. We were both attached to General Sully's staff.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-72" id="linknote-72"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 72 (<a href="#linknoteref-72">return</a>)<br /> [ It was in this fight that + Colonel Keogh's celebrated horse Comanche received his first wound. It + will be remembered that Comanche and a Crow Indian were the only survivors + of that unequal contest in the valley of the Big Horn, commonly called the + battle of the Rosebud, where Custer and his command was massacred.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-73" id="linknote-73"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 73 (<a href="#linknoteref-73">return</a>)<br /> [ Now Kendall, a little + village in Hamilton County, Kansas.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-74" id="linknote-74"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 74 (<a href="#linknoteref-74">return</a>)<br /> [ Raton is the name given + by the early Spaniards to this range, meaning both mouse and squirrel. It + had its origin either in the fact that one of its several peaks bore a + fanciful resemblance to a squirrel, or because of the immense numbers of + that little rodent always to be found in its pine forests.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-75" id="linknote-75"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 75 (<a href="#linknoteref-75">return</a>)<br /> [ In the beautiful language + of the country's early conquerors, "Las Cumbres Espanolas," or "Las dos + Hermanas" (The Two Sisters), and in the Ute tongue, "Wahtoya" (The + Twins).] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-76" id="linknote-76"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 76 (<a href="#linknoteref-76">return</a>)<br /> [ The house was destroyed + by fire two or three years ago.] + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old Santa Fe Trail, by Henry Inman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL *** + +***** This file should be named 7984-h.htm or 7984-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/9/8/7984/ + +Produced by Michael S. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Old Santa Fe Trail + The Story of a Great Highway + +Author: Henry Inman + +Commentator: W. F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7984] +Posting Date: August 7, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL *** + + + + +Produced by Michael S. Overton + + + + + +THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL + +THE STORY OF A GREAT HIGHWAY + +By Colonel Henry Inman + +Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army + + +With a Preface by W. F. "BUFFALO BILL" CODY + + + + +PREFACE. + + +As we look into the open fire for our fancies, so we are apt to study +the dim past for the wonderful and sublime, forgetful of the fact that +the present is a constant romance, and that the happenings of to-day +which we count of little importance are sure to startle somebody in the +future, and engage the pen of the historian, philosopher, and poet. + +Accustomed as we are to think of the vast steppes of Russia and Siberia +as alike strange and boundless, and to deal with the unknown interior of +Africa as an impenetrable mystery, we lose sight of a locality in +our own country that once surpassed all these in virgin grandeur, in +majestic solitude, and in all the attributes of a tremendous wilderness. + +The story of the Old Santa Fe Trail, so truthfully recalled by Colonel +Henry Inman, ex-officer of the old Regular Army, in these pages, is a +most thrilling one. The vast area through which the famous highway ran +is still imperfectly known to most people as "The West"; a designation +once appropriate, but hardly applicable now; for in these days of easy +communication the real trail region is not so far removed from New York +as Buffalo was seventy years ago. + +At the commencement of the "commerce of the prairies," in the early +portion of the century, the Old Trail was the arena of almost constant +sanguinary struggles between the wily nomads of the desert and the hardy +white pioneers, whose eventful lives made the civilization of the vast +interior region of our continent possible. Their daring compelled its +development, which has resulted in the genesis of great states and large +cities. Their hardships gave birth to the American homestead; their +determined will was the factor of possible achievements, the most +remarkable and important of modern times. + +When the famous highway was established across the great plains as a +line of communication to the shores of the blue Pacific, the only method +of travel was by the slow freight caravan drawn by patient oxen, or the +lumbering stage coach with its complement of four or six mules. There +was ever to be feared an attack by those devils of the desert, the +Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas. Along its whole route the remains +of men, animals, and the wrecks of camps and wagons, told a story of +suffering, robbery, and outrage more impressive than any language. Now +the tourist or business man makes the journey in palace cars, and there +is nothing to remind him of the danger or desolation of Border days; on +every hand are the evidences of a powerful and advanced civilization. + +It is fortunate that one is left to tell some of its story who was a +living actor and had personal knowledge of many of the thrilling scenes +that were enacted along the line of the great route. He was familiar +with all the famous men, both white and savage, whose lives have made +the story of the Trail, his own sojourn on the plains and in the Rocky +Mountains extending over a period of nearly forty years. + +The Old Trail has more than common interest for me, and I gladly record +here my indorsement of the faithful record, compiled by a brave soldier, +old comrade, and friend. + +W. F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill." + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + + INTRODUCTION. + The First Europeans who traversed the Great Highway--Alvar Nunez + Cabeca de Vaca--Hernando de Soto, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado-- + Spanish Expedition from Santa Fe eastwardly--Escape of the Sole Survivors. + + CHAPTER I. + UNDER THE SPANIARDS. + Quaint Descriptions of Old Santa Fe--The Famous Adobe Palace-- + Santa Fe the Oldest Town in the United States--First Settlement-- + Onate's Conquest--Revolt of the Pueblo Indians--Under Pueblo Rule + --Cruelties of the Victors--The Santa Fe of To-day--Arrival of + a Caravan--The Railroad reaches the Town--Amusements--A Fandango. + + CHAPTER II. + LA LANDE AND PURSLEY. + The Beginning of the Santa Fe Trade--La Lande and Pursley, + the First Americans to cross the Plains--Pursley's Patriotism-- + Captain Ezekiel Williams--A Hungry Bear--A Midnight Alarm. + + CHAPTER III. + EARLY TRADERS. + Captain Becknell's Expedition--Sufferings from Thirst--Auguste + Chouteau--Imprisonment of McKnight and Chambers--The Caches-- + Stampeding Mules--First Military Escort across the Plains-- + Captain Zebulon Pike--Sublette and Smith--Murder of McNess-- + Indians not the Aggressors. + + CHAPTER IV. + TRAINS AND PACKERS. + The Atajo or Pack-train of Mules--Mexican Nomenclature of + Paraphernalia--Manner of Packing--The "Bell-mare"--Toughness of + Mules among Precipices--The Caravan of Wagons--Largest Wagon-train + ever on the Plains--Stampedes--Duties of Packers en route--Order of + Travelling with Pack-train--Chris. Gilson, the Famous Packer. + + CHAPTER V. + FIGHT WITH COMANCHES. + Narrative of Bryant's Party of Santa Fe Traders--The First Wagon + Expedition across the Plains--A Thrilling Story of Hardship and + Physical Suffering--Terrible Fight with the Comanches--Abandonment + of the Wagons--On Foot over the Trail--Burial of their Specie + on an Island in the Arkansas--Narrative of William Y. Hitt, + one of the Party--His Encounter with a Comanche--The First Escort + of United States Troops to the Annual Caravan of Santa Fe Traders, + in 1829--Major Bennett Riley's Official Report to the War Department + --Journal of Captain Cooke. + + CHAPTER VI. + A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY. + The Expedition of Texans to the Old Santa Fe Trail for the Purpose + of robbing Mexican Traders--Innocent Citizens of the United States + suspected, arrested, and carried to the Capital of New Mexico-- + Colonel Snively's Force--Warfield's Sacking of the Village of Mora + --Attack upon a Mexican Caravan--Kit Carson in the Fight-- + A Crime of over Sixty Years Ago--A Romance of the Tragedy. + + CHAPTER VII. + MEXICO DECLARES WAR. + Mexico declares War against the United States--Congress authorizes + the President to call for Fifty Thousand Volunteers--Organization of + the Army of the West--Phenomenon seen by Santa Fe Traders in the Sky + --First Death on the March of the Army across the Plains--Men in + a Starving Condition--Another Death--Burial near Pawnee Rock-- + Trouble at Pawnee Fork--Major Howard's Report. + + CHAPTER VIII. + THE VALLEY OF TAOS. + The Valley of Taos--First White Settler--Rebellion of the Mexicans + --A Woman discovers and informs Colonel Price of the Conspiracy-- + Assassination of Governor Bent--Horrible Butcheries by the Pueblos + and Mexicans--Turley's Ranch--Murder of Harwood and Markhead-- + Anecdote of Sir William Drummond Stewart--Fight at the Mills-- + Battle of the Pueblo of Taos--Trial of the Insurrectionists-- + Baptiste, the Juror--Execution of the Rebels. + + CHAPTER IX. + FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. + Independence--Opening of Navigation on the Mississippi--Effect of + Water Transportation upon the Trade--Establishment of Trading-forts-- + Market for Cattle and Mules--Wages paid Teamsters on the Trail-- + An Enterprising Coloured Man--Increase of the Trade at the Close of + the Mexican War--Heavy Emigration to California--First Overland Mail + --How the Guards were armed--Passenger Coaches to Santa Fe-- + Stage-coaching Days. + + CHAPTER X. + CHARLES BENT. + The Tragedy in the Canyon of the Canadian--Dragoons follow the Trail + of the Savages--Kit Carson, Dick Wooton, and Tom Tobin the Scouts + of the Expedition--More than a Hundred of the Savages killed-- + Murder of Mrs. White--White Wolf--Lieutenant Bell's Singular Duel + with the Noted Savage--Old Wolf--Satank--Murder of Peacock-- + Satanta made Chief--Kicking Bird--His Tragic Death--Charles Bent, + the Half-breed Renegade--His Terrible Acts--His Death. + + CHAPTER XI. + LA GLORIETA. + Neglect of New Mexico by the United States Government--Intended + Conquest of the Province--Conspiracy of Southern Leaders-- + Surrender by General Twiggs to the Confederate Government of the + Military Posts and Munitions of War under his Command--Only One + Soldier out of Two Thousand deserts to the Enemy--Organization + of Volunteers for the Defence of Colorado and New Mexico-- + Battle of La Glorieta--Rout of the Rebels. + + CHAPTER XII. + THE BUFFALO. + The Ancient Range of the Buffalo--Number slaughtered in Thirteen Years + for their Robes alone--Buffalo Bones--Trains stopped by Vast Herds-- + Custom of Old Hunters when caught in a Blizzard--Anecdotes of + Buffalo Hunting--Kit Carson's Dilemma--Experience of Two of Fremont's + Hunters--Wounded Buffalo Bull--O'Neil's Laughable Experience-- + Organization of a Herd of Buffalo--Stampedes--Thrilling Escapes. + + CHAPTER XIII. + INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS. + Big Timbers--Winter Camp of the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes-- + Savage Amusements--A Cheyenne Lodge--Indian Etiquette--Treatment + of Children--The Pipe of the North American Savage--Dog Feast-- + Marriage Ceremony. + + CHAPTER XIV. + TRAPPERS. + The Old Pueblo Fort--A Celebrated Rendezvous--Its Inhabitants-- + "Fontaine qui Bouille"--The Legend of its Origin--The Trappers + of the Old Santa Fe Trail and the Rocky Mountains--Beaver Trapping-- + Habits of the Beaver--Improvidence of the Old Trappers--Trading with + "Poor Lo"--The Strange Experience of a Veteran Trapper on the + Santa Fe Trail--Romantic Marriage of Baptiste Brown. + + CHAPTER XV. + UNCLE JOHN SMITH. + Uncle John Smith--A Famous Trapper, Guide, and Interpreter-- + His Marriage with a Cheyenne Squaw--An Autocrat among the People + of the Plains and Mountains--The Mexicans held him in Great Dread-- + His Wonderful Resemblance to President Andrew Johnson--Interpreter + and Guide on General Sheridan's Winter Expedition against the + Allied Plains Tribes--His Stories around the Camp-fire. + + CHAPTER XVI. + KIT CARSON. + Famous Men of the Old Santa Fe Trail--Kit Carson--Jim Bridger-- + James P. Beckwourth--Uncle Dick Wooton--Jim Baker--Lucien B. + Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin--James Hobbs. + + CHAPTER XVII. + UNCLE DICK WOOTON. + Uncle Dick Wooton--Lucien B. Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin-- + James Hobbs--William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill). + + CHAPTER XVIII. + MAXWELL'S RANCH. + Maxwell's Ranch on the Old Santa Fe Trail--A Picturesque Region-- + Maxwell a Trapper and Hunter with the American Fur Company-- + Lifelong Comrade of Kit Carson--Sources of Maxwell's Wealth-- + Fond of Horse-racing--A Disastrous Fourth-of-July Celebration + --Anecdote of Kit Carson--Discovery of Gold on the Ranch-- + The Big Ditch--Issuing Beef to the Ute Indians--Camping out with + Maxwell and Carson--A Story of the Old Santa Fe Trail. + + CHAPTER XIX. + BENT'S FORTS. + The Bents' Several Forts--Famous Trading-posts--Rendezvous of the + Rocky Mountain Trappers--Castle William and Incidents connected + with the Noted Place--Bartering with the Indians--Annual Feast + of Arapahoes and Cheyennes--Old Wolf's First Visit to Bent's Fort-- + The Surprise of the Savages--Stories told by Celebrated Frontiersmen + around the Camp-fire. + + CHAPTER XX. + PAWNEE ROCK. + Pawnee Rock--A Debatable Region of the Indian Tribes--The most + Dangerous Point on the Central Plains in the Days of the Early + Santa Fe Trade--Received its Name in a Baptism of Blood-- + Battle-ground of the Pawnees and Cheyennes--Old Graves on the + Summit of the Rock--Kit Carson's First Fight at the Rock with + the Pawnees--Kills his Mule by Mistake--Colonel St. Vrain's + Brilliant Charge--Defeat of the Savages--The Trappers' Terrible + Battle with the Pawnees--The Massacre at Cow Creek. + + CHAPTER XXI. + FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. + Wagon Mound--John L. Hatcher's Thrilling Adventure with Old Wolf, + the War-chief of the Comanches--Incidents on the Trail--A Boy + Bugler's Happy Escape from the Savages at Fort Union--A Drunken + Stage-driver--How an Officer of the Quartermaster's Department + at Washington succeeded in starting the Military Freight Caravans + a Month Earlier than the Usual Time--How John Chisholm fooled + the Stage-robbers--The Story of Half a Plug of Tobacco. + + CHAPTER XXII. + A DESPERATE RIDE. + Solitary Graves along the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Walnut + Crossing--Fort Zarah--The Graves on Hon. D. Heizer's Ranch on + the Walnut--Troops stationed at the Crossing of the Walnut-- + A Terrible Five Miles--The Cavalry Recruit's Last Ride. + + CHAPTER XXIII. + HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. + General Hancock's Expedition against the Plains Indians--Terrible + Snow-storm at Fort Larned--Meeting with the Chiefs of the + Dog-Soldiers--Bull Bear's Diplomacy--Meeting of the United States + Troops and the Savages in Line of Battle--Custer's Night Experience-- + The Surgeon and Dog Stew--Destruction of the Village by Fire-- + General Sully's Fight with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Arapahoes-- + Finding the Skeletons of the Unfortunate Men--The Savages' Report + of the Affair. + + CHAPTER XXIV. + INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. + Scenery on the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Great Plains-- + The Arkansas Valley--Over the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico-- + The Raton Range--The Spanish Peaks--Simpson's Rest--Fisher's Peak + --Raton Peak--Snowy Range--Pike's Peak--Raton Creek--The Invasion + of the Railroad--The Old Santa Fe Trail a Thing of the Past. + + FOOTNOTES. + + PUBLICATION INFORMATION. + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + +For more than three centuries, a period extending from 1541 to 1851, +historians believed, and so announced to the literary world, that +Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the celebrated Spanish explorer, in his +search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and the Kingdom of Quivira, was +the first European to travel over the intra-continent region of North +America. In the last year above referred to, however, Buckingham Smith, +of Florida, an eminent Spanish scholar, and secretary of the American +Legation at Madrid, discovered among the archives of State the +_Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca_, where for nearly three +hundred years it had lain, musty and begrimed with the dust of ages, an +unread and forgotten story of suffering that has no parallel in fiction. +The distinguished antiquarian unearthed the valuable manuscript from its +grave of oblivion, translated it into English, and gave it to the world +of letters; conferring honour upon whom honour was due, and tearing the +laurels from such grand voyageurs and discoverers as De Soto, La Salle, +and Coronado, upon whose heads history had erroneously placed them, +through no fault, or arrogance, however, of their own. + +Cabeca, beyond any question, travelled the Old Santa Fe Trail for many +miles, crossed it where it intersects the Arkansas River, a little east +of Fort William or Bent's Fort, and went thence on into New Mexico, +following the famous highway as far, at least, as Las Vegas. Cabeca's +march antedated that of Coronado by five years. To this intrepid Spanish +voyageur we are indebted for the first description of the American +bison, or buffalo as the animal is erroneously called. While not so +quaint in its language as that of Coronado's historian, a lustrum later, +the statement cannot be perverted into any other reference than to the +great shaggy monsters of the plains:-- + + Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times + and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size + of those of Spain. They have small horns like the cows + of Morocco, and the hair very long and flocky, like that + of the merino; some are light brown, others black. To my + judgment the flesh is finer and fatter than that of this + country. The Indians make blankets of the hides of those + not full grown. They range over a district of more than + four hundred leagues, and in the whole extent of plain over + which they run the people that inhabit near there descend + and live on them and scatter a vast many skins throughout + the country. + +It will be remembered by the student of the early history of our +country, that when Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, a follower of the +unfortunate Panphilo de Narvaez, and who had been long thought dead, +landed in Spain, he gave such glowing accounts of Florida[1] and the +neighbouring regions that the whole kingdom was in a ferment, and many a +heart panted to emigrate to a land where the fruits were perennial, and +where it was thought flowed the fabled fountain of youth. + +Three expeditions to that country had already been tried: one undertaken +in 1512, by Juan Ponce de Leon, formerly a companion of Columbus; +another in 1520, by Vasquez de Allyon; and another by Panphilo de +Narvaez. All of these had signally failed, the bones of most of the +leaders and their followers having been left to bleach upon the soil +they had come to conquer. + +The unfortunate issue of the former expeditions did not operate as a +check upon the aspiring mind of De Soto, but made him the more anxious +to spring as an actor into the arena which had been the scene of the +discomfiture and death of the hardy chivalry of the kingdom. He sought +an audience of the emperor, and the latter, after hearing De Soto's +proposition that, "he could conquer the country known as Florida at +his own expense," conferred upon him the title of "Governor of Cuba and +Florida." + +On the 6th of April, 1538, De Soto sailed from Spain with an armament of +ten vessels and a splendidly equipped army of nine hundred chosen men, +amidst the roar of cannons and the inspiring strains of martial music. + +It is not within the province of this work to follow De Soto through all +his terrible trials on the North American continent; the wonderful story +may be found in every well-organized library. It is recorded, however, +that some time during the year 1542, his decimated army, then under the +command of Luis de Moscoso, De Soto having died the previous May, was +camped on the Arkansas River, far upward towards what is now Kansas. It +was this command, too, of the unfortunate but cruel De Soto, that saw +the Rocky Mountains from the east. The chronicler of the disastrous +journey towards the mountains says: "The entire route became a trail of +fire and blood," as they had many a desperate struggle with the savages +of the plains, who "were of gigantic structure, and fought with heavy +strong clubs, with the desperation of demons. Such was their tremendous +strength, that one of these warriors was a match for a Spanish soldier, +though mounted on a horse, armed with a sword and cased in armour!" + +Moscoso was searching for Coronado, and he was one of the most humane +of all the officers of De Soto's command, for he evidently bent every +energy to extricate his men from the dreadful environments of their +situation; despairing of reaching the Gulf by the Mississippi, he +struck westward, hoping, as Cabeca de Vaca had done, to arrive in Mexico +overland. + +A period of six months was consumed in Moscoso's march towards the Rocky +Mountains, but he failed to find Coronado, who at that time was camped +near where Wichita, Kansas, is located; according to his historian, +"at the junction of the St. Peter and St. Paul" (the Big and Little +Arkansas?). That point was the place of separation between Coronado and +a number of his followers; many returning to Mexico, while the undaunted +commander, with as many as he could induce to accompany him, continued +easterly, still in search of the mythical Quivira. + +How far westward Moscoso travelled cannot be determined accurately, +but that his route extended up the valley of the Arkansas for more than +three hundred miles, into what is now Kansas, is proved by the statement +of his historian, who says: "They saw great chains of mountains and +forests to the west, which they understood were uninhabited." + +Another strong confirmatory fact is, that, in 1884, a group of mounds +was discovered in McPherson County, Kansas, which were thoroughly +explored by the professors of Bethany College, Lindsborg, who found, +among other interesting relics, a piece of chain-mail armour, of hard +steel; undoubtedly part of the equipment of a Spanish soldier either of +the command of Cabeca de Vaca, De Soto, or of Coronado. The probability +is, that it was worn by one of De Soto's unfortunate men, as neither +Panphilo de Narvaez, De Vaca, or Coronado experienced any difficulty +with the savages of the great plains, because those leaders were humane +and treated the Indians kindly, in contradistinction to De Soto, who was +the most inhuman of all the early Spanish explorers. He was of the same +school as Pizarro and Cortez; possessing their daring valour, their +contempt of danger, and their tenacity of purpose, as well as their +cruelty and avarice. De Soto made treaties with the Indians which he +constantly violated, and murdered the misguided creatures without mercy. +During the retreat of Moscoso's weakened command down the Arkansas +River, the Hot Springs of Arkansas were discovered. His historian +writes: + + And when they saw the foaming fountain, they thought + it was the long-searched-for "Fountain of Youth," reported + by fame to exist somewhere in the country, but ten of the + soldiers dying from excessive drinking, they were soon + convinced of their error. + +After these intrepid explorers the restless Coronado appears on the Old +Trail. In the third volume of Hakluyt's _Voyages_, published in London, +1600, Coronado's historian thus describes the great plains of Kansas and +Colorado, the bison, and a tornado:-- + + From Cicuye they went to Quivira, which after their account + is almost three hundred leagues distant, through mighty + plains, and sandy heaths so smooth and wearisome, and bare + of wood that they made heaps of ox-dung, for want of stones + and trees, that they might not lose themselves at their + return: for three horses were lost on that plain, and one + Spaniard which went from his company on hunting.... + All that way of plains are as full of crooked-back oxen as + the mountain Serrena in Spain is of sheep, but there is + no such people as keep those cattle.... They were a + great succour for the hunger and the want of bread, which + our party stood in need of.... + + One day it rained in that plain a great shower of hail, + as big as oranges, which caused many tears, weakness + and bowes. + + These oxen are of the bigness and colour of our bulls, + but their bones are not so great. They have a great bunch + upon their fore-shoulder, and more hair on their fore part + than on their hinder part, and it is like wool. They have + as it were an horse-mane upon their backbone, and much hair + and very long from their knees downward. They have great + tufts of hair hanging down on their foreheads, and it + seemeth they have beards because of the great store of hair + hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have + very long tails, and a great knob or flock at the end, + so that in some respects they resemble the lion, and in some + other the camel. They push with their horns, they run, + they overtake and kill an horse when they are in their + rage and anger. Finally it is a foul and fierce beast of + countenance and form of body. The horses fled from them, + either because of their deformed shape, or else because + they had never before seen them. + +"The number," continues the historian, "was incredible." When the +soldiers, in their excitement for the chase, began to kill them, they +rushed together in such masses that hundreds were literally crushed to +death. At one place there was a great ravine; they jumped into it +in their efforts to escape from the hunters, and so terrible was the +slaughter as they tumbled over the precipice that the depression was +completely filled up, their carcasses forming a bridge, over which the +remainder passed with ease. + +The next recorded expedition across the plains via the Old Trail was +also by the Spaniards from Santa Fe, eastwardly, in the year 1716, "for +the purpose of establishing a Military Post in the Upper Mississippi +Valley as a barrier to the further encroachments of the French in +that direction." An account of this expedition is found in _Memoires +Historiques sur La Louisiane_, published in Paris in 1858, but never +translated in its entirety. The author, Lieutenant Dumont of the French +army, was one of a party ascending the Arkansas River in search of a +supposed mass of emeralds. The narrative relates: + + There was more than half a league to traverse to gain the + other bank of the river, and our people were no sooner + arrived than they found there a party of Missouris, sent to + M. de la Harpe by M. de Bienville, then commandant general + at Louisiana, to deliver orders to the former. Consequently + they gave the signal order, and our other two canoes having + crossed the river, the savages gave to our commandant the + letters of M. de Bienville, in which he informed him that + the Spaniards had sent out a detachment from New Mexico + to go to the Missouris and to establish a post in that + country.... The success of this expedition was very + calamitous to the Spaniards. Their caravan was composed of + fifteen hundred people, men, women and soldiers, having + with them a Jacobin for a chaplain, and bringing also a + great number of horses and cattle, according to the custom + of that nation to forget nothing that might be necessary for + a settlement. Their design was to destroy the Missouris, + and to seize upon their country, and with this intention + they had resolved to go first to the Osages, a neighbouring + nation, enemies of the Missouris, to form an alliance with + them, and to engage them in their behalf for the execution + of their plan. Perhaps the map which guided them was not + correct, or they had not exactly followed it, for it chanced + that instead of going to the Osages whom they sought, they + fell, without knowing it, into a village of the Missouris, + where the Spanish commander, presenting himself to the great + chief and offering him the calumet, made him understand + through an interpreter, believing himself to be speaking + to the Osage chief, that they were enemies of the Missouris, + that they had come to destroy them, to make their women + and children slaves and to take possession of their country. + He begged the chief to be willing to form an alliance + with them, against a nation whom the Osages regarded as + their enemy, and to second them in this enterprise, promising + to recompense them liberally for the service rendered, + and always to be their friend in the future. Upon this + discourse the Missouri chief understood perfectly well + the mistake. He dissimulated and thanked the Spaniard for + the confidence he had in his nation; he consented to form + an alliance with them against the Missouris, and to join + them with all his forces to destroy them; but he represented + that his people were not armed, and that they dared not + expose themselves without arms in such an enterprise. + Deceived by so favourable a reception, the Spaniards fell + into the trap laid for them. They received with due + ceremony, in the little camp they had formed on their + arrival, the calumet which the great chief of the Missouris + presented to the Spanish commander. The alliance for war + was sworn to by both parties; they agreed upon a day for + the execution of the plan which they meditated, and the + Spaniards furnished the savages with all the munitions which + they thought were needed. After the ceremony both parties + gave themselves up equally to joy and good cheer. At the + end of three days two thousand savages were armed and in + the midst of dances and amusements; each party thought + nothing but the execution of its design. It was the evening + before their departure upon their concerted expedition, + and the Spaniards had retired to their camps as usual, + when the great chief of the Missouris, having assembled + his warriors, declared to them his intentions and exhorted + them to deal treacherously with these strangers who were come + to their home only with the design of destroying them. + At daybreak the savages divided into several bands, fell on + the Spaniards, who expected nothing of the kind, and in + less than a quarter of an hour all the caravan were murdered. + No one escaped from the massacre except the chaplain, whom + the barbarians saved because of his dress; at the same time + they took possession of all the merchandise and other + effects which they found in their camp. The Spaniards had + brought with them, as I have said, a certain number of horses, + and as the savages were ignorant of the use of these animals, + they took pleasure in making the Jacobin whom they had saved, + and who had become their slave, mount them. The priest gave + them this amusement almost every day for the five or six + months that he remained with them in their village, without + any of them daring to imitate him. Tired at last of his + slavery, and regarding the lack of daring in these barbarians + as a means of Providence to regain his liberty, he made + secretly all the provisions possible for him to make, + and which he believed necessary to his plan. At last, + having chosen the best horse and having mounted him, + after performing several of his exploits before the savages, + and while they were all occupied with his manoeuvres, + he spurred up and disappeared from their sight, taking the + road to Mexico, where doubtless he arrived. + +Charlevoix,[2] who travelled from Quebec to New Orleans in the year +1721, says in one of his letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, dated +at Kaskaskia, July 21, 1721: + + About two years ago some Spaniards, coming, as they say, + from New Mexico, and intending to get into the country of + the Illinois and drive the French from thence, whom they + saw with extreme jealousy approach so near the Missouri, + came down the river and attacked two villages of the + Octoyas,[3] who are the allies of the Ayouez,[4] and from + whom it is said also that they are derived. As the savages + had no firearms and were surprised, the Spaniards made an + easy conquest and killed a great many of them. A third + village, which was not far off from the other two, being + informed of what had passed, and not doubting but these + conquerors would attack them, laid an ambush into which + the Spaniards heedlessly fell. Others say that the savages, + having heard that the enemy were almost all drunk and + fast asleep, fell upon them in the night. However it was, + it is certain the greater part of them were killed. + There were in the party two almoners; one of them was + killed directly and the other got away to the Missouris, + who took him prisoner, but he escaped them very dexterously. + He had a very fine horse and the Missouris took pleasure + in seeing him ride it, which he did very skilfully. He took + advantage of their curiosity to get out of their hands. + + One day as he was prancing and exercising his horse before + them, he got a little distance from them insensibly; then + suddenly clapping spurs to his horse he was soon out of sight. + +The Missouri Indians once occupied all the territory near the junction +of the Kaw and Missouri rivers, but they were constantly decimated by +the continual depredations of their warlike and feudal enemies, the +Pawnees and Sioux, and at last fell a prey to that dreadful scourge, the +small-pox, which swept them off by thousands. The remnant of the once +powerful tribe then found shelter and a home with the Otoes, finally +becoming merged in that tribe. + + + + +CHAPTER I. UNDER THE SPANIARDS. + + + +The Santa Fe of the purely Mexican occupation, long before the days +of New Mexico's acquisition by the United States, and the Santa Fe of +to-day are so widely in contrast that it is difficult to find language +in which to convey to the reader the story of the phenomenal change. To +those who are acquainted with the charming place as it is now, with its +refined and cultured society, I cannot do better, perhaps, in attempting +to show what it was under the old regime, than to quote what some +traveller in the early 30's wrote for a New York leading newspaper, in +regard to it. As far as my own observation of the place is concerned, +when I first visited it a great many years ago, the writer of the +communication whose views I now present was not incorrect in his +judgment. He said:-- + + To dignify such a collection of mud hovels with the name + of "City," would be a keen irony; not greater, however, + than is the name with which its Padres have baptized it. + To call a place with its moral character, a very Sodom + in iniquity, "Holy Faith," is scarcely a venial sin; + it deserves Purgatory at least. Its health is the best + in the country, which is the first, second and third + recommendation of New Mexico by its greatest admirers. + It is a small town of about two thousand inhabitants, + crowded up against the mountains, at the end of a little + valley through which runs a mountain stream of the same + name tributary to the Rio Grande. It has a public square + in the centre, a Palace and an Alameda; as all Spanish + Roman Catholic towns have. It is true its Plaza, or + Public Square, is unfenced and uncared for, without trees + or grass. The Palace is nothing more than the biggest + mud-house in the town, and the churches, too, are unsightly + piles of the same material, and the Alameda[5] is on top of + a sand hill. Yet they have in Santa Fe all the parts and + parcels of a regal city and a Bishopric. The Bishop has a + palace also; the only two-storied shingle-roofed house in + the place. There is one public house set apart for eating, + drinking and gambling; for be it known that gambling is here + authorized by law. Hence it is as respectable to keep a + gambling house, as it is to sell rum in New Jersey; it is + a lawful business, and being lawful, and consequently + respectable and a man's right, why should not men gamble? + And gamble they do. The Generals and the Colonels and + the Majors and the Captains gamble. The judges and the + lawyers and the doctors and the priests gamble; and there + are gentlemen gamblers by profession! You will see squads + of poor peons daily, men, women and boys, sitting on the + ground around a deck of cards in the Public Square, gambling + for the smallest stakes. + + The stores of the town generally front on the Public Square. + Of these there are a dozen, more or less, of respectable + size, and most of them are kept by others than Mexicans. + The business of the place is considerable, many of the + merchants here being wholesale dealers for the vast + territory tributary. It is supposed that about $750,000 + worth of goods will be brought to this place this year, and + there may be $250,000 worth imported directly from the + United States. + + In the money market there is nothing less than a five-cent + piece. You cannot purchase anything for less than five cents. + In trade they reckon ten cents the eighth of a dollar. + If you purchase nominally a dollar's worth of an article, + you can pay for it in eight ten-cent pieces; and if you + give a dollar, you receive no change. In changing a dollar + for you, you would get but eight ten-cent pieces for it. + + Yet, although dirty and unkempt, and swarming with hungry + dogs, it has the charm of foreign flavour, and like + San Antonio retains some portion of the grace which long + lingered about it, if indeed it ever forsakes the spot + where Spain held rule for centuries, and the soft syllables + of the Spanish language are yet heard. + +Such was a description of the "drowsy old town" of Santa Fe, sixty-five +years ago. Fifteen years later Major W. H. Emory, of the United States +army, writes of it as follows:[6] + + The population of Santa Fe is from two to four thousand, + and the inhabitants are, it is said, the poorest people + of any town in the Province. The houses are mud bricks, + in the Spanish style, generally of one story, and built + on a square. The interior of the square is an open court, + and the principal rooms open into it. They are forbidding + in appearance from the outside, but nothing can exceed + the comfort and convenience of the interior. The thick + walls make them cool in summer and warm in winter. + + The better class of people are provided with excellent beds, + but the poorer class sleep on untanned skins. The women + here, as in many other parts of the world, appear to be + much before the men in refinements, intelligence, and + knowledge of the useful arts. The higher class dress like + the American women, except, instead of a bonnet, they wear + a scarf over their head, called a reboso. This they wear + asleep or awake, in the house or abroad. The dress of the + lower classes of women is a simple petticoat, with arms and + shoulders bare, except what may chance to be covered by + the reboso. + + The men who have means to do so dress after our fashion; + but by far the greater number, when they dress at all, + wear leather breeches, tight around the hips and open from + the knee down; shirt and blanket take the place of our + coat and vest. + + The city is dependent on the distant hills for wood, and + at all hours of the day may be seen jackasses passing laden + with wood, which is sold at two bits, twenty-five cents, + the load. These are the most diminutive animals, and + usually mounted from behind, after the fashion of leap-frog. + The jackass is the only animal that can be subsisted in + this barren neighbourhood without great expense; our horses + are all sent to a distance of twelve, fifteen, and thirty + miles for grass. + +I have interpolated these two somewhat similar descriptions of Santa Fe +written in that long ago when New Mexico was almost as little known as +the topography of the planet Mars, so that the intelligent visitor of +to-day may appreciate the wonderful changes which American thrift, and +that powerful civilizer, the locomotive, have wrought in a very few +years, yet it still, as one of the foregoing writers has well said, +"has the charm of foreign flavour, and the soft syllables of the Spanish +language are still heard." + +The most positive exception must be taken to the statement of the +first-quoted writer in relation to the Palace, of which he says "It is +nothing more than the biggest mud-house in the town." Now this "Palacio +del Gobernador," as the old building was called by the Spanish, was +erected at a very early day. It was the long-established seat of power +when Penalosa confined the chief inquisitor within its walls in 1663, +and when the Pueblo authorities took possession of it as the citadel of +their central authority, in 1681. + +The old building cannot well be overlooked by the most careless visitor +to the quaint town; it is a long, low structure, taking up the greater +part of one side of the Plaza, round which runs a colonnade supported +by pillars of rough pine. In this once leaky old Palace were kept, +or rather neglected, the archives of the Territory until the American +residents, appreciating the importance of preserving precious documents +containing so much of interest to the student of history and the +antiquarian, enlisted themselves enthusiastically in the good cause, +and have rescued from oblivion the annals of a relatively remote +civilization, which, but for their forethought, would have perished from +the face of the earth as completely as have the written records of that +wonderful region in Central America, whose gigantic ruins alone remain +to tell us of what was a highly cultured order of architecture in past +ages, and of a people whose intelligence was comparable to the style of +the dwellings in which they lived. + +The old adobe Palace is in itself a volume whose pages are filled +with pathos and stirring events. It has been the scene and witness of +incidents the recital of which would to us to-day seem incredible. An +old friend, once governor of New Mexico and now dead, thus graphically +spoke of the venerable building:[7] + + In it lived and ruled the Spanish captain general, so remote + and inaccessible from the viceroyalty at Mexico that he was + in effect a king, nominally accountable to the viceroy, + but practically beyond his reach and control and wholly + irresponsible to the people. Equally independent for the + same reason were the Mexican governors. Here met all the + provincial, territorial, departmental, and other legislative + bodies that have ever assembled at the capital of New Mexico. + Here have been planned all the Indian wars and measures + for defence against foreign invasion, including, as the + most noteworthy, the Navajo war of 1823, the Texan invasion + of 1842, the American of 1846, and the Confederate of 1862. + Within its walls was imprisoned, in 1809, the American + explorer Zebulon M. Pike, and innumerable state prisoners + before and since; and many a sentence of death has been + pronounced therein and the accused forthwith led away and + shot at the dictum of the man at the Palace. It has been + from time immemorial the government house with all its + branches annexed. It was such on the Fourth of July, 1776, + when the American Congress at Independence Hall in + Philadelphia proclaimed liberty throughout all the land, + not then, but now embracing it. Indeed, this old edifice + has a history. And as the history of Santa Fe is the + history of New Mexico, so is the history of the Palace + the history of Santa Fe. + +The Palace was the only building having glazed windows. At one end was +the government printing office, and at the other, the guard-house and +prison. Fearful stories were connected with the prison. Edwards[8] says +that he found, on examining the walls of the small rooms, locks of human +hair stuffed into holes, with rude crosses drawn over them. + +Fronting the Palace, on the south side of the Plaza, stood the remains +of the Capilla de los Soldados, or Military Chapel. The real name of the +church was "Our Lady of Light." It was said to be the richest church +in the Province, but had not been in use for a number of years, and +the roof had fallen in, allowing the elements to complete the work of +destruction. On each side of the altar was the remains of fine carving, +and a weather-beaten picture above gave evidence of having been a +beautiful painting. Over the door was a large oblong slab of freestone, +elaborately carved, representing "Our Lady of Light" rescuing a human +being from the jaws of Satan. A large tablet, beautifully executed in +relief, stood behind the altar, representing various saints, with an +inscription stating that it was erected by Governor Francisco Antonio +del Valle and his wife in 1761. + +Church services were held in the Parroquia, or Parish church, now the +Cathedral, which had two towers or steeples, in which hung four bells. +The music was furnished by a violin and a triangle. The wall back of +the altar was covered with innumerable mirrors, paintings, and +bright-coloured tapestry. + +The exact date of the first settlement of Santa Fe is uncertain. One +authority says: + + It was a primeval stronghold before the Spanish Conquest, + and a town of some importance to the white race when + Pennsylvania was a wilderness and the first Dutch governor + of New York was slowly drilling the Knickerbocker ancestry + in their difficult evolutions around the town-pump. + +It is claimed, on what is deemed very authentic data by some, that +Santa Fe is really the oldest settled town in the United States. St. +Augustine, Florida, was established in 1565 and was unquestionably +conceded the honour of antiquity until the acquisition of New Mexico by +the Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty. Then, of course, Santa Fe steps into the +arena and carries off the laurels. This claim of precedence for Santa +Fe is based upon the statement (whether historically correct or not is +a question) that when the Spaniards first entered the region from the +southern portion of Mexico, about 1542, they found a very large Pueblo +town on the present site of Santa Fe, and that its prior existence +extended far back into the vanished centuries. This is contradicted +by other historians, who contend that the claim of Santa Fe to be the +oldest town in the United States rests entirely on imaginary annals of +an Indian Pueblo before the Spanish Conquest, and that there are but +slight indications that the town was built on the site of one.[9] + +The reader may further satisfy himself on these mooted points by +consulting the mass of historical literature on New Mexico, and the +records of its primitive times are not surpassed in interest by those of +any other part of the continent. It was there the Europeans first made +great conquests, and some years prior to the landing of the Pilgrims, a +history of New Mexico, being the journal of Geronimo de Zarate Salmaron, +was published by the Church in the City of Mexico, early in 1600. +Salmaron was a Franciscan monk; a most zealous and indefatigable worker. +During his eight years' residence at Jemez, near Santa Fe, he claims +to have baptized over eight thousand Indians, converts to the Catholic +faith. His journal gives a description of the country, its mines, etc., +and was made public in order that other monks reading it might emulate +his pious example. + +Between 1605 and 1616 was founded the Villa of Santa Fe, or San +Francisco de la Santa Fe. "Villa," or village, was an honorary title, +always authorized and proclaimed by the king. Bancroft says that it was +first officially mentioned on the 3d of January, 1617. + +The first immigration to New Mexico was under Don Juan de Onate about +1597, and in a year afterward, according to some authorities, Santa Fe +was settled. The place, as claimed by some historians, was then named +El Teguayo, a Spanish adaptation of the word "Tegua," the name of the +Pueblo nation, which was quite numerous, and occupied Santa Fe and the +contiguous country. It very soon, from its central position and charming +climate, became the leading Spanish town, and the capital of the +Province. The Spaniards, who came at first into the country as friends, +and were apparently eager to obtain the good-will of the intelligent +natives, shortly began to claim superiority, and to insist on the +performance of services which were originally mere evidences of +hospitality and kindness. Little by little they assumed greater power +and control over the Indians, until in the course of years they had +subjected a large portion of them to servitude little differing from +actual slavery. + +The impolitic zeal of the monks gradually invoked the spirit of hatred +and resulted in a rebellion that drove the Spaniards, in 1680, from the +country. The large number of priests who were left in the midst of the +natives met with horrible fates: + + Not one escaped martyrdom. At Zuni, three Franciscans + had been stationed, and when the news of the Spanish retreat + reached the town, the people dragged them from their cells, + stripped and stoned them, and afterwards compelled the + servant of one to finish the work by shooting them. Having + thus whetted their appetite for cruelty and vengeance, + the Indians started to carry the news of their independence + to Moqui, and signalized their arrival by the barbarous + murder of the two missionaries who were living there. + Their bodies were left unburied, as a prey for the wild + beasts. At Jemez they indulged in every refinement of + cruelty. The old priest, Jesus Morador, was seized in + his bed at night, stripped naked and mounted on a hog, + and thus paraded through the streets, while the crowd + shouted and yelled around. Not satisfied with this, + they then forced him to carry them as a beast would, + crawling on his hands and feet, until, from repeated beating + and the cruel tortures of sharp spurs, he fell dead in + their midst. A similar chapter of horrors was enacted + at Acoma, where three priests were stripped, tied together + with hair rope, and so driven through the streets, and + finally stoned to death. Not a Christian remained free + within the limits of New Mexico, and those who had been + dominant a few months before were now wretched and + half-starved fugitives, huddled together in the rude huts + of San Lorenzo. + + As soon as the Spaniards had retreated from the country, + the Pueblo Indians gave themselves up for a time to + rejoicing, and to the destruction of everything which could + remind them of the Europeans, their religion, and their + domination. The army which had besieged Santa Fe quickly + entered that city, took possession of the Palace as the + seat of government, and commenced the work of demolition. + The churches and the monastery of the Franciscans were + burned with all their contents, amid the almost frantic + acclamations of the natives. The gorgeous vestments of + the priests had been dragged out before the conflagration, + and now were worn in derision by Indians, who rode through + the streets at full speed, shouting for joy. The official + documents and books in the Palace were brought forth, + and made fuel for a bonfire in the centre of the Plaza; + and here also they danced the cachina, with all the + accompanying religious ceremonies of the olden time. + Everything imaginable was done to show their detestation + of the Christian faith and their determination to utterly + eradicate even its memory. Those who had been baptized + were washed with amole in the Rio Chiquito, in order to be + cleansed from the infection of Christianity. All baptismal + names were discarded, marriages celebrated by Christian + priests were annulled, the very mention of the names Jesus + and Mary was made an offence, and estuffas were constructed + to take the place of ruined churches.[10] + +For twelve years, although many abortive attempts were made to recapture +the country, the Pueblos were left in possession. On the 16th of +October, 1693, the victorious Spaniards at last entered Santa Fe, +bearing the same banner which had been carried by Onate when he entered +the city just a century before. The conqueror this time was Don Diego +de Vargas Zapata Lujan, whom the viceroy of New Spain had appointed +governor in the spring of 1692, with the avowed purpose of having New +Mexico reconquered as speedily as possible. + +Thus it will be seen that the quaint old city has been the scene of many +important historical events, the mere outline of which I have recorded +here, as this book is not devoted to the historical view of the subject. + +In contradistinction to the quiet, sleepy old Santa Fe of half a +century ago, it now presents all the vigour, intelligence, and bustling +progressiveness of the average American city of to-day, yet still smacks +of that ancient Spanish regime, which gives it a charm that only its +blended European and Indian civilization could make possible after its +amalgamation with the United States. + +The tourist will no longer find a drowsy old town, and the Plaza is no +longer unfenced and uncared for. A beautiful park of trees is surrounded +by low palings, and inside the shady enclosure, under a group of large +cottonwoods, is a cenotaph erected to the memory of the Territory's +gallant soldiers who fell in the shock of battle to save New Mexico +to the Union in 1862, and conspicuous among the names carved on the +enduring native rock is that of Kit Carson--prince of frontiersmen, and +one of Nature's noblemen. + +Around the Plaza one sees the American style of architecture and hears +the hum of American civilization; but beyond, and outside this pretty +park, the streets are narrow, crooked, and have an ancient appearance. +There the old Santa Fe confronts the stranger; odd, foreign-looking, +and flavoured with all the peculiarities which marked the era of Mexican +rule. And now, where once was heard the excited shouts of the idle +crowd, of "Los Americanos!" "Los Carros!" "La entrada de la Caravana!" +as the great freight wagons rolled into the streets of the old town +from the Missouri, over the Santa Fe Trail, the shrill whistle of the +locomotive from its trail of steel awakens the echoes of the mighty +hills. + +As may be imagined, great excitement always prevailed whenever a caravan +of goods arrived in Santa Fe. Particularly was this the case among the +feminine portion of the community. The quaint old town turned out its +mixed population en masse the moment the shouts went up that the train +was in sight. There is nothing there to-day comparable to the anxious +looks of the masses as they watched the heavily freighted wagons rolling +into the town, the teamsters dust-begrimed, and the mules making the +place hideous with their discordant braying as they knew that their long +journey was ended and rest awaited them. The importing merchants were +obliged to turn over to the custom house officials five hundred dollars +for every wagon-load, great or small; and no matter what the intrinsic +value of the goods might be, salt or silk, velvets or sugar, it was all +the same. The nefarious duty had to be paid before a penny's worth could +be transferred to their counters. Of course, with the end of Mexican +rule and the acquisition of the Province by the United States, all +opposition to the traffic of the Old Santa Fe Trail ended, traders were +assured a profitable market and the people purchased at relatively low +prices. + +What a wonderful change has taken place in the traffic with New Mexico +in less than three-quarters of a century! In 1825 it was all carried on +with one single annual caravan of prairie-schooners, and now there are +four railroads running through the Rio Grande Valley, and one daily +freight train of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe into the town +unloads more freight than was taken there in a whole year when the +"commerce of the prairies" was at its height! + +Upon the arrival of a caravan in the days of the sleepy regime under +Mexican control, the people did everything in their power to make +the time pass pleasantly for every one connected with it during their +sojourn. Bailes, or fandangoes, as the dancing parties were called by +the natives, were given nightly, and many amusing anecdotes in regard to +them are related by the old-timers. + +The New Mexicans, both men and women, had a great fondness for jewelry, +dress, and amusements; of the latter, the fandango was the principal, +which was held in the most fashionable place of resort, where every +belle and beauty in the town presented herself, attired in the most +costly manner, and displaying her jewelled ornaments to the best +advantage. To this place of recreation and pleasure, generally a large, +capacious saloon or interior court, all classes of persons were allowed +to come, without charge and without invitation. The festivities usually +commenced about nine o'clock in the evening, and the tolling of the +church bells was the signal for the ladies to make their entrance, which +they did almost simultaneously. + +New Mexican ladies were famous for their gaudy dresses, but it must +be confessed they did not exercise good taste. Their robes were made +without bodies; a skirt only, and a long, loose, flowing scarf or reboso +dexterously thrown about the head and shoulders, so as to supersede both +the use of dress-bodies and bonnets. + +There was very little order maintained at these fandangoes, and still +less attention paid to the rules of etiquette. A kind of swinging, +gallopade waltz was the favourite dance, the cotillion not being much in +vogue. Read Byron's graphic description of the waltz, and then stretch +your imagination to its utmost tension, and you will perhaps have some +faint conception of the Mexican fandango. Such familiarity of position +as was indulged in would be repugnant to the refined rules of polite +society in the eastern cities; but with the New Mexicans, in those early +times, nothing was considered to be a greater accomplishment than that +of being able to go handsomely through all the mazes of their peculiar +dance. + +There was one republican feature about the New Mexican fandango; it was +that all classes, rich and poor alike, met and intermingled, as did the +Romans at their Saturnalia, upon terms of equality. Sumptuous repasts +or collations were rarely ever prepared for those frolicsome gatherings, +but there was always an abundance of confectionery, sweetmeats, +and native wine. It cost very little for a man to attend one of the +fandangoes in Santa Fe, but not to get away decently and sober. In that +it resembled the descent of Aeneas to Pluto's realms; it was easy enough +to get there, but when it came to return, "revocare gradum, superasque +evadere ad auras, hic labor, hoc opus est." + + + + +CHAPTER II. LA LANDE AND PURSLEY. + + + +In the beginning of the trade with New Mexico, the route across the +great plains was directly west from the Missouri River to the mountains, +thence south to Santa Fe by the circuitous trail from Taos. When the +traffic assumed an importance demanding a more easy line of way, the +road was changed, running along the left bank of the Arkansas until +that stream turned northwest, at which point it crossed the river, and +continued southwest to the Raton Pass. + +The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad track substantially follows +the Trail through the mountains, which here afford the wildest and most +picturesquely beautiful scenery on the continent. + +The Arkansas River at the fording of the Old Trail is not more than +knee-deep at an ordinary stage of water, and its bottom is well paved +with rounded pebbles of the primitive rock. + +The overland trade between the United States and the northern provinces +of Mexico seems to have had no very definite origin; having been rather +the result of an accident than of any organized plan of commercial +establishment. + +According to the best authorities, a French creole, named La Lande, +an agent of a merchant of Kaskaskia, Illinois, was the first American +adventurer to enter into the uncertain channels of trade with the people +of the ultramontane region of the centre of the continent. He began his +adventurous journey across the vast wilderness, with no companions but +the savages of the debatable land, in 1804; and following him the next +year, James Pursley undertook the same pilgrimage. Neither of these +pioneers in the "commerce of the prairies" returned to relate what +incidents marked the passage of their marvellous expeditions. Pursley +was so infatuated with the strange country he had travelled so far to +reach, that he took up his abode in the quaint old town of Santa Fe +where his subsequent life is lost sight of. La Lande, of a different +mould, forgot to render an account of his mission to the merchant who +had sent him there, and became a prosperous and wealthy man by means of +money to which he had no right. + +To Captain Zebulon Pike, who afterwards was made a general, is due the +impetus which the trade with Santa Fe received shortly after his return +to the United States. The student of American history will remember that +the expedition commanded by this soldier was inaugurated in 1806; +his report of the route he had taken was the incentive for commercial +speculation in the direction of trade with New Mexico, but it was so +handicapped by restrictions imposed by the Mexican government, that +the adventurers into the precarious traffic were not only subject to +a complete confiscation of their wares, but frequently imprisoned for +months as spies. Under such a condition of affairs, many of the earlier +expeditions, prior to 1822, resulted in disaster, and only a limited +number met with an indifferent success. + +It will not be inconsistent with my text if I herewith interpolate +an incident connected with Pursley, the second American to cross the +desert, for the purpose of trade with New Mexico, which I find in the +_Magazine of American History_: + + When Zebulon M. Pike was in Mexico, in 1807, he met, + at Santa Fe, a carpenter, Pursley by name, from Bardstown, + Kentucky, who was working at his trade. He had in a + previous year, while out hunting on the Plains, met with + a series of misfortunes, and found himself near the + mountains. The hostile Sioux drove the party into the + high ground in the rear of Pike's Peak. Near the headwaters + of the Platte River, Pursley found some gold, which he + carried in his shot-pouch for months. He was finally sent + by his companions to Santa Fe, to see if they could trade + with the Mexicans, but he chose to remain in Santa Fe + in preference to returning to his comrades. He told the + Mexicans about the gold he had found, and they tried hard + to persuade him to show them the place. They even offered + to take along a strong force of cavalry. But Pursley + refused, and his patriotic reason was that he thought the + land belonged to the United States. He told Captain Pike + that he feared they would not allow him to leave Santa Fe, + as they still hoped to learn from him where the gold was + to be found. These facts were published by Captain Pike + soon after his return east; but no one took the hint, + or the risk was too great, and thus more than a half + a century passed before those same rich fields of gold + were found and opened to the world. If Pursley had been + somewhat less patriotic, and had guided the Mexicans to + the treasures, the whole history and condition of the + western part of our continent might have been entirely + different from what it now is. That region would still + have been a part of Mexico, or Spain might have been + in possession of it, owning California; and, with the gold + that would have been poured into her coffers, would have + been the leading nation of European affairs to-day. + We can easily see how American and European history in + the nineteenth century might have been changed, if that + adventurer from Kentucky had not been a true lover of his + native country. + +The adventures of Captain Ezekiel Williams along the Old Trail, in the +early days of the century, tell a story of wonderful courage, endurance, +and persistency. Williams was a man of great perseverance, patience, and +determination of character. He set out from St. Louis in the late +spring of 1807, to trap on the Upper Missouri and the waters of the +Yellowstone, with a party of twenty men who had chosen him as their +leader. After various exciting incidents and thrilling adventures, all +of the original party, except Williams and two others, were killed by +the Indians somewhere in the vicinity of the Upper Arkansas. The three +survivors, not knowing where they were, separated, and Captain Williams +determined to take to the stream by canoe, and trap on his way toward +the settlements, while his last two companions started for the Spanish +country--that is, for the region of Santa Fe. The journal of Williams, +from which I shall quote freely, is to be found in _The Lost Trappers_, +a work long out of print.[11] As the country was an unexplored region, +he might be on a river that flowed into the Pacific, or he might be +drifting down a stream that was an affluent to the Gulf of Mexico. He +was inclined to believe that he was on the sources of the Red River. He +therefore resolved to launch his canoe, and go wherever the stream might +convey him, trapping on his descent, when beaver might be plenty. + +The first canoe he used he made of buffalo-skins. As this kind of water +conveyance soon begins to leak and rot, he made another of cottonwood, +as soon as he came to timber sufficiently large, in which he embarked +for a port, he knew not where. + +Most of his journeyings Captain Williams performed during the hours of +night, excepting when he felt it perfectly safe to travel in daylight. +His usual plan was to glide along down the stream, until he came to a +place where beaver signs were abundant. There he would push his little +bark among the willows, where he remained concealed, excepting when he +was setting his traps or visiting them in the morning. When he had +taken all the beaver in one neighbourhood, he would untie his little +conveyance, and glide onward and downward to try his luck in another +place. + +Thus for hundreds of miles did this solitary trapper float down this +unknown river, through an unknown country, here and there lashing his +canoe to the willows and planting his traps in the little tributaries +around. The upper part of the Arkansas, for this proved to be the river +he was on,[12] is very destitute of timber, and the prairie frequently +begins at the bank of the river and expands on either side as far as the +eye can reach. He saw vast herds of buffalo, and as it was the rutting +season, the bulls were making a wonderful ado; the prairie resounded +with their low, deep grunting or bellowing, as they tore up the earth +with their feet and horns, whisking their tails, and defying their +rivals to battle. Large gangs of wild horses could be seen grazing on +the plains and hillsides, and the neighing and squealing of stallions +might be heard at all times of the night. + +Captain Williams never used his rifle to procure meat, except when +it was absolutely necessary, or could be done with perfect safety. On +occasions when he had no beaver, upon which he generally subsisted, he +ventured to kill a deer, and after refreshing his empty stomach with a +portion of the flesh, he placed the carcass in one end of the canoe. It +was his invariable custom to sleep in his canoe at night, moored to the +shore, and once when he had laid in a supply of venison he was startled +in his sleep by the tramping of something in the bushes on the bank. +Tramp! tramp! tramp! went the footsteps, as they approached the canoe. +He thought at first it might be an Indian that had found out his +locality, but he knew that it could not be; a savage would not approach +him in that careless manner. Although there was beautiful starlight, yet +the trees and the dense undergrowth made it very dark on the bank of the +river, close to which he lay. He always adopted the precaution of tying +his canoe with a piece of rawhide about twenty feet long, which allowed +it to swing from the bank at that distance; he did this so that in case +of an emergency he might cut the string, and glide off without making +any noise. As the sound of the footsteps grew more distinct, he +presently observed a huge grizzly bear coming down to the water and +swimming for the canoe. The great animal held his head up as if scenting +the venison. The captain snatched his axe as the most available means +to defend himself in such a scrape, and stood with it uplifted, ready to +drive it into the brains of the monster. The bear reached the canoe, and +immediately put his fore paws upon the hind end of it, nearly turning +it over. The captain struck one of the brute's feet with the edge of +the axe, which made him let go with that foot, but he held on with +the other, and he received this time a terrific blow on the head, that +caused him to drop away from the canoe entirely. Nothing more was seen +of the bear, and the captain thought he must have sunk in the stream and +drowned. He was evidently after the fresh meat, which he scented from +a great distance. In the canoe the next morning there were two of the +bear's claws, which had been cut off by the well-directed blow of the +axe. These were carefully preserved by Williams for many years as a +trophy which he was fond of exhibiting, and the history of which he +always delighted to tell. + +As he was descending the river with his peltries, which consisted of +one hundred and twenty-five beaver-skins, besides some of the otter and +other smaller animals, he overtook three Kansas Indians, who were also +in a canoe going down the river, as he learned from them, to some post +to trade with the whites. They manifested a very friendly disposition +towards the old trapper, and expressed a wish to accompany him. He +also learned from them, to his great delight, that he was on the +Big Arkansas, and not more than five hundred miles from the white +settlements. He was well enough versed in the treachery of the Indian +character to know just how much he could repose in their confidence. He +was aware that they would not allow a solitary trapper to pass through +their country with a valuable collection of furs, without, at least, +making an effort to rob him. He knew that their plan would be to get him +into a friendly intercourse, and then, at the first opportunity, strip +him of everything he possessed; consequently he was determined to get +rid of them as soon as possible, and to effect this, he plied his oars +with all diligence. The Indians, like most North American savages, were +lazy, and had no disposition to labour in that way, but took it quite +leisurely, satisfied with being carried down by the current. Williams +soon left them in the rear, and, as he supposed, far behind him. When +night came on, however, as he had worked all day, and slept none the +night before, he resolved to turn aside into a bunch of willows to take +a few hours' rest. But he had not stopped more than forty minutes when +he heard some Indians pull to the shore just above him on the same side +of the river. He immediately loosened his canoe from its moorings, and +glided silently away. He rowed hard for two or three hours, when he +again pulled to the bank and tied up. + +Only a short time after he had landed, he heard Indians again going +on shore on the same side of the stream as himself. A second time he +repeated his tactics, slipped out of his place of concealment, and stole +softly away. He pulled on vigorously until some time after midnight, +when he supposed he could with safety stop and snatch a little sleep. +He felt apprehensive that he was in a dangerous region, and his anxiety +kept him wide awake. It was very lucky that he did not close his eyes; +for as he was lying in the bottom of his canoe he heard for the third +time a canoe land as before. He was now perfectly satisfied that he was +dogged by the Kansans whom he had passed the preceding day, and in no +very good humour, therefore, he picked up his rifle, and walked up to +the bank where he had heard the Indians land. As he suspected, there +were the three savages. When they saw the captain, they immediately +renewed their expressions of friendship, and invited him to partake of +their hospitality. He stood aloof from them, and shook his head in +a rage, charging them with their villanous purposes. In the short, +sententious manner of the Indians, he said to them: "You now follow me +three times; if you follow me again, I kill you!" and wheeling around +abruptly, returned to his canoe. A third time the solitary trapper +pushed his little craft from the shore and set off down stream, to get +away from a region where to sleep would be hazardous. He plied his oars +the remainder of the night, and solaced himself with the thought that no +evil had befallen him, except the loss of a few hours' sleep. + +While he was escaping from his villanous pursuers, he was running into +new dangers and difficulties. The following day he overtook a large +band of the same tribe, under the leadership of a chief, who were +also descending the river. Into the hands of these savages he fell a +prisoner, and was conducted to one of their villages. The principal +chief there took all of his furs, traps, and other belongings. A very +short time after his capture, the Kansans went to war with the Pawnees, +and carried Captain Williams with them. In a terrible battle in which +the Kansans gained a most decided victory, the old trapper bore a +conspicuous part, killing a great number of the enemy, and by his +excellent strategy brought about the success of his captors. When +they returned to the village, Williams, who had ever been treated with +kindness by the inhabitants, was now thought to be a wonderful warrior, +and could have been advanced to all the savage honours; he might even +have been made one of their principal chiefs. The tribe gave him his +liberty for the great service he had rendered it in its difficulty with +an inveterate foe, but declining all proffered promotions, he decided +to return to the white settlements on the Missouri, at the mouth of +the Kaw, the covetous old chief retaining all his furs, and indeed +everything he possessed excepting his rifle, with as many rounds of +ammunition as would be necessary to secure him provisions in the shape +of game on his route. The veteran trapper had learned from the Indians +while with them that they expected to go to Fort Osage on the Missouri +River to receive some annuities from the government, and he felt certain +that his furs would be there at the same time. + +After leaving the Kansans he travelled on toward the Missouri, and soon +struck the beginning of the sparse settlements. Just as evening was +coming on, he arrived at a cluster of three little log-cabins, and was +received with genuine backwoods hospitality by the proprietor, who had +married an Osage squaw. Williams was not only very hungry, but very +tired; and, after enjoying an abundant supper, he became stupid +and sleepy, and expressed a wish to lie down. The generous trapper +accordingly conducted him to one of the cabins, in which there were two +beds, standing in opposite corners of the room. He immediately threw +himself upon one, and was soon in a very deep sleep. About midnight his +slumbers were disturbed by a singular and very frightful kind of noise, +accompanied by struggling on the other bed. What it was, Williams was +entirely at a loss to understand. There were no windows in the cabin, +the door was shut, and it was as dark as Egypt. A fierce contest seemed +to be going on. There were deep groanings and hard breathings; and the +snapping of teeth appeared almost constant. For a moment the noise would +subside, then again the struggles would be renewed accompanied as before +with groaning, deep sighing, and grinding of teeth. + +The captain's bed-clothes consisted of a couple of blankets and a +buffalo-robe, and as the terrible struggles continued he raised himself +up in the bed, and threw the robe around him for protection, his rifle +having been left in the cabin where his host slept, while his knife was +attached to his coat, which he had hung on the corner post of the other +bedstead from which the horrid struggles emanated. In an instant the +robe was pulled off, and he was left uncovered and unprotected; in +another moment a violent snatch carried away the blanket upon which he +was sitting, and he was nearly tumbled off the bed with it. As the next +thing might be a blow in the dark, he felt that it was high time to +shift his quarters; so he made a desperate leap from the bed, and +alighted on the opposite side of the room, calling for his host, who +immediately came to his relief by opening the door. Williams then told +him that the devil--or something as bad, he believed--was in the room, +and he wanted a light. The accommodating trapper hurried away, and in +a moment was back with a candle, the light of which soon revealed the +awful mystery. It was an Indian, who at the time was struggling in +convulsions, which he was subject to. He was a superannuated chief, a +relative of the wife of the hospitable trapper, and generally made his +home there. Absent when Captain Williams arrived, he came into the room +at a very late hour, and went to the bed he usually occupied. No one +on the claim knew of his being there until he was discovered, in a +dreadfully mangled condition. He was removed to other quarters, and +Williams, who was not to be frightened out of a night's rest, soon sunk +into sound repose. + +Williams reached the agency by the time the Kansas Indians arrived +there, and, as he suspected, found that the wily old chief had brought +all his belongings, which he claimed, and the agent made the savages +give up the stolen property before he would pay them a cent of their +annuities. He took his furs down to St. Louis, sold them there at a good +price, and then started back to the Rocky Mountains on another trapping +tour. + + + + +CHAPTER III. EARLY TRADERS. + + + +In 1812 a Captain Becknell, who had been on a trading expedition to the +country of the Comanches in the summer of 1811, and had done remarkably +well, determined the next season to change his objective point to Santa +Fe, and instead of the tedious process of bartering with the Indians, +to sell out his stock to the New Mexicans. Successful in this, his first +venture, he returned to the Missouri River with a well-filled purse, +and intensely enthusiastic over the result of his excursion to the newly +found market. + +Excited listeners to his tales of enormous profits were not lacking, +who, inspired by the inducement he held out to them, cheerfully invested +five thousand dollars in merchandise suited to the demands of the trade, +and were eager to attempt with him the passage of the great plains. In +this expedition there were thirty men, and the amount of money in the +undertaking was the largest that had yet been ventured. The progress of +the little caravan was without extraordinary incident, until it arrived +at "The Caches" on the Upper Arkansas. There Becknell, who was in +reality a man of the then "Frontier," bold, plucky, and endowed with +excellent sense, conceived the ridiculous idea of striking directly +across the country for Santa Fe through a region absolutely unexplored; +his excuse for this rash movement being that he desired to avoid the +rough and circuitous mountain route he had travelled on his first trip +to Taos. + +His temerity in abandoning the known for the unknown was severely +punished, and his brave men suffered untold misery, barely escaping with +their lives from the terrible straits to which they were reduced. Not +having the remotest conception of the region through which their new +trail was to lead them, and naturally supposing that water would be +found in streams or springs, when they left the Arkansas they neglected +to supply themselves with more than enough of the precious fluid to last +a couple of days. At the end of that time they learned, too late, that +they were in the midst of a desert, with all the tortures of thirst +threatening them. + +Without a tree or a path to guide them, they took an irregular course by +observations of the North Star, and the unreliable needle of an azimuth +pocket-compass. There was a total absence of water, and when what they +had brought with them in their canteens from the river was exhausted, +thirst began its horrible office. In a short time both men and animals +were in a mental condition bordering on distraction. To alleviate their +acute torment, the dogs of the train were killed, and their blood, hot +and sickening, eagerly swallowed; then the ears of the mules were cut +off for the same purpose, but such a substitute for water only added +to their sufferings. They would have perished had not a superannuated +buffalo bull that had just come from the Cimarron River, where he had +gone to quench his thirst, suddenly appeared, to be immediately killed +and the contents of his stomach swallowed with avidity. It is recorded +that one of those who partook of the nauseous liquid said afterward, +"nothing had ever passed his lips which gave him such exquisite delight +as his first draught of that filthy beverage." + +Although they were near the Cimarron, where there was plenty of water, +which but for the affair of the buffalo they never would have suspected, +they decided to retrace their steps to the Arkansas. + +Before they started on their retreat, however, some of the strongest of +the party followed the trail of the animal that had saved their lives +to the river, where, filling all the canteens with pure water, they +returned to their comrades, who were, after drinking, able to march +slowly toward the Arkansas. + +Following that stream, they at last arrived at Taos, having experienced +no further trouble, but missed the trail to Santa Fe, and had their +journey greatly prolonged by the foolish endeavour of the leader to make +a short cut thither. + +As early as 1815, Auguste P. Chouteau and his partner, with a large +number of trappers and hunters, went out to the valley of the Upper +Arkansas for the purpose of trading with Indians, and trapping on the +numerous streams of the contiguous region. + +The island on which Chouteau established his trading-post, and which +bears his name even to this day, is in the Arkansas River on the +boundary line of the United States and Mexico. It was a beautiful spot, +with a rich carpet of grass and delightful groves, and on the American +side was a heavily timbered bottom. + +While occupying the island, Chouteau and his old hunters and trappers +were attacked by about three hundred Pawnees, whom they repulsed with +the loss of thirty killed and wounded. These Indians afterward declared +that it was the most fatal affair in which they were ever engaged. It +was their first acquaintance with American guns. + +The general character of the early trade with New Mexico was founded +on the system of the caravan. She depended upon the remote ports of old +Mexico, whence was transported, on the backs of the patient burro and +mule, all that was required by the primitive tastes of the primitive +people; a very tedious and slow process, as may be inferred, and the +limited traffic westwardly across the great plains was confined to this +fashion. At the date of the legitimate and substantial commerce with New +Mexico, in 1824, wheeled vehicles were introduced, and traffic assumed +an importance it could never have otherwise attained, and which now, +under the vast system of railroads, has increased to dimensions little +dreamed of by its originators nearly three-quarters of a century ago. + +It was eight years after Pursley's pilgrimage before the trade with New +Mexico attracted the attention of speculators and adventurers. Messrs. +McKnight,[13] Beard, and Chambers, with about a dozen comrades, started +with a supply of goods across the unknown plains, and by good luck +arrived safely at Santa Fe. Once under the jurisdiction of the Mexicans, +however, their trouble began. All the party were arrested as spies, +their wares confiscated, and themselves incarcerated at Chihuahua, where +the majority of them were kept for almost a decade. Beard and Chambers, +having by some means escaped, returned to St. Louis in 1822, and, +notwithstanding their dreadful experience, told of the prospects of the +trade with the Mexicans in such glowing colours that they induced some +individuals of small capital to fit out another expedition, with which +they again set out for Santa Fe. + +It was really too late in the season; they succeeded, however, in +reaching the crossing of the Arkansas without any difficulty, but there +a violent snowstorm overtook them and they were compelled to halt, as +it was impossible to proceed in the face of the blinding blizzard. On +an island[14] not far from where the town of Cimarron, on the Santa Fe +Railroad, is now situated, they were obliged to remain for more than +three months, during which time most of their animals died for want +of food and from the severe cold. When the weather had moderated +sufficiently to allow them to proceed on their journey, they had no +transportation for their goods and were compelled to hide them in pits +dug in the earth, after the manner of the old French voyageurs in the +early settlement of the continent. This method of secreting furs and +valuables of every character is called caching, from the French word "to +hide." Gregg thus describes it: + + The cache is made by digging a hole in the ground, somewhat + in the shape of a jug, which is lined with dry sticks, + grass, or anything else that will protect its contents + from the dampness of the earth. In this place the goods + to be concealed are carefully stowed away; and the aperture + is then so effectually closed as to protect them from + the rains. In caching, a great deal of skill is often + required to leave no sign whereby the cunning savage may + discover the place of deposit. To this end, the excavated + earth is carried some distance and carefully concealed, + or thrown into a stream, if one be at hand. The place + selected for a cache is usually some rolling point, + sufficiently elevated to be secure from inundations. + If it be well set with grass, a solid piece of turf is + cut out large enough for the entrance. The turf is + afterward laid back, and, taking root, in a short time + no signs remain of its ever having been molested. + However, as every locality does not afford a turfy site, + the camp-fire is sometimes built upon the place, or the + animals are penned over it, which effectually destroys + all traces. + +Father Hennepin[15] thus describes, in his quaint style, how he built a +cache on the bank of the Mississippi, in 1680: + + We took up the green sodd, and laid it by, and digg'd a hole + in the Earth where we put our Goods, and cover'd them with + pieces of Timber and Earth, and then put in again the green + Turf; so that 'twas impossible to suspect that any Hole had + been digg'd under it, for we flung the Earth into the River. + +After caching their goods, Beard and the party went on to Taos, where +they bought mules, and returning to their caches transported their +contents to their market. + +The word "cache" still lingers among the "old-timers" of the mountains +and plains, and has become a provincialism with their descendants; one +of these will tell you that he cached his vegetables in the side of +the hill; or if he is out hunting and desires to secrete himself from +approaching game, he will say, "I am going to cache behind that rock," +etc. + +The place where Beard's little expedition wintered was called "The +Caches" for years, and the name has only fallen into disuse within the +last two decades. I remember the great holes in the ground when I first +crossed the plains, a third of a century ago. + +The immense profit upon merchandise transported across the dangerous +Trail of the mid-continent to the capital of New Mexico soon excited +the cupidity of other merchants east of the Missouri. When the commonest +domestic cloth, manufactured wholly from cotton, brought from two to +three dollars a yard at Santa Fe, and other articles at the same ratio +to cost, no wonder the commerce with the far-off market appeared to +those who desired to send goods there a veritable Golconda. + +The importance of internal trade with New Mexico, and the possibilities +of its growth, were first recognized by the United States in 1824, the +originator of the movement being Mr. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, +who frequently, from his place in the Senate, prophesied the coming +greatness of the West. He introduced a bill which authorized the +President to appoint a commission to survey a road from the Missouri +River to the boundary line of New Mexico, and from thence on Mexican +territory with the consent of the Mexican government. The signing of +this bill was one of the last acts of Mr. Monroe's official life, and +it was carried into effect by his successor, Mr. John Quincy Adams, but +unfortunately a mistake was made in supposing that the Osage Indians +alone controlled the course of the proposed route. It was partially +marked out as far as the Arkansas, by raised mounds; but travellers +continued to use the old wagon trail, and as no negotiations had been +entered into with the Comanches, Cheyennes, Pawnees, or Kiowas, these +warlike tribes continued to harass the caravans when these arrived in +the broad valley of the Arkansas. + +The American fur trade was at its height at the time when the Santa Fe +trade was just beginning to assume proportions worthy of notice; the +difference between the two enterprises being very marked. The fur trade +was in the hands of immensely wealthy companies, while that to Santa +Fe was carried on by individuals with limited capital, who, purchasing +goods in the Eastern markets, had them transported to the Missouri +River, where, until the trade to New Mexico became a fixed business, +everything was packed on mules. As soon, however, as leading +merchants invested their capital, about 1824, the trade grew into vast +proportions, and wagons took the place of the patient mule. Later, +oxen were substituted for mules, it having been discovered that they +possessed many advantages over the former, particularly in being able +to draw heavier loads than an equal number of mules, especially through +sandy or muddy places. + +For a long time, the traders were in the habit of purchasing their mules +in Santa Fe and driving them to the Missouri; but as soon as that useful +animal was raised in sufficient numbers in the Southern States to supply +the demand, the importation from New Mexico ceased, for the reason that +the American mule was in all respects an immensely superior animal. + +Once mules were an important object of the trade, and those who dealt +in them and drove them across to the river on the Trail met with many +mishaps; frequently whole droves, containing from three to five hundred, +were stolen by the savages en route. The latter soon learned that it +was a very easy thing to stampede a caravan of mules, for, once +panic-stricken, it is impossible to restrain them, and the Indians +having started them kept them in a state of rampant excitement by their +blood-curdling yells, until they had driven them miles beyond the Trail. + +A story is told of a small band of twelve men, who, while encamped on +the Cimarron River, in 1826, with but four serviceable guns among them, +were visited by a party of Indians, believed to be Arapahoes, who made +at first strong demonstrations of friendship and good-will. Observing +the defenceless condition of the traders, they went away, but soon +returned about thirty strong, each provided with a lasso, and all on +foot. The chief then began by informing the Americans that his men were +tired of walking, and must have horses. Thinking it folly to offer any +resistance, the terrified traders told them if one animal apiece would +satisfy them, to go and catch them. This they soon did; but finding +their request so easily complied with, the Indians held a little parley +together, which resulted in a new demand for more--they must have two +apiece! "Well, catch them!" was the acquiescent reply of the unfortunate +band; upon which the savages mounted those they had already secured, +and, swinging their lassos over their heads, plunged among the stock +with a furious yell, and drove off the entire caballada of nearly five +hundred head of horses, mules, and asses. + +In 1829 the Indians of the plains became such a terror to the caravans +crossing to Santa Fe, that the United States government, upon petition +of the traders, ordered three companies of infantry and one of riflemen, +under command of Major Bennet Riley, to escort the annual caravan, which +that year started from the town of Franklin, Missouri, then the eastern +terminus of the Santa Fe trade, as far as Chouteau's Island, on the +Arkansas, which marked the boundary between the United States and +Mexico.[16] The caravan started from the island across the dreary route +unaccompanied by any troops, but had progressed only a few miles when +it was attacked by a band of Kiowas, then one of the most cruel and +bloodthirsty tribes on the plains.[17] + +This escort, commanded by Major Riley, and another under Captain +Wharton, composed of only sixty dragoons, five years later, were the +sole protection ever given by the government until 1843, when Captain +Philip St. George Cooke again accompanied two large caravans to the same +point on the Arkansas as did Major Riley fourteen years before. + +As the trade increased, the Comanches, Pawnees, and Arapahoes continued +to commit their depredations, and it was firmly believed by many of the +freighters that these Indians were incited to their devilish acts by the +Mexicans, who were always jealous of "Los Americanos." + +It was very rarely that a caravan, great or small, or even a detachment +of troops, no matter how large, escaped the raids of these bandits of +the Trail. If the list of those who were killed outright and scalped, +and those more unfortunate who were taken captive only to be tortured +and their bodies horribly mutilated, could be collected from the opening +of the traffic with New Mexico until the years 1868-69, when General +Sheridan inaugurated his memorable "winter campaign" against the allied +plains tribes, and completely demoralized, cowed, and forced them on +their reservations, about the time of the advent of the railroad, it +would present an appalling picture; and the number of horses, mules, +and oxen stampeded and stolen during the same period would amount to +thousands. + +As the excellent narrative of Captain Pike is not read as it should be +by the average American, a brief reference to it may not be considered +supererogatory. The celebrated officer, who was afterward promoted to +the rank of major-general, and died in the achievement of the victory of +York, Upper Canada, in 1813, was sent in 1806 on an exploring expedition +up the Arkansas River, with instructions to pass the sources of Red +River, for which those of the Canadian were then mistaken; he, however, +even went around the head of the latter, and crossing the mountains with +an almost incredible degree of peril and suffering, descended upon the +Rio del Norte with his little party, then but fifteen in number. + +Believing himself now on Red River, within the then assumed limits of +the United States, he built a small fortification for his company, until +the opening of the spring of 1807 should enable him to continue his +descent to Natchitoches. As he was really within Mexican territory, and +only about eighty miles from the northern settlements, his position +was soon discovered, and a force sent to take him to Santa Fe, which by +treachery was effected without opposition. The Spanish officer assured +him that the governor, learning that he had mistaken his way, had sent +animals and an escort to convey his men and baggage to a navigable point +on Red River (Rio Colorado), and that His Excellency desired very much +to see him at Santa Fe, which might be taken on their way. + +As soon, however, as the governor had the too confiding captain in his +power, he sent him with his men to the commandant general at Chihuahua, +where most of his papers were seized, and he and his party were sent +under an escort, via San Antonio de Bexar, to the United States. + +Many citizens of the remote Eastern States, who were contemporary with +Pike, declared that his expedition was in some way connected with the +treasonable attempt of Aaron Burr. The idea is simply preposterous; +Pike's whole line of conduct shows him to have been of the most +patriotic character; never would he for a moment have countenanced a +proposition from Aaron Burr! + +After Captain Pike's report had been published to the world, the +adventurers who were inspired by its glowing description of the country +he had been so far to explore were destined to experience trials and +disappointments of which they had formed no conception. + +Among them was a certain Captain Sublette, a famous old trapper in +the era of the great fur companies, and with him a Captain Smith, who, +although veteran pioneers of the Rocky Mountains, were mere novices in +the many complications of the Trail; but having been in the fastnesses +of the great divide of the continent, they thought that when they got +down on the plains they could go anywhere. They started with twenty +wagons, and left the Missouri without a single one of the party being +competent to guide the little caravan on the dangerous route. + +From the Missouri the Trail was broad and plain enough for a child to +follow, but when they arrived at the Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas, +not a trace of former caravans was visible; nothing but the innumerable +buffalo-trails leading from everywhere to the river. + +When the party entered the desert, or Dry Route, as it was years +afterward always, and very properly, called in certain seasons of +drought, the brave but too confident men discovered that the whole +region was burnt up. They wandered on for several days, the horrors of +death by thirst constantly confronting them. Water must be had or they +would all perish! At last Smith, in his desperation, determined to +follow one of the numerous buffalo-trails, believing that it would +conduct him to water of some character--a lake or pool or even wallow. +He left the train alone; asked for no one to accompany him; for he was +the very impersonation of courage, one of the most fearless men that +ever trapped in the mountains. + +He walked on and on for miles, when, on ascending a little divide, he +saw a stream in the valley beneath him. It was the Cimarron, and he +hurried toward it to quench his intolerable thirst. When he arrived at +its bank, to his disappointment it was nothing but a bed of sand; the +sometime clear running river was perfectly dry. + +Only for a moment was he staggered; he knew the character of many +streams in the West; that often their waters run under the ground at +a short distance from the surface, and in a moment he was on his knees +digging vigorously in the soft sand. Soon the coveted fluid began to +filter upwards into the little excavation he had made. He stooped to +drink, and in the next second a dozen arrows from an ambushed band +of Comanches entered his body. He did not die at once, however; it is +related by the Indians themselves that he killed two of their number +before death laid him low. + +Captain Sublette and Smith's other comrades did not know what had become +of him until some Mexican traders told them, having got the report from +the very savages who committed the cold-blooded murder. + +Gregg, in his report of this little expedition, says: + + Every kind of fatality seems to have attended this small + caravan. Among other casualties, a clerk in their company, + named Minter, was killed by a band of Pawnees, before they + crossed the Arkansas. This, I believe, is the only instance + of loss of life among the traders while engaged in hunting, + although the scarcity of accidents can hardly be said to be + the result of prudence. There is not a day that hunters + do not commit some indescretion; such as straying at + a distance of five and even ten miles from the caravan, + frequently alone, and seldom in bands of more than two or + three together. In this state, they must frequently be + spied by prowling savages; so that frequency of escape, + under such circumstances, must be partly attributed to + the cowardice of the Indians; indeed, generally speaking, + the latter are very loth to charge upon even a single + armed man, unless they can take him at a decided advantage. + + Not long after, this band of Captain Sublette's very + narrowly escaped total destruction. They had fallen in + with an immense horde of Blackfeet and Gros Ventres, and, + as the traders were literally but a handful among thousands + of savages, they fancied themselves for a while in imminent + peril of being virtually "eated up." But as Captain + Sublette possessed considerable experience, he was at + no loss how to deal with these treacherous savages; so that + although the latter assumed a threatening attitude, + he passed them without any serious molestation, and finally + arrived at Santa Fe in safety. + +The virtual commencement of the Santa Fe trade dates from 1822, and one +of the most remarkable events in its history was the first attempt to +introduce wagons in the expeditions. This was made in 1824 by a company +of traders, about eighty in number, among whom were several gentlemen of +intelligence from Missouri, who contributed by their superior skill +and undaunted energy to render the enterprise completely successful. A +portion of this company employed pack-mules; among the rest were +owned twenty-five wheeled vehicles, of which one or two were stout +road-wagons, two were carts, and the rest Dearborn carriages, the +whole conveying some twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars' worth of +merchandise. Colonel Marmaduke, of Missouri, was one of the party. This +caravan arrived at Santa Fe safely, experiencing much less difficulty +than they anticipated from a first attempt with wheeled vehicles. + +Gregg continues: + + The early voyageurs, having but seldom experienced any + molestation from the Indians, generally crossed the plains + in detached bands, each individual rarely carrying more than + two or three hundred dollars' worth of stock. This peaceful + season, however, did not last very long; and it is greatly + to be feared that the traders were not always innocent of + having instigated the savage hostilities that ensued in + after years. Many seemed to forget the wholesome precept, + that they should not be savages themselves because they + dealt with savages. Instead of cultivating friendly + feelings with those few who remained peaceful and honest, + there was an occasional one always disposed to kill, + even in cold blood, every Indian that fell into their power, + merely because some of the tribe had committed an outrage + either against themselves or friends. + +As an instance of this, he relates the following: + + In 1826 two young men named McNess and Monroe, having + carelessly lain down to sleep on the bank of a certain + stream, since known as McNess Creek,[18] were barbarously + shot, with their own guns, as it was supposed, in the very + sight of the caravan. When their comrades came up, + they found McNess lifeless, and the other almost expiring. + In this state the latter was carried nearly forty miles to + the Cimarron River, where he died, and was buried according + to the custom of the prairies, a very summary proceeding, + necessarily. The corpse, wrapped in a blanket, its shroud + the clothes it wore, is interred in a hole varying in depth + according to the nature of the soil, and upon the grave is + piled stones, if any are convenient, to prevent the wolves + from digging it up. Just as McNess's funeral ceremonies + were about to be concluded, six or seven Indians appeared + on the opposite side of the Cimarron. Some of the party + proposed inviting them to a parley, while the rest, burning + for revenge, evinced a desire to fire upon them at once. + It is more than probable, however, that the Indians were not + only innocent but ignorant of the outrage that had been + committed, or they would hardly have ventured to approach + the caravan. Being quick of perception, they very soon saw + the belligerent attitude assumed by the company, and + therefore wheeled round and attempted to escape. One shot + was fired, which brought an Indian to the ground, when he + was instantly riddled with balls. Almost simultaneously + another discharge of several guns followed, by which all + the rest were either killed or mortally wounded, except one, + who escaped to bear the news to his tribe. + + These wanton cruelties had a most disastrous effect upon the + prospects of the trade; for the exasperated children of + the desert became more and more hostile to the "pale-faces," + against whom they continued to wage a cruel war for many + successive years. In fact this party suffered very severely + a few days afterward. They were pursued by the enraged + comrades of the slain savages to the Arkansas River, where + they were robbed of nearly a thousand horses and mules. + +The author of this book, although having but little compassion for the +Indians, must admit that, during more than a third of a century passed +on the plains and in the mountains, he has never known of a war with the +hostile tribes that was not caused by broken faith on the part of the +United States or its agents. I will refer to two prominent instances: +that of the outbreak of the Nez Perces, and that of the allied plains +tribes. With the former a solemn treaty was made in 1856, guaranteeing +to them occupancy of the Wallola valley forever. I. I. Stevens, who +was governor of Washington Territory at the time, and ex-officio +superintendent of Indian affairs in the region, met the Nez Perces, +whose chief, "Wish-la-no-she," an octogenarian, when grasping the hand +of the governor at the council said: "I put out my hand to the white +man when Lewis and Clark crossed the continent, in 1805, and have never +taken it back since." The tribe kept its word until the white men took +forcible possession of the valley promised to the Indians, when the +latter broke out, and a prolonged war was the consequence. In 1867 +Congress appointed a commission to treat with the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and +Arapahoes, appropriating four hundred thousand dollars for the expenses +of the commission. It met at Medicine Lodge in August of the year +mentioned, and made a solemn treaty, which the members of the +commission, on the part of the United States, and the principal chiefs +of the three tribes signed. Congress failed to make any appropriation to +carry out the provisions of the treaty, and the Indians, after waiting +a reasonable time, broke out, devastated the settlements from the Platte +to the Rio Grande, destroying millions of dollars' worth of property, +and sacrificing hundreds of men, women, and children. Another war was +the result, which cost more millions, and under General Sheridan +the hostile savages were whipped into a peace, which they have been +compelled to keep. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. TRAINS AND PACKERS. + + + +As has been stated, until the year 1824 transportation across the plains +was done by means of pack-mules, the art of properly loading which seems +to be an intuitive attribute of the native Mexican. The American, +of course, soon became as expert, for nothing that the genus homo +is capable of doing is impossible to him; but his teacher was the +dark-visaged, superstitious, and profanity-expending Mexican arriero. + +A description of the equipment of a mule-train and the method of +packing, together with some of the curious facts connected with its +movements, may not be uninteresting, particularly as the whole thing, +with rare exceptions in the regular army at remote frontier posts, has +been relegated to the past, along with the caravan of the prairie and +the overland coach. To this generation, barring a few officers who +have served against the Indians on the plains and in the mountains, a +pack-mule train would be as great a curiosity as the hairy mammoth. In +the following particulars I have taken as a model the genuine Mexican +pack-train or atajo, as it was called in their Spanish dialect, always +used in the early days of the Santa Fe trade. The Americans made +many modifications, but the basis was purely Mexican in its origin. A +pack-mule was termed a mula de carga, and his equipment consisted of +several parts; first, the saddle, or aparejo, a nearly square pad of +leather stuffed with hay, which covered the animal's back on both sides +equally. The best idea of its shape will be formed by opening a book in +the middle and placing it saddle-fashion on the back of a chair. Each +half then forms a flap of the contrivance. Before the aparejo was +adjusted to the mule, a salea, or raw sheep-skin, made soft by rubbing, +was put on the animal's back, to prevent chafing, and over it the +saddle-cloth, or xerga. On top of both was placed the aparejo, which +was cinched by a wide grass-bandage. This band was drawn as tightly +as possible, to such an extent that the poor brute grunted and groaned +under the apparently painful operation, and when fastened he seemed to +be cut in two. This always appeared to be the very acme of cruelty to +the uninitiated, but it is the secret of successful packing; the firmer +the saddle, the more comfortably the mule can travel, with less risk of +being chafed and bruised. The aparejo is furnished with a huge crupper, +and this appendage is really the most cruel of all, for it is almost +sure to lacerate the tail. Hardly a Mexican mule in the old days of the +trade could be found which did not bear the scar of this rude supplement +to the immense saddle. + +The load, which is termed a carga, was generally three hundred pounds. +Two arrieros, or packers, place the goods on the mule's back, one, the +cargador, standing on the near side, his assistant on the other. The +carga is then hoisted on top of the saddle if it is a single package; or +if there are two of equal size and weight, one on each side, coupled by +a rope, which balances them on the animal. Another stout rope is then +thrown over all, drawn as tightly as possible under the belly, and laced +round the packs, securing them firmly in their place. Over the load, +to protect it from rain, is thrown a square piece of matting called a +petate. Sometimes, when a mule is a little refractory, he is blindfolded +by a thin piece of leather, generally embroidered, termed the tapojos, +and he remains perfectly quiet while the process of packing is going on. +When the load is securely fastened in its place, the blinder is removed. +The man on the near side, with his knee against the mule for a purchase, +as soon as the rope is hauled taut, cries out "Adios," and his assistant +answers "Vaya!" Then the first says again, "Anda!" upon which the mule +trots off to its companions, all of which feed around until the animals +of the whole train are packed. It seldom requires more than five minutes +for the two men to complete the packing of the animal, and in that time +is included the fastening of the aperejo. It is surprising to note the +degree of skill exercised by an experienced packer, and his apparently +abnormal strength in handling the immense bundles that are sometimes +transported. By the aid of his knees used as a fulcrum, he lifts a +package and tosses it on the mule's back without any apparent effort, +the dead weight of which he could not move from the ground. + +An old-time atajo or caravan of pack-mules generally numbered from fifty +to two hundred, and it travelled a jornado, or day's march of about +twelve or fifteen miles. This day's journey was made without any +stopping at noon, because if a pack-mule is allowed to rest, he +generally tries to lie down, and with his heavy load it is difficult +for him to get on his feet again. Sometimes he is badly strained in so +doing, perhaps ruined forever. When the train starts out on the trail, +the mules are so tightly bound with the ropes which confine the load +that they move with great difficulty; but the saddle soon settles +itself and the ropes become loosened so that they have frequently to be +tightened. On the march the arriero is kept busy nearly all the time; +the packs are constantly changing their position, frequently losing +their balance and falling off; sometimes saddle, pack, and all swing +under the animal's belly, and he must be unloaded and repacked again. + +On arriving at the camping-ground the pack-saddles with their loads +are ranged in regular order, their freight being between the saddles, +covered with the petates to protect it from the rain, and generally a +ditch is dug around to carry off the water, if the weather is stormy. +After two or three days' travel each mule knows its own pack and saddle, +and comes up to it at the proper moment with an intelligence that is +astonishing. If an animal should come whose pack is somewhere else, he +is soundly kicked in the ribs by the rightful mule, and sent bruised +and battered to his place. He rarely makes a mistake in relation to the +position of his own pack the second time. + +This method of transportation was so cheap, because of the low rate of +wages, that wagon-freighting, even in the most level region, could +not compete with it. Five dollars a month was the amount paid to the +muleteers, but it was oftener five with rations, costing almost nothing, +of corn and beans. Meat, if used at all, was found by the arrieros +themselves. + +On the trail the mule-train is under a system of discipline almost as +severe as that on board of a man-of-war. Every individual employed is +assigned to his place and has certain duties to perform. There is a +night-herder, called the savanero, whose duty it is to keep the animals +from straying too far away, as they are all turned loose to shift for +themselves, depending upon the grass alone for their subsistence. Each +herd has a mulera, or bell-mare, which wears a bell hanging to a strap +around her neck, and is kept in view of the other animals, who will +never leave her. If the mare is taken away from the herd, every mule +becomes really melancholy and is at a loss what to do or where to go. +The cook of the party, or madre (mother) as he is called, besides his +duty in preparing the food, must lead the bell-mule ahead of the train +while travelling, the pack-animals following her with a devotion that is +remarkable. + +Sometimes in traversing the narrow ledges cut around the sides of a +precipitous trail, or crossing a narrow natural bridge spanning the +frightful gorges found everywhere in the mountains, a mule will be +incontinently thrown off the slippery path, and fall hundreds of feet +into the yawning canyon below. Generally instant death is their portion, +though I recall an instance, while on an expedition against the hostile +Indians thirty years ago, where a number of mules of our pack-train, +loaded with ammunition, tumbled nearly five hundred feet down an almost +perpendicular chasm, and yet some of them got on their feet again, and +soon rejoined their companions, without having suffered any serious +injury. + +The wagons so long employed in this trade, after their first +introduction in 1824, were manufactured in Pittsburgh, their capacity +being about a ton and a half, and they were drawn by eight mules or the +same number of oxen. Later much larger wagons were employed with nearly +double the capacity of the first, hauled by ten and twelve mules or +oxen. These latter were soon called prairie-schooners, which name +continued to linger until transportation across the plains by wagons was +completely extinguished by the railroads. + +Under Mexican rule excessive tariff imposts were instituted, amounting +to about a hundred per cent upon goods brought from the United States, +and for some years, during the administration of Governor Manuel Armijo, +a purely arbitrary duty was demanded of five hundred dollars for every +wagon-load of merchandise brought into the Province, whether great or +small, and regardless of its intrinsic value. As gold and silver were +paid for the articles brought by the traders, they were also required +to pay a heavy duty on the precious metals they took out of the country. +Yankee ingenuity, however, evaded much of these unjust taxes. When the +caravan approached Santa Fe, the freight of three wagons was transferred +to one, and the empty vehicles destroyed by fire; while to avoid paying +the export duty on gold and silver, they had large false axletrees to +some of the wagons, in which the money was concealed, and the examining +officer of the customs, perfectly unconscious of the artifice, passed +them. + +The army, in its expeditions against the hostile Indian tribes, always +employed wagons in transporting its provisions and munitions of war, +except in the mountains, where the faithful pack-mule was substituted. +The American freighters, since the occupation of New Mexico by the +United States, until the transcontinental railroad usurped their +vocation, used wagons only; the Mexican nomenclature was soon dropped +and simple English terms adopted: caravan became train, and majordomo, +the person in charge, wagon-master. The latter was supreme. Upon +him rested all the responsibility, and to him the teamsters rendered +absolute obedience. He was necessarily a man of quick perception, +always fertile in expedients in times of emergency, and something of an +engineer; for to know how properly to cross a raging stream or a marshy +slough with an outfit of fifty or sixty wagons required more +than ordinary intelligence. Then in the case of a stampede, great +clear-headedness and coolness were needed to prevent loss of life. + +Stampedes were frequently very serious affairs, particularly with a +large mule-train. Notwithstanding the willingness and patient qualities +of that animal, he can act as absurdly as a Texas steer, and is as +easily frightened at nothing. Sometimes as insignificant a circumstance +as a prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, a figure in the +distance, or even the shadow of a passing cloud will start every animal +in the train, and away they go, rushing into each other, and becoming +entangled in such a manner that both drivers and mules have often been +crushed to death. It not infrequently happened that five or six of the +teams would dash off and never could be found. I remember one instance +that occurred on the trail between Fort Hays and Fort Dodge, during +General Sheridan's winter campaign against the allied plains tribes +in 1868. Three of the wagons were dragged away by the mules, in a few +moments were out of sight, and were never recovered, although diligent +search was made for them for some days. Ten years afterward a farmer, +who had taken up a claim in what is now Rush County, Kansas, discovered +in a ravine on his place the bones of some animals, decayed parts of +harness, and the remains of three army-wagons, which with other evidence +proved them to be the identical ones lost from the train so many years +before. + +The largest six-mule wagon-train that was ever strung out on the plains +transported the supplies for General Custer's command during the winter +above referred to. It comprised over eight hundred army-wagons, and was +four miles in length in one column, or one mile when in four lines--the +usual formation when in the field. + +The animals of the train were either hobbled or herded at night, +according to the locality; if in an Indian country, always hobbled or, +preferably, tied up to the tongue of the wagon to which they belonged. +The hobble is simply a strip of rawhide, with two slides of the same +material. Placed on the front legs of the mule just at the fetlock, the +slides pushed close to the limb, the animal could move around freely +enough to graze, but was not able to travel very fast in the event of +a stampede. In the Indian country, it was usual at night, or in the +daytime when halting to feed, to form a corral of the wagons, by placing +them in a circle, the wheels interlocked and the tongues run under the +axles, into which circle the mules, on the appearance of the savages, +were driven, and which also made a sort of fortress behind which the +teamsters could more effectually repel an attack. + +In the earlier trading expeditions to Santa Fe, the formation and march +of the caravan differed materially from that of the army-train in later +years. I here quote Gregg, whose authority on the subject has never been +questioned. When all was ready to move out on the broad sea of prairie, +he said: + + We held a council, at which the respective claims of the + different aspirants for office were considered, leaders + selected, and a system of government agreed upon--as is + the standing custom of these promiscuous caravans. + A captain was proclaimed elected, but his powers were not + defined by any constitutional provision; consequently, + they were very vague and uncertain. Orders being only + viewed as mere requests, they are often obeyed or neglected + at the caprice of the subordinates. It is necessary to + observe, however, that the captain is expected to direct + the order of travel during the day and to designate the + camping-ground at night, with many other functions of + general character, in the exercise of which the company + find it convenient to acquiesce. + + After this comes the task of organizing. The proprietors + are first notified by proclamation to furnish a list of + their men and wagons. The latter are generally apportioned + into four divisions, particularly when the company is large. + To each of these divisions, a lieutenant is appointed, + whose duty it is to inspect every ravine and creek on the + route, select the best crossings, and superintend what is + called in prairie parlance the forming of each encampment. + + There is nothing so much dreaded by inexperienced travellers + as the ordeal of guard duty. But no matter what the + condition or employment of the individual may be, no one + has the slightest chance of evading the common law of + the prairies. The amateur tourist and the listless loafer + are precisely in the same wholesome predicament--they must + all take their regular turn at the watch. There is usually + a set of genteel idlers attached to every caravan, whose + wits are forever at work in devising schemes for whiling + away their irksome hours at the expense of others. + By embarking in these trips of pleasure, they are enabled + to live without expense; for the hospitable traders seldom + refuse to accommodate even a loafing companion with a berth + at their mess without charge. But these lounging attaches + are expected at least to do good service by way of guard + duty. None are ever permitted to furnish a substitute, + as is frequently done in military expeditions; for he that + would undertake to stand the tour of another besides + his own would scarcely be watchful enough for dangers + of the prairies. Even the invalid must be able to produce + unequivocal proofs of his inability, or it is a chance + if the plea is admitted. + + The usual number of watchers is eight, each standing a + fourth of every alternate night. When the party is small, + the number is generally reduced, while in the case of + very small bands, they are sometimes compelled for safety's + sake to keep watch on duty half the night. With large + caravans the captain usually appoints eight sergeants + of the guard, each of whom takes an equal portion of men + under his command. + + The wild and motley aspect of the caravan can be but + imperfectly conceived without an idea of the costumes of + its various members. The most fashionable prairie dress + is the fustian frock of the city-bred merchant, furnished + with a multitude of pockets capable of accommodating a + variety of extra tackling. Then there is the backwoodsman + with his linsey or leather hunting-shirt--the farmer with + his blue jean coat--the wagoner with his flannel sleeve + vest--besides an assortment of other costumes which go + to fill up the picture. + + In the article of firearms there is also an equally + interesting medley. The frontier hunter sticks to his + rifle, as nothing could induce him to carry what he terms + in derision "the scatter-gun." The sportsman from the + interior flourishes his double-barrelled fowling-piece + with equal confidence in its superiority. A great many + were furnished beside with a bountiful supply of pistols + and knives of every description, so that the party made + altogether a very brigand-like appearance. + + "Catch up! Catch up!" is now sounded from the captain's + camp and echoed from every division and scattered group + along the valley. The woods and dales resound with the + gleeful yells of the light-hearted wagoners who, weary of + inaction and filled with joy at the prospect of getting + under way, become clamorous in the extreme. Each teamster + vies with his fellow who shall be soonest ready; and it + is a matter of boastful pride to be the first to cry out, + "All's set." + + The uproarious bustle which follows, the hallooing of those + in pursuit of animals, the exclamations which the unruly + brutes call forth from their wrathful drivers, together + with the clatter of bells, the rattle of yokes and harness, + the jingle of chains, all conspire to produce an uproarious + confusion. It is sometimes amusing to observe the athletic + wagoner hurrying an animal to its post--to see him heave + upon the halter of a stubborn mule, while the brute as + obstinately sets back, determined not to move a peg till + his own good pleasure thinks it proper to do so--his whole + manner seeming to say, "Wait till your hurry's over." + I have more than once seen a driver hitch a harnessed animal + to the halter, and by that process haul his mulishness + forward, while each of his four projected feet would leave + a furrow behind. + + "All's set!" is finally heard from some teamster-- + "All's set," is directly responded from every quarter. + "Stretch out!" immediately vociferates the captain. + Then the "heps!" to the drivers, the cracking of whips, + the trampling of feet, the occasional creak of wheels, + the rumbling of the wagons, while "Fall in" is heard from + head-quarters, and the train is strung out and in a few + moments has started on its long journey. + +With an army-train the discipline was as perfect as that of a garrison. +The wagon-master was under the orders of the commander of the troops +which escorted the caravan, the camps were formed with regard to +strategic principles, sentries walked their beats and were visited by an +officer of the day, as if stationed at a military post. + +Unquestionably the most expert packer I have known is Chris. Gilson, +of Kansas. In nearly all the expeditions on the great plains and in +the mountains he has been the master-spirit of the pack-trains. General +Sheridan, who knew Gilson long before the war, in Oregon and Washington, +regarded the celebrated packer with more than ordinary friendship. +For many years he was employed by the government at the suggestion +of General Sheridan, to teach the art of packing to the officers and +enlisted men at several military posts in the West. He received a large +salary, and for a long period was stationed at the immense cavalry depot +of Fort Riley, in Kansas. Gilson was also employed by the British army +during the Zulu war in Africa, as chief packer, at a salary of twenty +dollars a day. Now, however, since the railroads have penetrated the +once considered impenetrable fastnesses of the mountains, packing will +be relegated to the lost arts. + + + + +CHAPTER V. FIGHT WITH COMANCHES. + + + +Early in the spring of 1828, a company of young men residing in the +vicinity of Franklin, Missouri, having heard related by a neighbour who +had recently returned the wonderful story of a passage across the great +plains, and the strange things to be seen in the land of the Greasers, +determined to explore the region for themselves; making the trip in +wagons, an innovation of a startling character, as heretofore only +pack-animals had been employed in the limited trade with far-off Santa +Fe. The story of their journey can best be told in the words of one of +the party:[19]-- + + We had about one thousand miles to travel, and as there was + no wagon-road in those early days across the plains to the + mountains, we were compelled to take our chances through + the vast wilderness, seeking the best route we could. + + No signs of life were visible except the innumerable buffalo + and antelope that were constantly crossing our trail. + We moved on slowly from day to day without any incident + worth recording and arrived at the Arkansas; made the + passage and entered the Great American Desert lying beyond, + as listless, lonesome, and noiseless as a sleeping sea. + Having neglected to carry any water with us, we were obliged + to go withot a drop for two days and nights after leaving + the river. At last we reached the Cimarron, a cool, + sparkling stream, ourselves and our animals on the point + of perishing. Our joy at discovering it, however, was + short-lived. We had scarcely quenched our thirst when + we saw, to our dismay, a large band of Indians camped on + its banks. Their furtive glances at us, and significant + looks at each other, aroused our worst suspicions, and + we instinctively felt we were not to get away without + serious trouble. Contrary to our expectations, however, + they did not offer to molest us, and we at once made up + our minds they preferred to wait for our return, as we + believed they had somehow learned of our intention to bring + back from New Mexico a large herd of mules and ponies. + + We arrived in Santa Fe on the 20th of July, without further + adventure, and after having our stock of goods passed + through the custom house, were granted the privilege of + selling them. The majority of the party sold out in a + very short time and started on their road to the States, + leaving twenty-one of us behind to return later. + + On the first day of September, those of us who had remained + in Santa Fe commenced our homeward journey. We started + with one hundred and fifty mules and horses, four wagons, + and a large amount of silver coin. Nothing of an eventful + character occurred until we arrived at the Upper Cimarron + Springs, where we intended to encamp for the night. + But our anticipations of peaceable repose were rudely + dispelled; for when we rode up on the summit of the hill, + the sight that met our eyes was appalling enough to excite + the gravest apprehensions. It was a large camp of + Comanches, evidently there for the purpose of robbery + and murder. We could neither turn back nor go on either + side of them on account of the mountainous character of + the country, and we realized, when too late, that we were + in a trap. + + There was only one road open to us; that right through + the camp. Assuming the bravest look possible, and keeping + our rifles in position for immediate action, we started + on the perilous venture. The chief met us with a smile + of welcome, and said, in Spanish: "You must stay with us + to-night. Our young men will guard your stock, and we have + plenty of buffalo meat." + + Realizing the danger of our situation, we took advantage + of every moment of time to hurry through their camp. + Captain Means, Ellison, and myself were a little distance + behind the wagons, on horseback; observing that the balance + of our men were evading them, the blood-thirsty savages + at once threw off their masks of dissimulation and in an + instant we knew the time for a struggle had arrived. + + The Indians, as we rode on, seized our bridle-reins and + began to fire upon us. Ellison and I put spurs to our + horses and got away, but Captain Means, a brave man, + was ruthlessly shot and cruelly scalped while the life-blood + was pouring from his ghastly wounds. + + We succeeded in fighting them off until we had left their + camp half a mile behind, and as darkness had settled down + on us, we decided to go into camp ourselves. We tied our + gray bell-mare to a stake, and went out and jingled the + bell, whenever any of us could do so, thus keeping the + animals from stampeding. We corralled our wagons for + better protection, and the Indians kept us busy all night + resisting their furious charges. We all knew that death + at our posts would be infinitely preferable to falling + into their hands; so we resolved to sell our lives as + dearly as possible. + + The next day we made but five miles; it was a continuous + fight, and a very difficult matter to prevent their + capturing us. This annoyance was kept up for four days; + they would surround us, then let up as if taking time to + renew their strength, to suddenly charge upon us again, + and they continued thus to harass us until we were almost + exhausted from loss of sleep. + + After leaving the Cimarron, we once more emerged on the + open plains and flattered ourselves we were well rid of + the savages; but about twelve o'clock they came down on us + again, uttering their demoniacal yells, which frightened + our horses and mules so terribly, that we lost every hoof. + A member of our party, named Hitt, in endeavouring to + recapture some of the stolen stock, was taken by the + savages, but luckily escaped from their clutches, after + having been wounded in sixteen parts of his body; + he was shot, tomahawked, and speared. When the painted + demons saw that one of their number had been killed by us, + they left the field for a time, while we, taking advantage + of the temporary lull, went back to our wagons and built + breastworks of them, the harness, and saddles. From noon + until two hours in the night, when the moon went down, + the savages were apparently confident we would soon fall + a prey to them, and they made charge after charge upon + our rude fortifications. + + Darkness was now upon us. There were two alternatives + before us: should we resolve to die where we were, or + attempt to escape in the black hours of the night? + It was a desperate situation. Our little band looked + the matter squarely in the face, and, after a council + of war had been held, we determined to escape, if possible. + + In order to carry out our resolve, it was necessary to + abandon the wagons, together with a large amount of silver + coin, as it would be impossible to take all of the precious + stuff with us in our flight; so we packed up as much of it + as we could carry, and, bidding our hard-earned wealth + a reluctant farewell, stepped out in the darkness like + spectres and hurried away from the scene of death. + + Our proper course was easterly, but we went in a northerly + direction in order to avoid the Indians. We travelled + all that night, the next day, and a portion of its night + until we reached the Arkansas River, and, having eaten + nothing during that whole time excepting a few prickly-pears, + were beginning to feel weak from the weight of our burdens + and exhaustion. At this point we decided to lighten + our loads by burying all of the money we had carried + thus far, keeping only a small sum for each man. + Proceeding to a small island in the river, our treasure, + amounting to over ten thousand silver dollars, was cached + in the ground between two cottonwood trees. + + Believing now that we were out of the usual range of + the predatory Indians, we shot a buffalo and an antelope + which we cooked and ate without salt or bread; but no meal + has ever tasted better to me than that one. + + We continued our journey northward for three or four days + more, when, reaching Pawnee Fork, we travelled down it for + more than a week, arriving again on the Old Santa Fe Trail. + Following the Trail three days, we arrived at Walnut Creek, + then left the river again and went eastwardly to Cow Creek. + When we reached that point, we had become so completely + exhausted and worn out from subsisting on buffalo meat + alone, that it seemed as if there was nothing left for + us to do but lie down and die. Finally it was determined + to send five of the best-preserved men on ahead to + Independence, two hundred miles, for the purpose of + procuring assistance; the other fifteen to get along + as well as they could until succour reached them. + + I was one of the five selected to go on in advance, and + I shall never forget the terrible suffering we endured. + We had no blankets, and it was getting late in the fall. + Some of us were entirely barefooted, and our feet so sore + that we left stains of blood at every step. Deafness, too, + seized upon us so intensely, occasioned by our weak + condition, that we coud not hear the report of a gun fired + at a distance of only a few feet. + + At one place two of our men laid down their arms, declaring + they could carry them no farther, and would die if they + did not get water. We left them and went in search of some. + After following a dry branch several miles, we found + a muddy puddle from which we succeeded in getting half + a bucket full, and, although black and thick, it was life + for us and we guarded it with jealous eyes. We returned + to our comrades about daylight, and the water so refreshed + them they were able to resume the weary march. We travelled + on until we arrived at the Big Blue River, in Missouri, + on the bank of which we discovered a cabin about fifteen + miles from Independence. The occupants of the rude shanty + were women, seemingly very poor, but they freely offered us + a pot of pumpkin they were stewing. When they first saw us, + they were terribly frightened, because we looked more like + skeletons than living beings. They jumped on the bed while + we were greedily devouring the pumpkin, but we had to + refuse some salt meat which they had also proffered, + as our teeth were too sore to eat it. In a short time + two men came to the cabin and took three of our men + home with them. We had subsisted for eleven days on + one turkey, a coon, a crow, and some elm bark, with an + occasional bunch of wild grapes, and the pictures we + presented to these good people they will never, probably, + forget; we had not tasted bread or salt for thirty-two days. + + The next day our newly found friends secured horses and + guided us to Independence, all riding without saddles. + One of the party had gone on to notify the citizens of + our safety, and when we arrived general muster was going on, + the town was crowded, and when the people looked upon us + the most intense excitement prevailed. All business was + suspended; the entire population flocked around us to hear + the remarkable story of our adventures, and to render us + the assistance we so much needed. We were half-naked, + foot-sore, and haggard, presenting such a pitiable picture + that the greatest sympathy was immediately aroused in + our behalf. + + We then said that behind us on the Trail somewhere, fifteen + comrades were struggling toward Independence, or were + already dead from their sufferings. In a very few minutes + seven men with fifteen horses started out to rescue them. + + They were gone from Independence several days, but had the + good fortune to find all the men just in time to save them + from starvation and exhaustion. Two were discovered + a hundred miles from Independence, and the remainder + scattered along the Trail fifty miles further in their rear. + Not more than two of the unfortunate party were together. + The humane rescuers seemingly brought back nothing but + living skeletons wrapped in rags; but the good people of + the place vied with each other in their attentions, and + under their watchful care the sufferers rapidly recuperated. + + One would suppose that we had had enough of the great plains + after our first trip; not so, however, for in the spring + we started again on the same journey. Major Riley, with + four companies of regular soldiers, was detailed to escort + the Santa Fe traders' caravans to the boundary line between + the United States and Mexico, and we went along to recover + the money we had buried, the command having been ordered to + remain in camp to await our return until the 20th of October. + + We left Fort Leavenworth about the 10th of May, and were + soon again on the plains. Many of the troops had never + seen any buffalo before, and found great sport in wantonly + slaughtering them. At Walnut Creek we halted to secure + a cannon which had been thrown into that stream two seasons + previously, and succeeded in dragging it out. With a seine + made of brush and grape vine, we caught more fine fish than + we could possibly dispose of. One morning the camp was + thrown into the greatest state of excitement by a band of + Indians running an enormous herd of buffalo right into us. + The troops fired at them by platoons, killing hundreds + of them. + + We marched in two columns, and formed a hollow square + at night when we camped, in which all slept excepting + those on guard duty. Frequently some one would discover + a rattlesnake or a horned toad in bed with him, and it + did not take him a very long time to crawl out of his + blankets! + + On the 10th of July, we arrived at the dividing line + separating the two countries, and went into camp. The next + day Major Riley sent a squad of soldiers to escort myself + and another of our old party, who had helped bury the + ten thousand dollars, to find it. It was a few miles + further up the Arkansas than our camp, in the Mexican + limits, and when we reached the memorable spot on the + island,[20] we found the coin safe, but the water had + washed the earth away, and the silver was exposed to view + to excite the cupidity of any one passing that way; + there were not many travellers on that lonely route in + those days, however, and it would have been just as secure, + probably, had we simply poured it on the ground. + + We put the money in sacks and deposited it with Major Riley, + and, leaving the camp, started for Santa Fe with Captain + Bent as leader of the traders. We had not proceeded far + when our advanced guard met Indians. They turned, and when + within two hundred yards of us, one man named Samuel Lamme + was killed, his body being completely riddled with arrows. + His head was cut off, and all his clothes stripped from + his body. We had a cannon, but the Mexicans who hauled it + had tied it up in such a way that it could not be utilized + in time to effect anything in the first assault; but when + at last it was turned loose upon the Indians, they fled + in dismay at the terrible noise. + + The troops at the crossing of the Arkansas, hearing the + firing, came to our assistance. The next morning the + hills were covered by fully two thousand Indians, who had + evidently congregated there for the purpose of annihilating + us, and the coming of the soldiers was indeed fortunate; + for as soon as the cowardly savages discovered them + they fled. Major Riley accompanied us on our march for + a few days, and, seeing no more Indians, he returned to + his camp. + + We travelled on for a week, then met a hundred Mexicans + who were out on the plains hunting buffalo. They had + killed a great many and were drying the meat. We waited + until they were ready to return and then all started for + Santa Fe together. + + At Rabbit-Ear Mountain the Indians had constructed + breastworks in the brush, intending to fight it out there. + The Mexicans were in the advance and had one of their + number killed before discovering the enemy. We passed + Point of Rocks and camped on the river. One of the + Mexicans went out hunting and shot a huge panther; + next morning he asked a companion to go with him and help + skin the animal. They saw the Indians in the brush, and + the one who had killed the panther said to the other, + "Now for the mountains"; but his comrade retreated, + and was despatched by the savages almost within reach + of the column. + + We now decided to change our destination, intending to go + to Taos instead of Santa Fe, but the governor of the + Province sent out troops to stop us, as Taos was not a + place of entry. The soldiers remained with us a whole week, + until we arrived at Santa Fe, where we disposed of our goods + and soon began to make preparations for our return trip. + + When we were ready to start back, seven priests and a + number of wealthy families, comfortably fixed in carriages, + accompanied us. The Mexican government ordered Colonel + Viscarra of the army, with five troops of cavalry, + to guard us to the camp of Major Riley. + + We experienced no trouble until we arrived at the + Cimarron River. About sunset, just as we were preparing + to camp for the night, the sentinels saw a body of a + hundred Indians approaching; they fired at them and ran + to camp. Knowing they had been discovered, the Indians + came on and made friendly overtures; but the Pueblos who + who were with the command of Colonel Viscarra wanted to + fight them at once, saying the fellows meant mischief. + We declined to camp with them unless they would agree to + give up their arms; they pretended they were willing to + do so, when one of them put his gun at the breast of our + interpreter and pulled the trigger. In an instant a bloody + scene ensued; several of Viscarra's men were killed, + together with a number of mules. Finally the Indians + were whipped and tried to get away, but we chased them + some distance and killed thirty-five. Our friendly Pueblos + were delighted, and proceeded to scalp the savages, + hanging the bloody trophies on the points of their spears. + That night they indulged in a war-dance which lasted + until nearly morning. + + We were delighted to see a beautiful sunshiny day after + the horrors of the preceding night, and continued our march + without farther interruption, safely arriving at the camp + on the boundary line, where Major Riley was waiting for us, + as we supposed; but his time having expired the day before, + he had left for Fort Leavenworth. A courier was despatched + to him, however, as Colonel Viscarra desired to meet the + American commander and see his troops. The courier overtook + Major Riley a short distance away, and he halted for us + to come up. Both commands then went into camp, and spent + several days comparing the discipline of the armies of + the two nations, and having a general good time. + Colonel Viscarra greatly admired our small arms, and + took his leave in a very courteous manner. + + We arrived at Fort Leavenworth late in the season, and + from there we all scattered. I received my share of the + money we had cached on the island, and bade my comrades + farewell, only a few of whom I have ever seen since. + +Mr. Hitt in his notes of this same perilous trip says: + + When the grass had sufficiently started to insure the + subsistence of our teams, our wagons were loaded with + a miscellaneous assortment of merchandise and the first + trader's caravan of wagons that ever crossed the plains + left Independence. Before we had travelled three weeks + on our journey, we were one evening confronted with the + novel fact of camping in a country where not a stick of + wood could be found. The grass was too green to burn, + and we were wondering how our fire could be started + with which to boil our coffee, or cook our bread. One of + our number, however, while diligently searching for + something to utilize, suddenly discovered scattered all + around him a large quantity of buffalo-chips, and he soon + had an excellent fire under way, his coffee boiling and + his bacon sizzling over the glowing coals. + + We arrived in Santa Fe without incident, and as ours + was the first train of wagons that ever traversed the + narrow streets of the quaint old town, it was, of course, + a great curiosity to the natives. + + After a few days' rest, sight-seeing, and purchasing stock + to replace our own jaded animals, preparations were made + for the return trip. All the money we had received for + our goods was in gold and silver, principally the latter, + in consequence of which, each member of the company had + about as much as he could conveniently manage, and, + as events turned out, much more than he could take care of. + + On the morning of the third day out, when we were not + looking for the least trouble, our entire herd was + stampeded, and we were left upon the prairie without + as much as a single mule to pursue the fast-fleeing + thieves. The Mexicans and Indians had come so suddenly + upon us, and had made such an effective dash, that we + stood like children who had broken their toys on a stone + at their feet. We were so unprepared for such a stampede + that the thieves did not approach within rifle-shot range + of the camp to accomplish their object; few of them + coming within sight, even. + + After the excitement had somewhat subsided and we began + to realize what had been done, it was decided that while + some should remain to guard the camp, others must go to + Santa Fe to see if they could not recover the stock. + The party that went to Santa Fe had no difficulty in + recognizing the stolen animals; but when they claimed them, + they were laughed at by the officials of the place. + They experienced no difficulty, however, in purchasing + the same stock for a small sum, which they at once did, + and hurried back to camp. By this unpleasant episode + we learned of the stealth and treachery of the miserable + people in whose country we were. We, therefore, took every + precaution to prevent a repetition of the affair, and + kept up a vigilant guard night and day. + + Matters progressed very well, and when we had travelled + some three hundred miles eastwardly, thinking we were + out of range of any predatory bands, as we had seen no + sign of any living thing, we relaxed our vigilance somewhat. + One morning, just before dawn, the whole earth seemed to + resound with the most horrible noises that ever greeted + human ears; every blade of grass appeared to re-echo + the horrid din. In a few moments every man was at his post, + rifle in hand, ready for any emergency, and almost + immediately a large band of Indians made their appearance, + riding within rifle-shot of the wagons. A continuous + battle raged for several hours, the savages discharging + a shot, then scampering off out of range as fast as + their ponies could carry them. Some, more brave than + others would venture closer to the corral, and one of these + got the contents of an old-fashioned flint-lock musket + in his bowels. + + We were careful not all to fire at the same time, and + several of our party, who were watching the effects of + our shots declared they could see the dust fly out of + the robes of the Indians as the bullets struck them. + It was learned afterward that a number of the savages + were wounded, and that several had died. Many were armed + with bows and arrows only, and in order to do any execution + were obliged to come near the corral. The Indians soon + discovered they were getting the worst of the fight, and, + having run off all the stock, abandoned the conflict, + leaving us in possession of the camp, but it can hardly + be said masters of the situation. + + There we were; thirty-five pioneers upon the wild prairie, + surrounded by a wily and terribly cruel foe, without + transportation of any character but our own legs, and with + five hundred miles of dangerous, trackless waste between + us and the settlements. We had an abundance of money, + but the stuff was absolutely worthless for the present, + as there was nothing we could buy with it. + + After the last savage had ridden away into the sand hills + on the opposite side of the river, each one of us had a + thrilling story to relate of his individual narrow escapes. + Though none was killed, many received wounds, the scars + of which they carried through life. I was wounded six + times. Once was in the thigh by an arrow, and once while + loading my rifle I had my ramrod shot off close to the + muzzle of my piece, the ball just grazing my shoulder, + tearing away a small portion of the skin. Others had + equally curious experiences, but none were seriously injured. + + After the excitement incident to the battle had subsided, + the realization of our condition fully dawned upon us. + When we were first robbed, we were only a short distance + from Santa Fe, where our money easily procured other stock; + now there were three hundred miles behind us to that place, + and the picture was anything but pleasant to contemplate. + To transport supplies for thirty-five men seemed impossible. + Our money was now a burden greater than we could bear; + what was to be done with it? We would have no use for it + on our way to the settlements, yet the idea of abandoning + it seemed hard to accept. A vigilant guard was kept up + that day and night, during which time we all remained + in camp, fearing a renewal of the attack. + + The next morning, as there were no apparent signs of + the Indians, it was decided to reconnoitre the surrounding + country in the hope of recovering a portion, at least, + of our lost stock, which we thought might have become + separated from the main herd. Three men were detailed + to stay in the old camp to guard it while the remainder, + in squads, scoured the hills and ravines. Not a horse + or mule was visible anywhere; the stampede had been + complete--not even the direction the animals had taken + could be discovered. + + It was late in the afternoon when I, having left my + companions to continue the search and returning to camp + alone, had gotten within a mile of it, that I thought I saw + a horse feeding upon an adjoining hill. I at once turned + my steps in that direction, and had proceeded but a short + distance when three Indians jumped from their ambush in + the grass between me and the wagons and ran after me. + The men in camp had been watching my every movement, + and as soon as they saw the savages were chasing me, + they started in pursuit, running at their greatest speed + to my rescue. + + The savages soon overtook me, and the first one that + came up tackled me, but in an instant found himself flat + on the ground. Before he could get up, the second one + shared the same fate. By this time the third one arrived, + and the two I had thrown grabbed me by the legs so that + I could no longer handle myself, while the third one had + a comparatively easy task in pushing me over. Fortunately, + my head fell toward the camp and my fast-approaching + comrades. The two Indians held my legs to prevent my + rising, while the third one, who was standing over me, + drew from his belt a tomahawk, and shrugging his head + in his blanket, at the same time looking over his shoulder + at my friends, with a tremendous effort and that peculiar + grunt of all savages, plunged his hatchet, as he supposed, + into my head, but instead of scuffling to free myself + and rise to my feet, I merely turned my head to one side + and the wicked weapon was buried in the ground, just + grazing my ear. + + The Indian, seeing that he had missed, raised his hatchet + and once more shrugging his head in his blanket, and + turning to look over his other shoulder, attempted to + strike again, but the blow was evaded by a sudden toss + of his intended victim's head. Not satisfied with two + abortive trials, the third attempt must be made to brain me, + and repeating the same motions, with a great "Ugh!" he + seemed to put all his strength into the blow, which, like + the others, missed, and spent its force in the earth. + By this time the rescuing party had come near enough to + prevent the savage from risking another effort, and he then + addressed the other Indians in Spanish, which I understood, + saying, "We must run or the Americans will kill us!" + and loosening his grasp, he scampered off with his + companions as fast as his legs could take him, hurried on + by several pieces of lead fired from the old flintlocks + of the traders. + + By sundown every man had returned to the forlorn camp, + but not an animal had been recovered. Then, with tired + limbs and weary hearts, we took turns at guarding the + wagons through the long night. The next morning each man + shouldered his rifle, and having had his proportion of + the provisions and cooking utensils assigned him, + we broke camp, and again turned to take a last look at + the country behind us, in which we had experienced so much + misfortune, and started on foot for our long march through + the dangerous region ahead of us. + + Scarcely had we gotten out of sight of our abandoned camp, + when one of the party, happening to turn his eyes in that + direction, saw a large volume of smoke rising in the + vicinity; then we knew that all of our wagons, and + everything we had been forced to leave, were burning up. + This proved that, although we had been unable to discover + any signs of Indians, they had been lurking around us + all the time, and this fact warned us to exercise the + utmost vigilance in guarding our persons. + + Though our burdens were very heavy, the first few days + were passed without anything to relieve the dreadful + monotony of our wearisome march; but each succeeding + twenty-four hours our loads became visibly lighter, + as our supplies were rapidly diminishing. It had already + become apparent that even in the exercise of the greatest + frugality, our stock of provisions would not last until + we could reach the settlements, so some of the most expert + shots were selected to hunt for game; but even in this + they were not successful, the very birds seeming to have + abandoned the country in its extreme desolation. + + After eight days' travel, despite our most rigid economy, + an inventory showed that there was less than one hundred + pounds of flour left. Day after day the hunters repeated + the same old story: "No game!" For two weeks the allowance + of flour to each individual was but a spoonful, stirred + in water and taken three times a day. + + One afternoon, however, fortune smiled upon the weary party; + one of the hunters returned to camp with a turkey he had + killed. It was soon broiling over a fire which willing + hands had kindled, and our drooping spirits were revived + for a while. While the turkey was cooking, a crow flew + over the camp, and one of the company, seizing a gun, + despatched it, and in a few moments it, too, was sizzling + along with the other bird. + + Now, in addition to the pangs of hunger, a scarcity of + water confronted us, and one day we were compelled to + resort to a buffalo-wallow and suck the moist clay where + the huge animals had been stamping in the mud. We were + much reduced in strength, yet each day added new + difficulties to our forlorn situation. Some became so weak + and exhausted that it was with the greatest effort they + could travel at all. To divide the company and leave + the more feeble behind to starve, or to be murdered by + the merciless savages, was not considered for a moment; + but one alternative remained, and that was speedily accepted. + As soon as a convenient camping-ground could be found, + a halt was made, shelter established, and things made as + comfortable as possible. Here the weakest remained to rest, + while some of the strongest scoured the surrounding country + in search of game. During this temporary halt the hunters + were more successful than before, having killed two + buffaloes, besides some smaller animals, in one morning. + Again the natural dry fuel of the prairies was called + into requisition, and juicy steak was once more broiling + over the fire. + + With an abundance to eat and a few days' rest, the whole + company revived and were enabled to renew their march + homeward. We were now in the buffalo range, and every day + the hunters were fortunate enough to kill one or more of + the immense animals, thus keeping our larder in excellent + condition, and starvation averted. + + Doubting whether our good fortune in relation to food + would continue for the remainder of our march, and our + money becoming very cumbersome, it was decided by a majority + that at the first good place we came to we would bury it + and risk its being stolen by our enemies. When not more + than half of our journey had been accomplished, we came + to an island in the river to which we waded, and there, + between two large trees, dug a hole and deposited our + treasure. We replaced the sod over the spot, taking the + utmost precaution to conceal every sign of having disturbed + the ground. Though no Indians had been seen for several + days, a sharp lookout was kept in all directions for fear + that some lurking savage might have been watching our + movements. This task finished, with much lighter burdens, + but more anxious than ever, we again took up our march + eastwardly, and, thus relieved, were able to carry a + greater quantity of provisions. + + Having journeyed until we supposed we were within a few + miles of the settlements, some of our number, scarcely able + to travel, thought the best course to pursue would be to + divide the company; one portion to press on, the weaker + ones to proceed by easier stages, and when the advance + arrived at the settlements, they were to send back a relief + for those plodding on wearily behind them. Soon a few + who were stronger than the others reached Independence, + Missouri, and immediately sent a party with horses to + bring in their comrades; so, at last, all got safely to + their homes. + +In the spring of 1829, Major Bennett Riley of the United States army was +ordered with four companies of the Sixth Regular Infantry to march out +on the Trail as the first military escort ever sent for the protection +of the caravans of traders going and returning between Western Missouri +and Santa Fe. Captain Philip St. George Cooke, of the Dragoons, +accompanied the command, and kept a faithful journal of the trip, from +which, and the official report of Major Riley to the Secretary of War, I +have interpolated here copious extracts. + +The journal of Captain Cooke states that the battalion marched from Fort +Leavenworth, which was then called a cantonment, and, strange to +say, had been abandoned by the Third Infantry on account of its +unhealthiness. It was the 5th of June that Riley crossed the Missouri at +the cantonment, and recrossed the river again at a point a little above +Independence, in order to avoid the Kaw, or Kansas, which had no ferry. + +After five days' marching, the command arrived at Round Grove, where +the caravan had been ordered to rendezvous and wait for the escort. The +number of traders aggregated about seventy-nine men, and their train +consisted of thirty-eight wagons drawn by mules and horses, the former +preponderating. Five days' marching, at an average of fifteen miles a +day, brought them to Council Grove. Leaving the Grove, in a short time +Cow Creek was reached, which at that date abounded in fish; many of +which, says the journal, "weighed several pounds, and were caught as +fast as the line could be handled." The captain does not describe the +variety to which he refers; probably they were the buffalo--a species of +sucker, to be found to-day in every considerable stream in Kansas. + +Having reached the Upper Valley,[21] bordered by high sand hills, the +journal continues: + + From the tops of the hills, we saw far away, in almost + every direction, mile after mile of prairie, blackened + with buffalo. One morning, when our march was along the + natural meadows by the river, we passed through them for + miles; they opened in front and closed continually in + the rear, preserving a distance scarcely over three hundred + paces. On one occasion, a bull had approached within + two hundred yards without seeing us, until he ascended + the river bank; he stood a moment shaking his head, and + then made a charge at the column. Several officers + stepped out and fired at him, two or three dogs also rushed + to meet him; but right onward he came, snorting blood + from mouth and nostril at every leap, and, with the speed + of a horse and the momentum of a locomotive, dashed + between two wagons, which the frightened oxen nearly upset; + the dogs were at his heels and soon he came to bay, and, + with tail erect, kicked violently for a moment, and then + sank in death--the muscles retaining the dying rigidity + of tension. + +About the middle of July, the command arrived at its +destination--Chouteau's Island, then on the boundary line between the +United States and New Mexico. + + Our orders were to march no further; and, as a protection + to the trade, it was like the establishment of a ferry + to the mid-channel of a river. + + Up to this time, traders had always used mules or horses. + Our oxen were an experiment, and it succeeded admirably; + they even did better when water was very scarce, which is + an important consideration. + + A few hours after the departure of the trading company, + as we enjoyed a quiet rest on a hot afternoon, we saw + beyond the river a number of horsemen riding furiously + toward our camp. We all flocked out of the tents to hear + the news, for they were soon recognized as traders. + They stated that the caravan had been attacked, about + six miles off in the sand hills, by an innumerable host + of Indians; that some of their companions had been killed; + and they had run, of course, for help. There was not a + moment's hesitation; the word was given, and the tents + vanished as if by magic. The oxen which were grazing + near by were speedily yoked to the wagons, and into the + river we marched. Then I deemed myself the most unlucky + of men; a day or two before, while eating my breakfast, + with my coffee in a tin cup--notorious among chemists and + campaigners for keeping it hot--it was upset into my shoe, + and on pulling off the stocking, it so happened that the + skin came with it. Being thus hors de combat, I sought to + enter the combat on a horse, which was allowed; but I was + put in command of the rear guard to bring up the baggage + train. It grew late, and the wagons crossed slowly; + for the river unluckily took that particular time to + rise fast, and, before all were over, we had to swim it, + and by moonlight. We reached the encampment at one o'clock + at night. All was quiet, and remained so until dawn, + when, at the sound of our bugles, the pickets reported + they saw a number of Indians moving off. On looking + around us, we perceived ourselves and the caravan in the + most unfavorable defenceless situation possible--in the + area of a natural amphitheatre of sand hills, about fifty + feet high, and within gun-shot all around. There was + the narrowest practicable entrance and outlet. + + We ascertained that some mounted traders, in spite of all + remonstrance and command, had ridden on in advance, and + when in the narrow pass beyond this spot, had been suddenly + beset by about fifty Indians; all fled and escaped save one, + who, mounted on a mule, was abandoned by his companions, + overtaken, and slain. The Indians, perhaps, equalled the + traders in number, but notwithstanding their extraordinary + advantage of ground, dared not attack them when they + made a stand among their wagons; and the latter, all well + armed, were afraid to make a single charge, which would + have scattered their enemies like sheep. + + Having buried the poor fellow's body, and killed an ox for + breakfast, we left this sand hollow, which would soon have + been roasting hot, and advancing through the defile--of + which we took care to occupy the commanding ground-- + proceeded to escort the traders at least one day's march + further. + + When the next morning broke clear and cloudless, the command + was confronted by one of those terrible hot winds, still + frequent on the plains. The oxen with lolling tongues + were incapable of going on; the train was halted, and the + suffering animals unyoked, but they stood motionless, + making no attempt to graze. Late that afternoon, the + caravan pushed on for about ten miles, where was the + sandy bed of a dry creek, and fortunately, not far from + the Trail, up the stream, a pool of water and an acre + or two of grass was discovered. On the surface of the + water floated thick the dead bodies of small fish, which + the intense heat of the sun that day had killed. + + Arriving at this point, it was determined to march no + further into the Mexican territory. At the first light + next day we were in motion to return to the river and + the American line, and no further adventure befell us. + +While permanently encamped at Chouteau's Island, which is situated in +the Arkansas River, the term of enlistment of four of the soldiers +of Captain Cooke's command expired, and they were discharged. In his +journal he says: + + Contrary to all advice they determined to return to + Missouri. After having marched several hundred miles + over a prairie country, being often on high hills + commanding a vast prospect, without seeing a human being + or a sign of one, and, save the trail we followed, not + the slightest indication that the country had ever been + visited by man, it was exceedingly difficult to credit + that lurking foes were around us, and spying our motions. + It was so with these men; and being armed, they set out + on the first of August on foot for the settlements. + That same night three of the four returned. They reported + that, after walking about fifteen miles, they were + surrounded by thirty mounted Indians. A wary old soldier + of their number succeeded in extricating them before any + hostile act had been committed; but one of them, highly + elated and pleased at their forbearance, insisted on + returning among them to give them tobacco and shake hands. + In this friendly act he was shot down. The Indians + stripped him in an incredibly short time, and as quickly + dispersed to avoid a shot; and the old soldier, after + cautioning the others to reserve their fire, fired among + them, and probably with some effect. Had the others done + the same, the Indians would have rushed upon them before + they could have reloaded. They managed to make good + their retreat in safety to our camp. + + We were instructed to wait here for the return of the + caravan, which was expected early in October. + Our provisions consisted of salt and half rations of flour, + besides a reserve of fifteen days' full rations--as to the + rest, we were dependent upon hunting. When the buffalo + became scarce, or the grass bad, we marched to other + ground, thus roving up and down the river for eighty + miles. The first thing we did after camping was to dig + and construct, with flour barrels, a well in front of + each company; water was always found at the depth of + from two to four feet varying with the corresponding + height of the river, but clear and cool. Next we would + build sod fire-places; these, with network platforms of + buffalo hide, used for smoking and drying meat, formed a + tolerable additional defence, at least against mounted men. + + Hunting was a military duty, done by detail, parties of + fifteen or twenty going out with a wagon. Completely + isolated, and beyond support or even communication, + in the midst of many thousands of Indians, the utmost + vigilance was maintained. Officer of the guard every + fourth night; I was always awake and generally in motion + the whole time of duty. Night alarms were frequent; when, + as we all slept in our clothes, we were accustomed to + assemble instantly, and with scarcely a word spoken, + take our places in the grass in front of each face of + the camp, where, however wet, we sometimes lay for hours. + + While encamped a few miles below Chouteau's Island, on the + eleventh of August, an alarm was given, and we were under + arms for an hour until daylight. During the morning, + Indians were seen a mile or two off, leading their horses + through the ravines. A captain, however, with eighteen + men was sent across the river after buffalo, which we saw + half a mile distant. In his absence, a large body of + Indians came galloping down the river, as if to charge + the camp, but the cattle were secured in good time. + A company, of which I was lieutenant, was ordered to + cross the river and support the first. We waded in some + disorder through the quicksands and current, and just + as we neared a dry sandbar in the middle, a volley was + fired at us by a band of Indians, who that moment rode + to the water's edge. The balls whistled very near, + but without damage; I felt an involuntary twitch of + the neck, and wishing to return the compliment instantly, + I stooped down, and the company fired over my head, + with what execution was not perceived, as the Indians + immediately retired out of our view. This had passed + in half a minute, and we were astonished to see, a little + above, among some bushes on the same bar, the party we had + been sent to support, and we heard that they had abandoned + one of the hunters, who had been killed. We then saw, + on the bank we had just left, a formidable body of the + enemy in close order, and hoping to surprise them, + we ascended the bed of the river. In crossing the channel + we were up to the arm-pits, but when we emerged on the + bank, we found that the Indians had detected the movement, + and retreated. Casting eyes beyond the river, I saw a + number of the Indians riding on both sides of a wagon + and team which had been deserted, urging the animals + rapidly toward the hills. At this juncture the adjutant + sent an order to cross and recover the body of the slain + hunter, who was an old soldier and a favourite. He was + brought in with an arrow still transfixing his breast, + but his scalp was gone. + + On the fourteenth of October, we again marched on our + return. Soon after, we saw smokes arise over the distant + hills; evidently signals, indicating to different parties + of Indians our separation and march, but whether preparatory + to an attack upon the Mexicans or ourselves, or rather + our immense drove of animals, we could only guess. + + Our march was constantly attended by great collections + of buffalo, which seemed to have a general muster, perhaps + for migration. Sometimes a hundred or two--a fragment + from the multitude--would approach within two or three + hundred yards of the column, and threaten a charge which + would have proved disastrous to the mules and their drivers. + + Under the friendly cover of the shades of evening, on the + eighth of November, our tatterdemalion veterans marched + into Fort Leavenworth, and took quiet possession of the + miserable huts and sheds left by the Third Infantry in + the preceding May. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY. + + + +As early as November, 1842, a rumour was current in Santa Fe, and along +the line of the Trail, that parties of Texans had left the Republic for +the purpose of attacking and robbing the caravans to the United States +which were owned wholly by Mexicans. In consequence of this, several +Americans were accused of being spies and acting in collusion with the +Texans; many were arrested and carried to Santa Fe, but nothing could +be proved against them, and the rumours of the intended purposes of the +Texans died out. + +Very early in May, however, of the following year, 1843, a certain +Colonel Snively did organize a small force, comprising about two hundred +men, which he led from Northern Texas, his home, to the line of the +Trail, with the intention of attacking and robbing the Mexican caravans +which were expected to cross the plains that month and in June. + +When he arrived at the Arkansas River, he was there reinforced by +another Texan colonel, named Warfield with another small command. Gregg +says: + + This officer, with about twenty men, had some time + previously attacked the village of Mora, on the Mexican + frontier, killing five men, and driving off a number + of horses. They were afterward followed by a party of + Mexicans, however, who stampeded and carried away, not only + their own horses, but those of the Texans. Being left + afoot, the latter burned their saddles, and walked to + Bent's Fort, where they were disbanded; whence Warfield + passed to Snively's camp, as before mentioned. + + The Texans now advanced along the Santa Fe Trail, beyond + the sand hills south of the Arkansas, when they discovered + that a party of Mexicans had passed toward the river. + They soon came upon them, and a skirmish ensuing, eighteen + Mexicans were killed, and as many wounded, five of whom + afterward died. The Texans suffered no injury, though + the Mexicans were a hundred in number. The rest were all + taken prisoners except two, who escaped and bore the news + to General Armijo, who was encamped with a large force + at Cold Spring, one hundred and forty miles beyond. + +Kit Carson figured conspicuously in this fight, or, rather, immediately +afterward. His recital differs somewhat from Gregg's account, but the +stories substantially agree. Kit said that in April, previously to the +assault upon Armijo's caravan, he had hired out as hunter to Bent's and +Colonel St. Vrain's train caravan, which was then making its annual +tour eastwardly. When he arrived at the crossing of Walnut Creek,[22] he +found the encampment of Captain Philip St. George Cooke, of the United +States army, who had been detailed with his command to escort the +caravans to the New Mexican boundary. His force consisted of four troops +of dragoons. The captain informed Carson that coming on behind him from +the States was a caravan belonging to a very wealthy Mexican. + +It was a richly loaded train, and in order to insure its better +protection while passing through that portion of the country infested +by the blood-thirsty Comanches and Apaches, the majordomo in charge +had hired one hundred Mexicans as a guard. The teamsters and others +belonging to the caravan had heard that a large body of Texans were +lying in wait for them, and intended to murder and plunder them in +retaliation for the way Armijo had treated some Texan prisoners he had +got in his power at Santa Fe some time before. Of course, it was the +duty of the United States troops to escort this caravan to the New +Mexico line, but there their duty would end, as they had no authority to +cross the border. The Mexicans belonging to the caravan were afraid they +would be at the mercy of the Texans after they had parted company with +the soldiers, and when Kit Carson met them, they, knowing the famous +trapper and mountaineer well, asked him to take a letter to Armijo, +who was then governor of New Mexico, and resided in Santa Fe, for which +service they would give him three hundred dollars in advance. The letter +contained a statement of the fears they entertained, and requested the +general to send Mexican troops at once to meet them. + +Carson, who was then not blessed with much money, eagerly accepted the +task, and immediately started on the trail for Bent's Fort, in company +with another old mountaineer and bosom friend named Owens. In a short +time they arrived at the Fort, where Owens decided not to go any +further, because they were informed by the men at Bent's that the Utes +had broken out, and were scattered along the Trail at the most dangerous +points, and he was fearful that his life would be endangered if he +attempted to make Santa Fe. + +Kit, however, nothing daunted, and determined to do the duty for which +he had been rewarded so munificently, started out alone on his perilous +trip. Mr. Bent kindly furnished him with the best and fastest horse he +had in his stables, but Kit, realizing the dangers to which he would be +exposed, walked, leading his animal, ready to mount him at a moment's +notice; thus keeping him in a condition that would enable Carson to fly +and make his escape if the savages tried to capture him. His knowledge +of the Indian character, and wonderful alertness in moments of peril, +served him well; for he reached the village of the hostile Indians +without their discovering his proximity. Hiding himself in a rocky, +bush-covered canyon, he stayed there until night came on, when he +continued his journey in the darkness. + +He took the trail to Taos, where he arrived in two or three days, +and presented his letter to the alcalde, to be sent on to Santa Fe by +special messenger. + +He was to remain at Taos until an answer from the governor arrived, and +then return with it as rapidly as possible to the train. While at +Taos, he was informed that Armijo had already sent out a company of one +hundred soldiers to meet the caravan, and was to follow in person, with +a thousand more. + +This first hundred were those attacked by Colonel Snively, as related by +Gregg, who says that two survived, who carried the news of the disaster +to Armijo at Cold Spring; but Carson told me that only one got away, +by successfully catching, during the heat of the fight, a Texan pony +already saddled, that was grazing around loose. With him he made +Armijo's camp and related to the Mexican general the details of the +terribly unequal battle. Armijo, upon receipt of the news, "turned +tail," and retreated to Santa Fe. + +Before Armijo left Santa Fe with his command, he had received the letter +which Carson had brought from the caravan, and immediately sent one in +reply for Carson to carry back, thinking that the old mountaineer might +reach the wagons before he did. Carson, with his usual promptness, +started on the Trail for the caravan, and came up with it while it was +escorted by the dragoons, thus saving it from the fate that the Texans +intended for it, as they dared not attempt any interference in the +presence of the United States troops. + +The rumour current in Santa Fe in relation to a probable raid of parties +of Texans along the line of the Trail, for the purpose of attacking and +robbing the caravans of the wealthy Mexican traders, was received +with so little credence by the prominent citizens of the country, +that several native trains left for the Missouri River without their +proprietors having the slightest apprehension that they would not reach +their destination, and make the return trip in safety. + +Among those who had no fear of marauders was Don Antonio Jose Chavez, +who, in February, 1843, left Santa Fe for Independence with an outfit +consisting of a number of wagons, his private coach, several servants +and other retainers. Don Antonio was a very wealthy Mexican engaged in +a general mercantile business on a large scale in Albuquerque, who made +all his purchases of goods in St. Louis, which was then the depot of +supplies for the whole mountain region. He necessarily carried with +him on these journeys a large amount of money, in silver, which was the +legal currency of the country, and made but one trip yearly to replenish +the stock of goods required in his extensive trade in all parts of +Mexico. + +Upon his arrival at Westport Landing, as Kansas City was then called, +he would take the steamboat for St. Louis, leaving his coach, wagons, +servants, and other appointments of his caravan behind him in the +village of Westport, a few miles from the Landing. + +Westport was at that time, like all steamboat towns in the era of water +navigation, the harbor of as great a lot of ruffians as ever escaped the +gallows. There was especially a noted gang of land pirates, the members +of which had long indulged in speculations regarding the probable wealth +of the Mexican Don, and how much coin he generally carried with him. +They knew that it must be considerable from the quantity of goods that +always came by boat with him from St. Louis. + +At last a devilish plot was arranged to get hold of the rich trader's +money. Nine men were concerned in the robbery, nearly all of whom +were residents of the vicinity of Westport; their leader was one John +McDaniel, recently from Texas, from which government he claimed to hold +a captain's commission, and one of their number was a doctor. It was +evidently the intention of this band to join Warfield's party on the +Arkansas, and engage in a general robbery of the freight caravans of the +Santa Fe Trail belonging to the Mexicans; but they had determined that +Chavez should be their first victim, and in order to learn when he +intended to leave Santa Fe on his next trip east, they sent their spies +out on the great highway. + +They did not dare attempt their contemplated robbery, and murder if +necessary, in the State of Missouri, for there were too many citizens of +the border who would never have permitted such a thing to go unpunished; +so they knew that their only chance was to effect it in the Indian +country of Kansas, where there was little or no law. + +Cow Creek, which debouches into the Arkansas at Hutchinson, where the +Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad crosses the historic little +stream,[23] was, like Big and Little Coon creeks, a most dangerous +point in the transcontinental passage of freight caravans and overland +coaches, in the days of the commerce of the prairies. It was on this +purling little prairie brook that McDaniel's band lay in wait for the +arrival of the ill-fated Don Antonio, whose imposing equipage came +along, intending to encamp on the bank, one of the usual stopping-places +on the route. + +The Don was taken a few miles south of the Trail, and his baggage +rifled. All of his party were immediately murdered, but the wealthy +owner of the caravan was spared for a few moments in order to make a +confession of where his money was concealed, after which he was shot +down in cold blood, and his body thrown into a ravine. + +It appears, however, that the ruffians had not completed their bloody +work so effectually as they thought; for one of the Mexican's teamsters +escaped, and, making his way to Leavenworth, reported the crime, and was +soon on his way back to the Trail, guiding a detachment of United States +troops in pursuit of the murderers. + +John Hobbs, scout, trapper, and veteran plainsman, happened to be +hunting buffalo on Pawnee Fork, on the ground where Larned is now +situated, with a party from Bent's Fort. They were just on the point +of crossing the Trail at the mouth of the Pawnee when the soldiers from +Fort Leavenworth came along, and from them Hobbs and his companions +first learned of the murder of Chavez on Cow Creek. As the men who were +out hunting were all familiar with every foot of the region they were +then in, the commanding officer of the troops induced them to accompany +him in his search for the murderers. + +Hobbs and his men cheerfully accepted the invitation, and in about +four days met the band of cut-throats on the broad Trail, they little +dreaming that the government had taken a hand in the matter. The band +tried to escape by flight, but Hobbs shot the doctor's horse from under +him, and a soldier killed another member of the band, when the remainder +surrendered. + +The money, about twelve or fifteen thousand dollars,[24] was all +recovered, and the murderers taken to St. Louis, where some were hung +and some imprisoned, the doctor escaping the death penalty by turning +state's evidence. His sentence was incarceration in the penitentiary, +from which he was pardoned after remaining there two years. Hobbs met +the doctor some years after in San Francisco. He was then leading an +honest life, publishing a newspaper, and begged his captor not to expose +him. + +The money taken from the robbers was placed in charge of Colonel +Owens, a friend of the Chavez family and a leading Santa Fe trader. He +continued on to the river, purchased a stock of goods, and sent back the +caravan to Santa Fe in charge of Doctor Conley of Boonville, Missouri. + +Arriving at his destination, the widow of the deceased Chavez employed +the good doctor to sell the goods and take the sole supervision of her +immense business interests, and there is a touch of romance attached to +the terrible Kansas tragedy, which lies in the fact that the doctor in +about two years married the rich widow, and lived very happily for about +a decade, dying then on one of the large estates in New Mexico, which he +had acquired by his fortunate union with the amiable Mexican lady. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. MEXICO DECLARES WAR. + + + +Mexico declared war against the United States in April, 1846. In the +following May, Congress passed an act authorizing the President to call +into the field fifty thousand volunteers, designed to operate against +Mexico at three distinct points, and consisting of the Southern Wing, +or the Army of Occupation, the Army of the Centre, and the Army of the +West, the latter to direct its march upon the city of Santa Fe. The +original plan was, however, somewhat changed, and General Kearney, who +commanded the Army of the West, divided his forces into three separate +commands. The first he led in person to the Pacific coast. One thousand +volunteers, under command of Colonel A. W. Doniphan, were to make a +descent upon the State of Chihuahua, while the remainder and greater +part of the forces, under Colonel Sterling Price, were to garrison Santa +Fe after its capture. + +There is a pretty fiction told of the breaking out of the war between +Mexico and the United States. Early in the spring of 1846, before it was +known or even conjectured that a state of war would be declared to exist +between this government and Mexico, a caravan of twenty-nine traders, on +their way from Independence to Santa Fe, beheld, just after a storm +and a little before sunset, a perfectly distinct image of the Bird of +Liberty, the American eagle, on the disc of the sun. When they saw it +they simultaneously and almost involuntarily exclaimed that in less than +twelve months the Eagle of Liberty would spread his broad plumes over +the plains of the West, and that the flag of our country would wave over +the cities of New Mexico and Chihuahua. The student of the classics +will remember that just before the assassination of Julius Caesar, +both Brutus and Cassius, while in their places in the Roman Senate, +saw chariots of fire in the sky. One story is as true, probably, as the +other, though separated by centuries of time. + +The Army of the West, under General Stephen W. Kearney, consisted of two +batteries of artillery, commanded by Major Clark; three squadrons of +the First United States Dragoons, commanded by Major Sumner; the First +Regiment of Missouri Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Doniphan, and two +companies of infantry, commanded by Captain Aubrey. This force marched +in detached columns from Fort Leavenworth, and on the 1st of August, +1846, concentrated in camp on the Santa Fe Trail, nine miles below +Bent's Fort. + +Accompanying the expedition was a party of the United States +topographical engineers, under command of Lieutenant W. H. Emory.[25] In +writing of this expedition, so far as its march relates to the Old +Santa Fe Trail, I shall quote freely from Emory's report and Doniphan's +historian.[26] + +The practicability of marching a large army over the waste, +uncultivated, uninhabited prairie regions of the West was universally +regarded as problematical, but the expedition proved completely +successful. Provisions were conveyed in wagons, and beef-cattle driven +along for the use of the men. These animals subsisted entirely by +grazing. To secure them from straying off at night, they were driven +into corrals formed of the wagons, or tethered to an iron picket-pin +driven into the ground about fifteen inches. At the outset of the +expedition many laughable scenes took place. Our horses were generally +wild, fiery, and unused to military trappings and equipments. Amidst +the fluttering of banners, the sounding of bugles, the rattling of +artillery, the clattering of sabres and also of cooking utensils, some +of them took fright and scampered pell-mell over the wide prairie. +Rider, arms and accoutrements, saddles, saddle-bags, tin cups, and +coffee-pots, were frequently left far behind in the chase. No very +serious or fatal accident, however, occurred from this cause, and all +was right as soon as the affrighted animals were recovered. + +The Army of the West was, perhaps, composed of as fine material as any +other body of troops then in the field. The volunteer corps consisted +almost entirely of young men of the country. + +On the 9th of July, a separate detachment of the troops arrived at the +Little Arkansas, where the Santa Fe Trail crosses that stream--now in +McPherson County, Kansas. The mosquitoes, gnats, and black flies swarmed +in that locality and nearly drove the men and animals frantic. While +resting there, a courier came from the commands of General Kearney and +Colonel Doniphan, stating that their men were in a starving condition, +and asking for such provisions as could be spared. Lieutenant-Colonel +Ruff of Doniphan's regiment, in command of the troops now camped on +the Little Arkansas, was almost destitute himself. He had sent couriers +forward to Pawnee Fork to stop a train of provisions at that point and +have it wait there until he came up with his force, and he now directed +the courier from Kearney to proceed to the same place and halt as many +wagons loaded with supplies, as would suffice to furnish the three +detachments with rations. One of the couriers, in attempting to ford the +fork of the Pawnee, which was bank-full, was drowned. His body was +found and given a military funeral; he was the first man lost on the +expedition after it had reached the great plains, one having been +drowned in the Missouri, at Fort Leavenworth, before the troops left. + +The author of _Doniphan's Expedition_ says: + + In approaching the Arkansas, a landscape of the most + imposing and picturesque nature makes its appearance. + While the green, glossy undulations of the prairie to + the right seem to spread out in infinite succession, + like waves subsiding after a storm, and covered with + herds of gambolling buffalo, on the left, towering to + the height of seventy-five to a hundred feet, rise the + sun-gilt summits of the sand hills, along the base of + which winds the broad, majestic river, bespeckled with + verdant islets, thickly beset with cottonwood timber, + the sand hills resembling heaps of driven snow. + +I refer to this statement to show how wonderfully the settlement of the +region has changed the physical aspect of that portion bordering the +Arkansas River. Now those sand hills are covered with verdure, and this +metamorphosis has taken place within the last thirty years; for the +author of this work well remembers how the great sand dunes used to +shine in the sunlight, when he first saw them a third of a century ago. +In coming from Fort Leavenworth up the Smoky Hill route to the Santa Fe +Trail, where the former joined the latter at Pawnee Rock, the contour of +the Arkansas could be easily traced by the white sand hills referred to, +long before it was reached. + +On the 15th of July the combined forces formed a junction at Pawnee +Fork, now within the city limits of Larned, Kansas. The river was +impassable, but General Kearney, with the characteristic energy of his +family, determined not to be delayed, and to that end caused great trees +to be cut down and their trunks thrown across the stream, over which the +army passed, carrying in their arms the sick, the baggage, tents, and +other paraphernalia; the animals being forced to swim. The empty bodies +of the wagons, fastened to their running gear, were floated across by +means of ropes, and hauled up the slippery bank by the troops. This +required two whole days; and on the morning of the 17th, not an accident +having occurred, the entire column was en route again, the infantry, as +is declared in the official reports, keeping pace with the cavalry right +along. Their feet, however, became terribly blistered, and, like the +Continentals at Valley Forge, their tracks were marked with blood. + +In a day or two after the command had left Pawnee Fork, while camping in +a beautiful spot on the bank of the Arkansas, an officer, Major Howard, +who had been sent forward to Santa Fe some time previously by the +general to learn something of the feeling of the people in relation to +submitting to the government of the United States, returned and reported + + that the common people, or plebeians, were inclined to + favour the conditions of peace proposed by General Kearney; + viz. that if they would lay down their arms and take the + oath of allegiance to the government of the United States, + they should, to all intents and purposes, become citizens + of the same republic, receiving the protection and enjoying + the liberties guaranteed to other American citizens; but + that the patricians who held the offices and ruled the + country were hostile, and were making warlike preparations. + He added, further, that two thousand three hundred men + were already armed for the defence of the capital, and + that others were assembling at Taos. +This intelligence created quite a sensation in camp, and it was +believed, and earnestly hoped, that the entrance of the troops into +Santa Fe would be desperately opposed; such is the pugnacious character +of the average American the moment he dons the uniform of a soldier. + +The army arrived at the Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas on the 20th, +and during the march of nearly thirty miles from their last camp, a herd +of about four hundred buffalo suddenly emerged from the Arkansas, and +broke through the long column. In an instant the troops charged upon the +surprised animals with guns, pistols, and even drawn sabres, and many +of the huge beasts were slaughtered as they went dashing and thundering +among the excited troopers and infantrymen. + +On the 29th an express from Bent's Fort brought news to General Kearney +from Santa Fe that Governor Armijo had called the chief men together +to deliberate on the best means of defending the city; that hostile +preparations were rapidly going on in all parts of New Mexico; and that +the American advance would be vigorously opposed. Some Mexican prisoners +were taken near Bent's Fort, with blank letters on their persons +addressed to the general; it was supposed this piece of ingenuity was +resorted to to deceive the American residents at the fort. These men +were thought to be spies sent out from Santa Fe to get an idea of the +strength of the army; so they were shown everything in and around camp, +and then allowed to depart in peace for Santa Fe, to report what they +had seen. + +On the same date, the Army of the West crossed the Arkansas and camped +on Mexican soil about eight miles below Bent's Fort, and now the utmost +vigilance was exercised; for the troops had not only to keep a sharp +lookout for the Mexicans, but for the wily Comanches, in whose country +their camp was located. Strong picket and camp guards were posted, +and the animals turned loose to graze, guarded by a large force. +Notwithstanding the care taken to confine them within certain limits, +a pack of wolves rushed through the herd, and in an instant it was +stampeded, and there ensued a scene of the wildest confusion. More than +a thousand horses were dashing madly over the prairie, their rage and +fright increased at every jump by the lariats and picket-pins which they +had pulled up, and which lashed them like so many whips. After desperate +exertions by the troops, the majority were recovered from thirty to +fifty miles distant; nearly a hundred, however, were absolutely lost and +never seen again. + +At this camp the troops were visited by the war chief of the Arapahoes, +who manifested great surprise at the big guns, and declared that the +Mexicans would not stand a moment before such terrible instruments of +death, but would escape to the mountains with the utmost despatch. + +On the 1st of August a new camp near Bent's Fort was established, from +whence twenty men under Lieutenant de Courcy, with orders to proceed +through the mountains to the valley of Taos, to learn something of the +disposition and intentions of the people, and to rejoin General +Kearney on the road to Santa Fe. Lieutenant de Courcy, in his official +itinerary, relates the following anecdote: + + We took three pack-mules laden with provisions, and as + we did not expect to be long absent, the men took no extra + clothing. Three days after we left the column our mules + fell down, and neither gentle means nor the points of our + sabres had the least effect in inducing them to rise. + Their term of service with Uncle Sam was out. "What's to + be done?" said the sergeant. "Dismount!" said I. + "Off with your shirts and drawers, men! tie up the sleeves + and legs, and each man bag one-twentieth part of the flour!" + Having done this, the bacon was distributed to the men also, + and tied to the cruppers of their saddles. Thus loaded, + we pushed on, without the slightest fear of our provision + train being cut off. + + The march upon Santa Fe was resumed on the 2d of August. + As we passed Bent's Fort the American flag was raised, + in compliment to our troops, and, like our own, streamed + most animatingly in the gale that swept from the desert, + while the tops of the houses were crowded with Mexican girls + and Indian squaws, intently beholding the American army. + +On the 15th of the month, the army neared Las Vegas; when two spies +who had been sent on in advance to see how matters stood returned and +reported that two thousand Mexicans were camped at the pass a few miles +beyond the village, where they intended to offer battle. + +Upon receipt of this news, the general immediately formed a line of +battle. The United States dragoons with the St. Louis mounted volunteers +were stationed in front, Major Clark with the battalion of volunteer +light artillery in the centre, and Colonel Doniphan's regiment in the +rear. The companies of volunteer infantry were deployed on each side +of the line of march as flankers. The supply trains were next in order, +with Captain Walton's mounted company as rear guard. There was also +a strong advance guard. The cartridges were hastily distributed; the +cannon swabbed and rigged; the port-fires burning, and every rifle +loaded. + +In passing through the streets of the curious-looking village of Las +Vegas, the army was halted, and from the roof of a large house General +Kearney administered to the chief officers of the place the oath of +allegiance to the United States, using the sacred cross instead of the +Bible. This act completed, on marched the exultant troops toward the +canyon where it had been promised them that they should meet the enemy. + +On the night of the 16th, while encamped on the Pecos River, near the +village of San Jose, the pickets captured a son of the Mexican General +Salezar, who was acting the role of a spy, and two other soldiers of the +Mexican army. Salezar was kept a close prisoner; but the two privates +were by order of General Kearney escorted through the camp and shown the +cannon, after which they were allowed to depart, so that they might tell +what they had seen. It was learned afterward that they represented the +American army as composed of five thousand troops, and possessing so +many cannons that they were not able to count them. + +When Armijo was certain that the Army of the West was really approaching +Santa Fe, he assembled seven thousand troops, part of them well armed, +and the remainder indifferently so. The Mexican general had written a +note to General Kearney the day before the capture of the spies, saying +that he would meet him on the following day. + +General Kearney, at this, hastened on, arriving at the mouth of the +Apache canyon at noon, with his whole force ready and anxious to try the +mettle of the Mexicans in battle. Emory in his _Reconnoissance_ says: + + The sun shone with dazzling brightness; the guidons and + colours of each squadron, regiment, and battalion were + for the first time unfurled. The drooping horses seemed + to take courage from the gay array. The trumpeters + sounded "to horse" with spirit, and the hills multiplied + and re-echoed the call. All wore the aspect of a gala day. + About the middle of the day's march the two Pueblo Indians, + previously sent to sound the chief men of that formidable + tribe, were seen in the distance, at full speed, with arms + and legs both thumping the sides of their mules at every + stride. Something was now surely in the wind. The smaller + and foremost of the two dashed up to the general, his face + radiant with joy, and exclaimed: + + "They are in the canyon, my brave; pluck up your courage + and push them out." As soon as his extravagant delight at + the prospect of a fight, and the pleasure of communicating + the news, had subsided, he gave a pretty accurate idea + of Armijo's force and position. + + Shortly afterwards a rumour reached the camp that the + two thousand Mexicans assembled in the canyon to oppose us, + have quarrelled among themselves; and that Armijo, taking + advantage of the dissensions, has fled with his dragoons + and artillery to the south. It is well known that he has + been averse to a battle, but some of his people threatened + his life if he refused to fight. He had been, for some + days, more in fear of his own people than of the American + army, having seen what they are blind to--the hopelessness + of resistance. + + As we approached the ancient town of Pecos, a large fat + fellow, mounted on a mule, came toward us at full speed, + and, extending his hand to the general, congratulated him + on the arrival of himself and army. He said with a roar + of laughter, "Armijo and his troops have gone to h---ll, + and the canyon is all clear." + +On reaching the canyon, it was found to be true that the Mexican troops +had dispersed and fled to the mountains, just as the old Arapahoe chief +had said they would. There, however, they commenced to fortify, by +chopping away the timber so that their artillery could play to better +advantage upon the American lines, and by throwing up temporary +breastworks. It was ascertained afterward, on undoubted authority, that +Armijo had an army of nearly seven thousand Mexicans, with six pieces of +artillery, and the advantage of ground, yet he allowed General Kearney, +with a force of less than two thousand, to march through the almost +impregnable gorge, and on to the capital of the Province, without any +attempt to oppose him. + +Thus was New Mexico conquered with but little loss relatively. For the +further details of the movements of the Army of the West, the reader is +referred to general history, as this book, necessarily, treats only +of that portion of its march and the incidents connected with it while +travelling the Santa Fe Trail. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE VALLEY OF TAOS. + + + +The principal settlement in New Mexico, immediately after it was +reconquered from the Indians by the Spaniards, was, of course, Santa +Fe, and ranking second to it, that of the beautiful Valle de Taos, +which derived its name from the Taosa Indians, a few of whose direct +descendants are still occupying a portion of the region. As the pioneers +in the trade with Santa Fe made their first journeys to the capital of +the Province by the circuitous route of the Taos valley, and the initial +consignments of goods from the Missouri were disposed of in the little +villages scattered along the road, the story of the Trail would be +deficient in its integrity were the thrilling historical facts connected +with the romantic region omitted. + +The reader will find on all maps, from the earliest published to the +latest issued by the local railroads, a town with the name of Taos, +which never had an existence. Fernandez de Taos is the chief city, +which has been known so long by the title of the valley that perhaps the +misnomer is excusable after many years' use. + +Fernandez, or Taos as it is called, was once famous for its distilleries +of whiskey, made out of the native wheat, a raw, fiery spirit, always +known in the days of the Santa Fe trade as "Taos lightning," which was +the most profitable article of barter with the Indians, who exchanged +their buffalo robes and other valuable furs for a supply of it, at a +tremendous sacrifice. + +According to the statement of Gregg, the first white settler of +the fertile and picturesque valley was a Spaniard named Pando, who +established himself there about 1745. This primitive pioneer of the +northern part of the Province was constantly exposed to the raids of +the powerful Comanches, but succeeded in creating a temporary friendship +with the tribe by promising his daughter, then a young and beautiful +infant, to the chief in marriage when she arrived at a suitable age. At +the time for the ratification of her father's covenant with the Indians, +however, the maiden stubbornly refused to fulfil her part. The savages, +enraged at the broken faith of the Spaniard, immediately swept down upon +the little settlement and murdered everybody there except the betrothed +girl, whom they carried off into captivity. She was forced to live with +the chief as his wife, but he soon became tired of her and traded +her for another woman with the Pawnees, who, in turn, sold her to a +Frenchman, a resident of St. Louis. It is said that some of the most +respectable families of that city are descended from her, and fifty +years ago there were many people living who remembered the old lady, and +her pathetic story of trials and sufferings when with the Indians. + +The most tragic event in the history of the valley was the massacre of +the provisional governor of the Territory of New Mexico, with a number +of other Americans, shortly after its occupation by the United States. + +Upon General Kearney's taking possession of Santa Fe, acting under the +authority of the President, he established a civil government and put +it into operation. Charles Bent was appointed governor, and the other +offices filled by Americans and Mexicans who were rigidly loyal to the +political change. At this time the command of the troops devolved +upon Colonel Sterling Price, Colonel Doniphan, who ranked him, +having departed from Santa Fe on an expedition against the Navajoes. +Notwithstanding the apparent submission of the natives of New Mexico, +there were many malcontents among them and the Pueblo Indians, and early +in December, some of the leaders, dissatisfied with the change in the +order of things, held secret meetings and formulated plots to overthrow +the existing government. + +Midnight of the 24th of December was the time appointed for the +commencement of their revolutionary work, which was to be simultaneous +all over the country. The profoundest secrecy was to be preserved, +and the most influential men, whose ambition induced them to seek +preferment, were alone to be made acquainted with the plot. No woman was +to be privy to it, lest it should be divulged. The sound of the church +bell was to be the signal, and at midnight all were to enter the Plaza +at the same moment, seize the pieces of artillery, and point them into +the streets. + +The time chosen for the assault was Christmas-eve, when the soldiers and +garrison would be indulging in wine and feasting, and scattered about +through the city at the fandangoes, not having their arms in their +hands. All the Americans, without distinction, throughout the State, and +such New Mexicans as had favoured the American government and accepted +office by appointment of General Kearney, were to be massacred or driven +from the country, and the conspirators were to seize upon and occupy the +government. + +The conspiracy was detected in the following manner: a mulatto girl, +residing in Santa Fe, had married one of the conspirators, and had by +degrees obtained a knowledge of their movements and secret meetings. To +prevent the effusion of blood, which would inevitably be the result of a +revolution, she communicated to Colonel Price all the facts of which +she was in possession, and warned him to use the utmost vigilance. The +rebellion was immediately suppressed, but the restless and unsatisfied +ambition of the leaders of the conspiracy did not long permit them +to remain inactive. A second and still more dangerous conspiracy was +formed. The most powerful and influential men in the State favoured the +design, and even the officers of State and the priests gave their +aid and counsel. The people everywhere, in the towns, villages, and +settlements, were exhorted to arm and equip themselves; to strike for +their faith, their religion, and their altars; and drive the "heretics," +the "unjust invaders of the country," from their soil, and with fire and +sword pursue them to annihilation. On the 18th of January this rebellion +broke out in every part of the State simultaneously. + +On the 14th of January, Governor Bent, believing the conspiracy +completely crushed, with an escort of five persons--among whom were the +sheriff and circuit attorney--had left Santa Fe to visit his family, who +resided at Fernandez. + +On the 19th, he was early roused from sleep by the populace, who, with +the aid of the Pueblos of Taos, were collected in front of his dwelling +striving to gain admittance. While they were effecting an entrance, +he, with an axe, cut through an adobe wall into another house; and +the Mexican wife of the occupant, a clever though shiftless Canadian, +hearing him, with all her strength rendered him assistance. He +retreated to a room, but, seeing no way of escaping from the infuriated +assailants, who fired upon him from a window, he spoke to his weeping +wife and trembling children, and, taking paper from his pocket, +endeavoured to write; but fast losing strength, he commended them to God +and his brothers and fell, pierced by a ball from a Pueblo. Then rushing +in and tearing off his gray-haired scalp, the Indians bore it away in +triumph. + +The circuit attorney, T. W. Leal, was scalped alive and dragged through +the streets, his relentless persecutors pricking him with lances. After +hours of suffering, they threw him aside in the inclement weather, he +imploring them earnestly to kill him to end his misery. A compassionate +Mexican at last closed the tragic scene by shooting him. Stephen +Lee, brother to the general, was killed on his own housetop. Narcisse +Beaubien, son of the presiding judge of the district, hid in an outhouse +with his Indian slave, at the commencement of the massacre, under a +straw-covered trough. The insurgents on the search, thinking that they +had escaped, were leaving, but a woman servant of the family, going to +the housetop, called to them, "Kill the young ones, and they will never +be men to trouble us." They swarmed back and, by cruelly putting to +death and scalping him and his slave, added two more to the list of +unfortunate victims. + +The Pueblos and Mexicans, after their cruelties at Fernandez de Taos, +attacked and destroyed Turley's Ranch on the Arroyo Hondo[27] twelve +miles from Fernandez, or Taos. Arroyo Hondo runs along the base of a +ridge of a mountain of moderate elevation, which divides the valley of +Taos from that of the Rio Colorado, or Red River, both flowing into +the Del Norte. The trail from one place to the other passes over the +mountain, which is covered with pine, cedar, and a species of dwarf oak; +and numerous little streams run through the many canyons. + +On the bank of one of the creeks was a mill and distillery belonging +to an American named Turley, who did a thriving business. He possessed +herds of goats, and hogs innumerable; his barns were filled with grain, +his mill with flour, and his cellars with whiskey. He had a Mexican wife +and several children, and he bore the reputation of being one of the +most generous and kind-hearted of men. In times of scarcity, no one ever +sought his aid to be turned away empty-handed; his granaries were always +open to the hungry, and his purse to the poor. + +When on their road to Turley's, the Pueblos murdered two men, named +Harwood and Markhead. Markhead was one of the most successful trappers +and daring men among the old mountaineers. They were on their way to +Taos with their pack-animals laden with furs, when the savages, meeting +them, after stripping them of their goods, and securing their arms by +treachery, made them mount their mules under pretence of conducting +them to Taos, where they were to be given up to the leaders of the +insurrection. They had hardly proceeded a mile when a Mexican rode up +behind Harwood and discharged his gun into his back; he called out to +Markhead that he was murdered, and fell to the ground dead. + +Markhead, seeing that his own fate was sealed, made no struggle, and +was likewise shot in the back with several bullets. Both men were then +stripped naked, scalped, and horribly mutilated; their bodies thrown +into the brush to be devoured by the wolves. + +These trappers were remarkable men; Markhead, particularly, was +celebrated in the mountains for his courage, reckless daring, and many +almost miraculous escapes when in the very hands of the Indians. When +some years previously he had accompanied Sir William Drummond Stewart on +one of his expeditions across the Rockies, it happened that a half-breed +Indian employed by Sir William absconded one night with some animals, +which circumstance annoyed the nobleman so much, as it disturbed all his +plans, that he hastily offered, never dreaming that he would be taken +up, to give five hundred dollars for the scalp of the thief. The very +next evening Markhead rode into camp with the hair of the luckless +horse-thief dangling at the muzzle of his rifle. + +The wild crowd of rebels rode on to Turley's mill. Turley had been +warned of the impending uprising, but had treated the report with +indifference, until one morning a man in his employ, who had been +despatched to Santa Fe with several mule-loads of whiskey a few days +before, made his appearance at the gate on horseback, and hastily +informing the inmates of the mill that the New Mexicans had risen and +massacred Governor Bent and other Americans, galloped off. Even +then Turley felt assured that he would not be molested; but at the +solicitation of his men, he agreed to close the gate of the yard +around which were the buildings of the mill and distillery, and make +preparations for defence. + +A few hours afterward a large crowd of Mexicans and Pueblo Indians +made their appearance, all armed with guns and bows and arrows, and, +advancing with a white flag, summoned Turley to surrender his house and +the Americans in it, guaranteeing that his own life should be saved, +but that every other American in the valley must be destroyed; that the +governor and all the Americans at Fernandez had been killed, and that +not one was to be left alive in all New Mexico. + +To this summons Turley answered that he would never surrender his house +nor his men, and that if they wanted it or them, they must take them. + +The enemy then drew off, and, after a short consultation, commenced the +attack. The first day they numbered about five hundred, but were hourly +reinforced by the arrival of parties of Indians from the more distant +Pueblos, and New Mexicans from Fernandez, La Canada, and other places. + +The building lay at the foot of a gradual slope in the sierra, which was +covered with cedar bushes. In front ran the stream of the Arroyo Hondo, +about twenty yards from one side of the square, and the other side was +broken ground which rose abruptly and formed the bank of the ravine. In +the rear and behind the still-house was some garden ground enclosed by a +small fence, into which a small wicket-gate opened from the corral. + +As soon as the attack was determined upon, the assailants scattered +and concealed themselves under cover of the rocks and bushes which +surrounded the house. From these they kept up an incessant fire upon +every exposed portion of the building where they saw preparations for +defence. + +The Americans, on their part, were not idle; not a man but was an +old mountaineer, and each had his trusty rifle, with a good store of +ammunition. Whenever one of the besiegers exposed a hand's-breadth of +his person, a ball from an unerring barrel whistled. The windows had +been blockaded, loopholes having been left, and through these a lively +fire was maintained. Already several of the enemy had bitten the dust, +and parties were seen bearing off the wounded up the banks of the +Canada. Darkness came on, and during the night a continual fire was kept +up on the mill, whilst its defenders, reserving their ammunition, kept +their posts with stern and silent determination. The night was spent +in casting balls, cutting patches, and completing the defences of the +building. In the morning the fight was renewed, and it was found that +the Mexicans had effected a lodgment in a part of the stables, which +were separated from the other portions of the building by an open space +of a few feet. The assailants, during the night, had sought to break +down the wall, and thus enter the main building, but the strength of the +adobe and logs of which it was composed resisted effectually all their +attempts. + +Those in the stable seemed anxious to regain the outside, for their +position was unavailable as a means of annoyance to the besieged, and +several had darted across the narrow space which divided it from the +other part of the building, which slightly projected, and behind which +they were out of the line of fire. As soon, however, as the attention of +the defenders was called to this point, the first man who attempted to +cross, who happened to be a Pueblo chief, was dropped on the instant, +and fell dead in the centre of the intervening space. It appeared to be +an object to recover the body, for an Indian immediately dashed out to +the fallen chief, and attempted to drag him within the shelter of the +wall. The rifle which covered the spot again poured forth its deadly +contents, and the Indian, springing into the air, fell over the body +of his chief. Another and another met with a similar fate, and at last +three rushed to the spot, and, seizing the body by the legs and head, +had already lifted it from the ground, when three puffs of smoke blew +from the barricaded windows, followed by the sharp cracks of as many +rifles, and the three daring Indians were added to the pile of corpses +which now covered the body of the dead chief. + +As yet the besieged had met with no casualties; but after the fall of +the seven Indians, the whole body of the assailants, with a shout +of rage, poured in a rattling volley, and two of the defenders fell +mortally wounded. One, shot through the loins, suffered great agony, +and was removed to the still-house, where he was laid on a large pile of +grain, as being the softest bed that could be found. + +In the middle of the day the attack was renewed more fiercely than +before. The little garrison bravely stood to the defence of the mill, +never throwing away a shot, but firing coolly, and only when a fair mark +was presented to their unerring aim. Their ammunition, however, was fast +failing, and to add to the danger of their situation, the enemy set fire +to the mill, which blazed fiercely, and threatened destruction to the +whole building. Twice they succeeded in overcoming the flames, and, +while they were thus occupied, the Mexicans and Indians charged into the +corral, which was full of hogs and sheep, and vented their cowardly rage +upon the animals, spearing and shooting all that came in their way. No +sooner were the flames extinguished in one place than they broke out +more fiercely in another; and as a successful defence was perfectly +hopeless, and the numbers of the assailants increased every moment, a +council of war was held by the survivors of the little garrison, when +it was determined, as soon as night approached, that every one should +attempt to escape as best he could. + +Just at dusk a man named John Albert and another ran to the wicket-gate +which opened into a kind of enclosed space, in which were a number of +armed Mexicans. They both rushed out at the same moment, discharging +their rifles full in the face of the crowd. Albert, in the confusion, +threw himself under the fence, whence he saw his companion shot down +immediately, and heard his cries for mercy as the cowards pierced him +with knives and lances. He lay without motion under the fence, and +as soon as it was quite dark he crept over the logs and ran up the +mountain, travelled by day and night, and, scarcely stopping or resting, +reached the Greenhorn, almost dead with hunger and fatigue. Turley +himself succeeded in escaping from the mill and in reaching the mountain +unseen. Here he met a Mexican mounted on a horse, who had been a most +intimate friend of his for many years. To this man Turley offered his +watch for the use of the horse, which was ten times more than it was +worth, but was refused. The inhuman wretch, however, affected pity +and consideration for the fugitive, and advised him to go to a certain +place, where he would bring or send him assistance; but on reaching the +mill, which was a mass of fire, he immediately informed the Mexicans of +Turley's place of concealment, whither a large party instantly proceeded +and shot him to death. + +Two others escaped and reached Santa Fe in safety. The mill and Turley's +house were sacked and gutted, and all his hard-earned savings, which +were concealed in gold about the house, were discovered, and, of course, +seized upon by the victorious Mexicans. + +The following account is taken from Governor Prince's chapter on the +fight at Taos, in his excellent and authentic _History of New Mexico_:-- + + The startling news of the assassination of the governor was + swiftly carried to Santa Fe, and reached Colonel Price the + next day. Simultaneously, letters were discovered calling + on the people of the Rio Abajo to secure Albuquerque and + march northward to aid the other insurgents; and news + speedily followed that a united Mexican and Pueblo force of + large magnitude was marching down the Rio Grande valley + toward the capital, flushed with the success of the revolt + at Taos. Very few troops were in Santa Fe; in fact, the + number remaining in the whole territory was very small, + and these were scattered at Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and + other distant points. At the first-named town were Major + Edmonson and Captain Burgwin; the former in command of the + town, and the latter with a company of the First Dragoons. + + Colonel Price lost no time in taking such measures as his + limited resources permitted. Edmonson was directed to come + immediately to Santa Fe to take command of the capital; and + Burgwin to follow Price as fast as possible to the scene + of hostilities. The colonel himself collected the few + troops at Santa Fe, which were all on foot, but fortunately + included the little battalion which under Captain Aubrey + had made such extraordinary marches on the journey across + the plains as to almost outwalk the cavalry. With these + was a volunteer company formed of nearly all of the American + inhabitants of the city, under the command of Colonel Ceran + St. Vrain, who happened to be in Santa Fe, together with + Judge Beaubien, at the time of the rising at Taos. + With this little force, amounting in all to three hundred + and ten men, Colonel Price started to march to Taos, or at + all events to meet the army which was coming toward the + capital from the north and which grew as it marched by + constant accessions from the surrounding country. + The city of Santa Fe was left in charge of a garrison under + Lieutenant-Colonel Willock. While the force was small + and the volunteers without experience in regular warfare, + yet all were nerved to desperation by the belief, since + the Taos murders, that the only alternative was victory + or annihilation. + + The expedition set out on January 23d, and the next day + the Mexican army, under command of General Montoya as + commander-in-chief, aided by Generals Tafoya and Chavez, + was found occupying the heights commanding the road near + La Canada (Santa Cruz), with detachments in some strong + adobe houses near the river banks. The advance had been + seen shortly before at the rocky pass, on the road from + Pojuaque; and near there and before reaching the river, the + San Juan Pueblo Indians, who had joined the revolutionists + reluctantly and under a kind of compulsion, surrendered and + were disarmed by removing the locks from their guns. + On arriving at the Canada, Price ordered his howitzers to + the front and opened fire; and after a sharp cannonade, + directed an assault on the nearest houses by Aubrey's + battalion. Meanwhile an attempt by a Mexican detachment + to cut off the American baggage-wagons, which had not yet + come up, was frustrated by the activity of St. Vrain's + volunteers. A charge all along the line was then ordered + and handsomely executed; the houses, which, being of adobe, + had been practically so many ready-made forts, were + successively carried, and St. Vrain started in advance to + gain the Mexican rear. Seeing this manoeuvre, and fearing + its effects, the Mexicans retreated, leaving thirty-six + dead on the field. Among those killed was General Tafoya, + who bravely remained on the field after the remainder had + abandoned it, and was shot. + + Colonel Price pressed on up the river as fast as possible, + passing San Juan, and at Los Luceros, on the 28th, his + little army was rejoiced at the arrival of reinforcements, + consisting of a mounted company of cavalry, Captain Burgwin's + company, which had been pushed up by forced marches on foot + from Albuquerque, and a six-pounder brought by Lieutenant + Wilson. Thus enlarged, the American force consisted of + four hundred and eighty men, and continued its advance up + the valley to La Joya, which was as far as the river road at + that time extended. Meanwhile the Mexicans had established + themselves in a narrow pass near Embudo, where the forest + was dense, and the road impracticable for wagons or cannon, + the troops occupying the sides of the mountains on both + sides of the canyon. Burgwin was sent with three companies + to dislodge them and open a passage--no easy task. + But St. Vrain's company took the west slope, and another + the right, while Burgwin himself marched through the gorge + between. The sharp-shooting of these troops did such + terrible execution that the pass was soon cleared, though + not without the display of great heroism, and some loss; + and the Americans entered Embudo without further opposition. + The difficulties of this campaign were greatly increased by + the severity of the weather, the mountains being thickly + covered with snow, and the cold so intense that a number + of men were frost-bitten and disabled. The next day Burgwin + reached Las Trampas, where Price arrived with the remainder + of the American army on the last day of January, and all + together they marched into Chamisal. + + Notwithstanding the cold and snow they pressed on over the + mountain, and on the 3d of February reached the town of + Fernandez de Taos, only to find that the Mexican and Pueblo + force had fortified itself in the celebrated Pueblo of Taos, + about three miles distant. That force had diminished + considerably during the retreat from La Canada, many of the + Mexicans returning to their homes, and its greater part + now consisting of Pueblo Indians. The American troops were + worn out with fatigue and exposure, and in most urgent need + of rest; but their intrepid commander, desiring to give his + opponents no more time to strengthen their works, and full + of zeal and energy, if not of prudence, determined to + commence an immediate attack. + + The two great buildings at this Pueblo, certainly the most + interesting and extraordinary inhabited structures in + America, are well known from descriptions and engravings. + They are five stories high and irregularly pyramidal in + shape, each story being smaller than the one below, in order + to allow ingress to the outer rooms of each tier from the + roofs. Before the advent of artillery these buildings were + practically impregnable, as, when the exterior ladders were + drawn up, there were no means of ingress, the side walls + being solid without openings, and of immense thickness. + Between these great buildings, each of which can accommodate + a multitude of men, runs the clear water of the Taos Creek; + and to the west of the northerly building stood the old + church, with walls of adobe from three to seven and a half + feet in thickness. Outside of all, and having its northwest + corner just beyond the church, ran an adobe wall, built for + protection against hostile Indians and which now answered + for an outer earthwork. The church was turned into a + fortification, and was the point where the insurgents + concentrated their strength; and against this Colonel Price + directed his principal attack. The six-pounder and the + howitzer were brought into position without delay, under + the command of Lieutenant Dyer, then a young graduate of + West Point, and since then chief of ordnance of the + United States army, and opened a fire on the thick adobe + walls. But cannon-balls made little impression on the + massive banks of earth, in which they embedded themselves + without doing damage; and after a fire of two hours, + the battery was withdrawn, and the troops allowed to return + to the town of Taos for their much-needed rest. + + Early the next morning, the troops, now refreshed and ready + for the combat, advanced again to the Pueblo, but found + those within equally prepared. The story of the attack and + capture of this place is so interesting, both on account + of the meeting here of old and new systems of warfare--of + modern artillery with an aboriginal stronghold--and because + the precise localities can be distinguished by the modern + tourist from the description, that it seems best to insert + the official report as presented by Colonel Price. + Nothing could show more plainly how superior strong + earthworks are to many more ambitious structures of defence, + or more forcibly display the courage and heroism of those + who took part in the battle, or the signal bravery of the + accomplished Captain Burgwin which led to his untimely death. + Colonel Price writes: + + "Posting the dragoons under Captain Burgwin about two + hundred and sixty yards from the western flank of the church, + I ordered the mounted men under Captains St. Vrain and Slack + to a position on the opposite side of the town, whence they + could discover and intercept any fugitives who might attempt + to escape toward the mountains, or in the direction of + San Fernando. The residue of the troops took ground about + three hundred yards from the north wall. Here, too, + Lieutenant Dyer established himself with the six-pounder + and two howitzers, while Lieutenant Hassendaubel, of Major + Clark's battalion, light artillery, remained with Captain + Burgwin, in command of two howitzers. By this arrangement + a cross-fire was obtained, sweeping the front and eastern + flank of the church. All these arrangements being made, + the batteries opened upon the town at nine o'clock A.M. + At eleven o'clock, finding it impossible to breach the + walls of the church with the six-pounder and howitzers, + I determined to storm the building. At a signal, Captain + Burgwin, at the head of his own company and that of Captain + McMillin, charged the western flank of the church, while + Captain Aubrey, infantry battalion, and Captain Barber and + Lieutenant Boon, Second Missouri Mounted Volunteers, charged + the northern wall. As soon as the troops above mentioned + had established themselves under the western wall of the + church, axes were used in the attempt to breach it, and a + temporary ladder having been made, the roof was fired. + About this time, Captain Burgwin, at the head of a small + party, left the cover afforded by the flank of the church, + and penetrating into the corral in front of that building, + endeavoured to force the door. In this exposed situation, + Captain Burgwin received a severe wound, which deprived me + of his valuable services, and of which he died on the + 7th instant. Lieutenants McIlvaine, First United States + Dragoons, and Royall and Lackland, Second Regiment + Volunteers, accompanied Captain Burgwin into the corral, + but the attempt on the church door proved fruitless, and + they were compelled to retire behind the wall. In the + meantime, small holes had been cut in the western wall, and + shells were thrown in by hand, doing good execution. + The six-pounder was now brought around by Lieutenant Wilson, + who, at the distance of two hundred yards, poured a heavy + fire of grape into the town. The enemy, during all of + this time, kept up a destructive fire upon our troops. + About half-past three o'clock, the six-pounder was run up + within sixty yards of the church, and after ten rounds, + one of the holes which had been cut with the axes was + widened into a practicable breach. The storming party, + among whom were Lieutenant Dyer, of the ordnance, and + Lieutenant Wilson and Taylor, First Dragoons, entered and + took possession of the church without opposition. + The interior was filled with dense smoke, but for which + circumstance our storming party would have suffered great + loss. A few of the enemy were seen in the gallery, + where an open door admitted the air, but they retired + without firing a gun. The troops left to support the + battery on the north side were now ordered to charge on + that side. + + "The enemy then abandoned the western part of the town. + Many took refuge in the large houses on the east, while + others endeavoured to escape toward the mountains. + These latter were pursued by the mounted men under Captains + Slack and St. Vrain, who killed fifty-one of them, only two + or three men escaping. It was now night, and our troops + were quietly quartered in the house which the enemy had + abandoned. On the next morning the enemy sued for peace, + and thinking the severe loss they had sustained would prove + a salutary lesson, I granted their supplication, on the + condition that they should deliver up to me Tomas, one of + their principal men, who had instigated and been actively + engaged in the murder of Governor Bent and others. + The number of the enemy at the battle of Pueblo de Taos + was between six and seven hundred, and of these one hundred + and fifty were killed, wounded not known. Our own loss was + seven killed and forty-five wounded; many of the wounded + have since died." + + The capture of the Taos Pueblo practically ended the main + attempt to expel the Americans from the Territory. + Governor Montoya, who was a very influential man in the + conspiracy and styled himself the "Santa Ana of the North," + was tried by court-martial, convicted, and executed on + February 7th, in the presence of the army. Fourteen others + were tried for participating in the murder of Governor Bent + and the others who were killed on the 19th of January, and + were convicted and executed. Thus, fifteen in all were + hung, being an equal number to those murdered at Taos, the + Arroyo Hondo, and Rio Colorado. Of these, eight were + Mexicans and seven were Pueblo Indians. Several more were + sentenced to be hung for treason, but the President very + properly pardoned them, on the ground that treason against + the United States was not a crime of which a Mexican + citizen could be found guilty, while his country was + actually at war with the United States. + +There are several thrilling, as well as laughable, incidents +connected with the Taos massacre, and the succeeding trial of the +insurrectionists; in regard to which I shall quote freely from +_Wah-to-yah_, whose author, Mr. Lewis H. Garrard, accompanied Colonel +St. Vrain across the plains in 1846, and was present at the trial and +execution of the convicted participants. + +One Fitzgerald, who was a private in Captain Burgwin's company of +Dragoons, in the fight at the Pueblo de Taos, killed three Mexicans with +his own hand, and performed heroic work with the bombs that were thrown +into that strong Indian fortress. He was a man of good feeling, but +his brother having been killed, or rather murdered by Salazar, while a +prisoner in the Texan expedition against Santa Fe, he swore vengeance, +and entered the service with the hope of accomplishing it. The day +following the fight at the Pueblo, he walked up to the alcalde, and +deliberately shot him down. For this act he was confined to await a +trial for murder. + +One raw night, complaining of cold to his guard, wood was brought, +which he piled up in the middle of the room. Then mounting that, and +succeeding in breaking through the roof, he noiselessly crept to the +eaves, below which a sentinel, wrapped in a heavy cloak, paced to +and fro, to prevent his escape. He watched until the guard's back was +turned, then swung himself from the wall, and with as much ease as +possible, walked to a mess-fire, where his friends in waiting supplied +him with a pistol and clothing. When day broke, the town of Fernandez +lay far beneath him in the valley, and two days after he was safe in our +camp. + +Many a hand-to-hand encounter ensued during the fight at Taos, one of +which was by Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, whom I knew intimately; a grand +old gentleman, now sleeping peacefully in the quaint little graveyard at +Mora, New Mexico, where he resided for many years. The gallant colonel, +while riding along, noticed an Indian with whom he was well acquainted +lying stretched out on the ground as if dead. Confident that this +particular red devil had been especially prominent in the hellish acts +of the massacre, the colonel dismounted from his pony to satisfy himself +whether the savage was really dead or only shamming. He was far from +being a corpse, for the colonel had scarcely reached the spot, when the +Indian jumped to his feet and attempted to run a long, steel-pointed +lance through the officer's shoulder. Colonel St. Vrain was a large, +powerfully built man; so was the Indian, I have been told. As each of +the struggling combatants endeavoured to get the better of the other, +with the savage having a little the advantage, perhaps, it appears that +"Uncle Dick" Wooton, who was in the chase after the rebels, happened to +arrive on the scene, and hitting the Indian a terrific blow on the head +with his axe, settled the question as to his being a corpse. + +Court for the trial of the insurrectionists assembled at nine o'clock. +On entering the room, Judges Beaubien and Houghton were occupying their +official positions. After many dry preliminaries, six prisoners were +brought in--ill-favoured, half-scared, sullen fellows; and the jury of +Mexicans and Americans having been empanelled, the trial commenced. +It certainly did appear to be a great assumption on the part of +the Americans to conquer a country, and then arraign the revolting +inhabitants for treason. American judges sat on the bench. New Mexicans +and Americans filled the jury-box, and American soldiery guarded the +halls. It was a strange mixture of violence and justice--a middle ground +between the martial and common law. + +After an absence of a few minutes, the jury returned with a verdict of +"guilty in the first degree"--five for murder, one for treason. Treason, +indeed! What did the poor devil know about his new allegiance? But so it +was; and as the jail was overstocked with others awaiting trial, it +was deemed expedient to hasten the execution, and the culprits were +sentenced to be hung on the following Friday--hangman's day. + +Court was daily in session; five more Indians and four Mexicans were +sentenced to be hung on the 30th of April. In the court room, on the +occasion of the trial of these nine prisoners, were Senora Bent the late +governor's wife, and Senora Boggs, giving their evidence in regard to +the massacre, of which they were eye-witnesses. Mrs. Bent was quite +handsome; a few years previously she must have been a beautiful woman. +The wife of the renowned Kit Carson also was in attendance. Her style +of beauty was of the haughty, heart-breaking kind--such as would lead a +man, with a glance of the eye, to risk his life for one smile. + +The court room was a small, oblong apartment, dimly lighted by two +narrow windows; a thin railing keeping the bystanders from contact +with the functionaries. The prisoners faced the judges, and the three +witnesses--Senoras Bent, Boggs, and Carson--were close to them on a +bench by the wall. When Mrs. Bent gave her testimony, the eyes of the +culprits were fixed sternly upon her; when she pointed out the Indian +who had killed the governor, not a muscle of the chief's face twitched +or betrayed agitation, though he was aware her evidence settled his +death warrant; he sat with lips gently closed, eyes earnestly fixed +on her, without a show of malice or hatred--a spectacle of Indian +fortitude, and of the severe mastery to which the emotions can be +subjected. + +Among the jurors was a trapper named Baptiste Brown, a Frenchman, as +were the majority of the trappers in the early days of the border. +He was an exceptionally kind-hearted man when he first came to the +mountains, and seriously inclined to regard the Indians with that +mistaken sentimentality characterizing the average New England +philanthropist, who has never seen the untutored savage on his native +heath. His ideas, however, underwent a marked change as the years rolled +on and he became more familiar with the attributes of the noble red man. +He was with Kit Carson in the Blackfeet country many years before the +Taos massacre, when his convictions were thus modified, and it was +from the famous frontiersman himself I learned the story of Baptiste's +conversion. + +It was late one night in their camp on one of the many creeks in the +Blackfoot region, where they had been established for several weeks, and +Baptiste was on duty, guarding their meat and furs from the incursions +of a too inquisitive grizzly that had been prowling around, and the +impertinent investigations of the wolves. His attention was attracted to +something high up in a neighbouring tree, that seemed restless, changing +its position constantly like an animal of prey. The Frenchman drew a +bead upon it, and there came tumbling down at his feet a dead savage, +with his war-paint and other Indian paraphernalia adorning his body. +Baptiste was terribly hurt over the circumstance of having killed an +Indian, and it grieved him for a long time. One day, a month after the +incident, he was riding alone far away from our party, and out of sound +of their rifles as well, when a band of Blackfeet discovered him and +started for his scalp. He had no possible chance for escape except by +the endurance of his horse; so a race for life began. He experienced no +trouble in keeping out of the way of their arrows--the Indians had no +guns then--and hoped to make camp before they could possibly wear out +his horse. Just as he was congratulating himself on his luck, right in +front of him there suddenly appeared a great gorge, and not daring to +stop or to turn to the right or left, the only thing to do was to make +his animal jump it. It was his only chance; it was death if he missed +it, and death by the most horrible torture if the Indians captured him. +So he drove his heels into his horse's sides, and essayed the awful +leap. His willing animal made a desperate effort to carry out the desire +of his daring rider, but the dizzy chasm was too wide, and the pursuing +savages saw both horse and the coveted white man dash to the bottom +of the frightful canyon together. Believing that their hated enemy +had eluded them forever, they rode back on their trail, disgusted and +chagrined, without even taking the trouble of looking over the precipice +to learn the fate of Baptiste. + +The horse was instantly killed, and the Frenchman had both of his legs +badly broken. Far from camp, with the Indians in close proximity, he did +not dare discharge his rifle--the usual signal when a trapper is lost +or in danger--or to make any demonstration, so he was compelled to lie +there and suffer, hoping that his comrades, missing him, would start +out to search for him. They did so, but more than twenty-four hours had +elapsed before they found him, as the bottom of the canyon was the last +place they thought of. + +Doctors, in the wild region where their camp was located, were as +impossible as angels; so his companions set his broken bones as well as +they could, while Baptiste suffered excruciating torture. When they had +completed their crude surgery, they improvised a litter of poles, and +rigged it on a couple of pack-mules, and thus carried him around with +them from camp to camp until he recovered--a period extending over three +months. + +This affair completely cured Baptiste of his original sentimentality in +relation to the Indian, and he became one of their worst haters. + +When acting as a juror in the trials of rebel Mexicans and Indians, he +was asleep half the time, and never heard much of the evidence, and that +portion which he did was so much Greek to him. In the last nine cases, +in which the Indian who had murdered Governor Bent was tried, Baptiste, +as soon as the jury room was closed, sang out: "Hang 'em, hang 'em, +sacre enfans des garces, dey dam gran rascale!" "But wait," suggested +one of the cooler members; "let's look at the evidence and find out +whether they are really guilty." Upon this wise caution, Baptiste got +greatly excited, paced the floor, and cried out: "Hang de Indian anyhow; +he may not be guilty now--mais he vare soon will be. Hang 'em all, +parceque dey kill Monsieur Charles; dey take son topknot, vot you call +im--scalp. Hang 'em, hang 'em--sa-a-cre-e!" + +On Friday the 9th, the day for the execution, the sky was unspotted, +save by hastily fleeting clouds; and as the rising sun loomed over +the Taos Mountain, the bright rays, shining on the yellow and white +mud-houses, reflected cheerful hues, while the shades of the toppling +peaks, receding from the plain beneath, drew within themselves. The +humble valley wore an air of calm repose. The Plaza was deserted; +woe-begone burros drawled forth sacrilegious brays, as the warm sunbeams +roused them from hard, grassless ground, to scent their breakfast among +straw and bones. + +Poor Mexicans hurried to and fro, casting suspicious glances around; +los Yankees at El casa Americano drank their juleps, and puffed their +cigarettes in silence. + +The sheriff, Metcalf, formerly a mountaineer, was in want of the +wherewithal to hang the condemned criminals, so he borrowed some rawhide +lariats and picket-ropes of a teamster. + +"Hello, Met," said one of the party present, "these reatas are mighty +stiff--won't fit; eh, old feller?" + +"I've got something to make 'em fit--good 'intment--don't emit very +sweet perfume; but good enough for Greasers," said the sheriff, +producing a dollar's worth of Mexican soft soap. "This'll make 'em slip +easy--a long ways too easy for them, I 'spect." + +The prison apartment was a long chilly room, badly ventilated by one +small window and the open door, through which the sun lit up the +earth floor, and through which the poor prisoners wistfully gazed. +Two muscular Mexicans basked in its genial warmth, a tattered serape +interposing between them and the ground. The ends, once fringed but +now clear of pristine ornament, were partly drawn over their breasts, +disclosing in the openings of their fancifully colored shirts--now +glazed with filth and faded with perspiration--the bare skin, covered +with straight black hair. With hands under their heads, in the mass of +stringy locks rusty-brown from neglect, they returned the looks of +their executioners with an unmeaning stare, and unheedingly received the +salutation of--"Como le va!" + +Along the sides of the room, leaning against the walls, were crowded the +poor wretches, miserable in dress, miserable in features, miserable +in feelings--a more disgusting collection of ragged, greasy, unwashed +prisoners were, probably, never before congregated within so small a +space as the jail of Taos. + +About nine o'clock, active preparations were made for the execution, and +the soldiery mustered. Reverend padres in long black gowns, with meek +countenances, passed the sentinels, intent on spiritual consolation, or +the administration of the Blessed Sacrament. + +Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, commanding the military, ordered every +American under arms. The prison was at the edge of the town; no houses +intervened between it and the fields to the north. One hundred and fifty +yards distant, a gallows was erected. + +The word was passed, at last, that the criminals were coming. Eighteen +soldiers received them at the gate, with their muskets at "port arms"; +the six abreast, with the sheriff on the right--nine soldiers on each +side. + +The poor prisoners marched slowly, with downcast eyes, arms tied behind, +and bare heads, with the exception of white cotton caps stuck on the +back, to be pulled over the face as the last ceremony. + +The roofs of the houses in the vicinity were covered with women and +children, to witness the first execution by hanging in the valley of +Taos, save that of Montojo, the insurgent leader. No men were near; a +few stood afar off, moodily looking on. + +On the flat jail roof was placed a mountain howitzer, loaded and ranging +the gallows. Near was the complement of men to serve it, one holding in +his hand a lighted match. The two hundred and thirty soldiers, less the +eighteen forming the guard, were paraded in front of the jail, and +in sight of the gibbet, so as to secure the prisoners awaiting trial. +Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, on a handsome charger, commanded a view of +the whole. + +When within fifteen paces of the gallows, the side-guard, filing off to +the right, formed, at regular distances from each other, three sides of +a hollow square; the mountaineers composed the fourth and front side, in +full view of the trembling prisoners, who marched up to the tree under +which was a government wagon, with two mules attached. The driver and +sheriff assisted them in, ranging them on a board, placed across the +hinder end, which maintained its balance, as they were six--an even +number--two on each extremity, and two in the middle. The gallows was +so narrow that they touched. The ropes, by reason of their size +and stiffness, despite the soaping given them, were adjusted with +difficulty; but through the indefatigable efforts of the sheriff and +a lieutenant who had accompanied him, all preliminaries were arranged, +although the blue uniform looked sadly out of place on a hangman. + +With rifles at a "shoulder," the military awaited the consummation +of the tragedy. There was no crowd around to disturb; a death-like +stillness prevailed. The spectators on the roofs seemed scarcely to +move--their eyes were directed to the doomed wretches, with harsh +halters now encircling their necks. + +The sheriff and his assistant sat down; after a few moments of intense +expectation, the heart-wrung victims said a few words to their people. +Only one of them admitted he had committed murder and deserved death. +In their brief but earnest appeals, the words "mi padre, mi madre"--"my +father, my mother"--were prominent. The one sentenced for treason +showed a spirit of patriotism worthy of the cause for which he died--the +liberty of his country; and instead of the cringing recantation of the +others, his speech was a firm asseveration of his own innocence, the +unjustness of his trial, and the arbitrary conduct of his murderers. As +the cap was pulled over his face, the last words he uttered between his +teeth with a scowl were "Carajo, los Americanos!" + +At a word from the sheriff, the mules were started, and the wagon drawn +from under the tree. No fall was given, and their feet remained on the +board till the ropes drew tight. The bodies swayed back and forth, and +while thus swinging, the hands of two came together with a firm grasp +till the muscles loosened in death. + +After forty minutes' suspension, Colonel Willock ordered his command to +quarters, and the howitzer to be taken from its place on the roof of the +jail. The soldiers were called away; the women and population in general +collecting around the rear guard which the sheriff had retained for +protection while delivering the dead to their weeping relatives. + +While cutting a rope from one man's neck--for it was in a hard knot--the +owner, a government teamster standing by waiting, shouted angrily, at +the same time stepping forward: + +"Hello there! don't cut that rope; I won't have anything to tie my mules +with." + +"Oh! you darned fool," interposed a mountaineer, "the dead men's ghosts +will be after you if you use them lariats--wagh! They'll make meat of +you sartain." + +"Well, I don't care if they do. I'm in government service; and if them +picket-halters was gone, slap down goes a dollar apiece. Money's scarce +in these diggin's, and I'm going to save all I kin to take home to the +old woman and boys." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. + + + +On the summit of one of the highest plateaus bordering the Missouri +River, surrounded by a rich expanse of foliage, lies Independence, the +beautiful residence suburb of Kansas City, only ten miles distant. + +Tradition tells that early in this century there were a few pioneers +camping at long distances from each other in the seemingly interminable +woods; in summer engaged in hunting the deer, elk, and bear, and in +winter in trapping. It is a well-known fact that the Big Blue was once +a favourite resort of the beaver, and that even later their presence in +great numbers attracted many a veteran trapper to its waters. + +Before that period the quaint old cities of far-off Mexico were +forbidden to foreign traders, excepting to the favoured few who were +successful in obtaining permits from the Spanish government. In 1821, +however, the rebellion of Iturbide crushed the power of the mother +country, and established the freedom of Mexico. The embargo upon foreign +trade was at once removed, and the Santa Fe Trail, for untold ages +only a simple trace across the continent, became the busy highway of a +relatively great commerce. + +In 1817 the navigation of the Mississippi River was begun. On the 2d of +August of that year the steamer _General Pike_ arrived at St. Louis. +The first boat to ascend the Missouri River was the _Independence_; she +passed Franklin on the 28th of May, 1819, where a dinner was given to +her officers. In the same and the following month of that year, the +steamers _Western Engineer Expedition_ and _R. M. Johnson_ came +along, carrying Major Long's scientific exploring party, bound for the +Yellowstone. + +The Santa Fe trade having been inaugurated shortly after these important +events, those engaged in it soon realized the benefits of river +navigation--for it enabled them to shorten the distance which their +wagons had to travel in going across the plains--and they began to look +out for a suitable place as a shipping and outfitting point higher up +the river than Franklin, which had been the initial starting town. + +By 1827 trading-posts had been established at Blue Mills, Fort Osage, +and Independence. The first-mentioned place, which is situated about +six miles below Independence, soon became the favourite landing, and the +exchange from wagons to boats settled and defied all efforts to +remove the headquarters of the trade from there for several years. +Independence, however, being the county seat and the larger place, +succeeded in its claims to be the more suitable locality, and as early +as 1832 it was recognized as the American headquarters and the great +outfitting point for the Santa Fe commerce, which it continued to be +until 1846, when the traffic was temporarily suspended by the breaking +out of the Mexican War. + +Independence was not only the principal outfitting point for the Santa +Fe traders, but also that of the great fur companies. That powerful +association used to send out larger pack-trains than any other parties +engaged in the traffic to the Rocky Mountains; they also employed wagons +drawn by mules, and loaded with goods for the Indians with whom their +agents bartered, which also on their return trip transported the skins +and pelts of animals procured from the savages. The articles intended +for the Indian trade were always purchased in St. Louis, and usually +shipped to Independence, consigned to the firm of Aull and Company, who +outfitted the traders with mules and provisions, and in fact anything +else required by them. + +Several individual traders would frequently form joint caravans, and +travel in company for mutual protection from the Indians. After having +reached a fifty-mile limit from the State line, each trader had control +of his own men; each took care of a certain number of the pack-animals, +loaded and unloaded them in camp, and had general supervision of them. + +Frequently there would be three hundred mules in a single caravan, +carrying three hundred pounds apiece, and very large animals more. +Thousands of wagons were also sent out from Independence annually, +each drawn by twelve mules or six yoke of oxen, and loaded with general +merchandise. + +There were no packing houses in those days nearer than St. Louis, and +the bacon and beef used in the Santa Fe trade were furnished by the +farmers of the surrounding country, who killed their meat, cured it, +and transported it to the town where they sold it. Their wheat was +also ground at the local mills, and they brought the flour to market, +together with corn, dried fruit, beans, peas, and kindred provisions +used on the long route across the plains. + +Independence very soon became the best market west of St. Louis +for cattle, mules, and wagons; the trade of which the place was the +acknowledged headquarters furnishing employment to several thousand men, +including the teamsters and packers on the Trail. The wages paid varied +from twenty-five to fifty dollars a month and rations. The price charged +for hauling freight to Santa Fe was ten dollars a hundred pounds, each +wagon earning from five to six hundred dollars every trip, which was +made in eighty or ninety days; some fast caravans making quicker time. + +The merchants and general traders of Independence in those days reaped a +grand harvest. Everything to eat was in constant demand; mules and oxen +were sold in great numbers every month at excellent prices and always +for cash; while any good stockman could readily make from ten to fifty +dollars a day. + +One of the largest manufacturers and most enterprising young men in +Independence at that time was Hiram Young, a coloured man. Besides +making hundreds of wagons, he made all the ox-yokes used in the entire +traffic; fifty thousand annually during the '50's and until the breaking +out of the war. The forward yokes were sold at an average of one dollar +and a quarter, the wheel yokes a dollar higher. + +The freight transported by the wagons was always very securely loaded; +each package had its contents plainly marked on the outside. The wagons +were heavily covered and tightly closed. Every man belonging to the +caravan was thoroughly armed, and ever on the alert to repulse an attack +by the Indians. + +Sometimes at the crossing of the Arkansas the quicksands were so bad +that it was necessary to get the caravan over in a hurry; then forty or +fifty yoke of oxen were hitched to one wagon and it was quickly yanked +through the treacherous ford. This was not always the case, however; it +depended upon the stage of water and recent floods. + +After the close of the war with Mexico, the freight business across the +plains increased to a wonderful degree. The possession of the country by +the United States gave a fresh impetus to the New Mexico trade, and +the traffic then began to be divided between Westport and Kansas City. +Independence lost control of the overland commerce and Kansas City +commenced its rapid growth. Then came the discovery of gold in +California, and this gave an increased business westward; for thousands +of men and their families crossed the plains and the Rocky Mountains, +seeking their fortunes in the new El Dorado. The Old Trail was the +highway of an enormous pilgrimage, and both Independence and Kansas City +became the initial point of a wonderful emigration. + +In Independence may still be seen a few of the old landmarks when it was +the headquarters of the Santa Fe trade. + +An overland mail was started from the busy town as early as 1849. In an +old copy of the Missouri _Commonwealth_, published there under the date +of July, 1850, which I found on file in the Kansas State Historical +Society, there is the following account of the first mail stage +westward:-- + + We briefly alluded, some days since, to the Santa Fe line + of mail stages, which left this city on its first monthly + journey on the 1st instant. The stages are got up in + elegant style, and are each arranged to convey eight + passengers. The bodies are beautifully painted, and made + water-tight, with a view of using them as boats in ferrying + streams. The team consists of six mules to each coach. + The mail is guarded by eight men, armed as follows: Each man + has at his side, fastened in the stage, one of Colt's + revolving rifles; in a holster below, one of Colt's long + revolvers, and in his belt a small Colt's revolver, besides + a hunting-knife; so that these eight men are ready, in case + of attack, to discharge one hundred and thirty-six shots + without having to reload. This is equal to a small army, + armed as in the ancient times, and from the looks of this + escort, ready as they are, either for offensive or defensive + warfare with the savages, we have no fears for the safety + of the mails. + + The accommodating contractors have established a sort of + base of refitting at Council Grove, a distance of one + hundred and fifty miles from this city, and have sent out + a blacksmith, and a number of men to cut and cure hay, with + a quantity of animals, grain, and provisions; and we + understand they intend to make a sort of traveling station + there, and to commence a farm. They also, we believe, + intend to make a similar settlement at Walnut Creek next + season. Two of their stages will start from here the + first of every month. + +The old stage-coach days were times of Western romance and adventure, +and the stories told of that era of the border have a singular +fascination in this age of annihilation of distance. + +Very few, if any, of the famous men who handled the "ribbons" in those +dangerous days of the slow journey across the great plains are among +the living; like the clumsy and forgotten coaches they drove, they have +themselves been mouldering into dust these many years. + +In many places on the line of the Trail, where the hard hills have not +been subjected to the plough, the deep ruts cut by the lumbering Concord +coaches may yet be distinctly traced. Particularly are they visible from +the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe track, as the cars thunder rapidly +toward the city of Great Bend, in Kansas, three miles east of that town. +Let the tourist as he crosses Walnut Creek look out of his window toward +the east at an angle of about thirty-five degrees, and on the flint +hills which slope gradually toward the railroad, he will observe, very +distinctly, the Old Trail, where it once drew down from the divide to +make the ford at the little stream. + +The monthly stages started from each end of the route at the same time; +later the service was increased to once a week; after a while to three +times, until in the early '60's daily stages were run from both ends of +the route, and this was continued until the advent of the railroad. + +Each coach carried eleven passengers, nine closely stowed inside--three +on a seat--and two on the outside on the boot with the driver. The fare +to Santa Fe was two hundred and fifty dollars, the allowance of baggage +being limited to forty pounds; all in excess of that cost half a dollar +a pound. In this now seemingly large sum was included the board of the +travellers, but they were not catered to in any extravagant manner; +hardtack, bacon, and coffee usually exhausted the menu, save that at +times there was an abundance of antelope and buffalo. + +There was always something exciting in those journeys from the Missouri +to the mountains in the lumbering Concord coach. There was the constant +fear of meeting the wily red man, who persistently hankered after +the white man's hair. Then there was the playfulness of the sometimes +drunken driver, who loved to upset his tenderfoot travellers in some +arroya, long after the moon had sunk below the horizon. + +It required about two weeks to make the trip from the Missouri River to +Santa Fe, unless high water or a fight with the Indians made it several +days longer. The animals were changed every twenty miles at first, but +later, every ten, when faster time was made. What sleep was taken could +only be had while sitting bolt upright, because there was no laying +over; the stage continued on night and day until Santa Fe was reached. + +After a few years, the company built stations at intervals varying +from ten miles to fifty or more; and there the animals and drivers +were changed, and meals furnished to travellers, which were always +substantial, but never elegant in variety or cleanliness. + +Who can ever forget those meals at the "stations," of which you were +obliged to partake or go hungry: biscuit hard enough to serve as +"round-shot," and a vile decoction called, through courtesy, coffee--but +God help the man who disputed it! + +Some stations, however, were notable exceptions, particularly in the +mountains of New Mexico, where, aside from the bread--usually only +tortillas, made of the blue-flint corn of the country--and coffee +composed of the saints may know what, the meals were excellent. The +most delicious brook trout, alternating with venison of the black-tailed +deer, elk, bear, and all the other varieties of game abounding in the +region cost you one dollar, but the station-keeper a mere trifle; no +wonder the old residents and ranchmen on the line of the Old Trail +lament the good times of the overland stage! + +Thirteen years ago I revisited the once well-known Kosloskie's Ranch, +a picturesque cabin at the foot of the Glorieta Mountains, about half a +mile from the ruins on the Rio Pecos. The old Pole was absent, but his +wife was there; and, although I had not seen her for fifteen years, she +remembered me well, and at once began to deplore the changed condition +of the country since the advent of the railroad, declaring it had ruined +their family with many others. I could not disagree with her view of +the matter, as I looked on the debris of a former relative greatness +all around me. I recalled the fact that once Kosloskie's Ranch was the +favourite eating station on the Trail; where you were ever sure of a +substantial meal--the main feature of which was the delicious brook +trout, which were caught out of the stream which ran near the door while +you were washing the dust out of your eyes and ears. + +The trout have vacated the Pecos; the ranch is a ruin, and stands in +grim contrast with the old temple and church on the hill; and both are +monuments of civilizations that will never come again. + +Weeds and sunflowers mark the once broad trail to the quaint Aztec city, +and silence reigns in the beautiful valley, save when broken by the +passage of "The Flyer" of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railway, as +it struggles up the heavy grade of the Glorieta Mountains a mile or more +distant. + +Besides the driver, there was another employee--the conductor or +messenger, as he was called. He had charge of the mail and express +matter, collected the fares, and attended generally to the requirements +of those committed to his care during the tedious journey; for he was +not changed like the driver, but stayed with the coach from its starting +to its destination. Sometimes fourteen individuals were accommodated in +case of emergency; but it was terribly crowded and uncomfortable riding, +with no chance to stretch your limbs, save for a few moments at stations +where you ate and changed animals. + +In starting from Independence, powerful horses were attached to the +coach--generally four in number; but at the first station they were +exchanged for mules, and these animals hauled it the remainder of the +way. Drivers were changed about eight times in making the trip to +Santa Fe; and some of them were comical fellows, but full of nerve and +endurance, for it required a man of nerve to handle eight frisky mules +through the rugged passes of the mountains, when the snow was drifted +in immense masses, or when descending the curved, icy declivities to +the base of the range. A cool head was highly necessary; but frequently +accidents occurred and sometimes were serious in their results. + +A snowstorm in the mountains was a terrible thing to encounter by the +coach; all that could be done was to wait until it had abated, as there +was no going on in the face of the blinding sheets of intensely cold +vapour which the wind hurled against the sides of the mountains. +All inside of the coach had to sit still and shake with the freezing +branches of the tall trees around them. A summer hailstorm was much more +to be dreaded, however; for nowhere else on the earth do the hailstones +shoot from the clouds of greater size or with greater velocity than in +the Rocky Mountains. Such an event invariably frightened the mules and +caused them to stampede; and, to escape death from the coach rolling +down some frightful abyss, one had to jump out, only to be beaten to +a jelly by the masses of ice unless shelter could be found under some +friendly ledge of rock or the thick limbs of a tree. + +Nothing is more fatiguing than travelling for the first day and night +in a stage-coach; after that, however, one gets used to it and the +remainder of the journey is relatively comfortable. + +The only way to alleviate the monotony of riding hour after hour was +to walk; occasionally this was rendered absolutely necessary by some +accident, such as breaking a wheel or axle, or when an animal gave out +before a station was reached. In such cases, however, no deduction was +made from the fare, that having been collected in advance, so it cost +you just as much whether you rode or walked. You could exercise your +will in the matter, but you must not lag behind the coach; the savages +were always watching for such derelicts, and your hair was the forfeit! + +In the worst years, when the Indians were most decidedly on the +war-trail, the government furnished an escort of soldiers from the +military posts; they generally rode in a six-mule army-wagon, and were +commanded by a sergeant or corporal; but in the early days, before the +army had concentrated at the various forts on the great plains, +the stage had to rely on the courage and fighting qualities of its +occupants, and the nerve and the good judgment of the driver. If the +latter understood his duty thoroughly and was familiar with the methods +of the savages, he always chose the cover of darkness in which to travel +in localities where the danger from Indians was greater than elsewhere; +for it is a rare thing in savage warfare to attack at night. The early +morning seemed to be their favourite hour, when sleep oppresses most +heavily; and then it was that the utmost vigilance was demanded. + +One of the most confusing things to the novice riding over the great +plains is the idea of distance; mile after mile is travelled on the +monotonous trail, with a range of hills or a low divide in full sight, +yet hours roll by and the objects seem no nearer than when they were +first observed. The reason for this seems to be that every atom of +vapour is eliminated from the air, leaving such an absolute clearness +of atmosphere, such an indescribable transparency of space through which +distant objects are seen, that they are magnified and look nearer than +they really are. Consequently, the usual method of calculating distance +and areas by the eye is ever at fault until custom and familiarity force +a new standard of measure. + +Mirages, too, were of frequent occurrence on the great plains; some +of them wonderful examples of the refracting properties of light. They +assumed all manner of fantastic, curious shapes, sometimes ludicrously +distorting the landscape; objects, like a herd of buffalo for instance, +though forty miles away, would seem to be high in air, often reversed, +and immensely magnified in their proportions. + +Violent storms were also frequent incidents of the long ride. I well +remember one night, about thirty years ago, when the coach in which I +and one of my clerks were riding to Fort Dodge was suddenly brought to +a standstill by a terrible gale of wind and hail. The mules refused to +face it, and quickly turning around nearly overturned the stage, while +we, with the driver and conductor, were obliged to hold on to the wheels +with all our combined strength to prevent it from blowing down into +a stony ravine, on the brink of which we were brought to a halt. +Fortunately, these fearful blizzards did not last very long; the wind +ceased blowing so violently in a few moments, but the rain usually +continued until morning. + +It usually happened that you either at once took a great liking for your +driver and conductor, or the reverse. Once, on a trip from Kansas City, +nearly a third of a century ago, when I and another man were the only +occupants of the coach, we entertained quite a friendly feeling for +our driver; he was a good-natured, jolly fellow, full of anecdote +and stories of the Trail, over which he had made more than a hundred +sometimes adventurous journeys. + +When we arrived at the station at Plum Creek, the coach was a little +ahead of time, and the driver who was there to relieve ours commenced to +grumble at the idea of having to start out before the regular hour. He +found fault because we had come into the station so soon, and swore he +could drive where our man could not "drag a halter-chain," as he claimed +in his boasting. We at once took a dislike to him, and secretly wished +that he would come to grief, in order to cure him of his boasting. Sure +enough, before we had gone half a mile from the station he incontinently +tumbled the coach over into a sandy arroya, and we were delighted at the +accident. Finding ourselves free from any injury, we went to work +and assisted him to right the coach--no small task; but we took great +delight in reminding him several times of his ability to drive where our +old friend could not "drag a halter-chain." It was very dark; neither +moon or star visible, the whole heavens covered with an inky blackness +of ominous clouds; so he was not so much to be blamed after all. + +The very next coach was attacked at the crossing of Cow Creek by a band +of Kiowas. The savages had followed the stage all that afternoon, but +remained out of sight until just at dark, when they rushed over the +low divide, and mounted on their ponies commenced to circle around +the coach, making the sand dunes resound with echoes of their infernal +yelling, and shaking their buffalo-robes to stampede the mules, at the +same time firing their guns at the men who were in the coach, all of +whom made a bold stand, but were rapidly getting the worst of it, when +fortunately a company of United States cavalry came over the Trail from +the west, and drove the savages off. Two of the men in the coach were +seriously wounded, and one of the soldiers killed; but the Indian loss +was never determined, as they succeeded in carrying off both their dead +and wounded. + +Mr. W. H. Ryus, a friend of mine now residing in Kansas City, who was a +driver and messenger thirty-five years, and had many adventures, told me +the following incidents: + + I have crossed the plains sixty-five times by wagon and + coach. In July, 1861, I was employed by Barnum, Vickery, + and Neal to drive over what was known as the Long Route, + that is, from Fort Larned to Fort Lyon, two hundred and + forty miles, with no station between. We drove one set of + mules the whole distance, camped out, and made the journey, + in good weather, in four or five days. In winter we + generally encountered a great deal of snow, and very cold + air on the bleak and wind-swept desert of the Upper Arkansas, + but we employees got used to that; only the passengers did + any kicking. We had a way of managing them, however, + when they got very obstreperous; all we had to do was to + yell Indians! and that quieted them quicker than forty-rod + whiskey does a man. + + We gathered buffalo-chips, to boil our coffee and cook our + buffalo and antelope steak, smoked for a while around the + smouldering fire until the animals were through grazing, + and then started on our lonely way again. + + Sometimes the coach would travel for a hundred miles through + the buffalo herds, never for a moment getting out of sight + of them; often we saw fifty thousand to a hundred thousand + on a single journey out or in. The Indians used to call + them their cattle, and claimed to own them. They did not, + like the white man, take out only the tongue, or hump, and + leave all the rest to dry upon the prairie, but ate every + last morsel, even to the intestines. They said the whites + were welcome to all they could eat or haul away, but they + did not like to see so much meat wasted as was our custom. + + The Indians on the plains were not at all hostile in 1861-62; + we could drive into their villages, where there were tens + of thousands of them, and they would always treat us to + music or a war-dance, and set before us the choicest of + their venison and buffalo. In July of the last-mentioned + year, Colonel Leavenworth, Jr., was crossing the Trail in + my coach. He desired to see Satanta, the great Kiowa chief. + The colonel's father[28] was among the Indians a great deal + while on duty as an army officer, while the young colonel + was a small boy. The colonel said he didn't believe that + old Satanta would know him. + + Just before the arrival of the coach in the region of the + Indian village, the Comanches and the Pawnees had been + having a battle. The Comanches had taken some scalps, + and they were camping on the bank of the Arkansas River, + where Dodge City is now located. The Pawnees had killed + five of their warriors, and the Comanches were engaged in + an exciting war-dance; I think there were from twenty to + thirty thousand Indians gathered there, men, women, and + children of the several tribes--Comanches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, + Arapahoes, and others. + + When we came in sight of their camp, the colonel knew, by + the terrible noise they were making, that a war-dance was + going on; but we did not know then whether it was on account + of troubles among themselves, or because of a fight with + the whites, but we were determined to find out. If he could + get to the old chief, all would be right. So he and I + started for the place whence the noise came. We met a savage + and the colonel asked him whether Satanta was there, and + what was going on. When he told us that they had had + a fight and it was a scalp-dance, our hair lowered; for we + knew that if it was in consequence of trouble with the + whites, we stood in some danger of losing our own scalps. + + The Indian took us in, and the situation, too; and conducted + us into the presence of Satanta, who stood in the middle + of the great circle, facing the dancers. It was out on an + island in the stream; the chief stood very erect, and eyed + us closely for a few seconds, then the colonel told his + own name that the Indians had known him by when he was a boy. + Satanta gave one bound--he was at least ten feet from where + we were waiting--grasped the colonel's hand and excitedly + kissed him, then stood back for another instant, gave him + a second squeeze, offered his hand to me, which I, + of course, shook heartily, then he gazed at the man he had + known as a boy so many years ago, with a countenance + beaming with delight. I never saw any one, even among + the white race, manifest so much joy as the old chief did + over the visit of the colonel to his camp. + + He immediately ordered some of his young men to go out and + herd our mules through the night, which they brought back + to us at daylight. He then had the coach hauled to the + front of his lodge, where we could see all that was going on + to the best advantage. We had six travellers with us on + this journey, and it was a great sight for the tenderfeet. + + It was about ten o'clock at night when we arrived at + Satanta's lodge, and we saw thousands of squaws and bucks + dancing and mourning for their dead warriors. At midnight + the old chief said we must eat something at once. So he + ordered a fire built, cooked buffalo and venison, setting + before us the very best that he had, we furnishing canned + fruit, coffee, and sugar from our coach mess. There we sat, + and talked and ate until morning; then when we were ready + to start off, Satanta and the other chiefs of the various + tribes escorted us about eight miles on the Trail, where + we halted for breakfast, they remaining and eating with us. + +Colonel Leavenworth was on his way to assume command of one of the +military posts in New Mexico; the Indians begged him to come back and +take his quarters at either Fort Larned or Fort Dodge. They told him +they were afraid their agent was stealing their goods and selling them +back to them; while if the Indians took anything from the whites, a war +was started. + +Colonel A. G. Boone had made a treaty with these same Indians in 1860, +and it was agreed that he should be their agent. It was done, and the +entire savage nations were restful and kindly disposed toward the whites +during his administration; any one could then cross the plains without +fear of molestation. In 1861, however, Judge Wright, of Indiana, who +was a member of Congress at the time, charged Colonel Boone with +disloyalty.[29] He succeeded in having him removed. + +Majors Russel and Waddell, the great government freight contractors +across the plains, gave Colonel Boone fourteen hundred acres of land, +well improved, with some fine buildings on it, about fifteen miles east +of Pueblo, Colorado. It was christened Booneville, and the colonel moved +there. In the fall of 1862, fifty influential Indians of the various +tribes visited Colonel Boone at his new home, and begged that he would +come back to them and be their agent. He told the chiefs that the +President of the United States would not let him. Then they offered to +sell their horses to raise money for him to go to Washington to tell +the Great Father what their agent was doing; and to have him removed, or +there was going to be trouble. The Indians told Colonel Boone that +many of their warriors would be on the plains that fall, and they were +declaring they had as much right to take something to eat from the +trains as their agent had to steal goods from them. + +Early in the winter of the next year, a small caravan of eight or ten +wagons travelling to the Missouri River was overhauled at Nine Mile +Ridge, about fifty miles west of Fort Dodge, by a band of Indians, who +asked for something to eat. The teamsters, thinking them to be hostile, +believed it would be a good thing to kill one of them anyhow; so they +shot an inoffensive warrior, after which the train moved on to its camp +and the trouble began. Every man in the whole outfit, with the exception +of one teamster, who luckily got to the Arkansas River and hid, was +murdered, the animals all carried away, and the wagons and contents +destroyed by fire. + +This foolish act by the master of the caravan was the cause of a long +war, causing hundreds of atrocious murders and the destruction of a +great deal of property along the whole Western frontier. + +That fall, 1863, Mr. Ryus was the messenger or conductor in charge of +the coach running from Kansas City to Santa Fe. He said: + + It then required a month to make the round trip, about + eighteen hundred miles. On account of the Indian war + we had to have an escort of soldiers to go through the most + dangerous portions of the Trail; and the caravans all + joined forces for mutual safety, besides having an escort. + + My coach was attacked several times during that season, and + we had many close calls for our scalps. Sometimes the + Indians would follow us for miles, and we had to halt and + fight them; but as for myself, I had no desire to kill one + of the miserable, outraged creatures, who had been swindled + out of their just rights. + + I know of but one occasion when we were engaged in a fight + with them when our escort killed any of the attacking + savages; it was about two miles from Little Coon Creek + Station, where they surrounded the coach and commenced + hostilities. In the fight one officer and one enlisted man + were wounded. The escort chased the band for several miles, + killed nine of them, and got their horses. + + + + +CHAPTER X. CHARLES BENT. + + + +Almost immediately after the ratification of the purchase of New Mexico +by the United States under the stipulations of the "Guadalupe-Hidalgo +Treaty," the Utes, one of the most powerful tribes of mountain +Indians, inaugurated a bloody and relentless war against the civilized +inhabitants of the Territory. It was accompanied by all the horrible +atrocities which mark the tactics of savage hatred toward the white +race. It continued for several years with more or less severity; its +record a chapter of history whose pages are deluged with blood, until +finally the Indians were subdued by the power of the military. + +Along the line of the Santa Fe Trail, they were frequently in +conjunction with the Apaches, and their depredations and atrocities +were very numerous; they attacked fearlessly freight caravans, +private expeditions, and overland stage-coaches, robbing and murdering +indiscriminately. + +In January, 1847, the mail and passenger stage left Independence, +Missouri, for Santa Fe on one of its regular trips across the plains. It +had its full complement of passengers, among whom were a Mr. White and +family, consisting of his wife, one child, and a coloured nurse. + +Day after day the lumbering Concord coach rolled on, with nothing to +disturb the monotony of the vast prairies, until it had left them far +behind and crossed the Range into New Mexico. Just about dawn, as the +unsuspecting travellers were entering the "canyon of the Canadian,"[30] +and probably waking up from their long night's sleep, a band of Indians, +with blood-curdling yells and their terrific war-whoop, rode down upon +them. + +In that lonely and rock-sheltered gorge a party of the hostile savages, +led by "White Wolf," a chief of the Apaches, had been awaiting the +arrival of the coach from the East; the very hour it was due was well +known to them, and they had secreted themselves there the night before +so as to be on hand should it reach their chosen ambush a little before +the schedule time. + +Out dashed the savages, gorgeous in their feathered war-bonnets, but +looking like fiends with their paint-bedaubed faces. Stopping the +frightened mules, they pulled open the doors of the coach and, +mercilessly dragging its helpless and surprised inmates to the ground, +immediately began their butchery. They scalped and mutilated the dead +bodies of their victims in their usual sickening manner, not a single +individual escaping, apparently, to tell of their fiendish acts. + +If the Indians had been possessed of sufficient cunning to cover up the +tracks of their horrible atrocities, as probably white robbers would +have done, by dragging the coach from the road and destroying it by fire +or other means, the story of the murders committed in the deep canyon +might never have been known; but they left the tell-tale remains of +the dismantled vehicle just where they had attacked it, and the naked +corpses of its passengers where they had been ruthlessly killed. + +At the next stage station the employees were anxiously waiting for the +arrival of the coach, and wondering what could have caused the delay; +for it was due there at noon on the day of the massacre. Hour after hour +passed, and at last they began to suspect that something serious had +occurred; they sat up all through the night listening for the familiar +rumbling of wheels, but still no stage. At daylight next morning, +determined to wait no longer, as they felt satisfied that something out +of the usual course had happened, a party hurriedly mounted their horses +and rode down the broad trail leading to the canyon. + +Upon entering its gloomy mouth after a quick lope of an hour, they +discovered the ghastly remains of twelve mutilated bodies. These were +gathered up and buried in one grave, on the top of the bluff overlooking +the narrow gorge. + +They could not be sure of the number of passengers the coach had brought +until the arrival of the next, as it would have a list of those carried +by its predecessor; but it would not be due for several days. They +naturally supposed, however, that the twelve dead lying on the ground +were its full complement. + +Not waiting for the arrival of the next stage, they despatched a +messenger to the last station east that the one whose occupants had been +murdered had passed, and there learned the exact number of passengers +it had contained. Now they knew that Mrs. White, her child, and the +coloured nurse had been carried off into a captivity worse than death; +for no remains of a woman were found with the others lying in the +canyon. + +The terrible news of the massacre was conveyed to Taos, where were +stationed several companies of the Second United States Dragoons, +commanded by Major William Greer; but as the weather had grown intensely +cold and stormy since the date of the massacre, it took nearly a +fortnight for the terrible story to reach there. The Major acted +promptly when appealed to to go after and punish the savages concerned +in the outrage, but several days more were lost in getting an expedition +ready for the field. It was still stormy while the command was preparing +for its work; but at last, one bright morning, in a piercing cold wind, +five troops of the dragoons, commanded by Major Greer in person, left +their comfortable quarters to attempt the rescue of Mrs. White, her +child, and nurse. + +Kit Carson, "Uncle Dick" Wooten, Joaquin Leroux, and Tom Tobin were +the principal scouts and guides accompanying the expedition, having +volunteered their services to Major Greer, which he had gladly accepted. + +The massacre having occurred three weeks before the command had +arrived at the canyon of the Canadian, and snow having fallen almost +continuously ever since, the ground was deeply covered, making it almost +impossible to find the trail of the savages leading out of the gorge. No +one knew where they had established their winter camp--probably hundreds +of miles distant on some tributary of the Canadian far to the south. + +Carson, Wooton, and Leroux, after scanning the ground carefully at every +point, though the snow was ten inches deep, in a way of which only men +versed in savage lore are capable, were rewarded by discovering certain +signs, unintelligible to the ordinary individual[31]--that the murderers +had gone south out of the canyon immediately after completing their +bloody work, and that their camp was somewhere on the river, but how far +off none could tell. + +The command followed up the trail discovered by the scouts for nearly +four hundred miles. Early one morning when that distance had been +rounded, and just as the men were about to break camp preparatory to +the day's march, Carson went out on a little reconnoissance on his own +account, as he had noticed a flock of ravens hovering in the air when he +first got out of his blankets at dawn, which was sufficient indication +to him that an Indian camp was located somewhere in the vicinity; for +that ominous bird is always to be found in the region where the savages +take up an abode, feeding upon the carcasses of the many varieties of +game killed for food. He had not proceeded more than half a mile +from the camp when he discovered two Indians slowly riding over a low +"divide," driving a herd of ponies before them. The famous scout was +then certain their village could not be very far away. The savages did +not observe him, as he took good care they should not; so he returned +quickly to where Major Greer was standing by his camp-fire and reported +the presence of a village very close at hand. + +The Major having sent for Tom Tobin and Uncle Dick Wooton, requested +them to go and find the exact location of the savages. These scouts came +back in less than half an hour, and reported a large number of teepees +in a thick grove of timber a mile away. + +It was at once determined to surprise the savages in their winter +quarters by charging right among their lodges without allowing them time +to mount their ponies, as the gallant Custer rode, at the head of his +famous troopers of the Seventh Cavalry, into the camp of the celebrated +chief "Black Kettle" on the Washita, in the dawn of a cold November +morning twenty years afterward. + +The command succeeded in getting within good charging distance of the +village without its occupants having any knowledge of its proximity; but +at this moment Major Greer was seized with an idea that he ought to have +a parley with the Indians before he commenced to fight them, and for +that purpose he ordered a halt, just as the soldiers were eager for the +sound of the "Charge!" + +Never were a body of men more enraged. Carson gave vent to his wrath +in a series of elaborately carved English oaths, for which he was noted +when young; Leroux, whose naturally hot blood was roused, swore at the +Major in a curious mixture of bad French and worse mountain dialect, +and it appeared as if the battle would begin in the ranks of the troops +instead of those of the savages; for never was a body of soldiers so +disgusted at the act of any commanding officer. + +This delay gave the Indians, who could be seen dodging about among their +lodges and preparing for a fight that was no longer a surprise, time +to hide their women and children, mount their ponies, and get down into +deep ravines, where the soldiers could not follow them. While the Major +was trying to convince his subordinates that his course was the proper +one, the Indians opened fire without any parley, and it happened that +at the first volley a bullet struck him in the breast, but a suspender +buckle deflected its course and he was not seriously wounded. + +The change in the countenance of their commanding officer caused by the +momentary pain was just the incentive the troopers wanted, and without +waiting for the sound of the trumpet, they spurred their horses, dashed +in, and charged the thunderstruck savages with the shock of a tornado. + +In two successful charges of the gallant and impatient troopers more +than a hundred of the Indians were killed and wounded, but the time lost +had permitted many to escape, and the pursuit of the stragglers would +have been unavailing under the circumstances; so the command turned back +and returned to Taos. In the village was found the body of Mrs. White +still warm, with three arrows in her breast. Had the charge been made as +originally expected by the troopers, her life would have been saved. No +trace of the child or of the coloured nurse was ever discovered, and it +is probable that they were both killed while en route from the canyon +to the village, as being valueless to keep either as slaves or for other +purposes. + +The fate of the Apache chief, "White Wolf," who was the leader in the +outrages in the canyon of the Canadian, was fitting for his devilish +deeds. It was Lieutenant David Bell's fortune to avenge the murder +of Mrs. White and her family, and in an extraordinary manner.[32] The +action was really dramatic, or romantic; he was on a scout with his +company, which was stationed at Fort Union, New Mexico, having about +thirty men with him, and when near the canyon of the Canadian they +met about the same number of Indians. A parley was in order at once, +probably desired by the savages, who were confronted with an equal +number of troopers. Bell had assigned the baggage-mules to the care of +five or six of his command, and held a mounted interview with the chief, +who was no other than the infamous White Wolf of the Jicarilla Apaches. +As Bell approached, White Wolf was standing in front of his Indians, who +were on foot, all well armed and in perfect line. Bell was in advance +of his troopers, who were about twenty paces from the Indians, exactly +equal in number and extent of line; both parties were prepared to use +firearms. + +The parley was almost tediously long and the impending duel was +arranged, White Wolf being very bold and defiant. + +At last the leaders exchanged shots, the chief sinking on one knee and +aiming his gun, Bell throwing his body forward and making his horse +rear. Both lines, by command, fired, following the example of their +superiors, the troopers, however, spurring forward over their enemies. +The warriors, or nearly all of them, threw themselves on the ground, and +several vertical wounds were received by horse and rider. The dragoons +turned short about, and again charged through and over their enemies, +the fire being continuous. As they turned for a third charge, the +surviving Indians were seen escaping to a deep ravine, which, although +only one or two hundred paces off, had not previously been noticed. A +number of the savages thus escaped, the troopers having to pull up at +the brink, but sending a volley after the descending fugitives. + +In less than fifteen minutes twenty-one of the forty-six actors in this +strange combat were slain or disabled. Bell was not hit, but four or +five of his men were killed or wounded. He had shot White Wolf several +times, and so did others after him; but so tenacious of life was the +Apache that, to finish him, a trooper got a great stone and mashed his +head. + +This was undoubtedly the greatest duel of modern times; certainly +nothing like it ever occurred on the Santa Fe Trail before or since. + +The war chief of the Kiowa nation in the early '50's was Satank, a most +unmitigated villain; cruel and heartless as any savage that ever robbed +a stage-coach or wrenched off the hair of a helpless woman. After +serving a dozen or more years with a record for hellish atrocities +equalled by few of his compeers, he was deposed for alleged cowardice, +as his warriors claimed, under the following circumstances:-- + +The village of his tribe was established in the large bottoms, eight +miles from the Great Bend of the Arkansas, and about the same distance +from Fort Zarah.[33] All the bucks were absent on a hunting expedition, +excepting Satank and a few superannuated warriors. The troops were out +from Fort Larned on a grand scout after marauding savages, when they +suddenly came across the village and completely took the Kiowas by +surprise. Seeing the soldiers almost upon them, Satank and other +warriors jumped on their ponies and made good their escape. Had they +remained, all of them would have been killed or at least captured; +consequently Satank, thinking discretion better than valour at that +particular juncture, incontinently fled. His warriors in council, +however, did not agree with him; they thought that it was his duty to +have remained at the village in defence of the women and children, as he +had been urged to refrain from going on the hunt for that very purpose. + +Some time before Satank lost his office of chief, there was living on +Cow Creek, in a rude adobe building, a man who was ostensibly an Indian +trader, but whose traffic, in reality, consisted in selling whiskey to +the Indians, and consequently the United States troops were always after +him. He was obliged to cache his liquor in every conceivable manner so +that the soldiers should not discover it, and, of course, he dreaded +the incursions of the troops much more than he did raids of the Indian +marauders that were constantly on the Trail. + +Satank and this illicit trader, whose name was Peacock, were great +chums. One day while they were indulging in a general good time +over sundry drinks of most villanous liquor, Satank said to Peacock: +"Peacock, I want you to write me a letter; a real nice one, that I can +show to the wagon-bosses on the Trail, and get all the 'chuck' I want. +Tell them I am Satank, the great chief of the Kiowas, and for them to +treat me the best they know how." + +"All right, Satank," said Peacock; "I'll do so." Peacock then sat down +and wrote the following epistle:-- + +"The bearer of this is Satank. He is the biggest liar, beggar, and thief +on the plains. What he can't beg of you, he'll steal. Kick him out of +camp, for he is a lazy, good-for-nothing Indian." + +Satank began at once to make use of the supposed precious document, +which he really believed would assure him the dignified treatment and +courtesy due to his exalted rank. He presented it to several caravans +during the ensuing week, and, of course, received a very cool reception +in every instance, or rather a very warm one. + +One wagon-master, in fact, black-snaked him out of his camp. After +these repeated insults he sought another white friend, and told of his +grievances. "Look here," said Satank, "I asked Peacock to write me a +good letter, and he gave me this; but I don't understand it! Every time +I hand it to a wagon-boss, he gives me the devil! Read it to me and tell +me just what it does say." + +His friend read it over, and then translated it literally to Satank. The +savage assumed a countenance of extreme disgust, and after musing for a +few moments, said: "Well, I understand it all now. All right!" + +The next morning at daylight, Satank called for some of his braves and +with them rode out to Peacock's ranch. Arriving there, he called out +to Peacock, who had not yet risen: "Peacock, get up, the soldiers are +coming!" It was a warning which the illicit trader quickly obeyed, and +running out of the building with his field-glass in his hand, he started +for his lookout, but while he was ascending the ladder with his back to +Satank the latter shot him full of holes, saying, as he did so: "There, +Peacock, I guess you won't write any more letters." + +His warriors then entered the building and killed every man in it, save +one who had been gored by a buffalo bull the day before, and who was +lying in a room all by himself. He was saved by the fact that the Indian +has a holy dread of small-pox, and will never enter an apartment where +sick men lie, fearing they may have the awful disease. + +Satanta (White Bear) was the most efficient and dreaded chief of all who +have ever been at the head of the Kiowa nation. Ever restlessly active +in ordering or conducting merciless forays against an exposed frontier, +he was the very incarnation of deviltry in his determined hatred of the +whites, and his constant warfare against civilization. + +He also possessed wonderful oratorical powers; he could hurl the most +violent invectives at those whom he argued with, or he could be equally +pathetic when necessary. He was justly called "The Orator of the +Plains," rivalling the historical renown of Tecumseh or Pontiac. + +He was a short, bullet-headed Indian, full of courage and well versed in +strategy. Ordinarily, when on his visits to the various military posts +he wore a major-general's full uniform, a suit of that rank having been +given to him in the summer of 1866 by General Hancock. He also owned +an ambulance, a team of mules, and a set of harness, the last stolen, +maybe, from some caravan he had raided on the Trail. In that ambulance, +with a trained Indian driver, the wily chief travelled, wrapped in a +savage dignity that was truly laughable. In his village, too, he assumed +a great deal of style. He was very courteous to his white guests, if at +the time his tribe were at all friendly with the government; nothing +was too good for them. He always laid down a carpet on the floor of his +lodge in the post of honour, on which they were to sit. He had large +boards, twenty inches wide and three feet long, ornamented with brass +tacks driven all around the edges, which he used for tables. He also had +a French horn, which he blew vigorously when meals were ready. + +His friendship was only dissembling. During all the time that General +Sheridan was making his preparations for his intended winter campaign +against the allied plains tribes, Satanta made frequent visits to the +military posts, ostensibly to show the officers that he was heartily for +peace, but really to inform himself of what was going on. + +At that time I was stationed at Fort Harker, on the Smoky Hill. One +evening, General Sheridan, who was my guest, was sitting on the verandah +of my quarters, smoking and chatting with me and some other officers +who had come to pay him their respects, when one of my men rode up and +quietly informed me that Satanta had just driven his ambulance into the +fort, and was getting ready to camp near the mule corral. On receiving +this information, I turned to the general and suggested the propriety of +either killing or capturing the inveterate demon. Personally I believed +it would be right to get rid of such a character, and I had men under +my command who would have been delighted to execute an order to that +effect. + +Sheridan smiled when I told him of Satanta's presence and the excellent +chance to get rid of him. But he said: "That would never do; the +sentimentalists in the Eastern States would raise such a howl that the +whole country would be horrified!" + +Of course, in these "piping times of peace" the reader, in the quiet of +his own room, will think that my suggestion was brutal, and without any +palliation; my excuse, however, may be found in General Washington's own +motto: Exitus acta probat. If the suggestion had been acted upon, many +an innocent man and woman would have escaped torture, and many a maiden +a captivity worse than death. + +As a specimen of Satanta's oratory, I offer the following, to show the +hypocrisy of the subtle old villain, and his power over the minds of +too sensitive auditors. Once Congress sent out to the central plains a +commission from Washington to inquire into the causes of the continual +warfare raging with the savages on the Kansas border; to learn what +the grievances of the Indians were; and to find some remedy for the +wholesale slaughter of men, women, and children along the line of the +Old Trail. + +Satanta was sent for by the commission as the leading spirit of the +formidable Kiowa nation. When he entered the building at Fort Dodge in +which daily sessions were held, he was told by the president to speak +his mind without any reservation; to withhold nothing, but to truthfully +relate what his tribe had to complain of on the part of the whites. +The old rascal grew very pathetic as he warmed up to his subject. He +declared that he had no desire to kill the white settlers or emigrants +crossing the plains, but that those who came and lived on the land of +his tribe ruthlessly slaughtered the buffalo, allowing their carcasses +to rot on the prairie; killing them merely for the amusement it afforded +them, while the Indian only killed when necessity demanded. He also +stated that the white hunters set out fires, destroying the grass, and +causing the tribe's horses to starve to death as well as the buffalo; +that they cut down and otherwise destroyed the timber on the margins of +the streams, making large fires of it, while the Indian was satisfied to +cook his food with a few dry and dead limbs. "Only the other day," said +he, "I picked up a little switch on the Trail, and it made my heart +bleed to think that so small a green branch, ruthlessly torn out of the +ground and thoughtlessly destroyed by some white man, would in time have +grown into a stately tree for the use and benefit of my children and +grandchildren." + +After the pow-wow had ended, and Satanta had got a few drinks of red +liquor into him, his real, savage nature asserted itself, and he said to +the interpreter at the settler's store: "Now didn't I give it to those +white men who came from the Great Father? Didn't I do it in fine style? +Why, I drew tears from their eyes! The switch I saw on the Trail made my +heart glad instead of sad; for I new there was a tenderfoot ahead of me, +because an old plainsman or hunter would never have carried anything +but a good quirt or a pair of spurs. So I said to my warriors, 'Come on, +boys; we've got him!' and when we came in sight, after we had followed +him closely on the dead run, he threw away his rifle and held tightly on +to his hat for fear he should lose it!" + +Another time when Satanta had remained at Fort Dodge for a very long +period and had worn out his welcome, so that no one would give him +anything to drink, he went to the quarters of his old friend, Bill +Bennett, the overland stage agent, and begged him to give him some +liquor. Bill was mixing a bottle of medicine to drench a sick mule. The +moment he set the bottle down to do something else, Satanta seized it +off the ground and drank most of the liquid before quitting. Of course, +it made the old savage dreadfully sick as well as angry. He then started +for a certain officer's quarters and again begged for something to cure +him of the effects of the former dose; the officer refused, but Satanta +persisted in his importunities; he would not leave without it. After +a while, the officer went to a closet and took a swallow of the most +nauseating medicine, placing the bottle back on its shelf. Satanta +watched his chance, and, as soon as the officer left the room, he +snatched the bottle out of the closet and drank its contents without +stopping to breathe. It was, of course, a worse dose than the +horse-medicine. The next day, very early in the morning, he assembled +a number of his warriors, crossed the Arkansas, and went south to +his village. Before leaving, however, he burnt all of the government +contractor's hay on the bank of the river opposite the post. He then +continued on to Crooked Creek, where he murdered three wood-choppers, +all of which, he said afterward, he did in revenge for the attempt to +poison him at Fort Dodge. + +At the Comanche agency, where several of the government agents were +assembled to have a talk with chiefs of the various plains tribes, +Satanta said in his address: "I would willingly take hold of that part +of the white man's road which is represented by the breech-loading +rifles; but I don't like the corn rations--they make my teeth hurt!" + +Big Tree was another Kiowa chief. He was the ally and close friend of +Satanta, and one of the most daring and active of his warriors. The +sagacity and bravery of these two savages would have been a credit to +that of the most famous warriors of the old French and Indian Wars. Both +were at last taken, tried, and sent to the Texas penitentiary for life. +Satanta was eventually pardoned; but before he was made aware of the +efforts that were being taken for his release, he attempted to escape, +and, in jumping from a window, fell and broke his neck. His +pardon arrived the next morning. Big Tree, through the work of the +sentimentalists of Washington, was set free and sent to the Kiowa +Reservation--near Fort Sill in the Indian Territory. + +The next most audacious and terrible scourge of the plains was +"Ta-ne-on-koe" (Kicking Bird). He was a great warrior of the Kiowas, +and was the chief actor in some of the bloodiest raids on the Kansas +frontier in the history of its troublous times. + +One of his captures was that of a Miss Morgan and Mrs. White. They were +finally rescued from the savages by General Custer, under the following +circumstances: Custer, who was advancing with his column of invincible +cavalrymen--the famous Seventh United States--in search of the two +unfortunate women, had arrived near the head waters of one of the +tributaries of the Washita, and, with only his guide and interpreter, +was far in advance of the column, when, on reaching the summit of an +isolated bluff, they suddenly saw a village of the Kiowas, which +turned out to be that of Kicking Bird, whose handsome lodge was easily +distinguishable from the rest. Without waiting for his command, the +general and his guide rode boldly to the lodge of the great chief, +and both dismounted, holding cocked revolvers in their hands; Custer +presented his at Kicking Bird's head. In the meantime, Custer's column +of troopers, whom the Kiowas had good reason to remember for their +bravery in many a hard-fought battle, came in full view of the +astonished village. This threw the startled savages into the utmost +consternation, but the warriors were held in check by signs from Kicking +Bird. As the cavalry drew nearer, General Custer demanded the immediate +release of the white women. Their presence in the village was at first +denied by the lying chief, and not until he had been led to the limb of +a huge cottonwood tree near the lodge, with a rope around his neck, did +he acknowledge that he held the women and consent to give them up. + +This well-known warrior, with a foreknowledge not usually found in the +savage mind, seeing the beginning of the end of Indian sovereignty +on the plains, voluntarily came in and surrendered himself to the +authorities, and stayed on the reservation near Fort Sill. + +In June, 1867, a year before the breaking out of the great Indian war on +the central plains, the whole tribe of Kiowas, led by him, assembled at +Fort Larned. He was the cynosure of all eyes, as he was without question +one of the noblest-looking savages ever seen on the plains. On that +occasion he wore the full uniform of a major-general of the United +States army. He was as correctly moulded as a statue when on horseback, +and when mounted on his magnificent charger the morning he rode out with +General Hancock to visit the immense Indian camp a few miles above +the fort on Pawnee Fork, it would have been a difficult task to have +determined which was the finer-looking man. + +After Kicking Bird had abandoned his wicked career, he was regarded +by every army officer with whom he had a personal acquaintance as a +remarkably good Indian; for he really made the most strenuous efforts to +initiate his tribe into the idea that it was best for it to follow the +white man's road. He argued with them that the time was very near when +there would no longer be any region where the Indians could live as +they had been doing, depending on the buffalo and other game for the +sustenance of their families; they must adapt themselves to the methods +of their conquerors. + +In July, 1869, he became greatly offended with the government for +its enforced removal of his tribe from its natural and hereditary +hunting-grounds into the reservation allotted to it. At that time +many of his warriors, together with the Comanches, made a raid on the +defenceless settlements of the northern border of Texas, in which the +savages were disastrously defeated, losing a large number of their most +beloved warriors. On the return of the unsuccessful expedition, a great +council was held, consisting of all the chiefs and head men of the two +tribes which had suffered so terribly in the awful fight, to consider +the best means of avenging the loss of so many braves and friends. +Kicking Bird was summoned before that council and condemned as a coward; +they called him a squaw, because he had refused to go with the warriors +of the combined tribes on the raid into Texas. + +He told a friend of mine some time afterward that he had intended never +again to go against the whites; but the emergency of the case, and his +severe condemnation by the council, demanded that he should do something +to re-establish himself in the good graces of his tribe. He then made +one of the most destructive raids into Texas that ever occurred in the +history of its border warfare, which successfully restored him to the +respect of his warriors. + +In that raid Kicking Bird carried off vast herds of horses and a large +number of scalps. Although his tribe fairly worshipped him, he was not +at all satisfied with himself. He could look into the future as well +as any one, and from that time on to his tragic death he laboured most +zealously and earnestly in connection with the Indian agents to +bring his people to live on the reservation which the government had +established for them in the Territory. + +At the inauguration of the so-called "Quaker Policy" by President Grant, +that sect was largely intrusted with the management of Indian affairs, +particularly in the selection of agents for the various tribes. A Mr. +Tatham was appointed agent for the Kiowas in 1869. He at once gained +the confidence of Kicking Bird, who became very valuable to him as +an assistant in controlling the savages. It was through that chief's +influence that Thomas Batty, another Quaker, was allowed to take up +his residence with the tribe, the first white man ever accorded that +privilege. Batty was permitted to erect three tents, which were staked +together, converting them into an ample schoolhouse. In that crude, +temporary structure he taught the Kiowa youth the rudiments of an +education. This very successful innovation shows how earnest the former +dreaded savage was in his efforts to promote the welfare of his people, +by trying to induce them to "take the white man's road." + +Batty succeeded admirably for a year in his office of teacher, the chief +all the time nobly withstanding the taunts and jeers of his warriors and +their threats of taking his life, for daring to allow a white man within +the sacred precincts of their village--a thing unparalleled in the +annals of the tribe. + +At last trouble came; the dissatisfied members of the tribe, the +ambitious and restless young men, eager for renown, made another +unsuccessful raid into Texas. The result was that they lost nearly the +whole of the band, among which was the favourite son of Lone Wolf, a +noted chief.[34] After the death of his son, he declared that he must +and would have the scalp of a white man in revenge for the untimely +taking off of the young warrior. Of course, the most available white +man at this juncture was Batty, the Quaker teacher, and he was chosen by +Lone Wolf as the victim of savage revenge. Here the noble instincts of +Kicking Bird developed themselves. He very plainly told Lone Wolf, who +was constantly threatening and thirsting for blood, that he could not +kill Batty until he first killed him and all his band. But Lone Wolf +had fully determined to have the hair of the innocent Quaker; so Kicking +Bird, to avert any collision between the two bands of Indians, kidnapped +Batty and ran him off to the agency, arriving at Fort Sill about an hour +before Lone Wolf's band of avengers overtook them, and thus the Quaker +teacher was saved. + +One day, long after these occurrences, a friend of mine was in the +sutler's store at Fort Sill. In there was a stranger talking to Mr. Fox, +the agent of the Indians. Soon Kicking Bird entered the establishment, +and the stranger asked Mr. Fox who that fine-looking Indian was. He was +told, and then he begged the agent to say to him that he would like to +have a talk with him; for he it was who led that famous raid into Texas. +"I never saw better generalship in the field in all my experience. He +had three horses killed under him. I was the surgeon of the rangers and +was, of course, in the fight."[35] + +When Kicking Bird was told that the Texas doctor desired to talk with +him, he replied with great dignity that he did not want to revive those +troublous times. "Tell him, though," said Kicking Bird, "that was my +last raid against the whites; that I am a changed man." + +The President of the United States sent for Kicking Bird to come to +Washington, and to bring with him such other influential Indians as +he thought might aid in inducing the Kiowas to cease their continual +raiding on the border of Texas. + +In due time Kicking Bird left for the capital, taking with him Lone +Wolf, Big Bow, and Sun Boy of the Kiowas, together with several of the +head men of the Comanches. When the deputation of savages arrived in +Washington, it was received at the presidential mansion by the chief +magistrate himself. So much more attention was given to Kicking Bird +than to the others, that they became very jealous, particularly when the +President announced to them the appointment of Kicking Bird as the +head chief of the tribe.[36] But Lone Wolf would never recognize his +authority, constantly urging the young men to raid the settlements. Lone +Wolf was a genuine savage, without one redeeming trait, and his hatred +of the white race was unparalleled in its intensity. He was never known +to smile. No other Indian can show such a record of horrible massacres +as he is responsible for. His orders were rigidly obeyed, for he brooked +no disobedience on the part of his warriors. + +In the summer of 1876, a party of English gentlemen left Fort Harker +for a buffalo hunt. They soon exhausted all their rations and started +a four-mule team back to the post for more. Some of Lone Wolf's band of +cut-throats came across the unfortunate teamster, killed him, and ran +off the team. After the occurrence, Kicking Bird came into the agency at +Fort Sill and told Mr. Haworth, the agent, that he had given his word +to the Great Father at Washington he would do all he could to bring in +those Indians who had been raiding by order of Lone Wolf, particularly +the two who had killed the Englishmen's driver. + +He succeeded in bringing in twelve Indians in all, among them the +murderers of the driver. They, with Lone Wolf and Satank, were sent to +the Dry Tortugas for life. The morning they started on their journey +Satank talked very feelingly to Kicking Bird, with tears in his eyes. +He said that they might look for his bones along the road, for he would +never go to Florida. The savages were loaded into government wagons. +Satank was inside of one with a soldier on each side of him, their +legs hanging outside. Somehow the crafty villain managed to slip the +handcuffs off his wrists, at the same instant seizing the rifle of one +of his guards, and then shoved the two men out with his feet. He tried +to work the lever of the rifle, but could not move it, and one of the +soldiers, coming around the wagon to where he was still trying to get +the gun so as he could use it, shot him down, and then threw his body on +the Trail. Thus Satank made good his vow that he would never be taken to +Florida. He met his death only a mile from the post. + +After the departure of the condemned savages, the feeling in the tribe +against Kicking Bird increased to an alarming extent. Several times +the most incensed warriors tried to kill him by shooting at him from +an ambush. After he became fully aware that his life was in danger, he +never left his lodge without his carbine. He was as brave as a lion, +fearing none of the members of Lone Wolf's band; but he often said it +was only a question of a short time when he would be gotten rid of; he +did not allow the matter, however, to worry him in the least, saying +that he was conscious he had done his duty by his tribe and the Great +Father. + +In a bend of Cash Creek, about half a mile below the mill, about half +a dozen of the Kiowas had their lodges, that of their chief being among +them. At ten o'clock one Monday in June, 1876, Mr. Haworth, the agent, +came in haste to the shops, called the master mechanic, Mr. Wykes, out, +told him to jump into the carriage quickly; that Kicking Bird was dead. + +When they arrived at the home of the great chief, sure enough he was +dead, and some of the women were engaged in folding his body in robes. +Other squaws were cutting themselves in a terrible manner, as is their +custom when a relative dies, and were also breaking everything breakable +about the lodge. Kicking Bird had always been scrupulously clean and +neat in the care of his home; it was adorned with the most beautifully +dressed buffalo robes and the finest furs, while the floor was covered +with matting. + +It seems that Kicking Bird, after visiting Mr. Wykes that morning, went +immediately to his lodge, and sat down to eat something, but just as he +had finished a cup of coffee, he fell over, dead. He had in his service +a Mexican woman, and she had been bribed to poison him. + +An expensive coffin was made at the agency for his remains, fashioned +out of the finest black walnut to be found in the country where that +timber grows to such a luxuriant extent. It was eight feet long and four +feet deep, but even then it did not hold one-half of his effects, which +were, according to the savage custom, interred with his body. + +The cries and lamentations of the warriors and women of his band were +heartrending; such a manifestation of grief was never before witnessed +at the agency. A handsome fence was erected around his grave, in the +cemetery at Fort Sill, and the government ordered a beautiful marble +monument to be raised over it; but I do not know whether it was ever +done. + +Kicking Bird was only forty years old at the time of his sudden taking +off, and was very wealthy for an Indian. He knew the uses of money and +was a careful saver of it. A great roll of greenbacks was placed in his +coffin, and that fact having leaked out, it was rumoured that his grave +was robbed; but the story may not have been true. + +One of the greatest terrors of the Old Santa Fe Trail was the half-breed +Indian desperado Charles Bent. His mother was a Cheyenne squaw, and his +father the famous trader, Colonel Bent. He was born at the base of +the Rocky Mountains, and at a very early age placed in one of the best +schools that St. Louis afforded. His venerable sire, with only a limited +education himself, was determined that his boy should profit by the +culture and refinement of civilization, so he was not allowed to return +to his mountain home at Bent's Fort, and the savage conditions under +which he was born, until he had attained his majority. He then spoke no +language but English. His mother died while he was absent at school, and +his father continued to live at the old fort, where Charles, after he +had reached the age of twenty-one, joined him. + +Some Washington sentimentalist, philosophizing on the Indian character, +his knowledge being based on Cooper's novels probably, has said: +"Civilization has very marked effects upon an Indian. If he once learns +to speak English, he will soon forget all his native cunning and pride +of race." Let us see how this theory worked with Charley Bent. + +As soon as the educated half-breed set his foot on his native heath +he readily found enough ambitious young bucks of his own age who were +willing to look on him as their leader. They loved him, too, if such a +thing were possible, as Fra Diavolo was loved by his wild followers. +His band was known as the "Dog-Soldiers"; a sort of a semi-military +organization, consisting of the most daring, blood-thirsty young men +of the tribe; and sometimes "squaw-men," that is, renegade white men +married to squaws, attached themselves to his command of cut-throats. + +At the head of this collection of the worst savages, hardly ever +numbering over a hundred, Charles Bent robbed ranches, attacked +wagon-trains, overland coaches, and army caravans. He stole and murdered +indiscriminately. The history of his bloody work will never be wholly +revealed, for dead men have no tongues. + +He would visit all alone, in the guise of plainsman, hunter, or +cattleman, the emigrant trains crossing the continent, always, however, +those which had only small escorts or none at all. Feigning hunger, +while his needs were being kindly furnished, he would glance around him +to learn what kind of an outfit it was; its value, its destination, and +how well guarded. Then he would take his leave with many thanks, rejoin +his band, and with it dash down on the train and kill every human being +unfortunate enough not to have escaped before he arrived. + +He was indefatigable in his efforts to kill off the whole corps of army +scouts. He would pass himself off as a fellow-scout, as a deserter +from some military post, or as an Indian trader, for he was a wonderful +actor, and would have achieved histrionic honours had he chosen the +stage as a profession. + +He would always time his actions so as to be found apparently asleep +by a little camp-fire on the bank of Pawnee Fork, Crooked, Mulberry, or +Walnut creeks, all of which streams intercepted the trails running north +and south between the several military posts during the Indian war, when +he would seem delighted and astonished, or else simulate suspicion. Then +he would either murder the unsuspecting scout with his own hands, or +deliver him to the red fiends of his band to be tormented. + +The government offered a reward of five thousand dollars for Bent's +capture, dead or alive. It was reported currently that he was at last +killed in a battle with some deputy United States marshals, and that +they received the reward; but the whole thing was manufactured out of +whole cloth, and if the marshals received the money, Uncle Sam was most +outrageously swindled. + +The facts are that he died of malarial fever superinduced by a wound +received in a fight with the Kaws, near the mouth of the Walnut and not +far from Fort Zarah. His "Dog-Soldiers" were whipped by the Kaws, and +his band driven off. Bent lingered for some time and died. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. LA GLORIETA. + + + +New Mexico, at the breaking out of the Civil War, was abandoned by the +government at Washington, or at least so overlooked that the charge of +neglect was merited. In the report of the committee on the Conduct of +the War, under date of July 15, 1862, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel B. +S. Roberts of the regular army, major of the Third Cavalry, who was +stationed in the Territory in 1861, says: + + It appears to me to be the determination of General Thomas[37] + not to acknowledge the service of the officers who saved + the Territory of New Mexico; and the utter neglect of the + adjutant-general's department for the last year to + communicate in any way with the commanding officer of the + department of New Mexico, or to answer his urgent appeals + for reinforcements, for money and other supplies, in + connection with his repudiation of the services of all the + army there, convinces me that he is not gratified at their + loyalty and their success in saving that Territory to + the Union. + +If space could be given to the story of the carefully prepared plans of +the leaders of secession for the conquest of all the territory south of +a line drawn from Maryland directly west to the Pacific coast, in which +were California, Arizona, and New Mexico, it would reveal some startling +facts, and prove beyond question that it was the intention of Jefferson +Davis to precipitate the rebellion a decade before it actually occurred. +The basis of the scheme was to inaugurate a war between Texas--which, +when admitted into the Union, claimed all that part of New Mexico east +of the Rio Grande--and the United States, in which conflict Mississippi +and some of the other Southern States were to become participants. The +plan fell flat, because, in 1851, Mr. Davis failed of a re-election to +the governorship of Mississippi. + +So confident were many of Mr. Davis' allies in regard to the +contemplated rebellion, that they boasted to their friends of the North, +upon leaving Washington, that when they met again, it would be upon a +Southern battle-field. + +I have alluded incidentally to what is known as the Texas Santa Fe +Expedition, inaugurated by the President of what was then the republic +of Texas, Mirabeau B. Lamar. It was given out to the world that it was +merely one of commercial interest--to increase the trade between the two +countries; but that it was intended for the conquest of New Mexico, no +one now, in the light of history, doubts. It resulted in disaster, +and is a story well worthy the examination of the student of American +politics.[38] + +In 1861 General Twiggs commanded the military department of which Texas +was an important part. It will be remembered that he surrendered to the +Confederate government the troops, the munitions of war, the forts, or +posts as they were properly termed, and everything pertaining to the +United States army under his control. It was the intention of the +Confederacy to use this region as a military base from which to continue +its conquests westward, and capture the various forts in New Mexico. +Particularly they had their eyes upon Fort Union, where there was an +arsenal, which John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, had taken especial care +to have well stocked previously to the act of secession. + +But the conspirators had reckoned without their host; they imagined +the native Mexicans would eagerly accept their overtures, and readily +support the Southern Confederacy. Mr. Davis and his coadjutors had +evidently forgotten the effect of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition, in +1841, upon the people of the Province of New Mexico; but the natives +themselves had not. Besides the loyalty of the Mexicans, there was a +factor which the Confederate leaders had failed to consider, which was +that the majority of the American pioneers had come from loyal States. + +Of course, there were many secessionists both in Colorado and New Mexico +who were watching the progress of rebellion in eager anticipation; and +it is claimed that in Denver a rebel flag was raised--but how true that +is I do not know. + +John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, was one of the leading spirits of the +Confederacy. A year before the Civil War he placed in command of the +department of New Mexico a North Carolinian, Colonel Loring, who was +in perfect sympathy with his superior, and willing to carry out his +well-defined plans. In 1861 he ordered Colonel G. B. Crittenden on an +expedition against the Apaches. This officer at once tried to induce his +troops to attach themselves to the rebel army in Texas, but he was met +with an indignant refusal by Colonel Roberts and the regular soldiers +under him. The loyal colonel told Crittenden, in the most forcible +language, that he would resist any such attempt on his part, and +reported the action of Colonel Crittenden to the commander of the +department at Santa Fe. Of course, Colonel Loring paid no attention +to the complaint of disloyalty, and then Colonel Roberts conveyed the +tidings to the commanding officers of several military posts in the +Territory, whom he knew were true to the Union, and only one man out +of nearly two thousand regular soldiers renounced his flag. Some of the +officers stationed at New Mexico were of a different mind, and one of +them, Major Lynde, commanding Fort Filmore, surrendered to a detachment +of Texans, who paroled the enlisted men, as they firmly refused to join +the rebel forces. + +Upon the desertion of Colonel Loring to the Southern Confederacy, +General Edward R. S. Canby was assigned to the command of the +department; next in rank was the loyal Roberts. At this perilous +juncture in New Mexico, there were but a thousand regulars all told, +but the Territory furnished two regiments of volunteers, commanded by +officers whose names had been famous on the border for years. Among +these was Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, who had been conspicuous in the +suppression of the Mexican insurrection of 1847, fifteen years before. +Kit Carson was lieutenant-colonel; J. F. Chaves, major; and the most +prominent of the line officers Captain Albert H. Pfeiffer, with a record +as an Indian fighter equal to that of Carson. + +At the same time Colorado was girding on her armour for the impending +conflict. The governor of the prosperous Territory was William Gilpin, +an old army officer, who had spent a large part of his life on the +frontier, and had accompanied Colonel Doniphan, as major of his +regiment, across the plains, on the expedition to New Mexico in 1846. + +Colonel Gilpin at once responded to the pleadings of New Mexico for +help, by organizing two companies at first, quickly following with a +full regiment. This Colorado regiment was composed of as fine material +as any portion of the United States could furnish. John P. Slough, a +war Democrat and a lawyer, was its colonel. He afterwards became chief +justice of New Mexico, and was brutally murdered in that Territory. + +John M. Chivington, a strict Methodist and a presiding elder of that +church, was offered the chaplaincy, but firmly declined, and, like many +others who wore the clerical garb, he quickly doffed it and put on the +attire of a soldier; so he was made major, and his record as a fighter +was equal to the best. + +The commanding general knew well the plans of the rebels as to their +intended occupation of New Mexico, and, notwithstanding the weakness +of his force, determined to frustrate them if within the limits of +possibility. To that end he concentrated his little army, comprising a +thousand regular soldiers, the two regiments of New Mexico volunteers, +two companies of Colorado troops, and a portion of the territorial +militia, at Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande, to await the approach of the +Confederate troops, under the command of General H. H. Sibley, an old +regular army officer, a native of Louisiana, and the inventor of the +comfortable tent named after him. + +Sibley's brigade comprised some three thousand men, the majority of them +Texans, and he expected that many more would flock to his standard as +he moved northward. On the 19th of February, 1862, he crossed the Rio +Grande below Fort Craig, not daring to attack Canby in his intrenched +position. The Union commander, in order to keep the Texas troops from +gaining the high points overlooking the fort, placed portions of the +Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Regulars, together with Carson's and Pino's +volunteers, on the other side of the river. No collision occurred that +day, but the next afternoon Major Duncan, with his cavalry and Captain +M'Rae's light battery, having been sent across to reinforce the +infantry, a heavy artillery fire was immediately opened upon them by the +Texans. The men under Carson behaved splendidly, but the other volunteer +regiments became a little demoralized, and the general was compelled to +call back the force into the fort. Sibley's force, both men and animals, +suffered much from thirst, the latter stampeding, and many, wandering +into our lines, were caught by the scouts of the Union forces. The next +morning early Colonel Roberts was ordered to proceed about seven miles +up the river to keep the Texans away from the water at a point where +it was alone accessible, on account of the steepness of the banks +everywhere else. + +The gallant Roberts, on arriving at the ford, planted a battery there, +and at once opened fire. This was the battle of Valverde, the details +of which, however, do not belong to this book, having been only +incidentally referred to in order to lead the reader intelligently up +to that of La Glorieta, Apache Canyon, or Pigeon's Ranch, as it is +indifferently called. + +Valverde was lost to the Union troops, but never did men fight more +valiantly, with the exception of a few who did not act the part of the +true soldier. The brave M'Rae mounted one of the guns of his battery, +choosing to die rather than surrender. + +General Sibley, after his doubtful victory at Valverde, continued on +to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The old city offered no resistance to his +occupation; in fact, some of the most influential Mexicans were pleased, +their leaning being strongly toward the Southern Confederacy; but the +common people were as loyal to the Union as those of any of the Northern +States, a feeling intensified by their hatred for the Texans on account +of the expedition of conquest in 1841, twenty-one years before. They +contributed of their means to aid the United States troops, but have +never received proper credit for their action in those days of trouble +in the neglected Territory. + +The Confederate general was disappointed at the way in which affairs +were going, for he had based great hopes upon the defection of the +native residents; but he determined to march forward to Fort Union, +where his friend Floyd had placed such stores as were likely to be +needed in the campaign which he had designed. + +From Santa Fe to Fort Union, where the arsenal was located, the road +runs through the deep, rocky gorge known as Apache Canyon. It is one of +the wildest spots in the mountains, the walls on each side rising from +one to two thousand feet above the Trail, which is within the range +of ordinary cannon from every point, and in many places of point-blank +rifle-shot. Granite rocks and sands abound, and the hills are covered +with long-leafed pine. It is a gateway which, in the hands of a +skilful engineer and one hundred resolute men, can be made perfectly +impregnable. + +The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway passes directly through this +picturesque chasm, every foot of which is classic ground, and in the +season of the mountain freshets constant care is needed to keep its +bridges in place. + +At its eastern entrance is a large residence, known as Pigeon's Ranch, +from which the battle to be described derives its name, though, as +stated, it is also known as that of Apache Canyon, and La Glorieta,[39] +the latter, perhaps, the most classical, from the range of mountains +enclosing the rent in the mighty hills. + +The following detailed account of this battle I have taken from the +_History of Colorado_,[40] an admirable work: + + The sympathizers with and abettors of the Southern + Confederacy inaugurated their plans by posting handbills + in all conspicuous places between Denver and the + mining-camps, designating certain localities where the + highest prices would be paid for arms of every description, + and for powder, lead, shot, and percussion caps. + Simultaneously, a small force was collected and put under + discipline to co-operate with parties expected from Arkansas + and Texas who were to take possession, first of Colorado, + and subsequently of New Mexico, anticipating the easy + capture of the Federal troops and stores located there. + Being apprised of the movement, the governor immediately + decided to enlist a full regiment of volunteers. + John P. Slough was appointed colonel, Samuel F. Tappan + lieutenant-colonel, and John J. M. Chivington major. + + Without railroads or telegraphs nearer than the Missouri + River, and wholly dependent upon the overland mail coach + for communication with the States and the authorities at + Washington, news was at least a week old when received. + Thus the troops passed the time in a condition of doubt + and extreme anxiety, until the 6th of January, 1862, when + information arrived that an invading force under General + H. H. Sibley, from San Antonio, Texas, was approaching + the southern border of New Mexico, and had already captured + Forts Fillmore and Bliss, making prisoners of their + garrisons without firing a gun, and securing all their + stock and supplies. + + Immediately upon receipt of this intelligence, efforts + were made to obtain the consent of, or orders from, General + Hunter, commanding the department at Fort Leavenworth, + Kansas, for the regiment to go to the relief of General + Canby, then in command of the department of New Mexico. + On the 20th of February, orders came from General Hunter, + directing Colonel Slough and the First Regiment of Colorado + Volunteers to proceed with all possible despatch to + Fort Union, or Santa Fe, New Mexico, and report to General + Canby for service. + + Two days thereafter, the command marched out of Camp Weld + two miles up the Platte River, and in due time encamped + at Pueblo, on the Arkansas River. At this point further + advices were received from Canby, stating that he had + encountered the enemy at Valverde, ten miles north of + Fort Craig, but, owing to the inefficiency of the newly + raised New Mexican volunteers, was compelled to retire. + The Texans under Sibley marched on up the Rio Grande, + levying tribute upon the inhabitants for their support. + The Colorado troops were urged to the greatest possible + haste in reaching Fort Union, where they were to unite + with such regular troops as could be concentrated at that + post, and thus aid in saving the fort and its supplies + from falling into Confederate hands. Early on the + following morning the order was given to proceed to Union + by forced marches, and it is doubtful if the same number of + men ever marched a like distance in the same length of time. + + When the summit of Raton Pass was reached, another courier + from Canby met the command, who informed Colonel Slough + that the Texans had already captured Albuquerque and + Santa Fe with all the troops stationed at those places, + together with the supplies stored there, and that they + were then marching on Fort Union. + + Arriving at Red River about sundown, the regiment was + drawn up in line and this information imparted to the men. + The request was then made for all who were willing to + undertake a forced march at night to step two paces to + the front, when every man advanced to the new alignment. + After a hasty supper the march was resumed, and at sunrise + the next morning they reached Maxwell's Ranch on the + Cimarron, having made sixty-four miles in less than + twenty-four hours. At ten o'clock on the second night + thereafter, the command entered Fort Union. It was there + discovered that Colonel Paul, in charge of the post, had + mined the fort, giving orders for the removal of the women + and children, and was preparing to blow up all the supplies + and march to Fort Garland or some other post to the + northward, on the first approach of the Confederates. + + The troops remained at Union from the 13th to the 22d of + March, when by order of Colonel Slough they proceeded in + the direction of Santa Fe. The command consisted of + the First Colorado Volunteers; two Light Batteries, + one commanded by Captain Ritter and the other by Captain + Claflin; Ford's Company of Colorado Volunteers unattached; + two companies of the Fifth Regular Infantry; and two + companies of the Seventh United States Cavalry. + + The force encamped at Bernal Springs, where Colonel Slough + determined to organize a detachment to enter Santa Fe by + night with the view of surprising the enemy, spiking his + guns, and after doing what other damage could be accomplished + without bringing on a general action, falling back on the + main body. The detachment chosen comprised sixty men each + from Companies A, D, and E of the Colorado regiment, with + Company F of the same mounted, and thirty-seven men each + from the companies of Captains Ford and Howland, and of + the Seventh Cavalry, the whole commanded by Major Chivington. + + At sundown on the 25th of March it reached Kosloskie's Ranch, + where Major Chivington was informed that the enemy's pickets + were in the vicinity. He went into camp at once, and about + nine o'clock of the same evening sent out Lieutenant Nelson + of the First Colorado with thirty men of Company F, who + captured the Texan pickets while they were engaged in a game + of cards at Pigeon's Ranch, and before daylight on the + morning of the 26th, reported at camp with his prisoners. + After breakfast, the major, being apprised of the enemy's + whereabouts, proceeded cautiously, keeping his advance + guard well to the front. While passing near the summit + of the hill, the officer in command of the advance met + the Confederate advance, consisting of a first lieutenant + and thirty men, captured them without firing a gun, and + returning met the main body and turned them over to the + commanding officer. The Confederate lieutenant declared + that they had received no intimation of the advance from + Fort Union, but themselves expected to be there four days + later. + + Descending Apache Canyon for the distance of half a mile, + Chivington's force observed the approaching Texans, about + six hundred strong, with three pieces of artillery, who, + on discovering the Federals, halted, formed line and battery, + and opened fire. + + Chivington drew up his cavalry as a reserve under cover, + deployed Company D under Captain Downing to the right, + and Companies A and E under Captains Wynkoop and Anthony + to the left, directing them to ascend the mountain-side + until they were above the elevation of the enemy's artillery + and thus flank him, at the same time directing Captain + Howland, he being the ranking cavalry officer, to closely + observe the enemy, and when he retreated, without further + orders to charge with the cavalry. This disposition of + the troops proved wise and successful. The Texans soon + broke battery and retreated down the canyon a mile or more, + but from some cause Captain Howland failed to charge as + ordered, which enabled the Confederates to take up a new + and strong position, where they formed battery, threw their + supports well up the sides of the mountain, and again + opened fire. + + Chivington dismounted Captains Howland and Lord with their + regulars, leaving their horses in charge of every fourth + man, and ordered them to join Captain Downing on the left, + taking orders from him. Our skirmishers advanced, and, + flanking the enemy's supports, drove them pell-mell down + the mountain-side, when Captain Samuel Cook, with Company F, + First Colorado, having been signalled by the major, made + as gallant and successful a charge through the canyon, + through the ranks of the Confederates and back, as was + ever performed. Meanwhile, our infantry advanced rapidly; + when the enemy commenced his retreat a second time, they + were well ahead of him on the mountain-sides and poured + a galling fire into him, which thoroughly demoralized and + broke him up, compelling the entire body to seek shelter + among the rocks down the canyon and in some cabins that + stood by the wayside. + + After an hour spent in collecting the prisoners, and + caring for the wounded, both Federal and Confederate, + the latter having left in killed, wounded, and prisoners + a number equal to our whole force in the field, the first + baptism by fire of our volunteers terminated. The victory + was decided and complete. Night intervening, and there + being no water in the canyon, the little command fell back + to Pigeon's Ranch, whence a courier was despatched to + Colonel Slough, advising him of the engagement and its + result, and requesting him to bring forward the main + command as rapidly as possible, as the enemy with all his + forces had moved from Santa Fe toward Fort Union. + + After interring the dead and making a comfortable hospital + for the wounded, on the afternoon of the 27th Chivington + fell back to the Pecos River at Kosloskie's Ranch and + encamped. On receiving the news from Apache Canyon, + Colonel Slough put his forces in motion, and at eleven + o'clock at night of the 27th joined Chivington at Kosloskie's. + + At daybreak on the 28th, the assembly was sounded, and + the entire command resumed its march. Five miles out + from their encampment Major Chivington, in command of + a detachment composed of Companies A, B, H, and E of the + First Colorado, and Captain Ford's Company unattached, + with Captain Lewis' Company of the Fifth Regular Infantry, + was ordered to take the Galisteo road, and by a detour + through the mountains to gain the enemy's rear, if possible, + at the west end of Apache Canyon, while Slough advanced + slowly with the main body to gain his front about the + same time; thus devising an attack in front and rear. + + About ten o'clock, while making his way through the scrub + pine and cedar brush in the mountains, Major Chivington + and his command heard cannonading to their right, and + were thereby apprised that Colonel Slough and his men + had met the enemy. About twelve o'clock he arrived with + his men on the summit of the mountain which overlooked + the enemy's supply wagons, which had been left in the + charge of a strong guard with one piece of artillery mounted + on an elevation commanding the camp and mouth of the canyon. + With great difficulty Chivington descended the precipitous + mountain, charged, took, and spiked the gun, ran together + the enemy's supply wagons of commissary, quartermaster, + and ordnance stores, set them on fire, blew and burnt + them up, bayoneted his mules in corral, took the guard + prisoners and reascended the mountain, where about dark + he was met by Lieutenant Cobb, aide-de-camp on Colonel + Slough's staff, with the information that Slough and his + men had been defeated and had fallen back to Kosloskie's. + Upon the supposition that this information was correct, + Chivington, under the guidance of a French Catholic priest, + in the intensest darkness, with great difficulty made + his way with his command through the mountains without + a road or trail, and joined Colonel Slough about midnight. + + Meanwhile, after Chivington and his detachment had left + in the morning, Colonel Slough with the main body proceeded + up the canyon, and arriving at Pigeon's Ranch, gave orders + for the troops to stack arms in the road and supply their + canteens with water, as that would be the last opportunity + before reaching the further end of Apache Canyon. + While thus supplying themselves with water and visiting + the wounded in the hospital at Pigeon's Ranch, being + entirely off their guard, they were suddenly startled by + a courier from the advance column dashing down the road + at full speed and informing them that the enemy was close + at hand. Orders were immediately given to fall in and + take arms, but before the order could be obeyed the enemy + had formed battery and commenced shelling them. + They formed as quickly as possible, the colonel ordering + Captain Downing with Company D, First Colorado Volunteers, + to advance on the left, and Captain Kerber with Company I + First Colorado, to advance on the right. In the meantime + Ritter and Claflin opened a return fire on the enemy with + their batteries. Captain Downing advanced and fought + desperately, meeting a largely superior force in point + of numbers, until he was almost overpowered and surrounded; + when, happily, Captain Wilder of Company G of the First + Colorado, with a detachment of his command, came to his + relief, and extricated him and that portion of his Company + not already slaughtered. While on the opposite side, + the right, Company I had advanced into an open space, + feeling the enemy, and ambitious of capturing his battery, + when they were surprised by a detachment which was concealed + in an arroya, and which, when Kerber and his men were + within forty feet of it, opened a galling fire upon them. + Kerber lost heavily; Lieutenant Baker, being wounded, + fell back. In the meantime the enemy masked, and made + five successive charges on our batteries, determined to + capture them as they had captured Canby's at Valverde. + At one time they were within forty yards of Slough's + batteries, their slouch hats drawn down over their faces, + and rushing on with deafening yells. It seemed inevitable + that they would make the capture, when Captain Claflin + gave the order to cease firing, and Captain Samuel Robbins + with his company, K of the First Colorado, arose from the + ground like ghosts, delivering a galling fire, charged + bayonets, and on the double-quick put the rebels to flight. + + During the whole of this time the cavalry, under Captain + Howland, were held in reserve, never moving except to + fall back and keep out of danger, with the exception of + Captain Cook's men, who dismounted and fought as infantry. + From the opening of the battle to its close the odds were + against Colonel Slough and his forces; the enemy being + greatly superior in numbers, with a better armament of + artillery and equally well armed otherwise. But every inch + of ground was stubbornly contested. In no instance did + Slough's forces fall back until they were in danger of + being flanked and surrounded, and for nine hours, without + rest or refreshment, the battle raged incessantly. + At one time Claflin gave orders to double-shot his guns, + they being nothing but little brass howitzers, and he + counted, "One, two, three, four," until one of his own + carriages capsized and fell down into the gulch; from which + place Captain Samuel Robbins and his company, K, extricated + it and saved it from falling into the enemy's hands. + + Having been compelled to give ground all day, Colonel Slough, + between five and six o'clock in the afternoon, issued + orders to retreat. About the same time General Sibley + received information from the rear of the destruction of + his supply trains, and ordered a flag of truce to be sent + to Colonel Slough, which did not reach him, however, until + he arrived at Kosloskie's. A truce was entered into until + nine o'clock the next morning, which was afterward extended + to twenty-four hours, and under which Sibley with his + demoralized forces fell back to Santa Fe, laying that town + under tribute to supply his forces. + + The 29th was spent in burying the dead, as well as those + of the Confederates which they left on the field, and + caring for the wounded. Orders were received from General + Canby directing Colonel Slough to fall back to Fort Union, + which so incensed him that while obeying the order he + forwarded his resignation, and soon after left the command. + +Thus ended the battle of La Glorieta. + + + + +CHAPTER XII.[41] THE BUFFALO. + + + +The ancient range of the buffalo, according to history and tradition, +once extended from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, embracing +all that magnificent portion of North America known as the Mississippi +valley; from the frozen lakes above to the "Tierras Calientes" of +Mexico, far to the south. + +It seems impossible, especially to those who have seen them, as +numerous, apparently, as the sands of the seashore, feeding on the +illimitable natural pastures of the great plains, that the buffalo +should have become almost extinct. + +When I look back only twenty-five years, and recall the fact that they +roamed in immense numbers even then, as far east as Fort Harker, in +Central Kansas, a little more than two hundred miles from the Missouri +River, I ask myself, "Have they all disappeared?" + +An idea may be formed of how many buffalo were killed from 1868 to +1881, a period of only thirteen years, during which time they were +indiscriminately slaughtered for their hides. In Kansas alone there was +paid out, between the dates specified, two million five hundred thousand +dollars for their bones gathered on the prairies, to be utilized by +the various carbon works of the country, principally in St. Louis. It +required about one hundred carcasses to make one ton of bones, the price +paid averaging eight dollars a ton; so the above-quoted enormous sum +represented the skeletons of over thirty-one millions of buffalo.[42] +These figures may appear preposterous to readers not familiar with the +great plains a third of a century ago; but to those who have seen the +prairie black from horizon to horizon with the shaggy monsters, they +are not so. In the autumn of 1868 I rode with Generals Sheridan, Custer, +Sully, and others, for three consecutive days, through one continuous +herd, which must have contained millions. In the spring of 1869 the +train on the Kansas Pacific Railroad was delayed at a point between +Forts Harker and Hays, from nine o'clock in the morning until five +in the afternoon, in consequence of the passage of an immense herd of +buffalo across the track. On each side of us, and to the west as far as +we could see, our vision was only limited by the extended horizon of the +flat prairie, and the whole vast area was black with the surging mass of +affrighted buffaloes as they rushed onward to the south. + +In 1868 the Union Pacific Railroad and its branch in Kansas was nearly +completed across the plains to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, +the western limit of the buffalo range, and that year witnessed the +beginning of the wholesale and wanton slaughter of the great ruminants, +which ended only with their practical extinction seventeen years +afterward. The causes of this hecatomb of animals on the great plains +were the incursion of regular hunters into the region, for the hides of +the buffalo, and the crowds of tourists who crossed the continent for +the mere pleasure and novelty of the trip. The latter class heartlessly +killed for the excitement of the new experience as they rode along in +the cars at a low rate of speed, often never touching a particle of the +flesh of their victims, or possessing themselves of a single robe. The +former, numbering hundreds of old frontiersmen, all expert shots, with +thousands of novices, the pioneer settlers on the public domain, just +opened under the various land laws, from beyond the Platte to far south +of the Arkansas, within transporting distance of two railroads, day +after day for years made it a lucrative business to kill for the robes +alone, a market for which had suddenly sprung up all over the country. + +On either side of the track of the two lines of railroads running +through Kansas and Nebraska, within a relatively short distance and for +nearly their whole length, the most conspicuous objects in those +days were the desiccated carcasses of the noble beasts that had been +ruthlessly slaughtered by the thoughtless and excited passengers on +their way across the continent. On the open prairie, too, miles away +from the course of legitimate travel, in some places one could walk +all day on the dead bodies of the buffaloes killed by the hide-hunters, +without stepping off them to the ground. + +The best robes, in their relation to thickness of fur and lustre, were +those taken during the winter months, particularly February, at which +period the maximum of density and beauty had been reached. Then, +notwithstanding the sudden and fitful variations of temperature incident +to our mid-continent climate, the old hunters were especially active, +and accepted unusual risks to procure as many of the coveted skins +as possible. A temporary camp would be established under the friendly +shelter of some timbered stream, from which the hunters would radiate +every morning, and return at night after an arduous day's work, to +smoke their pipes and relate their varied adventures around the fire of +blazing logs. + +Sometimes when far away from camp a blizzard would come down from the +north in all its fury without ten minutes' warning, and in a few seconds +the air, full of blinding snow, precluded the possibility of finding +their shelter, an attempt at which would only result in an aimless +circular march on the prairie. On such occasions, to keep from perishing +by the intense cold, they would kill a buffalo, and, taking out its +viscera, creep inside the huge cavity, enough animal heat being retained +until the storm had sufficiently abated for them to proceed with safety +to their camp. + +Early in March, 1867, a party of my friends, all old buffalo hunters, +were camped in Paradise valley, then a famous rendezvous of the animals +they were after. One day when out on the range stalking, and widely +separated from each other, a terrible blizzard came up. Three of the +hunters reached their camp without much difficulty, but he who was +farthest away was fairly caught in it, and night overtaking him, he was +compelled to resort to the method described in the preceding paragraph. +Luckily, he soon came up with a superannuated bull that had been +abandoned by the herd; so he killed him, took out his viscera and +crawled inside the empty carcass, where he lay comparatively comfortable +until morning broke, when the storm had passed over and the sun shone +brightly. But when he attempted to get out, he found himself a prisoner, +the immense ribs of the creature having frozen together, and locked him +up as tightly as if he were in a cell. Fortunately, his companions, who +were searching for him, and firing their rifles from time to time, +heard him yell in response to the discharge of their pieces, and thus +discovered and released him from the peculiar predicament into which he +had fallen. + +At another time, several years before the acquisition of New Mexico by +the United States, two old trappers were far up on the Arkansas near the +Trail, in the foot-hills hunting buffalo, and they, as is generally the +case, became separated. In an hour or two one of them killed a fat young +cow, and, leaving his rifle on the ground, went up and commenced to skin +her. While busily engaged in his work, he suddenly heard right behind +him a suppressed snort, and looking around he saw to his dismay a +monstrous grizzly ambling along in that animal's characteristic gait, +within a few feet of him. + +In front, only a few rods away, there happened to be a clump of scrubby +pines, and he incontinently made a break for them, climbing into the +tallest in less time than it takes to tell of it. The bear deliberately +ate a hearty meal off the juicy hams of the cow, so providentially +fallen in his way, and when he had satiated himself, instead of going +away, he quietly stretched himself alongside of the half-devoured +carcass, and went to sleep, keeping one eye open, however, on the +movements of the unlucky hunter whom he had corralled in the tree. In +the early evening his partner came to the spot, and killed the impudent +bear, that, being full of tender buffalo meat, was sluggish and unwary, +and thus became an easy victim to the unerring rifle; when the unwilling +prisoner came down from his perch in the pine, feeling sheepish enough. +The last time I saw him he told me he still had the bear's hide, which +he religiously preserved as a memento of his foolishness in separating +himself from his rifle, a thing he has never been guilty of before or +since. + +Kit Carson, when with Fremont on his first exploring expedition, while +hunting for the command, at some point on the Arkansas, left a buffalo +which he had just killed and partly cut up, to pursue a large bull that +came rushing by him alone. He chased his game for nearly a quarter of a +mile, not being able, however, to gain on it rapidly, owing to the blown +condition of his horse. Coming up at length to the side of the fleeing +beast, Carson fired, but at the same instant his horse stepped into a +prairie-dog hole, fell down and threw Kit fully fifteen feet over his +head. The bullet struck the buffalo low under the shoulder, which only +served to enrage him so that the next moment the infuriated animal was +pursuing Kit, who, fortunately not much hurt, was able to run toward the +river. It was a race for life now, Carson using his nimble legs to +the utmost of their capacity, accelerated very much by the thundering, +bellowing bull bringing up the rear. For several minutes it was nip and +tuck which should reach the stream first, but Kit got there by a scratch +a little ahead. It was a big bend of the river, and the water was deep +under the bank, but it was paradise compared with the hades plunging at +his back; so Kit leaped into the water, trusting to Providence that the +bull would not follow. The trust was well placed, for the bull did +not continue the pursuit, but stood on the bank and shook his head +vehemently at the struggling hunter who had preferred deep waves to the +horns of a dilemma on shore. + +Kit swam around for some time, carefully guarded by the bull, until +his position was observed by one of his companions, who attacked the +belligerent animal successfully with a forty-four slug, and then Kit +crawled out and--skinned the enemy! + +He once killed five buffaloes during a single race, and used but four +balls, having dismounted and cut the bullet from the wound of the +fourth, and thus continued the chase. He it was, too, who established +his reputation as a famous hunter by shooting a buffalo cow during an +impetuous race down a steep hill, discharging his rifle just as the +animal was leaping on one of the low cedars peculiar to the region. +The ball struck a vital spot, and the dead cow remained in the jagged +branches. The Indians who were with him on that hunt looked upon the +circumstance as something beyond their comprehension, and insisted that +Kit should leave the carcass in the tree as "Big Medicine." Katzatoa +(Smoked Shield), a celebrated chief of the Kiowas many years ago, +who was over seven feet tall, never mounted a horse when hunting the +buffalo; he always ran after them on foot and killed them with his +lance. + +Two Lance, another famous chief, could shoot an arrow entirely through a +buffalo while hunting on horseback. He accomplished this remarkable feat +in the presence of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, who was under the +care of Buffalo Bill, near Fort Hays, Kansas. + +During one of Fremont's expeditions, two of his chasseurs, named +Archambeaux and La Jeunesse,[43] had a curious adventure on a +buffalo-hunt. One of them was mounted on a mule, the other on a horse; +they came in sight of a large band of buffalo feeding upon the open +prairie about a mile distant. The mule was not fleet enough, and the +horse was too much fatigued with the day's journey, to justify a +race, and they concluded to approach the herd on foot. Dismounting and +securing the ends of their lariats in the ground, they made a slight +detour, to take advantage of the wind, and crept stealthily in the +direction of the game, approaching unperceived until within a few +hundred yards. Some old bulls forming the outer picket guard slowly +raised their heads and gazed long and dubiously at the strange objects, +when, discovering that the intruders were not wolves, but two hunters, +they gave a significant grunt, turned about as though on pivots, and in +less than no time the whole herd--bulls, cows, and calves--were making +the gravel fly over the prairie in fine style, leaving the hunters to +their discomfiture. They had scarcely recovered from their surprise, +when, to their great consternation, they beheld the whole company of +the monsters, numbering several thousand, suddenly shape their course +to where the riding animals were picketed. The charge of the stampeded +buffalo was a magnificent one; for the buffalo, mistaking the horse +and the mule for two of their own species, came down upon them like a +tornado. A small cloud of dust arose for a moment over the spot where +the hunter's animals had been left; the black mass moved on with +accelerated speed, and in a few seconds the horizon shut them all from +view. The horse and mule, with all their trappings, saddles, bridles, +and holsters, were never seen or heard of afterward. + +Buffalo Bill, in less than eighteen months, while employed as hunter +of the construction company of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, in 1867-68, +killed nearly five thousand buffalo, which were consumed by the twelve +hundred men employed in track-laying. He tells in his autobiography +of the following remarkable experience he had at one time with his +favourite horse Brigham, on an impromptu buffalo hunt:-- + + One day we were pushed for horses to work on our scrapers, + so I hitched up Brigham, to see how he would work. He was + not much used to that kind of labour, and I was about giving + up the idea of making a work horse of him, when one of the + men called to me that there were some buffaloes coming over + the hill. As there had been no buffaloes seen anywhere + in the vicinity of the camp for several days, we had become + rather short of meat. I immediately told one of our men + to hitch his horses to a wagon and follow me, as I was going + out after the herd, and we would bring back some fresh meat + for supper. I had no saddle, as mine had been left at camp + a mile distant, so taking the harness from Brigham I mounted + him bareback, and started out after the game, being armed + with my celebrated buffalo killer Lucretia Borgia--a newly + improved breech-loading needle-gun, which I had obtained + from the government. + + While I was riding toward the buffaloes, I observed five + horsemen coming out from the fort, who had evidently seen + the buffaloes from the post, and were going out for a chase. + They proved to be some newly arrived officers in that part + of the country, and when they came up closer I could see + by the shoulder-straps that the senior was a captain, + while the others were lieutenants. + + "Hello! my friend," sang out the captain; "I see you are + after the same game we are." + + "Yes, sir; I saw those buffaloes coming over the hill, + and as we were about out of fresh meat I thought I would + go and get some," said I. + They scanned my cheap-looking outfit pretty closely, and + as my horse was not very prepossessing in appearance, having + on only a blind bridle, and otherwise looking like a work + horse, they evidently considered me a green hand at hunting. + + "Do you expect to catch those buffaloes on that Gothic + steed?" laughingly asked the captain. + + "I hope so, by pushing on the reins hard enough," was + my reply. + + "You'll never catch them in the world, my fine fellow," + said the captain. "It requires a fast horse to overtake + the animals on the prairie." + + "Does it?" asked I, as if I didn't know it. + + "Yes; but come along with us, as we are going to kill them + more for pleasure than anything else. All we want are the + tongues and a piece of tenderloin, and you may have all + that is left," said the generous man. + + "I am much obliged to you, captain, and will follow you," + I replied. + + There were eleven buffaloes in the herd, and they were not + more than a mile ahead of us. The officers dashed on as if + they had a sure thing on killing them all before I could + come up with them; but I had noticed that the herd was + making toward the creek for water, and as I knew buffalo + nature, I was perfectly aware that it would be difficult + to turn them from their direct course. Thereupon, I started + toward the creek to head them off, while the officers + came up in the rear and gave chase. + + The buffaloes came rushing past me not a hundred yards + distant, with the officers about three hundred yards in + the rear. Now, thought I, is the time to "get my work in," + as they say; and I pulled off the blind bridle from my + horse, who knew as well as I did that we were out after + buffaloes, as he was a trained hunter. The moment the + bridle was off he started at the top of his speed, running + in ahead of the officers, and with a few jumps he brought me + alongside the rear buffalo. Raising old Lucretia Borgia + to my shoulder, I fired, and killed the animal at the + first shot. My horse then carried me alongside the next + one, not ten feet away, and I dropped him at the next fire. + + As soon as one of the buffalo would fall, Brigham would + take me so close to the next that I could almost touch it + with my gun. In this manner I killed the eleven buffaloes + with twelve shots; and as the last animal dropped, my horse + stopped. I jumped off to the ground, knowing that he would + not leave me--it must be remembered that I had been riding + him without bridle, reins, or saddle--and, turning around + as the party of astonished officers rode up, I said to them:-- + + "Now, gentlemen, allow me to present to you all the tongues + and tenderloins you wish from these buffaloes." + + Captain Graham, for such I soon learned was his name, + replied: "Well, I never saw the like before. Who under + the sun are you, anyhow?" + + "My name is Cody," said I. + Captain Graham, who was considerable of a horseman, + greatly admired Brigham, and said: "That horse of yours + has running points." + + "Yes, sir; he has not only got the points, he is a runner + and knows how to use the points," said I. + "So I noticed," said the captain. + + They all finally dismounted, and we continued chatting + for some little time upon the different subjects of horses, + buffaloes, hunting, and Indians. They felt a little sore + at not getting a single shot at the buffaloes; but the way + I had killed them, they said, amply repaid them for their + disappointment. They had read of such feats in books, + but this was the first time they had ever seen anything + of the kind with their own eyes. It was the first time, + also, that they had ever witnessed or heard of a white man + running buffaloes on horseback without a saddle or bridle. + + I told them that Brigham knew nearly as much about the + business as I did, and if I had twenty bridles they would + have been of no use to me, as he understood everything, + and all that he expected of me was to do the shooting. + It is a fact that Brigham would stop if a buffalo did not + fall at the first fire, so as to give me a second chance; + but if I did not kill the animal then, he would go on, as + if to say, "You are no good, and I will not fool away my + time by giving you more than two shots." Brigham was the + best horse I ever saw or owned for buffalo chasing. + +At one time an old, experienced buffalo hunter was following at the +heels of a small herd with that reckless rush to which in the excitement +of the chase men abandon themselves, when a great bull just in front of +him tumbled into a ravine. The rider's horse fell also, throwing the old +hunter over his head sprawling, but with strange accuracy right between +the bull's horns! The first to recover from the terrible shock and to +regain his legs was the horse, which ran off with wonderful alacrity +several miles before he stopped. Next the bull rose, and shook himself +with an astonished air, as if he would like to know "how that was done?" +The hunter was on the great brute's back, who, perhaps, took the affair +as a good practical joke; but he was soon pitched to the ground, as the +buffalo commenced to jump "stiff-legged," and the latter, giving the +hunter one lingering look, which he long remembered, with remarkable +good nature ran off to join his companions. Had the bull been wounded, +the rider would have been killed, as the then enraged animal would have +gored and trampled him to death. + +An officer of the old regular army told me many years ago that in +crossing the plains a herd of buffalo were fired at by a twelve-pound +howitzer, the ball of which wounded and stunned an immense bull. +Nevertheless, heedless of a hundred shots that had been fired at him, +and of a bulldog belonging to one of the officers, which had fastened +himself to his lips, the enraged beast charged upon the whole troop of +dragoons, and tossed one of the horses like a feather. Bull, horse, and +rider all fell in a heap. Before the dust cleared away, the trooper, +who had hung for a moment to one of the bull's horns by his waistband, +crawled out safe, while the horse got a ball from a rifle through his +neck while in the air and two great rips in his flank from the bull. + +In 1839 Kit Carson and Hobbs were trapping with a party on the Arkansas +River, not far from Bent's Fort. Among the trappers was a green +Irishman, named O'Neil, who was quite anxious to become proficient in +hunting, and it was not long before he received his first lesson. Every +man who went out of camp after game was expected to bring in "meat" of +some kind. O'Neil said that he would agree to the terms, and was ready +one evening to start out on his first hunt alone. He picked up his rifle +and stalked after a small herd of buffalo in plain sight on the prairie +not more than five or six hundred yards from camp. + +All the trappers who were not engaged in setting their traps or cooking +supper were watching O'Neil. Presently they heard the report of his +rifle, and shortly after he came running into camp, bareheaded, without +his gun, and with a buffalo bull close upon his heels; both going at +full speed, and the Irishman shouting like a madman,-- + +"Here we come, by jabers. Stop us! For the love of God, stop us!" + +Just as they came in among the tents, with the bull not more than six +feet in the rear of O'Neil, who was frightened out of his wits and +puffing like a locomotive, his foot caught in a tent-rope, and over +he went into a puddle of water head foremost, and in his fall capsized +several camp-kettles, some of which contained the trappers' supper. But +the buffalo did not escape so easily; for Hobbs and Kit Carson jumped +for their rifles, and dropped the animal before he had done any further +damage. + +The whole outfit laughed heartily at O'Neil when he got up out of the +water, for a party of old trappers would show no mercy to any of their +companions who met with a mishap of that character; but as he stood +there with dripping clothes and face covered with mud, his mother-wit +came to his relief and he declared he had accomplished the hunter's +task: "For sure," said he, "haven't I fetched the mate into camp? and +there was no bargain whether it should be dead or alive!" + +Upon Kit's asking O'Neil where his gun was,-- + +"Sure," said he, "that's more than I can tell you." + +Next morning Carson and Hobbs took up O'Neil's tracks and the buffalo's, +and after hunting an hour or so found the Irishman's rifle, though he +had little use for it afterward, as he preferred to cook and help around +camp rather than expose his precious life fighting buffaloes. + +A great herd of buffaloes on the plains in the early days, when one +could approach near enough without disturbing it to quietly watch its +organization and the apparent discipline which its leaders seemed to +exact, was a very curious sight. Among the striking features of the +spectacle was the apparently uniform manner in which the immense mass of +shaggy animals moved; there was constancy of action indicating a degree +of intelligence to be found only in the most intelligent of the brute +creation. Frequently the single herd was broken up into many smaller +ones, that travelled relatively close together, each led by an +independent master. Perhaps a few rods only marked the dividing-line +between them, but it was always unmistakably plain, and each moved +synchronously in the direction in which all were going. + +The leadership of a herd was attained only by hard struggles for the +place; once reached, however, the victor was immediately recognized, and +kept his authority until some new aspirant overcame him, or he became +superannuated and was driven out of the herd to meet his inevitable +fate, a prey to those ghouls of the desert, the gray wolves. + +In the event of a stampede, every animal of the separate, yet +consolidated, herds rushed off together, as if they had all gone mad at +once; for the buffalo, like the Texas steer, mule, or domestic +horse, stampedes on the slightest provocation; frequently without any +assignable cause. The simplest affair, sometimes, will start the whole +herd; a prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, a shadow of +one of themselves or that of a passing cloud, is sufficient to make them +run for miles as if a real and dangerous enemy were at their heels. + +Like an army, a herd of buffaloes put out vedettes to give the alarm in +case anything beyond the ordinary occurred. These sentinels were always +to be seen in groups of four, five, or even six, at some distance from +the main body. When they perceived something approaching that the herd +should beware of or get away from, they started on a run directly for +the centre of the great mass of their peacefully grazing congeners. +Meanwhile, the young bulls were on duty as sentinels on the edge of +the main herd watching the vedettes; the moment the latter made for the +centre, the former raised their heads, and in the peculiar manner of +their species gazed all around and sniffed the air as if they could +smell both the direction and source of the impending danger. Should +there be something which their instinct told them to guard against, the +leader took his position in front, the cows and calves crowded in the +centre, while the rest of the males gathered on the flanks and in the +rear, indicating a gallantry that might be emulated at times by the +genus homo. + +Generally buffalo went to their drinking-places but once a day, and that +late in the afternoon. Then they ambled along, following each other in +single file, which accounts for the many trails on the plains, always +ending at some stream or lake. They frequently travelled twenty or +thirty miles for water, so the trails leading to it were often worn to +the depth of a foot or more. + +That curious depression so frequently seen on the great plains, called +a buffalo-wallow, is caused in this wise: The huge animals paw and lick +the salty, alkaline earth, and when once the sod is broken the loose +dirt drifts away under the constant action of the wind. Then, year +after year, through more pawing, licking, rolling, and wallowing by +the animals, the wind wafts more of the soil away, and soon there is a +considerable hole in the prairie. + +Many an old trapper and hunter's life has been saved by following a +buffalo-trail when he was suffering from thirst. The buffalo-wallows +retain usually a great quantity of water, and they have often saved the +lives of whole companies of cavalry, both men and horses. + +There was, however, a stranger and more wonderful spectacle to be seen +every recurring spring during the reign of the buffalo, soon after +the grass had started. There were circles trodden bare on the plains, +thousands, yes, millions of them, which the early travellers, who did +not divine their cause, called fairy-rings. From the first of April +until the middle of May was the wet season; you could depend upon its +recurrence almost as certainly as on the sun and moon rising at their +proper time. This was also the calving period of the buffalo, as +they, unlike our domestic cattle, only rutted during a single month; +consequently, the cows all calved during a certain time; this was the +wet month, and as there were a great many gray wolves that roamed singly +and in immense packs over the whole prairie region, the bulls, in their +regular beats, kept guard over the cows while in the act of parturition, +and drove the wolves away, walking in a ring around the females at a +short distance, and thus forming the curious circles. + +In every herd at each recurring season there were always ambitious young +bulls that came to their majority, so to speak, and these were ever +ready to test their claims for the leadership, so that it may be safely +stated that a month rarely passed without a bloody battle between them +for the supremacy; though, strangely enough, the struggle scarcely ever +resulted in the death of either combatant. + +Perhaps there is no animal in which maternal love is so wonderfully +developed as the buffalo cow; she is as dangerous with a calf by her +side as a she-grizzly with cubs, as all old mountaineers know. + +The buffalo bull that has outlived his usefulness is one of the most +pitiable objects in the whole range of natural history. Old age has +probably been decided in the economy of buffalo life as the unpardonable +sin. Abandoned to his fate, he may be discovered, in his dreary +isolation, near some stream or lake, where it does not tax him too +severely to find good grass; for he is now feeble, and exertion an +impossibility. In this new stage of his existence he seems to have +completely lost his courage. Frightened at his own shadow, or the +rustling of a leaf, he is the very incarnation of nervousness and +suspicion. Gregarious in his habits from birth, solitude, foreign to +his whole nature, has changed him into a new creature; and his inherent +terror of the most trivial things is intensified to such a degree +that if a man were compelled to undergo such constant alarm, it would +probably drive him insane in less than a week. Nobody ever saw one of +these miserable and helplessly forlorn creatures dying a natural death, +or ever heard of such an occurrence. The cowardly coyote and the gray +wolf had already marked him for their own; and they rarely missed their +calculations. + +Riding suddenly to the top of a divide once with a party of friends in +1866, we saw standing below us in the valley an old buffalo bull, the +very picture of despair. Surrounding him were seven gray wolves in the +act of challenging him to mortal combat. The poor beast, undoubtedly +realizing the utter hopelessness of his situation, had determined to +die game. His great shaggy head, filled with burrs, was lowered to the +ground as he confronted his would-be executioners; his tongue, black and +parched, lolled out of his mouth, and he gave utterance at intervals to +a suppressed roar. + +The wolves were sitting on their haunches in a semi-circle immediately +in front of the tortured beast, and every time that the fear-stricken +buffalo would give vent to his hoarsely modulated groan, the wolves +howled in concert in most mournful cadence. + +After contemplating his antagonists for a few moments, the bull made a +dash at the nearest wolf, tumbling him howling over the silent prairie; +but while this diversion was going on in front, the remainder of the +pack started for his hind legs, to hamstring him. Upon this the poor +brute turned to the point of attack only to receive a repetition of it +in the same vulnerable place by the wolves, who had as quickly turned +also and fastened themselves on his heels again. His hind quarters +now streamed with blood and he began to show signs of great physical +weakness. He did not dare to lie down; that would have been instantly +fatal. By this time he had killed three of the wolves or so maimed them +that they were entirely out of the fight. + +At this juncture the suffering animal was mercifully shot, and the +wolves allowed to batten on his thin and tough carcass. + +Often there are serious results growing out of a stampede, either +by mules or a herd of buffalo. A portion of the Fifth United States +Infantry had a narrow escape from a buffalo stampede on the Old Trail, +in the early summer of 1866. General George A. Sykes, who commanded the +Division of Regulars in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War, +was ordered to join his regiment, stationed in New Mexico, and was +conducting a body of recruits, with their complement of officers, +to fill up the decimated ranks of the army stationed at the various +military posts, in far-off Greaser Land. + +The command numbered nearly eight hundred, including the subaltern +officers. These recruits, or the majority of them at least, were +recruits in name only; they had seen service in many a hard campaign of +the Rebellion. Some, of course, were beardless youths just out of their +teens, full of that martial ardour which induced so many young men of +the nation to follow the drum on the remote plains and in the fastnesses +of the Rocky Mountains, where the wily savages still held almost +undisputed sway, and were a constant menace to the pioneer settlers. + +One morning, when the command had just settled itself in careless repose +on the short grass of the apparently interminable prairie at the first +halt of the day's march, a short distance beyond Fort Larned, a strange +noise, like the low muttering of thunder below the horizon, greeted the +ears of the little army. + +All were startled by the ominous sound, unlike anything they had heard +before on their dreary tour. The general ordered his scouts out to learn +the cause; could it be Indians? Every eye was strained for something out +of the ordinary. Even the horses of the officers and the mules of the +supply-train were infected by something that seemed impending; they grew +restless, stamped the earth, and vainly essayed to stampede, but were +prevented by their hobbles and picket-pins. + +Presently one of the scouts returned from over the divide, and reported +to the general that an immense herd of buffalo was tearing down toward +the Trail, and from the great clouds of dust they raised, which obscured +the horizon, there must have been ten thousand of them. The roar wafted +to the command, and which seemed so mysterious, was made by their hoofs +as they rattled over the dry prairie. + +The sound increased in volume rapidly, and soon a black, surging mass +was discovered bearing right down on the Trail. Behind it could be seen +a cavalcade of about five hundred Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas, who +had maddened the shaggy brutes, hoping to capture the train without an +attack by forcing the frightened animals to overrun the command. + +Luckily, something caused the herd to open before it reached the foot +of the divide, and it passed in two masses, leaving the command between, +not two hundred feet from either division of the infuriated beasts. + +The rage of the savages was evident when they saw that their attempt to +annihilate the troops had failed, and they rode off sullenly into the +sand hills, as the number of soldiers was too great for them to think of +charging. + +Cody tells of a buffalo stampede which he witnessed in his youth on +the plains, when he was a wagon-master. The caravan was on its way +with government stores for the military posts in the mountains, and the +wagons were hauled by oxen. + +He says: The country was alive with buffalo, and besides killing + quite a number we had a rare day for sport. One morning + we pulled out of camp, and the train was strung out to a + considerable length along the Trail, which ran near the foot + of the sand hills, two miles from the river. Between the + road and the river we saw a large herd of buffalo grazing + quietly, they having been down to the stream to drink. + Just at this time we observed a party of returning + Californians coming from the west. They, too, noticed + the buffalo herd, and in another moment they were dashing + down upon them, urging their horses to their greatest speed. + The buffalo herd stampeded at once, and broke down the sides + of the hills; so hotly were they pursued by the hunters + that about five hundred of them rushed pell-mell through + our caravan, frightening both men and oxen. Some of the + wagons were turned clear around and many of the terrified + oxen attempted to run to the hills with the heavy wagons + attached to them. Others were turned around so short + that they broke the tongues off. Nearly all the teams + got entangled in their gearing and became wild and unruly, + so that the perplexed drivers were unable to manage them. + + The buffalo, the cattle, and the men were soon running + in every direction, and the excitement upset everybody + and everything. Many of the oxen broke their yokes and + stampeded. One big buffalo bull became entangled in one + of the heavy wagon-chains, and it is a fact that in his + desperate efforts to free himself, he not only snapped + the strong chain in two, but broke the ox-yoke to which + it was attached, and the last seen of him he was running + toward the hills with it hanging from his horns. + +Stampedes were a great source of profit to the Indians of the plains. +The Comanches were particularly expert and daring in this kind of +robbery. They even trained their horses to run from one point to another +in expectation of the coming of the trains. When a camp was made that +was nearly in range, they turned their trained animals loose, which at +once flew across the prairie, passing through the herd and penetrating +the very corrals of their victims. All of the picketed horses and mules +would endeavour to follow these decoys, and were invariably led right +into the haunts of the Indians, who easily secured them. Young horses +and mules were easily frightened; and, in the confusion which generally +ensued, great injury was frequently done to the runaways themselves. + +At times when the herd was very large, the horses scattered over the +prairie and were irrevocably lost; and such as did not become wild fell +a prey to the wolves. That fate was very frequently the lot of stampeded +horses bred in the States, they not having been trained by a prairie +life to take care of themselves. Instead of stopping and bravely +fighting off the blood-thirsty beasts, they would run. Then the whole +pack were sure to leave the bolder animals and make for the runaways, +which they seldom failed to overtake and despatch. + +On the Old Trail some years ago one of these stampedes occurred of a +band of government horses, in which were several valuable animals. It +was attended, however, with very little loss, through the courage and +great exertion of the men who had them in charge; many were recovered, +but none without having sustained injuries. + +Hon. R. M. Wright, of Dodge City, Kansas, one of the pioneers in the +days of the Santa Fe trade, and in the settlement of the State, has had +many exciting experiences both with the savages of the great plains, and +the buffalo. In relation to the habits of the latter, no man is better +qualified to speak. + +He was once owner of Fort Aubrey, a celebrated point on the Trail, but +was compelled to abandon it on account of constant persecution by the +Indians, or rather he was ordered to do so by the military authorities. +While occupying the once famous landmark, in connection with others, had +a contract to furnish hay to the government at Fort Lyon, seventy-five +miles further west. His journal, which he kindly placed at my disposal, +says: + + While we were preparing to commence the work, a vast herd + of buffalo stampeded through our range one night, and + took off with them about half of our work cattle. The next + day a stage-driver and conductor on the Overland Route told + us they had seen a number of our oxen twenty-five miles east + of Aubrey, and this information gave me an idea in which + direction to hunt for the missing beasts. I immediately + started after them, while my partner took those that + remained and a few wagons and left with them for Fort Lyon. + + Let me explain here that while the Indians were supposed to + be peaceable, small war-parties of young men, who could not + be controlled by their chiefs, were continually committing + depredations, and the main body of savages themselves were + very uneasy, and might be expected to break out any day. + In consequence of this unsettled state of affairs, there + had been a brisk movement among the United States troops + stationed at the various military posts, a large number of + whom were believed to be on the road from Denver to Fort Lyon. + + I filled my saddle-bags with jerked buffalo, hardtack and + ground coffee, and took with me a belt of cartridges, + my rifle and six-shooter, a field-glass and my blankets, + prepared for any emergency. The first day out, I found a + few of the lost cattle, and placed them on the river-bottom, + which I continued to do as fast as I recovered them, for a + distance of about eighty-five miles down the Arkansas. + There I met a wagon-train, the drivers of which told me + that I would find several more of my oxen with a train + that had arrived at the Cimarron crossing the day before. + I came up with this train in eight or ten hours' travel + south of the river, got my cattle, and started next morning + for home. + + I picked up those I had left on the Arkansas as I went + along, and after having made a very hard day's travel, + about sundown I concluded I would go into camp. I had + only fairly halted when the oxen began to drop down, + so completely tired out were they, as I believed. Just as + it was growing dark, I happened to look toward the west, + and I saw several fires on a big island, near what was + called "The Lone Tree," about a mile from where I had + determined to remain for the night. + + Thinking the fires were those of the soldiers that I had + heard were on the road from Denver, and anticipating and + longing for a cup of good coffee, as I had had none for + five days, knowing, too, that the troops would be full of + news, I felt good and determined to go over to their camp. + + The Arkansas was low, but the banks steep, with high, + rank grass growing to the very water's edge. I found + a buffalo-trail cut through the deep bank, narrow and + precipitous, and down this I went, arriving in a short time + within a little distance of my supposed soldiers' camp. + When I had reached the middle of another deep cut in the + bank, I looked across to the island, and, great Caesar! + saw a hundred little fires, around which an aggregation + of a thousand Indians were huddled! + + I slid backwards off my horse, and by dint of great exertion, + worked him up the river-bank as quietly and quickly as + possible, then led him gently away out on the prairie. + My first impulse was not to go back to the cattle; but as + we needed them very badly, I concluded to return, put them + all on their feet, and light out mighty lively, without + making any noise. I started them, and, oh dear! I was + afraid to tread upon a weed, lest it would snap and bring + the Indians down on my trail. Until I had put several + miles between them and me, I could not rest easy for + a moment. Tired as I was, tired as were both my horse + and the cattle, I drove them twenty-five miles before + I halted. Then daylight was upon me. I was at what is + known as Chouteau's Island, a once famous place in the + days of the Old Santa Fe Trail. + + Of course, I had to let the oxen and my horse rest and fill + themselves until the afternoon, and I lay down, and fell + asleep, but did not sleep long, as I thought it dangerous + to remain too near the cattle. I rose and walked up a big, + dry sand creek that opened into the river, and after I had + ascended it for a couple of miles, found the banks very + steep; in fact, they rose to a height of eighteen or twenty + feet, and were sharply cut up by narrow trails made by + the buffalo. + + The whole face of the earth was covered by buffalo, and + they were slowly grazing toward the Arkansas. All at once + they became frightened at something, and stampeded pell-mell + toward the very spot on which I stood. I quickly ran into + one of the precipitous little paths and up on the prairie, + to see what had scared them. They were making the ground + fairly tremble as their mighty multitude came rushing on + at full speed, the sound of their hoofs resembling thunder, + but in a continuous peal. It appeared to me that they must + sweep everything in their path, and for my own preservation + I rushed under the creek-bank, but on they came like a + tornado, with one old bull in the lead. He held up a second + to descend the narrow trail, and when he had got about + halfway down I let him have it; I was only a few steps from + him and over he tumbled. I don't know why I killed him; + out of pure wantonness, I expect, or perhaps I thought + it would frighten the others back. Not so, however; + they only quickened their pace, and came dashing down in + great numbers. Dozens of them stumbled and fell over the + dead bull; others fell over them. The top of the bank + was fairly swarming with them; they leaped, pitched, and + rolled down. I crouched as close to the bank as possible, + but many of them just grazed my head, knocking the sand + and gravel in great streams down my neck; indeed I was + half buried before the herd had passed over. That old bull + was the last buffalo I ever shot wantonly, excepting once, + from an ambulance while riding on the Old Trail, to please + a distinguished Englishman, who had never seen one shot; + then I did it only after his most earnest persuasion. + + One day a stage-driver named Frank Harris and myself started + out after buffalo; they were scarce, for a wonder, and + we were very hungry for fresh meat. The day was fine and + we rode a long way, expecting sooner or later a bunch would + jump up, but in the afternoon, having seen none, we gave + it up and started for the ranch. Of course, we didn't + care to save our ammunition, so shot it away at everything + in sight, skunks, rattlesnakes, prairie-dogs, and gophers, + until we had only a few loads left. Suddenly an old bull + jumped up that had been lying down in one of those + sugar-loaf-shaped sand hills, whose tops are hollowed out + by the action of the wind. Harris emptied his revolver + into him, and so did I; but the old fellow sullenly stood + still there on top of the sand hill, bleeding profusely + at the nose, and yet absolutely refusing to die, although + he would repeatedly stagger and nearly tumble over. + + It was getting late and we couldn't wait on him, so Harris + said: "I will dismount, creep up behind him, and cut his + hamstrings with my butcher-knife." The bull having now + lain down, Harris commenced operations, but his movement + seemed to infuse new life into the old fellow; he jumped + to his feet, his head lowered in the attitude of fight, + and away he went around the outside of the top of the + sand hill! It was a perfect circus with one ring; Harris, + who was a tall, lanky fellow, took hold of the enraged + animal's tail as he rose to his feet, and in a moment his + legs were flying higher than his head, but he did not dare + let go of his hold on the bull's tail, and around and + around they went; it was his only show for life. I could + not assist him a particle, but had to sit and hold his horse, + and be judge of the fight. I really thought that old bull + would never weaken. Finally, however, the "ring" performance + began to show symptoms of fatigue; slower and slower the + actions of the bull grew, and at last Harris succeeded + in cutting his hamstrings and the poor beast went down. + Harris said afterward, when the danger was all over, that + the only thing he feared was that perhaps the bull's tail + would pull out, and if it did, he was well aware that he + was a goner. We brought his tongue, hump, and a hindquarter + to the ranch with us, and had a glorious feast and a big + laugh that night with the boys over the ridiculous adventure. + +General Richard Irving Dodge, United States army, in his work on the big +game of America, says: + + It is almost impossible for a civilized being to realize + the value to the plains Indian of the buffalo. It furnished + him with home, food, clothing, bedding, horse equipment-- + almost everything. + + From 1869 to 1873 I was stationed at various posts along + the Arkansas River. Early in spring, as soon as the dry + and apparently desert prairie had begun to change its coat + of dingy brown to one of palest green, the horizon would + begin to be dotted with buffalo, single or in groups of two + or three, forerunners of the coming herd. Thick and thicker, + and in large groups they come, until by the time the grass + is well up, the whole vast landscape appears a mass of + buffalo, some individuals feeding, others lying down, but + the herd slowly moving to the northward; of their number, + it was impossible to form a conjecture. + + Determined as they are to pursue their journey northward, + yet they are exceedingly cautious and timid about it, + and on any alarm rush to the southward with all speed, + until that alarm is dissipated. Especially is this the case + when any unusual object appears in their rear, and so + utterly regardless of consequences are they, that an old + plainsman will not risk a wagon-train in such a herd, + where rising ground will permit those in front to get + a good view of their rear. + + In May, 1871, I drove in a buggy from old Fort Zarah + to Fort Larned, on the Arkansas River. The distance is + thirty-four miles. At least twenty-five miles of that + distance was through an immense herd. The whole country + was one mass of buffalo, apparently, and it was only when + actually among them, that the seemingly solid body was + seen to be an agglomeration of countless herds of from + fifty to two hundred animals, separated from the surrounding + herds by a greater or less space, but still separated. + + The road ran along the broad valley of the Arkansas. + Some miles from Zarah a low line of hills rises from the + plain on the right, gradually increasing in height and + approaching road and river, until they culminate in + Pawnee Rock. + + So long as I was in the broad, level valley, the herds + sullenly got out of my way, and, turning, stared stupidly + at me, some within thirty or forty yards. When, however, + I had reached a point where the hills were no more than + a mile from the road, the buffalo on the crests, seeing an + unusual object in their rear, turned, stared an instant, + then started at full speed toward me, stampeding and + bringing with them the numberless herds through which + they passed, and pouring down on me, no longer separated + but compacted into one immense mass of plunging animals, + mad with fright, irresistible as an avalanche. + + The situation was by no means pleasant. There was but + one hope of escape. My horse was, fortunately, a quiet + old beast, that had rushed with me into many a herd, and + been in at the death of many a buffalo. Reining him up, + I waited until the front of the mass was within fifty yards, + then, with a few well-directed shots, dropped some of + the leaders, split the herd and sent it off in two streams + to my right and left. When all had passed me, they stopped, + apparently satisfied, though thousands were yet within + reach of my rifle. After my servant had cut out the + tongues of the fallen, I proceeded on my journey, only to + have a similar experience within a mile or two, and this + occurred so often that I reached Fort Larned with twenty-six + tongues, representing the greatest number of buffalo that + I can blame myself with having murdered in one day. + + Some years, as in 1871, the buffalo appeared to move + northward in one immense column, oftentimes from twenty + to fifty miles in width, and of unknown depth from front + to rear. Other years the northward journey was made + in several parallel columns moving at the same rate and + with their numerous flankers covering a width of a hundred + or more miles. + + When the food in one locality fails, they go to another, + and toward fall, when the grass of the high prairies + becomes parched by the heat and drought, they gradually + work their way back to the south, concentrating on the + rich pastures of Texas and the Indian Territory, whence, + the same instinct acting on all, they are ready to start + together again on their northward march as soon as spring + starts the grass. + + Old plainsmen and the Indians aver that the buffalo never + return south; that each year's herd was composed of animals + which had never made the journey before, and would never + make it again. All admit the northern migration, that + being too pronounced for any one to dispute, but refuse + to admit the southern migration. Thousands of young calves + were caught and killed every spring that were produced + during this migration, and accompanied the herd northward; + but because the buffalo did not return south in one vast + body as they went north, it was stoutly maintained that + they did not go south at all. The plainsman could give + no reasonable hypothesis of his "No-return theory" on which + to base the origin of the vast herds which yearly made + their march northward. The Indian was, however, equal + to the occasion. Every plains Indian firmly believed that + the buffalo were produced in countless numbers in a country + under ground; that every spring the surplus swarmed, + like bees from a hive, out of the immense cave-like opening + in the region of the great Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain + of Texas. In 1879 Stone Calf, a celebrated chief, assured + me that he knew exactly where the caves were, though he had + never seen them; that the good God had provided this + means for the constant supply of food for the Indian, and + however recklessly the white men might slaughter, they could + never exterminate them. When last I saw him, the old man + was beginning to waver in this belief, and feared that + the "Bad God" had shut the entrances, and that his tribe + must starve. + +The old trappers and plainsmen themselves, even as early as the +beginning of the Santa Fe trade, noticed the gradual disappearance of +the buffalo, while they still existed in countless numbers. One veteran +French Canadian, an employee of the American Fur Company, way back in +the early '30's, used to mourn thus: "Mais, sacre! les Amarican, dey go +to de Missouri frontier, de buffalo he ron to de montaigne; de trappaire +wid his fusil, he follow to de Bayou Salade, he ron again. Dans les +Montaignes Espagnol, bang! bang! toute la journee, toute la journee, go +de sacre voleurs. De bison he leave, parceque les fusils scare im vara +moche, ici la de sem-sacre!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS. + + + +Thirty-five miles before arriving at Bent's Fort, at which point the +Old Trail crossed the Arkansas, the valley widens and the prairie falls +toward the river in gentle undulations. There for many years the +three friendly tribes of plains Indians--Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and +Kiowas--established their winter villages, in order to avail themselves +of the supply of wood, to trade with the whites, and to feed their herds +of ponies on the small limbs and bark of the cottonwood trees growing +along the margin of the stream for four or five miles. It was called Big +Timbers, and was one of the most eligible places to camp on the whole +route after leaving Council Grove. The grass, particularly on the south +side of the river, was excellent; there was an endless supply of fuel, +and cool water without stint. + +In the severe winters that sometimes were fruitful of blinding +blizzards, sweeping from the north in an intensity of fury that was +almost inconceivable, the buffalo too congregated there for shelter, and +to browse on the twigs of the great trees. + +The once famous grove, though denuded of much of its timber, may still +be seen from the car windows as the trains hurry mountainward. + +Garrard, in his _Taos Trail_, presents an interesting and amusing +account of a visit to the Cheyenne village with old John Smith, in 1847, +when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, and that with the various +tribes of savages in its golden days. + + Toward the middle of the day, the village was in a great + bustle. Every squaw, child, and man had their faces + blackened--a manifestation of joy.[44] + + Pell-mell they went--men, squaws, and dogs--into the icy + river. Some hastily jerked off their leggings, and held + moccasins and dresses high out of the water. Others, too + impatient, dashed the stream from beneath their impetuous + feet, scarce taking time to draw more closely the always + worn robe. Wondering what caused all this commotion, and + looking over the river, whither the yelling, half-frantic + savages were so speedily hurrying, we saw a band of Indians + advancing toward us. As the foremost braves reined their + champing barbs on the river-bank, mingled whoops of triumph + and delight and the repeated discharge of guns filled + the air. In the hands of three were slender willow wands, + from the smaller points of which dangled as many scalps-- + the single tuft of hair on each pronouncing them Pawnees.[45] + + These were raised aloft, amid unrestrained bursts of joy + from the thrice-happy, blood-thirsty throng. Children ran + to meet their fathers, sisters their brothers, girls their + lovers, returning from the scene of victorious strife; + decrepit matrons welcomed manly sons; and aged chiefs their + boys and braves. It was a scene of affection, and a proud + day in the Cheyenne annals of prowess. That small but + gallant band were relieved of their shields and lances by + tender-hearted squaws, and accompanied to their respective + homes, to repose by the lodge-fire, consume choice meat, + and to be the heroes of the family circle. + + The drum at night sent forth its monotony of hollow sound, + and my Mexican Pedro and I, directed by the booming, + entered a lodge, vacated for the purpose, full of young men + and squaws, following one another in a continuous circle, + keeping the left knee stiff and bending the right with a + half-forward, half-backward step, as if they wanted to go on + and could not, accompanying it, every time the right foot + was raised, with an energetic, broken song, which, dying + away, was again and again sounded--"hay-a, hay-a, hay-a," + they went, laying the emphasis on the first syllable. + A drum, similar to, though larger than a tambourine, covered + with parfleche,[46] was beaten upon with a stick, producing + with the voices a sound not altogether disagreeable. + + Throughout the entire night and succeeding day the voices + of the singers and heavy notes of the drum reached us, + and at night again the same dull sound lulled me to sleep. + Before daylight our lodge was filled with careless dancers, + and the drum and voices, so unpleasing to our wearied ears, + were giving us the full benefit of their compass. Smith, + whose policy it was not to be offended, bore the infliction + as best he could, and I looked on much amused. The lodge + was so full that they stood without dancing, in a circle + round the fire, and with a swaying motion of the body + kept time to their music. + + During the day the young men, except the dancers, piled up + dry logs in a level open space near, for a grand demonstration. + At night, when it was fired, I folded my blanket over my + shoulders, comme les sauvages, and went out. The faces + of many girls were brilliant with vermilion; others were + blacked, their robes, leggings, and skin dresses glittering + with beads and quill-work. Rings and bracelets of shining + brass encircled their taper arms and fingers, and shells + dangled from their ears. Indeed, all the finery collectable + was piled on in barbarous profusion, though a few, in good + taste through poverty, wore a single band and but few rings, + with jetty hair parted in the middle, from the forehead + to the neck, terminating in two handsome braids. + + The young men who can afford the expense trade for dollars + and silver coin of less denomination--coin as a currency + is not known among them--which they flatten thin, and fasten + to a braid of buffalo hair, attached to the crown lock, + which hangs behind, outside of the robe, and adds much to + the handsome appearance of the wearer. + + The girls, numbering two hundred, fell into line together, + and the men, of whom there were two hundred and fifty, + joining, a circle was formed, which travelled around with + the same shuffling step already described. The drummers + and other musicians--twenty or twenty-five of them--marched + in a contrary direction to and from and around the fire, + inside the large ring; for at the distance kept by the + outsiders the area was one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. + The Apollonian emulators chanted the great deeds performed + by the Cheyenne warriors. As they ended, the dying strain + was caught up by the hundreds of the outside circle, who, + in fast-swelling, loud tones, poured out the burden of + their song. At this juncture the march was quickened, + the scalps of the slain were borne aloft and shaken with + wild delight, and shrill war-notes, rising above the + furious din, accelerated the pulsation and strung high + the nerves. Time-worn shields, careering in mad holders' + hands, clashed; and keen lances, once reeking in Pawnee + blood, clanged. Braves seized one another with an iron + grip, in the heat of excitement, or chimed more tenderly + in the chant, enveloped in the same robe with some maiden + as they approvingly stepped through one of their own + original polkas. + + Thirty of the chiefs and principal men were ranged by the + pile of blazing logs. By their invitation, I sat down with + them and smoked death and its concomitant train of evils to + those audacious tribes who doubt the courage or supremacy + of the brave, the great and powerful, Cheyenne nation. + +It is Indian etiquette that the first lodge a stranger enters on +visiting a village is his home as long as he remains the guest of the +tribe. It is all the same whether he be invited or not. Upon going in, +it is customary to place all your traps in the back part, which is the +most honoured spot. The proprietor always occupies that part of his +home, but invariably gives it up to a guest. With the Cheyennes, the +white man, when the tribe was at peace with him, was ever welcome, as +in the early days of the border he generally had a supply of coffee, of +which the savage is particularly fond--Mok-ta-bo-mah-pe, as they call +it. Their salutation to the stranger coming into the presence of the +owner of a lodge is "Hook-ah-hay! Num-whit,"--"How do you do? Stay with +us." Water is then handed by a squaw, as it is supposed a traveller is +thirsty after riding; then meat, for he must be hungry, too. A pipe is +offered, and conversation follows. + +The lodge of the Cheyennes is formed of seventeen poles, about three +inches thick at the end which rests on the ground, slender in shape, +tapering symmetrically, and eighteen feet or more in length. They are +tied together at the small ends with buffalo-hide, then raised until +the frame resembles a cone, over which buffalo-skins are placed, very +skilfully fitted and made soft by having been dubbed by the women--that +is, scraped to the requisite thinness, and made supple by rubbing with +the brains of the animal that wore it. They are sewed together with +sinews of the buffalo, generally of the long and powerful muscle that +holds up the ponderous head of the shaggy beast, a narrow strip running +towards the bump. In summer the lower edges of the skin are rolled up, +and the wind blowing through, it is a cool, shady retreat. In winter +everything is closed, and I know of no more comfortable place than a +well-made Indian lodge. The army tent known as the Sibley is modelled +after it, and is the best winter shelter for troops in the field that +can be made. Many times while the military post where I had been ordered +was in process of building, I have chosen the Sibley tent in preference +to any other domicile. + +When a village is to be moved, it is an interesting sight. The young and +unfledged boys drive up the herd of ponies, and then the squaws catch +them. The women, too, take down the lodges, and, tying the poles in two +bundles, fasten them on each side of an animal, the long ends dragging +on the ground. Just behind the pony or mule, as the case may be, a +basket is placed and held there by buffalo-hide thongs, and into these +novel carriages the little children are put, besides such traps as are +not easily packed on the animal's back. + +The women do all the work both in camp and when moving. They are doomed +to a hopeless bondage of slavery, the fate of their sex in every savage +race; but they accept their condition stoically, and there is as much +affection among them for their husbands and children as I have ever +witnessed among the white race. Here are two instances of their +devotion, both of which came under my personal observation, and I could +give hundreds of others. + +Late in the fall of 1858, I was one of a party on the trail of a band of +Indians who had been committing some horrible murders in a mining-camp +in the northern portion of Washington Territory. On the fourth day out, +just about dusk, we struck their moccasin tracks, which we followed all +night, and surprised their camp in the gray light of the early morning. +In less than ten minutes the fight was over, and besides the killed we +captured six prisoners. Then as the rising sun commenced to gild the +peaks of the lofty range on the west, having granted our captives half +an hour to take leave of their families, the ankles of each were bound; +they were made to kneel on the prairie, a squad of soldiers, with loaded +rifles, were drawn up eight paces in front of them, and at the instant +the signal--a white handkerchief--was dropped the savages tumbled over +on the sod a heap of corpses. The parting between the condemned men and +their young wives and children, I shall never forget. It was the +most perfect exhibition of marital and filial love that I have ever +witnessed. Such harsh measures may seem cruel and heartless in the +light of to-day, but there was none other than martial law then in the +wilderness of the Northern Pacific coast, and the execution was a stern +necessity. + +The other instance was ten years later. During the Indian campaign in +the winter of 1868-69 I was riding with a party of officers and enlisted +men, south of the Arkansas, about fourty miles from Fort Dodge. We were +watching some cavalrymen unearth three or four dead warriors who had +been killed by two scouts in a fierce unequal fight a few weeks before, +and as we rode into a small ravine among the sand hills, we suddenly +came upon a rudely constructed Cheyenne lodge. Entering, we discovered +on a rough platform, fashioned of green poles, a dead warrior in full +war-dress; his shield of buffalo-hide, pipe ornamented with eagles' +feathers, and medicine bag, were lying on the ground beside him. At his +head, on her knees, with hands clasped in the attitude of prayer, was a +squaw frozen to death. Which had first succumbed, the wounded chief, or +the devoted wife in the awful cold of that winter prairie, will never be +known, but it proved her love for the man who had perhaps beaten her a +hundred times. Such tender and sympathetic affection is characteristic +of the sex everywhere, no less with the poor savage than in the dominant +white race. + +To return to our description of the average Indian village: Each lodge +at the grand encampment of Big Timbers in the era of traffic with the +nomads of the great plains, owned its separate herd of ponies and mules. +In the exodus to some other favoured spot, two dozen or more of these +individual herds travelled close to each other but never mixed, each +drove devotedly following its bell-mare, as in a pack-train. This useful +animal is generally the most worthless and wicked beast in the entire +outfit. + +The animals with the lodge-pole carriages go as they please, no special +care being taken to guide them, but they too instinctively keep +within sound of the leader. I will again quote Garrard for an accurate +description of the moving camp when he was with the Cheyennes in 1847:-- + + The young squaws take much care of their dress and horse + equipments; they dash furiously past on wild steeds, + astride of the high-pommelled saddles. A fancifully + coloured cover, worked with beads or porcupine quills, + making a flashy, striking appearance, extended from withers + to rump of the horse, while the riders evinced an admirable + daring, worthy of Amazons. Their dresses were made of + buckskin, high at the neck, with short sleeves, or rather + none at all, fitting loosely, and reaching obliquely to + the knee, giving a Diana look to the costume; the edges + scalloped, worked with beads, and fringed. From the knee + downward the limb was encased in a tightly fitting legging, + terminating in a neat moccasin--both handsomely wrought + with beads. On the arms were bracelets of brass, which + glittered and reflected in the radiant morning sun, adding + much to their attractions. In their pierced ears, shells + from the Pacific shore were pendent; and to complete the + picture of savage taste and profusion, their fine + complexions were eclipsed by a coat of flaming vermilion. + + Many of the largest dogs were packed with a small quantity + of meat, or something not easily injured. They looked + queerly, trotting industriously under their burdens; and, + judging from a small stock of canine physiological + information, not a little of the wolf was in their + composition. + + We crossed the river on our way to the new camp. The alarm + manifested by the children in the lodge-pole drays, as they + dipped in the water, was amusing. The little fellows, + holding their breath, not daring to cry, looked imploringly + at their inexorable mothers, and were encouraged by words + of approbation from their stern fathers. + + After a ride of two hours we stopped, and the chiefs, + fastening their horses, collected in circles to smoke their + pipe and talk, letting their squaws unpack the animals, + pitch the lodges, build the fires, and arrange the robes. + When all was ready, these lords of creation dispersed to + their several homes, to wait until their patient and + enduring spouses prepared some food. I was provoked, nay, + angry, to see the lazy, overgrown men do nothing to help + their wives; and when the young women pulled off their + bracelets and finery to chop wood, the cup of my wrath was + full to overflowing, and, in a fit of honest indignation, + I pronounced them ungallant and savage in the true sense + of the word. + +The treatment of Indian children, particularly boys, is something +startling to the gentle sentiments of refined white mothers. The girls +receive hardly any attention from their fathers. Implicit obedience is +the watchword of the lodge with them, and they are constantly taught +to appreciate their inferiority of sex. The daughter is a mere slave; +unnoticed and neglected--a mere hewer of wood and drawer of water. With +a son, it is entirely different; the father from his birth dotes on him +and manifests his affection in the most demonstrative manner. + +Garrard tells of two instances that came under his observation while +staying at the chief's lodge, and at John Smith's, in the Cheyenne +village, of the discipline to which the boys are subjected. + + In Vi-po-nah's lodge was his grandson, a boy six or seven + months old. Every morning his mother washed him in cold + water, and set him out in the air to make him hardy; + he would come in, perfectly nude, from his airing, about + half-frozen. How he would laugh and brighten up, as he felt + the warmth of the fire! + + Smith's son Jack took a crying fit one cold night, much to + the annoyance of four or five chiefs, who had come to our + lodge to talk and smoke. In vain did the mother shake and + scold him with the severest Cheyenne words, until Smith, + provoked beyond endurance, took the squalling youngster in + his hands; he shu-ed and shouted and swore, but Jack had + gone too far to be easily pacified. He then sent for a + bucket of water from the river and poured cupful after + cupful on Jack, who stamped and screamed and bit in his + tiny rage. Notwithstanding, the icy stream slowly descended + until the bucket was emptied, another was sent for, and + again and again the cup was replenished and emptied on the + blubbering youth. At last, exhausted with exertion and + completely cooled down, he received the remaining water + in silence, and, with a few words of admonition, was + delivered over to his mother, in whose arms he stifled his + sobs, until his heartbreaking grief and cares were drowned + in sleep. What a devilish mixture Indian and American + blood is! + +The Indians never chastise a boy, as they think his spirit would be +broken and cowed down; instead of a warrior he would be a squaw--a +harsh epithet indicative of cowardice--and they resort to any method but +infliction of blows to subdue a refractory scion. + +Before most of the lodges is a tripod of three sticks, about seven feet +in length and an inch in diameter, fastened at the top, and the lower +ends brought out, so that it stands alone. On this is hung the +shield and a small square bag of parfleche, containing pipes, with an +accompanying pendent roll of stems, carefully wrapped in blue or red +cloth, and decorated with beads and porcupine quills. This collection is +held in great veneration, for the pipe is their only religion. Through +its agency they invoke the Great Spirit; through it they render homage +to the winds, to the earth, and to the sky. + +Every one has his peculiar notion on this subject; and, in passing the +pipe, one must have it presented stem downward, another the reverse; +some with the bowl resting on the ground; and as this is a matter +of great solemnity, their several fancies are respected. Sometimes I +required them to hand it to me, when smoking, in imitation of their +custom; on this, a faint smile, half mingled with respect and pity for +my folly in tampering with their sacred ceremony, would appear on their +faces, and with a slow negative shake of the head, they would ejaculate, +"I-sto-met-mah-son-ne-wah-hein"--"Pshaw! that's foolish; don't do so." + +Religion the Cheyennes have none, if, indeed, we except the respect paid +to the pipe; nor do we see any sign or vestige of spiritual worship; +except one remarkable thing--in offering the pipe, before every fresh +filling, to the sky, the earth, and the winds, the motion made in so +doing describes the form of a cross; and, in blowing the first four +whiffs, the smoke is invariably sent in the same four directions. It is +undoubtedly void of meaning in reference to Christian worship, yet it is +a superstition, founded on ancient tradition. This tribe once lived +near the head waters of the Mississippi; and, as the early Jesuit +missionaries were energetic zealots, in the diffusion of their religious +sentiments, probably to make their faith more acceptable to the Indians, +the Roman Catholic rites were blended with the homage shown to the pipe, +which custom of offering, in the form of a cross, is still retained by +them; but as every custom is handed down by tradition merely, the true +source has been forgotten. + +In every tribe in whose country I have been stationed, which comprises +nearly all the continent excepting the extreme southwestern portion, +his pipe is the Indian's constant companion through life. It is his +messenger of peace; he pledges his friends through its stem and its +bowl, and when he is dead, it has a place in his solitary grave, with +his war-club and arrows--companions on his journey to his long-fancied +beautiful hunting-grounds. The pipe of peace is a sacred thing; so held +by all Indian nations, and kept in possession of chiefs, to be smoked +only at times of peacemaking. When the terms of treaty have been agreed +upon, this sacred emblem, the stem of which is ornamented with eagle's +quills, is brought forward, and the solemn pledge to keep the peace is +passed through the sacred stem by each chief and warrior drawing the +smoke once through it. After the ceremony is over, the warriors of the +two tribes unite in the dance, with the pipe of peace held in the left +hand of the chief and in his other a rattle. + +Thousands of years ago, the primitive savage of the American continent +carried masses of pipe-stone from the sacred quarry in Minnesota across +the vast wilderness of plains, to trade with the people of the far +Southwest, over the same route that long afterward became the Santa Fe +Trail; therefore, it will be consistent with the character of this work +to relate the history of the quarry from which all the tribes procured +their material for fashioning their pipes, and the curious legends +connected with it. I have met with the red sandstone pipes on the +remotest portions of the Pacific coast, and east, west, north and south, +in every tribe that it has been my fortune to know. + +The word "Dakotah" means allied or confederated, and is the family +name now comprising some thirty bands, numbering about thirty thousand +Indians. They are generally designated Sioux, but that title is seldom +willingly acknowledged by them. It was first given to them by the +French, though its original interpretation is by no means clear. The +accepted theory, because it is the most plausible, is that it is a +corruption or rather an abbreviation of "Nadouessioux," a Chippewa word +for enemies. + +Many of the Sioux are semi-civilized; some are "blanket-Indians," so +called, but there are no longer any murderous or predatory bands, and +all save a few stragglers are on the reservations. From 1812 to 1876, +more than half a century, they were the scourge of the West and the +Northwest, but another outbreak is highly improbable. They once +occupied the vast region included between the Mississippi and the Rocky +Mountains, and were always migratory in their methods of living. Over +fifty years ago, when the whites first became acquainted with them, they +were divided into nearly fifty bands of families, each with its +separate chief, but all acknowledging a superior chief to whom they were +subordinate. They were at that time the happiest and most wealthy tribe +on the continent, regarded from an Indian standpoint; but then the great +plains were stocked with buffalo and wild horses, and that fact alone +warrants the assertion of contentment and riches. No finer-looking tribe +existed; they could then muster more than ten thousand warriors, +every one of whom would measure six feet, and all their movements were +graceful and elastic. + +According to their legends, they came from the Pacific and encountered +the Algonquins about the head waters of the Mississippi, where they +were held in check, a portion of them, however, pushing on through +their enemies and securing a foothold on the shores of Lake +Michigan. This bold band was called by the Chippewas Winnebagook +(men-from-the-salt-water). In their original habitat on the great +northern plains was located the celebrated "red pipe-stone quarry," a +relatively limited area, owned by all tribes, but occupied permanently +by none; a purely neutral ground--so designated by the Great +Spirit--where no war could possibly occur, and where mortal enemies +might meet to procure the material for their pipes, but the hatchet was +invariably buried during that time on the consecrated spot. + +The quarry has long since passed out of the control and jurisdiction +of the Indians and is not included in any of their reservations, though +near the Sisseton agency. It is located on the summit of the high divide +between the Missouri and St. Peter's rivers in Minnesota, at a point not +far from where the ninety-seventh meridian of longitude (from Greenwich) +intersects the forty-fifth parallel of latitude. The divide was named +by the French Coteau des Prairies, and the quarry is near its southern +extremity. Not a tree or bush could be seen from the majestic mound +when I last was there, some twenty years ago--nothing but the apparently +interminable plains, until they were lost in the deep blue of the +horizon. + +The luxury of smoking appears to have been known to all the tribes on +the continent in their primitive state, and they indulge in the habit +to excess; any one familiar with their life can assert that the American +savage smokes half of his time. Where so much attention is given to a +mere pleasure, it naturally follows that he would devote his leisure and +ingenuity to the construction of his pipe. The bowls of these were, from +time immemorial, made of the peculiar red stone from the famous quarry +referred to, which, until only a little over fifty years ago, was never +visited by a white man, its sanctity forbidding any such sacrilege. + +That the spot should have been visited for untold centuries by all the +Indian nations, who hid their weapons as they approached it, under fear +of the vengeance of the Great Spirit, will not seem strange when the +religion of the race is understood. One of the principal features of the +quarry is a perpendicular wall of granite about thirty feet high, facing +the west, and nearly two miles long. At the base of the wall there is +a level prairie, running parallel to it, half a mile wide. Under this +strip of land, after digging through several slaty layers of rock, the +red sandstone is found. Old graves, fortifications, and excavations +abound, all confirmatory of the traditions clustering around the weird +place. + +Within a few rods of the base of the wall is a group of immense gneiss +boulders, five in number, weighing probably many hundred tons each, and +under these are two holes in which two imaginary old women reside--the +guardian spirits of the quarry--who were always consulted before any +pipe-stone could be dug up. The veneration for this group of boulders +was something wonderful; not a spear of grass was broken or bent by his +feet within sixty or seventy paces from them, where the trembling Indian +halted, and throwing gifts to them in humble supplication, solicited +permission to dig and take away the red stone for his pipes. + +Near this spot, too, on a high mound, was the "Thunder's nest," where +a very small bird sat upon her eggs during fair weather. When the skies +were rent with thunder at the approach of a storm, she was hatching her +brood, which caused the terrible commotion in the heavens. The bird was +eternal. The "medicine men" claimed that they had often seen her, and +she was about as large as a little finger. Her mate was a serpent whose +fiery tongue destroyed the young ones as soon as they were born, and the +awful noise accompanying the act darted through the clouds. + +On the wall of rocks at the quarry are thousands of inscriptions and +paintings, the totems and arms of various tribes who have visited there; +but no idea can be formed of their antiquity. + +Of the various traditions of the many tribes, I here present a few. The +Great Spirit at a remote period called all the Indian nations together +at this place, and, standing on the brink of the precipice of red-stone +rock, broke from its walls a piece and fashioned a pipe by simply +turning it in his hands. He then smoked over them to the north, the +south, the east, and the west, and told them the stone was red, that it +was their flesh, that they must use it for their pipes of peace, that +it belonged to all alike, and that the war-club and scalping-knife must +never be raised on its ground. At the last whiff of his pipe his head +went into a great cloud, and the whole surface of the ledge for miles +was melted and glazed; two great ovens were opened beneath, and two +women--the guardian spirits of the place--entered them in a blaze of +fire, and they are heard there yet answering to the conjurations of the +medicine men, who consult them when they visit the sacred place. + +The legend of the Knis-te-neu's tribe (Crees), a very small band in the +British possessions, in relation to the quarry is this: In the time of +a great freshet that occurred years ago and destroyed all the nations of +the earth, every tribe of Indians assembled on the top of the Coteau des +Prairies to get out of the way of the rushing and seething waters. When +they had arrived there from all parts of the world, the water continued +to rise until it covered them completely, forming one solid mass of +drowned Indians, and their flesh was converted by the Great Spirit into +red pipe-stone; therefore, it was always considered neutral ground, +belonging to all tribes alike, and all were to make their pipes out of +it and smoke together. While they were drowning together, a young woman, +Kwaptan, a virgin, caught hold of the foot of a very large bird that was +flying over at the time, and was carried to the top of a hill that was +not far away and above the water. There she had twins, their father +being the war-eagle that had carried her off, and her children have +since peopled the earth. The pipe-stone, which is the flesh of their +ancestors, is smoked by them as the symbol of peace, and the eagle +quills decorate the heads of their warriors. + +Severed about seven or eight feet from the main wall of the quarry by +some convulsion of nature ages ago, there is an immense column just +equal in height to the wall, seven feet in diameter and beautifully +polished on its top and sides. It is called The Medicine, or Leaping +Rock, and considerable nerve is required to jump on it from the main +ledge and back again. Many an Indian's heart, in the past, has sighed +for the honour of the feat without daring to attempt it. A few, +according to the records of the tribes, have tried it with success, and +left their arrows standing up in its crevice; others have made the leap +and reached its slippery surface only to slide off, and suffer instant +death on the craggy rocks in the awful chasm below. Every young man of +the many tribes was ambitious to perform the feat, and those who had +successfully accomplished it were permitted to boast of it all their +lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. TRAPPERS. + + + +The initial opening of the trade with New Mexico from the Missouri +River, as has been related, was not direct to Santa Fe. The limited +number of pack-trains at first passed to the north of the Raton Range, +and travelled to the Spanish settlements in the valley of Taos. + +On this original Trail, where now is situated the beautiful city of +Pueblo, the second place of importance in Colorado, there was a little +Indian trading-post called "the Pueblo," from which the present thriving +place derives its name. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad +practically follows the same route that the traders did to reach Pueblo, +as it also does that which the freight caravans later followed from the +Missouri River direct to Santa Fe. + +The old Pueblo fort, as nearly as can be determined now, was built as +early as 1840, or not later than 1842, and, as one authority asserts, by +George Simpson and his associates, Barclay and Doyle. Beckwourth claims +to have been the original projector of the fort, and to have given the +general plan and its name, in which I am inclined to believe that he is +correct; perhaps Barclay, Doyle, and Simpson were connected with him, as +he states that there were other trappers, though he mentions no names. +It was a square fort of adobe, with circular bastions at the corners, no +part of the walls being more than eight feet high. Around the inside of +the plaza, or corral, were half a dozen small rooms inhabited by as many +Indian traders and mountain-men. + +One of the earlier Indian agents, Mr. Fitzpatrick, in writing from +Bent's Fort in 1847, thus describes the old Pueblo:-- + + About seventy-five miles above this place, and immediately + on the Arkansas River, there is a small settlement, chiefly + composed of old trappers and hunters; the male part of it + are mostly Americans (Missourians), French Canadians, and + Mexicans. It numbers about one hundred and fifty, and of + this number about sixty men have wives, and some have two. + These wives are of various Indian tribes, as follows; viz. + Blackfeet, Assiniboines, Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, + Snakes, and Comanches. The American women are Mormons, + a party of Mormons having wintered there, and then departed + for California. + +The old trappers and hunters of the Pueblo fort lived entirely upon +game, and a greater part of the year without bread. As soon as their +supply of meat was exhausted, they started to the mountains with two +or three pack-animals, and brought back in two or three days loads of +venison and buffalo. + +The Arkansas at the Pueblo is a clear, rapid river about a hundred yards +wide. The bottom, which is enclosed on each side by high bluffs, is +about a quarter of a mile across. In the early days of which I write, +the margin of the stream was heavily timbered with cottonwood, and the +tourist to-day may see the remnant of the primitive great woods, in the +huge isolated trees scattered around the bottom in the vicinity of the +Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad station of the charming mountain +city. + +On each side vast rolling prairies stretch away for hundreds of miles, +gradually ascending on the side towards the mountains, where the +highlands are sparsely covered with pinyon and cedar. The lofty +banks through which the Arkansas occasionally passes are of shale and +sandstone, rising precipitously from the water. Ascending the river the +country is wild and broken, until it enters the mountain region, where +the scenery is incomparably grand and imposing. The surrounding prairies +are naturally arid and sterile, producing but little vegetation, and +the primitive grass, though of good quality, is thin and scarce. Now, +however, under a competent system of irrigation, the whole aspect of the +landscape is changed from what it was thirty years ago, and it has all +the luxuriance of a garden. + +The whole country, it is claimed, was once possessed by the Shos-shones, +or Snake Indians, of whom the Comanches of the Southern plains are a +branch; and, although many hundred miles divide their hunting-grounds, +they were once, if not the same people, tribes or bands of that great +and powerful nation. They retain a language in common, and there is also +a striking analogy in many of their religious rites and ceremonies, +in their folk-lore, and in some of their everyday customs. These facts +prove, at least, that there was at one time a very close alliance which +bound the two tribes together. Half a century ago they were, in point of +numbers, the two most powerful nations in all the numerous aggregations +of Indians in the West; the Comanches ruling almost supreme on the +Eastern plains, while the Shos-shones were the dominant tribe in the +country beyond the Rocky Mountains, and in the mountains themselves. +Once, many years ago, before the problem of the relative strength of the +various tribes was as well solved as now, the Shos-shones were supposed +to be the most powerful, and numerically the most populous, tribe of +Indians on the North American continent. + +In the immediate vicinity of the old Pueblo fort at the time of its +greatest business prosperity, game was scarce; the buffalo had for some +years deserted the neighbouring prairies, but they were always to be +found in the mountain-valleys, particularly in one known as "Bayou +Salado," which forty-five years ago abounded in elk, bear, deer, and +antelope. + +The fort was situated a few hundred yards above the mouth of the +"Fontaine qui Bouille" River,[47] so called from two springs of mineral +water near its head, under Pike's Peak, about sixty miles above its +mouth. + +As is the case with all the savage races of the world, the American +Indians possess hereditary legends, accounting for all the phenomena +of nature, or any occurrence which is beyond their comprehension. The +Shos-shones had the following story to account for the presence of these +wonderful springs in the midst of their favourite hunting-ground. The +two fountains, one pouring forth the sweetest water imaginable, the +other a stream as bitter as gall, are intimately connected with the +cause of the separation of the two tribes. Their legend thus runs: Many +hundreds of winters ago, when the cottonwoods on the big river were no +higher than arrows, and the prairies were crowded with game, the red +men who hunted the deer in the forests and the buffalo on the plains +all spoke the same language, and the pipe of peace breathed its soothing +cloud whenever two parties of hunters met on the boundless prairie. + +It happened one day that two hunters of different nations met on the +bank of a small rivulet, to which both had resorted to quench their +thirst. A small stream of water, rising from a spring on a rock within +a few feet of the bank, trickled over it and fell splashing into the +river. One hunter sought the spring itself; the other, tired by his +exertions in the chase, threw himself at once to the ground, and plunged +his face into the running stream. + +The latter had been unsuccessful in the hunt, and perhaps his bad +fortune, and the sight of the fat deer which the other threw from his +back before he drank at the crystal spring, caused a feeling of jealousy +and ill-humour to take possession of his mind. The other, on the +contrary, before he satisfied his thirst, raised in the hollow of his +hand a portion of the water, and, lifting it toward the sun, reversed +his hand, and allowed it to fall upon the ground, as a libation to the +Great Spirit, who had vouch-safed him a successful hunt and the blessing +of the refreshing water with which he was about to quench his thirst. + +This reminder that he had neglected the usual offering only increased +the feeling of envy and annoyance which filled the unsuccessful hunter's +heart. The Evil Spirit at that moment entering his body, his temper +fairly flew away, and he sought some pretence to provoke a quarrel with +the other Indian. + +"Why does a stranger," he asked, rising from the stream, "drink at the +spring-head, when one to whom the fountain belongs contents himself with +the water that runs from it?" + +"The Great Spirit places the cool water at the spring," answered the +other hunter, "that his children may drink it pure and undefiled. The +running water is for the beasts which scour the plains. Ausaqua is a +chief of the Shos-shones; he drinks at the head water." + +"The Shos-shones is but a tribe of the Comanches," returned the other: +"Wacomish leads the whole nation. Why does a Shos-shone dare to drink +above him?" + +"When the Manitou made his children, whether Shos-shone or Comanche, +Arapaho, Cheyenne, or Pawnee, he gave them buffalo to eat, and the pure +water of the fountain to quench their thirst. He said not to one, 'Drink +here,' and to another, 'Drink there'; but gave the crystal spring to +all, that all might drink." + +Wacomish almost burst with rage as the other spoke; but his coward heart +prevented him from provoking an encounter with the calm Shos-shone. The +latter, made thirsty by the words he had spoken--for the Indian is ever +sparing of his tongue--again stooped down to the spring to drink, when +the subtle warrior of the Comanches suddenly threw himself upon the +kneeling hunter and, forcing his head into the bubbling water, held him +down with all his strength until his victim no longer struggled; his +stiffened limbs relaxed, and he fell forward over the spring, drowned. + +Mechanically the Comanche dragged the body a few paces from the water, +and, as soon as the head of the dead Indian was withdrawn, the spring +was suddenly and strangely disturbed. Bubbles sprang up from the bottom, +and, rising to the surface, escaped in hissing gas. A thin vapour +arose, and, gradually dissolving, displayed to the eyes of the trembling +murderer the figure of an aged Indian, whose long, snowy hair and +venerable beard, blown aside from his breast, discovered the well-known +totem of the great Wankanaga, the father of the Comanche and Shos-shone +nation. + +Stretching out a war-club toward the Comanche, the figure thus addressed +him:-- + +"Accursed murderer! While the blood of the brave Shos-shone cries to +the Great Spirit for vengeance, may the water of thy tribe be rank +and bitter in their throats!" Thus saying, and swinging his ponderous +war-club round his head, he dashed out the brains of the Comanche, who +fell headlong into the spring, which from that day to this remains rank +and nauseous, so that not even when half dead with thirst, can one drink +from it. + +The good Wankanaga, however, to perpetuate the memory of the Shos-shone +warrior, who was renowned in his tribe for valour and nobleness of +heart, struck with the same avenging club a hard, flat rock which +overhung the rivulet, and forthwith a round clear basin opened, which +instantly filled with bubbling, sparkling water, sweet and cool. + +From that day the two mighty tribes of the Shos-shones and Comanches +have remained severed and apart, although a long and bloody war followed +the treacherous murder. + +The Indians regarded these wonderful springs with awe. The Arapahoes, +especially, attributed to the Spirit of the springs the power of +ordaining the success or failure of their war expeditions. As their +warriors passed by the mysterious pools when hunting their hereditary +enemies, the Utes, they never failed to bestow their votive offerings +upon the spring, in order to propitiate the Manitou of the strange +fountain, and insure a fortunate issue to their path of war. As late as +twenty-five years ago, the visitor to the place could always find the +basin of the spring filled with beads and wampum, pieces of red cloth +and knives, while the surrounding trees were hung with strips of +deerskin, cloth, and moccasins. Signs were frequently observed in the +vicinity of the waters unmistakably indicating that a war-dance had +been executed there by the Arapahoes on their way to the Valley of Salt, +occupied by the powerful Utes. + +Never was there such a paradise for hunters as this lone and solitary +spot in the days when the region was known only to them and the trappers +of the great fur companies. The shelving prairie, at the bottom of which +the springs are situated, is entirely surrounded by rugged mountains +and contained two or three acres of excellent grass, affording a safe +pasture for their animals, which hardly cared to wander from such +feeding and the salt they loved to lick. + +The trappers of the Rocky Mountains belonged to a genus that has +disappeared. Forty years ago there was not a hole or corner in the vast +wilderness of the far West that had not been explored by these hardy +men. From the Mississippi to the mouth of the Colorado of the West, from +the frozen regions of the north to the Gila in Mexico, the beaver hunter +has set his traps in every creek and stream. The mountains and waters, +in many instances, still retain the names assigned them by those rude +hunters, who were veritable pioneers paving the way for the settlement +of the stern country. + +A trapper's camp in the old days was quite a picture, as were all its +surroundings. He did not always take the trouble to build a shelter, +unless in the winter. A couple of deerskins stretched over a willow +frame was considered sufficient to protect him from the storm. Sometimes +he contented himself with a mere "breakwind," the rocky wall of a +canyon, or large ravine. Near at hand he set up two poles, in the crotch +of which another was laid, where he kept, out of reach of the hungry +wolf and coyote, his meat, consisting of every variety afforded by the +region in which he had pitched his camp. Under cover of the skins of +the animals he had killed hung his old-fashioned powder-horn and +bullet-pouch, while his trusty rifle, carefully defended from the damp, +was always within reach of his hand. Round his blazing fire at night his +companions, if he had any, were other trappers on the same stream; and, +while engaged in cleaning their arms, making and mending moccasins, or +running bullets, they told long yarns, until the lateness of the hour +warned them to crawl under their blankets. + +Not far from the camp, his animals, well hobbled, fed in sight; for +nothing did a hunter dread more than a visit from horse-stealing +Indians, and to be afoot was the acme of misery. + +Some hunters who had married squaws carried about with them regular +buffalo-skin lodges, which their wives took care of, according to Indian +etiquette. + +The old-time trappers more nearly approximated the primitive savage, +perhaps, than any other class of civilized men. Their lives being spent +in the remote wilderness of the mountains, frequently with no other +companion than Nature herself, their habits and character often assumed +a most singular cast of simplicity, mingled with ferocity, that appeared +to take its colouring from the scenes and objects which surrounded them. +Having no wants save those of nature, their sole concern was to provide +sufficient food to support life, and the necessary clothing to protect +them from the sometimes rigorous climate. + +The costume of the average trapper was a hunting-shirt of dressed +buckskin, with long, fringed trousers of the same material, decorated +with porcupine quills. A flexible hat and moccasins covered his +extremities, and over his left shoulder and under his right arm hung his +powder-horn and bullet-pouch, in which he also carried flint, steel, and +other odds and ends. Round his waist he wore a belt, in which was stuck +a large knife in a sheath of buffalo-hide, made fast to the belt by a +chain or guard of steel. It also supported a little buckskin case, which +contained a whetstone, a very necessary article; for in taking off the +hides of the beaver a sharp knife was required. His pipe-holder hung +around his neck, and was generally a gage d'amour, a triumph of squaw +workmanship, wrought with beads and porcupine quills, often made in the +shape of a heart. + +Necessarily keen observers of nature, they rivalled the beasts of prey +in discovering the haunts and habits of game, and in their skill and +cunning in capturing it outwitted the Indian himself. Constantly exposed +to perils of all kinds, they became callous to any feeling of danger, +and were firm friends or bitter enemies. It was a "word and a blow," the +blow often coming first. Strong, active, hardy as bears, expert in the +use of their weapons, they were just what an uncivilized white man +might be supposed to be under conditions where he must depend upon his +instincts for the support of life. + +Having determined upon the locality of his trapping-ground, the hunter +started off, sometimes alone, sometimes three or four of them in +company, as soon as the breaking of the ice in the streams would permit, +if he was to go very far north. Arriving on the spot he has selected +for his permanent camp, the first thing to be done, after he had settled +himself, was to follow the windings of the creeks and rivers, keeping +a sharp lookout for "signs." If he saw a prostrate cottonwood tree, he +carefully examined it to learn whether it was the work of beaver, and +if so whether thrown for the purpose of food, or to dam the stream. +The track of the animal on the mud or sand under the banks was also +examined; if the sign was fresh, he set his trap in the run of the +animal, hiding it under water, and attaching it by a stout chain to a +picket driven in the bank, or to a bush or tree. A float-stick was made +fast to the trap by a cord a few feet long, which, if the animal carried +away the trap, would float on the water and point out its position. The +trap was baited with "medicine," an oily substance obtained from the +beaver. A stick was dipped in this and planted over the trap, and +the beaver, attracted by the smell, put his leg into the trap and was +caught. + +When a beaver lodge was discovered, the trap was set at the edge of the +dam, at a point where the animal passed from deep to shoal water, and +always under the surface. Early in the morning, the hunter mounted his +mule and examined all his traps. + +The beaver is exceedingly wily, and if by scent or sound or sight he +had any intimation of the presence of a trapper, he put at defiance all +efforts to capture him, consequently it was necessary to practise great +caution when in the neighbourhood of one of their lodges. The trapper +then avoided riding for fear the sound of his horse's feet might strike +dismay among the furry inhabitants under the water, and, instead of +walking on the ground, he waded in the stream, lest he should leave a +scent behind by which he might be discovered. + +In the days of the great fur companies, trappers were of two kinds--the +hired hand and the free trapper. The former was hired by the company, +which supplied him with everything necessary, and paid him a certain +price for his furs and peltries. The other hunted on his own hook, owned +his animals and traps, went where he pleased, and sold to whom he chose. + +During the hunting season, regardless of the Indians, the fearless +trapper wandered far and near in search of signs. His nerves were in a +state of tension, his mind always clear, and his head cool. His trained +eye scrutinized every part of the country, and in an instant he could +detect anything that was strange. A turned leaf, a blade of grass +pressed down, the uneasiness of wild animals, the actions of the birds, +were all to him paragraphs written in Nature's legible hand. + +All the wits of the wily savage were called into play to gain an +advantage over the plucky white man; but with the resources natural to +a civilized mind, the hunter seldom failed, under equal chance, to +circumvent the cunning of the red man. Sometimes, following his trail +for weeks, the Indian watched him set his traps on some timbered stream, +and crawling up the bed of it, so that he left no tracks, he lay in +the bushes until his victim came to examine his traps. Then, when he +approached within a few feet of the ambush, whiz! flew the home-drawn +arrow, which never failed at such close quarters to bring the +unsuspecting hunter to the ground. But for one white scalp that dangled +in the smoke of an Indian's lodge, a dozen black ones, at the end of the +season, ornamented the camp-fires of the rendezvous where the furs were +sold. + +In the camp, if he was a very successful hunter, all the appliances for +preparing the skins for market were at hand; if he had a squaw for a +wife, she did all the hard work, as usual. Close to the entrance of +their skin lodge was the "graining-block," a log of wood with the bark +stripped off and perfectly smooth, set obliquely in the ground, on which +the hair was removed from the deerskins which furnished moccasins and +dresses for both herself and her husband. Then there were stretching +frames on which the skins were placed to undergo the process of +"dubbing"; that is, the removal of all flesh and fatty particles +adhering to the skin. The "dubber" was made of the stock of an elk's +horn, with a piece of iron or steel inserted in the end, forming a sharp +knife. The last process the deerskin underwent before it was soft and +pliable enough for making into garments, was the "smoking." This was +effected by digging a round hole in the ground, and lighting in it an +armful of rotten wood or punk; then sticks were planted around the hole, +and their tops brought together and tied. The skins were placed on this +frame, and all openings by which the smoke might escape being carefully +stopped, in ten or twelve hours they were thoroughly cured and ready for +immediate use. + +The beaver was the main object of the hunter's quest; its skins were +once worth from six to eight dollars a pound; then they fell to only one +dollar, which hardly paid the expenses of traps, animals, and equipment +for the hunt, and was certainly no adequate remuneration for the +hardships, toil, and danger undergone by the trappers. + +The beaver was once found in every part of North America, from Canada +to the Gulf of Mexico, but has so retired from the encroachments of +civilized man, that it is only to be met with occasionally on some +tributary to the remote mountain streams. + +The old trappers always aimed to set their traps so that the beaver +would drown when taken. This was accomplished by sinking the trap +several inches under water, and driving a stake through a ring on the +end of the chain into the bottom of the creek. When the beaver finds +himself caught, he pitches and plunges about until his strength is +exhausted, when he sinks down and is drowned, but if he succeeds in +getting to the shore, he always extricates himself by gnawing off the +leg that is in the jaws of the trap. + +The captured animals were skinned, and the tails, which are a great +dainty, carefully packed into camp. The skin was then stretched over +a hoop or framework of willow twigs and allowed to dry, the flesh and +fatty substance adhering being first carefully scraped off. When dry, it +was folded into a square sheet, the fur turned inwards, and the bundle, +containing twenty skins, tightly pressed and tied, was ready for +transportation. The beaver after the hide is taken off weighs about +twelve pounds, and its flesh, although a little musky, is very fine. Its +tail which is flat and oval in shape, is covered with scales about the +size of those of a salmon. It was a great delicacy in the estimation of +the old trapper; he separated it from the body, thrust a stick in one +end of it, and held it before the fire with the scales on. In a few +moments large blisters rose on the surface, which were very easily +removed. The tail was then perfectly white, and delicious. Next to the +tail the liver was another favourite of the trapper, and when properly +cooked it constituted a delightful repast. + +After the season was over, or the hunter had loaded all his +pack-animals, he proceeded to the "rendezvous," where the buyers were to +congregate for the purchase of the fur, the locality of which had been +agreed upon when the hunters started out on their expedition. One of +these was at Bent's old fort and one at Pueblo; another at "Brown's +Hole" on Green River, and there were many more on the great streams +and in the mountains. There the agents of the fur companies and traders +waited for the arrival of the trappers, with such an assortment of goods +as the hardy men required, including, of course, an immense supply of +whiskey. The trappers dropped in day after day, in small bands, packing +their loads of beaver-skins, not infrequently to the value of a thousand +dollars each, the result of one hunt. + +The rendezvous was frequently a continuous scene of gambling, brawling, +and fighting, so long as the improvident trapper's money lasted. Seated +around the large camp-fires, cross-legged in Indian fashion, with +a blanket or buffalo-robe spread before them, groups were playing +cards--euchre, seven-up, and poker, the regular mountain games. The +usual stakes were beaver-skins, which were current as coin. When their +fur was all gone, their horses, mules, rifles, shirts, hunting packs, +and trousers were staked. Daring professional gamblers made the rounds +of the camps, challenging each other to play for the trapper's highest +stakes--his horse, or his squaw, if he had one--and it is told of one +great time that two old trappers played for one another's scalps! "There +goes hoss and beaver," was a common mountain expression when any severe +loss was sustained, and shortly "hoss and beaver" found their way into +the pockets of the unconscionable gamblers. + +Frequently a trapper would squander the entire product of his hunt, +amounting to hundreds of dollars, in a couple of hours. Then, supplied +with another outfit, he left the rendezvous for another expedition, +which had the same result time after time, although one good hunt +would have enabled him to return to the settlements and live a life of +comparative ease. + +It is told of one old Canadian trapper, who had received as much as +fifteen thousand dollars for beaver during his life in the mountains, +extending over twenty years, that each season he had resolved in his +mind to go back to Canada, and with this object in view always converted +his furs into cash; but a fortnight at the rendezvous always "cleaned +him out," and at the end of the twenty years he had not even enough +credit to get a plug of tobacco. + +Trading with the Indians in the primitive days of the border was just +what the word signifies in its radical interpretation--a system of +barter exclusively. No money was used in the transaction, as it was long +afterward before the savages began to learn something of the value +of currency from their connection with the sutler's and agency stores +established on reservations and at military posts on the plains and in +the mountains. In the early days, if an Indian by any chance happened to +get possession of a piece of money (only gold or silver was recognized +as a medium of exchange in the remote West), he would immediately +fashion it into some kind of an ornament with which to adorn his person. +Some tribes, however, did indulge in a sort of currency, worthless +except among themselves. This consisted of rare shells, such as the +Oligachuck, so called, of the Pacific coast nations, used by them within +my own recollection, as late as 1858. + +The poor Indian, as might have been expected, was generally outrageously +swindled; in fact, I am inclined to believe, always. I never was present +on an occasion when he was not. + +The savage's idea of values was very crude until the government, in +attempting to civilize and make a gentleman of him, has transformed him +into a bewildered child. Very soon after his connection with the white +trader, he learned that a gun was more valuable than a knife; but of +their relative cost to manufacture he had no idea. For these reasons, +obviously, he was always at the mercy of the unscrupulous trader who +came to his village, or met him at the rendezvous to barter for his +furs. I know that the price of every article he desired was fixed by the +trader, and never by the Indian, consequently he rarely got the best of +the bargain. + +Uncle John Smith, Kit Carson, L. B. Maxwell, Uncle Dick Wooton, and a +host of other well-known Indian traders, long since dead, have often +told me that the first thing they did on entering a village with a +pack-load of trinkets to barter, in the earlier days before the whites +had encroached to any great extent, was to arrange a schedule of prices. +They would gather a large number of sticks, each one representing an +article they had brought. With these crude symbols the Indian +made himself familiar in a little while, and when this preliminary +arrangement had been completed, the trading began. The Indian, for +instance, would place a buffalo-robe on the ground; then the trader +commenced to lay down a number of the sticks, representing what he was +willing to give for the robe. The Indian revolved the transaction in his +mind until he thought he was getting a fair equivalent according to his +ideas, then the bargain was made. It was claimed by these old traders, +when they related this to me, that the savage generally was not +satisfied, always insisting upon having more sticks placed on the pile. +I suspect, however, that the trader was ever prepared for this, and +never gave more than he originally intended. The price of that initial +robe having been determined on, it governed the price of all the rest +for the whole trade, regardless of size or fineness, for that day. What +was traded for was then placed by the Indian on one side of the lodge, +and the trader put what he was to give on the other. After prices had +been agreed upon, business went on very rapidly, and many thousand +dollars' worth of valuable furs were soon collected by the successful +trader, which he shipped to St. Louis and converted into gold. + +In a few years, relatively, the Indian began to appreciate the value of +our medium of exchange and the power it gave him to secure at the stores +in the widely scattered hamlets and at the military posts on the plains, +those things he coveted, at a fairer equivalent than in the uncertain +and complicated method of direct barter. It was not very long after the +advent of the overland coaches on the Santa Fe Trail, that our currency, +even the greenbacks, had assumed a value to the savage, which he at +least partially understood. Whenever the Indians successfully raided the +stages the mail sacks were no longer torn to pieces or thrown aside +as worthless, but every letter was carefully scrutinized for possible +bills. + +I well remember, when the small copper cent, with its spread eagle +upon it, was first issued, about the year 1857, how the soldiers of a +frontier garrison where I was stationed at the time palmed them off +upon the simple savages as two dollar and a half gold pieces, which they +resembled as long as they retained their brightness, and with which +the Indians were familiar, as many were received by the troops from +the paymaster every two months, the savages receiving them in turn for +horses and other things purchased of them by the soldiers. + +I have known of Indians who gave nuggets of gold for common calico +shirts costing two dollars in that region and seventy-five cents in the +States, while the lump of precious metal was worth, perhaps, five or +seven dollars. As late as twenty-eight years ago, I have traded for +beautifully smoke-tanned and porcupine-embroidered buffalo-robes for my +own use, giving in exchange a mere loaf of bread or a cupful of brown +sugar. + +Very early in the history of the United States, in 1786, the government, +under the authority of Congress, established a plan of trade with the +Indians. It comprised supplying all their physical wants without profit; +factories, or stations as they were called, were erected at points +that were then on the remote frontier; where factors, clerks, and +interpreters were stationed. The factors furnished goods of all kinds to +the Indians, and received from them in exchange furs and peltries. There +was an officer in charge of all these stations called the superintendent +of Indian trade, appointed by the President. As far back as 1821, +there were stations at Prairie du Chien, Fort Edward, Fort Osage, with +branches at Chicago, Green Bay in Arkansas, on the Red River, and other +places in the then far West. These stations were movable, and changed +from time to time to suit the convenience of the Indians. In 1822 the +whole system was abolished by act of Congress, and its affairs wound up, +the American Fur Company, the Missouri Fur Company, and a host of others +having by that time become powerful. Like the great corporations of +to-day, they succeeded in supplanting the government establishments. Of +course, the Indians of the remote plains, which included all the +vast region west of the Missouri River, never had the benefits of the +government trading establishments, but were left to the tender mercies +of the old plainsmen and trappers. + +Until the railroad reached the mountains, when the march of a wonderful +immigration closely followed, usurping the lands claimed by the savages, +and the latter were driven, perforce, upon reservations, the winter +camps of the Kiowas, Arapahoes, and Cheyennes were strung along the +Old Trail for miles, wherever a belt of timber on the margin of the +Arkansas, or its tributaries, could be found large enough to furnish +fuel for domestic purposes and cottonwood bark for the vast herds of +ponies in the severe snow-storms. + +At these various points the Indians congregated to trade with the +whites. As stated, Bent's Fort, the Pueblo Fort, and Big Timbers were +favourite resorts, and the trappers and old hunters passed a lively +three or four months every year, indulging in the amusements I have +referred to. They were also wonderful story-tellers, and around their +camp-fires many a tale of terrible adventure with Indians and vicious +animals was nightly related. + +Baptiste Brown was one of the most famous trappers. Few men had seen +more of wild life in the great prairie wilderness. He had hunted with +nearly every tribe of Indians on the plains and in the mountains, was +often at Bent's Fort, and his soul-stirring narratives made him a most +welcome guest at the camp-fire. + +He lived most of his time in the Wind River Mountains, in a beautiful +little valley named after him "Brown's Hole." It has a place on the maps +to-day, and is on what was then called Prairie River, or Sheetskadee, +by the Indians; it is now known as Green River, and is the source of the +great Colorado. + +The valley, which is several thousand feet above the sea-level, is about +fifteen miles in circumference, surrounded by lofty hills, and is aptly, +though not elegantly, characterized as a "hole." The mountain-grass is +of the most nutritious quality; groves of cottonwood trees and willows +are scattered through the sequestered spot, and the river, which enters +it from the north, is a magnificent stream; in fact, it is the very +ideal of a hunter's headquarters. + +The temperature is very equable, and at one time, years ago, hundreds +of trappers made it their winter quarters. Indians, too, of all the +northern tribes, but more especially the Arapahoes, frequented it to +trade with the white men. + +Baptiste Brown was a Canadian who spoke villanous French and worse +English; his vocabulary being largely interspersed with "enfant de +garce," "sacre," "sacre enfant," and "damn" until it was a difficult +matter to tell what he was talking about. + +He was married to an Arapahoe squaw, and his strange wooing and winning +of the dusky maiden is a thrilling love-story. + +Among the maidens who came with the Arapahoes, when that tribe made a +visit to "Brown's Hole" one winter for the purpose of trading with the +whites, was a young, merry, and very handsome girl, named "Unami," who +after a few interviews completely captured Baptiste's heart. Nothing was +more common, as I have stated, than marriages between the trappers and a +beautiful redskin. Isolated absolutely from women of his own colour, the +poor mountaineer forgets he is white, which, considering the embrowning +influence of constant exposure and sunlight, is not so marvellous after +all. For a portion of the year there is no hunting, and then idleness is +the order of the day. At such times the mountaineer visits the lodges +of his dark neighbours for amusement, and in the spirited dance many +a heart is lost to the squaws. The young trapper, like other enamoured +ones of his sex in civilization, lingers around the house of his fair +sweetheart while she transforms the soft skin of the doe into moccasins, +ornamenting them richly with glittering beads or the coloured quills +of the porcupine, all the time lightening the long hours with the +plain-songs of their tribe. It was upon an occasion of this character +that Baptiste, then in the prime of his youthful manhood, first loved +the dark-eyed Arapahoe. + +The course open to him was to woo and win her; but alas! savage papas +are just like fathers in the best civilization--the only difference +between them is that the former are more open and matter-of-fact, since +in savage etiquette a consideration is required in exchange for the +daughter, which belongs exclusively to the parent, and must be of equal +marketable value to the girl. + +The usual method is to select your best horse, take him to the lodge +of your inamorata's parents, tie him to a tree, and walk away. If +the animal is considered a fair exchange, matters are soon settled +satisfactorily; if not, other gifts must be added. + +At this juncture poor Baptiste was in a bad fix; he had disposed of +all his season's earnings for his winter's subsistence, much of which +consisted of an ample supply of whiskey and tobacco; so he had nothing +left wherewith to purchase the indispensable horse. Without the animal +no wife was to be had, and he was in a terrible predicament; for the +hunting season was long since over, and it wanted a whole month of the +time for a new starting out. + +Baptiste was a very determined man, however, and he shouldered his +rifle, intent on accomplishing by a laborious prosecution of the chase +the means of winning his loved one from her parents, notwithstanding +that the elements and the times were against him. He worked +industriously, and after many days was rewarded by a goodly supply of +beavers, otters, and mink which he had trapped, besides many a deerskin +whose wearer he had shot. Returning to his lodge, where he cached his +peltry, he again started out for the forest with hope filling his heart. +Three weeks passed in indifferent success, when one morning, having +entered a deep canyon, which evidently led out to an open prairie where +he thought game might be found, while busy cutting his way through a +thicket of briers with his knife, he suddenly came upon a little valley, +where he saw what caused him to retrace his footsteps into the thicket. + +And here it is necessary to relate a custom peculiar to all Indian +tribes. No young man, though his father were the greatest chief in the +nation, can range himself among the warriors, be entitled to enter the +marriage state, or enjoy any other rights of savage citizenship until +he shall have performed some act of personal bravery and daring, or +be sprinkled with the blood of his enemies. In the early springtime, +therefore, all the young men who are of the proper age band themselves +together and take to the forest in search--like the knight-errant of +old--of adventure and danger. Having decided upon a secluded and secret +spot, they collect a number of poles from twenty to thirty feet in +length, and, lashing them together at the small ends, form a huge +conical lodge, which they cover with grass and boughs. Inside they +deposit various articles, with which to "make medicine," or as a +propitiatory offering to the Great Spirit; generally a green buffalo +head, kettles, scalps, blankets, and other things of value, of which the +most prominent and revered is the sacred pipe. The party then enters the +lodge and the first ceremony is smoking this pipe. One of the young men +fills it with tobacco and herbs, places a coal on it from the fire +that has been already kindled in the lodge, and, taking the stem in his +mouth, inhales the smoke and expels it through his nostrils. The ground +is touched with the bowl, the four points of the compass are in turn +saluted, and with various ceremonies it makes the round of the lodge. +After many days of feasting and dancing the party is ready for a +campaign, when they abandon the lodge, and it is death for any one +else to enter, or by any means to desecrate it while its projectors are +absent. + +It was upon one of these mystic lodges that Baptiste had accidentally +stumbled, and strange thoughts flashed through his mind; for within the +sacred place were articles, doubtless, of value more than sufficient +to purchase the necessary horse with which he could win the fair Unami. +Baptiste was sorely tempted, but there was an instinctive respect for +religion in the minds of the old trappers, and Brown had too much honour +to think of robbing the Indian temple, although he distinctly remembered +a time when a poor white trapper, having been robbed of his poncho at +the beginning of winter, made free with a blanket he had found in one +of these Arapahoe sacred lodges. When he was brought before the medicine +men of the tribe, charged with the sacrilege, his defence, that, having +been robbed, the Great Spirit took pity on him and pointed out the +blanket and ordered him to clothe himself, was considered good, on the +theory that the Great Spirit had an undoubted right to give away his own +property; consequently the trapper was set free. + +Brown, after considering the case, was about to move away, when a hand +was laid on his shoulder, and turning round there stood before him an +Indian in full war-paint. + +The greeting was friendly, for the young savage was the brother of +Baptiste's love, to whom he had given many valuable presents during the +past season. + +"My white brother is very wakeful; he rises early." + +Baptiste laughed, and replied: "Yes, because my lodge is empty. If I +had Unami for a wife, I would not have to get out before the sun; and +I would always have a soft seat for her brother; he will be a great +warrior." + +The young brave shook his head gravely, as he pointed to his belt, where +not a scalp was to be seen, and said: "Five moons have gone to sleep and +the Arapahoe hatchet has not been raised. The Blackfeet are dogs, and +hide in their holes." + +Without adding anything to this hint that none of the young men had been +able to fulfil their vows, the disconsolate savage led the way to the +camp of the other Arapahoes, his companions in the quest for scalps. +Baptiste was very glad to see the face of a fellow-creature once more, +and he cheerfully followed the footsteps of the young brave, which were +directed away from the medicine lodge toward the rocky canyon which he +had already travelled that morning, where in the very centre of the dark +defile, and within twenty feet of where he had recently passed, was +the camp of the disappointed band. Baptiste was cordially received, +and invited to share the meal of which the party were about to partake, +after which the pipe was passed around. In a little while the Indians +began to talk among themselves by signs, which made Baptiste feel +somewhat uncomfortable, for it was apparent that he was the object of +their interest. + +They had argued that Brown's skin indicated that he belonged to the +great tribe of their natural enemies, and with the blood of a white +on their garments, they would have fulfilled the terms of their vow to +their friends and the Great Spirit. + +Noticing the trend of the debate, which would lead his friend into +trouble, the brother of Unami arose, and waving his hand said:-- + +"The Arapahoe is a warrior; his feet outstrip the fleetest horse; his +arrow is as the lightning of the Great Spirit; he is very brave. But a +cloud is between him and the sun; he cannot see his enemy; there is yet +no scalp in his lodge. The Great Spirit is good; he sends a victim, a +man whose skin is white, but his heart is very red; the pale-face is a +brother, and his long knife is turned from his friends, the Arapahoes; +but the Great Spirit is all-powerful. My brother"--pointing to +Baptiste--"is very full of blood; he can spare a little to stain the +blankets of the young men, and his heart shall still be warm; I have +spoken." + +As Baptiste expressed it: "Sacre enfant de garce; damn, de ting vas agin +my grain, but de young Arapahoe he have saved my life." + +Loud acclamation followed the speech of Unami's brother, and many of +those most clamorous against the white trapper, being actuated by the +earnest desire of returning home with their vow accomplished, when they +would be received into the list of warriors, and have wives and other +honours, were unanimous in agreeing to the proposed plan. + +A flint lancet was produced, Baptiste's arm was bared, and the blood +which flowed from the slight wound was carefully distributed, and +scattered over the robes of the delighted Arapahoes. + +The scene which followed was quite unexpected to Baptiste, who was +only glad to escape the death to which the majority had doomed him. The +Indians, perfectly satisfied that their vow of shedding an enemy's blood +had been fulfilled, were all gratitude; and to testify that gratitude in +a substantial manner each man sought his pack, and laid at the feet of +the surprised Baptiste a rich present. One gave an otter skin, another +that of a buffalo, and so on until his wealth in furs outstripped his +most sanguine expectations from his hunt. The brother of Unami stood +passively looking on until all the others had successively honoured +his guest, when he advanced toward Baptiste, leading by its bridle a +magnificent horse, fully caparisoned, and a large pack-mule. To refuse +would have been the most flagrant breach of Indian etiquette, and +beside, Brown was too alive to the advantage that would accrue to him to +be other than very thankful. + +The camp was then broken up, and the kind savages were soon lost to +Baptiste's sight as they passed down the canyon; and he, as soon as he +had gained a little strength, for he was weak from the blood he had shed +in the good cause, mounted his horse, after loading the mule with +his gifts, and made the best of his way to his lonely lodge, where he +remained several days. He then sold his furs at a good price, as it was +so early in the season, bartered for a large quantity of knives, beads, +powder, and balls, and returned to the Arapahoe village, where the horse +was considered a fair exchange for the pretty Unami; and from that day, +for over thirty years, they lived as happy as any couple in the highest +civilization. + +The fate of the Pueblo, where the trappers and hunters had such good +times in the halcyon days of the border, like that which befell nearly +all the trading-posts and ranches on the Old Santa Fe Trail, was to +be partially destroyed by the savages. During the early months of the +winter of 1854, the Utes swept down through the Arkansas valley, leaving +a track of blood behind them, and frightening the settlers so thoroughly +that many left the country never to return. The outbreak was as sudden +as it was devastating. The Pueblo was captured by the savages, and every +man, woman, and child in it murdered, with the exception of one aged +Mexican, and he was so badly wounded that he died in a few days. + +His story was that the Utes came to the gates of the fort on Christmas +morning, professing the greatest friendship, and asking permission to be +allowed to come inside and hold a peace conference. All who were in +the fort at the time were Mexicans, and as their cupidity led them to +believe that they could do some advantageous trading with the Indians, +they foolishly permitted the whole band to enter. The result was that +a wholesale massacre followed. There were seventeen persons in all +quartered there, only one of whom escaped death--the old man referred +to--and a woman and her two children, who were carried off as captives; +but even she was killed before the savages had gone a mile from the +place. What became of the children was never known; they probably met +the same fate. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. UNCLE JOHN SMITH. + + + +Many of the men of the border were blunt in manners, rude in speech, +driven to the absolute liberty of the far West with better natures +shattered and hopes blasted, to seek in the exciting life of the +plainsman and mountaineer oblivion of some incidents of their youthful +days, which were better forgotten. Yet these aliens from society, these +strangers to the refinements of civilization, who would tear off a +bloody scalp even with grim smiles of satisfaction, were fine fellows, +full of the milk of human kindness, and would share their last slapjack +with a hungry stranger. + +Uncle John Smith, as he was known to every trapper, trader, and hunter +from the Yellowstone to the Gila, was one of the most famous and +eccentric men of the early days. In 1826, as a boy, he ran away from St. +Louis with a party of Santa Fe traders, and so fascinated was he with +the desultory and exciting life, that he chose to sit cross-legged, +smoking the long Indian pipe, in the comfortable buffalo-skin teepee, +rather than cross legs on the broad table of his master, a tailor to +whom he had been apprenticed when he took French leave from St. Louis. + +He spent his first winter with the Blackfeet Indians, but came very +near losing his scalp in their continual quarrels, and therefore allied +himself with the more peaceable Sioux. Once while on the trail of a +horse-stealing band of Arapahoes near the head waters of the Arkansas, +the susceptible young hunter fell in love with a very pretty Cheyenne +squaw, married her, and remained true to the object of his early +affection during all his long and eventful life, extending over a period +of forty years. For many decades he lived with his dusky wife as the +Indians did, having been adopted by the tribe. He owned a large number +of horses, which constituted the wealth of the plains Indians, upon the +sale of which he depended almost entirely for his subsistence. He became +very powerful in the Cheyenne nation; was regarded as a chief, taking +an active part in the councils, and exercising much authority. His +excellent judgment as a trader with the various bands of Indians while +he was employed by the great fur companies made his services invaluable +in the strange business complications of the remote border. Besides +understanding the Cheyenne language as well as his native tongue, he +also spoke three other Indian dialects, French, and Spanish, but +with many Western expressions that sometimes grated harshly upon the +grammatical ear. + +He became a sort of autocrat on the plains and in the mountains; and +for an Indian or Mexican to attempt to effect a trade without Uncle John +Smith having something to say about it, and its conditions, was hardly +possible. The New Mexicans often came in small parties to his Indian +village, their burros packed with dry pumpkin, corn, etc., to trade +for buffalo-robes, bearskins, meat, and ponies; and Smith, who knew his +power, exacted tribute, which was always paid. At one time, however, +when for some reason a party of strange Mexicans refused, Uncle John +harangued the people of the village, and called the young warriors +together, who emptied every sack of goods belonging to the cowering +Mexicans on the ground, Smith ordering the women and children to help +themselves, an order which was obeyed with alacrity. The frightened +Mexicans left hurriedly for El Valle de Taos, whence they had come, +crossing themselves and uttering thanks to Heaven for having retained +their scalps. This and other similar cases so intimidated the poor +Greasers, and impressed them so deeply with a sense of Smith's power, +that, ever after, his permission to trade was craved by a special +deputation of the parties, accompanied by peace-offerings of corn, +pumpkin, and pinole. At one time, when Smith was journeying by himself a +day's ride from the Cheyenne village, he was met by a party of forty +or more corn traders, who, instead of putting such a bane to their +prospects speedily out of the way, gravely asked him if they could +proceed, and offered him every third robe they had to accompany them, +which he did. Indeed, he became so regardless of justice, in his +condescension to the natives of New Mexico, that the governor of that +province offered a reward of five hundred dollars for him alive or dead, +but fear of the Cheyennes was so prevalent that his capture was never +even attempted. + +During Sheridan's memorable winter campaign against the allied tribes +in 1868-69, the old man, for he was then about sixty, was my guide and +interpreter. He shared my tent and mess, a most welcome addition to the +few who sat at my table, and beguiled many a weary hour at night, after +our tedious marches through the apparently interminable sand dunes and +barren stretches of our monotonous route, with his tales of that period, +more than half a century ago, when our mid-continent region was as +little known as the topography of the planet Mars. + +At the close of December, 1868, a few weeks after the battle of the +Washita, I was camping with my command on the bank of that historic +stream in the Indian Territory, waiting with an immense wagon-train of +supplies for the arrival of General Custer's command, the famous Seventh +Cavalry, and also the Nineteenth Kansas, which were supposed to be lost, +or wandering aimlessly somewhere in the region south of us. + +I had been ordered to that point by General Sheridan, with instructions +to keep fires constantly burning on three or four of the highest peaks +in the vicinity of our camp, until the lost troops should be guided to +the spot by our signals. These signals were veritable pillars of fire +by night and pillars of cloud by day; for there was an abundance of wood +and hundreds of men ready to feed the hungry flames. + +It was more than two weeks before General Custer and his famished +troopers began to straggle in. During that period of anxious waiting +we lived almost exclusively on wild turkey, and longed for nature's +meat--the buffalo; but there were none of the shaggy beasts at that time +in the vicinity, so we had to content ourselves with the birds, of which +we became heartily tired. + +For several days after our arrival on the creek, the men had been urging +Uncle John to tell them another story of his early adventures; but the +old trapper was in one of his silent moods--he frequently had them--and +could not be persuaded to emerge from his shell of reticence despite +their most earnest entreaties. I knew it would be of no use for me +to press him. I could, of course, order him to any duty, and he would +promptly obey; but his tongue, like the hand of Douglas, was his own. I +knew, also, that when he got ready, which would be when some incident of +camp-life inspired him, he would be as garrulous as ever. + +One evening just before supper, a party of enlisted men who had been up +the creek to catch fish, but had failed to take anything owing to the +frozen condition of the stream, returned with the skeleton of a +Cheyenne Indian which they had picked up on the battle-ground of a month +previously--one of Custer's victims in his engagement with Black Kettle. +This was the incentive Uncle John required. As he gazed on the bleached +bones of the warrior, he said: "Boys, I'm going to tell you a good long +story to-night. Them Ingin's bones has put me in mind of it. After we've +eat, if you fellows wants to hear it, come down to headquarters tent, +and I'll give it to you." + +Of course word was rapidly passed from one to another, as the whole camp +was eager to hear the old trapper again. In a short time, every man not +on guard or detailed to keep up the signals on the hills gathered around +the dying embers of the cook's fire in front of my tent; the enlisted +men and teamsters in groups by themselves, the officers a little closer +in a circle, in the centre of which Uncle John sat. + +The night was cold, the sky covered with great fleecy patches, through +which the full moon, just fairly risen, appeared to be racing, under the +effect of that optical illusion caused by the rapidly moving clouds. The +coyotes had commenced their nocturnal concert in the timbered recesses +of the creek not far away, and on the battle-field a short distance +beyond, as they battened and fought over the dead warriors and the +carcasses of twelve hundred ponies killed in that terrible slaughter by +the intrepid Custer and his troopers. The signals on the hills leaped +into the crisp air like the tongues of dragons in the myths of the +ancients; in fact, the whole aspect of the place, as we sat around the +blazing logs of our camp-fire, was weird and uncanny. + +Every one was eager for the veteran guide to begin his tale; but as I +knew he could not proceed without smoking, I passed him my pouch of Lone +Jack--the brand par excellence in the army at that time. + +Uncle John loaded his corn-cob, picked up a live coal, and, pressing +it down on the tobacco with his thumb, commenced to puff vigorously. As +soon as his withered old face was half hidden in a cloud of smoke, he +opened his story in his stereotyped way. I relate it just as he told it, +but divested of much of its dialect, so difficult to write:-- + +"Well, boys, it's a good many years ago, in June, 1845, if I don't +disremember. I was about forty-three, and had been in the mountains and +on the plains more than nineteen seasons. You see, I went out there in +1826. There warn't no roads, nuthin' but the Santa Fe Trail, in them +days, and Ingins and varmints. + +"There was four of us. Me, Bill Comstock, Dick Curtis, and Al Thorpe. +Dick was took in by the Utes two years afterwards at the foot of the +Spanish Peaks, and Al was killed by the Apaches at Pawnee Rock, in 1847. + +"We'd been trapping up on Medicine Bow for more than three years +together, and had a pile of beaver, otter, mink, and other varmint's +skins cached in the hills, which we know'd was worth a heap of money; so +we concluded to take them to the river that summer. We started from our +trapping camp in April, and 'long 'bout the middle of June reached the +Arkansas, near what is know'd as Point o' Rocks. You all know where them +is on the Trail west of Fort Dodge, and how them rocks rises up out of +the prairie sudden-like. We was a travelling 'long mighty easy, for +we was all afoot, and had hoofed it the whole distance, more than six +hundred miles, driving five good mules ahead of us. Our furs was packed +on four of them, and the other carried our blankets, extry ammunition, +frying-pan, coffee-pot, and what little grub we had, for we was obliged +to depend upon buffalo, antelope, and jack-rabbits; but, boys, I tell +you there was millions of 'em in them days. + +"We had just got into camp at Point o' Rocks. It was 'bout four o'clock +in the afternoon; none of us carried watches, we always reckoned time +by the sun, and could generally guess mighty close, too. It was powerful +hot, I remember. We'd hobbled our mules close to the ledge, where the +grass was good, so they couldn't be stampeded, as we know'd we was in +the Pawnee country, and they was the most ornery Ingins on the plains. +We know'd nothing that was white ever came by that part of the Trail +without having a scrimmage with the red devils. + +"Well, we hadn't more than took our dinner, when them mules give a +terrible snort, and tried to break and run, getting awful oneasy all to +once. Them critters can tell when Ingins is around. They's better than a +dozen dogs. I don't know how they can tell, but they just naturally do. + +"In less than five minutes after them mules began to worry, stopped +eating, and had their ears pricked up a trying to look over the ledge +towards the river, we heard a sharp firing down on the Trail, which +didn't appear to be more than a hundred yards off. You ought to seen us +grab our rifles sudden, and run out from behind them rocks, where we was +a camping, so comfortable-like, and just going to light our pipes for a +good smoke. It didn't take us no time to get down on to the Trail, where +we seen a Mexican bull train, that we know'd must have come from Santa +Fe, and which had stopped and was trying to corral. More than sixty +painted Pawnees was a circling around the outfit, howling as only them +can howl, and pouring a shower of arrows into the oxen. Some was shaking +their buffalo-robes, trying to stampede the critters, so they could kill +the men easier. + +"We lit out mighty lively, soon as we seen what was going on, and +reached the head of the train just as the last wagon, that was +furtherest down the Trail, nigh a quarter of a mile off, was cut out +by part of the band. Then we seen a man, a woman, and a little boy jump +out, and run to get shet of the Ingins what had cut out the wagon from +the rest of the train. One of the red devils killed the man and scalped +him, while the other pulled the woman up in front of him, and rid off +into the sand hills, and out of sight in a minute. Then the one what had +killed her husband started for the boy, who was a running for the train +as fast as his little legs could go. But we was nigh enough then; +and just as the Ingin was reaching down from his pony for the kid, Al +Thorpe--he was a powerful fine shot--draw'd up his gun and took the +red cuss off his critter without the paint-bedaubed devil know'n' what +struck him. + +"The boy, seeing us, broke and run for where we was, and I reckon the +rest of the Ingins seen us then for the first time, too. We was up with +the train now, which was kind o' halfway corralled, and Dick Curtis +picked up the child--he warn't more than seven years old--and throw'd +him gently into one of the wagons, where he'd be out of the way; for we +know'd there was going to be considerable more fighting before night. +We know'd, too, we Americans would have to do the heft of it, as them +Mexican bull-whackers warn't much account, nohow, except to cavort +around and swear in Spanish, which they hadn't done nothing else since +we'd come up to the train; besides, their miserable guns warn't much +better than so many bows and arrows. + +"We Americans talked together for a few moments as to what was best to +be did, while the Ingins all this time was keeping up a lively fire for +them. We made as strong a corral of the wagons as we could, driving out +what oxen the Mexicans had put in the one they had made, but you can't +do much with only nine wagons, nohow. Fortunately, while we was fixing +things, the red cusses suddenly retreated out of the range of our +rifles, and we first thought they had cleared out for good. We soon +discovered, however, they were only holding a pow-wow; for in a few +minutes back they come, mounted on their ponies, with all their fixin's +and fresh war-paint on. + +"Then they commenced to circle around us again, coming a little +nearer--Ingin fashion--every time they rid off and back. It wasn't +long before they got in easy range, when they slung themselves on the +off-side of their ponies and let fly their arrows and balls from under +their critters' necks. Their guns warn't much 'count, being only old +English muskets what had come from the Hudson Bay Fur Company, so +they didn't do no harm that round, except to scare the Mexicans, which +commenced to cross themselves and pray and swear. + +"We four Americans warn't idle when them Ingins come a charging up; we +kept our eye skinned, and whenever we could draw a bead, one of +them tumbled off his pony, you bet! When they'd come back for their +dead--we'd already killed three of them--we had a big advantage, wasted +no shots, and dropped four of them; one apiece, and you never heard +Ingins howl so. It was getting kind o' dark by this time, and the +varmints didn't seem anxious to fight any more, but went down to the +river and scooted off into the sand hills on the other side. We waited +more than half an hour for them, but as they didn't come back, concluded +we'd better light out too. We told the Mexicans to yoke up, and as good +luck would have it they found all the cattle close by, excepting them +what pulled the wagon what the Ingins had cut out, and as it was way +down the Trail, we had to abandon it; for it was too dark to hunt it up, +as we had no time to fool away. + +"We put all our outfit into the train; it wasn't loaded, but going empty +to the Missouri, to fetch back a sawmill for New Mexico. Then we made a +soft bed in the middle wagon out of blankets for the kid, and rolled +out 'bout ten o'clock, meaning to put as many miles between us and them +Ingins as the oxen could stand. We four hoofed it along for a while, +then rid a piece, catching a nap now and then as best we could, for +we was monstrous tired. By daylight we'd made fourteen miles, and was +obliged to stop to let the cattle graze. We boiled our coffee, fried +some meat, and by that time the little boy waked. He'd slept like a top +all night and hadn't no supper either; so when I went to the wagon where +he was to fetch him out, he just put them baby arms of his'n around my +neck, and says, 'Where's mamma?' + +"I tell you, boys, that nigh played me out. He had no idee, 'cause he +was too young to realize what had happened; we know'd his pa was killed, +but where his ma was, God only know'd!" + +Here the old man stopped short in his narrative, made two or three +efforts as if to swallow something that would not go down, while his +eyes had a far-away look. Presently he picked up a fresh coal from the +fire, placed it on his pipe, which had gone out, then puffing vigorously +for a few seconds, until his head was again enveloped in smoke, he +continued:-- + +"After I'd washed the little fellow's face and hands, I gave him a +tin cup of coffee and some meat. You'd ought to seen him eat; he +was hungrier than a coyote. Then while the others was a watering and +picketing the mules, I sot down on the grass and took the kid into +my lap to have a good look at him; for until now none of us had had a +chance. + +"He was the purtiest child I'd ever seen; great black eyes, and +eyelashes that laid right on to his cheeks; his hair, too, was black, +and as curly as a young big-horn. I asked him what his name was, and he +says, 'Paul.' 'Hain't you got no other name?' says I to him again, and +he answered, 'Yes, sir,' for he was awful polite; I noticed that. 'Paul +Dale,' says he prompt-like, and them big eyes of his'n looked up into +mine, as he says 'What be yourn?' I told him he must call me 'Uncle +John,' and then he says again, as he put his arms around my neck, his +little lips all a quivering, and looking so sorrowful, 'Uncle John, +where's mamma; why don't she come?' + +"Boys, I don't really know what I did say. A kind o' mist came before +my eyes, and for a minute or two I didn't know nothing. I come to in a +little while, and seeing Thorpe bringing up the mules from the river, +where he'd been watering them, I says to Paul, to get his mind on to +something else besides his mother, 'Don't you want to ride one of them +mules when we pull out again?' The little fellow jumped off my lap, +clapped his hands, forgetting his trouble all at once, child-like, and +replied, 'I do, Uncle John, can I?' + +"After we'd camped there 'bout three hours, the cattle full of grass and +all laying down chewing their cud, we concluded to move on and make a +few miles before it grow'd too hot, and to get further from the Ingins, +which we expected would tackle us again, as soon as they could get back +from their camp, where we felt sure they had gone for reinforcements. + +"While the Mexicans was yoking up, me and Thorpe rigged an easy saddle +on one of the mules, out of blankets, for the kid to ride on, and when +we was all ready to pull out, I histed him on, and you never see a +youngster so tickled. + +"We had to travel mighty slow; couldn't make more than eighteen miles a +day with oxen, and that was in two drives, one early in the morning, and +one in the evening when it was cool, a laying by and grazing when it +was hot. We Americans walked along the Trail, and mighty slow walking +it was; 'bout two and a half miles an hour. I kept close to Paul, for I +began to set a good deal of store by him; he seemed to cotton to me more +than he did to the rest, wanting to stick near me most of the time as he +rid on the mule. I wanted to find out something 'bout his folks, where +they'd come from; so that when we got to Independence, perhaps I could +turn him over to them as ought to have him; though in my own mind I was +ornery enough to wish I might never find them, and he'd be obliged to +stay with me. The boy was too young to tell what I wanted to find out; +all I could get out of him was they'd been living in Santa Fe since +he was a baby, and that his papa was a preacher. I 'spect one of them +missionaries 'mong the heathenish Greasers. He said they was going back +to his grandma's in the States, but he could not tell where. I couldn't +get nothing out of them Mexican bull-whackers neither--what they know'd +wasn't half as much as the kid--and I had to give it up. + +"Well, we kept moving along without having any more trouble for a week; +them Ingins never following us as we 'lowed they would. I really enjoyed +the trip such as I never had before. Paul he was so 'fectionate and +smart, that he 'peared to fill a spot in my heart what had always been +hollow until then. When he'd got tired of riding the mule or in one +of the wagons, he'd come and walk along the Trail with me, a picking +flowers, chasing the prairie-owls and such, until his little legs 'bout +played out, when I'd hist him on his mule again. When we'd go into camp, +Paul, he'd run and pick up buffalo-chips for the fire, and wanted to +help all he could. Then when it came time to go to sleep, the boy would +always get under my blankets and cuddle up close to me. He'd be sure to +say his prayers first, though; but it seemed so strange to me who hadn't +heard a prayer for thirty years. I never tried to stop him, you may be +certain of that. He'd ask God to bless his pa and ma, and wind up +with 'Bless Uncle John too.' Then I couldn't help hugging him right up +tighter; for it carried me back to Old Missouri, to the log-cabin in the +woods where I was born, and used to say 'Now I lay me,' and 'Our Father' +at my ma's knee, when I was a kid like him. I tell you, boys, there +ain't nothing that will take the conceit out of a man here on the +plains, like the company of a kid what has been brought up right. + +"I reckon we'd been travelling about ten days since we left Point o' +Rocks, and was on the other side of the Big Bend of the Arkansas, near +the mouth of the Walnut, where Fort Zarah is now. We had went into camp +at sundown, close to a big spring that's there yet. We drawed up the +wagons into a corral on the edge of the river where there wasn't +no grass for quite a long stretch; we done this to kind o' fortify +ourselves, for we expected to have trouble with the Ingins there, if +anywhere, as we warn't but seventeen miles from Pawnee Rock, the worst +place on the whole Trail for them; so we picked out that bare spot where +they couldn't set fire to the prairie. It was long after dark when we +eat our supper; then we smoked our pipes, waiting for the oxen to fill +themselves, which had been driven about a mile off where there was good +grass. The Mexicans was herding them, and when they'd eat all they could +hold, and was commencing to lay down, they was driven into the corral. +Then all of us, except Comstock and Curtis, turned in; they was to stand +guard until 'bout one o'clock, when me and Thorpe was to change places +with them and stay up until morning; for, you see, we was afraid to +trust them Mexicans. + +"It seemed like we hadn't been asleep more than an hour when me and +Thorpe was called to take our turn on guard. We got out of our blankets, +I putting Paul into one of the wagons, then me and Thorpe lighted our +pipes and walked around, keeping our eyes and ears open, watching the +heavy fringe of timber on the creek mighty close, I tell you. Just as +daylight was coming, we noticed that our mules, what was tied to a wagon +in the corral, was getting uneasy, a pawing and snorting, with their +long ears cocked up and looking toward the Walnut. Before I could finish +saying to Thorpe, 'Them mules smells Ingins,' half a dozen or more of +the darned cusses dashed out of the timber, yelling and shaking their +robes, which, of course, waked up the whole camp. Me and Thorpe sent a +couple of shots after them, that scattered the devils for a minute; but +we hadn't hit nary one, because it was too dark yet to draw a bead on +them. We was certain there was a good many more of them behind the first +that had charged us; so we got all the men on the side of the corral +next to the Trail. The Ingins we know'd couldn't get behind us, on +account of the river, and we was bound to make them fight where we +wanted them to, if they meant to fight at all. + +"In less than a minute, quicker than I can tell you, sure enough, out +they came again, only there was 'bout eighty of them this time. They +made a dash at once, and their arrows fell like a shower of hail on +the ground and against the wagon-sheets as the cusses swept by on their +ponies. There wasn't anybody hurt, and our turn soon came. Just as they +circled back, we poured it into them, killing six and wounding two. You +see them Mexican guns had did some work that we didn't expect, and then +we Americans felt better. Well, boys, them varmints made four charges +like that on to us before we could get shet of them; but we killed as +many as sixteen or eighteen, and they got mighty sick of it and quit; +they had only knocked over one Mexican, and put an arrow into Thorpe's +arm. + +"I was amused at little Paul all the time the scrimmage was going on. +He stood up in the wagon where I'd put him, a looking out of the hole +behind where the sheet was drawed together, and every time an Ingin +was tumbled off his pony, he would clap his hands and yell, 'There goes +another one, Uncle John!' + +"After their last charge, they rode off out of range, where they stood +in little bunches talking to each other, holding some sort of a pow-wow. +It riled us to see the darned cusses keep so far away from our rifles, +because we wanted to lay a few more of them out, but was obliged to keep +still and watch out for some new deviltry. We waited there until it +was plumb night, not daring to move out yet; but we managed to boil our +coffee and fry slap-jacks and meat. + +"The oxen kept up a bellowing and pawing around the corral, for they was +desperate hungry and thirsty, hadn't had nothing since the night before; +yet we couldn't help them any, as we didn't know whether we was shet of +the Ingins or not. We staid, patient-like, for two or three hours more +after dark to see what the Ingins was going to do, as while we sot round +our little fire of buffalo-chips, smoking our pipes, we could still hear +the red devils a howling and chanting, while they picked up their dead +laying along the river-bottom. + +"As soon as morning broke--we'd ketched a nap now and then during the +night--we got ready for another charge of the Ingins, their favourite +time being just 'bout daylight; but there warn't hide or hair of an +Ingin in sight. They'd sneaked off in the darkness long before the +first streak of dawn; had enough of fighting, I expect. As soon as we +discovered they'd all cleared out, we told the drivers to hitch up, and +while they was yoking and watering, me 'n' Curtis and Comstock buried +the dead Mexican on the bank of the river, as we didn't want to leave +his bones to be picked by the coyotes, which was already setting on the +sand hills watching and waiting for us to break camp. By the time we'd +finished our job, and piled some rocks on his grave, so as the varmints +couldn't dig him up, the train was strung out on the Trail, and then we +rolled out mighty lively for oxen; for the critters was hungry, and we +had to travel three or four miles the other side of the Walnut, where +the grass was green, before they could feed. The oxen seen it on the +hills and they lit out almost at a trot. It was 'bout sun-up when we got +there, when we turned the animals loose, corralled, and had breakfast. + +"After we'd had our smoke, all we had to do was to put in the time until +five o'clock; for we couldn't move before then, as it would be too hot +by the time the oxen got filled. Paul and me went down to the creek +fishing; there was tremendous cat in the Walnut them days, and by noon +we'd ketched five big beauties, which we took to camp and cooked for +dinner. After I'd had my smoke, Paul and me went back to the creek, +where we stretched ourselves under a good-sized box-elder tree--there +wasn't no shade nowhere else--and took a sleep, while Comstock and +Curtis went jack-rabbit hunting across the river, as we was getting +scarce of meat. + +"Thorpe, who was hit in the arm with an arrow, couldn't do much but +nuss his wound; so him and the Mexicans stood guard, a looking out for +Ingins, as we didn't know but what the cusses might come back and make +another raid on us, though we really didn't expect they would have the +gall to bother us any more--least not the same outfit what had fought us +the day before. That evening, 'bout six o'clock, we rolled out again and +went into camp late, having made twelve miles, and didn't see a sign of +Ingins. + +"In ten days more we got to Independence without having no more trouble +of no kind, and was surprised at our luck. At Independence we Americans +left the train, sold our furs, got a big price, too--each of us had a +shot-bag full of gold and silver, more money than we know'd what to do +with. Me, Curtis, and Thorpe concluded we'd buy a new outfit, consisting +of another six-mule wagon, and harness, so we'd have a full team, +meaning to go back to the mountains with the first big caravan what +left. + +"All the folks in the settlement what seen Paul took a great fancy to +him. Some wanted to adopt him, and some said I'd ought to take him to +St. Louis and place him in an orphan asylum; but I 'lowed if there was +going to be any adopting done, I'd do it myself, 'cause the kid seemed +now just as if he was my own; besides the little fellow I know'd loved +me and didn't want me to leave him. I had kin-folks in Independence, an +old aunt, and me and Paul staid there. She had a young gal with her, and +she learned Paul out of books; so he picked up considerable, as we had +to wait more than two months before Colonel St. Vrain's caravan was +ready to start for New Mexico. + +"I bought Paul a coal-black pony, and had a suit of fine buckskin made +for him out of the pelt of a black-tail deer I'd shot the winter before +on Powder River. The seams of his trousers was heavily fringed, and with +his white sombrero, a riding around town on his pony, he looked like one +of them Spanish Dons what the papers nowadays has pictures of; only he +was smarter-looking than any Don I ever see in my life. + +"It was 'bout the last of August when we pulled out from Independence. +Comstock staid with us until we got ready to go, and then lit out +for St. Louis, and I hain't never seen him since. The caravan had +seventy-five six-mule teams in it, without counting ours, loaded with +dry-goods and groceries for Mora, New Mexico, where Colonel St. Vrain, +the owner, lived and had a big store. We had no trouble with the Ingins +going back across the plains; we seen lots, to be sure, hanging on our +trail, but they never attacked us; we was too strong for them. + +"'Bout the last of September we reached Bent's Old Fort, on the +Arkansas, where the Santa Fe Trail crosses the river into New Mexico, +and we camped there the night we got to it. + +"I know'd they had cows up to the fort; so just before we was ready for +supper, I took Paul and started to see if we couldn't get some milk for +our coffee. It wasn't far, and we was camped a few hundred yards from +the gate, just outside the wall. Well, we went into the kitchen, Paul +right alongside of me, and there I seen a white woman leaning over the +adobe hearth a cooking--they had always only been squaws before. She +naturally looked up to find out who was coming in, and when she seen the +kid, all at once she give a scream, dropped the dish-cloth she had +in her hand, made a break for Paul, throw'd her arms around him, +nigh upsetting me, and says, while she was a sobbing and taking on +dreadful,-- + +"'My boy! My boy! Then I hain't prayed and begged the good Lord all +these days and nights for nothing!' Then she kind o' choked again, while +Paul, he says, as he hung on to her,-- + +"'O mamma! O mamma! I know'd you'd come back! I know'd you'd come back!' + +"Well, there, boys, I just walked out of that kitchen a heap faster +than I'd come into it, and shut the door. When I got outside, for a few +minutes I couldn't see nothing, I was worked up so. As soon as I come +to, I went through the gate down to camp as quick as my legs would carry +me, to tell Thorpe and Curtis that Paul had found his ma. They wanted to +know all about it, but I couldn't tell them nothing, I was so dumfounded +at the way things had turned out. We talked among ourselves a moment, +then reckoned it was the best to go up to the fort together, and ask the +woman how on earth she'd got shet of the Ingins what had took her off, +and how it come she was cooking there. We started out and when we got +into the kitchen, there was Paul and Mrs. Dale, and you never see no +people so happy. They was just as wild as a stampeded steer; she seemed +to have growed ten years younger than when I first went up there, and as +for Paul, he was in heaven for certain. + +"First we had to tell her how we'd got the kid, and how we'd learned to +love him. All the time we was telling of it, and our scrimmages with +the Ingins, she was a crying and hugging Paul as if her heart was broke. +After we'd told all we know'd, we asked her to tell us her story, which +she did, and it showed she was a woman of grit and education. + +"She said the Ingins what had captured her took her up to their camp on +the Saw Log, a little creek north of Fort Dodge--you all know where +it is--and there she staid that night. Early in the morning they all +started for the north. She watched their ponies mighty close as they +rid along that day, so as to find out which was the fastest; for she had +made up her mind to make her escape the first chance she got. She looked +at the sun once in a while, to learn what course they was taking; so +that she could go back when she got ready, strike the Sante Fe Trail, +and get to some ranch, as she had seen several while passing through the +foot-hills of the Raton Range when she was with the Mexican train. + +"It was on the night of the fourth day after they had left Saw Log, +and had rid a long distance--was more than a hundred miles on their +journey--when she determined to try and light out. The whole camp was +fast asleep, for the Ingins was monstrous tired. She crawled out of the +lodge where she'd been put with some old squaws, and going to where the +ponies had been picketed, she took a little iron-gray she'd had her eye +on, jumped on his back, with only the lariat for a bridle and without +any saddle, not even a blanket, took her bearings from the north star, +and cautiously moved out. She started on a walk, until she'd got 'bout +four miles from camp, and then struck a lope, keeping it up all night. +By next morning she'd made some forty miles, and then for the first time +since she'd left her lodge, pulled up and looked back, to see if any of +the Ingins was following her. When she seen there wasn't a living thing +in sight, she got off her pony, watered him out of a small branch, took +a drink herself, but not daring to rest yet, mounted her animal again +and rid on as fast as she could without wearing him out too quickly. + +"Hour after hour she rid on, the pony appearing to have miraculous +endurance, until sundown. By that time she'd crossed the Saline, the +Smoky Hill, and got to the top of the divide between that river and the +Arkansas, or not more than forty miles from the Santa Fe Trail. Then her +wonderful animal seemed to weaken; she couldn't even make him trot, and +she was so nearly played out herself, she could hardly set steady. What +to do, she didn't know. The pony was barely able to move at a slow walk. +She was afraid he would drop dead under her, and she was compelled +to dismount, and in almost a minute, as soon as she laid down on the +prairie, was fast asleep. + +"She had no idee how long she had slept when she woke up. The sun was +only 'bout two hours high. Then she know'd she had been unconscious +since sundown of the day before, or nigh twenty-four hours. Rubbing her +eyes, for she was kind o' bewildered, and looking around, there she saw +her pony as fresh, seemingly, as when she'd started. He'd had plenty to +eat, for the grass was good, but she'd had nothing. She pulled a little +piece of dried buffalo-meat out of her bosom, which she'd brought along, +all she could find at the lodge, and now nibbled at that, for she was +mighty hungry. She was terribly sore and stiff too, but she mounted at +once and pushed on, loping and walking him by spells. Just at daylight +she could make out the Arkansas right in front of her in the dim gray +of the early morning, not very far off. On the west, the Raton Mountains +loomed up like a great pile of blue clouds, the sight of which cheered +her; for she know'd she would soon reach the Trail. + +"It wasn't quite noon when she struck the Santa Fe Trail. When she got +there, looking to the east, she saw in the distance, not more than three +miles away, a large caravan coming, and then, almost wild with delight, +she dismounted, sot down on the grass, and waited for it to arrive. In +less than an hour, the train come up to where she was, and as good luck +would have it, it happened to be an American outfit, going to Taos with +merchandise. As soon as the master of the caravan seen her setting on +the prairie, he rid up ahead of the wagons, and she told him her story. +He was a kind-hearted man; had the train stop right there on the bank of +the river, though he wasn't half through his day's drive, so as to make +her comfortable as possible, and give her something to eat; for she was +'bout played out. He bought the Ingin pony, giving her thirty dollars +for it, and after she had rested for some time, the caravan moved out. +She rid in one of the wagons, on a bed of blankets, and the next evening +arrived at Bent's Old Fort. There she found women-folks, who cared for +her and nussed her; for she was dreadfully sore and tired after her long +ride. Then she was hired to cook, meaning to work until she'd earned +enough to take her back to Pennsylvany, to her mother's, where she had +started for when the Ingins attackted the train. + +"That night, after listening to her mirac'lous escape, we made up a +'pot' for her, collecting 'bout eight hundred dollars. The master of +Colonel St. Vrain's caravan, what had come out with us, told her he was +going back again to the river in a couple of weeks, and he'd take her +and Paul in without costing her a cent; besides, she'd be safer than +with any other outfit, as his train was a big one, and he had all +American teamsters. + +"Next morning the caravan went on to Mora, and after we'd bid good-by to +Mrs. Dale and Paul, before which I give the boy two hundred dollars +for himself, me, Thorpe, and Curtis pulled out with our team north for +Frenchman's Creek, and I never felt so miserable before nor since as I +did parting with the kid that morning. I hain't never seen him since; +but he must be nigh forty now. Mebby he went into the war and was +killed; mebby he got to be a general, but I hain't forgot him." + +Uncle John knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and without saying another +word went into the tent. In a few moments the camp was as quiet as a +country village on Sunday, excepting the occasional howling of a hungry +wolf down in the timbered recesses of the Washita, or the crackling and +sputtering of the signal fires on the hilltops. + +In a few days afterward, we were camping on Hackberry Creek, in the +Indian Territory. We had been living on wild turkey, as before for some +time, and still longed for a change. At last one of my hunters succeeded +in bagging a dozen or more quails. Late that evening, when my cook +brought the delicious little birds, beautifully spitted and broiled on +peeled willow twigs, into my tent, I passed one to Uncle John. Much to +the surprise of every one, he refused. He said, "Boys, I don't eat no +quail!" + +We looked at him in astonishment; for he was somewhat of a gourmand, and +prided himself upon the "faculty," as he termed it, of being able to +eat anything, from a piece of jerked buffalo-hide to the juiciest young +antelope steak. + +I remonstrated with the venerable guide; said to him, "You are making a +terrible mistake, Uncle John. Tomorrow I expect to leave here, and as we +are going directly away from the buffalo country, we don't know when +we shall strike fresh meat again. You'd better try one," and I again +proffered one of the birds. + +"Boys," said he again, "I don't tech quail; I hain't eat one for more +than twenty years. One of the little cusses saved my life once, and I +swore right thar and then that I would starve first; and I have kept my +oath, though I've seen the time mighty often sence I could a killed 'em +with my quirt, when all I had to chaw on for four days was the soles of +a greasy pair of old moccasins. + +"Well, boys, it's a good many years ago--in June, if I don't +disremember, 1847. We was a coming in from way up in Cache le Poudre and +from Yellowstone Lake, whar we'd been a trapping for two seasons. We was +a working our way slowly back to Independence, Missouri, where we was +a going to get a new outfit. Let's see, there was me, and a man by the +name of Boyd, and Lew Thorp--Lew was a working for Colonel Boone at +the time--and two more men, whose names I disremember now, and a nigger +wench we had for a cook. We had mighty good luck, and had a big pile +of skins; and the Indians never troubled us till we got down on Pawnee +Bottom, this side of Pawnee Rock. We all of us had mighty good ponies, +but Thorp had a team and wagon, which he was driving for Colonel Boone. + +"We had went into camp on Pawnee Bottom airly in the afternoon, and I +told the boys to look out for Ingins--for I knowed ef we was to have any +trouble with them it would be somewhere in that vicinity. But we didn't +see a darned redskin that night, nor the sign of one. + +"The wolves howled considerable, and come pretty close to the fire for +the bacon rinds we'd throwed away after supper. + +"You see the buffalo was scurse right thar then--it was the wrong time +o' year. They generally don't get down on to the Arkansas till about +September, and when they're scurse the wolves and coyotes are mighty +sassy, and will steal a piece of bacon rind right out of the pan, if +you don't watch 'em. So we picketed our ponies a little closer before we +turned in, and we all went to sleep except one, who sort o' kept watch +on the stock. + +"I was out o' my blankets mighty airly next morning, for I was kind o' +suspicious. I could always tell when Ingins was prowling around, and I +had a sort of present'ment something was going to happen--I didn't like +the way the coyotes kept yelling--so I rested kind o' oneasy like, and +was out among the ponies by the first streak o' daylight. + +"About the time I could see things, I discovered three or four buffalo +grazing off on the creek bottom, about a half-mile away, and I started +for my rifle, thinking I would examine her. + +"Pretty soon I seed Thorp and Boyd crawl out o' their blankets, too, +and I called their attention to the buffalo, which was still feeding +undisturbed. + +"We'd been kind o' scurse of fresh meat for a couple of weeks--ever +since we left the Platte--except a jack-rabbit or cottontail, and I +knowed the boys would be wanting to get a quarter or two of a good fat +cow, if we could find one in the herd, so that was the reason I pointed +'em out to 'em. + +"The dew, you see, was mighty heavy, and the grass in the bottom was as +wet as if it had been raining for a month, and I didn't care to go down +whar the buffalo was just then--I knowed we had plenty of time, and as +soon as the sun was up it would dry right off. So I got on to one of +the ponies and led the others down to the spring near camp to water them +while the wench was a getting breakfast, and some o' the rest o' the +outfit was a fixing the saddles and greasing the wagon. + +"Just as I was coming back--it had growed quite light then--I seed +Boyd and Thorp start out from camp with their rifles and make for the +buffalo; so I picketed the ponies, gets my rifle, and starts off too. + +"By the time I'd reached the edge of the bottom, Thorp and Boyd was a +crawling up on to a young bull way off to the right, and I lit out for a +fat cow I seen bunched up with the rest of the herd on the left. + +"The grass was mighty tall on some parts of the Arkansas bottom in them +days, and I got within easy shooting range without the herd seeing me. + +"The buffalo was now between me and Thorp and Boyd, and they was +furtherest from camp. I could see them over the top of the grass kind +o' edging up to the bull, and I kept a crawling on my hands and knees +toward the cow, and when I got about a hundred and fifty yards of her, I +pulled up my rifle and drawed a bead. + +"Just as I was running my eyes along the bar'l, a darned little quail +flew right out from under my feet and lit exactly on my front sight and +of course cut off my aim--we didn't shoot reckless in those days; every +shot had to tell, or a man was the laughing-stock for a month if he +missed his game. + +"I shook the little critter off and brought up my rifle again when, durn +my skin, if the bird didn't light right on to the same place; at the +same time my eyes grow'd kind o' hazy-like and in a minute I didn't know +nothing. + +"When I come to, the quail was gone, I heerd a couple of rifle shots, +and right in front of where the bull had stood and close to Thorp and +Boyd, half a dozen Ingins jumped up out o' the tall grass and, firing +into the two men, killed Thorp instantly and wounded Boyd. + +"He and me got to camp--keeping off the Ingins, who knowed I was +loaded--when we, with the rest of the outfit, drove the red devils away. + +"They was Apaches, and the fellow that shot Thorp was a half-breed +nigger and Apache. He scalped Thorp and carred off the whole upper part +of his skull with it. He got Thorp's rifle and bullet-pouch too, and his +knife. + +"We buried Thorp in the bottom there, and some of the party cut their +names on the stones that they covered his body up with, to keep the +coyotes from eating up his bones. + +"Boyd got on to the river with us all right, and I never heerd of him +after we separated at Booneville. We pulled out soon after the Indians +left, but we didn't get no buffalo-meat. + +"You see, boys, if I'd a fired into that cow, the devils would a had me +before I could a got a patch on my ball--didn't have no breech-loaders +in them days, and it took as much judgment to know how to load a rifle +properly as it did to shoot it. + +"Them Ingins knowed all that--they knowed I hadn't fired, so they kept +a respectable distance. I would a fired, but the quail saved my life by +interfering with my sight--and that's the reason I don't eat no quail. I +hain't superstitious, but I don't believe they was meant to be eat." + +Uncle John stuck to his text, I believe, until he died, and you could +never disabuse his mind of the idea that the quail lighting on his rifle +was not a special interposition of Providence. + +Only four years after he told his story, in 1872, one of the newly +established settlers, living a few miles west of Larned on Pawnee +Bottom, having observed in one of his fields a singular depression, +resembling an old grave, determined to dig down and see if there was any +special cause for the strange indentation on his land. + +A couple of feet below the surface he discovered several flat pieces +of stone, on one of which the words "Washington" and "J. Hildreth" +were rudely cut, also a line separating them, and underneath: "December +tenth" and "J. M., 1850." On another was carved the name "J. H. Shell," +with other characters that could not be deciphered. On a third stone +were the initials "H. R., 1847"; underneath which was plainly cut "J. +R. Boyd," and still beneath "J. R. Pring." At the very bottom of the +excavation were found the lower portion of the skull, one or two ribs, +and one of the bones of the leg of a human being. The piece of skull was +found near the centre of the grave, for such it certainly was. + +At the time of the discovery I was in Larned, and I immediately +consulted my book of notes and memoranda taken hurriedly at intervals on +the plains and in the mountains, during more than half my lifetime, to +see if I could find anything that would solve the mystery attached to +the quiet prairie-grave and its contents, and I then recalled Uncle +John Smith's story of the quail as related to me at my camp. I also +met Colonel A. G. Boone that winter in Washington; he remembered the +circumstances well. Thorp was working for him, as Smith had said, and +was killed by an Apache, who, in scalping him, tore the half of his head +away, and it was thus found mutilated, so many years afterward. + +Uncle John was in one of his garrulous moods that night, and as we were +not by any means tired of hearing the veteran trapper talk, without much +urging he told us the following tale:-- + +"Well, boys, thirty years ago, beaver, mink, and otter was found in +abundacious quantities on all the streams in the Rocky Mountains. The +trade in them furs was a paying business, for the little army of us +fellows called trappers. They ain't any of 'em left now, no mor'n the +animals we used to hunt. We had to move about from place to place, just +as if we was so many Ingins. Sometimes we'd construct little cabins in +the timber, or a dugout where the game was plenty, where we'd stay maybe +for a month or two, and once in a while--though not often--a whole year. + +"The Ingins was our mortal enemies; they'd get a scalp from our fellows +occasionally, but for every one they had of ours we had a dozen of +theirs. + +"In the summer of 1846, there was a little half dugout, half cabin, +opposite the mouth of Frenchman's Creek, put up by Bill Thorpe, Al Boyd, +and Rube Stevens. Bill and Al was men grown, and know'd more 'bout the +prairies and timber than the Ingins themselves. They'd hired out to the +Northwest Fur Company when they was mere kids, and kept on trapping +ever since. Rube--'Little Rube' as all the old men called him--was +'bout nineteen, and plumb dumb; he could hear well enough though, for +he wasn't born that way. When he was seventeen his father moved from his +farm in Pennsylvany, to take up a claim in Oregon, and the whole family +was compelled to cross the plains to get there; for there wasn't no +other way. While they was camped in the Bitter-Root valley one evening, +just 'bout sundown, a party of Blackfeet surprised the outfit, and +massacred all of them but Rube. They carried him off, kept him as a +slave, and, to make sure of him, cut out his tongue at the roots. But +some of the women who wasn't quite so devilish as their husbands, and +who took pity on him, went to work and cured him of his awful wound. He +was used mighty mean by the bucks of the tribe, and made up his mind to +get away from them or kill himself; for he could not live under their +harsh treatment. After he'd been with them for mor'n a year, the tribe +had a terrible battle with the Sioux, and in the scrimmage Rube stole +a pony and lit out. He rode on night and day until he came across the +cabin of the two trappers I have told you 'bout, and they, of course, +took the poor boy in and cared for him. + +"Rube was a splendid shot with the rifle, and he swore to himself that +he would never leave the prairies and do nothing for the rest of +his life but kill Ingins, who had made him a homeless orphan, and so +mutilated him. + +"After Rube had been with Boyd and Thorpe a year, they was all one day +in the winter examining their traps which was scattered 'long the stream +for miles. After re-baiting them, they concluded to hunt for meat, which +was getting scarce at the cabin; they let Rube go down to the creek +where it widened out lake-like, to fish through a hole in the ice, and +Al and Bill took their rifles and hunted in the timber for deer. They +all got separated of course, Rube being furtherest away, while Al and +Bill did not wander so far from each other that they could not be heard +if one wanted his companion. + +"Al shot a fat black-tail deer, and just as he was going to stoop down +to cut its throat, Bill yelled out to him:-- + +"'Drop everything Al, for God's sake, and let's make for the dugout; +they're coming, a whole band of Sioux!' + +"'If we can get to the cabin,' replied Al, 'we can keep off the whole +nation. I wonder where Rube is? I hope he'll get here and save his +scalp.' + +"At this instant, poor Rube dashed up to them, an Ingin close upon his +tracks; he had unfortunately forgotten to take his rifle with him when +he went to the creek, and now he was at the mercy of the savage; at +least both he and his pursuer so thought. But before the Ingin had +fairly uttered his yell of exultation, Al who with Bill had held his +rifle in readiness for an emergency, lifted the red devil off his feet, +and he fell dead without ever knowing what had struck him. + +"Rube, thus delivered from a sudden death, ran at the top of his speed +with his two friends for the cabin, for, if they could reach it, they +did not fear a hundred paint-bedaubed savages. + +"Luckily they arrived in time. Where they lived was part dugout and part +cabin. It was about ten feet high, and right back of it was a big ledge +of rock, which made it impossible for any one to get into it from that +side. The place had no door; they did not dare to put one there when +it was built, for they were likely to be surprised at any moment by +a prowling band, so the only entrance was a square hole in the roof, +through which one at a time had to crawl to enter. + +"The boys got inside all right just as the Ingins came a yelling up. +Bill looked out of a hole in the wall and counted thirty of the devils, +and said at once: 'Off with your coats; don't let them have anything +to catch hold of but our naked bodies if they get in, and we can handle +ourselves better.' + +"'Thirty to three,' said Al. 'Whew! this ain't going to be any boy's +play; we've got to fight for all there is in it, and the chances are +mightily agin us.' + +"Rube he took an axe, and stood right under the hole in the roof, so +that if any of the devils got in he could brain them. In a minute five +rifles cracked; for the Ingins was pretty well armed for them times, and +their bullets rattled agin the logs like hail agin a tent. Some of 'em +was on top the roof by this time, and soon the leader of the party, a +big painted devil, thrust his ugly face into the hole; but he had hardly +got a good look before Bill dropped him by a well-directed shot and he +tumbled in on the floor. + +"'You darned fool,' said Bill, as he saw the effect of his shot; 'did +you think we was asleep?' + +"There was one opening that served for air, and a savage, seeing the +boys had forgotten to barricade it, tried to push himself through, an' +not succeeding, tried to back out, but at that instant Bill caught him +by the wrist--Bill was a powerful man--and picking up a beaver-trap that +laid on the floor, actually beat his brains out with it. + +"While this circus was going on inside, three more of the Ingins got on +the roof and wrenched off a couple of the logs that covered it; but in a +minute they came tumbling down and lay dead on the floor. + +"'That leaves only twenty-five, don't it?' inquired Al, as he mopped his +face with his shirt-sleeve. + +"'Howl, you red devils,' said Bill, as the Ingins commenced their awful +yelling when they saw their comrades fall into the room. 'Don't you +know, you blame fools, you've fell in with experienced hands at the +shooting business?' + +"Spat! Something hit Al, and he was the first wounded, but it was only a +scratch, and he kept right on attending to business. + +"'By gosh! look at Rube, will you?' said Al. The dumb boy had in his +grasp the very chief of the band, who had just then discovered the hole +in the roof made by the three Ingins who had passed in their checks for +their impudence, and was trying his best to push himself down. Rube had +made a strike at him with an axe, but the edge was turned aside, and the +savage was getting the better of the boy; he had grappled Rube by the +hair and one arm, and they was flying 'round like a wild cat and a +hound. Bill tried three times to sink his knife into the old chief, but +there was such a cavortin' in the wrastle between him and the boy, he +was afraid to try any more, for fear it might hit Rube instead. Suddenly +the Ingin fell to the floor as dead as a trapped beaver what's been +drowned; Rube had struck his buckhorn-handled hunting-knife right into +the heart of the brute. + +"'Set him agin the hole in the side of the building,' said Bill; 'he +ain't fit for nothing else than to stop a gap'; so Rube set him agin the +hole, and pinned him there with half a dozen knives what was lying round +loose. + +"Just as they had fastened the dead body of the old chief to the side +of the cabin, a perfect shower of bullets came rattling round like a +hailstorm. 'All right, let's have your waste lead,' said Bill. + +"'A few more of these dead Ingins and we can make a regular fort of this +old cabin; we want two for that chunk,' said Al, as he pointed with his +rifle to a large gap on the west side of the wall; but before he had +fairly got the words out of his mouth, two of the attacking party jumped +down into the room. Al, being a regular giant, as soon as they landed, +surprised them by seizing one with each hand by the throat, and he +actually held them at arm's-length till he had squeezed the very life +out of them, and they both fell corpses. + +"While Al was performing his two-Ingin act, a great light burst into the +cabin, and by the time he had choked his enemies to death, he saw, while +the Ingins outside gave a terrible yell of exultation, that they had +fired the place. + +"'Damn 'em,' shouted Bill, as he pitched the corpse of the chief from +the gap where Rube had set him. 'Fellows, we've got to get out of here +right quick; follow me, boys!' + +"Holding their rifles in hand, and clutching a hunting-knife also, they +stepped out into the brush surrounding the place, and started on a run +for the heavy timber on the bank of the creek. + +"They had reckoned onluckily; a wild war-whoop greeted the flying men as +they reached the edge of the forest, and without being able to use their +arms, they were taken prisoners. Bill and Al, fastened with their backs +against each other, and Little Rube by himself, were bound to separate +trees, but not so far apart that they could not speak to each other, +and some of the Ingins began to gather sticks and pile them around the +trees. + +"'What are they going to do with us?' anxiously inquired Bill of Al. + +"'Roast us, you bet,' replied the other. 'They'll find me tough enough, +anyhow.' + +"'It must be a painful death,' soliloquized Bill. + +"'Well, it isn't the most pleasant one, you can gamble on that,' said +Al, turning his looks toward Bill; 'but see what the devils are doing to +poor Rube.' + +"Bill cast his eyes in the direction of the dumb boy, who was fastened +to a small pine, about a hundred feet distant. Standing directly in +front of it was a gigantic Ingin, flourishing his scalping-knife within +an inch of Rube's head, trying to make the boy flinch. But the young +fellow merely scowled at him in a rage, his muscles never quivering for +an instant. + +"While the men were trying to console each other, two of the savages, +who had gone away for a short time, returned, bearing the carcass of the +deer that Al had killed in the morning, and commenced to cut it up. They +had made several small fires, and roasting the meat before them, began +to gorge themselves, Indian fashion, with the savoury morsels. The men +were awfully hungry, too, but not a mouthful did they get of their own +game. + +"The Ingins were more'n an hour feasting, while their prisoners kept a +looking for some help to get 'em out of the scrape they was in. + +"'Bout a mile down the creek, me and six other trappers had a camp, and +that morning, being scarce of meat, we all went a hunting. We had killed +two or three elk and was 'bout going back to camp with our game, when we +heard firing, and supposed it was a party of hunters, like ourselves, +so we did not pay any attention to it at first; but when it kept up so +long, and there was such a constant volley, I told our boys it might be +a scrimmage with a party of red devils, and we concluded to go and see. + +"We left our elk where they were, and started in the direction of the +shooting, taking mighty good care not to be surprised ourselves. We +crept carefully on, and a little before sundown seen a camp-fire burning +in the timber quite a smart piece ahead of us. We stopped then, and Ike +Pettet and myself crept on cautiously on our hands and knees through the +brush to learn what the fire meant. In a little while we seen it was an +Ingin camp, and we counted twenty-two warriors seated 'round their fires +a eating as unconcernedly as if we warn't nowhere near 'em. We didn't +feel like tackling so many, so just as we was 'bout to crawl away and +leave 'em in ondisturbed possession of their camp, we heard some parties +talking in English. Then we pricked up our ears and listened mighty +interested I tell you. Looking 'round, we seen the men tied to the trees +and the wood piled against 'em, and then we knowed what was up. We had +to be mighty wary, for if we snapped a twig even, it was all day with us +and the prisoners too; so we dragged ourselves back, and after getting +out of sound of the Ingins, we just got up and lit out mighty lively for +the place we'd left our companions. We met them coming slowly on 'bout +two miles from the Ingin camp, and telling 'em what was up we started to +help the trappers what the devils was agoing to burn. We wasn't half so +long in getting at the camp as Ike and me was in going, and we soon come +within good range for our rifles. + +"The Ingins was still unsuspicious, and we spread ourselves in a sort +of half circle so as to kind o' surround them, and at a signal I give, +seven rifles cracked at once, and as many of the Injins was dropped +right in their tracks; a second volley, for the red devils had not got +their senses yet, tumbled seven more corpses upon the pile, and then we +white men jumped in with our knives and clubbed rifles, and there was +a lively scrimmage for a few minutes. The few Ingins what wasn't killed +fought like devils, but as we was getting the best of 'em every second +they turned tail and ran. + +"We'd heard the firing of the fight at the cabin just in time; and as +we cut the rawhide strings that bound the fellows to the trees, Ike, who +was a right fine shot and had killed three at one time, said: 'I always +like to get two or three of the red devils in a line before I pull the +trigger; it saves lead.' + +"Then we all went back to our camp and made a night of it, feasting on +the elk we had killed, and talking over the wonderful escape of the boys +and Little Rube." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. KIT CARSON. + + + +Of the famous men whose lives are so interwoven with the history of the +Old Santa Fe Trail that the story of the great highway is largely made +up of their individual exploits and acts of bravery, it has been my +fortune to have known nearly all intimately, during more than a third of +a century passed on the great plains and in the Rocky Mountains. + +First of all, Christopher, or Kit, Carson, as he is familiarly known +to the world, stands at the head and front of celebrated frontiersmen, +trappers, scouts, guides, and Indian fighters. + +I knew him well through a series of years, to the date of his death in +1868, but I shall confine myself to the events of his remarkable career +along the line of the Trail and its immediate environs. In 1826 a party +of Santa Fe traders passing near his father's home in Howard County, +Missouri, young Kit, who was then but seventeen years old, joined the +caravan as hunter. He was already an expert with the rifle, and thus +commenced his life of adventure on the great plains and in the Rocky +Mountains. + +His first exhibition of that nerve and coolness in the presence of +danger which marked his whole life was in this initial trip across the +plains. When the caravan had arrived at the Arkansas River, somewhere +in the vicinity of the great bend of that stream, one of the teamsters, +while carelessly pulling his rifle toward him by the barrel, discharged +the weapon and received the ball in his arm, completely crushing the +bones. The blood from the wound flowed so copiously that he nearly lost +his life before it could be arrested. He was fixed up, however, and the +caravan proceeded on its journey, the man thinking no more seriously +of his injured arm. In a few days, however, the wound began to indicate +that gangrene had set in, and it was determined that only by an +amputation was it possible for him to live beyond a few days. Every +one of the older men of the caravan positively declined to attempt the +operation, as there were no instruments of any kind. At this juncture +Kit, realizing the extreme necessity of prompt action, stepped forward +and offered to do the job. He told the unfortunate sufferer that he had +had no experience in such matters, but that as no one else would do +it, he would take the chances. All the tools that Kit could find were +a razor, a saw, and the king-bolt of a wagon. He cut the flesh with the +razor, sawed through the bone as if it had been a piece of joist, and +seared the horrible wound with the king-bolt, which he had heated to a +white glow, for the purpose of stopping the flow of blood that naturally +followed such rude surgery. The operation was a complete success; the +man lived many years afterward, and was with his surgeon in many an +expedition. + +In the early days of the commerce of the prairies, Carson was the hunter +at Bent's Fort for a period of eight years. There were about forty men +employed at the place; and when the game was found in abundance in the +mountains, it was a relatively easy task and just suited to his love of +sport, but when it grew scarce, as it often did, his prowess was tasked +to its utmost to keep the forty mouths from crying for food. He became +such an unerring shot with the rifle during that time that he was called +the "Nestor of the Rocky Mountains." His favourite game was the buffalo, +although he killed countless numbers of other animals. + +All of the plains tribes of Indians, as did the powerful Utes of the +mountains, knew him well; for he had often visited in their camps, sat +in their lodges, smoked the pipe, and played with their little boys. The +latter fact may not appear of much consequence, but there are no people +on earth who have a greater love for their boy children than the savages +of America. The Indians all feared him, too, at the same time that they +respected his excellent judgment, and frequently were governed by his +wise counsel. The following story will show his power in this direction. +The Sioux, one of the most numerous and warlike tribes at that time, +had encroached upon the hunting-grounds of the southern Indians, and the +latter had many a skirmish with them on the banks of the Arkansas along +the line of the Trail. Carson, who was in the upper valley of the river, +was sent for to come down and help them drive the obnoxious Sioux back +to their own stamping-ground. He left Fort Bent, and went with the party +of Comanche messengers to the main camp of that tribe and the Arapahoes, +with whom they had united. Upon his arrival, he was told that the Sioux +had a thousand warriors and many rifles, and the Comanches and Arapahoes +were afraid of them on account of the great disparity of numbers, but +that if he would go with them on the war-path, they felt assured they +could overcome their enemies. Carson, however, instead of encouraging +the Comanches and Arapahoes to fight, induced them to negotiate with +the Sioux. He was sent as mediator, and so successfully accomplished his +mission that the intruding tribe consented to leave the hunting-grounds +of the Comanches as soon as the buffalo season was over; which they did, +and there was no more trouble. + +After many adventures in California with Fremont, Carson, with his +inseparable friend, L. B. Maxwell, embarked in the wool-raising +industry. Shortly after they had established themselves on their ranch, +the Apaches made one of their frequent murdering and plundering raids +through Northern New Mexico, killing defenceless women and children, +running off stock of all kinds, and laying waste every little ranch they +came across in their wild foray. Not very far from the city of Santa Fe, +they ruthlessly butchered a Mr. White and his son, though three of their +number were slain by the brave gentlemen before they were overpowered. +Other of the blood-thirsty savages carried away the women and children +of the desolated home and took them to their mountain retreat in the +vicinity of Las Vegas. Mr. White was a highly respected merchant, and +news of this outrage spreading rapidly through the settlements, it was +determined that the savages should not go without punishment this time, +at least. Carson's reputation as an Indian fighter was at its height, so +the natives of the country sent for him, and declined to move until he +came. For some unexplained reason, after he arrived at Las Vegas, he +was not placed in charge of the posse, that position having already +been given to a Frenchman. Carson, as was usual with him, never murmured +because he was assigned to a subordinate position, but took his place, +ready to do his part in whatever capacity. + +The party set out for the stronghold of the savages, and rode night and +day on the trail of the murderers, hoping to surprise them and recapture +the women and children; but so much time had been wasted in delays, +that Carson feared they would only find the mutilated bodies of the +poor captives. In a few days after leaving Las Vegas, the retreat of the +savages was discovered in the fastness of the mountains, where they had +fortified themselves in such a manner that they could resist ten times +the number of their pursuers. Carson, as soon as he saw them, without +a second's hesitation, and giving a characteristic yell, dashed in, +expecting, of course, that the men would follow him; but they only stood +in gaping wonderment at his bravery, not daring to venture after him. +He did not discover his dilemma until he had advanced so far alone that +escape seemed impossible. But here his coolness, which always served him +in the moment of supreme danger, saved his scalp. As the savages turned +on him, he threw himself on the off side of his horse, Indian fashion, +for he was as expert in a trick of that kind as the savages themselves, +and rode back to the little command. He had six arrows in his horse and +a bullet through his coat! + +The Indians in those days were poorly armed, and did not long follow up +the pursuit after Carson; for, observing the squad of mounted Mexicans, +they retreated to the top of a rocky prominence, from which point they +could watch every movement of the whites. Carson was raging at the +apathy, not to say cowardice, of the men who had sent for him to join +them, but he kept his counsel to himself; for he was anxious to save +the captured women and children. He talked to the men very earnestly, +however, exhorting them not to flinch in the duty they had come so +far to perform, and for which he had come at their call. This had +the desired effect; for he induced them to make a charge, which was +gallantly performed, and in such a brave manner that the Indians fled, +scarcely making an effort to defend themselves. Five of their number +were killed at the furious onset of the Mexicans, but unfortunately, as +he anticipated, only the murdered corpses of the women and children were +the result of the victory. + +President Polk appointed Carson to a second lieutenancy,[48] and his +first official duty was conducting fifty soldiers under his command +through the country of the Comanches, who were then at war with the +whites. A fight occurred at a place known as Point of Rocks,[49] where +on arriving, Carson found a company of volunteers for the Mexican War, +and camped near them. About dawn the next morning, all the animals of +the volunteers were captured by a band of Indians, while the herders +were conducting them to the river-bottom to graze. The herders had no +weapons, and luckily, in the confusion attending the bold theft, ran +into Carson's camp; and as he, with his men, were ready with their +rifles, they recaptured the oxen, but the horses were successfully +driven off by their captors. + +Several of the savages were mortally wounded by Carson's prompt charge, +as signs after they had cleared out proved; but the Indian custom of +tying the wounded on their ponies precluded the chance of taking any +scalps. The wily Comanche, like the Arab of the desert, is generally +successful in his sudden assaults, but Carson, who was never surprised, +was always equal to his tactics. + +One of the two soldiers whose turn it had been to stand guard that +morning was discovered to have been asleep when the alarm of Indians was +given, and Carson at once administered the Indian method of punishment, +making the man wear the dress of a squaw for that day. Then going on, he +arrived at Santa Fe, where he turned over his little command. + +While there, he heard that a gang of those desperadoes so frequently the +nuisance of a new country had formed a conspiracy to murder and rob two +wealthy citizens whom they had volunteered to accompany over the Trail +to the States. The caravan was already many miles on its way when Carson +was informed of the plot. In less than an hour he had hired sixteen +picked men and was on his march to intercept them. He took a short cut +across the mountains, taking especial care to keep out of the way of +the Indians, who were on the war-path, but as to whose movements he +was always posted. In two days he came upon a camp of United States +recruits, en route to the military posts in New Mexico, whose commander +offered to accompany him with twenty men. Carson accepted the generous +proposal, by forced marches soon overtook the caravan of traders, and +at once placed one Fox, the leader of the gang, in irons, after which he +informed the owners of the caravan of the escape they had made from the +wretches whom they were treating so kindly. At first the gentlemen were +astounded at the disclosures made to them, but soon admitted that +they had noticed many things which convinced them that the plot really +existed, and but for the opportune arrival of the brave frontiersman it +would shortly have been carried out. + +The members of the caravan who were perfectly trustworthy were then +ordered to corral the rest of the conspirators, thirty-five in number, +and they were driven out of camp, with the exception of Fox, the leader, +whom Carson conveyed to Taos. He was imprisoned for several months, but +as a crime in intent only could be proved against him, and as the adobe +walls of the house where he was confined were not secure enough to +retain a man who desired to release himself, he was finally liberated, +and cleared out. + +The traders were profuse in their thanks to Carson for his timely +interference, but he refused every offer of remuneration. On their +return to Santa Fe from St. Louis, however, they presented him with +a magnificent pair of pistols, upon whose silver mounting was an +inscription commemorating his brave deed and the gratitude of the +donors. + +The following summer was spent in a visit to St. Louis, and early in the +fall he returned over the Trail, arriving at the Cheyenne village on +the Upper Arkansas without meeting with any incident worthy of note. On +reaching that point, he learned that the Indians had received a terrible +affront from an officer commanding a detachment of United States troops, +who had whipped one of their chiefs; and that consequently the whole +tribe was enraged, and burning for revenge upon the whites. Carson was +the first white man to approach the place since the insult, and so +many years had elapsed since he was the hunter at Bent's Fort, and +so grievously had the Indians been offended, that his name no longer +guaranteed safety to the party with whom he was travelling, nor even +insured respect to himself, in the state of excitement existing in the +village. Carson, however, deliberately pushed himself into the presence +of a war council which was just then in session to consider the question +of attacking the caravan, giving orders to his men to keep close +together, and guard against a surprise. + +The savages, supposing that he could not understand their language, +talked without restraint, and unfolded their plans to capture his party +and kill them all, particularly the leader. After they had reached this +decision, Carson coolly rose and addressed the council in the Cheyenne +language, informing the Indians who he was, of his former associations +with and kindness to their tribe, and that now he was ready to render +them any assistance they might require; but as to their taking his +scalp, he claimed the right to say a word. + +The Indians departed, and Carson went on his way; but there were +hundreds of savages in sight on the sand hills, and, though they made +no attack, he was well aware that he was in their power, nor had they +abandoned the idea of capturing his train. His coolness and deliberation +kept his men in spirit, and yet out of the whole fifteen, which was the +total number of his force, there were only two or three on whom he could +place any reliance in case of an emergency. + +When the train camped for the night, the wagons were corralled, and +the men and mules all brought inside the circle. Grass was cut with +sheath-knives and fed to the animals, instead of their being picketed +out as usual, and as large a guard as possible detailed. When the camp +had settled down to perfect quiet, Carson crawled outside it, taking +with him a Mexican boy, and after explaining to him the danger which +threatened them all, told him that it was in his power to save the lives +of the company. Then he sent him on alone to Rayedo, a journey of nearly +three hundred miles, to ask for an escort of United States troops to be +sent out to meet the train, impressing upon the brave little Mexican +the importance of putting a good many miles between himself and the +camp before morning. And so he started him, with a few rations of food, +without letting the rest of his party know that such measures were +necessary. The boy had been in Carson's service for some time, and was +known to him as a faithful and active messenger, and in a wild country +like New Mexico, with the outdoor life and habits of its people, such a +journey was not an unusual occurrence. + +Carson now returned to the camp, to watch all night himself, and at +daybreak all were on the Trail again. No Indians made their appearance +until nearly noon, when five warriors came galloping up toward the +train. As soon as they came close enough to hear his voice, Carson +ordered them to halt, and going up to them, told how he had sent a +messenger to Rayedo the night before to inform the troops that their +tribe were annoying him, and that if he or his men were molested, +terrible punishment would be inflicted by those who would surely come +to his relief. The savages replied that they would look for the moccasin +tracks, which they undoubtedly found, and the whole village passed away +toward the hills after a little while, evidently seeking a place of +safety from an expected attack by the troops. + +The young Mexican overtook the detachment of soldiers whose officer had +caused all the trouble with the Indians, to whom he told his story; but +failing to secure any sympathy, he continued his journey to Rayedo, and +procured from the garrison of that place immediate assistance. Major +Grier, commanding the post, at once despatched a troop of his regiment, +which, by forced marches, met Carson twenty-five miles below Bent's +Fort, and though it encountered no Indians, the rapid movement had +a good effect upon the savages, impressing them with the power and +promptness of the government. + +Early in the spring of 1865, Carson was ordered, with three companies, +to put a stop to the depredations of marauding bands of Cheyennes, +Kiowas, and Comanches upon the caravans and emigrant outfits travelling +the Santa Fe Trail. He left Fort Union with his command and marched +over the Dry or Cimarron route to the Arkansas River, for the purpose of +establishing a fortified camp at Cedar Bluffs, or Cold Spring, to afford +a refuge for the freight trains on that dangerous part of the Trail. The +Indians had for some time been harassing not only the caravans of +the citizen traders, but also those of the government, which carried +supplies to the several military posts in the Territory of New Mexico. +An expedition was therefore planned by Carson to punish them, and he +soon found an opportunity to strike a blow near the adobe fort on the +Canadian River. His force consisted of the First Regiment of New Mexican +Volunteer Cavalry and seventy-five friendly Indians, his entire +command numbering fourteen commissioned officers and three hundred +and ninety-six enlisted men. With these he attacked the Kiowa village, +consisting of about one hundred and fifty lodges. The fight was a very +severe one, and lasted from half-past eight in the morning until after +sundown. The savages, with more than ordinary intrepidity and boldness, +made repeated stands against the fierce onslaughts of Carson's +cavalrymen, but were at last forced to give way, and were cut down as +they stubbornly retreated, suffering a loss of sixty killed and wounded. +In this battle only two privates and one noncommissioned officer were +killed, and one non-commissioned officer and thirteen privates, four of +whom were friendly Indians, wounded. The command destroyed one hundred +and fifty lodges, a large amount of dried meats, berries, buffalo-robes, +cooking utensils, and also a buggy and spring-wagon, the property of +Sierrito,[50] the Kiowa chief. + +In his official account of the fight, Carson states that he found +ammunition in the village, which had been furnished, no doubt, by +unscrupulous Mexican traders. + +He told me that he never was deceived by Indian tactics but once in his +life. He said that he was hunting with six others after buffalo, in +the summer of 1835; that they had been successful, and came into +their little bivouac one night very tired, intending to start for the +rendezvous at Bent's Fort the next morning. They had a number of dogs, +among them some excellent animals. These barked a good deal, and seemed +restless, and the men heard wolves. + +"I saw," said Kit, "two big wolves sneaking about, one of them quite +close to us. Gordon, one of my men, wanted to fire his rifle at it, but +I did not let him, for fear he would hit a dog. I admit that I had a +sort of an idea that those wolves might be Indians; but when I noticed +one of them turn short around, and heard the clashing of his teeth as he +rushed at one of the dogs, I felt easy then, and was certain that they +were wolves sure enough. But the red devil fooled me, after all, for +he had two dried buffalo bones in his hands under the wolfskin, and he +rattled them together every time he turned to make a dash at the dogs! +Well, by and by we all dozed off, and it wasn't long before I was +suddenly aroused by a noise and a big blaze. I rushed out the first +thing for our mules, and held them. If the savages had been at all +smart, they could have killed us in a trice, but they ran as soon as +they fired at us. They killed one of my men, putting five bullets in his +body and eight in his buffalo-robe. The Indians were a band of Sioux on +the war-trail after a band of Snakes, and found us by sheer accident. +They endeavoured to ambush us the next morning, but we got wind of their +little game and killed three of them, including the chief." + +Carson's nature was made up of some very noble attributes. He was +brave, but not reckless like Custer; a veritable exponent of Christian +altruism, and as true to his friends as the needle to the pole. Under +the average stature, and rather delicate-looking in his physical +proportions, he was nevertheless a quick, wiry man, with nerves of +steel, and possessing an indomitable will. He was full of caution, +but showed a coolness in the moment of supreme danger that was good to +witness. + +During a short visit at Fort Lyon, Colorado, where a favourite son of +his was living, early in the morning of May 23, 1868, while mounting his +horse in front of his quarters (he was still fond of riding), an +artery in his neck was suddenly ruptured, from the effects of which, +notwithstanding the medical assistance rendered by the fort surgeons, he +died in a few moments. + +His remains, after reposing for some time at Fort Lyon, were taken to +Taos, so long his home in New Mexico, where an appropriate monument was +erected over them. In the Plaza at Santa Fe, his name also appears cut +on a cenotaph raised to commemorate the services of the soldiers of the +Territory. As an Indian fighter he was matchless. The identical rifle +used by him for more than thirty-five years, and which never failed him, +he bequeathed, just before his death, to Montezuma Lodge, A. F. & A. M., +Santa Fe, of which he was a member. + +James Bridger, "Major Bridger," or "Old Jim Bridger," as we was called, +another of the famous coterie of pioneer frontiersmen, was born in +Washington, District of Columbia, in 1807. When very young, a mere boy +in fact, he joined the great trapping expedition under the leadership +of James Ashley, and with it travelled to the far West, remote from the +extreme limit of border civilization, where he became the compeer and +comrade of Carson, and certainly the foremost mountaineer, strictly +speaking, the United States has produced. + +Having left behind him all possibilities of education at such an +early age, he was illiterate in his speech and as ignorant of the +conventionalities of polite society as an Indian; but he possessed a +heart overflowing with the milk of human kindness, was generous in the +extreme, and honest and true as daylight. + +He was especially distinguished for the discovery of a defile through +the intricate mazes of the Rocky Mountains, which bears his name, +Bridger's Pass. He rendered important services as guide and scout during +the early preliminary surveys for a transcontinental railroad, and for a +series of years was in the employ of the government, in the old regular +army on the great plains and in the mountains, long before the breaking +out of the Civil War. To Bridger also belongs the honour of having seen, +first of all white men, the Great Salt Lake of Utah, in the winter of +1824-25. + +After a series of adventures, hairbreadth escapes, and terrible +encounters with the Indians, in 1856 he purchased a farm near Westport, +Missouri; but soon left it in his hunger for the mountains, to return +to it only when worn-out and blind, to be buried there without even the +rudest tablet to mark the spot. + +"I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country +churchyard, than in the tomb of the Capulets." This quotation came to +my mind one Sunday morning two or three years ago, as I mused over +Bridger's neglected grave among the low hills beyond the quaint old town +of Westport. I thought I knew, as I stood there, that he whose bones +were mouldering beneath the blossoming clover at my feet, would have +wished for his last couch a more perfect solitude and isolation from the +wearisome world's busy sound than even the immortal Burke. + +The grassy mound, over which there was no stone to record the name +of its occupant, covered the remains of the last of his class, a type +vanished forever, for the border is a thing of the past; and upon the +gentle breeze of that delightful morning, like the droning of bees in +a full flowered orchard, was wafted to my ears the hum of Kansas City's +civilization, only three or four miles distant, in all of which I +was sure there was nothing that would have been congenial to the old +frontiersman. + +At one time early in the '60's, while the engineers of the proposed +Union Pacific Railway were temporarily in Denver, then an insignificant +mushroom-hamlet, they became somewhat confused as to the most +practicable point in the range over which to run their line. After +debating the question, they determined, upon a suggestion from some of +the old settlers, to send for Jim Bridger, who was then visiting in St. +Louis. A pass, via the overland stage, was enclosed in a letter to him, +and he was urged to start for Denver at once, though nothing of the +business for which his presence was required was told him in the text. + +In about two weeks the old man arrived, and the next morning, after he +had rested, asked why he had been sent for from such a distance. + +The engineers then began to explain their dilemma. The old mountaineer +waited patiently until they had finished, when, with a look of disgust +on his withered countenance, he demanded a large piece of paper, +remarking at the same time,-- + +"I could a told you fellers all that in St. Louis, and saved you the +expense of bringing me out here." + +He was handed a sheet of manilla paper, used for drawing the details of +bridge plans. The veteran pathfinder spread it on the ground before him, +took a dead coal from the ashes of the fire, drew a rough outline map, +and pointing to a certain peak just visible on the serrated horizon, +said,-- + +"There's where you fellers can cross with your road, and nowhere else, +without more diggin' an' cuttin' than you think of." + +That crude map is preserved, I have been told, in the archives of the +great corporation, and its line crosses the main spurs of the Rocky +Mountains, just where Bridger said it could with the least work. + +The resemblance of old John Smith, another of the coterie, to President +Andrew Johnson was absolutely astonishing. When that chief magistrate, +in his "swinging around the circle," had arrived at St. Louis, and was +riding through the streets of that city in an open barouche, he was +pointed out to Bridger, who happened to be there. But the venerable +guide and scout, with supreme disgust depicted on his countenance at the +idea of any one attempting to deceive him, said to his informant,-- + +"H---l! Bill, you can't fool me! That's old John Smith." + +At one time many years ago, during Bridger's first visit to St. Louis, +then a relatively small place, a friend accidentally came across him +sitting on a dry-goods box in one of the narrow streets, evidently +disgusted with his situation. To the inquiry as to what he was doing +there all alone, the old man replied,-- + +"I've been settin' in this infernal canyon ever sence mornin', waitin' +for some one to come along an' invite me to take a drink. Hundreds of +fellers has passed both ways, but none of 'em has opened his head. I +never seen sich a onsociable crowd!" + +Bridger had a fund of most remarkable stories, which he had drawn upon +so often that he really believed them to be true. + +General Gatlin,[51] who was graduated from West Point in the early +'30's, and commanded Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation over sixty years +ago, told me that he remembered Bridger very well; and had once asked +the old guide whether he had ever been in the great canyon of the +Colorado River. + +"Yes, sir," replied the mountaineer, "I have, many a time. There's where +the oranges and lemons bear all the time, and the only place I was ever +at where the moon's always full!" + +He told me and also many others, at various times, that in the winter +of 1830 it began to snow in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and +continued for seventy days without cessation. The whole country was +covered to a depth of seventy feet, and all the vast herds of buffalo +were caught in the storm and died, but their carcasses were perfectly +preserved. + +"When spring came, all I had to do," declared he, "was to tumble 'em +into Salt Lake, an' I had pickled buffalo enough for myself and the +whole Ute Nation for years!" + +He said that on account of that terrible storm, which annihilated them, +there have been no buffalo in that region since. + +Bridger had been the guide, interpreter, and companion of that +distinguished Irish sportsman, Sir George Gore, whose strange tastes +led him in 1855 to abandon life in Europe and bury himself for over two +years among the savages in the wildest and most unfrequented glens of +the Rocky Mountains. + +The outfit and adventures of this titled Nimrod, conducted as they were +on the largest scale, exceeded anything of the kind ever before seen +on this continent, and the results of his wanderings will compare +favourably with those of Gordon Cumming in Africa. + +Some idea may be formed of the magnitude of his outfit when it is +stated that his retinue consisted of about fifty individuals, including +secretaries, steward, cooks, fly-makers, dog-tenders, servants, etc. +He was borne over the country with a train of thirty wagons, besides +numerous saddle-horses and dogs. + +During his lengthened hunt he killed the enormous aggregate of forty +grizzly bears and twenty-five hundred buffalo, besides numerous antelope +and other small game. + +Bridger said of Sir George that he was a bold, dashing, and successful +hunter, and an agreeable gentleman. His habit was to lie in bed until +about ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, then he took a bath, ate his +breakfast, and set out, generally alone, for the day's hunt, and it was +not unusual for him to remain out until ten at night, seldom returning +to the tents without augmenting the catalogue of his beasts. His +dinner was then served, to which he generally extended an invitation to +Bridger, and after the meal was over, and a few glasses of wine had been +drunk, he was in the habit of reading from some book, and eliciting +from Bridger his comments thereon. His favourite author was Shakespeare, +which Bridger "reckin'd was too highfalutin" for him; moreover he +remarked, "thet he rather calcerlated that thar big Dutchman, Mr. +Full-stuff, was a leetle too fond of lager beer," and thought it would +have been better for the old man if he had "stuck to Bourbon whiskey +straight." + +Bridger seemed very much interested in the adventures of Baron +Munchausen, but admitted after Sir George had finished reading them, +that "he be dog'oned ef he swallered everything that thar Baron +Munchausen said," and thought he was "a darned liar," yet he +acknowledged that some of his own adventures among the Blackfeet woul be +equally marvellous "if writ down in a book." + +A man whose one act had made him awe-inspiring was Belzy Dodd. Uncle +Dick Wooton, in relating the story, says: "I don't know what his first +name was, but Belzy was what we called him. His head was as bald as a +billiard ball, and he wore a wig. One day while we were all at Bent's +Fort, while there were a great number of Indians about, Belzy concluded +to have a bit of fun. He walked around, eying the Indians fiercely +for some time, and finally, dashing in among them, he gave a series of +war-whoops which discounted a Comanche yell, and pulling off his wig, +threw it down at the feet of the astonished and terror-stricken red men. + +"The savages thought the fellow had jerked off his own scalp, and not +one of them wanted to stay and see what would happen next. They left the +fort, running like so many scared jack-rabbits, and after that none of +them could be induced to approach anywhere near Dodd." + +They called him "The-white-man-who-scalps-himself," and Uncle Dick said +that he believed he could have travelled across the plains alone with +perfect safety. + +Jim Baker was another noted mountaineer and hunter of the same era as +Carson, Bridger, Wooton, Hobbs, and many others. Next to Kit Carson, +Baker was General Fremont's most valued scout. + +He was born in Illinois, and lived at home until he was eighteen years +of age, when he enlisted in the service of the American Fur Company, +went immediately to the Rocky Mountains, and remained there until his +death. He married a wife according to the Indian custom, from the Snake +tribe, living with her relatives many years and cultivating many of +their habits, ideas, and superstitions. He firmly believed in the +efficacy of the charms and incantations of the medicine men in curing +diseases, divining where their enemy was to be found, forecasting +the result of war expeditions, and other such ridiculous matters. +Unfortunately, too, Baker would sometimes take a little more whiskey +than he could conveniently carry, and often made a fool of himself, but +he was a generous, noble-hearted fellow, who would risk his life for a +friend at any time, or divide his last morsel of food. + +Like mountaineers generally, Baker was liberal to a fault, and eminently +improvident. He made a fortune by his work, but at the annual rendezvous +of the traders, at Bent's Fort or the old Pueblo, would throw away the +earnings of months in a few days' jollification. + +He told General Marcy, who was a warm friend of his, that after one +season in which he had been unusually successful in accumulating a large +amount of valuable furs, from the sale of which he had realized the +handsome sum of nine thousand dollars, he resolved to abandon his +mountain life, return to the settlements, buy a farm, and live +comfortably during the remainder of his days. He accordingly made ready +to leave, and was on the eve of starting when a friend invited him to +visit a monte-bank which had been organized at the rendezvous. He was +easily led away, determined to take a little social amusement with his +old comrade, whom he might never see again, and followed him; the result +of which was that the whiskey circulated freely, and the next morning +found Baker without a cent of money; he had lost everything. His entire +plans were thus frustrated, and he returned to the mountains, hunting +with the Indians until he died. + +Jim Baker's opinions of the wild Indians of the great plains and +the mountains were very decided: "That they are the most onsartinist +varmints in all creation, an' I reckon thar not more'n half human; for +you never seed a human, arter you'd fed an' treated him to the best +fixin's in your lodge, jis turn round and steal all your horses, or ary +other thing he could lay his hands on. No, not adzactly. He would feel +kind o' grateful, and ask you to spread a blanket in his lodge ef you +ever came his way. But the Injin don't care shucks for you, and is ready +to do you a lot of mischief as soon as he quits your feed. No, Cap.," +he said to Marcy when relating this, "it's not the right way to make 'em +gifts to buy a peace; but ef I war gov'nor of these United States, I'll +tell what I'd do. I'd invite 'em all to a big feast, and make 'em think +I wanted to have a talk; and as soon as I got 'em together, I'd light in +and raise the har of half of 'em, and then t'other half would be mighty +glad to make terms that would stick. That's the way I'd make a treaty +with the dog'oned red-bellied varmints; and as sure as you're born, +Cap., that's the only way." + +The general, when he first met Baker, inquired of him if he had +travelled much over the settlements of the United States before he came +to the mountains; to which he said: "Right smart, right smart, Cap." +He then asked whether he had visited New York or New Orleans. "No, I +hasn't, Cap., but I'll tell you whar I have been. I've been mighty nigh +all over four counties in the State of Illinois!" + +He was very fond of his squaw and children, and usually treated them +kindly; only when he was in liquor did he at all maltreat them. + +Once he came over into New Mexico, where General Marcy was stationed at +the time, and determined that for the time being he would cast aside +his leggings, moccasins, and other mountain dress, and wear a civilized +wardrobe. Accordingly, he fitted himself out with one. When Marcy met +him shortly after he had donned the strange clothes, he had undergone +such an entire change that the general remarked he should hardly have +known him. He did not take kindly to this, and said: "Consarn these +store butes, Cap.; they choke my feet like h---l." It was the first time +in twenty years that he had worn anything on his feet but moccasins, and +they were not ready for the torture inflicted by breaking in a new pair +of absurdly fitting boots. He soon threw them away, and resumed the +softer foot-gear of the mountains. + +Baker was a famous bear hunter, and had been at the death of many a +grizzly. On one occasion he was setting his traps with a comrade on the +head waters of the Arkansas, when they suddenly met two young grizzly +bears about the size of full-grown dogs. Baker remarked to his friend +that if they could "light in and kill the varmints" with their knives, +it would be a big thing to boast of. They both accordingly laid aside +their rifles and "lit in," Baker attacking one and his comrade the +other. The bears immediately raised themselves on their haunches, and +were ready for the encounter. Baker ran around, endeavouring to get in a +blow from behind with his long knife; but the young brute he had tackled +was too quick for him, and turned as he went around so as always to +confront him face to face. He knew if he came within reach of his claws, +that although young, he could inflict a formidable wound; moreover, he +was in fear that the howls of the cubs would bring the infuriated mother +to their rescue, when the hunters' chances of getting away would be +slim. These thoughts floated hurriedly through his mind, and made him +desirous to end the fight as soon as he could. He made many vicious +lunges at the bear, but the animal invariably warded them off with his +strong fore legs like a boxer. This kind of tactics, however, cost the +lively beast several severe cuts on his shoulders, which made him +the more furious. At length he took the offensive, and with his month +frothing with rage, bounded toward Baker, who caught and wrestled with +him, succeeding in giving him a death-wound under the ribs. + +While all this was going on, his comrade had been furiously engaged with +the other bear, and by this time had become greatly exhausted, with the +odds decidedly against him. He entreated Baker to come to his assistance +at once, which he did; but much to his astonishment, as soon as he +entered the second contest his comrade ran off, leaving him to fight +the battle alone. He was, however, again victorious, and soon had the +satisfaction of seeing his two antagonists stretched out in front of +him, but as he expressed it, "I made my mind up I'd never fight nary +nother grizzly without a good shootin'-iron in my paws." + +He established a little store at the crossing of Green River, and +had for some time been doing a fair business in trafficking with the +emigrants and trading with the Indians; but shortly a Frenchman came to +the same locality and set up a rival establishment, which, of course, +divided the limited trade, and naturally reduced the income of Baker's +business. + +This engendered a bitter feeling of hostility, which soon culminated in +a cessation of all social intercourse between the two men. About this +time General Marcy arrived there on his way to California, and he +describes the situation of affairs thus:-- + +"I found Baker standing in his door, with a revolver loaded and cocked +in each hand, very drunk and immensely excited. I dismounted and +asked him the cause of all this disturbance. He answered: 'That thar +yaller-bellied, toad-eatin' Parly Voo, over thar, an' me, we've been +havin' a small chance of a scrimmage to-day. The sneakin' pole-cat, I'll +raise his har yet, ef he don't quit these diggins'!' + +"It seems that they had an altercation in the morning, which ended in +a challenge, when they ran to their cabins, seized their revolvers, and +from the doors, which were only about a hundred yards from each other, +fired. Then they retired to their cabins, took a drink of whiskey, +reloaded their revolvers, and again renewed the combat. This strange +duel had been going on for several hours when I arrived, but, +fortunately for them, the whiskey had such an effect on their nerves +that their aim was very unsteady, and none of the shots had as yet taken +effect. + +"I took away Baker's revolvers, telling him how ashamed I was to find a +man of his usually good sense making such a fool of himself. He gave in +quietly, saying that he knew I was his friend, but did not think I would +wish to have him take insults from a cowardly Frenchman. + +"The following morning at daylight Jim called at my tent to bid me +good-by, and seemed very sorry for what had occurred the day before. +He stated that this was the first time since his return from New Mexico +that he had allowed himself to drink whiskey, and when the whiskey was +in him he had 'nary sense.'" + +Among the many men who have distinguished themselves as mountaineers, +traders, and Indian fighters along the line of the Old Trail, was one +who eventually became the head chief of one of the most numerous +and valorous tribes of North American savages--James P. Beckwourth. +Estimates of him vary considerably. Francis Parkman, the historian, who +I think never saw him and writes merely from hearsay, says: "He is a +ruffian of the worst class; bloody and treacherous, without honor or +honesty; such, at least, is the character he bears on the great plains. +Yet in his case the standard rules of character fail; for though he will +stab a man in his slumber, he will also do the most desperate and daring +acts." + +I never saw Beckwourth, but I have heard of him from those of my +mountaineer friends who knew him intimately; I think that he died long +before Parkman made his tour to the Rocky Mountains. Colonel Boone, the +Bents, Carson, Maxwell, and others ascribed to him no such traits as +those given by Parkman, and as to his honesty, it is an unquestioned +fact that Beckwourth was the most honest trader among the Indians of all +who were then engaged in the business. As Kit Carson and Colonel Boone +were the only Indian agents whom I ever knew or heard of that dealt +honestly with the various tribes, as they were always ready to +acknowledge, and the withdrawal of the former by the government was the +cause of a great war, so also Beckwourth was an honest Indian trader. + +He was a born leader of men, and was known from the Yellowstone to the +Rio Grande, from Santa Fe to Independence, and in St. Louis. From the +latter town he ran away when a boy with a party of trappers, and himself +became one of the most successful of that hardy class. The woman who +bore him had played in her childhood beneath the palm trees of Africa; +his father was a native of France, and went to the banks of the wild +Mississippi of his own free will, but probably also from reasons of +political interest to his government. + +In person Beckwourth was of medium height and great muscular power, +quick of apprehension, and with courage of the highest order. Probably +no man ever met with more personal adventures involving danger to life, +even among the mountaineers and trappers who early in the century +faced the perils of the remote frontier. From his neck he always wore +suspended a perforated bullet, with a large oblong bead on each side of +it, tied in place by a single thread of sinew. This amulet he obtained +while chief of the Crows,[52] and it was his "medicine," with which he +excited the superstition of his warriors. + +His success as a trader among the various tribes of Indians has never +been surpassed; for his close intimacy with them made him know what +would best please their taste, and they bought of him when other traders +stood idly at their stockades, waiting almost hopelessly for customers. + +But Beckwourth himself said: "The traffic in whiskey for Indian property +was one of the most infernal practices ever entered into by man. Let the +most casual thinker sit down and figure up the profits on a forty-gallon +cask of alcohol, and he will be thunderstruck, or rather whiskey-struck. +When it was to be disposed of, four gallons of water were added to each +gallon of alcohol. In two hundred gallons there are sixteen hundred +pints, for each one of which the trader got a buffalo-robe worth five +dollars. The Indian women toiled many long weeks to dress those sixteen +hundred robes. The white traders got them for worse than nothing; for +the poor Indian mother hid herself and her children until the effect of +the poison passed away from the husband and father, who loved them when +he had no whiskey, and abused and killed them when he had. Six thousand +dollars for sixty gallons of alcohol! Is it a wonder with such profits +that men got rich who were engaged in the fur trade? Or was it a miracle +that the buffalo were gradually exterminated?--killed with so little +remorse that the hides, among the Indians themselves, were known by the +appellation of 'A pint of whiskey.'" + +Beckwourth claims to have established the Pueblo where the beautiful +city of Pueblo, Colorado, is now situated. He says: "On the 1st of +October, 1842, on the Upper Arkansas, I erected a trading-post and +opened a successful business. In a very short time I was joined by from +fifteen to twenty free trappers, with their families. We all united +our labour and constructed an adobe fort sixty yards square. By the +following spring it had grown into quite a little settlement, and we +gave it the name of Pueblo." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. UNCLE DICK WOOTON. + + + +Immediately after Kit Carson, the second wreath of pioneer laurels, for +bravery and prowess as an Indian fighter, and trapper, must be conceded +to Richens Lacy Wooton, known first as "Dick," in his younger days on +the plains, then, when age had overtaken him, as "Uncle Dick." + +Born in Virginia, his father, when he was but seven years of age, +removed with his family to Kentucky, where he cultivated a tobacco +plantation. Like his predecessor and lifelong friend Carson, young +Wooton tired of the monotony of farming, and in the summer of 1836 made +a trip to the busy frontier town of Independence, Missouri, where he +found a caravan belonging to Colonel St. Vrain and the Bents, already +loaded, and ready to pull out for the fort built by the latter, and +named for them. + +Wooton had a fair business education, and was superior in this respect +to his companions in the caravan to which he had attached himself. It +was by those rough, but kind-hearted, men that he was called "Dick," as +they could not readily master the more complicated name of "Richens." + +When he started from Independence on his initial trip across the plains, +he was only nineteen, but, like all Kentuckians, perfectly familiar with +a rifle, and could shoot out a squirrel's eye with the certainty which +long practice and hardened nerves assures. + +The caravan, in which he was employed as a teamster, was composed of +only seven wagons; but a larger one, in which were more than fifty, had +preceded it, and as that was heavily laden, and the smaller one only +lightly, it was intended to overtake the former before the dangerous +portions of the Trail were reached, which it did in a few days and was +assigned a place in the long line. + +Every man had to take his turn in standing guard, and the first night +that it fell to young Wooton was at Little Cow Creek, in the Upper +Arkansas valley. Nothing had occurred thus far during the trip to +imperil the safety of the caravan, nor was any attack by the savages +looked for. + +Wooton's post comprehended the whole length of one side of the corral, +and his instructions were to shoot anything he saw moving outside of +the line of mules farthest from the wagons. The young sentry was +very vigilant. He did not feel at all sleepy, but eagerly watched for +something that might possibly come within the prescribed distance, +though not really expecting such a contingency. + +About two o'clock he heard a slight noise, and saw something moving +about, sixty or seventy yards from where he was lying on the ground, to +which he had dropped the moment the strange sound reached his ears. +Of course, his first thoughts were of Indians, and the more he peered +through the darkness at the slowly moving object, the more convinced he +was that it must be a blood-thirsty savage. + +He rose to his feet and blazed away, the shot rousing everbody, and all +came rushing with their guns to learn what the matter was. + +Wooton told the wagon-master that he had seen what he supposed was an +Indian trying to slip up to the mules, and that he had killed him. Some +of the men crept very circumspectly to the spot where the supposed +dead savage was lying, while young Wooton remained at his post eagerly +waiting for their report. Presently he heard a voice cry out: "I'll be +d---d ef he hain't killed 'Old Jack!'" + +"Old Jack" was one of the lead mules of one of the wagons. He had torn +up his picket-pin and strayed outside of the lines, with the result +that the faithful brute met his death at the hands of the sentry. Wooton +declared that he was not to be blamed; for the animal had disobeyed +orders, while he had strictly observed them![53] + +At Pawnee Fork, a few days later, the caravan had a genuine tussle with +the Comanches. It was a bright moonlight night, and about two hundred +of the mounted savages attacked them. It was a rare thing for Indians +to begin a raid after dark, but they swept down on the unsuspecting +teamsters, yelling like a host of demons. They were armed with bows and +arrows generally, though a few of them had fusees.[54] They received a +warm greeting, although they were not expected, the guard noticing the +savages in time to prevent a stampede of the animals, which evidently +was the sole purpose for which they came, as they did not attempt to +break through the corral to get at the wagons. It was the mules they +were after. They charged among the men, vainly endeavouring to frighten +the animals and make them break loose, discharging showers of arrows as +they rode by. The camp was too hot for them, however, defended as it was +by old teamsters who had made the dangerous passage of the plains many +times before, and were up to all the Indian tactics. They failed to get +a single mule, but paid for their temerity by leaving three of their +party dead, just where they had been tumbled off their horses, not even +having time to carry the bodies off, as they usually do. + +Wooton passed some time during the early days of his career at Bent's +Fort, in 1836-37. He was a great favourite with both of the proprietors, +and with them went to the several Indian villages, where he learned the +art of trading with the savages. + +The winters of the years mentioned were noted for the incursions of the +Pawnees into the region of the fort. They always pretended friendship +for the whites, when any of them were inside of its sacred precincts, +but their whole manner changed when they by some stroke of fortune +caught a trapper or hunter alone on the prairie or in the foot-hills; he +was a dead man sure, and his scalp was soon dangling at the belt of his +cowardly assassins. Hardly a day passed without witnessing some poor +fellow running for the fort with a band of the red devils after him; +frequently he escaped the keen edge of their scalping-knife, but every +once in a while a man was killed. At one time, two herders who were with +their animals within fifty yards of the fort, going out to the grazing +ground, were killed and every hoof of stock run off. + +A party from the fort, comprising only eight men, among whom was young +Wooton, made up for lost time with the Indians, at the crossing of +Pawnee Fork, the same place where he had had his first fight. The men +had set out from the fort for the purpose of meeting a small caravan of +wagons from the East, loaded with supplies for the Bents' trading post. +It happened that a band of sixteen Pawnees were watching for the arrival +of the train, too.[55] Wooton's party were well mounted, while the +Pawnees were on foot, and although the savages were two to one, the +advantage was decidedly in favour of the whites. + +The Indians were armed with bows and arrows only, and while it was +an easy matter for the whites to keep out of the way of the shower of +missiles which the Indians commenced to hurl at them, the latter became +an easy prey to the unerring rifles of their assailants, who killed +thirteen out of the sixteen in a very short time. The remaining three +took French leave of their comrades at the beginning of the conflict, +and abandoning their arms rushed up to the caravan, which was just +appearing over a small divide, and gave themselves up. The Indian +custom was observed in their case,[56] although it was rarely that any +prisoners were taken in these conflicts on the Trail. Another curious +custom was also followed.[57] When the party encamped they were well +fed, and the next morning supplied with rations enough to last them +until they could reach one of their villages, and sent off to tell their +head chief what had become of the rest of his warriors. + +Wooton had an adventure once while he was stationed at Bent's Fort +during a trading expedition with the Utes, on the Purgatoire, or +Purgatory River,[58] about ten or twelve miles from Trinidad. He had +taken with him, with others, a Shawnee Indian. Only a short time before +their departure from the fort, an Indian of that tribe had been murdered +by a Ute, and one day this Shawnee who was with Wooton spied a Ute, when +revenge inspired him, and he forthwith killed his enemy. Knowing that as +soon as the news of the shooting reached the Ute village, which was not +a great distance off, the whole tribe would be down upon him, Wooton +abandoned any attempt to trade with them and tried to get out of their +country as quickly as he could. + +As he expected, the Utes followed on his trail, and came up with his +little party on a prairie where there was not the slightest chance to +ambush or hide. They had to fight, because they could not help it, +but resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible, as the Utes +outnumbered them twenty to one; Wooton having only eight men with him, +including the Shawnee. + +The pack-animals, of which they had a great many, loaded with the goods +intended for the savages, were corralled in a circle, inside of which +the men hurried themselves and awaited the first assault of the foe. +In a few moments the Utes began to circle around the trappers and open +fire. The trappers promptly responded, and they made every shot count; +for all of the men, not even excepting the Shawnee, were experts with +the rifle. They did not mind the arrows which the Utes showered upon +them, as few, if any, reached to where they stood. The savages had a few +guns, but they were of the poorest quality; besides, they did not know +how to handle them then as they learned to do later, so their bullets +were almost as harmless as their arrows. + +The trappers made terrible havoc among the Utes' horses, killing so many +of them that the savages in despair abandoned the fight and gave Wooton +and his men an opportunity to get away, which they did as rapidly as +possible. + +The Raton Pass, through which the Old Trail ran, was a relatively fair +mountain road, but originally it was almost impossible for anything +in the shape of a wheeled vehicle to get over the narrow rock-ribbed +barrier; saddle horses and pack-mules could, however, make the trip +without much difficulty. It was the natural highway to southeastern +Colorado and northeastern New Mexico, but the overland coaches could not +get to Trinidad by the shortest route, and as the caravans also desired +to make the same line, it occurred to Uncle Dick that he would undertake +to hew out a road through the pass, which, barring grades, should be as +good as the average turnpike. He could see money in it for him, as he +expected to charge toll, keeping the road in repair at his own expense, +and he succeeded in procuring from the legislatures of Colorado and New +Mexico charters covering the rights and privileges which he demanded for +his project. + +In the spring of 1866, Uncle Dick took up his abode on the top of the +mountains, built his home, and lived there until two years ago, when he +died at a very ripe old age. + +The old trapper had imposed on himself anything but an easy task in +constructing his toll-road. There were great hillsides to cut out, +immense ledges of rocks to blast, bridges to build by the dozen, and +huge trees to fell, besides long lines of difficult grading to engineer. + +Eventually Uncle Dick's road was a fact, but when it was completed, how +to make it pay was a question that seriously disturbed his mind. The +method he employed to solve the problem I will quote in his own words: +"Such a thing as a toll-road was unknown in the country at that time. +People who had come from the States understood, of course, that the +object of building a turnpike was to enable the owner to collect toll +from those who travelled over it, but I had to deal with a great many +people who seemed to think that they should be as free to travel over my +well-graded and bridged roadway as they were to follow an ordinary cow +path. + +"I may say that I had five classes of patrons to do business with. There +was the stage company and its employees, the freighters, the military +authorities, who marched troops and transported supplies over the road, +the Mexicans, and the Indians. + +"With the stage company, the military authorities, and the American +freighters I had no trouble. With the Indians, when a band came through +now and then, I didn't care to have any controversy about so small a +matter as a few dollars toll! Whenever they came along, the toll-gate +went up, and any other little thing I could do to hurry them on was done +promptly and cheerfully. While the Indians didn't understand anything +about the system of collecting tolls, they seemed to recognize the fact +that I had a right to control the road, and they would generally ride up +to the gate and ask permission to go through. Once in a while the chief +of a band would think compensation for the privilege of going through +in order, and would make me a present of a buckskin or something of that +sort. + +"My Mexican patrons were the hardest to get along with. Paying for the +privilege of travelling over any road was something they were totally +unused to, and they did not take to it kindly. They were pleased with my +road and liked to travel over it, until they came to the toll-gate. This +they seemed to look upon as an obstruction that no man had a right to +place in the way of a free-born native of the mountain region. They +appeared to regard the toll-gate as a new scheme for holding up +travellers for the purpose of robbery, and many of them evidently +thought me a kind of freebooter, who ought to be suppressed by law. + +"Holding these views, when I asked them for a certain amount of money, +before raising the toll-gate, they naturally differed with me very +frequently about the propriety of complying with the request. + +"In other words, there would be at such times probably an honest +difference of opinion between the man who kept the toll-gate and the man +who wanted to get through it. Anyhow, there was a difference, and such +differences had to be adjusted. Sometimes I did it through diplomacy, +and sometimes I did it with a club. It was always settled one way, +however, and that was in accordance with the toll schedule, so that I +could never have been charged with unjust discrimination of rates." + +Soon after the road was opened a company composed of Californians and +Mexicans, commanded by a Captain Haley, passed Uncle Dick's toll-gate +and house, escorting a large caravan of about a hundred and fifty +wagons. While they stopped there, a non-commissioned officer of the +party was brutally murdered by three soldiers, and Uncle Dick came very +near being a witness to the atrocious deed. + +The murdered man was a Mexican, and his slayers were Mexicans too. The +trouble originated at Las Vegas, where the privates had been bound +and gagged, by order of the corporal, for creating a disturbance at a +fandango the evening before. + +The name of the corporal was Juan Torres, and he came down to Uncle +Dick's one evening while the command was encamped on the top of the +mountain, accompanied by the three privates, who had already plotted to +kill him, though he had not the slightest suspicion of it. + +Uncle Dick, in telling the story, said: "They left at an early hour, +going in an opposite direction from their camp, and I closed my doors +soon after, for the night. They had not been gone more than half an +hour, when I heard them talking not far from my house, and a few seconds +later I heard the half-suppressed cry of a man who has received his +death-blow. + +"I had gone to bed, and lay for a minute or two thinking whether I +should get up and go to the rescue or insure my own safety by remaining +where I was. + +"A little reflection convinced me that the murderers were undoubtedly +watching my house, to prevent any interference with the carrying out +of their plot, and that if I ventured out I should only endanger my own +life, while there was scarcely a possibility of my being able to save +the life of the man who had been assailed. + +"In the morning, when I got up, I found the dead body of the corporal +stretched across Raton Creek, not more than a hundred yards from my +house. + +"As I surmised, he had been struck with a heavy club or stone, and it +was at that time that I heard his cry. After that his brains had been +beaten out, and the body left where I had found it. + +"I at once notified Captain Haley of the occurrence, and identified the +men who had been in company with the corporal, and who were undoubtedly +his murderers. + +"They were taken into custody, and made a confession, in which they +stated that one of their number had stood at my door on the night of the +murder to shoot me if I had ventured out to assist the corporal. Two of +the scoundrels were hung afterward at Las Vegas, and the third sent to +prison for life." + +The corporal was buried near where the soldiers were encamped at +the time of the tragedy, and it is his lonely grave which frequently +attracts the attention of the passengers on the Atchison, Topeka, and +Santa Fe trains, just before the Raton tunnel is reached, as they travel +southward. + +In 1866-67 the Indians broke out, infesting all the most prominent +points of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and watching an opportunity to rob and +murder, so that the government freight caravans and the stages had to +be escorted by detachments of troops. Fort Larned was the western limit +where these escorts joined the outfits going over into New Mexico. + +There were other dangers attending the passage of the Trail to +travellers by the stage besides the attacks of the savages. These were +the so-called road agents--masked robbers who regarded life as of little +worth in the accomplishment of their nefarious purposes. Particularly +were they common after the mines of New Mexico began to be operated by +Americans. The object of the bandits was generally the strong box of +the express company, which contained money and other valuables. They +did not, of course, hesitate to take what ready cash and jewelry the +passengers might happen to have upon their persons, and frequently their +hauls amounted to large sums. + +When the coaches began to travel over Uncle Dick's toll-road, his house +was made a station, and he had many stage stories. He said:-- + +"Tavern-keepers in those days couldn't choose their guests, and we +entertained them just as they came along. The knights of the road would +come by now and then, order a meal, eat it hurriedly, pay for it, +and move on to where they had arranged to hold up a stage that night. +Sometimes they did not wait for it to get dark, but halted the stage, +went through the treasure box in broad daylight, and then ordered the +driver to move on in one direction, while they went off in another. + +"One of the most daring and successful stage robberies that I remember +was perpetrated by two men, when the east-bound coach was coming up on +the south side of the Raton Mountains, one day about ten o'clock in the +forenoon. + +"On the morning of the same day, a little after sunrise, two rather +genteel-looking fellows, mounted on fine horses, rode up to my house and +ordered breakfast. Being informed that breakfast would be ready in a few +minutes, they dismounted, hitched their horses near the door, and came +into the house. + +"I knew then, just as well as I do now, they were robbers, but I had no +warrant for their arrest, and I should have hesitated about serving it +if I had, because they looked like very unpleasant men to transact that +kind of business with. + +"Each of them had four pistols sticking in his belt and a repeating +rifle strapped on to his saddle. When they dismounted, they left their +rifles with the horses, but walked into the house and sat down at the +table, without laying aside the arsenal which they carried in their +belts. + +"They had little to say while eating, but were courteous in their +behaviour, and very polite to the waiters. When they had finished +breakfast, they paid their bills, and rode leisurely up the mountain. + +"It did not occur to me that they would take chances on stopping the +stage in daylight, or I should have sent some one to meet the incoming +coach, which I knew would be along shortly, to warn the driver and +passengers to be on the lookout for robbers. + +"It turned out, however, that a daylight robbery was just what they had +in mind, and they made a success of it. + +"About halfway down the New Mexico side of the mountain, where the +canyon is very narrow, and was then heavily wooded on either side, the +robbers stopped and waited for the coach. It came lumbering along by and +by, neither the driver nor the passengers dreaming of a hold-up. + +"The first intimation they had of such a thing was when they saw two men +step into the road, one on each side of the stage, each of them holding +two cocked revolvers, one of which was brought to bear on the passengers +and the other on the driver, who were politely but very positively told +that they must throw up their hands without any unnecessary delay, and +the stage came to a standstill. + +"There were four passengers in the coach, all men, but their hands went +up at the same instant that the driver dropped his reins and struck an +attitude that suited the robbers. + +"Then, while one of the men stood guard, the other stepped up to the +stage and ordered the treasure box thrown off. This demand was +complied with, and the box was broken and rifled of its contents, which +fortunately were not of very great value. + +"The passengers were compelled to hand out their watches and other +jewelry, as well as what money they had in their pockets, and then the +driver was directed to move up the road. In a minute after this the +robbers had disappeared with their booty, and that was the last seen of +them by that particular coach-load of passengers. + +"The men who planned and executed that robbery were two cool, +level-headed, and daring scoundrels, known as 'Chuckle-luck' and +'Magpie.' They were killed soon after this occurrence, by a member of +their own band, whose name was Seward. A reward of a thousand dollars +had been offered for their capture, an this tempted Seward to kill them, +one night when they were asleep in camp. + +"He then secured a wagon, into which he loaded the dead robbers, +and hauled them to Cimarron City, where he turned them over to the +authorities and received his reward." + +Among the Arapahoes Wooton was called "Cut Hand," from the fact that he +had lost two fingers on his left hand by an accident in his childhood. +The tribe had the utmost veneration for the old trapper, and he was +perfectly safe at any time in their villages or camps; it had been the +request of a dying chief, who was once greatly favoured by Wooton, that +his warriors should never injure him although the nation might be at war +with all the rest of the whites in the world. + +Uncle Dick died a few seasons ago, at the age of nearly ninety. He was +blind for some time, but a surgical operation partly restored his sight, +which made the old man happy, because he could look again upon the +beautiful scenery surrounding his mountain home, really the grandest in +the entire Raton Range. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad +had one of its freight locomotives named "Uncle Dick," in honour of the +veteran mountaineer, past whose house it hauled the heavy-laden trains +up the steep grade crossing into the valley beyond. At the time of its +baptism, now fifteen or sixteen years ago, it was the largest freight +engine in the world. + +Old Bill Williams was another character of the early days of the Trail, +and was called so when Carson, Uncle Dick Wooton, and Maxwell were +comparatively young in the mountains. He was, at the time of their +advent in the remote West, one of the best known men there, and had been +famous for years as a hunter and trapper. Williams was better acquainted +with every pass in the Rockies than any other man of his time, and +only surpassed by Jim Bridger later. He was with General Fremont on his +exploring expedition across the continent; but the statement of the old +trappers, and that of General Fremont, in relation to his services then, +differ widely. Fremont admits Williams' knowledge of the country over +which he had wandered to have been very extensive, but when put to the +test on the expedition, he came very near sacrificing the lives of all. +This was probably owing to Williams' failing intellect, for when he +joined the great explorer he was past the meridian of life. Now the +old mountaineers contend that if Fremont had profited by the old man's +advice, he would never have run into the deathtrap which cost him three +men, and in which he lost all his valuable papers, his instruments, +and the animals which he and his party were riding. The expedition had +followed the Arkansas River to its source, and the general had selected +a route which he desired to pursue in crossing the mountains. It +was winter, and Williams explained to him that it was perfectly +impracticable to get over at that season. The general, however, ignoring +the statement, listened to another of his party, a man who had no such +experience but said that he could pilot the expedition. Before they had +fairly started, they were caught in one of the most terrible snowstorms +the region had ever witnessed, in which all their horses and mules were +literally frozen to death. Then, when it was too late, they turned +back, abandoning their instruments, and able only to carry along a +very limited stock of food. The storm continued to rage, so that even +Williams failed to prevent them from getting lost, and they wandered +about aimlessly for many days before they luckily arrived at Taos, +suffering seriously from exhaustion and hunger. Three of the men were +frozen to death on the return trip, and the remaining fifteen were +little better than dead when Uncle Dick Wooton happened to run across +them and piloted them into the village. It was immediately after +this disaster that the three most noted men in the mountains--Carson, +Maxwell, and Dick Owens--became the guides of the pathfinder, with whom +he had no trouble, and to whom he owed more of his success than history +has given them credit for. + +At one period of his eventful career, while he lived in Missouri, +before he wandered to the mountains, Old Bill Williams was a Methodist +preacher; of which fact he boasted frequently while he trapped and +hunted with other pioneers. Whenever he related that portion of his +early life, he declared that he "was so well known in his circuit, +that the chickens recognized him as he came riding by the scattered +farmhouses, and the old roosters would crow 'Here comes Parson Williams! +One of us must be made ready for dinner.'" + +Upon leaving the States, he travelled very extensively among the various +tribes of Indians who roamed over the great plains and in the mountains. +When sojourning with a certain band, he would invariably adopt their +manners and customs. Whenever he grew tired of that nation, he would +seek another and live as they lived. He had been so long among the +savages that he looked and talked like one, and had imbibed many of +their strange notions and curious superstitions. + +To the missionaries he was very useful. He possessed the faculty of +easily acquiring languages that other white men failed to learn, and +could readily translate the Bible into several Indian dialects. His own +conduct, however, was in strange contrast with the precepts of the Holy +Book with which he was so familiar. + +To the native Mexicans he was a holy terror and an unsolvable riddle. +They thought him possessed of an evil spirit. He at one time took up +his residence among them and commenced to trade. Shortly after he had +established himself and gathered in a stock of goods, he became involved +in a dispute with some of his customers in relation to his prices. Upon +this he apparently took an intense dislike to the people whom he had +begun to traffic with, and in his disgust tossed his whole mass of +goods into the street, and, taking up his rifle, left at once for the +mountains. + +Among the many wild ideas he had imbibed from his long association with +the Indians, was faith in their belief in the transmigration of souls. +He used so to worry his brain for hours cogitating upon this intricate +problem concerning a future state, that he actually pretended to know +exactly the animal whose place he was destined to fill in the world +after he had shaken off this mortal human coil. + +Uncle Dick Wooton told how once, when he, Old Bill Williams, and many +other trappers, were lying around the camp-fire one night, the strange +fellow, in a preaching style of delivery, related to them all how he was +to be changed into a buck elk and intended to make his pasture in the +very region where they then were. He described certain peculiarities +which would distinguish him from the common run of elk, and was very +careful to caution all those present never to shoot such an animal, +should they ever run across him. + +Williams was regarded as a warm-hearted, brave, and generous man. He was +at last killed by the Indians, while trading with them, but has left his +name to many mountain peaks, rivers, and passes discovered by him. + +Tom Tobin, one of the last of the famous trappers, hunters, and Indian +fighters to cross the dark river, flourished in the early days, when the +Rocky Mountains were a veritable terra incognita to nearly all excepting +the hardy employees of the several fur companies and the limited number +of United States troops stationed in their remote wilds. + +Tom was an Irishman, quick-tempered, and a dead shot with either rifle, +revolver, or the formidable bowie-knife. He would fight at the drop of +the hat, but no man ever went away from his cabin hungry, if he had a +crust to divide; or penniless, if there was anything remaining in his +purse. + +He, like Carson, was rather under the average stature, red-faced, and +lacking much of being an Adonis, but whole-souled, and as quick in his +movements as an antelope. + +Tobin played an important role in avenging the death of the Americans +killed in the Taos massacre, at the storming of the Indian pueblo, but +his greatest achievement was the ending of the noted bandit Espinosa's +life, who, at the height of his career of blood, was the terror of the +whole mountain region. + +At the time of the acquisition of New Mexico by the United States, +Espinosa, who was a Mexican, owning vast herds of cattle and sheep, +resided upon his ancestral hacienda in a sort of barbaric luxury, with a +host of semi-serfs, known as Peons, to do his bidding, as did the other +"Muy Ricos," the "Dons," so called, of his class of natives. These +self-styled aristocrats of the wild country all boasted of their +Castilian blue blood, claiming descent from the nobles of Cortez' +army, but the fact is, however, with rare exceptions, that their male +ancestors, the rank and file of that army, intermarried with the Aztec +women, and they were really only a mixture of Indian and Spanish. + +It so happened that Espinosa met an adventurous American, who, with +hundreds of others, had been attached to the "Army of Occupation" in the +Mexican War, or had emigrated from the States to seek their fortunes in +the newly acquired and much over-rated territory. + +The Mexican Don and the American became fast friends, the latter making +his home with his newly found acquaintance at the beautiful ranch in the +mountains, where they played the role of a modern Damon and Pythias. + +Now with Don Espinosa lived his sister, a dark-eyed, bewitchingly +beautiful girl about seventeen years old, with whom the susceptible +American fell deeply in love, and his affection was reciprocated by the +maiden, with a fervour of which only the women of the race from which +she sprang are capable. + +The fascinating American had brought with him from his home in one of +the New England States a large amount of money, for his parents were +rich, and spared no indulgence to their only son. He very soon unwisely +made Espinosa his confidant, and told him of the wealth he possessed. + +One night after the American had retired to his chamber, adjoining that +of his host, he was surprised, shortly after he had gone to bed, by +discovering a man standing over him, whose hand had already grasped the +buckskin bag under his pillow which contained a considerable portion of +his gold and silver. He sprang from his couch and fired his pistol at +random in the darkness at the would-be robber. + +Espinosa, for it was he, was wounded slightly, and, being either enraged +or frightened, he stabbed with his keen-pointed stiletto, which all +Mexicans then carried, the young man whom he had invited to become +his guest, and the blade entered the American's heart, killing him +instantly. + +The report of the pistol-shot awakened the other members of the +household, who came rushing into the room just as the victim was +breathing his last. Among them was the sister of the murderer, who, +throwing herself on the body of her dead lover, poured forth the most +bitter curses upon her brother. + +Espinosa, realizing the terrible position in which he had placed +himself, then and there determined to become an outlaw, as he could +frame no excuse for his wicked deed. He therefore hid himself at once +in the mountains, carrying with him, of course, the sack containing the +murdered American's money. + +Some time necessarily passed before he could get together a sufficient +number of cut-throats and renegades from justice to enable him wholly +to defy the authorities; but at last he succeeded in rallying a strong +force to his standard of blood, and became the terror of the whole +region, equalling in boldness and audacity the terrible Joaquin, of +California notoriety in after years. + +His headquarters were in the almost impregnable fastnesses of the Sangre +de Cristo Mountains, from which he made his invariably successful raids +into the rich valleys below. There was nothing too bloody for him to +shrink from; he robbed indiscriminately the overland coaches to Santa +Fe, the freight caravans of the traders and government, the ranches of +the Mexicans, or stole from the poorer classes, without any compunction. +He ran off horses, cattle, sheep--in fact, anything that he could +utilize. If murder was necessary to the completion of his work, he never +for a moment hesitated. Kidnapping, too, was a favourite pastime; but he +rarely carried away to his rendezvous any other than the most beautiful +of the New Mexican young girls, whom he held in his mountain den until +they were ransomed, or subjected to a fate more terrible. + +In 1864 the bandit, after nearly ten years of unparalleled outlawry, was +killed by Tobin. Tom had been on his trail for some time, and at last +tracked him to a temporary camp in the foot-hills, which he accidentally +discovered in a grove of cottonwoods, by the smoke of the little +camp-fire as it curled in light wreaths above the trees. + +Tobin knew that at the time there was but one of Espinosa's followers +with him, as he had watched them both for some days, waiting for an +opportunity to get the drop on them. To capture the pair of outlaws +alive never entered his thoughts; he was as cautious as brave, and to +get them dead was much safer and easier; so he crept up to the grove on +his belly, Indian fashion, and lying behind the cover of a friendly log, +waited until the noted desperado stood up, when he pulled the trigger +of his never-erring rifle, and Espinosa fell dead. A second shot +quickly disposed of his companion, and the old trapper's mission was +accomplished. + +To be able to claim the reward offered by the authorities, Tom had to +prove, beyond the possibility of doubt, that those whom he had killed +were the dreaded bandit and one of his gang. He thought it best to cut +off their heads, which he deliberately did, and packing them on his mule +in a gunny-sack, he brought them into old Fort Massachusetts, afterward +Fort Garland, where they were speedily recognized; but whether Tom ever +received the reward, I have my doubts, as he never claimed that he did. +Tobin died only a short time ago, gray, grizzled, and venerable, his +memory respected by all who had ever met him. + +James Hobbs, among all the men of whom I have presented a hurried +sketch, had perhaps a more varied experience than any of his colleagues. +During his long life on the frontier, he was in turn a prisoner among +the savages, and held for years by them; an excellent soldier in the war +with Mexico; an efficient officer in the revolt against Maximilian, when +the attempt of Napoleon to establish an empire on this continent, with +that unfortunate prince at its head, was defeated; an Indian fighter; a +miner; a trapper; a trader, and a hunter. + +Hobbs was born in the Shawnee nation, on the Big Blue, about +twenty-three miles from Independence, Missouri. His early childhood was +entrusted to one of his father's slaves. Reared on the eastern limit of +the border, he very soon became familiar with the use of the rifle and +shot-gun; in fact, he was the principal provider of all the meat which +the family consumed. + +In 1835, when only sixteen, he joined a fur-trading expedition under +Charles Bent, destined for the fort on the Arkansas River built by him +and his brothers. + +They arrived at the crossing of the Santa Fe Trail over Pawnee Fork +without special adventure, but there they had the usual tussle with +the savages, and Hobbs killed his first Indian. Two of the traders were +pierced with arrows, but not seriously hurt, and the Pawnees--the tribe +which had attacked the outfit--were driven away discomfited, not having +been successful in stampeding a single animal. + +When the party reached the Caches, on the Upper Arkansas, a smoke rising +on the distant horizon, beyond the sand hills south of the river, made +them proceed cautiously; for to the old plainsmen, that far-off wreath +indicated either the presence of the savages, or a signal to others at a +greater distance of the approach of the trappers. + +The next morning, nothing having occurred to delay the march, buffalo +began to appear, and Hobbs killed three of them. A cow, which he had +wounded, ran across the Trail in front of the train, and Hobbs dashed +after her, wounding her with his pistol, and then she started to swim +the river. Hobbs, mad at the jeers which greeted him from the men at his +missing the animal, started for the last wagon, in which was his rifle, +determined to kill the brute that had enraged him. As he was riding +along rapidly, Bent cried out to him,-- + +"Don't try to follow that cow; she is going straight for that smoke, and +it means Injuns, and no good in 'em either." + +"But I'll get her," answered Hobbs, and he called to his closest +comrade, John Baptiste, a boy of about his own age, to go and get his +pack-mule and come along. "All right," responded John; and together the +two inexperienced youngsters crossed the river against the protests of +the veteran leader of the party. + +After a chase of about three miles, the boys came up with the cow, but +she turned and showed fight. Finally Hobbs, by riding around her, got +in a good shot, which killed her. Jumping off their animals, both boys +busied themselves in cutting out the choice pieces for their supper, +packed them on the mule, and started back for the train. But it had +suddenly become very dark, and they were in doubt as to the direction of +the Trail. + +Soon night came on so rapidly that neither could they see their own +tracks by which they had come, nor the thin fringe of cottonwoods that +lined the bank of the stream. Then they disagreed as to which was the +right way. John succeeded in persuading Hobbs that he was correct, and +the latter gave in, very much against his own belief on the subject. + +They travelled all night, and when morning came, were bewilderingly +lost. Then Hobbs resolved to retrace the tracks by which, now that the +sun was up, he saw that they had been going south, right away from the +Arkansas. Suddenly an immense herd of buffalo, containing at least two +thousand, dashed by the boys, filling the air with the dust raised by +their clattering hoofs, and right behind them rode a hundred Indians, +shooting at the stampeded animals with their arrows. + +"Get into that ravine!" shouted Hobbs to his companion. "Throw away that +meat, and run for your life!" + +It was too late; just as they arrived at the brink of the hollow, they +looked back, and close behind them were a dozen Comanches. + +The savages rode up, and one of the party said in very good English, +"How d' do?" + +"How d' do?" Hobbs replied, thinking it would be better to be as polite +as the Indian, though the state of the latter's health just then was a +matter of small concern. + +"Texas?" inquired the Indian. The Comanches had good reasons to hate the +citizens of that country, and it was a lucky thing for Hobbs that he had +heard of their prejudice from the trappers, and possessed presence +of mind to remember it. He replied promptly: "No, friendly; going to +establish a trading-post for the Comanches." + +"Friendly? Better go with us, though. Got any tobacco?" + +Hobbs had some of the desired article, and he was not long in handing it +over to his newly found friend. + +Both of the boys were escorted to the temporary camp of the savages, but +the original number of their captors was increased to over a thousand +before they arrived there. They were supplied with some dried +buffalo-meat, and then taken to the lodge of Old Wolf, the head chief of +the tribe. + +A council was called immediately to consider what disposition should be +made of them, but nothing was decided upon, and the assembly of warriors +adjourned until morning. Hobbs told me that it was because Old Wolf had +imbibed too much brandy, a bottle of which Baptiste had brought with +him from the train, and which the thirsty warrior saw suspended from +his saddle-bow as they rode up to the chief's lodge; the aged rascal got +beastly drunk. + +About noon of the next day, after the dispersion of the council, +the boys were informed that if they were not Texans, would behave +themselves, and not attempt to run away, they might stay with the +Indians, who would not kill them; but a string of dried scalps was +pointed out, hanging on a lodge pole, of some Mexicans whom they had +captured and put to herding their ponies, and who had tried to get away. +They succeeded in making a few miles; the Indians chased them, after +deciding in council, that, if caught, only their scalps were to be +brought back. The moral of this was that the same fate awaited the boys +if they followed the example of the foolish Mexicans. + +Hobbs had excellent sense and judgment, and he knew that it would be the +height of folly for him and Baptiste, mere boys, to try and reach either +Bent's Fort or the Missouri River, not having the slightest knowledge of +where they were situated. + +Hobbs grew to be a great favourite with the Comanches; was given the +daughter of Old Wolf in marriage, became a great chief, fought many hard +battles with his savage companions, and at last, four years after, was +redeemed by Colonel Bent, who paid Old Wolf a small ransom for him +at the Fort, where the Indians had come to trade. Baptiste, whom the +Indians never took a great fancy to, because he did not develop into +a great warrior, was also ransomed by Bent, his price being only an +antiquated mule. + +At Bent's Fort Hobbs went out trapping under the leadership of Kit +Carson, and they became lifelong friends. In a short time Hobbs earned +the reputation of being an excellent mountaineer, trapper, and as an +Indian fighter he was second to none, his education among the Comanches +having trained him in all the strategy of the savages. + +After going through the Mexican War with an excellent record, Hobbs +wandered about the country, now engaged in mining in old Mexico, then +fighting the Apaches under the orders of the governor of Chihuahua, and +at the end of the campaign going back to the Pacific coast, where he +entered into new pursuits. Sometimes he was rich, then as poor as one +can imagine. He returned to old Mexico in time to become an active +partisan in the revolt which overthrew the short-lived dynasty of +Maximilian, and was present at the execution of that unfortunate prince. +Finally he retired to the home of his childhood in the States, where he +died a few months ago, full of years and honours. + +William F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," is one of the famous plainsmen, of +later days, however, than Carson, Bridger, John Smith, Maxwell, and +others whom I have mentioned. The mantle of Kit Carson, perhaps, fits +more perfectly the shoulders of Cody than those of any other of the +great frontiersman's successors, and he has had some experiences that +surpassed anything which fell to their lot. + +He was born in Iowa, in 1845, and when barely seven years old his father +emigrated to Kansas, then far remote from civilization. + +Thirty-six years ago, he was employed as guide and scout in an +expedition against the Kiowas and Comanches, and his line of duty took +him along the Santa Fe Trail all one summer when not out as a scout, +carrying despatches between Fort Lyon and Fort Larned, the most +important military posts on the great highway as well as to far-off Fort +Leavenworth on the Missouri River, the headquarters of the department. +Fort Larned was the general rendezvous of all the scouts on the Kansas +and Colorado plains, the chief of whom was a veteran interpreter and +guide, named Dick Curtis. + +When Cody first reported there for his responsible duty, a large camp of +the Kiowas and Comanches was established within sight of the fort, +whose warriors had not as yet put on their war-paint, but were evidently +restless and discontented under the restraint of their chiefs. Soon +those leading men, Satanta, Lone Wolf, Satank, and others of lesser +note, grew rather impudent and haughty in their deportment, and they +were watched with much concern. The post was garrisoned by only two +companies of infantry and one of cavalry. + +General Hazen, afterward chief of the signal service in Washington, was +at Fort Larned at the time, endeavouring to patch up a peace with the +savages, who seemed determined to break out. Cody was special scout to +the general, and one morning he was ordered to accompany him as far as +Fort Zarah, on the Arkansas, near the mouth of Walnut Creek, in what +is now Barton County, Kansas, the general intending to go on to Fort +Harker, on the Smoky Hill. In making these trips of inspection, with +incidental collateral duties, the general usually travelled in an +ambulance, but on this journey he rode in a six-mule army-wagon, +escorted by a detachment of a score of infantry. It was a warm August +day, and an early start was made, which enabled them to reach Fort +Zarah, over thirty miles distant, by noon. After dinner, the general +proposed to go on to Fort Harker, forty-one miles away, without any +escort, leaving orders for Cody to return to Fort Larned the next day, +with the soldiers. But Cody, ever impatient of delay when there was work +to do, notified the sergeant in charge of the men that he was going back +that very afternoon. I tell the story of his trip as he has often told +it to me, and as he has written it in his autobiography. + +"I accordingly saddled up my mule and set out for Fort Larned. I +proceeded on uninterruptedly until I got about halfway between the +two posts, when, at Pawnee Rock, I was suddenly jumped by about forty +Indians, who came dashing up to me, extending their hands and saying, +'How! How!' They were some of the Indians who had been hanging around +Fort Larned in the morning. I saw they had on their war-paint, and were +evidently now out on the war-path. + +"My first impulse was to shake hands with them, as they seemed so +desirous of it. I accordingly reached out my hand to one of them, who +grasped it with a tight grip, and jerked me violently forward; +then pulled my mule by the bridle, and in a moment I was completely +surrounded. Before I could do anything at all, they had seized my +revolvers from the holsters, and I received a blow on the head from a +tomahawk which nearly rendered me senseless. My gun, which was lying +across the saddle, was snatched from its place, and finally the Indian +who had hold of the bridle started off toward the Arkansas River, +leading the mule, which was being lashed by the other Indians, who were +following. The savages were all singing, yelling, and whooping, as only +Indians can do, when they are having their little game all their own +way. While looking toward the river, I saw on the opposite side an +immense village moving along the bank, and then I became convinced that +the Indians had left the post and were now starting out on the war-path. +My captors crossed the stream with me, and as we waded through the +shallow water they continued to lash the mule and myself. Finally they +brought me before an important-looking body of Indians, who proved to be +the chiefs and principal warriors. I soon recognized old Satanta among +them, as well as others whom I knew, and supposed it was all over with +me. + +"The Indians were jabbering away so rapidly among themselves that I +could not understand what they were saying. Satanta at last asked me +where I had been. As good luck would have it, a happy thought struck me. +I told him I had been after a herd of cattle, or 'whoa-haws,' as they +called them. It so happened that the Indians had been out of meat for +several weeks, as the large herd of cattle which had been promised them +had not yet arrived, although they expected them. + +"The moment I mentioned that I had been searching for 'whoa-haws,' old +Satanta began questioning me in a very eager manner. He asked me where +the cattle were, and I replied that they were back a few miles, and +that I had been sent by General Hazen to inform him that the cattle +were coming, and that they were intended for his people. This seemed +to please the old rascal, who also wanted to know if there were any +soldiers with the herd, and my reply was that there were. Thereupon the +chiefs held a consultation, and presently Satanta asked me if General +Hazen had really said that they should have the cattle. I replied in the +affirmative, and added that I had been directed to bring the cattle to +them. I followed this up with a very dignified inquiry, asking why his +young men had treated me so. The old wretch intimated that it was only a +'freak of the boys'; that the young men wanted to see if I was brave; in +fact, they had only meant to test me, and the whole thing was a joke. + +"The veteran liar was now beating me at my own game of lying, but I +was very glad, as it was in my favour. I did not let him suspect that +I doubted his veracity, but I remarked that it was a rough way to treat +friends. He immediately ordered his young men to give back my arms, and +scolded them for what they had done. Of course, the sly old dog was now +playing it very fine, as he was anxious to get possession of the cattle, +with which he believed there was a 'heap' of soldiers coming. He had +concluded it was not best to fight the soldiers if he could get the +cattle peaceably. + +"Another council was held by the chiefs, and in a few minutes old +Satanta came and asked me if I would go to the river and bring the +cattle down to the opposite side, so that they could get them. I +replied, 'Of course; that's my instruction from General Hazen.' + +"Satanta said I must not feel angry at his young men, for they had +only been acting in fun. He then inquired if I wished any of his men to +accompany me to the cattle herd. I replied that it would be better +for me to go alone, and then the soldiers could keep right on to Fort +Larned, while I could drive the herd down on the bottom. Then wheeling +my mule around, I was soon recrossing the river, leaving old Satanta +in the firm belief that I had told him a straight story, and that I was +going for the cattle which existed only in my imagination. + +"I hardly knew what to do, but thought that if I could get the river +between the Indians and myself, I would have a good three-quarters of a +mile the start of them, and could then make a run for Fort Larned, as my +mule was a good one. + +"Thus far my cattle story had panned out all right; but just as I +reached the opposite bank of the river, I looked behind me and saw that +ten or fifteen Indians, who had begun to suspect something crooked, were +following me. The moment that my mule secured a good foothold on the +bank, I urged him into a gentle lope toward the place where, according +to my statement, the cattle were to be brought. Upon reaching a little +ridge and riding down the other side out of view, I turned my mule and +headed him westward for Fort Larned. I let him out for all that he was +worth, and when I came out on a little rise of ground, I looked back and +saw the Indian village in plain sight. My pursuers were now on the ridge +which I had passed over, and were looking for me in every direction. + +"Presently they spied me, and seeing that I was running away, they +struck out in swift pursuit, and in a few minutes it became painfully +evident they were gaining on me. They kept up the chase as far as Ash +Creek, six miles from Fort Larned. I still led them half a mile, as +their horses had not gained much during the last half of the race. My +mule seemed to have gotten his second wind, and as I was on the old +road, I played the spurs and whip on him without much cessation; the +Indians likewise urged their steeds to the utmost. + +"Finally, upon reaching the dividing ridge between Ash Creek and Pawnee +Fork, I saw Fort Larned only four miles away. It was now sundown, and I +heard the evening gun. The troops of the small garrison little dreamed +there was a man flying for his life and trying to reach the post. The +Indians were once more gaining on me, and when I crossed the Pawnee Fork +two miles from the post, two or three of them were only a quarter of a +mile behind me. Just as I gained the opposite bank of the stream, I +was overjoyed to see some soldiers in a government wagon only a short +distance off. I yelled at the top of my voice, and riding up to them, +told them that the Indians were after me. + +"'Denver Jim,' a well-known scout, asked me how many there were, and +upon my informing him that there were about a dozen, he said: 'Let's +drive the wagon into the trees, and we'll lay for 'em.' The team was +hurriedly driven among the trees and low box-elder bushes, and there +secreted. + +"We did not have to wait long for the Indians, who came dashing up, +lashing their ponies, which were panting and blowing. We let two of them +pass by, but we opened a lively fire on the next three or four, killing +two of them at the first crack. The others following discovered that +they had run into an ambush, and whirling off into the brush, they +turned and ran back in the direction whence they had come. The two who +had passed by heard the firing and made their escape. We scalped the two +that we had killed, and appropriated their arms and equipments; then, +catching their ponies, we made our way into the Post." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. MAXWELL'S RANCH. + + + +One of the most interesting and picturesque regions of all New Mexico is +the immense tract of nearly two million acres known as Maxwell's Ranch, +through which the Old Trail ran, and the title to which was some years +since determined by the Supreme Court of the United States in favour of +an alien company.[59] Dead long ago, Maxwell belonged to a generation +and a class almost completely extinct, and the like of which will, in +all probability, never be seen again; for there is no more frontier to +develop them. + +Several years prior to the acquisition of the territory by the United +States, the immense tract comprised in the geographical limits of +the ranch was granted to Carlos Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda, both +citizens of the province of New Mexico, and agents of the American Fur +Company. Attached to the company as an employer, a trapper, and hunter, +was Lucien B. Maxwell, an Illinoisan by birth, who married a daughter +of Beaubien. After the death of the latter Maxwell purchased all the +interest of the joint proprietor, Miranda, and that of the heirs of +Beaubien, thus at once becoming the largest landowner in the United +States. + +At the zenith of his influence and wealth, during the War of the +Rebellion, when New Mexico was isolated and almost independent of +care or thought by the government at Washington, he lived in a sort of +barbaric splendour, akin to that of the nobles of England at the time of +the Norman conquest. + +The thousands of arable acres comprised in the many fertile valleys of +his immense estate were farmed in a primitive, feudal sort of way, by +native Mexicans principally, under the system of peonage then existing +in the Territory. He employed about five hundred men, and they were as +much his thralls as were Gurth and Wamba of Cedric of Rotherwood, only +they wore no engraved collars around their necks bearing their names and +that of their master. Maxwell was not a hard governor, and his people +really loved him, as he was ever their friend and adviser. + +His house was a palace when compared with the prevailing style of +architecture in that country, and cost an immense sum of money. It was +large and roomy, purely American in its construction, but the manner of +conducting it was strictly Mexican, varying between the customs of the +higher and lower classes of that curious people. + +Some of its apartments were elaborately furnished, others devoid of +everything except a table for card-playing and a game's complement of +chairs. The principal room, an extended rectangular affair, which might +properly have been termed the Baronial Hall, was almost bare except +for a few chairs, a couple of tables, and an antiquated bureau. There +Maxwell received his friends, transacted business with his vassals, and +held high carnival at times. + +I have slept on its hardwood floor, rolled up in my blanket, with the +mighty men of the Ute nation lying heads and points all around me, as +close as they could possibly crowd, after a day's fatiguing hunt in the +mountains. I have sat there in the long winter evenings, when the +great room was lighted only by the cheerful blaze of the crackling +logs roaring up the huge throats of its two fireplaces built diagonally +across opposite corners, watching Maxwell, Kit Carson, and half a dozen +chiefs silently interchange ideas in the wonderful sign language, until +the glimmer of Aurora announced the advent of another day. But not a +sound had been uttered during the protracted hours, save an occasional +grunt of satisfaction on the part of the Indians, or when we white men +exchanged a sentence. + +Frequently Maxwell and Carson would play the game of seven-up for hours +at a time, seated at one of the tables. Kit was usually the victor, for +he was the greatest expert in that old and popular pastime I have +ever met. Maxwell was an inveterate gambler, but not by any means in a +professional sense; he indulged in the hazard of the cards simply for +the amusement it afforded him in his rough life of ease, and he could +very well afford the losses which the pleasure sometimes entailed. His +special penchant, however, was betting on a horse race, and his own stud +comprised some of the fleetest animals in the Territory. Had he lived in +England he might have ruled the turf, but many jobs were put up on +him by unscrupulous jockeys, by which he was outrageously defrauded of +immense sums. + +He was fond of cards, as I have said, both of the purely American game +of poker, and also of old sledge, but rarely played except with personal +friends, and never without stakes. He always exacted the last cent he +had won, though the next morning, perhaps, he would present or loan his +unsuccessful opponent of the night before five hundred or a thousand +dollars, if he needed it; an immensely greater sum, in all probability, +than had been gained in the game. + +The kitchen and dining-rooms of his princely establishment were detached +from the main residence. There was one of the latter for the male +portion of his retinue and guests of that sex, and another for the +female, as, in accordance with the severe, and to us strange, Mexican +etiquette, men rarely saw a woman about the premises, though there were +many. Only the quick rustle of a skirt, or a hurried view of a reboso, +as its wearer flashed for an instant before some window or half-open +door, told of their presence. + +The greater portion of his table-service was solid silver, and at his +hospitable board there were rarely any vacant chairs. Covers were laid +daily for about thirty persons; for he had always many guests, invited +or forced upon him in consequence of his proverbial munificence, or +by the peculiar location of his manor-house which stood upon a +magnificently shaded plateau at the foot of mighty mountains, a short +distance from a ford on the Old Trail. As there were no bridges over +the uncertain streams of the great overland route in those days, the +ponderous Concord coaches, with their ever-full burden of passengers, +were frequently water-bound, and Maxwell's the only asylum from the +storm and flood; consequently he entertained many. + +At all times, and in all seasons, the group of buildings, houses, +stables, mill, store, and their surrounding grounds, were a constant +resort and loafing-place of Indians. From the superannuated chiefs, who +revelled lazily during the sunny hours in the shady peacefulness of the +broad porches; the young men of the tribe, who gazed with covetous eyes +upon the sleek-skinned, blooded colts sporting in the spacious corrals; +the squaws, fascinated by the gaudy calicoes, bright ribbons, and +glittering strings of beads on the counters or shelves of the large +store, to the half-naked, chubby little pappooses around the kitchen +doors, waiting with expectant mouths for some delicious morsel of refuse +to be thrown to them--all assumed, in bearing and manner, a vested right +of proprietorship in their agreeable environment. + +To this motley group, always under his feet, as it were, Maxwell was +ever passively gracious, although they were battening in idleness on his +prodigal bounty from year to year. + +His retinue of servants, necessarily large, was made up of a +heterogeneous mixture of Indians, Mexicans, and half-breeds. The +kitchens were presided over by dusky maidens under the tutelage of +experienced old crones, and its precincts were sacred to them; but the +dining-rooms were forbidden to women during the hours of meals, which +were served by boys. + +Maxwell was rarely, as far as my observation extended, without a large +amount of money in his possession. He had no safe, however, his only +place of temporary deposit for the accumulated cash being the bottom +drawer of the old bureau in the large room to which I have referred, +which was the most antiquated concern of common pine imaginable. There +were only two other drawers in this old-fashioned piece of furniture, +and neither of them possessed a lock. The third, or lower, the one that +contained the money, did, but it was absolutely worthless, being one of +the cheapest pattern and affording not the slightest security; besides, +the drawers above it could be pulled out, exposing the treasure +immediately beneath to the cupidity of any one. + +I have frequently seen as much as thirty thousand dollars--gold, silver, +greenbacks, and government checks--at one time in that novel depository. +Occasionally these large sums remained there for several days, yet there +was never any extra precaution taken to prevent its abstraction; doors +were always open and the room free of access to every one, as usual. + +I once suggested to Maxwell the propriety of purchasing a safe for +the better security of his money, but he only smiled, while a strange, +resolute look flashed from his dark eyes, as he said: "God help the man +who attempted to rob me and I knew him!" + +The sources of his wealth were his cattle, sheep, and the products of +his area of cultivated acres--barley, oats, and corn principally--which +he disposed of to the quartermaster and commissary departments of the +army, in the large military district of New Mexico. His wool-clip must +have been enormous, too; but I doubt whether he could have told the +number of animals that furnished it or the aggregate of his vast herds. +He had a thousand horses, ten thousand cattle, and forty thousand sheep +at the time I knew him well, according to the best estimates of his +Mexican relatives. + +He also possessed a large and perfectly appointed gristmill, which was +a great source of revenue, for wheat was one of the staple crops of his +many farms. + +Maxwell was fond of travelling all over the Territory, his equipages +comprising everything in the shape of a vehicle, through all their +varieties, from the most plainly constructed buckboard to the lumbering, +but comfortable and expensive, Concord coach, mounted on thorough braces +instead of springs, and drawn by four or six horses. He was perfectly +reckless in his driving, dashing through streams, over irrigating +ditches, stones, and stumps like a veritable Jehu, regardless of +consequences, but, as is usually the fortune of such precipitate +horsemen, rarely coming to grief. + +The headquarters of the Ute agency were established at Maxwell's Ranch +in early days, and the government detailed a company of cavalry to camp +there, more, however, to impress the plains tribes who roamed along the +Old Trail east of the Raton Range, than for any effect on the Utes, whom +Maxwell could always control, and who regarded him as a father. + +On the 4th of July, 1867, Maxwell, who owned an antiquated and rusty +six-pound field howitzer, suggested to the captain of the troop +stationed there the propriety of celebrating the day. So the old piece +was dragged from its place under a clump of elms, where it had been +hidden in the grass and weeds ever since the Mexican War probably, +and brought near the house. The captain and Maxwell acted the role +of gunners, the former at the muzzle, the latter at the breech; the +discharge was premature, blowing out the captain's eye and taking off +his arm, while Maxwell escaped with a shattered thumb. As soon as the +accident occurred, a sergeant was despatched to Fort Union on one of the +fastest horses on the ranch, the faithful animal falling dead the moment +he stopped in front of the surgeon's quarters, having made the journey +of fifty-five miles in little more than four hours. + +The surgeon left the post immediately, arriving at Maxwell's late that +night, but in time to save the officer's life, after which he dressed +Maxwell's apparently inconsiderable wound. In a few days, however, the +thumb grew angry-looking; it would not yield to the doctor's careful +treatment, so he reluctantly decided that amputation was necessary. +After an operation was determined upon, I prevailed upon Maxwell to come +to the fort and remain with me, inviting Kit Carson at the same time, +that he might assist in catering to the amusement of my suffering guest. +Maxwell and Carson arrived at my quarters late in the day, after a +tedious ride in the big coach, and the surgeon, in order to allow a +prolonged rest on account of Maxwell's feverish condition, postponed the +operation until the following evening. + +The next night, as soon as it grew dark--we waited for coolness, as the +days were excessively hot--the necessary preliminaries were arranged, +and when everything was ready the surgeon commenced. Maxwell declined +the anaesthetic prepared for him, and sitting in a common office chair +put out his hand, while Carson and myself stood on opposite sides, each +holding an ordinary kerosene lamp. In a few seconds the operation was +concluded, and after the silver-wire ligatures were twisted in their +places, I offered Maxwell, who had not as yet permitted a single sigh to +escape his lips, half a tumblerful of whiskey; but before I had fairly +put it to his mouth, he fell over, having fainted dead away, while great +beads of perspiration stood on his forehead, indicative of the pain he +had suffered, as the amputation of the thumb, the surgeon told us then, +was as bad as that of a leg. + +He returned to his ranch as soon as the surgeon pronounced him well, and +Carson to his home in Taos. I saw the latter but once more at Maxwell's; +but he was en route to visit me at Fort Harker, in Kansas, when he was +taken ill at Fort Lyon, where he died. + + A boy's will is the wind's will, + And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. + +How true it now seems to me, as the recollections of my boyish days, +when I read of the exploits of Kit Carson, crowd upon my memory! I +firmly believed him to be at least ten feet tall, carrying a rifle +so heavy that, like Bruce's sword, it required two men to lift it. I +imagined he drank out of nothing smaller than a river, and picked the +carcass of a whole buffalo as easily as a lady does the wing of a quail. +Ten years later I made the acquaintance of the foremost frontiersman, +and found him a delicate, reticent, under-sized, wiry man, as perfectly +the opposite of the type my childish brain had created as it is possible +to conceive. + +At Fort Union our mail arrived every morning by coach over the Trail, +generally pulling up at the sutler's store, whose proprietor was +postmaster, about daylight. While Maxwell and Kit were my guests, I +sauntered down after breakfast one morning to get my mail, and while +waiting for the letters to be distributed, happened to glance at some +papers lying on the counter, among which I saw a new periodical--the +_Day's Doings_, I think it was--that had a full-page illustration of a +scene in a forest. In the foreground stood a gigantic figure dressed in +the traditional buckskin; on one arm rested an immense rifle; his other +arm was around the waist of the conventional female of such sensational +journals, while in front, lying prone upon the ground, were half a +dozen Indians, evidently slain by the singular hero in defending the +impossibly attired female. The legend related how all this had been +effected by the famous Kit Carson. I purchased the paper, returned with +it to my room, and after showing it to several officers who had called +upon Maxwell, I handed it to Kit. He wiped his spectacles, studied the +picture intently for a few seconds, turned round, and said: "Gentlemen, +that thar may be true, but I hain't got no recollection of it." + +I passed a delightful two weeks with Maxwell, late in the summer of +1867, at the time that the excitement over the discovery of gold on his +ranch had just commenced, and adventurers were beginning to congregate +in the hills and gulches from everywhere. The discovery of the precious +metal on his estate was the first cause of his financial embarrassment. +It was the ruin also of many other prominent men in New Mexico, who +expended their entire fortune in the construction of an immense ditch, +forty miles in length--from the Little Canadian or Red River--to supply +the placer diggings in the Moreno valley with water, when the melted +snow of Old Baldy range had exhausted itself in the late summer. The +scheme was a stupendous failure; its ruins may be seen to-day in the +deserted valleys, a monument to man's engineering skill, but the wreck +of his hopes. + +For some years previous to the discovery of gold in the mountains and +gulches of Maxwell's Ranch, it was known that copper existed in the +region; several shafts had been sunk and tunnels driven in various +places, and gold had been found from time to time, but was kept a secret +for many months. Its presence was at last revealed to Maxwell by a party +of his own miners, who were boring into the heart of Old Baldy for a +copper lead that had cropped out and was then lost. + +Of course, to keep the knowledge of the discovery of gold from the +world is an impossibility; such was the case in this instance, and soon +commenced that squatter immigration out of which, after the ranch was +sold and Maxwell died, grew that litigation which has resulted in favour +of the company who purchased from or through the first owners after +Maxwell's death. + +He was a representative man of the border of the same class as his +compeers--"wild-civilized men," to borrow an expressive term from John +Burroughs--of strong local attachments, and overflowing with the milk of +human kindness. To such as he there was an unconquerable infatuation in +life on the remote plains and in the solitude of the mountains. There +was never anything of the desperado in their character, while the +adventurers who at times have made the far West infamous, since the +advent of the railroad, were bad men originally. + +Occasionally such men turn up everywhere, and become a terror to the +community, but they are always wound up sooner or later; they die with +their boots on; Western graveyards are full of them. + +Maxwell, under contract with the Interior Department, furnished live +beeves to the Ute nation, the issue of which was made weekly from his +own vast herds. The cattle, as wild as those from the Texas prairies, +were driven by his herders into an immense enclosed field, and there +turned loose to be slaughtered by the savages. + +Once when at the ranch I told Maxwell I should like to have a horse +to witness the novel sight. He immediately ordered a Mexican groom to +procure one; but I did not see the peculiar smile that lighted up +his face, as he whispered something to the man which I did not catch. +Presently the groom returned leading a magnificent gray, which I +mounted, Maxwell suggesting that I should ride down to the large field +and wait there until the herd arrived. I entered the great corral, +patting my horse on the neck now and then, to make him familiar with +my touch, and attempted to converse with some of the chiefs, who were +dressed in their best, painted as if for the war-path, gaily bedecked +with feathers and armed with rifles and gaudily appointed bows and +arrows; but I did not succeed very well in drawing them from their +normal reticence. The squaws, a hundred of them, were sitting on the +ground, their knives in hand ready for the labour which is the fate +of their sex in all savage tribes, while their lords' portion of the +impending business was to end with the more manly efforts of the chase. + +Suddenly a great cloud of dust rose on the trail from the mountains, and +on came the maddened animals, fairly shaking the earth with their +mighty tread. As soon as the gate was closed behind them, and uttering a +characteristic yell that was blood-curdling in its ferocity, the Indians +charged upon the now doubly frightened herd, and commenced to discharge +their rifles, regardless of the presence of any one but themselves. My +horse became paralyzed for an instant and stood poised on his hind legs, +like the steed represented in that old lithographic print of Napoleon +crossing the Alps; then taking the bit in his teeth, he rushed aimlessly +into the midst of the flying herd, while the bullets from the guns of +the excited savages rained around my head. I had always boasted of my +equestrian accomplishments--I was never thrown but once in my life, and +that was years afterward--but in this instance it taxed all my powers to +keep my seat. In less than twenty minutes the last beef had fallen; +and the warriors, inflated with the pride of their achievement, rode +silently out of the field, leaving the squaws to cut up and carry away +the meat to their lodges, more than three miles distant, which they soon +accomplished, to the last quivering morsel. + +As I rode leisurely back to the house, I saw Maxwell and Kit standing +on the broad porch, their sides actually shaking with laughter at my +discomfiture, they having been watching me from the very moment the herd +entered the corral. It appeared that the horse Maxwell ordered the groom +to bring me was a recent importation from St. Louis, had never before +seen an Indian, and was as unused to the prairies and mountains as a +street-car mule. Kit said that my mount reminded him of one that his +antagonist in a duel rode a great many years ago when he was young. +If the animal had not been such "a fourth-of-July" brute, his opponent +would in all probability have finished him, as he was a splendid shot; +but Kit fortunately escaped, the bullet merely grazing him under the +ear, leaving a scar which he then showed me. + +One night Kit Carson, Maxwell, and I were up in the Raton Mountains +above the Old Trail, and having lingered too long, were caught above +the clouds against our will, darkness having overtaken us before we were +ready to descend into the valley. It was dangerous to undertake the trip +over such a precipitous and rocky trail, so we were compelled to make +the best of our situation. It was awfully cold, and as we had brought no +blankets, we dared not go to sleep for fear our fire might go out, +and we should freeze. We therefore determined to make a night of it by +telling yarns, smoking our pipes, and walking around at times. After +sitting awhile, Maxwell pointed toward the Spanish Peaks, whose +snow-white tops cast a diffused light in the heavens above them, and +remarked that in the deep canyon which separates them, he had had one of +the "closest calls" of his life, willingly complying when I asked him to +tell us the story. + +"It was in 1847. I came down from Taos with a party to go to the +Cimarron crossing of the Santa Fe Trail to pick up a large herd of +horses for the United States Quartermaster's Department. We succeeded in +gathering about a hundred and started back with them, letting them graze +slowly along, as we were in no hurry. When we arrived at the foot-hills +north of Bent's Fort, we came suddenly upon the trail of a large +war-band of Utes, none of whom we saw, but from subsequent developments +the savages must have discovered us days before we reached the +mountains. I knew we were not strong enough to cope with the whole Ute +nation, and concluded the best thing for us to do under the ticklish +circumstances was to make a detour, and put them off our trail. So we +turned abruptly down the Arkansas, intending to try and get to Taos +in that direction, more than one hundred and fifty miles around. It +appeared afterward that the Indians had been following us all the way. +When we found this out, some of the men believed they were another +party, and not the same whose trail we came upon when we turned down +the river, but I always insisted they were. When we arrived within a few +days' drive of Taos, we were ambushed in one of the narrow passes of the +range, and had the bloodiest fight with the Utes on record. There were +thirteen of us, all told, and two little children whom we were escorting +to their friends at Taos, having received them at the Cimarron crossing. + +"While we were quietly taking our breakfast one morning, and getting +ready to pull out for the day's march, perfectly unsuspicious of the +proximity of any Indians, they dashed in upon us, and in less than a +minute stampeded all our stock--loose animals as well as those we were +riding. While part of the savages were employed in running off the +animals, fifty of their most noted warriors, splendidly mounted and +horribly painted, rushed into the camp, around the fire of which the men +and the little children were peacefully sitting, and, discharging their +guns as they rode up, killed one man and wounded another. + +"Terribly surprised as we were, it did not turn the heads of the old +mountaineers, and I immediately told them to make a break for a clump of +timber near by, and that we would fight them as long as one of us could +stand up. There we fought and fought against fearful odds, until all +were wounded except two. The little children were captured at the +beginning of the trouble and carried off at once. After a while the +savages got tired of the hard work, and, as is frequently the case, went +away of their own free will; but they left us in a terrible plight. All +were sore, stiff, and weak from their many wounds; on foot, and without +any food or ammunition to procure game with, having exhausted our supply +in the awfully unequal battle; besides, we were miles from home, with +every prospect of starving to death. + +"We could not remain where we were, so as soon as darkness came on, we +started out to walk to some settlement. We dared not show ourselves by +daylight, and all through the long hours when the sun was up, we were +obliged to hide in the brush and ravines until night overtook us again, +and we could start on our painful march. + +"We had absolutely nothing to eat, and our wounds began to fester, so +that we could hardly move at all. We should undoubtedly have perished, +if, on the third day, a band of friendly Indians of another tribe had +not gone to Taos and reported the fight to the commanding officer of the +troops there. These Indians had heard of our trouble with the Utes, and +knowing how strong they were, and our weakness, surmised our condition, +and so hastened to convey the bad news. + +"A company of dragoons was immediately sent to our rescue, under the +guidance of Dick Wooton, who was and has ever been a warm personal +friend of mine. They came upon us about forty miles from Taos, and never +were we more surprised; we had become so starved and emaciated that +we had abandoned all hope of escaping what seemed to be our inevitable +fate. + +"When the troops found us, we had only a few rags, our clothes having +been completely stripped from our bodies while struggling through the +heavy underbrush on our trail, and we were so far exhausted that we +could not stand on our feet. One more day, and we would have been laid +out. + +"The little children were, fortunately, saved from the horror of that +terrible march after the fight, as the Indians carried them to their +winter camp, where, if not absolutely happy, they were under shelter and +fed; escaping the starvation which would certainly have been their fate +if they had remained with us. They were eventually ransomed for a cash +payment by the government, and altogether had not been very harshly +treated." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. BENT'S FORTS. + + + +The famous Bent brothers, William, George, Robert, and Charles, were +French-Canadian hunters and trappers, and had been employed almost from +boyhood, in the early days of the border, by the American Fur Company in +the mountains of the Northwest. + +In 1826, almost immediately after the transference of the fur trade to +the valley of the Arkansas, when the commerce of the prairies was fairly +initiated, the three Bents and Ceran St. Vrain, also a French-Canadian +and trapper, settled on the Upper Arkansas, where they erected a +stockade. It was, of course, a rude affair, formed of long stakes or +pickets driven into the ground, after the Mexican style known as jacal. +The sides were then ceiled and roofed, and it served its purpose of a +trading-post. This primitive fort was situated on the left or north +bank of the river, about halfway between Pueblo and Canyon City, those +beautiful mountain towns of to-day. + +Two years afterward, in 1828, the proprietors of the primitive stockade +in the remote wilderness found it necessary to move closer to the +great hunting-grounds lower down the valley. There, about twelve miles +northeast of the now thriving town of Las Animas, the Bents commenced +the construction of a relatively large and more imposing-looking +structure than the first. The principal material used in the new +building, or rather in its walls, was adobe, or sun-dried brick, so +common even to-day in New Mexican architecture. Four years elapsed +before the new fort was completed, during which period its owners, like +other trappers, lived in tents or teepees fashioned of buffalo-skins, +after the manner of the Indians. + +When at last the new station was completed, it was named Fort William, +in honour of Colonel William Bent, who was the leader of the family +and the most active trader among the four partners in the concern. +The colonel frequently made long trips to the remote villages of the +Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches, which were situated far to +the south and east, on the Canadian River and its large tributaries. His +miscellaneous assortment of merchandise he transported upon pack-mules +to the Indian rendezvous, bringing back to the fort the valuable furs +he had exchanged for the goods so eagerly coveted by the savages. It was +while on one of his trading expeditions to the Cheyenne nation that +the colonel married a young squaw of that tribe, the daughter of the +principal chief. + +William Bent for his day and time was an exceptionally good man. His +integrity, his truthfulness on all occasions, and his remarkable courage +endeared him to the red and white man alike, and Fort William prospered +wonderfully under his careful and just management. Both his brothers +and St. Vrain had taken up their residence in Taos, and upon the colonel +devolved the entire charge of the busy establishment. It soon became +the most popular rendezvous of the mountaineers and trappers, and in +its immediate vicinity several tribes of Indians took up their temporary +encampment. + +In 1852 Fort William was destroyed under the following strange +circumstances: It appears that the United States desired to purchase it. +Colonel Bent had decided upon a price--sixteen thousand dollars--but +the representatives of the War Department offered only twelve thousand, +which, of course, Bent refused. Negotiations were still pending, when +the colonel, growing tired of the red-tape and circumlocution of the +authorities, and while in a mad mood, removed all his valuables from the +structure, excepting some barrels of gunpowder, and then deliberately +set fire to the old landmark. When the flames reached the powder, there +was an explosion which threw down portions of the walls, but did not +wholly destroy them. The remains of the once noted buildings stand +to-day, melancholy relics of a past epoch. + +In the same year the indefatigable and indomitable colonel determined +upon erecting a much more important structure. He selected a site on +the same side of the Arkansas, in the locality known as Big Timbers. +Regarding this new venture, Colonel or Judge Moore of Las Animas, a +son-in-law of William Bent, tells in a letter to the author of the +history of Colorado the following facts:-- + + Leaving ten men in camp to get out stone for the new post, + Colonel Bent took a part of his outfit and went to a Kiowa + village, about two hundred miles southwest, and remained + there all winter, trading with the Kiowas and Comanches. + In the spring of 1853 he returned to Big Timbers, when + the construction of the new post was begun, and the work + continued until completed in the summer of 1854; and it + was used as a trading-post until the owner leased it to + the government in the autumn of 1859. Colonel Sedgwick had + been sent out to fight the Kiowas that year, and in the fall + a large quantity of commissary stores had been sent him. + Colonel Bent then moved up the river to a point just above + the mouth of the Purgatoire, and built several rooms of + cottonwood pickets, and there spent the winter. In the + spring of 1860, Colonel Sedgwick began the construction of + officers' buildings, company quarters, corrals, and stables, + all of stone, and named the place Fort Wise, in honour of + Governor Wise of Virginia. In 1861 the name was changed to + Fort Lyon, in honour of General Lyon, who was killed at the + battle of Wilson Creek, Missouri. In the spring of 1866, + the Arkansas River overflowed its banks, swept up into the + fort, and, undermining the walls, rendered it untenable for + military purposes. The camp was moved to a point twenty + miles below, and the new Fort Lyon established. The old + post was repaired, and used as a stage station by Barlow, + Sanderson, and Company, who ran a mail, express, and + passenger line between Kansas City and Santa Fe. + +The contiguous region to Fort William was in the early days a famous +hunting-ground. It abounded in nearly every variety of animal indigenous +to the mountains and plains, among which were the panther--the so-called +California lion of to-day--the lynx, erroneously termed wild cat, white +wolf, prairie wolf, silver-gray fox, prairie fox, antelope, buffalo, +gray, grizzly and cinnamon bears, together with the common brown and +black species, the red deer and the black-tail, the latter the finest +venison in the world. Of birds there were wild turkeys, quail, and +grouse, besides an endless variety of the smaller-sized families, not +regarded as belonging to the domain of game in a hunter's sense. It was +a veritable paradise, too, for the trappers. Its numerous streams and +creeks were famous for beaver, otter, and mink. + +Scarcely an acre of the surrounding area within the radius of hundreds +of miles but has been the scene of many deadly encounters with the +wily red man, stories of which are still current among the few old +mountaineers yet living. + +The fort was six hundred and fifty miles west of Fort Leavenworth, in +latitude thirty-eight degrees and two minutes north, and longitude one +hundred and three degrees and three minutes west, from Greenwich. The +exterior walls of the fort, whose figure was that of a parallelogram, +were fifteen feet high and four feet thick. It was a hundred and +thirty-five feet wide and divided into various compartments. On the +northwest and southeast corners were hexagonal bastions, in which were +mounted a number of cannon. The walls of the building served as the +walls of the rooms, all of which faced inwards on a plaza, after the +general style of Mexican architecture. The roofs of the rooms were made +of poles, on which was a heavy layer of dirt, as in the houses of native +Mexicans to-day. The fort possessed a billiard table, that visitors +might amuse themselves, and in the office was a small telescope with a +fair range of seven miles. + +The occupants of the far-away establishment, in its palmy days (for +years it was the only building between Council Grove and the mountains), +were traders, Indians, hunters, and French trappers, who were the +employees of the great fur companies. Many of the latter had Indian +wives. Later, after a stage line had been put in operation across the +plains to Santa Fe, the fort was relegated to a mere station for +the overland route, and with the march of civilization in its course +westward, the trappers, hunters, and traders vanished from the once +famous rendezvous. + +The walls were loopholed for musketry, and the entrance to the plaza, or +corral, was guarded by large wooden gates. During the war with Mexico, +the fort was headquarters for the commissary department, and many +supplies were stored there, though the troops camped below on the +beautiful river-bottom. In the centre of the corral, in the early days +when the place was a rendezvous of the trappers, a large buffalo-robe +press was erected. When the writer first saw the famous fort, now over a +third of a century ago, one of the cannon, that burst in firing a salute +to General Kearney, could be seen half buried in the dirt of the plaza. + +By barometrical measurements taken by the engineer officers of the army +at different times, the height of Bent's Fort above the ocean level is +approximately eight thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight feet, and +the fall of the Arkansas River from the fort to the great bend of that +stream, about three hundred and eleven miles east, is seven feet and +four-tenths per mile. + +It was in a relatively fair state of preservation thirty-three years +ago, but now not a vestige of it remains, excepting perhaps a mound +of dirt, the disintegration of the mud bricks of which the historical +structure was built. + +The Indians whose villages were located a few miles below the fort, or +at least the chief men of the various tribes, passed much of their time +within the shelter of the famous structure. They were bountifully fed, +and everything they needed furnished them. This was purely from policy, +however; for if their wishes were not gratified, their hunters would not +bring in their furs to trade. The principal chiefs never failed to +be present when a meal was announced as ready, and however scarce +provisions might be, the Indians must be fed. + +The first farm in the fertile and now valuable lands of the valley of +the Rio de las Animas[60] was opened by the Bents. The area selected for +cultivation was in the beautiful bottom between the fort and the ford, +a strip about a mile in length, and from one hundred and fifty to six +hundred feet in width. Nothing could be grown without irrigation, and +to that end an acequia, as the Mexicans call the ditch through which the +water flows, was constructed, and a crop put in. Before the enterprising +projectors of the scheme could reap a harvest, the hostile savages +dashed in and destroyed everything. + +Uncle John Smith was one of the principal traders back in the '30's, +and he was very successful, perhaps because he was undoubtedly the +most perfect master of the Cheyenne language at that time in the whole +mountain region. + +Among those who frequently came to the fort were Kit Carson, L. B. +Maxwell, Uncle Dick Wooton, Baptiste Brown, Jim Bridger, Old Bill +Williams, James Beckwourth, Shawnee Spiebuck, Shawnee Jake--the latter +two, noted Indian trappers--besides a host of others. + +The majority of the old trappers, to a stranger, until he knew their +peculiar characteristics, were seemingly of an unsociable disposition. +It was an erroneous idea, however; for they were the most genial +companions imaginable, generous to a fault, and to fall into one of +their camps was indeed a lucky thing for the lost traveller. Everything +the host had was at his guest's disposal, and though coffee and sugar +were the dearest of his luxuries, often purchased with a whole season's +trapping, the black fluid was offered with genuine free-heartedness, +and the last plug of tobacco placed at the disposition of his chance +visitor, as though it could be picked up on the ground anywhere. + +Goods brought by the traders to the rendezvous for sale to the trappers +and hunters, although of the most inferior quality, were sold at +enormously high prices. + +Coffee, by the pint-cup, which was the usual measure for everything, +cost from a dollar and twenty cents to three dollars; tobacco a dollar +and a half a plug; alcohol from two dollars to five dollars a pint; +gunpowder one dollar and sixty cents a pint-cup, and all other articles +at proportionably exorbitant rates. + +The annual gatherings of the trappers at the rendezvous were often the +scene of bloody duels; for over their cups and cards no men were more +quarrelsome than the old-time mountaineers. Rifles at twenty paces +settled all difficulties, and, as may be imagined, the fall of one or +the other of the combatants was certain, or, as sometimes happened, both +fell at the word "Fire!" + +The trapper's visits to the Mexican settlements, or to the lodges of +a tribe of Indians, for the purpose of trading, often resulted in his +returning to his quiet camp with a woman to grace his solitary home, +the loving and lonely couple as devoted to each other in the midst of +blood-thirsty enemies, howling wolves, and panthers, as if they were in +some quiet country village. + +The easy manners of the harum-scarum, reckless trappers at the +rendezvous, and the simple, unsuspecting hearts of those nymphs of the +mountains, the squaws, caused their husbands to be very jealous of the +attentions bestowed upon them by strangers. Often serious difficulties +arose, in the course of which the poor wife received a severe whipping +with the knot of a lariat, or no very light lodge-poling at the hands of +her imperious sovereign. Sometimes the affair ended in a more tragical +way than a mere beating, not infrequently the gallant paying the penalty +of his interference with his life. + +Garrard, a traveller on the great plains and in the Rocky Mountains +half a century ago, from whose excellent diary I have frequently quoted, +passed many days and nights at Bent's Fort fifty years ago, and his +quaint description of life there in that remote period of the extreme +frontier is very amusing. Its truth has often been confirmed by Uncle +John Smith, who was my guide and interpreter in the Indian expedition of +1868-69, only two decades after Garrard's experience. + +Rosalie, a half-breed French and Indian squaw, wife of the carpenter, +and Charlotte, the culinary divinity, were, as a Missouri teamster +remarked, "the only female women here." They were nightly led to the +floor to trip the light fantastic toe, and swung rudely or gently in the +mazes of the contra-dance, but such a medley of steps is seldom seen +out of the mountains--the halting, irregular march of the war-dance, +the slipping gallopade, the boisterous pitching of the Missouri +backwoodsman, and the more nice gyrations of the Frenchman; for +all, irrespective of rank, age, or colour, went pell-mell into +the excitement, in a manner that would have rendered a leveller of +aristocracies and select companies frantic with delight. And the airs +assumed by the fair ones, more particularly Charlotte, who took pattern +from life in the States, were amusing. She acted her part to perfection; +she was the centre of attraction, the belle of the evening. She treated +the suitors for the pleasure of the next set with becoming ease and +suavity of manner; she knew her worth, and managed accordingly. When the +favoured gallant stood by her side waiting for the rudely scraped tune +from a screeching fiddle, satisfaction, joy, and triumph over his rivals +were pictured on his radiant face. + +James Hobbs, of whom I have already spoken, once gave me a graphic +description of the annual feast of the Comanches, Cheyennes, and +Arapahoes, which always took place at Big Timbers, near Fort William. + +Hobbs was married to the daughter of Old Wolf, the chief of the +Comanches, a really beautiful Indian girl, with whom he lived faithfully +many years. In the early summer of 1835, he went with his father-in-law +and the rest of the tribe to the great feast of that season. He stated +that on that occasion there were forty thousand Indians assembled, and +consequently large hunting parties were sent out daily to procure food +for such a vast host. The entertainment was kept up for fifteen days, +enlivened by horse races, foot races, and playing ball. In these races +the tribes would bet their horses on the result, the Comanches generally +winning, for they are the best riders in the world. By the time the +feast was ended, the Arapahoes and Cheyennes usually found themselves +afoot, but Old Wolf, who was a generous fellow, always gave them back +enough animals to get home with. + +The game of ball was played with crooked sticks, and is very much like +the American boys' "shinny." The participants are dressed in a simple +breech-cloth and moccasins. It is played with great enthusiasm and +affords much amusement. + +At these annual feasts a council of the great chiefs of the three tribes +is always held, and at the one during the season referred to, Hobbs said +the Cheyenne chiefs wanted Old Wolf to visit Bent's Fort, where he had +never been. Upon the arrival of the delegation there, it was heartily +welcomed by all the famous men who happened to be at the place, among +whom were Kit Carson, Old John Smith, and several noted trappers. +Whiskey occupied a prominent place in the rejoicing, and "I found it +hard work," said Hobbs, "to stand the many toasts drank to my good +health." The whole party, including Old Wolf and his companion the +Cheyenne chief, got very much elated, and every person in the fort smelt +whiskey, if they did not get their feet tangled with it. + +About midnight a messenger came inside, reporting that a thousand +Comanche warriors were gathering around the fort. They demanded their +leaders, fearing treachery, and desired to know why their chief had +not returned. Hobbs went out and explained that he was safe; but +they insisted on seeing him, so he and Hobbs showed themselves to the +assembled Indians, and Old Wolf made a speech, telling them that he and +the Cheyenne chief were among good friends to the Indians, and presents +would be given to them the next morning. The warriors were pacified with +these assurances, though they did not leave the vicinity of the fort. + +It was at this time that Hobbs was ransomed by Colonel Bent, who gave +Old Wolf, for him, six yards of red flannel, a pound of tobacco, and an +ounce of beads. + +The chief was taken in charge by a lieutenant, who showed him all over +the fort, letting him see the rifle port-holes, and explaining how the +place could stand a siege against a thousand Indians. Finally, he was +taken out on the parapet, where there was a six-pounder at each angle. +The old savage inquired how they could shoot such a thing, and at Hobbs' +request, a blank cartridge was put in the piece and fired. Old Wolf +sprang back in amazement, and the Indians on the outside, under the +walls, knowing nothing of what was going on, ran away as fast as their +legs could carry them, convinced that their chief must be dead now and +their own safety dependent upon flight. Old Wolf and Hobbs sprang upon +the wall and signalled and shouted to them, and they returned, asking in +great astonishment what kind of a monstrous gun it was. + +About noon trading commenced. The Indians wished to come into the fort, +but Bent would not let any enter but the chiefs. At the back door the +colonel displayed his goods, and the Indians brought forward their +ponies, buffalo-robes, deer and other skins, which they traded for +tobacco, beads, calico, flannel, knives, spoons, whistles, jews'-harps, +etc. + +Whiskey was sold to them the first day, but as it caused several fights +among them before night, Bent stopped its sale, at Hobbs' suggestion and +with Old Wolf's consent. Indians, when they get drunk, do not waste time +by fighting with fists, like white men, but use knives and tomahawks; +so that a general scrimmage is a serious affair. Two or three deaths +resulted the first day, and there would have been many more if the sale +of whiskey had not been stopped. + +The trading continued for eight days, and Colonel Bent reaped a rich +harvest of what he could turn into gold at St. Louis. Old Wolf slept +in the fort each night except one during that time, and every time his +warriors aroused him about twelve o'clock and compelled him to show +himself on the walls to satisfy them of his safety. + +About a hundred trappers were in the employ of Bent and his partners. +Sometimes one-half of the company were off on a hunt, leaving but a +small force at the fort for its protection, but with the small battery +there its defence was considered sufficient. + +One day a trapping party, consisting of Kit Carson, "Peg-leg" Smith, and +James Hobbs, together with some Shawnee Indians, all under the lead of +Carson, started out from Bent's Fort for the Picketwire to trap beaver. + +Grizzlies were very abundant in that region then, and one of the party, +named McIntire, having killed an elk the evening before, said to Hobbs +that they might stand a good chance to find a grizzly by the elk he had +shot but had not brought in. Hobbs said that he was willing to go with +him, but as McIntire was a very green man in the mountains, Hobbs had +some doubts of depending on him in case of an attack by a grizzly bear. + +The two men left for the ravine in which McIntire had killed the elk +very early in the morning, taking with them tomahawks, hunting-knives, +rifles, and a good dog. On arriving at the ravine, Hobbs told McIntire +to cross over to the other side and climb the hill, but on no account +to go down into the ravine, as a grizzly is more dangerous when he has +a man on the downhill side. Hobbs then went to where he thought the elk +might be if he had died by the bank of the stream; but as soon as he +came near the water, he saw that a large grizzly had got there before +him, having scented the animal, and was already making his breakfast. + +The bear was in thick, scrubby oak brush, and Hobbs, making his dog lie +down, crawled behind a rock to get a favourable shot at the beast. He +drew a bead on him and fired, but the bear only snarled at the wound +made by the ball and started tearing through the brush, biting furiously +at it as he went. Hobbs reloaded his rifle carefully, and as quickly as +he could, in order to get a second shot; but, to his amazement, he saw +the bear rushing down the ravine chasing McIntire, who was only about +ten feet in advance of the enraged beast, running for his life, and +making as much noise as a mad bull. He was terribly scared, and Hobbs +hastened to his rescue, first sending his dog ahead. + +Just as the dog reached the bear, McIntire darted behind a tree and +flung his hat in the bear's face, at the same time sticking his rifle +toward him. The old grizzly seized the muzzle of the gun in his teeth, +and, as it was loaded and cocked, it either went off accidentally or +otherwise and blew the bear's head open, just as the dog had fastened +on his hindquarters. Hobbs ran to the assistance of his comrade with all +haste, but he was out of danger and had sat down a few rods away, with +his face as white as a sheet, a badly frightened man. + +After that fearful scare, McIntire would cook or do anything, but said +he never intended to make a business of bear-hunting; he had only wished +for one adventure, and this one had satisfied him. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. PAWNEE ROCK. + + + +That portion of the great central plains which radiates from Pawnee +Rock, including the Big Bend of the Arkansas, thirteen miles distant, +where that river makes a sudden sweep to the southeast, and the +beautiful valley of the Walnut, in all its vast area of more than a +million square acres, was from time immemorial a sort of debatable land, +occupied by none of the Indian tribes, but claimed by all to hunt in; +for it was a famous pasturage of the buffalo. + +None of the various bands had the temerity to attempt its permanent +occupancy; for whenever hostile tribes met there, which was of frequent +occurrence, in their annual hunt for their winter's supply of meat, a +bloody battle was certain to ensue. The region referred to has been the +scene of more sanguinary conflicts between the different Indians of the +plains, perhaps, than any other portion of the continent. Particularly +was it the arena of war to the death, when the Pawnees met their +hereditary enemies, the Cheyennes. + +Pawnee Rock was a spot well calculated by nature to form, as it has +done, an important rendezvous and ambuscade for the prowling savages of +the prairies, and often afforded them, especially the once powerful and +murderous Pawnees whose name it perpetuates, a pleasant little retreat +or eyrie from which to watch the passing Santa Fe traders, and dash down +upon them like hawks, to carry off their plunder and their scalps. + +Through this once dangerous region, close to the silent Arkansas, and +running under the very shadow of the rock, the Old Trail wound its +course. Now, at this point, it is the actual road-bed of the Atchison, +Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, so strangely are the past and present +transcontinental highways connected here. + +Who, among bearded and grizzled old fellows like myself, has forgotten +that most sensational of all the miserably executed illustrations in +the geographies of fifty years ago, "The Santa Fe Traders attacked by +Indians"? The picture located the scene of the fight at Pawnee Rock, +which formed a sort of nondescript shadow in the background of a crudely +drawn representation of the dangers of the Trail. + +If this once giant sentinel[61] of the plains might speak, what a story +it could tell of the events that have happened on the beautiful prairie +stretching out for miles at its feet! + +In the early fall, when the rock was wrapped in the soft amber haze +which is a distinguishing characteristic of the incomparable Indian +summer on the plains; or in the spring, when the mirage weaves its +mysterious shapes, it loomed up in the landscape as if it were a huge +mountain, and to the inexperienced eye appeared as if it were the abrupt +ending of a well-defined range. But when the frost came, and the mists +were dispelled; when the thin fringe of timber on the Walnut, a few +miles distant, had doffed its emerald mantle, and the grass had grown +yellow and rusty, then in the golden sunlight of winter, the rock sank +down to its normal proportions, and cut the clear blue of the sky with +sharply marked lines. + +In the days when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, the Pawnees +were the most formidable tribe on the eastern central plains, and the +freighters and trappers rarely escaped a skirmish with them either at +the crossing of the Walnut, Pawnee Rock, the Fork of the Pawnee, or at +Little and Big Coon creeks. To-day what is left of the historic hill +looks down only upon peaceful homes and fruitful fields, whereas for +hundreds of years it witnessed nothing but battle and death, and almost +every yard of brown sod at its base covered a skeleton. In place of the +horrid yell of the infuriated savage, as he wrenched off the reeking +scalp of his victim, the whistle of the locomotive and the pleasant +whirr of the reaping-machine is heard; where the death-cry of the +painted warrior rang mournfully over the silent prairie, the waving +grain is singing in beautiful rhythm as it bows to the summer breeze. + +Pawnee Rock received its name in a baptism of blood, but there are +many versions as to the time and sponsors. It was there that Kit Carson +killed his first Indian, and from that fight, as he told me himself, the +broken mass of red sandstone was given its distinctive title. + +It was late in the spring of 1826; Kit was then a mere boy, only +seventeen years old, and as green as any boy of his age who had never +been forty miles from the place where he was born. Colonel Ceran St. +Vrain, then a prominent agent of one of the great fur companies, was +fitting out an expedition destined for the far-off Rocky Mountains, the +members of which, all trappers, were to obtain the skins of the buffalo, +beaver, otter, mink, and other valuable fur-bearing animals that then +roamed in immense numbers on the vast plains or in the hills, and were +also to trade with the various tribes of Indians on the borders of +Mexico. + +Carson joined this expedition, which was composed of twenty-six mule +wagons, some loose stock, and forty-two men. The boy was hired to help +drive the extra animals, hunt game, stand guard, and to make himself +generally useful, which, of course, included fighting Indians if any +were met with on the long route. + +The expedition left Fort Osage one bright morning in May in excellent +spirits, and in a few hours turned abruptly to the west on the broad +Trail to the mountains. The great plains in those early days were +solitary and desolate beyond the power of description; the Arkansas +River sluggishly followed the tortuous windings of its treeless banks +with a placidness that was awful in its very silence; and whoso traced +the wanderings of that stream with no companion but his own thoughts, +realized in all its intensity the depth of solitude from which Robinson +Crusoe suffered on his lonely island. Illimitable as the ocean, the +weary waste stretched away until lost in the purple of the horizon, and +the mirage created weird pictures in the landscape, distorted distances +and objects which continually annoyed and deceived. Despite its +loneliness, however, there was then, and ever has been for many men, an +infatuation for those majestic prairies that once experienced is never +lost, and it came to the boyish heart of Kit, who left them but with +life, and full of years. + +There was not much variation in the eternal sameness of things during +the first two weeks, as the little train moved day after day through +the wilderness of grass, its ever-rattling wheels only intensifying +the surrounding monotony. Occasionally, however, a herd of buffalo was +discovered in the distance, their brown, shaggy sides contrasting with +the never-ending sea of verdure around them. Then young Kit, and two or +three others of the party who were detailed to supply the teamsters and +trappers with meat, would ride out after them on the best of the extra +horses which were always kept saddled and tied together behind the +last wagon for services of this kind. Kit, who was already an excellent +horseman and a splendid shot with the rifle, would soon overtake them, +and topple one after another of their huge fat carcasses over on the +prairie until half a dozen or more were lying dead. The tender humps, +tongues, and other choice portions were then cut out and put in a wagon +which had by that time reached them from the train, and the expedition +rolled on. + +So they marched for about three weeks, when they arrived at the crossing +of the Walnut, where they saw the first signs of Indians. They had +halted for that day; the mules were unharnessed, the camp-fires lighted, +and the men just about to indulge in their refreshing coffee, when +suddenly half a dozen Pawnees, mounted on their ponies, hideously +painted and uttering the most demoniacal yells, rushed out of the tall +grass on the river-bottom, where they had been ambushed, and swinging +their buffalo-robes, attempted to stampede the herd picketed near the +camp. The whole party were on their feet in an instant with rifles in +hand, and all the savages got for their trouble were a few well-deserved +shots as they hurriedly scampered back to the river and over into the +sand hills on the other side, soon to be out of sight. + +The expedition travelled sixteen miles next day, and camped at +Pawnee Rock, where, after the experience of the evening before, every +precaution was taken to prevent a surprise by the savages. The wagons +were formed into a corral, so that the animals could be secured in the +event of a prolonged fight; the guards were drilled by the colonel, and +every man slept with his rifle for a bed-fellow, for the old trappers +knew that the Indians would never remain satisfied with their defeat on +the Walnut, but would seize the first favourable opportunity to renew +their attack. + +At dark the sentinels were placed in position, and to young Kit fell +the important post immediately in front of the south face of the Rock, +nearly two hundred yards from the corral; the others being at prominent +points on top, and on the open prairie on either side. All who were not +on duty had long since been snoring heavily, rolled up in their blankets +and buffalo-robes, when at about half-past eleven, one of the guard gave +the alarm, "Indians!" and ran the mules that were nearest him into the +corral. In a moment the whole company turned out at the report of a +rifle ringing on the clear night air, coming from the direction of the +rock. The men had gathered at the opening to the corral, waiting for +developments, when Kit came running in, and as soon as he was near +enough, the colonel asked him whether he had seen any Indians. "Yes," +Kit replied, "I killed one of the red devils; I saw him fall!" + +The alarm proved to be false; there was no further disturbance that +night, so the party returned to their beds, and the sentinels to their +several posts, Kit of course to his place in front of the Rock. + +Early the next morning, before breakfast even, all were so anxious to +see Kit's dead Indian, that they went out en masse to where he was still +stationed, and instead of finding a painted Pawnee, as was expected, +they found the boy's riding mule dead, shot right through the head. + +Kit felt terribly mortified over his ridiculous blunder, and it was a +long time before he heard the last of his midnight adventure and his +raid on his own mule. But he always liked to tell the "balance of the +story," as he termed it, and this is his version: "I had not slept +any the night before, for I stayed awake watching to get a shot at the +Pawnees that tried to stampede our animals, expecting they would return; +and I hadn't caught a wink all day, as I was out buffalo hunting, so +I was awfully tired and sleepy when we arrived at Pawnee Rock that +evening, and when I was posted at my place at night, I must have gone +to sleep leaning against the rocks; at any rate, I was wide enough awake +when the cry of Indians was given by one of the guard. I had picketed +my mule about twenty steps from where I stood, and I presume he had been +lying down; all I remember is that the first thing I saw after the alarm +was something rising up out of the grass, which I thought was an Indian. +I pulled the trigger; it was a centre shot, and I don't believe the mule +ever kicked after he was hit!" + +The next morning about daylight, a band of Pawnees attacked the train in +earnest, and kept the little command busy all that day, the next night, +and until the following midnight, nearly three whole days, the mules all +the time being shut in the corral without food or water. At midnight of +the second day the colonel ordered the men to hitch up and attempt to +drive on to the crossing of Pawnee Fork, thirteen miles distant.[62] +They succeeded in getting there, fighting their way without the loss of +any of their men or animals. The Trail crossed the creek in the shape of +a horseshoe, or rather, in consequence of the double bend of the stream +as it empties into the Arkansas, the road crossed it twice. In making +this passage, dangerous on account of its crookedness, Kit said many +of the wagons were badly mashed up; for the mules were so thirsty that +their drivers could not control them. The train was hardly strung out on +the opposite bank when the Indians poured in a volley of bullets and +a shower of arrows from both sides of the Trail; but before they could +load and fire again, a terrific charge was on them, led by Colonel St. +Vrain and Carson. It required only a few moments more to clean out the +persistent savages, and the train went on. During the whole fight the +little party lost four men killed and seven wounded, and eleven mules +killed (not counting Kit's), and twenty badly wounded. + +A great many years ago, very early in the days of the trade with New +Mexico, seven Americans were surprised by a large band of Pawnees in +the vicinity of the Rock and were compelled to retreat to it for safety. +There, without water, and with but a small quantity of provisions, they +were besieged by their blood-thirsty foes for two days, when a party of +traders coming on the Trail relieved them from their perilous situation +and the presence of their enemy. There were several graves on its summit +when I first saw Pawnee Rock; but whether they contained the bones of +savages or those of white men, I do not know. + +Carson related to me another terrible fight that took place at the rock, +when he first became a trapper. He was not a participant, but knew the +parties well. About twenty-nine years ago, Kit, Jack Henderson, who +was agent for the Ute Indians, Lucien B. Maxwell, General Carleton and +myself were camped halfway up the rugged sides of Old Baldy, in the +Raton Range. The night was intensely cold, although in midsummer, and +we were huddled around a little fire of pine knots, more than seven +thousand feet above the level of the sea, close to the snow limit. + +Kit, or "the General," as every one called him, was in a good humour for +talking, and we naturally took advantage of this to draw him out; for +usually he was the most reticent of men in relating his own exploits. +A casual remark made by Maxwell opened Carson's mouth, and he said he +remembered one of the "worst difficults" a man ever got into.[63] So he +made a fresh corn-shuck cigarette, and related the following; but the +names of the old trappers who were the principals in the fight I have +unfortunately forgotten. + +Two men had been trapping in the Powder River country during one winter +with unusually good luck, and they got an early start with their furs, +which they were going to take to Weston, on the Missouri, one of the +principal trading points in those days. They walked the whole distance, +driving their pack-mules before them, and experienced no trouble +until they struck the Arkansas valley at Pawnee Rock. There they were +intercepted by a war-party of about sixty Pawnees. Both of the trappers +were notoriously brave and both dead shots. Before they arrived at the +rock, to which they were finally driven, they killed two of the Indians, +and had not themselves received a scratch. They had plenty of powder, a +pouch full of balls each, and two good rifles. They also had a couple of +jack-rabbits for food in case of a siege, and the perpendicular walls +of the front of the rock made them a natural fortification, an almost +impregnable one against Indians. + +They succeeded in securely picketing their animals at the side of the +rock, where they could protect them by their unerring rifles from being +stampeded. After the Pawnees had "treed" the two trappers on the rock, +they picked up their dead, and packed them off to their camp at the +mouth of a little ravine a short distance away. In a few moments back +they all came, mounted on fast ponies, with their war-paint and other +fixings on, ready to renew the fight. They commenced to circle around +the place, coming closer, Indian fashion, every time, until they got +within easy rifle-range, when they slung themselves on the opposite +sides of their horses, and in that position opened fire. Their arrows +fell like a hailstorm, but as good luck would have it, none of them +struck, and the balls from their rifles were wild, as the Indians in +those days were not very good shots; the rifle was a new weapon to them. +The trappers at first were afraid the savages would surely try to kill +the mules, but soon reflected that the Indians believed they had the +"dead-wood" on them, and the mules would come handy after they had been +scalped; so they felt satisfied their animals were safe for a while +anyhow. The men were taking in all the chances, however; both kept their +eyes skinned, and whenever one of them saw a stray leg or head, he drew +a bead on it and when he pulled the trigger, its owner tumbled over with +a yell of rage from his companions. + +Whenever the savages attempted to carry off their dead,[64] the two +trappers took advantage of the opportunity, and poured in their shots +every time with telling effect. + +By this time night had fallen, and the Indians did not seem anxious to +renew the fight after dark; but they kept their mounted patrols on +every side of the rock, at a respectable distance from such dead shots, +watching to prevent the escape of the besieged. As they were hungry, +one of the men went down under cover of the darkness to get a few +buffalo-chips with which to cook their rabbit, and to change the animals +to where they could get fresh grass. He returned safely to the summit of +the rock, where a little fire was made and their supper prepared. They +had to go without water all the time, and so did the mules; the men +did not mind the want of it themselves, but they could not help pitying +their poor animals that had had none since they left camp early that +morning. It was no use to worry, though; the nearest water was at the +river, and it would have been certain death to have attempted to go +there unless the savages cleared out, and from all appearances they had +no idea of doing that. + +What gave the trappers more cause for alarm than anything else, was +the fear that the Indians would fire the prairie in the morning, and +endeavour to smoke them out or burn them up. The grass was in just the +condition to make a lively blaze, and they might escape the flames, and +then they might not. It can well be imagined how eagerly they watched +for the dawn of another day, perhaps the last for them. + +The first gray streaks of light had hardly peeped above the horizon, +when, with an infernal yell, the Indians broke for the rock, and the +trappers were certain that some new project had entered their heads. The +wind was springing up pretty freshly, and nature seemed to conspire with +the red devils, if they really meant to burn the trappers out; and from +the movements of the savages, that was what they expected. The Indians +kept at a respectful distance from the range of the trappers' rifles, +who chafed because they could not stop some of the infernal yelling with +a few well-directed bullets, but they had to choke their rage, and +watch events closely. During a temporary lull in hostilities, one of the +trappers took occasion to crawl down to where the mules were, and shift +them to the west side of the rock, where the wall was the highest; so +that the flame and smoke might possibly pass by them without so much +danger as where they were picketed before. He had just succeeded in +doing this, and, tearing up the long grass for several yards around the +animals, was in the act of going back, when his partner yelled out to +him: "Look out! D---n 'em, they've fired the prairie!" He was back on +the top of the rock in another moment, and took in at a glance what was +coming. + +The spectacle for a short interval was indescribably grand; the sun was +shining with all the power of its rays on the huge clouds of smoke as +they rolled down from the north, tinting them a glorious crimson. +The two trappers had barely time to get under the shelter of a large +projecting point of the rocky wall, when the wind and smoke swept down +to the ground, and instantly they were enveloped in the darkness of +midnight. They could not discern a single object; neither Indians, +horses, the prairie, nor the sun; and what a terrible wind! + +The trappers stood breathless, clinging to the projections of rock, and +did not realize the fire was so near them until they were struck in the +face by pieces of burning buffalo-chips that were carried toward them +with the rapidity of the awful wind. They were now badly scared, for +it seemed as if they were to be suffocated. They were saved, however, +almost miraculously; the sheet of flame passed them twenty yards away, +as the wind fortunately shifted at the moment the fire reached the foot +of the rock. The darkness was so intense that they did not discover the +flame; they only knew that they were saved as the clear sky greeted them +from behind the dense smoke-cloud. + +Two of the Indians and their horses were caught in their own trap, and +perished miserably. They had attempted to reach the east side of the +rock, so as to steal around to the other side where the mules were, and +either cut them loose or crawl up on the trappers while bewildered in +the smoke and kill them, if they were not already dead. But they had +proceeded only a few rods on their little expedition, when the terrible +darkness of the smoke-cloud overtook them and soon the flames, from +which there was no possible escape. + +All the game on the prairie which the fire swept over was killed too. +Only a few buffalo were visible in that region before the fire, but +even they were killed. The path of the flames, as was discovered by the +caravans that passed over the Trail a few days afterward, was marked +with the crisp and blackened carcasses of wolves, coyotes, turkeys, +grouse, and every variety of small birds indigenous to the region. +Indeed, it seemed as if no living thing it had met escaped its fury. +The fire assumed such gigantic proportions, and moved with such rapidity +before the wind, that even the Arkansas River did not check its path for +a moment; it was carried as readily across as if the stream had not been +in its way. + +The first thought of the trappers on the rock was for their poor mules. +One crawled to where they were, and found them badly singed, but not +seriously injured. The men began to brighten up again when they knew +that their means of transportation were relatively all right, and +themselves also, and they took fresh courage, beginning to believe they +should get out of their bad scrape after all. + +In the meantime the Indians, with the exception of three or four left +to guard the rock, so as to prevent the trappers from getting away, had +gone back to their camp in the ravine, and were evidently concocting +some new scheme for the discomfort of the besieged trappers. The latter +waited patiently two or three hours for the development of events, +snatching a little sleep by turns, which they needed much; for both +were worn out by their constant watching. At last when the sun was about +three hours high, the Indians commenced their infernal howling again, +and then the trappers knew they had decided upon something; so they were +on the alert in a moment to discover what it was, and euchre them if +possible. + +The devils this time had tied all their ponies together, covered them +with branches of trees that they had gone up on the Walnut for, packed +some lodge-skins on these, and then, driving the living breastworks +before them, moved toward the rock. They proceeded cautiously but +surely, and matters began to look very serious for the trappers. As the +strange cavalcade approached, a trapper raised his rifle, and a masked +pony tumbled over on the scorched sod dead. As one of the Indians ran +to cut him loose, the other trapper took him off his feet by a +well-directed shot; he never uttered a groan. The besieged now saw their +only salvation was to kill the ponies and so demoralize the Indians that +they would have to abandon such tactics, and quicker than I can tell it, +they had stretched four more out on the prairie, and made it so hot for +the savages that they ran out of range and began to hold a council of +war. + +Finding that their plan would not work--for as the last pony was shot, +the rest stampeded and were running wild over the prairie--the Indians +soon went back to their camp again, and the trappers now had a few spare +moments in which to take an account of stock. They discovered, much to +their chagrin, that they had used up all their ammunition except three +or four loads, and despair hovered over them once more. + +The Indians did not reappear that evening, and the cause was apparent; +for in the distance could be seen a long line of wagons, one of the +large American caravans en route to Santa Fe. The savages had seen +it before the trappers, and had cleared out. When the train arrived +opposite the rock, the relieved men came down from their little +fortress, joined the caravan, and camped with the Americans that night +on the Walnut. While they were resting around their camp-fire, smoking +and telling of their terrible experience on the top of the rock, the +Indians could be heard chanting the death-song while they were burying +their warriors under the blackened sod of the prairie. + +I witnessed a spirited encounter between a small band of Cheyennes and +Pawnees in the fall of 1867. It occurred on the open prairie north of +the mouth of the Walnut, and not a great distance from Pawnee Rock. Both +tribes were hunting buffalo, and when they, by accident, discovered the +presence of each other, with a yell that fairly shook the sand dunes on +the Arkansas, they rushed at once into the shock of battle. + +That night, in a timbered bend of the Walnut, the victors had a grand +dance, in which scalps, ears, and fingers of their enemies, suspended by +strings to long poles, were important accessories to their weird orgies +around their huge camp-fires.[65] + +One of the most horrible massacres in the history of the Trail occurred +at Little Cow Creek in the summer of 1864. In July of that year a +government caravan, loaded with military stores for Fort Union in New +Mexico, left Fort Leavenworth for the long and dangerous journey of more +than seven hundred miles over the great plains, which that season were +infested by Indians to a degree almost without precedent in the annals +of freight traffic. + +The train was owned by a Mr. H. C. Barret, a contractor with the +quartermaster's department; but he declined to take the chances of the +trip unless the government would lease the outfit in its entirety, or +give him an indemnifying bond as assurance against any loss. The chief +quartermaster executed the bond as demanded, and Barret hired his +teamsters for the hazardous journey; but he found it a difficult matter +to induce men to go out that season. + +Among those whom he persuaded to enter his employ was a mere boy, named +McGee, who came wandering into Leavenworth a few weeks before the train +was ready to leave, seeking work of any description. His parents had +died on their way to Kansas, and on his arrival at Westport Landing, the +emigrant outfit that had extended to him shelter and protection in his +utter loneliness was disbanded; so the youthful orphan was thrown on his +own resources. At that time the Indians of the great plains, especially +along the line of the Santa Fe Trail, were very hostile, and continually +harassing the freight caravans and stage-coaches of the overland route. +Companies of men were enlisting and being mustered into the United +States service to go out after the savages, and young Robert McGee +volunteered with hundreds of others for the dangerous duty. The +government needed men badly, but McGee's youth militated against +him, and he was below the required stature; so he was rejected by the +mustering officer. + +Mr. Barret, in hunting for teamsters to drive his caravan, came across +McGee, who, supposing that he was hiring as a government employee, +accepted Mr. Barret's offer. + +By the last day of June the caravan was all ready, and on the morning of +the next day, July 1, the wagons rolled out of the fort, escorted by a +company of United States troops, from the volunteers referred to. + +The caravan wound its weary way over the lonesome Trail with nothing +to relieve the monotony save a few skirmishes with the Indians; but no +casualties occurred in these insignificant battles, the savages being +afraid to venture too near on account of the presence of the military +escort. + +On the 18th of July, the caravan arrived in the vicinity of Fort Larned. +There it was supposed that the proximity of that military post would be +a sufficient guarantee from any attack of the savages; so the men of +the train became careless, and as the day was excessively hot, they went +into camp early in the afternoon, the escort remaining in bivouac about +a mile in the rear of the train. + +About five o'clock, a hundred and fifty painted savages, under the +command of Little Turtle of the Brule Sioux, swooped down on the +unsuspecting caravan while the men were enjoying their evening meal. Not +a moment was given them to rally to the defence of their lives, and of +all belonging to the outfit, with the exception of one boy, not a soul +came out alive. + +The teamsters were every one of them shot dead and their bodies horribly +mutilated. After their successful raid, the savages destroyed everything +they found in the wagons, tearing the covers into shreds, throwing +the flour on the trail, and winding up by burning everything that was +combustible. + +On the same day the commanding officer of Fort Larned had learned from +some of his scouts that the Brule Sioux were on the war-path, and +the chief of the scouts with a handful of soldiers was sent out to +reconnoitre. They soon struck the trail of Little Turtle and followed it +to the scene of the massacre on Cow Creek, arriving there only two hours +after the savages had finished their devilish work. Dead men were lying +about in the short buffalo-grass which had been stained and matted by +their flowing blood, and the agonized posture of their bodies told far +more forcibly than any language the tortures which had come before a +welcome death. All had been scalped; all had been mutilated in that +nameless manner which seems to delight the brutal instincts of the North +American savage. + +Moving slowly from one to the other of the lifeless forms which still +showed the agony of their death-throes, the chief of the scouts came +across the bodies of two boys, both of whom had been scalped and +shockingly wounded, besides being mutilated, yet, strange to say, both +of them were alive. As tenderly as the men could lift them, they were +conveyed at once back to Fort Larned and given in charge of the post +surgeon. One of the boys died in a few hours after his arrival in the +hospital, but the other, Robert McGee, slowly regained his strength, and +came out of the ordeal in fairly good health. + +The story of the massacre was related by young McGee, after he was +able to talk, while in the hospital at the fort; for he had not lost +consciousness during the suffering to which he was subjected by the +savages. + +He was compelled to witness the tortures inflicted on his wounded and +captive companions, after which he was dragged into the presence of the +chief, Little Turtle, who determined that he would kill the boy with his +own hands. He shot him in the back with his own revolver, having first +knocked him down with a lance handle. He then drove two arrows through +the unfortunate boy's body, fastening him to the ground, and stooping +over his prostrate form ran his knife around his head, lifting +sixty-four square inches of his scalp, trimming it off just behind his +ears. + +Believing him dead by that time, Little Turtle abandoned his victim; but +the other savages, as they went by his supposed corpse, could not resist +their infernal delight in blood, so they thrust their knives into him, +and bored great holes in his body with their lances. + +After the savages had done all that their devilish ingenuity could +contrive, they exultingly rode away, yelling as they bore off the +reeking scalps of their victims, and drove away the hundreds of mules +they had captured. + +When the tragedy was ended, the soldiers, who had from their +vantage-ground witnessed the whole diabolical transaction, came up +to the bloody camp by order of their commander, to learn whether the +teamsters had driven away their assailants, and saw too late what their +cowardice had allowed to take place. The officer in command of the +escort was dismissed the service, as he could not give any satisfactory +reason for not going to the rescue of the caravan he had been ordered to +guard. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. + + + +The Wagon Mound, so called from its resemblance to a covered army-wagon, +is a rocky mesa forty miles from Point of Rocks, westwardly. The stretch +of the Trail from the latter to the mound has been the scene of some +desperate encounters, only exceeded in number and sanguinary results by +those which have occurred in the region of Pawnee Rock, the crossing of +the Walnut, Pawnee Fork, and Cow Creek. + +One of the most remarkable stories of this Wagon Mound country dealt +with the nerve and bravery exhibited by John L. Hatcher in defence of +his life, and those of the men in his caravan, about 1858. + +Hatcher was a noted trader and merchant of New Mexico. He was also +celebrated as an Indian fighter, and his name was a terror to the +savages who infested the settlements of New Mexico and raided the Trail. + +He left Taos, where he then resided, in the summer, with his caravan +loaded with furs and pelts destined for Westport Landing; to be +forwarded from there to St. Louis, the only market for furs in the far +West. His train was a small one, comprising about fifteen wagons and +handled by about as many men, including himself. At the date of his +adventure the Indians were believed to be at peace with everybody; a +false idea, as Hatcher well knew, for there never was such a condition +of affairs as absolute immunity from their attacks. While it might be +true that the old men refrained for a time from starting out on the +war-path, there were ever the vastly greater number of restless young +warriors who had not yet earned their eagle feathers, who could not be +controlled by their chiefs, and who were always engaged in marauding, +either among the border settlements or along the line of the Trail. + +When Hatcher was approaching the immediate vicinity of Wagon Mound,[66] +with his train strung out in single column, to his great astonishment +there suddenly charged on him from over the hill about three hundred +savages, all feather-bedecked and painted in the highest style of Indian +art. As they rode toward the caravan, they gave the sign of peace, +which Hatcher accepted for the time as true, although he knew them well. +However, he invited the head men to some refreshment, as was usual on +such occasions in those days, throwing a blanket on the ground, on which +sugar in abundance was served out. The sweet-toothed warriors helped +themselves liberally, and affected much delight at the way they were +being treated; but Hatcher, with his knowledge of the savage character, +was firm in the belief that they came for no other purpose than to rob +the caravan and kill him and his men. + +They were Comanches, and one of the most noted chiefs of the tribe was +in command of the band, with some inferior chiefs under him. I think it +was Old Wolf, a very old man then, whose raids into Texas had made his +name a terror to the Mexicans living on the border. + +While the chiefs were eating their saccharine lunch, Hatcher was losing +no time in forming his wagons into a corral, but he told his friends +afterward that he had no idea that either he or any of his men would +escape; only fifteen or sixteen men against over three hundred merciless +savages, and those the worst on the continent, and a small corral--the +chances were totally hopeless! Nothing but a desperate action could +avail, and maybe not even that.[67] Hatcher, after the other head men +had finished eating, asked the old chief to send his young warriors away +over the hill. They were all sitting close to one of the wagons, Old +Wolf, in fact, leaning against the wheel resting on his blanket, with +Hatcher next him on his right. Hatcher was so earnest in his appeal to +have the young men sent away, that both the venerable villain and his +other chiefs rose and were standing. Without a moment's notice or the +slightest warning, Hatcher reached with his left hand and grabbed Old +Wolf by his scalp-lock, and with his right drew his butcher-knife from +its scabbard and thrust it at the throat of the chief. All this was +done in an instant, as quick as lightning; no one had time to move. The +situation was remarkable. The little, wiry man, surrounded by eight or +nine of the most renowned warriors of the dreaded Comanches, stood firm; +everybody was breathless; not a word did the savages say. Hatcher then +said again to Old Wolf, in the most determined manner: "Send your +young men over the hill at once, or I'll kill you right where you are!" +holding on to the hair of the savage with his left hand and keeping the +knife at his throat. + +The other Indians did not dare to make a move; they knew what kind of a +man Hatcher was; they knew he would do as he had said, and that if they +attempted a rescue he would kill their favourite chief in a second. + +Old Wolf shook his head defiantly in the negative. Hatcher repeated his +order, getting madder all the time: "Send your young men over the hill; +I tell you!" Old Wolf was still stubborn; he shook his head again. +Hatcher gave him another chance: "Send your young men over the hill, I +tell you, or I'll scalp you alive as you are!" Again the chief shook his +head. Then Hatcher, still holding on the hair of his stubborn victim, +commenced to make an incision in the head of Old Wolf, for the +determined man was bound to carry out his threat; but he began very +slowly. + +As the chief felt the blood trickle down his forehead, he weakened. He +ordered his next in command to send the young men over the hill and out +of sight. The order was repeated immediately to the warriors, who were +astonished spectators of the strange scene, and they quickly mounted +their horses and rode away over the hill as fast as they could thump +their animals' sides with their legs, leaving only five or six chiefs +with Old Wolf and Hatcher. + +Hatcher held on like grim death to the old chief's head, and immediately +ordered his men to throw the robes out of the wagons as quickly as they +could, and get inside themselves. This was promptly obeyed, and when +they were all under the cover of the wagon sheets, Hatcher let go of his +victim's hair, and, with a last kick, told him and his friends that they +could leave. They went off, and did not return. + +Some laughable incidents have enlivened the generally sanguinary history +of the Old Santa Fe Trail, but they were very serious at the time to +those who were the actors, and their ludicrousness came after all was +over. + +In the late summer of 1866, a thieving band of Apaches came into the +vicinity of Fort Union, New Mexico, and after carefully reconnoitring +the whole region and getting at the manner in which the stock belonging +to the fort was herded, they secreted themselves in the Turkey Mountains +overlooking the entire reservation, and lay in wait for several days, +watching for a favourable moment to make a raid into the valley and +drive off the herd. + +Selecting an occasion when the guard was weak and not very alert, they +in broad daylight crawled under the cover of a hill, and, mounting their +horses, dashed out with the most unearthly yells and down among the +animals that were quietly grazing close to the fort, which terrified +these so greatly that they broke away from the herders, and started at +their best gait toward the mountains, closely followed by the savages. + +The astonished soldiers used every effort to avert the evident loss of +their charge, and many shots were exchanged in the running fight that +ensued; but the Indians were too strong for them, and they were forced +to abandon the chase. + +Among the herders was a bugler boy, who was remarkable for his bravery +in the skirmish and for his untiring endeavours to turn the animals back +toward the fort, but all without avail; on they went, with the savages, +close to their heels, giving vent to the most vociferous shouts of +exultation, and directing the most obscene and insulting gesticulations +to the soldiers that were after them. + +While this exciting contest for the mastery was going on, an old Apache +chief dashed in the rear of the bold bugler boy, and could, without +doubt, easily have killed the little fellow; but instead of doing +this, from some idea of a good joke, or for some other incomprehensible +reason, his natural blood-thirsty instinct was changed, and he merely +knocked the bugler's hat from his head with the flat of his hand, and +at the same time encouragingly stroked his hair, as much as to say: "You +are a brave boy," and then rode off without doing him any harm. + +Thirty years ago last August, I was riding from Fort Larned to Fort +Union, New Mexico, in the overland coach. I had one of my clerks with +me; we were the only passengers, and arrived at Fort Dodge, which was +the commencement of the "long route," at midnight. There we changed +drivers, and at the break of day were some twenty-four miles on our +lonely journey. The coach was rattling along at a breakneck gait, and I +saw that something was evidently wrong. Looking out of one of the doors, +I noticed that our Jehu was in a beastly state of intoxication. It was a +most dangerous portion of the Trail; the Indians were not in the best +of humours, and an attack was not at all improbable before we arrived at +the next station, Fort Lyon. + +I said to my clerk that something must be done; so I ordered the +driver to halt, which he did willingly, got out, and found that, +notwithstanding his drunken mood, he was very affable and disposed to +be full of fun. I suggested that he get inside the coach and lie down +to sleep off his potations, to which he readily assented, while I and +my clerk, after snugly fixing him on the cushions, got on the boot, I +taking the lines, he seizing an old trace-chain, with which he pounded +the mules along; for we felt ourselves in a ticklish predicament should +we come across any of the brigands of the plains, on that lonely route, +with the animals to look out for, and only two of us to do the fighting. + +Suddenly we saw sitting on the bank of the Arkansas River, about a dozen +rods from the Trail, an antiquated-looking savage with his war-bonnet +on, and armed with a long lance and his bow and arrows. We did not care +a cent for him, but I thought he might be one of the tribe's runners, +lying in wait to discover the condition of the coach--whether it had an +escort, and how many were riding in it, and that then he would go and +tell how ridiculously small the outfit was, and swoop down on us with +a band of his colleagues, that were hidden somewhere in the sand hills +south of the river. He rose as we came near, and made the sign, after +he had given vent to a series of "How's!" that he wanted to talk; but +we were not anxious for any general conversation with his savage majesty +just then, so my clerk applied the trace-chain more vigorously to the +tired mules, in order to get as many miles between him and the coach as +we could before he could get over into the sand hills and back. + +It was, fortunately, a false alarm; the old warrior perhaps had no +intentions of disturbing us. We arrived at Fort Lyon in good season, +with our valorous driver absolutely sobered, requesting me to say +nothing about his accident, which, of course, I did not. + +As has been stated, the caravans bound for Santa Fe and the various +forts along the line of the Old Trail did not leave the eastern end of +the route until the grass on the plains, on which the animals depended +solely for subsistence the whole way, grew sufficiently to sustain them, +which was usually about the middle of May. But a great many years +ago, one of the high officials of the quartermaster's department at +Washington, who had never been for a moment on duty on the frontier +in his life, found a good deal of fault with what he thought the +dilatoriness of the officer in charge at Fort Leavenworth, who +controlled the question of transportation for the several forts +scattered all over the West, for not getting the freight caravans +started earlier, which the functionary at the capital said must and +should be done. He insisted that they must leave the Missouri River by +the middle of April, a month earlier than usual, and came out himself +to superintend the matter. He made the contracts accordingly, easily +finding contractors that suited him. He then wrote to headquarters in +a triumphant manner that he had revolutionized the whole system of army +transportation of supplies to the military posts. Delighted with his +success, he rode out about the second week of May to Salt Creek, only +three miles from the fort, and, very much to his astonishment, found his +teams, which he had believed to be on the way to Santa Fe a month ago, +snugly encamped. They had "started," just as was agreed. + +There are, or rather were, hundreds of stories current thirty-five years +ago of stage-coach adventures on the Trail; a volume could be filled +with them, but I must confine myself to a few. + +John Chisholm was a famous ranchman a long while ago, who had so many +cattle that it was said he did not know their number himself. At one +time he had a large contract to furnish beef to an Indian agency in +Arizona; he had just delivered an immense herd there, and very wisely, +after receiving his cash for them, sent most of it on to Santa Fe in +advance of his own journey. When he arrived there, he started for the +Missouri River with a thousand dollars and sufficient small change to +meet his current expenses on the road. + +The very first night out from Santa Fe, the coach was halted by a band +of men who had been watching Chisholm's movements from the time he +left the agency in Arizona. The instant the stage came to a standstill, +Chisholm divined what it meant, and had time to thrust a roll of money +down one of the legs of his trousers before the door was thrown back and +he was ordered to fork over what he had. + +He invited the robbers to search him, and to take what they might find, +but said he was not in a financial condition at that juncture to turn +over much. The thieves found his watch, took that, and then began to +search him. As luck would have it, they entirely missed the roll that +was down his leg, and discovered but a two-dollar bill in his vest. +When he told them it was all he had to buy grub on the road, one of the +robbers handed him a silver dollar, remarking as he did so: "That a man +who was mean enough to travel with only two dollars ought to starve, but +he would give him the dollar just to let him know that he was dealing +with gentlemen!" + +One of the essentials to the comfort of the average soldier is tobacco. +He must have it; he would sooner forego any component part of his ration +than give it up. + +In November, 1865, a detachment of Company L, of the Eleventh Kansas +Volunteers, and of the Second Colorado were ordered from Fort Larned +to Fort Lyon on a scouting expedition along the line of the Trail, the +savages having been very active in their raids on the freight caravans. + +In a short time their tobacco began to run low, and as there was no +settlement of any kind between the two military posts, there was no +chance to replenish their stock. One night, while encamped on the +Arkansas, the only piece that was left in the whole command, about half +a plug, was unfortunately lost, and there was dismay in the camp when +the fact was announced. Hours were spent in searching for the missing +treasure. The next morning the march was delayed for some time, while +further diligent search was instituted by all hands, but without result, +and the command set out on its weary tramp, as disconsolate as may well +be imagined by those who are victims to the habit of chewing the weed. + +Arriving at Fort Lyon, to their greater discomfort it was learned that +the sutler at that post was entirely out of the coveted article, and +the troops began their return journey more disconsolate than ever. +Dry leaves, grass, and even small bits of twigs, were chewed as a +substitute, until, reaching the spot where they had lost the part of +a plug, they determined to remain there that night and begin a more +vigorous hunt for the missing piece. Just before dark their efforts were +rewarded; one of the men found it, and such a scramble occurred for even +the smallest nibble at it! Enormous prices were given for a single chew. +It opened at one dollar for a mere sliver, rose to five, and closed at +ten dollars when the last morsel was left. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. A DESPERATE RIDE. + + + +In the Rocky Mountains and on the great plains along the line of the Old +Trail are many rude and widely separated graves. The sequestered little +valleys, the lonely gulches, and the broad prairies through which the +highway to New Mexico wound its course, hide the bones of hundreds of +whom the world will never have any more knowledge. The number of these +solitary, and almost obliterated mounds is small when compared with the +vast multitude in the cemeteries of our towns, though if the host of +those whose bones are mouldering under the short buffalo-grass and tall +blue-stem of the prairies between the Missouri and the mountains were +tabulated, the list would be appalling. Their aggregate will never be +known; for the once remote region of the mid-continent, like the ocean, +rarely gave up its victims. Lives went out there as goes an expiring +candle, suddenly, swiftly, and silently; no record was kept of time or +place. All those who thus died are graveless and monumentless, the great +circle of the heavens is the dome of their sepulchre, and the recurring +blossoms of springtime their only epitaph. + +Sometimes the traveller over the Old Trail will suddenly, in the most +unexpected places, come across a little mound, perhaps covered with +stones, under which lie the mouldering bones of some unfortunate +adventurer. Above, now on a rude board, then on a detached rock, or +maybe on the wall of a beetling canyon, he may frequently read, in crude +pencilling or rougher carving, the legend of the dead man's ending. + +The line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, which +practically runs over the Old Trail for nearly its whole length to +the mountains, is a fertile field of isolated graves. The savage and +soldier, the teamster and scout, the solitary trapper or hunter, +and many others who have gone down to their death fighting with the +relentless nomad of the plains, or have been otherwise ruthlessly cut +off, mark with their last resting-places that well-worn pathway across +the continent. + +The tourist, looking from his car-window as he is whirled with the speed +of a tornado toward the snow-capped peaks of the "Great Divide," may +see as he approaches Walnut Creek, three miles east of the town of Great +Bend in Kansas, on the beautiful ranch of Hon. D. Heizer, not far from +the stream, and close to the house, a series of graves, numbering, +perhaps, a score. These have been most religiously cared for by the +patriotic proprietor of the place during all the long years since 1864, +as he believes them to be the last resting-place of soldiers who were +once a portion of the garrison of Fort Zarah, the ruins of which (now +a mere hole in the earth) are but a few hundred yards away, on the +opposite side of the railroad track, plainly visible from the train. + +The Walnut debouches into the Arkansas a short distance from where the +railroad crosses the creek, and at this point, too, the trail from Fort +Leavenworth merges into the Old Santa Fe. The broad pathway is very +easily recognized here; for it runs over a hard, flinty, low divide, +that has never been disturbed by the plough, and the traveller has +only to cast his eyes in a northeasterly direction in order to see it +plainly. + +The creek is fairly well timbered to-day, as it has been ever since +the first caravan crossed the clear water of the little stream. It was +always a favourite place of ambush by the Indians, and many a conflict +has occurred in the beautiful bottom bounded by a margin of trees on two +sides, between the traders, trappers, troops, and the Indians, and also +between the several tribes that were hereditary enemies, particularly +the Pawnees and the Cheyennes. It is only about sixteen miles east of +Pawnee Rock, and included in that region of debatable ground where no +band of Indians dared establish a permanent village; for it was claimed +by all the tribes, but really owned by none. + +In 1864 the commerce of the great plains had reached enormous +proportions, and immense caravans rolled day after day toward the blue +hills which guard the portals of New Mexico, and the precious freight +constantly tempted the wily savages to plunder. + +To protect the caravans on their monotonous route through the "Desert," +as this portion of the plains was then termed, troops were stationed, +a mere handful relatively, at intervals on the Trail, to escort the +freighters and mail coaches over the most exposed and dangerous portions +of the way. + +On the bank of the Walnut, at this time, were stationed three hundred +unassigned recruits of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, under the command +of Captain Conkey. This point was rightly regarded as one of the most +important on the whole overland route; for near it passed the favourite +highway of the Indians on their yearly migrations north and south, in +the wake of the strange elliptical march of the buffalo far beyond the +Platte, and back to the sunny knolls of the Canadian. + +This primitive cantonment which grew rapidly in strategical importance, +was two years later made quite formidable defensively, and named Fort +Zarah, in memory of the youngest son of Major General Curtis, who +was killed by guerillas somewhere south of Fort Scott, Kansas, while +escorting General James G. Blunt, of frontier fame during the Civil War. + +Captain Henry Booth, during the year above mentioned, was chief of +cavalry and inspecting officer of the military district of the Upper +Arkansas, the western geographical limits of which extended to the +foot-hills of the mountains. + +One day he received an order from the head-quarters of the department to +make a special inspection of all the outposts on the Santa Fe Trail. +He was stationed at Fort Riley at the time, and the evening the order +arrived, active preparations were immediately commenced for his extended +and hazardous trip across the plains. Lieutenant Hallowell, of the Ninth +Wisconsin Battery, was to accompany him, and both officers went at once +to their quarters, took down from the walls, where they had been hanging +idly for weeks, their rifles and pistols, and carefully examined and +brushed them up for possible service in the dreary Arkansas bottom. +Camp-kettles, until late in the night, sizzled and sputtered over +crackling log-fires; for their proposed ride beyond the settlements +demanded cooked rations for many a weary day. All the preliminaries +arranged, the question of the means of transportation was determined, +and, curiously enough, it saved the lives of the two officers in the +terrible gauntlet they were destined to run. + +Hallowell was a famous whip, and prided himself upon the exceptionally +fine turnout which he daily drove among the picturesque hills around the +fort. + +"Booth," said he in the evening, "let's not take a great lumbering +ambulance on this trip; if you will get a good way-up team of mules +from the quartermaster, we'll use my light rig, and we'll do our own +driving." + +To this proposition Booth readily assented, procured the mules, and, as +it turned out, they were a "good way-up team." + +Hallowell had a set of bows fitted to his light wagon, over which was +thrown an army-wagon-sheet, drawn up behind with a cord, similar to +those of the ordinary emigrant outfit to be seen daily on the roads of +the Western prairies. A round hole was necessarily left in the rear end, +serving the purpose of a lookout. + +Two grip-sacks, containing their dress uniforms, a box of crackers and +cheese, meat and sardines, together with a bottle of anti-snake bite, +made up the principal freight for the long journey, and in the clear +cold of the early morning they rolled out of the gates of the fort, +escorted by Company L, of the Eleventh Kansas, commanded by Lieutenant +Van Antwerp. + +The company of one hundred mounted men acting as escort was too +formidable a number for the Indians, and not a sign of one was seen as +the dangerous flats of Plum Creek and the rolling country beyond were +successively passed, and early in the afternoon the cantonment on Walnut +Creek was reached. At this important outpost Captain Conkey's command +was living in a rude but comfortable sort of a way, in the simplest of +dugouts, constructed along the right bank of the stream; the officers, a +little more in accordance with military dignity, in tents a few rods in +rear of the line of huts. + +A stockade stable had been built, with a capacity for two hundred and +fifty horses, and sufficient hay had been put up by the men in the fall +to carry the animals through the winter. + +Captain Conkey was a brusque but kind-hearted man, and with him were +stationed other officers, one of whom was a son of Admiral Goldsborough. +The morning after the arrival of the inspecting officers a rigid +examination of all the appointments and belongings of the place +was made, and, as an immense amount of property had accumulated +for condemnation, when evening came the books and papers were still +untouched; so that branch of the inspection had to be postponed until +the next morning. + +After dark, while sitting around the camp-fire, discussing the war, +telling stories, etc., Captain Conkey said to Booth: "Captain, it won't +require more than half an hour in the morning to inspect the papers and +finish up what you have to do; why don't you start your escort out very +early, so it won't be obliged to trot after the ambulance, or you to +poke along with it? You can then move out briskly and make time." + +Booth, acting upon what he thought at the time an excellent suggestion, +in a few moments went over the creek to Lieutenant Van Antwerp's camp, +to tell him that he need not wait for the wagon in the morning, but to +start out early, at half-past six, in advance. + +According to instructions, the escort marched out of camp at daylight +next morning, while Booth and Hallowell remained to finish their +inspection. It was soon discovered, however, that either Captain +Conkey had underrated the amount of work to be done, or misjudged the +inspecting officers' ability to complete it in a certain time; so almost +three hours elapsed after the cavalry had departed before the task +ended. + +At last everything was closed up, much to Hallowell's satisfaction, who +had been chafing under the vexatious delay ever since the escort left. +When all was in readiness, the little wagon drawn up in front of the +commanding officer's quarters, and farewells said, Hallowell suggested +to Booth the propriety of taking a few of the troops stationed there +to go with them until they overtook their own escort, which must now be +several miles on the Trail to Fort Larned. Booth asked Captain Conkey +what he thought of Hallowell's suggestion. Captain Conkey replied: +"Oh! there's not the slightest danger; there hasn't been an Indian seen +around here for over ten days." + +If either Booth or Hallowell had been as well acquainted with the +methods and character of the plains Indians then as they afterward +became, they would have insisted upon an escort; but both were satisfied +that Captain Conkey knew what he was talking about, so they concluded to +push on. + +Jumping into their wagon, Lieutenant Hallowell took the reins and away +they went rattling over the old log bridge that used to span the Walnut +at the crossing of the Old Santa Fe Trail, as light of heart as if +riding to a dance. + +The morning was bright and clear with a stiff breeze blowing from the +northwest, and the Trail was frozen hard in places, which made it very +rough, as it had been cut up by the travel of the heavily laden caravans +when it was wet. Booth sat on the left side of Hallowell with the whip +in his hand, now and then striking the mules, to keep up their speed. +Hallowell started up a tune--he was a good singer--and Booth joined in +as they rolled along, as oblivious of any danger as though they were in +their quarters at Fort Riley. + +After they had proceeded some distance, Hallowell remarked to Booth: +"The buffalo are grazing a long way from the road to-day; a circumstance +that I think bodes no good." He had been on the plains the summer +before, and was better acquainted with the Indians and their +peculiarities than Captain Booth; but the latter replied that he +thought it was because their escort had gone on ahead, and had probably +frightened them off. + +The next mile or two was passed, and still they saw no buffalo between +the Trail and the Arkansas, though nothing more was said by either +regarding the suspicious circumstance, and they rode rapidly on. + +When they had gone about five or six miles from the Walnut, Booth, +happening to glance toward the river, saw something that looked +strangely like a flock of turkeys. He watched them intently for a +moment, when the objects rose up and he discovered they were horsemen. +He grasped Hallowell by the arm, directing his attention to them, and +said, "What are they?" Hallowell gave a hasty look toward the point +indicated, and replied, "Indians! by George!" and immediately turning +the mules around on the Trail, started them back toward the cantonment +on the Walnut at a full gallop.[68] + +"Hold on!" said Booth to Hallowell when he understood the latter's +movement; "maybe it's part of our escort." + +"No! no!" replied Hallowell. "I know they are Indians; I've seen too +many of them to be mistaken." + +"Well," rejoined Booth, "I'm going to know for certain"; so, stepping +out on the foot-board, and with one hand holding on to the front bow, +he looked back over the top of the wagon-sheet. They were Indians, sure +enough; they had fully emerged from the ravine in which they had hidden, +and while he was looking at them they were slipping off their buffalo +robes from their shoulders, taking arrows out of their quivers, drawing +up their spears, and making ready generally for a red-hot time. + +While Booth was intently regarding the movements of the savages, +Hallowell inquired of him: "They're Indians, aren't they, Booth?" + +"Yes," was Booth's answer, "and they're coming down on us like a +whirlwind." + +"Then I shall never see poor Lizzie again!" said Hallowell. He had been +married only a few weeks before starting out on this trip, and his young +wife's name came to his lips. + +"Never mind Lizzie," responded Booth; "let's get out of here!" He was +as badly frightened as Hallowell, but had no bride at Riley, and, as he +tells it, "was selfishly thinking of himself only, and escape." + +In answer to Booth's remark, Hallowell, in a firm, clear voice, said: +"All right! You do the shooting, and I'll do the driving," and suiting +the action to the words, he snatched the whip out of Booth's hand, +slipped from the seat to the front of the wagon, and commenced lashing +the mules furiously. + +Booth then crawled back, pulled out one of his revolvers, crept, or +rather fell, over the "lazy-back" of the seat, and reaching the hole +made by puckering the wagon-sheet, looked out of it, and counted the +Indians; thirty-four feather-bedecked, paint-bedaubed savages, as +vicious a set as ever scalped a white man, swooping down on them like a +hawk upon a chicken. + +Hallowell, between his yells at the mules, cried out, "How far are they +off now, Booth?" for of course he could see nothing of what was going on +in his rear. + +Booth replied as well as he could judge of the distance, while Hallowell +renewed his yelling at the animals and redoubled his efforts with the +lash. + +Noiselessly the Indians gained on the little wagon, for they had not as +yet uttered a whoop, and the determined driver, anxious to know how far +the red devils were from him, again asked Booth. The latter told him how +near they were, guessing at the distance, from which Hallowell gathered +inspiration for fresh cries and still more vigorous blows with his whip. + +Booth, all this time, was sitting on the box containing the crackers +and sardines, watching the rapid approach of the cut-throats, and seeing +with fear and trembling the ease with which they gained upon the little +mules. + +Once more Hallowell made his stereotyped inquiry of Booth; but before +the latter could reply, two shots were fired from the rifles of the +Indians, accompanied by a yell that was demoniacal enough to cause the +blood to curdle in one's veins. Hallowell yelled at the mules, and Booth +yelled too; for what reason he could not tell, unless to keep company +with his comrade, who plied the whip more mercilessly than ever upon +the poor animals' backs, and the wagon flew over the rough road, nearly +upsetting at every jump. + +In another moment the bullets from two of the Indians' rifles passed +between Booth and Hallowell, doing no damage, and almost instantly the +savages charged upon them, at the same time dividing into two parties, +one going on one side and one on the other, both delivering a volley of +arrows into the wagon as they rode by. + +Just as the savages rushed past the wagon, Hallowell cried out to Booth, +"Cap, I'm hit!" and turning around to look, Booth saw an arrow sticking +in Hallowell's head above his right ear. His arm was still plying the +whip, which was going on unceasingly as the sails of a windmill, and his +howling at the mules only stopped long enough to answer, "Not much!" in +response to Booth's inquiry of "Does it hurt?" as he grabbed the arrow +and pulled it out of his head. + +The Indians had by this time passed on, and then, circling back, +prepared for another charge. Down they came, again dividing as before +into two bands, and delivering another shower of arrows. Hallowell +ceased his yelling long enough to cry out, "I'm hit once more, Cap!" +Looking at the plucky driver, Booth saw this time an arrow sticking over +his left ear, and hanging down his back. He snatched it out, inquiring +if it hurt, but received the same answer: "No, not much." + +Both men were now yelling at the top of their voices; and the mules were +jerking the wagon along the rough trail at a fearful rate, frightened +nearly out of their wits at the sight of the Indians and the terrible +shouting and whipping of the driver. + +Booth crawled to the back end of the wagon again, looked out of the hole +in the cover, and saw the Indians moving across the Trail, preparing +for another charge. One old fellow, mounted on a black pony, was +jogging along in the centre of the road behind them, but near enough and +evidently determined to send an arrow through the puckered hole of the +sheet. In a moment the savage stopped his pony and let fly. Booth +dodged sideways--the arrow sped on its course, and whizzing through +the opening, struck the black-walnut "lazy-back" of the seat, the +head sticking out on the other side, and the sudden check causing the +feathered end to vibrate rapidly with a vro-o-o-ing sound. With a quick +blow Booth struck it, and broke the shaft from the head, leaving the +latter embedded in the wood. + +As quickly as possible, Booth rushed to the hole and fired his revolver +at the old devil, but failed to hit him. While he was trying to get in +another shot, an arrow came flying through from the left side of the +Trail, and striking him on the inside of the elbow, or "crazy-bone," so +completely benumbed his hand that he could not hold on to the pistol, +and it dropped into the road with one load still in its chamber. Just +then the mules gave an extraordinary jump to one side, which jerked +the wagon nearly from under him, and he fell sprawling on the end-gate, +evenly balanced, with his hands on the outside, attempting to clutch at +something to save himself! Seeing his predicament, the Indians thought +they had him sure, so they gave a yell of exultation, supposing he must +tumble out, but he didn't; he fortunately succeeded in grabbing one of +the wagon-bows with his right hand and pulled himself in; but it was a +close call. + +While all this was going on, Hallowell had not been neglected by the +Indians; about a dozen of them had devoted their time to him, but he +never flinched. Just as Booth had regained his equilibrium and drawn his +second revolver from its holster, Hallowell yelled to him: "Right off to +your right, Cap, quick!" + +Booth tumbled over the back of the seat, and, clutching at a wagon-bow +to steady himself, he saw, "off to the right," an Indian who was in the +act of letting an arrow drive at Hallowell; it struck the side of the +box, and at the same instant Booth fired, scaring the red devil badly. + +Back over the seat again he rushed to guard the rear, only to find a +young buck riding close to the side of the wagon, his pony running +in the deep path made by the ox-drivers in walking alongside of their +teams. Putting his left arm around one of the wagon-bows to prevent his +being jerked out, Booth quietly stuck his revolver through the hole in +the sheet; but before he could pull the trigger, the Indian flopped over +on the off side of his pony, and nothing could be seen of him excepting +one arm around his animal's neck and from the knee to the toes of one +leg. Booth did not wait for him to ride up; he could almost hit the +pony's head with his hand, so close was he to the wagon. Booth struck at +the beast several times, but the Indian kept him right up in his place +by whipping him on the opposite of his neck. Presently the plucky +savage's arm began to move. Booth watched him intently, and saw that he +had fixed an arrow in his bow under the pony's shoulder; just as he was +on the point of letting go the bowstring, with the head of the arrow not +three feet from Booth's breast as he leaned out of the hole, the latter +struck frantically at the weapon, dodged back into the wagon, and up +came the Indian. Whenever Booth looked out, down went the Indian on the +other side of his pony, to rise again in a moment, and Booth, afraid to +risk himself with his head and breast exposed at this game of hide and +seek, drew suddenly back as the Indian went down the third time, and +in a second came up; but this was once too often. Booth had not dodged +completely into the wagon, nor dropped his revolver, and as the Indian +rose he fired. + +The savage was naked to the waist; the ball struck him in the left +nipple, the blood spirted out of the wound, his bow and arrows and +lariat, with himself, rolled off the pony, falling heavily on the +ground, and with one convulsive contraction of his legs and an "Ugh!" he +was as dead as a stone. + +"I've killed one of 'em!" called out Booth to Hallowell, as he saw his +victim tumble from his pony. + +"Bully for you, Cap!" came Hallowell's response as he continued his +shouting, and the blows of that tireless whip fell incessantly on the +backs of the poor mules. + +After he had killed the warrior, Booth kept his seat on the cracker +box, watching to see what the Indians were going to do next, when he was +suddenly interrupted by Hallowell's crying out to him: "Off to the right +again, Cap, quick!" and, whirling around instantly, he saw an Indian +within three feet of the wagon, with his bow and arrow almost ready to +shoot; there was no time to get over the seat, and as he could not fire +so close to Hallowell, he cried to the latter: "Hit him with the +whip! Hit him with the whip!" The lieutenant diverted one of the blows +intended for the mules, and struck the savage fairly across the face. +The whip had a knot in the end of it to prevent its unravelling, and +this knot must have hit the Indian squarely in the eye; for he dropped +his bow, put both hands up to his face, rubbed his eyes, and digging his +heels into his pony's sides was soon out of range of a revolver; but, +nevertheless, he was given a parting shot as a sort of salute. + +A terrific yell from the rear at this moment caused both Booth and +Hallowell to look around, and the latter to inquire: "What's the matter +now, Booth?" "They are coming down on us like lightning," said he; and, +sure enough, those who had been prancing around their dead comrade were +tearing along the Trail toward the wagon with a more hideous noise than +when they began. + +Hallowell yelled louder than ever and lashed the mules more furiously +still, but the Indians gained upon them as easily as a blooded racer on +a common farm plug. Separating as before, and passing on each side of +the wagon, they delivered another volley of bullets and arrows as they +rushed on. + +When this charge was made, Booth drew away from the hole in the rear and +turned toward the Indians, but forgot that as he was sitting, with his +back pressed against the sheet, his body was plainly outlined on the +canvas. + +When the Indians dashed by Hallowell cried out, "I'm hit again, Cap!" +and Booth, in turning around to go to his relief, felt something pulling +at him; and glancing over his left shoulder he discovered an arrow +sticking into him and out through the wagon-sheet. With a jerk of his +body, he tore himself loose, and going to Hallowell, asked him where +he was hit. "In the back," was the reply; where Booth saw an arrow +extending under the "lazy-back" of the seat. Taking hold of it, Booth +gave a pull, but Hallowell squirmed so that he desisted. "Pull it out!" +cried the plucky driver. Booth thereupon took hold of it again, and +giving a jerk or two, out it came. He was thoroughly frightened as he +saw it leave the lieutenant's body; it seemed to have entered at least +six inches, and the wound appeared to be a dangerous one. Hallowell, +however, did not cease for a moment belabouring the mules, and his yells +rang out as clear and defiant as before. + +After extracting the arrow from Hallowell's back, Booth turned again to +the opening in the rear of the wagon to see what new tricks the devils +were up to, when Hallowell again called out, "Off to the left, Cap, +quick!" + +Rushing to the front as soon as possible, Booth saw one of the savages +in the very act of shooting at Hallowell from the left side of the +wagon, not ten feet away. The last revolver was empty, but something +had to be done at once; so, levelling the weapon at him, Booth shouted +"Bang! you son-of-a-gun!" Down the Indian ducked his head; rap, rap, +went his knees against his pony's sides, and away he flew over the +prairie! + +Back to his old place in the rear tumbled Booth, to load his +revolver. The cartridges they used in the army in those days were the +old-fashioned kind made of paper. Biting off one end, he endeavoured +to pour the powder into the chamber of the pistol; but as the wagon was +tumbling from side to side, and jumping up and down, as it fairly flew +over the rough Trail, more fell into the bottom of the wagon than into +the revolver. Just as he was inserting a ball, Hallowell yelled, "To the +left, Cap, quick!" + +Over the seat Booth piled once more, and there was another Indian with +his bow and arrow all ready to pinion the brave lieutenant. Pointing his +revolver at him, Booth yelled as he had at the other, but this savage +had evidently noticed the first failure, and concluded there were no +more loads left; so, instead of taking a hasty departure, he grinned +demoniacally and endeavoured to fix the arrow in his bow. Booth rose up +in the wagon, and grasping hold of one of its bows with his left hand, +seized the revolver by the muzzle, and with all the force he could +muster hurled it at the impudent brute. It was a Remington, its barrel +octagon-shaped, with sharp corners, and when it was thrown, it turned +in the air, and striking the Indian muzzle-first on the ribs, cut a long +gash. + +"Ugh!" he grunted, as, dropping his bow and spear, he flung himself over +the side of his pony, and away he went across the prairie. + +Only one revolver remaining now, and that empty, with the savages still +howling around the apparently doomed men like so many demons! Booth fell +over the seat, as was his usual fate whenever he attempted to get to the +back of the wagon, picked up the empty revolver, and tried to load it; +but before he could bite the end of a cartridge, Hallowell yelled, + +"Cap, I'm hit again!" + +"Where this time?" inquired Booth, anxiously. "In the hand," replied +Hallowell; and, looking around, Booth noticed that although his right +arm was still thrashing at the now lagging mules with as much energy +as ever, through the fleshy part of the thumb was an arrow, which was +flopping up and down as he raised and lowered his hand in ceaseless +efforts to keep up the speed of the almost exhausted animals. + +"Let me pull it out," said Booth, as he came forward to do so. + +"No, never mind," replied Hallowell; "can't stop! can't stop!" and up +and down went the arm, and flip, flap, went the arrow with it, until +finally it tore through the flesh and fell to the ground. + +Along they bowled, the Indians yelling, and the occupants of the little +wagon defiantly answering them, while Booth continued to struggle +desperately with that empty pistol, in his vain efforts to load it. In +another moment Hallowell shouted, "Booth, they are trying to crowd the +mules into the sunflowers!" + +Alongside of the Trail huge sunflowers had grown the previous summer, +and now their dry stalks stood as thick as a cane-brake; if the wagon +once got among them, it would be impossible for the mules to keep up +their gallop. The savages seemed to realize this; for one huge old +fellow kept riding alongside the off mule, throwing his spear at him and +then jerking it back with the thong, one end of which was fastened to +his wrist. The near mule was constantly pushed further and further from +the Trail by his mate, which was jumping frantically, scared out of his +senses by the Indian. + +At this perilous juncture, Booth stepped out on the foot-board of the +wagon, and, holding on by a bow, commenced to kick the frightened mule +vigorously, while Hallowell pulled on one line, whipping and yelling at +the same time; so together they succeeded in forcing the animals back +into the Trail. + +The Indians kept close to the mules in their efforts to force them into +the sunflowers, and Booth made several attempts to scare the old fellow +that was nearest by pointing his empty revolver at him, but he would not +scare; so in his desperation Booth threw it at him. He missed the old +brute, but hit his pony just behind its rider's leg, which started the +animal into a sort of a stampede; his ugly master could not control him, +and thus the immediate peril from the persistent cuss was delayed. + +Now the pair were absolutely without firearms of any kind, with nothing +left except their sabres and valises, and the savages came closer and +closer. In turn the two swords were thrown at them as they came almost +within striking distance; then followed the scabbards, as the +howling fiends surrounded the wagon and attempted to spear the mules. +Fortunately their arrows were exhausted. + +The cantonment on the Walnut was still a mile and a half away, and there +was nothing for our luckless travellers to do but whip and kick, both +of which they did most vigorously. Hallowell sat as immovable as the +Sphinx, excepting his right arm, which from the moment they had started +on the back trail had not once ceased its incessant motion. + +Happening to cast his eyes back on the Trail, Booth saw to his dismay +twelve or fifteen of the savages coming up on the run with fresh energy, +their spears poised ready for action, and he felt that something must +be done very speedily to divert them; for if these added their number to +those already surrounding the wagon, the chances were they would succeed +in forcing the mules into the sunflowers, and his scalp and Hallowell's +would dangle at the belt of the leader. + +Glancing around in the bottom of the wagon for some kind of weapon, his +eye fell on the two valises containing the dress-suits. He snatched up +his own, and threw it out while the pursuers were yet five or six rods +in the rear. The Indians noticed this new trick with a great yell of +satisfaction, and the moment they arrived at the spot where the valise +lay, all dismounted; one of them, seizing it by the two handles, pulled +with all his strength to open it, and when he failed, another drew a +long knife from under his blanket and ripped it apart. He then put his +hand in, pulling out a sash, which he began to wind around his head, +like a negress with a bandanna, letting the tassels hang down his back. +While he was thus amusing himself, one of the others had taken out a +dress-coat, a third a pair of drawers, and still another a shirt, which +they proceeded to put on, meanwhile dancing around and howling. + +Booth told Hallowell of the sacrifice of the valise, and said, "I'm +going to throw out yours." "All right," replied Hallowell; "all we want +is time." So out it went on the Trail, and shared the same fate as the +other. + +The lull in hostilities caused by their outstripping their pursuers gave +the almost despairing men time to talk over their situation. Hallowell +said he did not propose to be captured and then butchered or burned at +the pleasure of the Indians. He said to Booth: "If they kill one of the +mules, and so stop us, let's kick, strike, throw dirt or anything, and +compel them to kill us on the spot." So it was agreed, if the worst came +to the worst, to stand back to back and fight. + +During this discussion the arm of Hallowell still plied the effective +lash, and they drew perceptibly nearer the camp, and as they caught the +first glimpse of its tents and dugouts, hope sprang up within them. +The mules were panting like a hound after a deer; wherever the harness +touched them, it was white with lather, and it was evident they could +keep on their feet but a short time longer. Would they hold out until +the bridge was reached? The whipping and the kicking had but little +effect on them now. They still continued their gallop, but it was slower +and more laboured than before. + +The Indians who had torn open the valises had not returned to the chase, +and although there were still a sufficient number of the fiends pursuing +to make it interesting, they did not succeed in spearing the mules, as +at every attempt the plucky animals would jump sideways or forward and +evade the impending blow. + +The little log bridge was reached; the savages had all retreated, but +the valorous Hallowell kept the mules at their fastest pace. The bridge +was constructed of half-round logs, and of course was extremely rough; +the wagon bounded up and down enough to shake the teeth out of one's +head as the little animals went flying over it. Booth called out to +Hallowell, "No need to drive so fast now, the Indians have all left us"; +but he replied, "I ain't going to stop until I get across"; and down +came the whip, on sped the mules, not breaking their short gallop until +they were pulled up in front of Captain Conkey's quarters. + +The rattling of the wagon on the bridge was the first intimation the +garrison had of its return. + +The officers came running out of their tents, the enlisted men poured +out of their dugouts like a lot of ants, and Booth and Hallowell were +surrounded by their friends in a moment. Captain Conkey ordered his +bugler to sound "Boots and Saddles," and in less than ten minutes ninety +troopers were mounted, and with the captain at their head started after +the Indians. + +When Hallowell tried to rise from his seat so as to get out every effort +only resulted in his falling back. Some one stepped around to the +other side to assist him, when it was discovered that the skirt of his +overcoat had worked outside of the wagon-sheet and hung over the edge, +and that three or four of the arrows fired at him by the savages had +struck the side of the wagon, and, passing through the flap of his coat, +had pinned him down. Booth pulled the arrows out and helped him up; he +was pretty stiff from sitting in his cramped position so long, and his +right arm dropped by his side as if paralysed. + +Booth stood looking on while his comrade's wounds were being dressed, +when the adjutant asked him: "What makes you shrug your shoulder so?" He +answered, "I don't know; something makes it smart." The officer looked +at him and said, "Well, I don't wonder; I should think it would smart; +here's an arrow-head sticking into you," and he tried to pull it out, +but it would not come. Captain Goldsborough then attempted it, but was +not any more successful. The doctor then told them to let it alone, +and he would attend to Booth after he had done with Hallowell. When he +examined Booth's shoulder, he found that the arrow-head had struck the +thick portion of the shoulder-blade, and had made two complete turns, +wrapping itself around the muscles, which had to be cut apart before the +sharp point could be withdrawn. + +Booth was not seriously hurt. Hallowell, however, had received two +severe wounds; the arrow that had lodged in his back had penetrated +almost to his kidneys, and the wound in his thumb was very painful, not +so much from the simple impact of the arrow as from the tearing away of +the muscle by the shaft while he was whipping his mules; his right arm, +too, was swollen terribly, and so stiff from the incessant use of it +during the drive that for more than a month he required assistance in +dressing and undressing. + +The mules who had saved their lives were of small account after their +memorable trip; they remained stiff and sore from the rough road and +their continued forced speed. Booth and Hallowell went out to look at +them the next morning, as they hobbled around the corral, and from the +bottom of their hearts wished them well. + +Captain Conkey's command returned to the cantonment about midnight. But +one Indian had been seen, and he was south of the Arkansas in the sand +hills. + +The next morning a scouting-party of forty men, under command of a +sergeant, started out to scour the country toward Cow Creek, northeast +from the Walnut. + +As I have stated, the troopers stationed at the cantonment on the Walnut +were mostly recruits. Now the cavalry recruit of the old regular army on +the frontier, thirty or forty years ago, mounted on a great big American +horse and sent out with well-trained comrades on a scout after the +hostile savages of the plains, was the most helpless individual +imaginable. Coming fresh from some large city probably, as soon as he +arrived at his station he was placed on the back of an animal of whose +habits he knew as little as he did of the differential calculus; loaded +down with a carbine, the muzzle of which he could hardly distinguish +from the breech; a sabre buckled around his waist; a couple of enormous +pistols stuck in his holsters; his blankets strapped to the cantle of +his saddle, and, to complete the hopelessness of his condition in a +possible encounter with a savage enemy who was ever on the alert, he was +often handicapped by a camp-kettle or two, a frying-pan, and ten days' +rations. No wonder this doughty representative of Uncle Sam's power was +an easy prey for "Poor Lo," who, when he caught the unfortunate soldier +away from his command and started after him, must have laughed at the +ridiculous appearance of his enemy, with both hands glued to the pommel +of his saddle, his hair on end, his sabre flying and striking his horse +at every jump as the animal tore down the trail toward camp, while the +Indian, rapidly gaining, in a few minutes had the scalp of the hapless +rider dangling at his belt, and another of the "boys in blue" had joined +the majority. + +The scouting-party had proceeded about four or five miles, when one of +the corporals asked permission for himself and a recruit to go over to +the Upper Walnut to find out whether they could discover any signs of +Indians. + +While they were carelessly riding along the big curve which the northern +branch of the Walnut makes at that point, there suddenly sprang from +their ambush in the timber on the margin of the stream about three +hundred Indians, whooping and yelling. The two troopers of course, +immediately whirled their horses and started down the creek toward the +camp, hotly pursued by the howling savages. + +The corporal was an excellent rider; a well-trained and disciplined +soldier, having seen much service on the plains. He led in the flight, +closely followed by the unfortunate recruit, who had been enlisted but a +short time. Not more than an eighth of a mile had been covered, when the +corporal heard his companion exclaim,-- + +"Don't leave me! Don't leave me!" + +Looking back, the corporal saw that the poor recruit was losing ground +rapidly; his horse was rearing and plunging, making very little headway, +while his rider was jerking and pulling on the bit, a curb of the +severest kind. Perceiving the strait his comrade was in, the corporal +reined up for a moment and called out,-- + +"Let him go! Let him go! Don't jerk on the bit so!" + +The Indians were gaining ground rapidly, and in another moment the +corporal heard the recruit again cry out,-- + +"Oh! Don't--" + +Realizing that it would be fatal to delay, and that he could be of +no assistance to his companion, already killed and scalped, he leaned +forward on his horse, and sinking his spurs deep in the animal's flanks +fairly flew down the valley, with the three hundred savages close in his +wake. + +The officers at the camp were sitting in their tents when the sentinel +on post No. 1 fired his piece, upon which all rushed out to learn the +cause of the alarm; for there was no random shooting in those days +allowed around camp or in garrison. Looking up the valley of the Walnut, +they could see the lucky corporal, with his long hair streaming in the +wind, and his heels rapping his horse's sides, as he dashed over the +brown sod of the winter prairie. + +The corporal now slackened his pace, rode up to the commanding officer's +tent, reported the affair, and then was allowed to go to his own +quarters for the rest he so much needed. + +Captain Conkey immediately ordered a mounted squad, accompanied by an +ambulance, to go up the creek to recover the body of the unfortunate +recruit. The party were absent a little over an hour, and brought back +with them the remains of the dead soldier. He had been shot with +an arrow, the point of which was still sticking out through his +breast-bone. His scalp had been torn completely off, and the lapels of +his coat and the legs of his trousers carried away by the savages. +He was buried the next morning with military honours, in the little +graveyard on the bank of the Walnut, where his body still rests in the +dooryard of the ranch. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. + + + +In the spring of 1867, General Hancock, who then commanded the military +division of the Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, +organized an expedition against the Indians of the great plains, which +he led in person. With him was General Custer, second ranking officer, +from whom I quote the story of the march and some of the incidents of +the raid. + +General Hancock, with the artillery and six companies of infantry, +arrived at Fort Riley, Kansas, the last week in March, where he was +joined by four companies of the Seventh Cavalry, commanded by the +intrepid Custer. + +From Fort Riley the expedition marched to Fort Harker, seventy-two miles +farther west, on the Smoky Hill, where the force was increased by the +addition of two more troops of cavalry. Remaining there only long enough +to replenish their commissary supplies, the march was directed to +Fort Larned on the Old Santa Fe Trail. On the 7th of April the command +reached the latter post, accompanied by the agent of the Comanches and +Kiowas; at the fort the agent of the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches +was waiting for the arrival of the general. The agent of the three +last-mentioned tribes had already sent runners to the head chiefs, +inviting them to a grand council which was to assemble near the fort on +the 10th of the month, and he requested General Hancock to remain at the +fort with his command until that date. + +On the 9th of April a terrible snow-storm came on while the troops +were encamped waiting for the head men of the various tribes to arrive. +Custer says: + + It was our good fortune to be in camp rather than on the + march; had it been otherwise, we could not well have escaped + without loss of life. The cavalry horses suffered severely, + and were only preserved by doubling their rations of oats, + while to prevent their being frozen during the intensely + cold night which followed, the guards were instructed to + pass along the picket lines with a whip, and keep the + horses moving constantly. The snow was eight inches deep. + The council, which was to take place the next day, had to be + postponed until the return of good weather. Now began the + display of a kind of diplomacy for which the Indian is + peculiar. The Cheyennes and a band of Sioux were encamped + on Pawnee Fork, about thirty miles above Fort Larned. + They neither desired to move nearer to us or have us + approach nearer to them. On the morning of the 11th, + they sent us word that they had started to visit us, but, + discovering a large herd of buffalo near their camp, + they had stopped to procure a supply of meat. This message + was not received with much confidence, nor was a buffalo + hunt deemed of sufficient importance to justify the Indians + in breaking their engagement. General Hancock decided, + however, to delay another day, when, if the Indians still + failed to come in, he would move his command to the vicinity + of their village and hold the conference there. + + Orders were issued on the evening of the 12th for the march + to be resumed on the following day. Late in the evening + two chiefs of the "Dog-Soldiers," a band composed of the + most warlike and troublesome Indians on the plains, + chiefly made up of Cheyennes, visited our camp. They were + accompanied by a dozen warriors, and expressed a desire to + hold a conference with General Hancock, to which he assented. + A large council-fire was built in front of the general's + tent, and all the officers of his command assembled there. + A tent had been erected for the accommodation of the chiefs + a short distance from the general's. Before they could + feel equal to the occasion, and in order to obtain time to + collect their thoughts, they desired that supper might be + prepared for them, which was done. When finally ready, + they advanced from their tent to the council-fire in single + file, accompanied by their agent and an interpreter. + Arrived at the fire, another brief delay ensued. No matter + how pressing or momentous the occasion, an Indian invariably + declines to engage in a council until he has filled his pipe + and gone through with the important ceremony of a smoke. + This attended to, the chiefs announced that they were ready + "to talk." They were then introduced to the principal + officers of the group, and seemed much struck with the + flashy uniforms of the few artillery officers, who were + present in all the glory of red horsehair plumes, + aiguillettes, etc. The chiefs seemed puzzled to determine + whether these insignia designated chieftains or medicine men. + General Hancock began the conference by a speech, in which + he explained to the Indians his purpose in coming to see + them, and what he expected of them in the future. + He particularly informed them that he was not there to make + war, but to promote peace. Then, expressing his regrets + that more of the chiefs had not visited him, he announced + his intention of proceeding on the morrow with his command + to the vicinity of their village, and there holding a + council with all the chiefs. Tall Bull, a fine, warlike-looking + chieftain, replied to General Hancock, but his speech + contained nothing important, being made up of allusions to + the growing scarcity of the buffalo, his love for the white + man, and the usual hint that a donation in the way of + refreshments would be highly acceptable; he added that he + would have nothing new to say at the village. + + Rightly concluding that the Indians did not intend to come + to our camp, as they had at first agreed to, it was decided + to move nearer their village. On the morning following the + conference our entire force, therefore, marched from + Fort Larned up Pawnee Fork in the direction of the main + village, encamping the first night about twenty-one miles + from Larned. Several parties of Indians were seen in our + advance during the day, evidently watching our movements, + while a heavy smoke, seen to rise in the direction of the + Indian village, indicated that something more than usual + was going on. The smoke, we afterward learned, arose from + burning grass. The Indians, thinking to prevent us from + encamping in their vicinity, had set fire to and burned all + the grass for miles in the direction from which they + expected us. Before we arrived at our camping-ground, + we were met by several chiefs and warriors belonging to the + Cheyennes and Sioux. Among the chiefs were Pawnee Killer, + of the Sioux, and White Horse, of the Cheyennes. It was + arranged that these chiefs should accept our hospitality + and remain with us during the night, and in the morning all + the chiefs of the two tribes then in the village were to + come to General Hancock's head-quarters and hold a council. + On the morning of the 14th, Pawnee Killer left our camp at + an early hour, as he said for the purpose of going to the + village to bring in the other chiefs to the council. + Nine o'clock had been agreed upon as the time at which the + council should assemble. The hour came, but the chiefs + did not. Now an Indian council is not only often an + important, but always an interesting, occasion. At this + juncture, Bull Bear, an influential chief among the + Cheyennes, came in and reported that the chiefs were on + their way to our camp, but would not be able to reach it + for some time. This was a mere artifice to secure delay. + General Hancock informed Bull Bear that, as the chiefs + could not arrive for some time, he would move his forces + up the stream nearer the village, and the council could be + held at our camp that night. To this proposition Bull Bear + gave his consent. + + At 11 A.M. we resumed the march, and had proceeded but a few + miles when we witnessed one of the finest and most imposing + military displays, according to the Indian art of war, + which it has been my lot to behold. It was nothing more + nor less than an Indian line of battle drawn directly + across our line of march, as if to say, "Thus far and no + further." Most of the Indians were mounted; all were + bedecked in their brightest colours, their heads crowned + with the brilliant war-bonnet, their lances bearing the + crimson pennant, bows strung, and quivers full of barbed + arrows. In addition to these weapons, which, with the + hunting-knife and tomahawk, are considered as forming the + armament of the warrior, each one was supplied with either + a breech-loading rifle or revolver, sometimes with both- + the latter obtained through the wise forethought and strong + love of fair play which prevails in the Indian department, + which, seeing that its wards are determined to fight, + is equally determined that there shall be no advantage taken, + but that the two sides shall be armed alike; proving, too, + in this manner, the wonderful liberality of our government, + which is not only able to furnish its soldiers with the + latest style of breech-loaders to defend it and themselves, + but is equally able and willing to give the same pattern + of arms to the common foe. The only difference is, that if + the soldier loses his weapon, he is charged double price + for it, while to avoid making any such charge against the + Indian, his weapons are given him without conditions attached. + + In the line of battle before us there were several hundred + Indians, while further to the rear and at different + distances were other organized bodies, acting apparently + as reserves. Still further behind were small detachments + who seemed to perform the duty of couriers, and were held + in readiness to convey messages to the village. The ground + beyond was favourable for an extended view, and as far as + the eye could reach, small groups of individuals could be + seen in the direction of the village; these were evidently + parties of observation, whose sole object was to learn the + result of our meeting with the main body and hasten with + the news to the village. + + For a few moments appearances seemed to foreshadow anything + but a peaceable issue. The infantry was in the advance, + followed closely by the artillery, while my command, + the cavalry, was marching on the flank. General Hancock, + who was riding with his staff at the head of the column, + coming suddenly in view of the wild, fantastic battle array, + which extended far to our right and left, and was not more + than half a mile in our front, hastily sent orders to the + infantry, artillery, and cavalry to form in line of battle, + evidently determined that, if war was intended, we should be + prepared. The cavalry being the last to form on the right, + came into line on a gallop, and without waiting to align + the ranks carefully, the command was given to "Draw sabre." + As the bright blades flashed from their scabbards into the + morning sunlight, and the infantry brought their muskets + to a carry, a contrast was presented which, to a military + eye, could but be striking. Here in battle array, facing + each other, were the representatives of civilized and + barbarous warfare. The one, with few modifications, stood + clothed in the same rude style of dress, bearing the same + patterned shield and weapon that his ancestors had borne + centuries before; the other confronted him in the dress + and supplied with the implements of war which an advanced + stage of civilization had pronounced the most perfect. + Was the comparative superiority of these two classes to be + subjected to the mere test of war here? All was eager + anxiety and expectation. Neither side seemed to comprehend + the object or intentions of the other; each was waiting + for the other to deliver the first blow. A more beautiful + battle-ground could not have been chosen. Not a bush or + even the slightest irregularity of ground intervened between + the two lines, which now stood frowning and facing each other. + Chiefs could be seen riding along the line, as if directing + and exhorting their braves to deeds of heroism. + + After a few moments of painful suspense, General Hancock, + accompanied by General A. J. Smith and other officers, + rode forward, and through an interpreter invited the chiefs + to meet us midway for the purpose of an interview. + In response to this invitation, Roman Nose, bearing a white + flag, accompanied by Bull Bear, White Horse, Gray Beard, + and Medicine Wolf, on the part of the Cheyennes, and Pawnee + Killer, Bad Wound, Tall-Bear-That-Walks-under-the-Ground, + Left Hand, Little Bear, and Little Bull, on the part of the + Sioux, rode forward to the middle of the open space between + the two lines. Here we shook hands with all the chiefs, + most of them exhibiting unmistakable signs of gratification + at this apparently peaceful termination of our rencounter. + General Hancock very naturally inquired the object of the + hostile attitude displayed before us, saying to the chiefs + that if war was their object, we were ready then and there + to participate. Their immediate answer was that they did + not desire war, but were peacefully disposed. They were + then told that we would continue our march toward the + village, and encamp near it, but would establish such + regulations that none of the soldiers would be permitted + to approach or disturb them. An arrangement was then + effected by which the chiefs were to assemble at General + Hancock's headquarters as soon as our camp was pitched. + The interview then terminated, and the Indians moved off + in the direction of their village, we following leisurely + in the rear. + + A march of a few miles brought us in sight of the village, + which was situated in a beautiful grove on the bank of the + stream up which we had been marching. It consisted of + upwards of three hundred lodges, a small fraction over half + belonging to the Cheyennes, the remainder to the Sioux. + Like all Indian encampments, the ground chosen was a most + romantic spot, and at the same time fulfilled in every + respect the requirements of a good camping-ground; wood, + water, and grass were abundant. The village was placed on + a wide, level plateau, while on the north and west, at a + short distance off, rose high bluffs, which admirably served + as a shelter against the cold winds which at that season of + the year prevail from those directions. Our tents were + pitched within a mile of the village. Guards were placed + between to prevent intrusion upon our part. We had scarcely + pitched our tents when Roman Nose, Bull Bear, Gray Beard, + and Medicine Wolf, all prominent chiefs of the Cheyenne + nation, came into camp with the information that upon our + approach their women and children had all fled from the + village, alarmed by the presence of so many soldiers, and + imagining a second Chivington massacre to be intended. + General Hancock insisted that they should all return, + promising protection and good treatment to all; that if + the camp was abandoned, he would hold it responsible. + The chiefs then stated their belief in their ability to + recall the fugitives, could they be furnished with horses + to overtake them. This was accordingly done, and two of + them set out mounted on two of our horses. An agreement + was also entered into at the same time, that one of our + interpreters, Ed Gurrier, a half-breed Cheyenne, who was in + the employ of the government, should remain in the village + and report every two hours as to whether any Indians were + leaving there. This was about seven o'clock in the evening. + At half-past nine the half-breed returned to head-quarters + with the intelligence that all the chiefs and warriors were + saddling up to leave, under circumstances showing that they + had no intention of returning, such as packing up every + article that could be carried with them, and cutting and + destroying their lodges--this last being done to obtain + small pieces for temporary shelter. + + I had retired to my tent, which was some few hundred yards + from that of General Hancock, when a messenger from the + latter awakened me with the information that the general + desired my presence in his tent. He briefly stated the + situation of affairs, and directed me to mount my command + as quickly and as silently as possible, surround the Indian + village, and prevent the departure of its inhabitants. + Easily said, but not so easily done. Under ordinary + circumstances, silence not being necessary, I could have + returned to my camp, and by a few blasts from the trumpet, + placed every soldier on his saddle almost as quickly as it + has taken time to write this short sentence. No bugle calls + must be sounded; we were to adopt some of the stealth of the + Indians--how successfully remained to be seen. By this time + every soldier and officer was in his tent sound asleep. + First going to the tent of the adjutant and arousing him, + I procured an experienced assistant in my labours. Next the + captains of companies were awakened and orders imparted + to them. They in turn transmitted the order to the first + sergeant, who similarly aroused the men. It has often + surprised me to observe the alacrity with which disciplined + soldiers, experienced in campaigning, will hasten to prepare + themselves for the march in an emergency like this. + No questions are asked, no time is wasted. A soldier's + toilet, on an Indian campaign, is a simple affair, and + requires little time for arranging. His clothes are + gathered up hurriedly, no matter how, so long as he retains + possession of them. The first object is to get his horse + saddled and bridled, and until this is done his own dress + is a matter of secondary importance, and one button or hook + must do the duty of half a dozen. When his horse is ready + for the mount, the rider will be seen completing his own + equipment; stray buttons will receive attention, arms will + be overhauled, spurs restrapped; then, if there still remain + a few spare moments, the homely black pipe is filled and + lighted, and the soldier's preparation is complete. + + The night was all that could be desired for the success of + our enterprise. The air was mild and pleasant; the moon, + although nearly full, kept almost constantly behind the + clouds, as if to screen us in our hazardous undertaking. + I say hazardous, because none of us imagined for one moment + that if the Indians discovered us in our attempt to surround + them and their village, we should escape without a fight-- + a fight, too, in which the Indians, sheltered behind the + trunks of the stately forest trees under which their lodges + were pitched, would possess all the advantage. General + Hancock, anticipating that the Indians would discover our + approach, and that a fight would ensue, ordered the + artillery and infantry under arms, to await the result of + our moonlight adventure. My command was soon in the saddle, + and silently making its way toward the village. + Instructions had been given forbidding all conversation + except in a whisper. Sabres were disposed of to prevent + clanging. Taking a camp-fire which we could see in the + village as our guiding point, we made a detour so as to + place the village between ourselves and the infantry. + Occasionally the moon would peep out from the clouds and + enable us to catch a hasty glance at the village. Here and + there under the thick foliage we could see the white, + conical-shaped lodges. Were the inmates slumbering, + unaware of our close proximity, or were their dusky defenders + concealed, as well they might have been, along the banks of + the Pawnee, quietly awaiting our approach, and prepared to + greet us with their well-known war-whoop? These were + questions that were probably suggested to the mind of each + individual of my command. If we were discovered approaching + in the stealthy, suspicious manner which characterized our + movements, the hour being midnight, it would require a more + confiding nature than that of the Indian to assign a + friendly or peaceful motive to our conduct. The same + flashes of moonlight which gave us hurried glimpses of the + village enabled us to see our own column of horsemen + stretching its silent length far into the dim darkness, and + winding its course, like some huge anaconda about to envelop + its victim. + + The method by which it was determined to establish a cordon + of armed troopers about the fated village, was to direct + the march in a circle, with the village in the centre, + the commanding officer of each rear troop halting his + command at the proper point, and deploying his men similarly + to a line of skirmishers--the entire circle, when thus formed, + facing toward the village, and, distant from it perhaps a + few hundred yards. No sooner was our line completely formed + than the moon, as if deeming darkness no longer essential + to our success, appeared from behind her screen and lighted + up the entire scene. And beautiful it was! The great + circle of troops, each individual of which sat on his steed + silent as a statue, the dense foliage of the cotton trees + sheltering the bleached, skin-clad lodges of the red men, + the little stream in the midst murmuring undisturbedly in + its channel, all combined to produce an artistic effect, + as striking as it was interesting. But we were not there + to study artistic effects. The next step was to determine + whether we had captured an inhabited village, involving + almost necessarily a severe conflict with its savage + occupants, or whether the red man had again proven too + wily and crafty for his more civilized brothers. + + Directing the entire line of troopers to remain mounted + with carbines held at the "Advance," I dismounted, and + taking with me Gurrier, the half-breed, Dr. Coates, one of + our medical staff, and Lieutenant Moylan, the adjutant, + we proceeded on our hands and knees toward the village. + The prevailing opinion was that the Indians were still + asleep. I desired to approach near enough to the lodges + to enable the half-breed to hail the village in the Indian + tongue, and if possible establish friendly relations at once. + It became a question of prudence with us, which we discussed + in whispers as we proceeded on our "Tramp, tramp, tramp, + the boys are creeping," how far from our horses and how + near to the village we dared to go. If so few of us were + discovered entering the village in this questionable manner, + it was more than probable that, like the returners of stolen + property, we should be suitably rewarded and no questions + asked. The opinion of Gurrier, the half-breed, was eagerly + sought for and generally deferred to. His wife, + a full-blooded Cheyenne, was a resident of the village. + This with him was an additional reason for wishing a peaceful + termination to our efforts. When we had passed over + two-thirds of the distance between our horses and the + village, it was thought best to make our presence known. + Thus far not a sound had been heard to disturb the stillness + of the night. Gurrier called out at the top of his voice + in the Cheyenne tongue. The only response came from the + throats of a score or more of Indian dogs which set up a + fierce barking. At the same time one or two of our party + asserted that they saw figure moving beneath the trees. + Gurrier repeated his summons, but with no better results + than before. + + A hurried consultation ensued. The presence of so many dogs + in the village was regarded by the half-breed as almost + positive assurance that the Indians were still there. + Yet it was difficult to account for their silence. Gurrier + in a loud tone repeated who he was, and that our mission was + friendly. Still no answer. He then gave it as his opinion + that the Indians were on the alert, and were probably + waiting in the shadow of the trees for us to approach nearer, + when they would pounce upon us. This comforting opinion + induced another conference. We must ascertain the truth of + the matter; our party could do this as well as a larger + number, and to go back and send another party in our stead + could not be thought of. + + Forward! was the verdict. Each one grasped his revolver, + resolved to do his best, whether it was in running or + fighting. I think most of us would have preferred to take + our own chances at running. We had approached near enough + to see that some of the lodges were detached some distance + from the main encampment. Selecting the nearest of these, + we directed our advance on it. While all of us were full + of the spirit of adventure, and were further encouraged + with the idea that we were in the discharge of our duty, + there was scarcely one of us who would not have felt more + comfortable if we could have got back to our horses without + loss of pride. Yet nothing, under the circumstances, but + a positive order would have induced any one to withdraw. + + Cautiously approaching, on all fours, to within a few yards + of the nearest lodge, occasionally halting and listening to + discover whether the village was deserted or not, we finally + decided that the Indians had fled before the arrival of the + cavalry, and that none but empty lodges were before us. + This conclusion somewhat emboldened as well as accelerated + our progress. Arriving at the first lodge, one of our party + raised the curtain or mat which served as a door, and the + doctor and myself entered. The interior of the lodge was + dimly lighted by the dying embers of a small fire built in + the centre. All around us were to be seen the usual + adornments and articles which constitute the household + effects of an Indian family. Buffalo-robes were spread like + carpets over the floor; head-mats, used to recline on, were + arranged as if for the comfort of their owners; parfleches, + a sort of Indian band-box, with their contents apparently + undisturbed, were carefully stowed away under the edges or + borders of the lodge. These, with the door-mats, paint-bags, + rawhide ropes, and other articles of Indian equipment, + were left as if the owners had only absented themselves for + a brief period. To complete the picture of an Indian lodge, + over the fire hung a camp-kettle, in which, by means of the + dim light of the fire, we could see what had been intended + for the supper of the late occupants of the lodge. + The doctor, ever on the alert to discover additional items + of knowledge, whether pertaining to history or science, + snuffed the savoury odours which arose from the dark + recesses of the mysterious kettle. Casting about the lodge + for some instrument to aid him in his pursuit of knowledge, + he found a horn spoon, with which he began his investigation + of the contents, finally succeeding in getting possession + of a fragment which might have been the half of a duck or + rabbit, judging from its size merely. "Ah!" said the doctor, + in his most complacent manner, "here is the opportunity I + have long been waiting for. I have often desired to test + the Indian mode of cooking. What do you suppose this is?" + holding up the dripping morsel. Unable to obtain the + desired information, the doctor, whose naturally good + appetite had been sensibly sharpened by his recent exercise, + set to with a will and ate heartily of the mysterious + contents of the kettle. He was only satisfied on one point, + that it was delicious--a dish fit for a king. Just then + Gurrier, the half-breed, entered the lodge. He could solve + the mystery, having spent years among the Indians. To him + the doctor appealed for information. Fishing out a huge + piece, and attacking it with the voracity of a hungry wolf, + he was not long in determining what the doctor had supped + heartily upon. His first words settled the mystery: "Why, + this is dog." I will not attempt to repeat the few but + emphatic words uttered by the heartily disgusted member of + the medical fraternity as he rushed from the lodge. + + Other members of our small party had entered other lodges, + only to find them, like the first, deserted. But little of + the furniture belonging to the lodges had been taken, + showing how urgent and hasty had been the flight of the + owners. To aid in the examination of the village, + reinforcements were added to our party, and an exploration + of each lodge was determined upon. At the same time a + messenger was despatched to General Hancock, informing him + of the flight of the Indians. Some of the lodges were + closed by having brush or timber piled up against the + entrance, as if to preserve the contents. Others had huge + pieces cut from their sides, these pieces evidently being + carried away to furnish temporary shelter for the fugitives. + In most of the lodges the fires were still burning. I had + entered several without discovering anything important. + Finally, in company with the doctor, I arrived at one the + interior of which was quite dark, the fire having almost + died out. Procuring a lighted fagot, I prepared to explore it, + as I had done the others; but no sooner had I entered the + lodge than my fagot failed me, leaving me in total darkness. + Handing it to the doctor to be relighted, I began to feel + my way about the interior of the lodge. I had almost made + the circuit when my hand came in contact with a human foot; + at the same time a voice unmistakably Indian, and which + evidently came from the owner of the foot, convinced me that + I was not alone. My first impressions were that in their + hasty flight the Indians had gone off, leaving this one + asleep. My next, very naturally, related to myself. + I would gladly have placed myself on the outside of the + lodge, and there matured plans for interviewing its occupant; + but unfortunately to reach the entrance of the lodge, I must + either pass over or around the owner of the before-mentioned + foot and voice. Could I have been convinced that among + its other possessions there was neither tomahawk nor + scalping-knife, pistol nor war-club, or any similar article + of the noble red-man's toilet, I would have risked an attempt + to escape through the low narrow opening of the lodge; + but who ever saw an Indian without one or all of these + interesting trinkets? Had I made the attempt, I should + have expected to encounter either the keen edge of the + scalping-knife or the blow of the tomahawk, and to have + engaged in a questionable struggle for life. This would + not do. I crouched in silence for a few moments, hoping + the doctor would return with the lighted fagot. I need not + say that each succeeding moment spent in the darkness of + that lodge seemed an age. I could hear a slight movement + on the part of my unknown neighbour, which did not add to + my comfort. Why does not the doctor return? At last I + discovered the approach of a light on the outside. When it + neared the entrance, I called the doctor and informed him + that an Indian was in the lodge, and that he had better + have his weapons ready for a conflict. I had, upon + discovering the foot, drawn my hunting-knife from its + scabbard, and now stood waiting the denouement. With his + lighted fagot in one hand and cocked revolver in the other, + the doctor cautiously entered the lodge. And there directly + between us, wrapped in a buffalo-robe, lay the cause of my + anxiety--a little Indian girl, probably ten years old; + not a full-blood, but a half-breed. She was terribly + frightened at finding herself in our hands, with none of + her people near. Other parties in exploring the deserted + village found an old, decrepit Indian of the Sioux tribe, + who had also been deserted, owing to his infirmities and + inability to travel with the tribe. Nothing was gleaned + from our search of the village which might indicate the + direction of the flight. General Hancock, on learning the + situation of affairs, despatched some companies of infantry + with orders to replace the cavalry and protect the village + and its contents from disturbance until its final disposition + could be determined upon, and it was decided that with eight + troops of cavalry I should start in pursuit of the Indians + at early dawn on the following morning. + + The Indians, after leaving their village, went up on the + Smoky Hill, and committed the most horrible depredations + upon the scattered settlers in that region. Upon this news, + General Hancock issued the following order:-- + + "As a punishment of the bad faith practised by the Cheyennes + and Sioux who occupied the Indian village at this place, and + as a chastisement for murders and depredations committed + since the arrival of the command at this point, by the + people of these tribes, the village recently occupied by + them, which is now in our hands, will be utterly destroyed." + + The Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches had been united under + one agency; the Kiowas and Comanches under another. + As General Hancock's expedition had reference to all these + tribes, he had invited both the agents to accompany him + into the Indian country and be present at all interviews + with the representatives of these tribes, for the purpose, + as the invitation stated, of showing the Indians "that the + officers of the government are acting in harmony." + + In conversation with the general the agents admitted that + Indians had been guilty of all the outrages charged against + them, but each asserted the innocence of the particular + tribes under his charge, and endeavoured to lay their crimes + at the door of their neighbours. + + Here was positive evidence from the agents themselves that + the Indians against whom we were operating were deserving + of severe punishment. The only conflicting portion of the + testimony was as to which tribe was most guilty. Subsequent + events proved, however, that all of the five tribes named, + as well as the Sioux, had combined for a general war + throughout the plains and along our frontier. Such a war + had been threatened to our post commanders along the + Arkansas on many occasions during the winter. The movement + of the Sioux and Cheyennes toward the north indicated that + the principal theatre of military operations during the + summer would be between the Smoky Hill and Platte rivers. + General Hancock accordingly assembled the principal chiefs + of the Kiowas and Arapahoes in council at Fort Dodge, + hoping to induce them to remain at peace and observe their + treaty obligations. + + The most prominent chiefs in council were Satanta, Lone Wolf, + and Kicking Bird of the Kiowas, and Little Raven and Yellow + Bear of the Arapahoes. During the council extravagant + promises of future good behaviour were made by these chiefs. + So effective and convincing was the oratorical effort of + Satanta, that at the termination of his address, the + department commander and his staff presented him with the + uniform coat, sash, and hat of a major-general. In return + for this compliment, Satanta, within a few weeks, attacked + the post at which the council was held, arrayed in his + new uniform. + +In the spring of 1878, the Indians commenced a series of depredations +along the Santa Fe Trail and against the scattered settlers of the +frontier, that were unparalleled in their barbarity. General Alfred +Sully, a noted Indian fighter, who commanded the district of the Upper +Arkansas, early concentrated a portion of the Seventh and Tenth Cavalry +and Third Infantry along the line of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and kept +out small expeditions of scouting parties to protect the overland +coaches and freight caravans; but the troops effected very little in +stopping the devilish acts of the Indians, who were now fully determined +to carry out their threats of a general war, which culminated in the +winter expedition of General Sheridan, who completely subdued them, and +forced all the tribes on reservations; since which time there has never +been any trouble with the plains Indians worthy of mention.[69] + +General Sully, about the 1st of September, with eight companies of the +Seventh Cavalry and five companies of infantry, left Fort Dodge, on the +Arkansas, on a hurried expedition against the Kiowas, Arapahoes, and +Cheyennes. The command marched in a general southeasterly direction, and +reached the sand hills of the Beaver and Wolf rivers, by a circuitous +route, on the fifth day. When nearly through that barren region, they +were attacked by a force of eight hundred of the allied tribes under the +leadership of the famous Kiowa chief, Satanta. A running fight was kept +up with the savages on the first day, in which two of the cavalry were +killed and one wounded. + +That night the savages came close enough to camp to fire into it (an +unusual proceeding in Indian warfare, as they rarely molest troops +during the night), I now quote from Custer again: + + The next day General Sully directed his march down the + valley of the Beaver; but just as his troops were breaking + camp, the long wagon-train having already "pulled out," and + the rear guard of the command having barely got into their + saddles, a party of between two and three hundred warriors, + who had evidently in some inexplicable manner contrived to + conceal themselves until the proper moment, dashed into the + deserted camp within a few yards of the rear of the troops, + and succeeded in cutting off a few led horses and two of + the cavalrymen who, as is often the case, had lingered a + moment behind the column. + + Fortunately, the acting adjutant of the cavalry, Brevet + Captain A. E. Smith, was riding at the rear of the column + and witnessed the attack of the Indians. Captain Hamilton,[70] + of the Seventh Cavalry, was also present in command of the + rear guard. Wheeling to the rightabout, he at once prepared + to charge the Indians and attempt the rescue of the two + troopers who were being carried off before his very eyes. + At the same time, Captain Smith, as representative of the + commanding officer of the cavalry, promptly took the + responsibility of directing a squadron of the cavalry to + wheel out of column and advance in support of Captain + Hamilton's guard. With this hastily formed detachment, + the Indians, still within pistol-range, but moving off with + their prisoners, were gallantly charged and so closely + pressed that they were forced to relinquish one of their + prisoners, but not before shooting him through the body and + leaving him on the ground, as they supposed, mortally wounded. + The troops continued to charge the retreating Indians, + upon whom they were gaining, determined, if possible, + to effect the rescue of their remaining comrade. They were + advancing down one slope while the Indians, just across + a ravine, were endeavouring to escape with their prisoner + up the opposite ascent, when a peremptory order reached the + officers commanding the pursuing force to withdraw their men + and reform the column at once. The terrible fate awaiting + the unfortunate trooper carried off by the Indians spread + a deep gloom throughout the command. All were too familiar + with the horrid customs of the savages to hope for a moment + that the captive would be reserved for aught but a slow, + lingering death, from tortures the most horrible and painful + which blood-thirsty minds could suggest. Such was the truth + in his case, as we learned afterwards when peace (?) was + established with the tribes then engaged in war. + + The expedition proceeded down the valley of the Beaver, + the Indians contesting every step of the way. In the + afternoon, about three o'clock, the troops arrived at + a ridge of sand hills a few miles southeast of the + presentsite of Camp Supply, where quite a determined + engagement took place between the command and the three + tribes, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowas, the Indians + being the assailants. The Indians seemed to have reserved + their strongest efforts until the troops and train had + advanced well into the sand hills, when a most obstinate + resistance--and well conducted, too--was offered the + farther advance of the troops. It was evident that the + troops were probably nearing the Indian villages, and that + this opposition to further advance was to save them. The + character of the country immediately about the troops was + not favourable to the operations of cavalry; the surface + of the rolling plain was cut up by irregular and closely + located sand hills, too steep and sandy to allow cavalry + to move with freedom, yet capable of being easily cleared + of savages by troops fighting on foot. The Indians took + post on the hilltops and began a harassing fire on the + troops and train. Captain Yates, with a single troop of + cavalry, was ordered forward to drive them away. This was + a proceeding which did not seem to meet with favour from + the savages. Captain Yates could drive them wherever he + encountered them, but they appeared in increased numbers + at some other threatened point. After contending in this + non-effective manner for a couple of hours, the impression + arose in the minds of some that the train could not be + conducted through the sand hills in the face of the strong + opposition offered by the Indians. The order was issued + to turn about and withdraw. The order was executed, and + the troop and train, followed by the exultant Indians, + retired a few miles to the Beaver, and encamped for the + night on the ground afterward known as Camp Supply. + + Captain Yates had caused to be brought off the field, when + his troop was ordered to retire, the body of one of his men, + who had been slain in the fight. As the troops were to + continue their backward march next day, and it was impossible + to transport the dead body further, Captain Yates ordered + preparations made for interring it in camp that night. + Knowing that the Indians would thoroughly search the deserted + camp-ground almost before the troops should get out of sight, + and would be quick, with their watchful eyes, to detect a + grave, and, if successful in discovering it, would unearth + the body in order to get the scalp, directions were given + to prepare the grave after nightfall; and the spot selected + would have baffled any one but an Indian. The grave was + dug under the picket line to which the seventy or eighty + horses of the troop would be tethered during the night, + so that their constant tramping and pawing should completely + cover up and obliterate all traces. The following morning, + even those who had performed the sad rites of burial to + their fallen comrade could scarcely have indicated the exact + location of the grave. Yet when we returned to that point + a few weeks later, it was discovered that the wily savages + had found the place, unearthed the body, and removed the + scalp of their victim on the day following the interment.[71] + +After leaving the camp at Supply, the Indians gradually increased their +force, until they mustered about two thousand warriors. For four days +and nights they hovered around the command, and by the time it reached +Mulberry Creek there were not one thousand rounds of ammunition left in +the whole force of troopers and infantrymen. At the creek, the incessant +charges of the now infuriated savages compelled the troops to use this +small amount held in reserve, and they found themselves almost at the +mercy of the Indians. But before they were absolutely defenceless, +Colonel Keogh had sent a trusty messenger in the night to Fort Dodge +for a supply of cartridges to meet the command at the creek, which +fortunately arrived there in time to save that spot from being a +veritable "last ditch." + +The savages, in the little but exciting encounter at the creek before +the ammunition arrived, would ride up boldly toward the squadrons of +cavalry, discharge the shots from their revolvers, and then, in their +rage, throw them at the skirmishers on the flanks of the supply-train, +while the latter, nearly out of ammunition, were compelled to sit +quietly in their saddles, idle spectators of the extraordinary +scene.[72] + +Many of the Indians were killed on their ponies, however, by those +who were fortunate enough to have a few cartridges left; but none +were captured, as the savages had taken their usual precaution to tie +themselves to their animals, and as soon as dead were dragged away by +them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. + + + +The tourist who to-day, in a palace car, surrounded by all the +conveniences of our American railway service, commences his tour of the +prairies at the Missouri River, enters classic ground the moment the +train leaves the muddy flood of that stream on its swift flight toward +the golden shores of the Pacific. + +He finds a large city at the very portals of the once far West, with all +the bustle and energy which is so characteristic of American enterprise. + +Gradually, as he is whirled along the iron trail, the woods lessen; he +catches views of beautiful intervales; a bright little stream flashes +and foams in the sunlight as the trees grow fewer, and soon he emerges +on the broad sea of prairie, shut in only by the great circle of the +heavens. + +Dotting this motionless ocean everywhere, like whitened sails, are quiet +homes, real argosies ventured by the sturdy and industrious people who +have fought their way through almost insurmountable difficulties to the +tranquillity which now surrounds them. + +A few miles west of Topeka, the capital of Kansas, when the train +reaches the little hamlet of Wakarusa, the track of the railroad +commences to follow the route of the Old Santa Fe Trail. At that point, +too, the Oregon Trail branches off for the heavily timbered regions of +the Columbia. Now begins the classic ground of the once famous highway +to New Mexico; nearly every stream, hill, and wooded dell has its +story of adventure in those days when the railroad was regarded as an +impossibility, and the region beyond the Missouri as a veritable desert. + +After some hours' rapid travelling, if our tourist happens to be a +passenger on the "California Limited," the swift train that annihilates +distance, he will pass by towns, hamlets, and immense cattle ranches, +stopping only at county-seats, and enter the justly famous Arkansas +valley at the city of Hutchinson. The Old Trail now passes a few miles +north of this busy place, which is noted for its extensive salt works, +nor does the railroad again meet with it until the site of old Fort +Zarah is reached, forty-seven miles west of Hutchinson, though it runs +nearly parallel to the once great highway at varying distances for the +whole detour. + +The ruins of the once important military post may be seen from the +car-windows on the right, as the train crosses the iron bridge spanning +the Walnut, and here the Old Trail exactly coincides with the railroad, +the track of the latter running immediately on the old highway. + +Three miles westward from the classic little Walnut the Old Trail ran +through what is now the Court House Square of the town of Great Bend; +it may be seen from the station, and on that very spot occurred the +terrible fight of Captains Booth and Hallowell in 1864. + +Thirteen miles further mountainward, on the right of the railroad, not +far from the track, stands all that remains of the once dreaded Pawnee +Rock. It lies just beyond the limits of the little hamlet bearing its +name. It would not be recognized by any of the old plainsmen were they +to come out of their isolated graves; for it is only a disintegrated, +low mass of sandstone now, utilized for the base purposes of a corral, +in which the village herd of milch cows lie down at night and chew +their cuds, such peaceful transformation has that great civilizer, the +locomotive, wrought in less than two decades. + +Another five or six miles, and the train crosses Ash Creek, which, too, +was once one of the favourite haunts of the Pawnee and Comanche on their +predatory excursions, in the days when the mules and horses of passing +freight caravans excited their cupidity. A short whirl again, and the +town of Larned, lying peacefully on the Arkansas and Pawnee Fork, is +reached. Immediately opposite the centre of the street through which the +railroad runs, and which was also the course of the Old Trail, lying +in the Arkansas River, close to its northern bank, is a small +thickly-wooded island, now reached by a bridge, that is famous as the +battle-ground of a terrible conflict thirty years ago, between the +Pawnees and Cheyennes, hereditary enemies, in which the latter tribe was +cruelly defeated. + +The railroad bridge crosses Pawnee Fork at the precise spot where the +Old Trail did. This locality has been the scene of some of the bloodiest +encounters between the various tribes of savages themselves, and between +them and the freight caravans, the overland coaches, and every other +kind of outfit that formerly attempted the passage of the now peaceful +stream. In fact, the whole region from Walnut Creek to the mouth of the +Pawnee, which includes in its area Ash Creek and Pawnee Rock, seemed to +be the greatest resort for the Indians, who hovered about the Santa Fe +Trail for the sole purpose of robbery and murder; it was a very lucky +caravan or coach, indeed, that passed through that portion of the route +without being attacked. + +All the once dangerous points of the Old Trail having been successively +passed--Cow Creek, Big and Little Coon, and Ash Creek, Fort Dodge, +Fort Aubrey,[73] and Point of Rocks--the tourist arrives at last at the +foot-hills. At La Junta the railroad separates into two branches; one +going to Denver, the other on to New Mexico. Here, a relatively short +distance to the northwest, on the right of the train, may be seen the +ruins of Bent's Fort, the tourist having already passed the site of +the once famous Big Timbers, a favourite winter camping-ground of the +Cheyennes and Arapahoes; but everywhere around him there reigns such +perfect quiet and pastoral beauty, he might imagine that the peaceful +landscape upon which he looks had never been a bloody arena. + +I suggest to the lover of nature that he should cross the Raton Range +in the early morning, or late in the afternoon; for then the magnificent +scenery of the Trail over the high divide into New Mexico assumes its +most beautiful aspect. + +In approaching the range from the Old Trail, or now from the railroad, +their snow-clad peaks may be seen at a distance of sixty miles. In the +era of caravans and pack-trains, for hour after hour, as they moved +slowly toward the goal of their ambition, the summit of the fearful +pathway on the divide, the huge forms of the mountains seemed to recede, +and yet ascend higher. On the next day's journey their outlines appeared +more irregular and ragged. Drawing still nearer, their base presented a +long, dark strip stretching throughout their whole course, ever widening +until it seemed like a fathomless gulf, separating the world of reality +from the realms of imagination beyond. + +Another weary twenty miles of dusty travel, and the black void slowly +dissolved, and out of the shadows lines of broken, sterile, ferruginous +buttes and detached masses of rocks, whose soilless surface refuses +sustenance, save to a few scattered, stunted pines and lifeless mosses, +emerged to view. + +The progress of the weary-footed mules or oxen was now through ravines +and around rocks; up narrow paths which the melting snows have washed +out; sometimes between beetling cliffs, often to their very edge, where +hundreds of feet below the Trail the tall trees seemed diminished into +shrubs. Then again the road led over an immense broad terrace, for +thousands of yards around, with a bright lake gleaming in the refracted +light, and brilliant Alpine plants waving their beautiful flowers on its +margin. Still the coveted summit appeared so far off as to be beyond the +range of vision, and it seemed as if, instead of ascending, the entire +mass underneath had been receding, like the mountains of ice over which +Arctic explorers attempt to reach the pole. Now the tortuous +Trail passed through snow-wreaths which the winds had eddied into +indentations; then over bright, glassy surfaces of ice and fragments +of rocks, until the pinnacle was reached. Nearer, along the broad +successive terraces of the opposite mountains, the evergreen pine, the +cedar, with its stiff, angular branches, and the cottonwood, with its +varied curves and bright colours, were crowded into bunches or strung +into zigzag lines, interspersed with shrubs and mountain plants, among +which the flaming cactus was conspicuous. To the right and left, the +bare cones of the barren peaks rose in multitude, with their calm, awful +forms shrouded in snow, and their dark shadows reflected far into the +valleys, like spectres from a chaotic world. + +In going through the Raton Pass, the Old Santa Fe Trail meandered up a +steep valley, enclosed on either side by abrupt hills covered with +pine and masses of gray rock. The road ran along the points of varying +elevations, now in the stony bed of Raton Creek, which it crossed +fifty-three times, the sparkling, flitting waters of the bubbling stream +leaping and foaming against the animals' feet as they hauled the great +wagons of the freight caravans over the tortuous passage. The creek +often rushed rapidly under large flat stones, lost to sight for a +moment, then reappearing with a fresh impetus and dashing over +its flinty, uneven bed until it mingled with the pure waters of Le +Purgatoire. + +Still ascending, the scenery assumed a bolder, rougher cast; then sudden +turns gave you hurried glimpses of the great valley below. A gentle dell +sloped to the summit of the pass on the west, then, rising on the +east by a succession of terraces, the bald, bare cliff was reached, +overlooking the whole region for many miles, and this is Raton Peak.[74] + +The extreme top of this famous peak was only reached after more than +an hour's arduous struggle. On the lofty plateau the caravans and +pack-trains rested their tired animals. Here, too, the lonely trapper, +when crossing the range in quest of beaver, often chose this lofty +spot on which to kindle his little fire and broil juicy steaks of the +black-tail deer, the finest venison in the world; but before he indulged +in the savoury morsels, if he was in the least superstitious or devout, +or inspired by the sublime scene around him, he lighted his pipe, and +after saluting the elevated ridge on which he sat by the first whiff of +the fragrant kinnikinick, Indian-fashion, he in turn offered homage +in the same manner to the sky above him, the earth beneath, and to +the cardinal points of the compass, and was then prepared to eat his +solitary meal in a spirit of thankfulness. + +Far below this magnificent vantage-ground lies the valley of the Rio +Las Animas Perdidas. On the other verge of the great depression rise +the peerless, everlastingly snow-wreathed Spanish Peaks,[75] whose giant +summits are grim sentinels that for untold ages have witnessed hundreds +of sanguinary conflicts between the wily nomads of the vast plains +watered by the silent Arkansas. + +All around you snow-clad mountains lift their serrated crowns above +the horizon, dim, white, and indistinct, like icebergs seen at sea by +moonlight; others, nearer, more rugged, naked of verdure, and irregular +in contour, seem to lose their lofty summits in the intense blue of the +sky. + +Fisher's Peak, which is in full view from the train, was named from the +following circumstance: Captain Fisher was a German artillery officer +commanding a battery in General Kearney's Army of the West in the +conquest of New Mexico and was encamped at the base of the peak to which +he involuntarily gave his name. He was intently gazing at the lofty +summit wrapped in the early mist, and not being familiar with the +illusory atmospheric effects of the region, he thought that to go there +would be merely a pleasant promenade. So, leaving word that he would +return to breakfast, he struck out at a brisk walk for the crest. That +whole day, the following night, and the succeeding day, dragged their +weary hours on, but no tidings of the commanding officer were received +at the battery, and ill rumours were current of his death by Indians +or bears, when, just as his mess were about to take their seats at the +table for the evening meal, their captain put in an appearance, a very +tired but a wiser man. He started to go to the peak, and he went there! + +On the summit of another rock-ribbed elevation close by, the tourist +will notice the shaft of an obelisk. It is over the grave of George +Simpson, once a noted mountaineer in the days of the great fur +companies. For a long time he made his home there, and it was his dying +request that the lofty peak he loved so well while living should be his +last resting-place. The peak is known as "Simpson's Rest," and is one of +the notable features of the rugged landscape. + +Pike's Peak, far away to the north, intensely white and silvery in the +clear sky, hangs like a great dome high in the region of the clouds, a +marked object, worthy to commemorate the indefatigable efforts of the +early voyageur whose name it bears. + +In this wonderful locality, both Pike's Peak and the snowy range over +two hundred miles from our point of observation really seem to the +uninitiated as if a brisk walk of an hour or two would enable one to +reach them, so deceptive is the atmosphere of these elevated regions. + +About two miles from the crest of the range, yet over seven thousand +feet above the sea-level, in a pretty little depression about as large +as a medium-sized corn-field in the Eastern States, Uncle Dick Wooton +lived, and here, too, was his toll-gate. The veteran mountaineer erected +a substantial house of adobe, after the style of one of the old-time +Southern plantation residences, a memory, perhaps, of his youth, when he +raised tobacco in his father's fields in Kentucky.[76] + +The most charming hour in which to be on the crest of Raton Range is in +the afternoon, when the weather is clear and calm. As the night comes +on apace in the distant valley beneath, the evening shadows drop down, +pencilled with broad bands of rosy light as they creep slowly across +the beautiful landscape, while the rugged vista below is enveloped in a +diffused haze like that which marks the season of the Indian summer +in the lower great plains. Above, the sky curves toward the relatively +restricted horizon, with not a cloud to dim its intense blue, nowhere so +beautiful as in these lofty altitudes. + +The sun, however, does not always shine resplendently; there are times +when the most terrific storms of wind, hail, and rain change the entire +aspect of the scene. Fortunately, these violent bursts never last long; +they vanish as rapidly as they come, leaving in their wake the most +phenomenally beautiful rainbows, whose trailing splendours which they +owe to the dry and rare air of the region, and its high refractory +power, are gorgeous in the extreme. + +In 1872 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad entered the valley +of the Upper Arkansas. Twenty-four years ago, on a delicious October +afternoon, I stood on the absolutely level plateau at the mouth of +Pawnee Fork where that historic creek debouches into the great river. +The remembrance of that view will never pass from my memory, for it +showed a curious temporary blending of two distinct civilizations. One, +the new, marking the course of empire in its restless march westward; +the other, that of the aboriginal, which, like a dissolving view, was +soon to fade away and be forgotten. + +The box-elders and cottonwoods thinly covering the creek-bottom were +gradually donning their autumn dress of russet, and the mirage had +already commenced its fantastic play with the landscape. On the sides +and crests of the sparsely grassed sand hills south of the Arkansas a +few buffaloes were grazing in company with hundreds of Texas cattle, +while in the broad valley beneath, small flocks of graceful antelope +were lying down, quietly ruminating their midday meal. + +In the distance, far eastwardly, a train of cars could be seen +approaching; as far as the eye could reach, on either side of the track, +the virgin sod had been turned to the sun; the "empire of the plough" +was established, and the march of immigration in its hunger for the +horizon had begun. + +Half a mile away from the bridge spanning the Fork, under the grateful +shade of the largest trees, about twenty skin lodges were irregularly +grouped; on the brown sod of the sun-cured grass a herd of a hundred +ponies were lazily feeding, while a troop of dusky little children were +chasing the yellow butterflies from the dried and withered sunflower +stalks which once so conspicuously marked the well-worn highway to the +mountains. These Indians, the remnant of a tribe powerful in the years +of savage sovereignty, were on their way, in charge of their agent, +to their new homes, on the reservation just allotted to them by the +government, a hundred miles south of the Arkansas. + +Their primitive lodges contrasted strangely with the peaceful little +sod-houses, dugouts, and white cottages of the incoming settlers on the +public lands, with the villages struggling into existence, and above +all with the rapidly moving cars; unmistakable evidences that the new +civilization was soon to sweep the red men before it like chaff before +the wind. + +Farther to the west, a caravan of white-covered wagons loaded with +supplies for some remote military post, the last that would ever travel +the Old Trail, was slowly crawling toward the setting sun. I watched it +until only a cloud of dust marked its place low down on the horizon, +and it was soon lost sight of in the purple mist that was rapidly +overspreading the far-reaching prairie. + +It was the beginning of the end; on the 9th of February, 1880, the first +train over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad arrived at Santa +Fe and the Old Trail as a route of commerce was closed forever. The once +great highway is now only a picture in the memory of the few who +have travelled its weary course, following the windings of the silent +Arkansas, on to the portals that guard the rugged pathway leading to the +shores of the blue Pacific. + + + + +FOOTNOTES. + + +[Footnote 1: The whole country watered by the Mississippi and Missouri was called +Florida at that time.] + +[Footnote 2: The celebrated Jesuit, author of _The History of New France_, +_Journals of a Voyage to North America_, _Letters to the Duchess_, etc.] + +[Footnote 3: Otoes.] + +[Footnote 4: Iowas.] + +[Footnote 5: Boulevard, Promenade.] + +[Footnote 6: Notes of a Military Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in +Missouri, to San Diego, in California, including parts of the Arkansas, +Del Norte, and Gila Rivers. Brevet Major W. H. Emory, Corps of +Topographical Engineers, United States Army, 1846.] + +[Footnote 7: Hon. W. F. Arny, in his Centennial Celebration Address at Santa Fe, +July 4, 1876.] + +[Footnote 8: Edwards, _Conquest of New Mexico_.] + +[Footnote 9: I think this is Bancroft's idea.] + +[Footnote 10: _Historical Sketches of New Mexico_, L. Bradford Prince, late Chief +Justice of New Mexico, 1883.] + +[Footnote 11: D. H. Coyner, 1847.] + +[Footnote 12: He was travelling parallel to the Old Santa Fe Trail all the time, +but did not know it until he was overtaken by a band of Kaw Indians.] + +[Footnote 13: McKnight was murdered south of the Arkansas by the Comanches in the +winter of 1822.] + +[Footnote 14: Chouteau's Island.] + +[Footnote 15: _Hennepin's Journal_.] + +[Footnote 16: The line between the United States and Mexico (or New Spain, as +it was called) was defined by a treaty negotiated in 1819, between the +Chevalier de Onis, then Spanish minister at Washington, and John Quincy +Adams, Secretary of State. According to its provisions, the boundary +between Mexico and Louisiana, which had been added to the Union, +commenced with the river Sabine at its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico, +at about the twenty-ninth degree of north latitude and the ninety-fourth +degree of longitude, west from Greenwich, and followed it as far as its +junction with the Red River of Natchitoches, which then served to mark +the frontier up to the one hundredth degree of west longitude, where the +line ran directly north to the Arkansas, which it followed to its source +at the forty-second degree of north latitude, whence another straight +line was drawn up the same parallel to the Pacific coast.] + +[Footnote 17: This tribe kept up its reputation under the dreaded Satanta, until +1868--a period of forty years--when it was whipped into submission by +the gallant Custer. Satanta was its war chief, one of the most cruel +savages the great plains ever produced. He died a few years ago in the +state prison of Texas.] + +[Footnote 18: McNess Creek is on the old Cimarron Trail to Santa Fe, a little +east of a line drawn south from Bent's Fort.] + +[Footnote 19: Mr. Bryant, of Kansas, who died a few years ago, was one of the +pioneers in the trade with Santa Fe. Previous to his decease he wrote +for a Kansas newspaper a narrative of his first trip across the great +plains; an interesting monograph of hardship and suffering. For the use +of this document I am indebted to Hon. Sol. Miller, the editor of +the journal in which it originally appeared. I have also used very +extensively the notes of Mr. William Y. Hitt, one of the Bryant party, +whose son kindly placed them at my disposal, and copied liberally from +the official report of Major Bennett Riley--afterward the celebrated +general of Mexican War fame, and for whom the Cavalry Depot in Kansas is +named; as also from the journal of Captain Philip St. George Cooke, who +accompanied Major Riley on his expedition.] + +[Footnote 20: Chouteau's Island, at the mouth of Sand Creek.] + +[Footnote 21: Valley of the Upper Arkansas.] + +[Footnote 22: About three miles east of the town of Great Bend, Barton County, +Kansas.] + +[Footnote 23: The Old Santa Fe Trail crosses the creek some miles north of +Hutchinson, and coincides with the track again at the mouth of Walnut +Creek, three miles east of Great Bend.] + +[Footnote 24: There are many conflicting accounts in regard to the sum Don +Antonio carried with him on that unfortunate trip. Some authorities put +it as high as sixty thousand; I have taken a mean of the various +sums, and as this method will suffice in mathematics, perhaps we can +approximate the truth in this instance.] + +[Footnote 25: General Emory of the Union army during the Civil War. He made +an official report of the country through which the Army of the West +passed, accompanied by maps, and his _Reconnoissance in New Mexico and +California_, published by the government in 1848, is the first authentic +record of the region, considered topographically and geologically.] + +[Footnote 26: _Doniphan's Expedition, containing an account of the Conquest +of New Mexico_, etc. John T. Hughes, A.B., of the First Regiment of +Missouri Cavalry. 1850.] + +[Footnote 27: Deep Gorge.] + +[Footnote 28: Colonel Leavenworth, for whom Fort Leavenworth is named, and who +built several army posts in the far West.] + +[Footnote 29: Colonel A. G. Boone, a grandson of the immortal Daniel, was one of +the grandest old mountaineers I ever knew. He was as loyal as anybody, +but honest in his dealings with the Indians, and that was often a fault +in the eyes of those at Washington who controlled these agents. Kit +Carson was of the same honest class as Boone, and he, too, was removed +for the same cause.] + +[Footnote 30: A narrow defile on the Trail, about ninety miles east of Fort +Union. It is called the "canyon of the Canadian, or Red, River," and +is situated between high walls of earth and rock. It was once a very +dangerous spot on account of the ease and rapidity with which the +savages could ambush themselves.] + +[Footnote 31: Carson, Wooton, and all other expert mountaineers, when following +a trail, could always tell just what time had elapsed since it was +made. This may seem strange to the uninitiated, but it was part of their +necessary education. They could tell what kind of a track it was, which +way the person or animal had walked, and even the tribe to which the +savage belonged, either by the shape of the moccasin or the arrows which +were occasionally dropped.] + +[Footnote 32: Lieutenant Bell belonged to the Second Dragoons. He was conspicuous +in extraordinary marches and in action, and also an accomplished +horseman and shot, once running and killing five buffalo in a quarter +of a mile. He died early in 1861, and his death was a great loss to the +service.] + +[Footnote 33: Known to this day as "The Cheyenne Bottoms."] + +[Footnote 34: Lone Wolf was really the head chief of the Kiowas.] + +[Footnote 35: The battle lasted three days.] + +[Footnote 36: Kicking Bird was ever afterward so regarded by the authorities of +the Indian department.] + +[Footnote 37: Lorenzo Thomas, adjutant-general of the United States army.] + +[Footnote 38: Kendall's _Santa Fe Expedition_ may be found in all the large +libraries.] + +[Footnote 39: A summer-house, bower, or arbour.] + +[Footnote 40: Frank Hall, Chicago, 1885.] + +[Footnote 41: The greater portion of this chapter I originally wrote for +_Harper's Weekly_. By the kind permission of the publishers, I am +permitted to use it here.] + +[Footnote 42: These statistics I have carefully gathered from the freight +departments of the railroads, which kept a record of all the bones that +were shipped, and from the purchasers of the carbon works, who paid out +the money at various points. Some of the bones, however, may have been +on the ground for a longer time, as decay is very slow in the dry air of +the plains.] + +[Footnote 43: La Jeunesse was one of the bravest of the old French Canadian +trappers. He was a warm friend of Kit Carson and was killed by the +Indians in the following manner. They were camping one night in the +mountains; Kit, La Jeunesse, and others had wrapped themselves up in +their blankets near the fire, and were sleeping soundly; Fremont sat +up until after midnight reading letters he had received from the United +States, after finishing which, he, too, turned in and fell asleep. +Everything was quiet for a while, when Kit was awakened by a noise that +sounded like the stroke of an axe. Rising cautiously, he discovered +Indians in the camp; he gave the alarm at once, but two of his +companions were dead. One of them was La Jeunesse, and the noise he had +heard was the tomahawk as it buried itself in the brave fellow's head.] + +[Footnote 44: This black is made from a species of plumbago found on the hills of +the region.] + +[Footnote 45: The Pawnees and Cheyennes were hereditary enemies, and they +frequently met in sanguinary conflict.] + +[Footnote 46: A French term Anglicised, as were many other foreign words by the +trappers in the mountains. Its literal meaning is, arrow fender, for +from it the plains Indians construct their shields; it is buffalo-hide +prepared in a certain manner.] + +[Footnote 47: Boiling Spring River.] + +[Footnote 48: For some reason the Senate refused to confirm the appointment, and +he had consequently no connection with the regular army.] + +[Footnote 49: Point of Rocks is six hundred and forty seven miles from +Independence, and was always a favourite place of resort for the Indians +of the great plains; consequently it was one of the most dangerous +camping-spots for the freight caravans on the Trail. It comprises a +series of continuous hills, which project far out on the prairie in +bold relief. They end abruptly in a mass of rocks, out of which gushes a +cold, refreshing spring, which is, of course, the main attraction of the +place. The Trail winds about near this point, and many encounters with +the various tribes have occurred there.] + +[Footnote 50: "Little Mountain."] + +[Footnote 51: General Gatlin was a North Carolinian, and seceded with his State +at the breaking out of the Rebellion, but refused to leave his native +heath to fight, so indelibly was he impressed with the theory of +State rights. He was willing to defend the soil of North Carolina, but +declined to step across its boundary to repel invasion in other States.] + +[Footnote 52: The name of "Crow," as applied to the once powerful nation of +mountain Indians, is a misnomer, the fault of some early interpreter. +The proper appellation is "Sparrowhawks," but they are officially +recognized as "Crows."] + +[Footnote 53: Kit Carson, ten years before, when on his first journey, met with +the same adventure while on post at Pawnee Rock.] + +[Footnote 54: The fusee was a fire-lock musket with an immense bore, from which +either slugs or balls could be shot, although not with any great degree +of accuracy.] + +[Footnote 55: The Indians always knew when the caravans were to pass certain +points on the Trail, by their runners or spies probably.] + +[Footnote 56: It was one of the rigid laws of Indian hospitality always to +respect the person of any one who voluntarily entered their camps +or temporary halting-places. As long as the stranger, red or white, +remained with them, he enjoyed perfect immunity from harm; but after +he had left, although he had progressed but half a mile, it was just as +honourable to follow and kill him.] + +[Footnote 57: In their own fights with their enemies one or two of the defeated +party are always spared, and sent back to their tribe to carry the news +of the slaughter.] + +[Footnote 58: The story of the way in which this name became corrupted into +"Picketwire," by which it is generally known in New Mexico, is this: +When Spain owned all Mexico and Florida, as the vast region of the +Mississippi valley was called, long before the United States had an +existence as a separate government, the commanding officer at Santa Fe +received an order to open communication with the country of Florida. For +this purpose an infantry regiment was selected. It left Santa Fe rather +late in the season, and wintered at a point on the Old Trail now known +as Trinidad. In the spring, the colonel, leaving all camp-followers +behind him, both men and women, marched down the stream, which flows +for many miles through a magnificent canyon. Not one of the regiment +returned or was ever heard of. When all hope had departed from the +wives, children, and friends left behind at Trinidad, information was +sent to Santa Fe, and a wail went up through the land. The priests and +people then called this stream "El Rio de las Animas Perditas" ("The +river of lost souls"). Years after, when the Spanish power was weakened, +and French trappers came into the country under the auspices of the +great fur companies, they adopted a more concise name; they called +the river "Le Purgatoire." Then came the Great American Bull-Whacker. +Utterly unable to twist his tongue into any such Frenchified expression, +he called the stream with its sad story "Picketwire," and by that name +it is known to all frontiersmen, trappers, and the settlers along its +banks.] + +[Footnote 59: The ranch is now in charge of Mr. Harry Whigham, an English +gentleman, who keeps up the old hospitality of the famous place.] + +[Footnote 60: "River of Souls." The stream is also called Le Purgatoire, +corrupted by the Americans into Picketwire.] + +[Footnote 61: Pawnee Rock is no longer conspicuous. Its material has been torn +away by both the railroad and the settlers in the vicinity, to +build foundations for water-tanks, in the one instance, and for the +construction of their houses, barns, and sheds, in the other. Nothing +remains of the once famous landmark; its site is occupied as a cattle +corral by the owner of the claim in which it is included.] + +[Footnote 62: The crossing of the Old Santa Fe Trail at Pawnee Fork is now +within the corporate limits of the pretty little town of Larned, the +county-seat of Pawnee County. The tourist from his car-window may look +right down upon one of the worst places for Indians that there was in +those days of the commerce of the prairies, as the road crosses the +stream at the exact spot where the Trail crossed it.] + +[Footnote 63: This was a favourite expression of his whenever he referred to any +trouble with the Indians.] + +[Footnote 64: Indians will risk the lives of a dozen of their best warriors to +prevent the body of any one of their number from falling into the white +man's possession. The reason for this is the belief, which prevails +among all tribes, that if a warrior loses his scalp he forfeits his hope +of ever reaching the happy hunting-ground.] + +[Footnote 65: It was in this fight that the infamous Charles Bent received his +death-wound.] + +[Footnote 66: The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad track runs very close +to the mound, and there is a station named for the great mesa.] + +[Footnote 67: The venerable Colonel A. S. Johnson, of Topeka, Kansas, the first +white child born on the great State's soil, who related to me this +adventure of Hatcher's, knew him well. He says that he was a small man, +full of muscle, and as fearless as can be conceived.] + +[Footnote 68: The place where they turned is about a hundred yards east of the +Court House Square, in the present town of Great Bend; it may be seen +from the cars.] + +[Footnote 69: See Sheridan's _Memoirs_, Custer's _Life on the Plains_, +and Buffalo Bill's book, in which all the stirring events of that +campaign--nearly every fight of which was north or far south of the +Santa Fe Trail--are graphically told.] + +[Footnote 70: A grandson of Alexander Hamilton; killed at the battle of the +Washita, in the charge on Black Kettle's camp under Custer.] + +[Footnote 71: This ends Custer's narrative. The following fight, which occurred +a few days afterward, at the mouth of Mulberry Creek, twelve miles below +Fort Dodge, and within a stone's throw of the Old Trail, was related +to me personally by Colonel Keogh, who was killed at the Rosebud, in +Custer's disastrous battle with Sitting Bull. We were both attached to +General Sully's staff.] + +[Footnote 72: It was in this fight that Colonel Keogh's celebrated horse Comanche +received his first wound. It will be remembered that Comanche and a Crow +Indian were the only survivors of that unequal contest in the valley of +the Big Horn, commonly called the battle of the Rosebud, where Custer +and his command was massacred.] + +[Footnote 73: Now Kendall, a little village in Hamilton County, Kansas.] + +[Footnote 74: Raton is the name given by the early Spaniards to this range, +meaning both mouse and squirrel. It had its origin either in the fact +that one of its several peaks bore a fanciful resemblance to a squirrel, +or because of the immense numbers of that little rodent always to be +found in its pine forests.] + +[Footnote 75: In the beautiful language of the country's early conquerors, "Las +Cumbres Espanolas," or "Las dos Hermanas" (The Two Sisters), and in the +Ute tongue, "Wahtoya" (The Twins).] + +[Footnote 76: The house was destroyed by fire two or three years ago.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Old Santa Fe Trail, by Henry Inman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL *** + +***** This file should be named 7984.txt or 7984.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/9/8/7984/ + +Produced by Michael S. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL + +Author: COLONEL HENRY INMAN + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7984] +[This file was first posted on June 9, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL *** + + + + +Etext Edition edited by MICHAEL S. OVERTON + + + +THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL + +The Story of a Great Highway + +By COLONEL HENRY INMAN + +Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army + + +With a Preface by W. F. "BUFFALO BILL" CODY + + + + + + + +PREFACE. + + + +As we look into the open fire for our fancies, so we are apt to +study the dim past for the wonderful and sublime, forgetful of the +fact that the present is a constant romance, and that the happenings +of to-day which we count of little importance are sure to startle +somebody in the future, and engage the pen of the historian, +philosopher, and poet. + +Accustomed as we are to think of the vast steppes of Russia and +Siberia as alike strange and boundless, and to deal with the unkown +interior of Africa as an impenetrable mystery, we lose sight of a +locality in our own country that once surpassed all these in +virgin grandeur, in majestic solitude, and in all the attributes +of a tremendous wilderness. + +The story of the Old Santa Fe Trail, so truthfully recalled by +Colonel Henry Inman, ex-officer of the old Regular Army, in these pages, +is a most thrilling one. The vast area through which the famous +highway ran is still imperfectly known to most people as "The West"; +a designation once appropriate, but hardly applicable now; for in +these days of easy communication the real trail region is not +so far removed from New York as Buffalo was seventy years ago. + +At the commencement of the "commerce of the prairies," in the early +portion of the century, the Old Trail was the arena of almost constant +sanguinary struggles between the wily nomads of the desert and the +hardy white pioneers, whose eventful lives made the civilization +of the vast interior region of our continent possible. Their daring +compelled its development, which has resulted in the genesis of +great states and large cities. Their hardships gave birth to the +American homestead; their determined will was the factor of possible +achievements, the most remarkable and important of modern times. + +When the famous highway was established across the great plains +as a line of communication to the shores of the blue Pacific, +the only method of travel was by the slow freight caravan drawn by +patient oxen, or the lumbering stage coach with its complement of +four or six mules. There was ever to be feared an attack by those +devils of the desert, the Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas. +Along its whole route the remains of men, animals, and the wrecks of +camps and wagons, told a story of suffering, robbery, and outrage +more impressive than any language. Now the tourist or business man +makes the journey in palace cars, and there is nothing to remind him +of the danger or desolation of Border days; on every hand are the +evidences of a powerful and advanced civilization. + +It is fortunate that one is left to tell some of its story who was +a living actor and had personal knowledge of many of the thrilling +scenes that were enacted along the line of the great route. +He was familiar with all the famous men, both white and savage, +whose lives have made the story of the Trail, his own sojourn on +the plains and in the Rocky Mountains extending over a period of +nearly forty years. + +The Old Trail has more than common interest for me, and I gladly +record here my indorsement of the faithful record, compiled by a +brave soldier, old comrade, and friend. + +W. F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill." + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + +INTRODUCTION. +The First Europeans who traversed the Great Highway--Alvar Nunez +Cabeca de Vaca--Hernando de Soto, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado-- +Spanish Expedition from Santa Fe eastwardly--Escape of the Sole Survivors. + +CHAPTER I. +UNDER THE SPANIARDS. +Quaint Descriptions of Old Santa Fe--The Famous Adobe Palace-- +Santa Fe the Oldest Town in the United States--First Settlement-- +Onate's Conquest--Revolt of the Pueblo Indians--Under Pueblo Rule +--Cruelties of the Victors--The Santa Fe of To-day--Arrival of +a Caravan--The Railroad reaches the Town--Amusements--A Fandango. + +CHAPTER II. +LA LANDE AND PURSLEY. +The Beginning of the Santa Fe Trade--La Lande and Pursley, +the First Americans to cross the Plains--Pursley's Patriotism-- +Captain Ezekiel Williams--A Hungry Bear--A Midnight Alarm. + +CHAPTER III. +EARLY TRADERS. +Captain Becknell's Expedition--Sufferings from Thirst--Auguste +Chouteau--Imprisonment of McKnight and Chambers--The Caches-- +Stampeding Mules--First Military Escort across the Plains-- +Captain Zebulon Pike--Sublette and Smith--Murder of McNess-- +Indians not the Aggressors. + +CHAPTER IV. +TRAINS AND PACKERS. +The Atajo or Pack-train of Mules--Mexican Nomenclature of +Paraphernalia--Manner of Packing--The "Bell-mare"--Toughness of +Mules among Precipices--The Caravan of Wagons--Largest Wagon-train +ever on the Plains--Stampedes--Duties of Packers en route--Order of +Travelling with Pack-train--Chris. Gilson, the Famous Packer. + +CHAPTER V. +FIGHT WITH COMANCHES. +Narrative of Bryant's Party of Santa Fe Traders--The First Wagon +Expedition across the Plains--A Thrilling Story of Hardship and +Physical Suffering--Terrible Fight with the Comanches--Abandonment +of the Wagons--On Foot over the Trail--Burial of their Specie +on an Island in the Arkansas--Narrative of William Y. Hitt, +one of the Party--His Encounter with a Comanche--The First Escort +of United States Troops to the Annual Caravan of Santa Fe Traders, +in 1829--Major Bennett Riley's Official Report to the War Department +--Journal of Captain Cooke. + +CHAPTER VI. +A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY. +The Expedition of Texans to the Old Santa Fe Trail for the Purpose +of robbing Mexican Traders--Innocent Citizens of the United States +suspected, arrested, and carried to the Capital of New Mexico-- +Colonel Snively's Force--Warfield's Sacking of the Village of Mora +--Attack upon a Mexican Caravan--Kit Carson in the Fight-- +A Crime of over Sixty Years Ago--A Romance of the Tragedy. + +CHAPTER VII. +MEXICO DECLARES WAR. +Mexico declares War against the United States--Congress authorizes +the President to call for Fifty Thousand Volunteers--Organization of +the Army of the West--Phenomenon seen by Santa Fe Traders in the Sky +--First Death on the March of the Army across the Plains--Men in +a Starving Condition--Another Death--Burial near Pawnee Rock-- +Trouble at Pawnee Fork--Major Howard's Report. + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE VALLEY OF TAOS. +The Valley of Taos--First White Settler--Rebellion of the Mexicans +--A Woman discovers and informs Colonel Price of the Conspiracy-- +Assassination of Governor Bent--Horrible Butcheries by the Pueblos +and Mexicans--Turley's Ranch--Murder of Harwood and Markhead-- +Anecdote of Sir William Drummond Stewart--Fight at the Mills-- +Battle of the Pueblo of Taos--Trial of the Insurrectionists-- +Baptiste, the Juror--Execution of the Rebels. + +CHAPTER IX. +FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. +Independence--Opening of Navigation on the Mississippi--Effect of +Water Transportation upon the Trade--Establishment of Trading-forts-- +Market for Cattle and Mules--Wages paid Teamsters on the Trail-- +An Enterprising Coloured Man--Increase of the Trade at the Close of +the Mexican War--Heavy Emigration to California--First Overland Mail +--How the Guards were armed--Passenger Coaches to Santa Fe-- +Stage-coaching Days. + +CHAPTER X. +CHARLES BENT. +The Tragedy in the Canyon of the Canadian--Dragoons follow the Trail +of the Savages--Kit Carson, Dick Wooton, and Tom Tobin the Scouts +of the Expedition--More than a Hundred of the Savages killed-- +Murder of Mrs. White--White Wolf--Lieutenant Bell's Singular Duel +with the Noted Savage--Old Wolf--Satank--Murder of Peacock-- +Satanta made Chief--Kicking Bird--His Tragic Death--Charles Bent, +the Half-breed Renegade--His Terrible Acts--His Death. + +CHAPTER XI. +LA GLORIETA. +Neglect of New Mexico by the United States Government--Intended +Conquest of the Province--Conspiracy of Southern Leaders-- +Surrender by General Twiggs to the Confederate Government of the +Military Posts and Munitions of War under his Command--Only One +Soldier out of Two Thousand deserts to the Enemy--Organization +of Volunteers for the Defence of Colorado and New Mexico-- +Battle of La Glorieta--Rout of the Rebels. + +CHAPTER XII. +THE BUFFALO. +The Ancient Range of the Buffalo--Number slaughtered in Thirteen Years +for their Robes alone--Buffalo Bones--Trains stopped by Vast Herds-- +Custom of Old Hunters when caught in a Blizzard--Anecdotes of +Buffalo Hunting--Kit Carson's Dilemma--Experience of Two of Fremont's +Hunters--Wounded Buffalo Bull--O'Neil's Laughable Experience-- +Organization of a Herd of Buffalo--Stampedes--Thrilling Escapes. + +CHAPTER XIII. +INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS. +Big Timbers--Winter Camp of the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes-- +Savage Amusements--A Cheyenne Lodge--Indian Etiquette--Treatment +of Children--The Pipe of the North American Savage--Dog Feast-- +Marriage Ceremony. + +CHAPTER XIV. +TRAPPERS. +The Old Pueblo Fort--A Celebrated Rendezvous--Its Inhabitants-- +"Fontaine qui Bouille"--The Legend of its Origin--The Trappers +of the Old Santa Fe Trail and the Rocky Mountains--Beaver Trapping-- +Habits of the Beaver--Improvidence of the Old Trappers--Trading with +"Poor Lo"--The Strange Experience of a Veteran Trapper on the +Santa Fe Trail--Romantic Marriage of Baptiste Brown. + +CHAPTER XV. +UNCLE JOHN SMITH. +Uncle John Smith--A Famous Trapper, Guide, and Interpreter-- +His Marriage with a Cheyenne Squaw--An Autocrat among the People +of the Plains and Mountains--The Mexicans held him in Great Dread-- +His Wonderful Resemblance to President Andrew Johnson--Interpreter +and Guide on General Sheridan's Winter Expedition against the +Allied Plains Tribes--His Stories around the Camp-fire. + +CHAPTER XVI. +KIT CARSON. +Famous Men of the Old Santa Fe Trail--Kit Carson--Jim Bridger-- +James P. Beckwourth--Uncle Dick Wooton--Jim Baker--Lucien B. +Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin--James Hobbs. + +CHAPTER XVII. +UNCLE DICK WOOTON. +Uncle Dick Wooton--Lucien B. Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin-- +James Hobbs--William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill). + +CHAPTER XVIII. +MAXWELL'S RANCH. +Maxwell's Ranch on the Old Santa Fe Trail--A Picturesque Region-- +Maxwell a Trapper and Hunter with the American Fur Company-- +Lifelong Comrade of Kit Carson--Sources of Maxwell's Wealth-- +Fond of Horse-racing--A Disastrous Fourth-of-July Celebration +--Anecdote of Kit Carson--Discovery of Gold on the Ranch-- +The Big Ditch--Issuing Beef to the Ute Indians--Camping out with +Maxwell and Carson--A Story of the Old Santa Fe Trail. + +CHAPTER XIX. +BENT'S FORTS. +The Bents' Several Forts--Famous Trading-posts--Rendezvous of the +Rocky Mountain Trappers--Castle William and Incidents connected +with the Noted Place--Bartering with the Indians--Annual Feast +of Arapahoes and Cheyennes--Old Wolf's First Visit to Bent's Fort-- +The Surprise of the Savages--Stories told by Celebrated Frontiersmen +around the Camp-fire. + +CHAPTER XX. +PAWNEE ROCK. +Pawnee Rock--A Debatable Region of the Indian Tribes--The most +Dangerous Point on the Central Plains in the Days of the Early +Santa Fe Trade--Received its Name in a Baptism of Blood-- +Battle-ground of the Pawnees and Cheyennes--Old Graves on the +Summit of the Rock--Kit Carson's First Fight at the Rock with +the Pawnees--Kills his Mule by Mistake--Colonel St. Vrain's +Brilliant Charge--Defeat of the Savages--The Trappers' Terrible +Battle with the Pawnees--The Massacre at Cow Creek. + +CHAPTER XXI. +FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. +Wagon Mound--John L. Hatcher's Thrilling Adventure with Old Wolf, +the War-chief of the Comanches--Incidents on the Trail--A Boy +Bugler's Happy Escape from the Savages at Fort Union--A Drunken +Stage-driver--How an Officer of the Quartermaster's Department +at Washington succeeded in starting the Military Freight Caravans +a Month Earlier than the Usual Time--How John Chisholm fooled +the Stage-robbers--The Story of Half a Plug of Tobacco. + +CHAPTER XXII. +A DESPERATE RIDE. +Solitary Graves along the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Walnut +Crossing--Fort Zarah--The Graves on Hon. D. Heizer's Ranch on +the Walnut--Troops stationed at the Crossing of the Walnut-- +A Terrible Five Miles--The Cavalry Recruit's Last Ride. + +CHAPTER XXIII. +HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. +General Hancock's Expedition against the Plains Indians--Terrible +Snow-storm at Fort Larned--Meeting with the Chiefs of the +Dog-Soldiers--Bull Bear's Diplomacy--Meeting of the United States +Troops and the Savages in Line of Battle--Custer's Night Experience-- +The Surgeon and Dog Stew--Destruction of the Village by Fire-- +General Sully's Fight with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Arapahoes-- +Finding the Skeletons of the Unfortunate Men--The Savages' Report +of the Affair. + +CHAPTER XXIV. +INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. +Scenery on the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Great Plains-- +The Arkansas Valley--Over the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico-- +The Raton Range--The Spanish Peaks--Simpson's Rest--Fisher's Peak +--Raton Peak--Snowy Range--Pike's Peak--Raton Creek--The Invasion +of the Railroad--The Old Santa Fe Trail a Thing of the Past. + +FOOTNOTES. + +PUBLICATION INFORMATION. + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + +For more than three centuries, a period extending from 1541 to 1851, +historians believed, and so announced to the literary world, +that Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the celebrated Spanish explorer, +in his search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and the Kingdom of Quivira, +was the first European to travel over the intra-continent region +of North America. In the last year above referred to, however, +Buckingham Smith, of Florida, an eminent Spanish scholar, and secretary +of the American Legation at Madrid, discovered among the archives +of State the _Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca_, where for +nearly three hundred years it had lain, musty and begrimed with the +dust of ages, an unread and forgotten story of suffering that has no +parallel in fiction. The distinguished antiquarian unearthed the +valuable manuscript from its grave of oblivion, translated it into +English, and gave it to the world of letters; conferring honour upon +whom honour was due, and tearing the laurels from such grand voyageurs +and discoverers as De Soto, La Salle, and Coronado, upon whose heads +history had erroneously placed them, through no fault, or arrogance, +however, of their own. + +Cabeca, beyond any question, travelled the Old Santa Fe Trail for +many miles, crossed it where it intersects the Arkansas River, +a little east of Fort William or Bent's Fort, and went thence on +into New Mexico, following the famous highway as far, at least, +as Las Vegas. Cabeca's march antedated that of Coronado by five years. +To this intrepid Spanish voyageur we are indebted for the first +description of the American bison, or buffalo as the animal is +erroneously called. While not so quaint in its language as that +of Coronado's historian, a lustrum later, the statement cannot be +perverted into any other reference than to the great shaggy monsters +of the plains:-- + + Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times + and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size + of those of Spain. They have small horns like the cows + of Morocco, and the hair very long and flocky, like that + of the merino; some are light brown, others black. To my + judgment the flesh is finer and fatter than that of this + country. The Indians make blankets of the hides of those + not full grown. They range over a district of more than + four hundred leagues, and in the whole extent of plain over + which they run the people that inhabit near there descend + and live on them and scatter a vast many skins throughout + the country. + +It will be remembered by the student of the early history of +our country, that when Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, a follower of the +unfortunate Panphilo de Narvaez, and who had been long thought dead, +landed in Spain, he gave such glowing accounts of Florida[1] and the +neighbouring regions that the whole kingdom was in a ferment, +and many a heart panted to emigrate to a land where the fruits +were perennial, and where it was thought flowed the fabled +fountain of youth. + +Three expeditions to that country had already been tried: +one undertaken in 1512, by Juan Ponce de Leon, formerly a companion +of Columbus; another in 1520, by Vasquez de Allyon; and another by +Panphilo de Narvaez. All of these had signally failed, the bones +of most of the leaders and their followers having been left to bleach +upon the soil they had come to conquer. + +The unfortunate issue of the former expeditions did not operate as +a check upon the aspiring mind of De Soto, but made him the more +anxious to spring as an actor into the arena which had been the scene +of the discomfiture and death of the hardy chivalry of the kingdom. +He sought an audience of the emperor, and the latter, after hearing +De Soto's proposition that, "he could conquer the country known as +Florida at his own expense," conferred upon him the title of +"Governor of Cuba and Florida." + +On the 6th of April, 1538, De Soto sailed from Spain with an armament +of ten vessels and a splendidly equipped army of nine hundred chosen men, +amidst the roar of cannons and the inspiring strains of martial music. + +It is not within the province of this work to follow De Soto through +all his terrible trials on the North American continent; the wonderful +story may be found in every well-organized library. It is recorded, +however, that some time during the year 1542, his decimated army, +then under the command of Luis de Moscoso, De Soto having died +the previous May, was camped on the Arkansas River, far upward towards +what is now Kansas. It was this command, too, of the unfortunate +but cruel De Soto, that saw the Rocky Mountains from the east. +The chronicler of the disastrous journey towards the mountains says: +"The entire route became a trail of fire and blood," as they +had many a desperate struggle with the savages of the plains, +who "were of gigantic stucture, and fought with heavy strong clubs, +with the desperation of demons. Such was their tremendous strength, +that one of these warriors was a match for a Spanish soldier, +though mounted on a horse, armed with a sword and cased in armour!" + +Moscoso was searching for Coronado, and he was one of the most humane +of all the officers of De Soto's command, for he evidently bent +every energy to extricate his men from the dreadful environments +of their situation; despairing of reaching the Gulf by the Mississippi, +he struck westward, hoping, as Cabeca de Vaca had done, to arrive +in Mexico overland. + +A period of six months was consumed in Moscoso's march towards the +Rocky Mountains, but he failed to find Coronado, who at that time +was camped near where Wichita, Kansas, is located; according to his +historian, "at the junction of the St. Peter and St. Paul" (the Big +and Little Arkansas?). That point was the place of separation +between Coronado and a number of his followers; many returning +to Mexico, while the undaunted commander, with as many as he could +induce to accompany him, continued easterly, still in search of +the mythical Quivira. + +How far westward Moscoso travelled cannot be determined accurately, +but that his route extended up the valley of the Arkansas for more than +three hundred miles, into what is now Kansas, is proved by the statement +of his historian, who says: "They saw great chains of mountains and +forests to the west, which they understood were uninhabited." + +Another strong confirmatory fact is, that, in 1884, a group of mounds +was discovered in McPherson County, Kansas, which were thoroughly +explored by the professors of Bethany College, Lindsborg, who found, +among other interesting relics, a piece of chain-mail armour, +of hard steel; undoubtedly part of the equipment of a Spanish soldier +either of the command of Cabeca de Vaca, De Soto, or of Coronado. +The probability is, that it was worn by one of De Soto's unfortunate men, +as neither Panphilo de Narvaez, De Vaca, or Coronado experienced any +difficulty with the savages of the great plains, because those leaders +were humane and treated the Indians kindly, in contradistinction to +De Soto, who was the most inhuman of all the early Spanish explorers. +He was of the same school as Pizarro and Cortez; possessing their +daring valour, their contempt of danger, and their tenacity of purpose, +as well as their cruelty and avarice. De Soto made treaties with +the Indians which he constantly violated, and murdered the misguided +creatures without mercy. During the retreat of Moscoso's weakened +command down the Arkansas River, the Hot Springs of Arkansas +were discovered. His historian writes: + + And when they saw the foaming fountain, they thought + it was the long-searched-for "Fountain of Youth," reported + by fame to exist somewhere in the country, but ten of the + soldiers dying from excessive drinking, they were soon + convinced of their error. + +After these intrepid explorers the restless Coronado appears on +the Old Trail. In the third volume of Hakluyt's _Voyages_, published +in London, 1600, Coronado's historian thus describes the great plains +of Kansas and Colorado, the bison, and a tornado:-- + + From Cicuye they went to Quivira, which after their account + is almost three hundred leagues distant, through mighty + plains, and sandy heaths so smooth and wearisome, and bare + of wood that they made heaps of ox-dung, for want of stones + and trees, that they might not lose themselves at their + return: for three horses were lost on that plain, and one + Spaniard which went from his company on hunting. . . . + All that way of plains are as full of crooked-back oxen as + the mountain Serrena in Spain is of sheep, but there is + no such people as keep those cattle. . . . They were a + great succour for the hunger and the want of bread, which + our party stood in need of. . . . + + One day it rained in that plain a great shower of hail, + as big as oranges, which caused many tears, weakness + and bowes. + + These oxen are of the bigness and colour of our bulls, + but their bones are not so great. They have a great bunch + upon their fore-shoulder, and more hair on their fore part + than on their hinder part, and it is like wool. They have + as it were an horse-mane upon their backbone, and much hair + and very long from their knees downward. They have great + tufts of hair hanging down on their foreheads, and it + seemeth they have beards because of the great store of hair + hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have + very long tails, and a great knob or flock at the end, + so that in some respects they resemble the lion, and in some + other the camel. They push with their horns, they run, + they overtake and kill an horse when they are in their + rage and anger. Finally it is a foul and fierce beast of + countenance and form of body. The horses fled from them, + either because of their deformed shape, or else because + they had never before seen them. + +"The number," continues the historian, "was incredible." When the +soldiers, in their excitement for the chase, began to kill them, +they rushed together in such masses that hundreds were literally +crushed to death. At one place there was a great ravine; they jumped +into it in their efforts to escape from the hunters, and so terrible +was the slaughter as they tumbled over the precipice that the +depression was completely filled up, their carcasses forming a bridge, +over which the remainder passed with ease. + +The next recorded expedition across the plains via the Old Trail +was also by the Spaniards from Santa Fe, eastwardly, in the year 1716, +"for the purpose of establishing a Military Post in the Upper +Mississippi Valley as a barrier to the further encroachments of +the French in that direction." An account of this expedition is found +in _Memoires Historiques sur La Louisiane_, published in Paris in 1858, +but never translated in its entirety. The author, Lieutenant Dumont +of the French army, was one of a party ascending the Arkansas River +in search of a supposed mass of emeralds. The narrative relates: + There was more than half a league to traverse to gain the + other bank of the river, and our people were no sooner + arrived than they found there a party of Missouris, sent to + M. de la Harpe by M. de Bienville, then commandant general + at Louisiana, to deliver orders to the former. Consequently + they gave the signal order, and our other two canoes having + crossed the river, the savages gave to our commandant the + letters of M. de Bienville, in which he informed him that + the Spaniards had sent out a detachment from New Mexico + to go to the Missouris and to establish a post in that + country. . . . The success of this expedition was very + calamitous to the Spaniards. Their caravan was composed of + fifteen hundred people, men, women and soldiers, having + with them a Jacobin for a chaplain, and bringing also a + great number of horses and cattle, according to the custom + of that nation to forget nothing that might be necessary for + a settlement. Their design was to destroy the Missouris, + and to seize upon their country, and with this intention + they had resolved to go first to the Osages, a neighbouring + nation, enemies of the Missouris, to form an alliance with + them, and to engage them in their behalf for the execution + of their plan. Perhaps the map which guided them was not + correct, or they had not exactly followed it, for it chanced + that instead of going to the Osages whom they sought, they + fell, without knowing it, into a village of the Missouris, + where the Spanish commander, presenting himself to the great + chief and offering him the calumet, made him understand + through an interpreter, believing himself to be speaking + to the Osage chief, that they were enemies of the Missouris, + that they had come to destroy them, to make their women + and children slaves and to take possession of their country. + He begged the chief to be willing to form an alliance + with them, against a nation whom the Osages regarded as + their enemy, and to second them in this enterprise, promising + to recompense them liberally for the service rendered, + and always to be their friend in the future. Upon this + discourse the Missouri chief understood perfectly well + the mistake. He dissimulated and thanked the Spaniard for + the confidence he had in his nation; he consented to form + an alliance with them against the Missouris, and to join + them with all his forces to destroy them; but he represented + that his people were not armed, and that they dared not + expose themselves without arms in such an enterprise. + Deceived by so favourable a reception, the Spaniards fell + into the trap laid for them. They received with due + ceremony, in the little camp they had formed on their + arrival, the calumet which the great chief of the Missouris + presented to the Spanish commander. The alliance for war + was sworn to by both parties; they agreed upon a day for + the execution of the plan which they meditated, and the + Spaniards furnished the savages with all the munitions which + they thought were needed. After the ceremony both parties + gave themselves up equally to joy and good cheer. At the + end of three days two thousand savages were armed and in + the midst of dances and amusements; each party thought + nothing but the execution of its design. It was the evening + before their departure upon their concerted expedition, + and the Spaniards had retired to their camps as usual, + when the great chief of the Missouris, having assembled + his warriors, declared to them his intentions and exhorted + them to deal treacherously with these strangers who were come + to their home only with the design of destroying them. + At daybreak the savages divided into several bands, fell on + the Spaniards, who expected nothing of the kind, and in + less than a quarter of an hour all the caravan were murdered. + No one escaped from the massacre except the chaplain, whom + the barbarians saved because of his dress; at the same time + they took possession of all the merchandise and other + effects which they found in their camp. The Spaniards had + brought with them, as I have said, a certain number of horses, + and as the savages were ignorant of the use of these animals, + they took pleasure in making the Jacobin whom they had saved, + and who had become their slave, mount them. The priest gave + them this amusement almost every day for the five or six + months that he remained with them in their village, without + any of them daring to imitate him. Tired at last of his + slavery, and regarding the lack of daring in these barbarians + as a means of Providence to regain his liberty, he made + secretly all the provisions possible for him to make, + and which he believed necessary to his plan. At last, + having chosen the best horse and having mounted him, + after performing several of his exploits before the savages, + and while they were all occupied with his manoeuvres, + he spurred up and disappeared from their sight, taking the + road to Mexico, where doubtless he arrived. + +Charlevoix,[2] who travelled from Quebec to New Orleans in the +year 1721, says in one of his letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, +dated at Kaskaskia, July 21, 1721: + + About two years ago some Spaniards, coming, as they say, + from New Mexico, and intending to get into the country of + the Illinois and drive the French from thence, whom they + saw with extreme jealousy approach so near the Missouri, + came down the river and attacked two villages of the + Octoyas,[3] who are the allies of the Ayouez,[4] and from + whom it is said also that they are derived. As the savages + had no firearms and were surprised, the Spaniards made an + easy conquest and killed a great many of them. A third + village, which was not far off from the other two, being + informed of what had passed, and not doubting but these + conquerors would attack them, laid an ambush into which + the Spaniards heedlessly fell. Others say that the savages, + having heard that the enemy were almost all drunk and + fast asleep, fell upon them in the night. However it was, + it is certain the greater part of them were killed. + There were in the party two almoners; one of them was + killed directly and the other got away to the Missouris, + who took him prisoner, but he escaped them very dexterously. + He had a very fine horse and the Missouris took pleasure + in seeing him ride it, which he did very skilfully. He took + advantage of their curiosity to get out of their hands. + + One day as he was prancing and exercising his horse before + them, he got a little distance from them insensibly; then + suddenly clapping spurs to his horse he was soon out of sight. + +The Missouri Indians once occupied all the territory near the junction +of the Kaw and Missouri rivers, but they were constantly decimated +by the continual depredations of their warlike and feudal enemies, +the Pawnees and Sioux, and at last fell a prey to that dreadful +scourge, the small-pox, which swept them off by thousands. +The remnant of the once powerful tribe then found shelter and a home +with the Otoes, finally becoming merged in that tribe. + + + + +CHAPTER I. +UNDER THE SPANIARDS. + + + +The Santa Fe of the purely Mexican occupation, long before the days +of New Mexico's acquisition by the United States, and the Santa Fe of +to-day are so widely in contrast that it is difficult to find language +in which to convey to the reader the story of the phenomenal change. +To those who are acquainted with the charming place as it is now, +with its refined and cultured society, I cannot do better, perhaps, +in attempting to show what it was under the old regime, than to quote +what some traveller in the early 30's wrote for a New York leading +newspaper, in regard to it. As far as my own observation of the +place is concerned, when I first visited it a great many years ago, +the writer of the communication whose views I now present was not +incorrect in his judgment. He said:-- + + To dignify such a collection of mud hovels with the name + of "City," would be a keen irony; not greater, however, + than is the name with which its Padres have baptized it. + To call a place with its moral character, a very Sodom + in iniquity, "Holy Faith," is scarcely a venial sin; + it deserves Purgatory at least. Its health is the best + in the country, which is the first, second and third + recommendation of New Mexico by its greatest admirers. + It is a small town of about two thousand inhabitants, + crowded up against the mountains, at the end of a little + valley through which runs a mountain stream of the same + name tributary to the Rio Grande. It has a public square + in the centre, a Palace and an Alameda; as all Spanish + Roman Catholic towns have. It is true its Plaza, or + Public Square, is unfenced and uncared for, without trees + or grass. The Palace is nothing more than the biggest + mud-house in the town, and the churches, too, are unsightly + piles of the same material, and the Alameda[5] is on top of + a sand hill. Yet they have in Santa Fe all the parts and + parcels of a regal city and a Bishopric. The Bishop has a + palace also; the only two-storied shingle-roofed house in + the place. There is one public house set apart for eating, + drinking and gambling; for be it known that gambling is here + authorized by law. Hence it is as respectable to keep a + gambling house, as it is to sell rum in New Jersey; it is + a lawful business, and being lawful, and consequently + respectable and a man's right, why should not men gamble? + And gamble they do. The Generals and the Colonels and + the Majors and the Captains gamble. The judges and the + lawyers and the doctors and the priests gamble; and there + are gentlemen gamblers by profession! You will see squads + of poor peons daily, men, women and boys, sitting on the + ground around a deck of cards in the Public Square, gambling + for the smallest stakes. + + The stores of the town generally front on the Public Square. + Of these there are a dozen, more or less, of respectable + size, and most of them are kept by others than Mexicans. + The business of the place is considerable, many of the + merchants here being wholesale dealers for the vast + territory tributary. It is supposed that about $750,000 + worth of goods will be brought to this place this year, and + there may be $250,000 worth imported directly from the + United States. + + In the money market there is nothing less than a five-cent + piece. You cannot purchase anything for less than five cents. + In trade they reckon ten cents the eighth of a dollar. + If you purchase nominally a dollar's worth of an article, + you can pay for it in eight ten-cent pieces; and if you + give a dollar, you receive no change. In changing a dollar + for you, you would get but eight ten-cent pieces for it. + + Yet, although dirty and unkempt, and swarming with hungry + dogs, it has the charm of foreign flavour, and like + San Antonio retains some portion of the grace which long + lingered about it, if indeed it ever forsakes the spot + where Spain held rule for centuries, and the soft syllables + of the Spanish language are yet heard. + +Such was a description of the "drowsy old town" of Santa Fe, +sixty-five years ago. Fifteen years later Major W. H. Emory, of +the United States army, writes of it as follows:[6] + + The population of Santa Fe is from two to four thousand, + and the inhabitants are, it is said, the poorest people + of any town in the Province. The houses are mud bricks, + in the Spanish style, generally of one story, and built + on a square. The interior of the square is an open court, + and the principal rooms open into it. They are forbidding + in appearance from the outside, but nothing can exceed + the comfort and convenience of the interior. The thick + walls make them cool in summer and warm in winter. + + The better class of people are provided with excellent beds, + but the poorer class sleep on untanned skins. The women + here, as in many other parts of the world, appear to be + much before the men in refinements, intelligence, and + knowledge of the useful arts. The higher class dress like + the American women, except, instead of a bonnet, they wear + a scarf over their head, called a reboso. This they wear + asleep or awake, in the house or abroad. The dress of the + lower classes of women is a simple petticoat, with arms and + shoulders bare, except what may chance to be covered by + the reboso. + + The men who have means to do so dress after our fashion; + but by far the greater number, when they dress at all, + wear leather breeches, tight around the hips and open from + the knee down; shirt and blanket take the place of our + coat and vest. + + The city is dependent on the distant hills for wood, and + at all hours of the day may be seen jackasses passing laden + with wood, which is sold at two bits, twenty-five cents, + the load. These are the most diminutive animals, and + usually mounted from behind, after the fashion of leap-frog. + The jackass is the only animal that can be subsisted in + this barren neighbourhood without great expense; our horses + are all sent to a distance of twelve, fifteen, and thirty + miles for grass. + +I have interpolated these two somewhat similar descriptions of +Santa Fe written in that long ago when New Mexico was almost as +little known as the topography of the planet Mars, so that the +intelligent visitor of to-day may appreciate the wonderful changes +which American thrift, and that powerful civilizer, the locomotive, +have wrought in a very few years, yet it still, as one of the +foregoing writers has well said, "has the charm of foreign flavour, +and the soft syllables of the Spanish language are still heard." + +The most positive exception must be taken to the statement of the +first-quoted writer in relation to the Palace, of which he says +"It is nothing more than the biggest mud-house in the town." +Now this "Palacio del Gobernador," as the old building was called +by the Spanish, was erected at a very early day. It was the +long-established seat of power when Penalosa confined the chief +inquisitor within its walls in 1663, and when the Pueblo authorities +took possession of it as the citadel of their central authority, +in 1681. + +The old building cannot well be overlooked by the most careless +visitor to the quaint town; it is a long, low structure, taking up +the greater part of one side of the Plaza, round which runs a +colonnade supported by pillars of rough pine. In this once leaky +old Palace were kept, or rather neglected, the archives of the +Territory until the American residents, appreciating the importance +of preserving precious documents containing so much of interest +to the student of history and the antiquarian, enlisted themselves +enthusiastically in the good cause, and have rescued from oblivion +the annals of a relatively remote civilization, which, but for their +forethought, would have perished from the face of the earth as +completely as have the written records of that wonderful region in +Central America, whose gigantic ruins alone remain to tell us of +what was a highly cultured order of architecture in past ages, +and of a people whose intelligence was comparable to the style +of the dwellings in which they lived. + +The old adobe Palace is in itself a volume whose pages are filled +with pathos and stirring events. It has been the scene and witness +of incidents the recital of which would to us to-day seem incredible. +An old friend, once governor of New Mexico and now dead, thus +graphically spoke of the venerable building:[7] + + In it lived and ruled the Spanish captain general, so remote + and inaccessible from the viceroyalty at Mexico that he was + in effect a king, nominally accountable to the viceroy, + but practically beyond his reach and control and wholly + irresponsible to the people. Equally independent for the + same reason were the Mexican governors. Here met all the + provincial, territorial, departmental, and other legislative + bodies that have ever assembled at the capital of New Mexico. + Here have been planned all the Indian wars and measures + for defence against foreign invasion, including, as the + most noteworthy, the Navajo war of 1823, the Texan invasion + of 1842, the American of 1846, and the Confederate of 1862. + Within its walls was imprisoned, in 1809, the American + explorer Zebulon M. Pike, and innumerable state prisoners + before and since; and many a sentence of death has been + pronounced therein and the accused forthwith led away and + shot at the dictum of the man at the Palace. It has been + from time immemorial the government house with all its + branches annexed. It was such on the Fourth of July, 1776, + when the American Congress at Independence Hall in + Philadelphia proclaimed liberty throughout all the land, + not then, but now embracing it. Indeed, this old edifice + has a history. And as the history of Santa Fe is the + history of New Mexico, so is the history of the Palace + the history of Santa Fe. + +The Palace was the only building having glazed windows. At one end +was the government printing office, and at the other, the guard-house +and prison. Fearful stories were connected with the prison. +Edwards[8] says that he found, on examining the walls of the +small rooms, locks of human hair stuffed into holes, with rude +crosses drawn over them. + +Fronting the Palace, on the south side of the Plaza, stood the +remains of the Capilla de los Soldados, or Military Chapel. +The real name of the church was "Our Lady of Light." It was said +to be the richest church in the Province, but had not been in use +for a number of years, and the roof had fallen in, allowing the +elements to complete the work of destruction. On each side of the +altar was the remains of fine carving, and a weather-beaten picture +above gave evidence of having been a beautiful painting. Over the +door was a large oblong slab of freestone, elaborately carved, +representing "Our Lady of Light" rescuing a human being from the +jaws of Satan. A large tablet, beautifully executed in relief, +stood behind the altar, representing various saints, with an +inscription stating that it was erected by Governor Francisco Antonio +del Valle and his wife in 1761. + +Church services were held in the Parroquia, or Parish church, +now the Cathedral, which had two towers or steeples, in which hung +four bells. The music was furnished by a violin and a triangle. +The wall back of the altar was covered with innumerable mirrors, +paintings, and bright-coloured tapestry. + +The exact date of the first settlement of Santa Fe is uncertain. +One authority says: + + It was a primeval stronghold before the Spanish Conquest, + and a town of some importance to the white race when + Pennsylvania was a wilderness and the first Dutch governor + of New York was slowly drilling the Knickerbocker ancestry + in their difficult evolutions around the town-pump. + +It is claimed, on what is deemed very authentic data by some, that +Santa Fe is really the oldest settled town in the United States. +St. Augustine, Florida, was established in 1565 and was unquestionably +conceded the honour of antiquity until the acquisition of New Mexico +by the Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty. Then, of course, Santa Fe steps +into the arena and carries off the laurels. This claim of precedence +for Santa Fe is based upon the statement (whether historically correct +or not is a question) that when the Spaniards first entered the region +from the southern portion of Mexico, about 1542, they found a very +large Pueblo town on the present site of Santa Fe, and that its prior +existence extended far back into the vanished centuries. This is +contradicted by other historians, who contend that the claim of +Santa Fe to be the oldest town in the United States rests entirely +on imaginary annals of an Indian Pueblo before the Spanish Conquest, +and that there are but slight indications that the town was built +on the site of one.[9] + +The reader may further satisfy himself on these mooted points by +consulting the mass of historical literature on New Mexico, +and the records of its primitive times are not surpassed in interest +by those of any other part of the continent. It was there the +Europeans first made great conquests, and some years prior to the +landing of the Pilgrims, a history of New Mexico, being the journal +of Geronimo de Zarate Salmaron, was published by the Church in the +City of Mexico, early in 1600. Salmaron was a Franciscan monk; +a most zealous and indefatigable worker. During his eight years' +residence at Jemez, near Santa Fe, he claims to have baptized over +eight thousand Indians, converts to the Catholic faith. His journal +gives a description of the country, its mines, etc., and was made +public in order that other monks reading it might emulate his +pious example. + +Between 1605 and 1616 was founded the Villa of Santa Fe, or +San Francisco de la Santa Fe. "Villa," or village, was an honorary +title, always authorized and proclaimed by the king. Bancroft says +that it was first officially mentioned on the 3d of January, 1617. + +The first immigration to New Mexico was under Don Juan de Onate +about 1597, and in a year afterward, according to some authorities, +Santa Fe was settled. The place, as claimed by some historians, +was then named El Teguayo, a Spanish adaptation of the word "Tegua," +the name of the Pueblo nation, which was quite numerous, and occupied +Santa Fe and the contiguous country. It very soon, from its central +position and charming climate, became the leading Spanish town, +and the capital of the Province. The Spaniards, who came at first +into the country as friends, and were apparently eager to obtain +the good-will of the intelligent natives, shortly began to claim +superiority, and to insist on the performance of services which were +originally mere evidences of hospitality and kindness. Little by +little they assumed greater power and control over the Indians, +until in the course of years they had subjected a large portion of +them to servitude little differing from actual slavery. + +The impolitic zeal of the monks gradually invoked the spirit of +hatred and resulted in a rebellion that drove the Spaniards, in 1680, +from the country. The large number of priests who were left in the +midst of the natives met with horrible fates: + + Not one escaped martyrdom. At Zuni, three Franciscans + had been stationed, and when the news of the Spanish retreat + reached the town, the people dragged them from their cells, + stripped and stoned them, and afterwards compelled the + servant of one to finish the work by shooting them. Having + thus whetted their appetite for cruelty and vengeance, + the Indians started to carry the news of their independence + to Moqui, and signalized their arrival by the barbarous + murder of the two missionaries who were living there. + Their bodies were left unburied, as a prey for the wild + beasts. At Jemez they indulged in every refinement of + cruelty. The old priest, Jesus Morador, was seized in + his bed at night, stripped naked and mounted on a hog, + and thus paraded through the streets, while the crowd + shouted and yelled around. Not satisfied with this, + they then forced him to carry them as a beast would, + crawling on his hands and feet, until, from repeated beating + and the cruel tortures of sharp spurs, he fell dead in + their midst. A similar chapter of horrors was enacted + at Acoma, where three priests were stripped, tied together + with hair rope, and so driven through the streets, and + finally stoned to death. Not a Christian remained free + within the limits of New Mexico, and those who had been + dominant a few months before were now wretched and + half-starved fugitives, huddled together in the rude huts + of San Lorenzo. + + As soon as the Spaniards had retreated from the country, + the Pueblo Indians gave themselves up for a time to + rejoicing, and to the destruction of everything which could + remind them of the Europeans, their religion, and their + domination. The army which had besieged Santa Fe quickly + entered that city, took possession of the Palace as the + seat of government, and commenced the work of demolition. + The churches and the monastery of the Franciscans were + burned with all their contents, amid the almost frantic + acclamations of the natives. The gorgeous vestments of + the priests had been dragged out before the conflagration, + and now were worn in derision by Indians, who rode through + the streets at full speed, shouting for joy. The official + documents and books in the Palace were brought forth, + and made fuel for a bonfire in the centre of the Plaza; + and here also they danced the cachina, with all the + accompanying religious ceremonies of the olden time. + Everything imaginable was done to show their detestation + of the Christian faith and their determination to utterly + eradicate even its memory. Those who had been baptized + were washed with amole in the Rio Chiquito, in order to be + cleansed from the infection of Christianity. All baptismal + names were discarded, marriages celebrated by Christian + priests were annulled, the very mention of the names Jesus + and Mary was made an offence, and estuffas were constructed + to take the place of ruined churches.[10] + +For twelve years, although many abortive attempts were made to +recapture the country, the Pueblos were left in possession. On the +16th of October, 1693, the victorious Spaniards at last entered +Santa Fe, bearing the same banner which had been carried by Onate when +he entered the city just a century before. The conqueror this time +was Don Diego de Vargas Zapata Lujan, whom the viceroy of New Spain +had appointed governor in the spring of 1692, with the avowed purpose +of having New Mexico reconquered as speedily as possible. + +Thus it will be seen that the quaint old city has been the scene of +many important historical events, the mere outline of which I have +recorded here, as this book is not devoted to the historical view +of the subject. + +In contradistinction to the quiet, sleepy old Santa Fe of half +a century ago, it now presents all the vigour, intelligence, and +bustling progressiveness of the average American city of to-day, +yet still smacks of that ancient Spanish regime, which gives it +a charm that only its blended European and Indian civilization +could make possible after its amalgamation with the United States. + +The tourist will no longer find a drowsy old town, and the Plaza +is no longer unfenced and uncared for. A beautiful park of trees +is surrounded by low palings, and inside the shady enclosure, +under a group of large cottonwoods, is a cenotaph erected to the +memory of the Territory's gallant soldiers who fell in the shock of +battle to save New Mexico to the Union in 1862, and conspicuous among +the names carved on the enduring native rock is that of Kit Carson-- +prince of frontiersmen, and one of Nature's noblemen. + +Around the Plaza one sees the American style of architecture and +hears the hum of American civilization; but beyond, and outside +this pretty park, the streets are narrow, crooked, and have an +ancient appearance. There the old Santa Fe confronts the stranger; +odd, foreign-looking, and flavoured with all the peculiarities which +marked the era of Mexican rule. And now, where once was heard the +excited shouts of the idle crowd, of "Los Americanos!" "Los Carros!" +"La entrada de la Caravana!" as the great freight wagons rolled into +the streets of the old town from the Missouri, over the Santa Fe Trail, +the shrill whistle of the locomotive from its trail of steel awakens +the echoes of the mighty hills. + +As may be imagined, great excitement always prevailed whenever a +caravan of goods arrived in Santa Fe. Particularly was this the case +among the feminine portion of the community. The quaint old town +turned out its mixed population en masse the moment the shouts went up +that the train was in sight. There is nothing there to-day comparable +to the anxious looks of the masses as they watched the heavily +freighted wagons rolling into the town, the teamsters dust-begrimed, +and the mules making the place hideous with their discordant braying +as they knew that their long journey was ended and rest awaited them. +The importing merchants were obliged to turn over to the custom house +officials five hundred dollars for every wagon-load, great or small; +and no matter what the intrinsic value of the goods might be, +salt or silk, velvets or sugar, it was all the same. The nefarious +duty had to be paid before a penny's worth could be transferred +to their counters. Of course, with the end of Mexican rule and +the acquisition of the Province by the United States, all opposition +to the traffic of the Old Santa Fe Trail ended, traders were assured +a profitable market and the people purchased at relatively low prices. + +What a wonderful change has taken place in the traffic with New Mexico +in less than three-quarters of a century! In 1825 it was all carried +on with one single annual caravan of prairie-schooners, and now there +are four railroads running through the Rio Grande Valley, and one +daily freight train of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe into the +town unloads more freight than was taken there in a whole year when +the "commerce of the prairies" was at its height! + +Upon the arrival of a caravan in the days of the sleepy regime under +Mexican control, the people did everything in their power to make +the time pass pleasantly for every one connected with it during +their sojourn. Bailes, or fandangoes, as the dancing parties were +called by the natives, were given nightly, and many amusing anecdotes +in regard to them are related by the old-timers. + +The New Mexicans, both men and women, had a great fondness for +jewelry, dress, and amusements; of the latter, the fandango was the +principal, which was held in the most fashionable place of resort, +where every belle and beauty in the town presented herself, +attired in the most costly manner, and displaying her jewelled +ornaments to the best advantage. To this place of recreation +and pleasure, generally a large, capacious saloon or interior court, +all classes of persons were allowed to come, without charge and +without invitation. The festivities usually commenced about nine +o'clock in the evening, and the tolling of the church bells was +the signal for the ladies to make their entrance, which they did +almost simultaneously. + +New Mexican ladies were famous for their gaudy dresses, but it must +be confessed they did not exercise good taste. Their robes were +made without bodies; a skirt only, and a long, loose, flowing scarf +or reboso dexterously thrown about the head and shoulders, so as to +supersede both the use of dress-bodies and bonnets. + +There was very little order maintained at these fandangoes, and still +less attention paid to the rules of etiquette. A kind of swinging, +gallopade waltz was the favourite dance, the cotillion not being +much in vogue. Read Byron's graphic description of the waltz, +and then stretch your imagination to its utmost tension, and you +will perhaps have some faint conception of the Mexican fandango. +Such familiarity of position as was indulged in would be repugnant +to the refined rules of polite society in the eastern cities; +but with the New Mexicans, in those early times, nothing was +considered to be a greater accomplishment than that of being able +to go handsomely through all the mazes of their peculiar dance. + +There was one republican feature about the New Mexican fandango; +it was that all classes, rich and poor alike, met and intermingled, +as did the Romans at their Saturnalia, upon terms of equality. +Sumptuous repasts or collations were rarely ever prepared for those +frolicsome gatherings, but there was always an abundance of +confectionery, sweetmeats, and native wine. It cost very little +for a man to attend one of the fandangoes in Santa Fe, but not to get +away decently and sober. In that it resembled the descent of Aeneas +to Pluto's realms; it was easy enough to get there, but when it came +to return, "revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, hic labor, +hoc opus est." + + + + +CHAPTER II. +LA LANDE AND PURSLEY. + + + +In the beginning of the trade with New Mexico, the route across +the great plains was directly west from the Missouri River to the +mountains, thence south to Santa Fe by the circuitous trail from Taos. +When the traffic assumed an importance demanding a more easy line +of way, the road was changed, running along the left bank of the +Arkansas until that stream turned northwest, at which point it +crossed the river, and continued southwest to the Raton Pass. + +The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad track substantially +follows the Trail through the mountains, which here afford the +wildest and most picturesquely beautiful scenery on the continent. + +The Arkansas River at the fording of the Old Trail is not more than +knee-deep at an ordinary stage of water, and its bottom is well paved +with rounded pebbles of the primitive rock. + +The overland trade between the United States and the northern +provinces of Mexico seems to have had no very definite origin; +having been rather the result of an accident than of any organized +plan of commercial establishment. + +According to the best authorities, a French creole, named La Lande, +an agent of a merchant of Kaskaskia, Illinois, was the first American +adventurer to enter into the uncertain channels of trade with the +people of the ultramontane region of the centre of the continent. +He began his adventurous journey across the vast wilderness, +with no companions but the savages of the debatable land, in 1804; +and following him the next year, James Pursley undertook the same +pilgrimage. Neither of these pioneers in the "commerce of the +prairies" returned to relate what incidents marked the passage of +their marvellous expeditions. Pursley was so infatuated with the +strange country he had travelled so far to reach, that he took up +his abode in the quaint old town of Santa Fe where his subsequent +life is lost sight of. La Lande, of a different mould, forgot to +render an account of his mission to the merchant who had sent him +there, and became a prosperous and wealthy man by means of money +to which he had no right. + +To Captain Zebulon Pike, who afterwards was made a general, is due +the impetus which the trade with Santa Fe received shortly after +his return to the United States. The student of American history +will remember that the expedition commanded by this soldier was +inaugurated in 1806; his report of the route he had taken was the +incentive for commercial speculation in the direction of trade with +New Mexico, but it was so handicapped by restrictions imposed by the +Mexican government, that the adventurers into the precarious traffic +were not only subject to a complete confiscation of their wares, +but frequently imprisoned for months as spies. Under such a condition +of affairs, many of the earlier expeditions, prior to 1822, resulted +in disaster, and only a limited number met with an indifferent success. + +It will not be inconsistent with my text if I herewith interpolate +an incident connected with Pursley, the second American to cross +the desert, for the purpose of trade with New Mexico, which I find in +the _Magazine of American History_: + + When Zebulon M. Pike was in Mexico, in 1807, he met, + at Santa Fe, a carpenter, Pursley by name, from Bardstown, + Kentucky, who was working at his trade. He had in a + previous year, while out hunting on the Plains, met with + a series of misfortunes, and found himself near the + mountains. The hostile Sioux drove the party into the + high ground in the rear of Pike's Peak. Near the headwaters + of the Platte River, Pursley found some gold, which he + carried in his shot-pouch for months. He was finally sent + by his companions to Santa Fe, to see if they could trade + with the Mexicans, but he chose to remain in Santa Fe + in preference to returning to his comrades. He told the + Mexicans about the gold he had found, and they tried hard + to persuade him to show them the place. They even offered + to take along a strong force of cavalry. But Pursley + refused, and his patriotic reason was that he thought the + land belonged to the United States. He told Captain Pike + that he feared they would not allow him to leave Santa Fe, + as they still hoped to learn from him where the gold was + to be found. These facts were published by Captain Pike + soon after his return east; but no one took the hint, + or the risk was too great, and thus more than a half + a century passed before those same rich fields of gold + were found and opened to the world. If Pursley had been + somewhat less patriotic, and had guided the Mexicans to + the treasures, the whole history and condition of the + western part of our continent might have been entirely + different from what it now is. That region would still + have been a part of Mexico, or Spain might have been + in possession of it, owning California; and, with the gold + that would have been poured into her coffers, would have + been the leading nation of European affairs to-day. + We can easily see how American and European history in + the nineteenth century might have been changed, if that + adventurer from Kentucky had not been a true lover of his + native country. + +The adventures of Captain Ezekiel Williams along the Old Trail, +in the early days of the century, tell a story of wonderful courage, +endurance, and persistency. Williams was a man of great perseverance, +patience, and determination of character. He set out from St. Louis +in the late spring of 1807, to trap on the Upper Missouri and the +waters of the Yellowstone, with a party of twenty men who had chosen +him as their leader. After various exciting incidents and thrilling +adventures, all of the original party, except Williams and two others, +were killed by the Indians somewhere in the vicinity of the Upper +Arkansas. The three survivors, not knowing where they were, separated, +and Captain Williams determined to take to the stream by canoe, and +trap on his way toward the settlements, while his last two companions +started for the Spanish country--that is, for the region of Santa Fe. +The journal of Williams, from which I shall quote freely, is to be +found in _The Lost Trappers_, a work long out of print.[11] As the +country was an unexplored region, he might be on a river that flowed +into the Pacific, or he might be drifting down a stream that was +an affluent to the Gulf of Mexico. He was inclined to believe +that he was on the sources of the Red River. He therefore resolved +to launch his canoe, and go wherever the stream might convey him, +trapping on his descent, when beaver might be plenty. + +The first canoe he used he made of buffalo-skins. As this kind +of water conveyance soon begins to leak and rot, he made another +of cottonwood, as soon as he came to timber sufficiently large, +in which he embarked for a port, he knew not where. + +Most of his journeyings Captain Williams performed during the hours +of night, excepting when he felt it perfectly safe to travel in +daylight. His usual plan was to glide along down the stream, until +he came to a place where beaver signs were abundant. There he would +push his little bark among the willows, where he remained concealed, +excepting when he was setting his traps or visiting them in the +morning. When he had taken all the beaver in one neighbourhood, +he would untie his little conveyance, and glide onward and downward +to try his luck in another place. + +Thus for hundreds of miles did this solitary trapper float down this +unknown river, through an unknown country, here and there lashing +his canoe to the willows and planting his traps in the little +tributaries around. The upper part of the Arkansas, for this +proved to be the river he was on,[12] is very destitute of timber, +and the prairie frequently begins at the bank of the river and +expands on either side as far as the eye can reach. He saw vast +herds of buffalo, and as it was the rutting season, the bulls were +making a wonderful ado; the prairie resounded with their low, deep +grunting or bellowing, as they tore up the earth with their feet +and horns, whisking their tails, and defying their rivals to battle. +Large gangs of wild horses could be seen grazing on the plains and +hillsides, and the neighing and squealing of stallions might be heard +at all times of the night. + +Captain Williams never used his rifle to procure meat, except when +it was absolutely necessary, or could be done with perfect safety. +On occasions when he had no beaver, upon which he generally subsisted, +he ventured to kill a deer, and after refreshing his empty stomach +with a portion of the flesh, he placed the carcass in one end of the +canoe. It was his invariable custom to sleep in his canoe at night, +moored to the shore, and once when he had laid in a supply of venison +he was startled in his sleep by the tramping of something in the +bushes on the bank. Tramp! tramp! tramp! went the footsteps, +as they approached the canoe. He thought at first it might be an +Indian that had found out his locality, but he knew that it could +not be; a savage would not approach him in that careless manner. +Although there was beautiful starlight, yet the trees and the dense +undergrowth made it very dark on the bank of the river, close to which +he lay. He always adopted the precaution of tying his canoe with +a piece of rawhide about twenty feet long, which allowed it to swing +from the bank at that distance; he did this so that in case of an +emergency he might cut the string, and glide off without making +any noise. As the sound of the footsteps grew more distinct, +he presently observed a huge grizzly bear coming down to the water +and swimming for the canoe. The great animal held his head up as if +scenting the venison. The captain snatched his axe as the most +available means to defend himself in such a scrape, and stood with +it uplifted, ready to drive it into the brains of the monster. +The bear reached the canoe, and immediately put his fore paws upon +the hind end of it, nearly turning it over. The captain struck one +of the brute's feet with the edge of the axe, which made him let go +with that foot, but he held on with the other, and he received +this time a terrific blow on the head, that caused him to drop away +from the canoe entirely. Nothing more was seen of the bear, +and the captain thought he must have sunk in the stream and drowned. +He was evidently after the fresh meat, which he scented from a great +distance. In the canoe the next morning there were two of the bear's +claws, which had been cut off by the well-directed blow of the axe. +These were carefully preserved by Williams for many years as a trophy +which he was fond of exhibiting, and the history of which he always +delighted to tell. + +As he was descending the river with his peltries, which consisted of +one hundred and twenty-five beaver-skins, besides some of the otter +and other smaller animals, he overtook three Kansas Indians, who were +also in a canoe going down the river, as he learned from them, +to some post to trade with the whites. They manifested a very +friendly disposition towards the old trapper, and expressed a wish +to accompany him. He also learned from them, to his great delight, +that he was on the Big Arkansas, and not more than five hundred miles +from the white settlements. He was well enough versed in the +treachery of the Indian character to know just how much he could +repose in their confidence. He was aware that they would not allow +a solitary trapper to pass through their country with a valuable +collection of furs, without, at least, making an effort to rob him. +He knew that their plan would be to get him into a friendly +intercourse, and then, at the first opportunity, strip him of +everything he possessed; consequently he was determined to get rid +of them as soon as possible, and to effect this, he plied his oars +with all diligence. The Indians, like most North American savages, +were lazy, and had no disposition to labour in that way, but took it +quite leisurely, satisfied with being carried down by the current. +Williams soon left them in the rear, and, as he supposed, far +behind him. When night came on, however, as he had worked all day, +and slept none the night before, he resolved to turn aside into a +bunch of willows to take a few hours' rest. But he had not stopped +more than forty minutes when he heard some Indians pull to the shore +just above him on the same side of the river. He immediately +loosened his canoe from its moorings, and glided silently away. +He rowed hard for two or three hours, when he again pulled to the +bank and tied up. + +Only a short time after he had landed, he heard Indians again going +on shore on the same side of the stream as himself. A second time +he repeated his tactics, slipped out of his place of concealment, +and stole softly away. He pulled on vigorously until some time after +midnight, when he supposed he could with safety stop and snatch a +little sleep. He felt apprehensive that he was in a dangerous region, +and his anxiety kept him wide awake. It was very lucky that he +did not close his eyes; for as he was lying in the bottom of his canoe +he heard for the third time a canoe land as before. He was now +perfectly satisfied that he was dogged by the Kansans whom he had +passed the preceding day, and in no very good humour, therefore, +he picked up his rifle, and walked up to the bank where he had heard +the Indians land. As he suspected, there were the three savages. +When they saw the captain, they immediately renewed their expressions +of friendship, and invited him to partake of their hospitality. +He stood aloof from them, and shook his head in a rage, charging +them with their villanous purposes. In the short, sententious manner +of the Indians, he said to them: "You now follow me three times; +if you follow me again, I kill you!" and wheeling around abruptly, +returned to his canoe. A third time the solitary trapper pushed +his little craft from the shore and set off down stream, to get away +from a region where to sleep would be hazardous. He plied his oars +the remainder of the night, and solaced himself with the thought +that no evil had befallen him, except the loss of a few hours' sleep. + +While he was escaping from his villanous pursuers, he was running +into new dangers and difficulties. The following day he overtook +a large band of the same tribe, under the leadership of a chief, +who were also descending the river. Into the hands of these savages +he fell a prisoner, and was conducted to one of their villages. +The principal chief there took all of his furs, traps, and other +belongings. A very short time after his capture, the Kansans went +to war with the Pawnees, and carried Captain Williams with them. +In a terrible battle in which the Kansans gained a most decided +victory, the old trapper bore a conspicuous part, killing a great +number of the enemy, and by his excellent strategy brought about +the success of his captors. When they returned to the village, +Williams, who had ever been treated with kindness by the inhabitants, +was now thought to be a wonderful warrior, and could have been +advanced to all the savage honours; he might even have been made +one of their principal chiefs. The tribe gave him his liberty for +the great service he had rendered it in its difficulty with an +inveterate foe, but declining all proffered promotions, he decided +to return to the white settlements on the Missouri, at the mouth +of the Kaw, the covetous old chief retaining all his furs, and indeed +everything he possessed excepting his rifle, with as many rounds +of ammunition as would be necessary to secure him provisions in the +shape of game on his route. The veteran trapper had learned from +the Indians while with them that they expected to go to Fort Osage +on the Missouri River to receive some annuities from the government, +and he felt certain that his furs would be there at the same time. + +After leaving the Kansans he travelled on toward the Missouri, +and soon struck the beginning of the sparse settlements. Just as +evening was coming on, he arrived at a cluster of three little +log-cabins, and was received with genuine backwoods hospitality by +the proprietor, who had married an Osage squaw. Williams was not only +very hungry, but very tired; and, after enjoying an abundant supper, +he became stupid and sleepy, and expressed a wish to lie down. +The generous trapper accordingly conducted him to one of the cabins, +in which there were two beds, standing in opposite corners of +the room. He immediately threw himself upon one, and was soon in +a very deep sleep. About midnight his slumbers were disturbed by +a singular and very frightful kind of noise, accompanied by struggling +on the other bed. What it was, Williams was entirely at a loss to +understand. There were no windows in the cabin, the door was shut, +and it was as dark as Egypt. A fierce contest seemed to be going on. +There were deep groanings and hard breathings; and the snapping of +teeth appeared almost constant. For a moment the noise would subside, +then again the struggles woud be renewed accompanied as before +with groaning, deep sighing, and grinding of teeth. + +The captain's bed-clothes consisted of a couple of blankets and a +buffalo-robe, and as the terrible struggles continued he raised +himself up in the bed, and threw the robe around him for protection, +his rifle having been left in the cabin where his host slept, while +his knife was attached to his coat, which he had hung on the corner +post of the other bedstead from which the horrid struggles emanated. +In an instant the robe was pulled off, and he was left uncovered and +unprotected; in another moment a violent snatch carried away the +blanket upon which he was sitting, and he was nearly tumbled off the +bed with it. As the next thing might be a blow in the dark, he felt +that it was high time to shift his quarters; so he made a desperate +leap from the bed, and alighted on the opposite side of the room, +calling for his host, who immediately came to his relief by opening +the door. Williams then told him that the devil--or something +as bad, he believed--was in the room, and he wanted a light. +The accommodating trapper hurried away, and in a moment was back +with a candle, the light of which soon revealed the awful mystery. +It was an Indian, who at the time was struggling in convulsions, +which he was subject to. He was a superannuated chief, a relative of +the wife of the hospitable trapper, and generally made his home there. +Absent when Captain Williams arrived, he came into the room at a +very late hour, and went to the bed he usually occupied. No one +on the claim knew of his being there until he was discovered, +in a dreadfully mangled condition. He was removed to other quarters, +and Williams, who was not to be frightened out of a night's rest, +soon sunk into sound repose. + +Williams reached the agency by the time the Kansas Indians arrived +there, and, as he suspected, found that the wily old chief had brought +all his belongings, which he claimed, and the agent made the savages +give up the stolen property before he would pay them a cent of their +annuities. He took his furs down to St. Louis, sold them there +at a good price, and then started back to the Rocky Mountains on +another trapping tour. + + + + +CHAPTER III. +EARLY TRADERS. + + + +In 1812 a Captain Becknell, who had been on a trading expedition +to the country of the Comanches in the summer of 1811, and had done +remarkably well, determined the next season to change his objective +point to Santa Fe, and instead of the tedious process of bartering +with the Indians, to sell out his stock to the New Mexicans. +Successful in this, his first venture, he returned to the Missouri +River with a well-filled purse, and intensely enthusiastic over the +result of his excursion to the newly found market. + +Excited listeners to his tales of enormous profits were not lacking, +who, inspired by the inducement he held out to them, cheerfully +invested five thousand dollars in merchandise suited to the demands +of the trade, and were eager to attempt with him the passage of +the great plains. In this expedition there were thirty men, and +the amount of money in the undertaking was the largest that had yet +been ventured. The progress of the little caravan was without +extraordinary incident, until it arrived at "The Caches" on the +Upper Arkansas. There Becknell, who was in reality a man of the +then "Frontier," bold, plucky, and endowed with excellent sense, +conceived the ridiculous idea of striking directly across the country +for Santa Fe through a region absolutely unexplored; his excuse +for this rash movement being that he desired to avoid the rough and +circuitous mountain route he had travelled on his first trip to Taos. + +His temerity in abandoning the known for the unknown was severely +punished, and his brave men suffered untold misery, barely escaping +with their lives from the terrible straits to which they were reduced. +Not having the remotest conception of the region through which their +new trail was to lead them, and naturally supposing that water would +be found in streams or springs, when they left the Arkansas they +neglected to supply themselves with more than enough of the precious +fluid to last a couple of days. At the end of that time they learned, +too late, that they were in the midst of a desert, with all the +tortures of thirst threatening them. + +Without a tree or a path to guide them, they took an irregular course +by observations of the North Star, and the unreliable needle of an +azimuth pocket-compass. There was a total absence of water, and when +what they had brought with them in their canteens from the river was +exhausted, thirst began its horrible office. In a short time both men +and animals were in a mental condition bordering on distraction. +To alleviate their acute torment, the dogs of the train were killed, +and their blood, hot and sickening, eagerly swallowed; then the ears +of the mules were cut off for the same purpose, but such a substitute +for water only added to their sufferings. They would have perished +had not a superannuated buffalo bull that had just come from the +Cimarron River, where he had gone to quench his thirst, suddenly +appeared, to be immediately killed and the contents of his stomach +swallowed with avidity. It is recorded that one of those who partook +of the nauseous liquid said afterward, "nothing had ever passed +his lips which gave him such exquisite delight as his first draught +of that filthy beverage." + +Although they were near the Cimarron, where there was plenty of water, +which but for the affair of the buffalo they never would have suspected, +they decided to retrace their steps to the Arkansas. + +Before they started on their retreat, however, some of the strongest +of the party followed the trail of the animal that had saved their +lives to the river, where, filling all the canteens with pure water, +they returned to their comrades, who were, after drinking, able to +march slowly toward the Arkansas. + +Following that stream, they at last arrived at Taos, having experienced +no further trouble, but missed the trail to Santa Fe, and had their +journey greatly prolonged by the foolish endeavour of the leader +to make a short cut thither. + +As early as 1815, Auguste P. Chouteau and his partner, with a large +number of trappers and hunters, went out to the valley of the +Upper Arkansas for the purpose of trading with Indians, and trapping +on the numerous streams of the contiguous region. + +The island on which Chouteau established his trading-post, and which +bears his name even to this day, is in the Arkansas River on the +boundary line of the United States and Mexico. It was a beautiful +spot, with a rich carpet of grass and delightful groves, and on +the American side was a heavily timbered bottom. + +While occupying the island, Chouteau and his old hunters and trappers +were attacked by about three hundred Pawnees, whom they repulsed +with the loss of thirty killed and wounded. These Indians afterward +declared that it was the most fatal affair in which they were ever +engaged. It was their first acquaintance with American guns. + +The general character of the early trade with New Mexico was founded +on the system of the caravan. She depended upon the remote ports +of old Mexico, whence was transported, on the backs of the patient +burro and mule, all that was required by the primitive tastes of the +primitive people; a very tedious and slow process, as may be inferred, +and the limited traffic westwardly across the great plains was +confined to this fashion. At the date of the legitimate and +substantial commerce with New Mexico, in 1824, wheeled vehicles were +introduced, and traffic assumed an importance it could never have +otherwise attained, and which now, under the vast system of railroads, +has increased to dimensions little dreamed of by its originators +nearly three-quarters of a century ago. + +It was eight years after Pursley's pilgrimage before the trade with +New Mexico attracted the attention of speculators and adventurers. +Messrs. McKnight,[13] Beard, and Chambers, with about a dozen comrades, +started with a supply of goods across the unknown plains, and by +good luck arrived safely at Santa Fe. Once under the jurisdiction +of the Mexicans, however, their trouble began. All the party were +arrested as spies, their wares confiscated, and themselves +incarcerated at Chihuahua, where the majority of them were kept for +almost a decade. Beard and Chambers, having by some means escaped, +returned to St. Louis in 1822, and, notwithstanding their dreadful +experience, told of the prospects of the trade with the Mexicans +in such glowing colours that they induced some individuals of small +capital to fit out another expedition, with which they again set out +for Santa Fe. + +It was really too late in the season; they succeeded, however, +in reaching the crossing of the Arkansas without any difficulty, +but there a violent snowstorm overtook them and they were compelled +to halt, as it was impossible to proceed in the face of the blinding +blizzard. On an island[14] not far from where the town of Cimarron, +on the Santa Fe Railroad, is now situated, they were obliged to +remain for more than three months, during which time most of their +animals died for want of food and from the severe cold. When the +weather had moderated sufficiently to allow them to proceed on +their journey, they had no transportation for their goods and were +compelled to hide them in pits dug in the earth, after the manner +of the old French voyageurs in the early settlement of the continent. +This method of secreting furs and valuables of every character +is called caching, from the French word "to hide." Gregg thus +describes it: + + The cache is made by digging a hole in the ground, somewhat + in the shape of a jug, which is lined with dry sticks, + grass, or anything else that will protect its contents + from the dampness of the earth. In this place the goods + to be concealed are carefully stowed away; and the aperture + is then so effectually closed as to protect them from + the rains. In caching, a great deal of skill is often + required to leave no sign whereby the cunning savage may + discover the place of deposit. To this end, the excavated + earth is carried some distance and carefully concealed, + or thrown into a stream, if one be at hand. The place + selected for a cache is usually some rolling point, + sufficiently elevated to be secure from inundations. + If it be well set with grass, a solid piece of turf is + cut out large enough for the entrance. The turf is + afterward laid back, and, taking root, in a short time + no signs remain of its ever having been molested. + However, as every locality does not afford a turfy site, + the camp-fire is sometimes built upon the place, or the + animals are penned over it, which effectually destroys + all traces. + +Father Hennepin[15] thus describes, in his quaint style, how he built +a cache on the bank of the Mississippi, in 1680: + + We took up the green sodd, and laid it by, and digg'd a hole + in the Earth where we put our Goods, and cover'd them with + pieces of Timber and Earth, and then put in again the green + Turf; so that 'twas impossible to suspect that any Hole had + been digg'd under it, for we flung the Earth into the River. + +After caching their goods, Beard and the party went on to Taos, +where they bought mules, and returning to their caches transported +their contents to their market. + +The word "cache" still lingers among the "old-timers" of the mountains +and plains, and has become a provincialism with their descendants; +one of these will tell you that he cached his vegetables in the side +of the hill; or if he is out hunting and desires to secrete himself +from approaching game, he will say, "I am going to cache behind +that rock," etc. + +The place where Beard's little expedition wintered was called +"The Caches" for years, and the name has only fallen into disuse +within the last two decades. I remember the great holes in the +ground when I first crossed the plains, a third of a century ago. + +The immense profit upon merchandise transported across the dangerous +Trail of the mid-continent to the capital of New Mexico soon excited +the cupidity of other merchants east of the Missouri. When the +commonest domestic cloth, manufactured wholly from cotton, brought +from two to three dollars a yard at Santa Fe, and other articles at +the same ratio to cost, no wonder the commerce with the far-off market +appeared to those who desired to send goods there a veritable Golconda. + +The importance of internal trade with New Mexico, and the possibilities +of its growth, were first recognized by the United States in 1824, +the originator of the movement being Mr. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, +who frequently, from his place in the Senate, prophesied the coming +greatness of the West. He introduced a bill which authorized the +President to appoint a commission to survey a road from the Missouri +River to the boundary line of New Mexico, and from thence on Mexican +territory with the consent of the Mexican government. The signing of +this bill was one of the last acts of Mr. Monroe's official life, +and it was carried into effect by his successor, Mr. John Quincy Adams, +but unfortunately a mistake was made in supposing that the Osage +Indians alone controlled the course of the proposed route. It was +partially marked out as far as the Arkansas, by raised mounds; +but travellers continued to use the old wagon trail, and as no +negotiations had been entered into with the Comanches, Cheyennes, +Pawnees, or Kiowas, these warlike tribes continued to harass the +caravans when these arrived in the broad valley of the Arkansas. + +The American fur trade was at its height at the time when the Santa Fe +trade was just beginning to assume proportions worthy of notice; +the difference between the two enterprises being very marked. The fur +trade was in the hands of immensely wealthy companies, while that to +Santa Fe was carried on by individuals with limited capital, who, +purchasing goods in the Eastern markets, had them transported to +the Missouri River, where, until the trade to New Mexico became a +fixed business, everything was packed on mules. As soon, however, +as leading merchants invested their capital, about 1824, the trade +grew into vast proportions, and wagons took the place of the patient +mule. Later, oxen were substituted for mules, it having been +discovered that they possessed many advantages over the former, +particularly in being able to draw heavier loads than an equal number +of mules, especially through sandy or muddy places. + +For a long time, the traders were in the habit of purchasing their +mules in Santa Fe and driving them to the Missouri; but as soon as +that useful animal was raised in sufficient numbers in the Southern +States to supply the demand, the importation from New Mexico ceased, +for the reason that the American mule was in all respects an immensely +superior animal. + +Once mules were an important object of the trade, and those who dealt +in them and drove them across to the river on the Trail met with +many mishaps; frequently whole droves, containing from three to +five hundred, were stolen by the savages en route. The latter soon +learned that it was a very easy thing to stampede a caravan of mules, +for, once panic-stricken, it is impossible to restrain them, and +the Indians having started them kept them in a state of rampant +excitement by their blood-curdling yells, until they had driven them +miles beyond the Trail. + +A story is told of a small band of twelve men, who, while encamped +on the Cimarron River, in 1826, with but four serviceable guns among +them, were visited by a party of Indians, believed to be Arapahoes, +who made at first strong demonstrations of friendship and good-will. +Observing the defenceless condition of the traders, they went away, +but soon returned about thirty strong, each provided with a lasso, +and all on foot. The chief then began by informing the Americans +that his men were tired of walking, and must have horses. Thinking +it folly to offer any resistance, the terrified traders told them +if one animal apiece would satisfy them, to go and catch them. +This they soon did; but finding their request so easily complied with, +the Indians held a little parley together, which resulted in a new +demand for more--they must have two apiece! "Well, catch them!" +was the acquiescent reply of the unfortunate band; upon which the +savages mounted those they had already secured, and, swinging their +lassos over their heads, plunged among the stock with a furious yell, +and drove off the entire caballada of nearly five hundred head of +horses, mules, and asses. + +In 1829 the Indians of the plains became such a terror to the caravans +crossing to Santa Fe, that the United States government, upon petition +of the traders, ordered three companies of infantry and one of riflemen, +under command of Major Bennet Riley, to escort the annual caravan, +which that year started from the town of Franklin, Missouri, then the +eastern terminus of the Santa Fe trade, as far as Chouteau's Island, +on the Arkansas, which marked the boundary between the United States +and Mexico.[16] The caravan started from the island across the dreary +route unaccompanied by any troops, but had progressed only a few miles +when it was attacked by a band of Kiowas, then one of the most cruel +and bloodthirsty tribes on the plains.[17] + +This escort, commanded by Major Riley, and another under Captain +Wharton, composed of only sixty dragoons, five years later, were the +sole protection ever given by the government until 1843, when Captain +Philip St. George Cooke again accompanied two large caravans to the +same point on the Arkansas as did Major Riley fourteen years before. + +As the trade increased, the Comanches, Pawnees, and Arapahoes +continued to commit their depredations, and it was firmly believed +by many of the freighters that these Indians were incited to their +devilish acts by the Mexicans, who were always jealous of +"Los Americanos." + +It was very rarely that a caravan, great or small, or even a detachment +of troops, no matter how large, escaped the raids of these bandits of +the Trail. If the list of those who were killed outright and scalped, +and those more unfortunate who were taken captive only to be tortured +and their bodies horribly mutilated, could be collected from the +opening of the traffic with New Mexico until the years 1868-69, when +General Sheridan inaugurated his memorable "winter campaign" against +the allied plains tribes, and completely demoralized, cowed, and +forced them on their reservations, about the time of the advent of the +railroad, it would present an appalling picture; and the number of +horses, mules, and oxen stampeded and stolen during the same period +would amount to thousands. + +As the excellent narrative of Captain Pike is not read as it should be +by the average American, a brief reference to it may not be considered +supererogatory. The celebrated officer, who was afterward promoted +to the rank of major-general, and died in the achievement of the +victory of York, Upper Canada, in 1813, was sent in 1806 on an +exploring expedition up the Arkansas River, with instructions to pass +the sources of Red River, for which those of the Canadian were then +mistaken; he, however, even went around the head of the latter, +and crossing the mountains with an almost incredible degree of peril +and suffering, descended upon the Rio del Norte with his little party, +then but fifteen in number. + +Believing himself now on Red River, within the then assumed limits +of the United States, he built a small fortification for his company, +until the opening of the spring of 1807 should enable him to continue +his descent to Natchitoches. As he was really within Mexican +territory, and only about eighty miles from the northern settlements, +his position was soon discovered, and a force sent to take him to +Santa Fe, which by treachery was effected without opposition. +The Spanish officer assured him that the governor, learning that +he had mistaken his way, had sent animals and an escort to convey +his men and baggage to a navigable point on Red River (Rio Colorado), +and that His Excellency desired very much to see him at Santa Fe, +which might be taken on their way. + +As soon, however, as the governor had the too confiding captain +in his power, he sent him with his men to the commandant general +at Chihuahua, where most of his papers were seized, and he and +his party were sent under an escort, via San Antonio de Bexar, +to the United States. + +Many citizens of the remote Eastern States, who were contemporary +with Pike, declared that his expedition was in some way connected +with the treasonable attempt of Aaron Burr. The idea is simply +preposterous; Pike's whole line of conduct shows him to have been +of the most patriotic character; never would he for a moment have +countenanced a proposition from Aaron Burr! + +After Captain Pike's report had been published to the world, +the adventurers who were inspired by its glowing description of +the country he had been so far to explore were destined to experience +trials and disappointments of which they had formed no conception. + +Among them was a certain Captain Sublette, a famous old trapper +in the era of the great fur companies, and with him a Captain Smith, +who, although veteran pioneers of the Rocky Mountains, were mere +novices in the many complications of the Trail; but having been in +the fastnesses of the great divide of the continent, they thought +that when they got down on the plains they could go anywhere. +They started with twenty wagons, and left the Missouri without +a single one of the party being competent to guide the little caravan +on the dangerous route. + +From the Missouri the Trail was broad and plain enough for a child +to follow, but when they arrived at the Cimarron crossing of +the Arkansas, not a trace of former caravans was visible; nothing but +the innumerable buffalo-trails leading from everywhere to the river. + +When the party entered the desert, or Dry Route, as it was years +afterward always, and very properly, called in certain seasons +of drought, the brave but too confident men discovered that the +whole region was burnt up. They wandered on for several days, +the horrors of death by thirst constantly confronting them. +Water must be had or they would all perish! At last Smith, in his +desperation, determined to follow one of the numerous buffalo-trails, +believing that it would conduct him to water of some character-- +a lake or pool or even wallow. He left the train alone; asked for +no one to accompany him; for he was the very impersonation of courage, +one of the most fearless men that ever trapped in the mountains. + +He walked on and on for miles, when, on ascending a little divide, +he saw a stream in the valley beneath him. It was the Cimarron, +and he hurried toward it to quench his intolerable thirst. When he +arrived at its bank, to his disappointment it was nothing but a bed +of sand; the sometime clear running river was perfectly dry. + +Only for a moment was he staggered; he knew the character of many +streams in the West; that often their waters run under the ground +at a short distance from the surface, and in a moment he was on +his knees digging vigorously in the soft sand. Soon the coveted +fluid began to filter upwards into the little excavation he had made. +He stooped to drink, and in the next second a dozen arrows from an +ambushed band of Comanches entered his body. He did not die at once, +however; it is related by the Indians themselves that he killed two +of their number before death laid him low. + +Captain Sublette and Smith's other comrades did not know what had +become of him until some Mexican traders told them, having got the +report from the very savages who committed the cold-blooded murder. + +Gregg, in his report of this little expedition, says: + Every kind of fatality seems to have attended this small + caravan. Among other casualties, a clerk in their company, + named Minter, was killed by a band of Pawnees, before they + crossed the Arkansas. This, I believe, is the only instance + of loss of life among the traders while engaged in hunting, + although the scarcity of accidents can hardly be said to be + the result of prudence. There is not a day that hunters + do not commit some indescretion; such as straying at + a distance of five and even ten miles from the caravan, + frequently alone, and seldom in bands of more than two or + three together. In this state, they must frequently be + spied by prowling savages; so that frequency of escape, + under such circumstances, must be partly attributed to + the cowardice of the Indians; indeed, generally speaking, + the latter are very loth to charge upon even a single + armed man, unless they can take him at a decided advantage. + + Not long after, this band of Captain Sublette's very + narrowly escaped total destruction. They had fallen in + with an immense horde of Blackfeet and Gros Ventres, and, + as the traders were literally but a handful among thousands + of savages, they fancied themselves for a while in imminent + peril of being virtually "eated up." But as Captain + Sublette possessed considerable experience, he was at + no loss how to deal with these treacherous savages; so that + although the latter assumed a threatening attitude, + he passed them without any serious molestation, and finally + arrived at Santa Fe in safety. + +The virtual commencement of the Santa Fe trade dates from 1822, +and one of the most remarkable events in its history was the first +attempt to introduce wagons in the expeditions. This was made in 1824 +by a company of traders, about eighty in number, among whom were +several gentlemen of intelligence from Missouri, who contributed +by their superior skill and undaunted energy to render the enterprise +completely successful. A portion of this company employed pack-mules; +among the rest were owned twenty-five wheeled vehicles, of which +one or two were stout road-wagons, two were carts, and the rest +Dearborn carriages, the whole conveying some twenty-five or thirty +thousand dollars' worth of merchandise. Colonel Marmaduke, +of Missouri, was one of the party. This caravan arrived at Santa Fe +safely, experiencing much less difficulty than they anticipated +from a first attempt with wheeled vehicles. + +Gregg continues: + The early voyageurs, having but seldom experienced any + molestation from the Indians, generally crossed the plains + in detached bands, each individual rarely carrying more than + two or three hundred dollars' worth of stock. This peaceful + season, however, did not last very long; and it is greatly + to be feared that the traders were not always innocent of + having instigated the savage hostilities that ensued in + after years. Many seemed to forget the wholesome precept, + that they should not be savages themselves because they + dealt with savages. Instead of cultivating friendly + feelings with those few who remained peaceful and honest, + there was an occasional one always disposed to kill, + even in cold blood, every Indian that fell into their power, + merely because some of the tribe had committed an outrage + either against themselves or friends. + +As an instance of this, he relates the following: + In 1826 two young men named McNess and Monroe, having + carelessly lain down to sleep on the bank of a certain + stream, since known as McNess Creek,[18] were barbarously + shot, with their own guns, as it was supposed, in the very + sight of the caravan. When their comrades came up, + they found McNess lifeless, and the other almost expiring. + In this state the latter was carried nearly forty miles to + the Cimarron River, where he died, and was buried according + to the custom of the prairies, a very summary proceeding, + necessarily. The corpse, wrapped in a blanket, its shroud + the clothes it wore, is interred in a hole varying in depth + according to the nature of the soil, and upon the grave is + piled stones, if any are convenient, to prevent the wolves + from digging it up. Just as McNess's funeral ceremonies + were about to be concluded, six or seven Indians appeared + on the opposite side of the Cimarron. Some of the party + proposed inviting them to a parley, while the rest, burning + for revenge, evinced a desire to fire upon them at once. + It is more than probable, however, that the Indians were not + only innocent but ignorant of the outrage that had been + committed, or they would hardly have ventured to approach + the caravan. Being quick of perception, they very soon saw + the belligerent attitude assumed by the company, and + therefore wheeled round and attempted to escape. One shot + was fired, which brought an Indian to the ground, when he + was instantly riddled with balls. Almost simultaneously + another discharge of several guns followed, by which all + the rest were either killed or mortally wounded, except one, + who escaped to bear the news to his tribe. + + These wanton cruelties had a most disastrous effect upon the + prospects of the trade; for the exasperated children of + the desert became more and more hostile to the "pale-faces," + against whom they continued to wage a cruel war for many + successive years. In fact this party suffered very severely + a few days afterward. They were pursued by the enraged + comrades of the slain savages to the Arkansas River, where + they were robbed of nearly a thousand horses and mules. + +The author of this book, although having but little compassion for +the Indians, must admit that, during more than a third of a century +passed on the plains and in the mountains, he has never known of +a war with the hostile tribes that was not caused by broken faith +on the part of the United States or its agents. I will refer to +two prominent instances: that of the outbreak of the Nez Perces, and +that of the allied plains tribes. With the former a solemn treaty +was made in 1856, guaranteeing to them occupancy of the Wallola valley +forever. I. I. Stevens, who was governor of Washington Territory +at the time, and ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs in +the region, met the Nez Perces, whose chief, "Wish-la-no-she," +an octogenarian, when grasping the hand of the governor at the council +said: "I put out my hand to the white man when Lewis and Clark +crossed the continent, in 1805, and have never taken it back since." +The tribe kept its word until the white men took forcible possession +of the valley promised to the Indians, when the latter broke out, +and a prolonged war was the consequence. In 1867 Congress appointed +a commission to treat with the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes, +appropriating four hundred thousand dollars for the expenses of +the commission. It met at Medicine Lodge in August of the year +mentioned, and made a solemn treaty, which the members of the +commission, on the part of the United States, and the principal +chiefs of the three tribes signed. Congress failed to make any +appropriation to carry out the provisions of the treaty, and the +Indians, after waiting a reasonable time, broke out, devastated +the settlements from the Platte to the Rio Grande, destroying +millions of dollars' worth of property, and sacrificing hundreds +of men, women, and children. Another war was the result, which +cost more millions, and under General Sheridan the hostile savages +were whipped into a peace, which they have been compelled to keep. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +TRAINS AND PACKERS. + + + +As has been stated, until the year 1824 transportation across the +plains was done by means of pack-mules, the art of properly loading +which seems to be an intuitive attribute of the native Mexican. +The American, of course, soon became as expert, for nothing that +the genus homo is capable of doing is impossible to him; but his +teacher was the dark-visaged, superstitious, and profanity-expending +Mexican arriero. + +A description of the equipment of a mule-train and the method of +packing, together with some of the curious facts connected with +its movements, may not be uninteresting, particularly as the +whole thing, with rare exceptions in the regular army at remote +frontier posts, has been relegated to the past, along with the caravan +of the prairie and the overland coach. To this generation, barring +a few officers who have served against the Indians on the plains +and in the mountains, a pack-mule train would be as great a curiosity +as the hairy mammoth. In the following particulars I have taken +as a model the genuine Mexican pack-train or atajo, as it was called +in their Spanish dialect, always used in the early days of the +Santa Fe trade. The Americans made many modifications, but the basis +was purely Mexican in its origin. A pack-mule was termed a mula +de carga, and his equipment consisted of several parts; first, +the saddle, or aparejo, a nearly square pad of leather stuffed +with hay, which covered the animal's back on both sides equally. +The best idea of its shape will be formed by opening a book in +the middle and placing it saddle-fashion on the back of a chair. +Each half then forms a flap of the contrivance. Before the aparejo +was adjusted to the mule, a salea, or raw sheep-skin, made soft +by rubbing, was put on the animal's back, to prevent chafing, +and over it the saddle-cloth, or xerga. On top of both was placed +the aparejo, which was cinched by a wide grass-bandage. This band +was drawn as tightly as possible, to such an extent that the poor +brute grunted and groaned under the apparently painful operation, +and when fastened he seemed to be cut in two. This always appeared +to be the very acme of cruelty to the uninitiated, but it is the +secret of successful packing; the firmer the saddle, the more +comfortably the mule can travel, with less risk of being chafed +and bruised. The aparejo is furnished with a huge crupper, and +this appendage is really the most cruel of all, for it is almost +sure to lacerate the tail. Hardly a Mexican mule in the old days +of the trade could be found which did not bear the scar of this +rude supplement to the immense saddle. + +The load, which is termed a carga, was generally three hundred pounds. +Two arrieros, or packers, place the goods on the mule's back, +one, the cargador, standing on the near side, his assistant on +the other. The carga is then hoisted on top of the saddle if it +is a single package; or if there are two of equal size and weight, +one on each side, coupled by a rope, which balances them on the +animal. Another stout rope is then thrown over all, drawn as tightly +as possible under the belly, and laced round the packs, securing +them firmly in their place. Over the load, to protect it from rain, +is thrown a square piece of matting called a petate. Sometimes, +when a mule is a little refractory, he is blindfolded by a thin +piece of leather, generally embroidered, termed the tapojos, and +he remains perfectly quiet while the process of packing is going on. +When the load is securely fastened in its place, the blinder is +removed. The man on the near side, with his knee against the mule +for a purchase, as soon as the rope is hauled taut, cries out "Adios," +and his assistant answers "Vaya!" Then the first says again, "Anda!" +upon which the mule trots off to its companions, all of which feed +around until the animals of the whole train are packed. It seldom +requires more than five minutes for the two men to complete the +packing of the animal, and in that time is included the fastening +of the aperejo. It is surprising to note the degree of skill +exercised by an experienced packer, and his apparently abnormal +strength in handling the immense bundles that are sometimes +transported. By the aid of his knees used as a fulcrum, he lifts +a package and tosses it on the mule's back without any apparent +effort, the dead weight of which he could not move from the ground. + +An old-time atajo or caravan of pack-mules generally numbered from +fifty to two hundred, and it travelled a jornado, or day's march of +about twelve or fifteen miles. This day's journey was made without +any stopping at noon, because if a pack-mule is allowed to rest, +he generally tries to lie down, and with his heavy load it is +difficult for him to get on his feet again. Sometimes he is badly +strained in so doing, perhaps ruined forever. When the train starts +out on the trail, the mules are so tightly bound with the ropes +which confine the load that they move with great difficulty; +but the saddle soon settles itself and the ropes become loosened +so that they have frequently to be tightened. On the march the +arriero is kept busy nearly all the time; the packs are constantly +changing their position, frequently losing their balance and +falling off; sometimes saddle, pack, and all swing under the +animal's belly, and he must be unloaded and repacked again. + +On arriving at the camping-ground the pack-saddles with their loads +are ranged in regular order, their freight being between the saddles, +covered with the petates to protect it from the rain, and generally +a ditch is dug around to carry off the water, if the weather is stormy. +After two or three days' travel each mule knows its own pack and +saddle, and comes up to it at the proper moment with an intelligence +that is astonishing. If an animal should come whose pack is +somewhere else, he is soundly kicked in the ribs by the rightful mule, +and sent bruised and battered to his place. He rarely makes a mistake +in relation to the position of his own pack the second time. + +This method of transportation was so cheap, because of the low rate +of wages, that wagon-freighting, even in the most level region, +could not compete with it. Five dollars a month was the amount paid +to the muleteers, but it was oftener five with rations, costing +almost nothing, of corn and beans. Meat, if used at all, was found +by the arrieros themselves. + +On the trail the mule-train is under a system of discipline almost +as severe as that on board of a man-of-war. Every individual +employed is assigned to his place and has certain duties to perform. +There is a night-herder, called the savanero, whose duty it is +to keep the animals from straying too far away, as they are all +turned loose to shift for themselves, depending upon the grass alone +for their subsistence. Each herd has a mulera, or bell-mare, +which wears a bell hanging to a strap around her neck, and is kept +in view of the other animals, who will never leave her. If the mare +is taken away from the herd, every mule becomes really melancholy +and is at a loss what to do or where to go. The cook of the party, +or madre (mother) as he is called, besides his duty in preparing +the food, must lead the bell-mule ahead of the train while travelling, +the pack-animals following her with a devotion that is remarkable. + +Sometimes in traversing the narrow ledges cut around the sides of +a precipitous trail, or crossing a narrow natural bridge spanning +the frightful gorges found everywhere in the mountains, a mule +will be incontinently thrown off the slippery path, and fall hundreds +of feet into the yawning canyon below. Generally instant death +is their portion, though I recall an instance, while on an expedition +against the hostile Indians thirty years ago, where a number of mules +of our pack-train, loaded with ammunition, tumbled nearly five hundred +feet down an almost perpendicular chasm, and yet some of them got +on their feet again, and soon rejoined their companions, without +having suffered any serious injury. + +The wagons so long employed in this trade, after their first +introduction in 1824, were manufactured in Pittsburgh, their capacity +being about a ton and a half, and they were drawn by eight mules +or the same number of oxen. Later much larger wagons were employed +with nearly double the capacity of the first, hauled by ten and +twelve mules or oxen. These latter were soon called prairie-schooners, +which name continued to linger until transportation across the plains +by wagons was completely extinguished by the railroads. + +Under Mexican rule excessive tariff imposts were instituted, +amounting to about a hundred per cent upon goods brought from the +United States, and for some years, during the administration of +Governor Manuel Armijo, a purely arbitrary duty was demanded of +five hundred dollars for every wagon-load of merchandise brought +into the Province, whether great or small, and regardless of its +intrinsic value. As gold and silver were paid for the articles +brought by the traders, they were also required to pay a heavy duty +on the precious metals they took out of the country. Yankee ingenuity, +however, evaded much of these unjust taxes. When the caravan +approached Santa Fe, the freight of three wagons was transferred +to one, and the empty vehicles destroyed by fire; while to avoid +paying the export duty on gold and silver, they had large false +axletrees to some of the wagons, in which the money was concealed, +and the examining officer of the customs, perfectly unconscious of +the artifice, passed them. + +The army, in its expeditions against the hostile Indian tribes, +always employed wagons in transporting its provisions and munitions +of war, except in the mountains, where the faithful pack-mule was +substituted. The American freighters, since the occupation of +New Mexico by the United States, until the transcontinental railroad +usurped their vocation, used wagons only; the Mexican nomenclature +was soon dropped and simple English terms adopted: caravan became +train, and majordomo, the person in charge, wagon-master. The latter +was supreme. Upon him rested all the responsibility, and to him +the teamsters rendered absolute obedience. He was necessarily a man +of quick perception, always fertile in expedients in times of +emergency, and something of an engineer; for to know how properly +to cross a raging stream or a marshy slough with an outfit of fifty +or sixty wagons required more than ordinary intelligence. Then in +the case of a stampede, great clear-headedness and coolness were +needed to prevent loss of life. + +Stampedes were frequently very serious affairs, particularly with +a large mule-train. Notwithstanding the willingness and patient +qualities of that animal, he can act as absurdly as a Texas steer, +and is as easily frightened at nothing. Sometimes as insignificant +a circumstance as a prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, +a figure in the distance, or even the shadow of a passing cloud +will start every animal in the train, and away they go, rushing into +each other, and becoming entangled in such a manner that both drivers +and mules have often been crushed to death. It not infrequently +happened that five or six of the teams would dash off and never +could be found. I remember one instance that occurred on the trail +between Fort Hays and Fort Dodge, during General Sheridan's +winter campaign against the allied plains tribes in 1868. Three of +the wagons were dragged away by the mules, in a few moments were +out of sight, and were never recovered, although diligent search +was made for them for some days. Ten years afterward a farmer, +who had taken up a claim in what is now Rush County, Kansas, +discovered in a ravine on his place the bones of some animals, +decayed parts of harness, and the remains of three army-wagons, +which with other evidence proved them to be the identical ones +lost from the train so many years before. + +The largest six-mule wagon-train that was ever strung out on the +plains transported the supplies for General Custer's command during +the winter above referred to. It comprised over eight hundred +army-wagons, and was four miles in length in one column, or one mile +when in four lines--the usual formation when in the field. + +The animals of the train were either hobbled or herded at night, +according to the locality; if in an Indian country, always hobbled +or, preferably, tied up to the tongue of the wagon to which they +belonged. The hobble is simply a strip of rawhide, with two slides +of the same material. Placed on the front legs of the mule just +at the fetlock, the slides pushed close to the limb, the animal +could move around freely enough to graze, but was not able to travel +very fast in the event of a stampede. In the Indian country, it was +usual at night, or in the daytime when halting to feed, to form +a corral of the wagons, by placing them in a circle, the wheels +interlocked and the tongues run under the axles, into which circle +the mules, on the appearance of the savages, were driven, and which +also made a sort of fortress behind which the teamsters could more +effectually repel an attack. + +In the earlier trading expeditions to Santa Fe, the formation and +march of the caravan differed materially from that of the army-train +in later years. I here quote Gregg, whose authority on the subject +has never been questioned. When all was ready to move out on the +broad sea of prairie, he said: + + We held a council, at which the respective claims of the + different aspirants for office were considered, leaders + selected, and a system of government agreed upon--as is + the standing custom of these promiscuous caravans. + A captain was proclaimed elected, but his powers were not + defined by any constitutional provision; consequently, + they were very vague and uncertain. Orders being only + viewed as mere requests, they are often obeyed or neglected + at the caprice of the subordinates. It is necessary to + observe, however, that the captain is expected to direct + the order of travel during the day and to designate the + camping-ground at night, with many other functions of + general character, in the exercise of which the company + find it convenient to acquiesce. + + After this comes the task of organizing. The proprietors + are first notified by proclamation to furnish a list of + their men and wagons. The latter are generally apportioned + into four divisions, particularly when the company is large. + To each of these divisions, a lieutenant is appointed, + whose duty it is to inspect every ravine and creek on the + route, select the best crossings, and superintend what is + called in prairie parlance the forming of each encampment. + + There is nothing so much dreaded by inexperienced travellers + as the ordeal of guard duty. But no matter what the + condition or employment of the individual may be, no one + has the slightest chance of evading the common law of + the prairies. The amateur tourist and the listless loafer + are precisely in the same wholesome predicament--they must + all take their regular turn at the watch. There is usually + a set of genteel idlers attached to every caravan, whose + wits are forever at work in devising schemes for whiling + away their irksome hours at the expense of others. + By embarking in these trips of pleasure, they are enabled + to live without expense; for the hospitable traders seldom + refuse to accommodate even a loafing companion with a berth + at their mess without charge. But these lounging attaches + are expected at least to do good service by way of guard + duty. None are ever permitted to furnish a substitute, + as is frequently done in military expeditions; for he that + would undertake to stand the tour of another besides + his own would scarcely be watchful enough for dangers + of the prairies. Even the invalid must be able to produce + unequivocal proofs of his inability, or it is a chance + if the plea is admitted. + + The usual number of watchers is eight, each standing a + fourth of every alternate night. When the party is small, + the number is generally reduced, while in the case of + very small bands, they are sometimes compelled for safety's + sake to keep watch on duty half the night. With large + caravans the captain usually appoints eight sergeants + of the guard, each of whom takes an equal portion of men + under his command. + + The wild and motley aspect of the caravan can be but + imperfectly conceived without an idea of the costumes of + its various members. The most fashionable prairie dress + is the fustian frock of the city-bred merchant, furnished + with a multitude of pockets capable of accommodating a + variety of extra tackling. Then there is the backwoodsman + with his linsey or leather hunting-shirt--the farmer with + his blue jean coat--the wagoner with his flannel sleeve + vest--besides an assortment of other costumes which go + to fill up the picture. + + In the article of firearms there is also an equally + interesting medley. The frontier hunter sticks to his + rifle, as nothing could induce him to carry what he terms + in derision "the scatter-gun." The sportsman from the + interior flourishes his double-barrelled fowling-piece + with equal confidence in its superiority. A great many + were furnished beside with a bountiful supply of pistols + and knives of every description, so that the party made + altogether a very brigand-like appearance. + + "Catch up! Catch up!" is now sounded from the captain's + camp and echoed from every division and scattered group + along the valley. The woods and dales resound with the + gleeful yells of the light-hearted wagoners who, weary of + inaction and filled with joy at the prospect of getting + under way, become clamorous in the extreme. Each teamster + vies with his fellow who shall be soonest ready; and it + is a matter of boastful pride to be the first to cry out, + "All's set." + + The uproarious bustle which follows, the hallooing of those + in pursuit of animals, the exclamations which the unruly + brutes call forth from their wrathful drivers, together + with the clatter of bells, the rattle of yokes and harness, + the jingle of chains, all conspire to produce an uproarious + confusion. It is sometimes amusing to observe the athletic + wagoner hurrying an animal to its post--to see him heave + upon the halter of a stubborn mule, while the brute as + obstinately sets back, determined not to move a peg till + his own good pleasure thinks it proper to do so--his whole + manner seeming to say, "Wait till your hurry's over." + I have more than once seen a driver hitch a harnessed animal + to the halter, and by that process haul his mulishness + forward, while each of his four projected feet would leave + a furrow behind. + + "All's set!" is finally heard from some teamster-- + "All's set," is directly responded from every quarter. + "Stretch out!" immediately vociferates the captain. + Then the "heps!" to the drivers, the cracking of whips, + the trampling of feet, the occasional creak of wheels, + the rumbling of the wagons, while "Fall in" is heard from + head-quarters, and the train is strung out and in a few + moments has started on its long journey. + +With an army-train the discipline was as perfect as that of a garrison. +The wagon-master was under the orders of the commander of the troops +which escorted the caravan, the camps were formed with regard to +strategic principles, sentries walked their beats and were visited +by an officer of the day, as if stationed at a military post. + +Unquestionably the most expert packer I have known is Chris. Gilson, +of Kansas. In nearly all the expeditions on the great plains and +in the mountains he has been the master-spirit of the pack-trains. +General Sheridan, who knew Gilson long before the war, in Oregon +and Washington, regarded the celebrated packer with more than +ordinary friendship. For many years he was employed by the government +at the suggestion of General Sheridan, to teach the art of packing +to the officers and enlisted men at several military posts in the West. +He received a large salary, and for a long period was stationed at +the immense cavalry depot of Fort Riley, in Kansas. Gilson was also +employed by the British army during the Zulu war in Africa, +as chief packer, at a salary of twenty dollars a day. Now, however, +since the railroads have penetrated the once considered impenetrable +fastnesses of the mountains, packing will be relegated to the lost arts. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +FIGHT WITH COMANCHES. + + + +Early in the spring of 1828, a company of young men residing in the +vicinity of Franklin, Missouri, having heard related by a neighbour +who had recently returned the wonderful story of a passage across +the great plains, and the strange things to be seen in the land of +the Greasers, determined to explore the region for themselves; +making the trip in wagons, an innovation of a startling character, +as heretofore only pack-animals had been employed in the limited trade +with far-off Santa Fe. The story of their journey can best be told +in the words of one of the party:[19]-- + + We had about one thousand miles to travel, and as there was + no wagon-road in those early days across the plains to the + mountains, we were compelled to take our chances through + the vast wilderness, seeking the best route we could. + + No signs of life were visible except the innumerable buffalo + and antelope that were constantly crossing our trail. + We moved on slowly from day to day without any incident + worth recording and arrived at the Arkansas; made the + passage and entered the Great American Desert lying beyond, + as listless, lonesome, and noiseless as a sleeping sea. + Having neglected to carry any water with us, we were obliged + to go withot a drop for two days and nights after leaving + the river. At last we reached the Cimarron, a cool, + sparkling stream, ourselves and our animals on the point + of perishing. Our joy at discovering it, however, was + short-lived. We had scarcely quenched our thirst when + we saw, to our dismay, a large band of Indians camped on + its banks. Their furtive glances at us, and significant + looks at each other, aroused our worst suspicions, and + we instinctively felt we were not to get away without + serious trouble. Contrary to our expectations, however, + they did not offer to molest us, and we at once made up + our minds they preferred to wait for our return, as we + believed they had somehow learned of our intention to bring + back from New Mexico a large herd of mules and ponies. + + We arrived in Santa Fe on the 20th of July, without further + adventure, and after having our stock of goods passed + through the custom house, were granted the privilege of + selling them. The majority of the party sold out in a + very short time and started on their road to the States, + leaving twenty-one of us behind to return later. + + On the first day of September, those of us who had remained + in Santa Fe commenced our homeward journey. We started + with one hundred and fifty mules and horses, four wagons, + and a large amount of silver coin. Nothing of an eventful + character occurred until we arrived at the Upper Cimarron + Springs, where we intended to encamp for the night. + But our anticipations of peaceable repose were rudely + dispelled; for when we rode up on the summit of the hill, + the sight that met our eyes was appalling enough to excite + the gravest apprehensions. It was a large camp of + Comanches, evidently there for the purpose of robbery + and murder. We could neither turn back nor go on either + side of them on account of the mountainous character of + the country, and we realized, when too late, that we were + in a trap. + + There was only one road open to us; that right through + the camp. Assuming the bravest look possible, and keeping + our rifles in position for immediate action, we started + on the perilous venture. The chief met us with a smile + of welcome, and said, in Spanish: "You must stay with us + to-night. Our young men will guard your stock, and we have + plenty of buffalo meat." + + Realizing the danger of our situation, we took advantage + of every moment of time to hurry through their camp. + Captain Means, Ellison, and myself were a little distance + behind the wagons, on horseback; observing that the balance + of our men were evading them, the blood-thirsty savages + at once threw off their masks of dissimulation and in an + instant we knew the time for a struggle had arrived. + + The Indians, as we rode on, seized our bridle-reins and + began to fire upon us. Ellison and I put spurs to our + horses and got away, but Captain Means, a brave man, + was ruthlessly shot and cruelly scalped while the life-blood + was pouring from his ghastly wounds. + + We succeeded in fighting them off until we had left their + camp half a mile behind, and as darkness had settled down + on us, we decided to go into camp ourselves. We tied our + gray bell-mare to a stake, and went out and jingled the + bell, whenever any of us could do so, thus keeping the + animals from stampeding. We corralled our wagons for + better protection, and the Indians kept us busy all night + resisting their furious charges. We all knew that death + at our posts would be infinitely preferable to falling + into their hands; so we resolved to sell our lives as + dearly as possible. + + The next day we made but five miles; it was a continuous + fight, and a very difficult matter to prevent their + capturing us. This annoyance was kept up for four days; + they would surround us, then let up as if taking time to + renew their strength, to suddenly charge upon us again, + and they continued thus to harass us until we were almost + exhausted from loss of sleep. + + After leaving the Cimarron, we once more emerged on the + open plains and flattered ourselves we were well rid of + the savages; but about twelve o'clock they came down on us + again, uttering their demoniacal yells, which frightened + our horses and mules so terribly, that we lost every hoof. + A member of our party, named Hitt, in endeavouring to + recapture some of the stolen stock, was taken by the + savages, but luckily escaped from their clutches, after + having been wounded in sixteen parts of his body; + he was shot, tomahawked, and speared. When the painted + demons saw that one of their number had been killed by us, + they left the field for a time, while we, taking advantage + of the temporary lull, went back to our wagons and built + breastworks of them, the harness, and saddles. From noon + until two hours in the night, when the moon went down, + the savages were apparently confident we would soon fall + a prey to them, and they made charge after charge upon + our rude fortifications. + + Darkness was now upon us. There were two alternatives + before us: should we resolve to die where we were, or + attempt to escape in the black hours of the night? + It was a desperate situation. Our little band looked + the matter squarely in the face, and, after a council + of war had been held, we determined to escape, if possible. + + In order to carry out our resolve, it was necessary to + abandon the wagons, together with a large amount of silver + coin, as it would be impossible to take all of the precious + stuff with us in our flight; so we packed up as much of it + as we could carry, and, bidding our hard-earned wealth + a reluctant farewell, stepped out in the darkness like + spectres and hurried away from the scene of death. + + Our proper course was easterly, but we went in a northerly + direction in order to avoid the Indians. We travelled + all that night, the next day, and a portion of its night + until we reached the Arkansas River, and, having eaten + nothing during that whole time excepting a few prickly-pears, + were beginning to feel weak from the weight of our burdens + and exhaustion. At this point we decided to lighten + our loads by burying all of the money we had carried + thus far, keeping only a small sum for each man. + Proceeding to a small island in the river, our treasure, + amounting to over ten thousand silver dollars, was cached + in the ground between two cottonwood trees. + + Believing now that we were out of the usual range of + the predatory Indians, we shot a buffalo and an antelope + which we cooked and ate without salt or bread; but no meal + has ever tasted better to me than that one. + + We continued our journey northward for three or four days + more, when, reaching Pawnee Fork, we travelled down it for + more than a week, arriving again on the Old Santa Fe Trail. + Following the Trail three days, we arrived at Walnut Creek, + then left the river again and went eastwardly to Cow Creek. + When we reached that point, we had become so completely + exhausted and worn out from subsisting on buffalo meat + alone, that it seemed as if there was nothing left for + us to do but lie down and die. Finally it was determined + to send five of the best-preserved men on ahead to + Independence, two hundred miles, for the purpose of + procuring assistance; the other fifteen to get along + as well as they could until succour reached them. + + I was one of the five selected to go on in advance, and + I shall never forget the terrible suffering we endured. + We had no blankets, and it was getting late in the fall. + Some of us were entirely barefooted, and our feet so sore + that we left stains of blood at every step. Deafness, too, + seized upon us so intensely, occasioned by our weak + condition, that we coud not hear the report of a gun fired + at a distance of only a few feet. + + At one place two of our men laid down their arms, declaring + they could carry them no farther, and would die if they + did not get water. We left them and went in search of some. + After following a dry branch several miles, we found + a muddy puddle from which we succeeded in getting half + a bucket full, and, although black and thick, it was life + for us and we guarded it with jealous eyes. We returned + to our comrades about daylight, and the water so refreshed + them they were able to resume the weary march. We travelled + on until we arrived at the Big Blue River, in Missouri, + on the bank of which we discovered a cabin about fifteen + miles from Independence. The occupants of the rude shanty + were women, seemingly very poor, but they freely offered us + a pot of pumpkin they were stewing. When they first saw us, + they were terribly frightened, because we looked more like + skeletons than living beings. They jumped on the bed while + we were greedily devouring the pumpkin, but we had to + refuse some salt meat which they had also proffered, + as our teeth were too sore to eat it. In a short time + two men came to the cabin and took three of our men + home with them. We had subsisted for eleven days on + one turkey, a coon, a crow, and some elm bark, with an + occasional bunch of wild grapes, and the pictures we + presented to these good people they will never, probably, + forget; we had not tasted bread or salt for thirty-two days. + + The next day our newly found friends secured horses and + guided us to Independence, all riding without saddles. + One of the party had gone on to notify the citizens of + our safety, and when we arrived general muster was going on, + the town was crowded, and when the people looked upon us + the most intense excitement prevailed. All business was + suspended; the entire population flocked around us to hear + the remarkable story of our adventures, and to render us + the assistance we so much needed. We were half-naked, + foot-sore, and haggard, presenting such a pitiable picture + that the greatest sympathy was immediately aroused in + our behalf. + + We then said that behind us on the Trail somewhere, fifteen + comrades were struggling toward Independence, or were + already dead from their sufferings. In a very few minutes + seven men with fifteen horses started out to rescue them. + + They were gone from Independence several days, but had the + good fortune to find all the men just in time to save them + from starvation and exhaustion. Two were discovered + a hundred miles from Independence, and the remainder + scattered along the Trail fifty miles further in their rear. + Not more than two of the unfortunate party were together. + The humane rescuers seemingly brought back nothing but + living skeletons wrapped in rags; but the good people of + the place vied with each other in their attentions, and + under their watchful care the sufferers rapidly recuperated. + + One would suppose that we had had enough of the great plains + after our first trip; not so, however, for in the spring + we started again on the same journey. Major Riley, with + four companies of regular soldiers, was detailed to escort + the Santa Fe traders' caravans to the boundary line between + the United States and Mexico, and we went along to recover + the money we had buried, the command having been ordered to + remain in camp to await our return until the 20th of October. + + We left Fort Leavenworth about the 10th of May, and were + soon again on the plains. Many of the troops had never + seen any buffalo before, and found great sport in wantonly + slaughtering them. At Walnut Creek we halted to secure + a cannon which had been thrown into that stream two seasons + previously, and succeeded in dragging it out. With a seine + made of brush and grape vine, we caught more fine fish than + we could possibly dispose of. One morning the camp was + thrown into the greatest state of excitement by a band of + Indians running an enormous herd of buffalo right into us. + The troops fired at them by platoons, killing hundreds + of them. + + We marched in two columns, and formed a hollow square + at night when we camped, in which all slept excepting + those on guard duty. Frequently some one would discover + a rattlesnake or a horned toad in bed with him, and it + did not take him a very long time to crawl out of his + blankets! + + On the 10th of July, we arrived at the dividing line + separating the two countries, and went into camp. The next + day Major Riley sent a squad of soldiers to escort myself + and another of our old party, who had helped bury the + ten thousand dollars, to find it. It was a few miles + further up the Arkansas than our camp, in the Mexican + limits, and when we reached the memorable spot on the + island,[20] we found the coin safe, but the water had + washed the earth away, and the silver was exposed to view + to excite the cupidity of any one passing that way; + there were not many travellers on that lonely route in + those days, however, and it would have been just as secure, + probably, had we simply poured it on the ground. + + We put the money in sacks and deposited it with Major Riley, + and, leaving the camp, started for Santa Fe with Captain + Bent as leader of the traders. We had not proceeded far + when our advanced guard met Indians. They turned, and when + within two hundred yards of us, one man named Samuel Lamme + was killed, his body being completely riddled with arrows. + His head was cut off, and all his clothes stripped from + his body. We had a cannon, but the Mexicans who hauled it + had tied it up in such a way that it could not be utilized + in time to effect anything in the first assault; but when + at last it was turned loose upon the Indians, they fled + in dismay at the terrible noise. + + The troops at the crossing of the Arkansas, hearing the + firing, came to our assistance. The next morning the + hills were covered by fully two thousand Indians, who had + evidently congregated there for the purpose of annihilating + us, and the coming of the soldiers was indeed fortunate; + for as soon as the cowardly savages discovered them + they fled. Major Riley accompanied us on our march for + a few days, and, seeing no more Indians, he returned to + his camp. + + We travelled on for a week, then met a hundred Mexicans + who were out on the plains hunting buffalo. They had + killed a great many and were drying the meat. We waited + until they were ready to return and then all started for + Santa Fe together. + + At Rabbit-Ear Mountain the Indians had constructed + breastworks in the brush, intending to fight it out there. + The Mexicans were in the advance and had one of their + number killed before discovering the enemy. We passed + Point of Rocks and camped on the river. One of the + Mexicans went out hunting and shot a huge panther; + next morning he asked a companion to go with him and help + skin the animal. They saw the Indians in the brush, and + the one who had killed the panther said to the other, + "Now for the mountains"; but his comrade retreated, + and was despatched by the savages almost within reach + of the column. + + We now decided to change our destination, intending to go + to Taos instead of Santa Fe, but the governor of the + Province sent out troops to stop us, as Taos was not a + place of entry. The soldiers remained with us a whole week, + until we arrived at Santa Fe, where we disposed of our goods + and soon began to make preparations for our return trip. + + When we were ready to start back, seven priests and a + number of wealthy families, comfortably fixed in carriages, + accompanied us. The Mexican government ordered Colonel + Viscarra of the army, with five troops of cavalry, + to guard us to the camp of Major Riley. + + We experienced no trouble until we arrived at the + Cimarron River. About sunset, just as we were preparing + to camp for the night, the sentinels saw a body of a + hundred Indians approaching; they fired at them and ran + to camp. Knowing they had been discovered, the Indians + came on and made friendly overtures; but the Pueblos who + who were with the command of Colonel Viscarra wanted to + fight them at once, saying the fellows meant mischief. + We declined to camp with them unless they would agree to + give up their arms; they pretended they were willing to + do so, when one of them put his gun at the breast of our + interpreter and pulled the trigger. In an instant a bloody + scene ensued; several of Viscarra's men were killed, + together with a number of mules. Finally the Indians + were whipped and tried to get away, but we chased them + some distance and killed thirty-five. Our friendly Pueblos + were delighted, and proceeded to scalp the savages, + hanging the bloody trophies on the points of their spears. + That night they indulged in a war-dance which lasted + until nearly morning. + + We were delighted to see a beautiful sunshiny day after + the horrors of the preceding night, and continued our march + without farther interruption, safely arriving at the camp + on the boundary line, where Major Riley was waiting for us, + as we supposed; but his time having expired the day before, + he had left for Fort Leavenworth. A courier was despatched + to him, however, as Colonel Viscarra desired to meet the + American commander and see his troops. The courier overtook + Major Riley a short distance away, and he halted for us + to come up. Both commands then went into camp, and spent + several days comparing the discipline of the armies of + the two nations, and having a general good time. + Colonel Viscarra greatly admired our small arms, and + took his leave in a very courteous manner. + + We arrived at Fort Leavenworth late in the season, and + from there we all scattered. I received my share of the + money we had cached on the island, and bade my comrades + farewell, only a few of whom I have ever seen since. + +Mr. Hitt in his notes of this same perilous trip says: + When the grass had sufficiently started to insure the + subsistence of our teams, our wagons were loaded with + a miscellaneous assortment of merchandise and the first + trader's caravan of wagons that ever crossed the plains + left Independence. Before we had travelled three weeks + on our journey, we were one evening confronted with the + novel fact of camping in a country where not a stick of + wood could be found. The grass was too green to burn, + and we were wondering how our fire could be started + with which to boil our coffee, or cook our bread. One of + our number, however, while diligently searching for + something to utilize, suddenly discovered scattered all + around him a large quantity of buffalo-chips, and he soon + had an excellent fire under way, his coffee boiling and + his bacon sizzling over the glowing coals. + + We arrived in Santa Fe without incident, and as ours + was the first train of wagons that ever traversed the + narrow streets of the quaint old town, it was, of course, + a great curiosity to the natives. + + After a few days' rest, sight-seeing, and purchasing stock + to replace our own jaded animals, preparations were made + for the return trip. All the money we had received for + our goods was in gold and silver, principally the latter, + in consequence of which, each member of the company had + about as much as he could conveniently manage, and, + as events turned out, much more than he could take care of. + + On the morning of the third day out, when we were not + looking for the least trouble, our entire herd was + stampeded, and we were left upon the prairie without + as much as a single mule to pursue the fast-fleeing + thieves. The Mexicans and Indians had come so suddenly + upon us, and had made such an effective dash, that we + stood like children who had broken their toys on a stone + at their feet. We were so unprepared for such a stampede + that the thieves did not approach within rifle-shot range + of the camp to accomplish their object; few of them + coming within sight, even. + + After the excitement had somewhat subsided and we began + to realize what had been done, it was decided that while + some should remain to guard the camp, others must go to + Santa Fe to see if they could not recover the stock. + The party that went to Santa Fe had no difficulty in + recognizing the stolen animals; but when they claimed them, + they were laughed at by the officials of the place. + They experienced no difficulty, however, in purchasing + the same stock for a small sum, which they at once did, + and hurried back to camp. By this unpleasant episode + we learned of the stealth and treachery of the miserable + people in whose country we were. We, therefore, took every + precaution to prevent a repetition of the affair, and + kept up a vigilant guard night and day. + + Matters progressed very well, and when we had travelled + some three hundred miles eastwardly, thinking we were + out of range of any predatory bands, as we had seen no + sign of any living thing, we relaxed our vigilance somewhat. + One morning, just before dawn, the whole earth seemed to + resound with the most horrible noises that ever greeted + human ears; every blade of grass appeared to re-echo + the horrid din. In a few moments every man was at his post, + rifle in hand, ready for any emergency, and almost + immediately a large band of Indians made their appearance, + riding within rifle-shot of the wagons. A continuous + battle raged for several hours, the savages discharging + a shot, then scampering off out of range as fast as + their ponies could carry them. Some, more brave than + others would venture closer to the corral, and one of these + got the contents of an old-fashioned flint-lock musket + in his bowels. + + We were careful not all to fire at the same time, and + several of our party, who were watching the effects of + our shots declared they could see the dust fly out of + the robes of the Indians as the bullets struck them. + It was learned afterward that a number of the savages + were wounded, and that several had died. Many were armed + with bows and arrows only, and in order to do any execution + were obliged to come near the corral. The Indians soon + discovered they were getting the worst of the fight, and, + having run off all the stock, abandoned the conflict, + leaving us in possession of the camp, but it can hardly + be said masters of the situation. + + There we were; thirty-five pioneers upon the wild prairie, + surrounded by a wily and terribly cruel foe, without + transportation of any character but our own legs, and with + five hundred miles of dangerous, trackless waste between + us and the settlements. We had an abundance of money, + but the stuff was absolutely worthless for the present, + as there was nothing we could buy with it. + + After the last savage had ridden away into the sand hills + on the opposite side of the river, each one of us had a + thrilling story to relate of his individual narrow escapes. + Though none was killed, many received wounds, the scars + of which they carried through life. I was wounded six + times. Once was in the thigh by an arrow, and once while + loading my rifle I had my ramrod shot off close to the + muzzle of my piece, the ball just grazing my shoulder, + tearing away a small portion of the skin. Others had + equally curious experiences, but none were seriously injured. + + After the excitement incident to the battle had subsided, + the realization of our condition fully dawned upon us. + When we were first robbed, we were only a short distance + from Santa Fe, where our money easily procured other stock; + now there were three hundred miles behind us to that place, + and the picture was anything but pleasant to contemplate. + To transport supplies for thirty-five men seemed impossible. + Our money was now a burden greater than we could bear; + what was to be done with it? We would have no use for it + on our way to the settlements, yet the idea of abandoning + it seemed hard to accept. A vigilant guard was kept up + that day and night, during which time we all remained + in camp, fearing a renewal of the attack. + + The next morning, as there were no apparent signs of + the Indians, it was decided to reconnoitre the surrounding + country in the hope of recovering a portion, at least, + of our lost stock, which we thought might have become + separated from the main herd. Three men were detailed + to stay in the old camp to guard it while the remainder, + in squads, scoured the hills and ravines. Not a horse + or mule was visible anywhere; the stampede had been + complete--not even the direction the animals had taken + could be discovered. + + It was late in the afternoon when I, having left my + companions to continue the search and returning to camp + alone, had gotten within a mile of it, that I thought I saw + a horse feeding upon an adjoining hill. I at once turned + my steps in that direction, and had proceeded but a short + distance when three Indians jumped from their ambush in + the grass between me and the wagons and ran after me. + The men in camp had been watching my every movement, + and as soon as they saw the savages were chasing me, + they started in pursuit, running at their greatest speed + to my rescue. + + The savages soon overtook me, and the first one that + came up tackled me, but in an instant found himself flat + on the ground. Before he could get up, the second one + shared the same fate. By this time the third one arrived, + and the two I had thrown grabbed me by the legs so that + I could no longer handle myself, while the third one had + a comparatively easy task in pushing me over. Fortunately, + my head fell toward the camp and my fast-approaching + comrades. The two Indians held my legs to prevent my + rising, while the third one, who was standing over me, + drew from his belt a tomahawk, and shrugging his head + in his blanket, at the same time looking over his shoulder + at my friends, with a tremendous effort and that peculiar + grunt of all savages, plunged his hatchet, as he supposed, + into my head, but instead of scuffling to free myself + and rise to my feet, I merely turned my head to one side + and the wicked weapon was buried in the ground, just + grazing my ear. + + The Indian, seeing that he had missed, raised his hatchet + and once more shrugging his head in his blanket, and + turning to look over his other shoulder, attempted to + strike again, but the blow was evaded by a sudden toss + of his intended victim's head. Not satisfied with two + abortive trials, the third attempt must be made to brain me, + and repeating the same motions, with a great "Ugh!" he + seemed to put all his strength into the blow, which, like + the others, missed, and spent its force in the earth. + By this time the rescuing party had come near enough to + prevent the savage from risking another effort, and he then + addressed the other Indians in Spanish, which I understood, + saying, "We must run or the Americans will kill us!" + and loosening his grasp, he scampered off with his + companions as fast as his legs could take him, hurried on + by several pieces of lead fired from the old flintlocks + of the traders. + + By sundown every man had returned to the forlorn camp, + but not an animal had been recovered. Then, with tired + limbs and weary hearts, we took turns at guarding the + wagons through the long night. The next morning each man + shouldered his rifle, and having had his proportion of + the provisions and cooking utensils assigned him, + we broke camp, and again turned to take a last look at + the country behind us, in which we had experienced so much + misfortune, and started on foot for our long march through + the dangerous region ahead of us. + + Scarcely had we gotten out of sight of our abandoned camp, + when one of the party, happening to turn his eyes in that + direction, saw a large volume of smoke rising in the + vicinity; then we knew that all of our wagons, and + everything we had been forced to leave, were burning up. + This proved that, although we had been unable to discover + any signs of Indians, they had been lurking around us + all the time, and this fact warned us to exercise the + utmost vigilance in guarding our persons. + + Though our burdens were very heavy, the first few days + were passed without anything to relieve the dreadful + monotony of our wearisome march; but each succeeding + twenty-four hours our loads became visibly lighter, + as our supplies were rapidly diminishing. It had already + become apparent that even in the exercise of the greatest + frugality, our stock of provisions would not last until + we could reach the settlements, so some of the most expert + shots were selected to hunt for game; but even in this + they were not successful, the very birds seeming to have + abandoned the country in its extreme desolation. + + After eight days' travel, despite our most rigid economy, + an inventory showed that there was less than one hundred + pounds of flour left. Day after day the hunters repeated + the same old story: "No game!" For two weeks the allowance + of flour to each individual was but a spoonful, stirred + in water and taken three times a day. + + One afternoon, however, fortune smiled upon the weary party; + one of the hunters returned to camp with a turkey he had + killed. It was soon broiling over a fire which willing + hands had kindled, and our drooping spirits were revived + for a while. While the turkey was cooking, a crow flew + over the camp, and one of the company, seizing a gun, + despatched it, and in a few moments it, too, was sizzling + along with the other bird. + + Now, in addition to the pangs of hunger, a scarcity of + water confronted us, and one day we were compelled to + resort to a buffalo-wallow and suck the moist clay where + the huge animals had been stamping in the mud. We were + much reduced in strength, yet each day added new + difficulties to our forlorn situation. Some became so weak + and exhausted that it was with the greatest effort they + could travel at all. To divide the company and leave + the more feeble behind to starve, or to be murdered by + the merciless savages, was not considered for a moment; + but one alternative remained, and that was speedily accepted. + As soon as a convenient camping-ground could be found, + a halt was made, shelter established, and things made as + comfortable as possible. Here the weakest remained to rest, + while some of the strongest scoured the surrounding country + in search of game. During this temporary halt the hunters + were more successful than before, having killed two + buffaloes, besides some smaller animals, in one morning. + Again the natural dry fuel of the prairies was called + into requisition, and juicy steak was once more broiling + over the fire. + + With an abundance to eat and a few days' rest, the whole + company revived and were enabled to renew their march + homeward. We were now in the buffalo range, and every day + the hunters were fortunate enough to kill one or more of + the immense animals, thus keeping our larder in excellent + condition, and starvation averted. + + Doubting whether our good fortune in relation to food + would continue for the remainder of our march, and our + money becoming very cumbersome, it was decided by a majority + that at the first good place we came to we would bury it + and risk its being stolen by our enemies. When not more + than half of our journey had been accomplished, we came + to an island in the river to which we waded, and there, + between two large trees, dug a hole and deposited our + treasure. We replaced the sod over the spot, taking the + utmost precaution to conceal every sign of having disturbed + the ground. Though no Indians had been seen for several + days, a sharp lookout was kept in all directions for fear + that some lurking savage might have been watching our + movements. This task finished, with much lighter burdens, + but more anxious than ever, we again took up our march + eastwardly, and, thus relieved, were able to carry a + greater quantity of provisions. + + Having journeyed until we supposed we were within a few + miles of the settlements, some of our number, scarcely able + to travel, thought the best course to pursue would be to + divide the company; one portion to press on, the weaker + ones to proceed by easier stages, and when the advance + arrived at the settlements, they were to send back a relief + for those plodding on wearily behind them. Soon a few + who were stronger than the others reached Independence, + Missouri, and immediately sent a party with horses to + bring in their comrades; so, at last, all got safely to + their homes. + +In the spring of 1829, Major Bennett Riley of the United States army +was ordered with four companies of the Sixth Regular Infantry to +march out on the Trail as the first military escort ever sent for +the protection of the caravans of traders going and returning between +Western Missouri and Santa Fe. Captain Philip St. George Cooke, +of the Dragoons, accompanied the command, and kept a faithful journal +of the trip, from which, and the official report of Major Riley to +the Secretary of War, I have interpolated here copious extracts. + +The journal of Captain Cooke states that the battalion marched +from Fort Leavenworth, which was then called a cantonment, and, +strange to say, had been abandoned by the Third Infantry on account +of its unhealthiness. It was the 5th of June that Riley crossed +the Missouri at the cantonment, and recrossed the river again at +a point a little above Independence, in order to avoid the Kaw, +or Kansas, which had no ferry. + +After five days' marching, the command arrived at Round Grove, where +the caravan had been ordered to rendezvous and wait for the escort. +The number of traders aggregated about seventy-nine men, and their +train consisted of thirty-eight wagons drawn by mules and horses, +the former preponderating. Five days' marching, at an average of +fifteen miles a day, brought them to Council Grove. Leaving the +Grove, in a short time Cow Creek was reached, which at that date +abounded in fish; many of which, says the journal, "weighed several +pounds, and were caught as fast as the line could be handled." +The captain does not describe the variety to which he refers; +probably they were the buffalo--a species of sucker, to be found +to-day in every considerable stream in Kansas. + +Having reached the Upper Valley,[21] bordered by high sand hills, +the journal continues: + + From the tops of the hills, we saw far away, in almost + every direction, mile after mile of prairie, blackened + with buffalo. One morning, when our march was along the + natural meadows by the river, we passed through them for + miles; they opened in front and closed continually in + the rear, preserving a distance scarcely over three hundred + paces. On one occasion, a bull had approached within + two hundred yards without seeing us, until he ascended + the river bank; he stood a moment shaking his head, and + then made a charge at the column. Several officers + stepped out and fired at him, two or three dogs also rushed + to meet him; but right onward he came, snorting blood + from mouth and nostril at every leap, and, with the speed + of a horse and the momentum of a locomotive, dashed + between two wagons, which the frightened oxen nearly upset; + the dogs were at his heels and soon he came to bay, and, + with tail erect, kicked violently for a moment, and then + sank in death--the muscles retaining the dying rigidity + of tension. + +About the middle of July, the command arrived at its destination-- +Chouteau's Island, then on the boundary line between the United States +and New Mexico. + + Our orders were to march no further; and, as a protection + to the trade, it was like the establishment of a ferry + to the mid-channel of a river. + + Up to this time, traders had always used mules or horses. + Our oxen were an experiment, and it succeeded admirably; + they even did better when water was very scarce, which is + an important consideration. + + A few hours after the departure of the trading company, + as we enjoyed a quiet rest on a hot afternoon, we saw + beyond the river a number of horsemen riding furiously + toward our camp. We all flocked out of the tents to hear + the news, for they were soon recognized as traders. + They stated that the caravan had been attacked, about + six miles off in the sand hills, by an innumerable host + of Indians; that some of their companions had been killed; + and they had run, of course, for help. There was not a + moment's hesitation; the word was given, and the tents + vanished as if by magic. The oxen which were grazing + near by were speedily yoked to the wagons, and into the + river we marched. Then I deemed myself the most unlucky + of men; a day or two before, while eating my breakfast, + with my coffee in a tin cup--notorious among chemists and + campaigners for keeping it hot--it was upset into my shoe, + and on pulling off the stocking, it so happened that the + skin came with it. Being thus hors de combat, I sought to + enter the combat on a horse, which was allowed; but I was + put in command of the rear guard to bring up the baggage + train. It grew late, and the wagons crossed slowly; + for the river unluckily took that particular time to + rise fast, and, before all were over, we had to swim it, + and by moonlight. We reached the encampment at one o'clock + at night. All was quiet, and remained so until dawn, + when, at the sound of our bugles, the pickets reported + they saw a number of Indians moving off. On looking + around us, we perceived ourselves and the caravan in the + most unfavorable defenceless situation possible--in the + area of a natural amphitheatre of sand hills, about fifty + feet high, and within gun-shot all around. There was + the narrowest practicable entrance and outlet. + + We ascertained that some mounted traders, in spite of all + remonstrance and command, had ridden on in advance, and + when in the narrow pass beyond this spot, had been suddenly + beset by about fifty Indians; all fled and escaped save one, + who, mounted on a mule, was abandoned by his companions, + overtaken, and slain. The Indians, perhaps, equalled the + traders in number, but notwithstanding their extraordinary + advantage of ground, dared not attack them when they + made a stand among their wagons; and the latter, all well + armed, were afraid to make a single charge, which would + have scattered their enemies like sheep. + + Having buried the poor fellow's body, and killed an ox for + breakfast, we left this sand hollow, which would soon have + been roasting hot, and advancing through the defile--of + which we took care to occupy the commanding ground-- + proceeded to escort the traders at least one day's march + further. + + When the next morning broke clear and cloudless, the command + was confronted by one of those terrible hot winds, still + frequent on the plains. The oxen with lolling tongues + were incapable of going on; the train was halted, and the + suffering animals unyoked, but they stood motionless, + making no attempt to graze. Late that afternoon, the + caravan pushed on for about ten miles, where was the + sandy bed of a dry creek, and fortunately, not far from + the Trail, up the stream, a pool of water and an acre + or two of grass was discovered. On the surface of the + water floated thick the dead bodies of small fish, which + the intense heat of the sun that day had killed. + + Arriving at this point, it was determined to march no + further into the Mexican territory. At the first light + next day we were in motion to return to the river and + the American line, and no further adventure befell us. + +While permanently encamped at Chouteau's Island, which is situated +in the Arkansas River, the term of enlistment of four of the soldiers +of Captain Cooke's command expired, and they were discharged. +In his journal he says: + + Contrary to all advice they determined to return to + Missouri. After having marched several hundred miles + over a prairie country, being often on high hills + commanding a vast prospect, without seeing a human being + or a sign of one, and, save the trail we followed, not + the slightest indication that the country had ever been + visited by man, it was exceedingly difficult to credit + that lurking foes were around us, and spying our motions. + It was so with these men; and being armed, they set out + on the first of August on foot for the settlements. + That same night three of the four returned. They reported + that, after walking about fifteen miles, they were + surrounded by thirty mounted Indians. A wary old soldier + of their number succeeded in extricating them before any + hostile act had been committed; but one of them, highly + elated and pleased at their forbearance, insisted on + returning among them to give them tobacco and shake hands. + In this friendly act he was shot down. The Indians + stripped him in an incredibly short time, and as quickly + dispersed to avoid a shot; and the old soldier, after + cautioning the others to reserve their fire, fired among + them, and probably with some effect. Had the others done + the same, the Indians would have rushed upon them before + they could have reloaded. They managed to make good + their retreat in safety to our camp. + + We were instructed to wait here for the return of the + caravan, which was expected early in October. + Our provisions consisted of salt and half rations of flour, + besides a reserve of fifteen days' full rations--as to the + rest, we were dependent upon hunting. When the buffalo + became scarce, or the grass bad, we marched to other + ground, thus roving up and down the river for eighty + miles. The first thing we did after camping was to dig + and construct, with flour barrels, a well in front of + each company; water was always found at the depth of + from two to four feet varying with the corresponding + height of the river, but clear and cool. Next we would + build sod fire-places; these, with network platforms of + buffalo hide, used for smoking and drying meat, formed a + tolerable additional defence, at least against mounted men. + + Hunting was a military duty, done by detail, parties of + fifteen or twenty going out with a wagon. Completely + isolated, and beyond support or even communication, + in the midst of many thousands of Indians, the utmost + vigilance was maintained. Officer of the guard every + fourth night; I was always awake and generally in motion + the whole time of duty. Night alarms were frequent; when, + as we all slept in our clothes, we were accustomed to + assemble instantly, and with scarcely a word spoken, + take our places in the grass in front of each face of + the camp, where, however wet, we sometimes lay for hours. + + While encamped a few miles below Chouteau's Island, on the + eleventh of August, an alarm was given, and we were under + arms for an hour until daylight. During the morning, + Indians were seen a mile or two off, leading their horses + through the ravines. A captain, however, with eighteen + men was sent across the river after buffalo, which we saw + half a mile distant. In his absence, a large body of + Indians came galloping down the river, as if to charge + the camp, but the cattle were secured in good time. + A company, of which I was lieutenant, was ordered to + cross the river and support the first. We waded in some + disorder through the quicksands and current, and just + as we neared a dry sandbar in the middle, a volley was + fired at us by a band of Indians, who that moment rode + to the water's edge. The balls whistled very near, + but without damage; I felt an involuntary twitch of + the neck, and wishing to return the compliment instantly, + I stooped down, and the company fired over my head, + with what execution was not perceived, as the Indians + immediately retired out of our view. This had passed + in half a minute, and we were astonished to see, a little + above, among some bushes on the same bar, the party we had + been sent to support, and we heard that they had abandoned + one of the hunters, who had been killed. We then saw, + on the bank we had just left, a formidable body of the + enemy in close order, and hoping to surprise them, + we ascended the bed of the river. In crossing the channel + we were up to the arm-pits, but when we emerged on the + bank, we found that the Indians had detected the movement, + and retreated. Casting eyes beyond the river, I saw a + number of the Indians riding on both sides of a wagon + and team which had been deserted, urging the animals + rapidly toward the hills. At this juncture the adjutant + sent an order to cross and recover the body of the slain + hunter, who was an old soldier and a favourite. He was + brought in with an arrow still transfixing his breast, + but his scalp was gone. + + On the fourteenth of October, we again marched on our + return. Soon after, we saw smokes arise over the distant + hills; evidently signals, indicating to different parties + of Indians our separation and march, but whether preparatory + to an attack upon the Mexicans or ourselves, or rather + our immense drove of animals, we could only guess. + + Our march was constantly attended by great collections + of buffalo, which seemed to have a general muster, perhaps + for migration. Sometimes a hundred or two--a fragment + from the multitude--would approach within two or three + hundred yards of the column, and threaten a charge which + would have proved disastrous to the mules and their drivers. + + Under the friendly cover of the shades of evening, on the + eighth of November, our tatterdemalion veterans marched + into Fort Leavenworth, and took quiet possession of the + miserable huts and sheds left by the Third Infantry in + the preceding May. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY. + + + +As early as November, 1842, a rumour was current in Santa Fe, and +along the line of the Trail, that parties of Texans had left the +Republic for the purpose of attacking and robbing the caravans to +the United States which were owned wholly by Mexicans. In consequence +of this, several Americans were accused of being spies and acting +in collusion with the Texans; many were arrested and carried to +Santa Fe, but nothing could be proved against them, and the rumours +of the intended purposes of the Texans died out. + +Very early in May, however, of the following year, 1843, a certain +Colonel Snively did organize a small force, comprising about two +hundred men, which he led from Northern Texas, his home, to the +line of the Trail, with the intention of attacking and robbing the +Mexican caravans which were expected to cross the plains that month +and in June. + +When he arrived at the Arkansas River, he was there reinforced by +another Texan colonel, named Warfield with another small command. +Gregg says: + + This officer, with about twenty men, had some time + previously attacked the village of Mora, on the Mexican + frontier, killing five men, and driving off a number + of horses. They were afterward followed by a party of + Mexicans, however, who stampeded and carried away, not only + their own horses, but those of the Texans. Being left + afoot, the latter burned their saddles, and walked to + Bent's Fort, where they were disbanded; whence Warfield + passed to Snively's camp, as before mentioned. + + The Texans now advanced along the Santa Fe Trail, beyond + the sand hills south of the Arkansas, when they discovered + that a party of Mexicans had passed toward the river. + They soon came upon them, and a skirmish ensuing, eighteen + Mexicans were killed, and as many wounded, five of whom + afterward died. The Texans suffered no injury, though + the Mexicans were a hundred in number. The rest were all + taken prisoners except two, who escaped and bore the news + to General Armijo, who was encamped with a large force + at Cold Spring, one hundred and forty miles beyond. + +Kit Carson figured conspicuously in this fight, or, rather, immediately +afterward. His recital differs somewhat from Gregg's account, +but the stories substantially agree. Kit said that in April, +previously to the assault upon Armijo's caravan, he had hired out +as hunter to Bent's and Colonel St. Vrain's train caravan, which was +then making its annual tour eastwardly. When he arrived at the +crossing of Walnut Creek,[22] he found the encampment of Captain +Philip St. George Cooke, of the United States army, who had been +detailed with his command to escort the caravans to the New Mexican +boundary. His force consisted of four troops of dragoons. +The captain informed Carson that coming on behind him from the States +was a caravan belonging to a very wealthy Mexican. + +It was a richly loaded train, and in order to insure its better +protection while passing through that portion of the country infested +by the blood-thirsty Comanches and Apaches, the majordomo in charge +had hired one hundred Mexicans as a guard. The teamsters and others +belonging to the caravan had heard that a large body of Texans were +lying in wait for them, and intended to murder and plunder them in +retaliation for the way Armijo had treated some Texan prisoners +he had got in his power at Santa Fe some time before. Of course, +it was the duty of the United States troops to escort this caravan +to the New Mexico line, but there their duty would end, as they +had no authority to cross the border. The Mexicans belonging to +the caravan were afraid they would be at the mercy of the Texans +after they had parted company with the soldiers, and when Kit Carson +met them, they, knowing the famous trapper and mountaineer well, +asked him to take a letter to Armijo, who was then governor of +New Mexico, and resided in Santa Fe, for which service they would +give him three hundred dollars in advance. The letter contained +a statement of the fears they entertained, and requested the general +to send Mexican troops at once to meet them. + +Carson, who was then not blessed with much money, eagerly accepted +the task, and immediately started on the trail for Bent's Fort, +in company with another old mountaineer and bosom friend named Owens. +In a short time they arrived at the Fort, where Owens decided not +to go any further, because they were informed by the men at Bent's +that the Utes had broken out, and were scattered along the Trail +at the most dangerous points, and he was fearful that his life +would be endangered if he attempted to make Santa Fe. + +Kit, however, nothing daunted, and determined to do the duty for +which he had been rewarded so munificently, started out alone on +his perilous trip. Mr. Bent kindly furnished him with the best and +fastest horse he had in his stables, but Kit, realizing the dangers +to which he would be exposed, walked, leading his animal, ready to +mount him at a moment's notice; thus keeping him in a condition that +would enable Carson to fly and make his escape if the savages tried +to capture him. His knowledge of the Indian character, and wonderful +alertness in moments of peril, served him well; for he reached the +village of the hostile Indians without their discovering his proximity. +Hiding himself in a rocky, bush-covered canyon, he stayed there until +night came on, when he continued his journey in the darkness. + +He took the trail to Taos, where he arrived in two or three days, +and presented his letter to the alcalde, to be sent on to Santa Fe +by special messenger. + +He was to remain at Taos until an answer from the governor arrived, +and then return with it as rapidly as possible to the train. +While at Taos, he was informed that Armijo had already sent out +a company of one hundred soldiers to meet the caravan, and was to +follow in person, with a thousand more. + +This first hundred were those attacked by Colonel Snively, as related +by Gregg, who says that two survived, who carried the news of the +disaster to Armijo at Cold Spring; but Carson told me that only one +got away, by successfully catching, during the heat of the fight, +a Texan pony already saddled, that was grazing around loose. +With him he made Armijo's camp and related to the Mexican general +the details of the terribly unequal battle. Armijo, upon receipt +of the news, "turned tail," and retreated to Santa Fe. + +Before Armijo left Santa Fe with his command, he had received the +letter which Carson had brought from the caravan, and immediately +sent one in reply for Carson to carry back, thinking that the old +mountaineer might reach the wagons before he did. Carson, with his +usual promptness, started on the Trail for the caravan, and came up +with it while it was escorted by the dragoons, thus saving it from +the fate that the Texans intended for it, as they dared not attempt +any interference in the presence of the United States troops. + +The rumour current in Santa Fe in relation to a probable raid of +parties of Texans along the line of the Trail, for the purpose of +attacking and robbing the caravans of the wealthy Mexican traders, +was received with so little credence by the prominent citizens of +the country, that several native trains left for the Missouri River +without their proprietors having the slightest apprehension that +they would not reach their destination, and make the return trip +in safety. + +Among those who had no fear of marauders was Don Antonio Jose Chavez, +who, in February, 1843, left Santa Fe for Independence with an outfit +consisting of a number of wagons, his private coach, several servants +and other retainers. Don Antonio was a very wealthy Mexican engaged +in a general mercantile business on a large scale in Albuquerque, +who made all his purchases of goods in St. Louis, which was then +the depot of supplies for the whole mountain region. He necessarily +carried with him on these journeys a large amount of money, in silver, +which was the legal currency of the country, and made but one trip +yearly to replenish the stock of goods required in his extensive +trade in all parts of Mexico. + +Upon his arrival at Westport Landing, as Kansas City was then called, +he would take the steamboat for St. Louis, leaving his coach, wagons, +servants, and other appointments of his caravan behind him in the +village of Westport, a few miles from the Landing. + +Westport was at that time, like all steamboat towns in the era of +water navigation, the harbor of as great a lot of ruffians as ever +escaped the gallows. There was especially a noted gang of land pirates, +the members of which had long indulged in speculations regarding the +probable wealth of the Mexican Don, and how much coin he generally +carried with him. They knew that it must be considerable from the +quantity of goods that always came by boat with him from St. Louis. + +At last a devilish plot was arranged to get hold of the rich trader's +money. Nine men were concerned in the robbery, nearly all of whom +were residents of the vicinity of Westport; their leader was one +John McDaniel, recently from Texas, from which government he claimed +to hold a captain's commission, and one of their number was a doctor. +It was evidently the intention of this band to join Warfield's party +on the Arkansas, and engage in a general robbery of the freight +caravans of the Santa Fe Trail belonging to the Mexicans; but they +had determined that Chavez should be their first victim, and in order +to learn when he intended to leave Santa Fe on his next trip east, +they sent their spies out on the great highway. + +They did not dare attempt their contemplated robbery, and murder +if necessary, in the State of Missouri, for there were too many +citizens of the border who would never have permitted such a thing +to go unpunished; so they knew that their only chance was to effect it +in the Indian country of Kansas, where there was little or no law. + +Cow Creek, which debouches into the Arkansas at Hutchinson, where +the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad crosses the historic +little stream,[23] was, like Big and Little Coon creeks, a most +dangerous point in the transcontinental passage of freight caravans +and overland coaches, in the days of the commerce of the prairies. +It was on this purling little prairie brook that McDaniel's band +lay in wait for the arrival of the ill-fated Don Antonio, whose +imposing equipage came along, intending to encamp on the bank, +one of the usual stopping-places on the route. + +The Don was taken a few miles south of the Trail, and his baggage +rifled. All of his party were immediately murdered, but the wealthy +owner of the caravan was spared for a few moments in order to make +a confession of where his money was concealed, after which he was +shot down in cold blood, and his body thrown into a ravine. + +It appears, however, that the ruffians had not completed their +bloody work so effectually as they thought; for one of the Mexican's +teamsters escaped, and, making his way to Leavenworth, reported +the crime, and was soon on his way back to the Trail, guiding a +detachment of United States troops in pursuit of the murderers. + +John Hobbs, scout, trapper, and veteran plainsman, happened to be +hunting buffalo on Pawnee Fork, on the ground where Larned is now +situated, with a party from Bent's Fort. They were just on the point +of crossing the Trail at the mouth of the Pawnee when the soldiers +from Fort Leavenworth came along, and from them Hobbs and his +companions first learned of the murder of Chavez on Cow Creek. +As the men who were out hunting were all familiar with every foot +of the region they were then in, the commanding officer of the troops +induced them to accompany him in his search for the murderers. + +Hobbs and his men cheerfully accepted the invitation, and in about +four days met the band of cut-throats on the broad Trail, they little +dreaming that the government had taken a hand in the matter. +The band tried to escape by flight, but Hobbs shot the doctor's horse +from under him, and a soldier killed another member of the band, +when the remainder surrendered. + +The money, about twelve or fifteen thousand dollars,[24] was all +recovered, and the murderers taken to St. Louis, where some were hung +and some imprisoned, the doctor escaping the death penalty by turning +state's evidence. His sentence was incarceration in the penitentiary, +from which he was pardoned after remaining there two years. +Hobbs met the doctor some years after in San Francisco. He was then +leading an honest life, publishing a newspaper, and begged his captor +not to expose him. + +The money taken from the robbers was placed in charge of Colonel Owens, +a friend of the Chavez family and a leading Santa Fe trader. +He continued on to the river, purchased a stock of goods, and +sent back the caravan to Santa Fe in charge of Doctor Conley of +Boonville, Missouri. + +Arriving at his destination, the widow of the deceased Chavez +employed the good doctor to sell the goods and take the sole +supervision of her immense business interests, and there is a touch +of romance attached to the terrible Kansas tragedy, which lies in +the fact that the doctor in about two years married the rich widow, +and lived very happily for about a decade, dying then on one of the +large estates in New Mexico, which he had acquired by his fortunate +union with the amiable Mexican lady. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +MEXICO DECLARES WAR. + + + +Mexico declared war against the United States in April, 1846. In the +following May, Congress passed an act authorizing the President to +call into the field fifty thousand volunteers, designed to operate +against Mexico at three distinct points, and consisting of the +Southern Wing, or the Army of Occupation, the Army of the Centre, +and the Army of the West, the latter to direct its march upon the +city of Santa Fe. The original plan was, however, somewhat changed, +and General Kearney, who commanded the Army of the West, divided his +forces into three separate commands. The first he led in person +to the Pacific coast. One thousand volunteers, under command of +Colonel A. W. Doniphan, were to make a descent upon the State of +Chihuahua, while the remainder and greater part of the forces, under +Colonel Sterling Price, were to garrison Santa Fe after its capture. + +There is a pretty fiction told of the breaking out of the war +between Mexico and the United States. Early in the spring of 1846, +before it was known or even conjectured that a state of war would be +declared to exist between this government and Mexico, a caravan +of twenty-nine traders, on their way from Independence to Santa Fe, +beheld, just after a storm and a little before sunset, a perfectly +distinct image of the Bird of Liberty, the American eagle, on the +disc of the sun. When they saw it they simultaneously and almost +involuntarily exclaimed that in less than twelve months the Eagle +of Liberty would spread his broad plumes over the plains of the West, +and that the flag of our country would wave over the cities of +New Mexico and Chihuahua. The student of the classics will remember +that just before the assassination of Julius Caesar, both Brutus +and Cassius, while in their places in the Roman Senate, saw chariots +of fire in the sky. One story is as true, probably, as the other, +though separated by centuries of time. + +The Army of the West, under General Stephen W. Kearney, consisted of +two batteries of artillery, commanded by Major Clark; three squadrons +of the First United States Dragoons, commanded by Major Sumner; +the First Regiment of Missouri Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Doniphan, +and two companies of infantry, commanded by Captain Aubrey. +This force marched in detached columns from Fort Leavenworth, and +on the 1st of August, 1846, concentrated in camp on the Santa Fe +Trail, nine miles below Bent's Fort. + +Accompanying the expedition was a party of the United States +topographical engineers, under command of Lieutenant W. H. Emory.[25] +In writing of this expedition, so far as its march relates to the +Old Santa Fe Trail, I shall quote freely from Emory's report and +Doniphan's historian.[26] + +The practicability of marching a large army over the waste, +uncultivated, uninhabited prairie regions of the West was universally +regarded as problematical, but the expedition proved completely +successful. Provisions were conveyed in wagons, and beef-cattle +driven along for the use of the men. These animals subsisted +entirely by grazing. To secure them from straying off at night, +they were driven into corrals formed of the wagons, or tethered to +an iron picket-pin driven into the ground about fifteen inches. +At the outset of the expedition many laughable scenes took place. +Our horses were generally wild, fiery, and unused to military +trappings and equipments. Amidst the fluttering of banners, +the sounding of bugles, the rattling of artillery, the clattering +of sabres and also of cooking utensils, some of them took fright +and scampered pell-mell over the wide prairie. Rider, arms and +accoutrements, saddles, saddle-bags, tin cups, and coffee-pots, +were frequently left far behind in the chase. No very serious or +fatal accident, however, occurred from this cause, and all was +right as soon as the affrighted animals were recovered. + +The Army of the West was, perhaps, composed of as fine material as +any other body of troops then in the field. The volunteer corps +consisted almost entirely of young men of the country. + +On the 9th of July, a separate detachment of the troops arrived at +the Little Arkansas, where the Santa Fe Trail crosses that stream-- +now in McPherson County, Kansas. The mosquitoes, gnats, and black +flies swarmed in that locality and nearly drove the men and animals +frantic. While resting there, a courier came from the commands +of General Kearney and Colonel Doniphan, stating that their men +were in a starving condition, and asking for such provisions as +could be spared. Lieutenant-Colonel Ruff of Doniphan's regiment, +in command of the troops now camped on the Little Arkansas, was +almost destitute himself. He had sent couriers forward to Pawnee Fork +to stop a train of provisions at that point and have it wait there +until he came up with his force, and he now directed the courier from +Kearney to proceed to the same place and halt as many wagons loaded +with supplies, as would suffice to furnish the three detachments +with rations. One of the couriers, in attempting to ford the fork +of the Pawnee, which was bank-full, was drowned. His body was found +and given a military funeral; he was the first man lost on the +expedition after it had reached the great plains, one having been +drowned in the Missouri, at Fort Leavenworth, before the troops left. + +The author of _Doniphan's Expedition_ says: + In approaching the Arkansas, a landscape of the most + imposing and picturesque nature makes its appearance. + While the green, glossy undulations of the prairie to + the right seem to spread out in infinite succession, + like waves subsiding after a storm, and covered with + herds of gambolling buffalo, on the left, towering to + the height of seventy-five to a hundred feet, rise the + sun-gilt summits of the sand hills, along the base of + which winds the broad, majestic river, bespeckled with + verdant islets, thickly beset with cottonwood timber, + the sand hills resembling heaps of driven snow. +I refer to this statement to show how wonderfully the settlement +of the region has changed the physical aspect of that portion +bordering the Arkansas River. Now those sand hills are covered +with verdure, and this metamorphosis has taken place within the +last thirty years; for the author of this work well remembers how +the great sand dunes used to shine in the sunlight, when he first +saw them a third of a century ago. In coming from Fort Leavenworth +up the Smoky Hill route to the Santa Fe Trail, where the former +joined the latter at Pawnee Rock, the contour of the Arkansas +could be easily traced by the white sand hills referred to, +long before it was reached. + +On the 15th of July the combined forces formed a junction at +Pawnee Fork, now within the city limits of Larned, Kansas. The river +was impassable, but General Kearney, with the characteristic energy +of his family, determined not to be delayed, and to that end caused +great trees to be cut down and their trunks thrown across the stream, +over which the army passed, carrying in their arms the sick, the +baggage, tents, and other paraphernalia; the animals being forced +to swim. The empty bodies of the wagons, fastened to their running +gear, were floated across by means of ropes, and hauled up the +slippery bank by the troops. This required two whole days; and on +the morning of the 17th, not an accident having occurred, the entire +column was en route again, the infantry, as is declared in the +official reports, keeping pace with the cavalry right along. +Their feet, however, became terribly blistered, and, like the +Continentals at Valley Forge, their tracks were marked with blood. + +In a day or two after the command had left Pawnee Fork, while camping +in a beautiful spot on the bank of the Arkansas, an officer, Major +Howard, who had been sent forward to Santa Fe some time previously +by the general to learn something of the feeling of the people +in relation to submitting to the government of the United States, +returned and reported + + that the common people, or plebeians, were inclined to + favour the conditions of peace proposed by General Kearney; + viz. that if they would lay down their arms and take the + oath of allegiance to the government of the United States, + they should, to all intents and purposes, become citizens + of the same republic, receiving the protection and enjoying + the liberties guaranteed to other American citizens; but + that the patricians who held the offices and ruled the + country were hostile, and were making warlike preparations. + He added, further, that two thousand three hundred men + were already armed for the defence of the capital, and + that others were assembling at Taos. +This intelligence created quite a sensation in camp, and it was +believed, and earnestly hoped, that the entrance of the troops +into Santa Fe would be desperately opposed; such is the pugnacious +character of the average American the moment he dons the uniform +of a soldier. + +The army arrived at the Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas on the 20th, +and during the march of nearly thirty miles from their last camp, +a herd of about four hundred buffalo suddenly emerged from the +Arkansas, and broke through the long column. In an instant the +troops charged upon the surprised animals with guns, pistols, and +even drawn sabres, and many of the huge beasts were slaughtered +as they went dashing and thundering among the excited troopers and +infantrymen. + +On the 29th an express from Bent's Fort brought news to General +Kearney from Santa Fe that Governor Armijo had called the chief men +together to deliberate on the best means of defending the city; +that hostile preparations were rapidly going on in all parts of +New Mexico; and that the American advance would be vigorously opposed. +Some Mexican prisoners were taken near Bent's Fort, with blank letters +on their persons addressed to the general; it was supposed this piece +of ingenuity was resorted to to deceive the American residents at +the fort. These men were thought to be spies sent out from Santa Fe +to get an idea of the strength of the army; so they were shown +everything in and around camp, and then allowed to depart in peace +for Santa Fe, to report what they had seen. + +On the same date, the Army of the West crossed the Arkansas and camped +on Mexican soil about eight miles below Bent's Fort, and now the +utmost vigilance was exercised; for the troops had not only to keep +a sharp lookout for the Mexicans, but for the wily Comanches, in whose +country their camp was located. Strong picket and camp guards were +posted, and the animals turned loose to graze, guarded by a large +force. Notwithstanding the care taken to confine them within certain +limits, a pack of wolves rushed through the herd, and in an instant +it was stampeded, and there ensued a scene of the wildest confusion. +More than a thousand horses were dashing madly over the prairie, +their rage and fright increased at every jump by the lariats and +picket-pins which they had pulled up, and which lashed them like +so many whips. After desperate exertions by the troops, the majority +were recovered from thirty to fifty miles distant; nearly a hundred, +however, were absolutely lost and never seen again. + +At this camp the troops were visited by the war chief of the Arapahoes, +who manifested great surprise at the big guns, and declared that +the Mexicans would not stand a moment before such terrible instruments +of death, but would escape to the mountains with the utmost despatch. + +On the 1st of August a new camp near Bent's Fort was established, +from whence twenty men under Lieutenant de Courcy, with orders to +proceed through the mountains to the valley of Taos, to learn +something of the disposition and intentions of the people, and to +rejoin General Kearney on the road to Santa Fe. Lieutenant de Courcy, +in his official itinerary, relates the following anecdote: + We took three pack-mules laden with provisions, and as + we did not expect to be long absent, the men took no extra + clothing. Three days after we left the column our mules + fell down, and neither gentle means nor the points of our + sabres had the least effect in inducing them to rise. + Their term of service with Uncle Sam was out. "What's to + be done?" said the sergeant. "Dismount!" said I. + "Off with your shirts and drawers, men! tie up the sleeves + and legs, and each man bag one-twentieth part of the flour!" + Having done this, the bacon was distributed to the men also, + and tied to the cruppers of their saddles. Thus loaded, + we pushed on, without the slightest fear of our provision + train being cut off. + + The march upon Santa Fe was resumed on the 2d of August. + As we passed Bent's Fort the American flag was raised, + in compliment to our troops, and, like our own, streamed + most animatingly in the gale that swept from the desert, + while the tops of the houses were crowded with Mexican girls + and Indian squaws, intently beholding the American army. + +On the 15th of the month, the army neared Las Vegas; when two spies +who had been sent on in advance to see how matters stood returned +and reported that two thousand Mexicans were camped at the pass +a few miles beyond the village, where they intended to offer battle. + +Upon receipt of this news, the general immediately formed a line +of battle. The United States dragoons with the St. Louis mounted +volunteers were stationed in front, Major Clark with the battalion +of volunteer light artillery in the centre, and Colonel Doniphan's +regiment in the rear. The companies of volunteer infantry were +deployed on each side of the line of march as flankers. The supply +trains were next in order, with Captain Walton's mounted company +as rear guard. There was also a strong advance guard. The cartridges +were hastily distributed; the cannon swabbed and rigged; the +port-fires burning, and every rifle loaded. + +In passing through the streets of the curious-looking village of +Las Vegas, the army was halted, and from the roof of a large house +General Kearney administered to the chief officers of the place +the oath of allegiance to the United States, using the sacred cross +instead of the Bible. This act completed, on marched the exultant +troops toward the canyon where it had been promised them that they +should meet the enemy. + +On the night of the 16th, while encamped on the Pecos River, near +the village of San Jose, the pickets captured a son of the Mexican +General Salezar, who was acting the role of a spy, and two other +soldiers of the Mexican army. Salezar was kept a close prisoner; +but the two privates were by order of General Kearney escorted +through the camp and shown the cannon, after which they were allowed +to depart, so that they might tell what they had seen. It was +learned afterward that they represented the American army as composed +of five thousand troops, and possessing so many cannons that they +were not able to count them. + +When Armijo was certain that the Army of the West was really +approaching Santa Fe, he assembled seven thousand troops, part of them +well armed, and the remainder indifferently so. The Mexican general +had written a note to General Kearney the day before the capture +of the spies, saying that he would meet him on the following day. + +General Kearney, at this, hastened on, arriving at the mouth of +the Apache canyon at noon, with his whole force ready and anxious +to try the mettle of the Mexicans in battle. Emory in his +_Reconnoissance_ says: + + The sun shone with dazzling brightness; the guidons and + colours of each squadron, regiment, and battalion were + for the first time unfurled. The drooping horses seemed + to take courage from the gay array. The trumpeters + sounded "to horse" with spirit, and the hills multiplied + and re-echoed the call. All wore the aspect of a gala day. + About the middle of the day's march the two Pueblo Indians, + previously sent to sound the chief men of that formidable + tribe, were seen in the distance, at full speed, with arms + and legs both thumping the sides of their mules at every + stride. Something was now surely in the wind. The smaller + and foremost of the two dashed up to the general, his face + radiant with joy, and exclaimed: + + "They are in the canyon, my brave; pluck up your courage + and push them out." As soon as his extravagant delight at + the prospect of a fight, and the pleasure of communicating + the news, had subsided, he gave a pretty accurate idea + of Armijo's force and position. + + Shortly afterwards a rumour reached the camp that the + two thousand Mexicans assembled in the canyon to oppose us, + have quarrelled among themselves; and that Armijo, taking + advantage of the dissensions, has fled with his dragoons + and artillery to the south. It is well known that he has + been averse to a battle, but some of his people threatened + his life if he refused to fight. He had been, for some + days, more in fear of his own people than of the American + army, having seen what they are blind to--the hopelessness + of resistance. + + As we approached the ancient town of Pecos, a large fat + fellow, mounted on a mule, came toward us at full speed, + and, extending his hand to the general, congratulated him + on the arrival of himself and army. He said with a roar + of laughter, "Armijo and his troops have gone to h---ll, + and the canyon is all clear." + +On reaching the canyon, it was found to be true that the Mexican +troops had dispersed and fled to the mountains, just as the old +Arapahoe chief had said they would. There, however, they commenced +to fortify, by chopping away the timber so that their artillery +could play to better advantage upon the American lines, and by +throwing up temporary breastworks. It was ascertained afterward, +on undoubted authority, that Armijo had an army of nearly seven +thousand Mexicans, with six pieces of artillery, and the advantage +of ground, yet he allowed General Kearney, with a force of less than +two thousand, to march through the almost impregnable gorge, and on +to the capital of the Province, without any attempt to oppose him. + +Thus was New Mexico conquered with but little loss relatively. +For the further details of the movements of the Army of the West, +the reader is referred to general history, as this book, necessarily, +treats only of that portion of its march and the incidents connected +with it while travelling the Santa Fe Trail. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE VALLEY OF TAOS. + + + +The principal settlement in New Mexico, immediately after it was +reconquered from the Indians by the Spaniards, was, of course, +Santa Fe, and ranking second to it, that of the beautiful Valle de Taos, +which derived its name from the Taosa Indians, a few of whose direct +descendants are still occupying a portion of the region. As the +pioneers in the trade with Santa Fe made their first journeys to +the capital of the Province by the circuitous route of the Taos +valley, and the initial consignments of goods from the Missouri +were disposed of in the little villages scattered along the road, +the story of the Trail would be deficient in its integrity were the +thrilling historical facts connected with the romantic region omitted. + +The reader will find on all maps, from the earliest published to the +latest issued by the local railroads, a town with the name of Taos, +which never had an existence. Fernandez de Taos is the chief city, +which has been known so long by the title of the valley that perhaps +the misnomer is excusable after many years' use. + +Fernandez, or Taos as it is called, was once famous for its +distilleries of whiskey, made out of the native wheat, a raw, fiery +spirit, always known in the days of the Santa Fe trade as "Taos +lightning," which was the most profitable article of barter with +the Indians, who exchanged their buffalo robes and other valuable +furs for a supply of it, at a tremendous sacrifice. + +According to the statement of Gregg, the first white settler of the +fertile and picturesque valley was a Spaniard named Pando, who +established himself there about 1745. This primitive pioneer of +the northern part of the Province was constantly exposed to the raids +of the powerful Comanches, but succeeded in creating a temporary +friendship with the tribe by promising his daughter, then a young +and beautiful infant, to the chief in marriage when she arrived +at a suitable age. At the time for the ratification of her father's +covenant with the Indians, however, the maiden stubbornly refused +to fulfil her part. The savages, enraged at the broken faith of +the Spaniard, immediately swept down upon the little settlement and +murdered everybody there except the betrothed girl, whom they +carried off into captivity. She was forced to live with the chief +as his wife, but he soon became tired of her and traded her for +another woman with the Pawnees, who, in turn, sold her to a Frenchman, +a resident of St. Louis. It is said that some of the most respectable +families of that city are descended from her, and fifty years ago +there were many people living who remembered the old lady, and her +pathetic story of trials and sufferings when with the Indians. + +The most tragic event in the history of the valley was the massacre +of the provisional governor of the Territory of New Mexico, with +a number of other Americans, shortly after its occupation by the +United States. + +Upon General Kearney's taking possession of Santa Fe, acting under +the authority of the President, he established a civil government +and put it into operation. Charles Bent was appointed governor, +and the other offices filled by Americans and Mexicans who were +rigidly loyal to the political change. At this time the command +of the troops devolved upon Colonel Sterling Price, Colonel Doniphan, +who ranked him, having departed from Santa Fe on an expedition +against the Navajoes. Notwithstanding the apparent submission of +the natives of New Mexico, there were many malcontents among them +and the Pueblo Indians, and early in December, some of the leaders, +dissatisfied with the change in the order of things, held secret +meetings and formulated plots to overthrow the existing government. + +Midnight of the 24th of December was the time appointed for the +commencement of their revolutionary work, which was to be simultaneous +all over the country. The profoundest secrecy was to be preserved, +and the most influential men, whose ambition induced them to seek +preferment, were alone to be made acquainted with the plot. No woman +was to be privy to it, lest it should be divulged. The sound of +the church bell was to be the signal, and at midnight all were to +enter the Plaza at the same moment, seize the pieces of artillery, +and point them into the streets. + +The time chosen for the assault was Christmas-eve, when the soldiers +and garrison would be indulging in wine and feasting, and scattered +about through the city at the fandangoes, not having their arms in +their hands. All the Americans, without distinction, throughout +the State, and such New Mexicans as had favoured the American +government and accepted office by appointment of General Kearney, +were to be massacred or driven from the country, and the conspirators +were to seize upon and occupy the government. + +The conspiracy was detected in the following manner: a mulatto girl, +residing in Santa Fe, had married one of the conspirators, and had by +degrees obtained a knowledge of their movements and secret meetings. +To prevent the effusion of blood, which would inevitably be the result +of a revolution, she communicated to Colonel Price all the facts +of which she was in possession, and warned him to use the utmost +vigilance. The rebellion was immediately suppressed, but the +restless and unsatisfied ambition of the leaders of the conspiracy +did not long permit them to remain inactive. A second and still more +dangerous conspiracy was formed. The most powerful and influential +men in the State favoured the design, and even the officers of State +and the priests gave their aid and counsel. The people everywhere, +in the towns, villages, and settlements, were exhorted to arm and +equip themselves; to strike for their faith, their religion, and +their altars; and drive the "heretics," the "unjust invaders of +the country," from their soil, and with fire and sword pursue them +to annihilation. On the 18th of January this rebellion broke out +in every part of the State simultaneously. + +On the 14th of January, Governor Bent, believing the conspiracy +completely crushed, with an escort of five persons--among whom were +the sheriff and circuit attorney--had left Santa Fe to visit his +family, who resided at Fernandez. + +On the 19th, he was early roused from sleep by the populace, who, +with the aid of the Pueblos of Taos, were collected in front of his +dwelling striving to gain admittance. While they were effecting +an entrance, he, with an axe, cut through an adobe wall into another +house; and the Mexican wife of the occupant, a clever though shiftless +Canadian, hearing him, with all her strength rendered him assistance. +He retreated to a room, but, seeing no way of escaping from the +infuriated assailants, who fired upon him from a window, he spoke +to his weeping wife and trembling children, and, taking paper +from his pocket, endeavoured to write; but fast losing strength, +he commended them to God and his brothers and fell, pierced by a +ball from a Pueblo. Then rushing in and tearing off his gray-haired +scalp, the Indians bore it away in triumph. + +The circuit attorney, T. W. Leal, was scalped alive and dragged +through the streets, his relentless persecutors pricking him with +lances. After hours of suffering, they threw him aside in the +inclement weather, he imploring them earnestly to kill him to end +his misery. A compassionate Mexican at last closed the tragic scene +by shooting him. Stephen Lee, brother to the general, was killed +on his own housetop. Narcisse Beaubien, son of the presiding judge +of the district, hid in an outhouse with his Indian slave, at the +commencement of the massacre, under a straw-covered trough. +The insurgents on the search, thinking that they had escaped, +were leaving, but a woman servant of the family, going to the +housetop, called to them, "Kill the young ones, and they will never +be men to trouble us." They swarmed back and, by cruelly putting +to death and scalping him and his slave, added two more to the list +of unfortunate victims. + +The Pueblos and Mexicans, after their cruelties at Fernandez de Taos, +attacked and destroyed Turley's Ranch on the Arroyo Hondo[27] twelve +miles from Fernandez, or Taos. Arroyo Hondo runs along the base +of a ridge of a mountain of moderate elevation, which divides the +valley of Taos from that of the Rio Colorado, or Red River, both +flowing into the Del Norte. The trail from one place to the other +passes over the mountain, which is covered with pine, cedar, and +a species of dwarf oak; and numerous little streams run through +the many canyons. + +On the bank of one of the creeks was a mill and distillery belonging +to an American named Turley, who did a thriving business. He possessed +herds of goats, and hogs innumerable; his barns were filled with +grain, his mill with flour, and his cellars with whiskey. He had +a Mexican wife and several children, and he bore the reputation of +being one of the most generous and kind-hearted of men. In times of +scarcity, no one ever sought his aid to be turned away empty-handed; +his granaries were always open to the hungry, and his purse to +the poor. + +When on their road to Turley's, the Pueblos murdered two men, named +Harwood and Markhead. Markhead was one of the most successful +trappers and daring men among the old mountaineers. They were on +their way to Taos with their pack-animals laden with furs, when the +savages, meeting them, after stripping them of their goods, and +securing their arms by treachery, made them mount their mules under +pretence of conducting them to Taos, where they were to be given up +to the leaders of the insurrection. They had hardly proceeded +a mile when a Mexican rode up behind Harwood and discharged his gun +into his back; he called out to Markhead that he was murdered, and +fell to the ground dead. + +Markhead, seeing that his own fate was sealed, made no struggle, +and was likewise shot in the back with several bullets. Both men +were then stripped naked, scalped, and horribly mutilated; their +bodies thrown into the brush to be devoured by the wolves. + +These trappers were remarkable men; Markhead, particularly, was +celebrated in the mountains for his courage, reckless daring, and +many almost miraculous escapes when in the very hands of the Indians. +When some years previously he had accompanied Sir William Drummond +Stewart on one of his expeditions across the Rockies, it happened +that a half-breed Indian employed by Sir William absconded one night +with some animals, which circumstance annoyed the nobleman so much, +as it disturbed all his plans, that he hastily offered, never dreaming +that he would be taken up, to give five hundred dollars for the scalp +of the thief. The very next evening Markhead rode into camp with the +hair of the luckless horse-thief dangling at the muzzle of his rifle. + +The wild crowd of rebels rode on to Turley's mill. Turley had been +warned of the impending uprising, but had treated the report with +indifference, until one morning a man in his employ, who had been +despatched to Santa Fe with several mule-loads of whiskey a few days +before, made his appearance at the gate on horseback, and hastily +informing the inmates of the mill that the New Mexicans had risen and +massacred Governor Bent and other Americans, galloped off. Even then +Turley felt assured that he would not be molested; but at the +solicitation of his men, he agreed to close the gate of the yard +around which were the buildings of the mill and distillery, and make +preparations for defence. + +A few hours afterward a large crowd of Mexicans and Pueblo Indians +made their appearance, all armed with guns and bows and arrows, and, +advancing with a white flag, summoned Turley to surrender his house +and the Americans in it, guaranteeing that his own life should be +saved, but that every other American in the valley must be destroyed; +that the governor and all the Americans at Fernandez had been killed, +and that not one was to be left alive in all New Mexico. + +To this summons Turley answered that he would never surrender his +house nor his men, and that if they wanted it or them, they must +take them. + +The enemy then drew off, and, after a short consultation, commenced +the attack. The first day they numbered about five hundred, but were +hourly reinforced by the arrival of parties of Indians from the more +distant Pueblos, and New Mexicans from Fernandez, La Canada, and +other places. + +The building lay at the foot of a gradual slope in the sierra, which +was covered with cedar bushes. In front ran the stream of the +Arroyo Hondo, about twenty yards from one side of the square, and +the other side was broken ground which rose abruptly and formed +the bank of the ravine. In the rear and behind the still-house was +some garden ground enclosed by a small fence, into which a small +wicket-gate opened from the corral. + +As soon as the attack was determined upon, the assailants scattered +and concealed themselves under cover of the rocks and bushes which +surrounded the house. From these they kept up an incessant fire upon +every exposed portion of the building where they saw preparations +for defence. + +The Americans, on their part, were not idle; not a man but was an old +mountaineer, and each had his trusty rifle, with a good store of +ammunition. Whenever one of the besiegers exposed a hand's-breadth +of his person, a ball from an unerring barrel whistled. The windows +had been blockaded, loopholes having been left, and through these +a lively fire was maintained. Already several of the enemy had +bitten the dust, and parties were seen bearing off the wounded up +the banks of the Canada. Darkness came on, and during the night +a continual fire was kept up on the mill, whilst its defenders, +reserving their ammunition, kept their posts with stern and silent +determination. The night was spent in casting balls, cutting patches, +and completing the defences of the building. In the morning the fight +was renewed, and it was found that the Mexicans had effected a +lodgment in a part of the stables, which were separated from the +other portions of the building by an open space of a few feet. +The assailants, during the night, had sought to break down the wall, +and thus enter the main building, but the strength of the adobe and +logs of which it was composed resisted effectually all their attempts. + +Those in the stable seemed anxious to regain the outside, for their +position was unavailable as a means of annoyance to the besieged, and +several had darted across the narrow space which divided it from the +other part of the building, which slightly projected, and behind +which they were out of the line of fire. As soon, however, as the +attention of the defenders was called to this point, the first man +who attempted to cross, who happened to be a Pueblo chief, was dropped +on the instant, and fell dead in the centre of the intervening space. +It appeared to be an object to recover the body, for an Indian +immediately dashed out to the fallen chief, and attempted to drag him +within the shelter of the wall. The rifle which covered the spot +again poured forth its deadly contents, and the Indian, springing +into the air, fell over the body of his chief. Another and another +met with a similar fate, and at last three rushed to the spot, and, +seizing the body by the legs and head, had already lifted it from the +ground, when three puffs of smoke blew from the barricaded windows, +followed by the sharp cracks of as many rifles, and the three daring +Indians were added to the pile of corpses which now covered the body +of the dead chief. + +As yet the besieged had met with no casualties; but after the fall +of the seven Indians, the whole body of the assailants, with a shout +of rage, poured in a rattling volley, and two of the defenders fell +mortally wounded. One, shot through the loins, suffered great agony, +and was removed to the still-house, where he was laid on a large +pile of grain, as being the softest bed that could be found. + +In the middle of the day the attack was renewed more fiercely than +before. The little garrison bravely stood to the defence of the mill, +never throwing away a shot, but firing coolly, and only when a fair +mark was presented to their unerring aim. Their ammunition, however, +was fast failing, and to add to the danger of their situation, +the enemy set fire to the mill, which blazed fiercely, and threatened +destruction to the whole building. Twice they succeeded in overcoming +the flames, and, while they were thus occupied, the Mexicans and +Indians charged into the corral, which was full of hogs and sheep, +and vented their cowardly rage upon the animals, spearing and shooting +all that came in their way. No sooner were the flames extinguished +in one place than they broke out more fiercely in another; and +as a successful defence was perfectly hopeless, and the numbers of +the assailants increased every moment, a council of war was held by +the survivors of the little garrison, when it was determined, +as soon as night approached, that every one should attempt to escape +as best he could. + +Just at dusk a man named John Albert and another ran to the +wicket-gate which opened into a kind of enclosed space, in which were +a number of armed Mexicans. They both rushed out at the same moment, +discharging their rifles full in the face of the crowd. Albert, +in the confusion, threw himself under the fence, whence he saw his +companion shot down immediately, and heard his cries for mercy as +the cowards pierced him with knives and lances. He lay without motion +under the fence, and as soon as it was quite dark he crept over +the logs and ran up the mountain, travelled by day and night, and, +scarcely stopping or resting, reached the Greenhorn, almost dead +with hunger and fatigue. Turley himself succeeded in escaping from +the mill and in reaching the mountain unseen. Here he met a Mexican +mounted on a horse, who had been a most intimate friend of his for +many years. To this man Turley offered his watch for the use of the +horse, which was ten times more than it was worth, but was refused. +The inhuman wretch, however, affected pity and consideration for the +fugitive, and advised him to go to a certain place, where he would +bring or send him assistance; but on reaching the mill, which was +a mass of fire, he immediately informed the Mexicans of Turley's +place of concealment, whither a large party instantly proceeded and +shot him to death. + +Two others escaped and reached Santa Fe in safety. The mill and +Turley's house were sacked and gutted, and all his hard-earned savings, +which were concealed in gold about the house, were discovered, and, +of course, seized upon by the victorious Mexicans. + +The following account is taken from Governor Prince's chapter on the +fight at Taos, in his excellent and authentic _History of New Mexico_:-- + + The startling news of the assassination of the governor was + swiftly carried to Santa Fe, and reached Colonel Price the + next day. Simultaneously, letters were discovered calling + on the people of the Rio Abajo to secure Albuquerque and + march northward to aid the other insurgents; and news + speedily followed that a united Mexican and Pueblo force of + large magnitude was marching down the Rio Grande valley + toward the capital, flushed with the success of the revolt + at Taos. Very few troops were in Santa Fe; in fact, the + number remaining in the whole territory was very small, + and these were scattered at Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and + other distant points. At the first-named town were Major + Edmonson and Captain Burgwin; the former in command of the + town, and the latter with a company of the First Dragoons. + + Colonel Price lost no time in taking such measures as his + limited resources permitted. Edmonson was directed to come + immediately to Santa Fe to take command of the capital; and + Burgwin to follow Price as fast as possible to the scene + of hostilities. The colonel himself collected the few + troops at Santa Fe, which were all on foot, but fortunately + included the little battalion which under Captain Aubrey + had made such extraordinary marches on the journey across + the plains as to almost outwalk the cavalry. With these + was a volunteer company formed of nearly all of the American + inhabitants of the city, under the command of Colonel Ceran + St. Vrain, who happened to be in Santa Fe, together with + Judge Beaubien, at the time of the rising at Taos. + With this little force, amounting in all to three hundred + and ten men, Colonel Price started to march to Taos, or at + all events to meet the army which was coming toward the + capital from the north and which grew as it marched by + constant accessions from the surrounding country. + The city of Santa Fe was left in charge of a garrison under + Lieutenant-Colonel Willock. While the force was small + and the volunteers without experience in regular warfare, + yet all were nerved to desperation by the belief, since + the Taos murders, that the only alternative was victory + or annihilation. + + The expedition set out on January 23d, and the next day + the Mexican army, under command of General Montoya as + commander-in-chief, aided by Generals Tafoya and Chavez, + was found occupying the heights commanding the road near + La Canada (Santa Cruz), with detachments in some strong + adobe houses near the river banks. The advance had been + seen shortly before at the rocky pass, on the road from + Pojuaque; and near there and before reaching the river, the + San Juan Pueblo Indians, who had joined the revolutionists + reluctantly and under a kind of compulsion, surrendered and + were disarmed by removing the locks from their guns. + On arriving at the Canada, Price ordered his howitzers to + the front and opened fire; and after a sharp cannonade, + directed an assault on the nearest houses by Aubrey's + battalion. Meanwhile an attempt by a Mexican detachment + to cut off the American baggage-wagons, which had not yet + come up, was frustrated by the activity of St. Vrain's + volunteers. A charge all along the line was then ordered + and handsomely executed; the houses, which, being of adobe, + had been practically so many ready-made forts, were + successively carried, and St. Vrain started in advance to + gain the Mexican rear. Seeing this manoeuvre, and fearing + its effects, the Mexicans retreated, leaving thirty-six + dead on the field. Among those killed was General Tafoya, + who bravely remained on the field after the remainder had + abandoned it, and was shot. + + Colonel Price pressed on up the river as fast as possible, + passing San Juan, and at Los Luceros, on the 28th, his + little army was rejoiced at the arrival of reinforcements, + consisting of a mounted company of cavalry, Captain Burgwin's + company, which had been pushed up by forced marches on foot + from Albuquerque, and a six-pounder brought by Lieutenant + Wilson. Thus enlarged, the American force consisted of + four hundred and eighty men, and continued its advance up + the valley to La Joya, which was as far as the river road at + that time extended. Meanwhile the Mexicans had established + themselves in a narrow pass near Embudo, where the forest + was dense, and the road impracticable for wagons or cannon, + the troops occupying the sides of the mountains on both + sides of the canyon. Burgwin was sent with three companies + to dislodge them and open a passage--no easy task. + But St. Vrain's company took the west slope, and another + the right, while Burgwin himself marched through the gorge + between. The sharp-shooting of these troops did such + terrible execution that the pass was soon cleared, though + not without the display of great heroism, and some loss; + and the Americans entered Embudo without further opposition. + The difficulties of this campaign were greatly increased by + the severity of the weather, the mountains being thickly + covered with snow, and the cold so intense that a number + of men were frost-bitten and disabled. The next day Burgwin + reached Las Trampas, where Price arrived with the remainder + of the American army on the last day of January, and all + together they marched into Chamisal. + + Notwithstanding the cold and snow they pressed on over the + mountain, and on the 3d of February reached the town of + Fernandez de Taos, only to find that the Mexican and Pueblo + force had fortified itself in the celebrated Pueblo of Taos, + about three miles distant. That force had diminished + considerably during the retreat from La Canada, many of the + Mexicans returning to their homes, and its greater part + now consisting of Pueblo Indians. The American troops were + worn out with fatigue and exposure, and in most urgent need + of rest; but their intrepid commander, desiring to give his + opponents no more time to strengthen their works, and full + of zeal and energy, if not of prudence, determined to + commence an immediate attack. + + The two great buildings at this Pueblo, certainly the most + interesting and extraordinary inhabited structures in + America, are well known from descriptions and engravings. + They are five stories high and irregularly pyramidal in + shape, each story being smaller than the one below, in order + to allow ingress to the outer rooms of each tier from the + roofs. Before the advent of artillery these buildings were + practically impregnable, as, when the exterior ladders were + drawn up, there were no means of ingress, the side walls + being solid without openings, and of immense thickness. + Between these great buildings, each of which can accommodate + a multitude of men, runs the clear water of the Taos Creek; + and to the west of the northerly building stood the old + church, with walls of adobe from three to seven and a half + feet in thickness. Outside of all, and having its northwest + corner just beyond the church, ran an adobe wall, built for + protection against hostile Indians and which now answered + for an outer earthwork. The church was turned into a + fortification, and was the point where the insurgents + concentrated their strength; and against this Colonel Price + directed his principal attack. The six-pounder and the + howitzer were brought into position without delay, under + the command of Lieutenant Dyer, then a young graduate of + West Point, and since then chief of ordnance of the + United States army, and opened a fire on the thick adobe + walls. But cannon-balls made little impression on the + massive banks of earth, in which they embedded themselves + without doing damage; and after a fire of two hours, + the battery was withdrawn, and the troops allowed to return + to the town of Taos for their much-needed rest. + + Early the next morning, the troops, now refreshed and ready + for the combat, advanced again to the Pueblo, but found + those within equally prepared. The story of the attack and + capture of this place is so interesting, both on account + of the meeting here of old and new systems of warfare--of + modern artillery with an aboriginal stronghold--and because + the precise localities can be distinguished by the modern + tourist from the description, that it seems best to insert + the official report as presented by Colonel Price. + Nothing could show more plainly how superior strong + earthworks are to many more ambitious structures of defence, + or more forcibly display the courage and heroism of those + who took part in the battle, or the signal bravery of the + accomplished Captain Burgwin which led to his untimely death. + Colonel Price writes: + + "Posting the dragoons under Captain Burgwin about two + hundred and sixty yards from the western flank of the church, + I ordered the mounted men under Captains St. Vrain and Slack + to a position on the opposite side of the town, whence they + could discover and intercept any fugitives who might attempt + to escape toward the mountains, or in the direction of + San Fernando. The residue of the troops took ground about + three hundred yards from the north wall. Here, too, + Lieutenant Dyer established himself with the six-pounder + and two howitzers, while Lieutenant Hassendaubel, of Major + Clark's battalion, light artillery, remained with Captain + Burgwin, in command of two howitzers. By this arrangement + a cross-fire was obtained, sweeping the front and eastern + flank of the church. All these arrangements being made, + the batteries opened upon the town at nine o'clock A.M. + At eleven o'clock, finding it impossible to breach the + walls of the church with the six-pounder and howitzers, + I determined to storm the building. At a signal, Captain + Burgwin, at the head of his own company and that of Captain + McMillin, charged the western flank of the church, while + Captain Aubrey, infantry battalion, and Captain Barber and + Lieutenant Boon, Second Missouri Mounted Volunteers, charged + the northern wall. As soon as the troops above mentioned + had established themselves under the western wall of the + church, axes were used in the attempt to breach it, and a + temporary ladder having been made, the roof was fired. + About this time, Captain Burgwin, at the head of a small + party, left the cover afforded by the flank of the church, + and penetrating into the corral in front of that building, + endeavoured to force the door. In this exposed situation, + Captain Burgwin received a severe wound, which deprived me + of his valuable services, and of which he died on the + 7th instant. Lieutenants McIlvaine, First United States + Dragoons, and Royall and Lackland, Second Regiment + Volunteers, accompanied Captain Burgwin into the corral, + but the attempt on the church door proved fruitless, and + they were compelled to retire behind the wall. In the + meantime, small holes had been cut in the western wall, and + shells were thrown in by hand, doing good execution. + The six-pounder was now brought around by Lieutenant Wilson, + who, at the distance of two hundred yards, poured a heavy + fire of grape into the town. The enemy, during all of + this time, kept up a destructive fire upon our troops. + About half-past three o'clock, the six-pounder was run up + within sixty yards of the church, and after ten rounds, + one of the holes which had been cut with the axes was + widened into a practicable breach. The storming party, + among whom were Lieutenant Dyer, of the ordnance, and + Lieutenant Wilson and Taylor, First Dragoons, entered and + took possession of the church without opposition. + The interior was filled with dense smoke, but for which + circumstance our storming party would have suffered great + loss. A few of the enemy were seen in the gallery, + where an open door admitted the air, but they retired + without firing a gun. The troops left to support the + battery on the north side were now ordered to charge on + that side. + + "The enemy then abandoned the western part of the town. + Many took refuge in the large houses on the east, while + others endeavoured to escape toward the mountains. + These latter were pursued by the mounted men under Captains + Slack and St. Vrain, who killed fifty-one of them, only two + or three men escaping. It was now night, and our troops + were quietly quartered in the house which the enemy had + abandoned. On the next morning the enemy sued for peace, + and thinking the severe loss they had sustained would prove + a salutary lesson, I granted their supplication, on the + condition that they should deliver up to me Tomas, one of + their principal men, who had instigated and been actively + engaged in the murder of Governor Bent and others. + The number of the enemy at the battle of Pueblo de Taos + was between six and seven hundred, and of these one hundred + and fifty were killed, wounded not known. Our own loss was + seven killed and forty-five wounded; many of the wounded + have since died." + + The capture of the Taos Pueblo practically ended the main + attempt to expel the Americans from the Territory. + Governor Montoya, who was a very influential man in the + conspiracy and styled himself the "Santa Ana of the North," + was tried by court-martial, convicted, and executed on + February 7th, in the presence of the army. Fourteen others + were tried for participating in the murder of Governor Bent + and the others who were killed on the 19th of January, and + were convicted and executed. Thus, fifteen in all were + hung, being an equal number to those murdered at Taos, the + Arroyo Hondo, and Rio Colorado. Of these, eight were + Mexicans and seven were Pueblo Indians. Several more were + sentenced to be hung for treason, but the President very + properly pardoned them, on the ground that treason against + the United States was not a crime of which a Mexican + citizen could be found guilty, while his country was + actually at war with the United States. + +There are several thrilling, as well as laughable, incidents connected +with the Taos massacre, and the succeeding trial of the insurrectionists; +in regard to which I shall quote freely from _Wah-to-yah_, whose +author, Mr. Lewis H. Garrard, accompanied Colonel St. Vrain across +the plains in 1846, and was present at the trial and execution of +the convicted participants. + +One Fitzgerald, who was a private in Captain Burgwin's company of +Dragoons, in the fight at the Pueblo de Taos, killed three Mexicans +with his own hand, and performed heroic work with the bombs that were +thrown into that strong Indian fortress. He was a man of good feeling, +but his brother having been killed, or rather murdered by Salazar, +while a prisoner in the Texan expedition against Santa Fe, he swore +vengeance, and entered the service with the hope of accomplishing it. +The day following the fight at the Pueblo, he walked up to the +alcalde, and deliberately shot him down. For this act he was confined +to await a trial for murder. + +One raw night, complaining of cold to his guard, wood was brought, +which he piled up in the middle of the room. Then mounting that, +and succeeding in breaking through the roof, he noiselessly crept +to the eaves, below which a sentinel, wrapped in a heavy cloak, paced +to and fro, to prevent his escape. He watched until the guard's back +was turned, then swung himself from the wall, and with as much ease +as possible, walked to a mess-fire, where his friends in waiting +supplied him with a pistol and clothing. When day broke, the town +of Fernandez lay far beneath him in the valley, and two days after +he was safe in our camp. + +Many a hand-to-hand encounter ensued during the fight at Taos, +one of which was by Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, whom I knew intimately; +a grand old gentleman, now sleeping peacefully in the quaint little +graveyard at Mora, New Mexico, where he resided for many years. +The gallant colonel, while riding along, noticed an Indian with whom +he was well acquainted lying stretched out on the ground as if dead. +Confident that this particular red devil had been especially prominent +in the hellish acts of the massacre, the colonel dismounted from +his pony to satisfy himself whether the savage was really dead or +only shamming. He was far from being a corpse, for the colonel had +scarcely reached the spot, when the Indian jumped to his feet and +attempted to run a long, steel-pointed lance through the officer's +shoulder. Colonel St. Vrain was a large, powerfully built man; +so was the Indian, I have been told. As each of the struggling +combatants endeavoured to get the better of the other, with the +savage having a little the advantage, perhaps, it appears that +"Uncle Dick" Wooton, who was in the chase after the rebels, happened +to arrive on the scene, and hitting the Indian a terrific blow on +the head with his axe, settled the question as to his being a corpse. + +Court for the trial of the insurrectionists assembled at nine o'clock. +On entering the room, Judges Beaubien and Houghton were occupying +their official positions. After many dry preliminaries, six prisoners +were brought in--ill-favoured, half-scared, sullen fellows; and the +jury of Mexicans and Americans having been empanelled, the trial +commenced. It certainly did appear to be a great assumption on the +part of the Americans to conquer a country, and then arraign the +revolting inhabitants for treason. American judges sat on the bench. +New Mexicans and Americans filled the jury-box, and American soldiery +guarded the halls. It was a strange mixture of violence and justice-- +a middle ground between the martial and common law. + +After an absence of a few minutes, the jury returned with a verdict +of "guilty in the first degree"--five for murder, one for treason. +Treason, indeed! What did the poor devil know about his new +allegiance? But so it was; and as the jail was overstocked with +others awaiting trial, it was deemed expedient to hasten the execution, +and the culprits were sentenced to be hung on the following Friday-- +hangman's day. + +Court was daily in session; five more Indians and four Mexicans +were sentenced to be hung on the 30th of April. In the court room, +on the occasion of the trial of these nine prisoners, were Senora Bent +the late governor's wife, and Senora Boggs, giving their evidence in +regard to the massacre, of which they were eye-witnesses. Mrs. Bent +was quite handsome; a few years previously she must have been a +beautiful woman. The wife of the renowned Kit Carson also was in +attendance. Her style of beauty was of the haughty, heart-breaking +kind--such as would lead a man, with a glance of the eye, to risk +his life for one smile. + +The court room was a small, oblong apartment, dimly lighted by two +narrow windows; a thin railing keeping the bystanders from contact +with the functionaries. The prisoners faced the judges, and the +three witnesses--Senoras Bent, Boggs, and Carson--were close to them +on a bench by the wall. When Mrs. Bent gave her testimony, the eyes +of the culprits were fixed sternly upon her; when she pointed out +the Indian who had killed the governor, not a muscle of the chief's +face twitched or betrayed agitation, though he was aware her evidence +settled his death warrant; he sat with lips gently closed, eyes +earnestly fixed on her, without a show of malice or hatred--a spectacle +of Indian fortitude, and of the severe mastery to which the emotions +can be subjected. + +Among the jurors was a trapper named Baptiste Brown, a Frenchman, +as were the majority of the trappers in the early days of the border. +He was an exceptionally kind-hearted man when he first came to the +mountains, and seriously inclined to regard the Indians with that +mistaken sentimentality characterizing the average New England +philanthropist, who has never seen the untutored savage on his native +heath. His ideas, however, underwent a marked change as the years +rolled on and he became more familiar with the attributes of the +noble red man. He was with Kit Carson in the Blackfeet country +many years before the Taos massacre, when his convictions were thus +modified, and it was from the famous frontiersman himself I learned +the story of Baptiste's conversion. + +It was late one night in their camp on one of the many creeks in the +Blackfoot region, where they had been established for several weeks, +and Baptiste was on duty, guarding their meat and furs from the +incursions of a too inquisitive grizzly that had been prowling around, +and the impertinent investigations of the wolves. His attention was +attracted to something high up in a neighbouring tree, that seemed +restless, changing its position constantly like an animal of prey. +The Frenchman drew a bead upon it, and there came tumbling down at his +feet a dead savage, with his war-paint and other Indian paraphernalia +adorning his body. Baptiste was terribly hurt over the circumstance +of having killed an Indian, and it grieved him for a long time. +One day, a month after the incident, he was riding alone far away +from our party, and out of sound of their rifles as well, when a band +of Blackfeet discovered him and started for his scalp. He had no +possible chance for escape except by the endurance of his horse; +so a race for life began. He experienced no trouble in keeping out +of the way of their arrows--the Indians had no guns then--and hoped +to make camp before they could possibly wear out his horse. Just as +he was congratulating himself on his luck, right in front of him +there suddenly appeared a great gorge, and not daring to stop or to +turn to the right or left, the only thing to do was to make his animal +jump it. It was his only chance; it was death if he missed it, and +death by the most horrible torture if the Indians captured him. +So he drove his heels into his horse's sides, and essayed the +awful leap. His willing animal made a desperate effort to carry out +the desire of his daring rider, but the dizzy chasm was too wide, +and the pursuing savages saw both horse and the coveted white man +dash to the bottom of the frightful canyon together. Believing that +their hated enemy had eluded them forever, they rode back on their +trail, disgusted and chagrined, without even taking the trouble of +looking over the precipice to learn the fate of Baptiste. + +The horse was instantly killed, and the Frenchman had both of his legs +badly broken. Far from camp, with the Indians in close proximity, +he did not dare discharge his rifle--the usual signal when a trapper +is lost or in danger--or to make any demonstration, so he was +compelled to lie there and suffer, hoping that his comrades, +missing him, would start out to search for him. They did so, +but more than twenty-four hours had elapsed before they found him, +as the bottom of the canyon was the last place they thought of. + +Doctors, in the wild region where their camp was located, were as +impossible as angels; so his companions set his broken bones as well +as they could, while Baptiste suffered excruciating torture. +When they had completed their crude surgery, they improvised a litter +of poles, and rigged it on a couple of pack-mules, and thus carried +him around with them from camp to camp until he recovered--a period +extending over three months. + +This affair completely cured Baptiste of his original sentimentality +in relation to the Indian, and he became one of their worst haters. + +When acting as a juror in the trials of rebel Mexicans and Indians, +he was asleep half the time, and never heard much of the evidence, +and that portion which he did was so much Greek to him. In the last +nine cases, in which the Indian who had murdered Governor Bent +was tried, Baptiste, as soon as the jury room was closed, sang out: +"Hang 'em, hang 'em, sacre enfans des garces, dey dam gran rascale!" +"But wait," suggested one of the cooler members; "let's look at the +evidence and find out whether they are really guilty." Upon this +wise caution, Baptiste got greatly excited, paced the floor, and +cried out: "Hang de Indian anyhow; he may not be guilty now--mais he +vare soon will be. Hang 'em all, parceque dey kill Monsieur Charles; +dey take son topknot, vot you call im--scalp. Hang 'em, hang 'em-- +sa-a-cre-e!" + +On Friday the 9th, the day for the execution, the sky was unspotted, +save by hastily fleeting clouds; and as the rising sun loomed over +the Taos Mountain, the bright rays, shining on the yellow and white +mud-houses, reflected cheerful hues, while the shades of the toppling +peaks, receding from the plain beneath, drew within themselves. +The humble valley wore an air of calm repose. The Plaza was deserted; +woe-begone burros drawled forth sacrilegious brays, as the warm +sunbeams roused them from hard, grassless ground, to scent their +breakfast among straw and bones. + +Poor Mexicans hurried to and fro, casting suspicious glances around; +los Yankees at El casa Americano drank their juleps, and puffed their +cigarettes in silence. + +The sheriff, Metcalf, formerly a mountaineer, was in want of the +wherewithal to hang the condemned criminals, so he borrowed some +rawhide lariats and picket-ropes of a teamster. + +"Hello, Met," said one of the party present, "these reatas are mighty +stiff--won't fit; eh, old feller?" + +"I've got something to make 'em fit--good 'intment--don't emit very +sweet perfume; but good enough for Greasers," said the sheriff, +producing a dollar's worth of Mexican soft soap. "This'll make 'em +slip easy--a long ways too easy for them, I 'spect." + +The prison apartment was a long chilly room, badly ventilated by +one small window and the open door, through which the sun lit up the +earth floor, and through which the poor prisoners wistfully gazed. +Two muscular Mexicans basked in its genial warmth, a tattered serape +interposing between them and the ground. The ends, once fringed but +now clear of pristine ornament, were partly drawn over their breasts, +disclosing in the openings of their fancifully colored shirts +--now glazed with filth and faded with perspiration--the bare skin, +covered with straight black hair. With hands under their heads, +in the mass of stringy locks rusty-brown from neglect, they returned +the looks of their executioners with an unmeaning stare, and +unheedingly received the salutation of--"Como le va!" + +Along the sides of the room, leaning against the walls, were crowded +the poor wretches, miserable in dress, miserable in features, +miserable in feelings--a more disgusting collection of ragged, greasy, +unwashed prisoners were, probably, never before congregated within +so small a space as the jail of Taos. + +About nine o'clock, active preparations were made for the execution, +and the soldiery mustered. Reverend padres in long black gowns, +with meek countenances, passed the sentinels, intent on spiritual +consolation, or the administration of the Blessed Sacrament. + +Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, commanding the military, ordered every +American under arms. The prison was at the edge of the town; +no houses intervened between it and the fields to the north. +One hundred and fifty yards distant, a gallows was erected. + +The word was passed, at last, that the criminals were coming. +Eighteen soldiers received them at the gate, with their muskets at +"port arms"; the six abreast, with the sheriff on the right-- +nine soldiers on each side. + +The poor prisoners marched slowly, with downcast eyes, arms tied +behind, and bare heads, with the exception of white cotton caps +stuck on the back, to be pulled over the face as the last ceremony. + +The roofs of the houses in the vicinity were covered with women and +children, to witness the first execution by hanging in the valley +of Taos, save that of Montojo, the insurgent leader. No men were +near; a few stood afar off, moodily looking on. + +On the flat jail roof was placed a mountain howitzer, loaded and +ranging the gallows. Near was the complement of men to serve it, +one holding in his hand a lighted match. The two hundred and thirty +soldiers, less the eighteen forming the guard, were paraded in front +of the jail, and in sight of the gibbet, so as to secure the prisoners +awaiting trial. Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, on a handsome charger, +commanded a view of the whole. + +When within fifteen paces of the gallows, the side-guard, filing off +to the right, formed, at regular distances from each other, three +sides of a hollow square; the mountaineers composed the fourth and +front side, in full view of the trembling prisoners, who marched up to +the tree under which was a government wagon, with two mules attached. +The driver and sheriff assisted them in, ranging them on a board, +placed across the hinder end, which maintained its balance, as they +were six--an even number--two on each extremity, and two in the middle. +The gallows was so narrow that they touched. The ropes, by reason +of their size and stiffness, despite the soaping given them, were +adjusted with difficulty; but through the indefatigable efforts +of the sheriff and a lieutenant who had accompanied him, all +preliminaries were arranged, although the blue uniform looked sadly +out of place on a hangman. + +With rifles at a "shoulder," the military awaited the consummation +of the tragedy. There was no crowd around to disturb; a death-like +stillness prevailed. The spectators on the roofs seemed scarcely +to move--their eyes were directed to the doomed wretches, with harsh +halters now encircling their necks. + +The sheriff and his assistant sat down; after a few moments of +intense expectation, the heart-wrung victims said a few words to +their people. Only one of them admitted he had committed murder +and deserved death. In their brief but earnest appeals, the words +"mi padre, mi madre"--"my father, my mother"--were prominent. +The one sentenced for treason showed a spirit of patriotism worthy +of the cause for which he died--the liberty of his country; and +instead of the cringing recantation of the others, his speech was +a firm asseveration of his own innocence, the unjustness of his trial, +and the arbitrary conduct of his murderers. As the cap was pulled +over his face, the last words he uttered between his teeth with +a scowl were "Carajo, los Americanos!" + +At a word from the sheriff, the mules were started, and the wagon +drawn from under the tree. No fall was given, and their feet remained +on the board till the ropes drew tight. The bodies swayed back and +forth, and while thus swinging, the hands of two came together with +a firm grasp till the muscles loosened in death. + +After forty minutes' suspension, Colonel Willock ordered his command +to quarters, and the howitzer to be taken from its place on the roof +of the jail. The soldiers were called away; the women and population +in general collecting around the rear guard which the sheriff had +retained for protection while delivering the dead to their weeping +relatives. + +While cutting a rope from one man's neck--for it was in a hard knot-- +the owner, a government teamster standing by waiting, shouted angrily, +at the same time stepping forward: + +"Hello there! don't cut that rope; I won't have anything to tie +my mules with." + +"Oh! you darned fool," interposed a mountaineer, "the dead men's +ghosts will be after you if you use them lariats--wagh! They'll make +meat of you sartain." + +"Well, I don't care if they do. I'm in government service; and if +them picket-halters was gone, slap down goes a dollar apiece. +Money's scarce in these diggin's, and I'm going to save all I kin +to take home to the old woman and boys." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. + + + +On the summit of one of the highest plateaus bordering the Missouri +River, surrounded by a rich expanse of foliage, lies Independence, +the beautiful residence suburb of Kansas City, only ten miles distant. + +Tradition tells that early in this century there were a few pioneers +camping at long distances from each other in the seemingly +interminable woods; in summer engaged in hunting the deer, elk, and +bear, and in winter in trapping. It is a well-known fact that +the Big Blue was once a favourite resort of the beaver, and that +even later their presence in great numbers attracted many a veteran +trapper to its waters. + +Before that period the quaint old cities of far-off Mexico were +forbidden to foreign traders, excepting to the favoured few who were +successful in obtaining permits from the Spanish government. In 1821, +however, the rebellion of Iturbide crushed the power of the mother +country, and established the freedom of Mexico. The embargo upon +foreign trade was at once removed, and the Santa Fe Trail, for untold +ages only a simple trace across the continent, became the busy highway +of a relatively great commerce. + +In 1817 the navigation of the Mississippi River was begun. On the 2d +of August of that year the steamer _General Pike_ arrived at St. Louis. +The first boat to ascend the Missouri River was the _Independence_; +she passed Franklin on the 28th of May, 1819, where a dinner was given +to her officers. In the same and the following month of that year, +the steamers _Western Engineer Expedition_ and _R. M. Johnson_ came +along, carrying Major Long's scientific exploring party, bound for +the Yellowstone. + +The Santa Fe trade having been inaugurated shortly after these +important events, those engaged in it soon realized the benefits +of river navigation--for it enabled them to shorten the distance +which their wagons had to travel in going across the plains--and +they began to look out for a suitable place as a shipping and +outfitting point higher up the river than Franklin, which had been +the initial starting town. + +By 1827 trading-posts had been established at Blue Mills, Fort Osage, +and Independence. The first-mentioned place, which is situated about +six miles below Independence, soon became the favourite landing, +and the exchange from wagons to boats settled and defied all efforts +to remove the headquarters of the trade from there for several years. +Independence, however, being the county seat and the larger place, +succeeded in its claims to be the more suitable locality, and as +early as 1832 it was recognized as the American headquarters and the +great outfitting point for the Santa Fe commerce, which it continued +to be until 1846, when the traffic was temporarily suspended by the +breaking out of the Mexican War. + +Independence was not only the principal outfitting point for the +Santa Fe traders, but also that of the great fur companies. That +powerful association used to send out larger pack-trains than any +other parties engaged in the traffic to the Rocky Mountains; +they also employed wagons drawn by mules, and loaded with goods for +the Indians with whom their agents bartered, which also on their +return trip transported the skins and pelts of animals procured from +the savages. The articles intended for the Indian trade were +always purchased in St. Louis, and usually shipped to Independence, +consigned to the firm of Aull and Company, who outfitted the traders +with mules and provisions, and in fact anything else required by them. + +Several individual traders would frequently form joint caravans, +and travel in company for mutual protection from the Indians. After +having reached a fifty-mile limit from the State line, each trader +had control of his own men; each took care of a certain number of +the pack-animals, loaded and unloaded them in camp, and had general +supervision of them. + +Frequently there would be three hundred mules in a single caravan, +carrying three hundred pounds apiece, and very large animals more. +Thousands of wagons were also sent out from Independence annually, +each drawn by twelve mules or six yoke of oxen, and loaded with +general merchandise. + +There were no packing houses in those days nearer than St. Louis, +and the bacon and beef used in the Santa Fe trade were furnished by +the farmers of the surrounding country, who killed their meat, +cured it, and transported it to the town where they sold it. +Their wheat was also ground at the local mills, and they brought +the flour to market, together with corn, dried fruit, beans, peas, +and kindred provisions used on the long route across the plains. + +Independence very soon became the best market west of St. Louis for +cattle, mules, and wagons; the trade of which the place was the +acknowledged headquarters furnishing employment to several thousand +men, including the teamsters and packers on the Trail. The wages +paid varied from twenty-five to fifty dollars a month and rations. +The price charged for hauling freight to Santa Fe was ten dollars +a hundred pounds, each wagon earning from five to six hundred dollars +every trip, which was made in eighty or ninety days; some fast +caravans making quicker time. + +The merchants and general traders of Independence in those days +reaped a grand harvest. Everything to eat was in constant demand; +mules and oxen were sold in great numbers every month at excellent +prices and always for cash; while any good stockman could readily +make from ten to fifty dollars a day. + +One of the largest manufacturers and most enterprising young men in +Independence at that time was Hiram Young, a coloured man. Besides +making hundreds of wagons, he made all the ox-yokes used in the +entire traffic; fifty thousand annually during the '50's and until +the breaking out of the war. The forward yokes were sold at an +average of one dollar and a quarter, the wheel yokes a dollar higher. + +The freight transported by the wagons was always very securely loaded; +each package had its contents plainly marked on the outside. +The wagons were heavily covered and tightly closed. Every man +belonging to the caravan was thoroughly armed, and ever on the alert +to repulse an attack by the Indians. + +Sometimes at the crossing of the Arkansas the quicksands were so bad +that it was necessary to get the caravan over in a hurry; then forty +or fifty yoke of oxen were hitched to one wagon and it was quickly +yanked through the treacherous ford. This was not always the case, +however; it depended upon the stage of water and recent floods. + +After the close of the war with Mexico, the freight business across +the plains increased to a wonderful degree. The possession of the +country by the United States gave a fresh impetus to the New Mexico +trade, and the traffic then began to be divided between Westport +and Kansas City. Independence lost control of the overland commerce +and Kansas City commenced its rapid growth. Then came the discovery +of gold in California, and this gave an increased business westward; +for thousands of men and their families crossed the plains and +the Rocky Mountains, seeking their fortunes in the new El Dorado. +The Old Trail was the highway of an enormous pilgrimage, and both +Independence and Kansas City became the initial point of a wonderful +emigration. + +In Independence may still be seen a few of the old landmarks when +it was the headquarters of the Santa Fe trade. + +An overland mail was started from the busy town as early as 1849. +In an old copy of the Missouri _Commonwealth_, published there under +the date of July, 1850, which I found on file in the Kansas State +Historical Society, there is the following account of the first mail +stage westward:-- + + We briefly alluded, some days since, to the Santa Fe line + of mail stages, which left this city on its first monthly + journey on the 1st instant. The stages are got up in + elegant style, and are each arranged to convey eight + passengers. The bodies are beautifully painted, and made + water-tight, with a view of using them as boats in ferrying + streams. The team consists of six mules to each coach. + The mail is guarded by eight men, armed as follows: Each man + has at his side, fastened in the stage, one of Colt's + revolving rifles; in a holster below, one of Colt's long + revolvers, and in his belt a small Colt's revolver, besides + a hunting-knife; so that these eight men are ready, in case + of attack, to discharge one hundred and thirty-six shots + without having to reload. This is equal to a small army, + armed as in the ancient times, and from the looks of this + escort, ready as they are, either for offensive or defensive + warfare with the savages, we have no fears for the safety + of the mails. + + The accommodating contractors have established a sort of + base of refitting at Council Grove, a distance of one + hundred and fifty miles from this city, and have sent out + a blacksmith, and a number of men to cut and cure hay, with + a quantity of animals, grain, and provisions; and we + understand they intend to make a sort of traveling station + there, and to commence a farm. They also, we believe, + intend to make a similar settlement at Walnut Creek next + season. Two of their stages will start from here the + first of every month. + +The old stage-coach days were times of Western romance and adventure, +and the stories told of that era of the border have a singular +fascination in this age of annihilation of distance. + +Very few, if any, of the famous men who handled the "ribbons" in those +dangerous days of the slow journey across the great plains are among +the living; like the clumsy and forgotten coaches they drove, +they have themselves been mouldering into dust these many years. + +In many places on the line of the Trail, where the hard hills have not +been subjected to the plough, the deep ruts cut by the lumbering +Concord coaches may yet be distinctly traced. Particularly are they +visible from the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe track, as the cars +thunder rapidly toward the city of Great Bend, in Kansas, three miles +east of that town. Let the tourist as he crosses Walnut Creek look +out of his window toward the east at an angle of about thirty-five +degrees, and on the flint hills which slope gradually toward the +railroad, he will observe, very distinctly, the Old Trail, where it +once drew down from the divide to make the ford at the little stream. + +The monthly stages started from each end of the route at the same time; +later the service was increased to once a week; after a while to +three times, until in the early '60's daily stages were run from both +ends of the route, and this was continued until the advent of the +railroad. + +Each coach carried eleven passengers, nine closely stowed inside +--three on a seat--and two on the outside on the boot with the driver. +The fare to Santa Fe was two hundred and fifty dollars, the allowance +of baggage being limited to forty pounds; all in excess of that cost +half a dollar a pound. In this now seemingly large sum was included +the board of the travellers, but they were not catered to in any +extravagant manner; hardtack, bacon, and coffee usually exhausted +the menu, save that at times there was an abundance of antelope and +buffalo. + +There was always something exciting in those journeys from the +Missouri to the mountains in the lumbering Concord coach. There was +the constant fear of meeting the wily red man, who persistently +hankered after the white man's hair. Then there was the playfulness +of the sometimes drunken driver, who loved to upset his tenderfoot +travellers in some arroya, long after the moon had sunk below +the horizon. + +It required about two weeks to make the trip from the Missouri River +to Santa Fe, unless high water or a fight with the Indians made it +several days longer. The animals were changed every twenty miles +at first, but later, every ten, when faster time was made. What sleep +was taken could only be had while sitting bolt upright, because there +was no laying over; the stage continued on night and day until +Santa Fe was reached. + +After a few years, the company built stations at intervals varying +from ten miles to fifty or more; and there the animals and drivers +were changed, and meals furnished to travellers, which were always +substantial, but never elegant in variety or cleanliness. + +Who can ever forget those meals at the "stations," of which you were +obliged to partake or go hungry: biscuit hard enough to serve as +"round-shot," and a vile decoction called, through courtesy, coffee +--but God help the man who disputed it! + +Some stations, however, were notable exceptions, particularly in the +mountains of New Mexico, where, aside from the bread--usually only +tortillas, made of the blue-flint corn of the country--and coffee +composed of the saints may know what, the meals were excellent. +The most delicious brook trout, alternating with venison of the +black-tailed deer, elk, bear, and all the other varieties of game +abounding in the region cost you one dollar, but the station-keeper +a mere trifle; no wonder the old residents and ranchmen on the line +of the Old Trail lament the good times of the overland stage! + +Thirteen years ago I revisited the once well-known Kosloskie's Ranch, +a picturesque cabin at the foot of the Glorieta Mountains, about half +a mile from the ruins on the Rio Pecos. The old Pole was absent, +but his wife was there; and, although I had not seen her for fifteen +years, she remembered me well, and at once began to deplore the +changed condition of the country since the advent of the railroad, +declaring it had ruined their family with many others. I could not +disagree with her view of the matter, as I looked on the debris of +a former relative greatness all around me. I recalled the fact that +once Kosloskie's Ranch was the favourite eating station on the Trail; +where you were ever sure of a substantial meal--the main feature +of which was the delicious brook trout, which were caught out of +the stream which ran near the door while you were washing the dust +out of your eyes and ears. + +The trout have vacated the Pecos; the ranch is a ruin, and stands +in grim contrast with the old temple and church on the hill; and both +are monuments of civilizations that will never come again. + +Weeds and sunflowers mark the once broad trail to the quaint Aztec +city, and silence reigns in the beautiful valley, save when broken +by the passage of "The Flyer" of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe +railway, as it struggles up the heavy grade of the Glorieta Mountains +a mile or more distant. + +Besides the driver, there was another employee--the conductor or +messenger, as he was called. He had charge of the mail and express +matter, collected the fares, and attended generally to the requirements +of those committed to his care during the tedious journey; for he +was not changed like the driver, but stayed with the coach from its +starting to its destination. Sometimes fourteen individuals were +accommodated in case of emergency; but it was terribly crowded and +uncomfortable riding, with no chance to stretch your limbs, save for +a few moments at stations where you ate and changed animals. + +In starting from Independence, powerful horses were attached to +the coach--generally four in number; but at the first station they +were exchanged for mules, and these animals hauled it the remainder +of the way. Drivers were changed about eight times in making the trip +to Santa Fe; and some of them were comical fellows, but full of nerve +and endurance, for it required a man of nerve to handle eight frisky +mules through the rugged passes of the mountains, when the snow was +drifted in immense masses, or when descending the curved, icy +declivities to the base of the range. A cool head was highly +necessary; but frequently accidents occurred and sometimes were +serious in their results. + +A snowstorm in the mountains was a terrible thing to encounter by +the coach; all that could be done was to wait until it had abated, +as there was no going on in the face of the blinding sheets of +intensely cold vapour which the wind hurled against the sides of +the mountains. All inside of the coach had to sit still and shake +with the freezing branches of the tall trees around them. A summer +hailstorm was much more to be dreaded, however; for nowhere else on +the earth do the hailstones shoot from the clouds of greater size or +with greater velocity than in the Rocky Mountains. Such an event +invariably frightened the mules and caused them to stampede; and, +to escape death from the coach rolling down some frightful abyss, +one had to jump out, only to be beaten to a jelly by the masses of +ice unless shelter could be found under some friendly ledge of rock +or the thick limbs of a tree. + +Nothing is more fatiguing than travelling for the first day and night +in a stage-coach; after that, however, one gets used to it and the +remainder of the journey is relatively comfortable. + +The only way to alleviate the monotony of riding hour after hour +was to walk; occasionally this was rendered absolutely necessary +by some accident, such as breaking a wheel or axle, or when an animal +gave out before a station was reached. In such cases, however, +no deduction was made from the fare, that having been collected in +advance, so it cost you just as much whether you rode or walked. +You could exercise your will in the matter, but you must not lag +behind the coach; the savages were always watching for such derelicts, +and your hair was the forfeit! + +In the worst years, when the Indians were most decidedly on the +war-trail, the government furnished an escort of soldiers from the +military posts; they generally rode in a six-mule army-wagon, and +were commanded by a sergeant or corporal; but in the early days, +before the army had concentrated at the various forts on the great +plains, the stage had to rely on the courage and fighting qualities +of its occupants, and the nerve and the good judgment of the driver. +If the latter understood his duty thoroughly and was familiar with +the methods of the savages, he always chose the cover of darkness +in which to travel in localities where the danger from Indians was +greater than elsewhere; for it is a rare thing in savage warfare +to attack at night. The early morning seemed to be their favourite +hour, when sleep oppresses most heavily; and then it was that the +utmost vigilance was demanded. + +One of the most confusing things to the novice riding over the great +plains is the idea of distance; mile after mile is travelled on +the monotonous trail, with a range of hills or a low divide in +full sight, yet hours roll by and the objects seem no nearer than +when they were first observed. The reason for this seems to be that +every atom of vapour is eliminated from the air, leaving such an +absolute clearness of atmosphere, such an indescribable transparency +of space through which distant objects are seen, that they are +magnified and look nearer than they really are. Consequently, +the usual method of calculating distance and areas by the eye is ever +at fault until custom and familiarity force a new standard of measure. + +Mirages, too, were of frequent occurrence on the great plains; +some of them wonderful examples of the refracting properties of light. +They assumed all manner of fantastic, curious shapes, sometimes +ludicrously distorting the landscape; objects, like a herd of buffalo +for instance, though forty miles away, would seem to be high in air, +often reversed, and immensely magnified in their proportions. + +Violent storms were also frequent incidents of the long ride. +I well remember one night, about thirty years ago, when the coach +in which I and one of my clerks were riding to Fort Dodge was +suddenly brought to a standstill by a terrible gale of wind and hail. +The mules refused to face it, and quickly turning around nearly +overturned the stage, while we, with the driver and conductor, +were obliged to hold on to the wheels with all our combined strength +to prevent it from blowing down into a stony ravine, on the brink +of which we were brought to a halt. Fortunately, these fearful +blizzards did not last very long; the wind ceased blowing so violently +in a few moments, but the rain usually continued until morning. + +It usually happened that you either at once took a great liking for +your driver and conductor, or the reverse. Once, on a trip from +Kansas City, nearly a third of a century ago, when I and another man +were the only occupants of the coach, we entertained quite a friendly +feeling for our driver; he was a good-natured, jolly fellow, full of +anecdote and stories of the Trail, over which he had made more than +a hundred sometimes adventurous journeys. + +When we arrived at the station at Plum Creek, the coach was a little +ahead of time, and the driver who was there to relieve ours commenced +to grumble at the idea of having to start out before the regular hour. +He found fault because we had come into the station so soon, and +swore he could drive where our man could not "drag a halter-chain," +as he claimed in his boasting. We at once took a dislike to him, +and secretly wished that he would come to grief, in order to cure him +of his boasting. Sure enough, before we had gone half a mile from the +station he incontinently tumbled the coach over into a sandy arroya, +and we were delighted at the accident. Finding ourselves free from +any injury, we went to work and assisted him to right the coach-- +no small task; but we took great delight in reminding him several +times of his ability to drive where our old friend could not "drag +a halter-chain." It was very dark; neither moon or star visible, +the whole heavens covered with an inky blackness of ominous clouds; +so he was not so much to be blamed after all. + +The very next coach was attacked at the crossing of Cow Creek by +a band of Kiowas. The savages had followed the stage all that +afternoon, but remained out of sight until just at dark, when they +rushed over the low divide, and mounted on their ponies commenced +to circle around the coach, making the sand dunes resound with echoes +of their infernal yelling, and shaking their buffalo-robes to stampede +the mules, at the same time firing their guns at the men who were +in the coach, all of whom made a bold stand, but were rapidly getting +the worst of it, when fortunately a company of United States cavalry +came over the Trail from the west, and drove the savages off. +Two of the men in the coach were seriously wounded, and one of the +soldiers killed; but the Indian loss was never determined, as they +succeeded in carrying off both their dead and wounded. + +Mr. W. H. Ryus, a friend of mine now residing in Kansas City, who was +a driver and messenger thirty-five years, and had many adventures, +told me the following incidents: + + I have crossed the plains sixty-five times by wagon and + coach. In July, 1861, I was employed by Barnum, Vickery, + and Neal to drive over what was known as the Long Route, + that is, from Fort Larned to Fort Lyon, two hundred and + forty miles, with no station between. We drove one set of + mules the whole distance, camped out, and made the journey, + in good weather, in four or five days. In winter we + generally encountered a great deal of snow, and very cold + air on the bleak and wind-swept desert of the Upper Arkansas, + but we employees got used to that; only the passengers did + any kicking. We had a way of managing them, however, + when they got very obstreperous; all we had to do was to + yell Indians! and that quieted them quicker than forty-rod + whiskey does a man. + + We gathered buffalo-chips, to boil our coffee and cook our + buffalo and antelope steak, smoked for a while around the + smouldering fire until the animals were through grazing, + and then started on our lonely way again. + + Sometimes the coach would travel for a hundred miles through + the buffalo herds, never for a moment getting out of sight + of them; often we saw fifty thousand to a hundred thousand + on a single journey out or in. The Indians used to call + them their cattle, and claimed to own them. They did not, + like the white man, take out only the tongue, or hump, and + leave all the rest to dry upon the prairie, but ate every + last morsel, even to the intestines. They said the whites + were welcome to all they could eat or haul away, but they + did not like to see so much meat wasted as was our custom. + + The Indians on the plains were not at all hostile in 1861-62; + we could drive into their villages, where there were tens + of thousands of them, and they would always treat us to + music or a war-dance, and set before us the choicest of + their venison and buffalo. In July of the last-mentioned + year, Colonel Leavenworth, Jr., was crossing the Trail in + my coach. He desired to see Satanta, the great Kiowa chief. + The colonel's father[28] was among the Indians a great deal + while on duty as an army officer, while the young colonel + was a small boy. The colonel said he didn't believe that + old Satanta would know him. + + Just before the arrival of the coach in the region of the + Indian village, the Comanches and the Pawnees had been + having a battle. The Comanches had taken some scalps, + and they were camping on the bank of the Arkansas River, + where Dodge City is now located. The Pawnees had killed + five of their warriors, and the Comanches were engaged in + an exciting war-dance; I think there were from twenty to + thirty thousand Indians gathered there, men, women, and + children of the several tribes--Comanches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, + Arapahoes, and others. + + When we came in sight of their camp, the colonel knew, by + the terrible noise they were making, that a war-dance was + going on; but we did not know then whether it was on account + of troubles among themselves, or because of a fight with + the whites, but we were determined to find out. If he could + get to the old chief, all would be right. So he and I + started for the place whence the noise came. We met a savage + and the colonel asked him whether Satanta was there, and + what was going on. When he told us that they had had + a fight and it was a scalp-dance, our hair lowered; for we + knew that if it was in consequence of trouble with the + whites, we stood in some danger of losing our own scalps. + + The Indian took us in, and the situation, too; and conducted + us into the presence of Satanta, who stood in the middle + of the great circle, facing the dancers. It was out on an + island in the stream; the chief stood very erect, and eyed + us closely for a few seconds, then the colonel told his + own name that the Indians had known him by when he was a boy. + Satanta gave one bound--he was at least ten feet from where + we were waiting--grasped the colonel's hand and excitedly + kissed him, then stood back for another instant, gave him + a second squeeze, offered his hand to me, which I, + of course, shook heartily, then he gazed at the man he had + known as a boy so many years ago, with a countenance + beaming with delight. I never saw any one, even among + the white race, manifest so much joy as the old chief did + over the visit of the colonel to his camp. + + He immediately ordered some of his young men to go out and + herd our mules through the night, which they brought back + to us at daylight. He then had the coach hauled to the + front of his lodge, where we could see all that was going on + to the best advantage. We had six travellers with us on + this journey, and it was a great sight for the tenderfeet. + + It was about ten o'clock at night when we arrived at + Satanta's lodge, and we saw thousands of squaws and bucks + dancing and mourning for their dead warriors. At midnight + the old chief said we must eat something at once. So he + ordered a fire built, cooked buffalo and venison, setting + before us the very best that he had, we furnishing canned + fruit, coffee, and sugar from our coach mess. There we sat, + and talked and ate until morning; then when we were ready + to start off, Satanta and the other chiefs of the various + tribes escorted us about eight miles on the Trail, where + we halted for breakfast, they remaining and eating with us. + +Colonel Leavenworth was on his way to assume command of one of the +military posts in New Mexico; the Indians begged him to come back +and take his quarters at either Fort Larned or Fort Dodge. They told +him they were afraid their agent was stealing their goods and selling +them back to them; while if the Indians took anything from the whites, +a war was started. + +Colonel A. G. Boone had made a treaty with these same Indians in 1860, +and it was agreed that he should be their agent. It was done, and +the entire savage nations were restful and kindly disposed toward +the whites during his administration; any one could then cross the +plains without fear of molestation. In 1861, however, Judge Wright, +of Indiana, who was a member of Congress at the time, charged Colonel +Boone with disloyalty.[29] He succeeded in having him removed. + +Majors Russel and Waddell, the great government freight contractors +across the plains, gave Colonel Boone fourteen hundred acres of land, +well improved, with some fine buildings on it, about fifteen miles +east of Pueblo, Colorado. It was christened Booneville, and the +colonel moved there. In the fall of 1862, fifty influential Indians +of the various tribes visited Colonel Boone at his new home, and +begged that he would come back to them and be their agent. He told +the chiefs that the President of the United States would not let him. +Then they offered to sell their horses to raise money for him to go +to Washington to tell the Great Father what their agent was doing; +and to have him removed, or there was going to be trouble. +The Indians told Colonel Boone that many of their warriors would be +on the plains that fall, and they were declaring they had as much +right to take something to eat from the trains as their agent had +to steal goods from them. + +Early in the winter of the next year, a small caravan of eight or ten +wagons travelling to the Missouri River was overhauled at Nine Mile +Ridge, about fifty miles west of Fort Dodge, by a band of Indians, +who asked for something to eat. The teamsters, thinking them to be +hostile, believed it would be a good thing to kill one of them anyhow; +so they shot an inoffensive warrior, after which the train moved on +to its camp and the trouble began. Every man in the whole outfit, +with the exception of one teamster, who luckily got to the Arkansas +River and hid, was murdered, the animals all carried away, and the +wagons and contents destroyed by fire. + +This foolish act by the master of the caravan was the cause of a +long war, causing hundreds of atrocious murders and the destruction +of a great deal of property along the whole Western frontier. + +That fall, 1863, Mr. Ryus was the messenger or conductor in charge +of the coach running from Kansas City to Santa Fe. He said: + It then required a month to make the round trip, about + eighteen hundred miles. On account of the Indian war + we had to have an escort of soldiers to go through the most + dangerous portions of the Trail; and the caravans all + joined forces for mutual safety, besides having an escort. + + My coach was attacked several times during that season, and + we had many close calls for our scalps. Sometimes the + Indians would follow us for miles, and we had to halt and + fight them; but as for myself, I had no desire to kill one + of the miserable, outraged creatures, who had been swindled + out of their just rights. + + I know of but one occasion when we were engaged in a fight + with them when our escort killed any of the attacking + savages; it was about two miles from Little Coon Creek + Station, where they surrounded the coach and commenced + hostilities. In the fight one officer and one enlisted man + were wounded. The escort chased the band for several miles, + killed nine of them, and got their horses. + + + + +CHAPTER X. +CHARLES BENT. + + + +Almost immediately after the ratification of the purchase of +New Mexico by the United States under the stipulations of the +"Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty," the Utes, one of the most powerful tribes +of mountain Indians, inaugurated a bloody and relentless war against +the civilized inhabitants of the Territory. It was accompanied by +all the horrible atrocities which mark the tactics of savage hatred +toward the white race. It continued for several years with more +or less severity; its record a chapter of history whose pages are +deluged with blood, until finally the Indians were subdued by the +power of the military. + +Along the line of the Santa Fe Trail, they were frequently in +conjunction with the Apaches, and their depredations and atrocities +were very numerous; they attacked fearlessly freight caravans, +private expeditions, and overland stage-coaches, robbing and murdering +indiscriminately. + +In January, 1847, the mail and passenger stage left Independence, +Missouri, for Santa Fe on one of its regular trips across the plains. +It had its full complement of passengers, among whom were a Mr. White +and family, consisting of his wife, one child, and a coloured nurse. + +Day after day the lumbering Concord coach rolled on, with nothing to +disturb the monotony of the vast prairies, until it had left them +far behind and crossed the Range into New Mexico. Just about dawn, +as the unsuspecting travellers were entering the "canyon of the +Canadian,"[30] and probably waking up from their long night's sleep, +a band of Indians, with blood-curdling yells and their terrific +war-whoop, rode down upon them. + +In that lonely and rock-sheltered gorge a party of the hostile savages, +led by "White Wolf," a chief of the Apaches, had been awaiting the +arrival of the coach from the East; the very hour it was due was +well known to them, and they had secreted themselves there the +night before so as to be on hand should it reach their chosen ambush +a little before the schedule time. + +Out dashed the savages, gorgeous in their feathered war-bonnets, +but looking like fiends with their paint-bedaubed faces. Stopping the +frightened mules, they pulled open the doors of the coach and, +mercilessly dragging its helpless and surprised inmates to the ground, +immediately began their butchery. They scalped and mutilated the +dead bodies of their victims in their usual sickening manner, not a +single individual escaping, apparently, to tell of their fiendish acts. + +If the Indians had been possessed of sufficient cunning to cover up +the tracks of their horrible atrocities, as probably white robbers +would have done, by dragging the coach from the road and destroying it +by fire or other means, the story of the murders committed in the +deep canyon might never have been known; but they left the tell-tale +remains of the dismantled vehicle just where they had attacked it, +and the naked corpses of its passengers where they had been ruthlessly +killed. + +At the next stage station the employees were anxiously waiting for +the arrival of the coach, and wondering what could have caused +the delay; for it was due there at noon on the day of the massacre. +Hour after hour passed, and at last they began to suspect that +something serious had occurred; they sat up all through the night +listening for the familiar rumbling of wheels, but still no stage. +At daylight next morning, determined to wait no longer, as they felt +satisfied that something out of the usual course had happened, +a party hurriedly mounted their horses and rode down the broad trail +leading to the canyon. + +Upon entering its gloomy mouth after a quick lope of an hour, +they discovered the ghastly remains of twelve mutilated bodies. +These were gathered up and buried in one grave, on the top of the +bluff overlooking the narrow gorge. + +They could not be sure of the number of passengers the coach had +brought until the arrival of the next, as it would have a list of +those carried by its predecessor; but it would not be due for +several days. They naturally supposed, however, that the twelve dead +lying on the ground were its full complement. + +Not waiting for the arrival of the next stage, they despatched a +messenger to the last station east that the one whose occupants +had been murdered had passed, and there learned the exact number +of passengers it had contained. Now they knew that Mrs. White, +her child, and the coloured nurse had been carried off into a +captivity worse than death; for no remains of a woman were found +with the others lying in the canyon. + +The terrible news of the massacre was conveyed to Taos, where were +stationed several companies of the Second United States Dragoons, +commanded by Major William Greer; but as the weather had grown +intensely cold and stormy since the date of the massacre, it took +nearly a fortnight for the terrible story to reach there. The Major +acted promptly when appealed to to go after and punish the savages +concerned in the outrage, but several days more were lost in getting +an expedition ready for the field. It was still stormy while the +command was preparing for its work; but at last, one bright morning, +in a piercing cold wind, five troops of the dragoons, commanded by +Major Greer in person, left their comfortable quarters to attempt +the rescue of Mrs. White, her child, and nurse. + +Kit Carson, "Uncle Dick" Wooten, Joaquin Leroux, and Tom Tobin were +the principal scouts and guides accompanying the expedition, having +volunteered their services to Major Greer, which he had gladly accepted. + +The massacre having occurred three weeks before the command had +arrived at the canyon of the Canadian, and snow having fallen almost +continuously ever since, the ground was deeply covered, making it +almost impossible to find the trail of the savages leading out of +the gorge. No one knew where they had established their winter camp +--probably hundreds of miles distant on some tributary of the Canadian +far to the south. + +Carson, Wooton, and Leroux, after scanning the ground carefully at +every point, though the snow was ten inches deep, in a way of which +only men versed in savage lore are capable, were rewarded by +discovering certain signs, unintelligible to the ordinary individual[31] +--that the murderers had gone south out of the canyon immediately +after completing their bloody work, and that their camp was somewhere +on the river, but how far off none could tell. + +The command followed up the trail discovered by the scouts for nearly +four hundred miles. Early one morning when that distance had been +rounded, and just as the men were about to break camp preparatory +to the day's march, Carson went out on a little reconnoissance on his +own account, as he had noticed a flock of ravens hovering in the air +when he first got out of his blankets at dawn, which was sufficient +indication to him that an Indian camp was located somewhere in the +vicinity; for that ominous bird is always to be found in the region +where the savages take up an abode, feeding upon the carcasses of +the many varieties of game killed for food. He had not proceeded +more than half a mile from the camp when he discovered two Indians +slowly riding over a low "divide," driving a herd of ponies before +them. The famous scout was then certain their village could not +be very far away. The savages did not observe him, as he took good +care they should not; so he returned quickly to where Major Greer +was standing by his camp-fire and reported the presence of a village +very close at hand. + +The Major having sent for Tom Tobin and Uncle Dick Wooton, requested +them to go and find the exact location of the savages. These scouts +came back in less than half an hour, and reported a large number +of teepees in a thick grove of timber a mile away. + +It was at once determined to surprise the savages in their winter +quarters by charging right among their lodges without allowing them +time to mount their ponies, as the gallant Custer rode, at the head +of his famous troopers of the Seventh Cavalry, into the camp of the +celebrated chief "Black Kettle" on the Washita, in the dawn of a +cold November morning twenty years afterward. + +The command succeeded in getting within good charging distance of the +village without its occupants having any knowledge of its proximity; +but at this moment Major Greer was seized with an idea that he ought +to have a parley with the Indians before he commenced to fight them, +and for that purpose he ordered a halt, just as the soldiers were +eager for the sound of the "Charge!" + +Never were a body of men more enraged. Carson gave vent to his wrath +in a series of elaborately carved English oaths, for which he was +noted when young; Leroux, whose naturally hot blood was roused, +swore at the Major in a curious mixture of bad French and worse +mountain dialect, and it appeared as if the battle would begin in the +ranks of the troops instead of those of the savages; for never was +a body of soldiers so disgusted at the act of any commanding officer. + +This delay gave the Indians, who could be seen dodging about among +their lodges and preparing for a fight that was no longer a surprise, +time to hide their women and children, mount their ponies, and get +down into deep ravines, where the soldiers could not follow them. +While the Major was trying to convince his subordinates that his +course was the proper one, the Indians opened fire without any parley, +and it happened that at the first volley a bullet struck him in the +breast, but a suspender buckle deflected its course and he was not +seriously wounded. + +The change in the countenance of their commanding officer caused by +the momentary pain was just the incentive the troopers wanted, and +without waiting for the sound of the trumpet, they spurred their +horses, dashed in, and charged the thunderstruck savages with the +shock of a tornado. + +In two successful charges of the gallant and impatient troopers more +than a hundred of the Indians were killed and wounded, but the time +lost had permitted many to escape, and the pursuit of the stragglers +would have been unavailing under the circumstances; so the command +turned back and returned to Taos. In the village was found the body +of Mrs. White still warm, with three arrows in her breast. Had the +charge been made as originally expected by the troopers, her life +would have been saved. No trace of the child or of the coloured +nurse was ever discovered, and it is probable that they were both +killed while en route from the canyon to the village, as being +valueless to keep either as slaves or for other purposes. + +The fate of the Apache chief, "White Wolf," who was the leader in +the outrages in the canyon of the Canadian, was fitting for his +devilish deeds. It was Lieutenant David Bell's fortune to avenge +the murder of Mrs. White and her family, and in an extraordinary +manner.[32] The action was really dramatic, or romantic; he was +on a scout with his company, which was stationed at Fort Union, +New Mexico, having about thirty men with him, and when near the canyon +of the Canadian they met about the same number of Indians. A parley +was in order at once, probably desired by the savages, who were +confronted with an equal number of troopers. Bell had assigned +the baggage-mules to the care of five or six of his command, and held +a mounted interview with the chief, who was no other than the infamous +White Wolf of the Jicarilla Apaches. As Bell approached, White Wolf +was standing in front of his Indians, who were on foot, all well armed +and in perfect line. Bell was in advance of his troopers, who were +about twenty paces from the Indians, exactly equal in number and +extent of line; both parties were prepared to use firearms. + +The parley was almost tediously long and the impending duel was +arranged, White Wolf being very bold and defiant. + +At last the leaders exchanged shots, the chief sinking on one knee +and aiming his gun, Bell throwing his body forward and making his +horse rear. Both lines, by command, fired, following the example +of their superiors, the troopers, however, spurring forward over +their enemies. The warriors, or nearly all of them, threw themselves +on the ground, and several vertical wounds were received by horse +and rider. The dragoons turned short about, and again charged through +and over their enemies, the fire being continuous. As they turned +for a third charge, the surviving Indians were seen escaping to a +deep ravine, which, although only one or two hundred paces off, +had not previously been noticed. A number of the savages thus +escaped, the troopers having to pull up at the brink, but sending +a volley after the descending fugitives. + +In less than fifteen minutes twenty-one of the forty-six actors in +this strange combat were slain or disabled. Bell was not hit, but +four or five of his men were killed or wounded. He had shot +White Wolf several times, and so did others after him; but so +tenacious of life was the Apache that, to finish him, a trooper +got a great stone and mashed his head. + +This was undoubtedly the greatest duel of modern times; certainly +nothing like it ever occurred on the Santa Fe Trail before or since. + +The war chief of the Kiowa nation in the early '50's was Satank, +a most unmitigated villain; cruel and heartless as any savage that +ever robbed a stage-coach or wrenched off the hair of a helpless woman. +After serving a dozen or more years with a record for hellish +atrocities equalled by few of his compeers, he was deposed for alleged +cowardice, as his warriors claimed, under the following circumstances:-- + +The village of his tribe was established in the large bottoms, +eight miles from the Great Bend of the Arkansas, and about the same +distance from Fort Zarah.[33] All the bucks were absent on a hunting +expedition, excepting Satank and a few superannuated warriors. +The troops were out from Fort Larned on a grand scout after marauding +savages, when they suddenly came across the village and completely +took the Kiowas by surprise. Seeing the soldiers almost upon them, +Satank and other warriors jumped on their ponies and made good their +escape. Had they remained, all of them would have been killed or +at least captured; consequently Satank, thinking discretion better +than valour at that particular juncture, incontinently fled. +His warriors in council, however, did not agree with him; they thought +that it was his duty to have remained at the village in defence of +the women and children, as he had been urged to refrain from going on +the hunt for that very purpose. + +Some time before Satank lost his office of chief, there was living +on Cow Creek, in a rude adobe building, a man who was ostensibly +an Indian trader, but whose traffic, in reality, consisted in selling +whiskey to the Indians, and consequently the United States troops +were always after him. He was obliged to cache his liquor in every +conceivable manner so that the soldiers should not discover it, and, +of course, he dreaded the incursions of the troops much more than +he did raids of the Indian marauders that were constantly on the Trail. + +Satank and this illicit trader, whose name was Peacock, were great +chums. One day while they were indulging in a general good time +over sundry drinks of most villanous liquor, Satank said to Peacock: +"Peacock, I want you to write me a letter; a real nice one, that +I can show to the wagon-bosses on the Trail, and get all the 'chuck' +I want. Tell them I am Satank, the great chief of the Kiowas, and +for them to treat me the best they know how." + +"All right, Satank," said Peacock; "I'll do so." Peacock then sat +down and wrote the following epistle:-- + +"The bearer of this is Satank. He is the biggest liar, beggar, and +thief on the plains. What he can't beg of you, he'll steal. Kick him +out of camp, for he is a lazy, good-for-nothing Indian." + +Satank began at once to make use of the supposed precious document, +which he really believed would assure him the dignified treatment +and courtesy due to his exalted rank. He presented it to several +caravans during the ensuing week, and, of course, received a very +cool reception in every instance, or rather a very warm one. + +One wagon-master, in fact, black-snaked him out of his camp. +After these repeated insults he sought another white friend, and +told of his grievances. "Look here," said Satank, "I asked Peacock +to write me a good letter, and he gave me this; but I don't +understand it! Every time I hand it to a wagon-boss, he gives me +the devil! Read it to me and tell me just what it does say." + +His friend read it over, and then translated it literally to Satank. +The savage assumed a countenance of extreme disgust, and after musing +for a few moments, said: "Well, I understand it all now. All right!" + +The next morning at daylight, Satank called for some of his braves +and with them rode out to Peacock's ranch. Arriving there, he called +out to Peacock, who had not yet risen: "Peacock, get up, the soldiers +are coming!" It was a warning which the illicit trader quickly +obeyed, and running out of the building with his field-glass in his +hand, he started for his lookout, but while he was ascending the +ladder with his back to Satank the latter shot him full of holes, +saying, as he did so: "There, Peacock, I guess you won't write any +more letters." + +His warriors then entered the building and killed every man in it, +save one who had been gored by a buffalo bull the day before, and +who was lying in a room all by himself. He was saved by the fact +that the Indian has a holy dread of small-pox, and will never enter +an apartment where sick men lie, fearing they may have the awful +disease. + +Satanta (White Bear) was the most efficient and dreaded chief of all +who have ever been at the head of the Kiowa nation. Ever restlessly +active in ordering or conducting merciless forays against an exposed +frontier, he was the very incarnation of deviltry in his determined +hatred of the whites, and his constant warfare against civilization. + +He also possessed wonderful oratorical powers; he could hurl the most +violent invectives at those whom he argued with, or he could be +equally pathetic when necessary. He was justly called "The Orator of +the Plains," rivalling the historical renown of Tecumseh or Pontiac. + +He was a short, bullet-headed Indian, full of courage and well versed +in strategy. Ordinarily, when on his visits to the various military +posts he wore a major-general's full uniform, a suit of that rank +having been given to him in the summer of 1866 by General Hancock. +He also owned an ambulance, a team of mules, and a set of harness, +the last stolen, maybe, from some caravan he had raided on the Trail. +In that ambulance, with a trained Indian driver, the wily chief +travelled, wrapped in a savage dignity that was truly laughable. +In his village, too, he assumed a great deal of style. He was very +courteous to his white guests, if at the time his tribe were at all +friendly with the government; nothing was too good for them. +He always laid down a carpet on the floor of his lodge in the post +of honour, on which they were to sit. He had large boards, twenty +inches wide and three feet long, ornamented with brass tacks driven +all around the edges, which he used for tables. He also had a +French horn, which he blew vigorously when meals were ready. + +His friendship was only dissembling. During all the time that +General Sheridan was making his preparations for his intended winter +campaign against the allied plains tribes, Satanta made frequent +visits to the military posts, ostensibly to show the officers that +he was heartily for peace, but really to inform himself of what was +going on. + +At that time I was stationed at Fort Harker, on the Smoky Hill. +One evening, General Sheridan, who was my guest, was sitting on the +verandah of my quarters, smoking and chatting with me and some other +officers who had come to pay him their respects, when one of my men +rode up and quietly informed me that Satanta had just driven his +ambulance into the fort, and was getting ready to camp near the mule +corral. On receiving this information, I turned to the general and +suggested the propriety of either killing or capturing the inveterate +demon. Personally I believed it would be right to get rid of such +a character, and I had men under my command who would have been +delighted to execute an order to that effect. + +Sheridan smiled when I told him of Satanta's presence and the +excellent chance to get rid of him. But he said: "That would +never do; the sentimentalists in the Eastern States would raise +such a howl that the whole country would be horrified!" + +Of course, in these "piping times of peace" the reader, in the quiet +of his own room, will think that my suggestion was brutal, and without +any palliation; my excuse, however, may be found in General +Washington's own motto: Exitus acta probat. If the suggestion had +been acted upon, many an innocent man and woman would have escaped +torture, and many a maiden a captivity worse than death. + +As a specimen of Satanta's oratory, I offer the following, to show +the hypocrisy of the subtle old villain, and his power over the minds +of too sensitive auditors. Once Congress sent out to the central +plains a commission from Washington to inquire into the causes of +the continual warfare raging with the savages on the Kansas border; +to learn what the grievances of the Indians were; and to find some +remedy for the wholesale slaughter of men, women, and children along +the line of the Old Trail. + +Satanta was sent for by the commission as the leading spirit of the +formidable Kiowa nation. When he entered the building at Fort Dodge +in which daily sessions were held, he was told by the president to +speak his mind without any reservation; to withhold nothing, but to +truthfully relate what his tribe had to complain of on the part of +the whites. The old rascal grew very pathetic as he warmed up to +his subject. He declared that he had no desire to kill the white +settlers or emigrants crossing the plains, but that those who came +and lived on the land of his tribe ruthlessly slaughtered the buffalo, +allowing their carcasses to rot on the prairie; killing them merely +for the amusement it afforded them, while the Indian only killed +when necessity demanded. He also stated that the white hunters +set out fires, destroying the grass, and causing the tribe's horses +to starve to death as well as the buffalo; that they cut down and +otherwise destroyed the timber on the margins of the streams, making +large fires of it, while the Indian was satisfied to cook his food +with a few dry and dead limbs. "Only the other day," said he, +"I picked up a little switch on the Trail, and it made my heart bleed +to think that so small a green branch, ruthlessly torn out of the +ground and thoughtlessly destroyed by some white man, would in time +have grown into a stately tree for the use and benefit of my children +and grandchildren." + +After the pow-wow had ended, and Satanta had got a few drinks of +red liquor into him, his real, savage nature asserted itself, and +he said to the interpreter at the settler's store: "Now didn't I +give it to those white men who came from the Great Father? Didn't I +do it in fine style? Why, I drew tears from their eyes! The switch +I saw on the Trail made my heart glad instead of sad; for I new there +was a tenderfoot ahead of me, because an old plainsman or hunter +would never have carried anything but a good quirt or a pair of spurs. +So I said to my warriors, 'Come on, boys; we've got him!' and when +we came in sight, after we had followed him closely on the dead run, +he threw away his rifle and held tightly on to his hat for fear +he should lose it!" + +Another time when Satanta had remained at Fort Dodge for a very long +period and had worn out his welcome, so that no one would give him +anything to drink, he went to the quarters of his old friend, +Bill Bennett, the overland stage agent, and begged him to give him +some liquor. Bill was mixing a bottle of medicine to drench a +sick mule. The moment he set the bottle down to do something else, +Satanta seized it off the ground and drank most of the liquid before +quitting. Of course, it made the old savage dreadfully sick as well +as angry. He then started for a certain officer's quarters and again +begged for something to cure him of the effects of the former dose; +the officer refused, but Satanta persisted in his importunities; +he would not leave without it. After a while, the officer went to +a closet and took a swallow of the most nauseating medicine, placing +the bottle back on its shelf. Satanta watched his chance, and, +as soon as the officer left the room, he snatched the bottle out of +the closet and drank its contents without stopping to breathe. +It was, of course, a worse dose than the horse-medicine. The next +day, very early in the morning, he assembled a number of his warriors, +crossed the Arkansas, and went south to his village. Before leaving, +however, he burnt all of the government contractor's hay on the bank +of the river opposite the post. He then continued on to Crooked Creek, +where he murdered three wood-choppers, all of which, he said afterward, +he did in revenge for the attempt to poison him at Fort Dodge. + +At the Comanche agency, where several of the government agents were +assembled to have a talk with chiefs of the various plains tribes, +Satanta said in his address: "I would willingly take hold of that part +of the white man's road which is represented by the breech-loading +rifles; but I don't like the corn rations--they make my teeth hurt!" + +Big Tree was another Kiowa chief. He was the ally and close friend +of Satanta, and one of the most daring and active of his warriors. +The sagacity and bravery of these two savages would have been a credit +to that of the most famous warriors of the old French and Indian Wars. +Both were at last taken, tried, and sent to the Texas penitentiary +for life. Satanta was eventually pardoned; but before he was made +aware of the efforts that were being taken for his release, +he attempted to escape, and, in jumping from a window, fell and broke +his neck. His pardon arrived the next morning. Big Tree, through +the work of the sentimentalists of Washington, was set free and sent +to the Kiowa Reservation--near Fort Sill in the Indian Territory. + +The next most audacious and terrible scourge of the plains was +"Ta-ne-on-koe" (Kicking Bird). He was a great warrior of the Kiowas, +and was the chief actor in some of the bloodiest raids on the Kansas +frontier in the history of its troublous times. + +One of his captures was that of a Miss Morgan and Mrs. White. +They were finally rescued from the savages by General Custer, under +the following circumstances: Custer, who was advancing with his +column of invincible cavalrymen--the famous Seventh United States-- +in search of the two unfortunate women, had arrived near the head +waters of one of the tributaries of the Washita, and, with only +his guide and interpreter, was far in advance of the column, when, +on reaching the summit of an isolated bluff, they suddenly saw a +village of the Kiowas, which turned out to be that of Kicking Bird, +whose handsome lodge was easily distinguishable from the rest. +Without waiting for his command, the general and his guide rode +boldly to the lodge of the great chief, and both dismounted, holding +cocked revolvers in their hands; Custer presented his at Kicking +Bird's head. In the meantime, Custer's column of troopers, whom +the Kiowas had good reason to remember for their bravery in many +a hard-fought battle, came in full view of the astonished village. +This threw the startled savages into the utmost consternation, but +the warriors were held in check by signs from Kicking Bird. As the +cavalry drew nearer, General Custer demanded the immediate release +of the white women. Their presence in the village was at first +denied by the lying chief, and not until he had been led to the limb +of a huge cottonwood tree near the lodge, with a rope around his neck, +did he acknowledge that he held the women and consent to give them up. + +This well-known warrior, with a foreknowledge not usually found in the +savage mind, seeing the beginning of the end of Indian sovereignty +on the plains, voluntarily came in and surrendered himself to the +authorities, and stayed on the reservation near Fort Sill. + +In June, 1867, a year before the breaking out of the great Indian war +on the central plains, the whole tribe of Kiowas, led by him, +assembled at Fort Larned. He was the cynosure of all eyes, as he +was without question one of the noblest-looking savages ever seen +on the plains. On that occasion he wore the full uniform of a +major-general of the United States army. He was as correctly moulded +as a statue when on horseback, and when mounted on his magnificent +charger the morning he rode out with General Hancock to visit the +immense Indian camp a few miles above the fort on Pawnee Fork, +it would have been a difficult task to have determined which was +the finer-looking man. + +After Kicking Bird had abandoned his wicked career, he was regarded +by every army officer with whom he had a personal acquaintance as +a remarkably good Indian; for he really made the most strenuous +efforts to initiate his tribe into the idea that it was best for it +to follow the white man's road. He argued with them that the time +was very near when there would no longer be any region where the +Indians could live as they had been doing, depending on the buffalo +and other game for the sustenance of their families; they must adapt +themselves to the methods of their conquerors. + +In July, 1869, he became greatly offended with the government for +its enforced removal of his tribe from its natural and hereditary +hunting-grounds into the reservation allotted to it. At that time +many of his warriors, together with the Comanches, made a raid on +the defenceless settlements of the northern border of Texas, in which +the savages were disastrously defeated, losing a large number of +their most beloved warriors. On the return of the unsuccessful +expedition, a great council was held, consisting of all the chiefs +and head men of the two tribes which had suffered so terribly in +the awful fight, to consider the best means of avenging the loss +of so many braves and friends. Kicking Bird was summoned before +that council and condemned as a coward; they called him a squaw, +because he had refused to go with the warriors of the combined tribes +on the raid into Texas. + +He told a friend of mine some time afterward that he had intended +never again to go against the whites; but the emergency of the case, +and his severe condemnation by the council, demanded that he should +do something to re-establish himself in the good graces of his tribe. +He then made one of the most destructive raids into Texas that ever +occurred in the history of its border warfare, which successfully +restored him to the respect of his warriors. + +In that raid Kicking Bird carried off vast herds of horses and a +large number of scalps. Although his tribe fairly worshipped him, +he was not at all satisfied with himself. He could look into the +future as well as any one, and from that time on to his tragic death +he laboured most zealously and earnestly in connection with the +Indian agents to bring his people to live on the reservation which +the government had established for them in the Territory. + +At the inauguration of the so-called "Quaker Policy" by President +Grant, that sect was largely intrusted with the management of Indian +affairs, particularly in the selection of agents for the various +tribes. A Mr. Tatham was appointed agent for the Kiowas in 1869. +He at once gained the confidence of Kicking Bird, who became very +valuable to him as an assistant in controlling the savages. It was +through that chief's influence that Thomas Batty, another Quaker, +was allowed to take up his residence with the tribe, the first white +man ever accorded that privilege. Batty was permitted to erect +three tents, which were staked together, converting them into an +ample schoolhouse. In that crude, temporary structure he taught +the Kiowa youth the rudiments of an education. This very successful +innovation shows how earnest the former dreaded savage was in his +efforts to promote the welfare of his people, by trying to induce +them to "take the white man's road." + +Batty succeeded admirably for a year in his office of teacher, +the chief all the time nobly withstanding the taunts and jeers of +his warriors and their threats of taking his life, for daring to +allow a white man within the sacred precincts of their village-- +a thing unparalleled in the annals of the tribe. + +At last trouble came; the dissatisfied members of the tribe, the +ambitious and restless young men, eager for renown, made another +unsuccessful raid into Texas. The result was that they lost nearly +the whole of the band, among which was the favourite son of Lone Wolf, +a noted chief.[34] After the death of his son, he declared that he +must and would have the scalp of a white man in revenge for the +untimely taking off of the young warrior. Of course, the most +available white man at this juncture was Batty, the Quaker teacher, +and he was chosen by Lone Wolf as the victim of savage revenge. +Here the noble instincts of Kicking Bird developed themselves. +He very plainly told Lone Wolf, who was constantly threatening and +thirsting for blood, that he could not kill Batty until he first +killed him and all his band. But Lone Wolf had fully determined +to have the hair of the innocent Quaker; so Kicking Bird, to avert +any collision between the two bands of Indians, kidnapped Batty +and ran him off to the agency, arriving at Fort Sill about an hour +before Lone Wolf's band of avengers overtook them, and thus the +Quaker teacher was saved. + +One day, long after these occurrences, a friend of mine was in the +sutler's store at Fort Sill. In there was a stranger talking to +Mr. Fox, the agent of the Indians. Soon Kicking Bird entered the +establishment, and the stranger asked Mr. Fox who that fine-looking +Indian was. He was told, and then he begged the agent to say to him +that he would like to have a talk with him; for he it was who led +that famous raid into Texas. "I never saw better generalship in the +field in all my experience. He had three horses killed under him. +I was the surgeon of the rangers and was, of course, in the fight."[35] + +When Kicking Bird was told that the Texas doctor desired to talk with +him, he replied with great dignity that he did not want to revive +those troublous times. "Tell him, though," said Kicking Bird, "that +was my last raid against the whites; that I am a changed man." + +The President of the United States sent for Kicking Bird to come to +Washington, and to bring with him such other influential Indians as +he thought might aid in inducing the Kiowas to cease their continual +raiding on the border of Texas. + +In due time Kicking Bird left for the capital, taking with him +Lone Wolf, Big Bow, and Sun Boy of the Kiowas, together with several +of the head men of the Comanches. When the deputation of savages +arrived in Washington, it was received at the presidential mansion +by the chief magistrate himself. So much more attention was given +to Kicking Bird than to the others, that they became very jealous, +particularly when the President announced to them the appointment +of Kicking Bird as the head chief of the tribe.[36] But Lone Wolf +would never recognize his authority, constantly urging the young men +to raid the settlements. Lone Wolf was a genuine savage, without one +redeeming trait, and his hatred of the white race was unparalleled +in its intensity. He was never known to smile. No other Indian can +show such a record of horrible massacres as he is responsible for. +His orders were rigidly obeyed, for he brooked no disobedience on +the part of his warriors. + +In the summer of 1876, a party of English gentlemen left Fort Harker +for a buffalo hunt. They soon exhausted all their rations and started +a four-mule team back to the post for more. Some of Lone Wolf's band +of cut-throats came across the unfortunate teamster, killed him, +and ran off the team. After the occurrence, Kicking Bird came into +the agency at Fort Sill and told Mr. Haworth, the agent, that he had +given his word to the Great Father at Washington he would do all he +could to bring in those Indians who had been raiding by order of +Lone Wolf, particularly the two who had killed the Englishmen's driver. + +He succeeded in bringing in twelve Indians in all, among them the +murderers of the driver. They, with Lone Wolf and Satank, were sent +to the Dry Tortugas for life. The morning they started on their +journey Satank talked very feelingly to Kicking Bird, with tears in +his eyes. He said that they might look for his bones along the road, +for he would never go to Florida. The savages were loaded into +government wagons. Satank was inside of one with a soldier on each +side of him, their legs hanging outside. Somehow the crafty villain +managed to slip the handcuffs off his wrists, at the same instant +seizing the rifle of one of his guards, and then shoved the two men +out with his feet. He tried to work the lever of the rifle, but +could not move it, and one of the soldiers, coming around the wagon +to where he was still trying to get the gun so as he could use it, +shot him down, and then threw his body on the Trail. Thus Satank +made good his vow that he would never be taken to Florida. He met +his death only a mile from the post. + +After the departure of the condemned savages, the feeling in the tribe +against Kicking Bird increased to an alarming extent. Several times +the most incensed warriors tried to kill him by shooting at him from +an ambush. After he became fully aware that his life was in danger, +he never left his lodge without his carbine. He was as brave as a +lion, fearing none of the members of Lone Wolf's band; but he often +said it was only a question of a short time when he would be gotten +rid of; he did not allow the matter, however, to worry him in the +least, saying that he was conscious he had done his duty by his tribe +and the Great Father. + +In a bend of Cash Creek, about half a mile below the mill, about half +a dozen of the Kiowas had their lodges, that of their chief being +among them. At ten o'clock one Monday in June, 1876, Mr. Haworth, +the agent, came in haste to the shops, called the master mechanic, +Mr. Wykes, out, told him to jump into the carriage quickly; that +Kicking Bird was dead. + +When they arrived at the home of the great chief, sure enough he was +dead, and some of the women were engaged in folding his body in robes. +Other squaws were cutting themselves in a terrible manner, as is their +custom when a relative dies, and were also breaking everything +breakable about the lodge. Kicking Bird had always been scrupulously +clean and neat in the care of his home; it was adorned with the most +beautifully dressed buffalo robes and the finest furs, while the floor +was covered with matting. + +It seems that Kicking Bird, after visiting Mr. Wykes that morning, +went immediately to his lodge, and sat down to eat something, but +just as he had finished a cup of coffee, he fell over, dead. He had +in his service a Mexican woman, and she had been bribed to poison him. + +An expensive coffin was made at the agency for his remains, fashioned +out of the finest black walnut to be found in the country where that +timber grows to such a luxuriant extent. It was eight feet long +and four feet deep, but even then it did not hold one-half of his +effects, which were, according to the savage custom, interred with +his body. + +The cries and lamentations of the warriors and women of his band +were heartrending; such a manifestation of grief was never before +witnessed at the agency. A handsome fence was erected around his +grave, in the cemetery at Fort Sill, and the government ordered +a beautiful marble monument to be raised over it; but I do not know +whether it was ever done. + +Kicking Bird was only forty years old at the time of his sudden +taking off, and was very wealthy for an Indian. He knew the uses +of money and was a careful saver of it. A great roll of greenbacks +was placed in his coffin, and that fact having leaked out, it was +rumoured that his grave was robbed; but the story may not have been +true. + +One of the greatest terrors of the Old Santa Fe Trail was the +half-breed Indian desperado Charles Bent. His mother was a Cheyenne +squaw, and his father the famous trader, Colonel Bent. He was born +at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and at a very early age placed +in one of the best schools that St. Louis afforded. His venerable +sire, with only a limited education himself, was determined that +his boy should profit by the culture and refinement of civilization, +so he was not allowed to return to his mountain home at Bent's Fort, +and the savage conditions under which he was born, until he had +attained his majority. He then spoke no language but English. +His mother died while he was absent at school, and his father +continued to live at the old fort, where Charles, after he had +reached the age of twenty-one, joined him. + +Some Washington sentimentalist, philosophizing on the Indian character, +his knowledge being based on Cooper's novels probably, has said: +"Civilization has very marked effects upon an Indian. If he once +learns to speak English, he will soon forget all his native cunning +and pride of race." Let us see how this theory worked with Charley Bent. + +As soon as the educated half-breed set his foot on his native heath +he readily found enough ambitious young bucks of his own age who +were willing to look on him as their leader. They loved him, too, +if such a thing were possible, as Fra Diavolo was loved by his wild +followers. His band was known as the "Dog-Soldiers"; a sort of a +semi-military organization, consisting of the most daring, +blood-thirsty young men of the tribe; and sometimes "squaw-men," +that is, renegade white men married to squaws, attached themselves +to his command of cut-throats. + +At the head of this collection of the worst savages, hardly ever +numbering over a hundred, Charles Bent robbed ranches, attacked +wagon-trains, overland coaches, and army caravans. He stole and +murdered indiscriminately. The history of his bloody work will +never be wholly revealed, for dead men have no tongues. + +He would visit all alone, in the guise of plainsman, hunter, or +cattleman, the emigrant trains crossing the continent, always, +however, those which had only small escorts or none at all. Feigning +hunger, while his needs were being kindly furnished, he would glance +around him to learn what kind of an outfit it was; its value, its +destination, and how well guarded. Then he would take his leave with +many thanks, rejoin his band, and with it dash down on the train and +kill every human being unfortunate enough not to have escaped before +he arrived. + +He was indefatigable in his efforts to kill off the whole corps of +army scouts. He would pass himself off as a fellow-scout, as a +deserter from some military post, or as an Indian trader, for he was +a wonderful actor, and would have achieved histrionic honours had +he chosen the stage as a profession. + +He would always time his actions so as to be found apparently asleep +by a little camp-fire on the bank of Pawnee Fork, Crooked, Mulberry, +or Walnut creeks, all of which streams intercepted the trails running +north and south between the several military posts during the Indian +war, when he would seem delighted and astonished, or else simulate +suspicion. Then he would either murder the unsuspecting scout with +his own hands, or deliver him to the red fiends of his band to be +tormented. + +The government offered a reward of five thousand dollars for Bent's +capture, dead or alive. It was reported currently that he was at last +killed in a battle with some deputy United States marshals, and that +they received the reward; but the whole thing was manufactured out of +whole cloth, and if the marshals received the money, Uncle Sam was +most outrageously swindled. + +The facts are that he died of malarial fever superinduced by a wound +received in a fight with the Kaws, near the mouth of the Walnut and +not far from Fort Zarah. His "Dog-Soldiers" were whipped by the Kaws, +and his band driven off. Bent lingered for some time and died. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. +LA GLORIETA. + + + +New Mexico, at the breaking out of the Civil War, was abandoned by +the government at Washington, or at least so overlooked that the +charge of neglect was merited. In the report of the committee on +the Conduct of the War, under date of July 15, 1862, Brevet +Lieutenant-Colonel B. S. Roberts of the regular army, major of the +Third Cavalry, who was stationed in the Territory in 1861, says: + It appears to me to be the determination of General Thomas[37] + not to acknowledge the service of the officers who saved + the Territory of New Mexico; and the utter neglect of the + adjutant-general's department for the last year to + communicate in any way with the commanding officer of the + department of New Mexico, or to answer his urgent appeals + for reinforcements, for money and other supplies, in + connection with his repudiation of the services of all the + army there, convinces me that he is not gratified at their + loyalty and their success in saving that Territory to + the Union. + +If space could be given to the story of the carefully prepared plans +of the leaders of secession for the conquest of all the territory +south of a line drawn from Maryland directly west to the Pacific +coast, in which were California, Arizona, and New Mexico, it would +reveal some startling facts, and prove beyond question that it was +the intention of Jefferson Davis to precipitate the rebellion a +decade before it actually occurred. The basis of the scheme was to +inaugurate a war between Texas--which, when admitted into the Union, +claimed all that part of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande--and the +United States, in which conflict Mississippi and some of the other +Southern States were to become participants. The plan fell flat, +because, in 1851, Mr. Davis failed of a re-election to the governorship +of Mississippi. + +So confident were many of Mr. Davis' allies in regard to the +contemplated rebellion, that they boasted to their friends of the +North, upon leaving Washington, that when they met again, it would +be upon a Southern battle-field. + +I have alluded incidentally to what is known as the Texas Santa Fe +Expedition, inaugurated by the President of what was then the republic +of Texas, Mirabeau B. Lamar. It was given out to the world that +it was merely one of commercial interest--to increase the trade +between the two countries; but that it was intended for the conquest +of New Mexico, no one now, in the light of history, doubts. +It resulted in disaster, and is a story well worthy the examination +of the student of American politics.[38] + +In 1861 General Twiggs commanded the military department of which +Texas was an important part. It will be remembered that he surrendered +to the Confederate government the troops, the munitions of war, +the forts, or posts as they were properly termed, and everything +pertaining to the United States army under his control. It was the +intention of the Confederacy to use this region as a military base +from which to continue its conquests westward, and capture the various +forts in New Mexico. Particularly they had their eyes upon Fort Union, +where there was an arsenal, which John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, +had taken especial care to have well stocked previously to the act +of secession. + +But the conspirators had reckoned without their host; they imagined +the native Mexicans would eagerly accept their overtures, and readily +support the Southern Confederacy. Mr. Davis and his coadjutors had +evidently forgotten the effect of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition, +in 1841, upon the people of the Province of New Mexico; but the +natives themselves had not. Besides the loyalty of the Mexicans, +there was a factor which the Confederate leaders had failed to +consider, which was that the majority of the American pioneers had +come from loyal States. + +Of course, there were many secessionists both in Colorado and +New Mexico who were watching the progress of rebellion in eager +anticipation; and it is claimed that in Denver a rebel flag was +raised--but how true that is I do not know. + +John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, was one of the leading spirits of +the Confederacy. A year before the Civil War he placed in command +of the department of New Mexico a North Carolinian, Colonel Loring, +who was in perfect sympathy with his superior, and willing to carry +out his well-defined plans. In 1861 he ordered Colonel G. B. Crittenden +on an expedition against the Apaches. This officer at once tried to +induce his troops to attach themselves to the rebel army in Texas, +but he was met with an indignant refusal by Colonel Roberts and +the regular soldiers under him. The loyal colonel told Crittenden, +in the most forcible language, that he would resist any such attempt +on his part, and reported the action of Colonel Crittenden to the +commander of the department at Santa Fe. Of course, Colonel Loring +paid no attention to the complaint of disloyalty, and then Colonel +Roberts conveyed the tidings to the commanding officers of several +military posts in the Territory, whom he knew were true to the Union, +and only one man out of nearly two thousand regular soldiers +renounced his flag. Some of the officers stationed at New Mexico +were of a different mind, and one of them, Major Lynde, commanding +Fort Filmore, surrendered to a detachment of Texans, who paroled +the enlisted men, as they firmly refused to join the rebel forces. + +Upon the desertion of Colonel Loring to the Southern Confederacy, +General Edward R. S. Canby was assigned to the command of the +department; next in rank was the loyal Roberts. At this perilous +juncture in New Mexico, there were but a thousand regulars all told, +but the Territory furnished two regiments of volunteers, commanded by +officers whose names had been famous on the border for years. +Among these was Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, who had been conspicuous +in the suppression of the Mexican insurrection of 1847, fifteen years +before. Kit Carson was lieutenant-colonel; J. F. Chaves, major; and +the most prominent of the line officers Captain Albert H. Pfeiffer, +with a record as an Indian fighter equal to that of Carson. + +At the same time Colorado was girding on her armour for the impending +conflict. The governor of the prosperous Territory was William Gilpin, +an old army officer, who had spent a large part of his life on the +frontier, and had accompanied Colonel Doniphan, as major of his +regiment, across the plains, on the expedition to New Mexico in 1846. + +Colonel Gilpin at once responded to the pleadings of New Mexico for +help, by organizing two companies at first, quickly following with +a full regiment. This Colorado regiment was composed of as fine +material as any portion of the United States could furnish. +John P. Slough, a war Democrat and a lawyer, was its colonel. +He afterwards became chief justice of New Mexico, and was brutally +murdered in that Territory. + +John M. Chivington, a strict Methodist and a presiding elder of +that church, was offered the chaplaincy, but firmly declined, and, +like many others who wore the clerical garb, he quickly doffed it +and put on the attire of a soldier; so he was made major, and his +record as a fighter was equal to the best. + +The commanding general knew well the plans of the rebels as to their +intended occupation of New Mexico, and, notwithstanding the weakness +of his force, determined to frustrate them if within the limits of +possibility. To that end he concentrated his little army, comprising +a thousand regular soldiers, the two regiments of New Mexico +volunteers, two companies of Colorado troops, and a portion of the +territorial militia, at Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande, to await +the approach of the Confederate troops, under the command of +General H. H. Sibley, an old regular army officer, a native of +Louisiana, and the inventor of the comfortable tent named after him. + +Sibley's brigade comprised some three thousand men, the majority +of them Texans, and he expected that many more would flock to his +standard as he moved northward. On the 19th of February, 1862, +he crossed the Rio Grande below Fort Craig, not daring to attack +Canby in his intrenched position. The Union commander, in order +to keep the Texas troops from gaining the high points overlooking +the fort, placed portions of the Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Regulars, +together with Carson's and Pino's volunteers, on the other side of +the river. No collision occurred that day, but the next afternoon +Major Duncan, with his cavalry and Captain M'Rae's light battery, +having been sent across to reinforce the infantry, a heavy artillery +fire was immediately opened upon them by the Texans. The men under +Carson behaved splendidly, but the other volunteer regiments became +a little demoralized, and the general was compelled to call back +the force into the fort. Sibley's force, both men and animals, +suffered much from thirst, the latter stampeding, and many, wandering +into our lines, were caught by the scouts of the Union forces. +The next morning early Colonel Roberts was ordered to proceed about +seven miles up the river to keep the Texans away from the water at +a point where it was alone accessible, on account of the steepness +of the banks everywhere else. + +The gallant Roberts, on arriving at the ford, planted a battery there, +and at once opened fire. This was the battle of Valverde, the details +of which, however, do not belong to this book, having been only +incidentally referred to in order to lead the reader intelligently +up to that of La Glorieta, Apache Canyon, or Pigeon's Ranch, as it +is indifferently called. + +Valverde was lost to the Union troops, but never did men fight more +valiantly, with the exception of a few who did not act the part of +the true soldier. The brave M'Rae mounted one of the guns of his +battery, choosing to die rather than surrender. + +General Sibley, after his doubtful victory at Valverde, continued +on to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The old city offered no resistance +to his occupation; in fact, some of the most influential Mexicans +were pleased, their leaning being strongly toward the Southern +Confederacy; but the common people were as loyal to the Union as +those of any of the Northern States, a feeling intensified by their +hatred for the Texans on account of the expedition of conquest in +1841, twenty-one years before. They contributed of their means to +aid the United States troops, but have never received proper credit +for their action in those days of trouble in the neglected Territory. + +The Confederate general was disappointed at the way in which affairs +were going, for he had based great hopes upon the defection of the +native residents; but he determined to march forward to Fort Union, +where his friend Floyd had placed such stores as were likely to be +needed in the campaign which he had designed. + +From Santa Fe to Fort Union, where the arsenal was located, the road +runs through the deep, rocky gorge known as Apache Canyon. It is +one of the wildest spots in the mountains, the walls on each side +rising from one to two thousand feet above the Trail, which is within +the range of ordinary cannon from every point, and in many places +of point-blank rifle-shot. Granite rocks and sands abound, and the +hills are covered with long-leafed pine. It is a gateway which, +in the hands of a skilful engineer and one hundred resolute men, +can be made perfectly impregnable. + +The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway passes directly through +this picturesque chasm, every foot of which is classic ground, and +in the season of the mountain freshets constant care is needed to +keep its bridges in place. + +At its eastern entrance is a large residence, known as Pigeon's Ranch, +from which the battle to be described derives its name, though, +as stated, it is also known as that of Apache Canyon, and La Glorieta,[39] +the latter, perhaps, the most classical, from the range of mountains +enclosing the rent in the mighty hills. + +The following detailed account of this battle I have taken from +the _History of Colorado_,[40] an admirable work: + + The sympathizers with and abettors of the Southern + Confederacy inaugurated their plans by posting handbills + in all conspicuous places between Denver and the + mining-camps, designating certain localities where the + highest prices would be paid for arms of every description, + and for powder, lead, shot, and percussion caps. + Simultaneously, a small force was collected and put under + discipline to co-operate with parties expected from Arkansas + and Texas who were to take possession, first of Colorado, + and subsequently of New Mexico, anticipating the easy + capture of the Federal troops and stores located there. + Being apprised of the movement, the governor immediately + decided to enlist a full regiment of volunteers. + John P. Slough was appointed colonel, Samuel F. Tappan + lieutenant-colonel, and John J. M. Chivington major. + + Without railroads or telegraphs nearer than the Missouri + River, and wholly dependent upon the overland mail coach + for communication with the States and the authorities at + Washington, news was at least a week old when received. + Thus the troops passed the time in a condition of doubt + and extreme anxiety, until the 6th of January, 1862, when + information arrived that an invading force under General + H. H. Sibley, from San Antonio, Texas, was approaching + the southern border of New Mexico, and had already captured + Forts Fillmore and Bliss, making prisoners of their + garrisons without firing a gun, and securing all their + stock and supplies. + + Immediately upon receipt of this intelligence, efforts + were made to obtain the consent of, or orders from, General + Hunter, commanding the department at Fort Leavenworth, + Kansas, for the regiment to go to the relief of General + Canby, then in command of the department of New Mexico. + On the 20th of February, orders came from General Hunter, + directing Colonel Slough and the First Regiment of Colorado + Volunteers to proceed with all possible despatch to + Fort Union, or Santa Fe, New Mexico, and report to General + Canby for service. + + Two days thereafter, the command marched out of Camp Weld + two miles up the Platte River, and in due time encamped + at Pueblo, on the Arkansas River. At this point further + advices were received from Canby, stating that he had + encountered the enemy at Valverde, ten miles north of + Fort Craig, but, owing to the inefficiency of the newly + raised New Mexican volunteers, was compelled to retire. + The Texans under Sibley marched on up the Rio Grande, + levying tribute upon the inhabitants for their support. + The Colorado troops were urged to the greatest possible + haste in reaching Fort Union, where they were to unite + with such regular troops as could be concentrated at that + post, and thus aid in saving the fort and its supplies + from falling into Confederate hands. Early on the + following morning the order was given to proceed to Union + by forced marches, and it is doubtful if the same number of + men ever marched a like distance in the same length of time. + + When the summit of Raton Pass was reached, another courier + from Canby met the command, who informed Colonel Slough + that the Texans had already captured Albuquerque and + Santa Fe with all the troops stationed at those places, + together with the supplies stored there, and that they + were then marching on Fort Union. + + Arriving at Red River about sundown, the regiment was + drawn up in line and this information imparted to the men. + The request was then made for all who were willing to + undertake a forced march at night to step two paces to + the front, when every man advanced to the new alignment. + After a hasty supper the march was resumed, and at sunrise + the next morning they reached Maxwell's Ranch on the + Cimarron, having made sixty-four miles in less than + twenty-four hours. At ten o'clock on the second night + thereafter, the command entered Fort Union. It was there + discovered that Colonel Paul, in charge of the post, had + mined the fort, giving orders for the removal of the women + and children, and was preparing to blow up all the supplies + and march to Fort Garland or some other post to the + northward, on the first approach of the Confederates. + + The troops remained at Union from the 13th to the 22d of + March, when by order of Colonel Slough they proceeded in + the direction of Santa Fe. The command consisted of + the First Colorado Volunteers; two Light Batteries, + one commanded by Captain Ritter and the other by Captain + Claflin; Ford's Company of Colorado Volunteers unattached; + two companies of the Fifth Regular Infantry; and two + companies of the Seventh United States Cavalry. + + The force encamped at Bernal Springs, where Colonel Slough + determined to organize a detachment to enter Santa Fe by + night with the view of surprising the enemy, spiking his + guns, and after doing what other damage could be accomplished + without bringing on a general action, falling back on the + main body. The detachment chosen comprised sixty men each + from Companies A, D, and E of the Colorado regiment, with + Company F of the same mounted, and thirty-seven men each + from the companies of Captains Ford and Howland, and of + the Seventh Cavalry, the whole commanded by Major Chivington. + + At sundown on the 25th of March it reached Kosloskie's Ranch, + where Major Chivington was informed that the enemy's pickets + were in the vicinity. He went into camp at once, and about + nine o'clock of the same evening sent out Lieutenant Nelson + of the First Colorado with thirty men of Company F, who + captured the Texan pickets while they were engaged in a game + of cards at Pigeon's Ranch, and before daylight on the + morning of the 26th, reported at camp with his prisoners. + After breakfast, the major, being apprised of the enemy's + whereabouts, proceeded cautiously, keeping his advance + guard well to the front. While passing near the summit + of the hill, the officer in command of the advance met + the Confederate advance, consisting of a first lieutenant + and thirty men, captured them without firing a gun, and + returning met the main body and turned them over to the + commanding officer. The Confederate lieutenant declared + that they had received no intimation of the advance from + Fort Union, but themselves expected to be there four days + later. + + Descending Apache Canyon for the distance of half a mile, + Chivington's force observed the approaching Texans, about + six hundred strong, with three pieces of artillery, who, + on discovering the Federals, halted, formed line and battery, + and opened fire. + + Chivington drew up his cavalry as a reserve under cover, + deployed Company D under Captain Downing to the right, + and Companies A and E under Captains Wynkoop and Anthony + to the left, directing them to ascend the mountain-side + until they were above the elevation of the enemy's artillery + and thus flank him, at the same time directing Captain + Howland, he being the ranking cavalry officer, to closely + observe the enemy, and when he retreated, without further + orders to charge with the cavalry. This disposition of + the troops proved wise and successful. The Texans soon + broke battery and retreated down the canyon a mile or more, + but from some cause Captain Howland failed to charge as + ordered, which enabled the Confederates to take up a new + and strong position, where they formed battery, threw their + supports well up the sides of the mountain, and again + opened fire. + + Chivington dismounted Captains Howland and Lord with their + regulars, leaving their horses in charge of every fourth + man, and ordered them to join Captain Downing on the left, + taking orders from him. Our skirmishers advanced, and, + flanking the enemy's supports, drove them pell-mell down + the mountain-side, when Captain Samuel Cook, with Company F, + First Colorado, having been signalled by the major, made + as gallant and successful a charge through the canyon, + through the ranks of the Confederates and back, as was + ever performed. Meanwhile, our infantry advanced rapidly; + when the enemy commenced his retreat a second time, they + were well ahead of him on the mountain-sides and poured + a galling fire into him, which thoroughly demoralized and + broke him up, compelling the entire body to seek shelter + among the rocks down the canyon and in some cabins that + stood by the wayside. + + After an hour spent in collecting the prisoners, and + caring for the wounded, both Federal and Confederate, + the latter having left in killed, wounded, and prisoners + a number equal to our whole force in the field, the first + baptism by fire of our volunteers terminated. The victory + was decided and complete. Night intervening, and there + being no water in the canyon, the little command fell back + to Pigeon's Ranch, whence a courier was despatched to + Colonel Slough, advising him of the engagement and its + result, and requesting him to bring forward the main + command as rapidly as possible, as the enemy with all his + forces had moved from Santa Fe toward Fort Union. + + After interring the dead and making a comfortable hospital + for the wounded, on the afternoon of the 27th Chivington + fell back to the Pecos River at Kosloskie's Ranch and + encamped. On receiving the news from Apache Canyon, + Colonel Slough put his forces in motion, and at eleven + o'clock at night of the 27th joined Chivington at Kosloskie's. + + At daybreak on the 28th, the assembly was sounded, and + the entire command resumed its march. Five miles out + from their encampment Major Chivington, in command of + a detachment composed of Companies A, B, H, and E of the + First Colorado, and Captain Ford's Company unattached, + with Captain Lewis' Company of the Fifth Regular Infantry, + was ordered to take the Galisteo road, and by a detour + through the mountains to gain the enemy's rear, if possible, + at the west end of Apache Canyon, while Slough advanced + slowly with the main body to gain his front about the + same time; thus devising an attack in front and rear. + + About ten o'clock, while making his way through the scrub + pine and cedar brush in the mountains, Major Chivington + and his command heard cannonading to their right, and + were thereby apprised that Colonel Slough and his men + had met the enemy. About twelve o'clock he arrived with + his men on the summit of the mountain which overlooked + the enemy's supply wagons, which had been left in the + charge of a strong guard with one piece of artillery mounted + on an elevation commanding the camp and mouth of the canyon. + With great difficulty Chivington descended the precipitous + mountain, charged, took, and spiked the gun, ran together + the enemy's supply wagons of commissary, quartermaster, + and ordnance stores, set them on fire, blew and burnt + them up, bayoneted his mules in corral, took the guard + prisoners and reascended the mountain, where about dark + he was met by Lieutenant Cobb, aide-de-camp on Colonel + Slough's staff, with the information that Slough and his + men had been defeated and had fallen back to Kosloskie's. + Upon the supposition that this information was correct, + Chivington, under the guidance of a French Catholic priest, + in the intensest darkness, with great difficulty made + his way with his command through the mountains without + a road or trail, and joined Colonel Slough about midnight. + + Meanwhile, after Chivington and his detachment had left + in the morning, Colonel Slough with the main body proceeded + up the canyon, and arriving at Pigeon's Ranch, gave orders + for the troops to stack arms in the road and supply their + canteens with water, as that would be the last opportunity + before reaching the further end of Apache Canyon. + While thus supplying themselves with water and visiting + the wounded in the hospital at Pigeon's Ranch, being + entirely off their guard, they were suddenly startled by + a courier from the advance column dashing down the road + at full speed and informing them that the enemy was close + at hand. Orders were immediately given to fall in and + take arms, but before the order could be obeyed the enemy + had formed battery and commenced shelling them. + They formed as quickly as possible, the colonel ordering + Captain Downing with Company D, First Colorado Volunteers, + to advance on the left, and Captain Kerber with Company I + First Colorado, to advance on the right. In the meantime + Ritter and Claflin opened a return fire on the enemy with + their batteries. Captain Downing advanced and fought + desperately, meeting a largely superior force in point + of numbers, until he was almost overpowered and surrounded; + when, happily, Captain Wilder of Company G of the First + Colorado, with a detachment of his command, came to his + relief, and extricated him and that portion of his Company + not already slaughtered. While on the opposite side, + the right, Company I had advanced into an open space, + feeling the enemy, and ambitious of capturing his battery, + when they were surprised by a detachment which was concealed + in an arroya, and which, when Kerber and his men were + within forty feet of it, opened a galling fire upon them. + Kerber lost heavily; Lieutenant Baker, being wounded, + fell back. In the meantime the enemy masked, and made + five successive charges on our batteries, determined to + capture them as they had captured Canby's at Valverde. + At one time they were within forty yards of Slough's + batteries, their slouch hats drawn down over their faces, + and rushing on with deafening yells. It seemed inevitable + that they would make the capture, when Captain Claflin + gave the order to cease firing, and Captain Samuel Robbins + with his company, K of the First Colorado, arose from the + ground like ghosts, delivering a galling fire, charged + bayonets, and on the double-quick put the rebels to flight. + + During the whole of this time the cavalry, under Captain + Howland, were held in reserve, never moving except to + fall back and keep out of danger, with the exception of + Captain Cook's men, who dismounted and fought as infantry. + From the opening of the battle to its close the odds were + against Colonel Slough and his forces; the enemy being + greatly superior in numbers, with a better armament of + artillery and equally well armed otherwise. But every inch + of ground was stubbornly contested. In no instance did + Slough's forces fall back until they were in danger of + being flanked and surrounded, and for nine hours, without + rest or refreshment, the battle raged incessantly. + At one time Claflin gave orders to double-shot his guns, + they being nothing but little brass howitzers, and he + counted, "One, two, three, four," until one of his own + carriages capsized and fell down into the gulch; from which + place Captain Samuel Robbins and his company, K, extricated + it and saved it from falling into the enemy's hands. + + Having been compelled to give ground all day, Colonel Slough, + between five and six o'clock in the afternoon, issued + orders to retreat. About the same time General Sibley + received information from the rear of the destruction of + his supply trains, and ordered a flag of truce to be sent + to Colonel Slough, which did not reach him, however, until + he arrived at Kosloskie's. A truce was entered into until + nine o'clock the next morning, which was afterward extended + to twenty-four hours, and under which Sibley with his + demoralized forces fell back to Santa Fe, laying that town + under tribute to supply his forces. + + The 29th was spent in burying the dead, as well as those + of the Confederates which they left on the field, and + caring for the wounded. Orders were received from General + Canby directing Colonel Slough to fall back to Fort Union, + which so incensed him that while obeying the order he + forwarded his resignation, and soon after left the command. + +Thus ended the battle of La Glorieta. + + + + +CHAPTER XII.[41] +THE BUFFALO. + + + +The ancient range of the buffalo, according to history and tradition, +once extended from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, embracing +all that magnificent portion of North America known as the Mississippi +valley; from the frozen lakes above to the "Tierras Calientes" of +Mexico, far to the south. + +It seems impossible, especially to those who have seen them, as +numerous, apparently, as the sands of the seashore, feeding on the +illimitable natural pastures of the great plains, that the buffalo +should have become almost extinct. + +When I look back only twenty-five years, and recall the fact that +they roamed in immense numbers even then, as far east as Fort Harker, +in Central Kansas, a little more than two hundred miles from the +Missouri River, I ask myself, "Have they all disappeared?" + +An idea may be formed of how many buffalo were killed from 1868 to +1881, a period of only thirteen years, during which time they were +indiscriminately slaughtered for their hides. In Kansas alone +there was paid out, between the dates specified, two million five +hundred thousand dollars for their bones gathered on the prairies, +to be utilized by the various carbon works of the country, principally +in St. Louis. It required about one hundred carcasses to make one +ton of bones, the price paid averaging eight dollars a ton; so the +above-quoted enormous sum represented the skeletons of over thirty-one +millions of buffalo.[42] These figures may appear preposterous to +readers not familiar with the great plains a third of a century ago; +but to those who have seen the prairie black from horizon to horizon +with the shaggy monsters, they are not so. In the autumn of 1868 +I rode with Generals Sheridan, Custer, Sully, and others, for three +consecutive days, through one continuous herd, which must have +contained millions. In the spring of 1869 the train on the Kansas +Pacific Railroad was delayed at a point between Forts Harker and +Hays, from nine o'clock in the morning until five in the afternoon, +in consequence of the passage of an immense herd of buffalo across +the track. On each side of us, and to the west as far as we could +see, our vision was only limited by the extended horizon of the flat +prairie, and the whole vast area was black with the surging mass +of affrighted buffaloes as they rushed onward to the south. + +In 1868 the Union Pacific Railroad and its branch in Kansas was nearly +completed across the plains to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, +the western limit of the buffalo range, and that year witnessed +the beginning of the wholesale and wanton slaughter of the great +ruminants, which ended only with their practical extinction seventeen +years afterward. The causes of this hecatomb of animals on the +great plains were the incursion of regular hunters into the region, +for the hides of the buffalo, and the crowds of tourists who crossed +the continent for the mere pleasure and novelty of the trip. +The latter class heartlessly killed for the excitement of the +new experience as they rode along in the cars at a low rate of speed, +often never touching a particle of the flesh of their victims, +or possessing themselves of a single robe. The former, numbering +hundreds of old frontiersmen, all expert shots, with thousands of +novices, the pioneer settlers on the public domain, just opened +under the various land laws, from beyond the Platte to far south +of the Arkansas, within transporting distance of two railroads, +day after day for years made it a lucrative business to kill for +the robes alone, a market for which had suddenly sprung up all over +the country. + +On either side of the track of the two lines of railroads running +through Kansas and Nebraska, within a relatively short distance +and for nearly their whole length, the most conspicuous objects +in those days were the desiccated carcasses of the noble beasts +that had been ruthlessly slaughtered by the thoughtless and excited +passengers on their way across the continent. On the open prairie, +too, miles away from the course of legitimate travel, in some places +one could walk all day on the dead bodies of the buffaloes killed +by the hide-hunters, without stepping off them to the ground. + +The best robes, in their relation to thickness of fur and lustre, +were those taken during the winter months, particularly February, +at which period the maximum of density and beauty had been reached. +Then, notwithstanding the sudden and fitful variations of temperature +incident to our mid-continent climate, the old hunters were especially +active, and accepted unusual risks to procure as many of the coveted +skins as possible. A temporary camp would be established under +the friendly shelter of some timbered stream, from which the hunters +would radiate every morning, and return at night after an arduous +day's work, to smoke their pipes and relate their varied adventures +around the fire of blazing logs. + +Sometimes when far away from camp a blizzard would come down from +the north in all its fury without ten minutes' warning, and in a +few seconds the air, full of blinding snow, precluded the possibility +of finding their shelter, an attempt at which would only result +in an aimless circular march on the prairie. On such occasions, +to keep from perishing by the intense cold, they would kill a buffalo, +and, taking out its viscera, creep inside the huge cavity, enough +animal heat being retained until the storm had sufficiently abated +for them to proceed with safety to their camp. + +Early in March, 1867, a party of my friends, all old buffalo hunters, +were camped in Paradise valley, then a famous rendezvous of the +animals they were after. One day when out on the range stalking, +and widely separated from each other, a terrible blizzard came up. +Three of the hunters reached their camp without much difficulty, +but he who was farthest away was fairly caught in it, and night +overtaking him, he was compelled to resort to the method described +in the preceding paragraph. Luckily, he soon came up with a +superannuated bull that had been abandoned by the herd; so he killed +him, took out his viscera and crawled inside the empty carcass, where +he lay comparatively comfortable until morning broke, when the storm +had passed over and the sun shone brightly. But when he attempted +to get out, he found himself a prisoner, the immense ribs of the +creature having frozen together, and locked him up as tightly as if +he were in a cell. Fortunately, his companions, who were searching +for him, and firing their rifles from time to time, heard him yell +in response to the discharge of their pieces, and thus discovered and +released him from the peculiar predicament into which he had fallen. + +At another time, several years before the acquisition of New Mexico +by the United States, two old trappers were far up on the Arkansas +near the Trail, in the foot-hills hunting buffalo, and they, as is +generally the case, became separated. In an hour or two one of them +killed a fat young cow, and, leaving his rifle on the ground, went up +and commenced to skin her. While busily engaged in his work, +he suddenly heard right behind him a suppressed snort, and looking +around he saw to his dismay a monstrous grizzly ambling along in +that animal's characteristic gait, within a few feet of him. + +In front, only a few rods away, there happened to be a clump of +scrubby pines, and he incontinently made a break for them, climbing +into the tallest in less time than it takes to tell of it. The bear +deliberately ate a hearty meal off the juicy hams of the cow, +so providentially fallen in his way, and when he had satiated himself, +instead of going away, he quietly stretched himself alongside of +the half-devoured carcass, and went to sleep, keeping one eye open, +however, on the movements of the unlucky hunter whom he had corralled +in the tree. In the early evening his partner came to the spot, +and killed the impudent bear, that, being full of tender buffalo meat, +was sluggish and unwary, and thus became an easy victim to the +unerring rifle; when the unwilling prisoner came down from his perch +in the pine, feeling sheepish enough. The last time I saw him he +told me he still had the bear's hide, which he religiously preserved +as a memento of his foolishness in separating himself from his rifle, +a thing he has never been guilty of before or since. + +Kit Carson, when with Fremont on his first exploring expedition, +while hunting for the command, at some point on the Arkansas, +left a buffalo which he had just killed and partly cut up, to pursue +a large bull that came rushing by him alone. He chased his game +for nearly a quarter of a mile, not being able, however, to gain +on it rapidly, owing to the blown condition of his horse. Coming up +at length to the side of the fleeing beast, Carson fired, but at the +same instant his horse stepped into a prairie-dog hole, fell down +and threw Kit fully fifteen feet over his head. The bullet struck +the buffalo low under the shoulder, which only served to enrage him +so that the next moment the infuriated animal was pursuing Kit, +who, fortunately not much hurt, was able to run toward the river. +It was a race for life now, Carson using his nimble legs to the +utmost of their capacity, accelerated very much by the thundering, +bellowing bull bringing up the rear. For several minutes it was +nip and tuck which should reach the stream first, but Kit got there +by a scratch a little ahead. It was a big bend of the river, and +the water was deep under the bank, but it was paradise compared +with the hades plunging at his back; so Kit leaped into the water, +trusting to Providence that the bull would not follow. The trust +was well placed, for the bull did not continue the pursuit, but stood +on the bank and shook his head vehemently at the struggling hunter +who had preferred deep waves to the horns of a dilemma on shore. + +Kit swam around for some time, carefully guarded by the bull, until +his position was observed by one of his companions, who attacked +the belligerent animal successfully with a forty-four slug, and then +Kit crawled out and--skinned the enemy! + +He once killed five buffaloes during a single race, and used but +four balls, having dismounted and cut the bullet from the wound +of the fourth, and thus continued the chase. He it was, too, who +established his reputation as a famous hunter by shooting a buffalo +cow during an impetuous race down a steep hill, discharging his rifle +just as the animal was leaping on one of the low cedars peculiar +to the region. The ball struck a vital spot, and the dead cow +remained in the jagged branches. The Indians who were with him +on that hunt looked upon the circumstance as something beyond their +comprehension, and insisted that Kit should leave the carcass in +the tree as "Big Medicine." Katzatoa (Smoked Shield), a celebrated +chief of the Kiowas many years ago, who was over seven feet tall, +never mounted a horse when hunting the buffalo; he always ran after +them on foot and killed them with his lance. + +Two Lance, another famous chief, could shoot an arrow entirely +through a buffalo while hunting on horseback. He accomplished this +remarkable feat in the presence of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, +who was under the care of Buffalo Bill, near Fort Hays, Kansas. + +During one of Fremont's expeditions, two of his chasseurs, named +Archambeaux and La Jeunesse,[43] had a curious adventure on a +buffalo-hunt. One of them was mounted on a mule, the other on +a horse; they came in sight of a large band of buffalo feeding upon +the open prairie about a mile distant. The mule was not fleet enough, +and the horse was too much fatigued with the day's journey, to justify +a race, and they concluded to approach the herd on foot. Dismounting +and securing the ends of their lariats in the ground, they made +a slight detour, to take advantage of the wind, and crept stealthily +in the direction of the game, approaching unperceived until within +a few hundred yards. Some old bulls forming the outer picket guard +slowly raised their heads and gazed long and dubiously at the strange +objects, when, discovering that the intruders were not wolves, but two +hunters, they gave a significant grunt, turned about as though on +pivots, and in less than no time the whole herd--bulls, cows, and +calves--were making the gravel fly over the prairie in fine style, +leaving the hunters to their discomfiture. They had scarcely +recovered from their surprise, when, to their great consternation, +they beheld the whole company of the monsters, numbering several +thousand, suddenly shape their course to where the riding animals +were picketed. The charge of the stampeded buffalo was a magnificent +one; for the buffalo, mistaking the horse and the mule for two of +their own species, came down upon them like a tornado. A small cloud +of dust arose for a moment over the spot where the hunter's animals +had been left; the black mass moved on with accelerated speed, and +in a few seconds the horizon shut them all from view. The horse +and mule, with all their trappings, saddles, bridles, and holsters, +were never seen or heard of afterward. + +Buffalo Bill, in less than eighteen months, while employed as hunter +of the construction company of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, in 1867-68, +killed nearly five thousand buffalo, which were consumed by the +twelve hundred men employed in track-laying. He tells in his +autobiography of the following remarkable experience he had at one +time with his favourite horse Brigham, on an impromptu buffalo hunt:-- + + One day we were pushed for horses to work on our scrapers, + so I hitched up Brigham, to see how he would work. He was + not much used to that kind of labour, and I was about giving + up the idea of making a work horse of him, when one of the + men called to me that there were some buffaloes coming over + the hill. As there had been no buffaloes seen anywhere + in the vicinity of the camp for several days, we had become + rather short of meat. I immediately told one of our men + to hitch his horses to a wagon and follow me, as I was going + out after the herd, and we would bring back some fresh meat + for supper. I had no saddle, as mine had been left at camp + a mile distant, so taking the harness from Brigham I mounted + him bareback, and started out after the game, being armed + with my celebrated buffalo killer Lucretia Borgia--a newly + improved breech-loading needle-gun, which I had obtained + from the government. + + While I was riding toward the buffaloes, I observed five + horsemen coming out from the fort, who had evidently seen + the buffaloes from the post, and were going out for a chase. + They proved to be some newly arrived officers in that part + of the country, and when they came up closer I could see + by the shoulder-straps that the senior was a captain, + while the others were lieutenants. + + "Hello! my friend," sang out the captain; "I see you are + after the same game we are." + + "Yes, sir; I saw those buffaloes coming over the hill, + and as we were about out of fresh meat I thought I would + go and get some," said I. + + They scanned my cheap-looking outfit pretty closely, and + as my horse was not very prepossessing in appearance, having + on only a blind bridle, and otherwise looking like a work + horse, they evidently considered me a green hand at hunting. + + "Do you expect to catch those buffaloes on that Gothic + steed?" laughingly asked the captain. + + "I hope so, by pushing on the reins hard enough," was + my reply. + + "You'll never catch them in the world, my fine fellow," + said the captain. "It requires a fast horse to overtake + the animals on the prairie." + + "Does it?" asked I, as if I didn't know it. + + "Yes; but come along with us, as we are going to kill them + more for pleasure than anything else. All we want are the + tongues and a piece of tenderloin, and you may have all + that is left," said the generous man. + + "I am much obliged to you, captain, and will follow you," + I replied. + + There were eleven buffaloes in the herd, and they were not + more than a mile ahead of us. The officers dashed on as if + they had a sure thing on killing them all before I could + come up with them; but I had noticed that the herd was + making toward the creek for water, and as I knew buffalo + nature, I was perfectly aware that it would be difficult + to turn them from their direct course. Thereupon, I started + toward the creek to head them off, while the officers + came up in the rear and gave chase. + + The buffaloes came rushing past me not a hundred yards + distant, with the officers about three hundred yards in + the rear. Now, thought I, is the time to "get my work in," + as they say; and I pulled off the blind bridle from my + horse, who knew as well as I did that we were out after + buffaloes, as he was a trained hunter. The moment the + bridle was off he started at the top of his speed, running + in ahead of the officers, and with a few jumps he brought me + alongside the rear buffalo. Raising old Lucretia Borgia + to my shoulder, I fired, and killed the animal at the + first shot. My horse then carried me alongside the next + one, not ten feet away, and I dropped him at the next fire. + + As soon as one of the buffalo would fall, Brigham would + take me so close to the next that I could almost touch it + with my gun. In this manner I killed the eleven buffaloes + with twelve shots; and as the last animal dropped, my horse + stopped. I jumped off to the ground, knowing that he would + not leave me--it must be remembered that I had been riding + him without bridle, reins, or saddle--and, turning around + as the party of astonished officers rode up, I said to them:-- + + "Now, gentlemen, allow me to present to you all the tongues + and tenderloins you wish from these buffaloes." + + Captain Graham, for such I soon learned was his name, + replied: "Well, I never saw the like before. Who under + the sun are you, anyhow?" + + "My name is Cody," said I. + + Captain Graham, who was considerable of a horseman, + greatly admired Brigham, and said: "That horse of yours + has running points." + + "Yes, sir; he has not only got the points, he is a runner + and knows how to use the points," said I. + + "So I noticed," said the captain. + + They all finally dismounted, and we continued chatting + for some little time upon the different subjects of horses, + buffaloes, hunting, and Indians. They felt a little sore + at not getting a single shot at the buffaloes; but the way + I had killed them, they said, amply repaid them for their + disappointment. They had read of such feats in books, + but this was the first time they had ever seen anything + of the kind with their own eyes. It was the first time, + also, that they had ever witnessed or heard of a white man + running buffaloes on horseback without a saddle or bridle. + + I told them that Brigham knew nearly as much about the + business as I did, and if I had twenty bridles they would + have been of no use to me, as he understood everything, + and all that he expected of me was to do the shooting. + It is a fact that Brigham would stop if a buffalo did not + fall at the first fire, so as to give me a second chance; + but if I did not kill the animal then, he would go on, as + if to say, "You are no good, and I will not fool away my + time by giving you more than two shots." Brigham was the + best horse I ever saw or owned for buffalo chasing. + +At one time an old, experienced buffalo hunter was following at the +heels of a small herd with that reckless rush to which in the +excitement of the chase men abandon themselves, when a great bull +just in front of him tumbled into a ravine. The rider's horse fell +also, throwing the old hunter over his head sprawling, but with +strange accuracy right between the bull's horns! The first to +recover from the terrible shock and to regain his legs was the horse, +which ran off with wonderful alacrity several miles before he stopped. +Next the bull rose, and shook himself with an astonished air, as if +he would like to know "how that was done?" The hunter was on the +great brute's back, who, perhaps, took the affair as a good practical +joke; but he was soon pitched to the ground, as the buffalo commenced +to jump "stiff-legged," and the latter, giving the hunter one +lingering look, which he long remembered, with remarkable good nature +ran off to join his companions. Had the bull been wounded, the rider +would have been killed, as the then enraged animal would have gored +and trampled him to death. + +An officer of the old regular army told me many years ago that in +crossing the plains a herd of buffalo were fired at by a twelve-pound +howitzer, the ball of which wounded and stunned an immense bull. +Nevertheless, heedless of a hundred shots that had been fired at him, +and of a bulldog belonging to one of the officers, which had fastened +himself to his lips, the enraged beast charged upon the whole troop +of dragoons, and tossed one of the horses like a feather. Bull, +horse, and rider all fell in a heap. Before the dust cleared away, +the trooper, who had hung for a moment to one of the bull's horns +by his waistband, crawled out safe, while the horse got a ball from +a rifle through his neck while in the air and two great rips in his +flank from the bull. + +In 1839 Kit Carson and Hobbs were trapping with a party on the +Arkansas River, not far from Bent's Fort. Among the trappers was +a green Irishman, named O'Neil, who was quite anxious to become +proficient in hunting, and it was not long before he received his +first lesson. Every man who went out of camp after game was expected +to bring in "meat" of some kind. O'Neil said that he would agree +to the terms, and was ready one evening to start out on his first +hunt alone. He picked up his rifle and stalked after a small herd +of buffalo in plain sight on the prairie not more than five or six +hundred yards from camp. + +All the trappers who were not engaged in setting their traps or +cooking supper were watching O'Neil. Presently they heard the report +of his rifle, and shortly after he came running into camp, bareheaded, +without his gun, and with a buffalo bull close upon his heels; +both going at full speed, and the Irishman shouting like a madman,-- + +"Here we come, by jabers. Stop us! For the love of God, stop us!" + +Just as they came in among the tents, with the bull not more than +six feet in the rear of O'Neil, who was frightened out of his wits +and puffing like a locomotive, his foot caught in a tent-rope, and +over he went into a puddle of water head foremost, and in his fall +capsized several camp-kettles, some of which contained the trappers' +supper. But the buffalo did not escape so easily; for Hobbs and +Kit Carson jumped for their rifles, and dropped the animal before +he had done any further damage. + +The whole outfit laughed heartily at O'Neil when he got up out of +the water, for a party of old trappers would show no mercy to any +of their companions who met with a mishap of that character; but +as he stood there with dripping clothes and face covered with mud, +his mother-wit came to his relief and he declared he had accomplished +the hunter's task: "For sure," said he, "haven't I fetched the mate +into camp? and there was no bargain whether it should be dead or alive!" + +Upon Kit's asking O'Neil where his gun was,-- + +"Sure," said he, "that's more than I can tell you." + +Next morning Carson and Hobbs took up O'Neil's tracks and the +buffalo's, and after hunting an hour or so found the Irishman's rifle, +though he had little use for it afterward, as he preferred to cook +and help around camp rather than expose his precious life fighting +buffaloes. + +A great herd of buffaloes on the plains in the early days, when one +could approach near enough without disturbing it to quietly watch +its organization and the apparent discipline which its leaders seemed +to exact, was a very curious sight. Among the striking features +of the spectacle was the apparently uniform manner in which the +immense mass of shaggy animals moved; there was constancy of action +indicating a degree of intelligence to be found only in the most +intelligent of the brute creation. Frequently the single herd was +broken up into many smaller ones, that travelled relatively close +together, each led by an independent master. Perhaps a few rods +only marked the dividing-line between them, but it was always +unmistakably plain, and each moved synchronously in the direction +in which all were going. + +The leadership of a herd was attained only by hard struggles for the +place; once reached, however, the victor was immediately recognized, +and kept his authority until some new aspirant overcame him, or he +became superannuated and was driven out of the herd to meet his +inevitable fate, a prey to those ghouls of the desert, the gray wolves. + +In the event of a stampede, every animal of the separate, yet +consolidated, herds rushed off together, as if they had all gone mad +at once; for the buffalo, like the Texas steer, mule, or domestic +horse, stampedes on the slightest provocation; frequently without +any assignable cause. The simplest affair, sometimes, will start +the whole herd; a prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, +a shadow of one of themselves or that of a passing cloud, is +sufficient to make them run for miles as if a real and dangerous +enemy were at their heels. + +Like an army, a herd of buffaloes put out vedettes to give the alarm +in case anything beyond the ordinary occurred. These sentinels were +always to be seen in groups of four, five, or even six, at some +distance from the main body. When they perceived something approaching +that the herd should beware of or get away from, they started on +a run directly for the centre of the great mass of their peacefully +grazing congeners. Meanwhile, the young bulls were on duty as +sentinels on the edge of the main herd watching the vedettes; +the moment the latter made for the centre, the former raised their +heads, and in the peculiar manner of their species gazed all around +and sniffed the air as if they could smell both the direction and +source of the impending danger. Should there be something which their +instinct told them to guard against, the leader took his position +in front, the cows and calves crowded in the centre, while the rest +of the males gathered on the flanks and in the rear, indicating +a gallantry that might be emulated at times by the genus homo. + +Generally buffalo went to their drinking-places but once a day, and +that late in the afternoon. Then they ambled along, following each +other in single file, which accounts for the many trails on the +plains, always ending at some stream or lake. They frequently +travelled twenty or thirty miles for water, so the trails leading +to it were often worn to the depth of a foot or more. + +That curious depression so frequently seen on the great plains, +called a buffalo-wallow, is caused in this wise: The huge animals +paw and lick the salty, alkaline earth, and when once the sod is +broken the loose dirt drifts away under the constant action of +the wind. Then, year after year, through more pawing, licking, +rolling, and wallowing by the animals, the wind wafts more of the +soil away, and soon there is a considerable hole in the prairie. + +Many an old trapper and hunter's life has been saved by following +a buffalo-trail when he was suffering from thirst. The buffalo-wallows +retain usually a great quantity of water, and they have often saved +the lives of whole companies of cavalry, both men and horses. + +There was, however, a stranger and more wonderful spectacle to be seen +every recurring spring during the reign of the buffalo, soon after +the grass had started. There were circles trodden bare on the plains, +thousands, yes, millions of them, which the early travellers, who did +not divine their cause, called fairy-rings. From the first of April +until the middle of May was the wet season; you could depend upon its +recurrence almost as certainly as on the sun and moon rising at their +proper time. This was also the calving period of the buffalo, as +they, unlike our domestic cattle, only rutted during a single month; +consequently, the cows all calved during a certain time; this was the +wet month, and as there were a great many gray wolves that roamed +singly and in immense packs over the whole prairie region, the bulls, +in their regular beats, kept guard over the cows while in the act +of parturition, and drove the wolves away, walking in a ring around +the females at a short distance, and thus forming the curious circles. + +In every herd at each recurring season there were always ambitious +young bulls that came to their majority, so to speak, and these were +ever ready to test their claims for the leadership, so that it may +be safely stated that a month rarely passed without a bloody battle +between them for the supremacy; though, strangely enough, the struggle +scarcely ever resulted in the death of either combatant. + +Perhaps there is no animal in which maternal love is so wonderfully +developed as the buffalo cow; she is as dangerous with a calf by +her side as a she-grizzly with cubs, as all old mountaineers know. + +The buffalo bull that has outlived his usefulness is one of the most +pitiable objects in the whole range of natural history. Old age +has probably been decided in the economy of buffalo life as the +unpardonable sin. Abandoned to his fate, he may be discovered, +in his dreary isolation, near some stream or lake, where it does not +tax him too severely to find good grass; for he is now feeble, and +exertion an impossibility. In this new stage of his existence he +seems to have completely lost his courage. Frightened at his own +shadow, or the rustling of a leaf, he is the very incarnation of +nervousness and suspicion. Gregarious in his habits from birth, +solitude, foreign to his whole nature, has changed him into a new +creature; and his inherent terror of the most trivial things is +intensified to such a degree that if a man were compelled to undergo +such constant alarm, it would probably drive him insane in less than +a week. Nobody ever saw one of these miserable and helplessly +forlorn creatures dying a natural death, or ever heard of such an +occurrence. The cowardly coyote and the gray wolf had already +marked him for their own; and they rarely missed their calculations. + +Riding suddenly to the top of a divide once with a party of friends +in 1866, we saw standing below us in the valley an old buffalo bull, +the very picture of despair. Surrounding him were seven gray wolves +in the act of challenging him to mortal combat. The poor beast, +undoubtedly realizing the utter hopelessness of his situation, +had determined to die game. His great shaggy head, filled with burrs, +was lowered to the ground as he confronted his would-be executioners; +his tongue, black and parched, lolled out of his mouth, and he gave +utterance at intervals to a suppressed roar. + +The wolves were sitting on their haunches in a semi-circle immediately +in front of the tortured beast, and every time that the fear-stricken +buffalo would give vent to his hoarsely modulated groan, the wolves +howled in concert in most mournful cadence. + +After contemplating his antagonists for a few moments, the bull made +a dash at the nearest wolf, tumbling him howling over the silent +prairie; but while this diversion was going on in front, the remainder +of the pack started for his hind legs, to hamstring him. Upon this +the poor brute turned to the point of attack only to receive a +repetition of it in the same vulnerable place by the wolves, who had +as quickly turned also and fastened themselves on his heels again. +His hind quarters now streamed with blood and he began to show signs +of great physical weakness. He did not dare to lie down; that would +have been instantly fatal. By this time he had killed three of the +wolves or so maimed them that they were entirely out of the fight. + +At this juncture the suffering animal was mercifully shot, and the +wolves allowed to batten on his thin and tough carcass. + +Often there are serious results growing out of a stampede, either by +mules or a herd of buffalo. A portion of the Fifth United States +Infantry had a narrow escape from a buffalo stampede on the Old Trail, +in the early summer of 1866. General George A. Sykes, who commanded +the Division of Regulars in the Army of the Potomac during the +Civil War, was ordered to join his regiment, stationed in New Mexico, +and was conducting a body of recruits, with their complement of +officers, to fill up the decimated ranks of the army stationed at +the various military posts, in far-off Greaser Land. + +The command numbered nearly eight hundred, including the subaltern +officers. These recruits, or the majority of them at least, were +recruits in name only; they had seen service in many a hard campaign +of the Rebellion. Some, of course, were beardless youths just out +of their teens, full of that martial ardour which induced so many +young men of the nation to follow the drum on the remote plains and +in the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains, where the wily savages +still held almost undisputed sway, and were a constant menace to +the pioneer settlers. + +One morning, when the command had just settled itself in careless +repose on the short grass of the apparently interminable prairie +at the first halt of the day's march, a short distance beyond +Fort Larned, a strange noise, like the low muttering of thunder +below the horizon, greeted the ears of the little army. + +All were startled by the ominous sound, unlike anything they had +heard before on their dreary tour. The general ordered his scouts +out to learn the cause; could it be Indians? Every eye was strained +for something out of the ordinary. Even the horses of the officers +and the mules of the supply-train were infected by something that +seemed impending; they grew restless, stamped the earth, and vainly +essayed to stampede, but were prevented by their hobbles and +picket-pins. + +Presently one of the scouts returned from over the divide, and +reported to the general that an immense herd of buffalo was tearing +down toward the Trail, and from the great clouds of dust they raised, +which obscured the horizon, there must have been ten thousand of them. +The roar wafted to the command, and which seemed so mysterious, +was made by their hoofs as they rattled over the dry prairie. + +The sound increased in volume rapidly, and soon a black, surging mass +was discovered bearing right down on the Trail. Behind it could be +seen a cavalcade of about five hundred Cheyennes, Comanches, and +Kiowas, who had maddened the shaggy brutes, hoping to capture the +train without an attack by forcing the frightened animals to overrun +the command. + +Luckily, something caused the herd to open before it reached the +foot of the divide, and it passed in two masses, leaving the command +between, not two hundred feet from either division of the infuriated +beasts. + +The rage of the savages was evident when they saw that their attempt +to annihilate the troops had failed, and they rode off sullenly into +the sand hills, as the number of soldiers was too great for them +to think of charging. + +Cody tells of a buffalo stampede which he witnessed in his youth +on the plains, when he was a wagon-master. The caravan was on its +way with government stores for the military posts in the mountains, +and the wagons were hauled by oxen. + +He says: + The country was alive with buffalo, and besides killing + quite a number we had a rare day for sport. One morning + we pulled out of camp, and the train was strung out to a + considerable length along the Trail, which ran near the foot + of the sand hills, two miles from the river. Between the + road and the river we saw a large herd of buffalo grazing + quietly, they having been down to the stream to drink. + Just at this time we observed a party of returning + Californians coming from the west. They, too, noticed + the buffalo herd, and in another moment they were dashing + down upon them, urging their horses to their greatest speed. + The buffalo herd stampeded at once, and broke down the sides + of the hills; so hotly were they pursued by the hunters + that about five hundred of them rushed pell-mell through + our caravan, frightening both men and oxen. Some of the + wagons were turned clear around and many of the terrified + oxen attempted to run to the hills with the heavy wagons + attached to them. Others were turned around so short + that they broke the tongues off. Nearly all the teams + got entangled in their gearing and became wild and unruly, + so that the perplexed drivers were unable to manage them. + + The buffalo, the cattle, and the men were soon running + in every direction, and the excitement upset everybody + and everything. Many of the oxen broke their yokes and + stampeded. One big buffalo bull became entangled in one + of the heavy wagon-chains, and it is a fact that in his + desperate efforts to free himself, he not only snapped + the strong chain in two, but broke the ox-yoke to which + it was attached, and the last seen of him he was running + toward the hills with it hanging from his horns. + +Stampedes were a great source of profit to the Indians of the plains. +The Comanches were particularly expert and daring in this kind of +robbery. They even trained their horses to run from one point to +another in expectation of the coming of the trains. When a camp +was made that was nearly in range, they turned their trained animals +loose, which at once flew across the prairie, passing through the +herd and penetrating the very corrals of their victims. All of the +picketed horses and mules would endeavour to follow these decoys, +and were invariably led right into the haunts of the Indians, +who easily secured them. Young horses and mules were easily +frightened; and, in the confusion which generally ensued, great +injury was frequently done to the runaways themselves. + +At times when the herd was very large, the horses scattered over +the prairie and were irrevocably lost; and such as did not become +wild fell a prey to the wolves. That fate was very frequently the +lot of stampeded horses bred in the States, they not having been +trained by a prairie life to take care of themselves. Instead of +stopping and bravely fighting off the blood-thirsty beasts, they +would run. Then the whole pack were sure to leave the bolder animals +and make for the runaways, which they seldom failed to overtake +and despatch. + +On the Old Trail some years ago one of these stampedes occurred of +a band of government horses, in which were several valuable animals. +It was attended, however, with very little loss, through the courage +and great exertion of the men who had them in charge; many were +recovered, but none without having sustained injuries. + +Hon. R. M. Wright, of Dodge City, Kansas, one of the pioneers in +the days of the Santa Fe trade, and in the settlement of the State, +has had many exciting experiences both with the savages of the great +plains, and the buffalo. In relation to the habits of the latter, +no man is better qualified to speak. + +He was once owner of Fort Aubrey, a celebrated point on the Trail, +but was compelled to abandon it on account of constant persecution +by the Indians, or rather he was ordered to do so by the military +authorities. While occupying the once famous landmark, in connection +with others, had a contract to furnish hay to the government at +Fort Lyon, seventy-five miles further west. His journal, which he +kindly placed at my disposal, says: + + While we were preparing to commence the work, a vast herd + of buffalo stampeded through our range one night, and + took off with them about half of our work cattle. The next + day a stage-driver and conductor on the Overland Route told + us they had seen a number of our oxen twenty-five miles east + of Aubrey, and this information gave me an idea in which + direction to hunt for the missing beasts. I immediately + started after them, while my partner took those that + remained and a few wagons and left with them for Fort Lyon. + + Let me explain here that while the Indians were supposed to + be peaceable, small war-parties of young men, who could not + be controlled by their chiefs, were continually committing + depredations, and the main body of savages themselves were + very uneasy, and might be expected to break out any day. + In consequence of this unsettled state of affairs, there + had been a brisk movement among the United States troops + stationed at the various military posts, a large number of + whom were believed to be on the road from Denver to Fort Lyon. + + I filled my saddle-bags with jerked buffalo, hardtack and + ground coffee, and took with me a belt of cartridges, + my rifle and six-shooter, a field-glass and my blankets, + prepared for any emergency. The first day out, I found a + few of the lost cattle, and placed them on the river-bottom, + which I continued to do as fast as I recovered them, for a + distance of about eighty-five miles down the Arkansas. + There I met a wagon-train, the drivers of which told me + that I would find several more of my oxen with a train + that had arrived at the Cimarron crossing the day before. + I came up with this train in eight or ten hours' travel + south of the river, got my cattle, and started next morning + for home. + + I picked up those I had left on the Arkansas as I went + along, and after having made a very hard day's travel, + about sundown I concluded I would go into camp. I had + only fairly halted when the oxen began to drop down, + so completely tired out were they, as I believed. Just as + it was growing dark, I happened to look toward the west, + and I saw several fires on a big island, near what was + called "The Lone Tree," about a mile from where I had + determined to remain for the night. + + Thinking the fires were those of the soldiers that I had + heard were on the road from Denver, and anticipating and + longing for a cup of good coffee, as I had had none for + five days, knowing, too, that the troops would be full of + news, I felt good and determined to go over to their camp. + + The Arkansas was low, but the banks steep, with high, + rank grass growing to the very water's edge. I found + a buffalo-trail cut through the deep bank, narrow and + precipitous, and down this I went, arriving in a short time + within a little distance of my supposed soldiers' camp. + When I had reached the middle of another deep cut in the + bank, I looked across to the island, and, great Caesar! + saw a hundred little fires, around which an aggregation + of a thousand Indians were huddled! + + I slid backwards off my horse, and by dint of great exertion, + worked him up the river-bank as quietly and quickly as + possible, then led him gently away out on the prairie. + My first impulse was not to go back to the cattle; but as + we needed them very badly, I concluded to return, put them + all on their feet, and light out mighty lively, without + making any noise. I started them, and, oh dear! I was + afraid to tread upon a weed, lest it would snap and bring + the Indians down on my trail. Until I had put several + miles between them and me, I could not rest easy for + a moment. Tired as I was, tired as were both my horse + and the cattle, I drove them twenty-five miles before + I halted. Then daylight was upon me. I was at what is + known as Chouteau's Island, a once famous place in the + days of the Old Santa Fe Trail. + + Of course, I had to let the oxen and my horse rest and fill + themselves until the afternoon, and I lay down, and fell + asleep, but did not sleep long, as I thought it dangerous + to remain too near the cattle. I rose and walked up a big, + dry sand creek that opened into the river, and after I had + ascended it for a couple of miles, found the banks very + steep; in fact, they rose to a height of eighteen or twenty + feet, and were sharply cut up by narrow trails made by + the buffalo. + + The whole face of the earth was covered by buffalo, and + they were slowly grazing toward the Arkansas. All at once + they became frightened at something, and stampeded pell-mell + toward the very spot on which I stood. I quickly ran into + one of the precipitous little paths and up on the prairie, + to see what had scared them. They were making the ground + fairly tremble as their mighty multitude came rushing on + at full speed, the sound of their hoofs resembling thunder, + but in a continuous peal. It appeared to me that they must + sweep everything in their path, and for my own preservation + I rushed under the creek-bank, but on they came like a + tornado, with one old bull in the lead. He held up a second + to descend the narrow trail, and when he had got about + halfway down I let him have it; I was only a few steps from + him and over he tumbled. I don't know why I killed him; + out of pure wantonness, I expect, or perhaps I thought + it would frighten the others back. Not so, however; + they only quickened their pace, and came dashing down in + great numbers. Dozens of them stumbled and fell over the + dead bull; others fell over them. The top of the bank + was fairly swarming with them; they leaped, pitched, and + rolled down. I crouched as close to the bank as possible, + but many of them just grazed my head, knocking the sand + and gravel in great streams down my neck; indeed I was + half buried before the herd had passed over. That old bull + was the last buffalo I ever shot wantonly, excepting once, + from an ambulance while riding on the Old Trail, to please + a distinguished Englishman, who had never seen one shot; + then I did it only after his most earnest persuasion. + + One day a stage-driver named Frank Harris and myself started + out after buffalo; they were scarce, for a wonder, and + we were very hungry for fresh meat. The day was fine and + we rode a long way, expecting sooner or later a bunch would + jump up, but in the afternoon, having seen none, we gave + it up and started for the ranch. Of course, we didn't + care to save our ammunition, so shot it away at everything + in sight, skunks, rattlesnakes, prairie-dogs, and gophers, + until we had only a few loads left. Suddenly an old bull + jumped up that had been lying down in one of those + sugar-loaf-shaped sand hills, whose tops are hollowed out + by the action of the wind. Harris emptied his revolver + into him, and so did I; but the old fellow sullenly stood + still there on top of the sand hill, bleeding profusely + at the nose, and yet absolutely refusing to die, although + he would repeatedly stagger and nearly tumble over. + + It was getting late and we couldn't wait on him, so Harris + said: "I will dismount, creep up behind him, and cut his + hamstrings with my butcher-knife." The bull having now + lain down, Harris commenced operations, but his movement + seemed to infuse new life into the old fellow; he jumped + to his feet, his head lowered in the attitude of fight, + and away he went around the outside of the top of the + sand hill! It was a perfect circus with one ring; Harris, + who was a tall, lanky fellow, took hold of the enraged + animal's tail as he rose to his feet, and in a moment his + legs were flying higher than his head, but he did not dare + let go of his hold on the bull's tail, and around and + around they went; it was his only show for life. I could + not assist him a particle, but had to sit and hold his horse, + and be judge of the fight. I really thought that old bull + would never weaken. Finally, however, the "ring" performance + began to show symptoms of fatigue; slower and slower the + actions of the bull grew, and at last Harris succeeded + in cutting his hamstrings and the poor beast went down. + Harris said afterward, when the danger was all over, that + the only thing he feared was that perhaps the bull's tail + would pull out, and if it did, he was well aware that he + was a goner. We brought his tongue, hump, and a hindquarter + to the ranch with us, and had a glorious feast and a big + laugh that night with the boys over the ridiculous adventure. + +General Richard Irving Dodge, United States army, in his work on +the big game of America, says: + + It is almost impossible for a civilized being to realize + the value to the plains Indian of the buffalo. It furnished + him with home, food, clothing, bedding, horse equipment-- + almost everything. + + From 1869 to 1873 I was stationed at various posts along + the Arkansas River. Early in spring, as soon as the dry + and apparently desert prairie had begun to change its coat + of dingy brown to one of palest green, the horizon would + begin to be dotted with buffalo, single or in groups of two + or three, forerunners of the coming herd. Thick and thicker, + and in large groups they come, until by the time the grass + is well up, the whole vast landscape appears a mass of + buffalo, some individuals feeding, others lying down, but + the herd slowly moving to the northward; of their number, + it was impossible to form a conjecture. + + Determined as they are to pursue their journey northward, + yet they are exceedingly cautious and timid about it, + and on any alarm rush to the southward with all speed, + until that alarm is dissipated. Especially is this the case + when any unusual object appears in their rear, and so + utterly regardless of consequences are they, that an old + plainsman will not risk a wagon-train in such a herd, + where rising ground will permit those in front to get + a good view of their rear. + + In May, 1871, I drove in a buggy from old Fort Zarah + to Fort Larned, on the Arkansas River. The distance is + thirty-four miles. At least twenty-five miles of that + distance was through an immense herd. The whole country + was one mass of buffalo, apparently, and it was only when + actually among them, that the seemingly solid body was + seen to be an agglomeration of countless herds of from + fifty to two hundred animals, separated from the surrounding + herds by a greater or less space, but still separated. + + The road ran along the broad valley of the Arkansas. + Some miles from Zarah a low line of hills rises from the + plain on the right, gradually increasing in height and + approaching road and river, until they culminate in + Pawnee Rock. + + So long as I was in the broad, level valley, the herds + sullenly got out of my way, and, turning, stared stupidly + at me, some within thirty or forty yards. When, however, + I had reached a point where the hills were no more than + a mile from the road, the buffalo on the crests, seeing an + unusual object in their rear, turned, stared an instant, + then started at full speed toward me, stampeding and + bringing with them the numberless herds through which + they passed, and pouring down on me, no longer separated + but compacted into one immense mass of plunging animals, + mad with fright, irresistible as an avalanche. + + The situation was by no means pleasant. There was but + one hope of escape. My horse was, fortunately, a quiet + old beast, that had rushed with me into many a herd, and + been in at the death of many a buffalo. Reining him up, + I waited until the front of the mass was within fifty yards, + then, with a few well-directed shots, dropped some of + the leaders, split the herd and sent it off in two streams + to my right and left. When all had passed me, they stopped, + apparently satisfied, though thousands were yet within + reach of my rifle. After my servant had cut out the + tongues of the fallen, I proceeded on my journey, only to + have a similar experience within a mile or two, and this + occurred so often that I reached Fort Larned with twenty-six + tongues, representing the greatest number of buffalo that + I can blame myself with having murdered in one day. + + Some years, as in 1871, the buffalo appeared to move + northward in one immense column, oftentimes from twenty + to fifty miles in width, and of unknown depth from front + to rear. Other years the northward journey was made + in several parallel columns moving at the same rate and + with their numerous flankers covering a width of a hundred + or more miles. + + When the food in one locality fails, they go to another, + and toward fall, when the grass of the high prairies + becomes parched by the heat and drought, they gradually + work their way back to the south, concentrating on the + rich pastures of Texas and the Indian Territory, whence, + the same instinct acting on all, they are ready to start + together again on their northward march as soon as spring + starts the grass. + + Old plainsmen and the Indians aver that the buffalo never + return south; that each year's herd was composed of animals + which had never made the journey before, and would never + make it again. All admit the northern migration, that + being too pronounced for any one to dispute, but refuse + to admit the southern migration. Thousands of young calves + were caught and killed every spring that were produced + during this migration, and accompanied the herd northward; + but because the buffalo did not return south in one vast + body as they went north, it was stoutly maintained that + they did not go south at all. The plainsman could give + no reasonable hypothesis of his "No-return theory" on which + to base the origin of the vast herds which yearly made + their march northward. The Indian was, however, equal + to the occasion. Every plains Indian firmly believed that + the buffalo were produced in countless numbers in a country + under ground; that every spring the surplus swarmed, + like bees from a hive, out of the immense cave-like opening + in the region of the great Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain + of Texas. In 1879 Stone Calf, a celebrated chief, assured + me that he knew exactly where the caves were, though he had + never seen them; that the good God had provided this + means for the constant supply of food for the Indian, and + however recklessly the white men might slaughter, they could + never exterminate them. When last I saw him, the old man + was beginning to waver in this belief, and feared that + the "Bad God" had shut the entrances, and that his tribe + must starve. + +The old trappers and plainsmen themselves, even as early as the +beginning of the Santa Fe trade, noticed the gradual disappearance +of the buffalo, while they still existed in countless numbers. +One veteran French Canadian, an employee of the American Fur Company, +way back in the early '30's, used to mourn thus: "Mais, sacre! +les Amarican, dey go to de Missouri frontier, de buffalo he ron to +de montaigne; de trappaire wid his fusil, he follow to de Bayou +Salade, he ron again. Dans les Montaignes Espagnol, bang! bang! +toute la journee, toute la journee, go de sacre voleurs. De bison he +leave, parceque les fusils scare im vara moche, ici la de sem-sacre!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. +INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS. + + + +Thirty-five miles before arriving at Bent's Fort, at which point +the Old Trail crossed the Arkansas, the valley widens and the prairie +falls toward the river in gentle undulations. There for many years +the three friendly tribes of plains Indians--Cheyennes, Arapahoes, +and Kiowas--established their winter villages, in order to avail +themselves of the supply of wood, to trade with the whites, and to +feed their herds of ponies on the small limbs and bark of the +cottonwood trees growing along the margin of the stream for four +or five miles. It was called Big Timbers, and was one of the most +eligible places to camp on the whole route after leaving Council Grove. +The grass, particularly on the south side of the river, was excellent; +there was an endless supply of fuel, and cool water without stint. + +In the severe winters that sometimes were fruitful of blinding +blizzards, sweeping from the north in an intensity of fury that +was almost inconceivable, the buffalo too congregated there for +shelter, and to browse on the twigs of the great trees. + +The once famous grove, though denuded of much of its timber, may +still be seen from the car windows as the trains hurry mountainward. + +Garrard, in his _Taos Trail_, presents an interesting and amusing +account of a visit to the Cheyenne village with old John Smith, +in 1847, when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, and that with +the various tribes of savages in its golden days. + + Toward the middle of the day, the village was in a great + bustle. Every squaw, child, and man had their faces + blackened--a manifestation of joy.[44] + + Pell-mell they went--men, squaws, and dogs--into the icy + river. Some hastily jerked off their leggings, and held + moccasins and dresses high out of the water. Others, too + impatient, dashed the stream from beneath their impetuous + feet, scarce taking time to draw more closely the always + worn robe. Wondering what caused all this commotion, and + looking over the river, whither the yelling, half-frantic + savages were so speedily hurrying, we saw a band of Indians + advancing toward us. As the foremost braves reined their + champing barbs on the river-bank, mingled whoops of triumph + and delight and the repeated discharge of guns filled + the air. In the hands of three were slender willow wands, + from the smaller points of which dangled as many scalps-- + the single tuft of hair on each pronouncing them Pawnees.[45] + + These were raised aloft, amid unrestrained bursts of joy + from the thrice-happy, blood-thirsty throng. Children ran + to meet their fathers, sisters their brothers, girls their + lovers, returning from the scene of victorious strife; + decrepit matrons welcomed manly sons; and aged chiefs their + boys and braves. It was a scene of affection, and a proud + day in the Cheyenne annals of prowess. That small but + gallant band were relieved of their shields and lances by + tender-hearted squaws, and accompanied to their respective + homes, to repose by the lodge-fire, consume choice meat, + and to be the heroes of the family circle. + + The drum at night sent forth its monotony of hollow sound, + and my Mexican Pedro and I, directed by the booming, + entered a lodge, vacated for the purpose, full of young men + and squaws, following one another in a continuous circle, + keeping the left knee stiff and bending the right with a + half-forward, half-backward step, as if they wanted to go on + and could not, accompanying it, every time the right foot + was raised, with an energetic, broken song, which, dying + away, was again and again sounded--"hay-a, hay-a, hay-a," + they went, laying the emphasis on the first syllable. + A drum, similar to, though larger than a tambourine, covered + with parfleche,[46] was beaten upon with a stick, producing + with the voices a sound not altogether disagreeable. + + Throughout the entire night and succeeding day the voices + of the singers and heavy notes of the drum reached us, + and at night again the same dull sound lulled me to sleep. + Before daylight our lodge was filled with careless dancers, + and the drum and voices, so unpleasing to our wearied ears, + were giving us the full benefit of their compass. Smith, + whose policy it was not to be offended, bore the infliction + as best be could, and I looked on much amused. The lodge + was so full that they stood without dancing, in a circle + round the fire, and with a swaying motion of the body + kept time to their music. + + During the day the young men, except the dancers, piled up + dry logs in a level open space near, for a grand demonstration. + At night, when it was fired, I folded my blanket over my + shoulders, comme les sauvages, and went out. The faces + of many girls were brilliant with vermilion; others were + blacked, their robes, leggings, and skin dresses glittering + with beads and quill-work. Rings and bracelets of shining + brass encircled their taper arms and fingers, and shells + dangled from their ears. Indeed, all the finery collectable + was piled on in barbarous profusion, though a few, in good + taste through poverty, wore a single band and but few rings, + with jetty hair parted in the middle, from the forehead + to the neck, terminating in two handsome braids. + + The young men who can afford the expense trade for dollars + and silver coin of less denomination--coin as a currency + is not known among them--which they flatten thin, and fasten + to a braid of buffalo hair, attached to the crown lock, + which hangs behind, outside of the robe, and adds much to + the handsome appearance of the wearer. + + The girls, numbering two hundred, fell into line together, + and the men, of whom there were two hundred and fifty, + joining, a circle was formed, which travelled around with + the same shuffling step already described. The drummers + and other musicians--twenty or twenty-five of them--marched + in a contrary direction to and from and around the fire, + inside the large ring; for at the distance kept by the + outsiders the area was one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. + The Apollonian emulators chanted the great deeds performed + by the Cheyenne warriors. As they ended, the dying strain + was caught up by the hundreds of the outside circle, who, + in fast-swelling, loud tones, poured out the burden of + their song. At this juncture the march was quickened, + the scalps of the slain were borne aloft and shaken with + wild delight, and shrill war-notes, rising above the + furious din, accelerated the pulsation and strung high + the nerves. Time-worn shields, careering in mad holders' + hands, clashed; and keen lances, once reeking in Pawnee + blood, clanged. Braves seized one another with an iron + grip, in the heat of excitement, or chimed more tenderly + in the chant, enveloped in the same robe with some maiden + as they approvingly stepped through one of their own + original polkas. + + Thirty of the chiefs and principal men were ranged by the + pile of blazing logs. By their invitation, I sat down with + them and smoked death and its concomitant train of evils to + those audacious tribes who doubt the courage or supremacy + of the brave, the great and powerful, Cheyenne nation. + +It is Indian etiquette that the first lodge a stranger enters on +visiting a village is his home as long as he remains the guest of +the tribe. It is all the same whether he be invited or not. +Upon going in, it is customary to place all your traps in the back +part, which is the most honoured spot. The proprietor always occupies +that part of his home, but invariably gives it up to a guest. +With the Cheyennes, the white man, when the tribe was at peace with +him, was ever welcome, as in the early days of the border he generally +had a supply of coffee, of which the savage is particularly fond-- +Mok-ta-bo-mah-pe, as they call it. Their salutation to the stranger +coming into the presence of the owner of a lodge is "Hook-ah-hay! +Num-whit,"--"How do you do? Stay with us." Water is then handed by +a squaw, as it is supposed a traveller is thirsty after riding; +then meat, for he must be hungry, too. A pipe is offered, and +conversation follows. + +The lodge of the Cheyennes is formed of seventeen poles, about three +inches thick at the end which rests on the ground, slender in shape, +tapering symmetrically, and eighteen feet or more in length. They are +tied together at the small ends with buffalo-hide, then raised until +the frame resembles a cone, over which buffalo-skins are placed, +very skilfully fitted and made soft by having been dubbed by the +women--that is, scraped to the requisite thinness, and made supple +by rubbing with the brains of the animal that wore it. They are +sewed together with sinews of the buffalo, generally of the long +and powerful muscle that holds up the ponderous head of the shaggy +beast, a narrow strip running towards the bump. In summer the +lower edges of the skin are rolled up, and the wind blowing through, +it is a cool, shady retreat. In winter everything is closed, and I +know of no more comfortable place than a well-made Indian lodge. +The army tent known as the Sibley is modelled after it, and is the +best winter shelter for troops in the field that can be made. +Many times while the military post where I had been ordered was +in process of building, I have chosen the Sibley tent in preference +to any other domicile. + +When a village is to be moved, it is an interesting sight. The young +and unfledged boys drive up the herd of ponies, and then the squaws +catch them. The women, too, take down the lodges, and, tying the +poles in two bundles, fasten them on each side of an animal, the +long ends dragging on the ground. Just behind the pony or mule, +as the case may be, a basket is placed and held there by buffalo-hide +thongs, and into these novel carriages the little children are put, +besides such traps as are not easily packed on the animal's back. + +The women do all the work both in camp and when moving. They are +doomed to a hopeless bondage of slavery, the fate of their sex in +every savage race; but they accept their condition stoically, and +there is as much affection among them for their husbands and children +as I have ever witnessed among the white race. Here are two instances +of their devotion, both of which came under my personal observation, +and I could give hundreds of others. + +Late in the fall of 1858, I was one of a party on the trail of a band +of Indians who had been committing some horrible murders in a +mining-camp in the northern portion of Washington Territory. On the +fourth day out, just about dusk, we struck their moccasin tracks, +which we followed all night, and surprised their camp in the gray +light of the early morning. In less than ten minutes the fight +was over, and besides the killed we captured six prisoners. Then as +the rising sun commenced to gild the peaks of the lofty range on +the west, having granted our captives half an hour to take leave +of their families, the ankles of each were bound; they were made +to kneel on the prairie, a squad of soldiers, with loaded rifles, +were drawn up eight paces in front of them, and at the instant +the signal--a white handkerchief--was dropped the savages tumbled +over on the sod a heap of corpses. The parting between the condemned +men and their young wives and children, I shall never forget. +It was the most perfect exhibition of marital and filial love that +I have ever witnessed. Such harsh measures may seem cruel and +heartless in the light of to-day, but there was none other than +martial law then in the wilderness of the Northern Pacific coast, +and the execution was a stern necessity. + +The other instance was ten years later. During the Indian campaign +in the winter of 1868-69 I was riding with a party of officers and +enlisted men, south of the Arkansas, about fourty miles from Fort Dodge. +We were watching some cavalrymen unearth three or four dead warriors +who had been killed by two scouts in a fierce unequal fight a few +weeks before, and as we rode into a small ravine among the sand hills, +we suddenly came upon a rudely constructed Cheyenne lodge. Entering, +we discovered on a rough platform, fashioned of green poles, a dead +warrior in full war-dress; his shield of buffalo-hide, pipe ornamented +with eagles' feathers, and medicine bag, were lying on the ground +beside him. At his head, on her knees, with hands clasped in the +attitude of prayer, was a squaw frozen to death. Which had first +succumbed, the wounded chief, or the devoted wife in the awful cold +of that winter prairie, will never be known, but it proved her love +for the man who had perhaps beaten her a hundred times. Such tender +and sympathetic affection is characteristic of the sex everywhere, +no less with the poor savage than in the dominant white race. + +To return to our description of the average Indian village: Each lodge +at the grand encampment of Big Timbers in the era of traffic with +the nomads of the great plains, owned its separate herd of ponies +and mules. In the exodus to some other favoured spot, two dozen or +more of these individual herds travelled close to each other but +never mixed, each drove devotedly following its bell-mare, as in +a pack-train. This useful animal is generally the most worthless +and wicked beast in the entire outfit. + +The animals with the lodge-pole carriages go as they please, +no special care being taken to guide them, but they too instinctively +keep within sound of the leader. I will again quote Garrard for +an accurate description of the moving camp when he was with the +Cheyennes in 1847:-- + + The young squaws take much care of their dress and horse + equipments; they dash furiously past on wild steeds, + astrideof the high-pommelled saddles. A fancifully + coloured cover, worked with beads or porcupine quills, + making a flashy, striking appearance, extended from withers + to rump of the horse, while the riders evinced an admirable + daring, worthy of Amazons. Their dresses were made of + buckskin, high at the neck, with short sleeves, or rather + none at all, fitting loosely, and reaching obliquely to + theknee, giving a Diana look to the costume; the edges + scalloped, worked with beads, and fringed. From the knee + downward the limb was encased in a tightly fitting legging, + terminating in a neat moccasin--both handsomely wrought + with beads. On the arms were bracelets of brass, which + glittered and reflected in the radiant morning sun, adding + much to their attractions. In their pierced ears, shells + from the Pacific shore were pendent; and to complete the + picture of savage taste and profusion, their fine + complexions were eclipsed by a coat of flaming vermilion. + + Many of the largest dogs were packed with a small quantity + of meat, or something not easily injured. They looked + queerly, trotting industriously under their burdens; and, + judging from a small stock of canine physiological + information, not a little of the wolf was in their + composition. + + We crossed the river on our way to the new camp. The alarm + manifested by the children in the lodge-pole drays, as they + dipped in the water, was amusing. The little fellows, + holding their breath, not daring to cry, looked imploringly + at their inexorable mothers, and were encouraged by words + of approbation from their stern fathers. + + After a ride of two hours we stopped, and the chiefs, + fastening their horses, collected in circles to smoke their + pipe and talk, letting their squaws unpack the animals, + pitch the lodges, build the fires, and arrange the robes. + When all was ready, these lords of creation dispersed to + their several homes, to wait until their patient and + enduring spouses prepared some food. I was provoked, nay, + angry, to see the lazy, overgrown men do nothing to help + their wives; and when the young women pulled off their + bracelets and finery to chop wood, the cup of my wrath was + full to overflowing, and, in a fit of honest indignation, + I pronounced them ungallant and savage in the true sense + of the word. + +The treatment of Indian children, particularly boys, is something +startling to the gentle sentiments of refined white mothers. +The girls receive hardly any attention from their fathers. Implicit +obedience is the watchword of the lodge with them, and they are +constantly taught to appreciate their inferiority of sex. The daughter +is a mere slave; unnoticed and neglected--a mere hewer of wood and +drawer of water. With a son, it is entirely different; the father +from his birth dotes on him and manifests his affection in the most +demonstrative manner. + +Garrard tells of two instances that came under his observation while +staying at the chief's lodge, and at John Smith's, in the Cheyenne +village, of the discipline to which the boys are subjected. + + In Vi-po-nah's lodge was his grandson, a boy six or seven + months old. Every morning his mother washed him in cold + water, and set him out in the air to make him hardy; + he would come in, perfectly nude, from his airing, about + half-frozen. How he would laugh and brighten up, as he felt + the warmth of the fire! + + Smith's son Jack took a crying fit one cold night, much to + the annoyance of four or five chiefs, who had come to our + lodge to talk and smoke. In vain did the mother shake and + scold him with the severest Cheyenne words, until Smith, + provoked beyond endurance, took the squalling youngster in + his hands; he shu-ed and shouted and swore, but Jack had + gone too far to be easily pacified. He then sent for a + bucket of water from the river and poured cupful after + cupful on Jack, who stamped and screamed and bit in his + tiny rage. Notwithstanding, the icy stream slowly descended + until the bucket was emptied, another was sent for, and + again and again the cup was replenished and emptied on the + blubbering youth. At last, exhausted with exertion and + completely cooled down, he received the remaining water + in silence, and, with a few words of admonition, was + delivered over to his mother, in whose arms he stifled his + sobs, until his heartbreaking grief and cares were drowned + in sleep. What a devilish mixture Indian and American + blood is! + +The Indians never chastise a boy, as they think his spirit would be +broken and cowed down; instead of a warrior he would be a squaw +--a harsh epithet indicative of cowardice--and they resort to any method +but infliction of blows to subdue a refractory scion. + +Before most of the lodges is a tripod of three sticks, about seven +feet in length and an inch in diameter, fastened at the top, and the +lower ends brought out, so that it stands alone. On this is hung +the shield and a small square bag of parfleche, containing pipes, +with an accompanying pendent roll of stems, carefully wrapped in +blue or red cloth, and decorated with beads and porcupine quills. +This collection is held in great veneration, for the pipe is their +only religion. Through its agency they invoke the Great Spirit; +through it they render homage to the winds, to the earth, and to +the sky. + +Every one has his peculiar notion on this subject; and, in passing +the pipe, one must have it presented stem downward, another the +reverse; some with the bowl resting on the ground; and as this is +a matter of great solemnity, their several fancies are respected. +Sometimes I required them to hand it to me, when smoking, in imitation +of their custom; on this, a faint smile, half mingled with respect +and pity for my folly in tampering with their sacred ceremony, would +appear on their faces, and with a slow negative shake of the head, +they would ejaculate, "I-sto-met-mah-son-ne-wah-hein"--"Pshaw! +that's foolish; don't do so." + +Religion the Cheyennes have none, if, indeed, we except the respect +paid to the pipe; nor do we see any sign or vestige of spiritual +worship; except one remarkable thing--in offering the pipe, before +every fresh filling, to the sky, the earth, and the winds, the motion +made in so doing describes the form of a cross; and, in blowing the +first four whiffs, the smoke is invariably sent in the same four +directions. It is undoubtedly void of meaning in reference to +Christian worship, yet it is a superstition, founded on ancient +tradition. This tribe once lived near the head waters of the +Mississippi; and, as the early Jesuit missionaries were energetic +zealots, in the diffusion of their religious sentiments, probably to +make their faith more acceptable to the Indians, the Roman Catholic +rites were blended with the homage shown to the pipe, which custom +of offering, in the form of a cross, is still retained by them; +but as every custom is handed down by tradition merely, the true +source has been forgotten. + +In every tribe in whose country I have been stationed, which comprises +nearly all the continent excepting the extreme southwestern portion, +his pipe is the Indian's constant companion through life. It is his +messenger of peace; he pledges his friends through its stem and its +bowl, and when he is dead, it has a place in his solitary grave, +with his war-club and arrows--companions on his journey to his +long-fancied beautiful hunting-grounds. The pipe of peace is a sacred +thing; so held by all Indian nations, and kept in possession of chiefs, +to be smoked only at times of peacemaking. When the terms of treaty +have been agreed upon, this sacred emblem, the stem of which is +ornamented with eagle's quills, is brought forward, and the solemn +pledge to keep the peace is passed through the sacred stem by each +chief and warrior drawing the smoke once through it. After the +ceremony is over, the warriors of the two tribes unite in the dance, +with the pipe of peace held in the left hand of the chief and in his +other a rattle. + +Thousands of years ago, the primitive savage of the American continent +carried masses of pipe-stone from the sacred quarry in Minnesota +across the vast wilderness of plains, to trade with the people of +the far Southwest, over the same route that long afterward became +the Santa Fe Trail; therefore, it will be consistent with the character +of this work to relate the history of the quarry from which all the +tribes procured their material for fashioning their pipes, and the +curious legends connected with it. I have met with the red sandstone +pipes on the remotest portions of the Pacific coast, and east, west, +north and south, in every tribe that it has been my fortune to know. + +The word "Dakotah" means allied or confederated, and is the family +name now comprising some thirty bands, numbering about thirty thousand +Indians. They are generally designated Sioux, but that title is +seldom willingly acknowledged by them. It was first given to them +by the French, though its original interpretation is by no means clear. +The accepted theory, because it is the most plausible, is that it is +a corruption or rather an abbreviation of "Nadouessioux," a Chippewa +word for enemies. + +Many of the Sioux are semi-civilized; some are "blanket-Indians," +so called, but there are no longer any murderous or predatory bands, +and all save a few stragglers are on the reservations. From 1812 to +1876, more than half a century, they were the scourge of the West and +the Northwest, but another outbreak is highly improbable. They once +occupied the vast region included between the Mississippi and the +Rocky Mountains, and were always migratory in their methods of living. +Over fifty years ago, when the whites first became acquainted with +them, they were divided into nearly fifty bands of families, each with +its separate chief, but all acknowledging a superior chief to whom +they were subordinate. They were at that time the happiest and most +wealthy tribe on the continent, regarded from an Indian standpoint; +but then the great plains were stocked with buffalo and wild horses, +and that fact alone warrants the assertion of contentment and riches. +No finer-looking tribe existed; they could then muster more than +ten thousand warriors, every one of whom would measure six feet, and +all their movements were graceful and elastic. + +According to their legends, they came from the Pacific and encountered +the Algonquins about the head waters of the Mississippi, where they +were held in check, a portion of them, however, pushing on through +their enemies and securing a foothold on the shores of Lake Michigan. +This bold band was called by the Chippewas Winnebagook (men-from-the- +salt-water). In their original habitat on the great northern plains +was located the celebrated "red pipe-stone quarry," a relatively +limited area, owned by all tribes, but occupied permanently by none; +a purely neutral ground--so designated by the Great Spirit--where no +war could possibly occur, and where mortal enemies might meet to +procure the material for their pipes, but the hatchet was invariably +buried during that time on the consecrated spot. + +The quarry has long since passed out of the control and jurisdiction +of the Indians and is not included in any of their reservations, +though near the Sisseton agency. It is located on the summit of +the high divide between the Missouri and St. Peter's rivers in +Minnesota, at a point not far from where the ninety-seventh meridian +of longitude (from Greenwich) intersects the forty-fifth parallel +of latitude. The divide was named by the French Coteau des Prairies, +and the quarry is near its southern extremity. Not a tree or bush +could be seen from the majestic mound when I last was there, some +twenty years ago--nothing but the apparently interminable plains, +until they were lost in the deep blue of the horizon. + +The luxury of smoking appears to have been known to all the tribes +on the continent in their primitive state, and they indulge in the +habit to excess; any one familiar with their life can assert that +the American savage smokes half of his time. Where so much attention +is given to a mere pleasure, it naturally follows that he would devote +his leisure and ingenuity to the construction of his pipe. The bowls +of these were, from time immemorial, made of the peculiar red stone +from the famous quarry referred to, which, until only a little over +fifty years ago, was never visited by a white man, its sanctity +forbidding any such sacrilege. + +That the spot should have been visited for untold centuries by all +the Indian nations, who hid their weapons as they approached it, +under fear of the vengeance of the Great Spirit, will not seem strange +when the religion of the race is understood. One of the principal +features of the quarry is a perpendicular wall of granite about +thirty feet high, facing the west, and nearly two miles long. At the +base of the wall there is a level prairie, running parallel to it, +half a mile wide. Under this strip of land, after digging through +several slaty layers of rock, the red sandstone is found. Old graves, +fortifications, and excavations abound, all confirmatory of the +traditions clustering around the weird place. + +Within a few rods of the base of the wall is a group of immense gneiss +boulders, five in number, weighing probably many hundred tons each, +and under these are two holes in which two imaginary old women reside +--the guardian spirits of the quarry--who were always consulted before +any pipe-stone could be dug up. The veneration for this group of +boulders was something wonderful; not a spear of grass was broken or +bent by his feet within sixty or seventy paces from them, where the +trembling Indian halted, and throwing gifts to them in humble +supplication, solicited permission to dig and take away the red stone +for his pipes. + +Near this spot, too, on a high mound, was the "Thunder's nest," where +a very small bird sat upon her eggs during fair weather. When the +skies were rent with thunder at the approach of a storm, she was +hatching her brood, which caused the terrible commotion in the heavens. +The bird was eternal. The "medicine men" claimed that they had often +seen her, and she was about as large as a little finger. Her mate +was a serpent whose fiery tongue destroyed the young ones as soon as +they were born, and the awful noise accompanying the act darted +through the clouds. + +On the wall of rocks at the quarry are thousands of inscriptions and +paintings, the totems and arms of various tribes who have visited +there; but no idea can be formed of their antiquity. + +Of the various traditions of the many tribes, I here present a few. +The Great Spirit at a remote period called all the Indian nations +together at this place, and, standing on the brink of the precipice +of red-stone rock, broke from its walls a piece and fashioned a pipe +by simply turning it in his hands. He then smoked over them to the +north, the south, the east, and the west, and told them the stone +was red, that it was their flesh, that they must use it for their +pipes of peace, that it belonged to all alike, and that the war-club +and scalping-knife must never be raised on its ground. At the last +whiff of his pipe his head went into a great cloud, and the whole +surface of the ledge for miles was melted and glazed; two great ovens +were opened beneath, and two women--the guardian spirits of the place-- +entered them in a blaze of fire, and they are heard there yet +answering to the conjurations of the medicine men, who consult them +when they visit the sacred place. + +The legend of the Knis-te-neu's tribe (Crees), a very small band in +the British possessions, in relation to the quarry is this: In the +time of a great freshet that occurred years ago and destroyed all the +nations of the earth, every tribe of Indians assembled on the top +of the Coteau des Prairies to get out of the way of the rushing and +seething waters. When they had arrived there from all parts of the +world, the water continued to rise until it covered them completely, +forming one solid mass of drowned Indians, and their flesh was +converted by the Great Spirit into red pipe-stone; therefore, it was +always considered neutral ground, belonging to all tribes alike, and +all were to make their pipes out of it and smoke together. While they +were drowning together, a young woman, Kwaptan, a virgin, caught hold +of the foot of a very large bird that was flying over at the time, +and was carried to the top of a hill that was not far away and above +the water. There she had twins, their father being the war-eagle +that had carried her off, and her children have since peopled the +earth. The pipe-stone, which is the flesh of their ancestors, +is smoked by them as the symbol of peace, and the eagle quills +decorate the heads of their warriors. + +Severed about seven or eight feet from the main wall of the quarry +by some convulsion of nature ages ago, there is an immense column +just equal in height to the wall, seven feet in diameter and +beautifully polished on its top and sides. It is called The Medicine, +or Leaping Rock, and considerable nerve is required to jump on it from +the main ledge and back again. Many an Indian's heart, in the past, +has sighed for the honour of the feat without daring to attempt it. +A few, according to the records of the tribes, have tried it with +success, and left their arrows standing up in its crevice; others +have made the leap and reached its slippery surface only to slide off, +and suffer instant death on the craggy rocks in the awful chasm below. +Every young man of the many tribes was ambitious to perform the feat, +and those who had successfully accomplished it were permitted to +boast of it all their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. +TRAPPERS. + + + +The initial opening of the trade with New Mexico from the Missouri +River, as has been related, was not direct to Santa Fe. The limited +number of pack-trains at first passed to the north of the Raton Range, +and travelled to the Spanish settlements in the valley of Taos. + +On this original Trail, where now is situated the beautiful city +of Pueblo, the second place of importance in Colorado, there was a +little Indian trading-post called "the Pueblo," from which the present +thriving place derives its name. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe +Railroad practically follows the same route that the traders did to +reach Pueblo, as it also does that which the freight caravans later +followed from the Missouri River direct to Santa Fe. + +The old Pueblo fort, as nearly as can be determined now, was built +as early as 1840, or not later than 1842, and, as one authority +asserts, by George Simpson and his associates, Barclay and Doyle. +Beckwourth claims to have been the original projector of the fort, +and to have given the general plan and its name, in which I am +inclined to believe that he is correct; perhaps Barclay, Doyle, and +Simpson were connected with him, as he states that there were other +trappers, though he mentions no names. It was a square fort of adobe, +with circular bastions at the corners, no part of the walls being +more than eight feet high. Around the inside of the plaza, or corral, +were half a dozen small rooms inhabited by as many Indian traders and +mountain-men. + +One of the earlier Indian agents, Mr. Fitzpatrick, in writing from +Bent's Fort in 1847, thus describes the old Pueblo:-- + + About seventy-five miles above this place, and immediately + on the Arkansas River, there is a small settlement, chiefly + composed of old trappers and hunters; the male part of it + are mostly Americans (Missourians), French Canadians, and + Mexicans. It numbers about one hundred and fifty, and of + this number about sixty men have wives, and some have two. + These wives are of various Indian tribes, as follows; viz. + Blackfeet, Assiniboines, Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, + Snakes, and Comanches. The American women are Mormons, + a party of Mormons having wintered there, and then departed + for California. + +The old trappers and hunters of the Pueblo fort lived entirely upon +game, and a greater part of the year without bread. As soon as their +supply of meat was exhausted, they started to the mountains with two +or three pack-animals, and brought back in two or three days loads +of venison and buffalo. + +The Arkansas at the Pueblo is a clear, rapid river about a hundred +yards wide. The bottom, which is enclosed on each side by high bluffs, +is about a quarter of a mile across. In the early days of which I +write, the margin of the stream was heavily timbered with cottonwood, +and the tourist to-day may see the remnant of the primitive great +woods, in the huge isolated trees scattered around the bottom in the +vicinity of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad station of +the charming mountain city. + +On each side vast rolling prairies stretch away for hundreds of miles, +gradually ascending on the side towards the mountains, where the +highlands are sparsely covered with pinyon and cedar. The lofty banks +through which the Arkansas occasionally passes are of shale and +sandstone, rising precipitously from the water. Ascending the river +the country is wild and broken, until it enters the mountain region, +where the scenery is incomparably grand and imposing. The surrounding +prairies are naturally arid and sterile, producing but little +vegetation, and the primitive grass, though of good quality, is thin +and scarce. Now, however, under a competent system of irrigation, +the whole aspect of the landscape is changed from what it was thirty +years ago, and it has all the luxuriance of a garden. + +The whole country, it is claimed, was once possessed by the Shos-shones, +or Snake Indians, of whom the Comanches of the Southern plains are +a branch; and, although many hundred miles divide their hunting-grounds, +they were once, if not the same people, tribes or bands of that great +and powerful nation. They retain a language in common, and there is +also a striking analogy in many of their religious rites and ceremonies, +in their folk-lore, and in some of their everyday customs. These +facts prove, at least, that there was at one time a very close +alliance which bound the two tribes together. Half a century ago they +were, in point of numbers, the two most powerful nations in all the +numerous aggregations of Indians in the West; the Comanches ruling +almost supreme on the Eastern plains, while the Shos-shones were the +dominant tribe in the country beyond the Rocky Mountains, and in the +mountains themselves. Once, many years ago, before the problem of the +relative strength of the various tribes was as well solved as now, +the Shos-shones were supposed to be the most powerful, and numerically +the most populous, tribe of Indians on the North American continent. + +In the immediate vicinity of the old Pueblo fort at the time of its +greatest business prosperity, game was scarce; the buffalo had for +some years deserted the neighbouring prairies, but they were always +to be found in the mountain-valleys, particularly in one known as +"Bayou Salado," which forty-five years ago abounded in elk, bear, +deer, and antelope. + +The fort was situated a few hundred yards above the mouth of the +"Fontaine qui Bouille" River,[47] so called from two springs of +mineral water near its head, under Pike's Peak, about sixty miles +above its mouth. + +As is the case with all the savage races of the world, the American +Indians possess hereditary legends, accounting for all the phenomena +of nature, or any occurrence which is beyond their comprehension. +The Shos-shones had the following story to account for the presence of +these wonderful springs in the midst of their favourite hunting-ground. +The two fountains, one pouring forth the sweetest water imaginable, +the other a stream as bitter as gall, are intimately connected with +the cause of the separation of the two tribes. Their legend thus runs: +Many hundreds of winters ago, when the cottonwoods on the big river +were no higher than arrows, and the prairies were crowded with game, +the red men who hunted the deer in the forests and the buffalo on the +plains all spoke the same language, and the pipe of peace breathed its +soothing cloud whenever two parties of hunters met on the boundless +prairie. + +It happened one day that two hunters of different nations met on the +bank of a small rivulet, to which both had resorted to quench their +thirst. A small stream of water, rising from a spring on a rock +within a few feet of the bank, trickled over it and fell splashing +into the river. One hunter sought the spring itself; the other, +tired by his exertions in the chase, threw himself at once to the +ground, and plunged his face into the running stream. + +The latter had been unsuccessful in the hunt, and perhaps his bad +fortune, and the sight of the fat deer which the other threw from his +back before he drank at the crystal spring, caused a feeling of +jealousy and ill-humour to take possession of his mind. The other, +on the contrary, before he satisfied his thirst, raised in the hollow +of his hand a portion of the water, and, lifting it toward the sun, +reversed his hand, and allowed it to fall upon the ground, as a +libation to the Great Spirit, who had vouch-safed him a successful +hunt and the blessing of the refreshing water with which he was about +to quench his thirst. + +This reminder that he had neglected the usual offering only increased +the feeling of envy and annoyance which filled the unsuccessful +hunter's heart. The Evil Spirit at that moment entering his body, +his temper fairly flew away, and he sought some pretence to provoke +a quarrel with the other Indian. + +"Why does a stranger," he asked, rising from the stream, "drink at +the spring-head, when one to whom the fountain belongs contents +himself with the water that runs from it?" + +"The Great Spirit places the cool water at the spring," answered the +other hunter, "that his children may drink it pure and undefiled. +The running water is for the beasts which scour the plains. Ausaqua +is a chief of the Shos-shones; he drinks at the head water." + +"The Shos-shones is but a tribe of the Comanches," returned the other: +"Wacomish leads the whole nation. Why does a Shos-shone dare to +drink above him?" + +"When the Manitou made his children, whether Shos-shone or Comanche, +Arapaho, Cheyenne, or Pawnee, he gave them buffalo to eat, and the +pure water of the fountain to quench their thirst. He said not to +one, 'Drink here,' and to another, 'Drink there'; but gave the crystal +spring to all, that all might drink." + +Wacomish almost burst with rage as the other spoke; but his coward +heart prevented him from provoking an encounter with the calm Shos-shone. +The latter, made thirsty by the words he had spoken--for the Indian is +ever sparing of his tongue--again stooped down to the spring to drink, +when the subtle warrior of the Comanches suddenly threw himself upon +the kneeling hunter and, forcing his head into the bubbling water, +held him down with all his strength until his victim no longer +struggled; his stiffened limbs relaxed, and he fell forward over +the spring, drowned. + +Mechanically the Comanche dragged the body a few paces from the water, +and, as soon as the head of the dead Indian was withdrawn, the spring +was suddenly and strangely disturbed. Bubbles sprang up from the +bottom, and, rising to the surface, escaped in hissing gas. A thin +vapour arose, and, gradually dissolving, displayed to the eyes of the +trembling murderer the figure of an aged Indian, whose long, snowy +hair and venerable beard, blown aside from his breast, discovered the +well-known totem of the great Wankanaga, the father of the Comanche +and Shos-shone nation. + +Stretching out a war-club toward the Comanche, the figure thus +addressed him:-- + +"Accursed murderer! While the blood of the brave Shos-shone cries to +the Great Spirit for vengeance, may the water of thy tribe be rank +and bitter in their throats!" Thus saying, and swinging his ponderous +war-club round his head, he dashed out the brains of the Comanche, +who fell headlong into the spring, which from that day to this remains +rank and nauseous, so that not even when half dead with thirst, can +one drink from it. + +The good Wankanaga, however, to perpetuate the memory of the Shos-shone +warrior, who was renowned in his tribe for valour and nobleness of +heart, struck with the same avenging club a hard, flat rock which +overhung the rivulet, and forthwith a round clear basin opened, which +instantly filled with bubbling, sparkling water, sweet and cool. + +From that day the two mighty tribes of the Shos-shones and Comanches +have remained severed and apart, although a long and bloody war +followed the treacherous murder. + +The Indians regarded these wonderful springs with awe. The Arapahoes, +especially, attributed to the Spirit of the springs the power of +ordaining the success or failure of their war expeditions. As their +warriors passed by the mysterious pools when hunting their hereditary +enemies, the Utes, they never failed to bestow their votive offerings +upon the spring, in order to propitiate the Manitou of the strange +fountain, and insure a fortunate issue to their path of war. As late +as twenty-five years ago, the visitor to the place could always find +the basin of the spring filled with beads and wampum, pieces of red +cloth and knives, while the surrounding trees were hung with strips +of deerskin, cloth, and moccasins. Signs were frequently observed +in the vicinity of the waters unmistakably indicating that a war-dance +had been executed there by the Arapahoes on their way to the Valley +of Salt, occupied by the powerful Utes. + +Never was there such a paradise for hunters as this lone and solitary +spot in the days when the region was known only to them and the +trappers of the great fur companies. The shelving prairie, at the +bottom of which the springs are situated, is entirely surrounded by +rugged mountains and contained two or three acres of excellent grass, +affording a safe pasture for their animals, which hardly cared to +wander from such feeding and the salt they loved to lick. + +The trappers of the Rocky Mountains belonged to a genus that has +disappeared. Forty years ago there was not a hole or corner in the +vast wilderness of the far West that had not been explored by these +hardy men. From the Mississippi to the mouth of the Colorado of the +West, from the frozen regions of the north to the Gila in Mexico, +the beaver hunter has set his traps in every creek and stream. +The mountains and waters, in many instances, still retain the names +assigned them by those rude hunters, who were veritable pioneers +paving the way for the settlement of the stern country. + +A trapper's camp in the old days was quite a picture, as were all its +surroundings. He did not always take the trouble to build a shelter, +unless in the winter. A couple of deerskins stretched over a willow +frame was considered sufficient to protect him from the storm. +Sometimes he contented himself with a mere "breakwind," the rocky +wall of a canyon, or large ravine. Near at hand he set up two poles, +in the crotch of which another was laid, where he kept, out of reach +of the hungry wolf and coyote, his meat, consisting of every variety +afforded by the region in which he had pitched his camp. Under cover +of the skins of the animals he had killed hung his old-fashioned +powder-horn and bullet-pouch, while his trusty rifle, carefully +defended from the damp, was always within reach of his hand. Round +his blazing fire at night his companions, if he had any, were other +trappers on the same stream; and, while engaged in cleaning their +arms, making and mending moccasins, or running bullets, they told +long yarns, until the lateness of the hour warned them to crawl under +their blankets. + +Not far from the camp, his animals, well hobbled, fed in sight; +for nothing did a hunter dread more than a visit from horse-stealing +Indians, and to be afoot was the acme of misery. + +Some hunters who had married squaws carried about with them regular +buffalo-skin lodges, which their wives took care of, according to +Indian etiquette. + +The old-time trappers more nearly approximated the primitive savage, +perhaps, than any other class of civilized men. Their lives being +spent in the remote wilderness of the mountains, frequently with no +other companion than Nature herself, their habits and character often +assumed a most singular cast of simplicity, mingled with ferocity, +that appeared to take its colouring from the scenes and objects which +surrounded them. Having no wants save those of nature, their sole +concern was to provide sufficient food to support life, and the +necessary clothing to protect them from the sometimes rigorous climate. + +The costume of the average trapper was a hunting-shirt of dressed +buckskin, with long, fringed trousers of the same material, decorated +with porcupine quills. A flexible hat and moccasins covered his +extremities, and over his left shoulder and under his right arm hung +his powder-horn and bullet-pouch, in which he also carried flint, +steel, and other odds and ends. Round his waist he wore a belt, +in which was stuck a large knife in a sheath of buffalo-hide, made +fast to the belt by a chain or guard of steel. It also supported +a little buckskin case, which contained a whetstone, a very necessary +article; for in taking off the hides of the beaver a sharp knife was +required. His pipe-holder hung around his neck, and was generally +a gage d'amour, a triumph of squaw workmanship, wrought with beads +and porcupine quills, often made in the shape of a heart. + +Necessarily keen observers of nature, they rivalled the beasts of +prey in discovering the haunts and habits of game, and in their skill +and cunning in capturing it outwitted the Indian himself. Constantly +exposed to perils of all kinds, they became callous to any feeling +of danger, and were firm friends or bitter enemies. It was a "word +and a blow," the blow often coming first. Strong, active, hardy as +bears, expert in the use of their weapons, they were just what an +uncivilized white man might be supposed to be under conditions where +he must depend upon his instincts for the support of life. + +Having determined upon the locality of his trapping-ground, the hunter +started off, sometimes alone, sometimes three or four of them in +company, as soon as the breaking of the ice in the streams would +permit, if he was to go very far north. Arriving on the spot he has +selected for his permanent camp, the first thing to be done, after +he had settled himself, was to follow the windings of the creeks and +rivers, keeping a sharp lookout for "signs." If he saw a prostrate +cottonwood tree, he carefully examined it to learn whether it was +the work of beaver, and if so whether thrown for the purpose of food, +or to dam the stream. The track of the animal on the mud or sand +under the banks was also examined; if the sign was fresh, he set his +trap in the run of the animal, hiding it under water, and attaching +it by a stout chain to a picket driven in the bank, or to a bush or +tree. A float-stick was made fast to the trap by a cord a few feet +long, which, if the animal carried away the trap, would float on +the water and point out its position. The trap was baited with +"medicine," an oily substance obtained from the beaver. A stick was +dipped in this and planted over the trap, and the beaver, attracted +by the smell, put his leg into the trap and was caught. + +When a beaver lodge was discovered, the trap was set at the edge of +the dam, at a point where the animal passed from deep to shoal water, +and always under the surface. Early in the morning, the hunter +mounted his mule and examined all his traps. + +The beaver is exceedingly wily, and if by scent or sound or sight he +had any intimation of the presence of a trapper, he put at defiance +all efforts to capture him, consequently it was necessary to practise +great caution when in the neighbourhood of one of their lodges. +The trapper then avoided riding for fear the sound of his horse's +feet might strike dismay among the furry inhabitants under the water, +and, instead of walking on the ground, he waded in the stream, lest +he should leave a scent behind by which he might be discovered. + +In the days of the great fur companies, trappers were of two kinds-- +the hired hand and the free trapper. The former was hired by the +company, which supplied him with everything necessary, and paid him +a certain price for his furs and peltries. The other hunted on his +own hook, owned his animals and traps, went where he pleased, and +sold to whom he chose. + +During the hunting season, regardless of the Indians, the fearless +trapper wandered far and near in search of signs. His nerves were +in a state of tension, his mind always clear, and his head cool. +His trained eye scrutinized every part of the country, and in an +instant he could detect anything that was strange. A turned leaf, +a blade of grass pressed down, the uneasiness of wild animals, +the actions of the birds, were all to him paragraphs written in +Nature's legible hand. + +All the wits of the wily savage were called into play to gain an +advantage over the plucky white man; but with the resources natural +to a civilized mind, the hunter seldom failed, under equal chance, +to circumvent the cunning of the red man. Sometimes, following his +trail for weeks, the Indian watched him set his traps on some timbered +stream, and crawling up the bed of it, so that he left no tracks, +he lay in the bushes until his victim came to examine his traps. +Then, when he approached within a few feet of the ambush, whiz! flew +the home-drawn arrow, which never failed at such close quarters to +bring the unsuspecting hunter to the ground. But for one white scalp +that dangled in the smoke of an Indian's lodge, a dozen black ones, +at the end of the season, ornamented the camp-fires of the rendezvous +where the furs were sold. + +In the camp, if he was a very successful hunter, all the appliances +for preparing the skins for market were at hand; if he had a squaw +for a wife, she did all the hard work, as usual. Close to the +entrance of their skin lodge was the "graining-block," a log of wood +with the bark stripped off and perfectly smooth, set obliquely in +the ground, on which the hair was removed from the deerskins which +furnished moccasins and dresses for both herself and her husband. +Then there were stretching frames on which the skins were placed to +undergo the process of "dubbing"; that is, the removal of all flesh +and fatty particles adhering to the skin. The "dubber" was made of +the stock of an elk's horn, with a piece of iron or steel inserted +in the end, forming a sharp knife. The last process the deerskin +underwent before it was soft and pliable enough for making into +garments, was the "smoking." This was effected by digging a round +hole in the ground, and lighting in it an armful of rotten wood or +punk; then sticks were planted around the hole, and their tops brought +together and tied. The skins were placed on this frame, and all +openings by which the smoke might escape being carefully stopped, +in ten or twelve hours they were thoroughly cured and ready for +immediate use. + +The beaver was the main object of the hunter's quest; its skins were +once worth from six to eight dollars a pound; then they fell to only +one dollar, which hardly paid the expenses of traps, animals, and +equipment for the hunt, and was certainly no adequate remuneration +for the hardships, toil, and danger undergone by the trappers. + +The beaver was once found in every part of North America, from Canada +to the Gulf of Mexico, but has so retired from the encroachments of +civilized man, that it is only to be met with occasionally on some +tributary to the remote mountain streams. + +The old trappers always aimed to set their traps so that the beaver +would drown when taken. This was accomplished by sinking the trap +several inches under water, and driving a stake through a ring on the +end of the chain into the bottom of the creek. When the beaver finds +himself caught, he pitches and plunges about until his strength is +exhausted, when he sinks down and is drowned, but if he succeeds in +getting to the shore, he always extricates himself by gnawing off +the leg that is in the jaws of the trap. + +The captured animals were skinned, and the tails, which are a great +dainty, carefully packed into camp. The skin was then stretched over +a hoop or framework of willow twigs and allowed to dry, the flesh and +fatty substance adhering being first carefully scraped off. When dry, +it was folded into a square sheet, the fur turned inwards, and the +bundle, containing twenty skins, tightly pressed and tied, was ready +for transportation. The beaver after the hide is taken off weighs +about twelve pounds, and its flesh, although a little musky, is very +fine. Its tail which is flat and oval in shape, is covered with +scales about the size of those of a salmon. It was a great delicacy +in the estimation of the old trapper; he separated it from the body, +thrust a stick in one end of it, and held it before the fire with the +scales on. In a few moments large blisters rose on the surface, +which were very easily removed. The tail was then perfectly white, +and delicious. Next to the tail the liver was another favourite of +the trapper, and when properly cooked it constituted a delightful repast. + +After the season was over, or the hunter had loaded all his pack-animals, +he proceeded to the "rendezvous," where the buyers were to congregate +for the purchase of the fur, the locality of which had been agreed +upon when the hunters started out on their expedition. One of these +was at Bent's old fort and one at Pueblo; another at "Brown's Hole" +on Green River, and there were many more on the great streams and in +the mountains. There the agents of the fur companies and traders +waited for the arrival of the trappers, with such an assortment of +goods as the hardy men required, including, of course, an immense +supply of whiskey. The trappers dropped in day after day, in small +bands, packing their loads of beaver-skins, not infrequently to the +value of a thousand dollars each, the result of one hunt. + +The rendezvous was frequently a continuous scene of gambling, brawling, +and fighting, so long as the improvident trapper's money lasted. +Seated around the large camp-fires, cross-legged in Indian fashion, +with a blanket or buffalo-robe spread before them, groups were playing +cards--euchre, seven-up, and poker, the regular mountain games. +The usual stakes were beaver-skins, which were current as coin. +When their fur was all gone, their horses, mules, rifles, shirts, +hunting packs, and trousers were staked. Daring professional gamblers +made the rounds of the camps, challenging each other to play for the +trapper's highest stakes--his horse, or his squaw, if he had one--and +it is told of one great time that two old trappers played for one +another's scalps! "There goes hoss and beaver," was a common mountain +expression when any severe loss was sustained, and shortly "hoss and +beaver" found their way into the pockets of the unconscionable gamblers. + +Frequently a trapper would squander the entire product of his hunt, +amounting to hundreds of dollars, in a couple of hours. Then, +supplied with another outfit, he left the rendezvous for another +expedition, which had the same result time after time, although one +good hunt would have enabled him to return to the settlements and +live a life of comparative ease. + +It is told of one old Canadian trapper, who had received as much as +fifteen thousand dollars for beaver during his life in the mountains, +extending over twenty years, that each season he had resolved in his +mind to go back to Canada, and with this object in view always +converted his furs into cash; but a fortnight at the rendezvous +always "cleaned him out," and at the end of the twenty years he had +not even enough credit to get a plug of tobacco. + +Trading with the Indians in the primitive days of the border was just +what the word signifies in its radical interpretation--a system of +barter exclusively. No money was used in the transaction, as it was +long afterward before the savages began to learn something of the +value of currency from their connection with the sutler's and agency +stores established on reservations and at military posts on the plains +and in the mountains. In the early days, if an Indian by any chance +happened to get possession of a piece of money (only gold or silver +was recognized as a medium of exchange in the remote West), he would +immediately fashion it into some kind of an ornament with which to +adorn his person. Some tribes, however, did indulge in a sort of +currency, worthless except among themselves. This consisted of rare +shells, such as the Oligachuck, so called, of the Pacific coast +nations, used by them within my own recollection, as late as 1858. + +The poor Indian, as might have been expected, was generally +outrageously swindled; in fact, I am inclined to believe, always. +I never was present on an occasion when he was not. + +The savage's idea of values was very crude until the government, +in attempting to civilize and make a gentleman of him, has transformed +him into a bewildered child. Very soon after his connection with +the white trader, he learned that a gun was more valuable than a knife; +but of their relative cost to manufacture he had no idea. For these +reasons, obviously, he was always at the mercy of the unscrupulous +trader who came to his village, or met him at the rendezvous to barter +for his furs. I know that the price of every article he desired was +fixed by the trader, and never by the Indian, consequently he rarely +got the best of the bargain. + +Uncle John Smith, Kit Carson, L. B. Maxwell, Uncle Dick Wooton, and +a host of other well-known Indian traders, long since dead, have +often told me that the first thing they did on entering a village +with a pack-load of trinkets to barter, in the earlier days before +the whites had encroached to any great extent, was to arrange a +schedule of prices. They would gather a large number of sticks, +each one representing an article they had brought. With these crude +symbols the Indian made himself familiar in a little while, and when +this preliminary arrangement had been completed, the trading began. +The Indian, for instance, would place a buffalo-robe on the ground; +then the trader commenced to lay down a number of the sticks, +representing what he was willing to give for the robe. The Indian +revolved the transaction in his mind until he thought he was getting +a fair equivalent according to his ideas, then the bargain was made. +It was claimed by these old traders, when they related this to me, +that the savage generally was not satisfied, always insisting upon +having more sticks placed on the pile. I suspect, however, that the +trader was ever prepared for this, and never gave more than he +originally intended. The price of that initial robe having been +determined on, it governed the price of all the rest for the whole +trade, regardless of size or fineness, for that day. What was traded +for was then placed by the Indian on one side of the lodge, and the +trader put what he was to give on the other. After prices had been +agreed upon, business went on very rapidly, and many thousand dollars' +worth of valuable furs were soon collected by the successful trader, +which he shipped to St. Louis and converted into gold. + +In a few years, relatively, the Indian began to appreciate the value +of our medium of exchange and the power it gave him to secure at the +stores in the widely scattered hamlets and at the military posts on +the plains, those things he coveted, at a fairer equivalent than in +the uncertain and complicated method of direct barter. It was not +very long after the advent of the overland coaches on the Santa Fe +Trail, that our currency, even the greenbacks, had assumed a value +to the savage, which he at least partially understood. Whenever the +Indians successfully raided the stages the mail sacks were no longer +torn to pieces or thrown aside as worthless, but every letter was +carefully scrutinized for possible bills. + +I well remember, when the small copper cent, with its spread eagle +upon it, was first issued, about the year 1857, how the soldiers of +a frontier garrison where I was stationed at the time palmed them off +upon the simple savages as two dollar and a half gold pieces, which +they resembled as long as they retained their brightness, and with +which the Indians were familiar, as many were received by the troops +from the paymaster every two months, the savages receiving them in +turn for horses and other things purchased of them by the soldiers. + +I have known of Indians who gave nuggets of gold for common calico +shirts costing two dollars in that region and seventy-five cents in +the States, while the lump of precious metal was worth, perhaps, +five or seven dollars. As late as twenty-eight years ago, I have +traded for beautifully smoke-tanned and porcupine-embroidered +buffalo-robes for my own use, giving in exchange a mere loaf of bread +or a cupful of brown sugar. + +Very early in the history of the United States, in 1786, the government, +under the authority of Congress, established a plan of trade with +the Indians. It comprised supplying all their physical wants without +profit; factories, or stations as they were called, were erected at +points that were then on the remote frontier; where factors, clerks, +and interpreters were stationed. The factors furnished goods of all +kinds to the Indians, and received from them in exchange furs and +peltries. There was an officer in charge of all these stations called +the superintendent of Indian trade, appointed by the President. +As far back as 1821, there were stations at Prairie du Chien, +Fort Edward, Fort Osage, with branches at Chicago, Green Bay in +Arkansas, on the Red River, and other places in the then far West. +These stations were movable, and changed from time to time to suit the +convenience of the Indians. In 1822 the whole system was abolished +by act of Congress, and its affairs wound up, the American Fur Company, +the Missouri Fur Company, and a host of others having by that time +become powerful. Like the great corporations of to-day, they +succeeded in supplanting the government establishments. Of course, +the Indians of the remote plains, which included all the vast region +west of the Missouri River, never had the benefits of the government +trading establishments, but were left to the tender mercies of the +old plainsmen and trappers. + +Until the railroad reached the mountains, when the march of a wonderful +immigration closely followed, usurping the lands claimed by the +savages, and the latter were driven, perforce, upon reservations, +the winter camps of the Kiowas, Arapahoes, and Cheyennes were strung +along the Old Trail for miles, wherever a belt of timber on the margin +of the Arkansas, or its tributaries, could be found large enough to +furnish fuel for domestic purposes and cottonwood bark for the vast +herds of ponies in the severe snow-storms. + +At these various points the Indians congregated to trade with the +whites. As stated, Bent's Fort, the Pueblo Fort, and Big Timbers +were favourite resorts, and the trappers and old hunters passed a +lively three or four months every year, indulging in the amusements +I have referred to. They were also wonderful story-tellers, and +around their camp-fires many a tale of terrible adventure with Indians +and vicious animals was nightly related. + +Baptiste Brown was one of the most famous trappers. Few men had seen +more of wild life in the great prairie wilderness. He had hunted +with nearly every tribe of Indians on the plains and in the mountains, +was often at Bent's Fort, and his soul-stirring narratives made him +a most welcome guest at the camp-fire. + +He lived most of his time in the Wind River Mountains, in a beautiful +little valley named after him "Brown's Hole." It has a place on the +maps to-day, and is on what was then called Prairie River, or +Sheetskadee, by the Indians; it is now known as Green River, and is +the source of the great Colorado. + +The valley, which is several thousand feet above the sea-level, +is about fifteen miles in circumference, surrounded by lofty hills, +and is aptly, though not elegantly, characterized as a "hole." +The mountain-grass is of the most nutritious quality; groves of +cottonwood trees and willows are scattered through the sequestered +spot, and the river, which enters it from the north, is a magnificent +stream; in fact, it is the very ideal of a hunter's headquarters. + +The temperature is very equable, and at one time, years ago, hundreds +of trappers made it their winter quarters. Indians, too, of all the +northern tribes, but more especially the Arapahoes, frequented it to +trade with the white men. + +Baptiste Brown was a Canadian who spoke villanous French and worse +English; his vocabulary being largely interspersed with "enfant de +garce," "sacre," "sacre enfant," and "damn" until it was a difficult +matter to tell what he was talking about. + +He was married to an Arapahoe squaw, and his strange wooing and +winning of the dusky maiden is a thrilling love-story. + +Among the maidens who came with the Arapahoes, when that tribe made +a visit to "Brown's Hole" one winter for the purpose of trading with +the whites, was a young, merry, and very handsome girl, named "Unami," +who after a few interviews completely captured Baptiste's heart. +Nothing was more common, as I have stated, than marriages between +the trappers and a beautiful redskin. Isolated absolutely from women +of his own colour, the poor mountaineer forgets he is white, which, +considering the embrowning influence of constant exposure and sunlight, +is not so marvellous after all. For a portion of the year there is +no hunting, and then idleness is the order of the day. At such times +the mountaineer visits the lodges of his dark neighbours for amusement, +and in the spirited dance many a heart is lost to the squaws. +The young trapper, like other enamoured ones of his sex in civilization, +lingers around the house of his fair sweetheart while she transforms +the soft skin of the doe into moccasins, ornamenting them richly +with glittering beads or the coloured quills of the porcupine, all +the time lightening the long hours with the plain-songs of their tribe. +It was upon an occasion of this character that Baptiste, then in the +prime of his youthful manhood, first loved the dark-eyed Arapahoe. + +The course open to him was to woo and win her; but alas! savage papas +are just like fathers in the best civilization--the only difference +between them is that the former are more open and matter-of-fact, +since in savage etiquette a consideration is required in exchange +for the daughter, which belongs exclusively to the parent, and must +be of equal marketable value to the girl. + +The usual method is to select your best horse, take him to the lodge +of your inamorata's parents, tie him to a tree, and walk away. +If the animal is considered a fair exchange, matters are soon settled +satisfactorily; if not, other gifts must be added. + +At this juncture poor Baptiste was in a bad fix; he had disposed of +all his season's earnings for his winter's subsistence, much of which +consisted of an ample supply of whiskey and tobacco; so he had +nothing left wherewith to purchase the indispensable horse. Without +the animal no wife was to be had, and he was in a terrible predicament; +for the hunting season was long since over, and it wanted a whole +month of the time for a new starting out. + +Baptiste was a very determined man, however, and he shouldered his +rifle, intent on accomplishing by a laborious prosecution of the +chase the means of winning his loved one from her parents, +notwithstanding that the elements and the times were against him. +He worked industriously, and after many days was rewarded by a goodly +supply of beavers, otters, and mink which he had trapped, besides +many a deerskin whose wearer he had shot. Returning to his lodge, +where he cached his peltry, he again started out for the forest with +hope filling his heart. Three weeks passed in indifferent success, +when one morning, having entered a deep canyon, which evidently led +out to an open prairie where he thought game might be found, while +busy cutting his way through a thicket of briers with his knife, +he suddenly came upon a little valley, where he saw what caused him +to retrace his footsteps into the thicket. + +And here it is necessary to relate a custom peculiar to all Indian +tribes. No young man, though his father were the greatest chief in +the nation, can range himself among the warriors, be entitled to +enter the marriage state, or enjoy any other rights of savage +citizenship until he shall have performed some act of personal +bravery and daring, or be sprinkled with the blood of his enemies. +In the early springtime, therefore, all the young men who are of the +proper age band themselves together and take to the forest in search +--like the knight-errant of old--of adventure and danger. Having +decided upon a secluded and secret spot, they collect a number of +poles from twenty to thirty feet in length, and, lashing them together +at the small ends, form a huge conical lodge, which they cover with +grass and boughs. Inside they deposit various articles, with which +to "make medicine," or as a propitiatory offering to the Great Spirit; +generally a green buffalo head, kettles, scalps, blankets, and other +things of value, of which the most prominent and revered is the +sacred pipe. The party then enters the lodge and the first ceremony +is smoking this pipe. One of the young men fills it with tobacco and +herbs, places a coal on it from the fire that has been already +kindled in the lodge, and, taking the stem in his mouth, inhales the +smoke and expels it through his nostrils. The ground is touched with +the bowl, the four points of the compass are in turn saluted, and +with various ceremonies it makes the round of the lodge. After many +days of feasting and dancing the party is ready for a campaign, when +they abandon the lodge, and it is death for any one else to enter, +or by any means to desecrate it while its projectors are absent. + +It was upon one of these mystic lodges that Baptiste had accidentally +stumbled, and strange thoughts flashed through his mind; for within +the sacred place were articles, doubtless, of value more than +sufficient to purchase the necessary horse with which he could win +the fair Unami. Baptiste was sorely tempted, but there was an +instinctive respect for religion in the minds of the old trappers, +and Brown had too much honour to think of robbing the Indian temple, +although he distinctly remembered a time when a poor white trapper, +having been robbed of his poncho at the beginning of winter, made +free with a blanket he had found in one of these Arapahoe sacred +lodges. When he was brought before the medicine men of the tribe, +charged with the sacrilege, his defence, that, having been robbed, +the Great Spirit took pity on him and pointed out the blanket and +ordered him to clothe himself, was considered good, on the theory +that the Great Spirit had an undoubted right to give away his own +property; consequently the trapper was set free. + +Brown, after considering the case, was about to move away, when a hand +was laid on his shoulder, and turning round there stood before him +an Indian in full war-paint. + +The greeting was friendly, for the young savage was the brother of +Baptiste's love, to whom he had given many valuable presents during +the past season. + +"My white brother is very wakeful; he rises early." + +Baptiste laughed, and replied: "Yes, because my lodge is empty. +If I had Unami for a wife, I would not have to get out before the sun; +and I would always have a soft seat for her brother; he will be a +great warrior." + +The young brave shook his head gravely, as be pointed to his belt, +where not a scalp was to be seen, and said: "Five moons have gone +to sleep and the Arapahoe hatchet has not been raised. The Blackfeet +are dogs, and hide in their holes." + +Without adding anything to this hint that none of the young men had +been able to fulfil their vows, the disconsolate savage led the way +to the camp of the other Arapahoes, his companions in the quest for +scalps. Baptiste was very glad to see the face of a fellow-creature +once more, and he cheerfully followed the footsteps of the young brave, +which were directed away from the medicine lodge toward the rocky +canyon which he had already travelled that morning, where in the very +centre of the dark defile, and within twenty feet of where he had +recently passed, was the camp of the disappointed band. Baptiste was +cordially received, and invited to share the meal of which the party +were about to partake, after which the pipe was passed around. +In a little while the Indians began to talk among themselves by signs, +which made Baptiste feel somewhat uncomfortable, for it was apparent +that he was the object of their interest. + +They had argued that Brown's skin indicated that he belonged to the +great tribe of their natural enemies, and with the blood of a white +on their garments, they would have fulfilled the terms of their vow +to their friends and the Great Spirit. + +Noticing the trend of the debate, which would lead his friend into +trouble, the brother of Unami arose, and waving his hand said:-- + +"The Arapahoe is a warrior; his feet outstrip the fleetest horse; +his arrow is as the lightning of the Great Spirit; he is very brave. +But a cloud is between him and the sun; he cannot see his enemy; +there is yet no scalp in his lodge. The Great Spirit is good; +he sends a victim, a man whose skin is white, but his heart is very +red; the pale-face is a brother, and his long knife is turned from +his friends, the Arapahoes; but the Great Spirit is all-powerful. +My brother"--pointing to Baptiste--"is very full of blood; he can spare +a little to stain the blankets of the young men, and his heart shall +still be warm; I have spoken." + +As Baptiste expressed it: "Sacre enfant de garce; damn, de ting vas +agin my grain, but de young Arapahoe he have saved my life." + +Loud acclamation followed the speech of Unami's brother, and many of +those most clamorous against the white trapper, being actuated by +the earnest desire of returning home with their vow accomplished, +when they would be received into the list of warriors, and have wives +and other honours, were unanimous in agreeing to the proposed plan. + +A flint lancet was produced, Baptiste's arm was bared, and the blood +which flowed from the slight wound was carefully distributed, and +scattered over the robes of the delighted Arapahoes. + +The scene which followed was quite unexpected to Baptiste, who was +only glad to escape the death to which the majority had doomed him. +The Indians, perfectly satisfied that their vow of shedding an enemy's +blood had been fulfilled, were all gratitude; and to testify that +gratitude in a substantial manner each man sought his pack, and laid +at the feet of the surprised Baptiste a rich present. One gave an +otter skin, another that of a buffalo, and so on until his wealth in +furs outstripped his most sanguine expectations from his hunt. +The brother of Unami stood passively looking on until all the others +had successively honoured his guest, when he advanced toward Baptiste, +leading by its bridle a magnificent horse, fully caparisoned, and +a large pack-mule. To refuse would have been the most flagrant breach +of Indian etiquette, and beside, Brown was too alive to the advantage +that would accrue to him to be other than very thankful. + +The camp was then broken up, and the kind savages were soon lost to +Baptiste's sight as they passed down the canyon; and he, as soon as he +had gained a little strength, for he was weak from the blood he had +shed in the good cause, mounted his horse, after loading the mule +with his gifts, and made the best of his way to his lonely lodge, +where he remained several days. He then sold his furs at a good +price, as it was so early in the season, bartered for a large quantity +of knives, beads, powder, and balls, and returned to the Arapahoe +village, where the horse was considered a fair exchange for the +pretty Unami; and from that day, for over thirty years, they lived +as happy as any couple in the highest civilization. + +The fate of the Pueblo, where the trappers and hunters had such good +times in the halcyon days of the border, like that which befell +nearly all the trading-posts and ranches on the Old Santa Fe Trail, +was to be partially destroyed by the savages. During the early +months of the winter of 1854, the Utes swept down through the Arkansas +valley, leaving a track of blood behind them, and frightening the +settlers so thoroughly that many left the country never to return. +The outbreak was as sudden as it was devastating. The Pueblo was +captured by the savages, and every man, woman, and child in it +murdered, with the exception of one aged Mexican, and he was so badly +wounded that he died in a few days. + +His story was that the Utes came to the gates of the fort on Christmas +morning, professing the greatest friendship, and asking permission +to be allowed to come inside and hold a peace conference. All who +were in the fort at the time were Mexicans, and as their cupidity +led them to believe that they could do some advantageous trading +with the Indians, they foolishly permitted the whole band to enter. +The result was that a wholesale massacre followed. There were +seventeen persons in all quartered there, only one of whom escaped +death--the old man referred to--and a woman and her two children, +who were carried off as captives; but even she was killed before the +savages had gone a mile from the place. What became of the children +was never known; they probably met the same fate. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. +UNCLE JOHN SMITH. + + + +Many of the men of the border were blunt in manners, rude in speech, +driven to the absolute liberty of the far West with better natures +shattered and hopes blasted, to seek in the exciting life of the +plainsman and mountaineer oblivion of some incidents of their youthful +days, which were better forgotten. Yet these aliens from society, +these strangers to the refinements of civilization, who would tear off +a bloody scalp even with grim smiles of satisfaction, were fine +fellows, full of the milk of human kindness, and would share their +last slapjack with a hungry stranger. + +Uncle John Smith, as he was known to every trapper, trader, and +hunter from the Yellowstone to the Gila, was one of the most famous +and eccentric men of the early days. In 1826, as a boy, he ran away +from St. Louis with a party of Santa Fe traders, and so fascinated +was he with the desultory and exciting life, that he chose to sit +cross-legged, smoking the long Indian pipe, in the comfortable +buffalo-skin teepee, rather than cross legs on the broad table of +his master, a tailor to whom he had been apprenticed when he took +French leave from St. Louis. + +He spent his first winter with the Blackfeet Indians, but came very +near losing his scalp in their continual quarrels, and therefore +allied himself with the more peaceable Sioux. Once while on the +trail of a horse-stealing band of Arapahoes near the head waters +of the Arkansas, the susceptible young hunter fell in love with +a very pretty Cheyenne squaw, married her, and remained true to the +object of his early affection during all his long and eventful life, +extending over a period of forty years. For many decades he lived +with his dusky wife as the Indians did, having been adopted by the +tribe. He owned a large number of horses, which constituted the +wealth of the plains Indians, upon the sale of which he depended +almost entirely for his subsistence. He became very powerful in the +Cheyenne nation; was regarded as a chief, taking an active part in +the councils, and exercising much authority. His excellent judgment +as a trader with the various bands of Indians while he was employed +by the great fur companies made his services invaluable in the +strange business complications of the remote border. Besides +understanding the Cheyenne language as well as his native tongue, +he also spoke three other Indian dialects, French, and Spanish, but +with many Western expressions that sometimes grated harshly upon +the grammatical ear. + +He became a sort of autocrat on the plains and in the mountains; and +for an Indian or Mexican to attempt to effect a trade without Uncle +John Smith having something to say about it, and its conditions, was +hardly possible. The New Mexicans often came in small parties to his +Indian village, their burros packed with dry pumpkin, corn, etc., +to trade for buffalo-robes, bearskins, meat, and ponies; and Smith, +who knew his power, exacted tribute, which was always paid. At one +time, however, when for some reason a party of strange Mexicans +refused, Uncle John harangued the people of the village, and called +the young warriors together, who emptied every sack of goods belonging +to the cowering Mexicans on the ground, Smith ordering the women and +children to help themselves, an order which was obeyed with alacrity. +The frightened Mexicans left hurriedly for El Valle de Taos, whence +they had come, crossing themselves and uttering thanks to Heaven for +having retained their scalps. This and other similar cases so +intimidated the poor Greasers, and impressed them so deeply with +a sense of Smith's power, that, ever after, his permission to trade +was craved by a special deputation of the parties, accompanied by +peace-offerings of corn, pumpkin, and pinole. At one time, when +Smith was journeying by himself a day's ride from the Cheyenne village, +he was met by a party of forty or more corn traders, who, instead of +putting such a bane to their prospects speedily out of the way, +gravely asked him if they could proceed, and offered him every third +robe they had to accompany them, which he did. Indeed, he became so +regardless of justice, in his condescension to the natives of +New Mexico, that the governor of that province offered a reward of +five hundred dollars for him alive or dead, but fear of the Cheyennes +was so prevalent that his capture was never even attempted. + +During Sheridan's memorable winter campaign against the allied tribes +in 1868-69, the old man, for he was then about sixty, was my guide +and interpreter. He shared my tent and mess, a most welcome addition +to the few who sat at my table, and beguiled many a weary hour at +night, after our tedious marches through the apparently interminable +sand dunes and barren stretches of our monotonous route, with his +tales of that period, more than half a century ago, when our +mid-continent region was as little known as the topography of the +planet Mars. + +At the close of December, 1868, a few weeks after the battle of the +Washita, I was camping with my command on the bank of that historic +stream in the Indian Territory, waiting with an immense wagon-train +of supplies for the arrival of General Custer's command, the famous +Seventh Cavalry, and also the Nineteenth Kansas, which were supposed +to be lost, or wandering aimlessly somewhere in the region south of us. + +I had been ordered to that point by General Sheridan, with instructions +to keep fires constantly burning on three or four of the highest +peaks in the vicinity of our camp, until the lost troops should be +guided to the spot by our signals. These signals were veritable +pillars of fire by night and pillars of cloud by day; for there was +an abundance of wood and hundreds of men ready to feed the hungry flames. + +It was more than two weeks before General Custer and his famished +troopers began to straggle in. During that period of anxious waiting +we lived almost exclusively on wild turkey, and longed for nature's +meat--the buffalo; but there were none of the shaggy beasts at that +time in the vicinity, so we had to content ourselves with the birds, +of which we became heartily tired. + +For several days after our arrival on the creek, the men had been +urging Uncle John to tell them another story of his early adventures; +but the old trapper was in one of his silent moods--he frequently had +them--and could not be persuaded to emerge from his shell of reticence +despite their most earnest entreaties. I knew it would be of no use +for me to press him. I could, of course, order him to any duty, and +he would promptly obey; but his tongue, like the hand of Douglas, +was his own. I knew, also, that when he got ready, which would be +when some incident of camp-life inspired him, he would be as garrulous +as ever. + +One evening just before supper, a party of enlisted men who had been +up the creek to catch fish, but had failed to take anything owing to +the frozen condition of the stream, returned with the skeleton of +a Cheyenne Indian which they had picked up on the battle-ground of +a month previously--one of Custer's victims in his engagement with +Black Kettle. This was the incentive Uncle John required. As he +gazed on the bleached bones of the warrior, he said: "Boys, I'm going +to tell you a good long story to-night. Them Ingin's bones has put +me in mind of it. After we've eat, if you fellows wants to hear it, +come down to headquarters tent, and I'll give it to you." + +Of course word was rapidly passed from one to another, as the whole +camp was eager to hear the old trapper again. In a short time, +every man not on guard or detailed to keep up the signals on the +hills gathered around the dying embers of the cook's fire in front of +my tent; the enlisted men and teamsters in groups by themselves, +the officers a little closer in a circle, in the centre of which +Uncle John sat. + +The night was cold, the sky covered with great fleecy patches, +through which the full moon, just fairly risen, appeared to be racing, +under the effect of that optical illusion caused by the rapidly +moving clouds. The coyotes had commenced their nocturnal concert +in the timbered recesses of the creek not far away, and on the +battle-field a short distance beyond, as they battened and fought +over the dead warriors and the carcasses of twelve hundred ponies +killed in that terrible slaughter by the intrepid Custer and his +troopers. The signals on the hills leaped into the crisp air like +the tongues of dragons in the myths of the ancients; in fact, +the whole aspect of the place, as we sat around the blazing logs of +our camp-fire, was weird and uncanny. + +Every one was eager for the veteran guide to begin his tale; but as +I knew he could not proceed without smoking, I passed him my pouch +of Lone Jack--the brand par excellence in the army at that time. + +Uncle John loaded his corn-cob, picked up a live coal, and, pressing +it down on the tobacco with his thumb, commenced to puff vigorously. +As soon as his withered old face was half hidden in a cloud of smoke, +he opened his story in his stereotyped way. I relate it just as he +told it, but divested of much of its dialect, so difficult to write:-- + +"Well, boys, it's a good many years ago, in June, 1845, if I don't +disremember. I was about forty-three, and had been in the mountains +and on the plains more than nineteen seasons. You see, I went out +there in 1826. There warn't no roads, nuthin' but the Santa Fe Trail, +in them days, and Ingins and varmints. + +"There was four of us. Me, Bill Comstock, Dick Curtis, and Al Thorpe. +Dick was took in by the Utes two years afterwards at the foot of the +Spanish Peaks, and Al was killed by the Apaches at Pawnee Rock, in 1847. + +"We'd been trapping up on Medicine Bow for more than three years +together, and had a pile of beaver, otter, mink, and other varmint's +skins cached in the hills, which we know'd was worth a heap of money; +so we concluded to take them to the river that summer. We started +from our trapping camp in April, and 'long 'bout the middle of June +reached the Arkansas, near what is know'd as Point o' Rocks. You all +know where them is on the Trail west of Fort Dodge, and how them +rocks rises up out of the prairie sudden-like. We was a travelling +'long mighty easy, for we was all afoot, and had hoofed it the whole +distance, more than six hundred miles, driving five good mules ahead +of us. Our furs was packed on four of them, and the other carried +our blankets, extry ammunition, frying-pan, coffee-pot, and what +little grub we had, for we was obliged to depend upon buffalo, +antelope, and jack-rabbits; but, boys, I tell you there was millions +of 'em in them days. + +"We had just got into camp at Point o' Rocks. It was 'bout four +o'clock in the afternoon; none of us carried watches, we always +reckoned time by the sun, and could generally guess mighty close, too. +It was powerful hot, I remember. We'd hobbled our mules close to the +ledge, where the grass was good, so they couldn't be stampeded, as +we know'd we was in the Pawnee country, and they was the most ornery +Ingins on the plains. We know'd nothing that was white ever came by +that part of the Trail without having a scrimmage with the red devils. + +"Well, we hadn't more than took our dinner, when them mules give +a terrible snort, and tried to break and run, getting awful oneasy +all to once. Them critters can tell when Ingins is around. They's +better than a dozen dogs. I don't know how they can tell, but they +just naturally do. + +"In less than five minutes after them mules began to worry, stopped +eating, and had their ears pricked up a trying to look over the ledge +towards the river, we heard a sharp firing down on the Trail, which +didn't appear to be more than a hundred yards off. You ought to seen +us grab our rifles sudden, and run out from behind them rocks, where +we was a camping, so comfortable-like, and just going to light our +pipes for a good smoke. It didn't take us no time to get down on to +the Trail, where we seen a Mexican bull train, that we know'd must +have come from Santa Fe, and which had stopped and was trying to corral. +More than sixty painted Pawnees was a circling around the outfit, +howling as only them can howl, and pouring a shower of arrows into +the oxen. Some was shaking their buffalo-robes, trying to stampede +the critters, so they could kill the men easier. + +"We lit out mighty lively, soon as we seen what was going on, and +reached the head of the train just as the last wagon, that was +furtherest down the Trail, nigh a quarter of a mile off, was cut out +by part of the band. Then we seen a man, a woman, and a little boy +jump out, and run to get shet of the Ingins what had cut out the +wagon from the rest of the train. One of the red devils killed the +man and scalped him, while the other pulled the woman up in front +of him, and rid off into the sand hills, and out of sight in a minute. +Then the one what had killed her husband started for the boy, who was +a running for the train as fast as his little legs could go. But we +was nigh enough then; and just as the Ingin was reaching down from +his pony for the kid, Al Thorpe--he was a powerful fine shot--draw'd up +his gun and took the red cuss off his critter without the paint-bedaubed +devil know'n' what struck him. + +"The boy, seeing us, broke and run for where we was, and I reckon +the rest of the Ingins seen us then for the first time, too. We was +up with the train now, which was kind o' halfway corralled, and +Dick Curtis picked up the child--he warn't more than seven years old-- +and throw'd him gently into one of the wagons, where he'd be out of +the way; for we know'd there was going to be considerable more +fighting before night. We know'd, too, we Americans would have to do +the heft of it, as them Mexican bull-whackers warn't much account, +nohow, except to cavort around and swear in Spanish, which they +hadn't done nothing else since we'd come up to the train; besides, +their miserable guns warn't much better than so many bows and arrows. + +"We Americans talked together for a few moments as to what was best +to be did, while the Ingins all this time was keeping up a lively +fire for them. We made as strong a corral of the wagons as we could, +driving out what oxen the Mexicans had put in the one they had made, +but you can't do much with only nine wagons, nohow. Fortunately, +while we was fixing things, the red cusses suddenly retreated out of +the range of our rifles, and we first thought they had cleared out +for good. We soon discovered, however, they were only holding a +pow-wow; for in a few minutes back they come, mounted on their ponies, +with all their fixin's and fresh war-paint on. + +"Then they commenced to circle around us again, coming a little +nearer--Ingin fashion--every time they rid off and back. It wasn't +long before they got in easy range, when they slung themselves on +the off-side of their ponies and let fly their arrows and balls from +under their critters' necks. Their guns warn't much 'count, being +only old English muskets what had come from the Hudson Bay Fur Company, +so they didn't do no harm that round, except to scare the Mexicans, +which commenced to cross themselves and pray and swear. + +"We four Americans warn't idle when them Ingins come a charging up; +we kept our eye skinned, and whenever we could draw a bead, one of +them tumbled off his pony, you bet! When they'd come back for their +dead--we'd already killed three of them--we had a big advantage, wasted +no shots, and dropped four of them; one apiece, and you never heard +Ingins howl so. It was getting kind o' dark by this time, and the +varmints didn't seem anxious to fight any more, but went down to the +river and scooted off into the sand hills on the other side. +We waited more than half an hour for them, but as they didn't come +back, concluded we'd better light out too. We told the Mexicans to +yoke up, and as good luck would have it they found all the cattle +close by, excepting them what pulled the wagon what the Ingins had +cut out, and as it was way down the Trail, we had to abandon it; +for it was too dark to hunt it up, as we had no time to fool away. + +"We put all our outfit into the train; it wasn't loaded, but going +empty to the Missouri, to fetch back a sawmill for New Mexico. +Then we made a soft bed in the middle wagon out of blankets for the +kid, and rolled out 'bout ten o'clock, meaning to put as many miles +between us and them Ingins as the oxen could stand. We four hoofed it +along for a while, then rid a piece, catching a nap now and then as +best we could, for we was monstrous tired. By daylight we'd made +fourteen miles, and was obliged to stop to let the cattle graze. +We boiled our coffee, fried some meat, and by that time the little +boy waked. He'd slept like a top all night and hadn't no supper +either; so when I went to the wagon where he was to fetch him out, +he just put them baby arms of his'n around my neck, and says, +'Where's mamma?' + +"I tell you, boys, that nigh played me out. He had no idee, 'cause +he was too young to realize what had happened; we know'd his pa was +killed, but where his ma was, God only know'd!" + +Here the old man stopped short in his narrative, made two or three +efforts as if to swallow something that would not go down, while his +eyes had a far-away look. Presently he picked up a fresh coal from +the fire, placed it on his pipe, which had gone out, then puffing +vigorously for a few seconds, until his head was again enveloped in +smoke, he continued:-- + +"After I'd washed the little fellow's face and hands, I gave him a +tin cup of coffee and some meat. You'd ought to seen him eat; he was +hungrier than a coyote. Then while the others was a watering and +picketing the mules, I sot down on the grass and took the kid into +my lap to have a good look at him; for until now none of us had had +a chance. + +"He was the purtiest child I'd ever seen; great black eyes, and +eyelashes that laid right on to his cheeks; his hair, too, was black, +and as curly as a young big-horn. I asked him what his name was, and +he says, 'Paul.' 'Hain't you got no other name?' says I to him again, +and he answered, 'Yes, sir,' for he was awful polite; I noticed that. +'Paul Dale,' says he prompt-like, and them big eyes of his'n looked +up into mine, as he says 'What be yourn?' I told him he must call me +'Uncle John,' and then he says again, as he put his arms around my +neck, his little lips all a quivering, and looking so sorrowful, +'Uncle John, where's mamma; why don't she come?' + +"Boys, I don't really know what I did say. A kind o' mist came +before my eyes, and for a minute or two I didn't know nothing. +I come to in a little while, and seeing Thorpe bringing up the mules +from the river, where he'd been watering them, I says to Paul, to get +his mind on to something else besides his mother, 'Don't you want to +ride one of them mules when we pull out again?' The little fellow +jumped off my lap, clapped his hands, forgetting his trouble all at +once, child-like, and replied, 'I do, Uncle John, can I?' + +"After we'd camped there 'bout three hours, the cattle full of grass +and all laying down chewing their cud, we concluded to move on and +make a few miles before it grow'd too hot, and to get further from +the Ingins, which we expected would tackle us again, as soon as they +could get back from their camp, where we felt sure they had gone for +reinforcements. + +"While the Mexicans was yoking up, me and Thorpe rigged an easy +saddle on one of the mules, out of blankets, for the kid to ride on, +and when we was all ready to pull out, I histed him on, and you never +see a youngster so tickled. + +"We had to travel mighty slow; couldn't make more than eighteen miles +a day with oxen, and that was in two drives, one early in the morning, +and one in the evening when it was cool, a laying by and grazing when +it was hot. We Americans walked along the Trail, and mighty slow +walking it was; 'bout two and a half miles an hour. I kept close +to Paul, for I began to set a good deal of store by him; he seemed +to cotton to me more than he did to the rest, wanting to stick near +me most of the time as he rid on the mule. I wanted to find out +something 'bout his folks, where they'd come from; so that when we +got to Independence, perhaps I could turn him over to them as ought +to have him; though in my own mind I was ornery enough to wish I +might never find them, and he'd be obliged to stay with me. The boy +was too young to tell what I wanted to find out; all I could get out +of him was they'd been living in Santa Fe since he was a baby, and +that his papa was a preacher. I 'spect one of them missionaries +'mong the heathenish Greasers. He said they was going back to his +grandma's in the States, but he could not tell where. I couldn't +get nothing out of them Mexican bull-whackers neither--what they +know'd wasn't half as much as the kid--and I had to give it up. + +"Well, we kept moving along without having any more trouble for +a week; them Ingins never following us as we 'lowed they would. +I really enjoyed the trip such as I never had before. Paul he was +so 'fectionate and smart, that he 'peared to fill a spot in my heart +what had always been hollow until then. When he'd got tired of +riding the mule or in one of the wagons, he'd come and walk along +the Trail with me, a picking flowers, chasing the prairie-owls and +such, until his little legs 'bout played out, when I'd hist him on +his mule again. When we'd go into camp, Paul, he'd run and pick up +buffalo-chips for the fire, and wanted to help all he could. +Then when it came time to go to sleep, the boy would always get under +my blankets and cuddle up close to me. He'd be sure to say his +prayers first, though; but it seemed so strange to me who hadn't +heard a prayer for thirty years. I never tried to stop him, you may +be certain of that. He'd ask God to bless his pa and ma, and wind up +with 'Bless Uncle John too.' Then I couldn't help hugging him right +up tighter; for it carried me back to Old Missouri, to the log-cabin +in the woods where I was born, and used to say 'Now I lay me,' and +'Our Father' at my ma's knee, when I was a kid like him. I tell you, +boys, there ain't nothing that will take the conceit out of a man +here on the plains, like the company of a kid what has been +brought up right. + +"I reckon we'd been travelling about ten days since we left Point o' +Rocks, and was on the other side of the Big Bend of the Arkansas, +near the mouth of the Walnut, where Fort Zarah is now. We had went +into camp at sundown, close to a big spring that's there yet. +We drawed up the wagons into a corral on the edge of the river where +there wasn't no grass for quite a long stretch; we done this to kind +o' fortify ourselves, for we expected to have trouble with the Ingins +there, if anywhere, as we warn't but seventeen miles from Pawnee Rock, +the worst place on the whole Trail for them; so we picked out that +bare spot where they couldn't set fire to the prairie. It was long +after dark when we eat our supper; then we smoked our pipes, waiting +for the oxen to fill themselves, which had been driven about a mile +off where there was good grass. The Mexicans was herding them, and +when they'd eat all they could hold, and was commencing to lay down, +they was driven into the corral. Then all of us, except Comstock and +Curtis, turned in; they was to stand guard until 'bout one o'clock, +when me and Thorpe was to change places with them and stay up until +morning; for, you see, we was afraid to trust them Mexicans. + +"It seemed like we hadn't been asleep more than an hour when me and +Thorpe was called to take our turn on guard. We got out of our +blankets, I putting Paul into one of the wagons, then me and Thorpe +lighted our pipes and walked around, keeping our eyes and ears open, +watching the heavy fringe of timber on the creek mighty close, I tell +you. Just as daylight was coming, we noticed that our mules, what +was tied to a wagon in the corral, was getting uneasy, a pawing and +snorting, with their long ears cocked up and looking toward the Walnut. +Before I could finish saying to Thorpe, 'Them mules smells Ingins,' +half a dozen or more of the darned cusses dashed out of the timber, +yelling and shaking their robes, which, of course, waked up the whole +camp. Me and Thorpe sent a couple of shots after them, that scattered +the devils for a minute; but we hadn't hit nary one, because it was +too dark yet to draw a bead on them. We was certain there was a good +many more of them behind the first that had charged us; so we got all +the men on the side of the corral next to the Trail. The Ingins we +know'd couldn't get behind us, on account of the river, and we was +bound to make them fight where we wanted them to, if they meant to +fight at all. + +"In less than a minute, quicker than I can tell you, sure enough, +out they came again, only there was 'bout eighty of them this time. +They made a dash at once, and their arrows fell like a shower of hail +on the ground and against the wagon-sheets as the cusses swept by on +their ponies. There wasn't anybody hurt, and our turn soon came. +Just as they circled back, we poured it into them, killing six and +wounding two. You see them Mexican guns had did some work that we +didn't expect, and then we Americans felt better. Well, boys, +them varmints made four charges like that on to us before we could +get shet of them; but we killed as many as sixteen or eighteen, and +they got mighty sick of it and quit; they had only knocked over one +Mexican, and put an arrow into Thorpe's arm. + +"I was amused at little Paul all the time the scrimmage was going on. +He stood up in the wagon where I'd put him, a looking out of the hole +behind where the sheet was drawed together, and every time an Ingin +was tumbled off his pony, he would clap his hands and yell, 'There +goes another one, Uncle John!' + +"After their last charge, they rode off out of range, where they +stood in little bunches talking to each other, holding some sort of +a pow-wow. It riled us to see the darned cusses keep so far away +from our rifles, because we wanted to lay a few more of them out, but +was obliged to keep still and watch out for some new deviltry. +We waited there until it was plumb night, not daring to move out yet; +but we managed to boil our coffee and fry slap-jacks and meat. + +"The oxen kept up a bellowing and pawing around the corral, for they +was desperate hungry and thirsty, hadn't had nothing since the night +before; yet we couldn't help them any, as we didn't know whether we +was shet of the Ingins or not. We staid, patient-like, for two or +three hours more after dark to see what the Ingins was going to do, +as while we sot round our little fire of buffalo-chips, smoking our +pipes, we could still hear the red devils a howling and chanting, +while they picked up their dead laying along the river-bottom. + +"As soon as morning broke--we'd ketched a nap now and then during +the night--we got ready for another charge of the Ingins, their +favourite time being just 'bout daylight; but there warn't hide or +hair of an Ingin in sight. They'd sneaked off in the darkness long +before the first streak of dawn; had enough of fighting, I expect. +As soon as we discovered they'd all cleared out, we told the drivers +to hitch up, and while they was yoking and watering, me 'n' Curtis +and Comstock buried the dead Mexican on the bank of the river, as we +didn't want to leave his bones to be picked by the coyotes, which +was already setting on the sand hills watching and waiting for us +to break camp. By the time we'd finished our job, and piled some +rocks on his grave, so as the varmints couldn't dig him up, the train +was strung out on the Trail, and then we rolled out mighty lively +for oxen; for the critters was hungry, and we had to travel three +or four miles the other side of the Walnut, where the grass was green, +before they could feed. The oxen seen it on the hills and they +lit out almost at a trot. It was 'bout sun-up when we got there, +when we turned the animals loose, corralled, and had breakfast. + +"After we'd had our smoke, all we had to do was to put in the time +until five o'clock; for we couldn't move before then, as it would be +too hot by the time the oxen got filled. Paul and me went down to +the creek fishing; there was tremendous cat in the Walnut them days, +and by noon we'd ketched five big beauties, which we took to camp and +cooked for dinner. After I'd had my smoke, Paul and me went back to +the creek, where we stretched ourselves under a good-sized box-elder +tree--there wasn't no shade nowhere else--and took a sleep, while +Comstock and Curtis went jack-rabbit hunting across the river, as we +was getting scarce of meat. + +"Thorpe, who was hit in the arm with an arrow, couldn't do much but +nuss his wound; so him and the Mexicans stood guard, a looking out +for Ingins, as we didn't know but what the cusses might come back and +make another raid on us, though we really didn't expect they would +have the gall to bother us any more--least not the same outfit what +had fought us the day before. That evening, 'bout six o'clock, +we rolled out again and went into camp late, having made twelve miles, +and didn't see a sign of Ingins. + +"In ten days more we got to Independence without having no more +trouble of no kind, and was surprised at our luck. At Independence +we Americans left the train, sold our furs, got a big price, too-- +each of us had a shot-bag full of gold and silver, more money than +we know'd what to do with. Me, Curtis, and Thorpe concluded we'd buy +a new outfit, consisting of another six-mule wagon, and harness, +so we'd have a full team, meaning to go back to the mountains with +the first big caravan what left. + +"All the folks in the settlement what seen Paul took a great fancy +to him. Some wanted to adopt him, and some said I'd ought to take +him to St. Louis and place him in an orphan asylum; but I 'lowed if +there was going to be any adopting done, I'd do it myself, 'cause +the kid seemed now just as if he was my own; besides the little +fellow I know'd loved me and didn't want me to leave him. I had +kin-folks in Independence, an old aunt, and me and Paul staid there. +She had a young gal with her, and she learned Paul out of books; +so he picked up considerable, as we had to wait more than two months +before Colonel St. Vrain's caravan was ready to start for New Mexico. + +"I bought Paul a coal-black pony, and had a suit of fine buckskin +made for him out of the pelt of a black-tail deer I'd shot the winter +before on Powder River. The seams of his trousers was heavily +fringed, and with his white sombrero, a riding around town on his +pony, he looked like one of them Spanish Dons what the papers +nowadays has pictures of; only he was smarter-looking than any Don +I ever see in my life. + +"It was 'bout the last of August when we pulled out from Independence. +Comstock staid with us until we got ready to go, and then lit out +for St. Louis, and I hain't never seen him since. The caravan had +seventy-five six-mule teams in it, without counting ours, loaded with +dry-goods and groceries for Mora, New Mexico, where Colonel St. Vrain, +the owner, lived and had a big store. We had no trouble with the +Ingins going back across the plains; we seen lots, to be sure, +hanging on our trail, but they never attacked us; we was too strong +for them. + +"'Bout the last of September we reached Bent's Old Fort, on the +Arkansas, where the Santa Fe Trail crosses the river into New Mexico, +and we camped there the night we got to it. + +"I know'd they had cows up to the fort; so just before we was ready +for supper, I took Paul and started to see if we couldn't get some +milk for our coffee. It wasn't far, and we was camped a few hundred +yards from the gate, just outside the wall. Well, we went into the +kitchen, Paul right alongside of me, and there I seen a white woman +leaning over the adobe hearth a cooking--they had always only been +squaws before. She naturally looked up to find out who was coming in, +and when she seen the kid, all at once she give a scream, dropped the +dish-cloth she had in her hand, made a break for Paul, throw'd her +arms around him, nigh upsetting me, and says, while she was a sobbing +and taking on dreadful,-- + +"'My boy! My boy! Then I hain't prayed and begged the good Lord +all these days and nights for nothing!' Then she kind o' choked +again, while Paul, he says, as he hung on to her,-- + +"'O mamma! O mamma! I know'd you'd come back! I know'd you'd +come back!' + +"Well, there, boys, I just walked out of that kitchen a heap faster +than I'd come into it, and shut the door. When I got outside, for +a few minutes I couldn't see nothing, I was worked up so. As soon +as I come to, I went through the gate down to camp as quick as my +legs would carry me, to tell Thorpe and Curtis that Paul had found +his ma. They wanted to know all about it, but I couldn't tell them +nothing, I was so dumfounded at the way things had turned out. +We talked among ourselves a moment, then reckoned it was the best +to go up to the fort together, and ask the woman how on earth she'd +got shet of the Ingins what had took her off, and how it come she +was cooking there. We started out and when we got into the kitchen, +there was Paul and Mrs. Dale, and you never see no people so happy. +They was just as wild as a stampeded steer; she seemed to have growed +ten years younger than when I first went up there, and as for Paul, +he was in heaven for certain. + +"First we had to tell her how we'd got the kid, and how we'd learned +to love him. All the time we was telling of it, and our scrimmages +with the Ingins, she was a crying and hugging Paul as if her heart +was broke. After we'd told all we know'd, we asked her to tell us +her story, which she did, and it showed she was a woman of grit and +education. + +"She said the Ingins what had captured her took her up to their camp +on the Saw Log, a little creek north of Fort Dodge--you all know where +it is--and there she staid that night. Early in the morning they all +started for the north. She watched their ponies mighty close as +they rid along that day, so as to find out which was the fastest; +for she had made up her mind to make her escape the first chance +she got. She looked at the sun once in a while, to learn what course +they was taking; so that she could go back when she got ready, strike +the Sante Fe Trail, and get to some ranch, as she had seen several +while passing through the foot-hills of the Raton Range when she was +with the Mexican train. + +"It was on the night of the fourth day after they had left Saw Log, +and had rid a long distance--was more than a hundred miles on their +journey--when she determined to try and light out. The whole camp +was fast asleep, for the Ingins was monstrous tired. She crawled +out of the lodge where she'd been put with some old squaws, and +going to where the ponies had been picketed, she took a little +iron-gray she'd had her eye on, jumped on his back, with only the +lariat for a bridle and without any saddle, not even a blanket, +took her bearings from the north star, and cautiously moved out. +She started on a walk, until she'd got 'bout four miles from camp, +and then struck a lope, keeping it up all night. By next morning +she'd made some forty miles, and then for the first time since she'd +left her lodge, pulled up and looked back, to see if any of the Ingins +was following her. When she seen there wasn't a living thing in sight, +she got off her pony, watered him out of a small branch, took a drink +herself, but not daring to rest yet, mounted her animal again and +rid on as fast as she could without wearing him out too quickly. + +"Hour after hour she rid on, the pony appearing to have miraculous +endurance, until sundown. By that time she'd crossed the Saline, +the Smoky Hill, and got to the top of the divide between that river +and the Arkansas, or not more than forty miles from the Santa Fe Trail. +Then her wonderful animal seemed to weaken; she couldn't even make +him trot, and she was so nearly played out herself, she could hardly +set steady. What to do, she didn't know. The pony was barely able +to move at a slow walk. She was afraid he would drop dead under her, +and she was compelled to dismount, and in almost a minute, as soon +as she laid down on the prairie, was fast asleep. + +"She had no idee how long she had slept when she woke up. The sun was +only 'bout two hours high. Then she know'd she had been unconscious +since sundown of the day before, or nigh twenty-four hours. Rubbing +her eyes, for she was kind o' bewildered, and looking around, there +she saw her pony as fresh, seemingly, as when she'd started. +He'd had plenty to eat, for the grass was good, but she'd had nothing. +She pulled a little piece of dried buffalo-meat out of her bosom, +which she'd brought along, all she could find at the lodge, and now +nibbled at that, for she was mighty hungry. She was terribly sore +and stiff too, but she mounted at once and pushed on, loping and +walking him by spells. Just at daylight she could make out the +Arkansas right in front of her in the dim gray of the early morning, +not very far off. On the west, the Raton Mountains loomed up like +a great pile of blue clouds, the sight of which cheered her; for she +know'd she would soon reach the Trail. + +"It wasn't quite noon when she struck the Santa Fe Trail. When she +got there, looking to the east, she saw in the distance, not more +than three miles away, a large caravan coming, and then, almost wild +with delight, she dismounted, sot down on the grass, and waited for +it to arrive. In less than an hour, the train come up to where she +was, and as good luck would have it, it happened to be an American +outfit, going to Taos with merchandise. As soon as the master of +the caravan seen her setting on the prairie, he rid up ahead of the +wagons, and she told him her story. He was a kind-hearted man; +had the train stop right there on the bank of the river, though he +wasn't half through his day's drive, so as to make her comfortable +as possible, and give her something to eat; for she was 'bout +played out. He bought the Ingin pony, giving her thirty dollars +for it, and after she had rested for some time, the caravan moved out. +She rid in one of the wagons, on a bed of blankets, and the next +evening arrived at Bent's Old Fort. There she found women-folks, +who cared for her and nussed her; for she was dreadfully sore and +tired after her long ride. Then she was hired to cook, meaning to +work until she'd earned enough to take her back to Pennsylvany, +to her mother's, where she had started for when the Ingins attackted +the train. + +"That night, after listening to her mirac'lous escape, we made up +a 'pot' for her, collecting 'bout eight hundred dollars. The master +of Colonel St. Vrain's caravan, what had come out with us, told her +he was going back again to the river in a couple of weeks, and he'd +take her and Paul in without costing her a cent; besides, she'd be +safer than with any other outfit, as his train was a big one, and +he had all American teamsters. + +"Next morning the caravan went on to Mora, and after we'd bid good-by +to Mrs. Dale and Paul, before which I give the boy two hundred dollars +for himself, me, Thorpe, and Curtis pulled out with our team north +for Frenchman's Creek, and I never felt so miserable before nor since +as I did parting with the kid that morning. I hain't never seen him +since; but he must be nigh forty now. Mebby he went into the war and +was killed; mebby he got to be a general, but I hain't forgot him." + +Uncle John knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and without saying +another word went into the tent. In a few moments the camp was as +quiet as a country village on Sunday, excepting the occasional howling +of a hungry wolf down in the timbered recesses of the Washita, or the +crackling and sputtering of the signal fires on the hilltops. + +In a few days afterward, we were camping on Hackberry Creek, in the +Indian Territory. We had been living on wild turkey, as before for +some time, and still longed for a change. At last one of my hunters +succeeded in bagging a dozen or more quails. Late that evening, +when my cook brought the delicious little birds, beautifully spitted +and broiled on peeled willow twigs, into my tent, I passed one to +Uncle John. Much to the surprise of every one, he refused. He said, +"Boys, I don't eat no quail!" + +We looked at him in astonishment; for he was somewhat of a gourmand, +and prided himself upon the "faculty," as he termed it, of being able +to eat anything, from a piece of jerked buffalo-hide to the juiciest +young antelope steak. + +I remonstrated with the venerable guide; said to him, "You are making +a terrible mistake, Uncle John. Tomorrow I expect to leave here, and +as we are going directly away from the buffalo country, we don't know +when we shall strike fresh meat again. You'd better try one," and +I again proffered one of the birds. + +"Boys," said he again, "I don't tech quail; I hain't eat one for +more than twenty years. One of the little cusses saved my life once, +and I swore right thar and then that I would starve first; and I have +kept my oath, though I've seen the time mighty often sence I could +a killed 'em with my quirt, when all I had to chaw on for four days +was the soles of a greasy pair of old moccasins. + +"Well, boys, it's a good many years ago--in June, if I don't disremember, +1847. We was a coming in from way up in Cache le Poudre and from +Yellowstone Lake, whar we'd been a trapping for two seasons. We was +a working our way slowly back to Independence, Missouri, where we was +a going to get a new outfit. Let's see, there was me, and a man by +the name of Boyd, and Lew Thorp--Lew was a working for Colonel Boone +at the time--and two more men, whose names I disremember now, and a +nigger wench we had for a cook. We had mighty good luck, and had +a big pile of skins; and the Indians never troubled us till we got +down on Pawnee Bottom, this side of Pawnee Rock. We all of us had +mighty good ponies, but Thorp had a team and wagon, which he was +driving for Colonel Boone. + +"We had went into camp on Pawnee Bottom airly in the afternoon, and +I told the boys to look out for Ingins--for I knowed ef we was to have +any trouble with them it would be somewhere in that vicinity. But we +didn't see a darned redskin that night, nor the sign of one. + +"The wolves howled considerable, and come pretty close to the fire +for the bacon rinds we'd throwed away after supper. + +"You see the buffalo was scurse right thar then--it was the wrong +time o' year. They generally don't get down on to the Arkansas +till about September, and when they're scurse the wolves and coyotes +are mighty sassy, and will steal a piece of bacon rind right out of +the pan, if you don't watch 'em. So we picketed our ponies a little +closer before we turned in, and we all went to sleep except one, +who sort o' kept watch on the stock. + +"I was out o' my blankets mighty airly next morning, for I was kind +o' suspicious. I could always tell when Ingins was prowling around, +and I had a sort of present'ment something was going to happen +--I didn't like the way the coyotes kept yelling--so I rested kind o' +oneasy like, and was out among the ponies by the first streak o' +daylight. + +"About the time I could see things, I discovered three or four +buffalo grazing off on the creek bottom, about a half-mile away, +and I started for my rifle, thinking I would examine her. + +"Pretty soon I seed Thorp and Boyd crawl out o' their blankets, too, +and I called their attention to the buffalo, which was still feeding +undisturbed. + +"We'd been kind o' scurse of fresh meat for a couple of weeks--ever +since we left the Platte--except a jack-rabbit or cottontail, and I +knowed the boys would be wanting to get a quarter or two of a good +fat cow, if we could find one in the herd, so that was the reason +I pointed 'em out to 'em. + +"The dew, you see, was mighty heavy, and the grass in the bottom +was as wet as if it had been raining for a month, and I didn't care +to go down whar the buffalo was just then--I knowed we had plenty +of time, and as soon as the sun was up it would dry right off. So I +got on to one of the ponies and led the others down to the spring +near camp to water them while the wench was a getting breakfast, and +some o' the rest o' the outfit was a fixing the saddles and greasing +the wagon. + +"Just as I was coming back--it had growed quite light then--I seed Boyd +and Thorp start out from camp with their rifles and make for the +buffalo; so I picketed the ponies, gets my rifle, and starts off too. + +"By the time I'd reached the edge of the bottom, Thorp and Boyd was +a crawling up on to a young bull way off to the right, and I lit out +for a fat cow I seen bunched up with the rest of the herd on the left. + +"The grass was mighty tall on some parts of the Arkansas bottom in them +days, and I got within easy shooting range without the herd seeing me. + +"The buffalo was now between me and Thorp and Boyd, and they was +furtherest from camp. I could see them over the top of the grass +kind o' edging up to the bull, and I kept a crawling on my hands and +knees toward the cow, and when I got about a hundred and fifty yards +of her, I pulled up my rifle and drawed a bead. + +"Just as I was running my eyes along the bar'l, a darned little quail +flew right out from under my feet and lit exactly on my front sight +and of course cut off my aim--we didn't shoot reckless in those days; +every shot had to tell, or a man was the laughing-stock for a month +if he missed his game. + +"I shook the little critter off and brought up my rifle again when, +durn my skin, if the bird didn't light right on to the same place; +at the same time my eyes grow'd kind o' hazy-like and in a minute +I didn't know nothing. + +"When I come to, the quail was gone, I heerd a couple of rifle shots, +and right in front of where the bull had stood and close to Thorp and +Boyd, half a dozen Ingins jumped up out o' the tall grass and, firing +into the two men, killed Thorp instantly and wounded Boyd. + +"He and me got to camp--keeping off the Ingins, who knowed I was loaded-- +when we, with the rest of the outfit, drove the red devils away. + +"They was Apaches, and the fellow that shot Thorp was a half-breed +nigger and Apache. He scalped Thorp and carred off the whole upper +part of his skull with it. He got Thorp's rifle and bullet-pouch too, +and his knife. + +"We buried Thorp in the bottom there, and some of the party cut their +names on the stones that they covered his body up with, to keep the +coyotes from eating up his bones. + +"Boyd got on to the river with us all right, and I never heerd of him +after we separated at Booneville. We pulled out soon after the +Indians left, but we didn't get no buffalo-meat. + +"You see, boys, if I'd a fired into that cow, the devils would a +had me before I could a got a patch on my ball--didn't have no +breech-loaders in them days, and it took as much judgment to know +how to load a rifle properly as it did to shoot it. + +"Them Ingins knowed all that--they knowed I hadn't fired, so they +kept a respectable distance. I would a fired, but the quail saved +my life by interfering with my sight--and that's the reason I don't +eat no quail. I hain't superstitious, but I don't believe they was +meant to be eat." + +Uncle John stuck to his text, I believe, until he died, and you +could never disabuse his mind of the idea that the quail lighting +on his rifle was not a special interposition of Providence. + +Only four years after he told his story, in 1872, one of the newly +established settlers, living a few miles west of Larned on Pawnee +Bottom, having observed in one of his fields a singular depression, +resembling an old grave, determined to dig down and see if there was +any special cause for the strange indentation on his land. + +A couple of feet below the surface he discovered several flat pieces +of stone, on one of which the words "Washington" and "J. Hildreth" +were rudely cut, also a line separating them, and underneath: +"December tenth" and "J. M., 1850." On another was carved the name +"J. H. Shell," with other characters that could not be deciphered. +On a third stone were the initials "H. R., 1847"; underneath which +was plainly cut "J. R. Boyd," and still beneath "J. R. Pring." +At the very bottom of the excavation were found the lower portion +of the skull, one or two ribs, and one of the bones of the leg of +a human being. The piece of skull was found near the centre of the +grave, for such it certainly was. + +At the time of the discovery I was in Larned, and I immediately +consulted my book of notes and memoranda taken hurriedly at intervals +on the plains and in the mountains, during more than half my lifetime, +to see if I could find anything that would solve the mystery attached +to the quiet prairie-grave and its contents, and I then recalled +Uncle John Smith's story of the quail as related to me at my camp. +I also met Colonel A. G. Boone that winter in Washington; he remembered +the circumstances well. Thorp was working for him, as Smith had +said, and was killed by an Apache, who, in scalping him, tore the +half of his head away, and it was thus found mutilated, so +many years afterward. + +Uncle John was in one of his garrulous moods that night, and as we +were not by any means tired of hearing the veteran trapper talk, +without much urging he told us the following tale:-- + +"Well, boys, thirty years ago, beaver, mink, and otter was found in +abundacious quantities on all the streams in the Rocky Mountains. +The trade in them furs was a paying business, for the little army +of us fellows called trappers. They ain't any of 'em left now, +no mor'n the animals we used to hunt. We had to move about from +place to place, just as if we was so many Ingins. Sometimes we'd +construct little cabins in the timber, or a dugout where the game +was plenty, where we'd stay maybe for a month or two, and once in +a while--though not often--a whole year. + +"The Ingins was our mortal enemies; they'd get a scalp from our +fellows occasionally, but for every one they had of ours we had +a dozen of theirs. + +"In the summer of 1846, there was a little half dugout, half cabin, +opposite the mouth of Frenchman's Creek, put up by Bill Thorpe, +Al Boyd, and Rube Stevens. Bill and Al was men grown, and know'd +more 'bout the prairies and timber than the Ingins themselves. +They'd hired out to the Northwest Fur Company when they was mere kids, +and kept on trapping ever since. Rube--'Little Rube' as all the +old men called him--was 'bout nineteen, and plumb dumb; he could hear +well enough though, for he wasn't born that way. When he was seventeen +his father moved from his farm in Pennsylvany, to take up a claim +in Oregon, and the whole family was compelled to cross the plains +to get there; for there wasn't no other way. While they was camped +in the Bitter-Root valley one evening, just 'bout sundown, a party +of Blackfeet surprised the outfit, and massacred all of them but Rube. +They carried him off, kept him as a slave, and, to make sure of him, +cut out his tongue at the roots. But some of the women who wasn't +quite so devilish as their husbands, and who took pity on him, went +to work and cured him of his awful wound. He was used mighty mean +by the bucks of the tribe, and made up his mind to get away from them +or kill himself; for he could not live under their harsh treatment. +After he'd been with them for mor'n a year, the tribe had a terrible +battle with the Sioux, and in the scrimmage Rube stole a pony and +lit out. He rode on night and day until he came across the cabin +of the two trappers I have told you 'bout, and they, of course, +took the poor boy in and cared for him. + +"Rube was a splendid shot with the rifle, and he swore to himself +that he would never leave the prairies and do nothing for the rest +of his life but kill Ingins, who had made him a homeless orphan, +and so mutilated him. + +"After Rube had been with Boyd and Thorpe a year, they was all one +day in the winter examining their traps which was scattered 'long +the stream for miles. After re-baiting them, they concluded to hunt +for meat, which was getting scarce at the cabin; they let Rube go +down to the creek where it widened out lake-like, to fish through +a hole in the ice, and Al and Bill took their rifles and hunted in +the timber for deer. They all got separated of course, Rube being +furtherest away, while Al and Bill did not wander so far from each +other that they could not be heard if one wanted his companion. + +"Al shot a fat black-tail deer, and just as he was going to stoop +down to cut its throat, Bill yelled out to him:-- + +"'Drop everything Al, for God's sake, and let's make for the dugout; +they're coming, a whole band of Sioux!' + +"'If we can get to the cabin,' replied Al, 'we can keep off the whole +nation. I wonder where Rube is? I hope he'll get here and save +his scalp.' + +"At this instant, poor Rube dashed up to them, an Ingin close upon +his tracks; he had unfortunately forgotten to take his rifle with +him when he went to the creek, and now he was at the mercy of the +savage; at least both he and his pursuer so thought. But before +the Ingin had fairly uttered his yell of exultation, Al who with +Bill had held his rifle in readiness for an emergency, lifted the +red devil off his feet, and he fell dead without ever knowing what +had struck him. + +"Rube, thus delivered from a sudden death, ran at the top of his +speed with his two friends for the cabin, for, if they could reach it, +they did not fear a hundred paint-bedaubed savages. + +"Luckily they arrived in time. Where they lived was part dugout and +part cabin. It was about ten feet high, and right back of it was +a big ledge of rock, which made it impossible for any one to get +into it from that side. The place had no door; they did not dare +to put one there when it was built, for they were likely to be +surprised at any moment by a prowling band, so the only entrance was +a square hole in the roof, through which one at a time had to crawl +to enter. + +"The boys got inside all right just as the Ingins came a yelling up. +Bill looked out of a hole in the wall and counted thirty of the +devils, and said at once: 'Off with your coats; don't let them have +anything to catch hold of but our naked bodies if they get in, and +we can handle ourselves better.' + +"'Thirty to three,' said Al. 'Whew! this ain't going to be any +boy's play; we've got to fight for all there is in it, and the +chances are mightily agin us.' + +"Rube he took an axe, and stood right under the hole in the roof, +so that if any of the devils got in he could brain them. In a minute +five rifles cracked; for the Ingins was pretty well armed for them +times, and their bullets rattled agin the logs like hail agin a tent. +Some of 'em was on top the roof by this time, and soon the leader of +the party, a big painted devil, thrust his ugly face into the hole; +but he had hardly got a good look before Bill dropped him by a +well-directed shot and he tumbled in on the floor. + +"'You darned fool,' said Bill, as he saw the effect of his shot; +'did you think we was asleep?' + +"There was one opening that served for air, and a savage, seeing +the boys had forgotten to barricade it, tried to push himself +through, an' not succeeding, tried to back out, but at that instant +Bill caught him by the wrist--Bill was a powerful man--and picking up +a beaver-trap that laid on the floor, actually beat his brains +out with it. + +"While this circus was going on inside, three more of the Ingins got +on the roof and wrenched off a couple of the logs that covered it; +but in a minute they came tumbling down and lay dead on the floor. + +"'That leaves only twenty-five, don't it?' inquired Al, as he mopped +his face with his shirt-sleeve. + +"'Howl, you red devils,' said Bill, as the Ingins commenced their +awful yelling when they saw their comrades fall into the room. +'Don't you know, you blame fools, you've fell in with experienced +hands at the shooting business?' + +"Spat! Something hit Al, and he was the first wounded, but it was +only a scratch, and he kept right on attending to business. + +"'By gosh! look at Rube, will you?' said Al. The dumb boy had in +his grasp the very chief of the band, who had just then discovered +the hole in the roof made by the three Ingins who had passed in +their checks for their impudence, and was trying his best to push +himself down. Rube had made a strike at him with an axe, but the +edge was turned aside, and the savage was getting the better of +the boy; he had grappled Rube by the hair and one arm, and they was +flying 'round like a wild cat and a hound. Bill tried three times +to sink his knife into the old chief, but there was such a cavortin' +in the wrastle between him and the boy, he was afraid to try any more, +for fear it might hit Rube instead. Suddenly the Ingin fell to the +floor as dead as a trapped beaver what's been drowned; Rube had +struck his buckhorn-handled hunting-knife right into the heart of +the brute. + +"'Set him agin the hole in the side of the building,' said Bill; +'he ain't fit for nothing else than to stop a gap'; so Rube set him +agin the hole, and pinned him there with half a dozen knives what +was lying round loose. + +"Just as they had fastened the dead body of the old chief to the +side of the cabin, a perfect shower of bullets came rattling round +like a hailstorm. 'All right, let's have your waste lead,' said Bill. + +"'A few more of these dead Ingins and we can make a regular fort of +this old cabin; we want two for that chunk,' said Al, as he pointed +with his rifle to a large gap on the west side of the wall; but +before he had fairly got the words out of his mouth, two of the +attacking party jumped down into the room. Al, being a regular giant, +as soon as they landed, surprised them by seizing one with each hand +by the throat, and he actually held them at arm's-length till he had +squeezed the very life out of them, and they both fell corpses. + +"While Al was performing his two-Ingin act, a great light burst into +the cabin, and by the time he had choked his enemies to death, he saw, +while the Ingins outside gave a terrible yell of exultation, that +they had fired the place. + +"'Damn 'em,' shouted Bill, as he pitched the corpse of the chief +from the gap where Rube had set him. 'Fellows, we've got to get +out of here right quick; follow me, boys!' + +"Holding their rifles in hand, and clutching a hunting-knife also, +they stepped out into the brush surrounding the place, and started +on a run for the heavy timber on the bank of the creek. + +"They had reckoned onluckily; a wild war-whoop greeted the flying men +as they reached the edge of the forest, and without being able to use +their arms, they were taken prisoners. Bill and Al, fastened with +their backs against each other, and Little Rube by himself, were +bound to separate trees, but not so far apart that they could not +speak to each other, and some of the Ingins began to gather sticks +and pile them around the trees. + +"'What are they going to do with us?' anxiously inquired Bill of Al. + +"'Roast us, you bet,' replied the other. 'They'll find me tough +enough, anyhow.' + +"'It must be a painful death,' soliloquized Bill. + +"'Well, it isn't the most pleasant one, you can gamble on that,' +said Al, turning his looks toward Bill; 'but see what the devils +are doing to poor Rube.' + +"Bill cast his eyes in the direction of the dumb boy, who was fastened +to a small pine, about a hundred feet distant. Standing directly +in front of it was a gigantic Ingin, flourishing his scalping-knife +within an inch of Rube's head, trying to make the boy flinch. +But the young fellow merely scowled at him in a rage, his muscles +never quivering for an instant. + +"While the men were trying to console each other, two of the savages, +who had gone away for a short time, returned, bearing the carcass +of the deer that Al had killed in the morning, and commenced to cut +it up. They had made several small fires, and roasting the meat +before them, began to gorge themselves, Indian fashion, with the +savoury morsels. The men were awfully hungry, too, but not a mouthful +did they get of their own game. + +"The Ingins were more'n an hour feasting, while their prisoners kept +a looking for some help to get 'em out of the scrape they was in. + +"'Bout a mile down the creek, me and six other trappers had a camp, +and that morning, being scarce of meat, we all went a hunting. +We had killed two or three elk and was 'bout going back to camp with +our game, when we heard firing, and supposed it was a party of hunters, +like ourselves, so we did not pay any attention to it at first; but +when it kept up so long, and there was such a constant volley, I told +our boys it might be a scrimmage with a party of red devils, and we +concluded to go and see. + +"We left our elk where they were, and started in the direction of +the shooting, taking mighty good care not to be surprised ourselves. +We crept carefully on, and a little before sundown seen a camp-fire +burning in the timber quite a smart piece ahead of us. We stopped +then, and Ike Pettet and myself crept on cautiously on our hands and +knees through the brush to learn what the fire meant. In a little +while we seen it was an Ingin camp, and we counted twenty-two +warriors seated 'round their fires a eating as unconcernedly as if +we warn't nowhere near 'em. We didn't feel like tackling so many, +so just as we was 'bout to crawl away and leave 'em in ondisturbed +possession of their camp, we heard some parties talking in English. +Then we pricked up our ears and listened mighty interested I tell you. +Looking 'round, we seen the men tied to the trees and the wood piled +against 'em, and then we knowed what was up. We had to be mighty +wary, for if we snapped a twig even, it was all day with us and +the prisoners too; so we dragged ourselves back, and after getting +out of sound of the Ingins, we just got up and lit out mighty lively +for the place we'd left our companions. We met them coming slowly +on 'bout two miles from the Ingin camp, and telling 'em what was up +we started to help the trappers what the devils was agoing to burn. +We wasn't half so long in getting at the camp as Ike and me was +in going, and we soon come within good range for our rifles. + +"The Ingins was still unsuspicious, and we spread ourselves in a +sort of half circle so as to kind o' surround them, and at a signal +I give, seven rifles cracked at once, and as many of the Injins was +dropped right in their tracks; a second volley, for the red devils +had not got their senses yet, tumbled seven more corpses upon the +pile, and then we white men jumped in with our knives and clubbed +rifles, and there was a lively scrimmage for a few minutes. The few +Ingins what wasn't killed fought like devils, but as we was getting +the best of 'em every second they turned tail and ran. + +"We'd heard the firing of the fight at the cabin just in time; and +as we cut the rawhide strings that bound the fellows to the trees, +Ike, who was a right fine shot and had killed three at one time, +said: 'I always like to get two or three of the red devils in a line +before I pull the trigger; it saves lead.' + +"Then we all went back to our camp and made a night of it, feasting +on the elk we had killed, and talking over the wonderful escape of +the boys and Little Rube." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. +KIT CARSON. + + + +Of the famous men whose lives are so interwoven with the history +of the Old Santa Fe Trail that the story of the great highway is +largely made up of their individual exploits and acts of bravery, +it has been my fortune to have known nearly all intimately, during +more than a third of a century passed on the great plains and in +the Rocky Mountains. + +First of all, Christopher, or Kit, Carson, as he is familiarly known +to the world, stands at the head and front of celebrated frontiersmen, +trappers, scouts, guides, and Indian fighters. + +I knew him well through a series of years, to the date of his death +in 1868, but I shall confine myself to the events of his remarkable +career along the line of the Trail and its immediate environs. +In 1826 a party of Santa Fe traders passing near his father's home +in Howard County, Missouri, young Kit, who was then but seventeen +years old, joined the caravan as hunter. He was already an expert +with the rifle, and thus commenced his life of adventure on the +great plains and in the Rocky Mountains. + +His first exhibition of that nerve and coolness in the presence of +danger which marked his whole life was in this initial trip across +the plains. When the caravan had arrived at the Arkansas River, +somewhere in the vicinity of the great bend of that stream, one of +the teamsters, while carelessly pulling his rifle toward him by the +barrel, discharged the weapon and received the ball in his arm, +completely crushing the bones. The blood from the wound flowed so +copiously that he nearly lost his life before it could be arrested. +He was fixed up, however, and the caravan proceeded on its journey, +the man thinking no more seriously of his injured arm. In a few days, +however, the wound began to indicate that gangrene had set in, and +it was determined that only by an amputation was it possible for him +to live beyond a few days. Every one of the older men of the caravan +positively declined to attempt the operation, as there were no +instruments of any kind. At this juncture Kit, realizing the extreme +necessity of prompt action, stepped forward and offered to do the job. +He told the unfortunate sufferer that he had had no experience in +such matters, but that as no one else would do it, he would take +the chances. All the tools that Kit could find were a razor, a saw, +and the king-bolt of a wagon. He cut the flesh with the razor, +sawed through the bone as if it had been a piece of joist, and seared +the horrible wound with the king-bolt, which he had heated to a +white glow, for the purpose of stopping the flow of blood that +naturally followed such rude surgery. The operation was a complete +success; the man lived many years afterward, and was with his surgeon +in many an expedition. + +In the early days of the commerce of the prairies, Carson was the +hunter at Bent's Fort for a period of eight years. There were about +forty men employed at the place; and when the game was found in +abundance in the mountains, it was a relatively easy task and just +suited to his love of sport, but when it grew scarce, as it often +did, his prowess was tasked to its utmost to keep the forty mouths +from crying for food. He became such an unerring shot with the +rifle during that time that he was called the "Nestor of the Rocky +Mountains." His favourite game was the buffalo, although he killed +countless numbers of other animals. + +All of the plains tribes of Indians, as did the powerful Utes of +the mountains, knew him well; for he had often visited in their +camps, sat in their lodges, smoked the pipe, and played with their +little boys. The latter fact may not appear of much consequence, +but there are no people on earth who have a greater love for their +boy children than the savages of America. The Indians all feared +him, too, at the same time that they respected his excellent judgment, +and frequently were governed by his wise counsel. The following +story will show his power in this direction. The Sioux, one of the +most numerous and warlike tribes at that time, had encroached upon +the hunting-grounds of the southern Indians, and the latter had many +a skirmish with them on the banks of the Arkansas along the line of +the Trail. Carson, who was in the upper valley of the river, was +sent for to come down and help them drive the obnoxious Sioux back +to their own stamping-ground. He left Fort Bent, and went with the +party of Comanche messengers to the main camp of that tribe and the +Arapahoes, with whom they had united. Upon his arrival, he was told +that the Sioux had a thousand warriors and many rifles, and the +Comanches and Arapahoes were afraid of them on account of the great +disparity of numbers, but that if he would go with them on the +war-path, they felt assured they could overcome their enemies. +Carson, however, instead of encouraging the Comanches and Arapahoes +to fight, induced them to negotiate with the Sioux. He was sent +as mediator, and so successfully accomplished his mission that the +intruding tribe consented to leave the hunting-grounds of the +Comanches as soon as the buffalo season was over; which they did, +and there was no more trouble. + +After many adventures in California with Fremont, Carson, with his +inseparable friend, L. B. Maxwell, embarked in the wool-raising +industry. Shortly after they had established themselves on their +ranch, the Apaches made one of their frequent murdering and plundering +raids through Northern New Mexico, killing defenceless women and +children, running off stock of all kinds, and laying waste every +little ranch they came across in their wild foray. Not very far +from the city of Santa Fe, they ruthlessly butchered a Mr. White +and his son, though three of their number were slain by the brave +gentlemen before they were overpowered. Other of the blood-thirsty +savages carried away the women and children of the desolated home +and took them to their mountain retreat in the vicinity of Las Vegas. +Mr. White was a highly respected merchant, and news of this outrage +spreading rapidly through the settlements, it was determined that +the savages should not go without punishment this time, at least. +Carson's reputation as an Indian fighter was at its height, so the +natives of the country sent for him, and declined to move until +he came. For some unexplained reason, after he arrived at Las Vegas, +he was not placed in charge of the posse, that position having +already been given to a Frenchman. Carson, as was usual with him, +never murmured because he was assigned to a subordinate position, +but took his place, ready to do his part in whatever capacity. + +The party set out for the stronghold of the savages, and rode night +and day on the trail of the murderers, hoping to surprise them and +recapture the women and children; but so much time had been wasted +in delays, that Carson feared they would only find the mutilated +bodies of the poor captives. In a few days after leaving Las Vegas, +the retreat of the savages was discovered in the fastness of the +mountains, where they had fortified themselves in such a manner that +they could resist ten times the number of their pursuers. Carson, +as soon as he saw them, without a second's hesitation, and giving +a characteristic yell, dashed in, expecting, of course, that the men +would follow him; but they only stood in gaping wonderment at his +bravery, not daring to venture after him. He did not discover his +dilemma until he had advanced so far alone that escape seemed +impossible. But here his coolness, which always served him in the +moment of supreme danger, saved his scalp. As the savages turned +on him, he threw himself on the off side of his horse, Indian fashion, +for he was as expert in a trick of that kind as the savages themselves, +and rode back to the little command. He had six arrows in his horse +and a bullet through his coat! + +The Indians in those days were poorly armed, and did not long +follow up the pursuit after Carson; for, observing the squad of +mounted Mexicans, they retreated to the top of a rocky prominence, +from which point they could watch every movement of the whites. +Carson was raging at the apathy, not to say cowardice, of the men +who had sent for him to join them, but he kept his counsel to himself; +for he was anxious to save the captured women and children. He talked +to the men very earnestly, however, exhorting them not to flinch +in the duty they had come so far to perform, and for which he had +come at their call. This had the desired effect; for he induced +them to make a charge, which was gallantly performed, and in such +a brave manner that the Indians fled, scarcely making an effort to +defend themselves. Five of their number were killed at the furious +onset of the Mexicans, but unfortunately, as he anticipated, only +the murdered corpses of the women and children were the result of +the victory. + +President Polk appointed Carson to a second lieutenancy,[48] and his +first official duty was conducting fifty soldiers under his command +through the country of the Comanches, who were then at war with the +whites. A fight occurred at a place known as Point of Rocks,[49] +where on arriving, Carson found a company of volunteers for the +Mexican War, and camped near them. About dawn the next morning, +all the animals of the volunteers were captured by a band of Indians, +while the herders were conducting them to the river-bottom to graze. +The herders had no weapons, and luckily, in the confusion attending +the bold theft, ran into Carson's camp; and as he, with his men, +were ready with their rifles, they recaptured the oxen, but the +horses were successfully driven off by their captors. + +Several of the savages were mortally wounded by Carson's prompt +charge, as signs after they had cleared out proved; but the Indian +custom of tying the wounded on their ponies precluded the chance of +taking any scalps. The wily Comanche, like the Arab of the desert, +is generally successful in his sudden assaults, but Carson, who was +never surprised, was always equal to his tactics. + +One of the two soldiers whose turn it had been to stand guard that +morning was discovered to have been asleep when the alarm of Indians +was given, and Carson at once administered the Indian method of +punishment, making the man wear the dress of a squaw for that day. +Then going on, he arrived at Santa Fe, where he turned over his +little command. + +While there, he heard that a gang of those desperadoes so frequently +the nuisance of a new country had formed a conspiracy to murder and +rob two wealthy citizens whom they had volunteered to accompany over +the Trail to the States. The caravan was already many miles on its +way when Carson was informed of the plot. In less than an hour he +had hired sixteen picked men and was on his march to intercept them. +He took a short cut across the mountains, taking especial care to +keep out of the way of the Indians, who were on the war-path, but +as to whose movements he was always posted. In two days he came +upon a camp of United States recruits, en route to the military +posts in New Mexico, whose commander offered to accompany him with +twenty men. Carson accepted the generous proposal, by forced marches +soon overtook the caravan of traders, and at once placed one Fox, +the leader of the gang, in irons, after which he informed the owners +of the caravan of the escape they had made from the wretches whom +they were treating so kindly. At first the gentlemen were astounded +at the disclosures made to them, but soon admitted that they had +noticed many things which convinced them that the plot really existed, +and but for the opportune arrival of the brave frontiersman it would +shortly have been carried out. + +The members of the caravan who were perfectly trustworthy were then +ordered to corral the rest of the conspirators, thirty-five in number, +and they were driven out of camp, with the exception of Fox, the +leader, whom Carson conveyed to Taos. He was imprisoned for several +months, but as a crime in intent only could be proved against him, +and as the adobe walls of the house where he was confined were not +secure enough to retain a man who desired to release himself, he was +finally liberated, and cleared out. + +The traders were profuse in their thanks to Carson for his timely +interference, but he refused every offer of remuneration. On their +return to Santa Fe from St. Louis, however, they presented him with +a magnificent pair of pistols, upon whose silver mounting was an +inscription commemorating his brave deed and the gratitude of the +donors. + +The following summer was spent in a visit to St. Louis, and early +in the fall he returned over the Trail, arriving at the Cheyenne +village on the Upper Arkansas without meeting with any incident +worthy of note. On reaching that point, he learned that the Indians +had received a terrible affront from an officer commanding a detachment +of United States troops, who had whipped one of their chiefs; and +that consequently the whole tribe was enraged, and burning for revenge +upon the whites. Carson was the first white man to approach the +place since the insult, and so many years had elapsed since he was +the hunter at Bent's Fort, and so grievously had the Indians been +offended, that his name no longer guaranteed safety to the party +with whom he was travelling, nor even insured respect to himself, +in the state of excitement existing in the village. Carson, however, +deliberately pushed himself into the presence of a war council which +was just then in session to consider the question of attacking the +caravan, giving orders to his men to keep close together, and guard +against a surprise. + +The savages, supposing that he could not understand their language, +talked without restraint, and unfolded their plans to capture his +party and kill them all, particularly the leader. After they had +reached this decision, Carson coolly rose and addressed the council +in the Cheyenne language, informing the Indians who he was, of his +former associations with and kindness to their tribe, and that now +he was ready to render them any assistance they might require; but +as to their taking his scalp, he claimed the right to say a word. + +The Indians departed, and Carson went on his way; but there were +hundreds of savages in sight on the sand hills, and, though they +made no attack, he was well aware that he was in their power, nor +had they abandoned the idea of capturing his train. His coolness +and deliberation kept his men in spirit, and yet out of the whole +fifteen, which was the total number of his force, there were only two +or three on whom he could place any reliance in case of an emergency. + +When the train camped for the night, the wagons were corralled, and +the men and mules all brought inside the circle. Grass was cut with +sheath-knives and fed to the animals, instead of their being picketed +out as usual, and as large a guard as possible detailed. When the +camp had settled down to perfect quiet, Carson crawled outside it, +taking with him a Mexican boy, and after explaining to him the danger +which threatened them all, told him that it was in his power to save +the lives of the company. Then he sent him on alone to Rayedo, +a journey of nearly three hundred miles, to ask for an escort of +United States troops to be sent out to meet the train, impressing +upon the brave little Mexican the importance of putting a good many +miles between himself and the camp before morning. And so he started +him, with a few rations of food, without letting the rest of his +party know that such measures were necessary. The boy had been in +Carson's service for some time, and was known to him as a faithful +and active messenger, and in a wild country like New Mexico, with +the outdoor life and habits of its people, such a journey was not +an unusual occurrence. + +Carson now returned to the camp, to watch all night himself, and +at daybreak all were on the Trail again. No Indians made their +appearance until nearly noon, when five warriors came galloping up +toward the train. As soon as they came close enough to hear his +voice, Carson ordered them to halt, and going up to them, told how +he had sent a messenger to Rayedo the night before to inform the +troops that their tribe were annoying him, and that if he or his men +were molested, terrible punishment would be inflicted by those who +would surely come to his relief. The savages replied that they +would look for the moccasin tracks, which they undoubtedly found, +and the whole village passed away toward the hills after a little +while, evidently seeking a place of safety from an expected attack +by the troops. + +The young Mexican overtook the detachment of soldiers whose officer +had caused all the trouble with the Indians, to whom he told his +story; but failing to secure any sympathy, he continued his journey +to Rayedo, and procured from the garrison of that place immediate +assistance. Major Grier, commanding the post, at once despatched +a troop of his regiment, which, by forced marches, met Carson +twenty-five miles below Bent's Fort, and though it encountered no +Indians, the rapid movement had a good effect upon the savages, +impressing them with the power and promptness of the government. + +Early in the spring of 1865, Carson was ordered, with three companies, +to put a stop to the depredations of marauding bands of Cheyennes, +Kiowas, and Comanches upon the caravans and emigrant outfits travelling +the Santa Fe Trail. He left Fort Union with his command and marched +over the Dry or Cimarron route to the Arkansas River, for the purpose +of establishing a fortified camp at Cedar Bluffs, or Cold Spring, +to afford a refuge for the freight trains on that dangerous part of +the Trail. The Indians had for some time been harassing not only +the caravans of the citizen traders, but also those of the government, +which carried supplies to the several military posts in the Territory +of New Mexico. An expedition was therefore planned by Carson to +punish them, and he soon found an opportunity to strike a blow near +the adobe fort on the Canadian River. His force consisted of the +First Regiment of New Mexican Volunteer Cavalry and seventy-five +friendly Indians, his entire command numbering fourteen commissioned +officers and three hundred and ninety-six enlisted men. With these +he attacked the Kiowa village, consisting of about one hundred and +fifty lodges. The fight was a very severe one, and lasted from +half-past eight in the morning until after sundown. The savages, +with more than ordinary intrepidity and boldness, made repeated +stands against the fierce onslaughts of Carson's cavalrymen, but +were at last forced to give way, and were cut down as they stubbornly +retreated, suffering a loss of sixty killed and wounded. In this +battle only two privates and one noncommissioned officer were killed, +and one non-commissioned officer and thirteen privates, four of whom +were friendly Indians, wounded. The command destroyed one hundred +and fifty lodges, a large amount of dried meats, berries, buffalo-robes, +cooking utensils, and also a buggy and spring-wagon, the property +of Sierrito,[50] the Kiowa chief. + +In his official account of the fight, Carson states that he found +ammunition in the village, which had been furnished, no doubt, by +unscrupulous Mexican traders. + +He told me that he never was deceived by Indian tactics but once +in his life. He said that he was hunting with six others after +buffalo, in the summer of 1835; that they had been successful, and +came into their little bivouac one night very tired, intending to +start for the rendezvous at Bent's Fort the next morning. They had +a number of dogs, among them some excellent animals. These barked +a good deal, and seemed restless, and the men heard wolves. + +"I saw," said Kit, "two big wolves sneaking about, one of them quite +close to us. Gordon, one of my men, wanted to fire his rifle at it, +but I did not let him, for fear he would hit a dog. I admit that +I had a sort of an idea that those wolves might be Indians; but when +I noticed one of them turn short around, and heard the clashing of +his teeth as he rushed at one of the dogs, I felt easy then, and was +certain that they were wolves sure enough. But the red devil fooled +me, after all, for he had two dried buffalo bones in his hands under +the wolfskin, and he rattled them together every time he turned to +make a dash at the dogs! Well, by and by we all dozed off, and it +wasn't long before I was suddenly aroused by a noise and a big blaze. +I rushed out the first thing for our mules, and held them. If the +savages had been at all smart, they could have killed us in a trice, +but they ran as soon as they fired at us. They killed one of my men, +putting five bullets in his body and eight in his buffalo-robe. +The Indians were a band of Sioux on the war-trail after a band of +Snakes, and found us by sheer accident. They endeavoured to ambush +us the next morning, but we got wind of their little game and killed +three of them, including the chief." + +Carson's nature was made up of some very noble attributes. He was +brave, but not reckless like Custer; a veritable exponent of Christian +altruism, and as true to his friends as the needle to the pole. +Under the average stature, and rather delicate-looking in his physical +proportions, he was nevertheless a quick, wiry man, with nerves of +steel, and possessing an indomitable will. He was full of caution, +but showed a coolness in the moment of supreme danger that was good +to witness. + +During a short visit at Fort Lyon, Colorado, where a favourite son +of his was living, early in the morning of May 23, 1868, while +mounting his horse in front of his quarters (he was still fond of +riding), an artery in his neck was suddenly ruptured, from the effects +of which, notwithstanding the medical assistance rendered by the +fort surgeons, he died in a few moments. + +His remains, after reposing for some time at Fort Lyon, were taken +to Taos, so long his home in New Mexico, where an appropriate monument +was erected over them. In the Plaza at Santa Fe, his name also +appears cut on a cenotaph raised to commemorate the services of the +soldiers of the Territory. As an Indian fighter he was matchless. +The identical rifle used by him for more than thirty-five years, +and which never failed him, he bequeathed, just before his death, +to Montezuma Lodge, A. F. & A. M., Santa Fe, of which he was a member. + +James Bridger, "Major Bridger," or "Old Jim Bridger," as we was called, +another of the famous coterie of pioneer frontiersmen, was born in +Washington, District of Columbia, in 1807. When very young, a mere +boy in fact, he joined the great trapping expedition under the +leadership of James Ashley, and with it travelled to the far West, +remote from the extreme limit of border civilization, where he became +the compeer and comrade of Carson, and certainly the foremost +mountaineer, strictly speaking, the United States has produced. + +Having left behind him all possibilities of education at such an +early age, he was illiterate in his speech and as ignorant of the +conventionalities of polite society as an Indian; but he possessed +a heart overflowing with the milk of human kindness, was generous +in the extreme, and honest and true as daylight. + +He was especially distinguished for the discovery of a defile through +the intricate mazes of the Rocky Mountains, which bears his name, +Bridger's Pass. He rendered important services as guide and scout +during the early preliminary surveys for a transcontinental railroad, +and for a series of years was in the employ of the government, +in the old regular army on the great plains and in the mountains, +long before the breaking out of the Civil War. To Bridger also +belongs the honour of having seen, first of all white men, the Great +Salt Lake of Utah, in the winter of 1824-25. + +After a series of adventures, hairbreadth escapes, and terrible +encounters with the Indians, in 1856 he purchased a farm near Westport, +Missouri; but soon left it in his hunger for the mountains, to return +to it only when worn-out and blind, to be buried there without even +the rudest tablet to mark the spot. + +"I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country +churchyard, than in the tomb of the Capulets." This quotation came +to my mind one Sunday morning two or three years ago, as I mused +over Bridger's neglected grave among the low hills beyond the quaint +old town of Westport. I thought I knew, as I stood there, that he +whose bones were mouldering beneath the blossoming clover at my feet, +would have wished for his last couch a more perfect solitude and +isolation from the wearisome world's busy sound than even the +immortal Burke. + +The grassy mound, over which there was no stone to record the name +of its occupant, covered the remains of the last of his class, a type +vanished forever, for the border is a thing of the past; and upon +the gentle breeze of that delightful morning, like the droning of +bees in a full flowered orchard, was wafted to my ears the hum of +Kansas City's civilization, only three or four miles distant, in all +of which I was sure there was nothing that would have been congenial +to the old frontiersman. + +At one time early in the '60's, while the engineers of the proposed +Union Pacific Railway were temporarily in Denver, then an insignificant +mushroom-hamlet, they became somewhat confused as to the most +practicable point in the range over which to run their line. After +debating the question, they determined, upon a suggestion from some +of the old settlers, to send for Jim Bridger, who was then visiting +in St. Louis. A pass, via the overland stage, was enclosed in a +letter to him, and he was urged to start for Denver at once, though +nothing of the business for which his presence was required was told +him in the text. + +In about two weeks the old man arrived, and the next morning, after +he had rested, asked why he had been sent for from such a distance. + +The engineers then began to explain their dilemma. The old mountaineer +waited patiently until they had finished, when, with a look of disgust +on his withered countenance, he demanded a large piece of paper, +remarking at the same time,-- + +"I could a told you fellers all that in St. Louis, and saved you +the expense of bringing me out here." + +He was handed a sheet of manilla paper, used for drawing the details +of bridge plans. The veteran pathfinder spread it on the ground +before him, took a dead coal from the ashes of the fire, drew a rough +outline map, and pointing to a certain peak just visible on the +serrated horizon, said,-- + +"There's where you fellers can cross with your road, and nowhere else, +without more diggin' an' cuttin' than you think of." + +That crude map is preserved, I have been told, in the archives of +the great corporation, and its line crosses the main spurs of the +Rocky Mountains, just where Bridger said it could with the least work. + +The resemblance of old John Smith, another of the coterie, to +President Andrew Johnson was absolutely astonishing. When that +chief magistrate, in his "swinging around the circle," had arrived +at St. Louis, and was riding through the streets of that city in an +open barouche, he was pointed out to Bridger, who happened to be +there. But the venerable guide and scout, with supreme disgust +depicted on his countenance at the idea of any one attempting to +deceive him, said to his informant,-- + +"H---l! Bill, you can't fool me! That's old John Smith." + +At one time many years ago, during Bridger's first visit to St. Louis, +then a relatively small place, a friend accidentally came across him +sitting on a dry-goods box in one of the narrow streets, evidently +disgusted with his situation. To the inquiry as to what he was doing +there all alone, the old man replied,-- + +"I've been settin' in this infernal canyon ever sence mornin', waitin' +for some one to come along an' invite me to take a drink. Hundreds +of fellers has passed both ways, but none of 'em has opened his head. +I never seen sich a onsociable crowd!" + +Bridger had a fund of most remarkable stories, which he had drawn +upon so often that he really believed them to be true. + +General Gatlin,[51] who was graduated from West Point in the early +'30's, and commanded Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation over sixty +years ago, told me that he remembered Bridger very well; and had +once asked the old guide whether he had ever been in the great canyon +of the Colorado River. + +"Yes, sir," replied the mountaineer, "I have, many a time. There's +where the oranges and lemons bear all the time, and the only place +I was ever at where the moon's always full!" + +He told me and also many others, at various times, that in the winter +of 1830 it began to snow in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and +continued for seventy days without cessation. The whole country was +covered to a depth of seventy feet, and all the vast herds of buffalo +were caught in the storm and died, but their carcasses were perfectly +preserved. + +"When spring came, all I had to do," declared he, "was to tumble 'em +into Salt Lake, an' I had pickled buffalo enough for myself and the +whole Ute Nation for years!" + +He said that on account of that terrible storm, which annihilated +them, there have been no buffalo in that region since. + +Bridger had been the guide, interpreter, and companion of that +distinguished Irish sportsman, Sir George Gore, whose strange tastes +led him in 1855 to abandon life in Europe and bury himself for over +two years among the savages in the wildest and most unfrequented +glens of the Rocky Mountains. + +The outfit and adventures of this titled Nimrod, conducted as they +were on the largest scale, exceeded anything of the kind ever before +seen on this continent, and the results of his wanderings will +compare favourably with those of Gordon Cumming in Africa. + +Some idea may be formed of the magnitude of his outfit when it is +stated that his retinue consisted of about fifty individuals, +including secretaries, steward, cooks, fly-makers, dog-tenders, +servants, etc. He was borne over the country with a train of thirty +wagons, besides numerous saddle-horses and dogs. + +During his lengthened hunt he killed the enormous aggregate of forty +grizzly bears and twenty-five hundred buffalo, besides numerous +antelope and other small game. + +Bridger said of Sir George that he was a bold, dashing, and successful +hunter, and an agreeable gentleman. His habit was to lie in bed until +about ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, then he took a bath, +ate his breakfast, and set out, generally alone, for the day's hunt, +and it was not unusual for him to remain out until ten at night, +seldom returning to the tents without augmenting the catalogue of +his beasts. His dinner was then served, to which he generally +extended an invitation to Bridger, and after the meal was over, and +a few glasses of wine had been drunk, he was in the habit of reading +from some book, and eliciting from Bridger his comments thereon. +His favourite author was Shakespeare, which Bridger "reckin'd was +too highfalutin" for him; moreover he remarked, "thet he rather +calcerlated that thar big Dutchman, Mr. Full-stuff, was a leetle +too fond of lager beer," and thought it would have been better for +the old man if he had "stuck to Bourbon whiskey straight." + +Bridger seemed very much interested in the adventures of Baron +Munchausen, but admitted after Sir George had finished reading them, +that "he be dog'oned ef he swallered everything that thar Baron +Munchausen said," and thought he was "a darned liar," yet he +acknowledged that some of his own adventures among the Blackfeet +woul be equally marvellous "if writ down in a book." + +A man whose one act had made him awe-inspiring was Belzy Dodd. +Uncle Dick Wooton, in relating the story, says: "I don't know what +his first name was, but Belzy was what we called him. His head was +as bald as a billiard ball, and he wore a wig. One day while we +were all at Bent's Fort, while there were a great number of Indians +about, Belzy concluded to have a bit of fun. He walked around, eying +the Indians fiercely for some time, and finally, dashing in among +them, he gave a series of war-whoops which discounted a Comanche yell, +and pulling off his wig, threw it down at the feet of the astonished +and terror-stricken red men. + +"The savages thought the fellow had jerked off his own scalp, and not +one of them wanted to stay and see what would happen next. They left +the fort, running like so many scared jack-rabbits, and after that +none of them could be induced to approach anywhere near Dodd." + +They called him "The-white-man-who-scalps-himself," and Uncle Dick +said that he believed he could have travelled across the plains alone +with perfect safety. + +Jim Baker was another noted mountaineer and hunter of the same era as +Carson, Bridger, Wooton, Hobbs, and many others. Next to Kit Carson, +Baker was General Fremont's most valued scout. + +He was born in Illinois, and lived at home until he was eighteen +years of age, when he enlisted in the service of the American Fur +Company, went immediately to the Rocky Mountains, and remained there +until his death. He married a wife according to the Indian custom, +from the Snake tribe, living with her relatives many years and +cultivating many of their habits, ideas, and superstitions. He firmly +believed in the efficacy of the charms and incantations of the +medicine men in curing diseases, divining where their enemy was to +be found, forecasting the result of war expeditions, and other such +ridiculous matters. Unfortunately, too, Baker would sometimes take +a little more whiskey than he could conveniently carry, and often +made a fool of himself, but he was a generous, noble-hearted fellow, +who would risk his life for a friend at any time, or divide his last +morsel of food. + +Like mountaineers generally, Baker was liberal to a fault, and +eminently improvident. He made a fortune by his work, but at the +annual rendezvous of the traders, at Bent's Fort or the old Pueblo, +would throw away the earnings of months in a few days' jollification. + +He told General Marcy, who was a warm friend of his, that after one +season in which he had been unusually successful in accumulating a +large amount of valuable furs, from the sale of which he had realized +the handsome sum of nine thousand dollars, he resolved to abandon his +mountain life, return to the settlements, buy a farm, and live +comfortably during the remainder of his days. He accordingly made +ready to leave, and was on the eve of starting when a friend invited +him to visit a monte-bank which had been organized at the rendezvous. +He was easily led away, determined to take a little social amusement +with his old comrade, whom he might never see again, and followed him; +the result of which was that the whiskey circulated freely, and the +next morning found Baker without a cent of money; he had lost +everything. His entire plans were thus frustrated, and he returned +to the mountains, hunting with the Indians until he died. + +Jim Baker's opinions of the wild Indians of the great plains and +the mountains were very decided: "That they are the most onsartinist +varmints in all creation, an' I reckon thar not more'n half human; +for you never seed a human, arter you'd fed an' treated him to the +best fixin's in your lodge, jis turn round and steal all your horses, +or ary other thing he could lay his hands on. No, not adzactly. +He would feel kind o' grateful, and ask you to spread a blanket in +his lodge ef you ever came his way. But the Injin don't care shucks +for you, and is ready to do you a lot of mischief as soon as he quits +your feed. No, Cap.," he said to Marcy when relating this, "it's not +the right way to make 'em gifts to buy a peace; but ef I war gov'nor +of these United States, I'll tell what I'd do. I'd invite 'em all +to a big feast, and make 'em think I wanted to have a talk; and as +soon as I got 'em together, I'd light in and raise the har of half +of 'em, and then t'other half would be mighty glad to make terms +that would stick. That's the way I'd make a treaty with the dog'oned +red-bellied varmints; and as sure as you're born, Cap., that's the +only way." + +The general, when he first met Baker, inquired of him if he had +travelled much over the settlements of the United States before he +came to the mountains; to which he said: "Right smart, right smart, +Cap." He then asked whether he had visited New York or New Orleans. +"No, I hasn't, Cap., but I'll tell you whar I have been. I've been +mighty nigh all over four counties in the State of Illinois!" + +He was very fond of his squaw and children, and usually treated +them kindly; only when he was in liquor did he at all maltreat them. + +Once he came over into New Mexico, where General Marcy was stationed +at the time, and determined that for the time being he would cast +aside his leggings, moccasins, and other mountain dress, and wear +a civilized wardrobe. Accordingly, he fitted himself out with one. +When Marcy met him shortly after he had donned the strange clothes, +he had undergone such an entire change that the general remarked +he should hardly have known him. He did not take kindly to this, +and said: "Consarn these store butes, Cap.; they choke my feet like +h---l." It was the first time in twenty years that he had worn +anything on his feet but moccasins, and they were not ready for the +torture inflicted by breaking in a new pair of absurdly fitting +boots. He soon threw them away, and resumed the softer foot-gear +of the mountains. + +Baker was a famous bear hunter, and had been at the death of many +a grizzly. On one occasion he was setting his traps with a comrade +on the head waters of the Arkansas, when they suddenly met two young +grizzly bears about the size of full-grown dogs. Baker remarked +to his friend that if they could "light in and kill the varmints" +with their knives, it would be a big thing to boast of. They both +accordingly laid aside their rifles and "lit in," Baker attacking +one and his comrade the other. The bears immediately raised +themselves on their haunches, and were ready for the encounter. +Baker ran around, endeavouring to get in a blow from behind with his +long knife; but the young brute he had tackled was too quick for +him, and turned as he went around so as always to confront him +face to face. He knew if he came within reach of his claws, that +although young, he could inflict a formidable wound; moreover, he was +in fear that the howls of the cubs would bring the infuriated mother +to their rescue, when the hunters' chances of getting away would +be slim. These thoughts floated hurriedly through his mind, and +made him desirous to end the fight as soon as he could. He made +many vicious lunges at the bear, but the animal invariably warded +them off with his strong fore legs like a boxer. This kind of +tactics, however, cost the lively beast several severe cuts on his +shoulders, which made him the more furious. At length he took the +offensive, and with his month frothing with rage, bounded toward +Baker, who caught and wrestled with him, succeeding in giving him +a death-wound under the ribs. + +While all this was going on, his comrade had been furiously engaged +with the other bear, and by this time had become greatly exhausted, +with the odds decidedly against him. He entreated Baker to come to +his assistance at once, which he did; but much to his astonishment, +as soon as he entered the second contest his comrade ran off, leaving +him to fight the battle alone. He was, however, again victorious, +and soon had the satisfaction of seeing his two antagonists stretched +out in front of him, but as he expressed it, "I made my mind up I'd +never fight nary nother grizzly without a good shootin'-iron in my paws." + +He established a little store at the crossing of Green River, and +had for some time been doing a fair business in trafficking with +the emigrants and trading with the Indians; but shortly a Frenchman +came to the same locality and set up a rival establishment, which, +of course, divided the limited trade, and naturally reduced the +income of Baker's business. + +This engendered a bitter feeling of hostility, which soon culminated +in a cessation of all social intercourse between the two men. About +this time General Marcy arrived there on his way to California, and +he describes the situation of affairs thus:-- + +"I found Baker standing in his door, with a revolver loaded and +cocked in each hand, very drunk and immensely excited. I dismounted +and asked him the cause of all this disturbance. He answered: 'That +thar yaller-bellied, toad-eatin' Parly Voo, over thar, an' me, we've +been havin' a small chance of a scrimmage to-day. The sneakin' +pole-cat, I'll raise his har yet, ef he don't quit these diggins'!' + +"It seems that they had an altercation in the morning, which ended +in a challenge, when they ran to their cabins, seized their revolvers, +and from the doors, which were only about a hundred yards from each +other, fired. Then they retired to their cabins, took a drink of +whiskey, reloaded their revolvers, and again renewed the combat. +This strange duel had been going on for several hours when I arrived, +but, fortunately for them, the whiskey had such an effect on their +nerves that their aim was very unsteady, and none of the shots had +as yet taken effect. + +"I took away Baker's revolvers, telling him how ashamed I was to +find a man of his usually good sense making such a fool of himself. +He gave in quietly, saying that he knew I was his friend, but did not +think I would wish to have him take insults from a cowardly Frenchman. + +"The following morning at daylight Jim called at my tent to bid me +good-by, and seemed very sorry for what had occurred the day before. +He stated that this was the first time since his return from +New Mexico that he had allowed himself to drink whiskey, and when +the whiskey was in him he had 'nary sense.'" + +Among the many men who have distinguished themselves as mountaineers, +traders, and Indian fighters along the line of the Old Trail, was +one who eventually became the head chief of one of the most numerous +and valorous tribes of North American savages--James P. Beckwourth. +Estimates of him vary considerably. Francis Parkman, the historian, +who I think never saw him and writes merely from hearsay, says: +"He is a ruffian of the worst class; bloody and treacherous, without +honor or honesty; such, at least, is the character he bears on the +great plains. Yet in his case the standard rules of character fail; +for though he will stab a man in his slumber, he will also do the +most desperate and daring acts." + +I never saw Beckwourth, but I have heard of him from those of my +mountaineer friends who knew him intimately; I think that he died +long before Parkman made his tour to the Rocky Mountains. Colonel +Boone, the Bents, Carson, Maxwell, and others ascribed to him no +such traits as those given by Parkman, and as to his honesty, it is +an unquestioned fact that Beckwourth was the most honest trader +among the Indians of all who were then engaged in the business. +As Kit Carson and Colonel Boone were the only Indian agents whom +I ever knew or heard of that dealt honestly with the various tribes, +as they were always ready to acknowledge, and the withdrawal of the +former by the government was the cause of a great war, so also +Beckwourth was an honest Indian trader. + +He was a born leader of men, and was known from the Yellowstone to +the Rio Grande, from Santa Fe to Independence, and in St. Louis. +From the latter town he ran away when a boy with a party of trappers, +and himself became one of the most successful of that hardy class. +The woman who bore him had played in her childhood beneath the palm +trees of Africa; his father was a native of France, and went to the +banks of the wild Mississippi of his own free will, but probably +also from reasons of political interest to his government. + +In person Beckwourth was of medium height and great muscular power, +quick of apprehension, and with courage of the highest order. +Probably no man ever met with more personal adventures involving +danger to life, even among the mountaineers and trappers who early +in the century faced the perils of the remote frontier. From his +neck he always wore suspended a perforated bullet, with a large +oblong bead on each side of it, tied in place by a single thread +of sinew. This amulet he obtained while chief of the Crows,[52] +and it was his "medicine," with which he excited the superstition +of his warriors. + +His success as a trader among the various tribes of Indians has +never been surpassed; for his close intimacy with them made him +know what would best please their taste, and they bought of him +when other traders stood idly at their stockades, waiting almost +hopelessly for customers. + +But Beckwourth himself said: "The traffic in whiskey for Indian +property was one of the most infernal practices ever entered into by +man. Let the most casual thinker sit down and figure up the profits +on a forty-gallon cask of alcohol, and he will be thunderstruck, or +rather whiskey-struck. When it was to be disposed of, four gallons +of water were added to each gallon of alcohol. In two hundred gallons +there are sixteen hundred pints, for each one of which the trader +got a buffalo-robe worth five dollars. The Indian women toiled many +long weeks to dress those sixteen hundred robes. The white traders +got them for worse than nothing; for the poor Indian mother hid +herself and her children until the effect of the poison passed away +from the husband and father, who loved them when he had no whiskey, +and abused and killed them when he had. Six thousand dollars for +sixty gallons of alcohol! Is it a wonder with such profits that +men got rich who were engaged in the fur trade? Or was it a miracle +that the buffalo were gradually exterminated?--killed with so little +remorse that the hides, among the Indians themselves, were known +by the appellation of 'A pint of whiskey.'" + +Beckwourth claims to have established the Pueblo where the beautiful +city of Pueblo, Colorado, is now situated. He says: "On the 1st +of October, 1842, on the Upper Arkansas, I erected a trading-post +and opened a successful business. In a very short time I was joined +by from fifteen to twenty free trappers, with their families. +We all united our labour and constructed an adobe fort sixty yards +square. By the following spring it had grown into quite a little +settlement, and we gave it the name of Pueblo." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. +UNCLE DICK WOOTON. + + + +Immediately after Kit Carson, the second wreath of pioneer laurels, +for bravery and prowess as an Indian fighter, and trapper, must be +conceded to Richens Lacy Wooton, known first as "Dick," in his +younger days on the plains, then, when age had overtaken him, +as "Uncle Dick." + +Born in Virginia, his father, when he was but seven years of age, +removed with his family to Kentucky, where he cultivated a tobacco +plantation. Like his predecessor and lifelong friend Carson, +young Wooton tired of the monotony of farming, and in the summer +of 1836 made a trip to the busy frontier town of Independence, +Missouri, where he found a caravan belonging to Colonel St. Vrain +and the Bents, already loaded, and ready to pull out for the fort +built by the latter, and named for them. + +Wooton had a fair business education, and was superior in this +respect to his companions in the caravan to which he had attached +himself. It was by those rough, but kind-hearted, men that he was +called "Dick," as they could not readily master the more complicated +name of "Richens." + +When he started from Independence on his initial trip across the +plains, he was only nineteen, but, like all Kentuckians, perfectly +familiar with a rifle, and could shoot out a squirrel's eye with +the certainty which long practice and hardened nerves assures. + +The caravan, in which he was employed as a teamster, was composed +of only seven wagons; but a larger one, in which were more than fifty, +had preceded it, and as that was heavily laden, and the smaller one +only lightly, it was intended to overtake the former before the +dangerous portions of the Trail were reached, which it did in a few +days and was assigned a place in the long line. + +Every man had to take his turn in standing guard, and the first night +that it fell to young Wooton was at Little Cow Creek, in the Upper +Arkansas valley. Nothing had occurred thus far during the trip +to imperil the safety of the caravan, nor was any attack by the +savages looked for. + +Wooton's post comprehended the whole length of one side of the corral, +and his instructions were to shoot anything he saw moving outside +of the line of mules farthest from the wagons. The young sentry +was very vigilant. He did not feel at all sleepy, but eagerly +watched for something that might possibly come within the prescribed +distance, though not really expecting such a contingency. + +About two o'clock he heard a slight noise, and saw something moving +about, sixty or seventy yards from where he was lying on the ground, +to which he had dropped the moment the strange sound reached his ears. +Of course, his first thoughts were of Indians, and the more he peered +through the darkness at the slowly moving object, the more convinced +he was that it must be a blood-thirsty savage. + +He rose to his feet and blazed away, the shot rousing everbody, and +all came rushing with their guns to learn what the matter was. + +Wooton told the wagon-master that he had seen what he supposed was +an Indian trying to slip up to the mules, and that he had killed him. +Some of the men crept very circumspectly to the spot where the +supposed dead savage was lying, while young Wooton remained at his +post eagerly waiting for their report. Presently he heard a voice +cry out: "I'll be d---d ef he hain't killed 'Old Jack!'" + +"Old Jack" was one of the lead mules of one of the wagons. He had +torn up his picket-pin and strayed outside of the lines, with the +result that the faithful brute met his death at the hands of the +sentry. Wooton declared that he was not to be blamed; for the animal +had disobeyed orders, while he had strictly observed them![53] + +At Pawnee Fork, a few days later, the caravan had a genuine tussle +with the Comanches. It was a bright moonlight night, and about two +hundred of the mounted savages attacked them. It was a rare thing +for Indians to begin a raid after dark, but they swept down on the +unsuspecting teamsters, yelling like a host of demons. They were +armed with bows and arrows generally, though a few of them had +fusees.[54] They received a warm greeting, although they were not +expected, the guard noticing the savages in time to prevent a stampede +of the animals, which evidently was the sole purpose for which they +came, as they did not attempt to break through the corral to get at +the wagons. It was the mules they were after. They charged among +the men, vainly endeavouring to frighten the animals and make them +break loose, discharging showers of arrows as they rode by. The camp +was too hot for them, however, defended as it was by old teamsters +who had made the dangerous passage of the plains many times before, +and were up to all the Indian tactics. They failed to get a single +mule, but paid for their temerity by leaving three of their party +dead, just where they had been tumbled off their horses, not even +having time to carry the bodies off, as they usually do. + +Wooton passed some time during the early days of his career at +Bent's Fort, in 1836-37. He was a great favourite with both of +the proprietors, and with them went to the several Indian villages, +where he learned the art of trading with the savages. + +The winters of the years mentioned were noted for the incursions +of the Pawnees into the region of the fort. They always pretended +friendship for the whites, when any of them were inside of its sacred +precincts, but their whole manner changed when they by some stroke +of fortune caught a trapper or hunter alone on the prairie or in +the foot-hills; he was a dead man sure, and his scalp was soon +dangling at the belt of his cowardly assassins. Hardly a day passed +without witnessing some poor fellow running for the fort with a band +of the red devils after him; frequently he escaped the keen edge of +their scalping-knife, but every once in a while a man was killed. +At one time, two herders who were with their animals within fifty +yards of the fort, going out to the grazing ground, were killed and +every hoof of stock run off. + +A party from the fort, comprising only eight men, among whom was +young Wooton, made up for lost time with the Indians, at the crossing +of Pawnee Fork, the same place where he had had his first fight. +The men had set out from the fort for the purpose of meeting a small +caravan of wagons from the East, loaded with supplies for the Bents' +trading post. It happened that a band of sixteen Pawnees were +watching for the arrival of the train, too.[55] Wooton's party were +well mounted, while the Pawnees were on foot, and although the savages +were two to one, the advantage was decidedly in favour of the whites. + +The Indians were armed with bows and arrows only, and while it was +an easy matter for the whites to keep out of the way of the shower +of missiles which the Indians commenced to hurl at them, the latter +became an easy prey to the unerring rifles of their assailants, +who killed thirteen out of the sixteen in a very short time. +The remaining three took French leave of their comrades at the +beginning of the conflict, and abandoning their arms rushed up to +the caravan, which was just appearing over a small divide, and gave +themselves up. The Indian custom was observed in their case,[56] +although it was rarely that any prisoners were taken in these +conflicts on the Trail. Another curious custom was also followed.[57] +When the party encamped they were well fed, and the next morning +supplied with rations enough to last them until they could reach one +of their villages, and sent off to tell their head chief what had +become of the rest of his warriors. + +Wooton had an adventure once while he was stationed at Bent's Fort +during a trading expedition with the Utes, on the Purgatoire, or +Purgatory River,[58] about ten or twelve miles from Trinidad. +He had taken with him, with others, a Shawnee Indian. Only a short +time before their departure from the fort, an Indian of that tribe +had been murdered by a Ute, and one day this Shawnee who was with +Wooton spied a Ute, when revenge inspired him, and he forthwith +killed his enemy. Knowing that as soon as the news of the shooting +reached the Ute village, which was not a great distance off, +the whole tribe would be down upon him, Wooton abandoned any attempt +to trade with them and tried to get out of their country as quickly +as he could. + +As he expected, the Utes followed on his trail, and came up with his +little party on a prairie where there was not the slightest chance +to ambush or hide. They had to fight, because they could not help +it, but resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible, as the +Utes outnumbered them twenty to one; Wooton having only eight men +with him, including the Shawnee. + +The pack-animals, of which they had a great many, loaded with the +goods intended for the savages, were corralled in a circle, inside +of which the men hurried themselves and awaited the first assault +of the foe. In a few moments the Utes began to circle around the +trappers and open fire. The trappers promptly responded, and they +made every shot count; for all of the men, not even excepting the +Shawnee, were experts with the rifle. They did not mind the arrows +which the Utes showered upon them, as few, if any, reached to where +they stood. The savages had a few guns, but they were of the poorest +quality; besides, they did not know how to handle them then as they +learned to do later, so their bullets were almost as harmless as +their arrows. + +The trappers made terrible havoc among the Utes' horses, killing +so many of them that the savages in despair abandoned the fight and +gave Wooton and his men an opportunity to get away, which they did +as rapidly as possible. + +The Raton Pass, through which the Old Trail ran, was a relatively +fair mountain road, but originally it was almost impossible for +anything in the shape of a wheeled vehicle to get over the narrow +rock-ribbed barrier; saddle horses and pack-mules could, however, +make the trip without much difficulty. It was the natural highway to +southeastern Colorado and northeastern New Mexico, but the overland +coaches could not get to Trinidad by the shortest route, and as the +caravans also desired to make the same line, it occurred to Uncle +Dick that he would undertake to hew out a road through the pass, +which, barring grades, should be as good as the average turnpike. +He could see money in it for him, as he expected to charge toll, +keeping the road in repair at his own expense, and he succeeded in +procuring from the legislatures of Colorado and New Mexico charters +covering the rights and privileges which he demanded for his project. + +In the spring of 1866, Uncle Dick took up his abode on the top of +the mountains, built his home, and lived there until two years ago, +when he died at a very ripe old age. + +The old trapper had imposed on himself anything but an easy task in +constructing his toll-road. There were great hillsides to cut out, +immense ledges of rocks to blast, bridges to build by the dozen, and +huge trees to fell, besides long lines of difficult grading to engineer. + +Eventually Uncle Dick's road was a fact, but when it was completed, +how to make it pay was a question that seriously disturbed his mind. +The method he employed to solve the problem I will quote in his +own words: "Such a thing as a toll-road was unknown in the country +at that time. People who had come from the States understood, +of course, that the object of building a turnpike was to enable +the owner to collect toll from those who travelled over it, but I +had to deal with a great many people who seemed to think that they +should be as free to travel over my well-graded and bridged roadway +as they were to follow an ordinary cow path. + +"I may say that I had five classes of patrons to do business with. +There was the stage company and its employees, the freighters, the +military authorities, who marched troops and transported supplies +over the road, the Mexicans, and the Indians. + +"With the stage company, the military authorities, and the American +freighters I had no trouble. With the Indians, when a band came +through now and then, I didn't care to have any controversy about +so small a matter as a few dollars toll! Whenever they came along, +the toll-gate went up, and any other little thing I could do to +hurry them on was done promptly and cheerfully. While the Indians +didn't understand anything about the system of collecting tolls, +they seemed to recognize the fact that I had a right to control +the road, and they would generally ride up to the gate and ask +permission to go through. Once in a while the chief of a band would +think compensation for the privilege of going through in order, and +would make me a present of a buckskin or something of that sort. + +"My Mexican patrons were the hardest to get along with. Paying for +the privilege of travelling over any road was something they were +totally unused to, and they did not take to it kindly. They were +pleased with my road and liked to travel over it, until they came +to the toll-gate. This they seemed to look upon as an obstruction +that no man had a right to place in the way of a free-born native +of the mountain region. They appeared to regard the toll-gate as +a new scheme for holding up travellers for the purpose of robbery, +and many of them evidently thought me a kind of freebooter, who ought +to be suppressed by law. + +"Holding these views, when I asked them for a certain amount of money, +before raising the toll-gate, they naturally differed with me very +frequently about the propriety of complying with the request. + +"In other words, there would be at such times probably an honest +difference of opinion between the man who kept the toll-gate and +the man who wanted to get through it. Anyhow, there was a difference, +and such differences had to be adjusted. Sometimes I did it through +diplomacy, and sometimes I did it with a club. It was always settled +one way, however, and that was in accordance with the toll schedule, +so that I could never have been charged with unjust discrimination +of rates." + +Soon after the road was opened a company composed of Californians +and Mexicans, commanded by a Captain Haley, passed Uncle Dick's +toll-gate and house, escorting a large caravan of about a hundred +and fifty wagons. While they stopped there, a non-commissioned +officer of the party was brutally murdered by three soldiers, and +Uncle Dick came very near being a witness to the atrocious deed. + +The murdered man was a Mexican, and his slayers were Mexicans too. +The trouble originated at Las Vegas, where the privates had been +bound and gagged, by order of the corporal, for creating a disturbance +at a fandango the evening before. + +The name of the corporal was Juan Torres, and he came down to Uncle +Dick's one evening while the command was encamped on the top of the +mountain, accompanied by the three privates, who had already plotted +to kill him, though he had not the slightest suspicion of it. + +Uncle Dick, in telling the story, said: "They left at an early hour, +going in an opposite direction from their camp, and I closed my doors +soon after, for the night. They had not been gone more than half +an hour, when I heard them talking not far from my house, and a few +seconds later I heard the half-suppressed cry of a man who has +received his death-blow. + +"I had gone to bed, and lay for a minute or two thinking whether I +should get up and go to the rescue or insure my own safety by +remaining where I was. + +"A little reflection convinced me that the murderers were undoubtedly +watching my house, to prevent any interference with the carrying out +of their plot, and that if I ventured out I should only endanger +my own life, while there was scarcely a possibility of my being +able to save the life of the man who had been assailed. + +"In the morning, when I got up, I found the dead body of the corporal +stretched across Raton Creek, not more than a hundred yards from my house. + +"As I surmised, he had been struck with a heavy club or stone, and +it was at that time that I heard his cry. After that his brains +had been beaten out, and the body left where I had found it. + +"I at once notified Captain Haley of the occurrence, and identified +the men who had been in company with the corporal, and who were +undoubtedly his murderers. + +"They were taken into custody, and made a confession, in which they +stated that one of their number had stood at my door on the night +of the murder to shoot me if I had ventured out to assist the +corporal. Two of the scoundrels were hung afterward at Las Vegas, +and the third sent to prison for life." + +The corporal was buried near where the soldiers were encamped at +the time of the tragedy, and it is his lonely grave which frequently +attracts the attention of the passengers on the Atchison, Topeka, +and Santa Fe trains, just before the Raton tunnel is reached, as +they travel southward. + +In 1866-67 the Indians broke out, infesting all the most prominent +points of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and watching an opportunity to +rob and murder, so that the government freight caravans and the +stages had to be escorted by detachments of troops. Fort Larned +was the western limit where these escorts joined the outfits going +over into New Mexico. + +There were other dangers attending the passage of the Trail to +travellers by the stage besides the attacks of the savages. These +were the so-called road agents--masked robbers who regarded life as +of little worth in the accomplishment of their nefarious purposes. +Particularly were they common after the mines of New Mexico began +to be operated by Americans. The object of the bandits was generally +the strong box of the express company, which contained money and +other valuables. They did not, of course, hesitate to take what +ready cash and jewelry the passengers might happen to have upon +their persons, and frequently their hauls amounted to large sums. + +When the coaches began to travel over Uncle Dick's toll-road, his +house was made a station, and he had many stage stories. He said:-- + +"Tavern-keepers in those days couldn't choose their guests, and we +entertained them just as they came along. The knights of the road +would come by now and then, order a meal, eat it hurriedly, pay for +it, and move on to where they had arranged to hold up a stage that +night. Sometimes they did not wait for it to get dark, but halted +the stage, went through the treasure box in broad daylight, and +then ordered the driver to move on in one direction, while they +went off in another. + +"One of the most daring and successful stage robberies that I remember +was perpetrated by two men, when the east-bound coach was coming up +on the south side of the Raton Mountains, one day about ten o'clock +in the forenoon. + +"On the morning of the same day, a little after sunrise, two rather +genteel-looking fellows, mounted on fine horses, rode up to my +house and ordered breakfast. Being informed that breakfast would +be ready in a few minutes, they dismounted, hitched their horses +near the door, and came into the house. + +"I knew then, just as well as I do now, they were robbers, but I +had no warrant for their arrest, and I should have hesitated about +serving it if I had, because they looked like very unpleasant men +to transact that kind of business with. + +"Each of them had four pistols sticking in his belt and a repeating +rifle strapped on to his saddle. When they dismounted, they left +their rifles with the horses, but walked into the house and sat down +at the table, without laying aside the arsenal which they carried +in their belts. + +"They had little to say while eating, but were courteous in their +behaviour, and very polite to the waiters. When they had finished +breakfast, they paid their bills, and rode leisurely up the mountain. + +"It did not occur to me that they would take chances on stopping +the stage in daylight, or I should have sent some one to meet the +incoming coach, which I knew would be along shortly, to warn the +driver and passengers to be on the lookout for robbers. + +"It turned out, however, that a daylight robbery was just what they +had in mind, and they made a success of it. + +"About halfway down the New Mexico side of the mountain, where the +canyon is very narrow, and was then heavily wooded on either side, +the robbers stopped and waited for the coach. It came lumbering +along by and by, neither the driver nor the passengers dreaming of +a hold-up. + +"The first intimation they had of such a thing was when they saw +two men step into the road, one on each side of the stage, each of +them holding two cocked revolvers, one of which was brought to bear +on the passengers and the other on the driver, who were politely +but very positively told that they must throw up their hands without +any unnecessary delay, and the stage came to a standstill. + +"There were four passengers in the coach, all men, but their hands +went up at the same instant that the driver dropped his reins and +struck an attitude that suited the robbers. + +"Then, while one of the men stood guard, the other stepped up to +the stage and ordered the treasure box thrown off. This demand was +complied with, and the box was broken and rifled of its contents, +which fortunately were not of very great value. + +"The passengers were compelled to hand out their watches and other +jewelry, as well as what money they had in their pockets, and then +the driver was directed to move up the road. In a minute after +this the robbers had disappeared with their booty, and that was +the last seen of them by that particular coach-load of passengers. + +"The men who planned and executed that robbery were two cool, +level-headed, and daring scoundrels, known as 'Chuckle-luck' and +'Magpie.' They were killed soon after this occurrence, by a member +of their own band, whose name was Seward. A reward of a thousand +dollars had been offered for their capture, an this tempted Seward +to kill them, one night when they were asleep in camp. + +"He then secured a wagon, into which he loaded the dead robbers, +and hauled them to Cimarron City, where he turned them over to the +authorities and received his reward." + +Among the Arapahoes Wooton was called "Cut Hand," from the fact +that he had lost two fingers on his left hand by an accident in his +childhood. The tribe had the utmost veneration for the old trapper, +and he was perfectly safe at any time in their villages or camps; +it had been the request of a dying chief, who was once greatly +favoured by Wooton, that his warriors should never injure him although +the nation might be at war with all the rest of the whites in the world. + +Uncle Dick died a few seasons ago, at the age of nearly ninety. +He was blind for some time, but a surgical operation partly restored +his sight, which made the old man happy, because he could look again +upon the beautiful scenery surrounding his mountain home, really +the grandest in the entire Raton Range. The Atchison, Topeka, and +Santa Fe Railroad had one of its freight locomotives named "Uncle +Dick," in honour of the veteran mountaineer, past whose house it +hauled the heavy-laden trains up the steep grade crossing into the +valley beyond. At the time of its baptism, now fifteen or sixteen +years ago, it was the largest freight engine in the world. + +Old Bill Williams was another character of the early days of the +Trail, and was called so when Carson, Uncle Dick Wooton, and Maxwell +were comparatively young in the mountains. He was, at the time of +their advent in the remote West, one of the best known men there, +and had been famous for years as a hunter and trapper. Williams was +better acquainted with every pass in the Rockies than any other man +of his time, and only surpassed by Jim Bridger later. He was with +General Fremont on his exploring expedition across the continent; +but the statement of the old trappers, and that of General Fremont, +in relation to his services then, differ widely. Fremont admits +Williams' knowledge of the country over which he had wandered to have +been very extensive, but when put to the test on the expedition, +he came very near sacrificing the lives of all. This was probably +owing to Williams' failing intellect, for when he joined the great +explorer he was past the meridian of life. Now the old mountaineers +contend that if Fremont had profited by the old man's advice, he would +never have run into the deathtrap which cost him three men, and +in which he lost all his valuable papers, his instruments, and the +animals which he and his party were riding. The expedition had +followed the Arkansas River to its source, and the general had +selected a route which he desired to pursue in crossing the mountains. +It was winter, and Williams explained to him that it was perfectly +impracticable to get over at that season. The general, however, +ignoring the statement, listened to another of his party, a man who +had no such experience but said that he could pilot the expedition. +Before they had fairly started, they were caught in one of the most +terrible snowstorms the region had ever witnessed, in which all their +horses and mules were literally frozen to death. Then, when it was +too late, they turned back, abandoning their instruments, and able +only to carry along a very limited stock of food. The storm continued +to rage, so that even Williams failed to prevent them from getting +lost, and they wandered about aimlessly for many days before they +luckily arrived at Taos, suffering seriously from exhaustion and +hunger. Three of the men were frozen to death on the return trip, +and the remaining fifteen were little better than dead when Uncle +Dick Wooton happened to run across them and piloted them into the +village. It was immediately after this disaster that the three most +noted men in the mountains--Carson, Maxwell, and Dick Owens--became the +guides of the pathfinder, with whom he had no trouble, and to whom +he owed more of his success than history has given them credit for. + +At one period of his eventful career, while he lived in Missouri, +before he wandered to the mountains, Old Bill Williams was a Methodist +preacher; of which fact he boasted frequently while he trapped and +hunted with other pioneers. Whenever he related that portion of his +early life, he declared that he "was so well known in his circuit, +that the chickens recognized him as he came riding by the scattered +farmhouses, and the old roosters would crow 'Here comes Parson +Williams! One of us must be made ready for dinner.'" + +Upon leaving the States, he travelled very extensively among the +various tribes of Indians who roamed over the great plains and in the +mountains. When sojourning with a certain band, he would invariably +adopt their manners and customs. Whenever he grew tired of that +nation, he would seek another and live as they lived. He had been +so long among the savages that he looked and talked like one, and +had imbibed many of their strange notions and curious superstitions. + +To the missionaries he was very useful. He possessed the faculty +of easily acquiring languages that other white men failed to learn, +and could readily translate the Bible into several Indian dialects. +His own conduct, however, was in strange contrast with the precepts +of the Holy Book with which he was so familiar. + +To the native Mexicans he was a holy terror and an unsolvable riddle. +They thought him possessed of an evil spirit. He at one time took up +his residence among them and commenced to trade. Shortly after he +had established himself and gathered in a stock of goods, he became +involved in a dispute with some of his customers in relation to his +prices. Upon this he apparently took an intense dislike to the +people whom he had begun to traffic with, and in his disgust tossed +his whole mass of goods into the street, and, taking up his rifle, +left at once for the mountains. + +Among the many wild ideas he had imbibed from his long association +with the Indians, was faith in their belief in the transmigration +of souls. He used so to worry his brain for hours cogitating upon +this intricate problem concerning a future state, that he actually +pretended to know exactly the animal whose place he was destined to +fill in the world after he had shaken off this mortal human coil. + +Uncle Dick Wooton told how once, when he, Old Bill Williams, and +many other trappers, were lying around the camp-fire one night, +the strange fellow, in a preaching style of delivery, related to them +all how he was to be changed into a buck elk and intended to make +his pasture in the very region where they then were. He described +certain peculiarities which would distinguish him from the common +run of elk, and was very careful to caution all those present never +to shoot such an animal, should they ever run across him. + +Williams was regarded as a warm-hearted, brave, and generous man. +He was at last killed by the Indians, while trading with them, but +has left his name to many mountain peaks, rivers, and passes +discovered by him. + +Tom Tobin, one of the last of the famous trappers, hunters, and Indian +fighters to cross the dark river, flourished in the early days, when +the Rocky Mountains were a veritable terra incognita to nearly all +excepting the hardy employees of the several fur companies and the +limited number of United States troops stationed in their remote wilds. + +Tom was an Irishman, quick-tempered, and a dead shot with either +rifle, revolver, or the formidable bowie-knife. He would fight at +the drop of the hat, but no man ever went away from his cabin hungry, +if he had a crust to divide; or penniless, if there was anything +remaining in his purse. + +He, like Carson, was rather under the average stature, red-faced, +and lacking much of being an Adonis, but whole-souled, and as quick +in his movements as an antelope. + +Tobin played an important role in avenging the death of the Americans +killed in the Taos massacre, at the storming of the Indian pueblo, +but his greatest achievement was the ending of the noted bandit +Espinosa's life, who, at the height of his career of blood, was the +terror of the whole mountain region. + +At the time of the acquisition of New Mexico by the United States, +Espinosa, who was a Mexican, owning vast herds of cattle and sheep, +resided upon his ancestral hacienda in a sort of barbaric luxury, +with a host of semi-serfs, known as Peons, to do his bidding, as did +the other "Muy Ricos," the "Dons," so called, of his class of natives. +These self-styled aristocrats of the wild country all boasted of +their Castilian blue blood, claiming descent from the nobles of +Cortez' army, but the fact is, however, with rare exceptions, that +their male ancestors, the rank and file of that army, intermarried +with the Aztec women, and they were really only a mixture of Indian +and Spanish. + +It so happened that Espinosa met an adventurous American, who, with +hundreds of others, had been attached to the "Army of Occupation" +in the Mexican War, or had emigrated from the States to seek their +fortunes in the newly acquired and much over-rated territory. + +The Mexican Don and the American became fast friends, the latter +making his home with his newly found acquaintance at the beautiful +ranch in the mountains, where they played the role of a modern Damon +and Pythias. + +Now with Don Espinosa lived his sister, a dark-eyed, bewitchingly +beautiful girl about seventeen years old, with whom the susceptible +American fell deeply in love, and his affection was reciprocated +by the maiden, with a fervour of which only the women of the race +from which she sprang are capable. + +The fascinating American had brought with him from his home in one +of the New England States a large amount of money, for his parents +were rich, and spared no indulgence to their only son. He very soon +unwisely made Espinosa his confidant, and told him of the wealth +he possessed. + +One night after the American had retired to his chamber, adjoining +that of his host, he was surprised, shortly after he had gone to bed, +by discovering a man standing over him, whose hand had already grasped +the buckskin bag under his pillow which contained a considerable +portion of his gold and silver. He sprang from his couch and fired +his pistol at random in the darkness at the would-be robber. + +Espinosa, for it was he, was wounded slightly, and, being either +enraged or frightened, he stabbed with his keen-pointed stiletto, +which all Mexicans then carried, the young man whom he had invited +to become his guest, and the blade entered the American's heart, +killing him instantly. + +The report of the pistol-shot awakened the other members of the +household, who came rushing into the room just as the victim was +breathing his last. Among them was the sister of the murderer, +who, throwing herself on the body of her dead lover, poured forth +the most bitter curses upon her brother. + +Espinosa, realizing the terrible position in which he had placed +himself, then and there determined to become an outlaw, as he could +frame no excuse for his wicked deed. He therefore hid himself +at once in the mountains, carrying with him, of course, the sack +containing the murdered American's money. + +Some time necessarily passed before he could get together a sufficient +number of cut-throats and renegades from justice to enable him wholly +to defy the authorities; but at last he succeeded in rallying a +strong force to his standard of blood, and became the terror of the +whole region, equalling in boldness and audacity the terrible Joaquin, +of California notoriety in after years. + +His headquarters were in the almost impregnable fastnesses of the +Sangre de Cristo Mountains, from which he made his invariably +successful raids into the rich valleys below. There was nothing +too bloody for him to shrink from; he robbed indiscriminately the +overland coaches to Santa Fe, the freight caravans of the traders +and government, the ranches of the Mexicans, or stole from the poorer +classes, without any compunction. He ran off horses, cattle, sheep-- +in fact, anything that he could utilize. If murder was necessary +to the completion of his work, he never for a moment hesitated. +Kidnapping, too, was a favourite pastime; but he rarely carried +away to his rendezvous any other than the most beautiful of the +New Mexican young girls, whom he held in his mountain den until +they were ransomed, or subjected to a fate more terrible. + +In 1864 the bandit, after nearly ten years of unparalleled outlawry, +was killed by Tobin. Tom had been on his trail for some time, and +at last tracked him to a temporary camp in the foot-hills, which +he accidentally discovered in a grove of cottonwoods, by the smoke +of the little camp-fire as it curled in light wreaths above the trees. + +Tobin knew that at the time there was but one of Espinosa's followers +with him, as he had watched them both for some days, waiting for an +opportunity to get the drop on them. To capture the pair of outlaws +alive never entered his thoughts; he was as cautious as brave, and +to get them dead was much safer and easier; so he crept up to the +grove on his belly, Indian fashion, and lying behind the cover of +a friendly log, waited until the noted desperado stood up, when he +pulled the trigger of his never-erring rifle, and Espinosa fell dead. +A second shot quickly disposed of his companion, and the old trapper's +mission was accomplished. + +To be able to claim the reward offered by the authorities, Tom had +to prove, beyond the possibility of doubt, that those whom he had +killed were the dreaded bandit and one of his gang. He thought it +best to cut off their heads, which he deliberately did, and packing +them on his mule in a gunny-sack, he brought them into old Fort +Massachusetts, afterward Fort Garland, where they were speedily +recognized; but whether Tom ever received the reward, I have my +doubts, as he never claimed that he did. Tobin died only a short +time ago, gray, grizzled, and venerable, his memory respected by all +who had ever met him. + +James Hobbs, among all the men of whom I have presented a hurried +sketch, had perhaps a more varied experience than any of his colleagues. +During his long life on the frontier, he was in turn a prisoner among +the savages, and held for years by them; an excellent soldier in +the war with Mexico; an efficient officer in the revolt against +Maximilian, when the attempt of Napoleon to establish an empire on +this continent, with that unfortunate prince at its head, was defeated; +an Indian fighter; a miner; a trapper; a trader, and a hunter. + +Hobbs was born in the Shawnee nation, on the Big Blue, about +twenty-three miles from Independence, Missouri. His early childhood +was entrusted to one of his father's slaves. Reared on the eastern +limit of the border, he very soon became familiar with the use of +the rifle and shot-gun; in fact, he was the principal provider of +all the meat which the family consumed. + +In 1835, when only sixteen, he joined a fur-trading expedition under +Charles Bent, destined for the fort on the Arkansas River built by +him and his brothers. + +They arrived at the crossing of the Santa Fe Trail over Pawnee Fork +without special adventure, but there they had the usual tussle with +the savages, and Hobbs killed his first Indian. Two of the traders +were pierced with arrows, but not seriously hurt, and the Pawnees +--the tribe which had attacked the outfit--were driven away discomfited, +not having been successful in stampeding a single animal. + +When the party reached the Caches, on the Upper Arkansas, a smoke +rising on the distant horizon, beyond the sand hills south of the +river, made them proceed cautiously; for to the old plainsmen, that +far-off wreath indicated either the presence of the savages, or a +signal to others at a greater distance of the approach of the trappers. + +The next morning, nothing having occurred to delay the march, buffalo +began to appear, and Hobbs killed three of them. A cow, which he +had wounded, ran across the Trail in front of the train, and Hobbs +dashed after her, wounding her with his pistol, and then she started +to swim the river. Hobbs, mad at the jeers which greeted him from +the men at his missing the animal, started for the last wagon, +in which was his rifle, determined to kill the brute that had +enraged him. As he was riding along rapidly, Bent cried out to him,-- + +"Don't try to follow that cow; she is going straight for that smoke, +and it means Injuns, and no good in 'em either." + +"But I'll get her," answered Hobbs, and he called to his closest +comrade, John Baptiste, a boy of about his own age, to go and get +his pack-mule and come along. "All right," responded John; and +together the two inexperienced youngsters crossed the river against +the protests of the veteran leader of the party. + +After a chase of about three miles, the boys came up with the cow, +but she turned and showed fight. Finally Hobbs, by riding around her, +got in a good shot, which killed her. Jumping off their animals, +both boys busied themselves in cutting out the choice pieces for +their supper, packed them on the mule, and started back for the train. +But it had suddenly become very dark, and they were in doubt as to +the direction of the Trail. + +Soon night came on so rapidly that neither could they see their own +tracks by which they had come, nor the thin fringe of cottonwoods +that lined the bank of the stream. Then they disagreed as to which +was the right way. John succeeded in persuading Hobbs that he was +correct, and the latter gave in, very much against his own belief +on the subject. + +They travelled all night, and when morning came, were bewilderingly +lost. Then Hobbs resolved to retrace the tracks by which, now that +the sun was up, he saw that they had been going south, right away +from the Arkansas. Suddenly an immense herd of buffalo, containing +at least two thousand, dashed by the boys, filling the air with the +dust raised by their clattering hoofs, and right behind them rode +a hundred Indians, shooting at the stampeded animals with their arrows. + +"Get into that ravine!" shouted Hobbs to his companion. "Throw away +that meat, and run for your life!" + +It was too late; just as they arrived at the brink of the hollow, +they looked back, and close behind them were a dozen Comanches. + +The savages rode up, and one of the party said in very good English, +"How d' do?" + +"How d' do?" Hobbs replied, thinking it would be better to be as +polite as the Indian, though the state of the latter's health just +then was a matter of small concern. + +"Texas?" inquired the Indian. The Comanches had good reasons to +hate the citizens of that country, and it was a lucky thing for +Hobbs that he had heard of their prejudice from the trappers, and +possessed presence of mind to remember it. He replied promptly: +"No, friendly; going to establish a trading-post for the Comanches." + +"Friendly? Better go with us, though. Got any tobacco?" + +Hobbs had some of the desired article, and he was not long in handing +it over to his newly found friend. + +Both of the boys were escorted to the temporary camp of the savages, +but the original number of their captors was increased to over a +thousand before they arrived there. They were supplied with some +dried buffalo-meat, and then taken to the lodge of Old Wolf, the +head chief of the tribe. + +A council was called immediately to consider what disposition should +be made of them, but nothing was decided upon, and the assembly of +warriors adjourned until morning. Hobbs told me that it was because +Old Wolf had imbibed too much brandy, a bottle of which Baptiste had +brought with him from the train, and which the thirsty warrior saw +suspended from his saddle-bow as they rode up to the chief's lodge; +the aged rascal got beastly drunk. + +About noon of the next day, after the dispersion of the council, +the boys were informed that if they were not Texans, would behave +themselves, and not attempt to run away, they might stay with the +Indians, who would not kill them; but a string of dried scalps was +pointed out, hanging on a lodge pole, of some Mexicans whom they +had captured and put to herding their ponies, and who had tried to +get away. They succeeded in making a few miles; the Indians chased +them, after deciding in council, that, if caught, only their scalps +were to be brought back. The moral of this was that the same fate +awaited the boys if they followed the example of the foolish Mexicans. + +Hobbs had excellent sense and judgment, and he knew that it would +be the height of folly for him and Baptiste, mere boys, to try and +reach either Bent's Fort or the Missouri River, not having the +slightest knowledge of where they were situated. + +Hobbs grew to be a great favourite with the Comanches; was given +the daughter of Old Wolf in marriage, became a great chief, fought +many hard battles with his savage companions, and at last, four years +after, was redeemed by Colonel Bent, who paid Old Wolf a small +ransom for him at the Fort, where the Indians had come to trade. +Baptiste, whom the Indians never took a great fancy to, because he +did not develop into a great warrior, was also ransomed by Bent, +his price being only an antiquated mule. + +At Bent's Fort Hobbs went out trapping under the leadership of Kit +Carson, and they became lifelong friends. In a short time Hobbs +earned the reputation of being an excellent mountaineer, trapper, +and as an Indian fighter he was second to none, his education among +the Comanches having trained him in all the strategy of the savages. + +After going through the Mexican War with an excellent record, Hobbs +wandered about the country, now engaged in mining in old Mexico, then +fighting the Apaches under the orders of the governor of Chihuahua, +and at the end of the campaign going back to the Pacific coast, +where he entered into new pursuits. Sometimes he was rich, then as +poor as one can imagine. He returned to old Mexico in time to become +an active partisan in the revolt which overthrew the short-lived +dynasty of Maximilian, and was present at the execution of that +unfortunate prince. Finally he retired to the home of his childhood +in the States, where he died a few months ago, full of years and honours. + +William F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," is one of the famous plainsmen, +of later days, however, than Carson, Bridger, John Smith, Maxwell, +and others whom I have mentioned. The mantle of Kit Carson, perhaps, +fits more perfectly the shoulders of Cody than those of any other +of the great frontiersman's successors, and he has had some experiences +that surpassed anything which fell to their lot. + +He was born in Iowa, in 1845, and when barely seven years old his +father emigrated to Kansas, then far remote from civilization. + +Thirty-six years ago, he was employed as guide and scout in an +expedition against the Kiowas and Comanches, and his line of duty +took him along the Santa Fe Trail all one summer when not out as +a scout, carrying despatches between Fort Lyon and Fort Larned, +the most important military posts on the great highway as well as +to far-off Fort Leavenworth on the Missouri River, the headquarters +of the department. Fort Larned was the general rendezvous of all +the scouts on the Kansas and Colorado plains, the chief of whom was +a veteran interpreter and guide, named Dick Curtis. + +When Cody first reported there for his responsible duty, a large camp +of the Kiowas and Comanches was established within sight of the fort, +whose warriors had not as yet put on their war-paint, but were +evidently restless and discontented under the restraint of their +chiefs. Soon those leading men, Satanta, Lone Wolf, Satank, and +others of lesser note, grew rather impudent and haughty in their +deportment, and they were watched with much concern. The post was +garrisoned by only two companies of infantry and one of cavalry. + +General Hazen, afterward chief of the signal service in Washington, +was at Fort Larned at the time, endeavouring to patch up a peace with +the savages, who seemed determined to break out. Cody was special +scout to the general, and one morning he was ordered to accompany him +as far as Fort Zarah, on the Arkansas, near the mouth of Walnut Creek, +in what is now Barton County, Kansas, the general intending to go +on to Fort Harker, on the Smoky Hill. In making these trips of +inspection, with incidental collateral duties, the general usually +travelled in an ambulance, but on this journey he rode in a six-mule +army-wagon, escorted by a detachment of a score of infantry. It was +a warm August day, and an early start was made, which enabled them +to reach Fort Zarah, over thirty miles distant, by noon. After dinner, +the general proposed to go on to Fort Harker, forty-one miles away, +without any escort, leaving orders for Cody to return to Fort Larned +the next day, with the soldiers. But Cody, ever impatient of delay +when there was work to do, notified the sergeant in charge of the +men that he was going back that very afternoon. I tell the story +of his trip as he has often told it to me, and as he has written +it in his autobiography. + +"I accordingly saddled up my mule and set out for Fort Larned. +I proceeded on uninterruptedly until I got about halfway between +the two posts, when, at Pawnee Rock, I was suddenly jumped by about +forty Indians, who came dashing up to me, extending their hands +and saying, 'How! How!' They were some of the Indians who had been +hanging around Fort Larned in the morning. I saw they had on their +war-paint, and were evidently now out on the war-path. + +"My first impulse was to shake hands with them, as they seemed so +desirous of it. I accordingly reached out my hand to one of them, +who grasped it with a tight grip, and jerked me violently forward; +then pulled my mule by the bridle, and in a moment I was completely +surrounded. Before I could do anything at all, they had seized my +revolvers from the holsters, and I received a blow on the head from +a tomahawk which nearly rendered me senseless. My gun, which was +lying across the saddle, was snatched from its place, and finally +the Indian who had hold of the bridle started off toward the Arkansas +River, leading the mule, which was being lashed by the other Indians, +who were following. The savages were all singing, yelling, and +whooping, as only Indians can do, when they are having their little +game all their own way. While looking toward the river, I saw on +the opposite side an immense village moving along the bank, and then +I became convinced that the Indians had left the post and were now +starting out on the war-path. My captors crossed the stream with me, +and as we waded through the shallow water they continued to lash the +mule and myself. Finally they brought me before an important-looking +body of Indians, who proved to be the chiefs and principal warriors. +I soon recognized old Satanta among them, as well as others whom +I knew, and supposed it was all over with me. + +"The Indians were jabbering away so rapidly among themselves that +I could not understand what they were saying. Satanta at last asked +me where I had been. As good luck would have it, a happy thought +struck me. I told him I had been after a herd of cattle, or +'whoa-haws,' as they called them. It so happened that the Indians +had been out of meat for several weeks, as the large herd of cattle +which had been promised them had not yet arrived, although they +expected them. + +"The moment I mentioned that I had been searching for 'whoa-haws,' +old Satanta began questioning me in a very eager manner. He asked me +where the cattle were, and I replied that they were back a few miles, +and that I had been sent by General Hazen to inform him that the +cattle were coming, and that they were intended for his people. +This seemed to please the old rascal, who also wanted to know if there +were any soldiers with the herd, and my reply was that there were. +Thereupon the chiefs held a consultation, and presently Satanta asked +me if General Hazen had really said that they should have the cattle. +I replied in the affirmative, and added that I had been directed to +bring the cattle to them. I followed this up with a very dignified +inquiry, asking why his young men had treated me so. The old wretch +intimated that it was only a 'freak of the boys'; that the young men +wanted to see if I was brave; in fact, they had only meant to test me, +and the whole thing was a joke. + +"The veteran liar was now beating me at my own game of lying, but +I was very glad, as it was in my favour. I did not let him suspect +that I doubted his veracity, but I remarked that it was a rough way +to treat friends. He immediately ordered his young men to give +back my arms, and scolded them for what they had done. Of course, +the sly old dog was now playing it very fine, as he was anxious +to get possession of the cattle, with which he believed there was +a 'heap' of soldiers coming. He had concluded it was not best to +fight the soldiers if he could get the cattle peaceably. + +"Another council was held by the chiefs, and in a few minutes old +Satanta came and asked me if I would go to the river and bring the +cattle down to the opposite side, so that they could get them. +I replied, 'Of course; that's my instruction from General Hazen.' + +"Satanta said I must not feel angry at his young men, for they had +only been acting in fun. He then inquired if I wished any of his men +to accompany me to the cattle herd. I replied that it would be better +for me to go alone, and then the soldiers could keep right on to +Fort Larned, while I could drive the herd down on the bottom. Then +wheeling my mule around, I was soon recrossing the river, leaving old +Satanta in the firm belief that I had told him a straight story, and +that I was going for the cattle which existed only in my imagination. + +"I hardly knew what to do, but thought that if I could get the river +between the Indians and myself, I would have a good three-quarters of +a mile the start of them, and could then make a run for Fort Larned, +as my mule was a good one. + +"Thus far my cattle story had panned out all right; but just as I +reached the opposite bank of the river, I looked behind me and saw +that ten or fifteen Indians, who had begun to suspect something +crooked, were following me. The moment that my mule secured a good +foothold on the bank, I urged him into a gentle lope toward the place +where, according to my statement, the cattle were to be brought. +Upon reaching a little ridge and riding down the other side out of +view, I turned my mule and headed him westward for Fort Larned. +I let him out for all that he was worth, and when I came out on a +little rise of ground, I looked back and saw the Indian village in +plain sight. My pursuers were now on the ridge which I had passed +over, and were looking for me in every direction. + +"Presently they spied me, and seeing that I was running away, they +struck out in swift pursuit, and in a few minutes it became painfully +evident they were gaining on me. They kept up the chase as far as +Ash Creek, six miles from Fort Larned. I still led them half a mile, +as their horses had not gained much during the last half of the race. +My mule seemed to have gotten his second wind, and as I was on the +old road, I played the spurs and whip on him without much cessation; +the Indians likewise urged their steeds to the utmost. + +"Finally, upon reaching the dividing ridge between Ash Creek and +Pawnee Fork, I saw Fort Larned only four miles away. It was now +sundown, and I heard the evening gun. The troops of the small +garrison little dreamed there was a man flying for his life and +trying to reach the post. The Indians were once more gaining on me, +and when I crossed the Pawnee Fork two miles from the post, two or +three of them were only a quarter of a mile behind me. Just as I +gained the opposite bank of the stream, I was overjoyed to see some +soldiers in a government wagon only a short distance off. I yelled +at the top of my voice, and riding up to them, told them that the +Indians were after me. + +"'Denver Jim,' a well-known scout, asked me how many there were, and +upon my informing him that there were about a dozen, he said: 'Let's +drive the wagon into the trees, and we'll lay for 'em.' The team +was hurriedly driven among the trees and low box-elder bushes, and +there secreted. + +"We did not have to wait long for the Indians, who came dashing up, +lashing their ponies, which were panting and blowing. We let two +of them pass by, but we opened a lively fire on the next three or +four, killing two of them at the first crack. The others following +discovered that they had run into an ambush, and whirling off into +the brush, they turned and ran back in the direction whence they +had come. The two who had passed by heard the firing and made their +escape. We scalped the two that we had killed, and appropriated +their arms and equipments; then, catching their ponies, we made our +way into the Post." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. +MAXWELL'S RANCH. + + + +One of the most interesting and picturesque regions of all New Mexico +is the immense tract of nearly two million acres known as Maxwell's +Ranch, through which the Old Trail ran, and the title to which was +some years since determined by the Supreme Court of the United States +in favour of an alien company.[59] Dead long ago, Maxwell belonged +to a generation and a class almost completely extinct, and the like +of which will, in all probability, never be seen again; for there +is no more frontier to develop them. + +Several years prior to the acquisition of the territory by the +United States, the immense tract comprised in the geographical limits +of the ranch was granted to Carlos Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda, +both citizens of the province of New Mexico, and agents of the +American Fur Company. Attached to the company as an employer, +a trapper, and hunter, was Lucien B. Maxwell, an Illinoisan by birth, +who married a daughter of Beaubien. After the death of the latter +Maxwell purchased all the interest of the joint proprietor, Miranda, +and that of the heirs of Beaubien, thus at once becoming the largest +landowner in the United States. + +At the zenith of his influence and wealth, during the War of the +Rebellion, when New Mexico was isolated and almost independent of +care or thought by the government at Washington, he lived in a +sort of barbaric splendour, akin to that of the nobles of England +at the time of the Norman conquest. + +The thousands of arable acres comprised in the many fertile valleys +of his immense estate were farmed in a primitive, feudal sort of way, +by native Mexicans principally, under the system of peonage then +existing in the Territory. He employed about five hundred men, and +they were as much his thralls as were Gurth and Wamba of Cedric of +Rotherwood, only they wore no engraved collars around their necks +bearing their names and that of their master. Maxwell was not a +hard governor, and his people really loved him, as he was ever their +friend and adviser. + +His house was a palace when compared with the prevailing style of +architecture in that country, and cost an immense sum of money. +It was large and roomy, purely American in its construction, but the +manner of conducting it was strictly Mexican, varying between the +customs of the higher and lower classes of that curious people. + +Some of its apartments were elaborately furnished, others devoid of +everything except a table for card-playing and a game's complement +of chairs. The principal room, an extended rectangular affair, +which might properly have been termed the Baronial Hall, was almost +bare except for a few chairs, a couple of tables, and an antiquated +bureau. There Maxwell received his friends, transacted business +with his vassals, and held high carnival at times. + +I have slept on its hardwood floor, rolled up in my blanket, with +the mighty men of the Ute nation lying heads and points all around me, +as close as they could possibly crowd, after a day's fatiguing hunt +in the mountains. I have sat there in the long winter evenings, +when the great room was lighted only by the cheerful blaze of the +crackling logs roaring up the huge throats of its two fireplaces +built diagonally across opposite corners, watching Maxwell, Kit Carson, +and half a dozen chiefs silently interchange ideas in the wonderful +sign language, until the glimmer of Aurora announced the advent of +another day. But not a sound had been uttered during the protracted +hours, save an occasional grunt of satisfaction on the part of the +Indians, or when we white men exchanged a sentence. + +Frequently Maxwell and Carson would play the game of seven-up for +hours at a time, seated at one of the tables. Kit was usually the +victor, for he was the greatest expert in that old and popular +pastime I have ever met. Maxwell was an inveterate gambler, but +not by any means in a professional sense; he indulged in the hazard +of the cards simply for the amusement it afforded him in his rough +life of ease, and he could very well afford the losses which the +pleasure sometimes entailed. His special penchant, however, was +betting on a horse race, and his own stud comprised some of the +fleetest animals in the Territory. Had he lived in England he might +have ruled the turf, but many jobs were put up on him by unscrupulous +jockeys, by which he was outrageously defrauded of immense sums. + +He was fond of cards, as I have said, both of the purely American +game of poker, and also of old sledge, but rarely played except with +personal friends, and never without stakes. He always exacted the +last cent he had won, though the next morning, perhaps, he would +present or loan his unsuccessful opponent of the night before five +hundred or a thousand dollars, if he needed it; an immensely greater +sum, in all probability, than had been gained in the game. + +The kitchen and dining-rooms of his princely establishment were +detached from the main residence. There was one of the latter for +the male portion of his retinue and guests of that sex, and another +for the female, as, in accordance with the severe, and to us strange, +Mexican etiquette, men rarely saw a woman about the premises, though +there were many. Only the quick rustle of a skirt, or a hurried view +of a reboso, as its wearer flashed for an instant before some window +or half-open door, told of their presence. + +The greater portion of his table-service was solid silver, and at +his hospitable board there were rarely any vacant chairs. Covers +were laid daily for about thirty persons; for he had always many +guests, invited or forced upon him in consequence of his proverbial +munificence, or by the peculiar location of his manor-house which +stood upon a magnificently shaded plateau at the foot of mighty +mountains, a short distance from a ford on the Old Trail. As there +were no bridges over the uncertain streams of the great overland +route in those days, the ponderous Concord coaches, with their +ever-full burden of passengers, were frequently water-bound, and +Maxwell's the only asylum from the storm and flood; consequently +he entertained many. + +At all times, and in all seasons, the group of buildings, houses, +stables, mill, store, and their surrounding grounds, were a constant +resort and loafing-place of Indians. From the superannuated chiefs, +who revelled lazily during the sunny hours in the shady peacefulness +of the broad porches; the young men of the tribe, who gazed with +covetous eyes upon the sleek-skinned, blooded colts sporting in the +spacious corrals; the squaws, fascinated by the gaudy calicoes, +bright ribbons, and glittering strings of beads on the counters +or shelves of the large store, to the half-naked, chubby little +pappooses around the kitchen doors, waiting with expectant mouths +for some delicious morsel of refuse to be thrown to them--all assumed, +in bearing and manner, a vested right of proprietorship in their +agreeable environment. + +To this motley group, always under his feet, as it were, Maxwell was +ever passively gracious, although they were battening in idleness +on his prodigal bounty from year to year. + +His retinue of servants, necessarily large, was made up of a +heterogeneous mixture of Indians, Mexicans, and half-breeds. +The kitchens were presided over by dusky maidens under the tutelage +of experienced old crones, and its precincts were sacred to them; +but the dining-rooms were forbidden to women during the hours of +meals, which were served by boys. + +Maxwell was rarely, as far as my observation extended, without a +large amount of money in his possession. He had no safe, however, +his only place of temporary deposit for the accumulated cash being +the bottom drawer of the old bureau in the large room to which I +have referred, which was the most antiquated concern of common pine +imaginable. There were only two other drawers in this old-fashioned +piece of furniture, and neither of them possessed a lock. The third, +or lower, the one that contained the money, did, but it was absolutely +worthless, being one of the cheapest pattern and affording not the +slightest security; besides, the drawers above it could be pulled out, +exposing the treasure immediately beneath to the cupidity of any one. + +I have frequently seen as much as thirty thousand dollars--gold, +silver, greenbacks, and government checks--at one time in that novel +depository. Occasionally these large sums remained there for several +days, yet there was never any extra precaution taken to prevent its +abstraction; doors were always open and the room free of access to +every one, as usual. + +I once suggested to Maxwell the propriety of purchasing a safe for +the better security of his money, but he only smiled, while a strange, +resolute look flashed from his dark eyes, as he said: "God help the +man who attempted to rob me and I knew him!" + +The sources of his wealth were his cattle, sheep, and the products +of his area of cultivated acres--barley, oats, and corn principally-- +which he disposed of to the quartermaster and commissary departments +of the army, in the large military district of New Mexico. +His wool-clip must have been enormous, too; but I doubt whether he +could have told the number of animals that furnished it or the +aggregate of his vast herds. He had a thousand horses, ten thousand +cattle, and forty thousand sheep at the time I knew him well, +according to the best estimates of his Mexican relatives. + +He also possessed a large and perfectly appointed gristmill, which +was a great source of revenue, for wheat was one of the staple crops +of his many farms. + +Maxwell was fond of travelling all over the Territory, his equipages +comprising everything in the shape of a vehicle, through all their +varieties, from the most plainly constructed buckboard to the +lumbering, but comfortable and expensive, Concord coach, mounted on +thorough braces instead of springs, and drawn by four or six horses. +He was perfectly reckless in his driving, dashing through streams, +over irrigating ditches, stones, and stumps like a veritable Jehu, +regardless of consequences, but, as is usually the fortune of such +precipitate horsemen, rarely coming to grief. + +The headquarters of the Ute agency were established at Maxwell's Ranch +in early days, and the government detailed a company of cavalry to +camp there, more, however, to impress the plains tribes who roamed +along the Old Trail east of the Raton Range, than for any effect on +the Utes, whom Maxwell could always control, and who regarded him +as a father. + +On the 4th of July, 1867, Maxwell, who owned an antiquated and rusty +six-pound field howitzer, suggested to the captain of the troop +stationed there the propriety of celebrating the day. So the old +piece was dragged from its place under a clump of elms, where it had +been hidden in the grass and weeds ever since the Mexican War probably, +and brought near the house. The captain and Maxwell acted the role +of gunners, the former at the muzzle, the latter at the breech; +the discharge was premature, blowing out the captain's eye and taking +off his arm, while Maxwell escaped with a shattered thumb. As soon +as the accident occurred, a sergeant was despatched to Fort Union on +one of the fastest horses on the ranch, the faithful animal falling +dead the moment he stopped in front of the surgeon's quarters, having +made the journey of fifty-five miles in little more than four hours. + +The surgeon left the post immediately, arriving at Maxwell's late that +night, but in time to save the officer's life, after which he dressed +Maxwell's apparently inconsiderable wound. In a few days, however, +the thumb grew angry-looking; it would not yield to the doctor's +careful treatment, so he reluctantly decided that amputation was +necessary. After an operation was determined upon, I prevailed upon +Maxwell to come to the fort and remain with me, inviting Kit Carson +at the same time, that he might assist in catering to the amusement +of my suffering guest. Maxwell and Carson arrived at my quarters +late in the day, after a tedious ride in the big coach, and the +surgeon, in order to allow a prolonged rest on account of Maxwell's +feverish condition, postponed the operation until the following evening. + +The next night, as soon as it grew dark--we waited for coolness, +as the days were excessively hot--the necessary preliminaries were +arranged, and when everything was ready the surgeon commenced. +Maxwell declined the anaesthetic prepared for him, and sitting in a +common office chair put out his hand, while Carson and myself stood +on opposite sides, each holding an ordinary kerosene lamp. In a few +seconds the operation was concluded, and after the silver-wire +ligatures were twisted in their places, I offered Maxwell, who had +not as yet permitted a single sigh to escape his lips, half a +tumblerful of whiskey; but before I had fairly put it to his mouth, +he fell over, having fainted dead away, while great beads of +perspiration stood on his forehead, indicative of the pain he had +suffered, as the amputation of the thumb, the surgeon told us then, +was as bad as that of a leg. + +He returned to his ranch as soon as the surgeon pronounced him well, +and Carson to his home in Taos. I saw the latter but once more at +Maxwell's; but he was en route to visit me at Fort Harker, in Kansas, +when he was taken ill at Fort Lyon, where he died. + + A boy's will is the wind's will, + And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. + +How true it now seems to me, as the recollections of my boyish days, +when I read of the exploits of Kit Carson, crowd upon my memory! +I firmly believed him to be at least ten feet tall, carrying a rifle +so heavy that, like Bruce's sword, it required two men to lift it. +I imagined he drank out of nothing smaller than a river, and picked +the carcass of a whole buffalo as easily as a lady does the wing of +a quail. Ten years later I made the acquaintance of the foremost +frontiersman, and found him a delicate, reticent, under-sized, +wiry man, as perfectly the opposite of the type my childish brain +had created as it is possible to conceive. + +At Fort Union our mail arrived every morning by coach over the Trail, +generally pulling up at the sutler's store, whose proprietor was +postmaster, about daylight. While Maxwell and Kit were my guests, +I sauntered down after breakfast one morning to get my mail, and +while waiting for the letters to be distributed, happened to glance +at some papers lying on the counter, among which I saw a new periodical +--the _Day's Doings_, I think it was--that had a full-page illustration +of a scene in a forest. In the foreground stood a gigantic figure +dressed in the traditional buckskin; on one arm rested an immense +rifle; his other arm was around the waist of the conventional female +of such sensational journals, while in front, lying prone upon the +ground, were half a dozen Indians, evidently slain by the singular +hero in defending the impossibly attired female. The legend related +how all this had been effected by the famous Kit Carson. I purchased +the paper, returned with it to my room, and after showing it to +several officers who had called upon Maxwell, I handed it to Kit. +He wiped his spectacles, studied the picture intently for a few +seconds, turned round, and said: "Gentlemen, that thar may be true, +but I hain't got no recollection of it." + +I passed a delightful two weeks with Maxwell, late in the summer of +1867, at the time that the excitement over the discovery of gold on +his ranch had just commenced, and adventurers were beginning to +congregate in the hills and gulches from everywhere. The discovery +of the precious metal on his estate was the first cause of his +financial embarrassment. It was the ruin also of many other prominent +men in New Mexico, who expended their entire fortune in the construction +of an immense ditch, forty miles in length--from the Little Canadian +or Red River--to supply the placer diggings in the Moreno valley with +water, when the melted snow of Old Baldy range had exhausted itself +in the late summer. The scheme was a stupendous failure; its ruins +may be seen to-day in the deserted valleys, a monument to man's +engineering skill, but the wreck of his hopes. + +For some years previous to the discovery of gold in the mountains and +gulches of Maxwell's Ranch, it was known that copper existed in the +region; several shafts had been sunk and tunnels driven in various +places, and gold had been found from time to time, but was kept a +secret for many months. Its presence was at last revealed to Maxwell +by a party of his own miners, who were boring into the heart of +Old Baldy for a copper lead that had cropped out and was then lost. + +Of course, to keep the knowledge of the discovery of gold from the +world is an impossibility; such was the case in this instance, and +soon commenced that squatter immigration out of which, after the +ranch was sold and Maxwell died, grew that litigation which has +resulted in favour of the company who purchased from or through the +first owners after Maxwell's death. + +He was a representative man of the border of the same class as his +compeers--"wild-civilized men," to borrow an expressive term from +John Burroughs--of strong local attachments, and overflowing with the +milk of human kindness. To such as he there was an unconquerable +infatuation in life on the remote plains and in the solitude of the +mountains. There was never anything of the desperado in their +character, while the adventurers who at times have made the far West +infamous, since the advent of the railroad, were bad men originally. + +Occasionally such men turn up everywhere, and become a terror to +the community, but they are always wound up sooner or later; they +die with their boots on; Western graveyards are full of them. + +Maxwell, under contract with the Interior Department, furnished +live beeves to the Ute nation, the issue of which was made weekly +from his own vast herds. The cattle, as wild as those from the +Texas prairies, were driven by his herders into an immense enclosed +field, and there turned loose to be slaughtered by the savages. + +Once when at the ranch I told Maxwell I should like to have a horse +to witness the novel sight. He immediately ordered a Mexican groom +to procure one; but I did not see the peculiar smile that lighted up +his face, as he whispered something to the man which I did not catch. +Presently the groom returned leading a magnificent gray, which I +mounted, Maxwell suggesting that I should ride down to the large +field and wait there until the herd arrived. I entered the great +corral, patting my horse on the neck now and then, to make him +familiar with my touch, and attempted to converse with some of the +chiefs, who were dressed in their best, painted as if for the +war-path, gaily bedecked with feathers and armed with rifles and +gaudily appointed bows and arrows; but I did not succeed very well +in drawing them from their normal reticence. The squaws, a hundred +of them, were sitting on the ground, their knives in hand ready for +the labour which is the fate of their sex in all savage tribes, +while their lords' portion of the impending business was to end with +the more manly efforts of the chase. + +Suddenly a great cloud of dust rose on the trail from the mountains, +and on came the maddened animals, fairly shaking the earth with +their mighty tread. As soon as the gate was closed behind them, +and uttering a characteristic yell that was blood-curdling in its +ferocity, the Indians charged upon the now doubly frightened herd, +and commenced to discharge their rifles, regardless of the presence +of any one but themselves. My horse became paralyzed for an instant +and stood poised on his hind legs, like the steed represented in +that old lithographic print of Napoleon crossing the Alps; then taking +the bit in his teeth, he rushed aimlessly into the midst of the +flying herd, while the bullets from the guns of the excited savages +rained around my head. I had always boasted of my equestrian +accomplishments--I was never thrown but once in my life, and that was +years afterward--but in this instance it taxed all my powers to keep +my seat. In less than twenty minutes the last beef had fallen; and +the warriors, inflated with the pride of their achievement, rode +silently out of the field, leaving the squaws to cut up and carry +away the meat to their lodges, more than three miles distant, which +they soon accomplished, to the last quivering morsel. + +As I rode leisurely back to the house, I saw Maxwell and Kit standing +on the broad porch, their sides actually shaking with laughter at +my discomfiture, they having been watching me from the very moment +the herd entered the corral. It appeared that the horse Maxwell +ordered the groom to bring me was a recent importation from St. Louis, +had never before seen an Indian, and was as unused to the prairies +and mountains as a street-car mule. Kit said that my mount reminded +him of one that his antagonist in a duel rode a great many years ago +when he was young. If the animal had not been such "a fourth-of-July" +brute, his opponent would in all probability have finished him, as he +was a splendid shot; but Kit fortunately escaped, the bullet merely +grazing him under the ear, leaving a scar which he then showed me. + +One night Kit Carson, Maxwell, and I were up in the Raton Mountains +above the Old Trail, and having lingered too long, were caught above +the clouds against our will, darkness having overtaken us before we +were ready to descend into the valley. It was dangerous to undertake +the trip over such a precipitous and rocky trail, so we were compelled +to make the best of our situation. It was awfully cold, and as we +had brought no blankets, we dared not go to sleep for fear our fire +might go out, and we should freeze. We therefore determined to make +a night of it by telling yarns, smoking our pipes, and walking around +at times. After sitting awhile, Maxwell pointed toward the Spanish +Peaks, whose snow-white tops cast a diffused light in the heavens +above them, and remarked that in the deep canyon which separates them, +he had had one of the "closest calls" of his life, willingly complying +when I asked him to tell us the story. + +"It was in 1847. I came down from Taos with a party to go to the +Cimarron crossing of the Santa Fe Trail to pick up a large herd of +horses for the United States Quartermaster's Department. We succeeded +in gathering about a hundred and started back with them, letting +them graze slowly along, as we were in no hurry. When we arrived +at the foot-hills north of Bent's Fort, we came suddenly upon the +trail of a large war-band of Utes, none of whom we saw, but from +subsequent developments the savages must have discovered us days +before we reached the mountains. I knew we were not strong enough +to cope with the whole Ute nation, and concluded the best thing for +us to do under the ticklish circumstances was to make a detour, +and put them off our trail. So we turned abruptly down the Arkansas, +intending to try and get to Taos in that direction, more than one +hundred and fifty miles around. It appeared afterward that the +Indians had been following us all the way. When we found this out, +some of the men believed they were another party, and not the same +whose trail we came upon when we turned down the river, but I always +insisted they were. When we arrived within a few days' drive of Taos, +we were ambushed in one of the narrow passes of the range, and had +the bloodiest fight with the Utes on record. There were thirteen +of us, all told, and two little children whom we were escorting to +their friends at Taos, having received them at the Cimarron crossing. + +"While we were quietly taking our breakfast one morning, and getting +ready to pull out for the day's march, perfectly unsuspicious of the +proximity of any Indians, they dashed in upon us, and in less than +a minute stampeded all our stock--loose animals as well as those we +were riding. While part of the savages were employed in running off +the animals, fifty of their most noted warriors, splendidly mounted +and horribly painted, rushed into the camp, around the fire of which +the men and the little children were peacefully sitting, and, +discharging their guns as they rode up, killed one man and wounded +another. + +"Terribly surprised as we were, it did not turn the heads of the old +mountaineers, and I immediately told them to make a break for a clump +of timber near by, and that we would fight them as long as one of us +could stand up. There we fought and fought against fearful odds, +until all were wounded except two. The little children were captured +at the beginning of the trouble and carried off at once. After a +while the savages got tired of the hard work, and, as is frequently +the case, went away of their own free will; but they left us in a +terrible plight. All were sore, stiff, and weak from their many wounds; +on foot, and without any food or ammunition to procure game with, +having exhausted our supply in the awfully unequal battle; besides, +we were miles from home, with every prospect of starving to death. + +"We could not remain where we were, so as soon as darkness came on, +we started out to walk to some settlement. We dared not show +ourselves by daylight, and all through the long hours when the sun +was up, we were obliged to hide in the brush and ravines until night +overtook us again, and we could start on our painful march. + +"We had absolutely nothing to eat, and our wounds began to fester, +so that we could hardly move at all. We should undoubtedly have +perished, if, on the third day, a band of friendly Indians of another +tribe had not gone to Taos and reported the fight to the commanding +officer of the troops there. These Indians had heard of our trouble +with the Utes, and knowing how strong they were, and our weakness, +surmised our condition, and so hastened to convey the bad news. + +"A company of dragoons was immediately sent to our rescue, under the +guidance of Dick Wooton, who was and has ever been a warm personal +friend of mine. They came upon us about forty miles from Taos, and +never were we more surprised; we had become so starved and emaciated +that we had abandoned all hope of escaping what seemed to be our +inevitable fate. + +"When the troops found us, we had only a few rags, our clothes having +been completely stripped from our bodies while struggling through +the heavy underbrush on our trail, and we were so far exhausted that +we could not stand on our feet. One more day, and we would have been +laid out. + +"The little children were, fortunately, saved from the horror of +that terrible march after the fight, as the Indians carried them to +their winter camp, where, if not absolutely happy, they were under +shelter and fed; escaping the starvation which would certainly have +been their fate if they had remained with us. They were eventually +ransomed for a cash payment by the government, and altogether had not +been very harshly treated." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. +BENT'S FORTS. + + + +The famous Bent brothers, William, George, Robert, and Charles, were +French-Canadian hunters and trappers, and had been employed almost +from boyhood, in the early days of the border, by the American Fur +Company in the mountains of the Northwest. + +In 1826, almost immediately after the transference of the fur trade +to the valley of the Arkansas, when the commerce of the prairies +was fairly initiated, the three Bents and Ceran St. Vrain, also a +French-Canadian and trapper, settled on the Upper Arkansas, where +they erected a stockade. It was, of course, a rude affair, formed of +long stakes or pickets driven into the ground, after the Mexican +style known as jacal. The sides were then ceiled and roofed, and +it served its purpose of a trading-post. This primitive fort was +situated on the left or north bank of the river, about halfway between +Pueblo and Canyon City, those beautiful mountain towns of to-day. + +Two years afterward, in 1828, the proprietors of the primitive +stockade in the remote wilderness found it necessary to move closer +to the great hunting-grounds lower down the valley. There, about +twelve miles northeast of the now thriving town of Las Animas, +the Bents commenced the construction of a relatively large and more +imposing-looking structure than the first. The principal material +used in the new building, or rather in its walls, was adobe, or +sun-dried brick, so common even to-day in New Mexican architecture. +Four years elapsed before the new fort was completed, during which +period its owners, like other trappers, lived in tents or teepees +fashioned of buffalo-skins, after the manner of the Indians. + +When at last the new station was completed, it was named Fort William, +in honour of Colonel William Bent, who was the leader of the family +and the most active trader among the four partners in the concern. +The colonel frequently made long trips to the remote villages of the +Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches, which were situated far +to the south and east, on the Canadian River and its large tributaries. +His miscellaneous assortment of merchandise he transported upon +pack-mules to the Indian rendezvous, bringing back to the fort the +valuable furs he had exchanged for the goods so eagerly coveted by +the savages. It was while on one of his trading expeditions to the +Cheyenne nation that the colonel married a young squaw of that tribe, +the daughter of the principal chief. + +William Bent for his day and time was an exceptionally good man. +His integrity, his truthfulness on all occasions, and his remarkable +courage endeared him to the red and white man alike, and Fort William +prospered wonderfully under his careful and just management. Both +his brothers and St. Vrain had taken up their residence in Taos, and +upon the colonel devolved the entire charge of the busy establishment. +It soon became the most popular rendezvous of the mountaineers and +trappers, and in its immediate vicinity several tribes of Indians +took up their temporary encampment. + +In 1852 Fort William was destroyed under the following strange +circumstances: It appears that the United States desired to purchase +it. Colonel Bent had decided upon a price--sixteen thousand dollars-- +but the representatives of the War Department offered only twelve +thousand, which, of course, Bent refused. Negotiations were still +pending, when the colonel, growing tired of the red-tape and +circumlocution of the authorities, and while in a mad mood, removed +all his valuables from the structure, excepting some barrels of +gunpowder, and then deliberately set fire to the old landmark. +When the flames reached the powder, there was an explosion which +threw down portions of the walls, but did not wholly destroy them. +The remains of the once noted buildings stand to-day, melancholy +relics of a past epoch. + +In the same year the indefatigable and indomitable colonel determined +upon erecting a much more important structure. He selected a site +on the same side of the Arkansas, in the locality known as Big Timbers. +Regarding this new venture, Colonel or Judge Moore of Las Animas, +a son-in-law of William Bent, tells in a letter to the author of +the history of Colorado the following facts:-- + + Leaving ten men in camp to get out stone for the new post, + Colonel Bent took a part of his outfit and went to a Kiowa + village, about two hundred miles southwest, and remained + there all winter, trading with the Kiowas and Comanches. + In the spring of 1853 he returned to Big Timbers, when + the construction of the new post was begun, and the work + continued until completed in the summer of 1854; and it + was used as a trading-post until the owner leased it to + the government in the autumn of 1859. Colonel Sedgwick had + been sent out to fight the Kiowas that year, and in the fall + a large quantity of commissary stores had been sent him. + Colonel Bent then moved up the river to a point just above + the mouth of the Purgatoire, and built several rooms of + cottonwood pickets, and there spent the winter. In the + spring of 1860, Colonel Sedgwick began the construction of + officers' buildings, company quarters, corrals, and stables, + all of stone, and named the place Fort Wise, in honour of + Governor Wise of Virginia. In 1861 the name was changed to + Fort Lyon, in honour of General Lyon, who was killed at the + battle of Wilson Creek, Missouri. In the spring of 1866, + the Arkansas River overflowed its banks, swept up into the + fort, and, undermining the walls, rendered it untenable for + military purposes. The camp was moved to a point twenty + miles below, and the new Fort Lyon established. The old + post was repaired, and used as a stage station by Barlow, + Sanderson, and Company, who ran a mail, express, and + passenger line between Kansas City and Santa Fe. + +The contiguous region to Fort William was in the early days a famous +hunting-ground. It abounded in nearly every variety of animal +indigenous to the mountains and plains, among which were the panther +--the so-called California lion of to-day--the lynx, erroneously termed +wild cat, white wolf, prairie wolf, silver-gray fox, prairie fox, +antelope, buffalo, gray, grizzly and cinnamon bears, together with +the common brown and black species, the red deer and the black-tail, +the latter the finest venison in the world. Of birds there were +wild turkeys, quail, and grouse, besides an endless variety of the +smaller-sized families, not regarded as belonging to the domain of +game in a hunter's sense. It was a veritable paradise, too, for the +trappers. Its numerous streams and creeks were famous for beaver, +otter, and mink. + +Scarcely an acre of the surrounding area within the radius of +hundreds of miles but has been the scene of many deadly encounters +with the wily red man, stories of which are still current among the +few old mountaineers yet living. + +The fort was six hundred and fifty miles west of Fort Leavenworth, +in latitude thirty-eight degrees and two minutes north, and longitude +one hundred and three degrees and three minutes west, from Greenwich. +The exterior walls of the fort, whose figure was that of a parallelogram, +were fifteen feet high and four feet thick. It was a hundred and +thirty-five feet wide and divided into various compartments. On the +northwest and southeast corners were hexagonal bastions, in which +were mounted a number of cannon. The walls of the building served +as the walls of the rooms, all of which faced inwards on a plaza, +after the general style of Mexican architecture. The roofs of the +rooms were made of poles, on which was a heavy layer of dirt, as in +the houses of native Mexicans to-day. The fort possessed a billiard +table, that visitors might amuse themselves, and in the office was +a small telescope with a fair range of seven miles. + +The occupants of the far-away establishment, in its palmy days +(for years it was the only building between Council Grove and the +mountains), were traders, Indians, hunters, and French trappers, +who were the employees of the great fur companies. Many of the latter +had Indian wives. Later, after a stage line had been put in operation +across the plains to Santa Fe, the fort was relegated to a mere +station for the overland route, and with the march of civilization +in its course westward, the trappers, hunters, and traders vanished +from the once famous rendezvous. + +The walls were loopholed for musketry, and the entrance to the plaza, +or corral, was guarded by large wooden gates. During the war with +Mexico, the fort was headquarters for the commissary department, +and many supplies were stored there, though the troops camped below +on the beautiful river-bottom. In the centre of the corral, in the +early days when the place was a rendezvous of the trappers, a large +buffalo-robe press was erected. When the writer first saw the famous +fort, now over a third of a century ago, one of the cannon, that +burst in firing a salute to General Kearney, could be seen half +buried in the dirt of the plaza. + +By barometrical measurements taken by the engineer officers of the +army at different times, the height of Bent's Fort above the ocean +level is approximately eight thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight +feet, and the fall of the Arkansas River from the fort to the great +bend of that stream, about three hundred and eleven miles east, +is seven feet and four-tenths per mile. + +It was in a relatively fair state of preservation thirty-three years +ago, but now not a vestige of it remains, excepting perhaps a mound +of dirt, the disintegration of the mud bricks of which the historical +structure was built. + +The Indians whose villages were located a few miles below the fort, +or at least the chief men of the various tribes, passed much of their +time within the shelter of the famous structure. They were bountifully +fed, and everything they needed furnished them. This was purely from +policy, however; for if their wishes were not gratified, their +hunters would not bring in their furs to trade. The principal chiefs +never failed to be present when a meal was announced as ready, and +however scarce provisions might be, the Indians must be fed. + +The first farm in the fertile and now valuable lands of the valley of +the Rio de las Animas[60] was opened by the Bents. The area selected +for cultivation was in the beautiful bottom between the fort and the +ford, a strip about a mile in length, and from one hundred and fifty +to six hundred feet in width. Nothing could be grown without irrigation, +and to that end an acequia, as the Mexicans call the ditch through +which the water flows, was constructed, and a crop put in. Before +the enterprising projectors of the scheme could reap a harvest, +the hostile savages dashed in and destroyed everything. + +Uncle John Smith was one of the principal traders back in the '30's, +and he was very successful, perhaps because he was undoubtedly the +most perfect master of the Cheyenne language at that time in the +whole mountain region. + +Among those who frequently came to the fort were Kit Carson, +L. B. Maxwell, Uncle Dick Wooton, Baptiste Brown, Jim Bridger, +Old Bill Williams, James Beckwourth, Shawnee Spiebuck, Shawnee Jake +--the latter two, noted Indian trappers--besides a host of others. + +The majority of the old trappers, to a stranger, until he knew their +peculiar characteristics, were seemingly of an unsociable disposition. +It was an erroneous idea, however; for they were the most genial +companions imaginable, generous to a fault, and to fall into one of +their camps was indeed a lucky thing for the lost traveller. +Everything the host had was at his guest's disposal, and though +coffee and sugar were the dearest of his luxuries, often purchased +with a whole season's trapping, the black fluid was offered with +genuine free-heartedness, and the last plug of tobacco placed at the +disposition of his chance visitor, as though it could be picked up +on the ground anywhere. + +Goods brought by the traders to the rendezvous for sale to the +trappers and hunters, although of the most inferior quality, were +sold at enormously high prices. + +Coffee, by the pint-cup, which was the usual measure for everything, +cost from a dollar and twenty cents to three dollars; tobacco a dollar +and a half a plug; alcohol from two dollars to five dollars a pint; +gunpowder one dollar and sixty cents a pint-cup, and all other +articles at proportionably exorbitant rates. + +The annual gatherings of the trappers at the rendezvous were often +the scene of bloody duels; for over their cups and cards no men were +more quarrelsome than the old-time mountaineers. Rifles at twenty +paces settled all difficulties, and, as may be imagined, the fall +of one or the other of the combatants was certain, or, as sometimes +happened, both fell at the word "Fire!" + +The trapper's visits to the Mexican settlements, or to the lodges +of a tribe of Indians, for the purpose of trading, often resulted +in his returning to his quiet camp with a woman to grace his solitary +home, the loving and lonely couple as devoted to each other in the +midst of blood-thirsty enemies, howling wolves, and panthers, as if +they were in some quiet country village. + +The easy manners of the harum-scarum, reckless trappers at the +rendezvous, and the simple, unsuspecting hearts of those nymphs of +the mountains, the squaws, caused their husbands to be very jealous +of the attentions bestowed upon them by strangers. Often serious +difficulties arose, in the course of which the poor wife received +a severe whipping with the knot of a lariat, or no very light +lodge-poling at the hands of her imperious sovereign. Sometimes +the affair ended in a more tragical way than a mere beating, not +infrequently the gallant paying the penalty of his interference with +his life. + +Garrard, a traveller on the great plains and in the Rocky Mountains +half a century ago, from whose excellent diary I have frequently +quoted, passed many days and nights at Bent's Fort fifty years ago, +and his quaint description of life there in that remote period of +the extreme frontier is very amusing. Its truth has often been +confirmed by Uncle John Smith, who was my guide and interpreter in +the Indian expedition of 1868-69, only two decades after Garrard's +experience. + +Rosalie, a half-breed French and Indian squaw, wife of the carpenter, +and Charlotte, the culinary divinity, were, as a Missouri teamster +remarked, "the only female women here." They were nightly led to +the floor to trip the light fantastic toe, and swung rudely or gently +in the mazes of the contra-dance, but such a medley of steps is +seldom seen out of the mountains--the halting, irregular march of the +war-dance, the slipping gallopade, the boisterous pitching of the +Missouri backwoodsman, and the more nice gyrations of the Frenchman; +for all, irrespective of rank, age, or colour, went pell-mell into +the excitement, in a manner that would have rendered a leveller of +aristocracies and select companies frantic with delight. And the +airs assumed by the fair ones, more particularly Charlotte, who took +pattern from life in the States, were amusing. She acted her part +to perfection; she was the centre of attraction, the belle of the +evening. She treated the suitors for the pleasure of the next set +with becoming ease and suavity of manner; she knew her worth, and +managed accordingly. When the favoured gallant stood by her side +waiting for the rudely scraped tune from a screeching fiddle, +satisfaction, joy, and triumph over his rivals were pictured on his +radiant face. + +James Hobbs, of whom I have already spoken, once gave me a graphic +description of the annual feast of the Comanches, Cheyennes, and +Arapahoes, which always took place at Big Timbers, near Fort William. + +Hobbs was married to the daughter of Old Wolf, the chief of the +Comanches, a really beautiful Indian girl, with whom he lived +faithfully many years. In the early summer of 1835, he went with his +father-in-law and the rest of the tribe to the great feast of that +season. He stated that on that occasion there were forty thousand +Indians assembled, and consequently large hunting parties were sent +out daily to procure food for such a vast host. The entertainment +was kept up for fifteen days, enlivened by horse races, foot races, +and playing ball. In these races the tribes would bet their horses +on the result, the Comanches generally winning, for they are the best +riders in the world. By the time the feast was ended, the Arapahoes +and Cheyennes usually found themselves afoot, but Old Wolf, who was a +generous fellow, always gave them back enough animals to get home with. + +The game of ball was played with crooked sticks, and is very much +like the American boys' "shinny." The participants are dressed in +a simple breech-cloth and moccasins. It is played with great +enthusiasm and affords much amusement. + +At these annual feasts a council of the great chiefs of the three +tribes is always held, and at the one during the season referred to, +Hobbs said the Cheyenne chiefs wanted Old Wolf to visit Bent's Fort, +where he had never been. Upon the arrival of the delegation there, +it was heartily welcomed by all the famous men who happened to be at +the place, among whom were Kit Carson, Old John Smith, and several +noted trappers. Whiskey occupied a prominent place in the rejoicing, +and "I found it hard work," said Hobbs, "to stand the many toasts +drank to my good health." The whole party, including Old Wolf and +his companion the Cheyenne chief, got very much elated, and every +person in the fort smelt whiskey, if they did not get their feet +tangled with it. + +About midnight a messenger came inside, reporting that a thousand +Comanche warriors were gathering around the fort. They demanded +their leaders, fearing treachery, and desired to know why their chief +had not returned. Hobbs went out and explained that he was safe; +but they insisted on seeing him, so he and Hobbs showed themselves +to the assembled Indians, and Old Wolf made a speech, telling them +that he and the Cheyenne chief were among good friends to the Indians, +and presents would be given to them the next morning. The warriors +were pacified with these assurances, though they did not leave the +vicinity of the fort. + +It was at this time that Hobbs was ransomed by Colonel Bent, who gave +Old Wolf, for him, six yards of red flannel, a pound of tobacco, and +an ounce of beads. + +The chief was taken in charge by a lieutenant, who showed him all +over the fort, letting him see the rifle port-holes, and explaining +how the place could stand a siege against a thousand Indians. Finally, +he was taken out on the parapet, where there was a six-pounder at +each angle. The old savage inquired how they could shoot such a thing, +and at Hobbs' request, a blank cartridge was put in the piece and +fired. Old Wolf sprang back in amazement, and the Indians on the +outside, under the walls, knowing nothing of what was going on, +ran away as fast as their legs could carry them, convinced that +their chief must be dead now and their own safety dependent upon +flight. Old Wolf and Hobbs sprang upon the wall and signalled and +shouted to them, and they returned, asking in great astonishment +what kind of a monstrous gun it was. + +About noon trading commenced. The Indians wished to come into the +fort, but Bent would not let any enter but the chiefs. At the back +door the colonel displayed his goods, and the Indians brought forward +their ponies, buffalo-robes, deer and other skins, which they traded +for tobacco, beads, calico, flannel, knives, spoons, whistles, +jews'-harps, etc. + +Whiskey was sold to them the first day, but as it caused several +fights among them before night, Bent stopped its sale, at Hobbs' +suggestion and with Old Wolf's consent. Indians, when they get drunk, +do not waste time by fighting with fists, like white men, but use +knives and tomahawks; so that a general scrimmage is a serious affair. +Two or three deaths resulted the first day, and there would have been +many more if the sale of whiskey had not been stopped. + +The trading continued for eight days, and Colonel Bent reaped a rich +harvest of what he could turn into gold at St. Louis. Old Wolf slept +in the fort each night except one during that time, and every time +his warriors aroused him about twelve o'clock and compelled him to +show himself on the walls to satisfy them of his safety. + +About a hundred trappers were in the employ of Bent and his partners. +Sometimes one-half of the company were off on a hunt, leaving but +a small force at the fort for its protection, but with the small +battery there its defence was considered sufficient. + +One day a trapping party, consisting of Kit Carson, "Peg-leg" Smith, +and James Hobbs, together with some Shawnee Indians, all under the +lead of Carson, started out from Bent's Fort for the Picketwire to +trap beaver. + +Grizzlies were very abundant in that region then, and one of the +party, named McIntire, having killed an elk the evening before, said +to Hobbs that they might stand a good chance to find a grizzly by +the elk he had shot but had not brought in. Hobbs said that he was +willing to go with him, but as McIntire was a very green man in the +mountains, Hobbs had some doubts of depending on him in case of an +attack by a grizzly bear. + +The two men left for the ravine in which McIntire had killed the elk +very early in the morning, taking with them tomahawks, hunting-knives, +rifles, and a good dog. On arriving at the ravine, Hobbs told +McIntire to cross over to the other side and climb the hill, but on +no account to go down into the ravine, as a grizzly is more dangerous +when he has a man on the downhill side. Hobbs then went to where he +thought the elk might be if he had died by the bank of the stream; +but as soon as he came near the water, he saw that a large grizzly +had got there before him, having scented the animal, and was already +making his breakfast. + +The bear was in thick, scrubby oak brush, and Hobbs, making his dog +lie down, crawled behind a rock to get a favourable shot at the beast. +He drew a bead on him and fired, but the bear only snarled at the +wound made by the ball and started tearing through the brush, biting +furiously at it as he went. Hobbs reloaded his rifle carefully, +and as quickly as he could, in order to get a second shot; but, +to his amazement, he saw the bear rushing down the ravine chasing +McIntire, who was only about ten feet in advance of the enraged beast, +running for his life, and making as much noise as a mad bull. He was +terribly scared, and Hobbs hastened to his rescue, first sending his +dog ahead. + +Just as the dog reached the bear, McIntire darted behind a tree and +flung his hat in the bear's face, at the same time sticking his +rifle toward him. The old grizzly seized the muzzle of the gun in +his teeth, and, as it was loaded and cocked, it either went off +accidentally or otherwise and blew the bear's head open, just as the +dog had fastened on his hindquarters. Hobbs ran to the assistance +of his comrade with all haste, but he was out of danger and had sat +down a few rods away, with his face as white as a sheet, a badly +frightened man. + +After that fearful scare, McIntire would cook or do anything, but +said he never intended to make a business of bear-hunting; he had +only wished for one adventure, and this one had satisfied him. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. +PAWNEE ROCK. + + + +That portion of the great central plains which radiates from +Pawnee Rock, including the Big Bend of the Arkansas, thirteen miles +distant, where that river makes a sudden sweep to the southeast, +and the beautiful valley of the Walnut, in all its vast area of +more than a million square acres, was from time immemorial a sort of +debatable land, occupied by none of the Indian tribes, but claimed +by all to hunt in; for it was a famous pasturage of the buffalo. + +None of the various bands had the temerity to attempt its permanent +occupancy; for whenever hostile tribes met there, which was of +frequent occurrence, in their annual hunt for their winter's supply +of meat, a bloody battle was certain to ensue. The region referred +to has been the scene of more sanguinary conflicts between the +different Indians of the plains, perhaps, than any other portion +of the continent. Particularly was it the arena of war to the death, +when the Pawnees met their hereditary enemies, the Cheyennes. + +Pawnee Rock was a spot well calculated by nature to form, as it +has done, an important rendezvous and ambuscade for the prowling +savages of the prairies, and often afforded them, especially the +once powerful and murderous Pawnees whose name it perpetuates, +a pleasant little retreat or eyrie from which to watch the passing +Santa Fe traders, and dash down upon them like hawks, to carry off +their plunder and their scalps. + +Through this once dangerous region, close to the silent Arkansas, +and running under the very shadow of the rock, the Old Trail wound +its course. Now, at this point, it is the actual road-bed of the +Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, so strangely are the past +and present transcontinental highways connected here. + +Who, among bearded and grizzled old fellows like myself, has forgotten +that most sensational of all the miserably executed illustrations +in the geographies of fifty years ago, "The Santa Fe Traders attacked +by Indians"? The picture located the scene of the fight at Pawnee +Rock, which formed a sort of nondescript shadow in the background +of a crudely drawn representation of the dangers of the Trail. + +If this once giant sentinel[61] of the plains might speak, what a +story it could tell of the events that have happened on the beautiful +prairie stretching out for miles at its feet! + +In the early fall, when the rock was wrapped in the soft amber haze +which is a distinguishing characteristic of the incomparable Indian +summer on the plains; or in the spring, when the mirage weaves its +mysterious shapes, it loomed up in the landscape as if it were a huge +mountain, and to the inexperienced eye appeared as if it were the +abrupt ending of a well-defined range. But when the frost came, +and the mists were dispelled; when the thin fringe of timber on the +Walnut, a few miles distant, had doffed its emerald mantle, and +the grass had grown yellow and rusty, then in the golden sunlight +of winter, the rock sank down to its normal proportions, and cut +the clear blue of the sky with sharply marked lines. + +In the days when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, the Pawnees +were the most formidable tribe on the eastern central plains, and +the freighters and trappers rarely escaped a skirmish with them +either at the crossing of the Walnut, Pawnee Rock, the Fork of the +Pawnee, or at Little and Big Coon creeks. To-day what is left of +the historic hill looks down only upon peaceful homes and fruitful +fields, whereas for hundreds of years it witnessed nothing but battle +and death, and almost every yard of brown sod at its base covered +a skeleton. In place of the horrid yell of the infuriated savage, +as he wrenched off the reeking scalp of his victim, the whistle of +the locomotive and the pleasant whirr of the reaping-machine is heard; +where the death-cry of the painted warrior rang mournfully over +the silent prairie, the waving grain is singing in beautiful rhythm +as it bows to the summer breeze. + +Pawnee Rock received its name in a baptism of blood, but there are +many versions as to the time and sponsors. It was there that Kit +Carson killed his first Indian, and from that fight, as he told me +himself, the broken mass of red sandstone was given its distinctive +title. + +It was late in the spring of 1826; Kit was then a mere boy, only +seventeen years old, and as green as any boy of his age who had never +been forty miles from the place where he was born. Colonel Ceran +St. Vrain, then a prominent agent of one of the great fur companies, +was fitting out an expedition destined for the far-off Rocky Mountains, +the members of which, all trappers, were to obtain the skins of the +buffalo, beaver, otter, mink, and other valuable fur-bearing animals +that then roamed in immense numbers on the vast plains or in the +hills, and were also to trade with the various tribes of Indians on +the borders of Mexico. + +Carson joined this expedition, which was composed of twenty-six +mule wagons, some loose stock, and forty-two men. The boy was hired +to help drive the extra animals, hunt game, stand guard, and to make +himself generally useful, which, of course, included fighting Indians +if any were met with on the long route. + +The expedition left Fort Osage one bright morning in May in excellent +spirits, and in a few hours turned abruptly to the west on the broad +Trail to the mountains. The great plains in those early days were +solitary and desolate beyond the power of description; the Arkansas +River sluggishly followed the tortuous windings of its treeless banks +with a placidness that was awful in its very silence; and whoso +traced the wanderings of that stream with no companion but his own +thoughts, realized in all its intensity the depth of solitude from +which Robinson Crusoe suffered on his lonely island. Illimitable as +the ocean, the weary waste stretched away until lost in the purple of +the horizon, and the mirage created weird pictures in the landscape, +distorted distances and objects which continually annoyed and deceived. +Despite its loneliness, however, there was then, and ever has been +for many men, an infatuation for those majestic prairies that once +experienced is never lost, and it came to the boyish heart of Kit, +who left them but with life, and full of years. + +There was not much variation in the eternal sameness of things during +the first two weeks, as the little train moved day after day through +the wilderness of grass, its ever-rattling wheels only intensifying +the surrounding monotony. Occasionally, however, a herd of buffalo +was discovered in the distance, their brown, shaggy sides contrasting +with the never-ending sea of verdure around them. Then young Kit, +and two or three others of the party who were detailed to supply +the teamsters and trappers with meat, would ride out after them on +the best of the extra horses which were always kept saddled and tied +together behind the last wagon for services of this kind. Kit, who +was already an excellent horseman and a splendid shot with the rifle, +would soon overtake them, and topple one after another of their huge +fat carcasses over on the prairie until half a dozen or more were +lying dead. The tender humps, tongues, and other choice portions +were then cut out and put in a wagon which had by that time reached +them from the train, and the expedition rolled on. + +So they marched for about three weeks, when they arrived at the +crossing of the Walnut, where they saw the first signs of Indians. +They had halted for that day; the mules were unharnessed, the +camp-fires lighted, and the men just about to indulge in their +refreshing coffee, when suddenly half a dozen Pawnees, mounted on +their ponies, hideously painted and uttering the most demoniacal +yells, rushed out of the tall grass on the river-bottom, where they +had been ambushed, and swinging their buffalo-robes, attempted to +stampede the herd picketed near the camp. The whole party were on +their feet in an instant with rifles in hand, and all the savages +got for their trouble were a few well-deserved shots as they hurriedly +scampered back to the river and over into the sand hills on the other +side, soon to be out of sight. + +The expedition travelled sixteen miles next day, and camped at +Pawnee Rock, where, after the experience of the evening before, +every precaution was taken to prevent a surprise by the savages. +The wagons were formed into a corral, so that the animals could be +secured in the event of a prolonged fight; the guards were drilled +by the colonel, and every man slept with his rifle for a bed-fellow, +for the old trappers knew that the Indians would never remain +satisfied with their defeat on the Walnut, but would seize the first +favourable opportunity to renew their attack. + +At dark the sentinels were placed in position, and to young Kit fell +the important post immediately in front of the south face of the +Rock, nearly two hundred yards from the corral; the others being at +prominent points on top, and on the open prairie on either side. +All who were not on duty had long since been snoring heavily, +rolled up in their blankets and buffalo-robes, when at about half-past +eleven, one of the guard gave the alarm, "Indians!" and ran the mules +that were nearest him into the corral. In a moment the whole company +turned out at the report of a rifle ringing on the clear night air, +coming from the direction of the rock. The men had gathered at +the opening to the corral, waiting for developments, when Kit came +running in, and as soon as he was near enough, the colonel asked him +whether he had seen any Indians. "Yes," Kit replied, "I killed one +of the red devils; I saw him fall!" + +The alarm proved to be false; there was no further disturbance that +night, so the party returned to their beds, and the sentinels to +their several posts, Kit of course to his place in front of the Rock. + +Early the next morning, before breakfast even, all were so anxious +to see Kit's dead Indian, that they went out en masse to where he was +still stationed, and instead of finding a painted Pawnee, as was +expected, they found the boy's riding mule dead, shot right through +the head. + +Kit felt terribly mortified over his ridiculous blunder, and it was +a long time before he heard the last of his midnight adventure and +his raid on his own mule. But he always liked to tell the "balance +of the story," as he termed it, and this is his version: "I had not +slept any the night before, for I stayed awake watching to get a +shot at the Pawnees that tried to stampede our animals, expecting +they would return; and I hadn't caught a wink all day, as I was out +buffalo hunting, so I was awfully tired and sleepy when we arrived +at Pawnee Rock that evening, and when I was posted at my place at +night, I must have gone to sleep leaning against the rocks; at any +rate, I was wide enough awake when the cry of Indians was given by +one of the guard. I had picketed my mule about twenty steps from +where I stood, and I presume he had been lying down; all I remember +is that the first thing I saw after the alarm was something rising up +out of the grass, which I thought was an Indian. I pulled the trigger; +it was a centre shot, and I don't believe the mule ever kicked after +he was hit!" + +The next morning about daylight, a band of Pawnees attacked the train +in earnest, and kept the little command busy all that day, the next +night, and until the following midnight, nearly three whole days, +the mules all the time being shut in the corral without food or water. +At midnight of the second day the colonel ordered the men to hitch up +and attempt to drive on to the crossing of Pawnee Fork, thirteen miles +distant.[62] They succeeded in getting there, fighting their way +without the loss of any of their men or animals. The Trail crossed +the creek in the shape of a horseshoe, or rather, in consequence of +the double bend of the stream as it empties into the Arkansas, the +road crossed it twice. In making this passage, dangerous on account +of its crookedness, Kit said many of the wagons were badly mashed up; +for the mules were so thirsty that their drivers could not control +them. The train was hardly strung out on the opposite bank when +the Indians poured in a volley of bullets and a shower of arrows +from both sides of the Trail; but before they could load and fire +again, a terrific charge was on them, led by Colonel St. Vrain and +Carson. It required only a few moments more to clean out the +persistent savages, and the train went on. During the whole fight +the little party lost four men killed and seven wounded, and eleven +mules killed (not counting Kit's), and twenty badly wounded. + +A great many years ago, very early in the days of the trade with +New Mexico, seven Americans were surprised by a large band of Pawnees +in the vicinity of the Rock and were compelled to retreat to it for +safety. There, without water, and with but a small quantity of +provisions, they were besieged by their blood-thirsty foes for two +days, when a party of traders coming on the Trail relieved them from +their perilous situation and the presence of their enemy. There were +several graves on its summit when I first saw Pawnee Rock; but +whether they contained the bones of savages or those of white men, +I do not know. + +Carson related to me another terrible fight that took place at the +rock, when he first became a trapper. He was not a participant, +but knew the parties well. About twenty-nine years ago, Kit, Jack +Henderson, who was agent for the Ute Indians, Lucien B. Maxwell, +General Carleton and myself were camped halfway up the rugged sides +of Old Baldy, in the Raton Range. The night was intensely cold, +although in midsummer, and we were huddled around a little fire of +pine knots, more than seven thousand feet above the level of the sea, +close to the snow limit. + +Kit, or "the General," as every one called him, was in a good humour +for talking, and we naturally took advantage of this to draw him out; +for usually he was the most reticent of men in relating his own +exploits. A casual remark made by Maxwell opened Carson's mouth, +and he said he remembered one of the "worst difficults" a man ever +got into.[63] So he made a fresh corn-shuck cigarette, and related +the following; but the names of the old trappers who were the +principals in the fight I have unfortunately forgotten. + +Two men had been trapping in the Powder River country during one +winter with unusually good luck, and they got an early start with +their furs, which they were going to take to Weston, on the Missouri, +one of the principal trading points in those days. They walked the +whole distance, driving their pack-mules before them, and experienced +no trouble until they struck the Arkansas valley at Pawnee Rock. +There they were intercepted by a war-party of about sixty Pawnees. +Both of the trappers were notoriously brave and both dead shots. +Before they arrived at the rock, to which they were finally driven, +they killed two of the Indians, and had not themselves received a +scratch. They had plenty of powder, a pouch full of balls each, +and two good rifles. They also had a couple of jack-rabbits for +food in case of a siege, and the perpendicular walls of the front +of the rock made them a natural fortification, an almost impregnable +one against Indians. + +They succeeded in securely picketing their animals at the side of +the rock, where they could protect them by their unerring rifles +from being stampeded. After the Pawnees had "treed" the two trappers +on the rock, they picked up their dead, and packed them off to their +camp at the mouth of a little ravine a short distance away. In a few +moments back they all came, mounted on fast ponies, with their +war-paint and other fixings on, ready to renew the fight. They +commenced to circle around the place, coming closer, Indian fashion, +every time, until they got within easy rifle-range, when they slung +themselves on the opposite sides of their horses, and in that position +opened fire. Their arrows fell like a hailstorm, but as good luck +would have it, none of them struck, and the balls from their rifles +were wild, as the Indians in those days were not very good shots; +the rifle was a new weapon to them. The trappers at first were +afraid the savages would surely try to kill the mules, but soon +reflected that the Indians believed they had the "dead-wood" on them, +and the mules would come handy after they had been scalped; so they +felt satisfied their animals were safe for a while anyhow. The men +were taking in all the chances, however; both kept their eyes skinned, +and whenever one of them saw a stray leg or head, he drew a bead +on it and when he pulled the trigger, its owner tumbled over with +a yell of rage from his companions. + +Whenever the savages attempted to carry off their dead,[64] the two +trappers took advantage of the opportunity, and poured in their +shots every time with telling effect. + +By this time night had fallen, and the Indians did not seem anxious +to renew the fight after dark; but they kept their mounted patrols +on every side of the rock, at a respectable distance from such dead +shots, watching to prevent the escape of the besieged. As they were +hungry, one of the men went down under cover of the darkness to get +a few buffalo-chips with which to cook their rabbit, and to change +the animals to where they could get fresh grass. He returned safely +to the summit of the rock, where a little fire was made and their +supper prepared. They had to go without water all the time, and so +did the mules; the men did not mind the want of it themselves, but +they could not help pitying their poor animals that had had none +since they left camp early that morning. It was no use to worry, +though; the nearest water was at the river, and it would have been +certain death to have attempted to go there unless the savages +cleared out, and from all appearances they had no idea of doing that. + +What gave the trappers more cause for alarm than anything else, +was the fear that the Indians would fire the prairie in the morning, +and endeavour to smoke them out or burn them up. The grass was in +just the condition to make a lively blaze, and they might escape +the flames, and then they might not. It can well be imagined how +eagerly they watched for the dawn of another day, perhaps the last +for them. + +The first gray streaks of light had hardly peeped above the horizon, +when, with an infernal yell, the Indians broke for the rock, and +the trappers were certain that some new project had entered their +heads. The wind was springing up pretty freshly, and nature seemed +to conspire with the red devils, if they really meant to burn the +trappers out; and from the movements of the savages, that was what +they expected. The Indians kept at a respectful distance from the +range of the trappers' rifles, who chafed because they could not +stop some of the infernal yelling with a few well-directed bullets, +but they had to choke their rage, and watch events closely. During +a temporary lull in hostilities, one of the trappers took occasion +to crawl down to where the mules were, and shift them to the west +side of the rock, where the wall was the highest; so that the flame +and smoke might possibly pass by them without so much danger as where +they were picketed before. He had just succeeded in doing this, +and, tearing up the long grass for several yards around the animals, +was in the act of going back, when his partner yelled out to him: +"Look out! D---n 'em, they've fired the prairie!" He was back on +the top of the rock in another moment, and took in at a glance what +was coming. + +The spectacle for a short interval was indescribably grand; the sun +was shining with all the power of its rays on the huge clouds of smoke +as they rolled down from the north, tinting them a glorious crimson. +The two trappers had barely time to get under the shelter of a large +projecting point of the rocky wall, when the wind and smoke swept +down to the ground, and instantly they were enveloped in the darkness +of midnight. They could not discern a single object; neither Indians, +horses, the prairie, nor the sun; and what a terrible wind! + +The trappers stood breathless, clinging to the projections of rock, +and did not realize the fire was so near them until they were struck +in the face by pieces of burning buffalo-chips that were carried +toward them with the rapidity of the awful wind. They were now badly +scared, for it seemed as if they were to be suffocated. They were +saved, however, almost miraculously; the sheet of flame passed them +twenty yards away, as the wind fortunately shifted at the moment +the fire reached the foot of the rock. The darkness was so intense +that they did not discover the flame; they only knew that they were +saved as the clear sky greeted them from behind the dense smoke-cloud. + +Two of the Indians and their horses were caught in their own trap, +and perished miserably. They had attempted to reach the east side +of the rock, so as to steal around to the other side where the mules +were, and either cut them loose or crawl up on the trappers while +bewildered in the smoke and kill them, if they were not already dead. +But they had proceeded only a few rods on their little expedition, +when the terrible darkness of the smoke-cloud overtook them and soon +the flames, from which there was no possible escape. + +All the game on the prairie which the fire swept over was killed too. +Only a few buffalo were visible in that region before the fire, but +even they were killed. The path of the flames, as was discovered by +the caravans that passed over the Trail a few days afterward, was +marked with the crisp and blackened carcasses of wolves, coyotes, +turkeys, grouse, and every variety of small birds indigenous to the +region. Indeed, it seemed as if no living thing it had met escaped +its fury. The fire assumed such gigantic proportions, and moved +with such rapidity before the wind, that even the Arkansas River +did not check its path for a moment; it was carried as readily across +as if the stream had not been in its way. + +The first thought of the trappers on the rock was for their poor +mules. One crawled to where they were, and found them badly singed, +but not seriously injured. The men began to brighten up again when +they knew that their means of transportation were relatively all +right, and themselves also, and they took fresh courage, beginning +to believe they should get out of their bad scrape after all. + +In the meantime the Indians, with the exception of three or four +left to guard the rock, so as to prevent the trappers from getting +away, had gone back to their camp in the ravine, and were evidently +concocting some new scheme for the discomfort of the besieged +trappers. The latter waited patiently two or three hours for the +development of events, snatching a little sleep by turns, which they +needed much; for both were worn out by their constant watching. +At last when the sun was about three hours high, the Indians commenced +their infernal howling again, and then the trappers knew they had +decided upon something; so they were on the alert in a moment to +discover what it was, and euchre them if possible. + +The devils this time had tied all their ponies together, covered +them with branches of trees that they had gone up on the Walnut for, +packed some lodge-skins on these, and then, driving the living +breastworks before them, moved toward the rock. They proceeded +cautiously but surely, and matters began to look very serious for +the trappers. As the strange cavalcade approached, a trapper raised +his rifle, and a masked pony tumbled over on the scorched sod dead. +As one of the Indians ran to cut him loose, the other trapper took +him off his feet by a well-directed shot; he never uttered a groan. +The besieged now saw their only salvation was to kill the ponies +and so demoralize the Indians that they would have to abandon such +tactics, and quicker than I can tell it, they had stretched four +more out on the prairie, and made it so hot for the savages that +they ran out of range and began to hold a council of war. + +Finding that their plan would not work--for as the last pony was shot, +the rest stampeded and were running wild over the prairie--the Indians +soon went back to their camp again, and the trappers now had a few +spare moments in which to take an account of stock. They discovered, +much to their chagrin, that they had used up all their ammunition +except three or four loads, and despair hovered over them once more. + +The Indians did not reappear that evening, and the cause was apparent; +for in the distance could be seen a long line of wagons, one of the +large American caravans en route to Santa Fe. The savages had seen +it before the trappers, and had cleared out. When the train arrived +opposite the rock, the relieved men came down from their little +fortress, joined the caravan, and camped with the Americans that +night on the Walnut. While they were resting around their camp-fire, +smoking and telling of their terrible experience on the top of the +rock, the Indians could be heard chanting the death-song while they +were burying their warriors under the blackened sod of the prairie. + +I witnessed a spirited encounter between a small band of Cheyennes +and Pawnees in the fall of 1867. It occurred on the open prairie +north of the mouth of the Walnut, and not a great distance from +Pawnee Rock. Both tribes were hunting buffalo, and when they, +by accident, discovered the presence of each other, with a yell +that fairly shook the sand dunes on the Arkansas, they rushed at once +into the shock of battle. + +That night, in a timbered bend of the Walnut, the victors had a grand +dance, in which scalps, ears, and fingers of their enemies, suspended +by strings to long poles, were important accessories to their weird +orgies around their huge camp-fires.[65] + +One of the most horrible massacres in the history of the Trail +occurred at Little Cow Creek in the summer of 1864. In July of that +year a government caravan, loaded with military stores for Fort Union +in New Mexico, left Fort Leavenworth for the long and dangerous +journey of more than seven hundred miles over the great plains, +which that season were infested by Indians to a degree almost without +precedent in the annals of freight traffic. + +The train was owned by a Mr. H. C. Barret, a contractor with the +quartermaster's department; but he declined to take the chances of +the trip unless the government would lease the outfit in its entirety, +or give him an indemnifying bond as assurance against any loss. +The chief quartermaster executed the bond as demanded, and Barret +hired his teamsters for the hazardous journey; but he found it a +difficult matter to induce men to go out that season. + +Among those whom he persuaded to enter his employ was a mere boy, +named McGee, who came wandering into Leavenworth a few weeks before +the train was ready to leave, seeking work of any description. +His parents had died on their way to Kansas, and on his arrival at +Westport Landing, the emigrant outfit that had extended to him +shelter and protection in his utter loneliness was disbanded; so the +youthful orphan was thrown on his own resources. At that time the +Indians of the great plains, especially along the line of the Santa Fe +Trail, were very hostile, and continually harassing the freight +caravans and stage-coaches of the overland route. Companies of men +were enlisting and being mustered into the United States service to +go out after the savages, and young Robert McGee volunteered with +hundreds of others for the dangerous duty. The government needed +men badly, but McGee's youth militated against him, and he was below +the required stature; so he was rejected by the mustering officer. + +Mr. Barret, in hunting for teamsters to drive his caravan, came +across McGee, who, supposing that he was hiring as a government +employee, accepted Mr. Barret's offer. + +By the last day of June the caravan was all ready, and on the morning +of the next day, July 1, the wagons rolled out of the fort, escorted +by a company of United States troops, from the volunteers referred to. + +The caravan wound its weary way over the lonesome Trail with nothing +to relieve the monotony save a few skirmishes with the Indians; but +no casualties occurred in these insignificant battles, the savages +being afraid to venture too near on account of the presence of the +military escort. + +On the 18th of July, the caravan arrived in the vicinity of Fort +Larned. There it was supposed that the proximity of that military +post would be a sufficient guarantee from any attack of the savages; +so the men of the train became careless, and as the day was excessively +hot, they went into camp early in the afternoon, the escort remaining +in bivouac about a mile in the rear of the train. + +About five o'clock, a hundred and fifty painted savages, under the +command of Little Turtle of the Brule Sioux, swooped down on the +unsuspecting caravan while the men were enjoying their evening meal. +Not a moment was given them to rally to the defence of their lives, +and of all belonging to the outfit, with the exception of one boy, +not a soul came out alive. + +The teamsters were every one of them shot dead and their bodies +horribly mutilated. After their successful raid, the savages +destroyed everything they found in the wagons, tearing the covers +into shreds, throwing the flour on the trail, and winding up by +burning everything that was combustible. + +On the same day the commanding officer of Fort Larned had learned +from some of his scouts that the Brule Sioux were on the war-path, +and the chief of the scouts with a handful of soldiers was sent out +to reconnoitre. They soon struck the trail of Little Turtle and +followed it to the scene of the massacre on Cow Creek, arriving +there only two hours after the savages had finished their devilish +work. Dead men were lying about in the short buffalo-grass which +had been stained and matted by their flowing blood, and the agonized +posture of their bodies told far more forcibly than any language +the tortures which had come before a welcome death. All had been +scalped; all had been mutilated in that nameless manner which seems +to delight the brutal instincts of the North American savage. + +Moving slowly from one to the other of the lifeless forms which +still showed the agony of their death-throes, the chief of the scouts +came across the bodies of two boys, both of whom had been scalped +and shockingly wounded, besides being mutilated, yet, strange to say, +both of them were alive. As tenderly as the men could lift them, +they were conveyed at once back to Fort Larned and given in charge +of the post surgeon. One of the boys died in a few hours after his +arrival in the hospital, but the other, Robert McGee, slowly regained +his strength, and came out of the ordeal in fairly good health. + +The story of the massacre was related by young McGee, after he was +able to talk, while in the hospital at the fort; for he had not +lost consciousness during the suffering to which he was subjected +by the savages. + +He was compelled to witness the tortures inflicted on his wounded and +captive companions, after which he was dragged into the presence of +the chief, Little Turtle, who determined that he would kill the boy +with his own hands. He shot him in the back with his own revolver, +having first knocked him down with a lance handle. He then drove +two arrows through the unfortunate boy's body, fastening him to the +ground, and stooping over his prostrate form ran his knife around +his head, lifting sixty-four square inches of his scalp, trimming +it off just behind his ears. + +Believing him dead by that time, Little Turtle abandoned his victim; +but the other savages, as they went by his supposed corpse, could not +resist their infernal delight in blood, so they thrust their knives +into him, and bored great holes in his body with their lances. + +After the savages had done all that their devilish ingenuity could +contrive, they exultingly rode away, yelling as they bore off the +reeking scalps of their victims, and drove away the hundreds of mules +they had captured. + +When the tragedy was ended, the soldiers, who had from their +vantage-ground witnessed the whole diabolical transaction, came up +to the bloody camp by order of their commander, to learn whether +the teamsters had driven away their assailants, and saw too late +what their cowardice had allowed to take place. The officer in +command of the escort was dismissed the service, as he could not +give any satisfactory reason for not going to the rescue of the +caravan he had been ordered to guard. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. +FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. + + + +The Wagon Mound, so called from its resemblance to a covered army-wagon, +is a rocky mesa forty miles from Point of Rocks, westwardly. +The stretch of the Trail from the latter to the mound has been +the scene of some desperate encounters, only exceeded in number +and sanguinary results by those which have occurred in the region of +Pawnee Rock, the crossing of the Walnut, Pawnee Fork, and Cow Creek. + +One of the most remarkable stories of this Wagon Mound country dealt +with the nerve and bravery exhibited by John L. Hatcher in defence +of his life, and those of the men in his caravan, about 1858. + +Hatcher was a noted trader and merchant of New Mexico. He was also +celebrated as an Indian fighter, and his name was a terror to the +savages who infested the settlements of New Mexico and raided the Trail. + +He left Taos, where he then resided, in the summer, with his caravan +loaded with furs and pelts destined for Westport Landing; to be +forwarded from there to St. Louis, the only market for furs in the +far West. His train was a small one, comprising about fifteen wagons +and handled by about as many men, including himself. At the date +of his adventure the Indians were believed to be at peace with +everybody; a false idea, as Hatcher well knew, for there never was +such a condition of affairs as absolute immunity from their attacks. +While it might be true that the old men refrained for a time from +starting out on the war-path, there were ever the vastly greater +number of restless young warriors who had not yet earned their eagle +feathers, who could not be controlled by their chiefs, and who were +always engaged in marauding, either among the border settlements +or along the line of the Trail. + +When Hatcher was approaching the immediate vicinity of Wagon Mound,[66] +with his train strung out in single column, to his great astonishment +there suddenly charged on him from over the hill about three hundred +savages, all feather-bedecked and painted in the highest style of +Indian art. As they rode toward the caravan, they gave the sign +of peace, which Hatcher accepted for the time as true, although he +knew them well. However, he invited the head men to some refreshment, +as was usual on such occasions in those days, throwing a blanket +on the ground, on which sugar in abundance was served out. +The sweet-toothed warriors helped themselves liberally, and affected +much delight at the way they were being treated; but Hatcher, with +his knowledge of the savage character, was firm in the belief that +they came for no other purpose than to rob the caravan and kill him +and his men. + +They were Comanches, and one of the most noted chiefs of the tribe +was in command of the band, with some inferior chiefs under him. +I think it was Old Wolf, a very old man then, whose raids into Texas +had made his name a terror to the Mexicans living on the border. + +While the chiefs were eating their saccharine lunch, Hatcher was +losing no time in forming his wagons into a corral, but he told his +friends afterward that he had no idea that either he or any of his +men would escape; only fifteen or sixteen men against over three +hundred merciless savages, and those the worst on the continent, +and a small corral--the chances were totally hopeless! Nothing but +a desperate action could avail, and maybe not even that.[67] Hatcher, +after the other head men had finished eating, asked the old chief +to send his young warriors away over the hill. They were all sitting +close to one of the wagons, Old Wolf, in fact, leaning against the +wheel resting on his blanket, with Hatcher next him on his right. +Hatcher was so earnest in his appeal to have the young men sent away, +that both the venerable villain and his other chiefs rose and were +standing. Without a moment's notice or the slightest warning, +Hatcher reached with his left hand and grabbed Old Wolf by his +scalp-lock, and with his right drew his butcher-knife from its +scabbard and thrust it at the throat of the chief. All this was +done in an instant, as quick as lightning; no one had time to move. +The situation was remarkable. The little, wiry man, surrounded by +eight or nine of the most renowned warriors of the dreaded Comanches, +stood firm; everybody was breathless; not a word did the savages say. +Hatcher then said again to Old Wolf, in the most determined manner: +"Send your young men over the hill at once, or I'll kill you right +where you are!" holding on to the hair of the savage with his left +hand and keeping the knife at his throat. + +The other Indians did not dare to make a move; they knew what kind of +a man Hatcher was; they knew he would do as he had said, and that if +they attempted a rescue he would kill their favourite chief in a second. + +Old Wolf shook his head defiantly in the negative. Hatcher repeated +his order, getting madder all the time: "Send your young men over +the hill; I tell you!" Old Wolf was still stubborn; he shook his +head again. Hatcher gave him another chance: "Send your young men +over the hill, I tell you, or I'll scalp you alive as you are!" +Again the chief shook his head. Then Hatcher, still holding on the +hair of his stubborn victim, commenced to make an incision in the +head of Old Wolf, for the determined man was bound to carry out his +threat; but he began very slowly. + +As the chief felt the blood trickle down his forehead, he weakened. +He ordered his next in command to send the young men over the hill +and out of sight. The order was repeated immediately to the warriors, +who were astonished spectators of the strange scene, and they quickly +mounted their horses and rode away over the hill as fast as they +could thump their animals' sides with their legs, leaving only five +or six chiefs with Old Wolf and Hatcher. + +Hatcher held on like grim death to the old chief's head, and immediately +ordered his men to throw the robes out of the wagons as quickly as +they could, and get inside themselves. This was promptly obeyed, +and when they were all under the cover of the wagon sheets, Hatcher +let go of his victim's hair, and, with a last kick, told him and his +friends that they could leave. They went off, and did not return. + +Some laughable incidents have enlivened the generally sanguinary +history of the Old Santa Fe Trail, but they were very serious at +the time to those who were the actors, and their ludicrousness came +after all was over. + +In the late summer of 1866, a thieving band of Apaches came into the +vicinity of Fort Union, New Mexico, and after carefully reconnoitring +the whole region and getting at the manner in which the stock +belonging to the fort was herded, they secreted themselves in the +Turkey Mountains overlooking the entire reservation, and lay in wait +for several days, watching for a favourable moment to make a raid +into the valley and drive off the herd. + +Selecting an occasion when the guard was weak and not very alert, +they in broad daylight crawled under the cover of a hill, and, +mounting their horses, dashed out with the most unearthly yells and +down among the animals that were quietly grazing close to the fort, +which terrified these so greatly that they broke away from the herders, +and started at their best gait toward the mountains, closely followed +by the savages. + +The astonished soldiers used every effort to avert the evident loss +of their charge, and many shots were exchanged in the running fight +that ensued; but the Indians were too strong for them, and they were +forced to abandon the chase. + +Among the herders was a bugler boy, who was remarkable for his bravery +in the skirmish and for his untiring endeavours to turn the animals +back toward the fort, but all without avail; on they went, with the +savages, close to their heels, giving vent to the most vociferous +shouts of exultation, and directing the most obscene and insulting +gesticulations to the soldiers that were after them. + +While this exciting contest for the mastery was going on, an old +Apache chief dashed in the rear of the bold bugler boy, and could, +without doubt, easily have killed the little fellow; but instead of +doing this, from some idea of a good joke, or for some other +incomprehensible reason, his natural blood-thirsty instinct was +changed, and he merely knocked the bugler's hat from his head with +the flat of his hand, and at the same time encouragingly stroked his +hair, as much as to say: "You are a brave boy," and then rode off +without doing him any harm. + +Thirty years ago last August, I was riding from Fort Larned to Fort +Union, New Mexico, in the overland coach. I had one of my clerks +with me; we were the only passengers, and arrived at Fort Dodge, +which was the commencement of the "long route," at midnight. +There we changed drivers, and at the break of day were some +twenty-four miles on our lonely journey. The coach was rattling +along at a breakneck gait, and I saw that something was evidently +wrong. Looking out of one of the doors, I noticed that our Jehu was +in a beastly state of intoxication. It was a most dangerous portion +of the Trail; the Indians were not in the best of humours, and an +attack was not at all improbable before we arrived at the next +station, Fort Lyon. + +I said to my clerk that something must be done; so I ordered the +driver to halt, which he did willingly, got out, and found that, +notwithstanding his drunken mood, he was very affable and disposed +to be full of fun. I suggested that he get inside the coach and +lie down to sleep off his potations, to which he readily assented, +while I and my clerk, after snugly fixing him on the cushions, +got on the boot, I taking the lines, he seizing an old trace-chain, +with which he pounded the mules along; for we felt ourselves in a +ticklish predicament should we come across any of the brigands of +the plains, on that lonely route, with the animals to look out for, +and only two of us to do the fighting. + +Suddenly we saw sitting on the bank of the Arkansas River, about +a dozen rods from the Trail, an antiquated-looking savage with his +war-bonnet on, and armed with a long lance and his bow and arrows. +We did not care a cent for him, but I thought he might be one of +the tribe's runners, lying in wait to discover the condition of the +coach--whether it had an escort, and how many were riding in it, and +that then he would go and tell how ridiculously small the outfit was, +and swoop down on us with a band of his colleagues, that were hidden +somewhere in the sand hills south of the river. He rose as we came +near, and made the sign, after he had given vent to a series of +"How's!" that he wanted to talk; but we were not anxious for any +general conversation with his savage majesty just then, so my clerk +applied the trace-chain more vigorously to the tired mules, in order +to get as many miles between him and the coach as we could before +he could get over into the sand hills and back. + +It was, fortunately, a false alarm; the old warrior perhaps had no +intentions of disturbing us. We arrived at Fort Lyon in good season, +with our valorous driver absolutely sobered, requesting me to say +nothing about his accident, which, of course, I did not. + +As has been stated, the caravans bound for Santa Fe and the various +forts along the line of the Old Trail did not leave the eastern end +of the route until the grass on the plains, on which the animals +depended solely for subsistence the whole way, grew sufficiently to +sustain them, which was usually about the middle of May. But a great +many years ago, one of the high officials of the quartermaster's +department at Washington, who had never been for a moment on duty +on the frontier in his life, found a good deal of fault with what he +thought the dilatoriness of the officer in charge at Fort Leavenworth, +who controlled the question of transportation for the several forts +scattered all over the West, for not getting the freight caravans +started earlier, which the functionary at the capital said must and +should be done. He insisted that they must leave the Missouri River +by the middle of April, a month earlier than usual, and came out +himself to superintend the matter. He made the contracts accordingly, +easily finding contractors that suited him. He then wrote to +headquarters in a triumphant manner that he had revolutionized the +whole system of army transportation of supplies to the military posts. +Delighted with his success, he rode out about the second week of May +to Salt Creek, only three miles from the fort, and, very much to his +astonishment, found his teams, which he had believed to be on the +way to Santa Fe a month ago, snugly encamped. They had "started," +just as was agreed. + +There are, or rather were, hundreds of stories current thirty-five +years ago of stage-coach adventures on the Trail; a volume could be +filled with them, but I must confine myself to a few. + +John Chisholm was a famous ranchman a long while ago, who had so many +cattle that it was said he did not know their number himself. At one +time he had a large contract to furnish beef to an Indian agency +in Arizona; he had just delivered an immense herd there, and very +wisely, after receiving his cash for them, sent most of it on to +Santa Fe in advance of his own journey. When he arrived there, +he started for the Missouri River with a thousand dollars and +sufficient small change to meet his current expenses on the road. + +The very first night out from Santa Fe, the coach was halted by a +band of men who had been watching Chisholm's movements from the time +he left the agency in Arizona. The instant the stage came to a +standstill, Chisholm divined what it meant, and had time to thrust +a roll of money down one of the legs of his trousers before the door +was thrown back and he was ordered to fork over what he had. + +He invited the robbers to search him, and to take what they might +find, but said he was not in a financial condition at that juncture +to turn over much. The thieves found his watch, took that, and then +began to search him. As luck would have it, they entirely missed +the roll that was down his leg, and discovered but a two-dollar bill +in his vest. When he told them it was all he had to buy grub on +the road, one of the robbers handed him a silver dollar, remarking +as he did so: "That a man who was mean enough to travel with only +two dollars ought to starve, but he would give him the dollar just +to let him know that he was dealing with gentlemen!" + +One of the essentials to the comfort of the average soldier is +tobacco. He must have it; he would sooner forego any component part +of his ration than give it up. + +In November, 1865, a detachment of Company L, of the Eleventh Kansas +Volunteers, and of the Second Colorado were ordered from Fort Larned +to Fort Lyon on a scouting expedition along the line of the Trail, +the savages having been very active in their raids on the freight caravans. + +In a short time their tobacco began to run low, and as there was no +settlement of any kind between the two military posts, there was no +chance to replenish their stock. One night, while encamped on the +Arkansas, the only piece that was left in the whole command, about +half a plug, was unfortunately lost, and there was dismay in the +camp when the fact was announced. Hours were spent in searching for +the missing treasure. The next morning the march was delayed for +some time, while further diligent search was instituted by all hands, +but without result, and the command set out on its weary tramp, +as disconsolate as may well be imagined by those who are victims to +the habit of chewing the weed. + +Arriving at Fort Lyon, to their greater discomfort it was learned +that the sutler at that post was entirely out of the coveted article, +and the troops began their return journey more disconsolate than ever. +Dry leaves, grass, and even small bits of twigs, were chewed as a +substitute, until, reaching the spot where they had lost the part of +a plug, they determined to remain there that night and begin a more +vigorous hunt for the missing piece. Just before dark their efforts +were rewarded; one of the men found it, and such a scramble occurred +for even the smallest nibble at it! Enormous prices were given for +a single chew. It opened at one dollar for a mere sliver, rose to +five, and closed at ten dollars when the last morsel was left. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. +A DESPERATE RIDE. + + + +In the Rocky Mountains and on the great plains along the line of the +Old Trail are many rude and widely separated graves. The sequestered +little valleys, the lonely gulches, and the broad prairies through +which the highway to New Mexico wound its course, hide the bones of +hundreds of whom the world will never have any more knowledge. +The number of these solitary, and almost obliterated mounds is small +when compared with the vast multitude in the cemeteries of our towns, +though if the host of those whose bones are mouldering under the +short buffalo-grass and tall blue-stem of the prairies between the +Missouri and the mountains were tabulated, the list would be appalling. +Their aggregate will never be known; for the once remote region of +the mid-continent, like the ocean, rarely gave up its victims. +Lives went out there as goes an expiring candle, suddenly, swiftly, +and silently; no record was kept of time or place. All those who +thus died are graveless and monumentless, the great circle of the +heavens is the dome of their sepulchre, and the recurring blossoms +of springtime their only epitaph. + +Sometimes the traveller over the Old Trail will suddenly, in the most +unexpected places, come across a little mound, perhaps covered with +stones, under which lie the mouldering bones of some unfortunate +adventurer. Above, now on a rude board, then on a detached rock, or +maybe on the wall of a beetling canyon, he may frequently read, in crude +pencilling or rougher carving, the legend of the dead man's ending. + +The line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, which +practically runs over the Old Trail for nearly its whole length to +the mountains, is a fertile field of isolated graves. The savage +and soldier, the teamster and scout, the solitary trapper or hunter, +and many others who have gone down to their death fighting with the +relentless nomad of the plains, or have been otherwise ruthlessly +cut off, mark with their last resting-places that well-worn pathway +across the continent. + +The tourist, looking from his car-window as he is whirled with the +speed of a tornado toward the snow-capped peaks of the "Great Divide," +may see as he approaches Walnut Creek, three miles east of the town +of Great Bend in Kansas, on the beautiful ranch of Hon. D. Heizer, +not far from the stream, and close to the house, a series of graves, +numbering, perhaps, a score. These have been most religiously +cared for by the patriotic proprietor of the place during all the +long years since 1864, as he believes them to be the last resting-place +of soldiers who were once a portion of the garrison of Fort Zarah, +the ruins of which (now a mere hole in the earth) are but a few +hundred yards away, on the opposite side of the railroad track, +plainly visible from the train. + +The Walnut debouches into the Arkansas a short distance from where +the railroad crosses the creek, and at this point, too, the trail +from Fort Leavenworth merges into the Old Santa Fe. The broad pathway +is very easily recognized here; for it runs over a hard, flinty, +low divide, that has never been disturbed by the plough, and the +traveller has only to cast his eyes in a northeasterly direction +in order to see it plainly. + +The creek is fairly well timbered to-day, as it has been ever since +the first caravan crossed the clear water of the little stream. +It was always a favourite place of ambush by the Indians, and many +a conflict has occurred in the beautiful bottom bounded by a margin +of trees on two sides, between the traders, trappers, troops, and +the Indians, and also between the several tribes that were hereditary +enemies, particularly the Pawnees and the Cheyennes. It is only +about sixteen miles east of Pawnee Rock, and included in that region +of debatable ground where no band of Indians dared establish a +permanent village; for it was claimed by all the tribes, but really +owned by none. + +In 1864 the commerce of the great plains had reached enormous +proportions, and immense caravans rolled day after day toward the +blue hills which guard the portals of New Mexico, and the precious +freight constantly tempted the wily savages to plunder. + +To protect the caravans on their monotonous route through the "Desert," +as this portion of the plains was then termed, troops were stationed, +a mere handful relatively, at intervals on the Trail, to escort the +freighters and mail coaches over the most exposed and dangerous +portions of the way. + +On the bank of the Walnut, at this time, were stationed three hundred +unassigned recruits of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, under the command +of Captain Conkey. This point was rightly regarded as one of the +most important on the whole overland route; for near it passed the +favourite highway of the Indians on their yearly migrations north +and south, in the wake of the strange elliptical march of the buffalo +far beyond the Platte, and back to the sunny knolls of the Canadian. + +This primitive cantonment which grew rapidly in strategical importance, +was two years later made quite formidable defensively, and named +Fort Zarah, in memory of the youngest son of Major General Curtis, +who was killed by guerillas somewhere south of Fort Scott, Kansas, +while escorting General James G. Blunt, of frontier fame during +the Civil War. + +Captain Henry Booth, during the year above mentioned, was chief of +cavalry and inspecting officer of the military district of the Upper +Arkansas, the western geographical limits of which extended to the +foot-hills of the mountains. + +One day he received an order from the head-quarters of the department +to make a special inspection of all the outposts on the Santa Fe Trail. +He was stationed at Fort Riley at the time, and the evening the order +arrived, active preparations were immediately commenced for his +extended and hazardous trip across the plains. Lieutenant Hallowell, +of the Ninth Wisconsin Battery, was to accompany him, and both +officers went at once to their quarters, took down from the walls, +where they had been hanging idly for weeks, their rifles and pistols, +and carefully examined and brushed them up for possible service in +the dreary Arkansas bottom. Camp-kettles, until late in the night, +sizzled and sputtered over crackling log-fires; for their proposed +ride beyond the settlements demanded cooked rations for many a +weary day. All the preliminaries arranged, the question of the means +of transportation was determined, and, curiously enough, it saved +the lives of the two officers in the terrible gauntlet they were +destined to run. + +Hallowell was a famous whip, and prided himself upon the exceptionally +fine turnout which he daily drove among the picturesque hills around +the fort. + +"Booth," said he in the evening, "let's not take a great lumbering +ambulance on this trip; if you will get a good way-up team of mules +from the quartermaster, we'll use my light rig, and we'll do our +own driving." + +To this proposition Booth readily assented, procured the mules, and, +as it turned out, they were a "good way-up team." + +Hallowell had a set of bows fitted to his light wagon, over which +was thrown an army-wagon-sheet, drawn up behind with a cord, similar +to those of the ordinary emigrant outfit to be seen daily on the +roads of the Western prairies. A round hole was necessarily left +in the rear end, serving the purpose of a lookout. + +Two grip-sacks, containing their dress uniforms, a box of crackers +and cheese, meat and sardines, together with a bottle of anti-snake +bite, made up the principal freight for the long journey, and in the +clear cold of the early morning they rolled out of the gates of the +fort, escorted by Company L, of the Eleventh Kansas, commanded by +Lieutenant Van Antwerp. + +The company of one hundred mounted men acting as escort was too +formidable a number for the Indians, and not a sign of one was seen +as the dangerous flats of Plum Creek and the rolling country beyond +were successively passed, and early in the afternoon the cantonment +on Walnut Creek was reached. At this important outpost Captain +Conkey's command was living in a rude but comfortable sort of a way, +in the simplest of dugouts, constructed along the right bank of the +stream; the officers, a little more in accordance with military +dignity, in tents a few rods in rear of the line of huts. + +A stockade stable had been built, with a capacity for two hundred +and fifty horses, and sufficient hay had been put up by the men in +the fall to carry the animals through the winter. + +Captain Conkey was a brusque but kind-hearted man, and with him were +stationed other officers, one of whom was a son of Admiral Goldsborough. +The morning after the arrival of the inspecting officers a rigid +examination of all the appointments and belongings of the place was +made, and, as an immense amount of property had accumulated for +condemnation, when evening came the books and papers were still +untouched; so that branch of the inspection had to be postponed +until the next morning. + +After dark, while sitting around the camp-fire, discussing the war, +telling stories, etc., Captain Conkey said to Booth: "Captain, +it won't require more than half an hour in the morning to inspect +the papers and finish up what you have to do; why don't you start +your escort out very early, so it won't be obliged to trot after +the ambulance, or you to poke along with it? You can then move out +briskly and make time." + +Booth, acting upon what he thought at the time an excellent suggestion, +in a few moments went over the creek to Lieutenant Van Antwerp's camp, +to tell him that he need not wait for the wagon in the morning, but +to start out early, at half-past six, in advance. + +According to instructions, the escort marched out of camp at daylight +next morning, while Booth and Hallowell remained to finish their +inspection. It was soon discovered, however, that either Captain +Conkey had underrated the amount of work to be done, or misjudged +the inspecting officers' ability to complete it in a certain time; +so almost three hours elapsed after the cavalry had departed before +the task ended. + +At last everything was closed up, much to Hallowell's satisfaction, +who had been chafing under the vexatious delay ever since the escort +left. When all was in readiness, the little wagon drawn up in front +of the commanding officer's quarters, and farewells said, Hallowell +suggested to Booth the propriety of taking a few of the troops +stationed there to go with them until they overtook their own escort, +which must now be several miles on the Trail to Fort Larned. +Booth asked Captain Conkey what he thought of Hallowell's suggestion. +Captain Conkey replied: "Oh! there's not the slightest danger; +there hasn't been an Indian seen around here for over ten days." + +If either Booth or Hallowell had been as well acquainted with the +methods and character of the plains Indians then as they afterward +became, they would have insisted upon an escort; but both were +satisfied that Captain Conkey knew what he was talking about, +so they concluded to push on. + +Jumping into their wagon, Lieutenant Hallowell took the reins and +away they went rattling over the old log bridge that used to span +the Walnut at the crossing of the Old Santa Fe Trail, as light of +heart as if riding to a dance. + +The morning was bright and clear with a stiff breeze blowing from +the northwest, and the Trail was frozen hard in places, which made +it very rough, as it had been cut up by the travel of the heavily +laden caravans when it was wet. Booth sat on the left side of +Hallowell with the whip in his hand, now and then striking the mules, +to keep up their speed. Hallowell started up a tune--he was a good +singer--and Booth joined in as they rolled along, as oblivious of any +danger as though they were in their quarters at Fort Riley. + +After they had proceeded some distance, Hallowell remarked to Booth: +"The buffalo are grazing a long way from the road to-day; a circumstance +that I think bodes no good." He had been on the plains the summer +before, and was better acquainted with the Indians and their +peculiarities than Captain Booth; but the latter replied that he +thought it was because their escort had gone on ahead, and had +probably frightened them off. + +The next mile or two was passed, and still they saw no buffalo between +the Trail and the Arkansas, though nothing more was said by either +regarding the suspicious circumstance, and they rode rapidly on. + +When they had gone about five or six miles from the Walnut, Booth, +happening to glance toward the river, saw something that looked +strangely like a flock of turkeys. He watched them intently for a +moment, when the objects rose up and he discovered they were horsemen. +He grasped Hallowell by the arm, directing his attention to them, and +said, "What are they?" Hallowell gave a hasty look toward the point +indicated, and replied, "Indians! by George!" and immediately turning +the mules around on the Trail, started them back toward the cantonment +on the Walnut at a full gallop.[68] + +"Hold on!" said Booth to Hallowell when he understood the latter's +movement; "maybe it's part of our escort." + +"No! no!" replied Hallowell. "I know they are Indians; I've seen +too many of them to be mistaken." + +"Well," rejoined Booth, "I'm going to know for certain"; so, stepping +out on the foot-board, and with one hand holding on to the front bow, +he looked back over the top of the wagon-sheet. They were Indians, +sure enough; they had fully emerged from the ravine in which they had +hidden, and while he was looking at them they were slipping off their +buffalo robes from their shoulders, taking arrows out of their quivers, +drawing up their spears, and making ready generally for a red-hot time. + +While Booth was intently regarding the movements of the savages, +Hallowell inquired of him: "They're Indians, aren't they, Booth?" + +"Yes," was Booth's answer, "and they're coming down on us like a +whirlwind." + +"Then I shall never see poor Lizzie again!" said Hallowell. He had +been married only a few weeks before starting out on this trip, and +his young wife's name came to his lips. + +"Never mind Lizzie," responded Booth; "let's get out of here!" He was +as badly frightened as Hallowell, but had no bride at Riley, and, +as he tells it, "was selfishly thinking of himself only, and escape." + +In answer to Booth's remark, Hallowell, in a firm, clear voice, said: +"All right! You do the shooting, and I'll do the driving," and +suiting the action to the words, he snatched the whip out of Booth's +hand, slipped from the seat to the front of the wagon, and commenced +lashing the mules furiously. + +Booth then crawled back, pulled out one of his revolvers, crept, or +rather fell, over the "lazy-back" of the seat, and reaching the hole +made by puckering the wagon-sheet, looked out of it, and counted +the Indians; thirty-four feather-bedecked, paint-bedaubed savages, +as vicious a set as ever scalped a white man, swooping down on them +like a hawk upon a chicken. + +Hallowell, between his yells at the mules, cried out, "How far are +they off now, Booth?" for of course he could see nothing of what +was going on in his rear. + +Booth replied as well as he could judge of the distance, while +Hallowell renewed his yelling at the animals and redoubled his +efforts with the lash. + +Noiselessly the Indians gained on the little wagon, for they had not +as yet uttered a whoop, and the determined driver, anxious to know +how far the red devils were from him, again asked Booth. The latter +told him how near they were, guessing at the distance, from which +Hallowell gathered inspiration for fresh cries and still more vigorous +blows with his whip. + +Booth, all this time, was sitting on the box containing the crackers +and sardines, watching the rapid approach of the cut-throats, and +seeing with fear and trembling the ease with which they gained upon +the little mules. + +Once more Hallowell made his stereotyped inquiry of Booth; but before +the latter could reply, two shots were fired from the rifles of the +Indians, accompanied by a yell that was demoniacal enough to cause +the blood to curdle in one's veins. Hallowell yelled at the mules, +and Booth yelled too; for what reason he could not tell, unless to +keep company with his comrade, who plied the whip more mercilessly +than ever upon the poor animals' backs, and the wagon flew over +the rough road, nearly upsetting at every jump. + +In another moment the bullets from two of the Indians' rifles passed +between Booth and Hallowell, doing no damage, and almost instantly +the savages charged upon them, at the same time dividing into two +parties, one going on one side and one on the other, both delivering +a volley of arrows into the wagon as they rode by. + +Just as the savages rushed past the wagon, Hallowell cried out to +Booth, "Cap, I'm hit!" and turning around to look, Booth saw an arrow +sticking in Hallowell's head above his right ear. His arm was still +plying the whip, which was going on unceasingly as the sails of a +windmill, and his howling at the mules only stopped long enough to +answer, "Not much!" in response to Booth's inquiry of "Does it hurt?" +as he grabbed the arrow and pulled it out of his head. + +The Indians had by this time passed on, and then, circling back, +prepared for another charge. Down they came, again dividing as before +into two bands, and delivering another shower of arrows. Hallowell +ceased his yelling long enough to cry out, "I'm hit once more, Cap!" +Looking at the plucky driver, Booth saw this time an arrow sticking +over his left ear, and hanging down his back. He snatched it out, +inquiring if it hurt, but received the same answer: "No, not much." + +Both men were now yelling at the top of their voices; and the mules +were jerking the wagon along the rough trail at a fearful rate, +frightened nearly out of their wits at the sight of the Indians and +the terrible shouting and whipping of the driver. + +Booth crawled to the back end of the wagon again, looked out of the +hole in the cover, and saw the Indians moving across the Trail, +preparing for another charge. One old fellow, mounted on a black +pony, was jogging along in the centre of the road behind them, but +near enough and evidently determined to send an arrow through the +puckered hole of the sheet. In a moment the savage stopped his pony +and let fly. Booth dodged sideways--the arrow sped on its course, and +whizzing through the opening, struck the black-walnut "lazy-back" +of the seat, the head sticking out on the other side, and the sudden +check causing the feathered end to vibrate rapidly with a vro-o-o-ing +sound. With a quick blow Booth struck it, and broke the shaft from +the head, leaving the latter embedded in the wood. + +As quickly as possible, Booth rushed to the hole and fired his +revolver at the old devil, but failed to hit him. While he was +trying to get in another shot, an arrow came flying through from +the left side of the Trail, and striking him on the inside of the +elbow, or "crazy-bone," so completely benumbed his hand that he +could not hold on to the pistol, and it dropped into the road with +one load still in its chamber. Just then the mules gave an +extraordinary jump to one side, which jerked the wagon nearly from +under him, and he fell sprawling on the end-gate, evenly balanced, +with his hands on the outside, attempting to clutch at something to +save himself! Seeing his predicament, the Indians thought they had +him sure, so they gave a yell of exultation, supposing he must +tumble out, but he didn't; he fortunately succeeded in grabbing +one of the wagon-bows with his right hand and pulled himself in; +but it was a close call. + +While all this was going on, Hallowell had not been neglected by +the Indians; about a dozen of them had devoted their time to him, +but he never flinched. Just as Booth had regained his equilibrium +and drawn his second revolver from its holster, Hallowell yelled +to him: "Right off to your right, Cap, quick!" + +Booth tumbled over the back of the seat, and, clutching at a wagon-bow +to steady himself, he saw, "off to the right," an Indian who was in +the act of letting an arrow drive at Hallowell; it struck the side of +the box, and at the same instant Booth fired, scaring the red devil badly. + +Back over the seat again he rushed to guard the rear, only to find +a young buck riding close to the side of the wagon, his pony running +in the deep path made by the ox-drivers in walking alongside of their +teams. Putting his left arm around one of the wagon-bows to prevent +his being jerked out, Booth quietly stuck his revolver through the +hole in the sheet; but before he could pull the trigger, the Indian +flopped over on the off side of his pony, and nothing could be seen +of him excepting one arm around his animal's neck and from the knee +to the toes of one leg. Booth did not wait for him to ride up; +he could almost hit the pony's head with his hand, so close was he +to the wagon. Booth struck at the beast several times, but the +Indian kept him right up in his place by whipping him on the opposite +of his neck. Presently the plucky savage's arm began to move. +Booth watched him intently, and saw that he had fixed an arrow in +his bow under the pony's shoulder; just as he was on the point of +letting go the bowstring, with the head of the arrow not three feet +from Booth's breast as he leaned out of the hole, the latter struck +frantically at the weapon, dodged back into the wagon, and up came +the Indian. Whenever Booth looked out, down went the Indian on +the other side of his pony, to rise again in a moment, and Booth, +afraid to risk himself with his head and breast exposed at this game +of hide and seek, drew suddenly back as the Indian went down the +third time, and in a second came up; but this was once too often. +Booth had not dodged completely into the wagon, nor dropped his +revolver, and as the Indian rose he fired. + +The savage was naked to the waist; the ball struck him in the left +nipple, the blood spirted out of the wound, his bow and arrows and +lariat, with himself, rolled off the pony, falling heavily on the +ground, and with one convulsive contraction of his legs and an "Ugh!" +he was as dead as a stone. + +"I've killed one of 'em!" called out Booth to Hallowell, as he saw +his victim tumble from his pony. + +"Bully for you, Cap!" came Hallowell's response as he continued his +shouting, and the blows of that tireless whip fell incessantly on +the backs of the poor mules. + +After he had killed the warrior, Booth kept his seat on the cracker box, +watching to see what the Indians were going to do next, when he was +suddenly interrupted by Hallowell's crying out to him: "Off to the +right again, Cap, quick!" and, whirling around instantly, he saw an +Indian within three feet of the wagon, with his bow and arrow almost +ready to shoot; there was no time to get over the seat, and as he +could not fire so close to Hallowell, he cried to the latter: +"Hit him with the whip! Hit him with the whip!" The lieutenant +diverted one of the blows intended for the mules, and struck the +savage fairly across the face. The whip had a knot in the end of it +to prevent its unravelling, and this knot must have hit the Indian +squarely in the eye; for he dropped his bow, put both hands up to +his face, rubbed his eyes, and digging his heels into his pony's +sides was soon out of range of a revolver; but, nevertheless, he was +given a parting shot as a sort of salute. + +A terrific yell from the rear at this moment caused both Booth and +Hallowell to look around, and the latter to inquire: "What's the +matter now, Booth?" "They are coming down on us like lightning," +said he; and, sure enough, those who had been prancing around their +dead comrade were tearing along the Trail toward the wagon with a +more hideous noise than when they began. + +Hallowell yelled louder than ever and lashed the mules more furiously +still, but the Indians gained upon them as easily as a blooded racer +on a common farm plug. Separating as before, and passing on each +side of the wagon, they delivered another volley of bullets and +arrows as they rushed on. + +When this charge was made, Booth drew away from the hole in the rear +and turned toward the Indians, but forgot that as he was sitting, +with his back pressed against the sheet, his body was plainly outlined +on the canvas. + +When the Indians dashed by Hallowell cried out, "I'm hit again, Cap!" +and Booth, in turning around to go to his relief, felt something +pulling at him; and glancing over his left shoulder he discovered +an arrow sticking into him and out through the wagon-sheet. With a +jerk of his body, he tore himself loose, and going to Hallowell, +asked him where he was hit. "In the back," was the reply; where +Booth saw an arrow extending under the "lazy-back" of the seat. +Taking hold of it, Booth gave a pull, but Hallowell squirmed so that +he desisted. "Pull it out!" cried the plucky driver. Booth thereupon +took hold of it again, and giving a jerk or two, out it came. He was +thoroughly frightened as he saw it leave the lieutenant's body; +it seemed to have entered at least six inches, and the wound appeared +to be a dangerous one. Hallowell, however, did not cease for a moment +belabouring the mules, and his yells rang out as clear and defiant +as before. + +After extracting the arrow from Hallowell's back, Booth turned again +to the opening in the rear of the wagon to see what new tricks the +devils were up to, when Hallowell again called out, "Off to the left, +Cap, quick!" + +Rushing to the front as soon as possible, Booth saw one of the savages +in the very act of shooting at Hallowell from the left side of the +wagon, not ten feet away. The last revolver was empty, but something +had to be done at once; so, levelling the weapon at him, Booth shouted +"Bang! you son-of-a-gun!" Down the Indian ducked his head; rap, rap, +went his knees against his pony's sides, and away he flew over +the prairie! + +Back to his old place in the rear tumbled Booth, to load his revolver. +The cartridges they used in the army in those days were the +old-fashioned kind made of paper. Biting off one end, he endeavoured +to pour the powder into the chamber of the pistol; but as the wagon +was tumbling from side to side, and jumping up and down, as it fairly +flew over the rough Trail, more fell into the bottom of the wagon +than into the revolver. Just as he was inserting a ball, Hallowell +yelled, "To the left, Cap, quick!" + +Over the seat Booth piled once more, and there was another Indian +with his bow and arrow all ready to pinion the brave lieutenant. +Pointing his revolver at him, Booth yelled as he had at the other, +but this savage had evidently noticed the first failure, and concluded +there were no more loads left; so, instead of taking a hasty departure, +he grinned demoniacally and endeavoured to fix the arrow in his bow. +Booth rose up in the wagon, and grasping hold of one of its bows +with his left hand, seized the revolver by the muzzle, and with all +the force he could muster hurled it at the impudent brute. It was +a Remington, its barrel octagon-shaped, with sharp corners, and when +it was thrown, it turned in the air, and striking the Indian +muzzle-first on the ribs, cut a long gash. + +"Ugh!" he grunted, as, dropping his bow and spear, he flung himself +over the side of his pony, and away he went across the prairie. + +Only one revolver remaining now, and that empty, with the savages +still howling around the apparently doomed men like so many demons! +Booth fell over the seat, as was his usual fate whenever he attempted +to get to the back of the wagon, picked up the empty revolver, and +tried to load it; but before he could bite the end of a cartridge, + Hallowell yelled, "Cap, I'm hit again!" + +"Where this time?" inquired Booth, anxiously. "In the hand," replied +Hallowell; and, looking around, Booth noticed that although his right +arm was still thrashing at the now lagging mules with as much energy +as ever, through the fleshy part of the thumb was an arrow, which was +flopping up and down as he raised and lowered his hand in ceaseless +efforts to keep up the speed of the almost exhausted animals. + +"Let me pull it out," said Booth, as he came forward to do so. + +"No, never mind," replied Hallowell; "can't stop! can't stop!" and up +and down went the arm, and flip, flap, went the arrow with it, until +finally it tore through the flesh and fell to the ground. + +Along they bowled, the Indians yelling, and the occupants of the +little wagon defiantly answering them, while Booth continued to +struggle desperately with that empty pistol, in his vain efforts +to load it. In another moment Hallowell shouted, "Booth, they are +trying to crowd the mules into the sunflowers!" + +Alongside of the Trail huge sunflowers had grown the previous summer, +and now their dry stalks stood as thick as a cane-brake; if the wagon +once got among them, it would be impossible for the mules to keep up +their gallop. The savages seemed to realize this; for one huge old +fellow kept riding alongside the off mule, throwing his spear at him +and then jerking it back with the thong, one end of which was fastened +to his wrist. The near mule was constantly pushed further and further +from the Trail by his mate, which was jumping frantically, scared out +of his senses by the Indian. + +At this perilous juncture, Booth stepped out on the foot-board of +the wagon, and, holding on by a bow, commenced to kick the frightened +mule vigorously, while Hallowell pulled on one line, whipping and +yelling at the same time; so together they succeeded in forcing the +animals back into the Trail. + +The Indians kept close to the mules in their efforts to force them +into the sunflowers, and Booth made several attempts to scare the +old fellow that was nearest by pointing his empty revolver at him, +but he would not scare; so in his desperation Booth threw it at him. +He missed the old brute, but hit his pony just behind its rider's leg, +which started the animal into a sort of a stampede; his ugly master +could not control him, and thus the immediate peril from the +persistent cuss was delayed. + +Now the pair were absolutely without firearms of any kind, with +nothing left except their sabres and valises, and the savages came +closer and closer. In turn the two swords were thrown at them as they +came almost within striking distance; then followed the scabbards, +as the howling fiends surrounded the wagon and attempted to spear +the mules. Fortunately their arrows were exhausted. + +The cantonment on the Walnut was still a mile and a half away, and +there was nothing for our luckless travellers to do but whip and kick, +both of which they did most vigorously. Hallowell sat as immovable +as the Sphinx, excepting his right arm, which from the moment they +had started on the back trail had not once ceased its incessant motion. + +Happening to cast his eyes back on the Trail, Booth saw to his dismay +twelve or fifteen of the savages coming up on the run with fresh +energy, their spears poised ready for action, and he felt that +something must be done very speedily to divert them; for if these +added their number to those already surrounding the wagon, the chances +were they would succeed in forcing the mules into the sunflowers, +and his scalp and Hallowell's would dangle at the belt of the leader. + +Glancing around in the bottom of the wagon for some kind of weapon, +his eye fell on the two valises containing the dress-suits. +He snatched up his own, and threw it out while the pursuers were yet +five or six rods in the rear. The Indians noticed this new trick +with a great yell of satisfaction, and the moment they arrived at +the spot where the valise lay, all dismounted; one of them, seizing +it by the two handles, pulled with all his strength to open it, and +when he failed, another drew a long knife from under his blanket and +ripped it apart. He then put his hand in, pulling out a sash, which +he began to wind around his head, like a negress with a bandanna, +letting the tassels hang down his back. While he was thus amusing +himself, one of the others had taken out a dress-coat, a third a pair +of drawers, and still another a shirt, which they proceeded to put on, +meanwhile dancing around and howling. + +Booth told Hallowell of the sacrifice of the valise, and said, +"I'm going to throw out yours." "All right," replied Hallowell; +"all we want is time." So out it went on the Trail, and shared +the same fate as the other. + +The lull in hostilities caused by their outstripping their pursuers +gave the almost despairing men time to talk over their situation. +Hallowell said he did not propose to be captured and then butchered +or burned at the pleasure of the Indians. He said to Booth: "If they +kill one of the mules, and so stop us, let's kick, strike, throw dirt +or anything, and compel them to kill us on the spot." So it was agreed, +if the worst came to the worst, to stand back to back and fight. + +During this discussion the arm of Hallowell still plied the effective +lash, and they drew perceptibly nearer the camp, and as they caught +the first glimpse of its tents and dugouts, hope sprang up within them. +The mules were panting like a hound after a deer; wherever the +harness touched them, it was white with lather, and it was evident +they could keep on their feet but a short time longer. Would they +hold out until the bridge was reached? The whipping and the kicking +had but little effect on them now. They still continued their gallop, +but it was slower and more laboured than before. + +The Indians who had torn open the valises had not returned to the +chase, and although there were still a sufficient number of the +fiends pursuing to make it interesting, they did not succeed in +spearing the mules, as at every attempt the plucky animals would +jump sideways or forward and evade the impending blow. + +The little log bridge was reached; the savages had all retreated, +but the valorous Hallowell kept the mules at their fastest pace. +The bridge was constructed of half-round logs, and of course was +extremely rough; the wagon bounded up and down enough to shake the +teeth out of one's head as the little animals went flying over it. +Booth called out to Hallowell, "No need to drive so fast now, +the Indians have all left us"; but he replied, "I ain't going to stop +until I get across"; and down came the whip, on sped the mules, +not breaking their short gallop until they were pulled up in front +of Captain Conkey's quarters. + +The rattling of the wagon on the bridge was the first intimation +the garrison had of its return. + +The officers came running out of their tents, the enlisted men poured +out of their dugouts like a lot of ants, and Booth and Hallowell were +surrounded by their friends in a moment. Captain Conkey ordered his +bugler to sound "Boots and Saddles," and in less than ten minutes +ninety troopers were mounted, and with the captain at their head +started after the Indians. + +When Hallowell tried to rise from his seat so as to get out every +effort only resulted in his falling back. Some one stepped around +to the other side to assist him, when it was discovered that the +skirt of his overcoat had worked outside of the wagon-sheet and +hung over the edge, and that three or four of the arrows fired at him +by the savages had struck the side of the wagon, and, passing through +the flap of his coat, had pinned him down. Booth pulled the arrows +out and helped him up; he was pretty stiff from sitting in his cramped +position so long, and his right arm dropped by his side as if paralysed. + +Booth stood looking on while his comrade's wounds were being dressed, +when the adjutant asked him: "What makes you shrug your shoulder so?" +He answered, "I don't know; something makes it smart." The officer +looked at him and said, "Well, I don't wonder; I should think it +would smart; here's an arrow-head sticking into you," and he tried +to pull it out, but it would not come. Captain Goldsborough then +attempted it, but was not any more successful. The doctor then told +them to let it alone, and he would attend to Booth after he had done +with Hallowell. When he examined Booth's shoulder, he found that +the arrow-head had struck the thick portion of the shoulder-blade, +and had made two complete turns, wrapping itself around the muscles, +which had to be cut apart before the sharp point could be withdrawn. + +Booth was not seriously hurt. Hallowell, however, had received two +severe wounds; the arrow that had lodged in his back had penetrated +almost to his kidneys, and the wound in his thumb was very painful, +not so much from the simple impact of the arrow as from the tearing +away of the muscle by the shaft while he was whipping his mules; +his right arm, too, was swollen terribly, and so stiff from the +incessant use of it during the drive that for more than a month +he required assistance in dressing and undressing. + +The mules who had saved their lives were of small account after +their memorable trip; they remained stiff and sore from the rough +road and their continued forced speed. Booth and Hallowell went out +to look at them the next morning, as they hobbled around the corral, +and from the bottom of their hearts wished them well. + +Captain Conkey's command returned to the cantonment about midnight. +But one Indian had been seen, and he was south of the Arkansas in +the sand hills. + +The next morning a scouting-party of forty men, under command of a +sergeant, started out to scour the country toward Cow Creek, +northeast from the Walnut. + +As I have stated, the troopers stationed at the cantonment on the +Walnut were mostly recruits. Now the cavalry recruit of the old +regular army on the frontier, thirty or forty years ago, mounted on +a great big American horse and sent out with well-trained comrades +on a scout after the hostile savages of the plains, was the most +helpless individual imaginable. Coming fresh from some large city +probably, as soon as he arrived at his station he was placed on the +back of an animal of whose habits he knew as little as he did of the +differential calculus; loaded down with a carbine, the muzzle of which +he could hardly distinguish from the breech; a sabre buckled around +his waist; a couple of enormous pistols stuck in his holsters; +his blankets strapped to the cantle of his saddle, and, to complete +the hopelessness of his condition in a possible encounter with a +savage enemy who was ever on the alert, he was often handicapped by +a camp-kettle or two, a frying-pan, and ten days' rations. No wonder +this doughty representative of Uncle Sam's power was an easy prey for +"Poor Lo," who, when he caught the unfortunate soldier away from his +command and started after him, must have laughed at the ridiculous +appearance of his enemy, with both hands glued to the pommel of his +saddle, his hair on end, his sabre flying and striking his horse at +every jump as the animal tore down the trail toward camp, while the +Indian, rapidly gaining, in a few minutes had the scalp of the hapless +rider dangling at his belt, and another of the "boys in blue" had +joined the majority. + +The scouting-party had proceeded about four or five miles, when one +of the corporals asked permission for himself and a recruit to go +over to the Upper Walnut to find out whether they could discover +any signs of Indians. + +While they were carelessly riding along the big curve which the +northern branch of the Walnut makes at that point, there suddenly +sprang from their ambush in the timber on the margin of the stream +about three hundred Indians, whooping and yelling. The two troopers +of course, immediately whirled their horses and started down the +creek toward the camp, hotly pursued by the howling savages. + +The corporal was an excellent rider; a well-trained and disciplined +soldier, having seen much service on the plains. He led in the flight, +closely followed by the unfortunate recruit, who had been enlisted +but a short time. Not more than an eighth of a mile had been covered, +when the corporal heard his companion exclaim,-- + +"Don't leave me! Don't leave me!" + +Looking back, the corporal saw that the poor recruit was losing ground +rapidly; his horse was rearing and plunging, making very little +headway, while his rider was jerking and pulling on the bit, a curb +of the severest kind. Perceiving the strait his comrade was in, +the corporal reined up for a moment and called out,-- + +"Let him go! Let him go! Don't jerk on the bit so!" + +The Indians were gaining ground rapidly, and in another moment the +corporal heard the recruit again cry out,-- + +"Oh! Don't--" + +Realizing that it would be fatal to delay, and that he could be of +no assistance to his companion, already killed and scalped, he leaned +forward on his horse, and sinking his spurs deep in the animal's +flanks fairly flew down the valley, with the three hundred savages +close in his wake. + +The officers at the camp were sitting in their tents when the sentinel +on post No. 1 fired his piece, upon which all rushed out to learn +the cause of the alarm; for there was no random shooting in those +days allowed around camp or in garrison. Looking up the valley of +the Walnut, they could see the lucky corporal, with his long hair +streaming in the wind, and his heels rapping his horse's sides, as he +dashed over the brown sod of the winter prairie. + +The corporal now slackened his pace, rode up to the commanding +officer's tent, reported the affair, and then was allowed to go to +his own quarters for the rest he so much needed. + +Captain Conkey immediately ordered a mounted squad, accompanied by an +ambulance, to go up the creek to recover the body of the unfortunate +recruit. The party were absent a little over an hour, and brought +back with them the remains of the dead soldier. He had been shot +with an arrow, the point of which was still sticking out through his +breast-bone. His scalp had been torn completely off, and the lapels +of his coat and the legs of his trousers carried away by the savages. +He was buried the next morning with military honours, in the little +graveyard on the bank of the Walnut, where his body still rests in +the dooryard of the ranch. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. +HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. + + + +In the spring of 1867, General Hancock, who then commanded the military +division of the Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, +Kansas, organized an expedition against the Indians of the great +plains, which he led in person. With him was General Custer, second +ranking officer, from whom I quote the story of the march and some +of the incidents of the raid. + +General Hancock, with the artillery and six companies of infantry, +arrived at Fort Riley, Kansas, the last week in March, where he was +joined by four companies of the Seventh Cavalry, commanded by the +intrepid Custer. + +From Fort Riley the expedition marched to Fort Harker, seventy-two +miles farther west, on the Smoky Hill, where the force was increased +by the addition of two more troops of cavalry. Remaining there only +long enough to replenish their commissary supplies, the march was +directed to Fort Larned on the Old Santa Fe Trail. On the 7th of +April the command reached the latter post, accompanied by the agent +of the Comanches and Kiowas; at the fort the agent of the Cheyennes, +Arapahoes, and Apaches was waiting for the arrival of the general. +The agent of the three last-mentioned tribes had already sent runners +to the head chiefs, inviting them to a grand council which was to +assemble near the fort on the 10th of the month, and he requested +General Hancock to remain at the fort with his command until that date. + +On the 9th of April a terrible snow-storm came on while the troops +were encamped waiting for the head men of the various tribes to arrive. +Custer says: + + It was our good fortune to be in camp rather than on the + march; had it been otherwise, we could not well have escaped + without loss of life. The cavalry horses suffered severely, + and were only preserved by doubling their rations of oats, + while to prevent their being frozen during the intensely + cold night which followed, the guards were instructed to + pass along the picket lines with a whip, and keep the + horses moving constantly. The snow was eight inches deep. + The council, which was to take place the next day, had to be + postponed until the return of good weather. Now began the + display of a kind of diplomacy for which the Indian is + peculiar. The Cheyennes and a band of Sioux were encamped + on Pawnee Fork, about thirty miles above Fort Larned. + They neither desired to move nearer to us or have us + approach nearer to them. On the morning of the 11th, + they sent us word that they had started to visit us, but, + discovering a large herd of buffalo near their camp, + they had stopped to procure a supply of meat. This message + was not received with much confidence, nor was a buffalo + hunt deemed of sufficient importance to justify the Indians + in breaking their engagement. General Hancock decided, + however, to delay another day, when, if the Indians still + failed to come in, he would move his command to the vicinity + of their village and hold the conference there. + + Orders were issued on the evening of the 12th for the march + to be resumed on the following day. Late in the evening + two chiefs of the "Dog-Soldiers," a band composed of the + most warlike and troublesome Indians on the plains, + chiefly made up of Cheyennes, visited our camp. They were + accompanied by a dozen warriors, and expressed a desire to + hold a conference with General Hancock, to which he assented. + A large council-fire was built in front of the general's + tent, and all the officers of his command assembled there. + A tent had been erected for the accommodation of the chiefs + a short distance from the general's. Before they could + feel equal to the occasion, and in order to obtain time to + collect their thoughts, they desired that supper might be + prepared for them, which was done. When finally ready, + they advanced from their tent to the council-fire in single + file, accompanied by their agent and an interpreter. + Arrived at the fire, another brief delay ensued. No matter + how pressing or momentous the occasion, an Indian invariably + declines to engage in a council until he has filled his pipe + and gone through with the important ceremony of a smoke. + This attended to, the chiefs announced that they were ready + "to talk." They were then introduced to the principal + officers of the group, and seemed much struck with the + flashy uniforms of the few artillery officers, who were + present in all the glory of red horsehair plumes, + aiguillettes, etc. The chiefs seemed puzzled to determine + whether these insignia designated chieftains or medicine men. + General Hancock began the conference by a speech, in which + he explained to the Indians his purpose in coming to see + them, and what he expected of them in the future. + He particularly informed them that he was not there to make + war, but to promote peace. Then, expressing his regrets + that more of the chiefs had not visited him, he announced + his intention of proceeding on the morrow with his command + to the vicinity of their village, and there holding a + council with all the chiefs. Tall Bull, a fine, warlike-looking + chieftain, replied to General Hancock, but his speech + contained nothing important, being made up of allusions to + the growing scarcity of the buffalo, his love for the white + man, and the usual hint that a donation in the way of + refreshments would be highly acceptable; he added that he + would have nothing new to say at the village. + + Rightly concluding that the Indians did not intend to come + to our camp, as they had at first agreed to, it was decided + to move nearer their village. On the morning following the + conference our entire force, therefore, marched from + Fort Larned up Pawnee Fork in the direction of the main + village, encamping the first night about twenty-one miles + from Larned. Several parties of Indians were seen in our + advance during the day, evidently watching our movements, + while a heavy smoke, seen to rise in the direction of the + Indian village, indicated that something more than usual + was going on. The smoke, we afterward learned, arose from + burning grass. The Indians, thinking to prevent us from + encamping in their vicinity, had set fire to and burned all + the grass for miles in the direction from which they + expected us. Before we arrived at our camping-ground, + we were met by several chiefs and warriors belonging to the + Cheyennes and Sioux. Among the chiefs were Pawnee Killer, + of the Sioux, and White Horse, of the Cheyennes. It was + arranged that these chiefs should accept our hospitality + and remain with us during the night, and in the morning all + the chiefs of the two tribes then in the village were to + come to General Hancock's head-quarters and hold a council. + On the morning of the 14th, Pawnee Killer left our camp at + an early hour, as he said for the purpose of going to the + village to bring in the other chiefs to the council. + Nine o'clock had been agreed upon as the time at which the + council should assemble. The hour came, but the chiefs + did not. Now an Indian council is not only often an + important, but always an interesting, occasion. At this + juncture, Bull Bear, an influential chief among the + Cheyennes, came in and reported that the chiefs were on + their way to our camp, but would not be able to reach it + for some time. This was a mere artifice to secure delay. + General Hancock informed Bull Bear that, as the chiefs + could not arrive for some time, he would move his forces + up the stream nearer the village, and the council could be + held at our camp that night. To this proposition Bull Bear + gave his consent. + + At 11 A.M. we resumed the march, and had proceeded but a few + miles when we witnessed one of the finest and most imposing + military displays, according to the Indian art of war, + which it has been my lot to behold. It was nothing more + nor less than an Indian line of battle drawn directly + across our line of march, as if to say, "Thus far and no + further." Most of the Indians were mounted; all were + bedecked in their brightest colours, their heads crowned + with the brilliant war-bonnet, their lances bearing the + crimson pennant, bows strung, and quivers full of barbed + arrows. In addition to these weapons, which, with the + hunting-knife and tomahawk, are considered as forming the + armament of the warrior, each one was supplied with either + a breech-loading rifle or revolver, sometimes with both-- + the latter obtained through the wise forethought and strong + love of fair play which prevails in the Indian department, + which, seeing that its wards are determined to fight, + is equally determined that there shall be no advantage taken, + but that the two sides shall be armed alike; proving, too, + in this manner, the wonderful liberality of our government, + which is not only able to furnish its soldiers with the + latest style of breech-loaders to defend it and themselves, + but is equally able and willing to give the same pattern + of arms to the common foe. The only difference is, that if + the soldier loses his weapon, he is charged double price + for it, while to avoid making any such charge against the + Indian, his weapons are given him without conditions attached. + + In the line of battle before us there were several hundred + Indians, while further to the rear and at different + distances were other organized bodies, acting apparently + as reserves. Still further behind were small detachments + who seemed to perform the duty of couriers, and were held + in readiness to convey messages to the village. The ground + beyond was favourable for an extended view, and as far as + the eye could reach, small groups of individuals could be + seen in the direction of the village; these were evidently + parties of observation, whose sole object was to learn the + result of our meeting with the main body and hasten with + the news to the village. + + For a few moments appearances seemed to foreshadow anything + but a peaceable issue. The infantry was in the advance, + followed closely by the artillery, while my command, + the cavalry, was marching on the flank. General Hancock, + who was riding with his staff at the head of the column, + coming suddenly in view of the wild, fantastic battle array, + which extended far to our right and left, and was not more + than half a mile in our front, hastily sent orders to the + infantry, artillery, and cavalry to form in line of battle, + evidently determined that, if war was intended, we should be + prepared. The cavalry being the last to form on the right, + came into line on a gallop, and without waiting to align + the ranks carefully, the command was given to "Draw sabre." + As the bright blades flashed from their scabbards into the + morning sunlight, and the infantry brought their muskets + to a carry, a contrast was presented which, to a military + eye, could but be striking. Here in battle array, facing + each other, were the representatives of civilized and + barbarous warfare. The one, with few modifications, stood + clothed in the same rude style of dress, bearing the same + patterned shield and weapon that his ancestors had borne + centuries before; the other confronted him in the dress + and supplied with the implements of war which an advanced + stage of civilization had pronounced the most perfect. + Was the comparative superiority of these two classes to be + subjected to the mere test of war here? All was eager + anxiety and expectation. Neither side seemed to comprehend + the object or intentions of the other; each was waiting + for the other to deliver the first blow. A more beautiful + battle-ground could not have been chosen. Not a bush or + even the slightest irregularity of ground intervened between + the two lines, which now stood frowning and facing each other. + Chiefs could be seen riding along the line, as if directing + and exhorting their braves to deeds of heroism. + + After a few moments of painful suspense, General Hancock, + accompanied by General A. J. Smith and other officers, + rode forward, and through an interpreter invited the chiefs + to meet us midway for the purpose of an interview. + In response to this invitation, Roman Nose, bearing a white + flag, accompanied by Bull Bear, White Horse, Gray Beard, + and Medicine Wolf, on the part of the Cheyennes, and Pawnee + Killer, Bad Wound, Tall-Bear-That-Walks-under-the-Ground, + Left Hand, Little Bear, and Little Bull, on the part of the + Sioux, rode forward to the middle of the open space between + the two lines. Here we shook hands with all the chiefs, + most of them exhibiting unmistakable signs of gratification + at this apparently peaceful termination of our rencounter. + General Hancock very naturally inquired the object of the + hostile attitude displayed before us, saying to the chiefs + that if war was their object, we were ready then and there + to participate. Their immediate answer was that they did + not desire war, but were peacefully disposed. They were + then told that we would continue our march toward the + village, and encamp near it, but would establish such + regulations that none of the soldiers would be permitted + to approach or disturb them. An arrangement was then + effected by which the chiefs were to assemble at General + Hancock's headquarters as soon as our camp was pitched. + The interview then terminated, and the Indians moved off + in the direction of their village, we following leisurely + in the rear. + + A march of a few miles brought us in sight of the village, + which was situated in a beautiful grove on the bank of the + stream up which we had been marching. It consisted of + upwards of three hundred lodges, a small fraction over half + belonging to the Cheyennes, the remainder to the Sioux. + Like all Indian encampments, the ground chosen was a most + romantic spot, and at the same time fulfilled in every + respect the requirements of a good camping-ground; wood, + water, and grass were abundant. The village was placed on + a wide, level plateau, while on the north and west, at a + short distance off, rose high bluffs, which admirably served + as a shelter against the cold winds which at that season of + the year prevail from those directions. Our tents were + pitched within a mile of the village. Guards were placed + between to prevent intrusion upon our part. We had scarcely + pitched our tents when Roman Nose, Bull Bear, Gray Beard, + and Medicine Wolf, all prominent chiefs of the Cheyenne + nation, came into camp with the information that upon our + approach their women and children had all fled from the + village, alarmed by the presence of so many soldiers, and + imagining a second Chivington massacre to be intended. + General Hancock insisted that they should all return, + promising protection and good treatment to all; that if + the camp was abandoned, he would hold it responsible. + The chiefs then stated their belief in their ability to + recall the fugitives, could they be furnished with horses + to overtake them. This was accordingly done, and two of + them set out mounted on two of our horses. An agreement + was also entered into at the same time, that one of our + interpreters, Ed Gurrier, a half-breed Cheyenne, who was in + the employ of the government, should remain in the village + and report every two hours as to whether any Indians were + leaving there. This was about seven o'clock in the evening. + At half-past nine the half-breed returned to head-quarters + with the intelligence that all the chiefs and warriors were + saddling up to leave, under circumstances showing that they + had no intention of returning, such as packing up every + article that could be carried with them, and cutting and + destroying their lodges--this last being done to obtain + small pieces for temporary shelter. + + I had retired to my tent, which was some few hundred yards + from that of General Hancock, when a messenger from the + latter awakened me with the information that the general + desired my presence in his tent. He briefly stated the + situation of affairs, and directed me to mount my command + as quickly and as silently as possible, surround the Indian + village, and prevent the departure of its inhabitants. + Easily said, but not so easily done. Under ordinary + circumstances, silence not being necessary, I could have + returned to my camp, and by a few blasts from the trumpet, + placed every soldier on his saddle almost as quickly as it + has taken time to write this short sentence. No bugle calls + must be sounded; we were to adopt some of the stealth of the + Indians--how successfully remained to be seen. By this time + every soldier and officer was in his tent sound asleep. + First going to the tent of the adjutant and arousing him, + I procured an experienced assistant in my labours. Next the + captains of companies were awakened and orders imparted + to them. They in turn transmitted the order to the first + sergeant, who similarly aroused the men. It has often + surprised me to observe the alacrity with which disciplined + soldiers, experienced in campaigning, will hasten to prepare + themselves for the march in an emergency like this. + No questions are asked, no time is wasted. A soldier's + toilet, on an Indian campaign, is a simple affair, and + requires little time for arranging. His clothes are + gathered up hurriedly, no matter how, so long as he retains + possession of them. The first object is to get his horse + saddled and bridled, and until this is done his own dress + is a matter of secondary importance, and one button or hook + must do the duty of half a dozen. When his horse is ready + for the mount, the rider will be seen completing his own + equipment; stray buttons will receive attention, arms will + be overhauled, spurs restrapped; then, if there still remain + a few spare moments, the homely black pipe is filled and + lighted, and the soldier's preparation is complete. + + The night was all that could be desired for the success of + our enterprise. The air was mild and pleasant; the moon, + although nearly full, kept almost constantly behind the + clouds, as if to screen us in our hazardous undertaking. + I say hazardous, because none of us imagined for one moment + that if the Indians discovered us in our attempt to surround + them and their village, we should escape without a fight-- + a fight, too, in which the Indians, sheltered behind the + trunks of the stately forest trees under which their lodges + were pitched, would possess all the advantage. General + Hancock, anticipating that the Indians would discover our + approach, and that a fight would ensue, ordered the + artillery and infantry under arms, to await the result of + our moonlight adventure. My command was soon in the saddle, + and silently making its way toward the village. + Instructions had been given forbidding all conversation + except in a whisper. Sabres were disposed of to prevent + clanging. Taking a camp-fire which we could see in the + village as our guiding point, we made a detour so as to + place the village between ourselves and the infantry. + Occasionally the moon would peep out from the clouds and + enable us to catch a hasty glance at the village. Here and + there under the thick foliage we could see the white, + conical-shaped lodges. Were the inmates slumbering, + unaware of our close proximity, or were their dusky defenders + concealed, as well they might have been, along the banks of + the Pawnee, quietly awaiting our approach, and prepared to + greet us with their well-known war-whoop? These were + questions that were probably suggested to the mind of each + individual of my command. If we were discovered approaching + in the stealthy, suspicious manner which characterized our + movements, the hour being midnight, it would require a more + confiding nature than that of the Indian to assign a + friendly or peaceful motive to our conduct. The same + flashes of moonlight which gave us hurried glimpses of the + village enabled us to see our own column of horsemen + stretching its silent length far into the dim darkness, and + winding its course, like some huge anaconda about to envelop + its victim. + + The method by which it was determined to establish a cordon + of armed troopers about the fated village, was to direct + the march in a circle, with the village in the centre, + the commanding officer of each rear troop halting his + command at the proper point, and deploying his men similarly + to a line of skirmishers--the entire circle, when thus formed, + facing toward the village, and, distant from it perhaps a + few hundred yards. No sooner was our line completely formed + than the moon, as if deeming darkness no longer essential + to our success, appeared from behind her screen and lighted + up the entire scene. And beautiful it was! The great + circle of troops, each individual of which sat on his steed + silent as a statue, the dense foliage of the cotton trees + sheltering the bleached, skin-clad lodges of the red men, + the little stream in the midst murmuring undisturbedly in + its channel, all combined to produce an artistic effect, + as striking as it was interesting. But we were not there + to study artistic effects. The next step was to determine + whether we had captured an inhabited village, involving + almost necessarily a severe conflict with its savage + occupants, or whether the red man had again proven too + wily and crafty for his more civilized brothers. + + Directing the entire line of troopers to remain mounted + with carbines held at the "Advance," I dismounted, and + taking with me Gurrier, the half-breed, Dr. Coates, one of + our medical staff, and Lieutenant Moylan, the adjutant, + we proceeded on our hands and knees toward the village. + The prevailing opinion was that the Indians were still + asleep. I desired to approach near enough to the lodges + to enable the half-breed to hail the village in the Indian + tongue, and if possible establish friendly relations at once. + It became a question of prudence with us, which we discussed + in whispers as we proceeded on our "Tramp, tramp, tramp, + the boys are creeping," how far from our horses and how + near to the village we dared to go. If so few of us were + discovered entering the village in this questionable manner, + it was more than probable that, like the returners of stolen + property, we should be suitably rewarded and no questions + asked. The opinion of Gurrier, the half-breed, was eagerly + sought for and generally deferred to. His wife, + a full-blooded Cheyenne, was a resident of the village. + This with him was an additional reason for wishing a peaceful + termination to our efforts. When we had passed over + two-thirds of the distance between our horses and the + village, it was thought best to make our presence known. + Thus far not a sound had been heard to disturb the stillness + of the night. Gurrier called out at the top of his voice + in the Cheyenne tongue. The only response came from the + throats of a score or more of Indian dogs which set up a + fierce barking. At the same time one or two of our party + asserted that they saw figure moving beneath the trees. + Gurrier repeated his summons, but with no better results + than before. + + A hurried consultation ensued. The presence of so many dogs + in the village was regarded by the half-breed as almost + positive assurance that the Indians were still there. + Yet it was difficult to account for their silence. Gurrier + in a loud tone repeated who he was, and that our mission was + friendly. Still no answer. He then gave it as his opinion + that the Indians were on the alert, and were probably + waiting in the shadow of the trees for us to approach nearer, + when they would pounce upon us. This comforting opinion + induced another conference. We must ascertain the truth of + the matter; our party could do this as well as a larger + number, and to go back and send another party in our stead + could not be thought of. + + Forward! was the verdict. Each one grasped his revolver, + resolved to do his best, whether it was in running or + fighting. I think most of us would have preferred to take + our own chances at running. We had approached near enough + to see that some of the lodges were detached some distance + from the main encampment. Selecting the nearest of these, + we directed our advance on it. While all of us were full + of the spirit of adventure, and were further encouraged + with the idea that we were in the discharge of our duty, + there was scarcely one of us who would not have felt more + comfortable if we could have got back to our horses without + loss of pride. Yet nothing, under the circumstances, but + a positive order would have induced any one to withdraw. + + Cautiously approaching, on all fours, to within a few yards + of the nearest lodge, occasionally halting and listening to + discover whether the village was deserted or not, we finally + decided that the Indians had fled before the arrival of the + cavalry, and that none but empty lodges were before us. + This conclusion somewhat emboldened as well as accelerated + our progress. Arriving at the first lodge, one of our party + raised the curtain or mat which served as a door, and the + doctor and myself entered. The interior of the lodge was + dimly lighted by the dying embers of a small fire built in + the centre. All around us were to be seen the usual + adornments and articles which constitute the household + effects of an Indian family. Buffalo-robes were spread like + carpets over the floor; head-mats, used to recline on, were + arranged as if for the comfort of their owners; parfleches, + a sort of Indian band-box, with their contents apparently + undisturbed, were carefully stowed away under the edges or + borders of the lodge. These, with the door-mats, paint-bags, + rawhide ropes, and other articles of Indian equipment, + were left as if the owners had only absented themselves for + a brief period. To complete the picture of an Indian lodge, + over the fire hung a camp-kettle, in which, by means of the + dim light of the fire, we could see what had been intended + for the supper of the late occupants of the lodge. + The doctor, ever on the alert to discover additional items + of knowledge, whether pertaining to history or science, + snuffed the savoury odours which arose from the dark + recesses of the mysterious kettle. Casting about the lodge + for some instrument to aid him in his pursuit of knowledge, + he found a horn spoon, with which he began his investigation + of the contents, finally succeeding in getting possession + of a fragment which might have been the half of a duck or + rabbit, judging from its size merely. "Ah!" said the doctor, + in his most complacent manner, "here is the opportunity I + have long been waiting for. I have often desired to test + the Indian mode of cooking. What do you suppose this is?" + holding up the dripping morsel. Unable to obtain the + desired information, the doctor, whose naturally good + appetite had been sensibly sharpened by his recent exercise, + set to with a will and ate heartily of the mysterious + contents of the kettle. He was only satisfied on one point, + that it was delicious--a dish fit for a king. Just then + Gurrier, the half-breed, entered the lodge. He could solve + the mystery, having spent years among the Indians. To him + the doctor appealed for information. Fishing out a huge + piece, and attacking it with the voracity of a hungry wolf, + he was not long in determining what the doctor had supped + heartily upon. His first words settled the mystery: "Why, + this is dog." I will not attempt to repeat the few but + emphatic words uttered by the heartily disgusted member of + the medical fraternity as he rushed from the lodge. + + Other members of our small party had entered other lodges, + only to find them, like the first, deserted. But little of + the furniture belonging to the lodges had been taken, + showing how urgent and hasty had been the flight of the + owners. To aid in the examination of the village, + reinforcements were added to our party, and an exploration + of each lodge was determined upon. At the same time a + messenger was despatched to General Hancock, informing him + of the flight of the Indians. Some of the lodges were + closed by having brush or timber piled up against the + entrance, as if to preserve the contents. Others had huge + pieces cut from their sides, these pieces evidently being + carried away to furnish temporary shelter for the fugitives. + In most of the lodges the fires were still burning. I had + entered several without discovering anything important. + Finally, in company with the doctor, I arrived at one the + interior of which was quite dark, the fire having almost + died out. Procuring a lighted fagot, I prepared to explore it, + as I had done the others; but no sooner had I entered the + lodge than my fagot failed me, leaving me in total darkness. + Handing it to the doctor to be relighted, I began to feel + my way about the interior of the lodge. I had almost made + the circuit when my hand came in contact with a human foot; + at the same time a voice unmistakably Indian, and which + evidently came from the owner of the foot, convinced me that + I was not alone. My first impressions were that in their + hasty flight the Indians had gone off, leaving this one + asleep. My next, very naturally, related to myself. + I would gladly have placed myself on the outside of the + lodge, and there matured plans for interviewing its occupant; + but unfortunately to reach the entrance of the lodge, I must + either pass over or around the owner of the before-mentioned + foot and voice. Could I have been convinced that among + its other possessions there was neither tomahawk nor + scalping-knife, pistol nor war-club, or any similar article + of the noble red-man's toilet, I would have risked an attempt + to escape through the low narrow opening of the lodge; + but who ever saw an Indian without one or all of these + interesting trinkets? Had I made the attempt, I should + have expected to encounter either the keen edge of the + scalping-knife or the blow of the tomahawk, and to have + engaged in a questionable struggle for life. This would + not do. I crouched in silence for a few moments, hoping + the doctor would return with the lighted fagot. I need not + say that each succeeding moment spent in the darkness of + that lodge seemed an age. I could hear a slight movement + on the part of my unknown neighbour, which did not add to + my comfort. Why does not the doctor return? At last I + discovered the approach of a light on the outside. When it + neared the entrance, I called the doctor and informed him + that an Indian was in the lodge, and that he had better + have his weapons ready for a conflict. I had, upon + discovering the foot, drawn my hunting-knife from its + scabbard, and now stood waiting the denouement. With his + lighted fagot in one hand and cocked revolver in the other, + the doctor cautiously entered the lodge. And there directly + between us, wrapped in a buffalo-robe, lay the cause of my + anxiety--a little Indian girl, probably ten years old; + not a full-blood, but a half-breed. She was terribly + frightened at finding herself in our hands, with none of + her people near. Other parties in exploring the deserted + village found an old, decrepit Indian of the Sioux tribe, + who had also been deserted, owing to his infirmities and + inability to travel with the tribe. Nothing was gleaned + from our search of the village which might indicate the + direction of the flight. General Hancock, on learning the + situation of affairs, despatched some companies of infantry + with orders to replace the cavalry and protect the village + and its contents from disturbance until its final disposition + could be determined upon, and it was decided that with eight + troops of cavalry I should start in pursuit of the Indians + at early dawn on the following morning. + + The Indians, after leaving their village, went up on the + Smoky Hill, and committed the most horrible depredations + upon the scattered settlers in that region. Upon this news, + General Hancock issued the following order:-- + + "As a punishment of the bad faith practised by the Cheyennes + and Sioux who occupied the Indian village at this place, and + as a chastisement for murders and depredations committed + since the arrival of the command at this point, by the + people of these tribes, the village recently occupied by + them, which is now in our hands, will be utterly destroyed." + + The Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches had been united under + one agency; the Kiowas and Comanches under another. + As General Hancock's expedition had reference to all these + tribes, he had invited both the agents to accompany him + into the Indian country and be present at all interviews + with the representatives of these tribes, for the purpose, + as the invitation stated, of showing the Indians "that the + officers of the government are acting in harmony." + + In conversation with the general the agents admitted that + Indians had been guilty of all the outrages charged against + them, but each asserted the innocence of the particular + tribes under his charge, and endeavoured to lay their crimes + at the door of their neighbours. + + Here was positive evidence from the agents themselves that + the Indians against whom we were operating were deserving + of severe punishment. The only conflicting portion of the + testimony was as to which tribe was most guilty. Subsequent + events proved, however, that all of the five tribes named, + as well as the Sioux, had combined for a general war + throughout the plains and along our frontier. Such a war + had been threatened to our post commanders along the + Arkansas on many occasions during the winter. The movement + of the Sioux and Cheyennes toward the north indicated that + the principal theatre of military operations during the + summer would be between the Smoky Hill and Platte rivers. + General Hancock accordingly assembled the principal chiefs + of the Kiowas and Arapahoes in council at Fort Dodge, + hoping to induce them to remain at peace and observe their + treaty obligations. + + The most prominent chiefs in council were Satanta, Lone Wolf, + and Kicking Bird of the Kiowas, and Little Raven and Yellow + Bear of the Arapahoes. During the council extravagant + promises of future good behaviour were made by these chiefs. + So effective and convincing was the oratorical effort of + Satanta, that at the termination of his address, the + department commander and his staff presented him with the + uniform coat, sash, and hat of a major-general. In return + for this compliment, Satanta, within a few weeks, attacked + the post at which the council was held, arrayed in his + new uniform. + +In the spring of 1878, the Indians commenced a series of depredations +along the Santa Fe Trail and against the scattered settlers of the +frontier, that were unparalleled in their barbarity. General Alfred +Sully, a noted Indian fighter, who commanded the district of the +Upper Arkansas, early concentrated a portion of the Seventh and Tenth +Cavalry and Third Infantry along the line of the Old Santa Fe Trail, +and kept out small expeditions of scouting parties to protect the +overland coaches and freight caravans; but the troops effected very +little in stopping the devilish acts of the Indians, who were now +fully determined to carry out their threats of a general war, which +culminated in the winter expedition of General Sheridan, who completely +subdued them, and forced all the tribes on reservations; since which +time there has never been any trouble with the plains Indians worthy +of mention.[69] + +General Sully, about the 1st of September, with eight companies of +the Seventh Cavalry and five companies of infantry, left Fort Dodge, +on the Arkansas, on a hurried expedition against the Kiowas, Arapahoes, +and Cheyennes. The command marched in a general southeasterly +direction, and reached the sand hills of the Beaver and Wolf rivers, +by a circuitous route, on the fifth day. When nearly through that +barren region, they were attacked by a force of eight hundred of the +allied tribes under the leadership of the famous Kiowa chief, Satanta. +A running fight was kept up with the savages on the first day, +in which two of the cavalry were killed and one wounded. + +That night the savages came close enough to camp to fire into it +(an unusual proceeding in Indian warfare, as they rarely molest +troops during the night), I now quote from Custer again: + The next day General Sully directed his march down the + valley of the Beaver; but just as his troops were breaking + camp, the long wagon-train having already "pulled out," and + the rear guard of the command having barely got into their + saddles, a party of between two and three hundred warriors, + who had evidently in some inexplicable manner contrived to + conceal themselves until the proper moment, dashed into the + deserted camp within a few yards of the rear of the troops, + and succeeded in cutting off a few led horses and two of + the cavalrymen who, as is often the case, had lingered a + moment behind the column. + + Fortunately, the acting adjutant of the cavalry, Brevet + Captain A. E. Smith, was riding at the rear of the column + and witnessed the attack of the Indians. Captain Hamilton,[70] + of the Seventh Cavalry, was also present in command of the + rear guard. Wheeling to the rightabout, he at once prepared + to charge the Indians and attempt the rescue of the two + troopers who were being carried off before his very eyes. + At the same time, Captain Smith, as representative of the + commanding officer of the cavalry, promptly took the + responsibility of directing a squadron of the cavalry to + wheel out of column and advance in support of Captain + Hamilton's guard. With this hastily formed detachment, + the Indians, still within pistol-range, but moving off with + their prisoners, were gallantly charged and so closely + pressed that they were forced to relinquish one of their + prisoners, but not before shooting him through the body and + leaving him on the ground, as they supposed, mortally wounded. + The troops continued to charge the retreating Indians, + upon whom they were gaining, determined, if possible, + to effect the rescue of their remaining comrade. They were + advancing down one slope while the Indians, just across + a ravine, were endeavouring to escape with their prisoner + up the opposite ascent, when a peremptory order reached the + officers commanding the pursuing force to withdraw their men + and reform the column at once. The terrible fate awaiting + the unfortunate trooper carried off by the Indians spread + a deep gloom throughout the command. All were too familiar + with the horrid customs of the savages to hope for a moment + that the captive would be reserved for aught but a slow, + lingering death, from tortures the most horrible and painful + which blood-thirsty minds could suggest. Such was the truth + in his case, as we learned afterwards when peace (?) was + established with the tribes then engaged in war. + + The expedition proceeded down the valley of the Beaver, + the Indians contesting every step of the way. In the + afternoon, about three o'clock, the troops arrived at + a ridge of sand hills a few miles southeast of the + presentsite of Camp Supply, where quite a determined + engagement took place between the command and the three + tribes, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowas, the Indians + being the assailants. The Indians seemed to have reserved + their strongest efforts until the troops and train had + advanced well into the sand hills, when a most obstinate + resistance--and well conducted, too--was offered the + farther advance of the troops. It was evident that the + troops were probably nearing the Indian villages, and that + this opposition to further advance was to save them. The + character of the country immediately about the troops was + not favourable to the operations of cavalry; the surface + of the rolling plain was cut up by irregular and closely + located sand hills, too steep and sandy to allow cavalry + to move with freedom, yet capable of being easily cleared + of savages by troops fighting on foot. The Indians took + post on the hilltops and began a harassing fire on the + troops and train. Captain Yates, with a single troop of + cavalry, was ordered forward to drive them away. This was + a proceeding which did not seem to meet with favour from + the savages. Captain Yates could drive them wherever he + encountered them, but they appeared in increased numbers + at some other threatened point. After contending in this + non-effective manner for a couple of hours, the impression + arose in the minds of some that the train could not be + conducted through the sand hills in the face of the strong + opposition offered by the Indians. The order was issued + to turn about and withdraw. The order was executed, and + the troop and train, followed by the exultant Indians, + retired a few miles to the Beaver, and encamped for the + night on the ground afterward known as Camp Supply. + + Captain Yates had caused to be brought off the field, when + his troop was ordered to retire, the body of one of his men, + who had been slain in the fight. As the troops were to + continue their backward march next day, and it was impossible + to transport the dead body further, Captain Yates ordered + preparations made for interring it in camp that night. + Knowing that the Indians would thoroughly search the deserted + camp-ground almost before the troops should get out of sight, + and would be quick, with their watchful eyes, to detect a + grave, and, if successful in discovering it, would unearth + the body in order to get the scalp, directions were given + to prepare the grave after nightfall; and the spot selected + would have baffled any one but an Indian. The grave was + dug under the picket line to which the seventy or eighty + horses of the troop would be tethered during the night, + so that their constant tramping and pawing should completely + cover up and obliterate all traces. The following morning, + even those who had performed the sad rites of burial to + their fallen comrade could scarcely have indicated the exact + location of the grave. Yet when we returned to that point + a few weeks later, it was discovered that the wily savages + had found the place, unearthed the body, and removed the + scalp of their victim on the day following the interment.[71] + +After leaving the camp at Supply, the Indians gradually increased +their force, until they mustered about two thousand warriors. +For four days and nights they hovered around the command, and by the +time it reached Mulberry Creek there were not one thousand rounds of +ammunition left in the whole force of troopers and infantrymen. +At the creek, the incessant charges of the now infuriated savages +compelled the troops to use this small amount held in reserve, and +they found themselves almost at the mercy of the Indians. But before +they were absolutely defenceless, Colonel Keogh had sent a trusty +messenger in the night to Fort Dodge for a supply of cartridges to +meet the command at the creek, which fortunately arrived there +in time to save that spot from being a veritable "last ditch." + +The savages, in the little but exciting encounter at the creek before +the ammunition arrived, would ride up boldly toward the squadrons of +cavalry, discharge the shots from their revolvers, and then, in their +rage, throw them at the skirmishers on the flanks of the supply-train, +while the latter, nearly out of ammunition, were compelled to sit +quietly in their saddles, idle spectators of the extraordinary scene.[72] + +Many of the Indians were killed on their ponies, however, by those +who were fortunate enough to have a few cartridges left; but none +were captured, as the savages had taken their usual precaution to +tie themselves to their animals, and as soon as dead were dragged +away by them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. +INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. + + + +The tourist who to-day, in a palace car, surrounded by all the +conveniences of our American railway service, commences his tour of +the prairies at the Missouri River, enters classic ground the moment +the train leaves the muddy flood of that stream on its swift flight +toward the golden shores of the Pacific. + +He finds a large city at the very portals of the once far West, +with all the bustle and energy which is so characteristic of American +enterprise. + +Gradually, as he is whirled along the iron trail, the woods lessen; +he catches views of beautiful intervales; a bright little stream +flashes and foams in the sunlight as the trees grow fewer, and soon +he emerges on the broad sea of prairie, shut in only by the great +circle of the heavens. + +Dotting this motionless ocean everywhere, like whitened sails, are +quiet homes, real argosies ventured by the sturdy and industrious +people who have fought their way through almost insurmountable +difficulties to the tranquillity which now surrounds them. + +A few miles west of Topeka, the capital of Kansas, when the train +reaches the little hamlet of Wakarusa, the track of the railroad +commences to follow the route of the Old Santa Fe Trail. At that +point, too, the Oregon Trail branches off for the heavily timbered +regions of the Columbia. Now begins the classic ground of the once +famous highway to New Mexico; nearly every stream, hill, and wooded +dell has its story of adventure in those days when the railroad was +regarded as an impossibility, and the region beyond the Missouri as +a veritable desert. + +After some hours' rapid travelling, if our tourist happens to be a +passenger on the "California Limited," the swift train that annihilates +distance, he will pass by towns, hamlets, and immense cattle ranches, +stopping only at county-seats, and enter the justly famous Arkansas +valley at the city of Hutchinson. The Old Trail now passes a few +miles north of this busy place, which is noted for its extensive +salt works, nor does the railroad again meet with it until the site +of old Fort Zarah is reached, forty-seven miles west of Hutchinson, +though it runs nearly parallel to the once great highway at varying +distances for the whole detour. + +The ruins of the once important military post may be seen from the +car-windows on the right, as the train crosses the iron bridge +spanning the Walnut, and here the Old Trail exactly coincides with +the railroad, the track of the latter running immediately on the +old highway. + +Three miles westward from the classic little Walnut the Old Trail ran +through what is now the Court House Square of the town of Great Bend; +it may be seen from the station, and on that very spot occurred the +terrible fight of Captains Booth and Hallowell in 1864. + +Thirteen miles further mountainward, on the right of the railroad, +not far from the track, stands all that remains of the once dreaded +Pawnee Rock. It lies just beyond the limits of the little hamlet +bearing its name. It would not be recognized by any of the old +plainsmen were they to come out of their isolated graves; for it is +only a disintegrated, low mass of sandstone now, utilized for the base +purposes of a corral, in which the village herd of milch cows lie down +at night and chew their cuds, such peaceful transformation has that +great civilizer, the locomotive, wrought in less than two decades. + +Another five or six miles, and the train crosses Ash Creek, which, +too, was once one of the favourite haunts of the Pawnee and Comanche +on their predatory excursions, in the days when the mules and horses +of passing freight caravans excited their cupidity. A short whirl +again, and the town of Larned, lying peacefully on the Arkansas and +Pawnee Fork, is reached. Immediately opposite the centre of the +street through which the railroad runs, and which was also the course +of the Old Trail, lying in the Arkansas River, close to its northern +bank, is a small thickly-wooded island, now reached by a bridge, that +is famous as the battle-ground of a terrible conflict thirty years ago, +between the Pawnees and Cheyennes, hereditary enemies, in which the +latter tribe was cruelly defeated. + +The railroad bridge crosses Pawnee Fork at the precise spot where +the Old Trail did. This locality has been the scene of some of the +bloodiest encounters between the various tribes of savages themselves, +and between them and the freight caravans, the overland coaches, +and every other kind of outfit that formerly attempted the passage of +the now peaceful stream. In fact, the whole region from Walnut Creek +to the mouth of the Pawnee, which includes in its area Ash Creek +and Pawnee Rock, seemed to be the greatest resort for the Indians, +who hovered about the Santa Fe Trail for the sole purpose of robbery +and murder; it was a very lucky caravan or coach, indeed, that passed +through that portion of the route without being attacked. + +All the once dangerous points of the Old Trail having been successively +passed--Cow Creek, Big and Little Coon, and Ash Creek, Fort Dodge, +Fort Aubrey,[73] and Point of Rocks--the tourist arrives at last at +the foot-hills. At La Junta the railroad separates into two branches; +one going to Denver, the other on to New Mexico. Here, a relatively +short distance to the northwest, on the right of the train, may be +seen the ruins of Bent's Fort, the tourist having already passed the +site of the once famous Big Timbers, a favourite winter camping-ground +of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes; but everywhere around him there reigns +such perfect quiet and pastoral beauty, he might imagine that the +peaceful landscape upon which he looks had never been a bloody arena. + +I suggest to the lover of nature that he should cross the Raton Range +in the early morning, or late in the afternoon; for then the +magnificent scenery of the Trail over the high divide into New Mexico +assumes its most beautiful aspect. + +In approaching the range from the Old Trail, or now from the railroad, +their snow-clad peaks may be seen at a distance of sixty miles. +In the era of caravans and pack-trains, for hour after hour, as they +moved slowly toward the goal of their ambition, the summit of the +fearful pathway on the divide, the huge forms of the mountains seemed +to recede, and yet ascend higher. On the next day's journey their +outlines appeared more irregular and ragged. Drawing still nearer, +their base presented a long, dark strip stretching throughout their +whole course, ever widening until it seemed like a fathomless gulf, +separating the world of reality from the realms of imagination beyond. + +Another weary twenty miles of dusty travel, and the black void slowly +dissolved, and out of the shadows lines of broken, sterile, +ferruginous buttes and detached masses of rocks, whose soilless +surface refuses sustenance, save to a few scattered, stunted pines +and lifeless mosses, emerged to view. + +The progress of the weary-footed mules or oxen was now through ravines +and around rocks; up narrow paths which the melting snows have +washed out; sometimes between beetling cliffs, often to their very +edge, where hundreds of feet below the Trail the tall trees seemed +diminished into shrubs. Then again the road led over an immense broad +terrace, for thousands of yards around, with a bright lake gleaming +in the refracted light, and brilliant Alpine plants waving their +beautiful flowers on its margin. Still the coveted summit appeared +so far off as to be beyond the range of vision, and it seemed as if, +instead of ascending, the entire mass underneath had been receding, +like the mountains of ice over which Arctic explorers attempt to reach +the pole. Now the tortuous Trail passed through snow-wreaths which +the winds had eddied into indentations; then over bright, glassy +surfaces of ice and fragments of rocks, until the pinnacle was reached. +Nearer, along the broad successive terraces of the opposite mountains, +the evergreen pine, the cedar, with its stiff, angular branches, and +the cottonwood, with its varied curves and bright colours, were +crowded into bunches or strung into zigzag lines, interspersed with +shrubs and mountain plants, among which the flaming cactus was +conspicuous. To the right and left, the bare cones of the barren +peaks rose in multitude, with their calm, awful forms shrouded in snow, +and their dark shadows reflected far into the valleys, like spectres +from a chaotic world. + +In going through the Raton Pass, the Old Santa Fe Trail meandered up +a steep valley, enclosed on either side by abrupt hills covered with +pine and masses of gray rock. The road ran along the points of +varying elevations, now in the stony bed of Raton Creek, which it +crossed fifty-three times, the sparkling, flitting waters of the +bubbling stream leaping and foaming against the animals' feet as they +hauled the great wagons of the freight caravans over the tortuous +passage. The creek often rushed rapidly under large flat stones, +lost to sight for a moment, then reappearing with a fresh impetus and +dashing over its flinty, uneven bed until it mingled with the pure +waters of Le Purgatoire. + +Still ascending, the scenery assumed a bolder, rougher cast; then +sudden turns gave you hurried glimpses of the great valley below. +A gentle dell sloped to the summit of the pass on the west, then, +rising on the east by a succession of terraces, the bald, bare cliff +was reached, overlooking the whole region for many miles, and this is +Raton Peak.[74] + +The extreme top of this famous peak was only reached after more than +an hour's arduous struggle. On the lofty plateau the caravans and +pack-trains rested their tired animals. Here, too, the lonely trapper, +when crossing the range in quest of beaver, often chose this lofty +spot on which to kindle his little fire and broil juicy steaks of the +black-tail deer, the finest venison in the world; but before he +indulged in the savoury morsels, if he was in the least superstitious +or devout, or inspired by the sublime scene around him, he lighted +his pipe, and after saluting the elevated ridge on which he sat by the +first whiff of the fragrant kinnikinick, Indian-fashion, he in turn +offered homage in the same manner to the sky above him, the earth +beneath, and to the cardinal points of the compass, and was then +prepared to eat his solitary meal in a spirit of thankfulness. + +Far below this magnificent vantage-ground lies the valley of the +Rio Las Animas Perdidas. On the other verge of the great depression +rise the peerless, everlastingly snow-wreathed Spanish Peaks,[75] +whose giant summits are grim sentinels that for untold ages have +witnessed hundreds of sanguinary conflicts between the wily nomads +of the vast plains watered by the silent Arkansas. + +All around you snow-clad mountains lift their serrated crowns above +the horizon, dim, white, and indistinct, like icebergs seen at sea +by moonlight; others, nearer, more rugged, naked of verdure, and +irregular in contour, seem to lose their lofty summits in the intense +blue of the sky. + +Fisher's Peak, which is in full view from the train, was named from +the following circumstance: Captain Fisher was a German artillery +officer commanding a battery in General Kearney's Army of the West in +the conquest of New Mexico and was encamped at the base of the peak +to which he involuntarily gave his name. He was intently gazing at +the lofty summit wrapped in the early mist, and not being familiar +with the illusory atmospheric effects of the region, he thought that +to go there would be merely a pleasant promenade. So, leaving word +that he would return to breakfast, he struck out at a brisk walk for +the crest. That whole day, the following night, and the succeeding +day, dragged their weary hours on, but no tidings of the commanding +officer were received at the battery, and ill rumours were current +of his death by Indians or bears, when, just as his mess were about +to take their seats at the table for the evening meal, their captain +put in an appearance, a very tired but a wiser man. He started to go +to the peak, and he went there! + +On the summit of another rock-ribbed elevation close by, the tourist +will notice the shaft of an obelisk. It is over the grave of George +Simpson, once a noted mountaineer in the days of the great fur +companies. For a long time he made his home there, and it was his +dying request that the lofty peak he loved so well while living should +be his last resting-place. The peak is known as "Simpson's Rest," +and is one of the notable features of the rugged landscape. + +Pike's Peak, far away to the north, intensely white and silvery in the +clear sky, hangs like a great dome high in the region of the clouds, +a marked object, worthy to commemorate the indefatigable efforts of +the early voyageur whose name it bears. + +In this wonderful locality, both Pike's Peak and the snowy range over +two hundred miles from our point of observation really seem to the +uninitiated as if a brisk walk of an hour or two would enable one to +reach them, so deceptive is the atmosphere of these elevated regions. + +About two miles from the crest of the range, yet over seven thousand +feet above the sea-level, in a pretty little depression about as +large as a medium-sized corn-field in the Eastern States, Uncle +Dick Wooton lived, and here, too, was his toll-gate. The veteran +mountaineer erected a substantial house of adobe, after the style +of one of the old-time Southern plantation residences, a memory, +perhaps, of his youth, when he raised tobacco in his father's fields +in Kentucky.[76] + +The most charming hour in which to be on the crest of Raton Range is +in the afternoon, when the weather is clear and calm. As the night +comes on apace in the distant valley beneath, the evening shadows +drop down, pencilled with broad bands of rosy light as they creep +slowly across the beautiful landscape, while the rugged vista below +is enveloped in a diffused haze like that which marks the season of +the Indian summer in the lower great plains. Above, the sky curves +toward the relatively restricted horizon, with not a cloud to dim +its intense blue, nowhere so beautiful as in these lofty altitudes. + +The sun, however, does not always shine resplendently; there are +times when the most terrific storms of wind, hail, and rain change +the entire aspect of the scene. Fortunately, these violent bursts +never last long; they vanish as rapidly as they come, leaving in +their wake the most phenomenally beautiful rainbows, whose trailing +splendours which they owe to the dry and rare air of the region, and +its high refractory power, are gorgeous in the extreme. + +In 1872 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad entered the +valley of the Upper Arkansas. Twenty-four years ago, on a delicious +October afternoon, I stood on the absolutely level plateau at the +mouth of Pawnee Fork where that historic creek debouches into the +great river. The remembrance of that view will never pass from my +memory, for it showed a curious temporary blending of two distinct +civilizations. One, the new, marking the course of empire in its +restless march westward; the other, that of the aboriginal, which, +like a dissolving view, was soon to fade away and be forgotten. + +The box-elders and cottonwoods thinly covering the creek-bottom were +gradually donning their autumn dress of russet, and the mirage had +already commenced its fantastic play with the landscape. On the sides +and crests of the sparsely grassed sand hills south of the Arkansas +a few buffaloes were grazing in company with hundreds of Texas cattle, +while in the broad valley beneath, small flocks of graceful antelope +were lying down, quietly ruminating their midday meal. + +In the distance, far eastwardly, a train of cars could be seen +approaching; as far as the eye could reach, on either side of the +track, the virgin sod had been turned to the sun; the "empire of +the plough" was established, and the march of immigration in its +hunger for the horizon had begun. + +Half a mile away from the bridge spanning the Fork, under the grateful +shade of the largest trees, about twenty skin lodges were irregularly +grouped; on the brown sod of the sun-cured grass a herd of a hundred +ponies were lazily feeding, while a troop of dusky little children +were chasing the yellow butterflies from the dried and withered +sunflower stalks which once so conspicuously marked the well-worn +highway to the mountains. These Indians, the remnant of a tribe +powerful in the years of savage sovereignty, were on their way, +in charge of their agent, to their new homes, on the reservation +just allotted to them by the government, a hundred miles south of +the Arkansas. + +Their primitive lodges contrasted strangely with the peaceful little +sod-houses, dugouts, and white cottages of the incoming settlers on +the public lands, with the villages struggling into existence, and +above all with the rapidly moving cars; unmistakable evidences that +the new civilization was soon to sweep the red men before it like +chaff before the wind. + +Farther to the west, a caravan of white-covered wagons loaded with +supplies for some remote military post, the last that would ever +travel the Old Trail, was slowly crawling toward the setting sun. +I watched it until only a cloud of dust marked its place low down +on the horizon, and it was soon lost sight of in the purple mist +that was rapidly overspreading the far-reaching prairie. + +It was the beginning of the end; on the 9th of February, 1880, the +first train over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad arrived +at Santa Fe and the Old Trail as a route of commerce was closed +forever. The once great highway is now only a picture in the memory +of the few who have travelled its weary course, following the windings +of the silent Arkansas, on to the portals that guard the rugged +pathway leading to the shores of the blue Pacific. + + + + +FOOTNOTES. + + + +[1] The whole country watered by the Mississippi and Missouri was +called Florida at that time. + +[2] The celebrated Jesuit, author of _The History of New France_, +_Journals of a Voyage to North America_, _Letters to the Duchess_, etc. + +[3] Otoes. + +[4] Iowas. + +[5] Boulevard, Promenade. + +[6] Notes of a Military Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, +in Missouri, to San Diego, in California, including parts of the +Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila Rivers. Brevet Major W. H. Emory, +Corps of Topographical Engineers, United States Army, 1846. + +[7] Hon. W. F. Arny, in his Centennial Celebration Address at Santa Fe, +July 4, 1876. + +[8] Edwards, _Conquest of New Mexico_. + +[9] I think this is Bancroft's idea. + +[10] _Historical Sketches of New Mexico_, L. Bradford Prince, late +Chief Justice of New Mexico, 1883. + +[11] D. H. Coyner, 1847. + +[12] He was travelling parallel to the Old Santa Fe Trail all the time, +but did not know it until he was overtaken by a band of Kaw Indians. + +[13] McKnight was murdered south of the Arkansas by the Comanches +in the winter of 1822. + +[14] Chouteau's Island. + +[15] _Hennepin's Journal_. + +[16] The line between the United States and Mexico (or New Spain, +as it was called) was defined by a treaty negotiated in 1819, +between the Chevalier de Onis, then Spanish minister at Washington, +and John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State. According to its +provisions, the boundary between Mexico and Louisiana, which had been +added to the Union, commenced with the river Sabine at its entrance +into the Gulf of Mexico, at about the twenty-ninth degree of north +latitude and the ninety-fourth degree of longitude, west from +Greenwich, and followed it as far as its junction with the Red River +of Natchitoches, which then served to mark the frontier up to the +one hundredth degree of west longitude, where the line ran directly +north to the Arkansas, which it followed to its source at the +forty-second degree of north latitude, whence another straight line +was drawn up the same parallel to the Pacific coast. + +[17] This tribe kept up its reputation under the dreaded Satanta, +until 1868--a period of forty years--when it was whipped into +submission by the gallant Custer. Satanta was its war chief, +one of the most cruel savages the great plains ever produced. +He died a few years ago in the state prison of Texas. + +[18] McNess Creek is on the old Cimarron Trail to Santa Fe, a little +east of a line drawn south from Bent's Fort. + +[19] Mr. Bryant, of Kansas, who died a few years ago, was one of +the pioneers in the trade with Santa Fe. Previous to his decease +he wrote for a Kansas newspaper a narrative of his first trip across +the great plains; an interesting monograph of hardship and suffering. +For the use of this document I am indebted to Hon. Sol. Miller, +the editor of the journal in which it originally appeared. I have +also used very extensively the notes of Mr. William Y. Hitt, one of +the Bryant party, whose son kindly placed them at my disposal, and +copied liberally from the official report of Major Bennett Riley-- +afterward the celebrated general of Mexican War fame, and for whom +the Cavalry Depot in Kansas is named; as also from the journal of +Captain Philip St. George Cooke, who accompanied Major Riley on +his expedition. + +[20] Chouteau's Island, at the mouth of Sand Creek. + +[21] Valley of the Upper Arkansas. + +[22] About three miles east of the town of Great Bend, Barton County, +Kansas. + +[23] The Old Santa Fe Trail crosses the creek some miles north of +Hutchinson, and coincides with the track again at the mouth of +Walnut Creek, three miles east of Great Bend. + +[24] There are many conflicting accounts in regard to the sum +Don Antonio carried with him on that unfortunate trip. Some +authorities put it as high as sixty thousand; I have taken a mean +of the various sums, and as this method will suffice in mathematics, +perhaps we can approximate the truth in this instance. + +[25] General Emory of the Union army during the Civil War. He made +an official report of the country through which the Army of the West +passed, accompanied by maps, and his _Reconnoissance in New Mexico +and California_, published by the government in 1848, is the first +authentic record of the region, considered topographically and +geologically. + +[26] _Doniphan's Expedition, containing an account of the Conquest +of New Mexico_, etc. John T. Hughes, A.B., of the First Regiment +of Missouri Cavalry. 1850. + +[27] Deep Gorge. + +[28] Colonel Leavenworth, for whom Fort Leavenworth is named, and +who built several army posts in the far West. + +[29] Colonel A. G. Boone, a grandson of the immortal Daniel, was one +of the grandest old mountaineers I ever knew. He was as loyal as +anybody, but honest in his dealings with the Indians, and that was +often a fault in the eyes of those at Washington who controlled +these agents. Kit Carson was of the same honest class as Boone, +and he, too, was removed for the same cause. + +[30] A narrow defile on the Trail, about ninety miles east of +Fort Union. It is called the "canyon of the Canadian, or Red, River," +and is situated between high walls of earth and rock. It was once +a very dangerous spot on account of the ease and rapidity with which +the savages could ambush themselves. + +[31] Carson, Wooton, and all other expert mountaineers, when following +a trail, could always tell just what time had elapsed since it was +made. This may seem strange to the uninitiated, but it was part +of their necessary education. They could tell what kind of a track +it was, which way the person or animal had walked, and even the tribe +to which the savage belonged, either by the shape of the moccasin +or the arrows which were occasionally dropped. + +[32] Lieutenant Bell belonged to the Second Dragoons. He was +conspicuous in extraordinary marches and in action, and also an +accomplished horseman and shot, once running and killing five buffalo +in a quarter of a mile. He died early in 1861, and his death was +a great loss to the service. + +[33] Known to this day as "The Cheyenne Bottoms." + +[34] Lone Wolf was really the head chief of the Kiowas. + +[35] The battle lasted three days. + +[36] Kicking Bird was ever afterward so regarded by the authorities +of the Indian department. + +[37] Lorenzo Thomas, adjutant-general of the United States army. + +[38] Kendall's _Santa Fe Expedition_ may be found in all the large +libraries. + +[39] A summer-house, bower, or arbour. + +[40] Frank Hall, Chicago, 1885. + +[41] The greater portion of this chapter I originally wrote for +_Harper's Weekly_. By the kind permission of the publishers, I am +permitted to use it here. + +[42] These statistics I have carefully gathered from the freight +departments of the railroads, which kept a record of all the bones +that were shipped, and from the purchasers of the carbon works, +who paid out the money at various points. Some of the bones, however, +may have been on the ground for a longer time, as decay is very slow +in the dry air of the plains. + +[43] La Jeunesse was one of the bravest of the old French Canadian +trappers. He was a warm friend of Kit Carson and was killed by the +Indians in the following manner. They were camping one night in the +mountains; Kit, La Jeunesse, and others had wrapped themselves up +in their blankets near the fire, and were sleeping soundly; Fremont +sat up until after midnight reading letters he had received from +the United States, after finishing which, he, too, turned in and +fell asleep. Everything was quiet for a while, when Kit was awakened +by a noise that sounded like the stroke of an axe. Rising cautiously, +he discovered Indians in the camp; he gave the alarm at once, +but two of his companions were dead. One of them was La Jeunesse, +and the noise he had heard was the tomahawk as it buried itself +in the brave fellow's head. + +[44] This black is made from a species of plumbago found on the hills +of the region. + +[45] The Pawnees and Cheyennes were hereditary enemies, and they +frequently met in sanguinary conflict. + +[46] A French term Anglicised, as were many other foreign words by +the trappers in the mountains. Its literal meaning is, arrow fender, +for from it the plains Indians construct their shields; it is +buffalo-hide prepared in a certain manner. + +[47] Boiling Spring River. + +[48] For some reason the Senate refused to confirm the appointment, +and he had consequently no connection with the regular army. + +[49] Point of Rocks is six hundred and forty seven miles from +Independence, and was always a favourite place of resort for the +Indians of the great plains; consequently it was one of the most +dangerous camping-spots for the freight caravans on the Trail. +It comprises a series of continuous hills, which project far out on +the prairie in bold relief. They end abruptly in a mass of rocks, +out of which gushes a cold, refreshing spring, which is, of course, +the main attraction of the place. The Trail winds about near this +point, and many encounters with the various tribes have occurred there. + +[50] "Little Mountain." + +[51] General Gatlin was a North Carolinian, and seceded with his +State at the breaking out of the Rebellion, but refused to leave +his native heath to fight, so indelibly was he impressed with the +theory of State rights. He was willing to defend the soil of +North Carolina, but declined to step across its boundary to repel +invasion in other States. + +[52] The name of "Crow," as applied to the once powerful nation +of mountain Indians, is a misnomer, the fault of some early +interpreter. The proper appellation is "Sparrowhawks," but they +are officially recognized as "Crows." + +[53] Kit Carson, ten years before, when on his first journey, met +with the same adventure while on post at Pawnee Rock. + +[54] The fusee was a fire-lock musket with an immense bore, from +which either slugs or balls could be shot, although not with any +great degree of accuracy. + +[55] The Indians always knew when the caravans were to pass certain +points on the Trail, by their runners or spies probably. + +[56] It was one of the rigid laws of Indian hospitality always to +respect the person of any one who voluntarily entered their camps +or temporary halting-places. As long as the stranger, red or white, +remained with them, he enjoyed perfect immunity from harm; but after +he had left, although he had progressed but half a mile, it was just +as honourable to follow and kill him. + +[57] In their own fights with their enemies one or two of the +defeated party are always spared, and sent back to their tribe to +carry the news of the slaughter. + +[58] The story of the way in which this name became corrupted into +"Picketwire," by which it is generally known in New Mexico, is this: +When Spain owned all Mexico and Florida, as the vast region of the +Mississippi valley was called, long before the United States had +an existence as a separate government, the commanding officer at +Santa Fe received an order to open communication with the country +of Florida. For this purpose an infantry regiment was selected. +It left Santa Fe rather late in the season, and wintered at a point +on the Old Trail now known as Trinidad. In the spring, the colonel, +leaving all camp-followers behind him, both men and women, marched +down the stream, which flows for many miles through a magnificent +canyon. Not one of the regiment returned or was ever heard of. +When all hope had departed from the wives, children, and friends +left behind at Trinidad, information was sent to Santa Fe, and a wail +went up through the land. The priests and people then called this +stream "El Rio de las Animas Perditas" ("The river of lost souls"). +Years after, when the Spanish power was weakened, and French trappers +came into the country under the auspices of the great fur companies, +they adopted a more concise name; they called the river "Le Purgatoire." +Then came the Great American Bull-Whacker. Utterly unable to twist +his tongue into any such Frenchified expression, he called the stream +with its sad story "Picketwire," and by that name it is known to all +frontiersmen, trappers, and the settlers along its banks. + +[59] The ranch is now in charge of Mr. Harry Whigham, an English +gentleman, who keeps up the old hospitality of the famous place. + +[60] "River of Souls." The stream is also called Le Purgatoire, +corrupted by the Americans into Picketwire. + +[61] Pawnee Rock is no longer conspicuous. Its material has been +torn away by both the railroad and the settlers in the vicinity, +to build foundations for water-tanks, in the one instance, and for +the construction of their houses, barns, and sheds, in the other. +Nothing remains of the once famous landmark; its site is occupied +as a cattle corral by the owner of the claim in which it is included. + +[62] The crossing of the Old Santa Fe Trail at Pawnee Fork is now +within the corporate limits of the pretty little town of Larned, +the county-seat of Pawnee County. The tourist from his car-window +may look right down upon one of the worst places for Indians that +there was in those days of the commerce of the prairies, as the road +crosses the stream at the exact spot where the Trail crossed it. + +[63] This was a favourite expression of his whenever he referred +to any trouble with the Indians. + +[64] Indians will risk the lives of a dozen of their best warriors +to prevent the body of any one of their number from falling into +the white man's possession. The reason for this is the belief, +which prevails among all tribes, that if a warrior loses his scalp +he forfeits his hope of ever reaching the happy hunting-ground. + +[65] It was in this fight that the infamous Charles Bent received +his death-wound. + +[66] The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad track runs very +close to the mound, and there is a station named for the great mesa. + +[67] The venerable Colonel A. S. Johnson, of Topeka, Kansas, +the first white child born on the great State's soil, who related +to me this adventure of Hatcher's, knew him well. He says that he +was a small man, full of muscle, and as fearless as can be conceived. + +[68] The place where they turned is about a hundred yards east of +the Court House Square, in the present town of Great Bend; it may +be seen from the cars. + +[69] See Sheridan's _Memoirs_, Custer's _Life on the Plains_, and +Buffalo Bill's book, in which all the stirring events of that +campaign--nearly every fight of which was north or far south of the +Santa Fe Trail--are graphically told. + +[70] A grandson of Alexander Hamilton; killed at the battle of the +Washita, in the charge on Black Kettle's camp under Custer. + +[71] This ends Custer's narrative. The following fight, which +occurred a few days afterward, at the mouth of Mulberry Creek, +twelve miles below Fort Dodge, and within a stone's throw of the +Old Trail, was related to me personally by Colonel Keogh, who was +killed at the Rosebud, in Custer's disastrous battle with Sitting Bull. +We were both attached to General Sully's staff. + +[72] It was in this fight that Colonel Keogh's celebrated horse +Comanche received his first wound. It will be remembered that +Comanche and a Crow Indian were the only survivors of that unequal +contest in the valley of the Big Horn, commonly called the battle +of the Rosebud, where Custer and his command was massacred. + +[73] Now Kendall, a little village in Hamilton County, Kansas. + +[74] Raton is the name given by the early Spaniards to this range, +meaning both mouse and squirrel. It had its origin either in the +fact that one of its several peaks bore a fanciful resemblance to +a squirrel, or because of the immense numbers of that little rodent +always to be found in its pine forests. + +[75] In the beautiful language of the country's early conquerors, +"Las Cumbres Espanolas," or "Las dos Hermanas" (The Two Sisters), +and in the Ute tongue, "Wahtoya" (The Twins). + +[76] The house was destroyed by fire two or three years ago. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL *** + +This file should be named 7osft10.txt or 7osft10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7osft11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7osft10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL + +Author: COLONEL HENRY INMAN + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7984] +[This file was first posted on June 9, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL *** + + + + +Etext Edition edited by MICHAEL S. OVERTON + + + +THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL + +The Story of a Great Highway + +By COLONEL HENRY INMAN + +Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army + + +With a Preface by W. F. "BUFFALO BILL" CODY + + + + + + + +PREFACE. + + + +As we look into the open fire for our fancies, so we are apt to +study the dim past for the wonderful and sublime, forgetful of the +fact that the present is a constant romance, and that the happenings +of to-day which we count of little importance are sure to startle +somebody in the future, and engage the pen of the historian, +philosopher, and poet. + +Accustomed as we are to think of the vast steppes of Russia and +Siberia as alike strange and boundless, and to deal with the unkown +interior of Africa as an impenetrable mystery, we lose sight of a +locality in our own country that once surpassed all these in +virgin grandeur, in majestic solitude, and in all the attributes +of a tremendous wilderness. + +The story of the Old Santa Fe Trail, so truthfully recalled by +Colonel Henry Inman, ex-officer of the old Regular Army, in these pages, +is a most thrilling one. The vast area through which the famous +highway ran is still imperfectly known to most people as "The West"; +a designation once appropriate, but hardly applicable now; for in +these days of easy communication the real trail region is not +so far removed from New York as Buffalo was seventy years ago. + +At the commencement of the "commerce of the prairies," in the early +portion of the century, the Old Trail was the arena of almost constant +sanguinary struggles between the wily nomads of the desert and the +hardy white pioneers, whose eventful lives made the civilization +of the vast interior region of our continent possible. Their daring +compelled its development, which has resulted in the genesis of +great states and large cities. Their hardships gave birth to the +American homestead; their determined will was the factor of possible +achievements, the most remarkable and important of modern times. + +When the famous highway was established across the great plains +as a line of communication to the shores of the blue Pacific, +the only method of travel was by the slow freight caravan drawn by +patient oxen, or the lumbering stage coach with its complement of +four or six mules. There was ever to be feared an attack by those +devils of the desert, the Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas. +Along its whole route the remains of men, animals, and the wrecks of +camps and wagons, told a story of suffering, robbery, and outrage +more impressive than any language. Now the tourist or business man +makes the journey in palace cars, and there is nothing to remind him +of the danger or desolation of Border days; on every hand are the +evidences of a powerful and advanced civilization. + +It is fortunate that one is left to tell some of its story who was +a living actor and had personal knowledge of many of the thrilling +scenes that were enacted along the line of the great route. +He was familiar with all the famous men, both white and savage, +whose lives have made the story of the Trail, his own sojourn on +the plains and in the Rocky Mountains extending over a period of +nearly forty years. + +The Old Trail has more than common interest for me, and I gladly +record here my indorsement of the faithful record, compiled by a +brave soldier, old comrade, and friend. + +W. F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill." + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + +INTRODUCTION. +The First Europeans who traversed the Great Highway--Alvar Nunez +Cabeca de Vaca--Hernando de Soto, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado-- +Spanish Expedition from Santa Fe eastwardly--Escape of the Sole Survivors. + +CHAPTER I. +UNDER THE SPANIARDS. +Quaint Descriptions of Old Santa Fe--The Famous Adobe Palace-- +Santa Fe the Oldest Town in the United States--First Settlement-- +Onate's Conquest--Revolt of the Pueblo Indians--Under Pueblo Rule +--Cruelties of the Victors--The Santa Fe of To-day--Arrival of +a Caravan--The Railroad reaches the Town--Amusements--A Fandango. + +CHAPTER II. +LA LANDE AND PURSLEY. +The Beginning of the Santa Fe Trade--La Lande and Pursley, +the First Americans to cross the Plains--Pursley's Patriotism-- +Captain Ezekiel Williams--A Hungry Bear--A Midnight Alarm. + +CHAPTER III. +EARLY TRADERS. +Captain Becknell's Expedition--Sufferings from Thirst--Auguste +Chouteau--Imprisonment of McKnight and Chambers--The Caches-- +Stampeding Mules--First Military Escort across the Plains-- +Captain Zebulon Pike--Sublette and Smith--Murder of McNess-- +Indians not the Aggressors. + +CHAPTER IV. +TRAINS AND PACKERS. +The Atajo or Pack-train of Mules--Mexican Nomenclature of +Paraphernalia--Manner of Packing--The "Bell-mare"--Toughness of +Mules among Precipices--The Caravan of Wagons--Largest Wagon-train +ever on the Plains--Stampedes--Duties of Packers en route--Order of +Travelling with Pack-train--Chris. Gilson, the Famous Packer. + +CHAPTER V. +FIGHT WITH COMANCHES. +Narrative of Bryant's Party of Santa Fe Traders--The First Wagon +Expedition across the Plains--A Thrilling Story of Hardship and +Physical Suffering--Terrible Fight with the Comanches--Abandonment +of the Wagons--On Foot over the Trail--Burial of their Specie +on an Island in the Arkansas--Narrative of William Y. Hitt, +one of the Party--His Encounter with a Comanche--The First Escort +of United States Troops to the Annual Caravan of Santa Fe Traders, +in 1829--Major Bennett Riley's Official Report to the War Department +--Journal of Captain Cooke. + +CHAPTER VI. +A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY. +The Expedition of Texans to the Old Santa Fe Trail for the Purpose +of robbing Mexican Traders--Innocent Citizens of the United States +suspected, arrested, and carried to the Capital of New Mexico-- +Colonel Snively's Force--Warfield's Sacking of the Village of Mora +--Attack upon a Mexican Caravan--Kit Carson in the Fight-- +A Crime of over Sixty Years Ago--A Romance of the Tragedy. + +CHAPTER VII. +MEXICO DECLARES WAR. +Mexico declares War against the United States--Congress authorizes +the President to call for Fifty Thousand Volunteers--Organization of +the Army of the West--Phenomenon seen by Santa Fe Traders in the Sky +--First Death on the March of the Army across the Plains--Men in +a Starving Condition--Another Death--Burial near Pawnee Rock-- +Trouble at Pawnee Fork--Major Howard's Report. + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE VALLEY OF TAOS. +The Valley of Taos--First White Settler--Rebellion of the Mexicans +--A Woman discovers and informs Colonel Price of the Conspiracy-- +Assassination of Governor Bent--Horrible Butcheries by the Pueblos +and Mexicans--Turley's Ranch--Murder of Harwood and Markhead-- +Anecdote of Sir William Drummond Stewart--Fight at the Mills-- +Battle of the Pueblo of Taos--Trial of the Insurrectionists-- +Baptiste, the Juror--Execution of the Rebels. + +CHAPTER IX. +FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. +Independence--Opening of Navigation on the Mississippi--Effect of +Water Transportation upon the Trade--Establishment of Trading-forts-- +Market for Cattle and Mules--Wages paid Teamsters on the Trail-- +An Enterprising Coloured Man--Increase of the Trade at the Close of +the Mexican War--Heavy Emigration to California--First Overland Mail +--How the Guards were armed--Passenger Coaches to Santa Fe-- +Stage-coaching Days. + +CHAPTER X. +CHARLES BENT. +The Tragedy in the Canyon of the Canadian--Dragoons follow the Trail +of the Savages--Kit Carson, Dick Wooton, and Tom Tobin the Scouts +of the Expedition--More than a Hundred of the Savages killed-- +Murder of Mrs. White--White Wolf--Lieutenant Bell's Singular Duel +with the Noted Savage--Old Wolf--Satank--Murder of Peacock-- +Satanta made Chief--Kicking Bird--His Tragic Death--Charles Bent, +the Half-breed Renegade--His Terrible Acts--His Death. + +CHAPTER XI. +LA GLORIETA. +Neglect of New Mexico by the United States Government--Intended +Conquest of the Province--Conspiracy of Southern Leaders-- +Surrender by General Twiggs to the Confederate Government of the +Military Posts and Munitions of War under his Command--Only One +Soldier out of Two Thousand deserts to the Enemy--Organization +of Volunteers for the Defence of Colorado and New Mexico-- +Battle of La Glorieta--Rout of the Rebels. + +CHAPTER XII. +THE BUFFALO. +The Ancient Range of the Buffalo--Number slaughtered in Thirteen Years +for their Robes alone--Buffalo Bones--Trains stopped by Vast Herds-- +Custom of Old Hunters when caught in a Blizzard--Anecdotes of +Buffalo Hunting--Kit Carson's Dilemma--Experience of Two of Fremont's +Hunters--Wounded Buffalo Bull--O'Neil's Laughable Experience-- +Organization of a Herd of Buffalo--Stampedes--Thrilling Escapes. + +CHAPTER XIII. +INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS. +Big Timbers--Winter Camp of the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes-- +Savage Amusements--A Cheyenne Lodge--Indian Etiquette--Treatment +of Children--The Pipe of the North American Savage--Dog Feast-- +Marriage Ceremony. + +CHAPTER XIV. +TRAPPERS. +The Old Pueblo Fort--A Celebrated Rendezvous--Its Inhabitants-- +"Fontaine qui Bouille"--The Legend of its Origin--The Trappers +of the Old Santa Fe Trail and the Rocky Mountains--Beaver Trapping-- +Habits of the Beaver--Improvidence of the Old Trappers--Trading with +"Poor Lo"--The Strange Experience of a Veteran Trapper on the +Santa Fe Trail--Romantic Marriage of Baptiste Brown. + +CHAPTER XV. +UNCLE JOHN SMITH. +Uncle John Smith--A Famous Trapper, Guide, and Interpreter-- +His Marriage with a Cheyenne Squaw--An Autocrat among the People +of the Plains and Mountains--The Mexicans held him in Great Dread-- +His Wonderful Resemblance to President Andrew Johnson--Interpreter +and Guide on General Sheridan's Winter Expedition against the +Allied Plains Tribes--His Stories around the Camp-fire. + +CHAPTER XVI. +KIT CARSON. +Famous Men of the Old Santa Fe Trail--Kit Carson--Jim Bridger-- +James P. Beckwourth--Uncle Dick Wooton--Jim Baker--Lucien B. +Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin--James Hobbs. + +CHAPTER XVII. +UNCLE DICK WOOTON. +Uncle Dick Wooton--Lucien B. Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin-- +James Hobbs--William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill). + +CHAPTER XVIII. +MAXWELL'S RANCH. +Maxwell's Ranch on the Old Santa Fe Trail--A Picturesque Region-- +Maxwell a Trapper and Hunter with the American Fur Company-- +Lifelong Comrade of Kit Carson--Sources of Maxwell's Wealth-- +Fond of Horse-racing--A Disastrous Fourth-of-July Celebration +--Anecdote of Kit Carson--Discovery of Gold on the Ranch-- +The Big Ditch--Issuing Beef to the Ute Indians--Camping out with +Maxwell and Carson--A Story of the Old Santa Fe Trail. + +CHAPTER XIX. +BENT'S FORTS. +The Bents' Several Forts--Famous Trading-posts--Rendezvous of the +Rocky Mountain Trappers--Castle William and Incidents connected +with the Noted Place--Bartering with the Indians--Annual Feast +of Arapahoes and Cheyennes--Old Wolf's First Visit to Bent's Fort-- +The Surprise of the Savages--Stories told by Celebrated Frontiersmen +around the Camp-fire. + +CHAPTER XX. +PAWNEE ROCK. +Pawnee Rock--A Debatable Region of the Indian Tribes--The most +Dangerous Point on the Central Plains in the Days of the Early +Santa Fe Trade--Received its Name in a Baptism of Blood-- +Battle-ground of the Pawnees and Cheyennes--Old Graves on the +Summit of the Rock--Kit Carson's First Fight at the Rock with +the Pawnees--Kills his Mule by Mistake--Colonel St. Vrain's +Brilliant Charge--Defeat of the Savages--The Trappers' Terrible +Battle with the Pawnees--The Massacre at Cow Creek. + +CHAPTER XXI. +FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. +Wagon Mound--John L. Hatcher's Thrilling Adventure with Old Wolf, +the War-chief of the Comanches--Incidents on the Trail--A Boy +Bugler's Happy Escape from the Savages at Fort Union--A Drunken +Stage-driver--How an Officer of the Quartermaster's Department +at Washington succeeded in starting the Military Freight Caravans +a Month Earlier than the Usual Time--How John Chisholm fooled +the Stage-robbers--The Story of Half a Plug of Tobacco. + +CHAPTER XXII. +A DESPERATE RIDE. +Solitary Graves along the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Walnut +Crossing--Fort Zarah--The Graves on Hon. D. Heizer's Ranch on +the Walnut--Troops stationed at the Crossing of the Walnut-- +A Terrible Five Miles--The Cavalry Recruit's Last Ride. + +CHAPTER XXIII. +HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. +General Hancock's Expedition against the Plains Indians--Terrible +Snow-storm at Fort Larned--Meeting with the Chiefs of the +Dog-Soldiers--Bull Bear's Diplomacy--Meeting of the United States +Troops and the Savages in Line of Battle--Custer's Night Experience-- +The Surgeon and Dog Stew--Destruction of the Village by Fire-- +General Sully's Fight with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Arapahoes-- +Finding the Skeletons of the Unfortunate Men--The Savages' Report +of the Affair. + +CHAPTER XXIV. +INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. +Scenery on the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Great Plains-- +The Arkansas Valley--Over the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico-- +The Raton Range--The Spanish Peaks--Simpson's Rest--Fisher's Peak +--Raton Peak--Snowy Range--Pike's Peak--Raton Creek--The Invasion +of the Railroad--The Old Santa Fe Trail a Thing of the Past. + +FOOTNOTES. + +PUBLICATION INFORMATION. + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + +For more than three centuries, a period extending from 1541 to 1851, +historians believed, and so announced to the literary world, +that Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the celebrated Spanish explorer, +in his search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and the Kingdom of Quivira, +was the first European to travel over the intra-continent region +of North America. In the last year above referred to, however, +Buckingham Smith, of Florida, an eminent Spanish scholar, and secretary +of the American Legation at Madrid, discovered among the archives +of State the _Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca_, where for +nearly three hundred years it had lain, musty and begrimed with the +dust of ages, an unread and forgotten story of suffering that has no +parallel in fiction. The distinguished antiquarian unearthed the +valuable manuscript from its grave of oblivion, translated it into +English, and gave it to the world of letters; conferring honour upon +whom honour was due, and tearing the laurels from such grand voyageurs +and discoverers as De Soto, La Salle, and Coronado, upon whose heads +history had erroneously placed them, through no fault, or arrogance, +however, of their own. + +Cabeca, beyond any question, travelled the Old Santa Fe Trail for +many miles, crossed it where it intersects the Arkansas River, +a little east of Fort William or Bent's Fort, and went thence on +into New Mexico, following the famous highway as far, at least, +as Las Vegas. Cabeca's march antedated that of Coronado by five years. +To this intrepid Spanish voyageur we are indebted for the first +description of the American bison, or buffalo as the animal is +erroneously called. While not so quaint in its language as that +of Coronado's historian, a lustrum later, the statement cannot be +perverted into any other reference than to the great shaggy monsters +of the plains:-- + + Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times + and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size + of those of Spain. They have small horns like the cows + of Morocco, and the hair very long and flocky, like that + of the merino; some are light brown, others black. To my + judgment the flesh is finer and fatter than that of this + country. The Indians make blankets of the hides of those + not full grown. They range over a district of more than + four hundred leagues, and in the whole extent of plain over + which they run the people that inhabit near there descend + and live on them and scatter a vast many skins throughout + the country. + +It will be remembered by the student of the early history of +our country, that when Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, a follower of the +unfortunate Panphilo de Narvaez, and who had been long thought dead, +landed in Spain, he gave such glowing accounts of Florida[1] and the +neighbouring regions that the whole kingdom was in a ferment, +and many a heart panted to emigrate to a land where the fruits +were perennial, and where it was thought flowed the fabled +fountain of youth. + +Three expeditions to that country had already been tried: +one undertaken in 1512, by Juan Ponce de Leon, formerly a companion +of Columbus; another in 1520, by Vasquez de Allyon; and another by +Panphilo de Narvaez. All of these had signally failed, the bones +of most of the leaders and their followers having been left to bleach +upon the soil they had come to conquer. + +The unfortunate issue of the former expeditions did not operate as +a check upon the aspiring mind of De Soto, but made him the more +anxious to spring as an actor into the arena which had been the scene +of the discomfiture and death of the hardy chivalry of the kingdom. +He sought an audience of the emperor, and the latter, after hearing +De Soto's proposition that, "he could conquer the country known as +Florida at his own expense," conferred upon him the title of +"Governor of Cuba and Florida." + +On the 6th of April, 1538, De Soto sailed from Spain with an armament +of ten vessels and a splendidly equipped army of nine hundred chosen men, +amidst the roar of cannons and the inspiring strains of martial music. + +It is not within the province of this work to follow De Soto through +all his terrible trials on the North American continent; the wonderful +story may be found in every well-organized library. It is recorded, +however, that some time during the year 1542, his decimated army, +then under the command of Luis de Moscoso, De Soto having died +the previous May, was camped on the Arkansas River, far upward towards +what is now Kansas. It was this command, too, of the unfortunate +but cruel De Soto, that saw the Rocky Mountains from the east. +The chronicler of the disastrous journey towards the mountains says: +"The entire route became a trail of fire and blood," as they +had many a desperate struggle with the savages of the plains, +who "were of gigantic stucture, and fought with heavy strong clubs, +with the desperation of demons. Such was their tremendous strength, +that one of these warriors was a match for a Spanish soldier, +though mounted on a horse, armed with a sword and cased in armour!" + +Moscoso was searching for Coronado, and he was one of the most humane +of all the officers of De Soto's command, for he evidently bent +every energy to extricate his men from the dreadful environments +of their situation; despairing of reaching the Gulf by the Mississippi, +he struck westward, hoping, as Cabeca de Vaca had done, to arrive +in Mexico overland. + +A period of six months was consumed in Moscoso's march towards the +Rocky Mountains, but he failed to find Coronado, who at that time +was camped near where Wichita, Kansas, is located; according to his +historian, "at the junction of the St. Peter and St. Paul" (the Big +and Little Arkansas?). That point was the place of separation +between Coronado and a number of his followers; many returning +to Mexico, while the undaunted commander, with as many as he could +induce to accompany him, continued easterly, still in search of +the mythical Quivira. + +How far westward Moscoso travelled cannot be determined accurately, +but that his route extended up the valley of the Arkansas for more than +three hundred miles, into what is now Kansas, is proved by the statement +of his historian, who says: "They saw great chains of mountains and +forests to the west, which they understood were uninhabited." + +Another strong confirmatory fact is, that, in 1884, a group of mounds +was discovered in McPherson County, Kansas, which were thoroughly +explored by the professors of Bethany College, Lindsborg, who found, +among other interesting relics, a piece of chain-mail armour, +of hard steel; undoubtedly part of the equipment of a Spanish soldier +either of the command of Cabeca de Vaca, De Soto, or of Coronado. +The probability is, that it was worn by one of De Soto's unfortunate men, +as neither Panphilo de Narvaez, De Vaca, or Coronado experienced any +difficulty with the savages of the great plains, because those leaders +were humane and treated the Indians kindly, in contradistinction to +De Soto, who was the most inhuman of all the early Spanish explorers. +He was of the same school as Pizarro and Cortez; possessing their +daring valour, their contempt of danger, and their tenacity of purpose, +as well as their cruelty and avarice. De Soto made treaties with +the Indians which he constantly violated, and murdered the misguided +creatures without mercy. During the retreat of Moscoso's weakened +command down the Arkansas River, the Hot Springs of Arkansas +were discovered. His historian writes: + + And when they saw the foaming fountain, they thought + it was the long-searched-for "Fountain of Youth," reported + by fame to exist somewhere in the country, but ten of the + soldiers dying from excessive drinking, they were soon + convinced of their error. + +After these intrepid explorers the restless Coronado appears on +the Old Trail. In the third volume of Hakluyt's _Voyages_, published +in London, 1600, Coronado's historian thus describes the great plains +of Kansas and Colorado, the bison, and a tornado:-- + + From Cicuye they went to Quivira, which after their account + is almost three hundred leagues distant, through mighty + plains, and sandy heaths so smooth and wearisome, and bare + of wood that they made heaps of ox-dung, for want of stones + and trees, that they might not lose themselves at their + return: for three horses were lost on that plain, and one + Spaniard which went from his company on hunting. . . . + All that way of plains are as full of crooked-back oxen as + the mountain Serrena in Spain is of sheep, but there is + no such people as keep those cattle. . . . They were a + great succour for the hunger and the want of bread, which + our party stood in need of. . . . + + One day it rained in that plain a great shower of hail, + as big as oranges, which caused many tears, weakness + and bowes. + + These oxen are of the bigness and colour of our bulls, + but their bones are not so great. They have a great bunch + upon their fore-shoulder, and more hair on their fore part + than on their hinder part, and it is like wool. They have + as it were an horse-mane upon their backbone, and much hair + and very long from their knees downward. They have great + tufts of hair hanging down on their foreheads, and it + seemeth they have beards because of the great store of hair + hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have + very long tails, and a great knob or flock at the end, + so that in some respects they resemble the lion, and in some + other the camel. They push with their horns, they run, + they overtake and kill an horse when they are in their + rage and anger. Finally it is a foul and fierce beast of + countenance and form of body. The horses fled from them, + either because of their deformed shape, or else because + they had never before seen them. + +"The number," continues the historian, "was incredible." When the +soldiers, in their excitement for the chase, began to kill them, +they rushed together in such masses that hundreds were literally +crushed to death. At one place there was a great ravine; they jumped +into it in their efforts to escape from the hunters, and so terrible +was the slaughter as they tumbled over the precipice that the +depression was completely filled up, their carcasses forming a bridge, +over which the remainder passed with ease. + +The next recorded expedition across the plains via the Old Trail +was also by the Spaniards from Santa Fe, eastwardly, in the year 1716, +"for the purpose of establishing a Military Post in the Upper +Mississippi Valley as a barrier to the further encroachments of +the French in that direction." An account of this expedition is found +in _Memoires Historiques sur La Louisiane_, published in Paris in 1858, +but never translated in its entirety. The author, Lieutenant Dumont +of the French army, was one of a party ascending the Arkansas River +in search of a supposed mass of emeralds. The narrative relates: + There was more than half a league to traverse to gain the + other bank of the river, and our people were no sooner + arrived than they found there a party of Missouris, sent to + M. de la Harpe by M. de Bienville, then commandant general + at Louisiana, to deliver orders to the former. Consequently + they gave the signal order, and our other two canoes having + crossed the river, the savages gave to our commandant the + letters of M. de Bienville, in which he informed him that + the Spaniards had sent out a detachment from New Mexico + to go to the Missouris and to establish a post in that + country. . . . The success of this expedition was very + calamitous to the Spaniards. Their caravan was composed of + fifteen hundred people, men, women and soldiers, having + with them a Jacobin for a chaplain, and bringing also a + great number of horses and cattle, according to the custom + of that nation to forget nothing that might be necessary for + a settlement. Their design was to destroy the Missouris, + and to seize upon their country, and with this intention + they had resolved to go first to the Osages, a neighbouring + nation, enemies of the Missouris, to form an alliance with + them, and to engage them in their behalf for the execution + of their plan. Perhaps the map which guided them was not + correct, or they had not exactly followed it, for it chanced + that instead of going to the Osages whom they sought, they + fell, without knowing it, into a village of the Missouris, + where the Spanish commander, presenting himself to the great + chief and offering him the calumet, made him understand + through an interpreter, believing himself to be speaking + to the Osage chief, that they were enemies of the Missouris, + that they had come to destroy them, to make their women + and children slaves and to take possession of their country. + He begged the chief to be willing to form an alliance + with them, against a nation whom the Osages regarded as + their enemy, and to second them in this enterprise, promising + to recompense them liberally for the service rendered, + and always to be their friend in the future. Upon this + discourse the Missouri chief understood perfectly well + the mistake. He dissimulated and thanked the Spaniard for + the confidence he had in his nation; he consented to form + an alliance with them against the Missouris, and to join + them with all his forces to destroy them; but he represented + that his people were not armed, and that they dared not + expose themselves without arms in such an enterprise. + Deceived by so favourable a reception, the Spaniards fell + into the trap laid for them. They received with due + ceremony, in the little camp they had formed on their + arrival, the calumet which the great chief of the Missouris + presented to the Spanish commander. The alliance for war + was sworn to by both parties; they agreed upon a day for + the execution of the plan which they meditated, and the + Spaniards furnished the savages with all the munitions which + they thought were needed. After the ceremony both parties + gave themselves up equally to joy and good cheer. At the + end of three days two thousand savages were armed and in + the midst of dances and amusements; each party thought + nothing but the execution of its design. It was the evening + before their departure upon their concerted expedition, + and the Spaniards had retired to their camps as usual, + when the great chief of the Missouris, having assembled + his warriors, declared to them his intentions and exhorted + them to deal treacherously with these strangers who were come + to their home only with the design of destroying them. + At daybreak the savages divided into several bands, fell on + the Spaniards, who expected nothing of the kind, and in + less than a quarter of an hour all the caravan were murdered. + No one escaped from the massacre except the chaplain, whom + the barbarians saved because of his dress; at the same time + they took possession of all the merchandise and other + effects which they found in their camp. The Spaniards had + brought with them, as I have said, a certain number of horses, + and as the savages were ignorant of the use of these animals, + they took pleasure in making the Jacobin whom they had saved, + and who had become their slave, mount them. The priest gave + them this amusement almost every day for the five or six + months that he remained with them in their village, without + any of them daring to imitate him. Tired at last of his + slavery, and regarding the lack of daring in these barbarians + as a means of Providence to regain his liberty, he made + secretly all the provisions possible for him to make, + and which he believed necessary to his plan. At last, + having chosen the best horse and having mounted him, + after performing several of his exploits before the savages, + and while they were all occupied with his manoeuvres, + he spurred up and disappeared from their sight, taking the + road to Mexico, where doubtless he arrived. + +Charlevoix,[2] who travelled from Quebec to New Orleans in the +year 1721, says in one of his letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, +dated at Kaskaskia, July 21, 1721: + + About two years ago some Spaniards, coming, as they say, + from New Mexico, and intending to get into the country of + the Illinois and drive the French from thence, whom they + saw with extreme jealousy approach so near the Missouri, + came down the river and attacked two villages of the + Octoyas,[3] who are the allies of the Ayouez,[4] and from + whom it is said also that they are derived. As the savages + had no firearms and were surprised, the Spaniards made an + easy conquest and killed a great many of them. A third + village, which was not far off from the other two, being + informed of what had passed, and not doubting but these + conquerors would attack them, laid an ambush into which + the Spaniards heedlessly fell. Others say that the savages, + having heard that the enemy were almost all drunk and + fast asleep, fell upon them in the night. However it was, + it is certain the greater part of them were killed. + There were in the party two almoners; one of them was + killed directly and the other got away to the Missouris, + who took him prisoner, but he escaped them very dexterously. + He had a very fine horse and the Missouris took pleasure + in seeing him ride it, which he did very skilfully. He took + advantage of their curiosity to get out of their hands. + + One day as he was prancing and exercising his horse before + them, he got a little distance from them insensibly; then + suddenly clapping spurs to his horse he was soon out of sight. + +The Missouri Indians once occupied all the territory near the junction +of the Kaw and Missouri rivers, but they were constantly decimated +by the continual depredations of their warlike and feudal enemies, +the Pawnees and Sioux, and at last fell a prey to that dreadful +scourge, the small-pox, which swept them off by thousands. +The remnant of the once powerful tribe then found shelter and a home +with the Otoes, finally becoming merged in that tribe. + + + + +CHAPTER I. +UNDER THE SPANIARDS. + + + +The Santa Fe of the purely Mexican occupation, long before the days +of New Mexico's acquisition by the United States, and the Santa Fe of +to-day are so widely in contrast that it is difficult to find language +in which to convey to the reader the story of the phenomenal change. +To those who are acquainted with the charming place as it is now, +with its refined and cultured society, I cannot do better, perhaps, +in attempting to show what it was under the old regime, than to quote +what some traveller in the early 30's wrote for a New York leading +newspaper, in regard to it. As far as my own observation of the +place is concerned, when I first visited it a great many years ago, +the writer of the communication whose views I now present was not +incorrect in his judgment. He said:-- + + To dignify such a collection of mud hovels with the name + of "City," would be a keen irony; not greater, however, + than is the name with which its Padres have baptized it. + To call a place with its moral character, a very Sodom + in iniquity, "Holy Faith," is scarcely a venial sin; + it deserves Purgatory at least. Its health is the best + in the country, which is the first, second and third + recommendation of New Mexico by its greatest admirers. + It is a small town of about two thousand inhabitants, + crowded up against the mountains, at the end of a little + valley through which runs a mountain stream of the same + name tributary to the Rio Grande. It has a public square + in the centre, a Palace and an Alameda; as all Spanish + Roman Catholic towns have. It is true its Plaza, or + Public Square, is unfenced and uncared for, without trees + or grass. The Palace is nothing more than the biggest + mud-house in the town, and the churches, too, are unsightly + piles of the same material, and the Alameda[5] is on top of + a sand hill. Yet they have in Santa Fe all the parts and + parcels of a regal city and a Bishopric. The Bishop has a + palace also; the only two-storied shingle-roofed house in + the place. There is one public house set apart for eating, + drinking and gambling; for be it known that gambling is here + authorized by law. Hence it is as respectable to keep a + gambling house, as it is to sell rum in New Jersey; it is + a lawful business, and being lawful, and consequently + respectable and a man's right, why should not men gamble? + And gamble they do. The Generals and the Colonels and + the Majors and the Captains gamble. The judges and the + lawyers and the doctors and the priests gamble; and there + are gentlemen gamblers by profession! You will see squads + of poor peons daily, men, women and boys, sitting on the + ground around a deck of cards in the Public Square, gambling + for the smallest stakes. + + The stores of the town generally front on the Public Square. + Of these there are a dozen, more or less, of respectable + size, and most of them are kept by others than Mexicans. + The business of the place is considerable, many of the + merchants here being wholesale dealers for the vast + territory tributary. It is supposed that about $750,000 + worth of goods will be brought to this place this year, and + there may be $250,000 worth imported directly from the + United States. + + In the money market there is nothing less than a five-cent + piece. You cannot purchase anything for less than five cents. + In trade they reckon ten cents the eighth of a dollar. + If you purchase nominally a dollar's worth of an article, + you can pay for it in eight ten-cent pieces; and if you + give a dollar, you receive no change. In changing a dollar + for you, you would get but eight ten-cent pieces for it. + + Yet, although dirty and unkempt, and swarming with hungry + dogs, it has the charm of foreign flavour, and like + San Antonio retains some portion of the grace which long + lingered about it, if indeed it ever forsakes the spot + where Spain held rule for centuries, and the soft syllables + of the Spanish language are yet heard. + +Such was a description of the "drowsy old town" of Santa Fe, +sixty-five years ago. Fifteen years later Major W. H. Emory, of +the United States army, writes of it as follows:[6] + + The population of Santa Fe is from two to four thousand, + and the inhabitants are, it is said, the poorest people + of any town in the Province. The houses are mud bricks, + in the Spanish style, generally of one story, and built + on a square. The interior of the square is an open court, + and the principal rooms open into it. They are forbidding + in appearance from the outside, but nothing can exceed + the comfort and convenience of the interior. The thick + walls make them cool in summer and warm in winter. + + The better class of people are provided with excellent beds, + but the poorer class sleep on untanned skins. The women + here, as in many other parts of the world, appear to be + much before the men in refinements, intelligence, and + knowledge of the useful arts. The higher class dress like + the American women, except, instead of a bonnet, they wear + a scarf over their head, called a reboso. This they wear + asleep or awake, in the house or abroad. The dress of the + lower classes of women is a simple petticoat, with arms and + shoulders bare, except what may chance to be covered by + the reboso. + + The men who have means to do so dress after our fashion; + but by far the greater number, when they dress at all, + wear leather breeches, tight around the hips and open from + the knee down; shirt and blanket take the place of our + coat and vest. + + The city is dependent on the distant hills for wood, and + at all hours of the day may be seen jackasses passing laden + with wood, which is sold at two bits, twenty-five cents, + the load. These are the most diminutive animals, and + usually mounted from behind, after the fashion of leap-frog. + The jackass is the only animal that can be subsisted in + this barren neighbourhood without great expense; our horses + are all sent to a distance of twelve, fifteen, and thirty + miles for grass. + +I have interpolated these two somewhat similar descriptions of +Santa Fe written in that long ago when New Mexico was almost as +little known as the topography of the planet Mars, so that the +intelligent visitor of to-day may appreciate the wonderful changes +which American thrift, and that powerful civilizer, the locomotive, +have wrought in a very few years, yet it still, as one of the +foregoing writers has well said, "has the charm of foreign flavour, +and the soft syllables of the Spanish language are still heard." + +The most positive exception must be taken to the statement of the +first-quoted writer in relation to the Palace, of which he says +"It is nothing more than the biggest mud-house in the town." +Now this "Palacio del Gobernador," as the old building was called +by the Spanish, was erected at a very early day. It was the +long-established seat of power when Penalosa confined the chief +inquisitor within its walls in 1663, and when the Pueblo authorities +took possession of it as the citadel of their central authority, +in 1681. + +The old building cannot well be overlooked by the most careless +visitor to the quaint town; it is a long, low structure, taking up +the greater part of one side of the Plaza, round which runs a +colonnade supported by pillars of rough pine. In this once leaky +old Palace were kept, or rather neglected, the archives of the +Territory until the American residents, appreciating the importance +of preserving precious documents containing so much of interest +to the student of history and the antiquarian, enlisted themselves +enthusiastically in the good cause, and have rescued from oblivion +the annals of a relatively remote civilization, which, but for their +forethought, would have perished from the face of the earth as +completely as have the written records of that wonderful region in +Central America, whose gigantic ruins alone remain to tell us of +what was a highly cultured order of architecture in past ages, +and of a people whose intelligence was comparable to the style +of the dwellings in which they lived. + +The old adobe Palace is in itself a volume whose pages are filled +with pathos and stirring events. It has been the scene and witness +of incidents the recital of which would to us to-day seem incredible. +An old friend, once governor of New Mexico and now dead, thus +graphically spoke of the venerable building:[7] + + In it lived and ruled the Spanish captain general, so remote + and inaccessible from the viceroyalty at Mexico that he was + in effect a king, nominally accountable to the viceroy, + but practically beyond his reach and control and wholly + irresponsible to the people. Equally independent for the + same reason were the Mexican governors. Here met all the + provincial, territorial, departmental, and other legislative + bodies that have ever assembled at the capital of New Mexico. + Here have been planned all the Indian wars and measures + for defence against foreign invasion, including, as the + most noteworthy, the Navajo war of 1823, the Texan invasion + of 1842, the American of 1846, and the Confederate of 1862. + Within its walls was imprisoned, in 1809, the American + explorer Zebulon M. Pike, and innumerable state prisoners + before and since; and many a sentence of death has been + pronounced therein and the accused forthwith led away and + shot at the dictum of the man at the Palace. It has been + from time immemorial the government house with all its + branches annexed. It was such on the Fourth of July, 1776, + when the American Congress at Independence Hall in + Philadelphia proclaimed liberty throughout all the land, + not then, but now embracing it. Indeed, this old edifice + has a history. And as the history of Santa Fe is the + history of New Mexico, so is the history of the Palace + the history of Santa Fe. + +The Palace was the only building having glazed windows. At one end +was the government printing office, and at the other, the guard-house +and prison. Fearful stories were connected with the prison. +Edwards[8] says that he found, on examining the walls of the +small rooms, locks of human hair stuffed into holes, with rude +crosses drawn over them. + +Fronting the Palace, on the south side of the Plaza, stood the +remains of the Capilla de los Soldados, or Military Chapel. +The real name of the church was "Our Lady of Light." It was said +to be the richest church in the Province, but had not been in use +for a number of years, and the roof had fallen in, allowing the +elements to complete the work of destruction. On each side of the +altar was the remains of fine carving, and a weather-beaten picture +above gave evidence of having been a beautiful painting. Over the +door was a large oblong slab of freestone, elaborately carved, +representing "Our Lady of Light" rescuing a human being from the +jaws of Satan. A large tablet, beautifully executed in relief, +stood behind the altar, representing various saints, with an +inscription stating that it was erected by Governor Francisco Antonio +del Valle and his wife in 1761. + +Church services were held in the Parroquia, or Parish church, +now the Cathedral, which had two towers or steeples, in which hung +four bells. The music was furnished by a violin and a triangle. +The wall back of the altar was covered with innumerable mirrors, +paintings, and bright-coloured tapestry. + +The exact date of the first settlement of Santa Fe is uncertain. +One authority says: + + It was a primeval stronghold before the Spanish Conquest, + and a town of some importance to the white race when + Pennsylvania was a wilderness and the first Dutch governor + of New York was slowly drilling the Knickerbocker ancestry + in their difficult evolutions around the town-pump. + +It is claimed, on what is deemed very authentic data by some, that +Santa Fe is really the oldest settled town in the United States. +St. Augustine, Florida, was established in 1565 and was unquestionably +conceded the honour of antiquity until the acquisition of New Mexico +by the Guadalupe-Hidalgo treaty. Then, of course, Santa Fe steps +into the arena and carries off the laurels. This claim of precedence +for Santa Fe is based upon the statement (whether historically correct +or not is a question) that when the Spaniards first entered the region +from the southern portion of Mexico, about 1542, they found a very +large Pueblo town on the present site of Santa Fe, and that its prior +existence extended far back into the vanished centuries. This is +contradicted by other historians, who contend that the claim of +Santa Fe to be the oldest town in the United States rests entirely +on imaginary annals of an Indian Pueblo before the Spanish Conquest, +and that there are but slight indications that the town was built +on the site of one.[9] + +The reader may further satisfy himself on these mooted points by +consulting the mass of historical literature on New Mexico, +and the records of its primitive times are not surpassed in interest +by those of any other part of the continent. It was there the +Europeans first made great conquests, and some years prior to the +landing of the Pilgrims, a history of New Mexico, being the journal +of Geronimo de Zarate Salmaron, was published by the Church in the +City of Mexico, early in 1600. Salmaron was a Franciscan monk; +a most zealous and indefatigable worker. During his eight years' +residence at Jemez, near Santa Fe, he claims to have baptized over +eight thousand Indians, converts to the Catholic faith. His journal +gives a description of the country, its mines, etc., and was made +public in order that other monks reading it might emulate his +pious example. + +Between 1605 and 1616 was founded the Villa of Santa Fe, or +San Francisco de la Santa Fe. "Villa," or village, was an honorary +title, always authorized and proclaimed by the king. Bancroft says +that it was first officially mentioned on the 3d of January, 1617. + +The first immigration to New Mexico was under Don Juan de Onate +about 1597, and in a year afterward, according to some authorities, +Santa Fe was settled. The place, as claimed by some historians, +was then named El Teguayo, a Spanish adaptation of the word "Tegua," +the name of the Pueblo nation, which was quite numerous, and occupied +Santa Fe and the contiguous country. It very soon, from its central +position and charming climate, became the leading Spanish town, +and the capital of the Province. The Spaniards, who came at first +into the country as friends, and were apparently eager to obtain +the good-will of the intelligent natives, shortly began to claim +superiority, and to insist on the performance of services which were +originally mere evidences of hospitality and kindness. Little by +little they assumed greater power and control over the Indians, +until in the course of years they had subjected a large portion of +them to servitude little differing from actual slavery. + +The impolitic zeal of the monks gradually invoked the spirit of +hatred and resulted in a rebellion that drove the Spaniards, in 1680, +from the country. The large number of priests who were left in the +midst of the natives met with horrible fates: + + Not one escaped martyrdom. At Zuni, three Franciscans + had been stationed, and when the news of the Spanish retreat + reached the town, the people dragged them from their cells, + stripped and stoned them, and afterwards compelled the + servant of one to finish the work by shooting them. Having + thus whetted their appetite for cruelty and vengeance, + the Indians started to carry the news of their independence + to Moqui, and signalized their arrival by the barbarous + murder of the two missionaries who were living there. + Their bodies were left unburied, as a prey for the wild + beasts. At Jemez they indulged in every refinement of + cruelty. The old priest, Jesus Morador, was seized in + his bed at night, stripped naked and mounted on a hog, + and thus paraded through the streets, while the crowd + shouted and yelled around. Not satisfied with this, + they then forced him to carry them as a beast would, + crawling on his hands and feet, until, from repeated beating + and the cruel tortures of sharp spurs, he fell dead in + their midst. A similar chapter of horrors was enacted + at Acoma, where three priests were stripped, tied together + with hair rope, and so driven through the streets, and + finally stoned to death. Not a Christian remained free + within the limits of New Mexico, and those who had been + dominant a few months before were now wretched and + half-starved fugitives, huddled together in the rude huts + of San Lorenzo. + + As soon as the Spaniards had retreated from the country, + the Pueblo Indians gave themselves up for a time to + rejoicing, and to the destruction of everything which could + remind them of the Europeans, their religion, and their + domination. The army which had besieged Santa Fe quickly + entered that city, took possession of the Palace as the + seat of government, and commenced the work of demolition. + The churches and the monastery of the Franciscans were + burned with all their contents, amid the almost frantic + acclamations of the natives. The gorgeous vestments of + the priests had been dragged out before the conflagration, + and now were worn in derision by Indians, who rode through + the streets at full speed, shouting for joy. The official + documents and books in the Palace were brought forth, + and made fuel for a bonfire in the centre of the Plaza; + and here also they danced the cachina, with all the + accompanying religious ceremonies of the olden time. + Everything imaginable was done to show their detestation + of the Christian faith and their determination to utterly + eradicate even its memory. Those who had been baptized + were washed with amole in the Rio Chiquito, in order to be + cleansed from the infection of Christianity. All baptismal + names were discarded, marriages celebrated by Christian + priests were annulled, the very mention of the names Jesus + and Mary was made an offence, and estuffas were constructed + to take the place of ruined churches.[10] + +For twelve years, although many abortive attempts were made to +recapture the country, the Pueblos were left in possession. On the +16th of October, 1693, the victorious Spaniards at last entered +Santa Fe, bearing the same banner which had been carried by Onate when +he entered the city just a century before. The conqueror this time +was Don Diego de Vargas Zapata Lujan, whom the viceroy of New Spain +had appointed governor in the spring of 1692, with the avowed purpose +of having New Mexico reconquered as speedily as possible. + +Thus it will be seen that the quaint old city has been the scene of +many important historical events, the mere outline of which I have +recorded here, as this book is not devoted to the historical view +of the subject. + +In contradistinction to the quiet, sleepy old Santa Fe of half +a century ago, it now presents all the vigour, intelligence, and +bustling progressiveness of the average American city of to-day, +yet still smacks of that ancient Spanish regime, which gives it +a charm that only its blended European and Indian civilization +could make possible after its amalgamation with the United States. + +The tourist will no longer find a drowsy old town, and the Plaza +is no longer unfenced and uncared for. A beautiful park of trees +is surrounded by low palings, and inside the shady enclosure, +under a group of large cottonwoods, is a cenotaph erected to the +memory of the Territory's gallant soldiers who fell in the shock of +battle to save New Mexico to the Union in 1862, and conspicuous among +the names carved on the enduring native rock is that of Kit Carson-- +prince of frontiersmen, and one of Nature's noblemen. + +Around the Plaza one sees the American style of architecture and +hears the hum of American civilization; but beyond, and outside +this pretty park, the streets are narrow, crooked, and have an +ancient appearance. There the old Santa Fe confronts the stranger; +odd, foreign-looking, and flavoured with all the peculiarities which +marked the era of Mexican rule. And now, where once was heard the +excited shouts of the idle crowd, of "Los Americanos!" "Los Carros!" +"La entrada de la Caravana!" as the great freight wagons rolled into +the streets of the old town from the Missouri, over the Santa Fe Trail, +the shrill whistle of the locomotive from its trail of steel awakens +the echoes of the mighty hills. + +As may be imagined, great excitement always prevailed whenever a +caravan of goods arrived in Santa Fe. Particularly was this the case +among the feminine portion of the community. The quaint old town +turned out its mixed population en masse the moment the shouts went up +that the train was in sight. There is nothing there to-day comparable +to the anxious looks of the masses as they watched the heavily +freighted wagons rolling into the town, the teamsters dust-begrimed, +and the mules making the place hideous with their discordant braying +as they knew that their long journey was ended and rest awaited them. +The importing merchants were obliged to turn over to the custom house +officials five hundred dollars for every wagon-load, great or small; +and no matter what the intrinsic value of the goods might be, +salt or silk, velvets or sugar, it was all the same. The nefarious +duty had to be paid before a penny's worth could be transferred +to their counters. Of course, with the end of Mexican rule and +the acquisition of the Province by the United States, all opposition +to the traffic of the Old Santa Fe Trail ended, traders were assured +a profitable market and the people purchased at relatively low prices. + +What a wonderful change has taken place in the traffic with New Mexico +in less than three-quarters of a century! In 1825 it was all carried +on with one single annual caravan of prairie-schooners, and now there +are four railroads running through the Rio Grande Valley, and one +daily freight train of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe into the +town unloads more freight than was taken there in a whole year when +the "commerce of the prairies" was at its height! + +Upon the arrival of a caravan in the days of the sleepy regime under +Mexican control, the people did everything in their power to make +the time pass pleasantly for every one connected with it during +their sojourn. Bailes, or fandangoes, as the dancing parties were +called by the natives, were given nightly, and many amusing anecdotes +in regard to them are related by the old-timers. + +The New Mexicans, both men and women, had a great fondness for +jewelry, dress, and amusements; of the latter, the fandango was the +principal, which was held in the most fashionable place of resort, +where every belle and beauty in the town presented herself, +attired in the most costly manner, and displaying her jewelled +ornaments to the best advantage. To this place of recreation +and pleasure, generally a large, capacious saloon or interior court, +all classes of persons were allowed to come, without charge and +without invitation. The festivities usually commenced about nine +o'clock in the evening, and the tolling of the church bells was +the signal for the ladies to make their entrance, which they did +almost simultaneously. + +New Mexican ladies were famous for their gaudy dresses, but it must +be confessed they did not exercise good taste. Their robes were +made without bodies; a skirt only, and a long, loose, flowing scarf +or reboso dexterously thrown about the head and shoulders, so as to +supersede both the use of dress-bodies and bonnets. + +There was very little order maintained at these fandangoes, and still +less attention paid to the rules of etiquette. A kind of swinging, +gallopade waltz was the favourite dance, the cotillion not being +much in vogue. Read Byron's graphic description of the waltz, +and then stretch your imagination to its utmost tension, and you +will perhaps have some faint conception of the Mexican fandango. +Such familiarity of position as was indulged in would be repugnant +to the refined rules of polite society in the eastern cities; +but with the New Mexicans, in those early times, nothing was +considered to be a greater accomplishment than that of being able +to go handsomely through all the mazes of their peculiar dance. + +There was one republican feature about the New Mexican fandango; +it was that all classes, rich and poor alike, met and intermingled, +as did the Romans at their Saturnalia, upon terms of equality. +Sumptuous repasts or collations were rarely ever prepared for those +frolicsome gatherings, but there was always an abundance of +confectionery, sweetmeats, and native wine. It cost very little +for a man to attend one of the fandangoes in Santa Fe, but not to get +away decently and sober. In that it resembled the descent of Aeneas +to Pluto's realms; it was easy enough to get there, but when it came +to return, "revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, hic labor, +hoc opus est." + + + + +CHAPTER II. +LA LANDE AND PURSLEY. + + + +In the beginning of the trade with New Mexico, the route across +the great plains was directly west from the Missouri River to the +mountains, thence south to Santa Fe by the circuitous trail from Taos. +When the traffic assumed an importance demanding a more easy line +of way, the road was changed, running along the left bank of the +Arkansas until that stream turned northwest, at which point it +crossed the river, and continued southwest to the Raton Pass. + +The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad track substantially +follows the Trail through the mountains, which here afford the +wildest and most picturesquely beautiful scenery on the continent. + +The Arkansas River at the fording of the Old Trail is not more than +knee-deep at an ordinary stage of water, and its bottom is well paved +with rounded pebbles of the primitive rock. + +The overland trade between the United States and the northern +provinces of Mexico seems to have had no very definite origin; +having been rather the result of an accident than of any organized +plan of commercial establishment. + +According to the best authorities, a French creole, named La Lande, +an agent of a merchant of Kaskaskia, Illinois, was the first American +adventurer to enter into the uncertain channels of trade with the +people of the ultramontane region of the centre of the continent. +He began his adventurous journey across the vast wilderness, +with no companions but the savages of the debatable land, in 1804; +and following him the next year, James Pursley undertook the same +pilgrimage. Neither of these pioneers in the "commerce of the +prairies" returned to relate what incidents marked the passage of +their marvellous expeditions. Pursley was so infatuated with the +strange country he had travelled so far to reach, that he took up +his abode in the quaint old town of Santa Fe where his subsequent +life is lost sight of. La Lande, of a different mould, forgot to +render an account of his mission to the merchant who had sent him +there, and became a prosperous and wealthy man by means of money +to which he had no right. + +To Captain Zebulon Pike, who afterwards was made a general, is due +the impetus which the trade with Santa Fe received shortly after +his return to the United States. The student of American history +will remember that the expedition commanded by this soldier was +inaugurated in 1806; his report of the route he had taken was the +incentive for commercial speculation in the direction of trade with +New Mexico, but it was so handicapped by restrictions imposed by the +Mexican government, that the adventurers into the precarious traffic +were not only subject to a complete confiscation of their wares, +but frequently imprisoned for months as spies. Under such a condition +of affairs, many of the earlier expeditions, prior to 1822, resulted +in disaster, and only a limited number met with an indifferent success. + +It will not be inconsistent with my text if I herewith interpolate +an incident connected with Pursley, the second American to cross +the desert, for the purpose of trade with New Mexico, which I find in +the _Magazine of American History_: + + When Zebulon M. Pike was in Mexico, in 1807, he met, + at Santa Fe, a carpenter, Pursley by name, from Bardstown, + Kentucky, who was working at his trade. He had in a + previous year, while out hunting on the Plains, met with + a series of misfortunes, and found himself near the + mountains. The hostile Sioux drove the party into the + high ground in the rear of Pike's Peak. Near the headwaters + of the Platte River, Pursley found some gold, which he + carried in his shot-pouch for months. He was finally sent + by his companions to Santa Fe, to see if they could trade + with the Mexicans, but he chose to remain in Santa Fe + in preference to returning to his comrades. He told the + Mexicans about the gold he had found, and they tried hard + to persuade him to show them the place. They even offered + to take along a strong force of cavalry. But Pursley + refused, and his patriotic reason was that he thought the + land belonged to the United States. He told Captain Pike + that he feared they would not allow him to leave Santa Fe, + as they still hoped to learn from him where the gold was + to be found. These facts were published by Captain Pike + soon after his return east; but no one took the hint, + or the risk was too great, and thus more than a half + a century passed before those same rich fields of gold + were found and opened to the world. If Pursley had been + somewhat less patriotic, and had guided the Mexicans to + the treasures, the whole history and condition of the + western part of our continent might have been entirely + different from what it now is. That region would still + have been a part of Mexico, or Spain might have been + in possession of it, owning California; and, with the gold + that would have been poured into her coffers, would have + been the leading nation of European affairs to-day. + We can easily see how American and European history in + the nineteenth century might have been changed, if that + adventurer from Kentucky had not been a true lover of his + native country. + +The adventures of Captain Ezekiel Williams along the Old Trail, +in the early days of the century, tell a story of wonderful courage, +endurance, and persistency. Williams was a man of great perseverance, +patience, and determination of character. He set out from St. Louis +in the late spring of 1807, to trap on the Upper Missouri and the +waters of the Yellowstone, with a party of twenty men who had chosen +him as their leader. After various exciting incidents and thrilling +adventures, all of the original party, except Williams and two others, +were killed by the Indians somewhere in the vicinity of the Upper +Arkansas. The three survivors, not knowing where they were, separated, +and Captain Williams determined to take to the stream by canoe, and +trap on his way toward the settlements, while his last two companions +started for the Spanish country--that is, for the region of Santa Fe. +The journal of Williams, from which I shall quote freely, is to be +found in _The Lost Trappers_, a work long out of print.[11] As the +country was an unexplored region, he might be on a river that flowed +into the Pacific, or he might be drifting down a stream that was +an affluent to the Gulf of Mexico. He was inclined to believe +that he was on the sources of the Red River. He therefore resolved +to launch his canoe, and go wherever the stream might convey him, +trapping on his descent, when beaver might be plenty. + +The first canoe he used he made of buffalo-skins. As this kind +of water conveyance soon begins to leak and rot, he made another +of cottonwood, as soon as he came to timber sufficiently large, +in which he embarked for a port, he knew not where. + +Most of his journeyings Captain Williams performed during the hours +of night, excepting when he felt it perfectly safe to travel in +daylight. His usual plan was to glide along down the stream, until +he came to a place where beaver signs were abundant. There he would +push his little bark among the willows, where he remained concealed, +excepting when he was setting his traps or visiting them in the +morning. When he had taken all the beaver in one neighbourhood, +he would untie his little conveyance, and glide onward and downward +to try his luck in another place. + +Thus for hundreds of miles did this solitary trapper float down this +unknown river, through an unknown country, here and there lashing +his canoe to the willows and planting his traps in the little +tributaries around. The upper part of the Arkansas, for this +proved to be the river he was on,[12] is very destitute of timber, +and the prairie frequently begins at the bank of the river and +expands on either side as far as the eye can reach. He saw vast +herds of buffalo, and as it was the rutting season, the bulls were +making a wonderful ado; the prairie resounded with their low, deep +grunting or bellowing, as they tore up the earth with their feet +and horns, whisking their tails, and defying their rivals to battle. +Large gangs of wild horses could be seen grazing on the plains and +hillsides, and the neighing and squealing of stallions might be heard +at all times of the night. + +Captain Williams never used his rifle to procure meat, except when +it was absolutely necessary, or could be done with perfect safety. +On occasions when he had no beaver, upon which he generally subsisted, +he ventured to kill a deer, and after refreshing his empty stomach +with a portion of the flesh, he placed the carcass in one end of the +canoe. It was his invariable custom to sleep in his canoe at night, +moored to the shore, and once when he had laid in a supply of venison +he was startled in his sleep by the tramping of something in the +bushes on the bank. Tramp! tramp! tramp! went the footsteps, +as they approached the canoe. He thought at first it might be an +Indian that had found out his locality, but he knew that it could +not be; a savage would not approach him in that careless manner. +Although there was beautiful starlight, yet the trees and the dense +undergrowth made it very dark on the bank of the river, close to which +he lay. He always adopted the precaution of tying his canoe with +a piece of rawhide about twenty feet long, which allowed it to swing +from the bank at that distance; he did this so that in case of an +emergency he might cut the string, and glide off without making +any noise. As the sound of the footsteps grew more distinct, +he presently observed a huge grizzly bear coming down to the water +and swimming for the canoe. The great animal held his head up as if +scenting the venison. The captain snatched his axe as the most +available means to defend himself in such a scrape, and stood with +it uplifted, ready to drive it into the brains of the monster. +The bear reached the canoe, and immediately put his fore paws upon +the hind end of it, nearly turning it over. The captain struck one +of the brute's feet with the edge of the axe, which made him let go +with that foot, but he held on with the other, and he received +this time a terrific blow on the head, that caused him to drop away +from the canoe entirely. Nothing more was seen of the bear, +and the captain thought he must have sunk in the stream and drowned. +He was evidently after the fresh meat, which he scented from a great +distance. In the canoe the next morning there were two of the bear's +claws, which had been cut off by the well-directed blow of the axe. +These were carefully preserved by Williams for many years as a trophy +which he was fond of exhibiting, and the history of which he always +delighted to tell. + +As he was descending the river with his peltries, which consisted of +one hundred and twenty-five beaver-skins, besides some of the otter +and other smaller animals, he overtook three Kansas Indians, who were +also in a canoe going down the river, as he learned from them, +to some post to trade with the whites. They manifested a very +friendly disposition towards the old trapper, and expressed a wish +to accompany him. He also learned from them, to his great delight, +that he was on the Big Arkansas, and not more than five hundred miles +from the white settlements. He was well enough versed in the +treachery of the Indian character to know just how much he could +repose in their confidence. He was aware that they would not allow +a solitary trapper to pass through their country with a valuable +collection of furs, without, at least, making an effort to rob him. +He knew that their plan would be to get him into a friendly +intercourse, and then, at the first opportunity, strip him of +everything he possessed; consequently he was determined to get rid +of them as soon as possible, and to effect this, he plied his oars +with all diligence. The Indians, like most North American savages, +were lazy, and had no disposition to labour in that way, but took it +quite leisurely, satisfied with being carried down by the current. +Williams soon left them in the rear, and, as he supposed, far +behind him. When night came on, however, as he had worked all day, +and slept none the night before, he resolved to turn aside into a +bunch of willows to take a few hours' rest. But he had not stopped +more than forty minutes when he heard some Indians pull to the shore +just above him on the same side of the river. He immediately +loosened his canoe from its moorings, and glided silently away. +He rowed hard for two or three hours, when he again pulled to the +bank and tied up. + +Only a short time after he had landed, he heard Indians again going +on shore on the same side of the stream as himself. A second time +he repeated his tactics, slipped out of his place of concealment, +and stole softly away. He pulled on vigorously until some time after +midnight, when he supposed he could with safety stop and snatch a +little sleep. He felt apprehensive that he was in a dangerous region, +and his anxiety kept him wide awake. It was very lucky that he +did not close his eyes; for as he was lying in the bottom of his canoe +he heard for the third time a canoe land as before. He was now +perfectly satisfied that he was dogged by the Kansans whom he had +passed the preceding day, and in no very good humour, therefore, +he picked up his rifle, and walked up to the bank where he had heard +the Indians land. As he suspected, there were the three savages. +When they saw the captain, they immediately renewed their expressions +of friendship, and invited him to partake of their hospitality. +He stood aloof from them, and shook his head in a rage, charging +them with their villanous purposes. In the short, sententious manner +of the Indians, he said to them: "You now follow me three times; +if you follow me again, I kill you!" and wheeling around abruptly, +returned to his canoe. A third time the solitary trapper pushed +his little craft from the shore and set off down stream, to get away +from a region where to sleep would be hazardous. He plied his oars +the remainder of the night, and solaced himself with the thought +that no evil had befallen him, except the loss of a few hours' sleep. + +While he was escaping from his villanous pursuers, he was running +into new dangers and difficulties. The following day he overtook +a large band of the same tribe, under the leadership of a chief, +who were also descending the river. Into the hands of these savages +he fell a prisoner, and was conducted to one of their villages. +The principal chief there took all of his furs, traps, and other +belongings. A very short time after his capture, the Kansans went +to war with the Pawnees, and carried Captain Williams with them. +In a terrible battle in which the Kansans gained a most decided +victory, the old trapper bore a conspicuous part, killing a great +number of the enemy, and by his excellent strategy brought about +the success of his captors. When they returned to the village, +Williams, who had ever been treated with kindness by the inhabitants, +was now thought to be a wonderful warrior, and could have been +advanced to all the savage honours; he might even have been made +one of their principal chiefs. The tribe gave him his liberty for +the great service he had rendered it in its difficulty with an +inveterate foe, but declining all proffered promotions, he decided +to return to the white settlements on the Missouri, at the mouth +of the Kaw, the covetous old chief retaining all his furs, and indeed +everything he possessed excepting his rifle, with as many rounds +of ammunition as would be necessary to secure him provisions in the +shape of game on his route. The veteran trapper had learned from +the Indians while with them that they expected to go to Fort Osage +on the Missouri River to receive some annuities from the government, +and he felt certain that his furs would be there at the same time. + +After leaving the Kansans he travelled on toward the Missouri, +and soon struck the beginning of the sparse settlements. Just as +evening was coming on, he arrived at a cluster of three little +log-cabins, and was received with genuine backwoods hospitality by +the proprietor, who had married an Osage squaw. Williams was not only +very hungry, but very tired; and, after enjoying an abundant supper, +he became stupid and sleepy, and expressed a wish to lie down. +The generous trapper accordingly conducted him to one of the cabins, +in which there were two beds, standing in opposite corners of +the room. He immediately threw himself upon one, and was soon in +a very deep sleep. About midnight his slumbers were disturbed by +a singular and very frightful kind of noise, accompanied by struggling +on the other bed. What it was, Williams was entirely at a loss to +understand. There were no windows in the cabin, the door was shut, +and it was as dark as Egypt. A fierce contest seemed to be going on. +There were deep groanings and hard breathings; and the snapping of +teeth appeared almost constant. For a moment the noise would subside, +then again the struggles woud be renewed accompanied as before +with groaning, deep sighing, and grinding of teeth. + +The captain's bed-clothes consisted of a couple of blankets and a +buffalo-robe, and as the terrible struggles continued he raised +himself up in the bed, and threw the robe around him for protection, +his rifle having been left in the cabin where his host slept, while +his knife was attached to his coat, which he had hung on the corner +post of the other bedstead from which the horrid struggles emanated. +In an instant the robe was pulled off, and he was left uncovered and +unprotected; in another moment a violent snatch carried away the +blanket upon which he was sitting, and he was nearly tumbled off the +bed with it. As the next thing might be a blow in the dark, he felt +that it was high time to shift his quarters; so he made a desperate +leap from the bed, and alighted on the opposite side of the room, +calling for his host, who immediately came to his relief by opening +the door. Williams then told him that the devil--or something +as bad, he believed--was in the room, and he wanted a light. +The accommodating trapper hurried away, and in a moment was back +with a candle, the light of which soon revealed the awful mystery. +It was an Indian, who at the time was struggling in convulsions, +which he was subject to. He was a superannuated chief, a relative of +the wife of the hospitable trapper, and generally made his home there. +Absent when Captain Williams arrived, he came into the room at a +very late hour, and went to the bed he usually occupied. No one +on the claim knew of his being there until he was discovered, +in a dreadfully mangled condition. He was removed to other quarters, +and Williams, who was not to be frightened out of a night's rest, +soon sunk into sound repose. + +Williams reached the agency by the time the Kansas Indians arrived +there, and, as he suspected, found that the wily old chief had brought +all his belongings, which he claimed, and the agent made the savages +give up the stolen property before he would pay them a cent of their +annuities. He took his furs down to St. Louis, sold them there +at a good price, and then started back to the Rocky Mountains on +another trapping tour. + + + + +CHAPTER III. +EARLY TRADERS. + + + +In 1812 a Captain Becknell, who had been on a trading expedition +to the country of the Comanches in the summer of 1811, and had done +remarkably well, determined the next season to change his objective +point to Santa Fe, and instead of the tedious process of bartering +with the Indians, to sell out his stock to the New Mexicans. +Successful in this, his first venture, he returned to the Missouri +River with a well-filled purse, and intensely enthusiastic over the +result of his excursion to the newly found market. + +Excited listeners to his tales of enormous profits were not lacking, +who, inspired by the inducement he held out to them, cheerfully +invested five thousand dollars in merchandise suited to the demands +of the trade, and were eager to attempt with him the passage of +the great plains. In this expedition there were thirty men, and +the amount of money in the undertaking was the largest that had yet +been ventured. The progress of the little caravan was without +extraordinary incident, until it arrived at "The Caches" on the +Upper Arkansas. There Becknell, who was in reality a man of the +then "Frontier," bold, plucky, and endowed with excellent sense, +conceived the ridiculous idea of striking directly across the country +for Santa Fe through a region absolutely unexplored; his excuse +for this rash movement being that he desired to avoid the rough and +circuitous mountain route he had travelled on his first trip to Taos. + +His temerity in abandoning the known for the unknown was severely +punished, and his brave men suffered untold misery, barely escaping +with their lives from the terrible straits to which they were reduced. +Not having the remotest conception of the region through which their +new trail was to lead them, and naturally supposing that water would +be found in streams or springs, when they left the Arkansas they +neglected to supply themselves with more than enough of the precious +fluid to last a couple of days. At the end of that time they learned, +too late, that they were in the midst of a desert, with all the +tortures of thirst threatening them. + +Without a tree or a path to guide them, they took an irregular course +by observations of the North Star, and the unreliable needle of an +azimuth pocket-compass. There was a total absence of water, and when +what they had brought with them in their canteens from the river was +exhausted, thirst began its horrible office. In a short time both men +and animals were in a mental condition bordering on distraction. +To alleviate their acute torment, the dogs of the train were killed, +and their blood, hot and sickening, eagerly swallowed; then the ears +of the mules were cut off for the same purpose, but such a substitute +for water only added to their sufferings. They would have perished +had not a superannuated buffalo bull that had just come from the +Cimarron River, where he had gone to quench his thirst, suddenly +appeared, to be immediately killed and the contents of his stomach +swallowed with avidity. It is recorded that one of those who partook +of the nauseous liquid said afterward, "nothing had ever passed +his lips which gave him such exquisite delight as his first draught +of that filthy beverage." + +Although they were near the Cimarron, where there was plenty of water, +which but for the affair of the buffalo they never would have suspected, +they decided to retrace their steps to the Arkansas. + +Before they started on their retreat, however, some of the strongest +of the party followed the trail of the animal that had saved their +lives to the river, where, filling all the canteens with pure water, +they returned to their comrades, who were, after drinking, able to +march slowly toward the Arkansas. + +Following that stream, they at last arrived at Taos, having experienced +no further trouble, but missed the trail to Santa Fe, and had their +journey greatly prolonged by the foolish endeavour of the leader +to make a short cut thither. + +As early as 1815, Auguste P. Chouteau and his partner, with a large +number of trappers and hunters, went out to the valley of the +Upper Arkansas for the purpose of trading with Indians, and trapping +on the numerous streams of the contiguous region. + +The island on which Chouteau established his trading-post, and which +bears his name even to this day, is in the Arkansas River on the +boundary line of the United States and Mexico. It was a beautiful +spot, with a rich carpet of grass and delightful groves, and on +the American side was a heavily timbered bottom. + +While occupying the island, Chouteau and his old hunters and trappers +were attacked by about three hundred Pawnees, whom they repulsed +with the loss of thirty killed and wounded. These Indians afterward +declared that it was the most fatal affair in which they were ever +engaged. It was their first acquaintance with American guns. + +The general character of the early trade with New Mexico was founded +on the system of the caravan. She depended upon the remote ports +of old Mexico, whence was transported, on the backs of the patient +burro and mule, all that was required by the primitive tastes of the +primitive people; a very tedious and slow process, as may be inferred, +and the limited traffic westwardly across the great plains was +confined to this fashion. At the date of the legitimate and +substantial commerce with New Mexico, in 1824, wheeled vehicles were +introduced, and traffic assumed an importance it could never have +otherwise attained, and which now, under the vast system of railroads, +has increased to dimensions little dreamed of by its originators +nearly three-quarters of a century ago. + +It was eight years after Pursley's pilgrimage before the trade with +New Mexico attracted the attention of speculators and adventurers. +Messrs. McKnight,[13] Beard, and Chambers, with about a dozen comrades, +started with a supply of goods across the unknown plains, and by +good luck arrived safely at Santa Fe. Once under the jurisdiction +of the Mexicans, however, their trouble began. All the party were +arrested as spies, their wares confiscated, and themselves +incarcerated at Chihuahua, where the majority of them were kept for +almost a decade. Beard and Chambers, having by some means escaped, +returned to St. Louis in 1822, and, notwithstanding their dreadful +experience, told of the prospects of the trade with the Mexicans +in such glowing colours that they induced some individuals of small +capital to fit out another expedition, with which they again set out +for Santa Fe. + +It was really too late in the season; they succeeded, however, +in reaching the crossing of the Arkansas without any difficulty, +but there a violent snowstorm overtook them and they were compelled +to halt, as it was impossible to proceed in the face of the blinding +blizzard. On an island[14] not far from where the town of Cimarron, +on the Santa Fe Railroad, is now situated, they were obliged to +remain for more than three months, during which time most of their +animals died for want of food and from the severe cold. When the +weather had moderated sufficiently to allow them to proceed on +their journey, they had no transportation for their goods and were +compelled to hide them in pits dug in the earth, after the manner +of the old French voyageurs in the early settlement of the continent. +This method of secreting furs and valuables of every character +is called caching, from the French word "to hide." Gregg thus +describes it: + + The cache is made by digging a hole in the ground, somewhat + in the shape of a jug, which is lined with dry sticks, + grass, or anything else that will protect its contents + from the dampness of the earth. In this place the goods + to be concealed are carefully stowed away; and the aperture + is then so effectually closed as to protect them from + the rains. In caching, a great deal of skill is often + required to leave no sign whereby the cunning savage may + discover the place of deposit. To this end, the excavated + earth is carried some distance and carefully concealed, + or thrown into a stream, if one be at hand. The place + selected for a cache is usually some rolling point, + sufficiently elevated to be secure from inundations. + If it be well set with grass, a solid piece of turf is + cut out large enough for the entrance. The turf is + afterward laid back, and, taking root, in a short time + no signs remain of its ever having been molested. + However, as every locality does not afford a turfy site, + the camp-fire is sometimes built upon the place, or the + animals are penned over it, which effectually destroys + all traces. + +Father Hennepin[15] thus describes, in his quaint style, how he built +a cache on the bank of the Mississippi, in 1680: + + We took up the green sodd, and laid it by, and digg'd a hole + in the Earth where we put our Goods, and cover'd them with + pieces of Timber and Earth, and then put in again the green + Turf; so that 'twas impossible to suspect that any Hole had + been digg'd under it, for we flung the Earth into the River. + +After caching their goods, Beard and the party went on to Taos, +where they bought mules, and returning to their caches transported +their contents to their market. + +The word "cache" still lingers among the "old-timers" of the mountains +and plains, and has become a provincialism with their descendants; +one of these will tell you that he cached his vegetables in the side +of the hill; or if he is out hunting and desires to secrete himself +from approaching game, he will say, "I am going to cache behind +that rock," etc. + +The place where Beard's little expedition wintered was called +"The Caches" for years, and the name has only fallen into disuse +within the last two decades. I remember the great holes in the +ground when I first crossed the plains, a third of a century ago. + +The immense profit upon merchandise transported across the dangerous +Trail of the mid-continent to the capital of New Mexico soon excited +the cupidity of other merchants east of the Missouri. When the +commonest domestic cloth, manufactured wholly from cotton, brought +from two to three dollars a yard at Santa Fe, and other articles at +the same ratio to cost, no wonder the commerce with the far-off market +appeared to those who desired to send goods there a veritable Golconda. + +The importance of internal trade with New Mexico, and the possibilities +of its growth, were first recognized by the United States in 1824, +the originator of the movement being Mr. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, +who frequently, from his place in the Senate, prophesied the coming +greatness of the West. He introduced a bill which authorized the +President to appoint a commission to survey a road from the Missouri +River to the boundary line of New Mexico, and from thence on Mexican +territory with the consent of the Mexican government. The signing of +this bill was one of the last acts of Mr. Monroe's official life, +and it was carried into effect by his successor, Mr. John Quincy Adams, +but unfortunately a mistake was made in supposing that the Osage +Indians alone controlled the course of the proposed route. It was +partially marked out as far as the Arkansas, by raised mounds; +but travellers continued to use the old wagon trail, and as no +negotiations had been entered into with the Comanches, Cheyennes, +Pawnees, or Kiowas, these warlike tribes continued to harass the +caravans when these arrived in the broad valley of the Arkansas. + +The American fur trade was at its height at the time when the Santa Fe +trade was just beginning to assume proportions worthy of notice; +the difference between the two enterprises being very marked. The fur +trade was in the hands of immensely wealthy companies, while that to +Santa Fe was carried on by individuals with limited capital, who, +purchasing goods in the Eastern markets, had them transported to +the Missouri River, where, until the trade to New Mexico became a +fixed business, everything was packed on mules. As soon, however, +as leading merchants invested their capital, about 1824, the trade +grew into vast proportions, and wagons took the place of the patient +mule. Later, oxen were substituted for mules, it having been +discovered that they possessed many advantages over the former, +particularly in being able to draw heavier loads than an equal number +of mules, especially through sandy or muddy places. + +For a long time, the traders were in the habit of purchasing their +mules in Santa Fe and driving them to the Missouri; but as soon as +that useful animal was raised in sufficient numbers in the Southern +States to supply the demand, the importation from New Mexico ceased, +for the reason that the American mule was in all respects an immensely +superior animal. + +Once mules were an important object of the trade, and those who dealt +in them and drove them across to the river on the Trail met with +many mishaps; frequently whole droves, containing from three to +five hundred, were stolen by the savages en route. The latter soon +learned that it was a very easy thing to stampede a caravan of mules, +for, once panic-stricken, it is impossible to restrain them, and +the Indians having started them kept them in a state of rampant +excitement by their blood-curdling yells, until they had driven them +miles beyond the Trail. + +A story is told of a small band of twelve men, who, while encamped +on the Cimarron River, in 1826, with but four serviceable guns among +them, were visited by a party of Indians, believed to be Arapahoes, +who made at first strong demonstrations of friendship and good-will. +Observing the defenceless condition of the traders, they went away, +but soon returned about thirty strong, each provided with a lasso, +and all on foot. The chief then began by informing the Americans +that his men were tired of walking, and must have horses. Thinking +it folly to offer any resistance, the terrified traders told them +if one animal apiece would satisfy them, to go and catch them. +This they soon did; but finding their request so easily complied with, +the Indians held a little parley together, which resulted in a new +demand for more--they must have two apiece! "Well, catch them!" +was the acquiescent reply of the unfortunate band; upon which the +savages mounted those they had already secured, and, swinging their +lassos over their heads, plunged among the stock with a furious yell, +and drove off the entire caballada of nearly five hundred head of +horses, mules, and asses. + +In 1829 the Indians of the plains became such a terror to the caravans +crossing to Santa Fe, that the United States government, upon petition +of the traders, ordered three companies of infantry and one of riflemen, +under command of Major Bennet Riley, to escort the annual caravan, +which that year started from the town of Franklin, Missouri, then the +eastern terminus of the Santa Fe trade, as far as Chouteau's Island, +on the Arkansas, which marked the boundary between the United States +and Mexico.[16] The caravan started from the island across the dreary +route unaccompanied by any troops, but had progressed only a few miles +when it was attacked by a band of Kiowas, then one of the most cruel +and bloodthirsty tribes on the plains.[17] + +This escort, commanded by Major Riley, and another under Captain +Wharton, composed of only sixty dragoons, five years later, were the +sole protection ever given by the government until 1843, when Captain +Philip St. George Cooke again accompanied two large caravans to the +same point on the Arkansas as did Major Riley fourteen years before. + +As the trade increased, the Comanches, Pawnees, and Arapahoes +continued to commit their depredations, and it was firmly believed +by many of the freighters that these Indians were incited to their +devilish acts by the Mexicans, who were always jealous of +"Los Americanos." + +It was very rarely that a caravan, great or small, or even a detachment +of troops, no matter how large, escaped the raids of these bandits of +the Trail. If the list of those who were killed outright and scalped, +and those more unfortunate who were taken captive only to be tortured +and their bodies horribly mutilated, could be collected from the +opening of the traffic with New Mexico until the years 1868-69, when +General Sheridan inaugurated his memorable "winter campaign" against +the allied plains tribes, and completely demoralized, cowed, and +forced them on their reservations, about the time of the advent of the +railroad, it would present an appalling picture; and the number of +horses, mules, and oxen stampeded and stolen during the same period +would amount to thousands. + +As the excellent narrative of Captain Pike is not read as it should be +by the average American, a brief reference to it may not be considered +supererogatory. The celebrated officer, who was afterward promoted +to the rank of major-general, and died in the achievement of the +victory of York, Upper Canada, in 1813, was sent in 1806 on an +exploring expedition up the Arkansas River, with instructions to pass +the sources of Red River, for which those of the Canadian were then +mistaken; he, however, even went around the head of the latter, +and crossing the mountains with an almost incredible degree of peril +and suffering, descended upon the Rio del Norte with his little party, +then but fifteen in number. + +Believing himself now on Red River, within the then assumed limits +of the United States, he built a small fortification for his company, +until the opening of the spring of 1807 should enable him to continue +his descent to Natchitoches. As he was really within Mexican +territory, and only about eighty miles from the northern settlements, +his position was soon discovered, and a force sent to take him to +Santa Fe, which by treachery was effected without opposition. +The Spanish officer assured him that the governor, learning that +he had mistaken his way, had sent animals and an escort to convey +his men and baggage to a navigable point on Red River (Rio Colorado), +and that His Excellency desired very much to see him at Santa Fe, +which might be taken on their way. + +As soon, however, as the governor had the too confiding captain +in his power, he sent him with his men to the commandant general +at Chihuahua, where most of his papers were seized, and he and +his party were sent under an escort, via San Antonio de Bexar, +to the United States. + +Many citizens of the remote Eastern States, who were contemporary +with Pike, declared that his expedition was in some way connected +with the treasonable attempt of Aaron Burr. The idea is simply +preposterous; Pike's whole line of conduct shows him to have been +of the most patriotic character; never would he for a moment have +countenanced a proposition from Aaron Burr! + +After Captain Pike's report had been published to the world, +the adventurers who were inspired by its glowing description of +the country he had been so far to explore were destined to experience +trials and disappointments of which they had formed no conception. + +Among them was a certain Captain Sublette, a famous old trapper +in the era of the great fur companies, and with him a Captain Smith, +who, although veteran pioneers of the Rocky Mountains, were mere +novices in the many complications of the Trail; but having been in +the fastnesses of the great divide of the continent, they thought +that when they got down on the plains they could go anywhere. +They started with twenty wagons, and left the Missouri without +a single one of the party being competent to guide the little caravan +on the dangerous route. + +From the Missouri the Trail was broad and plain enough for a child +to follow, but when they arrived at the Cimarron crossing of +the Arkansas, not a trace of former caravans was visible; nothing but +the innumerable buffalo-trails leading from everywhere to the river. + +When the party entered the desert, or Dry Route, as it was years +afterward always, and very properly, called in certain seasons +of drought, the brave but too confident men discovered that the +whole region was burnt up. They wandered on for several days, +the horrors of death by thirst constantly confronting them. +Water must be had or they would all perish! At last Smith, in his +desperation, determined to follow one of the numerous buffalo-trails, +believing that it would conduct him to water of some character-- +a lake or pool or even wallow. He left the train alone; asked for +no one to accompany him; for he was the very impersonation of courage, +one of the most fearless men that ever trapped in the mountains. + +He walked on and on for miles, when, on ascending a little divide, +he saw a stream in the valley beneath him. It was the Cimarron, +and he hurried toward it to quench his intolerable thirst. When he +arrived at its bank, to his disappointment it was nothing but a bed +of sand; the sometime clear running river was perfectly dry. + +Only for a moment was he staggered; he knew the character of many +streams in the West; that often their waters run under the ground +at a short distance from the surface, and in a moment he was on +his knees digging vigorously in the soft sand. Soon the coveted +fluid began to filter upwards into the little excavation he had made. +He stooped to drink, and in the next second a dozen arrows from an +ambushed band of Comanches entered his body. He did not die at once, +however; it is related by the Indians themselves that he killed two +of their number before death laid him low. + +Captain Sublette and Smith's other comrades did not know what had +become of him until some Mexican traders told them, having got the +report from the very savages who committed the cold-blooded murder. + +Gregg, in his report of this little expedition, says: + Every kind of fatality seems to have attended this small + caravan. Among other casualties, a clerk in their company, + named Minter, was killed by a band of Pawnees, before they + crossed the Arkansas. This, I believe, is the only instance + of loss of life among the traders while engaged in hunting, + although the scarcity of accidents can hardly be said to be + the result of prudence. There is not a day that hunters + do not commit some indescretion; such as straying at + a distance of five and even ten miles from the caravan, + frequently alone, and seldom in bands of more than two or + three together. In this state, they must frequently be + spied by prowling savages; so that frequency of escape, + under such circumstances, must be partly attributed to + the cowardice of the Indians; indeed, generally speaking, + the latter are very loth to charge upon even a single + armed man, unless they can take him at a decided advantage. + + Not long after, this band of Captain Sublette's very + narrowly escaped total destruction. They had fallen in + with an immense horde of Blackfeet and Gros Ventres, and, + as the traders were literally but a handful among thousands + of savages, they fancied themselves for a while in imminent + peril of being virtually "eated up." But as Captain + Sublette possessed considerable experience, he was at + no loss how to deal with these treacherous savages; so that + although the latter assumed a threatening attitude, + he passed them without any serious molestation, and finally + arrived at Santa Fe in safety. + +The virtual commencement of the Santa Fe trade dates from 1822, +and one of the most remarkable events in its history was the first +attempt to introduce wagons in the expeditions. This was made in 1824 +by a company of traders, about eighty in number, among whom were +several gentlemen of intelligence from Missouri, who contributed +by their superior skill and undaunted energy to render the enterprise +completely successful. A portion of this company employed pack-mules; +among the rest were owned twenty-five wheeled vehicles, of which +one or two were stout road-wagons, two were carts, and the rest +Dearborn carriages, the whole conveying some twenty-five or thirty +thousand dollars' worth of merchandise. Colonel Marmaduke, +of Missouri, was one of the party. This caravan arrived at Santa Fe +safely, experiencing much less difficulty than they anticipated +from a first attempt with wheeled vehicles. + +Gregg continues: + The early voyageurs, having but seldom experienced any + molestation from the Indians, generally crossed the plains + in detached bands, each individual rarely carrying more than + two or three hundred dollars' worth of stock. This peaceful + season, however, did not last very long; and it is greatly + to be feared that the traders were not always innocent of + having instigated the savage hostilities that ensued in + after years. Many seemed to forget the wholesome precept, + that they should not be savages themselves because they + dealt with savages. Instead of cultivating friendly + feelings with those few who remained peaceful and honest, + there was an occasional one always disposed to kill, + even in cold blood, every Indian that fell into their power, + merely because some of the tribe had committed an outrage + either against themselves or friends. + +As an instance of this, he relates the following: + In 1826 two young men named McNess and Monroe, having + carelessly lain down to sleep on the bank of a certain + stream, since known as McNess Creek,[18] were barbarously + shot, with their own guns, as it was supposed, in the very + sight of the caravan. When their comrades came up, + they found McNess lifeless, and the other almost expiring. + In this state the latter was carried nearly forty miles to + the Cimarron River, where he died, and was buried according + to the custom of the prairies, a very summary proceeding, + necessarily. The corpse, wrapped in a blanket, its shroud + the clothes it wore, is interred in a hole varying in depth + according to the nature of the soil, and upon the grave is + piled stones, if any are convenient, to prevent the wolves + from digging it up. Just as McNess's funeral ceremonies + were about to be concluded, six or seven Indians appeared + on the opposite side of the Cimarron. Some of the party + proposed inviting them to a parley, while the rest, burning + for revenge, evinced a desire to fire upon them at once. + It is more than probable, however, that the Indians were not + only innocent but ignorant of the outrage that had been + committed, or they would hardly have ventured to approach + the caravan. Being quick of perception, they very soon saw + the belligerent attitude assumed by the company, and + therefore wheeled round and attempted to escape. One shot + was fired, which brought an Indian to the ground, when he + was instantly riddled with balls. Almost simultaneously + another discharge of several guns followed, by which all + the rest were either killed or mortally wounded, except one, + who escaped to bear the news to his tribe. + + These wanton cruelties had a most disastrous effect upon the + prospects of the trade; for the exasperated children of + the desert became more and more hostile to the "pale-faces," + against whom they continued to wage a cruel war for many + successive years. In fact this party suffered very severely + a few days afterward. They were pursued by the enraged + comrades of the slain savages to the Arkansas River, where + they were robbed of nearly a thousand horses and mules. + +The author of this book, although having but little compassion for +the Indians, must admit that, during more than a third of a century +passed on the plains and in the mountains, he has never known of +a war with the hostile tribes that was not caused by broken faith +on the part of the United States or its agents. I will refer to +two prominent instances: that of the outbreak of the Nez Perces, and +that of the allied plains tribes. With the former a solemn treaty +was made in 1856, guaranteeing to them occupancy of the Wallola valley +forever. I. I. Stevens, who was governor of Washington Territory +at the time, and ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs in +the region, met the Nez Perces, whose chief, "Wish-la-no-she," +an octogenarian, when grasping the hand of the governor at the council +said: "I put out my hand to the white man when Lewis and Clark +crossed the continent, in 1805, and have never taken it back since." +The tribe kept its word until the white men took forcible possession +of the valley promised to the Indians, when the latter broke out, +and a prolonged war was the consequence. In 1867 Congress appointed +a commission to treat with the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes, +appropriating four hundred thousand dollars for the expenses of +the commission. It met at Medicine Lodge in August of the year +mentioned, and made a solemn treaty, which the members of the +commission, on the part of the United States, and the principal +chiefs of the three tribes signed. Congress failed to make any +appropriation to carry out the provisions of the treaty, and the +Indians, after waiting a reasonable time, broke out, devastated +the settlements from the Platte to the Rio Grande, destroying +millions of dollars' worth of property, and sacrificing hundreds +of men, women, and children. Another war was the result, which +cost more millions, and under General Sheridan the hostile savages +were whipped into a peace, which they have been compelled to keep. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +TRAINS AND PACKERS. + + + +As has been stated, until the year 1824 transportation across the +plains was done by means of pack-mules, the art of properly loading +which seems to be an intuitive attribute of the native Mexican. +The American, of course, soon became as expert, for nothing that +the genus homo is capable of doing is impossible to him; but his +teacher was the dark-visaged, superstitious, and profanity-expending +Mexican arriero. + +A description of the equipment of a mule-train and the method of +packing, together with some of the curious facts connected with +its movements, may not be uninteresting, particularly as the +whole thing, with rare exceptions in the regular army at remote +frontier posts, has been relegated to the past, along with the caravan +of the prairie and the overland coach. To this generation, barring +a few officers who have served against the Indians on the plains +and in the mountains, a pack-mule train would be as great a curiosity +as the hairy mammoth. In the following particulars I have taken +as a model the genuine Mexican pack-train or atajo, as it was called +in their Spanish dialect, always used in the early days of the +Santa Fe trade. The Americans made many modifications, but the basis +was purely Mexican in its origin. A pack-mule was termed a mula +de carga, and his equipment consisted of several parts; first, +the saddle, or aparejo, a nearly square pad of leather stuffed +with hay, which covered the animal's back on both sides equally. +The best idea of its shape will be formed by opening a book in +the middle and placing it saddle-fashion on the back of a chair. +Each half then forms a flap of the contrivance. Before the aparejo +was adjusted to the mule, a salea, or raw sheep-skin, made soft +by rubbing, was put on the animal's back, to prevent chafing, +and over it the saddle-cloth, or xerga. On top of both was placed +the aparejo, which was cinched by a wide grass-bandage. This band +was drawn as tightly as possible, to such an extent that the poor +brute grunted and groaned under the apparently painful operation, +and when fastened he seemed to be cut in two. This always appeared +to be the very acme of cruelty to the uninitiated, but it is the +secret of successful packing; the firmer the saddle, the more +comfortably the mule can travel, with less risk of being chafed +and bruised. The aparejo is furnished with a huge crupper, and +this appendage is really the most cruel of all, for it is almost +sure to lacerate the tail. Hardly a Mexican mule in the old days +of the trade could be found which did not bear the scar of this +rude supplement to the immense saddle. + +The load, which is termed a carga, was generally three hundred pounds. +Two arrieros, or packers, place the goods on the mule's back, +one, the cargador, standing on the near side, his assistant on +the other. The carga is then hoisted on top of the saddle if it +is a single package; or if there are two of equal size and weight, +one on each side, coupled by a rope, which balances them on the +animal. Another stout rope is then thrown over all, drawn as tightly +as possible under the belly, and laced round the packs, securing +them firmly in their place. Over the load, to protect it from rain, +is thrown a square piece of matting called a petate. Sometimes, +when a mule is a little refractory, he is blindfolded by a thin +piece of leather, generally embroidered, termed the tapojos, and +he remains perfectly quiet while the process of packing is going on. +When the load is securely fastened in its place, the blinder is +removed. The man on the near side, with his knee against the mule +for a purchase, as soon as the rope is hauled taut, cries out "Adios," +and his assistant answers "Vaya!" Then the first says again, "Anda!" +upon which the mule trots off to its companions, all of which feed +around until the animals of the whole train are packed. It seldom +requires more than five minutes for the two men to complete the +packing of the animal, and in that time is included the fastening +of the aperejo. It is surprising to note the degree of skill +exercised by an experienced packer, and his apparently abnormal +strength in handling the immense bundles that are sometimes +transported. By the aid of his knees used as a fulcrum, he lifts +a package and tosses it on the mule's back without any apparent +effort, the dead weight of which he could not move from the ground. + +An old-time atajo or caravan of pack-mules generally numbered from +fifty to two hundred, and it travelled a jornado, or day's march of +about twelve or fifteen miles. This day's journey was made without +any stopping at noon, because if a pack-mule is allowed to rest, +he generally tries to lie down, and with his heavy load it is +difficult for him to get on his feet again. Sometimes he is badly +strained in so doing, perhaps ruined forever. When the train starts +out on the trail, the mules are so tightly bound with the ropes +which confine the load that they move with great difficulty; +but the saddle soon settles itself and the ropes become loosened +so that they have frequently to be tightened. On the march the +arriero is kept busy nearly all the time; the packs are constantly +changing their position, frequently losing their balance and +falling off; sometimes saddle, pack, and all swing under the +animal's belly, and he must be unloaded and repacked again. + +On arriving at the camping-ground the pack-saddles with their loads +are ranged in regular order, their freight being between the saddles, +covered with the petates to protect it from the rain, and generally +a ditch is dug around to carry off the water, if the weather is stormy. +After two or three days' travel each mule knows its own pack and +saddle, and comes up to it at the proper moment with an intelligence +that is astonishing. If an animal should come whose pack is +somewhere else, he is soundly kicked in the ribs by the rightful mule, +and sent bruised and battered to his place. He rarely makes a mistake +in relation to the position of his own pack the second time. + +This method of transportation was so cheap, because of the low rate +of wages, that wagon-freighting, even in the most level region, +could not compete with it. Five dollars a month was the amount paid +to the muleteers, but it was oftener five with rations, costing +almost nothing, of corn and beans. Meat, if used at all, was found +by the arrieros themselves. + +On the trail the mule-train is under a system of discipline almost +as severe as that on board of a man-of-war. Every individual +employed is assigned to his place and has certain duties to perform. +There is a night-herder, called the savanero, whose duty it is +to keep the animals from straying too far away, as they are all +turned loose to shift for themselves, depending upon the grass alone +for their subsistence. Each herd has a mulera, or bell-mare, +which wears a bell hanging to a strap around her neck, and is kept +in view of the other animals, who will never leave her. If the mare +is taken away from the herd, every mule becomes really melancholy +and is at a loss what to do or where to go. The cook of the party, +or madre (mother) as he is called, besides his duty in preparing +the food, must lead the bell-mule ahead of the train while travelling, +the pack-animals following her with a devotion that is remarkable. + +Sometimes in traversing the narrow ledges cut around the sides of +a precipitous trail, or crossing a narrow natural bridge spanning +the frightful gorges found everywhere in the mountains, a mule +will be incontinently thrown off the slippery path, and fall hundreds +of feet into the yawning canyon below. Generally instant death +is their portion, though I recall an instance, while on an expedition +against the hostile Indians thirty years ago, where a number of mules +of our pack-train, loaded with ammunition, tumbled nearly five hundred +feet down an almost perpendicular chasm, and yet some of them got +on their feet again, and soon rejoined their companions, without +having suffered any serious injury. + +The wagons so long employed in this trade, after their first +introduction in 1824, were manufactured in Pittsburgh, their capacity +being about a ton and a half, and they were drawn by eight mules +or the same number of oxen. Later much larger wagons were employed +with nearly double the capacity of the first, hauled by ten and +twelve mules or oxen. These latter were soon called prairie-schooners, +which name continued to linger until transportation across the plains +by wagons was completely extinguished by the railroads. + +Under Mexican rule excessive tariff imposts were instituted, +amounting to about a hundred per cent upon goods brought from the +United States, and for some years, during the administration of +Governor Manuel Armijo, a purely arbitrary duty was demanded of +five hundred dollars for every wagon-load of merchandise brought +into the Province, whether great or small, and regardless of its +intrinsic value. As gold and silver were paid for the articles +brought by the traders, they were also required to pay a heavy duty +on the precious metals they took out of the country. Yankee ingenuity, +however, evaded much of these unjust taxes. When the caravan +approached Santa Fe, the freight of three wagons was transferred +to one, and the empty vehicles destroyed by fire; while to avoid +paying the export duty on gold and silver, they had large false +axletrees to some of the wagons, in which the money was concealed, +and the examining officer of the customs, perfectly unconscious of +the artifice, passed them. + +The army, in its expeditions against the hostile Indian tribes, +always employed wagons in transporting its provisions and munitions +of war, except in the mountains, where the faithful pack-mule was +substituted. The American freighters, since the occupation of +New Mexico by the United States, until the transcontinental railroad +usurped their vocation, used wagons only; the Mexican nomenclature +was soon dropped and simple English terms adopted: caravan became +train, and majordomo, the person in charge, wagon-master. The latter +was supreme. Upon him rested all the responsibility, and to him +the teamsters rendered absolute obedience. He was necessarily a man +of quick perception, always fertile in expedients in times of +emergency, and something of an engineer; for to know how properly +to cross a raging stream or a marshy slough with an outfit of fifty +or sixty wagons required more than ordinary intelligence. Then in +the case of a stampede, great clear-headedness and coolness were +needed to prevent loss of life. + +Stampedes were frequently very serious affairs, particularly with +a large mule-train. Notwithstanding the willingness and patient +qualities of that animal, he can act as absurdly as a Texas steer, +and is as easily frightened at nothing. Sometimes as insignificant +a circumstance as a prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, +a figure in the distance, or even the shadow of a passing cloud +will start every animal in the train, and away they go, rushing into +each other, and becoming entangled in such a manner that both drivers +and mules have often been crushed to death. It not infrequently +happened that five or six of the teams would dash off and never +could be found. I remember one instance that occurred on the trail +between Fort Hays and Fort Dodge, during General Sheridan's +winter campaign against the allied plains tribes in 1868. Three of +the wagons were dragged away by the mules, in a few moments were +out of sight, and were never recovered, although diligent search +was made for them for some days. Ten years afterward a farmer, +who had taken up a claim in what is now Rush County, Kansas, +discovered in a ravine on his place the bones of some animals, +decayed parts of harness, and the remains of three army-wagons, +which with other evidence proved them to be the identical ones +lost from the train so many years before. + +The largest six-mule wagon-train that was ever strung out on the +plains transported the supplies for General Custer's command during +the winter above referred to. It comprised over eight hundred +army-wagons, and was four miles in length in one column, or one mile +when in four lines--the usual formation when in the field. + +The animals of the train were either hobbled or herded at night, +according to the locality; if in an Indian country, always hobbled +or, preferably, tied up to the tongue of the wagon to which they +belonged. The hobble is simply a strip of rawhide, with two slides +of the same material. Placed on the front legs of the mule just +at the fetlock, the slides pushed close to the limb, the animal +could move around freely enough to graze, but was not able to travel +very fast in the event of a stampede. In the Indian country, it was +usual at night, or in the daytime when halting to feed, to form +a corral of the wagons, by placing them in a circle, the wheels +interlocked and the tongues run under the axles, into which circle +the mules, on the appearance of the savages, were driven, and which +also made a sort of fortress behind which the teamsters could more +effectually repel an attack. + +In the earlier trading expeditions to Santa Fe, the formation and +march of the caravan differed materially from that of the army-train +in later years. I here quote Gregg, whose authority on the subject +has never been questioned. When all was ready to move out on the +broad sea of prairie, he said: + + We held a council, at which the respective claims of the + different aspirants for office were considered, leaders + selected, and a system of government agreed upon--as is + the standing custom of these promiscuous caravans. + A captain was proclaimed elected, but his powers were not + defined by any constitutional provision; consequently, + they were very vague and uncertain. Orders being only + viewed as mere requests, they are often obeyed or neglected + at the caprice of the subordinates. It is necessary to + observe, however, that the captain is expected to direct + the order of travel during the day and to designate the + camping-ground at night, with many other functions of + general character, in the exercise of which the company + find it convenient to acquiesce. + + After this comes the task of organizing. The proprietors + are first notified by proclamation to furnish a list of + their men and wagons. The latter are generally apportioned + into four divisions, particularly when the company is large. + To each of these divisions, a lieutenant is appointed, + whose duty it is to inspect every ravine and creek on the + route, select the best crossings, and superintend what is + called in prairie parlance the forming of each encampment. + + There is nothing so much dreaded by inexperienced travellers + as the ordeal of guard duty. But no matter what the + condition or employment of the individual may be, no one + has the slightest chance of evading the common law of + the prairies. The amateur tourist and the listless loafer + are precisely in the same wholesome predicament--they must + all take their regular turn at the watch. There is usually + a set of genteel idlers attached to every caravan, whose + wits are forever at work in devising schemes for whiling + away their irksome hours at the expense of others. + By embarking in these trips of pleasure, they are enabled + to live without expense; for the hospitable traders seldom + refuse to accommodate even a loafing companion with a berth + at their mess without charge. But these lounging attaches + are expected at least to do good service by way of guard + duty. None are ever permitted to furnish a substitute, + as is frequently done in military expeditions; for he that + would undertake to stand the tour of another besides + his own would scarcely be watchful enough for dangers + of the prairies. Even the invalid must be able to produce + unequivocal proofs of his inability, or it is a chance + if the plea is admitted. + + The usual number of watchers is eight, each standing a + fourth of every alternate night. When the party is small, + the number is generally reduced, while in the case of + very small bands, they are sometimes compelled for safety's + sake to keep watch on duty half the night. With large + caravans the captain usually appoints eight sergeants + of the guard, each of whom takes an equal portion of men + under his command. + + The wild and motley aspect of the caravan can be but + imperfectly conceived without an idea of the costumes of + its various members. The most fashionable prairie dress + is the fustian frock of the city-bred merchant, furnished + with a multitude of pockets capable of accommodating a + variety of extra tackling. Then there is the backwoodsman + with his linsey or leather hunting-shirt--the farmer with + his blue jean coat--the wagoner with his flannel sleeve + vest--besides an assortment of other costumes which go + to fill up the picture. + + In the article of firearms there is also an equally + interesting medley. The frontier hunter sticks to his + rifle, as nothing could induce him to carry what he terms + in derision "the scatter-gun." The sportsman from the + interior flourishes his double-barrelled fowling-piece + with equal confidence in its superiority. A great many + were furnished beside with a bountiful supply of pistols + and knives of every description, so that the party made + altogether a very brigand-like appearance. + + "Catch up! Catch up!" is now sounded from the captain's + camp and echoed from every division and scattered group + along the valley. The woods and dales resound with the + gleeful yells of the light-hearted wagoners who, weary of + inaction and filled with joy at the prospect of getting + under way, become clamorous in the extreme. Each teamster + vies with his fellow who shall be soonest ready; and it + is a matter of boastful pride to be the first to cry out, + "All's set." + + The uproarious bustle which follows, the hallooing of those + in pursuit of animals, the exclamations which the unruly + brutes call forth from their wrathful drivers, together + with the clatter of bells, the rattle of yokes and harness, + the jingle of chains, all conspire to produce an uproarious + confusion. It is sometimes amusing to observe the athletic + wagoner hurrying an animal to its post--to see him heave + upon the halter of a stubborn mule, while the brute as + obstinately sets back, determined not to move a peg till + his own good pleasure thinks it proper to do so--his whole + manner seeming to say, "Wait till your hurry's over." + I have more than once seen a driver hitch a harnessed animal + to the halter, and by that process haul his mulishness + forward, while each of his four projected feet would leave + a furrow behind. + + "All's set!" is finally heard from some teamster-- + "All's set," is directly responded from every quarter. + "Stretch out!" immediately vociferates the captain. + Then the "heps!" to the drivers, the cracking of whips, + the trampling of feet, the occasional creak of wheels, + the rumbling of the wagons, while "Fall in" is heard from + head-quarters, and the train is strung out and in a few + moments has started on its long journey. + +With an army-train the discipline was as perfect as that of a garrison. +The wagon-master was under the orders of the commander of the troops +which escorted the caravan, the camps were formed with regard to +strategic principles, sentries walked their beats and were visited +by an officer of the day, as if stationed at a military post. + +Unquestionably the most expert packer I have known is Chris. Gilson, +of Kansas. In nearly all the expeditions on the great plains and +in the mountains he has been the master-spirit of the pack-trains. +General Sheridan, who knew Gilson long before the war, in Oregon +and Washington, regarded the celebrated packer with more than +ordinary friendship. For many years he was employed by the government +at the suggestion of General Sheridan, to teach the art of packing +to the officers and enlisted men at several military posts in the West. +He received a large salary, and for a long period was stationed at +the immense cavalry depot of Fort Riley, in Kansas. Gilson was also +employed by the British army during the Zulu war in Africa, +as chief packer, at a salary of twenty dollars a day. Now, however, +since the railroads have penetrated the once considered impenetrable +fastnesses of the mountains, packing will be relegated to the lost arts. + + + + +CHAPTER V. +FIGHT WITH COMANCHES. + + + +Early in the spring of 1828, a company of young men residing in the +vicinity of Franklin, Missouri, having heard related by a neighbour +who had recently returned the wonderful story of a passage across +the great plains, and the strange things to be seen in the land of +the Greasers, determined to explore the region for themselves; +making the trip in wagons, an innovation of a startling character, +as heretofore only pack-animals had been employed in the limited trade +with far-off Santa Fe. The story of their journey can best be told +in the words of one of the party:[19]-- + + We had about one thousand miles to travel, and as there was + no wagon-road in those early days across the plains to the + mountains, we were compelled to take our chances through + the vast wilderness, seeking the best route we could. + + No signs of life were visible except the innumerable buffalo + and antelope that were constantly crossing our trail. + We moved on slowly from day to day without any incident + worth recording and arrived at the Arkansas; made the + passage and entered the Great American Desert lying beyond, + as listless, lonesome, and noiseless as a sleeping sea. + Having neglected to carry any water with us, we were obliged + to go withot a drop for two days and nights after leaving + the river. At last we reached the Cimarron, a cool, + sparkling stream, ourselves and our animals on the point + of perishing. Our joy at discovering it, however, was + short-lived. We had scarcely quenched our thirst when + we saw, to our dismay, a large band of Indians camped on + its banks. Their furtive glances at us, and significant + looks at each other, aroused our worst suspicions, and + we instinctively felt we were not to get away without + serious trouble. Contrary to our expectations, however, + they did not offer to molest us, and we at once made up + our minds they preferred to wait for our return, as we + believed they had somehow learned of our intention to bring + back from New Mexico a large herd of mules and ponies. + + We arrived in Santa Fe on the 20th of July, without further + adventure, and after having our stock of goods passed + through the custom house, were granted the privilege of + selling them. The majority of the party sold out in a + very short time and started on their road to the States, + leaving twenty-one of us behind to return later. + + On the first day of September, those of us who had remained + in Santa Fe commenced our homeward journey. We started + with one hundred and fifty mules and horses, four wagons, + and a large amount of silver coin. Nothing of an eventful + character occurred until we arrived at the Upper Cimarron + Springs, where we intended to encamp for the night. + But our anticipations of peaceable repose were rudely + dispelled; for when we rode up on the summit of the hill, + the sight that met our eyes was appalling enough to excite + the gravest apprehensions. It was a large camp of + Comanches, evidently there for the purpose of robbery + and murder. We could neither turn back nor go on either + side of them on account of the mountainous character of + the country, and we realized, when too late, that we were + in a trap. + + There was only one road open to us; that right through + the camp. Assuming the bravest look possible, and keeping + our rifles in position for immediate action, we started + on the perilous venture. The chief met us with a smile + of welcome, and said, in Spanish: "You must stay with us + to-night. Our young men will guard your stock, and we have + plenty of buffalo meat." + + Realizing the danger of our situation, we took advantage + of every moment of time to hurry through their camp. + Captain Means, Ellison, and myself were a little distance + behind the wagons, on horseback; observing that the balance + of our men were evading them, the blood-thirsty savages + at once threw off their masks of dissimulation and in an + instant we knew the time for a struggle had arrived. + + The Indians, as we rode on, seized our bridle-reins and + began to fire upon us. Ellison and I put spurs to our + horses and got away, but Captain Means, a brave man, + was ruthlessly shot and cruelly scalped while the life-blood + was pouring from his ghastly wounds. + + We succeeded in fighting them off until we had left their + camp half a mile behind, and as darkness had settled down + on us, we decided to go into camp ourselves. We tied our + gray bell-mare to a stake, and went out and jingled the + bell, whenever any of us could do so, thus keeping the + animals from stampeding. We corralled our wagons for + better protection, and the Indians kept us busy all night + resisting their furious charges. We all knew that death + at our posts would be infinitely preferable to falling + into their hands; so we resolved to sell our lives as + dearly as possible. + + The next day we made but five miles; it was a continuous + fight, and a very difficult matter to prevent their + capturing us. This annoyance was kept up for four days; + they would surround us, then let up as if taking time to + renew their strength, to suddenly charge upon us again, + and they continued thus to harass us until we were almost + exhausted from loss of sleep. + + After leaving the Cimarron, we once more emerged on the + open plains and flattered ourselves we were well rid of + the savages; but about twelve o'clock they came down on us + again, uttering their demoniacal yells, which frightened + our horses and mules so terribly, that we lost every hoof. + A member of our party, named Hitt, in endeavouring to + recapture some of the stolen stock, was taken by the + savages, but luckily escaped from their clutches, after + having been wounded in sixteen parts of his body; + he was shot, tomahawked, and speared. When the painted + demons saw that one of their number had been killed by us, + they left the field for a time, while we, taking advantage + of the temporary lull, went back to our wagons and built + breastworks of them, the harness, and saddles. From noon + until two hours in the night, when the moon went down, + the savages were apparently confident we would soon fall + a prey to them, and they made charge after charge upon + our rude fortifications. + + Darkness was now upon us. There were two alternatives + before us: should we resolve to die where we were, or + attempt to escape in the black hours of the night? + It was a desperate situation. Our little band looked + the matter squarely in the face, and, after a council + of war had been held, we determined to escape, if possible. + + In order to carry out our resolve, it was necessary to + abandon the wagons, together with a large amount of silver + coin, as it would be impossible to take all of the precious + stuff with us in our flight; so we packed up as much of it + as we could carry, and, bidding our hard-earned wealth + a reluctant farewell, stepped out in the darkness like + spectres and hurried away from the scene of death. + + Our proper course was easterly, but we went in a northerly + direction in order to avoid the Indians. We travelled + all that night, the next day, and a portion of its night + until we reached the Arkansas River, and, having eaten + nothing during that whole time excepting a few prickly-pears, + were beginning to feel weak from the weight of our burdens + and exhaustion. At this point we decided to lighten + our loads by burying all of the money we had carried + thus far, keeping only a small sum for each man. + Proceeding to a small island in the river, our treasure, + amounting to over ten thousand silver dollars, was cached + in the ground between two cottonwood trees. + + Believing now that we were out of the usual range of + the predatory Indians, we shot a buffalo and an antelope + which we cooked and ate without salt or bread; but no meal + has ever tasted better to me than that one. + + We continued our journey northward for three or four days + more, when, reaching Pawnee Fork, we travelled down it for + more than a week, arriving again on the Old Santa Fe Trail. + Following the Trail three days, we arrived at Walnut Creek, + then left the river again and went eastwardly to Cow Creek. + When we reached that point, we had become so completely + exhausted and worn out from subsisting on buffalo meat + alone, that it seemed as if there was nothing left for + us to do but lie down and die. Finally it was determined + to send five of the best-preserved men on ahead to + Independence, two hundred miles, for the purpose of + procuring assistance; the other fifteen to get along + as well as they could until succour reached them. + + I was one of the five selected to go on in advance, and + I shall never forget the terrible suffering we endured. + We had no blankets, and it was getting late in the fall. + Some of us were entirely barefooted, and our feet so sore + that we left stains of blood at every step. Deafness, too, + seized upon us so intensely, occasioned by our weak + condition, that we coud not hear the report of a gun fired + at a distance of only a few feet. + + At one place two of our men laid down their arms, declaring + they could carry them no farther, and would die if they + did not get water. We left them and went in search of some. + After following a dry branch several miles, we found + a muddy puddle from which we succeeded in getting half + a bucket full, and, although black and thick, it was life + for us and we guarded it with jealous eyes. We returned + to our comrades about daylight, and the water so refreshed + them they were able to resume the weary march. We travelled + on until we arrived at the Big Blue River, in Missouri, + on the bank of which we discovered a cabin about fifteen + miles from Independence. The occupants of the rude shanty + were women, seemingly very poor, but they freely offered us + a pot of pumpkin they were stewing. When they first saw us, + they were terribly frightened, because we looked more like + skeletons than living beings. They jumped on the bed while + we were greedily devouring the pumpkin, but we had to + refuse some salt meat which they had also proffered, + as our teeth were too sore to eat it. In a short time + two men came to the cabin and took three of our men + home with them. We had subsisted for eleven days on + one turkey, a coon, a crow, and some elm bark, with an + occasional bunch of wild grapes, and the pictures we + presented to these good people they will never, probably, + forget; we had not tasted bread or salt for thirty-two days. + + The next day our newly found friends secured horses and + guided us to Independence, all riding without saddles. + One of the party had gone on to notify the citizens of + our safety, and when we arrived general muster was going on, + the town was crowded, and when the people looked upon us + the most intense excitement prevailed. All business was + suspended; the entire population flocked around us to hear + the remarkable story of our adventures, and to render us + the assistance we so much needed. We were half-naked, + foot-sore, and haggard, presenting such a pitiable picture + that the greatest sympathy was immediately aroused in + our behalf. + + We then said that behind us on the Trail somewhere, fifteen + comrades were struggling toward Independence, or were + already dead from their sufferings. In a very few minutes + seven men with fifteen horses started out to rescue them. + + They were gone from Independence several days, but had the + good fortune to find all the men just in time to save them + from starvation and exhaustion. Two were discovered + a hundred miles from Independence, and the remainder + scattered along the Trail fifty miles further in their rear. + Not more than two of the unfortunate party were together. + The humane rescuers seemingly brought back nothing but + living skeletons wrapped in rags; but the good people of + the place vied with each other in their attentions, and + under their watchful care the sufferers rapidly recuperated. + + One would suppose that we had had enough of the great plains + after our first trip; not so, however, for in the spring + we started again on the same journey. Major Riley, with + four companies of regular soldiers, was detailed to escort + the Santa Fe traders' caravans to the boundary line between + the United States and Mexico, and we went along to recover + the money we had buried, the command having been ordered to + remain in camp to await our return until the 20th of October. + + We left Fort Leavenworth about the 10th of May, and were + soon again on the plains. Many of the troops had never + seen any buffalo before, and found great sport in wantonly + slaughtering them. At Walnut Creek we halted to secure + a cannon which had been thrown into that stream two seasons + previously, and succeeded in dragging it out. With a seine + made of brush and grape vine, we caught more fine fish than + we could possibly dispose of. One morning the camp was + thrown into the greatest state of excitement by a band of + Indians running an enormous herd of buffalo right into us. + The troops fired at them by platoons, killing hundreds + of them. + + We marched in two columns, and formed a hollow square + at night when we camped, in which all slept excepting + those on guard duty. Frequently some one would discover + a rattlesnake or a horned toad in bed with him, and it + did not take him a very long time to crawl out of his + blankets! + + On the 10th of July, we arrived at the dividing line + separating the two countries, and went into camp. The next + day Major Riley sent a squad of soldiers to escort myself + and another of our old party, who had helped bury the + ten thousand dollars, to find it. It was a few miles + further up the Arkansas than our camp, in the Mexican + limits, and when we reached the memorable spot on the + island,[20] we found the coin safe, but the water had + washed the earth away, and the silver was exposed to view + to excite the cupidity of any one passing that way; + there were not many travellers on that lonely route in + those days, however, and it would have been just as secure, + probably, had we simply poured it on the ground. + + We put the money in sacks and deposited it with Major Riley, + and, leaving the camp, started for Santa Fe with Captain + Bent as leader of the traders. We had not proceeded far + when our advanced guard met Indians. They turned, and when + within two hundred yards of us, one man named Samuel Lamme + was killed, his body being completely riddled with arrows. + His head was cut off, and all his clothes stripped from + his body. We had a cannon, but the Mexicans who hauled it + had tied it up in such a way that it could not be utilized + in time to effect anything in the first assault; but when + at last it was turned loose upon the Indians, they fled + in dismay at the terrible noise. + + The troops at the crossing of the Arkansas, hearing the + firing, came to our assistance. The next morning the + hills were covered by fully two thousand Indians, who had + evidently congregated there for the purpose of annihilating + us, and the coming of the soldiers was indeed fortunate; + for as soon as the cowardly savages discovered them + they fled. Major Riley accompanied us on our march for + a few days, and, seeing no more Indians, he returned to + his camp. + + We travelled on for a week, then met a hundred Mexicans + who were out on the plains hunting buffalo. They had + killed a great many and were drying the meat. We waited + until they were ready to return and then all started for + Santa Fe together. + + At Rabbit-Ear Mountain the Indians had constructed + breastworks in the brush, intending to fight it out there. + The Mexicans were in the advance and had one of their + number killed before discovering the enemy. We passed + Point of Rocks and camped on the river. One of the + Mexicans went out hunting and shot a huge panther; + next morning he asked a companion to go with him and help + skin the animal. They saw the Indians in the brush, and + the one who had killed the panther said to the other, + "Now for the mountains"; but his comrade retreated, + and was despatched by the savages almost within reach + of the column. + + We now decided to change our destination, intending to go + to Taos instead of Santa Fe, but the governor of the + Province sent out troops to stop us, as Taos was not a + place of entry. The soldiers remained with us a whole week, + until we arrived at Santa Fe, where we disposed of our goods + and soon began to make preparations for our return trip. + + When we were ready to start back, seven priests and a + number of wealthy families, comfortably fixed in carriages, + accompanied us. The Mexican government ordered Colonel + Viscarra of the army, with five troops of cavalry, + to guard us to the camp of Major Riley. + + We experienced no trouble until we arrived at the + Cimarron River. About sunset, just as we were preparing + to camp for the night, the sentinels saw a body of a + hundred Indians approaching; they fired at them and ran + to camp. Knowing they had been discovered, the Indians + came on and made friendly overtures; but the Pueblos who + who were with the command of Colonel Viscarra wanted to + fight them at once, saying the fellows meant mischief. + We declined to camp with them unless they would agree to + give up their arms; they pretended they were willing to + do so, when one of them put his gun at the breast of our + interpreter and pulled the trigger. In an instant a bloody + scene ensued; several of Viscarra's men were killed, + together with a number of mules. Finally the Indians + were whipped and tried to get away, but we chased them + some distance and killed thirty-five. Our friendly Pueblos + were delighted, and proceeded to scalp the savages, + hanging the bloody trophies on the points of their spears. + That night they indulged in a war-dance which lasted + until nearly morning. + + We were delighted to see a beautiful sunshiny day after + the horrors of the preceding night, and continued our march + without farther interruption, safely arriving at the camp + on the boundary line, where Major Riley was waiting for us, + as we supposed; but his time having expired the day before, + he had left for Fort Leavenworth. A courier was despatched + to him, however, as Colonel Viscarra desired to meet the + American commander and see his troops. The courier overtook + Major Riley a short distance away, and he halted for us + to come up. Both commands then went into camp, and spent + several days comparing the discipline of the armies of + the two nations, and having a general good time. + Colonel Viscarra greatly admired our small arms, and + took his leave in a very courteous manner. + + We arrived at Fort Leavenworth late in the season, and + from there we all scattered. I received my share of the + money we had cached on the island, and bade my comrades + farewell, only a few of whom I have ever seen since. + +Mr. Hitt in his notes of this same perilous trip says: + When the grass had sufficiently started to insure the + subsistence of our teams, our wagons were loaded with + a miscellaneous assortment of merchandise and the first + trader's caravan of wagons that ever crossed the plains + left Independence. Before we had travelled three weeks + on our journey, we were one evening confronted with the + novel fact of camping in a country where not a stick of + wood could be found. The grass was too green to burn, + and we were wondering how our fire could be started + with which to boil our coffee, or cook our bread. One of + our number, however, while diligently searching for + something to utilize, suddenly discovered scattered all + around him a large quantity of buffalo-chips, and he soon + had an excellent fire under way, his coffee boiling and + his bacon sizzling over the glowing coals. + + We arrived in Santa Fe without incident, and as ours + was the first train of wagons that ever traversed the + narrow streets of the quaint old town, it was, of course, + a great curiosity to the natives. + + After a few days' rest, sight-seeing, and purchasing stock + to replace our own jaded animals, preparations were made + for the return trip. All the money we had received for + our goods was in gold and silver, principally the latter, + in consequence of which, each member of the company had + about as much as he could conveniently manage, and, + as events turned out, much more than he could take care of. + + On the morning of the third day out, when we were not + looking for the least trouble, our entire herd was + stampeded, and we were left upon the prairie without + as much as a single mule to pursue the fast-fleeing + thieves. The Mexicans and Indians had come so suddenly + upon us, and had made such an effective dash, that we + stood like children who had broken their toys on a stone + at their feet. We were so unprepared for such a stampede + that the thieves did not approach within rifle-shot range + of the camp to accomplish their object; few of them + coming within sight, even. + + After the excitement had somewhat subsided and we began + to realize what had been done, it was decided that while + some should remain to guard the camp, others must go to + Santa Fe to see if they could not recover the stock. + The party that went to Santa Fe had no difficulty in + recognizing the stolen animals; but when they claimed them, + they were laughed at by the officials of the place. + They experienced no difficulty, however, in purchasing + the same stock for a small sum, which they at once did, + and hurried back to camp. By this unpleasant episode + we learned of the stealth and treachery of the miserable + people in whose country we were. We, therefore, took every + precaution to prevent a repetition of the affair, and + kept up a vigilant guard night and day. + + Matters progressed very well, and when we had travelled + some three hundred miles eastwardly, thinking we were + out of range of any predatory bands, as we had seen no + sign of any living thing, we relaxed our vigilance somewhat. + One morning, just before dawn, the whole earth seemed to + resound with the most horrible noises that ever greeted + human ears; every blade of grass appeared to re-echo + the horrid din. In a few moments every man was at his post, + rifle in hand, ready for any emergency, and almost + immediately a large band of Indians made their appearance, + riding within rifle-shot of the wagons. A continuous + battle raged for several hours, the savages discharging + a shot, then scampering off out of range as fast as + their ponies could carry them. Some, more brave than + others would venture closer to the corral, and one of these + got the contents of an old-fashioned flint-lock musket + in his bowels. + + We were careful not all to fire at the same time, and + several of our party, who were watching the effects of + our shots declared they could see the dust fly out of + the robes of the Indians as the bullets struck them. + It was learned afterward that a number of the savages + were wounded, and that several had died. Many were armed + with bows and arrows only, and in order to do any execution + were obliged to come near the corral. The Indians soon + discovered they were getting the worst of the fight, and, + having run off all the stock, abandoned the conflict, + leaving us in possession of the camp, but it can hardly + be said masters of the situation. + + There we were; thirty-five pioneers upon the wild prairie, + surrounded by a wily and terribly cruel foe, without + transportation of any character but our own legs, and with + five hundred miles of dangerous, trackless waste between + us and the settlements. We had an abundance of money, + but the stuff was absolutely worthless for the present, + as there was nothing we could buy with it. + + After the last savage had ridden away into the sand hills + on the opposite side of the river, each one of us had a + thrilling story to relate of his individual narrow escapes. + Though none was killed, many received wounds, the scars + of which they carried through life. I was wounded six + times. Once was in the thigh by an arrow, and once while + loading my rifle I had my ramrod shot off close to the + muzzle of my piece, the ball just grazing my shoulder, + tearing away a small portion of the skin. Others had + equally curious experiences, but none were seriously injured. + + After the excitement incident to the battle had subsided, + the realization of our condition fully dawned upon us. + When we were first robbed, we were only a short distance + from Santa Fe, where our money easily procured other stock; + now there were three hundred miles behind us to that place, + and the picture was anything but pleasant to contemplate. + To transport supplies for thirty-five men seemed impossible. + Our money was now a burden greater than we could bear; + what was to be done with it? We would have no use for it + on our way to the settlements, yet the idea of abandoning + it seemed hard to accept. A vigilant guard was kept up + that day and night, during which time we all remained + in camp, fearing a renewal of the attack. + + The next morning, as there were no apparent signs of + the Indians, it was decided to reconnoitre the surrounding + country in the hope of recovering a portion, at least, + of our lost stock, which we thought might have become + separated from the main herd. Three men were detailed + to stay in the old camp to guard it while the remainder, + in squads, scoured the hills and ravines. Not a horse + or mule was visible anywhere; the stampede had been + complete--not even the direction the animals had taken + could be discovered. + + It was late in the afternoon when I, having left my + companions to continue the search and returning to camp + alone, had gotten within a mile of it, that I thought I saw + a horse feeding upon an adjoining hill. I at once turned + my steps in that direction, and had proceeded but a short + distance when three Indians jumped from their ambush in + the grass between me and the wagons and ran after me. + The men in camp had been watching my every movement, + and as soon as they saw the savages were chasing me, + they started in pursuit, running at their greatest speed + to my rescue. + + The savages soon overtook me, and the first one that + came up tackled me, but in an instant found himself flat + on the ground. Before he could get up, the second one + shared the same fate. By this time the third one arrived, + and the two I had thrown grabbed me by the legs so that + I could no longer handle myself, while the third one had + a comparatively easy task in pushing me over. Fortunately, + my head fell toward the camp and my fast-approaching + comrades. The two Indians held my legs to prevent my + rising, while the third one, who was standing over me, + drew from his belt a tomahawk, and shrugging his head + in his blanket, at the same time looking over his shoulder + at my friends, with a tremendous effort and that peculiar + grunt of all savages, plunged his hatchet, as he supposed, + into my head, but instead of scuffling to free myself + and rise to my feet, I merely turned my head to one side + and the wicked weapon was buried in the ground, just + grazing my ear. + + The Indian, seeing that he had missed, raised his hatchet + and once more shrugging his head in his blanket, and + turning to look over his other shoulder, attempted to + strike again, but the blow was evaded by a sudden toss + of his intended victim's head. Not satisfied with two + abortive trials, the third attempt must be made to brain me, + and repeating the same motions, with a great "Ugh!" he + seemed to put all his strength into the blow, which, like + the others, missed, and spent its force in the earth. + By this time the rescuing party had come near enough to + prevent the savage from risking another effort, and he then + addressed the other Indians in Spanish, which I understood, + saying, "We must run or the Americans will kill us!" + and loosening his grasp, he scampered off with his + companions as fast as his legs could take him, hurried on + by several pieces of lead fired from the old flintlocks + of the traders. + + By sundown every man had returned to the forlorn camp, + but not an animal had been recovered. Then, with tired + limbs and weary hearts, we took turns at guarding the + wagons through the long night. The next morning each man + shouldered his rifle, and having had his proportion of + the provisions and cooking utensils assigned him, + we broke camp, and again turned to take a last look at + the country behind us, in which we had experienced so much + misfortune, and started on foot for our long march through + the dangerous region ahead of us. + + Scarcely had we gotten out of sight of our abandoned camp, + when one of the party, happening to turn his eyes in that + direction, saw a large volume of smoke rising in the + vicinity; then we knew that all of our wagons, and + everything we had been forced to leave, were burning up. + This proved that, although we had been unable to discover + any signs of Indians, they had been lurking around us + all the time, and this fact warned us to exercise the + utmost vigilance in guarding our persons. + + Though our burdens were very heavy, the first few days + were passed without anything to relieve the dreadful + monotony of our wearisome march; but each succeeding + twenty-four hours our loads became visibly lighter, + as our supplies were rapidly diminishing. It had already + become apparent that even in the exercise of the greatest + frugality, our stock of provisions would not last until + we could reach the settlements, so some of the most expert + shots were selected to hunt for game; but even in this + they were not successful, the very birds seeming to have + abandoned the country in its extreme desolation. + + After eight days' travel, despite our most rigid economy, + an inventory showed that there was less than one hundred + pounds of flour left. Day after day the hunters repeated + the same old story: "No game!" For two weeks the allowance + of flour to each individual was but a spoonful, stirred + in water and taken three times a day. + + One afternoon, however, fortune smiled upon the weary party; + one of the hunters returned to camp with a turkey he had + killed. It was soon broiling over a fire which willing + hands had kindled, and our drooping spirits were revived + for a while. While the turkey was cooking, a crow flew + over the camp, and one of the company, seizing a gun, + despatched it, and in a few moments it, too, was sizzling + along with the other bird. + + Now, in addition to the pangs of hunger, a scarcity of + water confronted us, and one day we were compelled to + resort to a buffalo-wallow and suck the moist clay where + the huge animals had been stamping in the mud. We were + much reduced in strength, yet each day added new + difficulties to our forlorn situation. Some became so weak + and exhausted that it was with the greatest effort they + could travel at all. To divide the company and leave + the more feeble behind to starve, or to be murdered by + the merciless savages, was not considered for a moment; + but one alternative remained, and that was speedily accepted. + As soon as a convenient camping-ground could be found, + a halt was made, shelter established, and things made as + comfortable as possible. Here the weakest remained to rest, + while some of the strongest scoured the surrounding country + in search of game. During this temporary halt the hunters + were more successful than before, having killed two + buffaloes, besides some smaller animals, in one morning. + Again the natural dry fuel of the prairies was called + into requisition, and juicy steak was once more broiling + over the fire. + + With an abundance to eat and a few days' rest, the whole + company revived and were enabled to renew their march + homeward. We were now in the buffalo range, and every day + the hunters were fortunate enough to kill one or more of + the immense animals, thus keeping our larder in excellent + condition, and starvation averted. + + Doubting whether our good fortune in relation to food + would continue for the remainder of our march, and our + money becoming very cumbersome, it was decided by a majority + that at the first good place we came to we would bury it + and risk its being stolen by our enemies. When not more + than half of our journey had been accomplished, we came + to an island in the river to which we waded, and there, + between two large trees, dug a hole and deposited our + treasure. We replaced the sod over the spot, taking the + utmost precaution to conceal every sign of having disturbed + the ground. Though no Indians had been seen for several + days, a sharp lookout was kept in all directions for fear + that some lurking savage might have been watching our + movements. This task finished, with much lighter burdens, + but more anxious than ever, we again took up our march + eastwardly, and, thus relieved, were able to carry a + greater quantity of provisions. + + Having journeyed until we supposed we were within a few + miles of the settlements, some of our number, scarcely able + to travel, thought the best course to pursue would be to + divide the company; one portion to press on, the weaker + ones to proceed by easier stages, and when the advance + arrived at the settlements, they were to send back a relief + for those plodding on wearily behind them. Soon a few + who were stronger than the others reached Independence, + Missouri, and immediately sent a party with horses to + bring in their comrades; so, at last, all got safely to + their homes. + +In the spring of 1829, Major Bennett Riley of the United States army +was ordered with four companies of the Sixth Regular Infantry to +march out on the Trail as the first military escort ever sent for +the protection of the caravans of traders going and returning between +Western Missouri and Santa Fe. Captain Philip St. George Cooke, +of the Dragoons, accompanied the command, and kept a faithful journal +of the trip, from which, and the official report of Major Riley to +the Secretary of War, I have interpolated here copious extracts. + +The journal of Captain Cooke states that the battalion marched +from Fort Leavenworth, which was then called a cantonment, and, +strange to say, had been abandoned by the Third Infantry on account +of its unhealthiness. It was the 5th of June that Riley crossed +the Missouri at the cantonment, and recrossed the river again at +a point a little above Independence, in order to avoid the Kaw, +or Kansas, which had no ferry. + +After five days' marching, the command arrived at Round Grove, where +the caravan had been ordered to rendezvous and wait for the escort. +The number of traders aggregated about seventy-nine men, and their +train consisted of thirty-eight wagons drawn by mules and horses, +the former preponderating. Five days' marching, at an average of +fifteen miles a day, brought them to Council Grove. Leaving the +Grove, in a short time Cow Creek was reached, which at that date +abounded in fish; many of which, says the journal, "weighed several +pounds, and were caught as fast as the line could be handled." +The captain does not describe the variety to which he refers; +probably they were the buffalo--a species of sucker, to be found +to-day in every considerable stream in Kansas. + +Having reached the Upper Valley,[21] bordered by high sand hills, +the journal continues: + + From the tops of the hills, we saw far away, in almost + every direction, mile after mile of prairie, blackened + with buffalo. One morning, when our march was along the + natural meadows by the river, we passed through them for + miles; they opened in front and closed continually in + the rear, preserving a distance scarcely over three hundred + paces. On one occasion, a bull had approached within + two hundred yards without seeing us, until he ascended + the river bank; he stood a moment shaking his head, and + then made a charge at the column. Several officers + stepped out and fired at him, two or three dogs also rushed + to meet him; but right onward he came, snorting blood + from mouth and nostril at every leap, and, with the speed + of a horse and the momentum of a locomotive, dashed + between two wagons, which the frightened oxen nearly upset; + the dogs were at his heels and soon he came to bay, and, + with tail erect, kicked violently for a moment, and then + sank in death--the muscles retaining the dying rigidity + of tension. + +About the middle of July, the command arrived at its destination-- +Chouteau's Island, then on the boundary line between the United States +and New Mexico. + + Our orders were to march no further; and, as a protection + to the trade, it was like the establishment of a ferry + to the mid-channel of a river. + + Up to this time, traders had always used mules or horses. + Our oxen were an experiment, and it succeeded admirably; + they even did better when water was very scarce, which is + an important consideration. + + A few hours after the departure of the trading company, + as we enjoyed a quiet rest on a hot afternoon, we saw + beyond the river a number of horsemen riding furiously + toward our camp. We all flocked out of the tents to hear + the news, for they were soon recognized as traders. + They stated that the caravan had been attacked, about + six miles off in the sand hills, by an innumerable host + of Indians; that some of their companions had been killed; + and they had run, of course, for help. There was not a + moment's hesitation; the word was given, and the tents + vanished as if by magic. The oxen which were grazing + near by were speedily yoked to the wagons, and into the + river we marched. Then I deemed myself the most unlucky + of men; a day or two before, while eating my breakfast, + with my coffee in a tin cup--notorious among chemists and + campaigners for keeping it hot--it was upset into my shoe, + and on pulling off the stocking, it so happened that the + skin came with it. Being thus hors de combat, I sought to + enter the combat on a horse, which was allowed; but I was + put in command of the rear guard to bring up the baggage + train. It grew late, and the wagons crossed slowly; + for the river unluckily took that particular time to + rise fast, and, before all were over, we had to swim it, + and by moonlight. We reached the encampment at one o'clock + at night. All was quiet, and remained so until dawn, + when, at the sound of our bugles, the pickets reported + they saw a number of Indians moving off. On looking + around us, we perceived ourselves and the caravan in the + most unfavorable defenceless situation possible--in the + area of a natural amphitheatre of sand hills, about fifty + feet high, and within gun-shot all around. There was + the narrowest practicable entrance and outlet. + + We ascertained that some mounted traders, in spite of all + remonstrance and command, had ridden on in advance, and + when in the narrow pass beyond this spot, had been suddenly + beset by about fifty Indians; all fled and escaped save one, + who, mounted on a mule, was abandoned by his companions, + overtaken, and slain. The Indians, perhaps, equalled the + traders in number, but notwithstanding their extraordinary + advantage of ground, dared not attack them when they + made a stand among their wagons; and the latter, all well + armed, were afraid to make a single charge, which would + have scattered their enemies like sheep. + + Having buried the poor fellow's body, and killed an ox for + breakfast, we left this sand hollow, which would soon have + been roasting hot, and advancing through the defile--of + which we took care to occupy the commanding ground-- + proceeded to escort the traders at least one day's march + further. + + When the next morning broke clear and cloudless, the command + was confronted by one of those terrible hot winds, still + frequent on the plains. The oxen with lolling tongues + were incapable of going on; the train was halted, and the + suffering animals unyoked, but they stood motionless, + making no attempt to graze. Late that afternoon, the + caravan pushed on for about ten miles, where was the + sandy bed of a dry creek, and fortunately, not far from + the Trail, up the stream, a pool of water and an acre + or two of grass was discovered. On the surface of the + water floated thick the dead bodies of small fish, which + the intense heat of the sun that day had killed. + + Arriving at this point, it was determined to march no + further into the Mexican territory. At the first light + next day we were in motion to return to the river and + the American line, and no further adventure befell us. + +While permanently encamped at Chouteau's Island, which is situated +in the Arkansas River, the term of enlistment of four of the soldiers +of Captain Cooke's command expired, and they were discharged. +In his journal he says: + + Contrary to all advice they determined to return to + Missouri. After having marched several hundred miles + over a prairie country, being often on high hills + commanding a vast prospect, without seeing a human being + or a sign of one, and, save the trail we followed, not + the slightest indication that the country had ever been + visited by man, it was exceedingly difficult to credit + that lurking foes were around us, and spying our motions. + It was so with these men; and being armed, they set out + on the first of August on foot for the settlements. + That same night three of the four returned. They reported + that, after walking about fifteen miles, they were + surrounded by thirty mounted Indians. A wary old soldier + of their number succeeded in extricating them before any + hostile act had been committed; but one of them, highly + elated and pleased at their forbearance, insisted on + returning among them to give them tobacco and shake hands. + In this friendly act he was shot down. The Indians + stripped him in an incredibly short time, and as quickly + dispersed to avoid a shot; and the old soldier, after + cautioning the others to reserve their fire, fired among + them, and probably with some effect. Had the others done + the same, the Indians would have rushed upon them before + they could have reloaded. They managed to make good + their retreat in safety to our camp. + + We were instructed to wait here for the return of the + caravan, which was expected early in October. + Our provisions consisted of salt and half rations of flour, + besides a reserve of fifteen days' full rations--as to the + rest, we were dependent upon hunting. When the buffalo + became scarce, or the grass bad, we marched to other + ground, thus roving up and down the river for eighty + miles. The first thing we did after camping was to dig + and construct, with flour barrels, a well in front of + each company; water was always found at the depth of + from two to four feet varying with the corresponding + height of the river, but clear and cool. Next we would + build sod fire-places; these, with network platforms of + buffalo hide, used for smoking and drying meat, formed a + tolerable additional defence, at least against mounted men. + + Hunting was a military duty, done by detail, parties of + fifteen or twenty going out with a wagon. Completely + isolated, and beyond support or even communication, + in the midst of many thousands of Indians, the utmost + vigilance was maintained. Officer of the guard every + fourth night; I was always awake and generally in motion + the whole time of duty. Night alarms were frequent; when, + as we all slept in our clothes, we were accustomed to + assemble instantly, and with scarcely a word spoken, + take our places in the grass in front of each face of + the camp, where, however wet, we sometimes lay for hours. + + While encamped a few miles below Chouteau's Island, on the + eleventh of August, an alarm was given, and we were under + arms for an hour until daylight. During the morning, + Indians were seen a mile or two off, leading their horses + through the ravines. A captain, however, with eighteen + men was sent across the river after buffalo, which we saw + half a mile distant. In his absence, a large body of + Indians came galloping down the river, as if to charge + the camp, but the cattle were secured in good time. + A company, of which I was lieutenant, was ordered to + cross the river and support the first. We waded in some + disorder through the quicksands and current, and just + as we neared a dry sandbar in the middle, a volley was + fired at us by a band of Indians, who that moment rode + to the water's edge. The balls whistled very near, + but without damage; I felt an involuntary twitch of + the neck, and wishing to return the compliment instantly, + I stooped down, and the company fired over my head, + with what execution was not perceived, as the Indians + immediately retired out of our view. This had passed + in half a minute, and we were astonished to see, a little + above, among some bushes on the same bar, the party we had + been sent to support, and we heard that they had abandoned + one of the hunters, who had been killed. We then saw, + on the bank we had just left, a formidable body of the + enemy in close order, and hoping to surprise them, + we ascended the bed of the river. In crossing the channel + we were up to the arm-pits, but when we emerged on the + bank, we found that the Indians had detected the movement, + and retreated. Casting eyes beyond the river, I saw a + number of the Indians riding on both sides of a wagon + and team which had been deserted, urging the animals + rapidly toward the hills. At this juncture the adjutant + sent an order to cross and recover the body of the slain + hunter, who was an old soldier and a favourite. He was + brought in with an arrow still transfixing his breast, + but his scalp was gone. + + On the fourteenth of October, we again marched on our + return. Soon after, we saw smokes arise over the distant + hills; evidently signals, indicating to different parties + of Indians our separation and march, but whether preparatory + to an attack upon the Mexicans or ourselves, or rather + our immense drove of animals, we could only guess. + + Our march was constantly attended by great collections + of buffalo, which seemed to have a general muster, perhaps + for migration. Sometimes a hundred or two--a fragment + from the multitude--would approach within two or three + hundred yards of the column, and threaten a charge which + would have proved disastrous to the mules and their drivers. + + Under the friendly cover of the shades of evening, on the + eighth of November, our tatterdemalion veterans marched + into Fort Leavenworth, and took quiet possession of the + miserable huts and sheds left by the Third Infantry in + the preceding May. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY. + + + +As early as November, 1842, a rumour was current in Santa Fe, and +along the line of the Trail, that parties of Texans had left the +Republic for the purpose of attacking and robbing the caravans to +the United States which were owned wholly by Mexicans. In consequence +of this, several Americans were accused of being spies and acting +in collusion with the Texans; many were arrested and carried to +Santa Fe, but nothing could be proved against them, and the rumours +of the intended purposes of the Texans died out. + +Very early in May, however, of the following year, 1843, a certain +Colonel Snively did organize a small force, comprising about two +hundred men, which he led from Northern Texas, his home, to the +line of the Trail, with the intention of attacking and robbing the +Mexican caravans which were expected to cross the plains that month +and in June. + +When he arrived at the Arkansas River, he was there reinforced by +another Texan colonel, named Warfield with another small command. +Gregg says: + + This officer, with about twenty men, had some time + previously attacked the village of Mora, on the Mexican + frontier, killing five men, and driving off a number + of horses. They were afterward followed by a party of + Mexicans, however, who stampeded and carried away, not only + their own horses, but those of the Texans. Being left + afoot, the latter burned their saddles, and walked to + Bent's Fort, where they were disbanded; whence Warfield + passed to Snively's camp, as before mentioned. + + The Texans now advanced along the Santa Fe Trail, beyond + the sand hills south of the Arkansas, when they discovered + that a party of Mexicans had passed toward the river. + They soon came upon them, and a skirmish ensuing, eighteen + Mexicans were killed, and as many wounded, five of whom + afterward died. The Texans suffered no injury, though + the Mexicans were a hundred in number. The rest were all + taken prisoners except two, who escaped and bore the news + to General Armijo, who was encamped with a large force + at Cold Spring, one hundred and forty miles beyond. + +Kit Carson figured conspicuously in this fight, or, rather, immediately +afterward. His recital differs somewhat from Gregg's account, +but the stories substantially agree. Kit said that in April, +previously to the assault upon Armijo's caravan, he had hired out +as hunter to Bent's and Colonel St. Vrain's train caravan, which was +then making its annual tour eastwardly. When he arrived at the +crossing of Walnut Creek,[22] he found the encampment of Captain +Philip St. George Cooke, of the United States army, who had been +detailed with his command to escort the caravans to the New Mexican +boundary. His force consisted of four troops of dragoons. +The captain informed Carson that coming on behind him from the States +was a caravan belonging to a very wealthy Mexican. + +It was a richly loaded train, and in order to insure its better +protection while passing through that portion of the country infested +by the blood-thirsty Comanches and Apaches, the majordomo in charge +had hired one hundred Mexicans as a guard. The teamsters and others +belonging to the caravan had heard that a large body of Texans were +lying in wait for them, and intended to murder and plunder them in +retaliation for the way Armijo had treated some Texan prisoners +he had got in his power at Santa Fe some time before. Of course, +it was the duty of the United States troops to escort this caravan +to the New Mexico line, but there their duty would end, as they +had no authority to cross the border. The Mexicans belonging to +the caravan were afraid they would be at the mercy of the Texans +after they had parted company with the soldiers, and when Kit Carson +met them, they, knowing the famous trapper and mountaineer well, +asked him to take a letter to Armijo, who was then governor of +New Mexico, and resided in Santa Fe, for which service they would +give him three hundred dollars in advance. The letter contained +a statement of the fears they entertained, and requested the general +to send Mexican troops at once to meet them. + +Carson, who was then not blessed with much money, eagerly accepted +the task, and immediately started on the trail for Bent's Fort, +in company with another old mountaineer and bosom friend named Owens. +In a short time they arrived at the Fort, where Owens decided not +to go any further, because they were informed by the men at Bent's +that the Utes had broken out, and were scattered along the Trail +at the most dangerous points, and he was fearful that his life +would be endangered if he attempted to make Santa Fe. + +Kit, however, nothing daunted, and determined to do the duty for +which he had been rewarded so munificently, started out alone on +his perilous trip. Mr. Bent kindly furnished him with the best and +fastest horse he had in his stables, but Kit, realizing the dangers +to which he would be exposed, walked, leading his animal, ready to +mount him at a moment's notice; thus keeping him in a condition that +would enable Carson to fly and make his escape if the savages tried +to capture him. His knowledge of the Indian character, and wonderful +alertness in moments of peril, served him well; for he reached the +village of the hostile Indians without their discovering his proximity. +Hiding himself in a rocky, bush-covered canyon, he stayed there until +night came on, when he continued his journey in the darkness. + +He took the trail to Taos, where he arrived in two or three days, +and presented his letter to the alcalde, to be sent on to Santa Fe +by special messenger. + +He was to remain at Taos until an answer from the governor arrived, +and then return with it as rapidly as possible to the train. +While at Taos, he was informed that Armijo had already sent out +a company of one hundred soldiers to meet the caravan, and was to +follow in person, with a thousand more. + +This first hundred were those attacked by Colonel Snively, as related +by Gregg, who says that two survived, who carried the news of the +disaster to Armijo at Cold Spring; but Carson told me that only one +got away, by successfully catching, during the heat of the fight, +a Texan pony already saddled, that was grazing around loose. +With him he made Armijo's camp and related to the Mexican general +the details of the terribly unequal battle. Armijo, upon receipt +of the news, "turned tail," and retreated to Santa Fe. + +Before Armijo left Santa Fe with his command, he had received the +letter which Carson had brought from the caravan, and immediately +sent one in reply for Carson to carry back, thinking that the old +mountaineer might reach the wagons before he did. Carson, with his +usual promptness, started on the Trail for the caravan, and came up +with it while it was escorted by the dragoons, thus saving it from +the fate that the Texans intended for it, as they dared not attempt +any interference in the presence of the United States troops. + +The rumour current in Santa Fe in relation to a probable raid of +parties of Texans along the line of the Trail, for the purpose of +attacking and robbing the caravans of the wealthy Mexican traders, +was received with so little credence by the prominent citizens of +the country, that several native trains left for the Missouri River +without their proprietors having the slightest apprehension that +they would not reach their destination, and make the return trip +in safety. + +Among those who had no fear of marauders was Don Antonio Jose Chavez, +who, in February, 1843, left Santa Fe for Independence with an outfit +consisting of a number of wagons, his private coach, several servants +and other retainers. Don Antonio was a very wealthy Mexican engaged +in a general mercantile business on a large scale in Albuquerque, +who made all his purchases of goods in St. Louis, which was then +the depot of supplies for the whole mountain region. He necessarily +carried with him on these journeys a large amount of money, in silver, +which was the legal currency of the country, and made but one trip +yearly to replenish the stock of goods required in his extensive +trade in all parts of Mexico. + +Upon his arrival at Westport Landing, as Kansas City was then called, +he would take the steamboat for St. Louis, leaving his coach, wagons, +servants, and other appointments of his caravan behind him in the +village of Westport, a few miles from the Landing. + +Westport was at that time, like all steamboat towns in the era of +water navigation, the harbor of as great a lot of ruffians as ever +escaped the gallows. There was especially a noted gang of land pirates, +the members of which had long indulged in speculations regarding the +probable wealth of the Mexican Don, and how much coin he generally +carried with him. They knew that it must be considerable from the +quantity of goods that always came by boat with him from St. Louis. + +At last a devilish plot was arranged to get hold of the rich trader's +money. Nine men were concerned in the robbery, nearly all of whom +were residents of the vicinity of Westport; their leader was one +John McDaniel, recently from Texas, from which government he claimed +to hold a captain's commission, and one of their number was a doctor. +It was evidently the intention of this band to join Warfield's party +on the Arkansas, and engage in a general robbery of the freight +caravans of the Santa Fe Trail belonging to the Mexicans; but they +had determined that Chavez should be their first victim, and in order +to learn when he intended to leave Santa Fe on his next trip east, +they sent their spies out on the great highway. + +They did not dare attempt their contemplated robbery, and murder +if necessary, in the State of Missouri, for there were too many +citizens of the border who would never have permitted such a thing +to go unpunished; so they knew that their only chance was to effect it +in the Indian country of Kansas, where there was little or no law. + +Cow Creek, which debouches into the Arkansas at Hutchinson, where +the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad crosses the historic +little stream,[23] was, like Big and Little Coon creeks, a most +dangerous point in the transcontinental passage of freight caravans +and overland coaches, in the days of the commerce of the prairies. +It was on this purling little prairie brook that McDaniel's band +lay in wait for the arrival of the ill-fated Don Antonio, whose +imposing equipage came along, intending to encamp on the bank, +one of the usual stopping-places on the route. + +The Don was taken a few miles south of the Trail, and his baggage +rifled. All of his party were immediately murdered, but the wealthy +owner of the caravan was spared for a few moments in order to make +a confession of where his money was concealed, after which he was +shot down in cold blood, and his body thrown into a ravine. + +It appears, however, that the ruffians had not completed their +bloody work so effectually as they thought; for one of the Mexican's +teamsters escaped, and, making his way to Leavenworth, reported +the crime, and was soon on his way back to the Trail, guiding a +detachment of United States troops in pursuit of the murderers. + +John Hobbs, scout, trapper, and veteran plainsman, happened to be +hunting buffalo on Pawnee Fork, on the ground where Larned is now +situated, with a party from Bent's Fort. They were just on the point +of crossing the Trail at the mouth of the Pawnee when the soldiers +from Fort Leavenworth came along, and from them Hobbs and his +companions first learned of the murder of Chavez on Cow Creek. +As the men who were out hunting were all familiar with every foot +of the region they were then in, the commanding officer of the troops +induced them to accompany him in his search for the murderers. + +Hobbs and his men cheerfully accepted the invitation, and in about +four days met the band of cut-throats on the broad Trail, they little +dreaming that the government had taken a hand in the matter. +The band tried to escape by flight, but Hobbs shot the doctor's horse +from under him, and a soldier killed another member of the band, +when the remainder surrendered. + +The money, about twelve or fifteen thousand dollars,[24] was all +recovered, and the murderers taken to St. Louis, where some were hung +and some imprisoned, the doctor escaping the death penalty by turning +state's evidence. His sentence was incarceration in the penitentiary, +from which he was pardoned after remaining there two years. +Hobbs met the doctor some years after in San Francisco. He was then +leading an honest life, publishing a newspaper, and begged his captor +not to expose him. + +The money taken from the robbers was placed in charge of Colonel Owens, +a friend of the Chavez family and a leading Santa Fe trader. +He continued on to the river, purchased a stock of goods, and +sent back the caravan to Santa Fe in charge of Doctor Conley of +Boonville, Missouri. + +Arriving at his destination, the widow of the deceased Chavez +employed the good doctor to sell the goods and take the sole +supervision of her immense business interests, and there is a touch +of romance attached to the terrible Kansas tragedy, which lies in +the fact that the doctor in about two years married the rich widow, +and lived very happily for about a decade, dying then on one of the +large estates in New Mexico, which he had acquired by his fortunate +union with the amiable Mexican lady. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +MEXICO DECLARES WAR. + + + +Mexico declared war against the United States in April, 1846. In the +following May, Congress passed an act authorizing the President to +call into the field fifty thousand volunteers, designed to operate +against Mexico at three distinct points, and consisting of the +Southern Wing, or the Army of Occupation, the Army of the Centre, +and the Army of the West, the latter to direct its march upon the +city of Santa Fe. The original plan was, however, somewhat changed, +and General Kearney, who commanded the Army of the West, divided his +forces into three separate commands. The first he led in person +to the Pacific coast. One thousand volunteers, under command of +Colonel A. W. Doniphan, were to make a descent upon the State of +Chihuahua, while the remainder and greater part of the forces, under +Colonel Sterling Price, were to garrison Santa Fe after its capture. + +There is a pretty fiction told of the breaking out of the war +between Mexico and the United States. Early in the spring of 1846, +before it was known or even conjectured that a state of war would be +declared to exist between this government and Mexico, a caravan +of twenty-nine traders, on their way from Independence to Santa Fe, +beheld, just after a storm and a little before sunset, a perfectly +distinct image of the Bird of Liberty, the American eagle, on the +disc of the sun. When they saw it they simultaneously and almost +involuntarily exclaimed that in less than twelve months the Eagle +of Liberty would spread his broad plumes over the plains of the West, +and that the flag of our country would wave over the cities of +New Mexico and Chihuahua. The student of the classics will remember +that just before the assassination of Julius Caesar, both Brutus +and Cassius, while in their places in the Roman Senate, saw chariots +of fire in the sky. One story is as true, probably, as the other, +though separated by centuries of time. + +The Army of the West, under General Stephen W. Kearney, consisted of +two batteries of artillery, commanded by Major Clark; three squadrons +of the First United States Dragoons, commanded by Major Sumner; +the First Regiment of Missouri Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Doniphan, +and two companies of infantry, commanded by Captain Aubrey. +This force marched in detached columns from Fort Leavenworth, and +on the 1st of August, 1846, concentrated in camp on the Santa Fe +Trail, nine miles below Bent's Fort. + +Accompanying the expedition was a party of the United States +topographical engineers, under command of Lieutenant W. H. Emory.[25] +In writing of this expedition, so far as its march relates to the +Old Santa Fe Trail, I shall quote freely from Emory's report and +Doniphan's historian.[26] + +The practicability of marching a large army over the waste, +uncultivated, uninhabited prairie regions of the West was universally +regarded as problematical, but the expedition proved completely +successful. Provisions were conveyed in wagons, and beef-cattle +driven along for the use of the men. These animals subsisted +entirely by grazing. To secure them from straying off at night, +they were driven into corrals formed of the wagons, or tethered to +an iron picket-pin driven into the ground about fifteen inches. +At the outset of the expedition many laughable scenes took place. +Our horses were generally wild, fiery, and unused to military +trappings and equipments. Amidst the fluttering of banners, +the sounding of bugles, the rattling of artillery, the clattering +of sabres and also of cooking utensils, some of them took fright +and scampered pell-mell over the wide prairie. Rider, arms and +accoutrements, saddles, saddle-bags, tin cups, and coffee-pots, +were frequently left far behind in the chase. No very serious or +fatal accident, however, occurred from this cause, and all was +right as soon as the affrighted animals were recovered. + +The Army of the West was, perhaps, composed of as fine material as +any other body of troops then in the field. The volunteer corps +consisted almost entirely of young men of the country. + +On the 9th of July, a separate detachment of the troops arrived at +the Little Arkansas, where the Santa Fe Trail crosses that stream-- +now in McPherson County, Kansas. The mosquitoes, gnats, and black +flies swarmed in that locality and nearly drove the men and animals +frantic. While resting there, a courier came from the commands +of General Kearney and Colonel Doniphan, stating that their men +were in a starving condition, and asking for such provisions as +could be spared. Lieutenant-Colonel Ruff of Doniphan's regiment, +in command of the troops now camped on the Little Arkansas, was +almost destitute himself. He had sent couriers forward to Pawnee Fork +to stop a train of provisions at that point and have it wait there +until he came up with his force, and he now directed the courier from +Kearney to proceed to the same place and halt as many wagons loaded +with supplies, as would suffice to furnish the three detachments +with rations. One of the couriers, in attempting to ford the fork +of the Pawnee, which was bank-full, was drowned. His body was found +and given a military funeral; he was the first man lost on the +expedition after it had reached the great plains, one having been +drowned in the Missouri, at Fort Leavenworth, before the troops left. + +The author of _Doniphan's Expedition_ says: + In approaching the Arkansas, a landscape of the most + imposing and picturesque nature makes its appearance. + While the green, glossy undulations of the prairie to + the right seem to spread out in infinite succession, + like waves subsiding after a storm, and covered with + herds of gambolling buffalo, on the left, towering to + the height of seventy-five to a hundred feet, rise the + sun-gilt summits of the sand hills, along the base of + which winds the broad, majestic river, bespeckled with + verdant islets, thickly beset with cottonwood timber, + the sand hills resembling heaps of driven snow. +I refer to this statement to show how wonderfully the settlement +of the region has changed the physical aspect of that portion +bordering the Arkansas River. Now those sand hills are covered +with verdure, and this metamorphosis has taken place within the +last thirty years; for the author of this work well remembers how +the great sand dunes used to shine in the sunlight, when he first +saw them a third of a century ago. In coming from Fort Leavenworth +up the Smoky Hill route to the Santa Fe Trail, where the former +joined the latter at Pawnee Rock, the contour of the Arkansas +could be easily traced by the white sand hills referred to, +long before it was reached. + +On the 15th of July the combined forces formed a junction at +Pawnee Fork, now within the city limits of Larned, Kansas. The river +was impassable, but General Kearney, with the characteristic energy +of his family, determined not to be delayed, and to that end caused +great trees to be cut down and their trunks thrown across the stream, +over which the army passed, carrying in their arms the sick, the +baggage, tents, and other paraphernalia; the animals being forced +to swim. The empty bodies of the wagons, fastened to their running +gear, were floated across by means of ropes, and hauled up the +slippery bank by the troops. This required two whole days; and on +the morning of the 17th, not an accident having occurred, the entire +column was en route again, the infantry, as is declared in the +official reports, keeping pace with the cavalry right along. +Their feet, however, became terribly blistered, and, like the +Continentals at Valley Forge, their tracks were marked with blood. + +In a day or two after the command had left Pawnee Fork, while camping +in a beautiful spot on the bank of the Arkansas, an officer, Major +Howard, who had been sent forward to Santa Fe some time previously +by the general to learn something of the feeling of the people +in relation to submitting to the government of the United States, +returned and reported + + that the common people, or plebeians, were inclined to + favour the conditions of peace proposed by General Kearney; + viz. that if they would lay down their arms and take the + oath of allegiance to the government of the United States, + they should, to all intents and purposes, become citizens + of the same republic, receiving the protection and enjoying + the liberties guaranteed to other American citizens; but + that the patricians who held the offices and ruled the + country were hostile, and were making warlike preparations. + He added, further, that two thousand three hundred men + were already armed for the defence of the capital, and + that others were assembling at Taos. +This intelligence created quite a sensation in camp, and it was +believed, and earnestly hoped, that the entrance of the troops +into Santa Fe would be desperately opposed; such is the pugnacious +character of the average American the moment he dons the uniform +of a soldier. + +The army arrived at the Cimarron crossing of the Arkansas on the 20th, +and during the march of nearly thirty miles from their last camp, +a herd of about four hundred buffalo suddenly emerged from the +Arkansas, and broke through the long column. In an instant the +troops charged upon the surprised animals with guns, pistols, and +even drawn sabres, and many of the huge beasts were slaughtered +as they went dashing and thundering among the excited troopers and +infantrymen. + +On the 29th an express from Bent's Fort brought news to General +Kearney from Santa Fe that Governor Armijo had called the chief men +together to deliberate on the best means of defending the city; +that hostile preparations were rapidly going on in all parts of +New Mexico; and that the American advance would be vigorously opposed. +Some Mexican prisoners were taken near Bent's Fort, with blank letters +on their persons addressed to the general; it was supposed this piece +of ingenuity was resorted to to deceive the American residents at +the fort. These men were thought to be spies sent out from Santa Fe +to get an idea of the strength of the army; so they were shown +everything in and around camp, and then allowed to depart in peace +for Santa Fe, to report what they had seen. + +On the same date, the Army of the West crossed the Arkansas and camped +on Mexican soil about eight miles below Bent's Fort, and now the +utmost vigilance was exercised; for the troops had not only to keep +a sharp lookout for the Mexicans, but for the wily Comanches, in whose +country their camp was located. Strong picket and camp guards were +posted, and the animals turned loose to graze, guarded by a large +force. Notwithstanding the care taken to confine them within certain +limits, a pack of wolves rushed through the herd, and in an instant +it was stampeded, and there ensued a scene of the wildest confusion. +More than a thousand horses were dashing madly over the prairie, +their rage and fright increased at every jump by the lariats and +picket-pins which they had pulled up, and which lashed them like +so many whips. After desperate exertions by the troops, the majority +were recovered from thirty to fifty miles distant; nearly a hundred, +however, were absolutely lost and never seen again. + +At this camp the troops were visited by the war chief of the Arapahoes, +who manifested great surprise at the big guns, and declared that +the Mexicans would not stand a moment before such terrible instruments +of death, but would escape to the mountains with the utmost despatch. + +On the 1st of August a new camp near Bent's Fort was established, +from whence twenty men under Lieutenant de Courcy, with orders to +proceed through the mountains to the valley of Taos, to learn +something of the disposition and intentions of the people, and to +rejoin General Kearney on the road to Santa Fe. Lieutenant de Courcy, +in his official itinerary, relates the following anecdote: + We took three pack-mules laden with provisions, and as + we did not expect to be long absent, the men took no extra + clothing. Three days after we left the column our mules + fell down, and neither gentle means nor the points of our + sabres had the least effect in inducing them to rise. + Their term of service with Uncle Sam was out. "What's to + be done?" said the sergeant. "Dismount!" said I. + "Off with your shirts and drawers, men! tie up the sleeves + and legs, and each man bag one-twentieth part of the flour!" + Having done this, the bacon was distributed to the men also, + and tied to the cruppers of their saddles. Thus loaded, + we pushed on, without the slightest fear of our provision + train being cut off. + + The march upon Santa Fe was resumed on the 2d of August. + As we passed Bent's Fort the American flag was raised, + in compliment to our troops, and, like our own, streamed + most animatingly in the gale that swept from the desert, + while the tops of the houses were crowded with Mexican girls + and Indian squaws, intently beholding the American army. + +On the 15th of the month, the army neared Las Vegas; when two spies +who had been sent on in advance to see how matters stood returned +and reported that two thousand Mexicans were camped at the pass +a few miles beyond the village, where they intended to offer battle. + +Upon receipt of this news, the general immediately formed a line +of battle. The United States dragoons with the St. Louis mounted +volunteers were stationed in front, Major Clark with the battalion +of volunteer light artillery in the centre, and Colonel Doniphan's +regiment in the rear. The companies of volunteer infantry were +deployed on each side of the line of march as flankers. The supply +trains were next in order, with Captain Walton's mounted company +as rear guard. There was also a strong advance guard. The cartridges +were hastily distributed; the cannon swabbed and rigged; the +port-fires burning, and every rifle loaded. + +In passing through the streets of the curious-looking village of +Las Vegas, the army was halted, and from the roof of a large house +General Kearney administered to the chief officers of the place +the oath of allegiance to the United States, using the sacred cross +instead of the Bible. This act completed, on marched the exultant +troops toward the canyon where it had been promised them that they +should meet the enemy. + +On the night of the 16th, while encamped on the Pecos River, near +the village of San Jose, the pickets captured a son of the Mexican +General Salezar, who was acting the rôle of a spy, and two other +soldiers of the Mexican army. Salezar was kept a close prisoner; +but the two privates were by order of General Kearney escorted +through the camp and shown the cannon, after which they were allowed +to depart, so that they might tell what they had seen. It was +learned afterward that they represented the American army as composed +of five thousand troops, and possessing so many cannons that they +were not able to count them. + +When Armijo was certain that the Army of the West was really +approaching Santa Fe, he assembled seven thousand troops, part of them +well armed, and the remainder indifferently so. The Mexican general +had written a note to General Kearney the day before the capture +of the spies, saying that he would meet him on the following day. + +General Kearney, at this, hastened on, arriving at the mouth of +the Apache canyon at noon, with his whole force ready and anxious +to try the mettle of the Mexicans in battle. Emory in his +_Reconnoissance_ says: + + The sun shone with dazzling brightness; the guidons and + colours of each squadron, regiment, and battalion were + for the first time unfurled. The drooping horses seemed + to take courage from the gay array. The trumpeters + sounded "to horse" with spirit, and the hills multiplied + and re-echoed the call. All wore the aspect of a gala day. + About the middle of the day's march the two Pueblo Indians, + previously sent to sound the chief men of that formidable + tribe, were seen in the distance, at full speed, with arms + and legs both thumping the sides of their mules at every + stride. Something was now surely in the wind. The smaller + and foremost of the two dashed up to the general, his face + radiant with joy, and exclaimed: + + "They are in the canyon, my brave; pluck up your courage + and push them out." As soon as his extravagant delight at + the prospect of a fight, and the pleasure of communicating + the news, had subsided, he gave a pretty accurate idea + of Armijo's force and position. + + Shortly afterwards a rumour reached the camp that the + two thousand Mexicans assembled in the canyon to oppose us, + have quarrelled among themselves; and that Armijo, taking + advantage of the dissensions, has fled with his dragoons + and artillery to the south. It is well known that he has + been averse to a battle, but some of his people threatened + his life if he refused to fight. He had been, for some + days, more in fear of his own people than of the American + army, having seen what they are blind to--the hopelessness + of resistance. + + As we approached the ancient town of Pecos, a large fat + fellow, mounted on a mule, came toward us at full speed, + and, extending his hand to the general, congratulated him + on the arrival of himself and army. He said with a roar + of laughter, "Armijo and his troops have gone to h---ll, + and the canyon is all clear." + +On reaching the canyon, it was found to be true that the Mexican +troops had dispersed and fled to the mountains, just as the old +Arapahoe chief had said they would. There, however, they commenced +to fortify, by chopping away the timber so that their artillery +could play to better advantage upon the American lines, and by +throwing up temporary breastworks. It was ascertained afterward, +on undoubted authority, that Armijo had an army of nearly seven +thousand Mexicans, with six pieces of artillery, and the advantage +of ground, yet he allowed General Kearney, with a force of less than +two thousand, to march through the almost impregnable gorge, and on +to the capital of the Province, without any attempt to oppose him. + +Thus was New Mexico conquered with but little loss relatively. +For the further details of the movements of the Army of the West, +the reader is referred to general history, as this book, necessarily, +treats only of that portion of its march and the incidents connected +with it while travelling the Santa Fe Trail. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +THE VALLEY OF TAOS. + + + +The principal settlement in New Mexico, immediately after it was +reconquered from the Indians by the Spaniards, was, of course, +Santa Fe, and ranking second to it, that of the beautiful Valle de Taos, +which derived its name from the Taosa Indians, a few of whose direct +descendants are still occupying a portion of the region. As the +pioneers in the trade with Santa Fe made their first journeys to +the capital of the Province by the circuitous route of the Taos +valley, and the initial consignments of goods from the Missouri +were disposed of in the little villages scattered along the road, +the story of the Trail would be deficient in its integrity were the +thrilling historical facts connected with the romantic region omitted. + +The reader will find on all maps, from the earliest published to the +latest issued by the local railroads, a town with the name of Taos, +which never had an existence. Fernandez de Taos is the chief city, +which has been known so long by the title of the valley that perhaps +the misnomer is excusable after many years' use. + +Fernandez, or Taos as it is called, was once famous for its +distilleries of whiskey, made out of the native wheat, a raw, fiery +spirit, always known in the days of the Santa Fe trade as "Taos +lightning," which was the most profitable article of barter with +the Indians, who exchanged their buffalo robes and other valuable +furs for a supply of it, at a tremendous sacrifice. + +According to the statement of Gregg, the first white settler of the +fertile and picturesque valley was a Spaniard named Pando, who +established himself there about 1745. This primitive pioneer of +the northern part of the Province was constantly exposed to the raids +of the powerful Comanches, but succeeded in creating a temporary +friendship with the tribe by promising his daughter, then a young +and beautiful infant, to the chief in marriage when she arrived +at a suitable age. At the time for the ratification of her father's +covenant with the Indians, however, the maiden stubbornly refused +to fulfil her part. The savages, enraged at the broken faith of +the Spaniard, immediately swept down upon the little settlement and +murdered everybody there except the betrothed girl, whom they +carried off into captivity. She was forced to live with the chief +as his wife, but he soon became tired of her and traded her for +another woman with the Pawnees, who, in turn, sold her to a Frenchman, +a resident of St. Louis. It is said that some of the most respectable +families of that city are descended from her, and fifty years ago +there were many people living who remembered the old lady, and her +pathetic story of trials and sufferings when with the Indians. + +The most tragic event in the history of the valley was the massacre +of the provisional governor of the Territory of New Mexico, with +a number of other Americans, shortly after its occupation by the +United States. + +Upon General Kearney's taking possession of Santa Fe, acting under +the authority of the President, he established a civil government +and put it into operation. Charles Bent was appointed governor, +and the other offices filled by Americans and Mexicans who were +rigidly loyal to the political change. At this time the command +of the troops devolved upon Colonel Sterling Price, Colonel Doniphan, +who ranked him, having departed from Santa Fe on an expedition +against the Navajoes. Notwithstanding the apparent submission of +the natives of New Mexico, there were many malcontents among them +and the Pueblo Indians, and early in December, some of the leaders, +dissatisfied with the change in the order of things, held secret +meetings and formulated plots to overthrow the existing government. + +Midnight of the 24th of December was the time appointed for the +commencement of their revolutionary work, which was to be simultaneous +all over the country. The profoundest secrecy was to be preserved, +and the most influential men, whose ambition induced them to seek +preferment, were alone to be made acquainted with the plot. No woman +was to be privy to it, lest it should be divulged. The sound of +the church bell was to be the signal, and at midnight all were to +enter the Plaza at the same moment, seize the pieces of artillery, +and point them into the streets. + +The time chosen for the assault was Christmas-eve, when the soldiers +and garrison would be indulging in wine and feasting, and scattered +about through the city at the fandangoes, not having their arms in +their hands. All the Americans, without distinction, throughout +the State, and such New Mexicans as had favoured the American +government and accepted office by appointment of General Kearney, +were to be massacred or driven from the country, and the conspirators +were to seize upon and occupy the government. + +The conspiracy was detected in the following manner: a mulatto girl, +residing in Santa Fe, had married one of the conspirators, and had by +degrees obtained a knowledge of their movements and secret meetings. +To prevent the effusion of blood, which would inevitably be the result +of a revolution, she communicated to Colonel Price all the facts +of which she was in possession, and warned him to use the utmost +vigilance. The rebellion was immediately suppressed, but the +restless and unsatisfied ambition of the leaders of the conspiracy +did not long permit them to remain inactive. A second and still more +dangerous conspiracy was formed. The most powerful and influential +men in the State favoured the design, and even the officers of State +and the priests gave their aid and counsel. The people everywhere, +in the towns, villages, and settlements, were exhorted to arm and +equip themselves; to strike for their faith, their religion, and +their altars; and drive the "heretics," the "unjust invaders of +the country," from their soil, and with fire and sword pursue them +to annihilation. On the 18th of January this rebellion broke out +in every part of the State simultaneously. + +On the 14th of January, Governor Bent, believing the conspiracy +completely crushed, with an escort of five persons--among whom were +the sheriff and circuit attorney--had left Santa Fe to visit his +family, who resided at Fernandez. + +On the 19th, he was early roused from sleep by the populace, who, +with the aid of the Pueblos of Taos, were collected in front of his +dwelling striving to gain admittance. While they were effecting +an entrance, he, with an axe, cut through an adobe wall into another +house; and the Mexican wife of the occupant, a clever though shiftless +Canadian, hearing him, with all her strength rendered him assistance. +He retreated to a room, but, seeing no way of escaping from the +infuriated assailants, who fired upon him from a window, he spoke +to his weeping wife and trembling children, and, taking paper +from his pocket, endeavoured to write; but fast losing strength, +he commended them to God and his brothers and fell, pierced by a +ball from a Pueblo. Then rushing in and tearing off his gray-haired +scalp, the Indians bore it away in triumph. + +The circuit attorney, T. W. Leal, was scalped alive and dragged +through the streets, his relentless persecutors pricking him with +lances. After hours of suffering, they threw him aside in the +inclement weather, he imploring them earnestly to kill him to end +his misery. A compassionate Mexican at last closed the tragic scene +by shooting him. Stephen Lee, brother to the general, was killed +on his own housetop. Narcisse Beaubien, son of the presiding judge +of the district, hid in an outhouse with his Indian slave, at the +commencement of the massacre, under a straw-covered trough. +The insurgents on the search, thinking that they had escaped, +were leaving, but a woman servant of the family, going to the +housetop, called to them, "Kill the young ones, and they will never +be men to trouble us." They swarmed back and, by cruelly putting +to death and scalping him and his slave, added two more to the list +of unfortunate victims. + +The Pueblos and Mexicans, after their cruelties at Fernandez de Taos, +attacked and destroyed Turley's Ranch on the Arroyo Hondo[27] twelve +miles from Fernandez, or Taos. Arroyo Hondo runs along the base +of a ridge of a mountain of moderate elevation, which divides the +valley of Taos from that of the Rio Colorado, or Red River, both +flowing into the Del Norte. The trail from one place to the other +passes over the mountain, which is covered with pine, cedar, and +a species of dwarf oak; and numerous little streams run through +the many canyons. + +On the bank of one of the creeks was a mill and distillery belonging +to an American named Turley, who did a thriving business. He possessed +herds of goats, and hogs innumerable; his barns were filled with +grain, his mill with flour, and his cellars with whiskey. He had +a Mexican wife and several children, and he bore the reputation of +being one of the most generous and kind-hearted of men. In times of +scarcity, no one ever sought his aid to be turned away empty-handed; +his granaries were always open to the hungry, and his purse to +the poor. + +When on their road to Turley's, the Pueblos murdered two men, named +Harwood and Markhead. Markhead was one of the most successful +trappers and daring men among the old mountaineers. They were on +their way to Taos with their pack-animals laden with furs, when the +savages, meeting them, after stripping them of their goods, and +securing their arms by treachery, made them mount their mules under +pretence of conducting them to Taos, where they were to be given up +to the leaders of the insurrection. They had hardly proceeded +a mile when a Mexican rode up behind Harwood and discharged his gun +into his back; he called out to Markhead that he was murdered, and +fell to the ground dead. + +Markhead, seeing that his own fate was sealed, made no struggle, +and was likewise shot in the back with several bullets. Both men +were then stripped naked, scalped, and horribly mutilated; their +bodies thrown into the brush to be devoured by the wolves. + +These trappers were remarkable men; Markhead, particularly, was +celebrated in the mountains for his courage, reckless daring, and +many almost miraculous escapes when in the very hands of the Indians. +When some years previously he had accompanied Sir William Drummond +Stewart on one of his expeditions across the Rockies, it happened +that a half-breed Indian employed by Sir William absconded one night +with some animals, which circumstance annoyed the nobleman so much, +as it disturbed all his plans, that he hastily offered, never dreaming +that he would be taken up, to give five hundred dollars for the scalp +of the thief. The very next evening Markhead rode into camp with the +hair of the luckless horse-thief dangling at the muzzle of his rifle. + +The wild crowd of rebels rode on to Turley's mill. Turley had been +warned of the impending uprising, but had treated the report with +indifference, until one morning a man in his employ, who had been +despatched to Santa Fe with several mule-loads of whiskey a few days +before, made his appearance at the gate on horseback, and hastily +informing the inmates of the mill that the New Mexicans had risen and +massacred Governor Bent and other Americans, galloped off. Even then +Turley felt assured that he would not be molested; but at the +solicitation of his men, he agreed to close the gate of the yard +around which were the buildings of the mill and distillery, and make +preparations for defence. + +A few hours afterward a large crowd of Mexicans and Pueblo Indians +made their appearance, all armed with guns and bows and arrows, and, +advancing with a white flag, summoned Turley to surrender his house +and the Americans in it, guaranteeing that his own life should be +saved, but that every other American in the valley must be destroyed; +that the governor and all the Americans at Fernandez had been killed, +and that not one was to be left alive in all New Mexico. + +To this summons Turley answered that he would never surrender his +house nor his men, and that if they wanted it or them, they must +take them. + +The enemy then drew off, and, after a short consultation, commenced +the attack. The first day they numbered about five hundred, but were +hourly reinforced by the arrival of parties of Indians from the more +distant Pueblos, and New Mexicans from Fernandez, La Canada, and +other places. + +The building lay at the foot of a gradual slope in the sierra, which +was covered with cedar bushes. In front ran the stream of the +Arroyo Hondo, about twenty yards from one side of the square, and +the other side was broken ground which rose abruptly and formed +the bank of the ravine. In the rear and behind the still-house was +some garden ground enclosed by a small fence, into which a small +wicket-gate opened from the corral. + +As soon as the attack was determined upon, the assailants scattered +and concealed themselves under cover of the rocks and bushes which +surrounded the house. From these they kept up an incessant fire upon +every exposed portion of the building where they saw preparations +for defence. + +The Americans, on their part, were not idle; not a man but was an old +mountaineer, and each had his trusty rifle, with a good store of +ammunition. Whenever one of the besiegers exposed a hand's-breadth +of his person, a ball from an unerring barrel whistled. The windows +had been blockaded, loopholes having been left, and through these +a lively fire was maintained. Already several of the enemy had +bitten the dust, and parties were seen bearing off the wounded up +the banks of the Canada. Darkness came on, and during the night +a continual fire was kept up on the mill, whilst its defenders, +reserving their ammunition, kept their posts with stern and silent +determination. The night was spent in casting balls, cutting patches, +and completing the defences of the building. In the morning the fight +was renewed, and it was found that the Mexicans had effected a +lodgment in a part of the stables, which were separated from the +other portions of the building by an open space of a few feet. +The assailants, during the night, had sought to break down the wall, +and thus enter the main building, but the strength of the adobe and +logs of which it was composed resisted effectually all their attempts. + +Those in the stable seemed anxious to regain the outside, for their +position was unavailable as a means of annoyance to the besieged, and +several had darted across the narrow space which divided it from the +other part of the building, which slightly projected, and behind +which they were out of the line of fire. As soon, however, as the +attention of the defenders was called to this point, the first man +who attempted to cross, who happened to be a Pueblo chief, was dropped +on the instant, and fell dead in the centre of the intervening space. +It appeared to be an object to recover the body, for an Indian +immediately dashed out to the fallen chief, and attempted to drag him +within the shelter of the wall. The rifle which covered the spot +again poured forth its deadly contents, and the Indian, springing +into the air, fell over the body of his chief. Another and another +met with a similar fate, and at last three rushed to the spot, and, +seizing the body by the legs and head, had already lifted it from the +ground, when three puffs of smoke blew from the barricaded windows, +followed by the sharp cracks of as many rifles, and the three daring +Indians were added to the pile of corpses which now covered the body +of the dead chief. + +As yet the besieged had met with no casualties; but after the fall +of the seven Indians, the whole body of the assailants, with a shout +of rage, poured in a rattling volley, and two of the defenders fell +mortally wounded. One, shot through the loins, suffered great agony, +and was removed to the still-house, where he was laid on a large +pile of grain, as being the softest bed that could be found. + +In the middle of the day the attack was renewed more fiercely than +before. The little garrison bravely stood to the defence of the mill, +never throwing away a shot, but firing coolly, and only when a fair +mark was presented to their unerring aim. Their ammunition, however, +was fast failing, and to add to the danger of their situation, +the enemy set fire to the mill, which blazed fiercely, and threatened +destruction to the whole building. Twice they succeeded in overcoming +the flames, and, while they were thus occupied, the Mexicans and +Indians charged into the corral, which was full of hogs and sheep, +and vented their cowardly rage upon the animals, spearing and shooting +all that came in their way. No sooner were the flames extinguished +in one place than they broke out more fiercely in another; and +as a successful defence was perfectly hopeless, and the numbers of +the assailants increased every moment, a council of war was held by +the survivors of the little garrison, when it was determined, +as soon as night approached, that every one should attempt to escape +as best he could. + +Just at dusk a man named John Albert and another ran to the +wicket-gate which opened into a kind of enclosed space, in which were +a number of armed Mexicans. They both rushed out at the same moment, +discharging their rifles full in the face of the crowd. Albert, +in the confusion, threw himself under the fence, whence he saw his +companion shot down immediately, and heard his cries for mercy as +the cowards pierced him with knives and lances. He lay without motion +under the fence, and as soon as it was quite dark he crept over +the logs and ran up the mountain, travelled by day and night, and, +scarcely stopping or resting, reached the Greenhorn, almost dead +with hunger and fatigue. Turley himself succeeded in escaping from +the mill and in reaching the mountain unseen. Here he met a Mexican +mounted on a horse, who had been a most intimate friend of his for +many years. To this man Turley offered his watch for the use of the +horse, which was ten times more than it was worth, but was refused. +The inhuman wretch, however, affected pity and consideration for the +fugitive, and advised him to go to a certain place, where he would +bring or send him assistance; but on reaching the mill, which was +a mass of fire, he immediately informed the Mexicans of Turley's +place of concealment, whither a large party instantly proceeded and +shot him to death. + +Two others escaped and reached Santa Fe in safety. The mill and +Turley's house were sacked and gutted, and all his hard-earned savings, +which were concealed in gold about the house, were discovered, and, +of course, seized upon by the victorious Mexicans. + +The following account is taken from Governor Prince's chapter on the +fight at Taos, in his excellent and authentic _History of New Mexico_:-- + + The startling news of the assassination of the governor was + swiftly carried to Santa Fe, and reached Colonel Price the + next day. Simultaneously, letters were discovered calling + on the people of the Rio Abajo to secure Albuquerque and + march northward to aid the other insurgents; and news + speedily followed that a united Mexican and Pueblo force of + large magnitude was marching down the Rio Grande valley + toward the capital, flushed with the success of the revolt + at Taos. Very few troops were in Santa Fe; in fact, the + number remaining in the whole territory was very small, + and these were scattered at Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and + other distant points. At the first-named town were Major + Edmonson and Captain Burgwin; the former in command of the + town, and the latter with a company of the First Dragoons. + + Colonel Price lost no time in taking such measures as his + limited resources permitted. Edmonson was directed to come + immediately to Santa Fe to take command of the capital; and + Burgwin to follow Price as fast as possible to the scene + of hostilities. The colonel himself collected the few + troops at Santa Fe, which were all on foot, but fortunately + included the little battalion which under Captain Aubrey + had made such extraordinary marches on the journey across + the plains as to almost outwalk the cavalry. With these + was a volunteer company formed of nearly all of the American + inhabitants of the city, under the command of Colonel Ceran + St. Vrain, who happened to be in Santa Fe, together with + Judge Beaubien, at the time of the rising at Taos. + With this little force, amounting in all to three hundred + and ten men, Colonel Price started to march to Taos, or at + all events to meet the army which was coming toward the + capital from the north and which grew as it marched by + constant accessions from the surrounding country. + The city of Santa Fe was left in charge of a garrison under + Lieutenant-Colonel Willock. While the force was small + and the volunteers without experience in regular warfare, + yet all were nerved to desperation by the belief, since + the Taos murders, that the only alternative was victory + or annihilation. + + The expedition set out on January 23d, and the next day + the Mexican army, under command of General Montoya as + commander-in-chief, aided by Generals Tafoya and Chavez, + was found occupying the heights commanding the road near + La Canada (Santa Cruz), with detachments in some strong + adobe houses near the river banks. The advance had been + seen shortly before at the rocky pass, on the road from + Pojuaque; and near there and before reaching the river, the + San Juan Pueblo Indians, who had joined the revolutionists + reluctantly and under a kind of compulsion, surrendered and + were disarmed by removing the locks from their guns. + On arriving at the Canada, Price ordered his howitzers to + the front and opened fire; and after a sharp cannonade, + directed an assault on the nearest houses by Aubrey's + battalion. Meanwhile an attempt by a Mexican detachment + to cut off the American baggage-wagons, which had not yet + come up, was frustrated by the activity of St. Vrain's + volunteers. A charge all along the line was then ordered + and handsomely executed; the houses, which, being of adobe, + had been practically so many ready-made forts, were + successively carried, and St. Vrain started in advance to + gain the Mexican rear. Seeing this manoeuvre, and fearing + its effects, the Mexicans retreated, leaving thirty-six + dead on the field. Among those killed was General Tafoya, + who bravely remained on the field after the remainder had + abandoned it, and was shot. + + Colonel Price pressed on up the river as fast as possible, + passing San Juan, and at Los Luceros, on the 28th, his + little army was rejoiced at the arrival of reinforcements, + consisting of a mounted company of cavalry, Captain Burgwin's + company, which had been pushed up by forced marches on foot + from Albuquerque, and a six-pounder brought by Lieutenant + Wilson. Thus enlarged, the American force consisted of + four hundred and eighty men, and continued its advance up + the valley to La Joya, which was as far as the river road at + that time extended. Meanwhile the Mexicans had established + themselves in a narrow pass near Embudo, where the forest + was dense, and the road impracticable for wagons or cannon, + the troops occupying the sides of the mountains on both + sides of the canyon. Burgwin was sent with three companies + to dislodge them and open a passage--no easy task. + But St. Vrain's company took the west slope, and another + the right, while Burgwin himself marched through the gorge + between. The sharp-shooting of these troops did such + terrible execution that the pass was soon cleared, though + not without the display of great heroism, and some loss; + and the Americans entered Embudo without further opposition. + The difficulties of this campaign were greatly increased by + the severity of the weather, the mountains being thickly + covered with snow, and the cold so intense that a number + of men were frost-bitten and disabled. The next day Burgwin + reached Las Trampas, where Price arrived with the remainder + of the American army on the last day of January, and all + together they marched into Chamisal. + + Notwithstanding the cold and snow they pressed on over the + mountain, and on the 3d of February reached the town of + Fernandez de Taos, only to find that the Mexican and Pueblo + force had fortified itself in the celebrated Pueblo of Taos, + about three miles distant. That force had diminished + considerably during the retreat from La Canada, many of the + Mexicans returning to their homes, and its greater part + now consisting of Pueblo Indians. The American troops were + worn out with fatigue and exposure, and in most urgent need + of rest; but their intrepid commander, desiring to give his + opponents no more time to strengthen their works, and full + of zeal and energy, if not of prudence, determined to + commence an immediate attack. + + The two great buildings at this Pueblo, certainly the most + interesting and extraordinary inhabited structures in + America, are well known from descriptions and engravings. + They are five stories high and irregularly pyramidal in + shape, each story being smaller than the one below, in order + to allow ingress to the outer rooms of each tier from the + roofs. Before the advent of artillery these buildings were + practically impregnable, as, when the exterior ladders were + drawn up, there were no means of ingress, the side walls + being solid without openings, and of immense thickness. + Between these great buildings, each of which can accommodate + a multitude of men, runs the clear water of the Taos Creek; + and to the west of the northerly building stood the old + church, with walls of adobe from three to seven and a half + feet in thickness. Outside of all, and having its northwest + corner just beyond the church, ran an adobe wall, built for + protection against hostile Indians and which now answered + for an outer earthwork. The church was turned into a + fortification, and was the point where the insurgents + concentrated their strength; and against this Colonel Price + directed his principal attack. The six-pounder and the + howitzer were brought into position without delay, under + the command of Lieutenant Dyer, then a young graduate of + West Point, and since then chief of ordnance of the + United States army, and opened a fire on the thick adobe + walls. But cannon-balls made little impression on the + massive banks of earth, in which they embedded themselves + without doing damage; and after a fire of two hours, + the battery was withdrawn, and the troops allowed to return + to the town of Taos for their much-needed rest. + + Early the next morning, the troops, now refreshed and ready + for the combat, advanced again to the Pueblo, but found + those within equally prepared. The story of the attack and + capture of this place is so interesting, both on account + of the meeting here of old and new systems of warfare--of + modern artillery with an aboriginal stronghold--and because + the precise localities can be distinguished by the modern + tourist from the description, that it seems best to insert + the official report as presented by Colonel Price. + Nothing could show more plainly how superior strong + earthworks are to many more ambitious structures of defence, + or more forcibly display the courage and heroism of those + who took part in the battle, or the signal bravery of the + accomplished Captain Burgwin which led to his untimely death. + Colonel Price writes: + + "Posting the dragoons under Captain Burgwin about two + hundred and sixty yards from the western flank of the church, + I ordered the mounted men under Captains St. Vrain and Slack + to a position on the opposite side of the town, whence they + could discover and intercept any fugitives who might attempt + to escape toward the mountains, or in the direction of + San Fernando. The residue of the troops took ground about + three hundred yards from the north wall. Here, too, + Lieutenant Dyer established himself with the six-pounder + and two howitzers, while Lieutenant Hassendaubel, of Major + Clark's battalion, light artillery, remained with Captain + Burgwin, in command of two howitzers. By this arrangement + a cross-fire was obtained, sweeping the front and eastern + flank of the church. All these arrangements being made, + the batteries opened upon the town at nine o'clock A.M. + At eleven o'clock, finding it impossible to breach the + walls of the church with the six-pounder and howitzers, + I determined to storm the building. At a signal, Captain + Burgwin, at the head of his own company and that of Captain + McMillin, charged the western flank of the church, while + Captain Aubrey, infantry battalion, and Captain Barber and + Lieutenant Boon, Second Missouri Mounted Volunteers, charged + the northern wall. As soon as the troops above mentioned + had established themselves under the western wall of the + church, axes were used in the attempt to breach it, and a + temporary ladder having been made, the roof was fired. + About this time, Captain Burgwin, at the head of a small + party, left the cover afforded by the flank of the church, + and penetrating into the corral in front of that building, + endeavoured to force the door. In this exposed situation, + Captain Burgwin received a severe wound, which deprived me + of his valuable services, and of which he died on the + 7th instant. Lieutenants McIlvaine, First United States + Dragoons, and Royall and Lackland, Second Regiment + Volunteers, accompanied Captain Burgwin into the corral, + but the attempt on the church door proved fruitless, and + they were compelled to retire behind the wall. In the + meantime, small holes had been cut in the western wall, and + shells were thrown in by hand, doing good execution. + The six-pounder was now brought around by Lieutenant Wilson, + who, at the distance of two hundred yards, poured a heavy + fire of grape into the town. The enemy, during all of + this time, kept up a destructive fire upon our troops. + About half-past three o'clock, the six-pounder was run up + within sixty yards of the church, and after ten rounds, + one of the holes which had been cut with the axes was + widened into a practicable breach. The storming party, + among whom were Lieutenant Dyer, of the ordnance, and + Lieutenant Wilson and Taylor, First Dragoons, entered and + took possession of the church without opposition. + The interior was filled with dense smoke, but for which + circumstance our storming party would have suffered great + loss. A few of the enemy were seen in the gallery, + where an open door admitted the air, but they retired + without firing a gun. The troops left to support the + battery on the north side were now ordered to charge on + that side. + + "The enemy then abandoned the western part of the town. + Many took refuge in the large houses on the east, while + others endeavoured to escape toward the mountains. + These latter were pursued by the mounted men under Captains + Slack and St. Vrain, who killed fifty-one of them, only two + or three men escaping. It was now night, and our troops + were quietly quartered in the house which the enemy had + abandoned. On the next morning the enemy sued for peace, + and thinking the severe loss they had sustained would prove + a salutary lesson, I granted their supplication, on the + condition that they should deliver up to me Tomas, one of + their principal men, who had instigated and been actively + engaged in the murder of Governor Bent and others. + The number of the enemy at the battle of Pueblo de Taos + was between six and seven hundred, and of these one hundred + and fifty were killed, wounded not known. Our own loss was + seven killed and forty-five wounded; many of the wounded + have since died." + + The capture of the Taos Pueblo practically ended the main + attempt to expel the Americans from the Territory. + Governor Montoya, who was a very influential man in the + conspiracy and styled himself the "Santa Ana of the North," + was tried by court-martial, convicted, and executed on + February 7th, in the presence of the army. Fourteen others + were tried for participating in the murder of Governor Bent + and the others who were killed on the 19th of January, and + were convicted and executed. Thus, fifteen in all were + hung, being an equal number to those murdered at Taos, the + Arroyo Hondo, and Rio Colorado. Of these, eight were + Mexicans and seven were Pueblo Indians. Several more were + sentenced to be hung for treason, but the President very + properly pardoned them, on the ground that treason against + the United States was not a crime of which a Mexican + citizen could be found guilty, while his country was + actually at war with the United States. + +There are several thrilling, as well as laughable, incidents connected +with the Taos massacre, and the succeeding trial of the insurrectionists; +in regard to which I shall quote freely from _Wah-to-yah_, whose +author, Mr. Lewis H. Garrard, accompanied Colonel St. Vrain across +the plains in 1846, and was present at the trial and execution of +the convicted participants. + +One Fitzgerald, who was a private in Captain Burgwin's company of +Dragoons, in the fight at the Pueblo de Taos, killed three Mexicans +with his own hand, and performed heroic work with the bombs that were +thrown into that strong Indian fortress. He was a man of good feeling, +but his brother having been killed, or rather murdered by Salazar, +while a prisoner in the Texan expedition against Santa Fe, he swore +vengeance, and entered the service with the hope of accomplishing it. +The day following the fight at the Pueblo, he walked up to the +alcalde, and deliberately shot him down. For this act he was confined +to await a trial for murder. + +One raw night, complaining of cold to his guard, wood was brought, +which he piled up in the middle of the room. Then mounting that, +and succeeding in breaking through the roof, he noiselessly crept +to the eaves, below which a sentinel, wrapped in a heavy cloak, paced +to and fro, to prevent his escape. He watched until the guard's back +was turned, then swung himself from the wall, and with as much ease +as possible, walked to a mess-fire, where his friends in waiting +supplied him with a pistol and clothing. When day broke, the town +of Fernandez lay far beneath him in the valley, and two days after +he was safe in our camp. + +Many a hand-to-hand encounter ensued during the fight at Taos, +one of which was by Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, whom I knew intimately; +a grand old gentleman, now sleeping peacefully in the quaint little +graveyard at Mora, New Mexico, where he resided for many years. +The gallant colonel, while riding along, noticed an Indian with whom +he was well acquainted lying stretched out on the ground as if dead. +Confident that this particular red devil had been especially prominent +in the hellish acts of the massacre, the colonel dismounted from +his pony to satisfy himself whether the savage was really dead or +only shamming. He was far from being a corpse, for the colonel had +scarcely reached the spot, when the Indian jumped to his feet and +attempted to run a long, steel-pointed lance through the officer's +shoulder. Colonel St. Vrain was a large, powerfully built man; +so was the Indian, I have been told. As each of the struggling +combatants endeavoured to get the better of the other, with the +savage having a little the advantage, perhaps, it appears that +"Uncle Dick" Wooton, who was in the chase after the rebels, happened +to arrive on the scene, and hitting the Indian a terrific blow on +the head with his axe, settled the question as to his being a corpse. + +Court for the trial of the insurrectionists assembled at nine o'clock. +On entering the room, Judges Beaubien and Houghton were occupying +their official positions. After many dry preliminaries, six prisoners +were brought in--ill-favoured, half-scared, sullen fellows; and the +jury of Mexicans and Americans having been empanelled, the trial +commenced. It certainly did appear to be a great assumption on the +part of the Americans to conquer a country, and then arraign the +revolting inhabitants for treason. American judges sat on the bench. +New Mexicans and Americans filled the jury-box, and American soldiery +guarded the halls. It was a strange mixture of violence and justice-- +a middle ground between the martial and common law. + +After an absence of a few minutes, the jury returned with a verdict +of "guilty in the first degree"--five for murder, one for treason. +Treason, indeed! What did the poor devil know about his new +allegiance? But so it was; and as the jail was overstocked with +others awaiting trial, it was deemed expedient to hasten the execution, +and the culprits were sentenced to be hung on the following Friday-- +hangman's day. + +Court was daily in session; five more Indians and four Mexicans +were sentenced to be hung on the 30th of April. In the court room, +on the occasion of the trial of these nine prisoners, were Senora Bent +the late governor's wife, and Senora Boggs, giving their evidence in +regard to the massacre, of which they were eye-witnesses. Mrs. Bent +was quite handsome; a few years previously she must have been a +beautiful woman. The wife of the renowned Kit Carson also was in +attendance. Her style of beauty was of the haughty, heart-breaking +kind--such as would lead a man, with a glance of the eye, to risk +his life for one smile. + +The court room was a small, oblong apartment, dimly lighted by two +narrow windows; a thin railing keeping the bystanders from contact +with the functionaries. The prisoners faced the judges, and the +three witnesses--Senoras Bent, Boggs, and Carson--were close to them +on a bench by the wall. When Mrs. Bent gave her testimony, the eyes +of the culprits were fixed sternly upon her; when she pointed out +the Indian who had killed the governor, not a muscle of the chief's +face twitched or betrayed agitation, though he was aware her evidence +settled his death warrant; he sat with lips gently closed, eyes +earnestly fixed on her, without a show of malice or hatred--a spectacle +of Indian fortitude, and of the severe mastery to which the emotions +can be subjected. + +Among the jurors was a trapper named Baptiste Brown, a Frenchman, +as were the majority of the trappers in the early days of the border. +He was an exceptionally kind-hearted man when he first came to the +mountains, and seriously inclined to regard the Indians with that +mistaken sentimentality characterizing the average New England +philanthropist, who has never seen the untutored savage on his native +heath. His ideas, however, underwent a marked change as the years +rolled on and he became more familiar with the attributes of the +noble red man. He was with Kit Carson in the Blackfeet country +many years before the Taos massacre, when his convictions were thus +modified, and it was from the famous frontiersman himself I learned +the story of Baptiste's conversion. + +It was late one night in their camp on one of the many creeks in the +Blackfoot region, where they had been established for several weeks, +and Baptiste was on duty, guarding their meat and furs from the +incursions of a too inquisitive grizzly that had been prowling around, +and the impertinent investigations of the wolves. His attention was +attracted to something high up in a neighbouring tree, that seemed +restless, changing its position constantly like an animal of prey. +The Frenchman drew a bead upon it, and there came tumbling down at his +feet a dead savage, with his war-paint and other Indian paraphernalia +adorning his body. Baptiste was terribly hurt over the circumstance +of having killed an Indian, and it grieved him for a long time. +One day, a month after the incident, he was riding alone far away +from our party, and out of sound of their rifles as well, when a band +of Blackfeet discovered him and started for his scalp. He had no +possible chance for escape except by the endurance of his horse; +so a race for life began. He experienced no trouble in keeping out +of the way of their arrows--the Indians had no guns then--and hoped +to make camp before they could possibly wear out his horse. Just as +he was congratulating himself on his luck, right in front of him +there suddenly appeared a great gorge, and not daring to stop or to +turn to the right or left, the only thing to do was to make his animal +jump it. It was his only chance; it was death if he missed it, and +death by the most horrible torture if the Indians captured him. +So he drove his heels into his horse's sides, and essayed the +awful leap. His willing animal made a desperate effort to carry out +the desire of his daring rider, but the dizzy chasm was too wide, +and the pursuing savages saw both horse and the coveted white man +dash to the bottom of the frightful canyon together. Believing that +their hated enemy had eluded them forever, they rode back on their +trail, disgusted and chagrined, without even taking the trouble of +looking over the precipice to learn the fate of Baptiste. + +The horse was instantly killed, and the Frenchman had both of his legs +badly broken. Far from camp, with the Indians in close proximity, +he did not dare discharge his rifle--the usual signal when a trapper +is lost or in danger--or to make any demonstration, so he was +compelled to lie there and suffer, hoping that his comrades, +missing him, would start out to search for him. They did so, +but more than twenty-four hours had elapsed before they found him, +as the bottom of the canyon was the last place they thought of. + +Doctors, in the wild region where their camp was located, were as +impossible as angels; so his companions set his broken bones as well +as they could, while Baptiste suffered excruciating torture. +When they had completed their crude surgery, they improvised a litter +of poles, and rigged it on a couple of pack-mules, and thus carried +him around with them from camp to camp until he recovered--a period +extending over three months. + +This affair completely cured Baptiste of his original sentimentality +in relation to the Indian, and he became one of their worst haters. + +When acting as a juror in the trials of rebel Mexicans and Indians, +he was asleep half the time, and never heard much of the evidence, +and that portion which he did was so much Greek to him. In the last +nine cases, in which the Indian who had murdered Governor Bent +was tried, Baptiste, as soon as the jury room was closed, sang out: +"Hang 'em, hang 'em, sacre enfans des garces, dey dam gran rascale!" +"But wait," suggested one of the cooler members; "let's look at the +evidence and find out whether they are really guilty." Upon this +wise caution, Baptiste got greatly excited, paced the floor, and +cried out: "Hang de Indian anyhow; he may not be guilty now--mais he +vare soon will be. Hang 'em all, parceque dey kill Monsieur Charles; +dey take son topknot, vot you call im--scalp. Hang 'em, hang 'em-- +sa-a-cre-e!" + +On Friday the 9th, the day for the execution, the sky was unspotted, +save by hastily fleeting clouds; and as the rising sun loomed over +the Taos Mountain, the bright rays, shining on the yellow and white +mud-houses, reflected cheerful hues, while the shades of the toppling +peaks, receding from the plain beneath, drew within themselves. +The humble valley wore an air of calm repose. The Plaza was deserted; +woe-begone burros drawled forth sacrilegious brays, as the warm +sunbeams roused them from hard, grassless ground, to scent their +breakfast among straw and bones. + +Poor Mexicans hurried to and fro, casting suspicious glances around; +los Yankees at El casa Americano drank their juleps, and puffed their +cigarettes in silence. + +The sheriff, Metcalf, formerly a mountaineer, was in want of the +wherewithal to hang the condemned criminals, so he borrowed some +rawhide lariats and picket-ropes of a teamster. + +"Hello, Met," said one of the party present, "these reatas are mighty +stiff--won't fit; eh, old feller?" + +"I've got something to make 'em fit--good 'intment--don't emit very +sweet perfume; but good enough for Greasers," said the sheriff, +producing a dollar's worth of Mexican soft soap. "This'll make 'em +slip easy--a long ways too easy for them, I 'spect." + +The prison apartment was a long chilly room, badly ventilated by +one small window and the open door, through which the sun lit up the +earth floor, and through which the poor prisoners wistfully gazed. +Two muscular Mexicans basked in its genial warmth, a tattered serape +interposing between them and the ground. The ends, once fringed but +now clear of pristine ornament, were partly drawn over their breasts, +disclosing in the openings of their fancifully colored shirts +--now glazed with filth and faded with perspiration--the bare skin, +covered with straight black hair. With hands under their heads, +in the mass of stringy locks rusty-brown from neglect, they returned +the looks of their executioners with an unmeaning stare, and +unheedingly received the salutation of--"Como le va!" + +Along the sides of the room, leaning against the walls, were crowded +the poor wretches, miserable in dress, miserable in features, +miserable in feelings--a more disgusting collection of ragged, greasy, +unwashed prisoners were, probably, never before congregated within +so small a space as the jail of Taos. + +About nine o'clock, active preparations were made for the execution, +and the soldiery mustered. Reverend padres in long black gowns, +with meek countenances, passed the sentinels, intent on spiritual +consolation, or the administration of the Blessed Sacrament. + +Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, commanding the military, ordered every +American under arms. The prison was at the edge of the town; +no houses intervened between it and the fields to the north. +One hundred and fifty yards distant, a gallows was erected. + +The word was passed, at last, that the criminals were coming. +Eighteen soldiers received them at the gate, with their muskets at +"port arms"; the six abreast, with the sheriff on the right-- +nine soldiers on each side. + +The poor prisoners marched slowly, with downcast eyes, arms tied +behind, and bare heads, with the exception of white cotton caps +stuck on the back, to be pulled over the face as the last ceremony. + +The roofs of the houses in the vicinity were covered with women and +children, to witness the first execution by hanging in the valley +of Taos, save that of Montojo, the insurgent leader. No men were +near; a few stood afar off, moodily looking on. + +On the flat jail roof was placed a mountain howitzer, loaded and +ranging the gallows. Near was the complement of men to serve it, +one holding in his hand a lighted match. The two hundred and thirty +soldiers, less the eighteen forming the guard, were paraded in front +of the jail, and in sight of the gibbet, so as to secure the prisoners +awaiting trial. Lieutenant-Colonel Willock, on a handsome charger, +commanded a view of the whole. + +When within fifteen paces of the gallows, the side-guard, filing off +to the right, formed, at regular distances from each other, three +sides of a hollow square; the mountaineers composed the fourth and +front side, in full view of the trembling prisoners, who marched up to +the tree under which was a government wagon, with two mules attached. +The driver and sheriff assisted them in, ranging them on a board, +placed across the hinder end, which maintained its balance, as they +were six--an even number--two on each extremity, and two in the middle. +The gallows was so narrow that they touched. The ropes, by reason +of their size and stiffness, despite the soaping given them, were +adjusted with difficulty; but through the indefatigable efforts +of the sheriff and a lieutenant who had accompanied him, all +preliminaries were arranged, although the blue uniform looked sadly +out of place on a hangman. + +With rifles at a "shoulder," the military awaited the consummation +of the tragedy. There was no crowd around to disturb; a death-like +stillness prevailed. The spectators on the roofs seemed scarcely +to move--their eyes were directed to the doomed wretches, with harsh +halters now encircling their necks. + +The sheriff and his assistant sat down; after a few moments of +intense expectation, the heart-wrung victims said a few words to +their people. Only one of them admitted he had committed murder +and deserved death. In their brief but earnest appeals, the words +"mi padre, mi madre"--"my father, my mother"--were prominent. +The one sentenced for treason showed a spirit of patriotism worthy +of the cause for which he died--the liberty of his country; and +instead of the cringing recantation of the others, his speech was +a firm asseveration of his own innocence, the unjustness of his trial, +and the arbitrary conduct of his murderers. As the cap was pulled +over his face, the last words he uttered between his teeth with +a scowl were "Carajo, los Americanos!" + +At a word from the sheriff, the mules were started, and the wagon +drawn from under the tree. No fall was given, and their feet remained +on the board till the ropes drew tight. The bodies swayed back and +forth, and while thus swinging, the hands of two came together with +a firm grasp till the muscles loosened in death. + +After forty minutes' suspension, Colonel Willock ordered his command +to quarters, and the howitzer to be taken from its place on the roof +of the jail. The soldiers were called away; the women and population +in general collecting around the rear guard which the sheriff had +retained for protection while delivering the dead to their weeping +relatives. + +While cutting a rope from one man's neck--for it was in a hard knot-- +the owner, a government teamster standing by waiting, shouted angrily, +at the same time stepping forward: + +"Hello there! don't cut that rope; I won't have anything to tie +my mules with." + +"Oh! you darned fool," interposed a mountaineer, "the dead men's +ghosts will be after you if you use them lariats--wagh! They'll make +meat of you sartain." + +"Well, I don't care if they do. I'm in government service; and if +them picket-halters was gone, slap down goes a dollar apiece. +Money's scarce in these diggin's, and I'm going to save all I kin +to take home to the old woman and boys." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +FIRST OVERLAND MAIL. + + + +On the summit of one of the highest plateaus bordering the Missouri +River, surrounded by a rich expanse of foliage, lies Independence, +the beautiful residence suburb of Kansas City, only ten miles distant. + +Tradition tells that early in this century there were a few pioneers +camping at long distances from each other in the seemingly +interminable woods; in summer engaged in hunting the deer, elk, and +bear, and in winter in trapping. It is a well-known fact that +the Big Blue was once a favourite resort of the beaver, and that +even later their presence in great numbers attracted many a veteran +trapper to its waters. + +Before that period the quaint old cities of far-off Mexico were +forbidden to foreign traders, excepting to the favoured few who were +successful in obtaining permits from the Spanish government. In 1821, +however, the rebellion of Iturbide crushed the power of the mother +country, and established the freedom of Mexico. The embargo upon +foreign trade was at once removed, and the Santa Fe Trail, for untold +ages only a simple trace across the continent, became the busy highway +of a relatively great commerce. + +In 1817 the navigation of the Mississippi River was begun. On the 2d +of August of that year the steamer _General Pike_ arrived at St. Louis. +The first boat to ascend the Missouri River was the _Independence_; +she passed Franklin on the 28th of May, 1819, where a dinner was given +to her officers. In the same and the following month of that year, +the steamers _Western Engineer Expedition_ and _R. M. Johnson_ came +along, carrying Major Long's scientific exploring party, bound for +the Yellowstone. + +The Santa Fe trade having been inaugurated shortly after these +important events, those engaged in it soon realized the benefits +of river navigation--for it enabled them to shorten the distance +which their wagons had to travel in going across the plains--and +they began to look out for a suitable place as a shipping and +outfitting point higher up the river than Franklin, which had been +the initial starting town. + +By 1827 trading-posts had been established at Blue Mills, Fort Osage, +and Independence. The first-mentioned place, which is situated about +six miles below Independence, soon became the favourite landing, +and the exchange from wagons to boats settled and defied all efforts +to remove the headquarters of the trade from there for several years. +Independence, however, being the county seat and the larger place, +succeeded in its claims to be the more suitable locality, and as +early as 1832 it was recognized as the American headquarters and the +great outfitting point for the Santa Fe commerce, which it continued +to be until 1846, when the traffic was temporarily suspended by the +breaking out of the Mexican War. + +Independence was not only the principal outfitting point for the +Santa Fe traders, but also that of the great fur companies. That +powerful association used to send out larger pack-trains than any +other parties engaged in the traffic to the Rocky Mountains; +they also employed wagons drawn by mules, and loaded with goods for +the Indians with whom their agents bartered, which also on their +return trip transported the skins and pelts of animals procured from +the savages. The articles intended for the Indian trade were +always purchased in St. Louis, and usually shipped to Independence, +consigned to the firm of Aull and Company, who outfitted the traders +with mules and provisions, and in fact anything else required by them. + +Several individual traders would frequently form joint caravans, +and travel in company for mutual protection from the Indians. After +having reached a fifty-mile limit from the State line, each trader +had control of his own men; each took care of a certain number of +the pack-animals, loaded and unloaded them in camp, and had general +supervision of them. + +Frequently there would be three hundred mules in a single caravan, +carrying three hundred pounds apiece, and very large animals more. +Thousands of wagons were also sent out from Independence annually, +each drawn by twelve mules or six yoke of oxen, and loaded with +general merchandise. + +There were no packing houses in those days nearer than St. Louis, +and the bacon and beef used in the Santa Fe trade were furnished by +the farmers of the surrounding country, who killed their meat, +cured it, and transported it to the town where they sold it. +Their wheat was also ground at the local mills, and they brought +the flour to market, together with corn, dried fruit, beans, peas, +and kindred provisions used on the long route across the plains. + +Independence very soon became the best market west of St. Louis for +cattle, mules, and wagons; the trade of which the place was the +acknowledged headquarters furnishing employment to several thousand +men, including the teamsters and packers on the Trail. The wages +paid varied from twenty-five to fifty dollars a month and rations. +The price charged for hauling freight to Santa Fe was ten dollars +a hundred pounds, each wagon earning from five to six hundred dollars +every trip, which was made in eighty or ninety days; some fast +caravans making quicker time. + +The merchants and general traders of Independence in those days +reaped a grand harvest. Everything to eat was in constant demand; +mules and oxen were sold in great numbers every month at excellent +prices and always for cash; while any good stockman could readily +make from ten to fifty dollars a day. + +One of the largest manufacturers and most enterprising young men in +Independence at that time was Hiram Young, a coloured man. Besides +making hundreds of wagons, he made all the ox-yokes used in the +entire traffic; fifty thousand annually during the '50's and until +the breaking out of the war. The forward yokes were sold at an +average of one dollar and a quarter, the wheel yokes a dollar higher. + +The freight transported by the wagons was always very securely loaded; +each package had its contents plainly marked on the outside. +The wagons were heavily covered and tightly closed. Every man +belonging to the caravan was thoroughly armed, and ever on the alert +to repulse an attack by the Indians. + +Sometimes at the crossing of the Arkansas the quicksands were so bad +that it was necessary to get the caravan over in a hurry; then forty +or fifty yoke of oxen were hitched to one wagon and it was quickly +yanked through the treacherous ford. This was not always the case, +however; it depended upon the stage of water and recent floods. + +After the close of the war with Mexico, the freight business across +the plains increased to a wonderful degree. The possession of the +country by the United States gave a fresh impetus to the New Mexico +trade, and the traffic then began to be divided between Westport +and Kansas City. Independence lost control of the overland commerce +and Kansas City commenced its rapid growth. Then came the discovery +of gold in California, and this gave an increased business westward; +for thousands of men and their families crossed the plains and +the Rocky Mountains, seeking their fortunes in the new El Dorado. +The Old Trail was the highway of an enormous pilgrimage, and both +Independence and Kansas City became the initial point of a wonderful +emigration. + +In Independence may still be seen a few of the old landmarks when +it was the headquarters of the Santa Fe trade. + +An overland mail was started from the busy town as early as 1849. +In an old copy of the Missouri _Commonwealth_, published there under +the date of July, 1850, which I found on file in the Kansas State +Historical Society, there is the following account of the first mail +stage westward:-- + + We briefly alluded, some days since, to the Santa Fe line + of mail stages, which left this city on its first monthly + journey on the 1st instant. The stages are got up in + elegant style, and are each arranged to convey eight + passengers. The bodies are beautifully painted, and made + water-tight, with a view of using them as boats in ferrying + streams. The team consists of six mules to each coach. + The mail is guarded by eight men, armed as follows: Each man + has at his side, fastened in the stage, one of Colt's + revolving rifles; in a holster below, one of Colt's long + revolvers, and in his belt a small Colt's revolver, besides + a hunting-knife; so that these eight men are ready, in case + of attack, to discharge one hundred and thirty-six shots + without having to reload. This is equal to a small army, + armed as in the ancient times, and from the looks of this + escort, ready as they are, either for offensive or defensive + warfare with the savages, we have no fears for the safety + of the mails. + + The accommodating contractors have established a sort of + base of refitting at Council Grove, a distance of one + hundred and fifty miles from this city, and have sent out + a blacksmith, and a number of men to cut and cure hay, with + a quantity of animals, grain, and provisions; and we + understand they intend to make a sort of traveling station + there, and to commence a farm. They also, we believe, + intend to make a similar settlement at Walnut Creek next + season. Two of their stages will start from here the + first of every month. + +The old stage-coach days were times of Western romance and adventure, +and the stories told of that era of the border have a singular +fascination in this age of annihilation of distance. + +Very few, if any, of the famous men who handled the "ribbons" in those +dangerous days of the slow journey across the great plains are among +the living; like the clumsy and forgotten coaches they drove, +they have themselves been mouldering into dust these many years. + +In many places on the line of the Trail, where the hard hills have not +been subjected to the plough, the deep ruts cut by the lumbering +Concord coaches may yet be distinctly traced. Particularly are they +visible from the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe track, as the cars +thunder rapidly toward the city of Great Bend, in Kansas, three miles +east of that town. Let the tourist as he crosses Walnut Creek look +out of his window toward the east at an angle of about thirty-five +degrees, and on the flint hills which slope gradually toward the +railroad, he will observe, very distinctly, the Old Trail, where it +once drew down from the divide to make the ford at the little stream. + +The monthly stages started from each end of the route at the same time; +later the service was increased to once a week; after a while to +three times, until in the early '60's daily stages were run from both +ends of the route, and this was continued until the advent of the +railroad. + +Each coach carried eleven passengers, nine closely stowed inside +--three on a seat--and two on the outside on the boot with the driver. +The fare to Santa Fe was two hundred and fifty dollars, the allowance +of baggage being limited to forty pounds; all in excess of that cost +half a dollar a pound. In this now seemingly large sum was included +the board of the travellers, but they were not catered to in any +extravagant manner; hardtack, bacon, and coffee usually exhausted +the menu, save that at times there was an abundance of antelope and +buffalo. + +There was always something exciting in those journeys from the +Missouri to the mountains in the lumbering Concord coach. There was +the constant fear of meeting the wily red man, who persistently +hankered after the white man's hair. Then there was the playfulness +of the sometimes drunken driver, who loved to upset his tenderfoot +travellers in some arroya, long after the moon had sunk below +the horizon. + +It required about two weeks to make the trip from the Missouri River +to Santa Fe, unless high water or a fight with the Indians made it +several days longer. The animals were changed every twenty miles +at first, but later, every ten, when faster time was made. What sleep +was taken could only be had while sitting bolt upright, because there +was no laying over; the stage continued on night and day until +Santa Fe was reached. + +After a few years, the company built stations at intervals varying +from ten miles to fifty or more; and there the animals and drivers +were changed, and meals furnished to travellers, which were always +substantial, but never elegant in variety or cleanliness. + +Who can ever forget those meals at the "stations," of which you were +obliged to partake or go hungry: biscuit hard enough to serve as +"round-shot," and a vile decoction called, through courtesy, coffee +--but God help the man who disputed it! + +Some stations, however, were notable exceptions, particularly in the +mountains of New Mexico, where, aside from the bread--usually only +tortillas, made of the blue-flint corn of the country--and coffee +composed of the saints may know what, the meals were excellent. +The most delicious brook trout, alternating with venison of the +black-tailed deer, elk, bear, and all the other varieties of game +abounding in the region cost you one dollar, but the station-keeper +a mere trifle; no wonder the old residents and ranchmen on the line +of the Old Trail lament the good times of the overland stage! + +Thirteen years ago I revisited the once well-known Kosloskie's Ranch, +a picturesque cabin at the foot of the Glorieta Mountains, about half +a mile from the ruins on the Rio Pecos. The old Pole was absent, +but his wife was there; and, although I had not seen her for fifteen +years, she remembered me well, and at once began to deplore the +changed condition of the country since the advent of the railroad, +declaring it had ruined their family with many others. I could not +disagree with her view of the matter, as I looked on the debris of +a former relative greatness all around me. I recalled the fact that +once Kosloskie's Ranch was the favourite eating station on the Trail; +where you were ever sure of a substantial meal--the main feature +of which was the delicious brook trout, which were caught out of +the stream which ran near the door while you were washing the dust +out of your eyes and ears. + +The trout have vacated the Pecos; the ranch is a ruin, and stands +in grim contrast with the old temple and church on the hill; and both +are monuments of civilizations that will never come again. + +Weeds and sunflowers mark the once broad trail to the quaint Aztec +city, and silence reigns in the beautiful valley, save when broken +by the passage of "The Flyer" of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe +railway, as it struggles up the heavy grade of the Glorieta Mountains +a mile or more distant. + +Besides the driver, there was another employee--the conductor or +messenger, as he was called. He had charge of the mail and express +matter, collected the fares, and attended generally to the requirements +of those committed to his care during the tedious journey; for he +was not changed like the driver, but stayed with the coach from its +starting to its destination. Sometimes fourteen individuals were +accommodated in case of emergency; but it was terribly crowded and +uncomfortable riding, with no chance to stretch your limbs, save for +a few moments at stations where you ate and changed animals. + +In starting from Independence, powerful horses were attached to +the coach--generally four in number; but at the first station they +were exchanged for mules, and these animals hauled it the remainder +of the way. Drivers were changed about eight times in making the trip +to Santa Fe; and some of them were comical fellows, but full of nerve +and endurance, for it required a man of nerve to handle eight frisky +mules through the rugged passes of the mountains, when the snow was +drifted in immense masses, or when descending the curved, icy +declivities to the base of the range. A cool head was highly +necessary; but frequently accidents occurred and sometimes were +serious in their results. + +A snowstorm in the mountains was a terrible thing to encounter by +the coach; all that could be done was to wait until it had abated, +as there was no going on in the face of the blinding sheets of +intensely cold vapour which the wind hurled against the sides of +the mountains. All inside of the coach had to sit still and shake +with the freezing branches of the tall trees around them. A summer +hailstorm was much more to be dreaded, however; for nowhere else on +the earth do the hailstones shoot from the clouds of greater size or +with greater velocity than in the Rocky Mountains. Such an event +invariably frightened the mules and caused them to stampede; and, +to escape death from the coach rolling down some frightful abyss, +one had to jump out, only to be beaten to a jelly by the masses of +ice unless shelter could be found under some friendly ledge of rock +or the thick limbs of a tree. + +Nothing is more fatiguing than travelling for the first day and night +in a stage-coach; after that, however, one gets used to it and the +remainder of the journey is relatively comfortable. + +The only way to alleviate the monotony of riding hour after hour +was to walk; occasionally this was rendered absolutely necessary +by some accident, such as breaking a wheel or axle, or when an animal +gave out before a station was reached. In such cases, however, +no deduction was made from the fare, that having been collected in +advance, so it cost you just as much whether you rode or walked. +You could exercise your will in the matter, but you must not lag +behind the coach; the savages were always watching for such derelicts, +and your hair was the forfeit! + +In the worst years, when the Indians were most decidedly on the +war-trail, the government furnished an escort of soldiers from the +military posts; they generally rode in a six-mule army-wagon, and +were commanded by a sergeant or corporal; but in the early days, +before the army had concentrated at the various forts on the great +plains, the stage had to rely on the courage and fighting qualities +of its occupants, and the nerve and the good judgment of the driver. +If the latter understood his duty thoroughly and was familiar with +the methods of the savages, he always chose the cover of darkness +in which to travel in localities where the danger from Indians was +greater than elsewhere; for it is a rare thing in savage warfare +to attack at night. The early morning seemed to be their favourite +hour, when sleep oppresses most heavily; and then it was that the +utmost vigilance was demanded. + +One of the most confusing things to the novice riding over the great +plains is the idea of distance; mile after mile is travelled on +the monotonous trail, with a range of hills or a low divide in +full sight, yet hours roll by and the objects seem no nearer than +when they were first observed. The reason for this seems to be that +every atom of vapour is eliminated from the air, leaving such an +absolute clearness of atmosphere, such an indescribable transparency +of space through which distant objects are seen, that they are +magnified and look nearer than they really are. Consequently, +the usual method of calculating distance and areas by the eye is ever +at fault until custom and familiarity force a new standard of measure. + +Mirages, too, were of frequent occurrence on the great plains; +some of them wonderful examples of the refracting properties of light. +They assumed all manner of fantastic, curious shapes, sometimes +ludicrously distorting the landscape; objects, like a herd of buffalo +for instance, though forty miles away, would seem to be high in air, +often reversed, and immensely magnified in their proportions. + +Violent storms were also frequent incidents of the long ride. +I well remember one night, about thirty years ago, when the coach +in which I and one of my clerks were riding to Fort Dodge was +suddenly brought to a standstill by a terrible gale of wind and hail. +The mules refused to face it, and quickly turning around nearly +overturned the stage, while we, with the driver and conductor, +were obliged to hold on to the wheels with all our combined strength +to prevent it from blowing down into a stony ravine, on the brink +of which we were brought to a halt. Fortunately, these fearful +blizzards did not last very long; the wind ceased blowing so violently +in a few moments, but the rain usually continued until morning. + +It usually happened that you either at once took a great liking for +your driver and conductor, or the reverse. Once, on a trip from +Kansas City, nearly a third of a century ago, when I and another man +were the only occupants of the coach, we entertained quite a friendly +feeling for our driver; he was a good-natured, jolly fellow, full of +anecdote and stories of the Trail, over which he had made more than +a hundred sometimes adventurous journeys. + +When we arrived at the station at Plum Creek, the coach was a little +ahead of time, and the driver who was there to relieve ours commenced +to grumble at the idea of having to start out before the regular hour. +He found fault because we had come into the station so soon, and +swore he could drive where our man could not "drag a halter-chain," +as he claimed in his boasting. We at once took a dislike to him, +and secretly wished that he would come to grief, in order to cure him +of his boasting. Sure enough, before we had gone half a mile from the +station he incontinently tumbled the coach over into a sandy arroya, +and we were delighted at the accident. Finding ourselves free from +any injury, we went to work and assisted him to right the coach-- +no small task; but we took great delight in reminding him several +times of his ability to drive where our old friend could not "drag +a halter-chain." It was very dark; neither moon or star visible, +the whole heavens covered with an inky blackness of ominous clouds; +so he was not so much to be blamed after all. + +The very next coach was attacked at the crossing of Cow Creek by +a band of Kiowas. The savages had followed the stage all that +afternoon, but remained out of sight until just at dark, when they +rushed over the low divide, and mounted on their ponies commenced +to circle around the coach, making the sand dunes resound with echoes +of their infernal yelling, and shaking their buffalo-robes to stampede +the mules, at the same time firing their guns at the men who were +in the coach, all of whom made a bold stand, but were rapidly getting +the worst of it, when fortunately a company of United States cavalry +came over the Trail from the west, and drove the savages off. +Two of the men in the coach were seriously wounded, and one of the +soldiers killed; but the Indian loss was never determined, as they +succeeded in carrying off both their dead and wounded. + +Mr. W. H. Ryus, a friend of mine now residing in Kansas City, who was +a driver and messenger thirty-five years, and had many adventures, +told me the following incidents: + + I have crossed the plains sixty-five times by wagon and + coach. In July, 1861, I was employed by Barnum, Vickery, + and Neal to drive over what was known as the Long Route, + that is, from Fort Larned to Fort Lyon, two hundred and + forty miles, with no station between. We drove one set of + mules the whole distance, camped out, and made the journey, + in good weather, in four or five days. In winter we + generally encountered a great deal of snow, and very cold + air on the bleak and wind-swept desert of the Upper Arkansas, + but we employees got used to that; only the passengers did + any kicking. We had a way of managing them, however, + when they got very obstreperous; all we had to do was to + yell Indians! and that quieted them quicker than forty-rod + whiskey does a man. + + We gathered buffalo-chips, to boil our coffee and cook our + buffalo and antelope steak, smoked for a while around the + smouldering fire until the animals were through grazing, + and then started on our lonely way again. + + Sometimes the coach would travel for a hundred miles through + the buffalo herds, never for a moment getting out of sight + of them; often we saw fifty thousand to a hundred thousand + on a single journey out or in. The Indians used to call + them their cattle, and claimed to own them. They did not, + like the white man, take out only the tongue, or hump, and + leave all the rest to dry upon the prairie, but ate every + last morsel, even to the intestines. They said the whites + were welcome to all they could eat or haul away, but they + did not like to see so much meat wasted as was our custom. + + The Indians on the plains were not at all hostile in 1861-62; + we could drive into their villages, where there were tens + of thousands of them, and they would always treat us to + music or a war-dance, and set before us the choicest of + their venison and buffalo. In July of the last-mentioned + year, Colonel Leavenworth, Jr., was crossing the Trail in + my coach. He desired to see Satanta, the great Kiowa chief. + The colonel's father[28] was among the Indians a great deal + while on duty as an army officer, while the young colonel + was a small boy. The colonel said he didn't believe that + old Satanta would know him. + + Just before the arrival of the coach in the region of the + Indian village, the Comanches and the Pawnees had been + having a battle. The Comanches had taken some scalps, + and they were camping on the bank of the Arkansas River, + where Dodge City is now located. The Pawnees had killed + five of their warriors, and the Comanches were engaged in + an exciting war-dance; I think there were from twenty to + thirty thousand Indians gathered there, men, women, and + children of the several tribes--Comanches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, + Arapahoes, and others. + + When we came in sight of their camp, the colonel knew, by + the terrible noise they were making, that a war-dance was + going on; but we did not know then whether it was on account + of troubles among themselves, or because of a fight with + the whites, but we were determined to find out. If he could + get to the old chief, all would be right. So he and I + started for the place whence the noise came. We met a savage + and the colonel asked him whether Satanta was there, and + what was going on. When he told us that they had had + a fight and it was a scalp-dance, our hair lowered; for we + knew that if it was in consequence of trouble with the + whites, we stood in some danger of losing our own scalps. + + The Indian took us in, and the situation, too; and conducted + us into the presence of Satanta, who stood in the middle + of the great circle, facing the dancers. It was out on an + island in the stream; the chief stood very erect, and eyed + us closely for a few seconds, then the colonel told his + own name that the Indians had known him by when he was a boy. + Satanta gave one bound--he was at least ten feet from where + we were waiting--grasped the colonel's hand and excitedly + kissed him, then stood back for another instant, gave him + a second squeeze, offered his hand to me, which I, + of course, shook heartily, then he gazed at the man he had + known as a boy so many years ago, with a countenance + beaming with delight. I never saw any one, even among + the white race, manifest so much joy as the old chief did + over the visit of the colonel to his camp. + + He immediately ordered some of his young men to go out and + herd our mules through the night, which they brought back + to us at daylight. He then had the coach hauled to the + front of his lodge, where we could see all that was going on + to the best advantage. We had six travellers with us on + this journey, and it was a great sight for the tenderfeet. + + It was about ten o'clock at night when we arrived at + Satanta's lodge, and we saw thousands of squaws and bucks + dancing and mourning for their dead warriors. At midnight + the old chief said we must eat something at once. So he + ordered a fire built, cooked buffalo and venison, setting + before us the very best that he had, we furnishing canned + fruit, coffee, and sugar from our coach mess. There we sat, + and talked and ate until morning; then when we were ready + to start off, Satanta and the other chiefs of the various + tribes escorted us about eight miles on the Trail, where + we halted for breakfast, they remaining and eating with us. + +Colonel Leavenworth was on his way to assume command of one of the +military posts in New Mexico; the Indians begged him to come back +and take his quarters at either Fort Larned or Fort Dodge. They told +him they were afraid their agent was stealing their goods and selling +them back to them; while if the Indians took anything from the whites, +a war was started. + +Colonel A. G. Boone had made a treaty with these same Indians in 1860, +and it was agreed that he should be their agent. It was done, and +the entire savage nations were restful and kindly disposed toward +the whites during his administration; any one could then cross the +plains without fear of molestation. In 1861, however, Judge Wright, +of Indiana, who was a member of Congress at the time, charged Colonel +Boone with disloyalty.[29] He succeeded in having him removed. + +Majors Russel and Waddell, the great government freight contractors +across the plains, gave Colonel Boone fourteen hundred acres of land, +well improved, with some fine buildings on it, about fifteen miles +east of Pueblo, Colorado. It was christened Booneville, and the +colonel moved there. In the fall of 1862, fifty influential Indians +of the various tribes visited Colonel Boone at his new home, and +begged that he would come back to them and be their agent. He told +the chiefs that the President of the United States would not let him. +Then they offered to sell their horses to raise money for him to go +to Washington to tell the Great Father what their agent was doing; +and to have him removed, or there was going to be trouble. +The Indians told Colonel Boone that many of their warriors would be +on the plains that fall, and they were declaring they had as much +right to take something to eat from the trains as their agent had +to steal goods from them. + +Early in the winter of the next year, a small caravan of eight or ten +wagons travelling to the Missouri River was overhauled at Nine Mile +Ridge, about fifty miles west of Fort Dodge, by a band of Indians, +who asked for something to eat. The teamsters, thinking them to be +hostile, believed it would be a good thing to kill one of them anyhow; +so they shot an inoffensive warrior, after which the train moved on +to its camp and the trouble began. Every man in the whole outfit, +with the exception of one teamster, who luckily got to the Arkansas +River and hid, was murdered, the animals all carried away, and the +wagons and contents destroyed by fire. + +This foolish act by the master of the caravan was the cause of a +long war, causing hundreds of atrocious murders and the destruction +of a great deal of property along the whole Western frontier. + +That fall, 1863, Mr. Ryus was the messenger or conductor in charge +of the coach running from Kansas City to Santa Fe. He said: + It then required a month to make the round trip, about + eighteen hundred miles. On account of the Indian war + we had to have an escort of soldiers to go through the most + dangerous portions of the Trail; and the caravans all + joined forces for mutual safety, besides having an escort. + + My coach was attacked several times during that season, and + we had many close calls for our scalps. Sometimes the + Indians would follow us for miles, and we had to halt and + fight them; but as for myself, I had no desire to kill one + of the miserable, outraged creatures, who had been swindled + out of their just rights. + + I know of but one occasion when we were engaged in a fight + with them when our escort killed any of the attacking + savages; it was about two miles from Little Coon Creek + Station, where they surrounded the coach and commenced + hostilities. In the fight one officer and one enlisted man + were wounded. The escort chased the band for several miles, + killed nine of them, and got their horses. + + + + +CHAPTER X. +CHARLES BENT. + + + +Almost immediately after the ratification of the purchase of +New Mexico by the United States under the stipulations of the +"Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty," the Utes, one of the most powerful tribes +of mountain Indians, inaugurated a bloody and relentless war against +the civilized inhabitants of the Territory. It was accompanied by +all the horrible atrocities which mark the tactics of savage hatred +toward the white race. It continued for several years with more +or less severity; its record a chapter of history whose pages are +deluged with blood, until finally the Indians were subdued by the +power of the military. + +Along the line of the Santa Fe Trail, they were frequently in +conjunction with the Apaches, and their depredations and atrocities +were very numerous; they attacked fearlessly freight caravans, +private expeditions, and overland stage-coaches, robbing and murdering +indiscriminately. + +In January, 1847, the mail and passenger stage left Independence, +Missouri, for Santa Fe on one of its regular trips across the plains. +It had its full complement of passengers, among whom were a Mr. White +and family, consisting of his wife, one child, and a coloured nurse. + +Day after day the lumbering Concord coach rolled on, with nothing to +disturb the monotony of the vast prairies, until it had left them +far behind and crossed the Range into New Mexico. Just about dawn, +as the unsuspecting travellers were entering the "canyon of the +Canadian,"[30] and probably waking up from their long night's sleep, +a band of Indians, with blood-curdling yells and their terrific +war-whoop, rode down upon them. + +In that lonely and rock-sheltered gorge a party of the hostile savages, +led by "White Wolf," a chief of the Apaches, had been awaiting the +arrival of the coach from the East; the very hour it was due was +well known to them, and they had secreted themselves there the +night before so as to be on hand should it reach their chosen ambush +a little before the schedule time. + +Out dashed the savages, gorgeous in their feathered war-bonnets, +but looking like fiends with their paint-bedaubed faces. Stopping the +frightened mules, they pulled open the doors of the coach and, +mercilessly dragging its helpless and surprised inmates to the ground, +immediately began their butchery. They scalped and mutilated the +dead bodies of their victims in their usual sickening manner, not a +single individual escaping, apparently, to tell of their fiendish acts. + +If the Indians had been possessed of sufficient cunning to cover up +the tracks of their horrible atrocities, as probably white robbers +would have done, by dragging the coach from the road and destroying it +by fire or other means, the story of the murders committed in the +deep canyon might never have been known; but they left the tell-tale +remains of the dismantled vehicle just where they had attacked it, +and the naked corpses of its passengers where they had been ruthlessly +killed. + +At the next stage station the employees were anxiously waiting for +the arrival of the coach, and wondering what could have caused +the delay; for it was due there at noon on the day of the massacre. +Hour after hour passed, and at last they began to suspect that +something serious had occurred; they sat up all through the night +listening for the familiar rumbling of wheels, but still no stage. +At daylight next morning, determined to wait no longer, as they felt +satisfied that something out of the usual course had happened, +a party hurriedly mounted their horses and rode down the broad trail +leading to the canyon. + +Upon entering its gloomy mouth after a quick lope of an hour, +they discovered the ghastly remains of twelve mutilated bodies. +These were gathered up and buried in one grave, on the top of the +bluff overlooking the narrow gorge. + +They could not be sure of the number of passengers the coach had +brought until the arrival of the next, as it would have a list of +those carried by its predecessor; but it would not be due for +several days. They naturally supposed, however, that the twelve dead +lying on the ground were its full complement. + +Not waiting for the arrival of the next stage, they despatched a +messenger to the last station east that the one whose occupants +had been murdered had passed, and there learned the exact number +of passengers it had contained. Now they knew that Mrs. White, +her child, and the coloured nurse had been carried off into a +captivity worse than death; for no remains of a woman were found +with the others lying in the canyon. + +The terrible news of the massacre was conveyed to Taos, where were +stationed several companies of the Second United States Dragoons, +commanded by Major William Greer; but as the weather had grown +intensely cold and stormy since the date of the massacre, it took +nearly a fortnight for the terrible story to reach there. The Major +acted promptly when appealed to to go after and punish the savages +concerned in the outrage, but several days more were lost in getting +an expedition ready for the field. It was still stormy while the +command was preparing for its work; but at last, one bright morning, +in a piercing cold wind, five troops of the dragoons, commanded by +Major Greer in person, left their comfortable quarters to attempt +the rescue of Mrs. White, her child, and nurse. + +Kit Carson, "Uncle Dick" Wooten, Joaquin Leroux, and Tom Tobin were +the principal scouts and guides accompanying the expedition, having +volunteered their services to Major Greer, which he had gladly accepted. + +The massacre having occurred three weeks before the command had +arrived at the canyon of the Canadian, and snow having fallen almost +continuously ever since, the ground was deeply covered, making it +almost impossible to find the trail of the savages leading out of +the gorge. No one knew where they had established their winter camp +--probably hundreds of miles distant on some tributary of the Canadian +far to the south. + +Carson, Wooton, and Leroux, after scanning the ground carefully at +every point, though the snow was ten inches deep, in a way of which +only men versed in savage lore are capable, were rewarded by +discovering certain signs, unintelligible to the ordinary individual[31] +--that the murderers had gone south out of the canyon immediately +after completing their bloody work, and that their camp was somewhere +on the river, but how far off none could tell. + +The command followed up the trail discovered by the scouts for nearly +four hundred miles. Early one morning when that distance had been +rounded, and just as the men were about to break camp preparatory +to the day's march, Carson went out on a little reconnoissance on his +own account, as he had noticed a flock of ravens hovering in the air +when he first got out of his blankets at dawn, which was sufficient +indication to him that an Indian camp was located somewhere in the +vicinity; for that ominous bird is always to be found in the region +where the savages take up an abode, feeding upon the carcasses of +the many varieties of game killed for food. He had not proceeded +more than half a mile from the camp when he discovered two Indians +slowly riding over a low "divide," driving a herd of ponies before +them. The famous scout was then certain their village could not +be very far away. The savages did not observe him, as he took good +care they should not; so he returned quickly to where Major Greer +was standing by his camp-fire and reported the presence of a village +very close at hand. + +The Major having sent for Tom Tobin and Uncle Dick Wooton, requested +them to go and find the exact location of the savages. These scouts +came back in less than half an hour, and reported a large number +of teepees in a thick grove of timber a mile away. + +It was at once determined to surprise the savages in their winter +quarters by charging right among their lodges without allowing them +time to mount their ponies, as the gallant Custer rode, at the head +of his famous troopers of the Seventh Cavalry, into the camp of the +celebrated chief "Black Kettle" on the Washita, in the dawn of a +cold November morning twenty years afterward. + +The command succeeded in getting within good charging distance of the +village without its occupants having any knowledge of its proximity; +but at this moment Major Greer was seized with an idea that he ought +to have a parley with the Indians before he commenced to fight them, +and for that purpose he ordered a halt, just as the soldiers were +eager for the sound of the "Charge!" + +Never were a body of men more enraged. Carson gave vent to his wrath +in a series of elaborately carved English oaths, for which he was +noted when young; Leroux, whose naturally hot blood was roused, +swore at the Major in a curious mixture of bad French and worse +mountain dialect, and it appeared as if the battle would begin in the +ranks of the troops instead of those of the savages; for never was +a body of soldiers so disgusted at the act of any commanding officer. + +This delay gave the Indians, who could be seen dodging about among +their lodges and preparing for a fight that was no longer a surprise, +time to hide their women and children, mount their ponies, and get +down into deep ravines, where the soldiers could not follow them. +While the Major was trying to convince his subordinates that his +course was the proper one, the Indians opened fire without any parley, +and it happened that at the first volley a bullet struck him in the +breast, but a suspender buckle deflected its course and he was not +seriously wounded. + +The change in the countenance of their commanding officer caused by +the momentary pain was just the incentive the troopers wanted, and +without waiting for the sound of the trumpet, they spurred their +horses, dashed in, and charged the thunderstruck savages with the +shock of a tornado. + +In two successful charges of the gallant and impatient troopers more +than a hundred of the Indians were killed and wounded, but the time +lost had permitted many to escape, and the pursuit of the stragglers +would have been unavailing under the circumstances; so the command +turned back and returned to Taos. In the village was found the body +of Mrs. White still warm, with three arrows in her breast. Had the +charge been made as originally expected by the troopers, her life +would have been saved. No trace of the child or of the coloured +nurse was ever discovered, and it is probable that they were both +killed while en route from the canyon to the village, as being +valueless to keep either as slaves or for other purposes. + +The fate of the Apache chief, "White Wolf," who was the leader in +the outrages in the canyon of the Canadian, was fitting for his +devilish deeds. It was Lieutenant David Bell's fortune to avenge +the murder of Mrs. White and her family, and in an extraordinary +manner.[32] The action was really dramatic, or romantic; he was +on a scout with his company, which was stationed at Fort Union, +New Mexico, having about thirty men with him, and when near the canyon +of the Canadian they met about the same number of Indians. A parley +was in order at once, probably desired by the savages, who were +confronted with an equal number of troopers. Bell had assigned +the baggage-mules to the care of five or six of his command, and held +a mounted interview with the chief, who was no other than the infamous +White Wolf of the Jicarilla Apaches. As Bell approached, White Wolf +was standing in front of his Indians, who were on foot, all well armed +and in perfect line. Bell was in advance of his troopers, who were +about twenty paces from the Indians, exactly equal in number and +extent of line; both parties were prepared to use firearms. + +The parley was almost tediously long and the impending duel was +arranged, White Wolf being very bold and defiant. + +At last the leaders exchanged shots, the chief sinking on one knee +and aiming his gun, Bell throwing his body forward and making his +horse rear. Both lines, by command, fired, following the example +of their superiors, the troopers, however, spurring forward over +their enemies. The warriors, or nearly all of them, threw themselves +on the ground, and several vertical wounds were received by horse +and rider. The dragoons turned short about, and again charged through +and over their enemies, the fire being continuous. As they turned +for a third charge, the surviving Indians were seen escaping to a +deep ravine, which, although only one or two hundred paces off, +had not previously been noticed. A number of the savages thus +escaped, the troopers having to pull up at the brink, but sending +a volley after the descending fugitives. + +In less than fifteen minutes twenty-one of the forty-six actors in +this strange combat were slain or disabled. Bell was not hit, but +four or five of his men were killed or wounded. He had shot +White Wolf several times, and so did others after him; but so +tenacious of life was the Apache that, to finish him, a trooper +got a great stone and mashed his head. + +This was undoubtedly the greatest duel of modern times; certainly +nothing like it ever occurred on the Santa Fe Trail before or since. + +The war chief of the Kiowa nation in the early '50's was Satank, +a most unmitigated villain; cruel and heartless as any savage that +ever robbed a stage-coach or wrenched off the hair of a helpless woman. +After serving a dozen or more years with a record for hellish +atrocities equalled by few of his compeers, he was deposed for alleged +cowardice, as his warriors claimed, under the following circumstances:-- + +The village of his tribe was established in the large bottoms, +eight miles from the Great Bend of the Arkansas, and about the same +distance from Fort Zarah.[33] All the bucks were absent on a hunting +expedition, excepting Satank and a few superannuated warriors. +The troops were out from Fort Larned on a grand scout after marauding +savages, when they suddenly came across the village and completely +took the Kiowas by surprise. Seeing the soldiers almost upon them, +Satank and other warriors jumped on their ponies and made good their +escape. Had they remained, all of them would have been killed or +at least captured; consequently Satank, thinking discretion better +than valour at that particular juncture, incontinently fled. +His warriors in council, however, did not agree with him; they thought +that it was his duty to have remained at the village in defence of +the women and children, as he had been urged to refrain from going on +the hunt for that very purpose. + +Some time before Satank lost his office of chief, there was living +on Cow Creek, in a rude adobe building, a man who was ostensibly +an Indian trader, but whose traffic, in reality, consisted in selling +whiskey to the Indians, and consequently the United States troops +were always after him. He was obliged to cache his liquor in every +conceivable manner so that the soldiers should not discover it, and, +of course, he dreaded the incursions of the troops much more than +he did raids of the Indian marauders that were constantly on the Trail. + +Satank and this illicit trader, whose name was Peacock, were great +chums. One day while they were indulging in a general good time +over sundry drinks of most villanous liquor, Satank said to Peacock: +"Peacock, I want you to write me a letter; a real nice one, that +I can show to the wagon-bosses on the Trail, and get all the 'chuck' +I want. Tell them I am Satank, the great chief of the Kiowas, and +for them to treat me the best they know how." + +"All right, Satank," said Peacock; "I'll do so." Peacock then sat +down and wrote the following epistle:-- + +"The bearer of this is Satank. He is the biggest liar, beggar, and +thief on the plains. What he can't beg of you, he'll steal. Kick him +out of camp, for he is a lazy, good-for-nothing Indian." + +Satank began at once to make use of the supposed precious document, +which he really believed would assure him the dignified treatment +and courtesy due to his exalted rank. He presented it to several +caravans during the ensuing week, and, of course, received a very +cool reception in every instance, or rather a very warm one. + +One wagon-master, in fact, black-snaked him out of his camp. +After these repeated insults he sought another white friend, and +told of his grievances. "Look here," said Satank, "I asked Peacock +to write me a good letter, and he gave me this; but I don't +understand it! Every time I hand it to a wagon-boss, he gives me +the devil! Read it to me and tell me just what it does say." + +His friend read it over, and then translated it literally to Satank. +The savage assumed a countenance of extreme disgust, and after musing +for a few moments, said: "Well, I understand it all now. All right!" + +The next morning at daylight, Satank called for some of his braves +and with them rode out to Peacock's ranch. Arriving there, he called +out to Peacock, who had not yet risen: "Peacock, get up, the soldiers +are coming!" It was a warning which the illicit trader quickly +obeyed, and running out of the building with his field-glass in his +hand, he started for his lookout, but while he was ascending the +ladder with his back to Satank the latter shot him full of holes, +saying, as he did so: "There, Peacock, I guess you won't write any +more letters." + +His warriors then entered the building and killed every man in it, +save one who had been gored by a buffalo bull the day before, and +who was lying in a room all by himself. He was saved by the fact +that the Indian has a holy dread of small-pox, and will never enter +an apartment where sick men lie, fearing they may have the awful +disease. + +Satanta (White Bear) was the most efficient and dreaded chief of all +who have ever been at the head of the Kiowa nation. Ever restlessly +active in ordering or conducting merciless forays against an exposed +frontier, he was the very incarnation of deviltry in his determined +hatred of the whites, and his constant warfare against civilization. + +He also possessed wonderful oratorical powers; he could hurl the most +violent invectives at those whom he argued with, or he could be +equally pathetic when necessary. He was justly called "The Orator of +the Plains," rivalling the historical renown of Tecumseh or Pontiac. + +He was a short, bullet-headed Indian, full of courage and well versed +in strategy. Ordinarily, when on his visits to the various military +posts he wore a major-general's full uniform, a suit of that rank +having been given to him in the summer of 1866 by General Hancock. +He also owned an ambulance, a team of mules, and a set of harness, +the last stolen, maybe, from some caravan he had raided on the Trail. +In that ambulance, with a trained Indian driver, the wily chief +travelled, wrapped in a savage dignity that was truly laughable. +In his village, too, he assumed a great deal of style. He was very +courteous to his white guests, if at the time his tribe were at all +friendly with the government; nothing was too good for them. +He always laid down a carpet on the floor of his lodge in the post +of honour, on which they were to sit. He had large boards, twenty +inches wide and three feet long, ornamented with brass tacks driven +all around the edges, which he used for tables. He also had a +French horn, which he blew vigorously when meals were ready. + +His friendship was only dissembling. During all the time that +General Sheridan was making his preparations for his intended winter +campaign against the allied plains tribes, Satanta made frequent +visits to the military posts, ostensibly to show the officers that +he was heartily for peace, but really to inform himself of what was +going on. + +At that time I was stationed at Fort Harker, on the Smoky Hill. +One evening, General Sheridan, who was my guest, was sitting on the +verandah of my quarters, smoking and chatting with me and some other +officers who had come to pay him their respects, when one of my men +rode up and quietly informed me that Satanta had just driven his +ambulance into the fort, and was getting ready to camp near the mule +corral. On receiving this information, I turned to the general and +suggested the propriety of either killing or capturing the inveterate +demon. Personally I believed it would be right to get rid of such +a character, and I had men under my command who would have been +delighted to execute an order to that effect. + +Sheridan smiled when I told him of Satanta's presence and the +excellent chance to get rid of him. But he said: "That would +never do; the sentimentalists in the Eastern States would raise +such a howl that the whole country would be horrified!" + +Of course, in these "piping times of peace" the reader, in the quiet +of his own room, will think that my suggestion was brutal, and without +any palliation; my excuse, however, may be found in General +Washington's own motto: Exitus acta probat. If the suggestion had +been acted upon, many an innocent man and woman would have escaped +torture, and many a maiden a captivity worse than death. + +As a specimen of Satanta's oratory, I offer the following, to show +the hypocrisy of the subtle old villain, and his power over the minds +of too sensitive auditors. Once Congress sent out to the central +plains a commission from Washington to inquire into the causes of +the continual warfare raging with the savages on the Kansas border; +to learn what the grievances of the Indians were; and to find some +remedy for the wholesale slaughter of men, women, and children along +the line of the Old Trail. + +Satanta was sent for by the commission as the leading spirit of the +formidable Kiowa nation. When he entered the building at Fort Dodge +in which daily sessions were held, he was told by the president to +speak his mind without any reservation; to withhold nothing, but to +truthfully relate what his tribe had to complain of on the part of +the whites. The old rascal grew very pathetic as he warmed up to +his subject. He declared that he had no desire to kill the white +settlers or emigrants crossing the plains, but that those who came +and lived on the land of his tribe ruthlessly slaughtered the buffalo, +allowing their carcasses to rot on the prairie; killing them merely +for the amusement it afforded them, while the Indian only killed +when necessity demanded. He also stated that the white hunters +set out fires, destroying the grass, and causing the tribe's horses +to starve to death as well as the buffalo; that they cut down and +otherwise destroyed the timber on the margins of the streams, making +large fires of it, while the Indian was satisfied to cook his food +with a few dry and dead limbs. "Only the other day," said he, +"I picked up a little switch on the Trail, and it made my heart bleed +to think that so small a green branch, ruthlessly torn out of the +ground and thoughtlessly destroyed by some white man, would in time +have grown into a stately tree for the use and benefit of my children +and grandchildren." + +After the pow-wow had ended, and Satanta had got a few drinks of +red liquor into him, his real, savage nature asserted itself, and +he said to the interpreter at the settler's store: "Now didn't I +give it to those white men who came from the Great Father? Didn't I +do it in fine style? Why, I drew tears from their eyes! The switch +I saw on the Trail made my heart glad instead of sad; for I new there +was a tenderfoot ahead of me, because an old plainsman or hunter +would never have carried anything but a good quirt or a pair of spurs. +So I said to my warriors, 'Come on, boys; we've got him!' and when +we came in sight, after we had followed him closely on the dead run, +he threw away his rifle and held tightly on to his hat for fear +he should lose it!" + +Another time when Satanta had remained at Fort Dodge for a very long +period and had worn out his welcome, so that no one would give him +anything to drink, he went to the quarters of his old friend, +Bill Bennett, the overland stage agent, and begged him to give him +some liquor. Bill was mixing a bottle of medicine to drench a +sick mule. The moment he set the bottle down to do something else, +Satanta seized it off the ground and drank most of the liquid before +quitting. Of course, it made the old savage dreadfully sick as well +as angry. He then started for a certain officer's quarters and again +begged for something to cure him of the effects of the former dose; +the officer refused, but Satanta persisted in his importunities; +he would not leave without it. After a while, the officer went to +a closet and took a swallow of the most nauseating medicine, placing +the bottle back on its shelf. Satanta watched his chance, and, +as soon as the officer left the room, he snatched the bottle out of +the closet and drank its contents without stopping to breathe. +It was, of course, a worse dose than the horse-medicine. The next +day, very early in the morning, he assembled a number of his warriors, +crossed the Arkansas, and went south to his village. Before leaving, +however, he burnt all of the government contractor's hay on the bank +of the river opposite the post. He then continued on to Crooked Creek, +where he murdered three wood-choppers, all of which, he said afterward, +he did in revenge for the attempt to poison him at Fort Dodge. + +At the Comanche agency, where several of the government agents were +assembled to have a talk with chiefs of the various plains tribes, +Satanta said in his address: "I would willingly take hold of that part +of the white man's road which is represented by the breech-loading +rifles; but I don't like the corn rations--they make my teeth hurt!" + +Big Tree was another Kiowa chief. He was the ally and close friend +of Satanta, and one of the most daring and active of his warriors. +The sagacity and bravery of these two savages would have been a credit +to that of the most famous warriors of the old French and Indian Wars. +Both were at last taken, tried, and sent to the Texas penitentiary +for life. Satanta was eventually pardoned; but before he was made +aware of the efforts that were being taken for his release, +he attempted to escape, and, in jumping from a window, fell and broke +his neck. His pardon arrived the next morning. Big Tree, through +the work of the sentimentalists of Washington, was set free and sent +to the Kiowa Reservation--near Fort Sill in the Indian Territory. + +The next most audacious and terrible scourge of the plains was +"Ta-ne-on-koe" (Kicking Bird). He was a great warrior of the Kiowas, +and was the chief actor in some of the bloodiest raids on the Kansas +frontier in the history of its troublous times. + +One of his captures was that of a Miss Morgan and Mrs. White. +They were finally rescued from the savages by General Custer, under +the following circumstances: Custer, who was advancing with his +column of invincible cavalrymen--the famous Seventh United States-- +in search of the two unfortunate women, had arrived near the head +waters of one of the tributaries of the Washita, and, with only +his guide and interpreter, was far in advance of the column, when, +on reaching the summit of an isolated bluff, they suddenly saw a +village of the Kiowas, which turned out to be that of Kicking Bird, +whose handsome lodge was easily distinguishable from the rest. +Without waiting for his command, the general and his guide rode +boldly to the lodge of the great chief, and both dismounted, holding +cocked revolvers in their hands; Custer presented his at Kicking +Bird's head. In the meantime, Custer's column of troopers, whom +the Kiowas had good reason to remember for their bravery in many +a hard-fought battle, came in full view of the astonished village. +This threw the startled savages into the utmost consternation, but +the warriors were held in check by signs from Kicking Bird. As the +cavalry drew nearer, General Custer demanded the immediate release +of the white women. Their presence in the village was at first +denied by the lying chief, and not until he had been led to the limb +of a huge cottonwood tree near the lodge, with a rope around his neck, +did he acknowledge that he held the women and consent to give them up. + +This well-known warrior, with a foreknowledge not usually found in the +savage mind, seeing the beginning of the end of Indian sovereignty +on the plains, voluntarily came in and surrendered himself to the +authorities, and stayed on the reservation near Fort Sill. + +In June, 1867, a year before the breaking out of the great Indian war +on the central plains, the whole tribe of Kiowas, led by him, +assembled at Fort Larned. He was the cynosure of all eyes, as he +was without question one of the noblest-looking savages ever seen +on the plains. On that occasion he wore the full uniform of a +major-general of the United States army. He was as correctly moulded +as a statue when on horseback, and when mounted on his magnificent +charger the morning he rode out with General Hancock to visit the +immense Indian camp a few miles above the fort on Pawnee Fork, +it would have been a difficult task to have determined which was +the finer-looking man. + +After Kicking Bird had abandoned his wicked career, he was regarded +by every army officer with whom he had a personal acquaintance as +a remarkably good Indian; for he really made the most strenuous +efforts to initiate his tribe into the idea that it was best for it +to follow the white man's road. He argued with them that the time +was very near when there would no longer be any region where the +Indians could live as they had been doing, depending on the buffalo +and other game for the sustenance of their families; they must adapt +themselves to the methods of their conquerors. + +In July, 1869, he became greatly offended with the government for +its enforced removal of his tribe from its natural and hereditary +hunting-grounds into the reservation allotted to it. At that time +many of his warriors, together with the Comanches, made a raid on +the defenceless settlements of the northern border of Texas, in which +the savages were disastrously defeated, losing a large number of +their most beloved warriors. On the return of the unsuccessful +expedition, a great council was held, consisting of all the chiefs +and head men of the two tribes which had suffered so terribly in +the awful fight, to consider the best means of avenging the loss +of so many braves and friends. Kicking Bird was summoned before +that council and condemned as a coward; they called him a squaw, +because he had refused to go with the warriors of the combined tribes +on the raid into Texas. + +He told a friend of mine some time afterward that he had intended +never again to go against the whites; but the emergency of the case, +and his severe condemnation by the council, demanded that he should +do something to re-establish himself in the good graces of his tribe. +He then made one of the most destructive raids into Texas that ever +occurred in the history of its border warfare, which successfully +restored him to the respect of his warriors. + +In that raid Kicking Bird carried off vast herds of horses and a +large number of scalps. Although his tribe fairly worshipped him, +he was not at all satisfied with himself. He could look into the +future as well as any one, and from that time on to his tragic death +he laboured most zealously and earnestly in connection with the +Indian agents to bring his people to live on the reservation which +the government had established for them in the Territory. + +At the inauguration of the so-called "Quaker Policy" by President +Grant, that sect was largely intrusted with the management of Indian +affairs, particularly in the selection of agents for the various +tribes. A Mr. Tatham was appointed agent for the Kiowas in 1869. +He at once gained the confidence of Kicking Bird, who became very +valuable to him as an assistant in controlling the savages. It was +through that chief's influence that Thomas Batty, another Quaker, +was allowed to take up his residence with the tribe, the first white +man ever accorded that privilege. Batty was permitted to erect +three tents, which were staked together, converting them into an +ample schoolhouse. In that crude, temporary structure he taught +the Kiowa youth the rudiments of an education. This very successful +innovation shows how earnest the former dreaded savage was in his +efforts to promote the welfare of his people, by trying to induce +them to "take the white man's road." + +Batty succeeded admirably for a year in his office of teacher, +the chief all the time nobly withstanding the taunts and jeers of +his warriors and their threats of taking his life, for daring to +allow a white man within the sacred precincts of their village-- +a thing unparalleled in the annals of the tribe. + +At last trouble came; the dissatisfied members of the tribe, the +ambitious and restless young men, eager for renown, made another +unsuccessful raid into Texas. The result was that they lost nearly +the whole of the band, among which was the favourite son of Lone Wolf, +a noted chief.[34] After the death of his son, he declared that he +must and would have the scalp of a white man in revenge for the +untimely taking off of the young warrior. Of course, the most +available white man at this juncture was Batty, the Quaker teacher, +and he was chosen by Lone Wolf as the victim of savage revenge. +Here the noble instincts of Kicking Bird developed themselves. +He very plainly told Lone Wolf, who was constantly threatening and +thirsting for blood, that he could not kill Batty until he first +killed him and all his band. But Lone Wolf had fully determined +to have the hair of the innocent Quaker; so Kicking Bird, to avert +any collision between the two bands of Indians, kidnapped Batty +and ran him off to the agency, arriving at Fort Sill about an hour +before Lone Wolf's band of avengers overtook them, and thus the +Quaker teacher was saved. + +One day, long after these occurrences, a friend of mine was in the +sutler's store at Fort Sill. In there was a stranger talking to +Mr. Fox, the agent of the Indians. Soon Kicking Bird entered the +establishment, and the stranger asked Mr. Fox who that fine-looking +Indian was. He was told, and then he begged the agent to say to him +that he would like to have a talk with him; for he it was who led +that famous raid into Texas. "I never saw better generalship in the +field in all my experience. He had three horses killed under him. +I was the surgeon of the rangers and was, of course, in the fight."[35] + +When Kicking Bird was told that the Texas doctor desired to talk with +him, he replied with great dignity that he did not want to revive +those troublous times. "Tell him, though," said Kicking Bird, "that +was my last raid against the whites; that I am a changed man." + +The President of the United States sent for Kicking Bird to come to +Washington, and to bring with him such other influential Indians as +he thought might aid in inducing the Kiowas to cease their continual +raiding on the border of Texas. + +In due time Kicking Bird left for the capital, taking with him +Lone Wolf, Big Bow, and Sun Boy of the Kiowas, together with several +of the head men of the Comanches. When the deputation of savages +arrived in Washington, it was received at the presidential mansion +by the chief magistrate himself. So much more attention was given +to Kicking Bird than to the others, that they became very jealous, +particularly when the President announced to them the appointment +of Kicking Bird as the head chief of the tribe.[36] But Lone Wolf +would never recognize his authority, constantly urging the young men +to raid the settlements. Lone Wolf was a genuine savage, without one +redeeming trait, and his hatred of the white race was unparalleled +in its intensity. He was never known to smile. No other Indian can +show such a record of horrible massacres as he is responsible for. +His orders were rigidly obeyed, for he brooked no disobedience on +the part of his warriors. + +In the summer of 1876, a party of English gentlemen left Fort Harker +for a buffalo hunt. They soon exhausted all their rations and started +a four-mule team back to the post for more. Some of Lone Wolf's band +of cut-throats came across the unfortunate teamster, killed him, +and ran off the team. After the occurrence, Kicking Bird came into +the agency at Fort Sill and told Mr. Haworth, the agent, that he had +given his word to the Great Father at Washington he would do all he +could to bring in those Indians who had been raiding by order of +Lone Wolf, particularly the two who had killed the Englishmen's driver. + +He succeeded in bringing in twelve Indians in all, among them the +murderers of the driver. They, with Lone Wolf and Satank, were sent +to the Dry Tortugas for life. The morning they started on their +journey Satank talked very feelingly to Kicking Bird, with tears in +his eyes. He said that they might look for his bones along the road, +for he would never go to Florida. The savages were loaded into +government wagons. Satank was inside of one with a soldier on each +side of him, their legs hanging outside. Somehow the crafty villain +managed to slip the handcuffs off his wrists, at the same instant +seizing the rifle of one of his guards, and then shoved the two men +out with his feet. He tried to work the lever of the rifle, but +could not move it, and one of the soldiers, coming around the wagon +to where he was still trying to get the gun so as he could use it, +shot him down, and then threw his body on the Trail. Thus Satank +made good his vow that he would never be taken to Florida. He met +his death only a mile from the post. + +After the departure of the condemned savages, the feeling in the tribe +against Kicking Bird increased to an alarming extent. Several times +the most incensed warriors tried to kill him by shooting at him from +an ambush. After he became fully aware that his life was in danger, +he never left his lodge without his carbine. He was as brave as a +lion, fearing none of the members of Lone Wolf's band; but he often +said it was only a question of a short time when he would be gotten +rid of; he did not allow the matter, however, to worry him in the +least, saying that he was conscious he had done his duty by his tribe +and the Great Father. + +In a bend of Cash Creek, about half a mile below the mill, about half +a dozen of the Kiowas had their lodges, that of their chief being +among them. At ten o'clock one Monday in June, 1876, Mr. Haworth, +the agent, came in haste to the shops, called the master mechanic, +Mr. Wykes, out, told him to jump into the carriage quickly; that +Kicking Bird was dead. + +When they arrived at the home of the great chief, sure enough he was +dead, and some of the women were engaged in folding his body in robes. +Other squaws were cutting themselves in a terrible manner, as is their +custom when a relative dies, and were also breaking everything +breakable about the lodge. Kicking Bird had always been scrupulously +clean and neat in the care of his home; it was adorned with the most +beautifully dressed buffalo robes and the finest furs, while the floor +was covered with matting. + +It seems that Kicking Bird, after visiting Mr. Wykes that morning, +went immediately to his lodge, and sat down to eat something, but +just as he had finished a cup of coffee, he fell over, dead. He had +in his service a Mexican woman, and she had been bribed to poison him. + +An expensive coffin was made at the agency for his remains, fashioned +out of the finest black walnut to be found in the country where that +timber grows to such a luxuriant extent. It was eight feet long +and four feet deep, but even then it did not hold one-half of his +effects, which were, according to the savage custom, interred with +his body. + +The cries and lamentations of the warriors and women of his band +were heartrending; such a manifestation of grief was never before +witnessed at the agency. A handsome fence was erected around his +grave, in the cemetery at Fort Sill, and the government ordered +a beautiful marble monument to be raised over it; but I do not know +whether it was ever done. + +Kicking Bird was only forty years old at the time of his sudden +taking off, and was very wealthy for an Indian. He knew the uses +of money and was a careful saver of it. A great roll of greenbacks +was placed in his coffin, and that fact having leaked out, it was +rumoured that his grave was robbed; but the story may not have been +true. + +One of the greatest terrors of the Old Santa Fe Trail was the +half-breed Indian desperado Charles Bent. His mother was a Cheyenne +squaw, and his father the famous trader, Colonel Bent. He was born +at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and at a very early age placed +in one of the best schools that St. Louis afforded. His venerable +sire, with only a limited education himself, was determined that +his boy should profit by the culture and refinement of civilization, +so he was not allowed to return to his mountain home at Bent's Fort, +and the savage conditions under which he was born, until he had +attained his majority. He then spoke no language but English. +His mother died while he was absent at school, and his father +continued to live at the old fort, where Charles, after he had +reached the age of twenty-one, joined him. + +Some Washington sentimentalist, philosophizing on the Indian character, +his knowledge being based on Cooper's novels probably, has said: +"Civilization has very marked effects upon an Indian. If he once +learns to speak English, he will soon forget all his native cunning +and pride of race." Let us see how this theory worked with Charley Bent. + +As soon as the educated half-breed set his foot on his native heath +he readily found enough ambitious young bucks of his own age who +were willing to look on him as their leader. They loved him, too, +if such a thing were possible, as Fra Diavolo was loved by his wild +followers. His band was known as the "Dog-Soldiers"; a sort of a +semi-military organization, consisting of the most daring, +blood-thirsty young men of the tribe; and sometimes "squaw-men," +that is, renegade white men married to squaws, attached themselves +to his command of cut-throats. + +At the head of this collection of the worst savages, hardly ever +numbering over a hundred, Charles Bent robbed ranches, attacked +wagon-trains, overland coaches, and army caravans. He stole and +murdered indiscriminately. The history of his bloody work will +never be wholly revealed, for dead men have no tongues. + +He would visit all alone, in the guise of plainsman, hunter, or +cattleman, the emigrant trains crossing the continent, always, +however, those which had only small escorts or none at all. Feigning +hunger, while his needs were being kindly furnished, he would glance +around him to learn what kind of an outfit it was; its value, its +destination, and how well guarded. Then he would take his leave with +many thanks, rejoin his band, and with it dash down on the train and +kill every human being unfortunate enough not to have escaped before +he arrived. + +He was indefatigable in his efforts to kill off the whole corps of +army scouts. He would pass himself off as a fellow-scout, as a +deserter from some military post, or as an Indian trader, for he was +a wonderful actor, and would have achieved histrionic honours had +he chosen the stage as a profession. + +He would always time his actions so as to be found apparently asleep +by a little camp-fire on the bank of Pawnee Fork, Crooked, Mulberry, +or Walnut creeks, all of which streams intercepted the trails running +north and south between the several military posts during the Indian +war, when he would seem delighted and astonished, or else simulate +suspicion. Then he would either murder the unsuspecting scout with +his own hands, or deliver him to the red fiends of his band to be +tormented. + +The government offered a reward of five thousand dollars for Bent's +capture, dead or alive. It was reported currently that he was at last +killed in a battle with some deputy United States marshals, and that +they received the reward; but the whole thing was manufactured out of +whole cloth, and if the marshals received the money, Uncle Sam was +most outrageously swindled. + +The facts are that he died of malarial fever superinduced by a wound +received in a fight with the Kaws, near the mouth of the Walnut and +not far from Fort Zarah. His "Dog-Soldiers" were whipped by the Kaws, +and his band driven off. Bent lingered for some time and died. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. +LA GLORIETA. + + + +New Mexico, at the breaking out of the Civil War, was abandoned by +the government at Washington, or at least so overlooked that the +charge of neglect was merited. In the report of the committee on +the Conduct of the War, under date of July 15, 1862, Brevet +Lieutenant-Colonel B. S. Roberts of the regular army, major of the +Third Cavalry, who was stationed in the Territory in 1861, says: + It appears to me to be the determination of General Thomas[37] + not to acknowledge the service of the officers who saved + the Territory of New Mexico; and the utter neglect of the + adjutant-general's department for the last year to + communicate in any way with the commanding officer of the + department of New Mexico, or to answer his urgent appeals + for reinforcements, for money and other supplies, in + connection with his repudiation of the services of all the + army there, convinces me that he is not gratified at their + loyalty and their success in saving that Territory to + the Union. + +If space could be given to the story of the carefully prepared plans +of the leaders of secession for the conquest of all the territory +south of a line drawn from Maryland directly west to the Pacific +coast, in which were California, Arizona, and New Mexico, it would +reveal some startling facts, and prove beyond question that it was +the intention of Jefferson Davis to precipitate the rebellion a +decade before it actually occurred. The basis of the scheme was to +inaugurate a war between Texas--which, when admitted into the Union, +claimed all that part of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande--and the +United States, in which conflict Mississippi and some of the other +Southern States were to become participants. The plan fell flat, +because, in 1851, Mr. Davis failed of a re-election to the governorship +of Mississippi. + +So confident were many of Mr. Davis' allies in regard to the +contemplated rebellion, that they boasted to their friends of the +North, upon leaving Washington, that when they met again, it would +be upon a Southern battle-field. + +I have alluded incidentally to what is known as the Texas Santa Fe +Expedition, inaugurated by the President of what was then the republic +of Texas, Mirabeau B. Lamar. It was given out to the world that +it was merely one of commercial interest--to increase the trade +between the two countries; but that it was intended for the conquest +of New Mexico, no one now, in the light of history, doubts. +It resulted in disaster, and is a story well worthy the examination +of the student of American politics.[38] + +In 1861 General Twiggs commanded the military department of which +Texas was an important part. It will be remembered that he surrendered +to the Confederate government the troops, the munitions of war, +the forts, or posts as they were properly termed, and everything +pertaining to the United States army under his control. It was the +intention of the Confederacy to use this region as a military base +from which to continue its conquests westward, and capture the various +forts in New Mexico. Particularly they had their eyes upon Fort Union, +where there was an arsenal, which John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, +had taken especial care to have well stocked previously to the act +of secession. + +But the conspirators had reckoned without their host; they imagined +the native Mexicans would eagerly accept their overtures, and readily +support the Southern Confederacy. Mr. Davis and his coadjutors had +evidently forgotten the effect of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition, +in 1841, upon the people of the Province of New Mexico; but the +natives themselves had not. Besides the loyalty of the Mexicans, +there was a factor which the Confederate leaders had failed to +consider, which was that the majority of the American pioneers had +come from loyal States. + +Of course, there were many secessionists both in Colorado and +New Mexico who were watching the progress of rebellion in eager +anticipation; and it is claimed that in Denver a rebel flag was +raised--but how true that is I do not know. + +John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, was one of the leading spirits of +the Confederacy. A year before the Civil War he placed in command +of the department of New Mexico a North Carolinian, Colonel Loring, +who was in perfect sympathy with his superior, and willing to carry +out his well-defined plans. In 1861 he ordered Colonel G. B. Crittenden +on an expedition against the Apaches. This officer at once tried to +induce his troops to attach themselves to the rebel army in Texas, +but he was met with an indignant refusal by Colonel Roberts and +the regular soldiers under him. The loyal colonel told Crittenden, +in the most forcible language, that he would resist any such attempt +on his part, and reported the action of Colonel Crittenden to the +commander of the department at Santa Fe. Of course, Colonel Loring +paid no attention to the complaint of disloyalty, and then Colonel +Roberts conveyed the tidings to the commanding officers of several +military posts in the Territory, whom he knew were true to the Union, +and only one man out of nearly two thousand regular soldiers +renounced his flag. Some of the officers stationed at New Mexico +were of a different mind, and one of them, Major Lynde, commanding +Fort Filmore, surrendered to a detachment of Texans, who paroled +the enlisted men, as they firmly refused to join the rebel forces. + +Upon the desertion of Colonel Loring to the Southern Confederacy, +General Edward R. S. Canby was assigned to the command of the +department; next in rank was the loyal Roberts. At this perilous +juncture in New Mexico, there were but a thousand regulars all told, +but the Territory furnished two regiments of volunteers, commanded by +officers whose names had been famous on the border for years. +Among these was Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, who had been conspicuous +in the suppression of the Mexican insurrection of 1847, fifteen years +before. Kit Carson was lieutenant-colonel; J. F. Chaves, major; and +the most prominent of the line officers Captain Albert H. Pfeiffer, +with a record as an Indian fighter equal to that of Carson. + +At the same time Colorado was girding on her armour for the impending +conflict. The governor of the prosperous Territory was William Gilpin, +an old army officer, who had spent a large part of his life on the +frontier, and had accompanied Colonel Doniphan, as major of his +regiment, across the plains, on the expedition to New Mexico in 1846. + +Colonel Gilpin at once responded to the pleadings of New Mexico for +help, by organizing two companies at first, quickly following with +a full regiment. This Colorado regiment was composed of as fine +material as any portion of the United States could furnish. +John P. Slough, a war Democrat and a lawyer, was its colonel. +He afterwards became chief justice of New Mexico, and was brutally +murdered in that Territory. + +John M. Chivington, a strict Methodist and a presiding elder of +that church, was offered the chaplaincy, but firmly declined, and, +like many others who wore the clerical garb, he quickly doffed it +and put on the attire of a soldier; so he was made major, and his +record as a fighter was equal to the best. + +The commanding general knew well the plans of the rebels as to their +intended occupation of New Mexico, and, notwithstanding the weakness +of his force, determined to frustrate them if within the limits of +possibility. To that end he concentrated his little army, comprising +a thousand regular soldiers, the two regiments of New Mexico +volunteers, two companies of Colorado troops, and a portion of the +territorial militia, at Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande, to await +the approach of the Confederate troops, under the command of +General H. H. Sibley, an old regular army officer, a native of +Louisiana, and the inventor of the comfortable tent named after him. + +Sibley's brigade comprised some three thousand men, the majority +of them Texans, and he expected that many more would flock to his +standard as he moved northward. On the 19th of February, 1862, +he crossed the Rio Grande below Fort Craig, not daring to attack +Canby in his intrenched position. The Union commander, in order +to keep the Texas troops from gaining the high points overlooking +the fort, placed portions of the Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Regulars, +together with Carson's and Pino's volunteers, on the other side of +the river. No collision occurred that day, but the next afternoon +Major Duncan, with his cavalry and Captain M'Rae's light battery, +having been sent across to reinforce the infantry, a heavy artillery +fire was immediately opened upon them by the Texans. The men under +Carson behaved splendidly, but the other volunteer regiments became +a little demoralized, and the general was compelled to call back +the force into the fort. Sibley's force, both men and animals, +suffered much from thirst, the latter stampeding, and many, wandering +into our lines, were caught by the scouts of the Union forces. +The next morning early Colonel Roberts was ordered to proceed about +seven miles up the river to keep the Texans away from the water at +a point where it was alone accessible, on account of the steepness +of the banks everywhere else. + +The gallant Roberts, on arriving at the ford, planted a battery there, +and at once opened fire. This was the battle of Valverde, the details +of which, however, do not belong to this book, having been only +incidentally referred to in order to lead the reader intelligently +up to that of La Glorieta, Apache Canyon, or Pigeon's Ranch, as it +is indifferently called. + +Valverde was lost to the Union troops, but never did men fight more +valiantly, with the exception of a few who did not act the part of +the true soldier. The brave M'Rae mounted one of the guns of his +battery, choosing to die rather than surrender. + +General Sibley, after his doubtful victory at Valverde, continued +on to Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The old city offered no resistance +to his occupation; in fact, some of the most influential Mexicans +were pleased, their leaning being strongly toward the Southern +Confederacy; but the common people were as loyal to the Union as +those of any of the Northern States, a feeling intensified by their +hatred for the Texans on account of the expedition of conquest in +1841, twenty-one years before. They contributed of their means to +aid the United States troops, but have never received proper credit +for their action in those days of trouble in the neglected Territory. + +The Confederate general was disappointed at the way in which affairs +were going, for he had based great hopes upon the defection of the +native residents; but he determined to march forward to Fort Union, +where his friend Floyd had placed such stores as were likely to be +needed in the campaign which he had designed. + +From Santa Fe to Fort Union, where the arsenal was located, the road +runs through the deep, rocky gorge known as Apache Canyon. It is +one of the wildest spots in the mountains, the walls on each side +rising from one to two thousand feet above the Trail, which is within +the range of ordinary cannon from every point, and in many places +of point-blank rifle-shot. Granite rocks and sands abound, and the +hills are covered with long-leafed pine. It is a gateway which, +in the hands of a skilful engineer and one hundred resolute men, +can be made perfectly impregnable. + +The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway passes directly through +this picturesque chasm, every foot of which is classic ground, and +in the season of the mountain freshets constant care is needed to +keep its bridges in place. + +At its eastern entrance is a large residence, known as Pigeon's Ranch, +from which the battle to be described derives its name, though, +as stated, it is also known as that of Apache Canyon, and La Glorieta,[39] +the latter, perhaps, the most classical, from the range of mountains +enclosing the rent in the mighty hills. + +The following detailed account of this battle I have taken from +the _History of Colorado_,[40] an admirable work: + + The sympathizers with and abettors of the Southern + Confederacy inaugurated their plans by posting handbills + in all conspicuous places between Denver and the + mining-camps, designating certain localities where the + highest prices would be paid for arms of every description, + and for powder, lead, shot, and percussion caps. + Simultaneously, a small force was collected and put under + discipline to co-operate with parties expected from Arkansas + and Texas who were to take possession, first of Colorado, + and subsequently of New Mexico, anticipating the easy + capture of the Federal troops and stores located there. + Being apprised of the movement, the governor immediately + decided to enlist a full regiment of volunteers. + John P. Slough was appointed colonel, Samuel F. Tappan + lieutenant-colonel, and John J. M. Chivington major. + + Without railroads or telegraphs nearer than the Missouri + River, and wholly dependent upon the overland mail coach + for communication with the States and the authorities at + Washington, news was at least a week old when received. + Thus the troops passed the time in a condition of doubt + and extreme anxiety, until the 6th of January, 1862, when + information arrived that an invading force under General + H. H. Sibley, from San Antonio, Texas, was approaching + the southern border of New Mexico, and had already captured + Forts Fillmore and Bliss, making prisoners of their + garrisons without firing a gun, and securing all their + stock and supplies. + + Immediately upon receipt of this intelligence, efforts + were made to obtain the consent of, or orders from, General + Hunter, commanding the department at Fort Leavenworth, + Kansas, for the regiment to go to the relief of General + Canby, then in command of the department of New Mexico. + On the 20th of February, orders came from General Hunter, + directing Colonel Slough and the First Regiment of Colorado + Volunteers to proceed with all possible despatch to + Fort Union, or Santa Fe, New Mexico, and report to General + Canby for service. + + Two days thereafter, the command marched out of Camp Weld + two miles up the Platte River, and in due time encamped + at Pueblo, on the Arkansas River. At this point further + advices were received from Canby, stating that he had + encountered the enemy at Valverde, ten miles north of + Fort Craig, but, owing to the inefficiency of the newly + raised New Mexican volunteers, was compelled to retire. + The Texans under Sibley marched on up the Rio Grande, + levying tribute upon the inhabitants for their support. + The Colorado troops were urged to the greatest possible + haste in reaching Fort Union, where they were to unite + with such regular troops as could be concentrated at that + post, and thus aid in saving the fort and its supplies + from falling into Confederate hands. Early on the + following morning the order was given to proceed to Union + by forced marches, and it is doubtful if the same number of + men ever marched a like distance in the same length of time. + + When the summit of Raton Pass was reached, another courier + from Canby met the command, who informed Colonel Slough + that the Texans had already captured Albuquerque and + Santa Fe with all the troops stationed at those places, + together with the supplies stored there, and that they + were then marching on Fort Union. + + Arriving at Red River about sundown, the regiment was + drawn up in line and this information imparted to the men. + The request was then made for all who were willing to + undertake a forced march at night to step two paces to + the front, when every man advanced to the new alignment. + After a hasty supper the march was resumed, and at sunrise + the next morning they reached Maxwell's Ranch on the + Cimarron, having made sixty-four miles in less than + twenty-four hours. At ten o'clock on the second night + thereafter, the command entered Fort Union. It was there + discovered that Colonel Paul, in charge of the post, had + mined the fort, giving orders for the removal of the women + and children, and was preparing to blow up all the supplies + and march to Fort Garland or some other post to the + northward, on the first approach of the Confederates. + + The troops remained at Union from the 13th to the 22d of + March, when by order of Colonel Slough they proceeded in + the direction of Santa Fe. The command consisted of + the First Colorado Volunteers; two Light Batteries, + one commanded by Captain Ritter and the other by Captain + Claflin; Ford's Company of Colorado Volunteers unattached; + two companies of the Fifth Regular Infantry; and two + companies of the Seventh United States Cavalry. + + The force encamped at Bernal Springs, where Colonel Slough + determined to organize a detachment to enter Santa Fe by + night with the view of surprising the enemy, spiking his + guns, and after doing what other damage could be accomplished + without bringing on a general action, falling back on the + main body. The detachment chosen comprised sixty men each + from Companies A, D, and E of the Colorado regiment, with + Company F of the same mounted, and thirty-seven men each + from the companies of Captains Ford and Howland, and of + the Seventh Cavalry, the whole commanded by Major Chivington. + + At sundown on the 25th of March it reached Kosloskie's Ranch, + where Major Chivington was informed that the enemy's pickets + were in the vicinity. He went into camp at once, and about + nine o'clock of the same evening sent out Lieutenant Nelson + of the First Colorado with thirty men of Company F, who + captured the Texan pickets while they were engaged in a game + of cards at Pigeon's Ranch, and before daylight on the + morning of the 26th, reported at camp with his prisoners. + After breakfast, the major, being apprised of the enemy's + whereabouts, proceeded cautiously, keeping his advance + guard well to the front. While passing near the summit + of the hill, the officer in command of the advance met + the Confederate advance, consisting of a first lieutenant + and thirty men, captured them without firing a gun, and + returning met the main body and turned them over to the + commanding officer. The Confederate lieutenant declared + that they had received no intimation of the advance from + Fort Union, but themselves expected to be there four days + later. + + Descending Apache Canyon for the distance of half a mile, + Chivington's force observed the approaching Texans, about + six hundred strong, with three pieces of artillery, who, + on discovering the Federals, halted, formed line and battery, + and opened fire. + + Chivington drew up his cavalry as a reserve under cover, + deployed Company D under Captain Downing to the right, + and Companies A and E under Captains Wynkoop and Anthony + to the left, directing them to ascend the mountain-side + until they were above the elevation of the enemy's artillery + and thus flank him, at the same time directing Captain + Howland, he being the ranking cavalry officer, to closely + observe the enemy, and when he retreated, without further + orders to charge with the cavalry. This disposition of + the troops proved wise and successful. The Texans soon + broke battery and retreated down the canyon a mile or more, + but from some cause Captain Howland failed to charge as + ordered, which enabled the Confederates to take up a new + and strong position, where they formed battery, threw their + supports well up the sides of the mountain, and again + opened fire. + + Chivington dismounted Captains Howland and Lord with their + regulars, leaving their horses in charge of every fourth + man, and ordered them to join Captain Downing on the left, + taking orders from him. Our skirmishers advanced, and, + flanking the enemy's supports, drove them pell-mell down + the mountain-side, when Captain Samuel Cook, with Company F, + First Colorado, having been signalled by the major, made + as gallant and successful a charge through the canyon, + through the ranks of the Confederates and back, as was + ever performed. Meanwhile, our infantry advanced rapidly; + when the enemy commenced his retreat a second time, they + were well ahead of him on the mountain-sides and poured + a galling fire into him, which thoroughly demoralized and + broke him up, compelling the entire body to seek shelter + among the rocks down the canyon and in some cabins that + stood by the wayside. + + After an hour spent in collecting the prisoners, and + caring for the wounded, both Federal and Confederate, + the latter having left in killed, wounded, and prisoners + a number equal to our whole force in the field, the first + baptism by fire of our volunteers terminated. The victory + was decided and complete. Night intervening, and there + being no water in the canyon, the little command fell back + to Pigeon's Ranch, whence a courier was despatched to + Colonel Slough, advising him of the engagement and its + result, and requesting him to bring forward the main + command as rapidly as possible, as the enemy with all his + forces had moved from Santa Fe toward Fort Union. + + After interring the dead and making a comfortable hospital + for the wounded, on the afternoon of the 27th Chivington + fell back to the Pecos River at Kosloskie's Ranch and + encamped. On receiving the news from Apache Canyon, + Colonel Slough put his forces in motion, and at eleven + o'clock at night of the 27th joined Chivington at Kosloskie's. + + At daybreak on the 28th, the assembly was sounded, and + the entire command resumed its march. Five miles out + from their encampment Major Chivington, in command of + a detachment composed of Companies A, B, H, and E of the + First Colorado, and Captain Ford's Company unattached, + with Captain Lewis' Company of the Fifth Regular Infantry, + was ordered to take the Galisteo road, and by a detour + through the mountains to gain the enemy's rear, if possible, + at the west end of Apache Canyon, while Slough advanced + slowly with the main body to gain his front about the + same time; thus devising an attack in front and rear. + + About ten o'clock, while making his way through the scrub + pine and cedar brush in the mountains, Major Chivington + and his command heard cannonading to their right, and + were thereby apprised that Colonel Slough and his men + had met the enemy. About twelve o'clock he arrived with + his men on the summit of the mountain which overlooked + the enemy's supply wagons, which had been left in the + charge of a strong guard with one piece of artillery mounted + on an elevation commanding the camp and mouth of the canyon. + With great difficulty Chivington descended the precipitous + mountain, charged, took, and spiked the gun, ran together + the enemy's supply wagons of commissary, quartermaster, + and ordnance stores, set them on fire, blew and burnt + them up, bayoneted his mules in corral, took the guard + prisoners and reascended the mountain, where about dark + he was met by Lieutenant Cobb, aide-de-camp on Colonel + Slough's staff, with the information that Slough and his + men had been defeated and had fallen back to Kosloskie's. + Upon the supposition that this information was correct, + Chivington, under the guidance of a French Catholic priest, + in the intensest darkness, with great difficulty made + his way with his command through the mountains without + a road or trail, and joined Colonel Slough about midnight. + + Meanwhile, after Chivington and his detachment had left + in the morning, Colonel Slough with the main body proceeded + up the canyon, and arriving at Pigeon's Ranch, gave orders + for the troops to stack arms in the road and supply their + canteens with water, as that would be the last opportunity + before reaching the further end of Apache Canyon. + While thus supplying themselves with water and visiting + the wounded in the hospital at Pigeon's Ranch, being + entirely off their guard, they were suddenly startled by + a courier from the advance column dashing down the road + at full speed and informing them that the enemy was close + at hand. Orders were immediately given to fall in and + take arms, but before the order could be obeyed the enemy + had formed battery and commenced shelling them. + They formed as quickly as possible, the colonel ordering + Captain Downing with Company D, First Colorado Volunteers, + to advance on the left, and Captain Kerber with Company I + First Colorado, to advance on the right. In the meantime + Ritter and Claflin opened a return fire on the enemy with + their batteries. Captain Downing advanced and fought + desperately, meeting a largely superior force in point + of numbers, until he was almost overpowered and surrounded; + when, happily, Captain Wilder of Company G of the First + Colorado, with a detachment of his command, came to his + relief, and extricated him and that portion of his Company + not already slaughtered. While on the opposite side, + the right, Company I had advanced into an open space, + feeling the enemy, and ambitious of capturing his battery, + when they were surprised by a detachment which was concealed + in an arroya, and which, when Kerber and his men were + within forty feet of it, opened a galling fire upon them. + Kerber lost heavily; Lieutenant Baker, being wounded, + fell back. In the meantime the enemy masked, and made + five successive charges on our batteries, determined to + capture them as they had captured Canby's at Valverde. + At one time they were within forty yards of Slough's + batteries, their slouch hats drawn down over their faces, + and rushing on with deafening yells. It seemed inevitable + that they would make the capture, when Captain Claflin + gave the order to cease firing, and Captain Samuel Robbins + with his company, K of the First Colorado, arose from the + ground like ghosts, delivering a galling fire, charged + bayonets, and on the double-quick put the rebels to flight. + + During the whole of this time the cavalry, under Captain + Howland, were held in reserve, never moving except to + fall back and keep out of danger, with the exception of + Captain Cook's men, who dismounted and fought as infantry. + From the opening of the battle to its close the odds were + against Colonel Slough and his forces; the enemy being + greatly superior in numbers, with a better armament of + artillery and equally well armed otherwise. But every inch + of ground was stubbornly contested. In no instance did + Slough's forces fall back until they were in danger of + being flanked and surrounded, and for nine hours, without + rest or refreshment, the battle raged incessantly. + At one time Claflin gave orders to double-shot his guns, + they being nothing but little brass howitzers, and he + counted, "One, two, three, four," until one of his own + carriages capsized and fell down into the gulch; from which + place Captain Samuel Robbins and his company, K, extricated + it and saved it from falling into the enemy's hands. + + Having been compelled to give ground all day, Colonel Slough, + between five and six o'clock in the afternoon, issued + orders to retreat. About the same time General Sibley + received information from the rear of the destruction of + his supply trains, and ordered a flag of truce to be sent + to Colonel Slough, which did not reach him, however, until + he arrived at Kosloskie's. A truce was entered into until + nine o'clock the next morning, which was afterward extended + to twenty-four hours, and under which Sibley with his + demoralized forces fell back to Santa Fe, laying that town + under tribute to supply his forces. + + The 29th was spent in burying the dead, as well as those + of the Confederates which they left on the field, and + caring for the wounded. Orders were received from General + Canby directing Colonel Slough to fall back to Fort Union, + which so incensed him that while obeying the order he + forwarded his resignation, and soon after left the command. + +Thus ended the battle of La Glorieta. + + + + +CHAPTER XII.[41] +THE BUFFALO. + + + +The ancient range of the buffalo, according to history and tradition, +once extended from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, embracing +all that magnificent portion of North America known as the Mississippi +valley; from the frozen lakes above to the "Tierras Calientes" of +Mexico, far to the south. + +It seems impossible, especially to those who have seen them, as +numerous, apparently, as the sands of the seashore, feeding on the +illimitable natural pastures of the great plains, that the buffalo +should have become almost extinct. + +When I look back only twenty-five years, and recall the fact that +they roamed in immense numbers even then, as far east as Fort Harker, +in Central Kansas, a little more than two hundred miles from the +Missouri River, I ask myself, "Have they all disappeared?" + +An idea may be formed of how many buffalo were killed from 1868 to +1881, a period of only thirteen years, during which time they were +indiscriminately slaughtered for their hides. In Kansas alone +there was paid out, between the dates specified, two million five +hundred thousand dollars for their bones gathered on the prairies, +to be utilized by the various carbon works of the country, principally +in St. Louis. It required about one hundred carcasses to make one +ton of bones, the price paid averaging eight dollars a ton; so the +above-quoted enormous sum represented the skeletons of over thirty-one +millions of buffalo.[42] These figures may appear preposterous to +readers not familiar with the great plains a third of a century ago; +but to those who have seen the prairie black from horizon to horizon +with the shaggy monsters, they are not so. In the autumn of 1868 +I rode with Generals Sheridan, Custer, Sully, and others, for three +consecutive days, through one continuous herd, which must have +contained millions. In the spring of 1869 the train on the Kansas +Pacific Railroad was delayed at a point between Forts Harker and +Hays, from nine o'clock in the morning until five in the afternoon, +in consequence of the passage of an immense herd of buffalo across +the track. On each side of us, and to the west as far as we could +see, our vision was only limited by the extended horizon of the flat +prairie, and the whole vast area was black with the surging mass +of affrighted buffaloes as they rushed onward to the south. + +In 1868 the Union Pacific Railroad and its branch in Kansas was nearly +completed across the plains to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, +the western limit of the buffalo range, and that year witnessed +the beginning of the wholesale and wanton slaughter of the great +ruminants, which ended only with their practical extinction seventeen +years afterward. The causes of this hecatomb of animals on the +great plains were the incursion of regular hunters into the region, +for the hides of the buffalo, and the crowds of tourists who crossed +the continent for the mere pleasure and novelty of the trip. +The latter class heartlessly killed for the excitement of the +new experience as they rode along in the cars at a low rate of speed, +often never touching a particle of the flesh of their victims, +or possessing themselves of a single robe. The former, numbering +hundreds of old frontiersmen, all expert shots, with thousands of +novices, the pioneer settlers on the public domain, just opened +under the various land laws, from beyond the Platte to far south +of the Arkansas, within transporting distance of two railroads, +day after day for years made it a lucrative business to kill for +the robes alone, a market for which had suddenly sprung up all over +the country. + +On either side of the track of the two lines of railroads running +through Kansas and Nebraska, within a relatively short distance +and for nearly their whole length, the most conspicuous objects +in those days were the desiccated carcasses of the noble beasts +that had been ruthlessly slaughtered by the thoughtless and excited +passengers on their way across the continent. On the open prairie, +too, miles away from the course of legitimate travel, in some places +one could walk all day on the dead bodies of the buffaloes killed +by the hide-hunters, without stepping off them to the ground. + +The best robes, in their relation to thickness of fur and lustre, +were those taken during the winter months, particularly February, +at which period the maximum of density and beauty had been reached. +Then, notwithstanding the sudden and fitful variations of temperature +incident to our mid-continent climate, the old hunters were especially +active, and accepted unusual risks to procure as many of the coveted +skins as possible. A temporary camp would be established under +the friendly shelter of some timbered stream, from which the hunters +would radiate every morning, and return at night after an arduous +day's work, to smoke their pipes and relate their varied adventures +around the fire of blazing logs. + +Sometimes when far away from camp a blizzard would come down from +the north in all its fury without ten minutes' warning, and in a +few seconds the air, full of blinding snow, precluded the possibility +of finding their shelter, an attempt at which would only result +in an aimless circular march on the prairie. On such occasions, +to keep from perishing by the intense cold, they would kill a buffalo, +and, taking out its viscera, creep inside the huge cavity, enough +animal heat being retained until the storm had sufficiently abated +for them to proceed with safety to their camp. + +Early in March, 1867, a party of my friends, all old buffalo hunters, +were camped in Paradise valley, then a famous rendezvous of the +animals they were after. One day when out on the range stalking, +and widely separated from each other, a terrible blizzard came up. +Three of the hunters reached their camp without much difficulty, +but he who was farthest away was fairly caught in it, and night +overtaking him, he was compelled to resort to the method described +in the preceding paragraph. Luckily, he soon came up with a +superannuated bull that had been abandoned by the herd; so he killed +him, took out his viscera and crawled inside the empty carcass, where +he lay comparatively comfortable until morning broke, when the storm +had passed over and the sun shone brightly. But when he attempted +to get out, he found himself a prisoner, the immense ribs of the +creature having frozen together, and locked him up as tightly as if +he were in a cell. Fortunately, his companions, who were searching +for him, and firing their rifles from time to time, heard him yell +in response to the discharge of their pieces, and thus discovered and +released him from the peculiar predicament into which he had fallen. + +At another time, several years before the acquisition of New Mexico +by the United States, two old trappers were far up on the Arkansas +near the Trail, in the foot-hills hunting buffalo, and they, as is +generally the case, became separated. In an hour or two one of them +killed a fat young cow, and, leaving his rifle on the ground, went up +and commenced to skin her. While busily engaged in his work, +he suddenly heard right behind him a suppressed snort, and looking +around he saw to his dismay a monstrous grizzly ambling along in +that animal's characteristic gait, within a few feet of him. + +In front, only a few rods away, there happened to be a clump of +scrubby pines, and he incontinently made a break for them, climbing +into the tallest in less time than it takes to tell of it. The bear +deliberately ate a hearty meal off the juicy hams of the cow, +so providentially fallen in his way, and when he had satiated himself, +instead of going away, he quietly stretched himself alongside of +the half-devoured carcass, and went to sleep, keeping one eye open, +however, on the movements of the unlucky hunter whom he had corralled +in the tree. In the early evening his partner came to the spot, +and killed the impudent bear, that, being full of tender buffalo meat, +was sluggish and unwary, and thus became an easy victim to the +unerring rifle; when the unwilling prisoner came down from his perch +in the pine, feeling sheepish enough. The last time I saw him he +told me he still had the bear's hide, which he religiously preserved +as a memento of his foolishness in separating himself from his rifle, +a thing he has never been guilty of before or since. + +Kit Carson, when with Fremont on his first exploring expedition, +while hunting for the command, at some point on the Arkansas, +left a buffalo which he had just killed and partly cut up, to pursue +a large bull that came rushing by him alone. He chased his game +for nearly a quarter of a mile, not being able, however, to gain +on it rapidly, owing to the blown condition of his horse. Coming up +at length to the side of the fleeing beast, Carson fired, but at the +same instant his horse stepped into a prairie-dog hole, fell down +and threw Kit fully fifteen feet over his head. The bullet struck +the buffalo low under the shoulder, which only served to enrage him +so that the next moment the infuriated animal was pursuing Kit, +who, fortunately not much hurt, was able to run toward the river. +It was a race for life now, Carson using his nimble legs to the +utmost of their capacity, accelerated very much by the thundering, +bellowing bull bringing up the rear. For several minutes it was +nip and tuck which should reach the stream first, but Kit got there +by a scratch a little ahead. It was a big bend of the river, and +the water was deep under the bank, but it was paradise compared +with the hades plunging at his back; so Kit leaped into the water, +trusting to Providence that the bull would not follow. The trust +was well placed, for the bull did not continue the pursuit, but stood +on the bank and shook his head vehemently at the struggling hunter +who had preferred deep waves to the horns of a dilemma on shore. + +Kit swam around for some time, carefully guarded by the bull, until +his position was observed by one of his companions, who attacked +the belligerent animal successfully with a forty-four slug, and then +Kit crawled out and--skinned the enemy! + +He once killed five buffaloes during a single race, and used but +four balls, having dismounted and cut the bullet from the wound +of the fourth, and thus continued the chase. He it was, too, who +established his reputation as a famous hunter by shooting a buffalo +cow during an impetuous race down a steep hill, discharging his rifle +just as the animal was leaping on one of the low cedars peculiar +to the region. The ball struck a vital spot, and the dead cow +remained in the jagged branches. The Indians who were with him +on that hunt looked upon the circumstance as something beyond their +comprehension, and insisted that Kit should leave the carcass in +the tree as "Big Medicine." Katzatoa (Smoked Shield), a celebrated +chief of the Kiowas many years ago, who was over seven feet tall, +never mounted a horse when hunting the buffalo; he always ran after +them on foot and killed them with his lance. + +Two Lance, another famous chief, could shoot an arrow entirely +through a buffalo while hunting on horseback. He accomplished this +remarkable feat in the presence of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, +who was under the care of Buffalo Bill, near Fort Hays, Kansas. + +During one of Fremont's expeditions, two of his chasseurs, named +Archambeaux and La Jeunesse,[43] had a curious adventure on a +buffalo-hunt. One of them was mounted on a mule, the other on +a horse; they came in sight of a large band of buffalo feeding upon +the open prairie about a mile distant. The mule was not fleet enough, +and the horse was too much fatigued with the day's journey, to justify +a race, and they concluded to approach the herd on foot. Dismounting +and securing the ends of their lariats in the ground, they made +a slight detour, to take advantage of the wind, and crept stealthily +in the direction of the game, approaching unperceived until within +a few hundred yards. Some old bulls forming the outer picket guard +slowly raised their heads and gazed long and dubiously at the strange +objects, when, discovering that the intruders were not wolves, but two +hunters, they gave a significant grunt, turned about as though on +pivots, and in less than no time the whole herd--bulls, cows, and +calves--were making the gravel fly over the prairie in fine style, +leaving the hunters to their discomfiture. They had scarcely +recovered from their surprise, when, to their great consternation, +they beheld the whole company of the monsters, numbering several +thousand, suddenly shape their course to where the riding animals +were picketed. The charge of the stampeded buffalo was a magnificent +one; for the buffalo, mistaking the horse and the mule for two of +their own species, came down upon them like a tornado. A small cloud +of dust arose for a moment over the spot where the hunter's animals +had been left; the black mass moved on with accelerated speed, and +in a few seconds the horizon shut them all from view. The horse +and mule, with all their trappings, saddles, bridles, and holsters, +were never seen or heard of afterward. + +Buffalo Bill, in less than eighteen months, while employed as hunter +of the construction company of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, in 1867-68, +killed nearly five thousand buffalo, which were consumed by the +twelve hundred men employed in track-laying. He tells in his +autobiography of the following remarkable experience he had at one +time with his favourite horse Brigham, on an impromptu buffalo hunt:-- + + One day we were pushed for horses to work on our scrapers, + so I hitched up Brigham, to see how he would work. He was + not much used to that kind of labour, and I was about giving + up the idea of making a work horse of him, when one of the + men called to me that there were some buffaloes coming over + the hill. As there had been no buffaloes seen anywhere + in the vicinity of the camp for several days, we had become + rather short of meat. I immediately told one of our men + to hitch his horses to a wagon and follow me, as I was going + out after the herd, and we would bring back some fresh meat + for supper. I had no saddle, as mine had been left at camp + a mile distant, so taking the harness from Brigham I mounted + him bareback, and started out after the game, being armed + with my celebrated buffalo killer Lucretia Borgia--a newly + improved breech-loading needle-gun, which I had obtained + from the government. + + While I was riding toward the buffaloes, I observed five + horsemen coming out from the fort, who had evidently seen + the buffaloes from the post, and were going out for a chase. + They proved to be some newly arrived officers in that part + of the country, and when they came up closer I could see + by the shoulder-straps that the senior was a captain, + while the others were lieutenants. + + "Hello! my friend," sang out the captain; "I see you are + after the same game we are." + + "Yes, sir; I saw those buffaloes coming over the hill, + and as we were about out of fresh meat I thought I would + go and get some," said I. + + They scanned my cheap-looking outfit pretty closely, and + as my horse was not very prepossessing in appearance, having + on only a blind bridle, and otherwise looking like a work + horse, they evidently considered me a green hand at hunting. + + "Do you expect to catch those buffaloes on that Gothic + steed?" laughingly asked the captain. + + "I hope so, by pushing on the reins hard enough," was + my reply. + + "You'll never catch them in the world, my fine fellow," + said the captain. "It requires a fast horse to overtake + the animals on the prairie." + + "Does it?" asked I, as if I didn't know it. + + "Yes; but come along with us, as we are going to kill them + more for pleasure than anything else. All we want are the + tongues and a piece of tenderloin, and you may have all + that is left," said the generous man. + + "I am much obliged to you, captain, and will follow you," + I replied. + + There were eleven buffaloes in the herd, and they were not + more than a mile ahead of us. The officers dashed on as if + they had a sure thing on killing them all before I could + come up with them; but I had noticed that the herd was + making toward the creek for water, and as I knew buffalo + nature, I was perfectly aware that it would be difficult + to turn them from their direct course. Thereupon, I started + toward the creek to head them off, while the officers + came up in the rear and gave chase. + + The buffaloes came rushing past me not a hundred yards + distant, with the officers about three hundred yards in + the rear. Now, thought I, is the time to "get my work in," + as they say; and I pulled off the blind bridle from my + horse, who knew as well as I did that we were out after + buffaloes, as he was a trained hunter. The moment the + bridle was off he started at the top of his speed, running + in ahead of the officers, and with a few jumps he brought me + alongside the rear buffalo. Raising old Lucretia Borgia + to my shoulder, I fired, and killed the animal at the + first shot. My horse then carried me alongside the next + one, not ten feet away, and I dropped him at the next fire. + + As soon as one of the buffalo would fall, Brigham would + take me so close to the next that I could almost touch it + with my gun. In this manner I killed the eleven buffaloes + with twelve shots; and as the last animal dropped, my horse + stopped. I jumped off to the ground, knowing that he would + not leave me--it must be remembered that I had been riding + him without bridle, reins, or saddle--and, turning around + as the party of astonished officers rode up, I said to them:-- + + "Now, gentlemen, allow me to present to you all the tongues + and tenderloins you wish from these buffaloes." + + Captain Graham, for such I soon learned was his name, + replied: "Well, I never saw the like before. Who under + the sun are you, anyhow?" + + "My name is Cody," said I. + + Captain Graham, who was considerable of a horseman, + greatly admired Brigham, and said: "That horse of yours + has running points." + + "Yes, sir; he has not only got the points, he is a runner + and knows how to use the points," said I. + + "So I noticed," said the captain. + + They all finally dismounted, and we continued chatting + for some little time upon the different subjects of horses, + buffaloes, hunting, and Indians. They felt a little sore + at not getting a single shot at the buffaloes; but the way + I had killed them, they said, amply repaid them for their + disappointment. They had read of such feats in books, + but this was the first time they had ever seen anything + of the kind with their own eyes. It was the first time, + also, that they had ever witnessed or heard of a white man + running buffaloes on horseback without a saddle or bridle. + + I told them that Brigham knew nearly as much about the + business as I did, and if I had twenty bridles they would + have been of no use to me, as he understood everything, + and all that he expected of me was to do the shooting. + It is a fact that Brigham would stop if a buffalo did not + fall at the first fire, so as to give me a second chance; + but if I did not kill the animal then, he would go on, as + if to say, "You are no good, and I will not fool away my + time by giving you more than two shots." Brigham was the + best horse I ever saw or owned for buffalo chasing. + +At one time an old, experienced buffalo hunter was following at the +heels of a small herd with that reckless rush to which in the +excitement of the chase men abandon themselves, when a great bull +just in front of him tumbled into a ravine. The rider's horse fell +also, throwing the old hunter over his head sprawling, but with +strange accuracy right between the bull's horns! The first to +recover from the terrible shock and to regain his legs was the horse, +which ran off with wonderful alacrity several miles before he stopped. +Next the bull rose, and shook himself with an astonished air, as if +he would like to know "how that was done?" The hunter was on the +great brute's back, who, perhaps, took the affair as a good practical +joke; but he was soon pitched to the ground, as the buffalo commenced +to jump "stiff-legged," and the latter, giving the hunter one +lingering look, which he long remembered, with remarkable good nature +ran off to join his companions. Had the bull been wounded, the rider +would have been killed, as the then enraged animal would have gored +and trampled him to death. + +An officer of the old regular army told me many years ago that in +crossing the plains a herd of buffalo were fired at by a twelve-pound +howitzer, the ball of which wounded and stunned an immense bull. +Nevertheless, heedless of a hundred shots that had been fired at him, +and of a bulldog belonging to one of the officers, which had fastened +himself to his lips, the enraged beast charged upon the whole troop +of dragoons, and tossed one of the horses like a feather. Bull, +horse, and rider all fell in a heap. Before the dust cleared away, +the trooper, who had hung for a moment to one of the bull's horns +by his waistband, crawled out safe, while the horse got a ball from +a rifle through his neck while in the air and two great rips in his +flank from the bull. + +In 1839 Kit Carson and Hobbs were trapping with a party on the +Arkansas River, not far from Bent's Fort. Among the trappers was +a green Irishman, named O'Neil, who was quite anxious to become +proficient in hunting, and it was not long before he received his +first lesson. Every man who went out of camp after game was expected +to bring in "meat" of some kind. O'Neil said that he would agree +to the terms, and was ready one evening to start out on his first +hunt alone. He picked up his rifle and stalked after a small herd +of buffalo in plain sight on the prairie not more than five or six +hundred yards from camp. + +All the trappers who were not engaged in setting their traps or +cooking supper were watching O'Neil. Presently they heard the report +of his rifle, and shortly after he came running into camp, bareheaded, +without his gun, and with a buffalo bull close upon his heels; +both going at full speed, and the Irishman shouting like a madman,-- + +"Here we come, by jabers. Stop us! For the love of God, stop us!" + +Just as they came in among the tents, with the bull not more than +six feet in the rear of O'Neil, who was frightened out of his wits +and puffing like a locomotive, his foot caught in a tent-rope, and +over he went into a puddle of water head foremost, and in his fall +capsized several camp-kettles, some of which contained the trappers' +supper. But the buffalo did not escape so easily; for Hobbs and +Kit Carson jumped for their rifles, and dropped the animal before +he had done any further damage. + +The whole outfit laughed heartily at O'Neil when he got up out of +the water, for a party of old trappers would show no mercy to any +of their companions who met with a mishap of that character; but +as he stood there with dripping clothes and face covered with mud, +his mother-wit came to his relief and he declared he had accomplished +the hunter's task: "For sure," said he, "haven't I fetched the mate +into camp? and there was no bargain whether it should be dead or alive!" + +Upon Kit's asking O'Neil where his gun was,-- + +"Sure," said he, "that's more than I can tell you." + +Next morning Carson and Hobbs took up O'Neil's tracks and the +buffalo's, and after hunting an hour or so found the Irishman's rifle, +though he had little use for it afterward, as he preferred to cook +and help around camp rather than expose his precious life fighting +buffaloes. + +A great herd of buffaloes on the plains in the early days, when one +could approach near enough without disturbing it to quietly watch +its organization and the apparent discipline which its leaders seemed +to exact, was a very curious sight. Among the striking features +of the spectacle was the apparently uniform manner in which the +immense mass of shaggy animals moved; there was constancy of action +indicating a degree of intelligence to be found only in the most +intelligent of the brute creation. Frequently the single herd was +broken up into many smaller ones, that travelled relatively close +together, each led by an independent master. Perhaps a few rods +only marked the dividing-line between them, but it was always +unmistakably plain, and each moved synchronously in the direction +in which all were going. + +The leadership of a herd was attained only by hard struggles for the +place; once reached, however, the victor was immediately recognized, +and kept his authority until some new aspirant overcame him, or he +became superannuated and was driven out of the herd to meet his +inevitable fate, a prey to those ghouls of the desert, the gray wolves. + +In the event of a stampede, every animal of the separate, yet +consolidated, herds rushed off together, as if they had all gone mad +at once; for the buffalo, like the Texas steer, mule, or domestic +horse, stampedes on the slightest provocation; frequently without +any assignable cause. The simplest affair, sometimes, will start +the whole herd; a prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, +a shadow of one of themselves or that of a passing cloud, is +sufficient to make them run for miles as if a real and dangerous +enemy were at their heels. + +Like an army, a herd of buffaloes put out vedettes to give the alarm +in case anything beyond the ordinary occurred. These sentinels were +always to be seen in groups of four, five, or even six, at some +distance from the main body. When they perceived something approaching +that the herd should beware of or get away from, they started on +a run directly for the centre of the great mass of their peacefully +grazing congeners. Meanwhile, the young bulls were on duty as +sentinels on the edge of the main herd watching the vedettes; +the moment the latter made for the centre, the former raised their +heads, and in the peculiar manner of their species gazed all around +and sniffed the air as if they could smell both the direction and +source of the impending danger. Should there be something which their +instinct told them to guard against, the leader took his position +in front, the cows and calves crowded in the centre, while the rest +of the males gathered on the flanks and in the rear, indicating +a gallantry that might be emulated at times by the genus homo. + +Generally buffalo went to their drinking-places but once a day, and +that late in the afternoon. Then they ambled along, following each +other in single file, which accounts for the many trails on the +plains, always ending at some stream or lake. They frequently +travelled twenty or thirty miles for water, so the trails leading +to it were often worn to the depth of a foot or more. + +That curious depression so frequently seen on the great plains, +called a buffalo-wallow, is caused in this wise: The huge animals +paw and lick the salty, alkaline earth, and when once the sod is +broken the loose dirt drifts away under the constant action of +the wind. Then, year after year, through more pawing, licking, +rolling, and wallowing by the animals, the wind wafts more of the +soil away, and soon there is a considerable hole in the prairie. + +Many an old trapper and hunter's life has been saved by following +a buffalo-trail when he was suffering from thirst. The buffalo-wallows +retain usually a great quantity of water, and they have often saved +the lives of whole companies of cavalry, both men and horses. + +There was, however, a stranger and more wonderful spectacle to be seen +every recurring spring during the reign of the buffalo, soon after +the grass had started. There were circles trodden bare on the plains, +thousands, yes, millions of them, which the early travellers, who did +not divine their cause, called fairy-rings. From the first of April +until the middle of May was the wet season; you could depend upon its +recurrence almost as certainly as on the sun and moon rising at their +proper time. This was also the calving period of the buffalo, as +they, unlike our domestic cattle, only rutted during a single month; +consequently, the cows all calved during a certain time; this was the +wet month, and as there were a great many gray wolves that roamed +singly and in immense packs over the whole prairie region, the bulls, +in their regular beats, kept guard over the cows while in the act +of parturition, and drove the wolves away, walking in a ring around +the females at a short distance, and thus forming the curious circles. + +In every herd at each recurring season there were always ambitious +young bulls that came to their majority, so to speak, and these were +ever ready to test their claims for the leadership, so that it may +be safely stated that a month rarely passed without a bloody battle +between them for the supremacy; though, strangely enough, the struggle +scarcely ever resulted in the death of either combatant. + +Perhaps there is no animal in which maternal love is so wonderfully +developed as the buffalo cow; she is as dangerous with a calf by +her side as a she-grizzly with cubs, as all old mountaineers know. + +The buffalo bull that has outlived his usefulness is one of the most +pitiable objects in the whole range of natural history. Old age +has probably been decided in the economy of buffalo life as the +unpardonable sin. Abandoned to his fate, he may be discovered, +in his dreary isolation, near some stream or lake, where it does not +tax him too severely to find good grass; for he is now feeble, and +exertion an impossibility. In this new stage of his existence he +seems to have completely lost his courage. Frightened at his own +shadow, or the rustling of a leaf, he is the very incarnation of +nervousness and suspicion. Gregarious in his habits from birth, +solitude, foreign to his whole nature, has changed him into a new +creature; and his inherent terror of the most trivial things is +intensified to such a degree that if a man were compelled to undergo +such constant alarm, it would probably drive him insane in less than +a week. Nobody ever saw one of these miserable and helplessly +forlorn creatures dying a natural death, or ever heard of such an +occurrence. The cowardly coyote and the gray wolf had already +marked him for their own; and they rarely missed their calculations. + +Riding suddenly to the top of a divide once with a party of friends +in 1866, we saw standing below us in the valley an old buffalo bull, +the very picture of despair. Surrounding him were seven gray wolves +in the act of challenging him to mortal combat. The poor beast, +undoubtedly realizing the utter hopelessness of his situation, +had determined to die game. His great shaggy head, filled with burrs, +was lowered to the ground as he confronted his would-be executioners; +his tongue, black and parched, lolled out of his mouth, and he gave +utterance at intervals to a suppressed roar. + +The wolves were sitting on their haunches in a semi-circle immediately +in front of the tortured beast, and every time that the fear-stricken +buffalo would give vent to his hoarsely modulated groan, the wolves +howled in concert in most mournful cadence. + +After contemplating his antagonists for a few moments, the bull made +a dash at the nearest wolf, tumbling him howling over the silent +prairie; but while this diversion was going on in front, the remainder +of the pack started for his hind legs, to hamstring him. Upon this +the poor brute turned to the point of attack only to receive a +repetition of it in the same vulnerable place by the wolves, who had +as quickly turned also and fastened themselves on his heels again. +His hind quarters now streamed with blood and he began to show signs +of great physical weakness. He did not dare to lie down; that would +have been instantly fatal. By this time he had killed three of the +wolves or so maimed them that they were entirely out of the fight. + +At this juncture the suffering animal was mercifully shot, and the +wolves allowed to batten on his thin and tough carcass. + +Often there are serious results growing out of a stampede, either by +mules or a herd of buffalo. A portion of the Fifth United States +Infantry had a narrow escape from a buffalo stampede on the Old Trail, +in the early summer of 1866. General George A. Sykes, who commanded +the Division of Regulars in the Army of the Potomac during the +Civil War, was ordered to join his regiment, stationed in New Mexico, +and was conducting a body of recruits, with their complement of +officers, to fill up the decimated ranks of the army stationed at +the various military posts, in far-off Greaser Land. + +The command numbered nearly eight hundred, including the subaltern +officers. These recruits, or the majority of them at least, were +recruits in name only; they had seen service in many a hard campaign +of the Rebellion. Some, of course, were beardless youths just out +of their teens, full of that martial ardour which induced so many +young men of the nation to follow the drum on the remote plains and +in the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains, where the wily savages +still held almost undisputed sway, and were a constant menace to +the pioneer settlers. + +One morning, when the command had just settled itself in careless +repose on the short grass of the apparently interminable prairie +at the first halt of the day's march, a short distance beyond +Fort Larned, a strange noise, like the low muttering of thunder +below the horizon, greeted the ears of the little army. + +All were startled by the ominous sound, unlike anything they had +heard before on their dreary tour. The general ordered his scouts +out to learn the cause; could it be Indians? Every eye was strained +for something out of the ordinary. Even the horses of the officers +and the mules of the supply-train were infected by something that +seemed impending; they grew restless, stamped the earth, and vainly +essayed to stampede, but were prevented by their hobbles and +picket-pins. + +Presently one of the scouts returned from over the divide, and +reported to the general that an immense herd of buffalo was tearing +down toward the Trail, and from the great clouds of dust they raised, +which obscured the horizon, there must have been ten thousand of them. +The roar wafted to the command, and which seemed so mysterious, +was made by their hoofs as they rattled over the dry prairie. + +The sound increased in volume rapidly, and soon a black, surging mass +was discovered bearing right down on the Trail. Behind it could be +seen a cavalcade of about five hundred Cheyennes, Comanches, and +Kiowas, who had maddened the shaggy brutes, hoping to capture the +train without an attack by forcing the frightened animals to overrun +the command. + +Luckily, something caused the herd to open before it reached the +foot of the divide, and it passed in two masses, leaving the command +between, not two hundred feet from either division of the infuriated +beasts. + +The rage of the savages was evident when they saw that their attempt +to annihilate the troops had failed, and they rode off sullenly into +the sand hills, as the number of soldiers was too great for them +to think of charging. + +Cody tells of a buffalo stampede which he witnessed in his youth +on the plains, when he was a wagon-master. The caravan was on its +way with government stores for the military posts in the mountains, +and the wagons were hauled by oxen. + +He says: + The country was alive with buffalo, and besides killing + quite a number we had a rare day for sport. One morning + we pulled out of camp, and the train was strung out to a + considerable length along the Trail, which ran near the foot + of the sand hills, two miles from the river. Between the + road and the river we saw a large herd of buffalo grazing + quietly, they having been down to the stream to drink. + Just at this time we observed a party of returning + Californians coming from the west. They, too, noticed + the buffalo herd, and in another moment they were dashing + down upon them, urging their horses to their greatest speed. + The buffalo herd stampeded at once, and broke down the sides + of the hills; so hotly were they pursued by the hunters + that about five hundred of them rushed pell-mell through + our caravan, frightening both men and oxen. Some of the + wagons were turned clear around and many of the terrified + oxen attempted to run to the hills with the heavy wagons + attached to them. Others were turned around so short + that they broke the tongues off. Nearly all the teams + got entangled in their gearing and became wild and unruly, + so that the perplexed drivers were unable to manage them. + + The buffalo, the cattle, and the men were soon running + in every direction, and the excitement upset everybody + and everything. Many of the oxen broke their yokes and + stampeded. One big buffalo bull became entangled in one + of the heavy wagon-chains, and it is a fact that in his + desperate efforts to free himself, he not only snapped + the strong chain in two, but broke the ox-yoke to which + it was attached, and the last seen of him he was running + toward the hills with it hanging from his horns. + +Stampedes were a great source of profit to the Indians of the plains. +The Comanches were particularly expert and daring in this kind of +robbery. They even trained their horses to run from one point to +another in expectation of the coming of the trains. When a camp +was made that was nearly in range, they turned their trained animals +loose, which at once flew across the prairie, passing through the +herd and penetrating the very corrals of their victims. All of the +picketed horses and mules would endeavour to follow these decoys, +and were invariably led right into the haunts of the Indians, +who easily secured them. Young horses and mules were easily +frightened; and, in the confusion which generally ensued, great +injury was frequently done to the runaways themselves. + +At times when the herd was very large, the horses scattered over +the prairie and were irrevocably lost; and such as did not become +wild fell a prey to the wolves. That fate was very frequently the +lot of stampeded horses bred in the States, they not having been +trained by a prairie life to take care of themselves. Instead of +stopping and bravely fighting off the blood-thirsty beasts, they +would run. Then the whole pack were sure to leave the bolder animals +and make for the runaways, which they seldom failed to overtake +and despatch. + +On the Old Trail some years ago one of these stampedes occurred of +a band of government horses, in which were several valuable animals. +It was attended, however, with very little loss, through the courage +and great exertion of the men who had them in charge; many were +recovered, but none without having sustained injuries. + +Hon. R. M. Wright, of Dodge City, Kansas, one of the pioneers in +the days of the Santa Fe trade, and in the settlement of the State, +has had many exciting experiences both with the savages of the great +plains, and the buffalo. In relation to the habits of the latter, +no man is better qualified to speak. + +He was once owner of Fort Aubrey, a celebrated point on the Trail, +but was compelled to abandon it on account of constant persecution +by the Indians, or rather he was ordered to do so by the military +authorities. While occupying the once famous landmark, in connection +with others, had a contract to furnish hay to the government at +Fort Lyon, seventy-five miles further west. His journal, which he +kindly placed at my disposal, says: + + While we were preparing to commence the work, a vast herd + of buffalo stampeded through our range one night, and + took off with them about half of our work cattle. The next + day a stage-driver and conductor on the Overland Route told + us they had seen a number of our oxen twenty-five miles east + of Aubrey, and this information gave me an idea in which + direction to hunt for the missing beasts. I immediately + started after them, while my partner took those that + remained and a few wagons and left with them for Fort Lyon. + + Let me explain here that while the Indians were supposed to + be peaceable, small war-parties of young men, who could not + be controlled by their chiefs, were continually committing + depredations, and the main body of savages themselves were + very uneasy, and might be expected to break out any day. + In consequence of this unsettled state of affairs, there + had been a brisk movement among the United States troops + stationed at the various military posts, a large number of + whom were believed to be on the road from Denver to Fort Lyon. + + I filled my saddle-bags with jerked buffalo, hardtack and + ground coffee, and took with me a belt of cartridges, + my rifle and six-shooter, a field-glass and my blankets, + prepared for any emergency. The first day out, I found a + few of the lost cattle, and placed them on the river-bottom, + which I continued to do as fast as I recovered them, for a + distance of about eighty-five miles down the Arkansas. + There I met a wagon-train, the drivers of which told me + that I would find several more of my oxen with a train + that had arrived at the Cimarron crossing the day before. + I came up with this train in eight or ten hours' travel + south of the river, got my cattle, and started next morning + for home. + + I picked up those I had left on the Arkansas as I went + along, and after having made a very hard day's travel, + about sundown I concluded I would go into camp. I had + only fairly halted when the oxen began to drop down, + so completely tired out were they, as I believed. Just as + it was growing dark, I happened to look toward the west, + and I saw several fires on a big island, near what was + called "The Lone Tree," about a mile from where I had + determined to remain for the night. + + Thinking the fires were those of the soldiers that I had + heard were on the road from Denver, and anticipating and + longing for a cup of good coffee, as I had had none for + five days, knowing, too, that the troops would be full of + news, I felt good and determined to go over to their camp. + + The Arkansas was low, but the banks steep, with high, + rank grass growing to the very water's edge. I found + a buffalo-trail cut through the deep bank, narrow and + precipitous, and down this I went, arriving in a short time + within a little distance of my supposed soldiers' camp. + When I had reached the middle of another deep cut in the + bank, I looked across to the island, and, great Caesar! + saw a hundred little fires, around which an aggregation + of a thousand Indians were huddled! + + I slid backwards off my horse, and by dint of great exertion, + worked him up the river-bank as quietly and quickly as + possible, then led him gently away out on the prairie. + My first impulse was not to go back to the cattle; but as + we needed them very badly, I concluded to return, put them + all on their feet, and light out mighty lively, without + making any noise. I started them, and, oh dear! I was + afraid to tread upon a weed, lest it would snap and bring + the Indians down on my trail. Until I had put several + miles between them and me, I could not rest easy for + a moment. Tired as I was, tired as were both my horse + and the cattle, I drove them twenty-five miles before + I halted. Then daylight was upon me. I was at what is + known as Chouteau's Island, a once famous place in the + days of the Old Santa Fe Trail. + + Of course, I had to let the oxen and my horse rest and fill + themselves until the afternoon, and I lay down, and fell + asleep, but did not sleep long, as I thought it dangerous + to remain too near the cattle. I rose and walked up a big, + dry sand creek that opened into the river, and after I had + ascended it for a couple of miles, found the banks very + steep; in fact, they rose to a height of eighteen or twenty + feet, and were sharply cut up by narrow trails made by + the buffalo. + + The whole face of the earth was covered by buffalo, and + they were slowly grazing toward the Arkansas. All at once + they became frightened at something, and stampeded pell-mell + toward the very spot on which I stood. I quickly ran into + one of the precipitous little paths and up on the prairie, + to see what had scared them. They were making the ground + fairly tremble as their mighty multitude came rushing on + at full speed, the sound of their hoofs resembling thunder, + but in a continuous peal. It appeared to me that they must + sweep everything in their path, and for my own preservation + I rushed under the creek-bank, but on they came like a + tornado, with one old bull in the lead. He held up a second + to descend the narrow trail, and when he had got about + halfway down I let him have it; I was only a few steps from + him and over he tumbled. I don't know why I killed him; + out of pure wantonness, I expect, or perhaps I thought + it would frighten the others back. Not so, however; + they only quickened their pace, and came dashing down in + great numbers. Dozens of them stumbled and fell over the + dead bull; others fell over them. The top of the bank + was fairly swarming with them; they leaped, pitched, and + rolled down. I crouched as close to the bank as possible, + but many of them just grazed my head, knocking the sand + and gravel in great streams down my neck; indeed I was + half buried before the herd had passed over. That old bull + was the last buffalo I ever shot wantonly, excepting once, + from an ambulance while riding on the Old Trail, to please + a distinguished Englishman, who had never seen one shot; + then I did it only after his most earnest persuasion. + + One day a stage-driver named Frank Harris and myself started + out after buffalo; they were scarce, for a wonder, and + we were very hungry for fresh meat. The day was fine and + we rode a long way, expecting sooner or later a bunch would + jump up, but in the afternoon, having seen none, we gave + it up and started for the ranch. Of course, we didn't + care to save our ammunition, so shot it away at everything + in sight, skunks, rattlesnakes, prairie-dogs, and gophers, + until we had only a few loads left. Suddenly an old bull + jumped up that had been lying down in one of those + sugar-loaf-shaped sand hills, whose tops are hollowed out + by the action of the wind. Harris emptied his revolver + into him, and so did I; but the old fellow sullenly stood + still there on top of the sand hill, bleeding profusely + at the nose, and yet absolutely refusing to die, although + he would repeatedly stagger and nearly tumble over. + + It was getting late and we couldn't wait on him, so Harris + said: "I will dismount, creep up behind him, and cut his + hamstrings with my butcher-knife." The bull having now + lain down, Harris commenced operations, but his movement + seemed to infuse new life into the old fellow; he jumped + to his feet, his head lowered in the attitude of fight, + and away he went around the outside of the top of the + sand hill! It was a perfect circus with one ring; Harris, + who was a tall, lanky fellow, took hold of the enraged + animal's tail as he rose to his feet, and in a moment his + legs were flying higher than his head, but he did not dare + let go of his hold on the bull's tail, and around and + around they went; it was his only show for life. I could + not assist him a particle, but had to sit and hold his horse, + and be judge of the fight. I really thought that old bull + would never weaken. Finally, however, the "ring" performance + began to show symptoms of fatigue; slower and slower the + actions of the bull grew, and at last Harris succeeded + in cutting his hamstrings and the poor beast went down. + Harris said afterward, when the danger was all over, that + the only thing he feared was that perhaps the bull's tail + would pull out, and if it did, he was well aware that he + was a goner. We brought his tongue, hump, and a hindquarter + to the ranch with us, and had a glorious feast and a big + laugh that night with the boys over the ridiculous adventure. + +General Richard Irving Dodge, United States army, in his work on +the big game of America, says: + + It is almost impossible for a civilized being to realize + the value to the plains Indian of the buffalo. It furnished + him with home, food, clothing, bedding, horse equipment-- + almost everything. + + From 1869 to 1873 I was stationed at various posts along + the Arkansas River. Early in spring, as soon as the dry + and apparently desert prairie had begun to change its coat + of dingy brown to one of palest green, the horizon would + begin to be dotted with buffalo, single or in groups of two + or three, forerunners of the coming herd. Thick and thicker, + and in large groups they come, until by the time the grass + is well up, the whole vast landscape appears a mass of + buffalo, some individuals feeding, others lying down, but + the herd slowly moving to the northward; of their number, + it was impossible to form a conjecture. + + Determined as they are to pursue their journey northward, + yet they are exceedingly cautious and timid about it, + and on any alarm rush to the southward with all speed, + until that alarm is dissipated. Especially is this the case + when any unusual object appears in their rear, and so + utterly regardless of consequences are they, that an old + plainsman will not risk a wagon-train in such a herd, + where rising ground will permit those in front to get + a good view of their rear. + + In May, 1871, I drove in a buggy from old Fort Zarah + to Fort Larned, on the Arkansas River. The distance is + thirty-four miles. At least twenty-five miles of that + distance was through an immense herd. The whole country + was one mass of buffalo, apparently, and it was only when + actually among them, that the seemingly solid body was + seen to be an agglomeration of countless herds of from + fifty to two hundred animals, separated from the surrounding + herds by a greater or less space, but still separated. + + The road ran along the broad valley of the Arkansas. + Some miles from Zarah a low line of hills rises from the + plain on the right, gradually increasing in height and + approaching road and river, until they culminate in + Pawnee Rock. + + So long as I was in the broad, level valley, the herds + sullenly got out of my way, and, turning, stared stupidly + at me, some within thirty or forty yards. When, however, + I had reached a point where the hills were no more than + a mile from the road, the buffalo on the crests, seeing an + unusual object in their rear, turned, stared an instant, + then started at full speed toward me, stampeding and + bringing with them the numberless herds through which + they passed, and pouring down on me, no longer separated + but compacted into one immense mass of plunging animals, + mad with fright, irresistible as an avalanche. + + The situation was by no means pleasant. There was but + one hope of escape. My horse was, fortunately, a quiet + old beast, that had rushed with me into many a herd, and + been in at the death of many a buffalo. Reining him up, + I waited until the front of the mass was within fifty yards, + then, with a few well-directed shots, dropped some of + the leaders, split the herd and sent it off in two streams + to my right and left. When all had passed me, they stopped, + apparently satisfied, though thousands were yet within + reach of my rifle. After my servant had cut out the + tongues of the fallen, I proceeded on my journey, only to + have a similar experience within a mile or two, and this + occurred so often that I reached Fort Larned with twenty-six + tongues, representing the greatest number of buffalo that + I can blame myself with having murdered in one day. + + Some years, as in 1871, the buffalo appeared to move + northward in one immense column, oftentimes from twenty + to fifty miles in width, and of unknown depth from front + to rear. Other years the northward journey was made + in several parallel columns moving at the same rate and + with their numerous flankers covering a width of a hundred + or more miles. + + When the food in one locality fails, they go to another, + and toward fall, when the grass of the high prairies + becomes parched by the heat and drought, they gradually + work their way back to the south, concentrating on the + rich pastures of Texas and the Indian Territory, whence, + the same instinct acting on all, they are ready to start + together again on their northward march as soon as spring + starts the grass. + + Old plainsmen and the Indians aver that the buffalo never + return south; that each year's herd was composed of animals + which had never made the journey before, and would never + make it again. All admit the northern migration, that + being too pronounced for any one to dispute, but refuse + to admit the southern migration. Thousands of young calves + were caught and killed every spring that were produced + during this migration, and accompanied the herd northward; + but because the buffalo did not return south in one vast + body as they went north, it was stoutly maintained that + they did not go south at all. The plainsman could give + no reasonable hypothesis of his "No-return theory" on which + to base the origin of the vast herds which yearly made + their march northward. The Indian was, however, equal + to the occasion. Every plains Indian firmly believed that + the buffalo were produced in countless numbers in a country + under ground; that every spring the surplus swarmed, + like bees from a hive, out of the immense cave-like opening + in the region of the great Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain + of Texas. In 1879 Stone Calf, a celebrated chief, assured + me that he knew exactly where the caves were, though he had + never seen them; that the good God had provided this + means for the constant supply of food for the Indian, and + however recklessly the white men might slaughter, they could + never exterminate them. When last I saw him, the old man + was beginning to waver in this belief, and feared that + the "Bad God" had shut the entrances, and that his tribe + must starve. + +The old trappers and plainsmen themselves, even as early as the +beginning of the Santa Fe trade, noticed the gradual disappearance +of the buffalo, while they still existed in countless numbers. +One veteran French Canadian, an employee of the American Fur Company, +way back in the early '30's, used to mourn thus: "Mais, sacre! +les Amarican, dey go to de Missouri frontier, de buffalo he ron to +de montaigne; de trappaire wid his fusil, he follow to de Bayou +Salade, he ron again. Dans les Montaignes Espagnol, bang! bang! +toute la journee, toute la journee, go de sacre voleurs. De bison he +leave, parceque les fusils scare im vara moche, ici là de sem-sacré!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. +INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS. + + + +Thirty-five miles before arriving at Bent's Fort, at which point +the Old Trail crossed the Arkansas, the valley widens and the prairie +falls toward the river in gentle undulations. There for many years +the three friendly tribes of plains Indians--Cheyennes, Arapahoes, +and Kiowas--established their winter villages, in order to avail +themselves of the supply of wood, to trade with the whites, and to +feed their herds of ponies on the small limbs and bark of the +cottonwood trees growing along the margin of the stream for four +or five miles. It was called Big Timbers, and was one of the most +eligible places to camp on the whole route after leaving Council Grove. +The grass, particularly on the south side of the river, was excellent; +there was an endless supply of fuel, and cool water without stint. + +In the severe winters that sometimes were fruitful of blinding +blizzards, sweeping from the north in an intensity of fury that +was almost inconceivable, the buffalo too congregated there for +shelter, and to browse on the twigs of the great trees. + +The once famous grove, though denuded of much of its timber, may +still be seen from the car windows as the trains hurry mountainward. + +Garrard, in his _Taos Trail_, presents an interesting and amusing +account of a visit to the Cheyenne village with old John Smith, +in 1847, when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, and that with +the various tribes of savages in its golden days. + + Toward the middle of the day, the village was in a great + bustle. Every squaw, child, and man had their faces + blackened--a manifestation of joy.[44] + + Pell-mell they went--men, squaws, and dogs--into the icy + river. Some hastily jerked off their leggings, and held + moccasins and dresses high out of the water. Others, too + impatient, dashed the stream from beneath their impetuous + feet, scarce taking time to draw more closely the always + worn robe. Wondering what caused all this commotion, and + looking over the river, whither the yelling, half-frantic + savages were so speedily hurrying, we saw a band of Indians + advancing toward us. As the foremost braves reined their + champing barbs on the river-bank, mingled whoops of triumph + and delight and the repeated discharge of guns filled + the air. In the hands of three were slender willow wands, + from the smaller points of which dangled as many scalps-- + the single tuft of hair on each pronouncing them Pawnees.[45] + + These were raised aloft, amid unrestrained bursts of joy + from the thrice-happy, blood-thirsty throng. Children ran + to meet their fathers, sisters their brothers, girls their + lovers, returning from the scene of victorious strife; + decrepit matrons welcomed manly sons; and aged chiefs their + boys and braves. It was a scene of affection, and a proud + day in the Cheyenne annals of prowess. That small but + gallant band were relieved of their shields and lances by + tender-hearted squaws, and accompanied to their respective + homes, to repose by the lodge-fire, consume choice meat, + and to be the heroes of the family circle. + + The drum at night sent forth its monotony of hollow sound, + and my Mexican Pedro and I, directed by the booming, + entered a lodge, vacated for the purpose, full of young men + and squaws, following one another in a continuous circle, + keeping the left knee stiff and bending the right with a + half-forward, half-backward step, as if they wanted to go on + and could not, accompanying it, every time the right foot + was raised, with an energetic, broken song, which, dying + away, was again and again sounded--"hay-a, hay-a, hay-a," + they went, laying the emphasis on the first syllable. + A drum, similar to, though larger than a tambourine, covered + with parflêche,[46] was beaten upon with a stick, producing + with the voices a sound not altogether disagreeable. + + Throughout the entire night and succeeding day the voices + of the singers and heavy notes of the drum reached us, + and at night again the same dull sound lulled me to sleep. + Before daylight our lodge was filled with careless dancers, + and the drum and voices, so unpleasing to our wearied ears, + were giving us the full benefit of their compass. Smith, + whose policy it was not to be offended, bore the infliction + as best be could, and I looked on much amused. The lodge + was so full that they stood without dancing, in a circle + round the fire, and with a swaying motion of the body + kept time to their music. + + During the day the young men, except the dancers, piled up + dry logs in a level open space near, for a grand demonstration. + At night, when it was fired, I folded my blanket over my + shoulders, comme les sauvages, and went out. The faces + of many girls were brilliant with vermilion; others were + blacked, their robes, leggings, and skin dresses glittering + with beads and quill-work. Rings and bracelets of shining + brass encircled their taper arms and fingers, and shells + dangled from their ears. Indeed, all the finery collectable + was piled on in barbarous profusion, though a few, in good + taste through poverty, wore a single band and but few rings, + with jetty hair parted in the middle, from the forehead + to the neck, terminating in two handsome braids. + + The young men who can afford the expense trade for dollars + and silver coin of less denomination--coin as a currency + is not known among them--which they flatten thin, and fasten + to a braid of buffalo hair, attached to the crown lock, + which hangs behind, outside of the robe, and adds much to + the handsome appearance of the wearer. + + The girls, numbering two hundred, fell into line together, + and the men, of whom there were two hundred and fifty, + joining, a circle was formed, which travelled around with + the same shuffling step already described. The drummers + and other musicians--twenty or twenty-five of them--marched + in a contrary direction to and from and around the fire, + inside the large ring; for at the distance kept by the + outsiders the area was one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. + The Apollonian emulators chanted the great deeds performed + by the Cheyenne warriors. As they ended, the dying strain + was caught up by the hundreds of the outside circle, who, + in fast-swelling, loud tones, poured out the burden of + their song. At this juncture the march was quickened, + the scalps of the slain were borne aloft and shaken with + wild delight, and shrill war-notes, rising above the + furious din, accelerated the pulsation and strung high + the nerves. Time-worn shields, careering in mad holders' + hands, clashed; and keen lances, once reeking in Pawnee + blood, clanged. Braves seized one another with an iron + grip, in the heat of excitement, or chimed more tenderly + in the chant, enveloped in the same robe with some maiden + as they approvingly stepped through one of their own + original polkas. + + Thirty of the chiefs and principal men were ranged by the + pile of blazing logs. By their invitation, I sat down with + them and smoked death and its concomitant train of evils to + those audacious tribes who doubt the courage or supremacy + of the brave, the great and powerful, Cheyenne nation. + +It is Indian etiquette that the first lodge a stranger enters on +visiting a village is his home as long as he remains the guest of +the tribe. It is all the same whether he be invited or not. +Upon going in, it is customary to place all your traps in the back +part, which is the most honoured spot. The proprietor always occupies +that part of his home, but invariably gives it up to a guest. +With the Cheyennes, the white man, when the tribe was at peace with +him, was ever welcome, as in the early days of the border he generally +had a supply of coffee, of which the savage is particularly fond-- +Mok-ta-bo-mah-pe, as they call it. Their salutation to the stranger +coming into the presence of the owner of a lodge is "Hook-ah-hay! +Num-whit,"--"How do you do? Stay with us." Water is then handed by +a squaw, as it is supposed a traveller is thirsty after riding; +then meat, for he must be hungry, too. A pipe is offered, and +conversation follows. + +The lodge of the Cheyennes is formed of seventeen poles, about three +inches thick at the end which rests on the ground, slender in shape, +tapering symmetrically, and eighteen feet or more in length. They are +tied together at the small ends with buffalo-hide, then raised until +the frame resembles a cone, over which buffalo-skins are placed, +very skilfully fitted and made soft by having been dubbed by the +women--that is, scraped to the requisite thinness, and made supple +by rubbing with the brains of the animal that wore it. They are +sewed together with sinews of the buffalo, generally of the long +and powerful muscle that holds up the ponderous head of the shaggy +beast, a narrow strip running towards the bump. In summer the +lower edges of the skin are rolled up, and the wind blowing through, +it is a cool, shady retreat. In winter everything is closed, and I +know of no more comfortable place than a well-made Indian lodge. +The army tent known as the Sibley is modelled after it, and is the +best winter shelter for troops in the field that can be made. +Many times while the military post where I had been ordered was +in process of building, I have chosen the Sibley tent in preference +to any other domicile. + +When a village is to be moved, it is an interesting sight. The young +and unfledged boys drive up the herd of ponies, and then the squaws +catch them. The women, too, take down the lodges, and, tying the +poles in two bundles, fasten them on each side of an animal, the +long ends dragging on the ground. Just behind the pony or mule, +as the case may be, a basket is placed and held there by buffalo-hide +thongs, and into these novel carriages the little children are put, +besides such traps as are not easily packed on the animal's back. + +The women do all the work both in camp and when moving. They are +doomed to a hopeless bondage of slavery, the fate of their sex in +every savage race; but they accept their condition stoically, and +there is as much affection among them for their husbands and children +as I have ever witnessed among the white race. Here are two instances +of their devotion, both of which came under my personal observation, +and I could give hundreds of others. + +Late in the fall of 1858, I was one of a party on the trail of a band +of Indians who had been committing some horrible murders in a +mining-camp in the northern portion of Washington Territory. On the +fourth day out, just about dusk, we struck their moccasin tracks, +which we followed all night, and surprised their camp in the gray +light of the early morning. In less than ten minutes the fight +was over, and besides the killed we captured six prisoners. Then as +the rising sun commenced to gild the peaks of the lofty range on +the west, having granted our captives half an hour to take leave +of their families, the ankles of each were bound; they were made +to kneel on the prairie, a squad of soldiers, with loaded rifles, +were drawn up eight paces in front of them, and at the instant +the signal--a white handkerchief--was dropped the savages tumbled +over on the sod a heap of corpses. The parting between the condemned +men and their young wives and children, I shall never forget. +It was the most perfect exhibition of marital and filial love that +I have ever witnessed. Such harsh measures may seem cruel and +heartless in the light of to-day, but there was none other than +martial law then in the wilderness of the Northern Pacific coast, +and the execution was a stern necessity. + +The other instance was ten years later. During the Indian campaign +in the winter of 1868-69 I was riding with a party of officers and +enlisted men, south of the Arkansas, about fourty miles from Fort Dodge. +We were watching some cavalrymen unearth three or four dead warriors +who had been killed by two scouts in a fierce unequal fight a few +weeks before, and as we rode into a small ravine among the sand hills, +we suddenly came upon a rudely constructed Cheyenne lodge. Entering, +we discovered on a rough platform, fashioned of green poles, a dead +warrior in full war-dress; his shield of buffalo-hide, pipe ornamented +with eagles' feathers, and medicine bag, were lying on the ground +beside him. At his head, on her knees, with hands clasped in the +attitude of prayer, was a squaw frozen to death. Which had first +succumbed, the wounded chief, or the devoted wife in the awful cold +of that winter prairie, will never be known, but it proved her love +for the man who had perhaps beaten her a hundred times. Such tender +and sympathetic affection is characteristic of the sex everywhere, +no less with the poor savage than in the dominant white race. + +To return to our description of the average Indian village: Each lodge +at the grand encampment of Big Timbers in the era of traffic with +the nomads of the great plains, owned its separate herd of ponies +and mules. In the exodus to some other favoured spot, two dozen or +more of these individual herds travelled close to each other but +never mixed, each drove devotedly following its bell-mare, as in +a pack-train. This useful animal is generally the most worthless +and wicked beast in the entire outfit. + +The animals with the lodge-pole carriages go as they please, +no special care being taken to guide them, but they too instinctively +keep within sound of the leader. I will again quote Garrard for +an accurate description of the moving camp when he was with the +Cheyennes in 1847:-- + + The young squaws take much care of their dress and horse + equipments; they dash furiously past on wild steeds, + astrideof the high-pommelled saddles. A fancifully + coloured cover, worked with beads or porcupine quills, + making a flashy, striking appearance, extended from withers + to rump of the horse, while the riders evinced an admirable + daring, worthy of Amazons. Their dresses were made of + buckskin, high at the neck, with short sleeves, or rather + none at all, fitting loosely, and reaching obliquely to + theknee, giving a Diana look to the costume; the edges + scalloped, worked with beads, and fringed. From the knee + downward the limb was encased in a tightly fitting legging, + terminating in a neat moccasin--both handsomely wrought + with beads. On the arms were bracelets of brass, which + glittered and reflected in the radiant morning sun, adding + much to their attractions. In their pierced ears, shells + from the Pacific shore were pendent; and to complete the + picture of savage taste and profusion, their fine + complexions were eclipsed by a coat of flaming vermilion. + + Many of the largest dogs were packed with a small quantity + of meat, or something not easily injured. They looked + queerly, trotting industriously under their burdens; and, + judging from a small stock of canine physiological + information, not a little of the wolf was in their + composition. + + We crossed the river on our way to the new camp. The alarm + manifested by the children in the lodge-pole drays, as they + dipped in the water, was amusing. The little fellows, + holding their breath, not daring to cry, looked imploringly + at their inexorable mothers, and were encouraged by words + of approbation from their stern fathers. + + After a ride of two hours we stopped, and the chiefs, + fastening their horses, collected in circles to smoke their + pipe and talk, letting their squaws unpack the animals, + pitch the lodges, build the fires, and arrange the robes. + When all was ready, these lords of creation dispersed to + their several homes, to wait until their patient and + enduring spouses prepared some food. I was provoked, nay, + angry, to see the lazy, overgrown men do nothing to help + their wives; and when the young women pulled off their + bracelets and finery to chop wood, the cup of my wrath was + full to overflowing, and, in a fit of honest indignation, + I pronounced them ungallant and savage in the true sense + of the word. + +The treatment of Indian children, particularly boys, is something +startling to the gentle sentiments of refined white mothers. +The girls receive hardly any attention from their fathers. Implicit +obedience is the watchword of the lodge with them, and they are +constantly taught to appreciate their inferiority of sex. The daughter +is a mere slave; unnoticed and neglected--a mere hewer of wood and +drawer of water. With a son, it is entirely different; the father +from his birth dotes on him and manifests his affection in the most +demonstrative manner. + +Garrard tells of two instances that came under his observation while +staying at the chief's lodge, and at John Smith's, in the Cheyenne +village, of the discipline to which the boys are subjected. + + In Vi-po-nah's lodge was his grandson, a boy six or seven + months old. Every morning his mother washed him in cold + water, and set him out in the air to make him hardy; + he would come in, perfectly nude, from his airing, about + half-frozen. How he would laugh and brighten up, as he felt + the warmth of the fire! + + Smith's son Jack took a crying fit one cold night, much to + the annoyance of four or five chiefs, who had come to our + lodge to talk and smoke. In vain did the mother shake and + scold him with the severest Cheyenne words, until Smith, + provoked beyond endurance, took the squalling youngster in + his hands; he shu-ed and shouted and swore, but Jack had + gone too far to be easily pacified. He then sent for a + bucket of water from the river and poured cupful after + cupful on Jack, who stamped and screamed and bit in his + tiny rage. Notwithstanding, the icy stream slowly descended + until the bucket was emptied, another was sent for, and + again and again the cup was replenished and emptied on the + blubbering youth. At last, exhausted with exertion and + completely cooled down, he received the remaining water + in silence, and, with a few words of admonition, was + delivered over to his mother, in whose arms he stifled his + sobs, until his heartbreaking grief and cares were drowned + in sleep. What a devilish mixture Indian and American + blood is! + +The Indians never chastise a boy, as they think his spirit would be +broken and cowed down; instead of a warrior he would be a squaw +--a harsh epithet indicative of cowardice--and they resort to any method +but infliction of blows to subdue a refractory scion. + +Before most of the lodges is a tripod of three sticks, about seven +feet in length and an inch in diameter, fastened at the top, and the +lower ends brought out, so that it stands alone. On this is hung +the shield and a small square bag of parflêche, containing pipes, +with an accompanying pendent roll of stems, carefully wrapped in +blue or red cloth, and decorated with beads and porcupine quills. +This collection is held in great veneration, for the pipe is their +only religion. Through its agency they invoke the Great Spirit; +through it they render homage to the winds, to the earth, and to +the sky. + +Every one has his peculiar notion on this subject; and, in passing +the pipe, one must have it presented stem downward, another the +reverse; some with the bowl resting on the ground; and as this is +a matter of great solemnity, their several fancies are respected. +Sometimes I required them to hand it to me, when smoking, in imitation +of their custom; on this, a faint smile, half mingled with respect +and pity for my folly in tampering with their sacred ceremony, would +appear on their faces, and with a slow negative shake of the head, +they would ejaculate, "I-sto-met-mah-son-ne-wah-hein"--"Pshaw! +that's foolish; don't do so." + +Religion the Cheyennes have none, if, indeed, we except the respect +paid to the pipe; nor do we see any sign or vestige of spiritual +worship; except one remarkable thing--in offering the pipe, before +every fresh filling, to the sky, the earth, and the winds, the motion +made in so doing describes the form of a cross; and, in blowing the +first four whiffs, the smoke is invariably sent in the same four +directions. It is undoubtedly void of meaning in reference to +Christian worship, yet it is a superstition, founded on ancient +tradition. This tribe once lived near the head waters of the +Mississippi; and, as the early Jesuit missionaries were energetic +zealots, in the diffusion of their religious sentiments, probably to +make their faith more acceptable to the Indians, the Roman Catholic +rites were blended with the homage shown to the pipe, which custom +of offering, in the form of a cross, is still retained by them; +but as every custom is handed down by tradition merely, the true +source has been forgotten. + +In every tribe in whose country I have been stationed, which comprises +nearly all the continent excepting the extreme southwestern portion, +his pipe is the Indian's constant companion through life. It is his +messenger of peace; he pledges his friends through its stem and its +bowl, and when he is dead, it has a place in his solitary grave, +with his war-club and arrows--companions on his journey to his +long-fancied beautiful hunting-grounds. The pipe of peace is a sacred +thing; so held by all Indian nations, and kept in possession of chiefs, +to be smoked only at times of peacemaking. When the terms of treaty +have been agreed upon, this sacred emblem, the stem of which is +ornamented with eagle's quills, is brought forward, and the solemn +pledge to keep the peace is passed through the sacred stem by each +chief and warrior drawing the smoke once through it. After the +ceremony is over, the warriors of the two tribes unite in the dance, +with the pipe of peace held in the left hand of the chief and in his +other a rattle. + +Thousands of years ago, the primitive savage of the American continent +carried masses of pipe-stone from the sacred quarry in Minnesota +across the vast wilderness of plains, to trade with the people of +the far Southwest, over the same route that long afterward became +the Santa Fe Trail; therefore, it will be consistent with the character +of this work to relate the history of the quarry from which all the +tribes procured their material for fashioning their pipes, and the +curious legends connected with it. I have met with the red sandstone +pipes on the remotest portions of the Pacific coast, and east, west, +north and south, in every tribe that it has been my fortune to know. + +The word "Dakotah" means allied or confederated, and is the family +name now comprising some thirty bands, numbering about thirty thousand +Indians. They are generally designated Sioux, but that title is +seldom willingly acknowledged by them. It was first given to them +by the French, though its original interpretation is by no means clear. +The accepted theory, because it is the most plausible, is that it is +a corruption or rather an abbreviation of "Nadouessioux," a Chippewa +word for enemies. + +Many of the Sioux are semi-civilized; some are "blanket-Indians," +so called, but there are no longer any murderous or predatory bands, +and all save a few stragglers are on the reservations. From 1812 to +1876, more than half a century, they were the scourge of the West and +the Northwest, but another outbreak is highly improbable. They once +occupied the vast region included between the Mississippi and the +Rocky Mountains, and were always migratory in their methods of living. +Over fifty years ago, when the whites first became acquainted with +them, they were divided into nearly fifty bands of families, each with +its separate chief, but all acknowledging a superior chief to whom +they were subordinate. They were at that time the happiest and most +wealthy tribe on the continent, regarded from an Indian standpoint; +but then the great plains were stocked with buffalo and wild horses, +and that fact alone warrants the assertion of contentment and riches. +No finer-looking tribe existed; they could then muster more than +ten thousand warriors, every one of whom would measure six feet, and +all their movements were graceful and elastic. + +According to their legends, they came from the Pacific and encountered +the Algonquins about the head waters of the Mississippi, where they +were held in check, a portion of them, however, pushing on through +their enemies and securing a foothold on the shores of Lake Michigan. +This bold band was called by the Chippewas Winnebagook (men-from-the- +salt-water). In their original habitat on the great northern plains +was located the celebrated "red pipe-stone quarry," a relatively +limited area, owned by all tribes, but occupied permanently by none; +a purely neutral ground--so designated by the Great Spirit--where no +war could possibly occur, and where mortal enemies might meet to +procure the material for their pipes, but the hatchet was invariably +buried during that time on the consecrated spot. + +The quarry has long since passed out of the control and jurisdiction +of the Indians and is not included in any of their reservations, +though near the Sisseton agency. It is located on the summit of +the high divide between the Missouri and St. Peter's rivers in +Minnesota, at a point not far from where the ninety-seventh meridian +of longitude (from Greenwich) intersects the forty-fifth parallel +of latitude. The divide was named by the French Coteau des Prairies, +and the quarry is near its southern extremity. Not a tree or bush +could be seen from the majestic mound when I last was there, some +twenty years ago--nothing but the apparently interminable plains, +until they were lost in the deep blue of the horizon. + +The luxury of smoking appears to have been known to all the tribes +on the continent in their primitive state, and they indulge in the +habit to excess; any one familiar with their life can assert that +the American savage smokes half of his time. Where so much attention +is given to a mere pleasure, it naturally follows that he would devote +his leisure and ingenuity to the construction of his pipe. The bowls +of these were, from time immemorial, made of the peculiar red stone +from the famous quarry referred to, which, until only a little over +fifty years ago, was never visited by a white man, its sanctity +forbidding any such sacrilege. + +That the spot should have been visited for untold centuries by all +the Indian nations, who hid their weapons as they approached it, +under fear of the vengeance of the Great Spirit, will not seem strange +when the religion of the race is understood. One of the principal +features of the quarry is a perpendicular wall of granite about +thirty feet high, facing the west, and nearly two miles long. At the +base of the wall there is a level prairie, running parallel to it, +half a mile wide. Under this strip of land, after digging through +several slaty layers of rock, the red sandstone is found. Old graves, +fortifications, and excavations abound, all confirmatory of the +traditions clustering around the weird place. + +Within a few rods of the base of the wall is a group of immense gneiss +boulders, five in number, weighing probably many hundred tons each, +and under these are two holes in which two imaginary old women reside +--the guardian spirits of the quarry--who were always consulted before +any pipe-stone could be dug up. The veneration for this group of +boulders was something wonderful; not a spear of grass was broken or +bent by his feet within sixty or seventy paces from them, where the +trembling Indian halted, and throwing gifts to them in humble +supplication, solicited permission to dig and take away the red stone +for his pipes. + +Near this spot, too, on a high mound, was the "Thunder's nest," where +a very small bird sat upon her eggs during fair weather. When the +skies were rent with thunder at the approach of a storm, she was +hatching her brood, which caused the terrible commotion in the heavens. +The bird was eternal. The "medicine men" claimed that they had often +seen her, and she was about as large as a little finger. Her mate +was a serpent whose fiery tongue destroyed the young ones as soon as +they were born, and the awful noise accompanying the act darted +through the clouds. + +On the wall of rocks at the quarry are thousands of inscriptions and +paintings, the totems and arms of various tribes who have visited +there; but no idea can be formed of their antiquity. + +Of the various traditions of the many tribes, I here present a few. +The Great Spirit at a remote period called all the Indian nations +together at this place, and, standing on the brink of the precipice +of red-stone rock, broke from its walls a piece and fashioned a pipe +by simply turning it in his hands. He then smoked over them to the +north, the south, the east, and the west, and told them the stone +was red, that it was their flesh, that they must use it for their +pipes of peace, that it belonged to all alike, and that the war-club +and scalping-knife must never be raised on its ground. At the last +whiff of his pipe his head went into a great cloud, and the whole +surface of the ledge for miles was melted and glazed; two great ovens +were opened beneath, and two women--the guardian spirits of the place-- +entered them in a blaze of fire, and they are heard there yet +answering to the conjurations of the medicine men, who consult them +when they visit the sacred place. + +The legend of the Knis-te-neu's tribe (Crees), a very small band in +the British possessions, in relation to the quarry is this: In the +time of a great freshet that occurred years ago and destroyed all the +nations of the earth, every tribe of Indians assembled on the top +of the Coteau des Prairies to get out of the way of the rushing and +seething waters. When they had arrived there from all parts of the +world, the water continued to rise until it covered them completely, +forming one solid mass of drowned Indians, and their flesh was +converted by the Great Spirit into red pipe-stone; therefore, it was +always considered neutral ground, belonging to all tribes alike, and +all were to make their pipes out of it and smoke together. While they +were drowning together, a young woman, Kwaptan, a virgin, caught hold +of the foot of a very large bird that was flying over at the time, +and was carried to the top of a hill that was not far away and above +the water. There she had twins, their father being the war-eagle +that had carried her off, and her children have since peopled the +earth. The pipe-stone, which is the flesh of their ancestors, +is smoked by them as the symbol of peace, and the eagle quills +decorate the heads of their warriors. + +Severed about seven or eight feet from the main wall of the quarry +by some convulsion of nature ages ago, there is an immense column +just equal in height to the wall, seven feet in diameter and +beautifully polished on its top and sides. It is called The Medicine, +or Leaping Rock, and considerable nerve is required to jump on it from +the main ledge and back again. Many an Indian's heart, in the past, +has sighed for the honour of the feat without daring to attempt it. +A few, according to the records of the tribes, have tried it with +success, and left their arrows standing up in its crevice; others +have made the leap and reached its slippery surface only to slide off, +and suffer instant death on the craggy rocks in the awful chasm below. +Every young man of the many tribes was ambitious to perform the feat, +and those who had successfully accomplished it were permitted to +boast of it all their lives. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. +TRAPPERS. + + + +The initial opening of the trade with New Mexico from the Missouri +River, as has been related, was not direct to Santa Fe. The limited +number of pack-trains at first passed to the north of the Raton Range, +and travelled to the Spanish settlements in the valley of Taos. + +On this original Trail, where now is situated the beautiful city +of Pueblo, the second place of importance in Colorado, there was a +little Indian trading-post called "the Pueblo," from which the present +thriving place derives its name. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe +Railroad practically follows the same route that the traders did to +reach Pueblo, as it also does that which the freight caravans later +followed from the Missouri River direct to Santa Fe. + +The old Pueblo fort, as nearly as can be determined now, was built +as early as 1840, or not later than 1842, and, as one authority +asserts, by George Simpson and his associates, Barclay and Doyle. +Beckwourth claims to have been the original projector of the fort, +and to have given the general plan and its name, in which I am +inclined to believe that he is correct; perhaps Barclay, Doyle, and +Simpson were connected with him, as he states that there were other +trappers, though he mentions no names. It was a square fort of adobe, +with circular bastions at the corners, no part of the walls being +more than eight feet high. Around the inside of the plaza, or corral, +were half a dozen small rooms inhabited by as many Indian traders and +mountain-men. + +One of the earlier Indian agents, Mr. Fitzpatrick, in writing from +Bent's Fort in 1847, thus describes the old Pueblo:-- + + About seventy-five miles above this place, and immediately + on the Arkansas River, there is a small settlement, chiefly + composed of old trappers and hunters; the male part of it + are mostly Americans (Missourians), French Canadians, and + Mexicans. It numbers about one hundred and fifty, and of + this number about sixty men have wives, and some have two. + These wives are of various Indian tribes, as follows; viz. + Blackfeet, Assiniboines, Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, + Snakes, and Comanches. The American women are Mormons, + a party of Mormons having wintered there, and then departed + for California. + +The old trappers and hunters of the Pueblo fort lived entirely upon +game, and a greater part of the year without bread. As soon as their +supply of meat was exhausted, they started to the mountains with two +or three pack-animals, and brought back in two or three days loads +of venison and buffalo. + +The Arkansas at the Pueblo is a clear, rapid river about a hundred +yards wide. The bottom, which is enclosed on each side by high bluffs, +is about a quarter of a mile across. In the early days of which I +write, the margin of the stream was heavily timbered with cottonwood, +and the tourist to-day may see the remnant of the primitive great +woods, in the huge isolated trees scattered around the bottom in the +vicinity of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad station of +the charming mountain city. + +On each side vast rolling prairies stretch away for hundreds of miles, +gradually ascending on the side towards the mountains, where the +highlands are sparsely covered with pinyon and cedar. The lofty banks +through which the Arkansas occasionally passes are of shale and +sandstone, rising precipitously from the water. Ascending the river +the country is wild and broken, until it enters the mountain region, +where the scenery is incomparably grand and imposing. The surrounding +prairies are naturally arid and sterile, producing but little +vegetation, and the primitive grass, though of good quality, is thin +and scarce. Now, however, under a competent system of irrigation, +the whole aspect of the landscape is changed from what it was thirty +years ago, and it has all the luxuriance of a garden. + +The whole country, it is claimed, was once possessed by the Shos-shones, +or Snake Indians, of whom the Comanches of the Southern plains are +a branch; and, although many hundred miles divide their hunting-grounds, +they were once, if not the same people, tribes or bands of that great +and powerful nation. They retain a language in common, and there is +also a striking analogy in many of their religious rites and ceremonies, +in their folk-lore, and in some of their everyday customs. These +facts prove, at least, that there was at one time a very close +alliance which bound the two tribes together. Half a century ago they +were, in point of numbers, the two most powerful nations in all the +numerous aggregations of Indians in the West; the Comanches ruling +almost supreme on the Eastern plains, while the Shos-shones were the +dominant tribe in the country beyond the Rocky Mountains, and in the +mountains themselves. Once, many years ago, before the problem of the +relative strength of the various tribes was as well solved as now, +the Shos-shones were supposed to be the most powerful, and numerically +the most populous, tribe of Indians on the North American continent. + +In the immediate vicinity of the old Pueblo fort at the time of its +greatest business prosperity, game was scarce; the buffalo had for +some years deserted the neighbouring prairies, but they were always +to be found in the mountain-valleys, particularly in one known as +"Bayou Salado," which forty-five years ago abounded in elk, bear, +deer, and antelope. + +The fort was situated a few hundred yards above the mouth of the +"Fontaine qui Bouille" River,[47] so called from two springs of +mineral water near its head, under Pike's Peak, about sixty miles +above its mouth. + +As is the case with all the savage races of the world, the American +Indians possess hereditary legends, accounting for all the phenomena +of nature, or any occurrence which is beyond their comprehension. +The Shos-shones had the following story to account for the presence of +these wonderful springs in the midst of their favourite hunting-ground. +The two fountains, one pouring forth the sweetest water imaginable, +the other a stream as bitter as gall, are intimately connected with +the cause of the separation of the two tribes. Their legend thus runs: +Many hundreds of winters ago, when the cottonwoods on the big river +were no higher than arrows, and the prairies were crowded with game, +the red men who hunted the deer in the forests and the buffalo on the +plains all spoke the same language, and the pipe of peace breathed its +soothing cloud whenever two parties of hunters met on the boundless +prairie. + +It happened one day that two hunters of different nations met on the +bank of a small rivulet, to which both had resorted to quench their +thirst. A small stream of water, rising from a spring on a rock +within a few feet of the bank, trickled over it and fell splashing +into the river. One hunter sought the spring itself; the other, +tired by his exertions in the chase, threw himself at once to the +ground, and plunged his face into the running stream. + +The latter had been unsuccessful in the hunt, and perhaps his bad +fortune, and the sight of the fat deer which the other threw from his +back before he drank at the crystal spring, caused a feeling of +jealousy and ill-humour to take possession of his mind. The other, +on the contrary, before he satisfied his thirst, raised in the hollow +of his hand a portion of the water, and, lifting it toward the sun, +reversed his hand, and allowed it to fall upon the ground, as a +libation to the Great Spirit, who had vouch-safed him a successful +hunt and the blessing of the refreshing water with which he was about +to quench his thirst. + +This reminder that he had neglected the usual offering only increased +the feeling of envy and annoyance which filled the unsuccessful +hunter's heart. The Evil Spirit at that moment entering his body, +his temper fairly flew away, and he sought some pretence to provoke +a quarrel with the other Indian. + +"Why does a stranger," he asked, rising from the stream, "drink at +the spring-head, when one to whom the fountain belongs contents +himself with the water that runs from it?" + +"The Great Spirit places the cool water at the spring," answered the +other hunter, "that his children may drink it pure and undefiled. +The running water is for the beasts which scour the plains. Ausaqua +is a chief of the Shos-shones; he drinks at the head water." + +"The Shos-shones is but a tribe of the Comanches," returned the other: +"Wacomish leads the whole nation. Why does a Shos-shone dare to +drink above him?" + +"When the Manitou made his children, whether Shos-shone or Comanche, +Arapaho, Cheyenne, or Pawnee, he gave them buffalo to eat, and the +pure water of the fountain to quench their thirst. He said not to +one, 'Drink here,' and to another, 'Drink there'; but gave the crystal +spring to all, that all might drink." + +Wacomish almost burst with rage as the other spoke; but his coward +heart prevented him from provoking an encounter with the calm Shos-shone. +The latter, made thirsty by the words he had spoken--for the Indian is +ever sparing of his tongue--again stooped down to the spring to drink, +when the subtle warrior of the Comanches suddenly threw himself upon +the kneeling hunter and, forcing his head into the bubbling water, +held him down with all his strength until his victim no longer +struggled; his stiffened limbs relaxed, and he fell forward over +the spring, drowned. + +Mechanically the Comanche dragged the body a few paces from the water, +and, as soon as the head of the dead Indian was withdrawn, the spring +was suddenly and strangely disturbed. Bubbles sprang up from the +bottom, and, rising to the surface, escaped in hissing gas. A thin +vapour arose, and, gradually dissolving, displayed to the eyes of the +trembling murderer the figure of an aged Indian, whose long, snowy +hair and venerable beard, blown aside from his breast, discovered the +well-known totem of the great Wankanaga, the father of the Comanche +and Shos-shone nation. + +Stretching out a war-club toward the Comanche, the figure thus +addressed him:-- + +"Accursed murderer! While the blood of the brave Shos-shone cries to +the Great Spirit for vengeance, may the water of thy tribe be rank +and bitter in their throats!" Thus saying, and swinging his ponderous +war-club round his head, he dashed out the brains of the Comanche, +who fell headlong into the spring, which from that day to this remains +rank and nauseous, so that not even when half dead with thirst, can +one drink from it. + +The good Wankanaga, however, to perpetuate the memory of the Shos-shone +warrior, who was renowned in his tribe for valour and nobleness of +heart, struck with the same avenging club a hard, flat rock which +overhung the rivulet, and forthwith a round clear basin opened, which +instantly filled with bubbling, sparkling water, sweet and cool. + +From that day the two mighty tribes of the Shos-shones and Comanches +have remained severed and apart, although a long and bloody war +followed the treacherous murder. + +The Indians regarded these wonderful springs with awe. The Arapahoes, +especially, attributed to the Spirit of the springs the power of +ordaining the success or failure of their war expeditions. As their +warriors passed by the mysterious pools when hunting their hereditary +enemies, the Utes, they never failed to bestow their votive offerings +upon the spring, in order to propitiate the Manitou of the strange +fountain, and insure a fortunate issue to their path of war. As late +as twenty-five years ago, the visitor to the place could always find +the basin of the spring filled with beads and wampum, pieces of red +cloth and knives, while the surrounding trees were hung with strips +of deerskin, cloth, and moccasins. Signs were frequently observed +in the vicinity of the waters unmistakably indicating that a war-dance +had been executed there by the Arapahoes on their way to the Valley +of Salt, occupied by the powerful Utes. + +Never was there such a paradise for hunters as this lone and solitary +spot in the days when the region was known only to them and the +trappers of the great fur companies. The shelving prairie, at the +bottom of which the springs are situated, is entirely surrounded by +rugged mountains and contained two or three acres of excellent grass, +affording a safe pasture for their animals, which hardly cared to +wander from such feeding and the salt they loved to lick. + +The trappers of the Rocky Mountains belonged to a genus that has +disappeared. Forty years ago there was not a hole or corner in the +vast wilderness of the far West that had not been explored by these +hardy men. From the Mississippi to the mouth of the Colorado of the +West, from the frozen regions of the north to the Gila in Mexico, +the beaver hunter has set his traps in every creek and stream. +The mountains and waters, in many instances, still retain the names +assigned them by those rude hunters, who were veritable pioneers +paving the way for the settlement of the stern country. + +A trapper's camp in the old days was quite a picture, as were all its +surroundings. He did not always take the trouble to build a shelter, +unless in the winter. A couple of deerskins stretched over a willow +frame was considered sufficient to protect him from the storm. +Sometimes he contented himself with a mere "breakwind," the rocky +wall of a canyon, or large ravine. Near at hand he set up two poles, +in the crotch of which another was laid, where he kept, out of reach +of the hungry wolf and coyote, his meat, consisting of every variety +afforded by the region in which he had pitched his camp. Under cover +of the skins of the animals he had killed hung his old-fashioned +powder-horn and bullet-pouch, while his trusty rifle, carefully +defended from the damp, was always within reach of his hand. Round +his blazing fire at night his companions, if he had any, were other +trappers on the same stream; and, while engaged in cleaning their +arms, making and mending moccasins, or running bullets, they told +long yarns, until the lateness of the hour warned them to crawl under +their blankets. + +Not far from the camp, his animals, well hobbled, fed in sight; +for nothing did a hunter dread more than a visit from horse-stealing +Indians, and to be afoot was the acme of misery. + +Some hunters who had married squaws carried about with them regular +buffalo-skin lodges, which their wives took care of, according to +Indian etiquette. + +The old-time trappers more nearly approximated the primitive savage, +perhaps, than any other class of civilized men. Their lives being +spent in the remote wilderness of the mountains, frequently with no +other companion than Nature herself, their habits and character often +assumed a most singular cast of simplicity, mingled with ferocity, +that appeared to take its colouring from the scenes and objects which +surrounded them. Having no wants save those of nature, their sole +concern was to provide sufficient food to support life, and the +necessary clothing to protect them from the sometimes rigorous climate. + +The costume of the average trapper was a hunting-shirt of dressed +buckskin, with long, fringed trousers of the same material, decorated +with porcupine quills. A flexible hat and moccasins covered his +extremities, and over his left shoulder and under his right arm hung +his powder-horn and bullet-pouch, in which he also carried flint, +steel, and other odds and ends. Round his waist he wore a belt, +in which was stuck a large knife in a sheath of buffalo-hide, made +fast to the belt by a chain or guard of steel. It also supported +a little buckskin case, which contained a whetstone, a very necessary +article; for in taking off the hides of the beaver a sharp knife was +required. His pipe-holder hung around his neck, and was generally +a gage d'amour, a triumph of squaw workmanship, wrought with beads +and porcupine quills, often made in the shape of a heart. + +Necessarily keen observers of nature, they rivalled the beasts of +prey in discovering the haunts and habits of game, and in their skill +and cunning in capturing it outwitted the Indian himself. Constantly +exposed to perils of all kinds, they became callous to any feeling +of danger, and were firm friends or bitter enemies. It was a "word +and a blow," the blow often coming first. Strong, active, hardy as +bears, expert in the use of their weapons, they were just what an +uncivilized white man might be supposed to be under conditions where +he must depend upon his instincts for the support of life. + +Having determined upon the locality of his trapping-ground, the hunter +started off, sometimes alone, sometimes three or four of them in +company, as soon as the breaking of the ice in the streams would +permit, if he was to go very far north. Arriving on the spot he has +selected for his permanent camp, the first thing to be done, after +he had settled himself, was to follow the windings of the creeks and +rivers, keeping a sharp lookout for "signs." If he saw a prostrate +cottonwood tree, he carefully examined it to learn whether it was +the work of beaver, and if so whether thrown for the purpose of food, +or to dam the stream. The track of the animal on the mud or sand +under the banks was also examined; if the sign was fresh, he set his +trap in the run of the animal, hiding it under water, and attaching +it by a stout chain to a picket driven in the bank, or to a bush or +tree. A float-stick was made fast to the trap by a cord a few feet +long, which, if the animal carried away the trap, would float on +the water and point out its position. The trap was baited with +"medicine," an oily substance obtained from the beaver. A stick was +dipped in this and planted over the trap, and the beaver, attracted +by the smell, put his leg into the trap and was caught. + +When a beaver lodge was discovered, the trap was set at the edge of +the dam, at a point where the animal passed from deep to shoal water, +and always under the surface. Early in the morning, the hunter +mounted his mule and examined all his traps. + +The beaver is exceedingly wily, and if by scent or sound or sight he +had any intimation of the presence of a trapper, he put at defiance +all efforts to capture him, consequently it was necessary to practise +great caution when in the neighbourhood of one of their lodges. +The trapper then avoided riding for fear the sound of his horse's +feet might strike dismay among the furry inhabitants under the water, +and, instead of walking on the ground, he waded in the stream, lest +he should leave a scent behind by which he might be discovered. + +In the days of the great fur companies, trappers were of two kinds-- +the hired hand and the free trapper. The former was hired by the +company, which supplied him with everything necessary, and paid him +a certain price for his furs and peltries. The other hunted on his +own hook, owned his animals and traps, went where he pleased, and +sold to whom he chose. + +During the hunting season, regardless of the Indians, the fearless +trapper wandered far and near in search of signs. His nerves were +in a state of tension, his mind always clear, and his head cool. +His trained eye scrutinized every part of the country, and in an +instant he could detect anything that was strange. A turned leaf, +a blade of grass pressed down, the uneasiness of wild animals, +the actions of the birds, were all to him paragraphs written in +Nature's legible hand. + +All the wits of the wily savage were called into play to gain an +advantage over the plucky white man; but with the resources natural +to a civilized mind, the hunter seldom failed, under equal chance, +to circumvent the cunning of the red man. Sometimes, following his +trail for weeks, the Indian watched him set his traps on some timbered +stream, and crawling up the bed of it, so that he left no tracks, +he lay in the bushes until his victim came to examine his traps. +Then, when he approached within a few feet of the ambush, whiz! flew +the home-drawn arrow, which never failed at such close quarters to +bring the unsuspecting hunter to the ground. But for one white scalp +that dangled in the smoke of an Indian's lodge, a dozen black ones, +at the end of the season, ornamented the camp-fires of the rendezvous +where the furs were sold. + +In the camp, if he was a very successful hunter, all the appliances +for preparing the skins for market were at hand; if he had a squaw +for a wife, she did all the hard work, as usual. Close to the +entrance of their skin lodge was the "graining-block," a log of wood +with the bark stripped off and perfectly smooth, set obliquely in +the ground, on which the hair was removed from the deerskins which +furnished moccasins and dresses for both herself and her husband. +Then there were stretching frames on which the skins were placed to +undergo the process of "dubbing"; that is, the removal of all flesh +and fatty particles adhering to the skin. The "dubber" was made of +the stock of an elk's horn, with a piece of iron or steel inserted +in the end, forming a sharp knife. The last process the deerskin +underwent before it was soft and pliable enough for making into +garments, was the "smoking." This was effected by digging a round +hole in the ground, and lighting in it an armful of rotten wood or +punk; then sticks were planted around the hole, and their tops brought +together and tied. The skins were placed on this frame, and all +openings by which the smoke might escape being carefully stopped, +in ten or twelve hours they were thoroughly cured and ready for +immediate use. + +The beaver was the main object of the hunter's quest; its skins were +once worth from six to eight dollars a pound; then they fell to only +one dollar, which hardly paid the expenses of traps, animals, and +equipment for the hunt, and was certainly no adequate remuneration +for the hardships, toil, and danger undergone by the trappers. + +The beaver was once found in every part of North America, from Canada +to the Gulf of Mexico, but has so retired from the encroachments of +civilized man, that it is only to be met with occasionally on some +tributary to the remote mountain streams. + +The old trappers always aimed to set their traps so that the beaver +would drown when taken. This was accomplished by sinking the trap +several inches under water, and driving a stake through a ring on the +end of the chain into the bottom of the creek. When the beaver finds +himself caught, he pitches and plunges about until his strength is +exhausted, when he sinks down and is drowned, but if he succeeds in +getting to the shore, he always extricates himself by gnawing off +the leg that is in the jaws of the trap. + +The captured animals were skinned, and the tails, which are a great +dainty, carefully packed into camp. The skin was then stretched over +a hoop or framework of willow twigs and allowed to dry, the flesh and +fatty substance adhering being first carefully scraped off. When dry, +it was folded into a square sheet, the fur turned inwards, and the +bundle, containing twenty skins, tightly pressed and tied, was ready +for transportation. The beaver after the hide is taken off weighs +about twelve pounds, and its flesh, although a little musky, is very +fine. Its tail which is flat and oval in shape, is covered with +scales about the size of those of a salmon. It was a great delicacy +in the estimation of the old trapper; he separated it from the body, +thrust a stick in one end of it, and held it before the fire with the +scales on. In a few moments large blisters rose on the surface, +which were very easily removed. The tail was then perfectly white, +and delicious. Next to the tail the liver was another favourite of +the trapper, and when properly cooked it constituted a delightful repast. + +After the season was over, or the hunter had loaded all his pack-animals, +he proceeded to the "rendezvous," where the buyers were to congregate +for the purchase of the fur, the locality of which had been agreed +upon when the hunters started out on their expedition. One of these +was at Bent's old fort and one at Pueblo; another at "Brown's Hole" +on Green River, and there were many more on the great streams and in +the mountains. There the agents of the fur companies and traders +waited for the arrival of the trappers, with such an assortment of +goods as the hardy men required, including, of course, an immense +supply of whiskey. The trappers dropped in day after day, in small +bands, packing their loads of beaver-skins, not infrequently to the +value of a thousand dollars each, the result of one hunt. + +The rendezvous was frequently a continuous scene of gambling, brawling, +and fighting, so long as the improvident trapper's money lasted. +Seated around the large camp-fires, cross-legged in Indian fashion, +with a blanket or buffalo-robe spread before them, groups were playing +cards--euchre, seven-up, and poker, the regular mountain games. +The usual stakes were beaver-skins, which were current as coin. +When their fur was all gone, their horses, mules, rifles, shirts, +hunting packs, and trousers were staked. Daring professional gamblers +made the rounds of the camps, challenging each other to play for the +trapper's highest stakes--his horse, or his squaw, if he had one--and +it is told of one great time that two old trappers played for one +another's scalps! "There goes hoss and beaver," was a common mountain +expression when any severe loss was sustained, and shortly "hoss and +beaver" found their way into the pockets of the unconscionable gamblers. + +Frequently a trapper would squander the entire product of his hunt, +amounting to hundreds of dollars, in a couple of hours. Then, +supplied with another outfit, he left the rendezvous for another +expedition, which had the same result time after time, although one +good hunt would have enabled him to return to the settlements and +live a life of comparative ease. + +It is told of one old Canadian trapper, who had received as much as +fifteen thousand dollars for beaver during his life in the mountains, +extending over twenty years, that each season he had resolved in his +mind to go back to Canada, and with this object in view always +converted his furs into cash; but a fortnight at the rendezvous +always "cleaned him out," and at the end of the twenty years he had +not even enough credit to get a plug of tobacco. + +Trading with the Indians in the primitive days of the border was just +what the word signifies in its radical interpretation--a system of +barter exclusively. No money was used in the transaction, as it was +long afterward before the savages began to learn something of the +value of currency from their connection with the sutler's and agency +stores established on reservations and at military posts on the plains +and in the mountains. In the early days, if an Indian by any chance +happened to get possession of a piece of money (only gold or silver +was recognized as a medium of exchange in the remote West), he would +immediately fashion it into some kind of an ornament with which to +adorn his person. Some tribes, however, did indulge in a sort of +currency, worthless except among themselves. This consisted of rare +shells, such as the Oligachuck, so called, of the Pacific coast +nations, used by them within my own recollection, as late as 1858. + +The poor Indian, as might have been expected, was generally +outrageously swindled; in fact, I am inclined to believe, always. +I never was present on an occasion when he was not. + +The savage's idea of values was very crude until the government, +in attempting to civilize and make a gentleman of him, has transformed +him into a bewildered child. Very soon after his connection with +the white trader, he learned that a gun was more valuable than a knife; +but of their relative cost to manufacture he had no idea. For these +reasons, obviously, he was always at the mercy of the unscrupulous +trader who came to his village, or met him at the rendezvous to barter +for his furs. I know that the price of every article he desired was +fixed by the trader, and never by the Indian, consequently he rarely +got the best of the bargain. + +Uncle John Smith, Kit Carson, L. B. Maxwell, Uncle Dick Wooton, and +a host of other well-known Indian traders, long since dead, have +often told me that the first thing they did on entering a village +with a pack-load of trinkets to barter, in the earlier days before +the whites had encroached to any great extent, was to arrange a +schedule of prices. They would gather a large number of sticks, +each one representing an article they had brought. With these crude +symbols the Indian made himself familiar in a little while, and when +this preliminary arrangement had been completed, the trading began. +The Indian, for instance, would place a buffalo-robe on the ground; +then the trader commenced to lay down a number of the sticks, +representing what he was willing to give for the robe. The Indian +revolved the transaction in his mind until he thought he was getting +a fair equivalent according to his ideas, then the bargain was made. +It was claimed by these old traders, when they related this to me, +that the savage generally was not satisfied, always insisting upon +having more sticks placed on the pile. I suspect, however, that the +trader was ever prepared for this, and never gave more than he +originally intended. The price of that initial robe having been +determined on, it governed the price of all the rest for the whole +trade, regardless of size or fineness, for that day. What was traded +for was then placed by the Indian on one side of the lodge, and the +trader put what he was to give on the other. After prices had been +agreed upon, business went on very rapidly, and many thousand dollars' +worth of valuable furs were soon collected by the successful trader, +which he shipped to St. Louis and converted into gold. + +In a few years, relatively, the Indian began to appreciate the value +of our medium of exchange and the power it gave him to secure at the +stores in the widely scattered hamlets and at the military posts on +the plains, those things he coveted, at a fairer equivalent than in +the uncertain and complicated method of direct barter. It was not +very long after the advent of the overland coaches on the Santa Fe +Trail, that our currency, even the greenbacks, had assumed a value +to the savage, which he at least partially understood. Whenever the +Indians successfully raided the stages the mail sacks were no longer +torn to pieces or thrown aside as worthless, but every letter was +carefully scrutinized for possible bills. + +I well remember, when the small copper cent, with its spread eagle +upon it, was first issued, about the year 1857, how the soldiers of +a frontier garrison where I was stationed at the time palmed them off +upon the simple savages as two dollar and a half gold pieces, which +they resembled as long as they retained their brightness, and with +which the Indians were familiar, as many were received by the troops +from the paymaster every two months, the savages receiving them in +turn for horses and other things purchased of them by the soldiers. + +I have known of Indians who gave nuggets of gold for common calico +shirts costing two dollars in that region and seventy-five cents in +the States, while the lump of precious metal was worth, perhaps, +five or seven dollars. As late as twenty-eight years ago, I have +traded for beautifully smoke-tanned and porcupine-embroidered +buffalo-robes for my own use, giving in exchange a mere loaf of bread +or a cupful of brown sugar. + +Very early in the history of the United States, in 1786, the government, +under the authority of Congress, established a plan of trade with +the Indians. It comprised supplying all their physical wants without +profit; factories, or stations as they were called, were erected at +points that were then on the remote frontier; where factors, clerks, +and interpreters were stationed. The factors furnished goods of all +kinds to the Indians, and received from them in exchange furs and +peltries. There was an officer in charge of all these stations called +the superintendent of Indian trade, appointed by the President. +As far back as 1821, there were stations at Prairie du Chien, +Fort Edward, Fort Osage, with branches at Chicago, Green Bay in +Arkansas, on the Red River, and other places in the then far West. +These stations were movable, and changed from time to time to suit the +convenience of the Indians. In 1822 the whole system was abolished +by act of Congress, and its affairs wound up, the American Fur Company, +the Missouri Fur Company, and a host of others having by that time +become powerful. Like the great corporations of to-day, they +succeeded in supplanting the government establishments. Of course, +the Indians of the remote plains, which included all the vast region +west of the Missouri River, never had the benefits of the government +trading establishments, but were left to the tender mercies of the +old plainsmen and trappers. + +Until the railroad reached the mountains, when the march of a wonderful +immigration closely followed, usurping the lands claimed by the +savages, and the latter were driven, perforce, upon reservations, +the winter camps of the Kiowas, Arapahoes, and Cheyennes were strung +along the Old Trail for miles, wherever a belt of timber on the margin +of the Arkansas, or its tributaries, could be found large enough to +furnish fuel for domestic purposes and cottonwood bark for the vast +herds of ponies in the severe snow-storms. + +At these various points the Indians congregated to trade with the +whites. As stated, Bent's Fort, the Pueblo Fort, and Big Timbers +were favourite resorts, and the trappers and old hunters passed a +lively three or four months every year, indulging in the amusements +I have referred to. They were also wonderful story-tellers, and +around their camp-fires many a tale of terrible adventure with Indians +and vicious animals was nightly related. + +Baptiste Brown was one of the most famous trappers. Few men had seen +more of wild life in the great prairie wilderness. He had hunted +with nearly every tribe of Indians on the plains and in the mountains, +was often at Bent's Fort, and his soul-stirring narratives made him +a most welcome guest at the camp-fire. + +He lived most of his time in the Wind River Mountains, in a beautiful +little valley named after him "Brown's Hole." It has a place on the +maps to-day, and is on what was then called Prairie River, or +Sheetskadee, by the Indians; it is now known as Green River, and is +the source of the great Colorado. + +The valley, which is several thousand feet above the sea-level, +is about fifteen miles in circumference, surrounded by lofty hills, +and is aptly, though not elegantly, characterized as a "hole." +The mountain-grass is of the most nutritious quality; groves of +cottonwood trees and willows are scattered through the sequestered +spot, and the river, which enters it from the north, is a magnificent +stream; in fact, it is the very ideal of a hunter's headquarters. + +The temperature is very equable, and at one time, years ago, hundreds +of trappers made it their winter quarters. Indians, too, of all the +northern tribes, but more especially the Arapahoes, frequented it to +trade with the white men. + +Baptiste Brown was a Canadian who spoke villanous French and worse +English; his vocabulary being largely interspersed with "enfant de +garce," "sacre," "sacre enfant," and "damn" until it was a difficult +matter to tell what he was talking about. + +He was married to an Arapahoe squaw, and his strange wooing and +winning of the dusky maiden is a thrilling love-story. + +Among the maidens who came with the Arapahoes, when that tribe made +a visit to "Brown's Hole" one winter for the purpose of trading with +the whites, was a young, merry, and very handsome girl, named "Unami," +who after a few interviews completely captured Baptiste's heart. +Nothing was more common, as I have stated, than marriages between +the trappers and a beautiful redskin. Isolated absolutely from women +of his own colour, the poor mountaineer forgets he is white, which, +considering the embrowning influence of constant exposure and sunlight, +is not so marvellous after all. For a portion of the year there is +no hunting, and then idleness is the order of the day. At such times +the mountaineer visits the lodges of his dark neighbours for amusement, +and in the spirited dance many a heart is lost to the squaws. +The young trapper, like other enamoured ones of his sex in civilization, +lingers around the house of his fair sweetheart while she transforms +the soft skin of the doe into moccasins, ornamenting them richly +with glittering beads or the coloured quills of the porcupine, all +the time lightening the long hours with the plain-songs of their tribe. +It was upon an occasion of this character that Baptiste, then in the +prime of his youthful manhood, first loved the dark-eyed Arapahoe. + +The course open to him was to woo and win her; but alas! savage papas +are just like fathers in the best civilization--the only difference +between them is that the former are more open and matter-of-fact, +since in savage etiquette a consideration is required in exchange +for the daughter, which belongs exclusively to the parent, and must +be of equal marketable value to the girl. + +The usual method is to select your best horse, take him to the lodge +of your inamorata's parents, tie him to a tree, and walk away. +If the animal is considered a fair exchange, matters are soon settled +satisfactorily; if not, other gifts must be added. + +At this juncture poor Baptiste was in a bad fix; he had disposed of +all his season's earnings for his winter's subsistence, much of which +consisted of an ample supply of whiskey and tobacco; so he had +nothing left wherewith to purchase the indispensable horse. Without +the animal no wife was to be had, and he was in a terrible predicament; +for the hunting season was long since over, and it wanted a whole +month of the time for a new starting out. + +Baptiste was a very determined man, however, and he shouldered his +rifle, intent on accomplishing by a laborious prosecution of the +chase the means of winning his loved one from her parents, +notwithstanding that the elements and the times were against him. +He worked industriously, and after many days was rewarded by a goodly +supply of beavers, otters, and mink which he had trapped, besides +many a deerskin whose wearer he had shot. Returning to his lodge, +where he cached his peltry, he again started out for the forest with +hope filling his heart. Three weeks passed in indifferent success, +when one morning, having entered a deep canyon, which evidently led +out to an open prairie where he thought game might be found, while +busy cutting his way through a thicket of briers with his knife, +he suddenly came upon a little valley, where he saw what caused him +to retrace his footsteps into the thicket. + +And here it is necessary to relate a custom peculiar to all Indian +tribes. No young man, though his father were the greatest chief in +the nation, can range himself among the warriors, be entitled to +enter the marriage state, or enjoy any other rights of savage +citizenship until he shall have performed some act of personal +bravery and daring, or be sprinkled with the blood of his enemies. +In the early springtime, therefore, all the young men who are of the +proper age band themselves together and take to the forest in search +--like the knight-errant of old--of adventure and danger. Having +decided upon a secluded and secret spot, they collect a number of +poles from twenty to thirty feet in length, and, lashing them together +at the small ends, form a huge conical lodge, which they cover with +grass and boughs. Inside they deposit various articles, with which +to "make medicine," or as a propitiatory offering to the Great Spirit; +generally a green buffalo head, kettles, scalps, blankets, and other +things of value, of which the most prominent and revered is the +sacred pipe. The party then enters the lodge and the first ceremony +is smoking this pipe. One of the young men fills it with tobacco and +herbs, places a coal on it from the fire that has been already +kindled in the lodge, and, taking the stem in his mouth, inhales the +smoke and expels it through his nostrils. The ground is touched with +the bowl, the four points of the compass are in turn saluted, and +with various ceremonies it makes the round of the lodge. After many +days of feasting and dancing the party is ready for a campaign, when +they abandon the lodge, and it is death for any one else to enter, +or by any means to desecrate it while its projectors are absent. + +It was upon one of these mystic lodges that Baptiste had accidentally +stumbled, and strange thoughts flashed through his mind; for within +the sacred place were articles, doubtless, of value more than +sufficient to purchase the necessary horse with which he could win +the fair Unami. Baptiste was sorely tempted, but there was an +instinctive respect for religion in the minds of the old trappers, +and Brown had too much honour to think of robbing the Indian temple, +although he distinctly remembered a time when a poor white trapper, +having been robbed of his poncho at the beginning of winter, made +free with a blanket he had found in one of these Arapahoe sacred +lodges. When he was brought before the medicine men of the tribe, +charged with the sacrilege, his defence, that, having been robbed, +the Great Spirit took pity on him and pointed out the blanket and +ordered him to clothe himself, was considered good, on the theory +that the Great Spirit had an undoubted right to give away his own +property; consequently the trapper was set free. + +Brown, after considering the case, was about to move away, when a hand +was laid on his shoulder, and turning round there stood before him +an Indian in full war-paint. + +The greeting was friendly, for the young savage was the brother of +Baptiste's love, to whom he had given many valuable presents during +the past season. + +"My white brother is very wakeful; he rises early." + +Baptiste laughed, and replied: "Yes, because my lodge is empty. +If I had Unami for a wife, I would not have to get out before the sun; +and I would always have a soft seat for her brother; he will be a +great warrior." + +The young brave shook his head gravely, as be pointed to his belt, +where not a scalp was to be seen, and said: "Five moons have gone +to sleep and the Arapahoe hatchet has not been raised. The Blackfeet +are dogs, and hide in their holes." + +Without adding anything to this hint that none of the young men had +been able to fulfil their vows, the disconsolate savage led the way +to the camp of the other Arapahoes, his companions in the quest for +scalps. Baptiste was very glad to see the face of a fellow-creature +once more, and he cheerfully followed the footsteps of the young brave, +which were directed away from the medicine lodge toward the rocky +canyon which he had already travelled that morning, where in the very +centre of the dark defile, and within twenty feet of where he had +recently passed, was the camp of the disappointed band. Baptiste was +cordially received, and invited to share the meal of which the party +were about to partake, after which the pipe was passed around. +In a little while the Indians began to talk among themselves by signs, +which made Baptiste feel somewhat uncomfortable, for it was apparent +that he was the object of their interest. + +They had argued that Brown's skin indicated that he belonged to the +great tribe of their natural enemies, and with the blood of a white +on their garments, they would have fulfilled the terms of their vow +to their friends and the Great Spirit. + +Noticing the trend of the debate, which would lead his friend into +trouble, the brother of Unami arose, and waving his hand said:-- + +"The Arapahoe is a warrior; his feet outstrip the fleetest horse; +his arrow is as the lightning of the Great Spirit; he is very brave. +But a cloud is between him and the sun; he cannot see his enemy; +there is yet no scalp in his lodge. The Great Spirit is good; +he sends a victim, a man whose skin is white, but his heart is very +red; the pale-face is a brother, and his long knife is turned from +his friends, the Arapahoes; but the Great Spirit is all-powerful. +My brother"--pointing to Baptiste--"is very full of blood; he can spare +a little to stain the blankets of the young men, and his heart shall +still be warm; I have spoken." + +As Baptiste expressed it: "Sacre enfant de garce; damn, de ting vas +agin my grain, but de young Arapahoe he have saved my life." + +Loud acclamation followed the speech of Unami's brother, and many of +those most clamorous against the white trapper, being actuated by +the earnest desire of returning home with their vow accomplished, +when they would be received into the list of warriors, and have wives +and other honours, were unanimous in agreeing to the proposed plan. + +A flint lancet was produced, Baptiste's arm was bared, and the blood +which flowed from the slight wound was carefully distributed, and +scattered over the robes of the delighted Arapahoes. + +The scene which followed was quite unexpected to Baptiste, who was +only glad to escape the death to which the majority had doomed him. +The Indians, perfectly satisfied that their vow of shedding an enemy's +blood had been fulfilled, were all gratitude; and to testify that +gratitude in a substantial manner each man sought his pack, and laid +at the feet of the surprised Baptiste a rich present. One gave an +otter skin, another that of a buffalo, and so on until his wealth in +furs outstripped his most sanguine expectations from his hunt. +The brother of Unami stood passively looking on until all the others +had successively honoured his guest, when he advanced toward Baptiste, +leading by its bridle a magnificent horse, fully caparisoned, and +a large pack-mule. To refuse would have been the most flagrant breach +of Indian etiquette, and beside, Brown was too alive to the advantage +that would accrue to him to be other than very thankful. + +The camp was then broken up, and the kind savages were soon lost to +Baptiste's sight as they passed down the canyon; and he, as soon as he +had gained a little strength, for he was weak from the blood he had +shed in the good cause, mounted his horse, after loading the mule +with his gifts, and made the best of his way to his lonely lodge, +where he remained several days. He then sold his furs at a good +price, as it was so early in the season, bartered for a large quantity +of knives, beads, powder, and balls, and returned to the Arapahoe +village, where the horse was considered a fair exchange for the +pretty Unami; and from that day, for over thirty years, they lived +as happy as any couple in the highest civilization. + +The fate of the Pueblo, where the trappers and hunters had such good +times in the halcyon days of the border, like that which befell +nearly all the trading-posts and ranches on the Old Santa Fe Trail, +was to be partially destroyed by the savages. During the early +months of the winter of 1854, the Utes swept down through the Arkansas +valley, leaving a track of blood behind them, and frightening the +settlers so thoroughly that many left the country never to return. +The outbreak was as sudden as it was devastating. The Pueblo was +captured by the savages, and every man, woman, and child in it +murdered, with the exception of one aged Mexican, and he was so badly +wounded that he died in a few days. + +His story was that the Utes came to the gates of the fort on Christmas +morning, professing the greatest friendship, and asking permission +to be allowed to come inside and hold a peace conference. All who +were in the fort at the time were Mexicans, and as their cupidity +led them to believe that they could do some advantageous trading +with the Indians, they foolishly permitted the whole band to enter. +The result was that a wholesale massacre followed. There were +seventeen persons in all quartered there, only one of whom escaped +death--the old man referred to--and a woman and her two children, +who were carried off as captives; but even she was killed before the +savages had gone a mile from the place. What became of the children +was never known; they probably met the same fate. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. +UNCLE JOHN SMITH. + + + +Many of the men of the border were blunt in manners, rude in speech, +driven to the absolute liberty of the far West with better natures +shattered and hopes blasted, to seek in the exciting life of the +plainsman and mountaineer oblivion of some incidents of their youthful +days, which were better forgotten. Yet these aliens from society, +these strangers to the refinements of civilization, who would tear off +a bloody scalp even with grim smiles of satisfaction, were fine +fellows, full of the milk of human kindness, and would share their +last slapjack with a hungry stranger. + +Uncle John Smith, as he was known to every trapper, trader, and +hunter from the Yellowstone to the Gila, was one of the most famous +and eccentric men of the early days. In 1826, as a boy, he ran away +from St. Louis with a party of Santa Fe traders, and so fascinated +was he with the desultory and exciting life, that he chose to sit +cross-legged, smoking the long Indian pipe, in the comfortable +buffalo-skin teepee, rather than cross legs on the broad table of +his master, a tailor to whom he had been apprenticed when he took +French leave from St. Louis. + +He spent his first winter with the Blackfeet Indians, but came very +near losing his scalp in their continual quarrels, and therefore +allied himself with the more peaceable Sioux. Once while on the +trail of a horse-stealing band of Arapahoes near the head waters +of the Arkansas, the susceptible young hunter fell in love with +a very pretty Cheyenne squaw, married her, and remained true to the +object of his early affection during all his long and eventful life, +extending over a period of forty years. For many decades he lived +with his dusky wife as the Indians did, having been adopted by the +tribe. He owned a large number of horses, which constituted the +wealth of the plains Indians, upon the sale of which he depended +almost entirely for his subsistence. He became very powerful in the +Cheyenne nation; was regarded as a chief, taking an active part in +the councils, and exercising much authority. His excellent judgment +as a trader with the various bands of Indians while he was employed +by the great fur companies made his services invaluable in the +strange business complications of the remote border. Besides +understanding the Cheyenne language as well as his native tongue, +he also spoke three other Indian dialects, French, and Spanish, but +with many Western expressions that sometimes grated harshly upon +the grammatical ear. + +He became a sort of autocrat on the plains and in the mountains; and +for an Indian or Mexican to attempt to effect a trade without Uncle +John Smith having something to say about it, and its conditions, was +hardly possible. The New Mexicans often came in small parties to his +Indian village, their burros packed with dry pumpkin, corn, etc., +to trade for buffalo-robes, bearskins, meat, and ponies; and Smith, +who knew his power, exacted tribute, which was always paid. At one +time, however, when for some reason a party of strange Mexicans +refused, Uncle John harangued the people of the village, and called +the young warriors together, who emptied every sack of goods belonging +to the cowering Mexicans on the ground, Smith ordering the women and +children to help themselves, an order which was obeyed with alacrity. +The frightened Mexicans left hurriedly for El Valle de Taos, whence +they had come, crossing themselves and uttering thanks to Heaven for +having retained their scalps. This and other similar cases so +intimidated the poor Greasers, and impressed them so deeply with +a sense of Smith's power, that, ever after, his permission to trade +was craved by a special deputation of the parties, accompanied by +peace-offerings of corn, pumpkin, and pinole. At one time, when +Smith was journeying by himself a day's ride from the Cheyenne village, +he was met by a party of forty or more corn traders, who, instead of +putting such a bane to their prospects speedily out of the way, +gravely asked him if they could proceed, and offered him every third +robe they had to accompany them, which he did. Indeed, he became so +regardless of justice, in his condescension to the natives of +New Mexico, that the governor of that province offered a reward of +five hundred dollars for him alive or dead, but fear of the Cheyennes +was so prevalent that his capture was never even attempted. + +During Sheridan's memorable winter campaign against the allied tribes +in 1868-69, the old man, for he was then about sixty, was my guide +and interpreter. He shared my tent and mess, a most welcome addition +to the few who sat at my table, and beguiled many a weary hour at +night, after our tedious marches through the apparently interminable +sand dunes and barren stretches of our monotonous route, with his +tales of that period, more than half a century ago, when our +mid-continent region was as little known as the topography of the +planet Mars. + +At the close of December, 1868, a few weeks after the battle of the +Washita, I was camping with my command on the bank of that historic +stream in the Indian Territory, waiting with an immense wagon-train +of supplies for the arrival of General Custer's command, the famous +Seventh Cavalry, and also the Nineteenth Kansas, which were supposed +to be lost, or wandering aimlessly somewhere in the region south of us. + +I had been ordered to that point by General Sheridan, with instructions +to keep fires constantly burning on three or four of the highest +peaks in the vicinity of our camp, until the lost troops should be +guided to the spot by our signals. These signals were veritable +pillars of fire by night and pillars of cloud by day; for there was +an abundance of wood and hundreds of men ready to feed the hungry flames. + +It was more than two weeks before General Custer and his famished +troopers began to straggle in. During that period of anxious waiting +we lived almost exclusively on wild turkey, and longed for nature's +meat--the buffalo; but there were none of the shaggy beasts at that +time in the vicinity, so we had to content ourselves with the birds, +of which we became heartily tired. + +For several days after our arrival on the creek, the men had been +urging Uncle John to tell them another story of his early adventures; +but the old trapper was in one of his silent moods--he frequently had +them--and could not be persuaded to emerge from his shell of reticence +despite their most earnest entreaties. I knew it would be of no use +for me to press him. I could, of course, order him to any duty, and +he would promptly obey; but his tongue, like the hand of Douglas, +was his own. I knew, also, that when he got ready, which would be +when some incident of camp-life inspired him, he would be as garrulous +as ever. + +One evening just before supper, a party of enlisted men who had been +up the creek to catch fish, but had failed to take anything owing to +the frozen condition of the stream, returned with the skeleton of +a Cheyenne Indian which they had picked up on the battle-ground of +a month previously--one of Custer's victims in his engagement with +Black Kettle. This was the incentive Uncle John required. As he +gazed on the bleached bones of the warrior, he said: "Boys, I'm going +to tell you a good long story to-night. Them Ingin's bones has put +me in mind of it. After we've eat, if you fellows wants to hear it, +come down to headquarters tent, and I'll give it to you." + +Of course word was rapidly passed from one to another, as the whole +camp was eager to hear the old trapper again. In a short time, +every man not on guard or detailed to keep up the signals on the +hills gathered around the dying embers of the cook's fire in front of +my tent; the enlisted men and teamsters in groups by themselves, +the officers a little closer in a circle, in the centre of which +Uncle John sat. + +The night was cold, the sky covered with great fleecy patches, +through which the full moon, just fairly risen, appeared to be racing, +under the effect of that optical illusion caused by the rapidly +moving clouds. The coyotes had commenced their nocturnal concert +in the timbered recesses of the creek not far away, and on the +battle-field a short distance beyond, as they battened and fought +over the dead warriors and the carcasses of twelve hundred ponies +killed in that terrible slaughter by the intrepid Custer and his +troopers. The signals on the hills leaped into the crisp air like +the tongues of dragons in the myths of the ancients; in fact, +the whole aspect of the place, as we sat around the blazing logs of +our camp-fire, was weird and uncanny. + +Every one was eager for the veteran guide to begin his tale; but as +I knew he could not proceed without smoking, I passed him my pouch +of Lone Jack--the brand par excellence in the army at that time. + +Uncle John loaded his corn-cob, picked up a live coal, and, pressing +it down on the tobacco with his thumb, commenced to puff vigorously. +As soon as his withered old face was half hidden in a cloud of smoke, +he opened his story in his stereotyped way. I relate it just as he +told it, but divested of much of its dialect, so difficult to write:-- + +"Well, boys, it's a good many years ago, in June, 1845, if I don't +disremember. I was about forty-three, and had been in the mountains +and on the plains more than nineteen seasons. You see, I went out +there in 1826. There warn't no roads, nuthin' but the Santa Fe Trail, +in them days, and Ingins and varmints. + +"There was four of us. Me, Bill Comstock, Dick Curtis, and Al Thorpe. +Dick was took in by the Utes two years afterwards at the foot of the +Spanish Peaks, and Al was killed by the Apaches at Pawnee Rock, in 1847. + +"We'd been trapping up on Medicine Bow for more than three years +together, and had a pile of beaver, otter, mink, and other varmint's +skins cached in the hills, which we know'd was worth a heap of money; +so we concluded to take them to the river that summer. We started +from our trapping camp in April, and 'long 'bout the middle of June +reached the Arkansas, near what is know'd as Point o' Rocks. You all +know where them is on the Trail west of Fort Dodge, and how them +rocks rises up out of the prairie sudden-like. We was a travelling +'long mighty easy, for we was all afoot, and had hoofed it the whole +distance, more than six hundred miles, driving five good mules ahead +of us. Our furs was packed on four of them, and the other carried +our blankets, extry ammunition, frying-pan, coffee-pot, and what +little grub we had, for we was obliged to depend upon buffalo, +antelope, and jack-rabbits; but, boys, I tell you there was millions +of 'em in them days. + +"We had just got into camp at Point o' Rocks. It was 'bout four +o'clock in the afternoon; none of us carried watches, we always +reckoned time by the sun, and could generally guess mighty close, too. +It was powerful hot, I remember. We'd hobbled our mules close to the +ledge, where the grass was good, so they couldn't be stampeded, as +we know'd we was in the Pawnee country, and they was the most ornery +Ingins on the plains. We know'd nothing that was white ever came by +that part of the Trail without having a scrimmage with the red devils. + +"Well, we hadn't more than took our dinner, when them mules give +a terrible snort, and tried to break and run, getting awful oneasy +all to once. Them critters can tell when Ingins is around. They's +better than a dozen dogs. I don't know how they can tell, but they +just naturally do. + +"In less than five minutes after them mules began to worry, stopped +eating, and had their ears pricked up a trying to look over the ledge +towards the river, we heard a sharp firing down on the Trail, which +didn't appear to be more than a hundred yards off. You ought to seen +us grab our rifles sudden, and run out from behind them rocks, where +we was a camping, so comfortable-like, and just going to light our +pipes for a good smoke. It didn't take us no time to get down on to +the Trail, where we seen a Mexican bull train, that we know'd must +have come from Santa Fe, and which had stopped and was trying to corral. +More than sixty painted Pawnees was a circling around the outfit, +howling as only them can howl, and pouring a shower of arrows into +the oxen. Some was shaking their buffalo-robes, trying to stampede +the critters, so they could kill the men easier. + +"We lit out mighty lively, soon as we seen what was going on, and +reached the head of the train just as the last wagon, that was +furtherest down the Trail, nigh a quarter of a mile off, was cut out +by part of the band. Then we seen a man, a woman, and a little boy +jump out, and run to get shet of the Ingins what had cut out the +wagon from the rest of the train. One of the red devils killed the +man and scalped him, while the other pulled the woman up in front +of him, and rid off into the sand hills, and out of sight in a minute. +Then the one what had killed her husband started for the boy, who was +a running for the train as fast as his little legs could go. But we +was nigh enough then; and just as the Ingin was reaching down from +his pony for the kid, Al Thorpe--he was a powerful fine shot--draw'd up +his gun and took the red cuss off his critter without the paint-bedaubed +devil know'n' what struck him. + +"The boy, seeing us, broke and run for where we was, and I reckon +the rest of the Ingins seen us then for the first time, too. We was +up with the train now, which was kind o' halfway corralled, and +Dick Curtis picked up the child--he warn't more than seven years old-- +and throw'd him gently into one of the wagons, where he'd be out of +the way; for we know'd there was going to be considerable more +fighting before night. We know'd, too, we Americans would have to do +the heft of it, as them Mexican bull-whackers warn't much account, +nohow, except to cavort around and swear in Spanish, which they +hadn't done nothing else since we'd come up to the train; besides, +their miserable guns warn't much better than so many bows and arrows. + +"We Americans talked together for a few moments as to what was best +to be did, while the Ingins all this time was keeping up a lively +fire for them. We made as strong a corral of the wagons as we could, +driving out what oxen the Mexicans had put in the one they had made, +but you can't do much with only nine wagons, nohow. Fortunately, +while we was fixing things, the red cusses suddenly retreated out of +the range of our rifles, and we first thought they had cleared out +for good. We soon discovered, however, they were only holding a +pow-wow; for in a few minutes back they come, mounted on their ponies, +with all their fixin's and fresh war-paint on. + +"Then they commenced to circle around us again, coming a little +nearer--Ingin fashion--every time they rid off and back. It wasn't +long before they got in easy range, when they slung themselves on +the off-side of their ponies and let fly their arrows and balls from +under their critters' necks. Their guns warn't much 'count, being +only old English muskets what had come from the Hudson Bay Fur Company, +so they didn't do no harm that round, except to scare the Mexicans, +which commenced to cross themselves and pray and swear. + +"We four Americans warn't idle when them Ingins come a charging up; +we kept our eye skinned, and whenever we could draw a bead, one of +them tumbled off his pony, you bet! When they'd come back for their +dead--we'd already killed three of them--we had a big advantage, wasted +no shots, and dropped four of them; one apiece, and you never heard +Ingins howl so. It was getting kind o' dark by this time, and the +varmints didn't seem anxious to fight any more, but went down to the +river and scooted off into the sand hills on the other side. +We waited more than half an hour for them, but as they didn't come +back, concluded we'd better light out too. We told the Mexicans to +yoke up, and as good luck would have it they found all the cattle +close by, excepting them what pulled the wagon what the Ingins had +cut out, and as it was way down the Trail, we had to abandon it; +for it was too dark to hunt it up, as we had no time to fool away. + +"We put all our outfit into the train; it wasn't loaded, but going +empty to the Missouri, to fetch back a sawmill for New Mexico. +Then we made a soft bed in the middle wagon out of blankets for the +kid, and rolled out 'bout ten o'clock, meaning to put as many miles +between us and them Ingins as the oxen could stand. We four hoofed it +along for a while, then rid a piece, catching a nap now and then as +best we could, for we was monstrous tired. By daylight we'd made +fourteen miles, and was obliged to stop to let the cattle graze. +We boiled our coffee, fried some meat, and by that time the little +boy waked. He'd slept like a top all night and hadn't no supper +either; so when I went to the wagon where he was to fetch him out, +he just put them baby arms of his'n around my neck, and says, +'Where's mamma?' + +"I tell you, boys, that nigh played me out. He had no idee, 'cause +he was too young to realize what had happened; we know'd his pa was +killed, but where his ma was, God only know'd!" + +Here the old man stopped short in his narrative, made two or three +efforts as if to swallow something that would not go down, while his +eyes had a far-away look. Presently he picked up a fresh coal from +the fire, placed it on his pipe, which had gone out, then puffing +vigorously for a few seconds, until his head was again enveloped in +smoke, he continued:-- + +"After I'd washed the little fellow's face and hands, I gave him a +tin cup of coffee and some meat. You'd ought to seen him eat; he was +hungrier than a coyote. Then while the others was a watering and +picketing the mules, I sot down on the grass and took the kid into +my lap to have a good look at him; for until now none of us had had +a chance. + +"He was the purtiest child I'd ever seen; great black eyes, and +eyelashes that laid right on to his cheeks; his hair, too, was black, +and as curly as a young big-horn. I asked him what his name was, and +he says, 'Paul.' 'Hain't you got no other name?' says I to him again, +and he answered, 'Yes, sir,' for he was awful polite; I noticed that. +'Paul Dale,' says he prompt-like, and them big eyes of his'n looked +up into mine, as he says 'What be yourn?' I told him he must call me +'Uncle John,' and then he says again, as he put his arms around my +neck, his little lips all a quivering, and looking so sorrowful, +'Uncle John, where's mamma; why don't she come?' + +"Boys, I don't really know what I did say. A kind o' mist came +before my eyes, and for a minute or two I didn't know nothing. +I come to in a little while, and seeing Thorpe bringing up the mules +from the river, where he'd been watering them, I says to Paul, to get +his mind on to something else besides his mother, 'Don't you want to +ride one of them mules when we pull out again?' The little fellow +jumped off my lap, clapped his hands, forgetting his trouble all at +once, child-like, and replied, 'I do, Uncle John, can I?' + +"After we'd camped there 'bout three hours, the cattle full of grass +and all laying down chewing their cud, we concluded to move on and +make a few miles before it grow'd too hot, and to get further from +the Ingins, which we expected would tackle us again, as soon as they +could get back from their camp, where we felt sure they had gone for +reinforcements. + +"While the Mexicans was yoking up, me and Thorpe rigged an easy +saddle on one of the mules, out of blankets, for the kid to ride on, +and when we was all ready to pull out, I histed him on, and you never +see a youngster so tickled. + +"We had to travel mighty slow; couldn't make more than eighteen miles +a day with oxen, and that was in two drives, one early in the morning, +and one in the evening when it was cool, a laying by and grazing when +it was hot. We Americans walked along the Trail, and mighty slow +walking it was; 'bout two and a half miles an hour. I kept close +to Paul, for I began to set a good deal of store by him; he seemed +to cotton to me more than he did to the rest, wanting to stick near +me most of the time as he rid on the mule. I wanted to find out +something 'bout his folks, where they'd come from; so that when we +got to Independence, perhaps I could turn him over to them as ought +to have him; though in my own mind I was ornery enough to wish I +might never find them, and he'd be obliged to stay with me. The boy +was too young to tell what I wanted to find out; all I could get out +of him was they'd been living in Santa Fe since he was a baby, and +that his papa was a preacher. I 'spect one of them missionaries +'mong the heathenish Greasers. He said they was going back to his +grandma's in the States, but he could not tell where. I couldn't +get nothing out of them Mexican bull-whackers neither--what they +know'd wasn't half as much as the kid--and I had to give it up. + +"Well, we kept moving along without having any more trouble for +a week; them Ingins never following us as we 'lowed they would. +I really enjoyed the trip such as I never had before. Paul he was +so 'fectionate and smart, that he 'peared to fill a spot in my heart +what had always been hollow until then. When he'd got tired of +riding the mule or in one of the wagons, he'd come and walk along +the Trail with me, a picking flowers, chasing the prairie-owls and +such, until his little legs 'bout played out, when I'd hist him on +his mule again. When we'd go into camp, Paul, he'd run and pick up +buffalo-chips for the fire, and wanted to help all he could. +Then when it came time to go to sleep, the boy would always get under +my blankets and cuddle up close to me. He'd be sure to say his +prayers first, though; but it seemed so strange to me who hadn't +heard a prayer for thirty years. I never tried to stop him, you may +be certain of that. He'd ask God to bless his pa and ma, and wind up +with 'Bless Uncle John too.' Then I couldn't help hugging him right +up tighter; for it carried me back to Old Missouri, to the log-cabin +in the woods where I was born, and used to say 'Now I lay me,' and +'Our Father' at my ma's knee, when I was a kid like him. I tell you, +boys, there ain't nothing that will take the conceit out of a man +here on the plains, like the company of a kid what has been +brought up right. + +"I reckon we'd been travelling about ten days since we left Point o' +Rocks, and was on the other side of the Big Bend of the Arkansas, +near the mouth of the Walnut, where Fort Zarah is now. We had went +into camp at sundown, close to a big spring that's there yet. +We drawed up the wagons into a corral on the edge of the river where +there wasn't no grass for quite a long stretch; we done this to kind +o' fortify ourselves, for we expected to have trouble with the Ingins +there, if anywhere, as we warn't but seventeen miles from Pawnee Rock, +the worst place on the whole Trail for them; so we picked out that +bare spot where they couldn't set fire to the prairie. It was long +after dark when we eat our supper; then we smoked our pipes, waiting +for the oxen to fill themselves, which had been driven about a mile +off where there was good grass. The Mexicans was herding them, and +when they'd eat all they could hold, and was commencing to lay down, +they was driven into the corral. Then all of us, except Comstock and +Curtis, turned in; they was to stand guard until 'bout one o'clock, +when me and Thorpe was to change places with them and stay up until +morning; for, you see, we was afraid to trust them Mexicans. + +"It seemed like we hadn't been asleep more than an hour when me and +Thorpe was called to take our turn on guard. We got out of our +blankets, I putting Paul into one of the wagons, then me and Thorpe +lighted our pipes and walked around, keeping our eyes and ears open, +watching the heavy fringe of timber on the creek mighty close, I tell +you. Just as daylight was coming, we noticed that our mules, what +was tied to a wagon in the corral, was getting uneasy, a pawing and +snorting, with their long ears cocked up and looking toward the Walnut. +Before I could finish saying to Thorpe, 'Them mules smells Ingins,' +half a dozen or more of the darned cusses dashed out of the timber, +yelling and shaking their robes, which, of course, waked up the whole +camp. Me and Thorpe sent a couple of shots after them, that scattered +the devils for a minute; but we hadn't hit nary one, because it was +too dark yet to draw a bead on them. We was certain there was a good +many more of them behind the first that had charged us; so we got all +the men on the side of the corral next to the Trail. The Ingins we +know'd couldn't get behind us, on account of the river, and we was +bound to make them fight where we wanted them to, if they meant to +fight at all. + +"In less than a minute, quicker than I can tell you, sure enough, +out they came again, only there was 'bout eighty of them this time. +They made a dash at once, and their arrows fell like a shower of hail +on the ground and against the wagon-sheets as the cusses swept by on +their ponies. There wasn't anybody hurt, and our turn soon came. +Just as they circled back, we poured it into them, killing six and +wounding two. You see them Mexican guns had did some work that we +didn't expect, and then we Americans felt better. Well, boys, +them varmints made four charges like that on to us before we could +get shet of them; but we killed as many as sixteen or eighteen, and +they got mighty sick of it and quit; they had only knocked over one +Mexican, and put an arrow into Thorpe's arm. + +"I was amused at little Paul all the time the scrimmage was going on. +He stood up in the wagon where I'd put him, a looking out of the hole +behind where the sheet was drawed together, and every time an Ingin +was tumbled off his pony, he would clap his hands and yell, 'There +goes another one, Uncle John!' + +"After their last charge, they rode off out of range, where they +stood in little bunches talking to each other, holding some sort of +a pow-wow. It riled us to see the darned cusses keep so far away +from our rifles, because we wanted to lay a few more of them out, but +was obliged to keep still and watch out for some new deviltry. +We waited there until it was plumb night, not daring to move out yet; +but we managed to boil our coffee and fry slap-jacks and meat. + +"The oxen kept up a bellowing and pawing around the corral, for they +was desperate hungry and thirsty, hadn't had nothing since the night +before; yet we couldn't help them any, as we didn't know whether we +was shet of the Ingins or not. We staid, patient-like, for two or +three hours more after dark to see what the Ingins was going to do, +as while we sot round our little fire of buffalo-chips, smoking our +pipes, we could still hear the red devils a howling and chanting, +while they picked up their dead laying along the river-bottom. + +"As soon as morning broke--we'd ketched a nap now and then during +the night--we got ready for another charge of the Ingins, their +favourite time being just 'bout daylight; but there warn't hide or +hair of an Ingin in sight. They'd sneaked off in the darkness long +before the first streak of dawn; had enough of fighting, I expect. +As soon as we discovered they'd all cleared out, we told the drivers +to hitch up, and while they was yoking and watering, me 'n' Curtis +and Comstock buried the dead Mexican on the bank of the river, as we +didn't want to leave his bones to be picked by the coyotes, which +was already setting on the sand hills watching and waiting for us +to break camp. By the time we'd finished our job, and piled some +rocks on his grave, so as the varmints couldn't dig him up, the train +was strung out on the Trail, and then we rolled out mighty lively +for oxen; for the critters was hungry, and we had to travel three +or four miles the other side of the Walnut, where the grass was green, +before they could feed. The oxen seen it on the hills and they +lit out almost at a trot. It was 'bout sun-up when we got there, +when we turned the animals loose, corralled, and had breakfast. + +"After we'd had our smoke, all we had to do was to put in the time +until five o'clock; for we couldn't move before then, as it would be +too hot by the time the oxen got filled. Paul and me went down to +the creek fishing; there was tremendous cat in the Walnut them days, +and by noon we'd ketched five big beauties, which we took to camp and +cooked for dinner. After I'd had my smoke, Paul and me went back to +the creek, where we stretched ourselves under a good-sized box-elder +tree--there wasn't no shade nowhere else--and took a sleep, while +Comstock and Curtis went jack-rabbit hunting across the river, as we +was getting scarce of meat. + +"Thorpe, who was hit in the arm with an arrow, couldn't do much but +nuss his wound; so him and the Mexicans stood guard, a looking out +for Ingins, as we didn't know but what the cusses might come back and +make another raid on us, though we really didn't expect they would +have the gall to bother us any more--least not the same outfit what +had fought us the day before. That evening, 'bout six o'clock, +we rolled out again and went into camp late, having made twelve miles, +and didn't see a sign of Ingins. + +"In ten days more we got to Independence without having no more +trouble of no kind, and was surprised at our luck. At Independence +we Americans left the train, sold our furs, got a big price, too-- +each of us had a shot-bag full of gold and silver, more money than +we know'd what to do with. Me, Curtis, and Thorpe concluded we'd buy +a new outfit, consisting of another six-mule wagon, and harness, +so we'd have a full team, meaning to go back to the mountains with +the first big caravan what left. + +"All the folks in the settlement what seen Paul took a great fancy +to him. Some wanted to adopt him, and some said I'd ought to take +him to St. Louis and place him in an orphan asylum; but I 'lowed if +there was going to be any adopting done, I'd do it myself, 'cause +the kid seemed now just as if he was my own; besides the little +fellow I know'd loved me and didn't want me to leave him. I had +kin-folks in Independence, an old aunt, and me and Paul staid there. +She had a young gal with her, and she learned Paul out of books; +so he picked up considerable, as we had to wait more than two months +before Colonel St. Vrain's caravan was ready to start for New Mexico. + +"I bought Paul a coal-black pony, and had a suit of fine buckskin +made for him out of the pelt of a black-tail deer I'd shot the winter +before on Powder River. The seams of his trousers was heavily +fringed, and with his white sombrero, a riding around town on his +pony, he looked like one of them Spanish Dons what the papers +nowadays has pictures of; only he was smarter-looking than any Don +I ever see in my life. + +"It was 'bout the last of August when we pulled out from Independence. +Comstock staid with us until we got ready to go, and then lit out +for St. Louis, and I hain't never seen him since. The caravan had +seventy-five six-mule teams in it, without counting ours, loaded with +dry-goods and groceries for Mora, New Mexico, where Colonel St. Vrain, +the owner, lived and had a big store. We had no trouble with the +Ingins going back across the plains; we seen lots, to be sure, +hanging on our trail, but they never attacked us; we was too strong +for them. + +"'Bout the last of September we reached Bent's Old Fort, on the +Arkansas, where the Santa Fe Trail crosses the river into New Mexico, +and we camped there the night we got to it. + +"I know'd they had cows up to the fort; so just before we was ready +for supper, I took Paul and started to see if we couldn't get some +milk for our coffee. It wasn't far, and we was camped a few hundred +yards from the gate, just outside the wall. Well, we went into the +kitchen, Paul right alongside of me, and there I seen a white woman +leaning over the adobe hearth a cooking--they had always only been +squaws before. She naturally looked up to find out who was coming in, +and when she seen the kid, all at once she give a scream, dropped the +dish-cloth she had in her hand, made a break for Paul, throw'd her +arms around him, nigh upsetting me, and says, while she was a sobbing +and taking on dreadful,-- + +"'My boy! My boy! Then I hain't prayed and begged the good Lord +all these days and nights for nothing!' Then she kind o' choked +again, while Paul, he says, as he hung on to her,-- + +"'O mamma! O mamma! I know'd you'd come back! I know'd you'd +come back!' + +"Well, there, boys, I just walked out of that kitchen a heap faster +than I'd come into it, and shut the door. When I got outside, for +a few minutes I couldn't see nothing, I was worked up so. As soon +as I come to, I went through the gate down to camp as quick as my +legs would carry me, to tell Thorpe and Curtis that Paul had found +his ma. They wanted to know all about it, but I couldn't tell them +nothing, I was so dumfounded at the way things had turned out. +We talked among ourselves a moment, then reckoned it was the best +to go up to the fort together, and ask the woman how on earth she'd +got shet of the Ingins what had took her off, and how it come she +was cooking there. We started out and when we got into the kitchen, +there was Paul and Mrs. Dale, and you never see no people so happy. +They was just as wild as a stampeded steer; she seemed to have growed +ten years younger than when I first went up there, and as for Paul, +he was in heaven for certain. + +"First we had to tell her how we'd got the kid, and how we'd learned +to love him. All the time we was telling of it, and our scrimmages +with the Ingins, she was a crying and hugging Paul as if her heart +was broke. After we'd told all we know'd, we asked her to tell us +her story, which she did, and it showed she was a woman of grit and +education. + +"She said the Ingins what had captured her took her up to their camp +on the Saw Log, a little creek north of Fort Dodge--you all know where +it is--and there she staid that night. Early in the morning they all +started for the north. She watched their ponies mighty close as +they rid along that day, so as to find out which was the fastest; +for she had made up her mind to make her escape the first chance +she got. She looked at the sun once in a while, to learn what course +they was taking; so that she could go back when she got ready, strike +the Sante Fe Trail, and get to some ranch, as she had seen several +while passing through the foot-hills of the Raton Range when she was +with the Mexican train. + +"It was on the night of the fourth day after they had left Saw Log, +and had rid a long distance--was more than a hundred miles on their +journey--when she determined to try and light out. The whole camp +was fast asleep, for the Ingins was monstrous tired. She crawled +out of the lodge where she'd been put with some old squaws, and +going to where the ponies had been picketed, she took a little +iron-gray she'd had her eye on, jumped on his back, with only the +lariat for a bridle and without any saddle, not even a blanket, +took her bearings from the north star, and cautiously moved out. +She started on a walk, until she'd got 'bout four miles from camp, +and then struck a lope, keeping it up all night. By next morning +she'd made some forty miles, and then for the first time since she'd +left her lodge, pulled up and looked back, to see if any of the Ingins +was following her. When she seen there wasn't a living thing in sight, +she got off her pony, watered him out of a small branch, took a drink +herself, but not daring to rest yet, mounted her animal again and +rid on as fast as she could without wearing him out too quickly. + +"Hour after hour she rid on, the pony appearing to have miraculous +endurance, until sundown. By that time she'd crossed the Saline, +the Smoky Hill, and got to the top of the divide between that river +and the Arkansas, or not more than forty miles from the Santa Fe Trail. +Then her wonderful animal seemed to weaken; she couldn't even make +him trot, and she was so nearly played out herself, she could hardly +set steady. What to do, she didn't know. The pony was barely able +to move at a slow walk. She was afraid he would drop dead under her, +and she was compelled to dismount, and in almost a minute, as soon +as she laid down on the prairie, was fast asleep. + +"She had no idee how long she had slept when she woke up. The sun was +only 'bout two hours high. Then she know'd she had been unconscious +since sundown of the day before, or nigh twenty-four hours. Rubbing +her eyes, for she was kind o' bewildered, and looking around, there +she saw her pony as fresh, seemingly, as when she'd started. +He'd had plenty to eat, for the grass was good, but she'd had nothing. +She pulled a little piece of dried buffalo-meat out of her bosom, +which she'd brought along, all she could find at the lodge, and now +nibbled at that, for she was mighty hungry. She was terribly sore +and stiff too, but she mounted at once and pushed on, loping and +walking him by spells. Just at daylight she could make out the +Arkansas right in front of her in the dim gray of the early morning, +not very far off. On the west, the Raton Mountains loomed up like +a great pile of blue clouds, the sight of which cheered her; for she +know'd she would soon reach the Trail. + +"It wasn't quite noon when she struck the Santa Fe Trail. When she +got there, looking to the east, she saw in the distance, not more +than three miles away, a large caravan coming, and then, almost wild +with delight, she dismounted, sot down on the grass, and waited for +it to arrive. In less than an hour, the train come up to where she +was, and as good luck would have it, it happened to be an American +outfit, going to Taos with merchandise. As soon as the master of +the caravan seen her setting on the prairie, he rid up ahead of the +wagons, and she told him her story. He was a kind-hearted man; +had the train stop right there on the bank of the river, though he +wasn't half through his day's drive, so as to make her comfortable +as possible, and give her something to eat; for she was 'bout +played out. He bought the Ingin pony, giving her thirty dollars +for it, and after she had rested for some time, the caravan moved out. +She rid in one of the wagons, on a bed of blankets, and the next +evening arrived at Bent's Old Fort. There she found women-folks, +who cared for her and nussed her; for she was dreadfully sore and +tired after her long ride. Then she was hired to cook, meaning to +work until she'd earned enough to take her back to Pennsylvany, +to her mother's, where she had started for when the Ingins attackted +the train. + +"That night, after listening to her mirac'lous escape, we made up +a 'pot' for her, collecting 'bout eight hundred dollars. The master +of Colonel St. Vrain's caravan, what had come out with us, told her +he was going back again to the river in a couple of weeks, and he'd +take her and Paul in without costing her a cent; besides, she'd be +safer than with any other outfit, as his train was a big one, and +he had all American teamsters. + +"Next morning the caravan went on to Mora, and after we'd bid good-by +to Mrs. Dale and Paul, before which I give the boy two hundred dollars +for himself, me, Thorpe, and Curtis pulled out with our team north +for Frenchman's Creek, and I never felt so miserable before nor since +as I did parting with the kid that morning. I hain't never seen him +since; but he must be nigh forty now. Mebby he went into the war and +was killed; mebby he got to be a general, but I hain't forgot him." + +Uncle John knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and without saying +another word went into the tent. In a few moments the camp was as +quiet as a country village on Sunday, excepting the occasional howling +of a hungry wolf down in the timbered recesses of the Washita, or the +crackling and sputtering of the signal fires on the hilltops. + +In a few days afterward, we were camping on Hackberry Creek, in the +Indian Territory. We had been living on wild turkey, as before for +some time, and still longed for a change. At last one of my hunters +succeeded in bagging a dozen or more quails. Late that evening, +when my cook brought the delicious little birds, beautifully spitted +and broiled on peeled willow twigs, into my tent, I passed one to +Uncle John. Much to the surprise of every one, he refused. He said, +"Boys, I don't eat no quail!" + +We looked at him in astonishment; for he was somewhat of a gourmand, +and prided himself upon the "faculty," as he termed it, of being able +to eat anything, from a piece of jerked buffalo-hide to the juiciest +young antelope steak. + +I remonstrated with the venerable guide; said to him, "You are making +a terrible mistake, Uncle John. Tomorrow I expect to leave here, and +as we are going directly away from the buffalo country, we don't know +when we shall strike fresh meat again. You'd better try one," and +I again proffered one of the birds. + +"Boys," said he again, "I don't tech quail; I hain't eat one for +more than twenty years. One of the little cusses saved my life once, +and I swore right thar and then that I would starve first; and I have +kept my oath, though I've seen the time mighty often sence I could +a killed 'em with my quirt, when all I had to chaw on for four days +was the soles of a greasy pair of old moccasins. + +"Well, boys, it's a good many years ago--in June, if I don't disremember, +1847. We was a coming in from way up in Cache le Poudre and from +Yellowstone Lake, whar we'd been a trapping for two seasons. We was +a working our way slowly back to Independence, Missouri, where we was +a going to get a new outfit. Let's see, there was me, and a man by +the name of Boyd, and Lew Thorp--Lew was a working for Colonel Boone +at the time--and two more men, whose names I disremember now, and a +nigger wench we had for a cook. We had mighty good luck, and had +a big pile of skins; and the Indians never troubled us till we got +down on Pawnee Bottom, this side of Pawnee Rock. We all of us had +mighty good ponies, but Thorp had a team and wagon, which he was +driving for Colonel Boone. + +"We had went into camp on Pawnee Bottom airly in the afternoon, and +I told the boys to look out for Ingins--for I knowed ef we was to have +any trouble with them it would be somewhere in that vicinity. But we +didn't see a darned redskin that night, nor the sign of one. + +"The wolves howled considerable, and come pretty close to the fire +for the bacon rinds we'd throwed away after supper. + +"You see the buffalo was scurse right thar then--it was the wrong +time o' year. They generally don't get down on to the Arkansas +till about September, and when they're scurse the wolves and coyotes +are mighty sassy, and will steal a piece of bacon rind right out of +the pan, if you don't watch 'em. So we picketed our ponies a little +closer before we turned in, and we all went to sleep except one, +who sort o' kept watch on the stock. + +"I was out o' my blankets mighty airly next morning, for I was kind +o' suspicious. I could always tell when Ingins was prowling around, +and I had a sort of present'ment something was going to happen +--I didn't like the way the coyotes kept yelling--so I rested kind o' +oneasy like, and was out among the ponies by the first streak o' +daylight. + +"About the time I could see things, I discovered three or four +buffalo grazing off on the creek bottom, about a half-mile away, +and I started for my rifle, thinking I would examine her. + +"Pretty soon I seed Thorp and Boyd crawl out o' their blankets, too, +and I called their attention to the buffalo, which was still feeding +undisturbed. + +"We'd been kind o' scurse of fresh meat for a couple of weeks--ever +since we left the Platte--except a jack-rabbit or cottontail, and I +knowed the boys would be wanting to get a quarter or two of a good +fat cow, if we could find one in the herd, so that was the reason +I pointed 'em out to 'em. + +"The dew, you see, was mighty heavy, and the grass in the bottom +was as wet as if it had been raining for a month, and I didn't care +to go down whar the buffalo was just then--I knowed we had plenty +of time, and as soon as the sun was up it would dry right off. So I +got on to one of the ponies and led the others down to the spring +near camp to water them while the wench was a getting breakfast, and +some o' the rest o' the outfit was a fixing the saddles and greasing +the wagon. + +"Just as I was coming back--it had growed quite light then--I seed Boyd +and Thorp start out from camp with their rifles and make for the +buffalo; so I picketed the ponies, gets my rifle, and starts off too. + +"By the time I'd reached the edge of the bottom, Thorp and Boyd was +a crawling up on to a young bull way off to the right, and I lit out +for a fat cow I seen bunched up with the rest of the herd on the left. + +"The grass was mighty tall on some parts of the Arkansas bottom in them +days, and I got within easy shooting range without the herd seeing me. + +"The buffalo was now between me and Thorp and Boyd, and they was +furtherest from camp. I could see them over the top of the grass +kind o' edging up to the bull, and I kept a crawling on my hands and +knees toward the cow, and when I got about a hundred and fifty yards +of her, I pulled up my rifle and drawed a bead. + +"Just as I was running my eyes along the bar'l, a darned little quail +flew right out from under my feet and lit exactly on my front sight +and of course cut off my aim--we didn't shoot reckless in those days; +every shot had to tell, or a man was the laughing-stock for a month +if he missed his game. + +"I shook the little critter off and brought up my rifle again when, +durn my skin, if the bird didn't light right on to the same place; +at the same time my eyes grow'd kind o' hazy-like and in a minute +I didn't know nothing. + +"When I come to, the quail was gone, I heerd a couple of rifle shots, +and right in front of where the bull had stood and close to Thorp and +Boyd, half a dozen Ingins jumped up out o' the tall grass and, firing +into the two men, killed Thorp instantly and wounded Boyd. + +"He and me got to camp--keeping off the Ingins, who knowed I was loaded-- +when we, with the rest of the outfit, drove the red devils away. + +"They was Apaches, and the fellow that shot Thorp was a half-breed +nigger and Apache. He scalped Thorp and carred off the whole upper +part of his skull with it. He got Thorp's rifle and bullet-pouch too, +and his knife. + +"We buried Thorp in the bottom there, and some of the party cut their +names on the stones that they covered his body up with, to keep the +coyotes from eating up his bones. + +"Boyd got on to the river with us all right, and I never heerd of him +after we separated at Booneville. We pulled out soon after the +Indians left, but we didn't get no buffalo-meat. + +"You see, boys, if I'd a fired into that cow, the devils would a +had me before I could a got a patch on my ball--didn't have no +breech-loaders in them days, and it took as much judgment to know +how to load a rifle properly as it did to shoot it. + +"Them Ingins knowed all that--they knowed I hadn't fired, so they +kept a respectable distance. I would a fired, but the quail saved +my life by interfering with my sight--and that's the reason I don't +eat no quail. I hain't superstitious, but I don't believe they was +meant to be eat." + +Uncle John stuck to his text, I believe, until he died, and you +could never disabuse his mind of the idea that the quail lighting +on his rifle was not a special interposition of Providence. + +Only four years after he told his story, in 1872, one of the newly +established settlers, living a few miles west of Larned on Pawnee +Bottom, having observed in one of his fields a singular depression, +resembling an old grave, determined to dig down and see if there was +any special cause for the strange indentation on his land. + +A couple of feet below the surface he discovered several flat pieces +of stone, on one of which the words "Washington" and "J. Hildreth" +were rudely cut, also a line separating them, and underneath: +"December tenth" and "J. M., 1850." On another was carved the name +"J. H. Shell," with other characters that could not be deciphered. +On a third stone were the initials "H. R., 1847"; underneath which +was plainly cut "J. R. Boyd," and still beneath "J. R. Pring." +At the very bottom of the excavation were found the lower portion +of the skull, one or two ribs, and one of the bones of the leg of +a human being. The piece of skull was found near the centre of the +grave, for such it certainly was. + +At the time of the discovery I was in Larned, and I immediately +consulted my book of notes and memoranda taken hurriedly at intervals +on the plains and in the mountains, during more than half my lifetime, +to see if I could find anything that would solve the mystery attached +to the quiet prairie-grave and its contents, and I then recalled +Uncle John Smith's story of the quail as related to me at my camp. +I also met Colonel A. G. Boone that winter in Washington; he remembered +the circumstances well. Thorp was working for him, as Smith had +said, and was killed by an Apache, who, in scalping him, tore the +half of his head away, and it was thus found mutilated, so +many years afterward. + +Uncle John was in one of his garrulous moods that night, and as we +were not by any means tired of hearing the veteran trapper talk, +without much urging he told us the following tale:-- + +"Well, boys, thirty years ago, beaver, mink, and otter was found in +abundacious quantities on all the streams in the Rocky Mountains. +The trade in them furs was a paying business, for the little army +of us fellows called trappers. They ain't any of 'em left now, +no mor'n the animals we used to hunt. We had to move about from +place to place, just as if we was so many Ingins. Sometimes we'd +construct little cabins in the timber, or a dugout where the game +was plenty, where we'd stay maybe for a month or two, and once in +a while--though not often--a whole year. + +"The Ingins was our mortal enemies; they'd get a scalp from our +fellows occasionally, but for every one they had of ours we had +a dozen of theirs. + +"In the summer of 1846, there was a little half dugout, half cabin, +opposite the mouth of Frenchman's Creek, put up by Bill Thorpe, +Al Boyd, and Rube Stevens. Bill and Al was men grown, and know'd +more 'bout the prairies and timber than the Ingins themselves. +They'd hired out to the Northwest Fur Company when they was mere kids, +and kept on trapping ever since. Rube--'Little Rube' as all the +old men called him--was 'bout nineteen, and plumb dumb; he could hear +well enough though, for he wasn't born that way. When he was seventeen +his father moved from his farm in Pennsylvany, to take up a claim +in Oregon, and the whole family was compelled to cross the plains +to get there; for there wasn't no other way. While they was camped +in the Bitter-Root valley one evening, just 'bout sundown, a party +of Blackfeet surprised the outfit, and massacred all of them but Rube. +They carried him off, kept him as a slave, and, to make sure of him, +cut out his tongue at the roots. But some of the women who wasn't +quite so devilish as their husbands, and who took pity on him, went +to work and cured him of his awful wound. He was used mighty mean +by the bucks of the tribe, and made up his mind to get away from them +or kill himself; for he could not live under their harsh treatment. +After he'd been with them for mor'n a year, the tribe had a terrible +battle with the Sioux, and in the scrimmage Rube stole a pony and +lit out. He rode on night and day until he came across the cabin +of the two trappers I have told you 'bout, and they, of course, +took the poor boy in and cared for him. + +"Rube was a splendid shot with the rifle, and he swore to himself +that he would never leave the prairies and do nothing for the rest +of his life but kill Ingins, who had made him a homeless orphan, +and so mutilated him. + +"After Rube had been with Boyd and Thorpe a year, they was all one +day in the winter examining their traps which was scattered 'long +the stream for miles. After re-baiting them, they concluded to hunt +for meat, which was getting scarce at the cabin; they let Rube go +down to the creek where it widened out lake-like, to fish through +a hole in the ice, and Al and Bill took their rifles and hunted in +the timber for deer. They all got separated of course, Rube being +furtherest away, while Al and Bill did not wander so far from each +other that they could not be heard if one wanted his companion. + +"Al shot a fat black-tail deer, and just as he was going to stoop +down to cut its throat, Bill yelled out to him:-- + +"'Drop everything Al, for God's sake, and let's make for the dugout; +they're coming, a whole band of Sioux!' + +"'If we can get to the cabin,' replied Al, 'we can keep off the whole +nation. I wonder where Rube is? I hope he'll get here and save +his scalp.' + +"At this instant, poor Rube dashed up to them, an Ingin close upon +his tracks; he had unfortunately forgotten to take his rifle with +him when he went to the creek, and now he was at the mercy of the +savage; at least both he and his pursuer so thought. But before +the Ingin had fairly uttered his yell of exultation, Al who with +Bill had held his rifle in readiness for an emergency, lifted the +red devil off his feet, and he fell dead without ever knowing what +had struck him. + +"Rube, thus delivered from a sudden death, ran at the top of his +speed with his two friends for the cabin, for, if they could reach it, +they did not fear a hundred paint-bedaubed savages. + +"Luckily they arrived in time. Where they lived was part dugout and +part cabin. It was about ten feet high, and right back of it was +a big ledge of rock, which made it impossible for any one to get +into it from that side. The place had no door; they did not dare +to put one there when it was built, for they were likely to be +surprised at any moment by a prowling band, so the only entrance was +a square hole in the roof, through which one at a time had to crawl +to enter. + +"The boys got inside all right just as the Ingins came a yelling up. +Bill looked out of a hole in the wall and counted thirty of the +devils, and said at once: 'Off with your coats; don't let them have +anything to catch hold of but our naked bodies if they get in, and +we can handle ourselves better.' + +"'Thirty to three,' said Al. 'Whew! this ain't going to be any +boy's play; we've got to fight for all there is in it, and the +chances are mightily agin us.' + +"Rube he took an axe, and stood right under the hole in the roof, +so that if any of the devils got in he could brain them. In a minute +five rifles cracked; for the Ingins was pretty well armed for them +times, and their bullets rattled agin the logs like hail agin a tent. +Some of 'em was on top the roof by this time, and soon the leader of +the party, a big painted devil, thrust his ugly face into the hole; +but he had hardly got a good look before Bill dropped him by a +well-directed shot and he tumbled in on the floor. + +"'You darned fool,' said Bill, as he saw the effect of his shot; +'did you think we was asleep?' + +"There was one opening that served for air, and a savage, seeing +the boys had forgotten to barricade it, tried to push himself +through, an' not succeeding, tried to back out, but at that instant +Bill caught him by the wrist--Bill was a powerful man--and picking up +a beaver-trap that laid on the floor, actually beat his brains +out with it. + +"While this circus was going on inside, three more of the Ingins got +on the roof and wrenched off a couple of the logs that covered it; +but in a minute they came tumbling down and lay dead on the floor. + +"'That leaves only twenty-five, don't it?' inquired Al, as he mopped +his face with his shirt-sleeve. + +"'Howl, you red devils,' said Bill, as the Ingins commenced their +awful yelling when they saw their comrades fall into the room. +'Don't you know, you blame fools, you've fell in with experienced +hands at the shooting business?' + +"Spat! Something hit Al, and he was the first wounded, but it was +only a scratch, and he kept right on attending to business. + +"'By gosh! look at Rube, will you?' said Al. The dumb boy had in +his grasp the very chief of the band, who had just then discovered +the hole in the roof made by the three Ingins who had passed in +their checks for their impudence, and was trying his best to push +himself down. Rube had made a strike at him with an axe, but the +edge was turned aside, and the savage was getting the better of +the boy; he had grappled Rube by the hair and one arm, and they was +flying 'round like a wild cat and a hound. Bill tried three times +to sink his knife into the old chief, but there was such a cavortin' +in the wrastle between him and the boy, he was afraid to try any more, +for fear it might hit Rube instead. Suddenly the Ingin fell to the +floor as dead as a trapped beaver what's been drowned; Rube had +struck his buckhorn-handled hunting-knife right into the heart of +the brute. + +"'Set him agin the hole in the side of the building,' said Bill; +'he ain't fit for nothing else than to stop a gap'; so Rube set him +agin the hole, and pinned him there with half a dozen knives what +was lying round loose. + +"Just as they had fastened the dead body of the old chief to the +side of the cabin, a perfect shower of bullets came rattling round +like a hailstorm. 'All right, let's have your waste lead,' said Bill. + +"'A few more of these dead Ingins and we can make a regular fort of +this old cabin; we want two for that chunk,' said Al, as he pointed +with his rifle to a large gap on the west side of the wall; but +before he had fairly got the words out of his mouth, two of the +attacking party jumped down into the room. Al, being a regular giant, +as soon as they landed, surprised them by seizing one with each hand +by the throat, and he actually held them at arm's-length till he had +squeezed the very life out of them, and they both fell corpses. + +"While Al was performing his two-Ingin act, a great light burst into +the cabin, and by the time he had choked his enemies to death, he saw, +while the Ingins outside gave a terrible yell of exultation, that +they had fired the place. + +"'Damn 'em,' shouted Bill, as he pitched the corpse of the chief +from the gap where Rube had set him. 'Fellows, we've got to get +out of here right quick; follow me, boys!' + +"Holding their rifles in hand, and clutching a hunting-knife also, +they stepped out into the brush surrounding the place, and started +on a run for the heavy timber on the bank of the creek. + +"They had reckoned onluckily; a wild war-whoop greeted the flying men +as they reached the edge of the forest, and without being able to use +their arms, they were taken prisoners. Bill and Al, fastened with +their backs against each other, and Little Rube by himself, were +bound to separate trees, but not so far apart that they could not +speak to each other, and some of the Ingins began to gather sticks +and pile them around the trees. + +"'What are they going to do with us?' anxiously inquired Bill of Al. + +"'Roast us, you bet,' replied the other. 'They'll find me tough +enough, anyhow.' + +"'It must be a painful death,' soliloquized Bill. + +"'Well, it isn't the most pleasant one, you can gamble on that,' +said Al, turning his looks toward Bill; 'but see what the devils +are doing to poor Rube.' + +"Bill cast his eyes in the direction of the dumb boy, who was fastened +to a small pine, about a hundred feet distant. Standing directly +in front of it was a gigantic Ingin, flourishing his scalping-knife +within an inch of Rube's head, trying to make the boy flinch. +But the young fellow merely scowled at him in a rage, his muscles +never quivering for an instant. + +"While the men were trying to console each other, two of the savages, +who had gone away for a short time, returned, bearing the carcass +of the deer that Al had killed in the morning, and commenced to cut +it up. They had made several small fires, and roasting the meat +before them, began to gorge themselves, Indian fashion, with the +savoury morsels. The men were awfully hungry, too, but not a mouthful +did they get of their own game. + +"The Ingins were more'n an hour feasting, while their prisoners kept +a looking for some help to get 'em out of the scrape they was in. + +"'Bout a mile down the creek, me and six other trappers had a camp, +and that morning, being scarce of meat, we all went a hunting. +We had killed two or three elk and was 'bout going back to camp with +our game, when we heard firing, and supposed it was a party of hunters, +like ourselves, so we did not pay any attention to it at first; but +when it kept up so long, and there was such a constant volley, I told +our boys it might be a scrimmage with a party of red devils, and we +concluded to go and see. + +"We left our elk where they were, and started in the direction of +the shooting, taking mighty good care not to be surprised ourselves. +We crept carefully on, and a little before sundown seen a camp-fire +burning in the timber quite a smart piece ahead of us. We stopped +then, and Ike Pettet and myself crept on cautiously on our hands and +knees through the brush to learn what the fire meant. In a little +while we seen it was an Ingin camp, and we counted twenty-two +warriors seated 'round their fires a eating as unconcernedly as if +we warn't nowhere near 'em. We didn't feel like tackling so many, +so just as we was 'bout to crawl away and leave 'em in ondisturbed +possession of their camp, we heard some parties talking in English. +Then we pricked up our ears and listened mighty interested I tell you. +Looking 'round, we seen the men tied to the trees and the wood piled +against 'em, and then we knowed what was up. We had to be mighty +wary, for if we snapped a twig even, it was all day with us and +the prisoners too; so we dragged ourselves back, and after getting +out of sound of the Ingins, we just got up and lit out mighty lively +for the place we'd left our companions. We met them coming slowly +on 'bout two miles from the Ingin camp, and telling 'em what was up +we started to help the trappers what the devils was agoing to burn. +We wasn't half so long in getting at the camp as Ike and me was +in going, and we soon come within good range for our rifles. + +"The Ingins was still unsuspicious, and we spread ourselves in a +sort of half circle so as to kind o' surround them, and at a signal +I give, seven rifles cracked at once, and as many of the Injins was +dropped right in their tracks; a second volley, for the red devils +had not got their senses yet, tumbled seven more corpses upon the +pile, and then we white men jumped in with our knives and clubbed +rifles, and there was a lively scrimmage for a few minutes. The few +Ingins what wasn't killed fought like devils, but as we was getting +the best of 'em every second they turned tail and ran. + +"We'd heard the firing of the fight at the cabin just in time; and +as we cut the rawhide strings that bound the fellows to the trees, +Ike, who was a right fine shot and had killed three at one time, +said: 'I always like to get two or three of the red devils in a line +before I pull the trigger; it saves lead.' + +"Then we all went back to our camp and made a night of it, feasting +on the elk we had killed, and talking over the wonderful escape of +the boys and Little Rube." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. +KIT CARSON. + + + +Of the famous men whose lives are so interwoven with the history +of the Old Santa Fe Trail that the story of the great highway is +largely made up of their individual exploits and acts of bravery, +it has been my fortune to have known nearly all intimately, during +more than a third of a century passed on the great plains and in +the Rocky Mountains. + +First of all, Christopher, or Kit, Carson, as he is familiarly known +to the world, stands at the head and front of celebrated frontiersmen, +trappers, scouts, guides, and Indian fighters. + +I knew him well through a series of years, to the date of his death +in 1868, but I shall confine myself to the events of his remarkable +career along the line of the Trail and its immediate environs. +In 1826 a party of Santa Fe traders passing near his father's home +in Howard County, Missouri, young Kit, who was then but seventeen +years old, joined the caravan as hunter. He was already an expert +with the rifle, and thus commenced his life of adventure on the +great plains and in the Rocky Mountains. + +His first exhibition of that nerve and coolness in the presence of +danger which marked his whole life was in this initial trip across +the plains. When the caravan had arrived at the Arkansas River, +somewhere in the vicinity of the great bend of that stream, one of +the teamsters, while carelessly pulling his rifle toward him by the +barrel, discharged the weapon and received the ball in his arm, +completely crushing the bones. The blood from the wound flowed so +copiously that he nearly lost his life before it could be arrested. +He was fixed up, however, and the caravan proceeded on its journey, +the man thinking no more seriously of his injured arm. In a few days, +however, the wound began to indicate that gangrene had set in, and +it was determined that only by an amputation was it possible for him +to live beyond a few days. Every one of the older men of the caravan +positively declined to attempt the operation, as there were no +instruments of any kind. At this juncture Kit, realizing the extreme +necessity of prompt action, stepped forward and offered to do the job. +He told the unfortunate sufferer that he had had no experience in +such matters, but that as no one else would do it, he would take +the chances. All the tools that Kit could find were a razor, a saw, +and the king-bolt of a wagon. He cut the flesh with the razor, +sawed through the bone as if it had been a piece of joist, and seared +the horrible wound with the king-bolt, which he had heated to a +white glow, for the purpose of stopping the flow of blood that +naturally followed such rude surgery. The operation was a complete +success; the man lived many years afterward, and was with his surgeon +in many an expedition. + +In the early days of the commerce of the prairies, Carson was the +hunter at Bent's Fort for a period of eight years. There were about +forty men employed at the place; and when the game was found in +abundance in the mountains, it was a relatively easy task and just +suited to his love of sport, but when it grew scarce, as it often +did, his prowess was tasked to its utmost to keep the forty mouths +from crying for food. He became such an unerring shot with the +rifle during that time that he was called the "Nestor of the Rocky +Mountains." His favourite game was the buffalo, although he killed +countless numbers of other animals. + +All of the plains tribes of Indians, as did the powerful Utes of +the mountains, knew him well; for he had often visited in their +camps, sat in their lodges, smoked the pipe, and played with their +little boys. The latter fact may not appear of much consequence, +but there are no people on earth who have a greater love for their +boy children than the savages of America. The Indians all feared +him, too, at the same time that they respected his excellent judgment, +and frequently were governed by his wise counsel. The following +story will show his power in this direction. The Sioux, one of the +most numerous and warlike tribes at that time, had encroached upon +the hunting-grounds of the southern Indians, and the latter had many +a skirmish with them on the banks of the Arkansas along the line of +the Trail. Carson, who was in the upper valley of the river, was +sent for to come down and help them drive the obnoxious Sioux back +to their own stamping-ground. He left Fort Bent, and went with the +party of Comanche messengers to the main camp of that tribe and the +Arapahoes, with whom they had united. Upon his arrival, he was told +that the Sioux had a thousand warriors and many rifles, and the +Comanches and Arapahoes were afraid of them on account of the great +disparity of numbers, but that if he would go with them on the +war-path, they felt assured they could overcome their enemies. +Carson, however, instead of encouraging the Comanches and Arapahoes +to fight, induced them to negotiate with the Sioux. He was sent +as mediator, and so successfully accomplished his mission that the +intruding tribe consented to leave the hunting-grounds of the +Comanches as soon as the buffalo season was over; which they did, +and there was no more trouble. + +After many adventures in California with Fremont, Carson, with his +inseparable friend, L. B. Maxwell, embarked in the wool-raising +industry. Shortly after they had established themselves on their +ranch, the Apaches made one of their frequent murdering and plundering +raids through Northern New Mexico, killing defenceless women and +children, running off stock of all kinds, and laying waste every +little ranch they came across in their wild foray. Not very far +from the city of Santa Fe, they ruthlessly butchered a Mr. White +and his son, though three of their number were slain by the brave +gentlemen before they were overpowered. Other of the blood-thirsty +savages carried away the women and children of the desolated home +and took them to their mountain retreat in the vicinity of Las Vegas. +Mr. White was a highly respected merchant, and news of this outrage +spreading rapidly through the settlements, it was determined that +the savages should not go without punishment this time, at least. +Carson's reputation as an Indian fighter was at its height, so the +natives of the country sent for him, and declined to move until +he came. For some unexplained reason, after he arrived at Las Vegas, +he was not placed in charge of the posse, that position having +already been given to a Frenchman. Carson, as was usual with him, +never murmured because he was assigned to a subordinate position, +but took his place, ready to do his part in whatever capacity. + +The party set out for the stronghold of the savages, and rode night +and day on the trail of the murderers, hoping to surprise them and +recapture the women and children; but so much time had been wasted +in delays, that Carson feared they would only find the mutilated +bodies of the poor captives. In a few days after leaving Las Vegas, +the retreat of the savages was discovered in the fastness of the +mountains, where they had fortified themselves in such a manner that +they could resist ten times the number of their pursuers. Carson, +as soon as he saw them, without a second's hesitation, and giving +a characteristic yell, dashed in, expecting, of course, that the men +would follow him; but they only stood in gaping wonderment at his +bravery, not daring to venture after him. He did not discover his +dilemma until he had advanced so far alone that escape seemed +impossible. But here his coolness, which always served him in the +moment of supreme danger, saved his scalp. As the savages turned +on him, he threw himself on the off side of his horse, Indian fashion, +for he was as expert in a trick of that kind as the savages themselves, +and rode back to the little command. He had six arrows in his horse +and a bullet through his coat! + +The Indians in those days were poorly armed, and did not long +follow up the pursuit after Carson; for, observing the squad of +mounted Mexicans, they retreated to the top of a rocky prominence, +from which point they could watch every movement of the whites. +Carson was raging at the apathy, not to say cowardice, of the men +who had sent for him to join them, but he kept his counsel to himself; +for he was anxious to save the captured women and children. He talked +to the men very earnestly, however, exhorting them not to flinch +in the duty they had come so far to perform, and for which he had +come at their call. This had the desired effect; for he induced +them to make a charge, which was gallantly performed, and in such +a brave manner that the Indians fled, scarcely making an effort to +defend themselves. Five of their number were killed at the furious +onset of the Mexicans, but unfortunately, as he anticipated, only +the murdered corpses of the women and children were the result of +the victory. + +President Polk appointed Carson to a second lieutenancy,[48] and his +first official duty was conducting fifty soldiers under his command +through the country of the Comanches, who were then at war with the +whites. A fight occurred at a place known as Point of Rocks,[49] +where on arriving, Carson found a company of volunteers for the +Mexican War, and camped near them. About dawn the next morning, +all the animals of the volunteers were captured by a band of Indians, +while the herders were conducting them to the river-bottom to graze. +The herders had no weapons, and luckily, in the confusion attending +the bold theft, ran into Carson's camp; and as he, with his men, +were ready with their rifles, they recaptured the oxen, but the +horses were successfully driven off by their captors. + +Several of the savages were mortally wounded by Carson's prompt +charge, as signs after they had cleared out proved; but the Indian +custom of tying the wounded on their ponies precluded the chance of +taking any scalps. The wily Comanche, like the Arab of the desert, +is generally successful in his sudden assaults, but Carson, who was +never surprised, was always equal to his tactics. + +One of the two soldiers whose turn it had been to stand guard that +morning was discovered to have been asleep when the alarm of Indians +was given, and Carson at once administered the Indian method of +punishment, making the man wear the dress of a squaw for that day. +Then going on, he arrived at Santa Fe, where he turned over his +little command. + +While there, he heard that a gang of those desperadoes so frequently +the nuisance of a new country had formed a conspiracy to murder and +rob two wealthy citizens whom they had volunteered to accompany over +the Trail to the States. The caravan was already many miles on its +way when Carson was informed of the plot. In less than an hour he +had hired sixteen picked men and was on his march to intercept them. +He took a short cut across the mountains, taking especial care to +keep out of the way of the Indians, who were on the war-path, but +as to whose movements he was always posted. In two days he came +upon a camp of United States recruits, en route to the military +posts in New Mexico, whose commander offered to accompany him with +twenty men. Carson accepted the generous proposal, by forced marches +soon overtook the caravan of traders, and at once placed one Fox, +the leader of the gang, in irons, after which he informed the owners +of the caravan of the escape they had made from the wretches whom +they were treating so kindly. At first the gentlemen were astounded +at the disclosures made to them, but soon admitted that they had +noticed many things which convinced them that the plot really existed, +and but for the opportune arrival of the brave frontiersman it would +shortly have been carried out. + +The members of the caravan who were perfectly trustworthy were then +ordered to corral the rest of the conspirators, thirty-five in number, +and they were driven out of camp, with the exception of Fox, the +leader, whom Carson conveyed to Taos. He was imprisoned for several +months, but as a crime in intent only could be proved against him, +and as the adobe walls of the house where he was confined were not +secure enough to retain a man who desired to release himself, he was +finally liberated, and cleared out. + +The traders were profuse in their thanks to Carson for his timely +interference, but he refused every offer of remuneration. On their +return to Santa Fe from St. Louis, however, they presented him with +a magnificent pair of pistols, upon whose silver mounting was an +inscription commemorating his brave deed and the gratitude of the +donors. + +The following summer was spent in a visit to St. Louis, and early +in the fall he returned over the Trail, arriving at the Cheyenne +village on the Upper Arkansas without meeting with any incident +worthy of note. On reaching that point, he learned that the Indians +had received a terrible affront from an officer commanding a detachment +of United States troops, who had whipped one of their chiefs; and +that consequently the whole tribe was enraged, and burning for revenge +upon the whites. Carson was the first white man to approach the +place since the insult, and so many years had elapsed since he was +the hunter at Bent's Fort, and so grievously had the Indians been +offended, that his name no longer guaranteed safety to the party +with whom he was travelling, nor even insured respect to himself, +in the state of excitement existing in the village. Carson, however, +deliberately pushed himself into the presence of a war council which +was just then in session to consider the question of attacking the +caravan, giving orders to his men to keep close together, and guard +against a surprise. + +The savages, supposing that he could not understand their language, +talked without restraint, and unfolded their plans to capture his +party and kill them all, particularly the leader. After they had +reached this decision, Carson coolly rose and addressed the council +in the Cheyenne language, informing the Indians who he was, of his +former associations with and kindness to their tribe, and that now +he was ready to render them any assistance they might require; but +as to their taking his scalp, he claimed the right to say a word. + +The Indians departed, and Carson went on his way; but there were +hundreds of savages in sight on the sand hills, and, though they +made no attack, he was well aware that he was in their power, nor +had they abandoned the idea of capturing his train. His coolness +and deliberation kept his men in spirit, and yet out of the whole +fifteen, which was the total number of his force, there were only two +or three on whom he could place any reliance in case of an emergency. + +When the train camped for the night, the wagons were corralled, and +the men and mules all brought inside the circle. Grass was cut with +sheath-knives and fed to the animals, instead of their being picketed +out as usual, and as large a guard as possible detailed. When the +camp had settled down to perfect quiet, Carson crawled outside it, +taking with him a Mexican boy, and after explaining to him the danger +which threatened them all, told him that it was in his power to save +the lives of the company. Then he sent him on alone to Rayedo, +a journey of nearly three hundred miles, to ask for an escort of +United States troops to be sent out to meet the train, impressing +upon the brave little Mexican the importance of putting a good many +miles between himself and the camp before morning. And so he started +him, with a few rations of food, without letting the rest of his +party know that such measures were necessary. The boy had been in +Carson's service for some time, and was known to him as a faithful +and active messenger, and in a wild country like New Mexico, with +the outdoor life and habits of its people, such a journey was not +an unusual occurrence. + +Carson now returned to the camp, to watch all night himself, and +at daybreak all were on the Trail again. No Indians made their +appearance until nearly noon, when five warriors came galloping up +toward the train. As soon as they came close enough to hear his +voice, Carson ordered them to halt, and going up to them, told how +he had sent a messenger to Rayedo the night before to inform the +troops that their tribe were annoying him, and that if he or his men +were molested, terrible punishment would be inflicted by those who +would surely come to his relief. The savages replied that they +would look for the moccasin tracks, which they undoubtedly found, +and the whole village passed away toward the hills after a little +while, evidently seeking a place of safety from an expected attack +by the troops. + +The young Mexican overtook the detachment of soldiers whose officer +had caused all the trouble with the Indians, to whom he told his +story; but failing to secure any sympathy, he continued his journey +to Rayedo, and procured from the garrison of that place immediate +assistance. Major Grier, commanding the post, at once despatched +a troop of his regiment, which, by forced marches, met Carson +twenty-five miles below Bent's Fort, and though it encountered no +Indians, the rapid movement had a good effect upon the savages, +impressing them with the power and promptness of the government. + +Early in the spring of 1865, Carson was ordered, with three companies, +to put a stop to the depredations of marauding bands of Cheyennes, +Kiowas, and Comanches upon the caravans and emigrant outfits travelling +the Santa Fe Trail. He left Fort Union with his command and marched +over the Dry or Cimarron route to the Arkansas River, for the purpose +of establishing a fortified camp at Cedar Bluffs, or Cold Spring, +to afford a refuge for the freight trains on that dangerous part of +the Trail. The Indians had for some time been harassing not only +the caravans of the citizen traders, but also those of the government, +which carried supplies to the several military posts in the Territory +of New Mexico. An expedition was therefore planned by Carson to +punish them, and he soon found an opportunity to strike a blow near +the adobe fort on the Canadian River. His force consisted of the +First Regiment of New Mexican Volunteer Cavalry and seventy-five +friendly Indians, his entire command numbering fourteen commissioned +officers and three hundred and ninety-six enlisted men. With these +he attacked the Kiowa village, consisting of about one hundred and +fifty lodges. The fight was a very severe one, and lasted from +half-past eight in the morning until after sundown. The savages, +with more than ordinary intrepidity and boldness, made repeated +stands against the fierce onslaughts of Carson's cavalrymen, but +were at last forced to give way, and were cut down as they stubbornly +retreated, suffering a loss of sixty killed and wounded. In this +battle only two privates and one noncommissioned officer were killed, +and one non-commissioned officer and thirteen privates, four of whom +were friendly Indians, wounded. The command destroyed one hundred +and fifty lodges, a large amount of dried meats, berries, buffalo-robes, +cooking utensils, and also a buggy and spring-wagon, the property +of Sierrito,[50] the Kiowa chief. + +In his official account of the fight, Carson states that he found +ammunition in the village, which had been furnished, no doubt, by +unscrupulous Mexican traders. + +He told me that he never was deceived by Indian tactics but once +in his life. He said that he was hunting with six others after +buffalo, in the summer of 1835; that they had been successful, and +came into their little bivouac one night very tired, intending to +start for the rendezvous at Bent's Fort the next morning. They had +a number of dogs, among them some excellent animals. These barked +a good deal, and seemed restless, and the men heard wolves. + +"I saw," said Kit, "two big wolves sneaking about, one of them quite +close to us. Gordon, one of my men, wanted to fire his rifle at it, +but I did not let him, for fear he would hit a dog. I admit that +I had a sort of an idea that those wolves might be Indians; but when +I noticed one of them turn short around, and heard the clashing of +his teeth as he rushed at one of the dogs, I felt easy then, and was +certain that they were wolves sure enough. But the red devil fooled +me, after all, for he had two dried buffalo bones in his hands under +the wolfskin, and he rattled them together every time he turned to +make a dash at the dogs! Well, by and by we all dozed off, and it +wasn't long before I was suddenly aroused by a noise and a big blaze. +I rushed out the first thing for our mules, and held them. If the +savages had been at all smart, they could have killed us in a trice, +but they ran as soon as they fired at us. They killed one of my men, +putting five bullets in his body and eight in his buffalo-robe. +The Indians were a band of Sioux on the war-trail after a band of +Snakes, and found us by sheer accident. They endeavoured to ambush +us the next morning, but we got wind of their little game and killed +three of them, including the chief." + +Carson's nature was made up of some very noble attributes. He was +brave, but not reckless like Custer; a veritable exponent of Christian +altruism, and as true to his friends as the needle to the pole. +Under the average stature, and rather delicate-looking in his physical +proportions, he was nevertheless a quick, wiry man, with nerves of +steel, and possessing an indomitable will. He was full of caution, +but showed a coolness in the moment of supreme danger that was good +to witness. + +During a short visit at Fort Lyon, Colorado, where a favourite son +of his was living, early in the morning of May 23, 1868, while +mounting his horse in front of his quarters (he was still fond of +riding), an artery in his neck was suddenly ruptured, from the effects +of which, notwithstanding the medical assistance rendered by the +fort surgeons, he died in a few moments. + +His remains, after reposing for some time at Fort Lyon, were taken +to Taos, so long his home in New Mexico, where an appropriate monument +was erected over them. In the Plaza at Santa Fe, his name also +appears cut on a cenotaph raised to commemorate the services of the +soldiers of the Territory. As an Indian fighter he was matchless. +The identical rifle used by him for more than thirty-five years, +and which never failed him, he bequeathed, just before his death, +to Montezuma Lodge, A. F. & A. M., Santa Fe, of which he was a member. + +James Bridger, "Major Bridger," or "Old Jim Bridger," as we was called, +another of the famous coterie of pioneer frontiersmen, was born in +Washington, District of Columbia, in 1807. When very young, a mere +boy in fact, he joined the great trapping expedition under the +leadership of James Ashley, and with it travelled to the far West, +remote from the extreme limit of border civilization, where he became +the compeer and comrade of Carson, and certainly the foremost +mountaineer, strictly speaking, the United States has produced. + +Having left behind him all possibilities of education at such an +early age, he was illiterate in his speech and as ignorant of the +conventionalities of polite society as an Indian; but he possessed +a heart overflowing with the milk of human kindness, was generous +in the extreme, and honest and true as daylight. + +He was especially distinguished for the discovery of a defile through +the intricate mazes of the Rocky Mountains, which bears his name, +Bridger's Pass. He rendered important services as guide and scout +during the early preliminary surveys for a transcontinental railroad, +and for a series of years was in the employ of the government, +in the old regular army on the great plains and in the mountains, +long before the breaking out of the Civil War. To Bridger also +belongs the honour of having seen, first of all white men, the Great +Salt Lake of Utah, in the winter of 1824-25. + +After a series of adventures, hairbreadth escapes, and terrible +encounters with the Indians, in 1856 he purchased a farm near Westport, +Missouri; but soon left it in his hunger for the mountains, to return +to it only when worn-out and blind, to be buried there without even +the rudest tablet to mark the spot. + +"I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country +churchyard, than in the tomb of the Capulets." This quotation came +to my mind one Sunday morning two or three years ago, as I mused +over Bridger's neglected grave among the low hills beyond the quaint +old town of Westport. I thought I knew, as I stood there, that he +whose bones were mouldering beneath the blossoming clover at my feet, +would have wished for his last couch a more perfect solitude and +isolation from the wearisome world's busy sound than even the +immortal Burke. + +The grassy mound, over which there was no stone to record the name +of its occupant, covered the remains of the last of his class, a type +vanished forever, for the border is a thing of the past; and upon +the gentle breeze of that delightful morning, like the droning of +bees in a full flowered orchard, was wafted to my ears the hum of +Kansas City's civilization, only three or four miles distant, in all +of which I was sure there was nothing that would have been congenial +to the old frontiersman. + +At one time early in the '60's, while the engineers of the proposed +Union Pacific Railway were temporarily in Denver, then an insignificant +mushroom-hamlet, they became somewhat confused as to the most +practicable point in the range over which to run their line. After +debating the question, they determined, upon a suggestion from some +of the old settlers, to send for Jim Bridger, who was then visiting +in St. Louis. A pass, via the overland stage, was enclosed in a +letter to him, and he was urged to start for Denver at once, though +nothing of the business for which his presence was required was told +him in the text. + +In about two weeks the old man arrived, and the next morning, after +he had rested, asked why he had been sent for from such a distance. + +The engineers then began to explain their dilemma. The old mountaineer +waited patiently until they had finished, when, with a look of disgust +on his withered countenance, he demanded a large piece of paper, +remarking at the same time,-- + +"I could a told you fellers all that in St. Louis, and saved you +the expense of bringing me out here." + +He was handed a sheet of manilla paper, used for drawing the details +of bridge plans. The veteran pathfinder spread it on the ground +before him, took a dead coal from the ashes of the fire, drew a rough +outline map, and pointing to a certain peak just visible on the +serrated horizon, said,-- + +"There's where you fellers can cross with your road, and nowhere else, +without more diggin' an' cuttin' than you think of." + +That crude map is preserved, I have been told, in the archives of +the great corporation, and its line crosses the main spurs of the +Rocky Mountains, just where Bridger said it could with the least work. + +The resemblance of old John Smith, another of the coterie, to +President Andrew Johnson was absolutely astonishing. When that +chief magistrate, in his "swinging around the circle," had arrived +at St. Louis, and was riding through the streets of that city in an +open barouche, he was pointed out to Bridger, who happened to be +there. But the venerable guide and scout, with supreme disgust +depicted on his countenance at the idea of any one attempting to +deceive him, said to his informant,-- + +"H---l! Bill, you can't fool me! That's old John Smith." + +At one time many years ago, during Bridger's first visit to St. Louis, +then a relatively small place, a friend accidentally came across him +sitting on a dry-goods box in one of the narrow streets, evidently +disgusted with his situation. To the inquiry as to what he was doing +there all alone, the old man replied,-- + +"I've been settin' in this infernal canyon ever sence mornin', waitin' +for some one to come along an' invite me to take a drink. Hundreds +of fellers has passed both ways, but none of 'em has opened his head. +I never seen sich a onsociable crowd!" + +Bridger had a fund of most remarkable stories, which he had drawn +upon so often that he really believed them to be true. + +General Gatlin,[51] who was graduated from West Point in the early +'30's, and commanded Fort Gibson in the Cherokee Nation over sixty +years ago, told me that he remembered Bridger very well; and had +once asked the old guide whether he had ever been in the great canyon +of the Colorado River. + +"Yes, sir," replied the mountaineer, "I have, many a time. There's +where the oranges and lemons bear all the time, and the only place +I was ever at where the moon's always full!" + +He told me and also many others, at various times, that in the winter +of 1830 it began to snow in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and +continued for seventy days without cessation. The whole country was +covered to a depth of seventy feet, and all the vast herds of buffalo +were caught in the storm and died, but their carcasses were perfectly +preserved. + +"When spring came, all I had to do," declared he, "was to tumble 'em +into Salt Lake, an' I had pickled buffalo enough for myself and the +whole Ute Nation for years!" + +He said that on account of that terrible storm, which annihilated +them, there have been no buffalo in that region since. + +Bridger had been the guide, interpreter, and companion of that +distinguished Irish sportsman, Sir George Gore, whose strange tastes +led him in 1855 to abandon life in Europe and bury himself for over +two years among the savages in the wildest and most unfrequented +glens of the Rocky Mountains. + +The outfit and adventures of this titled Nimrod, conducted as they +were on the largest scale, exceeded anything of the kind ever before +seen on this continent, and the results of his wanderings will +compare favourably with those of Gordon Cumming in Africa. + +Some idea may be formed of the magnitude of his outfit when it is +stated that his retinue consisted of about fifty individuals, +including secretaries, steward, cooks, fly-makers, dog-tenders, +servants, etc. He was borne over the country with a train of thirty +wagons, besides numerous saddle-horses and dogs. + +During his lengthened hunt he killed the enormous aggregate of forty +grizzly bears and twenty-five hundred buffalo, besides numerous +antelope and other small game. + +Bridger said of Sir George that he was a bold, dashing, and successful +hunter, and an agreeable gentleman. His habit was to lie in bed until +about ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, then he took a bath, +ate his breakfast, and set out, generally alone, for the day's hunt, +and it was not unusual for him to remain out until ten at night, +seldom returning to the tents without augmenting the catalogue of +his beasts. His dinner was then served, to which he generally +extended an invitation to Bridger, and after the meal was over, and +a few glasses of wine had been drunk, he was in the habit of reading +from some book, and eliciting from Bridger his comments thereon. +His favourite author was Shakespeare, which Bridger "reckin'd was +too highfalutin" for him; moreover he remarked, "thet he rather +calcerlated that thar big Dutchman, Mr. Full-stuff, was a leetle +too fond of lager beer," and thought it would have been better for +the old man if he had "stuck to Bourbon whiskey straight." + +Bridger seemed very much interested in the adventures of Baron +Munchausen, but admitted after Sir George had finished reading them, +that "he be dog'oned ef he swallered everything that thar Baron +Munchausen said," and thought he was "a darned liar," yet he +acknowledged that some of his own adventures among the Blackfeet +woul be equally marvellous "if writ down in a book." + +A man whose one act had made him awe-inspiring was Belzy Dodd. +Uncle Dick Wooton, in relating the story, says: "I don't know what +his first name was, but Belzy was what we called him. His head was +as bald as a billiard ball, and he wore a wig. One day while we +were all at Bent's Fort, while there were a great number of Indians +about, Belzy concluded to have a bit of fun. He walked around, eying +the Indians fiercely for some time, and finally, dashing in among +them, he gave a series of war-whoops which discounted a Comanche yell, +and pulling off his wig, threw it down at the feet of the astonished +and terror-stricken red men. + +"The savages thought the fellow had jerked off his own scalp, and not +one of them wanted to stay and see what would happen next. They left +the fort, running like so many scared jack-rabbits, and after that +none of them could be induced to approach anywhere near Dodd." + +They called him "The-white-man-who-scalps-himself," and Uncle Dick +said that he believed he could have travelled across the plains alone +with perfect safety. + +Jim Baker was another noted mountaineer and hunter of the same era as +Carson, Bridger, Wooton, Hobbs, and many others. Next to Kit Carson, +Baker was General Fremont's most valued scout. + +He was born in Illinois, and lived at home until he was eighteen +years of age, when he enlisted in the service of the American Fur +Company, went immediately to the Rocky Mountains, and remained there +until his death. He married a wife according to the Indian custom, +from the Snake tribe, living with her relatives many years and +cultivating many of their habits, ideas, and superstitions. He firmly +believed in the efficacy of the charms and incantations of the +medicine men in curing diseases, divining where their enemy was to +be found, forecasting the result of war expeditions, and other such +ridiculous matters. Unfortunately, too, Baker would sometimes take +a little more whiskey than he could conveniently carry, and often +made a fool of himself, but he was a generous, noble-hearted fellow, +who would risk his life for a friend at any time, or divide his last +morsel of food. + +Like mountaineers generally, Baker was liberal to a fault, and +eminently improvident. He made a fortune by his work, but at the +annual rendezvous of the traders, at Bent's Fort or the old Pueblo, +would throw away the earnings of months in a few days' jollification. + +He told General Marcy, who was a warm friend of his, that after one +season in which he had been unusually successful in accumulating a +large amount of valuable furs, from the sale of which he had realized +the handsome sum of nine thousand dollars, he resolved to abandon his +mountain life, return to the settlements, buy a farm, and live +comfortably during the remainder of his days. He accordingly made +ready to leave, and was on the eve of starting when a friend invited +him to visit a monte-bank which had been organized at the rendezvous. +He was easily led away, determined to take a little social amusement +with his old comrade, whom he might never see again, and followed him; +the result of which was that the whiskey circulated freely, and the +next morning found Baker without a cent of money; he had lost +everything. His entire plans were thus frustrated, and he returned +to the mountains, hunting with the Indians until he died. + +Jim Baker's opinions of the wild Indians of the great plains and +the mountains were very decided: "That they are the most onsartinist +varmints in all creation, an' I reckon thar not more'n half human; +for you never seed a human, arter you'd fed an' treated him to the +best fixin's in your lodge, jis turn round and steal all your horses, +or ary other thing he could lay his hands on. No, not adzactly. +He would feel kind o' grateful, and ask you to spread a blanket in +his lodge ef you ever came his way. But the Injin don't care shucks +for you, and is ready to do you a lot of mischief as soon as he quits +your feed. No, Cap.," he said to Marcy when relating this, "it's not +the right way to make 'em gifts to buy a peace; but ef I war gov'nor +of these United States, I'll tell what I'd do. I'd invite 'em all +to a big feast, and make 'em think I wanted to have a talk; and as +soon as I got 'em together, I'd light in and raise the har of half +of 'em, and then t'other half would be mighty glad to make terms +that would stick. That's the way I'd make a treaty with the dog'oned +red-bellied varmints; and as sure as you're born, Cap., that's the +only way." + +The general, when he first met Baker, inquired of him if he had +travelled much over the settlements of the United States before he +came to the mountains; to which he said: "Right smart, right smart, +Cap." He then asked whether he had visited New York or New Orleans. +"No, I hasn't, Cap., but I'll tell you whar I have been. I've been +mighty nigh all over four counties in the State of Illinois!" + +He was very fond of his squaw and children, and usually treated +them kindly; only when he was in liquor did he at all maltreat them. + +Once he came over into New Mexico, where General Marcy was stationed +at the time, and determined that for the time being he would cast +aside his leggings, moccasins, and other mountain dress, and wear +a civilized wardrobe. Accordingly, he fitted himself out with one. +When Marcy met him shortly after he had donned the strange clothes, +he had undergone such an entire change that the general remarked +he should hardly have known him. He did not take kindly to this, +and said: "Consarn these store butes, Cap.; they choke my feet like +h---l." It was the first time in twenty years that he had worn +anything on his feet but moccasins, and they were not ready for the +torture inflicted by breaking in a new pair of absurdly fitting +boots. He soon threw them away, and resumed the softer foot-gear +of the mountains. + +Baker was a famous bear hunter, and had been at the death of many +a grizzly. On one occasion he was setting his traps with a comrade +on the head waters of the Arkansas, when they suddenly met two young +grizzly bears about the size of full-grown dogs. Baker remarked +to his friend that if they could "light in and kill the varmints" +with their knives, it would be a big thing to boast of. They both +accordingly laid aside their rifles and "lit in," Baker attacking +one and his comrade the other. The bears immediately raised +themselves on their haunches, and were ready for the encounter. +Baker ran around, endeavouring to get in a blow from behind with his +long knife; but the young brute he had tackled was too quick for +him, and turned as he went around so as always to confront him +face to face. He knew if he came within reach of his claws, that +although young, he could inflict a formidable wound; moreover, he was +in fear that the howls of the cubs would bring the infuriated mother +to their rescue, when the hunters' chances of getting away would +be slim. These thoughts floated hurriedly through his mind, and +made him desirous to end the fight as soon as he could. He made +many vicious lunges at the bear, but the animal invariably warded +them off with his strong fore legs like a boxer. This kind of +tactics, however, cost the lively beast several severe cuts on his +shoulders, which made him the more furious. At length he took the +offensive, and with his month frothing with rage, bounded toward +Baker, who caught and wrestled with him, succeeding in giving him +a death-wound under the ribs. + +While all this was going on, his comrade had been furiously engaged +with the other bear, and by this time had become greatly exhausted, +with the odds decidedly against him. He entreated Baker to come to +his assistance at once, which he did; but much to his astonishment, +as soon as he entered the second contest his comrade ran off, leaving +him to fight the battle alone. He was, however, again victorious, +and soon had the satisfaction of seeing his two antagonists stretched +out in front of him, but as he expressed it, "I made my mind up I'd +never fight nary nother grizzly without a good shootin'-iron in my paws." + +He established a little store at the crossing of Green River, and +had for some time been doing a fair business in trafficking with +the emigrants and trading with the Indians; but shortly a Frenchman +came to the same locality and set up a rival establishment, which, +of course, divided the limited trade, and naturally reduced the +income of Baker's business. + +This engendered a bitter feeling of hostility, which soon culminated +in a cessation of all social intercourse between the two men. About +this time General Marcy arrived there on his way to California, and +he describes the situation of affairs thus:-- + +"I found Baker standing in his door, with a revolver loaded and +cocked in each hand, very drunk and immensely excited. I dismounted +and asked him the cause of all this disturbance. He answered: 'That +thar yaller-bellied, toad-eatin' Parly Voo, over thar, an' me, we've +been havin' a small chance of a scrimmage to-day. The sneakin' +pole-cat, I'll raise his har yet, ef he don't quit these diggins'!' + +"It seems that they had an altercation in the morning, which ended +in a challenge, when they ran to their cabins, seized their revolvers, +and from the doors, which were only about a hundred yards from each +other, fired. Then they retired to their cabins, took a drink of +whiskey, reloaded their revolvers, and again renewed the combat. +This strange duel had been going on for several hours when I arrived, +but, fortunately for them, the whiskey had such an effect on their +nerves that their aim was very unsteady, and none of the shots had +as yet taken effect. + +"I took away Baker's revolvers, telling him how ashamed I was to +find a man of his usually good sense making such a fool of himself. +He gave in quietly, saying that he knew I was his friend, but did not +think I would wish to have him take insults from a cowardly Frenchman. + +"The following morning at daylight Jim called at my tent to bid me +good-by, and seemed very sorry for what had occurred the day before. +He stated that this was the first time since his return from +New Mexico that he had allowed himself to drink whiskey, and when +the whiskey was in him he had 'nary sense.'" + +Among the many men who have distinguished themselves as mountaineers, +traders, and Indian fighters along the line of the Old Trail, was +one who eventually became the head chief of one of the most numerous +and valorous tribes of North American savages--James P. Beckwourth. +Estimates of him vary considerably. Francis Parkman, the historian, +who I think never saw him and writes merely from hearsay, says: +"He is a ruffian of the worst class; bloody and treacherous, without +honor or honesty; such, at least, is the character he bears on the +great plains. Yet in his case the standard rules of character fail; +for though he will stab a man in his slumber, he will also do the +most desperate and daring acts." + +I never saw Beckwourth, but I have heard of him from those of my +mountaineer friends who knew him intimately; I think that he died +long before Parkman made his tour to the Rocky Mountains. Colonel +Boone, the Bents, Carson, Maxwell, and others ascribed to him no +such traits as those given by Parkman, and as to his honesty, it is +an unquestioned fact that Beckwourth was the most honest trader +among the Indians of all who were then engaged in the business. +As Kit Carson and Colonel Boone were the only Indian agents whom +I ever knew or heard of that dealt honestly with the various tribes, +as they were always ready to acknowledge, and the withdrawal of the +former by the government was the cause of a great war, so also +Beckwourth was an honest Indian trader. + +He was a born leader of men, and was known from the Yellowstone to +the Rio Grande, from Santa Fe to Independence, and in St. Louis. +From the latter town he ran away when a boy with a party of trappers, +and himself became one of the most successful of that hardy class. +The woman who bore him had played in her childhood beneath the palm +trees of Africa; his father was a native of France, and went to the +banks of the wild Mississippi of his own free will, but probably +also from reasons of political interest to his government. + +In person Beckwourth was of medium height and great muscular power, +quick of apprehension, and with courage of the highest order. +Probably no man ever met with more personal adventures involving +danger to life, even among the mountaineers and trappers who early +in the century faced the perils of the remote frontier. From his +neck he always wore suspended a perforated bullet, with a large +oblong bead on each side of it, tied in place by a single thread +of sinew. This amulet he obtained while chief of the Crows,[52] +and it was his "medicine," with which he excited the superstition +of his warriors. + +His success as a trader among the various tribes of Indians has +never been surpassed; for his close intimacy with them made him +know what would best please their taste, and they bought of him +when other traders stood idly at their stockades, waiting almost +hopelessly for customers. + +But Beckwourth himself said: "The traffic in whiskey for Indian +property was one of the most infernal practices ever entered into by +man. Let the most casual thinker sit down and figure up the profits +on a forty-gallon cask of alcohol, and he will be thunderstruck, or +rather whiskey-struck. When it was to be disposed of, four gallons +of water were added to each gallon of alcohol. In two hundred gallons +there are sixteen hundred pints, for each one of which the trader +got a buffalo-robe worth five dollars. The Indian women toiled many +long weeks to dress those sixteen hundred robes. The white traders +got them for worse than nothing; for the poor Indian mother hid +herself and her children until the effect of the poison passed away +from the husband and father, who loved them when he had no whiskey, +and abused and killed them when he had. Six thousand dollars for +sixty gallons of alcohol! Is it a wonder with such profits that +men got rich who were engaged in the fur trade? Or was it a miracle +that the buffalo were gradually exterminated?--killed with so little +remorse that the hides, among the Indians themselves, were known +by the appellation of 'A pint of whiskey.'" + +Beckwourth claims to have established the Pueblo where the beautiful +city of Pueblo, Colorado, is now situated. He says: "On the 1st +of October, 1842, on the Upper Arkansas, I erected a trading-post +and opened a successful business. In a very short time I was joined +by from fifteen to twenty free trappers, with their families. +We all united our labour and constructed an adobe fort sixty yards +square. By the following spring it had grown into quite a little +settlement, and we gave it the name of Pueblo." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. +UNCLE DICK WOOTON. + + + +Immediately after Kit Carson, the second wreath of pioneer laurels, +for bravery and prowess as an Indian fighter, and trapper, must be +conceded to Richens Lacy Wooton, known first as "Dick," in his +younger days on the plains, then, when age had overtaken him, +as "Uncle Dick." + +Born in Virginia, his father, when he was but seven years of age, +removed with his family to Kentucky, where he cultivated a tobacco +plantation. Like his predecessor and lifelong friend Carson, +young Wooton tired of the monotony of farming, and in the summer +of 1836 made a trip to the busy frontier town of Independence, +Missouri, where he found a caravan belonging to Colonel St. Vrain +and the Bents, already loaded, and ready to pull out for the fort +built by the latter, and named for them. + +Wooton had a fair business education, and was superior in this +respect to his companions in the caravan to which he had attached +himself. It was by those rough, but kind-hearted, men that he was +called "Dick," as they could not readily master the more complicated +name of "Richens." + +When he started from Independence on his initial trip across the +plains, he was only nineteen, but, like all Kentuckians, perfectly +familiar with a rifle, and could shoot out a squirrel's eye with +the certainty which long practice and hardened nerves assures. + +The caravan, in which he was employed as a teamster, was composed +of only seven wagons; but a larger one, in which were more than fifty, +had preceded it, and as that was heavily laden, and the smaller one +only lightly, it was intended to overtake the former before the +dangerous portions of the Trail were reached, which it did in a few +days and was assigned a place in the long line. + +Every man had to take his turn in standing guard, and the first night +that it fell to young Wooton was at Little Cow Creek, in the Upper +Arkansas valley. Nothing had occurred thus far during the trip +to imperil the safety of the caravan, nor was any attack by the +savages looked for. + +Wooton's post comprehended the whole length of one side of the corral, +and his instructions were to shoot anything he saw moving outside +of the line of mules farthest from the wagons. The young sentry +was very vigilant. He did not feel at all sleepy, but eagerly +watched for something that might possibly come within the prescribed +distance, though not really expecting such a contingency. + +About two o'clock he heard a slight noise, and saw something moving +about, sixty or seventy yards from where he was lying on the ground, +to which he had dropped the moment the strange sound reached his ears. +Of course, his first thoughts were of Indians, and the more he peered +through the darkness at the slowly moving object, the more convinced +he was that it must be a blood-thirsty savage. + +He rose to his feet and blazed away, the shot rousing everbody, and +all came rushing with their guns to learn what the matter was. + +Wooton told the wagon-master that he had seen what he supposed was +an Indian trying to slip up to the mules, and that he had killed him. +Some of the men crept very circumspectly to the spot where the +supposed dead savage was lying, while young Wooton remained at his +post eagerly waiting for their report. Presently he heard a voice +cry out: "I'll be d---d ef he hain't killed 'Old Jack!'" + +"Old Jack" was one of the lead mules of one of the wagons. He had +torn up his picket-pin and strayed outside of the lines, with the +result that the faithful brute met his death at the hands of the +sentry. Wooton declared that he was not to be blamed; for the animal +had disobeyed orders, while he had strictly observed them![53] + +At Pawnee Fork, a few days later, the caravan had a genuine tussle +with the Comanches. It was a bright moonlight night, and about two +hundred of the mounted savages attacked them. It was a rare thing +for Indians to begin a raid after dark, but they swept down on the +unsuspecting teamsters, yelling like a host of demons. They were +armed with bows and arrows generally, though a few of them had +fusees.[54] They received a warm greeting, although they were not +expected, the guard noticing the savages in time to prevent a stampede +of the animals, which evidently was the sole purpose for which they +came, as they did not attempt to break through the corral to get at +the wagons. It was the mules they were after. They charged among +the men, vainly endeavouring to frighten the animals and make them +break loose, discharging showers of arrows as they rode by. The camp +was too hot for them, however, defended as it was by old teamsters +who had made the dangerous passage of the plains many times before, +and were up to all the Indian tactics. They failed to get a single +mule, but paid for their temerity by leaving three of their party +dead, just where they had been tumbled off their horses, not even +having time to carry the bodies off, as they usually do. + +Wooton passed some time during the early days of his career at +Bent's Fort, in 1836-37. He was a great favourite with both of +the proprietors, and with them went to the several Indian villages, +where he learned the art of trading with the savages. + +The winters of the years mentioned were noted for the incursions +of the Pawnees into the region of the fort. They always pretended +friendship for the whites, when any of them were inside of its sacred +precincts, but their whole manner changed when they by some stroke +of fortune caught a trapper or hunter alone on the prairie or in +the foot-hills; he was a dead man sure, and his scalp was soon +dangling at the belt of his cowardly assassins. Hardly a day passed +without witnessing some poor fellow running for the fort with a band +of the red devils after him; frequently he escaped the keen edge of +their scalping-knife, but every once in a while a man was killed. +At one time, two herders who were with their animals within fifty +yards of the fort, going out to the grazing ground, were killed and +every hoof of stock run off. + +A party from the fort, comprising only eight men, among whom was +young Wooton, made up for lost time with the Indians, at the crossing +of Pawnee Fork, the same place where he had had his first fight. +The men had set out from the fort for the purpose of meeting a small +caravan of wagons from the East, loaded with supplies for the Bents' +trading post. It happened that a band of sixteen Pawnees were +watching for the arrival of the train, too.[55] Wooton's party were +well mounted, while the Pawnees were on foot, and although the savages +were two to one, the advantage was decidedly in favour of the whites. + +The Indians were armed with bows and arrows only, and while it was +an easy matter for the whites to keep out of the way of the shower +of missiles which the Indians commenced to hurl at them, the latter +became an easy prey to the unerring rifles of their assailants, +who killed thirteen out of the sixteen in a very short time. +The remaining three took French leave of their comrades at the +beginning of the conflict, and abandoning their arms rushed up to +the caravan, which was just appearing over a small divide, and gave +themselves up. The Indian custom was observed in their case,[56] +although it was rarely that any prisoners were taken in these +conflicts on the Trail. Another curious custom was also followed.[57] +When the party encamped they were well fed, and the next morning +supplied with rations enough to last them until they could reach one +of their villages, and sent off to tell their head chief what had +become of the rest of his warriors. + +Wooton had an adventure once while he was stationed at Bent's Fort +during a trading expedition with the Utes, on the Purgatoire, or +Purgatory River,[58] about ten or twelve miles from Trinidad. +He had taken with him, with others, a Shawnee Indian. Only a short +time before their departure from the fort, an Indian of that tribe +had been murdered by a Ute, and one day this Shawnee who was with +Wooton spied a Ute, when revenge inspired him, and he forthwith +killed his enemy. Knowing that as soon as the news of the shooting +reached the Ute village, which was not a great distance off, +the whole tribe would be down upon him, Wooton abandoned any attempt +to trade with them and tried to get out of their country as quickly +as he could. + +As he expected, the Utes followed on his trail, and came up with his +little party on a prairie where there was not the slightest chance +to ambush or hide. They had to fight, because they could not help +it, but resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible, as the +Utes outnumbered them twenty to one; Wooton having only eight men +with him, including the Shawnee. + +The pack-animals, of which they had a great many, loaded with the +goods intended for the savages, were corralled in a circle, inside +of which the men hurried themselves and awaited the first assault +of the foe. In a few moments the Utes began to circle around the +trappers and open fire. The trappers promptly responded, and they +made every shot count; for all of the men, not even excepting the +Shawnee, were experts with the rifle. They did not mind the arrows +which the Utes showered upon them, as few, if any, reached to where +they stood. The savages had a few guns, but they were of the poorest +quality; besides, they did not know how to handle them then as they +learned to do later, so their bullets were almost as harmless as +their arrows. + +The trappers made terrible havoc among the Utes' horses, killing +so many of them that the savages in despair abandoned the fight and +gave Wooton and his men an opportunity to get away, which they did +as rapidly as possible. + +The Raton Pass, through which the Old Trail ran, was a relatively +fair mountain road, but originally it was almost impossible for +anything in the shape of a wheeled vehicle to get over the narrow +rock-ribbed barrier; saddle horses and pack-mules could, however, +make the trip without much difficulty. It was the natural highway to +southeastern Colorado and northeastern New Mexico, but the overland +coaches could not get to Trinidad by the shortest route, and as the +caravans also desired to make the same line, it occurred to Uncle +Dick that he would undertake to hew out a road through the pass, +which, barring grades, should be as good as the average turnpike. +He could see money in it for him, as he expected to charge toll, +keeping the road in repair at his own expense, and he succeeded in +procuring from the legislatures of Colorado and New Mexico charters +covering the rights and privileges which he demanded for his project. + +In the spring of 1866, Uncle Dick took up his abode on the top of +the mountains, built his home, and lived there until two years ago, +when he died at a very ripe old age. + +The old trapper had imposed on himself anything but an easy task in +constructing his toll-road. There were great hillsides to cut out, +immense ledges of rocks to blast, bridges to build by the dozen, and +huge trees to fell, besides long lines of difficult grading to engineer. + +Eventually Uncle Dick's road was a fact, but when it was completed, +how to make it pay was a question that seriously disturbed his mind. +The method he employed to solve the problem I will quote in his +own words: "Such a thing as a toll-road was unknown in the country +at that time. People who had come from the States understood, +of course, that the object of building a turnpike was to enable +the owner to collect toll from those who travelled over it, but I +had to deal with a great many people who seemed to think that they +should be as free to travel over my well-graded and bridged roadway +as they were to follow an ordinary cow path. + +"I may say that I had five classes of patrons to do business with. +There was the stage company and its employees, the freighters, the +military authorities, who marched troops and transported supplies +over the road, the Mexicans, and the Indians. + +"With the stage company, the military authorities, and the American +freighters I had no trouble. With the Indians, when a band came +through now and then, I didn't care to have any controversy about +so small a matter as a few dollars toll! Whenever they came along, +the toll-gate went up, and any other little thing I could do to +hurry them on was done promptly and cheerfully. While the Indians +didn't understand anything about the system of collecting tolls, +they seemed to recognize the fact that I had a right to control +the road, and they would generally ride up to the gate and ask +permission to go through. Once in a while the chief of a band would +think compensation for the privilege of going through in order, and +would make me a present of a buckskin or something of that sort. + +"My Mexican patrons were the hardest to get along with. Paying for +the privilege of travelling over any road was something they were +totally unused to, and they did not take to it kindly. They were +pleased with my road and liked to travel over it, until they came +to the toll-gate. This they seemed to look upon as an obstruction +that no man had a right to place in the way of a free-born native +of the mountain region. They appeared to regard the toll-gate as +a new scheme for holding up travellers for the purpose of robbery, +and many of them evidently thought me a kind of freebooter, who ought +to be suppressed by law. + +"Holding these views, when I asked them for a certain amount of money, +before raising the toll-gate, they naturally differed with me very +frequently about the propriety of complying with the request. + +"In other words, there would be at such times probably an honest +difference of opinion between the man who kept the toll-gate and +the man who wanted to get through it. Anyhow, there was a difference, +and such differences had to be adjusted. Sometimes I did it through +diplomacy, and sometimes I did it with a club. It was always settled +one way, however, and that was in accordance with the toll schedule, +so that I could never have been charged with unjust discrimination +of rates." + +Soon after the road was opened a company composed of Californians +and Mexicans, commanded by a Captain Haley, passed Uncle Dick's +toll-gate and house, escorting a large caravan of about a hundred +and fifty wagons. While they stopped there, a non-commissioned +officer of the party was brutally murdered by three soldiers, and +Uncle Dick came very near being a witness to the atrocious deed. + +The murdered man was a Mexican, and his slayers were Mexicans too. +The trouble originated at Las Vegas, where the privates had been +bound and gagged, by order of the corporal, for creating a disturbance +at a fandango the evening before. + +The name of the corporal was Juan Torres, and he came down to Uncle +Dick's one evening while the command was encamped on the top of the +mountain, accompanied by the three privates, who had already plotted +to kill him, though he had not the slightest suspicion of it. + +Uncle Dick, in telling the story, said: "They left at an early hour, +going in an opposite direction from their camp, and I closed my doors +soon after, for the night. They had not been gone more than half +an hour, when I heard them talking not far from my house, and a few +seconds later I heard the half-suppressed cry of a man who has +received his death-blow. + +"I had gone to bed, and lay for a minute or two thinking whether I +should get up and go to the rescue or insure my own safety by +remaining where I was. + +"A little reflection convinced me that the murderers were undoubtedly +watching my house, to prevent any interference with the carrying out +of their plot, and that if I ventured out I should only endanger +my own life, while there was scarcely a possibility of my being +able to save the life of the man who had been assailed. + +"In the morning, when I got up, I found the dead body of the corporal +stretched across Raton Creek, not more than a hundred yards from my house. + +"As I surmised, he had been struck with a heavy club or stone, and +it was at that time that I heard his cry. After that his brains +had been beaten out, and the body left where I had found it. + +"I at once notified Captain Haley of the occurrence, and identified +the men who had been in company with the corporal, and who were +undoubtedly his murderers. + +"They were taken into custody, and made a confession, in which they +stated that one of their number had stood at my door on the night +of the murder to shoot me if I had ventured out to assist the +corporal. Two of the scoundrels were hung afterward at Las Vegas, +and the third sent to prison for life." + +The corporal was buried near where the soldiers were encamped at +the time of the tragedy, and it is his lonely grave which frequently +attracts the attention of the passengers on the Atchison, Topeka, +and Santa Fe trains, just before the Raton tunnel is reached, as +they travel southward. + +In 1866-67 the Indians broke out, infesting all the most prominent +points of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and watching an opportunity to +rob and murder, so that the government freight caravans and the +stages had to be escorted by detachments of troops. Fort Larned +was the western limit where these escorts joined the outfits going +over into New Mexico. + +There were other dangers attending the passage of the Trail to +travellers by the stage besides the attacks of the savages. These +were the so-called road agents--masked robbers who regarded life as +of little worth in the accomplishment of their nefarious purposes. +Particularly were they common after the mines of New Mexico began +to be operated by Americans. The object of the bandits was generally +the strong box of the express company, which contained money and +other valuables. They did not, of course, hesitate to take what +ready cash and jewelry the passengers might happen to have upon +their persons, and frequently their hauls amounted to large sums. + +When the coaches began to travel over Uncle Dick's toll-road, his +house was made a station, and he had many stage stories. He said:-- + +"Tavern-keepers in those days couldn't choose their guests, and we +entertained them just as they came along. The knights of the road +would come by now and then, order a meal, eat it hurriedly, pay for +it, and move on to where they had arranged to hold up a stage that +night. Sometimes they did not wait for it to get dark, but halted +the stage, went through the treasure box in broad daylight, and +then ordered the driver to move on in one direction, while they +went off in another. + +"One of the most daring and successful stage robberies that I remember +was perpetrated by two men, when the east-bound coach was coming up +on the south side of the Raton Mountains, one day about ten o'clock +in the forenoon. + +"On the morning of the same day, a little after sunrise, two rather +genteel-looking fellows, mounted on fine horses, rode up to my +house and ordered breakfast. Being informed that breakfast would +be ready in a few minutes, they dismounted, hitched their horses +near the door, and came into the house. + +"I knew then, just as well as I do now, they were robbers, but I +had no warrant for their arrest, and I should have hesitated about +serving it if I had, because they looked like very unpleasant men +to transact that kind of business with. + +"Each of them had four pistols sticking in his belt and a repeating +rifle strapped on to his saddle. When they dismounted, they left +their rifles with the horses, but walked into the house and sat down +at the table, without laying aside the arsenal which they carried +in their belts. + +"They had little to say while eating, but were courteous in their +behaviour, and very polite to the waiters. When they had finished +breakfast, they paid their bills, and rode leisurely up the mountain. + +"It did not occur to me that they would take chances on stopping +the stage in daylight, or I should have sent some one to meet the +incoming coach, which I knew would be along shortly, to warn the +driver and passengers to be on the lookout for robbers. + +"It turned out, however, that a daylight robbery was just what they +had in mind, and they made a success of it. + +"About halfway down the New Mexico side of the mountain, where the +canyon is very narrow, and was then heavily wooded on either side, +the robbers stopped and waited for the coach. It came lumbering +along by and by, neither the driver nor the passengers dreaming of +a hold-up. + +"The first intimation they had of such a thing was when they saw +two men step into the road, one on each side of the stage, each of +them holding two cocked revolvers, one of which was brought to bear +on the passengers and the other on the driver, who were politely +but very positively told that they must throw up their hands without +any unnecessary delay, and the stage came to a standstill. + +"There were four passengers in the coach, all men, but their hands +went up at the same instant that the driver dropped his reins and +struck an attitude that suited the robbers. + +"Then, while one of the men stood guard, the other stepped up to +the stage and ordered the treasure box thrown off. This demand was +complied with, and the box was broken and rifled of its contents, +which fortunately were not of very great value. + +"The passengers were compelled to hand out their watches and other +jewelry, as well as what money they had in their pockets, and then +the driver was directed to move up the road. In a minute after +this the robbers had disappeared with their booty, and that was +the last seen of them by that particular coach-load of passengers. + +"The men who planned and executed that robbery were two cool, +level-headed, and daring scoundrels, known as 'Chuckle-luck' and +'Magpie.' They were killed soon after this occurrence, by a member +of their own band, whose name was Seward. A reward of a thousand +dollars had been offered for their capture, an this tempted Seward +to kill them, one night when they were asleep in camp. + +"He then secured a wagon, into which he loaded the dead robbers, +and hauled them to Cimarron City, where he turned them over to the +authorities and received his reward." + +Among the Arapahoes Wooton was called "Cut Hand," from the fact +that he had lost two fingers on his left hand by an accident in his +childhood. The tribe had the utmost veneration for the old trapper, +and he was perfectly safe at any time in their villages or camps; +it had been the request of a dying chief, who was once greatly +favoured by Wooton, that his warriors should never injure him although +the nation might be at war with all the rest of the whites in the world. + +Uncle Dick died a few seasons ago, at the age of nearly ninety. +He was blind for some time, but a surgical operation partly restored +his sight, which made the old man happy, because he could look again +upon the beautiful scenery surrounding his mountain home, really +the grandest in the entire Raton Range. The Atchison, Topeka, and +Santa Fe Railroad had one of its freight locomotives named "Uncle +Dick," in honour of the veteran mountaineer, past whose house it +hauled the heavy-laden trains up the steep grade crossing into the +valley beyond. At the time of its baptism, now fifteen or sixteen +years ago, it was the largest freight engine in the world. + +Old Bill Williams was another character of the early days of the +Trail, and was called so when Carson, Uncle Dick Wooton, and Maxwell +were comparatively young in the mountains. He was, at the time of +their advent in the remote West, one of the best known men there, +and had been famous for years as a hunter and trapper. Williams was +better acquainted with every pass in the Rockies than any other man +of his time, and only surpassed by Jim Bridger later. He was with +General Fremont on his exploring expedition across the continent; +but the statement of the old trappers, and that of General Fremont, +in relation to his services then, differ widely. Fremont admits +Williams' knowledge of the country over which he had wandered to have +been very extensive, but when put to the test on the expedition, +he came very near sacrificing the lives of all. This was probably +owing to Williams' failing intellect, for when he joined the great +explorer he was past the meridian of life. Now the old mountaineers +contend that if Fremont had profited by the old man's advice, he would +never have run into the deathtrap which cost him three men, and +in which he lost all his valuable papers, his instruments, and the +animals which he and his party were riding. The expedition had +followed the Arkansas River to its source, and the general had +selected a route which he desired to pursue in crossing the mountains. +It was winter, and Williams explained to him that it was perfectly +impracticable to get over at that season. The general, however, +ignoring the statement, listened to another of his party, a man who +had no such experience but said that he could pilot the expedition. +Before they had fairly started, they were caught in one of the most +terrible snowstorms the region had ever witnessed, in which all their +horses and mules were literally frozen to death. Then, when it was +too late, they turned back, abandoning their instruments, and able +only to carry along a very limited stock of food. The storm continued +to rage, so that even Williams failed to prevent them from getting +lost, and they wandered about aimlessly for many days before they +luckily arrived at Taos, suffering seriously from exhaustion and +hunger. Three of the men were frozen to death on the return trip, +and the remaining fifteen were little better than dead when Uncle +Dick Wooton happened to run across them and piloted them into the +village. It was immediately after this disaster that the three most +noted men in the mountains--Carson, Maxwell, and Dick Owens--became the +guides of the pathfinder, with whom he had no trouble, and to whom +he owed more of his success than history has given them credit for. + +At one period of his eventful career, while he lived in Missouri, +before he wandered to the mountains, Old Bill Williams was a Methodist +preacher; of which fact he boasted frequently while he trapped and +hunted with other pioneers. Whenever he related that portion of his +early life, he declared that he "was so well known in his circuit, +that the chickens recognized him as he came riding by the scattered +farmhouses, and the old roosters would crow 'Here comes Parson +Williams! One of us must be made ready for dinner.'" + +Upon leaving the States, he travelled very extensively among the +various tribes of Indians who roamed over the great plains and in the +mountains. When sojourning with a certain band, he would invariably +adopt their manners and customs. Whenever he grew tired of that +nation, he would seek another and live as they lived. He had been +so long among the savages that he looked and talked like one, and +had imbibed many of their strange notions and curious superstitions. + +To the missionaries he was very useful. He possessed the faculty +of easily acquiring languages that other white men failed to learn, +and could readily translate the Bible into several Indian dialects. +His own conduct, however, was in strange contrast with the precepts +of the Holy Book with which he was so familiar. + +To the native Mexicans he was a holy terror and an unsolvable riddle. +They thought him possessed of an evil spirit. He at one time took up +his residence among them and commenced to trade. Shortly after he +had established himself and gathered in a stock of goods, he became +involved in a dispute with some of his customers in relation to his +prices. Upon this he apparently took an intense dislike to the +people whom he had begun to traffic with, and in his disgust tossed +his whole mass of goods into the street, and, taking up his rifle, +left at once for the mountains. + +Among the many wild ideas he had imbibed from his long association +with the Indians, was faith in their belief in the transmigration +of souls. He used so to worry his brain for hours cogitating upon +this intricate problem concerning a future state, that he actually +pretended to know exactly the animal whose place he was destined to +fill in the world after he had shaken off this mortal human coil. + +Uncle Dick Wooton told how once, when he, Old Bill Williams, and +many other trappers, were lying around the camp-fire one night, +the strange fellow, in a preaching style of delivery, related to them +all how he was to be changed into a buck elk and intended to make +his pasture in the very region where they then were. He described +certain peculiarities which would distinguish him from the common +run of elk, and was very careful to caution all those present never +to shoot such an animal, should they ever run across him. + +Williams was regarded as a warm-hearted, brave, and generous man. +He was at last killed by the Indians, while trading with them, but +has left his name to many mountain peaks, rivers, and passes +discovered by him. + +Tom Tobin, one of the last of the famous trappers, hunters, and Indian +fighters to cross the dark river, flourished in the early days, when +the Rocky Mountains were a veritable terra incognita to nearly all +excepting the hardy employees of the several fur companies and the +limited number of United States troops stationed in their remote wilds. + +Tom was an Irishman, quick-tempered, and a dead shot with either +rifle, revolver, or the formidable bowie-knife. He would fight at +the drop of the hat, but no man ever went away from his cabin hungry, +if he had a crust to divide; or penniless, if there was anything +remaining in his purse. + +He, like Carson, was rather under the average stature, red-faced, +and lacking much of being an Adonis, but whole-souled, and as quick +in his movements as an antelope. + +Tobin played an important rôle in avenging the death of the Americans +killed in the Taos massacre, at the storming of the Indian pueblo, +but his greatest achievement was the ending of the noted bandit +Espinosa's life, who, at the height of his career of blood, was the +terror of the whole mountain region. + +At the time of the acquisition of New Mexico by the United States, +Espinosa, who was a Mexican, owning vast herds of cattle and sheep, +resided upon his ancestral hacienda in a sort of barbaric luxury, +with a host of semi-serfs, known as Peons, to do his bidding, as did +the other "Muy Ricos," the "Dons," so called, of his class of natives. +These self-styled aristocrats of the wild country all boasted of +their Castilian blue blood, claiming descent from the nobles of +Cortez' army, but the fact is, however, with rare exceptions, that +their male ancestors, the rank and file of that army, intermarried +with the Aztec women, and they were really only a mixture of Indian +and Spanish. + +It so happened that Espinosa met an adventurous American, who, with +hundreds of others, had been attached to the "Army of Occupation" +in the Mexican War, or had emigrated from the States to seek their +fortunes in the newly acquired and much over-rated territory. + +The Mexican Don and the American became fast friends, the latter +making his home with his newly found acquaintance at the beautiful +ranch in the mountains, where they played the rôle of a modern Damon +and Pythias. + +Now with Don Espinosa lived his sister, a dark-eyed, bewitchingly +beautiful girl about seventeen years old, with whom the susceptible +American fell deeply in love, and his affection was reciprocated +by the maiden, with a fervour of which only the women of the race +from which she sprang are capable. + +The fascinating American had brought with him from his home in one +of the New England States a large amount of money, for his parents +were rich, and spared no indulgence to their only son. He very soon +unwisely made Espinosa his confidant, and told him of the wealth +he possessed. + +One night after the American had retired to his chamber, adjoining +that of his host, he was surprised, shortly after he had gone to bed, +by discovering a man standing over him, whose hand had already grasped +the buckskin bag under his pillow which contained a considerable +portion of his gold and silver. He sprang from his couch and fired +his pistol at random in the darkness at the would-be robber. + +Espinosa, for it was he, was wounded slightly, and, being either +enraged or frightened, he stabbed with his keen-pointed stiletto, +which all Mexicans then carried, the young man whom he had invited +to become his guest, and the blade entered the American's heart, +killing him instantly. + +The report of the pistol-shot awakened the other members of the +household, who came rushing into the room just as the victim was +breathing his last. Among them was the sister of the murderer, +who, throwing herself on the body of her dead lover, poured forth +the most bitter curses upon her brother. + +Espinosa, realizing the terrible position in which he had placed +himself, then and there determined to become an outlaw, as he could +frame no excuse for his wicked deed. He therefore hid himself +at once in the mountains, carrying with him, of course, the sack +containing the murdered American's money. + +Some time necessarily passed before he could get together a sufficient +number of cut-throats and renegades from justice to enable him wholly +to defy the authorities; but at last he succeeded in rallying a +strong force to his standard of blood, and became the terror of the +whole region, equalling in boldness and audacity the terrible Joaquin, +of California notoriety in after years. + +His headquarters were in the almost impregnable fastnesses of the +Sangre de Cristo Mountains, from which he made his invariably +successful raids into the rich valleys below. There was nothing +too bloody for him to shrink from; he robbed indiscriminately the +overland coaches to Santa Fe, the freight caravans of the traders +and government, the ranches of the Mexicans, or stole from the poorer +classes, without any compunction. He ran off horses, cattle, sheep-- +in fact, anything that he could utilize. If murder was necessary +to the completion of his work, he never for a moment hesitated. +Kidnapping, too, was a favourite pastime; but he rarely carried +away to his rendezvous any other than the most beautiful of the +New Mexican young girls, whom he held in his mountain den until +they were ransomed, or subjected to a fate more terrible. + +In 1864 the bandit, after nearly ten years of unparalleled outlawry, +was killed by Tobin. Tom had been on his trail for some time, and +at last tracked him to a temporary camp in the foot-hills, which +he accidentally discovered in a grove of cottonwoods, by the smoke +of the little camp-fire as it curled in light wreaths above the trees. + +Tobin knew that at the time there was but one of Espinosa's followers +with him, as he had watched them both for some days, waiting for an +opportunity to get the drop on them. To capture the pair of outlaws +alive never entered his thoughts; he was as cautious as brave, and +to get them dead was much safer and easier; so he crept up to the +grove on his belly, Indian fashion, and lying behind the cover of +a friendly log, waited until the noted desperado stood up, when he +pulled the trigger of his never-erring rifle, and Espinosa fell dead. +A second shot quickly disposed of his companion, and the old trapper's +mission was accomplished. + +To be able to claim the reward offered by the authorities, Tom had +to prove, beyond the possibility of doubt, that those whom he had +killed were the dreaded bandit and one of his gang. He thought it +best to cut off their heads, which he deliberately did, and packing +them on his mule in a gunny-sack, he brought them into old Fort +Massachusetts, afterward Fort Garland, where they were speedily +recognized; but whether Tom ever received the reward, I have my +doubts, as he never claimed that he did. Tobin died only a short +time ago, gray, grizzled, and venerable, his memory respected by all +who had ever met him. + +James Hobbs, among all the men of whom I have presented a hurried +sketch, had perhaps a more varied experience than any of his colleagues. +During his long life on the frontier, he was in turn a prisoner among +the savages, and held for years by them; an excellent soldier in +the war with Mexico; an efficient officer in the revolt against +Maximilian, when the attempt of Napoleon to establish an empire on +this continent, with that unfortunate prince at its head, was defeated; +an Indian fighter; a miner; a trapper; a trader, and a hunter. + +Hobbs was born in the Shawnee nation, on the Big Blue, about +twenty-three miles from Independence, Missouri. His early childhood +was entrusted to one of his father's slaves. Reared on the eastern +limit of the border, he very soon became familiar with the use of +the rifle and shot-gun; in fact, he was the principal provider of +all the meat which the family consumed. + +In 1835, when only sixteen, he joined a fur-trading expedition under +Charles Bent, destined for the fort on the Arkansas River built by +him and his brothers. + +They arrived at the crossing of the Santa Fe Trail over Pawnee Fork +without special adventure, but there they had the usual tussle with +the savages, and Hobbs killed his first Indian. Two of the traders +were pierced with arrows, but not seriously hurt, and the Pawnees +--the tribe which had attacked the outfit--were driven away discomfited, +not having been successful in stampeding a single animal. + +When the party reached the Caches, on the Upper Arkansas, a smoke +rising on the distant horizon, beyond the sand hills south of the +river, made them proceed cautiously; for to the old plainsmen, that +far-off wreath indicated either the presence of the savages, or a +signal to others at a greater distance of the approach of the trappers. + +The next morning, nothing having occurred to delay the march, buffalo +began to appear, and Hobbs killed three of them. A cow, which he +had wounded, ran across the Trail in front of the train, and Hobbs +dashed after her, wounding her with his pistol, and then she started +to swim the river. Hobbs, mad at the jeers which greeted him from +the men at his missing the animal, started for the last wagon, +in which was his rifle, determined to kill the brute that had +enraged him. As he was riding along rapidly, Bent cried out to him,-- + +"Don't try to follow that cow; she is going straight for that smoke, +and it means Injuns, and no good in 'em either." + +"But I'll get her," answered Hobbs, and he called to his closest +comrade, John Baptiste, a boy of about his own age, to go and get +his pack-mule and come along. "All right," responded John; and +together the two inexperienced youngsters crossed the river against +the protests of the veteran leader of the party. + +After a chase of about three miles, the boys came up with the cow, +but she turned and showed fight. Finally Hobbs, by riding around her, +got in a good shot, which killed her. Jumping off their animals, +both boys busied themselves in cutting out the choice pieces for +their supper, packed them on the mule, and started back for the train. +But it had suddenly become very dark, and they were in doubt as to +the direction of the Trail. + +Soon night came on so rapidly that neither could they see their own +tracks by which they had come, nor the thin fringe of cottonwoods +that lined the bank of the stream. Then they disagreed as to which +was the right way. John succeeded in persuading Hobbs that he was +correct, and the latter gave in, very much against his own belief +on the subject. + +They travelled all night, and when morning came, were bewilderingly +lost. Then Hobbs resolved to retrace the tracks by which, now that +the sun was up, he saw that they had been going south, right away +from the Arkansas. Suddenly an immense herd of buffalo, containing +at least two thousand, dashed by the boys, filling the air with the +dust raised by their clattering hoofs, and right behind them rode +a hundred Indians, shooting at the stampeded animals with their arrows. + +"Get into that ravine!" shouted Hobbs to his companion. "Throw away +that meat, and run for your life!" + +It was too late; just as they arrived at the brink of the hollow, +they looked back, and close behind them were a dozen Comanches. + +The savages rode up, and one of the party said in very good English, +"How d' do?" + +"How d' do?" Hobbs replied, thinking it would be better to be as +polite as the Indian, though the state of the latter's health just +then was a matter of small concern. + +"Texas?" inquired the Indian. The Comanches had good reasons to +hate the citizens of that country, and it was a lucky thing for +Hobbs that he had heard of their prejudice from the trappers, and +possessed presence of mind to remember it. He replied promptly: +"No, friendly; going to establish a trading-post for the Comanches." + +"Friendly? Better go with us, though. Got any tobacco?" + +Hobbs had some of the desired article, and he was not long in handing +it over to his newly found friend. + +Both of the boys were escorted to the temporary camp of the savages, +but the original number of their captors was increased to over a +thousand before they arrived there. They were supplied with some +dried buffalo-meat, and then taken to the lodge of Old Wolf, the +head chief of the tribe. + +A council was called immediately to consider what disposition should +be made of them, but nothing was decided upon, and the assembly of +warriors adjourned until morning. Hobbs told me that it was because +Old Wolf had imbibed too much brandy, a bottle of which Baptiste had +brought with him from the train, and which the thirsty warrior saw +suspended from his saddle-bow as they rode up to the chief's lodge; +the aged rascal got beastly drunk. + +About noon of the next day, after the dispersion of the council, +the boys were informed that if they were not Texans, would behave +themselves, and not attempt to run away, they might stay with the +Indians, who would not kill them; but a string of dried scalps was +pointed out, hanging on a lodge pole, of some Mexicans whom they +had captured and put to herding their ponies, and who had tried to +get away. They succeeded in making a few miles; the Indians chased +them, after deciding in council, that, if caught, only their scalps +were to be brought back. The moral of this was that the same fate +awaited the boys if they followed the example of the foolish Mexicans. + +Hobbs had excellent sense and judgment, and he knew that it would +be the height of folly for him and Baptiste, mere boys, to try and +reach either Bent's Fort or the Missouri River, not having the +slightest knowledge of where they were situated. + +Hobbs grew to be a great favourite with the Comanches; was given +the daughter of Old Wolf in marriage, became a great chief, fought +many hard battles with his savage companions, and at last, four years +after, was redeemed by Colonel Bent, who paid Old Wolf a small +ransom for him at the Fort, where the Indians had come to trade. +Baptiste, whom the Indians never took a great fancy to, because he +did not develop into a great warrior, was also ransomed by Bent, +his price being only an antiquated mule. + +At Bent's Fort Hobbs went out trapping under the leadership of Kit +Carson, and they became lifelong friends. In a short time Hobbs +earned the reputation of being an excellent mountaineer, trapper, +and as an Indian fighter he was second to none, his education among +the Comanches having trained him in all the strategy of the savages. + +After going through the Mexican War with an excellent record, Hobbs +wandered about the country, now engaged in mining in old Mexico, then +fighting the Apaches under the orders of the governor of Chihuahua, +and at the end of the campaign going back to the Pacific coast, +where he entered into new pursuits. Sometimes he was rich, then as +poor as one can imagine. He returned to old Mexico in time to become +an active partisan in the revolt which overthrew the short-lived +dynasty of Maximilian, and was present at the execution of that +unfortunate prince. Finally he retired to the home of his childhood +in the States, where he died a few months ago, full of years and honours. + +William F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill," is one of the famous plainsmen, +of later days, however, than Carson, Bridger, John Smith, Maxwell, +and others whom I have mentioned. The mantle of Kit Carson, perhaps, +fits more perfectly the shoulders of Cody than those of any other +of the great frontiersman's successors, and he has had some experiences +that surpassed anything which fell to their lot. + +He was born in Iowa, in 1845, and when barely seven years old his +father emigrated to Kansas, then far remote from civilization. + +Thirty-six years ago, he was employed as guide and scout in an +expedition against the Kiowas and Comanches, and his line of duty +took him along the Santa Fe Trail all one summer when not out as +a scout, carrying despatches between Fort Lyon and Fort Larned, +the most important military posts on the great highway as well as +to far-off Fort Leavenworth on the Missouri River, the headquarters +of the department. Fort Larned was the general rendezvous of all +the scouts on the Kansas and Colorado plains, the chief of whom was +a veteran interpreter and guide, named Dick Curtis. + +When Cody first reported there for his responsible duty, a large camp +of the Kiowas and Comanches was established within sight of the fort, +whose warriors had not as yet put on their war-paint, but were +evidently restless and discontented under the restraint of their +chiefs. Soon those leading men, Satanta, Lone Wolf, Satank, and +others of lesser note, grew rather impudent and haughty in their +deportment, and they were watched with much concern. The post was +garrisoned by only two companies of infantry and one of cavalry. + +General Hazen, afterward chief of the signal service in Washington, +was at Fort Larned at the time, endeavouring to patch up a peace with +the savages, who seemed determined to break out. Cody was special +scout to the general, and one morning he was ordered to accompany him +as far as Fort Zarah, on the Arkansas, near the mouth of Walnut Creek, +in what is now Barton County, Kansas, the general intending to go +on to Fort Harker, on the Smoky Hill. In making these trips of +inspection, with incidental collateral duties, the general usually +travelled in an ambulance, but on this journey he rode in a six-mule +army-wagon, escorted by a detachment of a score of infantry. It was +a warm August day, and an early start was made, which enabled them +to reach Fort Zarah, over thirty miles distant, by noon. After dinner, +the general proposed to go on to Fort Harker, forty-one miles away, +without any escort, leaving orders for Cody to return to Fort Larned +the next day, with the soldiers. But Cody, ever impatient of delay +when there was work to do, notified the sergeant in charge of the +men that he was going back that very afternoon. I tell the story +of his trip as he has often told it to me, and as he has written +it in his autobiography. + +"I accordingly saddled up my mule and set out for Fort Larned. +I proceeded on uninterruptedly until I got about halfway between +the two posts, when, at Pawnee Rock, I was suddenly jumped by about +forty Indians, who came dashing up to me, extending their hands +and saying, 'How! How!' They were some of the Indians who had been +hanging around Fort Larned in the morning. I saw they had on their +war-paint, and were evidently now out on the war-path. + +"My first impulse was to shake hands with them, as they seemed so +desirous of it. I accordingly reached out my hand to one of them, +who grasped it with a tight grip, and jerked me violently forward; +then pulled my mule by the bridle, and in a moment I was completely +surrounded. Before I could do anything at all, they had seized my +revolvers from the holsters, and I received a blow on the head from +a tomahawk which nearly rendered me senseless. My gun, which was +lying across the saddle, was snatched from its place, and finally +the Indian who had hold of the bridle started off toward the Arkansas +River, leading the mule, which was being lashed by the other Indians, +who were following. The savages were all singing, yelling, and +whooping, as only Indians can do, when they are having their little +game all their own way. While looking toward the river, I saw on +the opposite side an immense village moving along the bank, and then +I became convinced that the Indians had left the post and were now +starting out on the war-path. My captors crossed the stream with me, +and as we waded through the shallow water they continued to lash the +mule and myself. Finally they brought me before an important-looking +body of Indians, who proved to be the chiefs and principal warriors. +I soon recognized old Satanta among them, as well as others whom +I knew, and supposed it was all over with me. + +"The Indians were jabbering away so rapidly among themselves that +I could not understand what they were saying. Satanta at last asked +me where I had been. As good luck would have it, a happy thought +struck me. I told him I had been after a herd of cattle, or +'whoa-haws,' as they called them. It so happened that the Indians +had been out of meat for several weeks, as the large herd of cattle +which had been promised them had not yet arrived, although they +expected them. + +"The moment I mentioned that I had been searching for 'whoa-haws,' +old Satanta began questioning me in a very eager manner. He asked me +where the cattle were, and I replied that they were back a few miles, +and that I had been sent by General Hazen to inform him that the +cattle were coming, and that they were intended for his people. +This seemed to please the old rascal, who also wanted to know if there +were any soldiers with the herd, and my reply was that there were. +Thereupon the chiefs held a consultation, and presently Satanta asked +me if General Hazen had really said that they should have the cattle. +I replied in the affirmative, and added that I had been directed to +bring the cattle to them. I followed this up with a very dignified +inquiry, asking why his young men had treated me so. The old wretch +intimated that it was only a 'freak of the boys'; that the young men +wanted to see if I was brave; in fact, they had only meant to test me, +and the whole thing was a joke. + +"The veteran liar was now beating me at my own game of lying, but +I was very glad, as it was in my favour. I did not let him suspect +that I doubted his veracity, but I remarked that it was a rough way +to treat friends. He immediately ordered his young men to give +back my arms, and scolded them for what they had done. Of course, +the sly old dog was now playing it very fine, as he was anxious +to get possession of the cattle, with which he believed there was +a 'heap' of soldiers coming. He had concluded it was not best to +fight the soldiers if he could get the cattle peaceably. + +"Another council was held by the chiefs, and in a few minutes old +Satanta came and asked me if I would go to the river and bring the +cattle down to the opposite side, so that they could get them. +I replied, 'Of course; that's my instruction from General Hazen.' + +"Satanta said I must not feel angry at his young men, for they had +only been acting in fun. He then inquired if I wished any of his men +to accompany me to the cattle herd. I replied that it would be better +for me to go alone, and then the soldiers could keep right on to +Fort Larned, while I could drive the herd down on the bottom. Then +wheeling my mule around, I was soon recrossing the river, leaving old +Satanta in the firm belief that I had told him a straight story, and +that I was going for the cattle which existed only in my imagination. + +"I hardly knew what to do, but thought that if I could get the river +between the Indians and myself, I would have a good three-quarters of +a mile the start of them, and could then make a run for Fort Larned, +as my mule was a good one. + +"Thus far my cattle story had panned out all right; but just as I +reached the opposite bank of the river, I looked behind me and saw +that ten or fifteen Indians, who had begun to suspect something +crooked, were following me. The moment that my mule secured a good +foothold on the bank, I urged him into a gentle lope toward the place +where, according to my statement, the cattle were to be brought. +Upon reaching a little ridge and riding down the other side out of +view, I turned my mule and headed him westward for Fort Larned. +I let him out for all that he was worth, and when I came out on a +little rise of ground, I looked back and saw the Indian village in +plain sight. My pursuers were now on the ridge which I had passed +over, and were looking for me in every direction. + +"Presently they spied me, and seeing that I was running away, they +struck out in swift pursuit, and in a few minutes it became painfully +evident they were gaining on me. They kept up the chase as far as +Ash Creek, six miles from Fort Larned. I still led them half a mile, +as their horses had not gained much during the last half of the race. +My mule seemed to have gotten his second wind, and as I was on the +old road, I played the spurs and whip on him without much cessation; +the Indians likewise urged their steeds to the utmost. + +"Finally, upon reaching the dividing ridge between Ash Creek and +Pawnee Fork, I saw Fort Larned only four miles away. It was now +sundown, and I heard the evening gun. The troops of the small +garrison little dreamed there was a man flying for his life and +trying to reach the post. The Indians were once more gaining on me, +and when I crossed the Pawnee Fork two miles from the post, two or +three of them were only a quarter of a mile behind me. Just as I +gained the opposite bank of the stream, I was overjoyed to see some +soldiers in a government wagon only a short distance off. I yelled +at the top of my voice, and riding up to them, told them that the +Indians were after me. + +"'Denver Jim,' a well-known scout, asked me how many there were, and +upon my informing him that there were about a dozen, he said: 'Let's +drive the wagon into the trees, and we'll lay for 'em.' The team +was hurriedly driven among the trees and low box-elder bushes, and +there secreted. + +"We did not have to wait long for the Indians, who came dashing up, +lashing their ponies, which were panting and blowing. We let two +of them pass by, but we opened a lively fire on the next three or +four, killing two of them at the first crack. The others following +discovered that they had run into an ambush, and whirling off into +the brush, they turned and ran back in the direction whence they +had come. The two who had passed by heard the firing and made their +escape. We scalped the two that we had killed, and appropriated +their arms and equipments; then, catching their ponies, we made our +way into the Post." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. +MAXWELL'S RANCH. + + + +One of the most interesting and picturesque regions of all New Mexico +is the immense tract of nearly two million acres known as Maxwell's +Ranch, through which the Old Trail ran, and the title to which was +some years since determined by the Supreme Court of the United States +in favour of an alien company.[59] Dead long ago, Maxwell belonged +to a generation and a class almost completely extinct, and the like +of which will, in all probability, never be seen again; for there +is no more frontier to develop them. + +Several years prior to the acquisition of the territory by the +United States, the immense tract comprised in the geographical limits +of the ranch was granted to Carlos Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda, +both citizens of the province of New Mexico, and agents of the +American Fur Company. Attached to the company as an employer, +a trapper, and hunter, was Lucien B. Maxwell, an Illinoisan by birth, +who married a daughter of Beaubien. After the death of the latter +Maxwell purchased all the interest of the joint proprietor, Miranda, +and that of the heirs of Beaubien, thus at once becoming the largest +landowner in the United States. + +At the zenith of his influence and wealth, during the War of the +Rebellion, when New Mexico was isolated and almost independent of +care or thought by the government at Washington, he lived in a +sort of barbaric splendour, akin to that of the nobles of England +at the time of the Norman conquest. + +The thousands of arable acres comprised in the many fertile valleys +of his immense estate were farmed in a primitive, feudal sort of way, +by native Mexicans principally, under the system of peonage then +existing in the Territory. He employed about five hundred men, and +they were as much his thralls as were Gurth and Wamba of Cedric of +Rotherwood, only they wore no engraved collars around their necks +bearing their names and that of their master. Maxwell was not a +hard governor, and his people really loved him, as he was ever their +friend and adviser. + +His house was a palace when compared with the prevailing style of +architecture in that country, and cost an immense sum of money. +It was large and roomy, purely American in its construction, but the +manner of conducting it was strictly Mexican, varying between the +customs of the higher and lower classes of that curious people. + +Some of its apartments were elaborately furnished, others devoid of +everything except a table for card-playing and a game's complement +of chairs. The principal room, an extended rectangular affair, +which might properly have been termed the Baronial Hall, was almost +bare except for a few chairs, a couple of tables, and an antiquated +bureau. There Maxwell received his friends, transacted business +with his vassals, and held high carnival at times. + +I have slept on its hardwood floor, rolled up in my blanket, with +the mighty men of the Ute nation lying heads and points all around me, +as close as they could possibly crowd, after a day's fatiguing hunt +in the mountains. I have sat there in the long winter evenings, +when the great room was lighted only by the cheerful blaze of the +crackling logs roaring up the huge throats of its two fireplaces +built diagonally across opposite corners, watching Maxwell, Kit Carson, +and half a dozen chiefs silently interchange ideas in the wonderful +sign language, until the glimmer of Aurora announced the advent of +another day. But not a sound had been uttered during the protracted +hours, save an occasional grunt of satisfaction on the part of the +Indians, or when we white men exchanged a sentence. + +Frequently Maxwell and Carson would play the game of seven-up for +hours at a time, seated at one of the tables. Kit was usually the +victor, for he was the greatest expert in that old and popular +pastime I have ever met. Maxwell was an inveterate gambler, but +not by any means in a professional sense; he indulged in the hazard +of the cards simply for the amusement it afforded him in his rough +life of ease, and he could very well afford the losses which the +pleasure sometimes entailed. His special penchant, however, was +betting on a horse race, and his own stud comprised some of the +fleetest animals in the Territory. Had he lived in England he might +have ruled the turf, but many jobs were put up on him by unscrupulous +jockeys, by which he was outrageously defrauded of immense sums. + +He was fond of cards, as I have said, both of the purely American +game of poker, and also of old sledge, but rarely played except with +personal friends, and never without stakes. He always exacted the +last cent he had won, though the next morning, perhaps, he would +present or loan his unsuccessful opponent of the night before five +hundred or a thousand dollars, if he needed it; an immensely greater +sum, in all probability, than had been gained in the game. + +The kitchen and dining-rooms of his princely establishment were +detached from the main residence. There was one of the latter for +the male portion of his retinue and guests of that sex, and another +for the female, as, in accordance with the severe, and to us strange, +Mexican etiquette, men rarely saw a woman about the premises, though +there were many. Only the quick rustle of a skirt, or a hurried view +of a reboso, as its wearer flashed for an instant before some window +or half-open door, told of their presence. + +The greater portion of his table-service was solid silver, and at +his hospitable board there were rarely any vacant chairs. Covers +were laid daily for about thirty persons; for he had always many +guests, invited or forced upon him in consequence of his proverbial +munificence, or by the peculiar location of his manor-house which +stood upon a magnificently shaded plateau at the foot of mighty +mountains, a short distance from a ford on the Old Trail. As there +were no bridges over the uncertain streams of the great overland +route in those days, the ponderous Concord coaches, with their +ever-full burden of passengers, were frequently water-bound, and +Maxwell's the only asylum from the storm and flood; consequently +he entertained many. + +At all times, and in all seasons, the group of buildings, houses, +stables, mill, store, and their surrounding grounds, were a constant +resort and loafing-place of Indians. From the superannuated chiefs, +who revelled lazily during the sunny hours in the shady peacefulness +of the broad porches; the young men of the tribe, who gazed with +covetous eyes upon the sleek-skinned, blooded colts sporting in the +spacious corrals; the squaws, fascinated by the gaudy calicoes, +bright ribbons, and glittering strings of beads on the counters +or shelves of the large store, to the half-naked, chubby little +pappooses around the kitchen doors, waiting with expectant mouths +for some delicious morsel of refuse to be thrown to them--all assumed, +in bearing and manner, a vested right of proprietorship in their +agreeable environment. + +To this motley group, always under his feet, as it were, Maxwell was +ever passively gracious, although they were battening in idleness +on his prodigal bounty from year to year. + +His retinue of servants, necessarily large, was made up of a +heterogeneous mixture of Indians, Mexicans, and half-breeds. +The kitchens were presided over by dusky maidens under the tutelage +of experienced old crones, and its precincts were sacred to them; +but the dining-rooms were forbidden to women during the hours of +meals, which were served by boys. + +Maxwell was rarely, as far as my observation extended, without a +large amount of money in his possession. He had no safe, however, +his only place of temporary deposit for the accumulated cash being +the bottom drawer of the old bureau in the large room to which I +have referred, which was the most antiquated concern of common pine +imaginable. There were only two other drawers in this old-fashioned +piece of furniture, and neither of them possessed a lock. The third, +or lower, the one that contained the money, did, but it was absolutely +worthless, being one of the cheapest pattern and affording not the +slightest security; besides, the drawers above it could be pulled out, +exposing the treasure immediately beneath to the cupidity of any one. + +I have frequently seen as much as thirty thousand dollars--gold, +silver, greenbacks, and government checks--at one time in that novel +depository. Occasionally these large sums remained there for several +days, yet there was never any extra precaution taken to prevent its +abstraction; doors were always open and the room free of access to +every one, as usual. + +I once suggested to Maxwell the propriety of purchasing a safe for +the better security of his money, but he only smiled, while a strange, +resolute look flashed from his dark eyes, as he said: "God help the +man who attempted to rob me and I knew him!" + +The sources of his wealth were his cattle, sheep, and the products +of his area of cultivated acres--barley, oats, and corn principally-- +which he disposed of to the quartermaster and commissary departments +of the army, in the large military district of New Mexico. +His wool-clip must have been enormous, too; but I doubt whether he +could have told the number of animals that furnished it or the +aggregate of his vast herds. He had a thousand horses, ten thousand +cattle, and forty thousand sheep at the time I knew him well, +according to the best estimates of his Mexican relatives. + +He also possessed a large and perfectly appointed gristmill, which +was a great source of revenue, for wheat was one of the staple crops +of his many farms. + +Maxwell was fond of travelling all over the Territory, his equipages +comprising everything in the shape of a vehicle, through all their +varieties, from the most plainly constructed buckboard to the +lumbering, but comfortable and expensive, Concord coach, mounted on +thorough braces instead of springs, and drawn by four or six horses. +He was perfectly reckless in his driving, dashing through streams, +over irrigating ditches, stones, and stumps like a veritable Jehu, +regardless of consequences, but, as is usually the fortune of such +precipitate horsemen, rarely coming to grief. + +The headquarters of the Ute agency were established at Maxwell's Ranch +in early days, and the government detailed a company of cavalry to +camp there, more, however, to impress the plains tribes who roamed +along the Old Trail east of the Raton Range, than for any effect on +the Utes, whom Maxwell could always control, and who regarded him +as a father. + +On the 4th of July, 1867, Maxwell, who owned an antiquated and rusty +six-pound field howitzer, suggested to the captain of the troop +stationed there the propriety of celebrating the day. So the old +piece was dragged from its place under a clump of elms, where it had +been hidden in the grass and weeds ever since the Mexican War probably, +and brought near the house. The captain and Maxwell acted the rôle +of gunners, the former at the muzzle, the latter at the breech; +the discharge was premature, blowing out the captain's eye and taking +off his arm, while Maxwell escaped with a shattered thumb. As soon +as the accident occurred, a sergeant was despatched to Fort Union on +one of the fastest horses on the ranch, the faithful animal falling +dead the moment he stopped in front of the surgeon's quarters, having +made the journey of fifty-five miles in little more than four hours. + +The surgeon left the post immediately, arriving at Maxwell's late that +night, but in time to save the officer's life, after which he dressed +Maxwell's apparently inconsiderable wound. In a few days, however, +the thumb grew angry-looking; it would not yield to the doctor's +careful treatment, so he reluctantly decided that amputation was +necessary. After an operation was determined upon, I prevailed upon +Maxwell to come to the fort and remain with me, inviting Kit Carson +at the same time, that he might assist in catering to the amusement +of my suffering guest. Maxwell and Carson arrived at my quarters +late in the day, after a tedious ride in the big coach, and the +surgeon, in order to allow a prolonged rest on account of Maxwell's +feverish condition, postponed the operation until the following evening. + +The next night, as soon as it grew dark--we waited for coolness, +as the days were excessively hot--the necessary preliminaries were +arranged, and when everything was ready the surgeon commenced. +Maxwell declined the anaesthetic prepared for him, and sitting in a +common office chair put out his hand, while Carson and myself stood +on opposite sides, each holding an ordinary kerosene lamp. In a few +seconds the operation was concluded, and after the silver-wire +ligatures were twisted in their places, I offered Maxwell, who had +not as yet permitted a single sigh to escape his lips, half a +tumblerful of whiskey; but before I had fairly put it to his mouth, +he fell over, having fainted dead away, while great beads of +perspiration stood on his forehead, indicative of the pain he had +suffered, as the amputation of the thumb, the surgeon told us then, +was as bad as that of a leg. + +He returned to his ranch as soon as the surgeon pronounced him well, +and Carson to his home in Taos. I saw the latter but once more at +Maxwell's; but he was en route to visit me at Fort Harker, in Kansas, +when he was taken ill at Fort Lyon, where he died. + + A boy's will is the wind's will, + And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts. + +How true it now seems to me, as the recollections of my boyish days, +when I read of the exploits of Kit Carson, crowd upon my memory! +I firmly believed him to be at least ten feet tall, carrying a rifle +so heavy that, like Bruce's sword, it required two men to lift it. +I imagined he drank out of nothing smaller than a river, and picked +the carcass of a whole buffalo as easily as a lady does the wing of +a quail. Ten years later I made the acquaintance of the foremost +frontiersman, and found him a delicate, reticent, under-sized, +wiry man, as perfectly the opposite of the type my childish brain +had created as it is possible to conceive. + +At Fort Union our mail arrived every morning by coach over the Trail, +generally pulling up at the sutler's store, whose proprietor was +postmaster, about daylight. While Maxwell and Kit were my guests, +I sauntered down after breakfast one morning to get my mail, and +while waiting for the letters to be distributed, happened to glance +at some papers lying on the counter, among which I saw a new periodical +--the _Day's Doings_, I think it was--that had a full-page illustration +of a scene in a forest. In the foreground stood a gigantic figure +dressed in the traditional buckskin; on one arm rested an immense +rifle; his other arm was around the waist of the conventional female +of such sensational journals, while in front, lying prone upon the +ground, were half a dozen Indians, evidently slain by the singular +hero in defending the impossibly attired female. The legend related +how all this had been effected by the famous Kit Carson. I purchased +the paper, returned with it to my room, and after showing it to +several officers who had called upon Maxwell, I handed it to Kit. +He wiped his spectacles, studied the picture intently for a few +seconds, turned round, and said: "Gentlemen, that thar may be true, +but I hain't got no recollection of it." + +I passed a delightful two weeks with Maxwell, late in the summer of +1867, at the time that the excitement over the discovery of gold on +his ranch had just commenced, and adventurers were beginning to +congregate in the hills and gulches from everywhere. The discovery +of the precious metal on his estate was the first cause of his +financial embarrassment. It was the ruin also of many other prominent +men in New Mexico, who expended their entire fortune in the construction +of an immense ditch, forty miles in length--from the Little Canadian +or Red River--to supply the placer diggings in the Moreno valley with +water, when the melted snow of Old Baldy range had exhausted itself +in the late summer. The scheme was a stupendous failure; its ruins +may be seen to-day in the deserted valleys, a monument to man's +engineering skill, but the wreck of his hopes. + +For some years previous to the discovery of gold in the mountains and +gulches of Maxwell's Ranch, it was known that copper existed in the +region; several shafts had been sunk and tunnels driven in various +places, and gold had been found from time to time, but was kept a +secret for many months. Its presence was at last revealed to Maxwell +by a party of his own miners, who were boring into the heart of +Old Baldy for a copper lead that had cropped out and was then lost. + +Of course, to keep the knowledge of the discovery of gold from the +world is an impossibility; such was the case in this instance, and +soon commenced that squatter immigration out of which, after the +ranch was sold and Maxwell died, grew that litigation which has +resulted in favour of the company who purchased from or through the +first owners after Maxwell's death. + +He was a representative man of the border of the same class as his +compeers--"wild-civilized men," to borrow an expressive term from +John Burroughs--of strong local attachments, and overflowing with the +milk of human kindness. To such as he there was an unconquerable +infatuation in life on the remote plains and in the solitude of the +mountains. There was never anything of the desperado in their +character, while the adventurers who at times have made the far West +infamous, since the advent of the railroad, were bad men originally. + +Occasionally such men turn up everywhere, and become a terror to +the community, but they are always wound up sooner or later; they +die with their boots on; Western graveyards are full of them. + +Maxwell, under contract with the Interior Department, furnished +live beeves to the Ute nation, the issue of which was made weekly +from his own vast herds. The cattle, as wild as those from the +Texas prairies, were driven by his herders into an immense enclosed +field, and there turned loose to be slaughtered by the savages. + +Once when at the ranch I told Maxwell I should like to have a horse +to witness the novel sight. He immediately ordered a Mexican groom +to procure one; but I did not see the peculiar smile that lighted up +his face, as he whispered something to the man which I did not catch. +Presently the groom returned leading a magnificent gray, which I +mounted, Maxwell suggesting that I should ride down to the large +field and wait there until the herd arrived. I entered the great +corral, patting my horse on the neck now and then, to make him +familiar with my touch, and attempted to converse with some of the +chiefs, who were dressed in their best, painted as if for the +war-path, gaily bedecked with feathers and armed with rifles and +gaudily appointed bows and arrows; but I did not succeed very well +in drawing them from their normal reticence. The squaws, a hundred +of them, were sitting on the ground, their knives in hand ready for +the labour which is the fate of their sex in all savage tribes, +while their lords' portion of the impending business was to end with +the more manly efforts of the chase. + +Suddenly a great cloud of dust rose on the trail from the mountains, +and on came the maddened animals, fairly shaking the earth with +their mighty tread. As soon as the gate was closed behind them, +and uttering a characteristic yell that was blood-curdling in its +ferocity, the Indians charged upon the now doubly frightened herd, +and commenced to discharge their rifles, regardless of the presence +of any one but themselves. My horse became paralyzed for an instant +and stood poised on his hind legs, like the steed represented in +that old lithographic print of Napoleon crossing the Alps; then taking +the bit in his teeth, he rushed aimlessly into the midst of the +flying herd, while the bullets from the guns of the excited savages +rained around my head. I had always boasted of my equestrian +accomplishments--I was never thrown but once in my life, and that was +years afterward--but in this instance it taxed all my powers to keep +my seat. In less than twenty minutes the last beef had fallen; and +the warriors, inflated with the pride of their achievement, rode +silently out of the field, leaving the squaws to cut up and carry +away the meat to their lodges, more than three miles distant, which +they soon accomplished, to the last quivering morsel. + +As I rode leisurely back to the house, I saw Maxwell and Kit standing +on the broad porch, their sides actually shaking with laughter at +my discomfiture, they having been watching me from the very moment +the herd entered the corral. It appeared that the horse Maxwell +ordered the groom to bring me was a recent importation from St. Louis, +had never before seen an Indian, and was as unused to the prairies +and mountains as a street-car mule. Kit said that my mount reminded +him of one that his antagonist in a duel rode a great many years ago +when he was young. If the animal had not been such "a fourth-of-July" +brute, his opponent would in all probability have finished him, as he +was a splendid shot; but Kit fortunately escaped, the bullet merely +grazing him under the ear, leaving a scar which he then showed me. + +One night Kit Carson, Maxwell, and I were up in the Raton Mountains +above the Old Trail, and having lingered too long, were caught above +the clouds against our will, darkness having overtaken us before we +were ready to descend into the valley. It was dangerous to undertake +the trip over such a precipitous and rocky trail, so we were compelled +to make the best of our situation. It was awfully cold, and as we +had brought no blankets, we dared not go to sleep for fear our fire +might go out, and we should freeze. We therefore determined to make +a night of it by telling yarns, smoking our pipes, and walking around +at times. After sitting awhile, Maxwell pointed toward the Spanish +Peaks, whose snow-white tops cast a diffused light in the heavens +above them, and remarked that in the deep canyon which separates them, +he had had one of the "closest calls" of his life, willingly complying +when I asked him to tell us the story. + +"It was in 1847. I came down from Taos with a party to go to the +Cimarron crossing of the Santa Fe Trail to pick up a large herd of +horses for the United States Quartermaster's Department. We succeeded +in gathering about a hundred and started back with them, letting +them graze slowly along, as we were in no hurry. When we arrived +at the foot-hills north of Bent's Fort, we came suddenly upon the +trail of a large war-band of Utes, none of whom we saw, but from +subsequent developments the savages must have discovered us days +before we reached the mountains. I knew we were not strong enough +to cope with the whole Ute nation, and concluded the best thing for +us to do under the ticklish circumstances was to make a detour, +and put them off our trail. So we turned abruptly down the Arkansas, +intending to try and get to Taos in that direction, more than one +hundred and fifty miles around. It appeared afterward that the +Indians had been following us all the way. When we found this out, +some of the men believed they were another party, and not the same +whose trail we came upon when we turned down the river, but I always +insisted they were. When we arrived within a few days' drive of Taos, +we were ambushed in one of the narrow passes of the range, and had +the bloodiest fight with the Utes on record. There were thirteen +of us, all told, and two little children whom we were escorting to +their friends at Taos, having received them at the Cimarron crossing. + +"While we were quietly taking our breakfast one morning, and getting +ready to pull out for the day's march, perfectly unsuspicious of the +proximity of any Indians, they dashed in upon us, and in less than +a minute stampeded all our stock--loose animals as well as those we +were riding. While part of the savages were employed in running off +the animals, fifty of their most noted warriors, splendidly mounted +and horribly painted, rushed into the camp, around the fire of which +the men and the little children were peacefully sitting, and, +discharging their guns as they rode up, killed one man and wounded +another. + +"Terribly surprised as we were, it did not turn the heads of the old +mountaineers, and I immediately told them to make a break for a clump +of timber near by, and that we would fight them as long as one of us +could stand up. There we fought and fought against fearful odds, +until all were wounded except two. The little children were captured +at the beginning of the trouble and carried off at once. After a +while the savages got tired of the hard work, and, as is frequently +the case, went away of their own free will; but they left us in a +terrible plight. All were sore, stiff, and weak from their many wounds; +on foot, and without any food or ammunition to procure game with, +having exhausted our supply in the awfully unequal battle; besides, +we were miles from home, with every prospect of starving to death. + +"We could not remain where we were, so as soon as darkness came on, +we started out to walk to some settlement. We dared not show +ourselves by daylight, and all through the long hours when the sun +was up, we were obliged to hide in the brush and ravines until night +overtook us again, and we could start on our painful march. + +"We had absolutely nothing to eat, and our wounds began to fester, +so that we could hardly move at all. We should undoubtedly have +perished, if, on the third day, a band of friendly Indians of another +tribe had not gone to Taos and reported the fight to the commanding +officer of the troops there. These Indians had heard of our trouble +with the Utes, and knowing how strong they were, and our weakness, +surmised our condition, and so hastened to convey the bad news. + +"A company of dragoons was immediately sent to our rescue, under the +guidance of Dick Wooton, who was and has ever been a warm personal +friend of mine. They came upon us about forty miles from Taos, and +never were we more surprised; we had become so starved and emaciated +that we had abandoned all hope of escaping what seemed to be our +inevitable fate. + +"When the troops found us, we had only a few rags, our clothes having +been completely stripped from our bodies while struggling through +the heavy underbrush on our trail, and we were so far exhausted that +we could not stand on our feet. One more day, and we would have been +laid out. + +"The little children were, fortunately, saved from the horror of +that terrible march after the fight, as the Indians carried them to +their winter camp, where, if not absolutely happy, they were under +shelter and fed; escaping the starvation which would certainly have +been their fate if they had remained with us. They were eventually +ransomed for a cash payment by the government, and altogether had not +been very harshly treated." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. +BENT'S FORTS. + + + +The famous Bent brothers, William, George, Robert, and Charles, were +French-Canadian hunters and trappers, and had been employed almost +from boyhood, in the early days of the border, by the American Fur +Company in the mountains of the Northwest. + +In 1826, almost immediately after the transference of the fur trade +to the valley of the Arkansas, when the commerce of the prairies +was fairly initiated, the three Bents and Ceran St. Vrain, also a +French-Canadian and trapper, settled on the Upper Arkansas, where +they erected a stockade. It was, of course, a rude affair, formed of +long stakes or pickets driven into the ground, after the Mexican +style known as jacal. The sides were then ceiled and roofed, and +it served its purpose of a trading-post. This primitive fort was +situated on the left or north bank of the river, about halfway between +Pueblo and Canyon City, those beautiful mountain towns of to-day. + +Two years afterward, in 1828, the proprietors of the primitive +stockade in the remote wilderness found it necessary to move closer +to the great hunting-grounds lower down the valley. There, about +twelve miles northeast of the now thriving town of Las Animas, +the Bents commenced the construction of a relatively large and more +imposing-looking structure than the first. The principal material +used in the new building, or rather in its walls, was adobe, or +sun-dried brick, so common even to-day in New Mexican architecture. +Four years elapsed before the new fort was completed, during which +period its owners, like other trappers, lived in tents or teepees +fashioned of buffalo-skins, after the manner of the Indians. + +When at last the new station was completed, it was named Fort William, +in honour of Colonel William Bent, who was the leader of the family +and the most active trader among the four partners in the concern. +The colonel frequently made long trips to the remote villages of the +Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches, which were situated far +to the south and east, on the Canadian River and its large tributaries. +His miscellaneous assortment of merchandise he transported upon +pack-mules to the Indian rendezvous, bringing back to the fort the +valuable furs he had exchanged for the goods so eagerly coveted by +the savages. It was while on one of his trading expeditions to the +Cheyenne nation that the colonel married a young squaw of that tribe, +the daughter of the principal chief. + +William Bent for his day and time was an exceptionally good man. +His integrity, his truthfulness on all occasions, and his remarkable +courage endeared him to the red and white man alike, and Fort William +prospered wonderfully under his careful and just management. Both +his brothers and St. Vrain had taken up their residence in Taos, and +upon the colonel devolved the entire charge of the busy establishment. +It soon became the most popular rendezvous of the mountaineers and +trappers, and in its immediate vicinity several tribes of Indians +took up their temporary encampment. + +In 1852 Fort William was destroyed under the following strange +circumstances: It appears that the United States desired to purchase +it. Colonel Bent had decided upon a price--sixteen thousand dollars-- +but the representatives of the War Department offered only twelve +thousand, which, of course, Bent refused. Negotiations were still +pending, when the colonel, growing tired of the red-tape and +circumlocution of the authorities, and while in a mad mood, removed +all his valuables from the structure, excepting some barrels of +gunpowder, and then deliberately set fire to the old landmark. +When the flames reached the powder, there was an explosion which +threw down portions of the walls, but did not wholly destroy them. +The remains of the once noted buildings stand to-day, melancholy +relics of a past epoch. + +In the same year the indefatigable and indomitable colonel determined +upon erecting a much more important structure. He selected a site +on the same side of the Arkansas, in the locality known as Big Timbers. +Regarding this new venture, Colonel or Judge Moore of Las Animas, +a son-in-law of William Bent, tells in a letter to the author of +the history of Colorado the following facts:-- + + Leaving ten men in camp to get out stone for the new post, + Colonel Bent took a part of his outfit and went to a Kiowa + village, about two hundred miles southwest, and remained + there all winter, trading with the Kiowas and Comanches. + In the spring of 1853 he returned to Big Timbers, when + the construction of the new post was begun, and the work + continued until completed in the summer of 1854; and it + was used as a trading-post until the owner leased it to + the government in the autumn of 1859. Colonel Sedgwick had + been sent out to fight the Kiowas that year, and in the fall + a large quantity of commissary stores had been sent him. + Colonel Bent then moved up the river to a point just above + the mouth of the Purgatoire, and built several rooms of + cottonwood pickets, and there spent the winter. In the + spring of 1860, Colonel Sedgwick began the construction of + officers' buildings, company quarters, corrals, and stables, + all of stone, and named the place Fort Wise, in honour of + Governor Wise of Virginia. In 1861 the name was changed to + Fort Lyon, in honour of General Lyon, who was killed at the + battle of Wilson Creek, Missouri. In the spring of 1866, + the Arkansas River overflowed its banks, swept up into the + fort, and, undermining the walls, rendered it untenable for + military purposes. The camp was moved to a point twenty + miles below, and the new Fort Lyon established. The old + post was repaired, and used as a stage station by Barlow, + Sanderson, and Company, who ran a mail, express, and + passenger line between Kansas City and Santa Fe. + +The contiguous region to Fort William was in the early days a famous +hunting-ground. It abounded in nearly every variety of animal +indigenous to the mountains and plains, among which were the panther +--the so-called California lion of to-day--the lynx, erroneously termed +wild cat, white wolf, prairie wolf, silver-gray fox, prairie fox, +antelope, buffalo, gray, grizzly and cinnamon bears, together with +the common brown and black species, the red deer and the black-tail, +the latter the finest venison in the world. Of birds there were +wild turkeys, quail, and grouse, besides an endless variety of the +smaller-sized families, not regarded as belonging to the domain of +game in a hunter's sense. It was a veritable paradise, too, for the +trappers. Its numerous streams and creeks were famous for beaver, +otter, and mink. + +Scarcely an acre of the surrounding area within the radius of +hundreds of miles but has been the scene of many deadly encounters +with the wily red man, stories of which are still current among the +few old mountaineers yet living. + +The fort was six hundred and fifty miles west of Fort Leavenworth, +in latitude thirty-eight degrees and two minutes north, and longitude +one hundred and three degrees and three minutes west, from Greenwich. +The exterior walls of the fort, whose figure was that of a parallelogram, +were fifteen feet high and four feet thick. It was a hundred and +thirty-five feet wide and divided into various compartments. On the +northwest and southeast corners were hexagonal bastions, in which +were mounted a number of cannon. The walls of the building served +as the walls of the rooms, all of which faced inwards on a plaza, +after the general style of Mexican architecture. The roofs of the +rooms were made of poles, on which was a heavy layer of dirt, as in +the houses of native Mexicans to-day. The fort possessed a billiard +table, that visitors might amuse themselves, and in the office was +a small telescope with a fair range of seven miles. + +The occupants of the far-away establishment, in its palmy days +(for years it was the only building between Council Grove and the +mountains), were traders, Indians, hunters, and French trappers, +who were the employees of the great fur companies. Many of the latter +had Indian wives. Later, after a stage line had been put in operation +across the plains to Santa Fe, the fort was relegated to a mere +station for the overland route, and with the march of civilization +in its course westward, the trappers, hunters, and traders vanished +from the once famous rendezvous. + +The walls were loopholed for musketry, and the entrance to the plaza, +or corral, was guarded by large wooden gates. During the war with +Mexico, the fort was headquarters for the commissary department, +and many supplies were stored there, though the troops camped below +on the beautiful river-bottom. In the centre of the corral, in the +early days when the place was a rendezvous of the trappers, a large +buffalo-robe press was erected. When the writer first saw the famous +fort, now over a third of a century ago, one of the cannon, that +burst in firing a salute to General Kearney, could be seen half +buried in the dirt of the plaza. + +By barometrical measurements taken by the engineer officers of the +army at different times, the height of Bent's Fort above the ocean +level is approximately eight thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight +feet, and the fall of the Arkansas River from the fort to the great +bend of that stream, about three hundred and eleven miles east, +is seven feet and four-tenths per mile. + +It was in a relatively fair state of preservation thirty-three years +ago, but now not a vestige of it remains, excepting perhaps a mound +of dirt, the disintegration of the mud bricks of which the historical +structure was built. + +The Indians whose villages were located a few miles below the fort, +or at least the chief men of the various tribes, passed much of their +time within the shelter of the famous structure. They were bountifully +fed, and everything they needed furnished them. This was purely from +policy, however; for if their wishes were not gratified, their +hunters would not bring in their furs to trade. The principal chiefs +never failed to be present when a meal was announced as ready, and +however scarce provisions might be, the Indians must be fed. + +The first farm in the fertile and now valuable lands of the valley of +the Rio de las Animas[60] was opened by the Bents. The area selected +for cultivation was in the beautiful bottom between the fort and the +ford, a strip about a mile in length, and from one hundred and fifty +to six hundred feet in width. Nothing could be grown without irrigation, +and to that end an acequia, as the Mexicans call the ditch through +which the water flows, was constructed, and a crop put in. Before +the enterprising projectors of the scheme could reap a harvest, +the hostile savages dashed in and destroyed everything. + +Uncle John Smith was one of the principal traders back in the '30's, +and he was very successful, perhaps because he was undoubtedly the +most perfect master of the Cheyenne language at that time in the +whole mountain region. + +Among those who frequently came to the fort were Kit Carson, +L. B. Maxwell, Uncle Dick Wooton, Baptiste Brown, Jim Bridger, +Old Bill Williams, James Beckwourth, Shawnee Spiebuck, Shawnee Jake +--the latter two, noted Indian trappers--besides a host of others. + +The majority of the old trappers, to a stranger, until he knew their +peculiar characteristics, were seemingly of an unsociable disposition. +It was an erroneous idea, however; for they were the most genial +companions imaginable, generous to a fault, and to fall into one of +their camps was indeed a lucky thing for the lost traveller. +Everything the host had was at his guest's disposal, and though +coffee and sugar were the dearest of his luxuries, often purchased +with a whole season's trapping, the black fluid was offered with +genuine free-heartedness, and the last plug of tobacco placed at the +disposition of his chance visitor, as though it could be picked up +on the ground anywhere. + +Goods brought by the traders to the rendezvous for sale to the +trappers and hunters, although of the most inferior quality, were +sold at enormously high prices. + +Coffee, by the pint-cup, which was the usual measure for everything, +cost from a dollar and twenty cents to three dollars; tobacco a dollar +and a half a plug; alcohol from two dollars to five dollars a pint; +gunpowder one dollar and sixty cents a pint-cup, and all other +articles at proportionably exorbitant rates. + +The annual gatherings of the trappers at the rendezvous were often +the scene of bloody duels; for over their cups and cards no men were +more quarrelsome than the old-time mountaineers. Rifles at twenty +paces settled all difficulties, and, as may be imagined, the fall +of one or the other of the combatants was certain, or, as sometimes +happened, both fell at the word "Fire!" + +The trapper's visits to the Mexican settlements, or to the lodges +of a tribe of Indians, for the purpose of trading, often resulted +in his returning to his quiet camp with a woman to grace his solitary +home, the loving and lonely couple as devoted to each other in the +midst of blood-thirsty enemies, howling wolves, and panthers, as if +they were in some quiet country village. + +The easy manners of the harum-scarum, reckless trappers at the +rendezvous, and the simple, unsuspecting hearts of those nymphs of +the mountains, the squaws, caused their husbands to be very jealous +of the attentions bestowed upon them by strangers. Often serious +difficulties arose, in the course of which the poor wife received +a severe whipping with the knot of a lariat, or no very light +lodge-poling at the hands of her imperious sovereign. Sometimes +the affair ended in a more tragical way than a mere beating, not +infrequently the gallant paying the penalty of his interference with +his life. + +Garrard, a traveller on the great plains and in the Rocky Mountains +half a century ago, from whose excellent diary I have frequently +quoted, passed many days and nights at Bent's Fort fifty years ago, +and his quaint description of life there in that remote period of +the extreme frontier is very amusing. Its truth has often been +confirmed by Uncle John Smith, who was my guide and interpreter in +the Indian expedition of 1868-69, only two decades after Garrard's +experience. + +Rosalie, a half-breed French and Indian squaw, wife of the carpenter, +and Charlotte, the culinary divinity, were, as a Missouri teamster +remarked, "the only female women here." They were nightly led to +the floor to trip the light fantastic toe, and swung rudely or gently +in the mazes of the contra-dance, but such a medley of steps is +seldom seen out of the mountains--the halting, irregular march of the +war-dance, the slipping gallopade, the boisterous pitching of the +Missouri backwoodsman, and the more nice gyrations of the Frenchman; +for all, irrespective of rank, age, or colour, went pell-mell into +the excitement, in a manner that would have rendered a leveller of +aristocracies and select companies frantic with delight. And the +airs assumed by the fair ones, more particularly Charlotte, who took +pattern from life in the States, were amusing. She acted her part +to perfection; she was the centre of attraction, the belle of the +evening. She treated the suitors for the pleasure of the next set +with becoming ease and suavity of manner; she knew her worth, and +managed accordingly. When the favoured gallant stood by her side +waiting for the rudely scraped tune from a screeching fiddle, +satisfaction, joy, and triumph over his rivals were pictured on his +radiant face. + +James Hobbs, of whom I have already spoken, once gave me a graphic +description of the annual feast of the Comanches, Cheyennes, and +Arapahoes, which always took place at Big Timbers, near Fort William. + +Hobbs was married to the daughter of Old Wolf, the chief of the +Comanches, a really beautiful Indian girl, with whom he lived +faithfully many years. In the early summer of 1835, he went with his +father-in-law and the rest of the tribe to the great feast of that +season. He stated that on that occasion there were forty thousand +Indians assembled, and consequently large hunting parties were sent +out daily to procure food for such a vast host. The entertainment +was kept up for fifteen days, enlivened by horse races, foot races, +and playing ball. In these races the tribes would bet their horses +on the result, the Comanches generally winning, for they are the best +riders in the world. By the time the feast was ended, the Arapahoes +and Cheyennes usually found themselves afoot, but Old Wolf, who was a +generous fellow, always gave them back enough animals to get home with. + +The game of ball was played with crooked sticks, and is very much +like the American boys' "shinny." The participants are dressed in +a simple breech-cloth and moccasins. It is played with great +enthusiasm and affords much amusement. + +At these annual feasts a council of the great chiefs of the three +tribes is always held, and at the one during the season referred to, +Hobbs said the Cheyenne chiefs wanted Old Wolf to visit Bent's Fort, +where he had never been. Upon the arrival of the delegation there, +it was heartily welcomed by all the famous men who happened to be at +the place, among whom were Kit Carson, Old John Smith, and several +noted trappers. Whiskey occupied a prominent place in the rejoicing, +and "I found it hard work," said Hobbs, "to stand the many toasts +drank to my good health." The whole party, including Old Wolf and +his companion the Cheyenne chief, got very much elated, and every +person in the fort smelt whiskey, if they did not get their feet +tangled with it. + +About midnight a messenger came inside, reporting that a thousand +Comanche warriors were gathering around the fort. They demanded +their leaders, fearing treachery, and desired to know why their chief +had not returned. Hobbs went out and explained that he was safe; +but they insisted on seeing him, so he and Hobbs showed themselves +to the assembled Indians, and Old Wolf made a speech, telling them +that he and the Cheyenne chief were among good friends to the Indians, +and presents would be given to them the next morning. The warriors +were pacified with these assurances, though they did not leave the +vicinity of the fort. + +It was at this time that Hobbs was ransomed by Colonel Bent, who gave +Old Wolf, for him, six yards of red flannel, a pound of tobacco, and +an ounce of beads. + +The chief was taken in charge by a lieutenant, who showed him all +over the fort, letting him see the rifle port-holes, and explaining +how the place could stand a siege against a thousand Indians. Finally, +he was taken out on the parapet, where there was a six-pounder at +each angle. The old savage inquired how they could shoot such a thing, +and at Hobbs' request, a blank cartridge was put in the piece and +fired. Old Wolf sprang back in amazement, and the Indians on the +outside, under the walls, knowing nothing of what was going on, +ran away as fast as their legs could carry them, convinced that +their chief must be dead now and their own safety dependent upon +flight. Old Wolf and Hobbs sprang upon the wall and signalled and +shouted to them, and they returned, asking in great astonishment +what kind of a monstrous gun it was. + +About noon trading commenced. The Indians wished to come into the +fort, but Bent would not let any enter but the chiefs. At the back +door the colonel displayed his goods, and the Indians brought forward +their ponies, buffalo-robes, deer and other skins, which they traded +for tobacco, beads, calico, flannel, knives, spoons, whistles, +jews'-harps, etc. + +Whiskey was sold to them the first day, but as it caused several +fights among them before night, Bent stopped its sale, at Hobbs' +suggestion and with Old Wolf's consent. Indians, when they get drunk, +do not waste time by fighting with fists, like white men, but use +knives and tomahawks; so that a general scrimmage is a serious affair. +Two or three deaths resulted the first day, and there would have been +many more if the sale of whiskey had not been stopped. + +The trading continued for eight days, and Colonel Bent reaped a rich +harvest of what he could turn into gold at St. Louis. Old Wolf slept +in the fort each night except one during that time, and every time +his warriors aroused him about twelve o'clock and compelled him to +show himself on the walls to satisfy them of his safety. + +About a hundred trappers were in the employ of Bent and his partners. +Sometimes one-half of the company were off on a hunt, leaving but +a small force at the fort for its protection, but with the small +battery there its defence was considered sufficient. + +One day a trapping party, consisting of Kit Carson, "Peg-leg" Smith, +and James Hobbs, together with some Shawnee Indians, all under the +lead of Carson, started out from Bent's Fort for the Picketwire to +trap beaver. + +Grizzlies were very abundant in that region then, and one of the +party, named McIntire, having killed an elk the evening before, said +to Hobbs that they might stand a good chance to find a grizzly by +the elk he had shot but had not brought in. Hobbs said that he was +willing to go with him, but as McIntire was a very green man in the +mountains, Hobbs had some doubts of depending on him in case of an +attack by a grizzly bear. + +The two men left for the ravine in which McIntire had killed the elk +very early in the morning, taking with them tomahawks, hunting-knives, +rifles, and a good dog. On arriving at the ravine, Hobbs told +McIntire to cross over to the other side and climb the hill, but on +no account to go down into the ravine, as a grizzly is more dangerous +when he has a man on the downhill side. Hobbs then went to where he +thought the elk might be if he had died by the bank of the stream; +but as soon as he came near the water, he saw that a large grizzly +had got there before him, having scented the animal, and was already +making his breakfast. + +The bear was in thick, scrubby oak brush, and Hobbs, making his dog +lie down, crawled behind a rock to get a favourable shot at the beast. +He drew a bead on him and fired, but the bear only snarled at the +wound made by the ball and started tearing through the brush, biting +furiously at it as he went. Hobbs reloaded his rifle carefully, +and as quickly as he could, in order to get a second shot; but, +to his amazement, he saw the bear rushing down the ravine chasing +McIntire, who was only about ten feet in advance of the enraged beast, +running for his life, and making as much noise as a mad bull. He was +terribly scared, and Hobbs hastened to his rescue, first sending his +dog ahead. + +Just as the dog reached the bear, McIntire darted behind a tree and +flung his hat in the bear's face, at the same time sticking his +rifle toward him. The old grizzly seized the muzzle of the gun in +his teeth, and, as it was loaded and cocked, it either went off +accidentally or otherwise and blew the bear's head open, just as the +dog had fastened on his hindquarters. Hobbs ran to the assistance +of his comrade with all haste, but he was out of danger and had sat +down a few rods away, with his face as white as a sheet, a badly +frightened man. + +After that fearful scare, McIntire would cook or do anything, but +said he never intended to make a business of bear-hunting; he had +only wished for one adventure, and this one had satisfied him. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. +PAWNEE ROCK. + + + +That portion of the great central plains which radiates from +Pawnee Rock, including the Big Bend of the Arkansas, thirteen miles +distant, where that river makes a sudden sweep to the southeast, +and the beautiful valley of the Walnut, in all its vast area of +more than a million square acres, was from time immemorial a sort of +debatable land, occupied by none of the Indian tribes, but claimed +by all to hunt in; for it was a famous pasturage of the buffalo. + +None of the various bands had the temerity to attempt its permanent +occupancy; for whenever hostile tribes met there, which was of +frequent occurrence, in their annual hunt for their winter's supply +of meat, a bloody battle was certain to ensue. The region referred +to has been the scene of more sanguinary conflicts between the +different Indians of the plains, perhaps, than any other portion +of the continent. Particularly was it the arena of war to the death, +when the Pawnees met their hereditary enemies, the Cheyennes. + +Pawnee Rock was a spot well calculated by nature to form, as it +has done, an important rendezvous and ambuscade for the prowling +savages of the prairies, and often afforded them, especially the +once powerful and murderous Pawnees whose name it perpetuates, +a pleasant little retreat or eyrie from which to watch the passing +Santa Fe traders, and dash down upon them like hawks, to carry off +their plunder and their scalps. + +Through this once dangerous region, close to the silent Arkansas, +and running under the very shadow of the rock, the Old Trail wound +its course. Now, at this point, it is the actual road-bed of the +Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, so strangely are the past +and present transcontinental highways connected here. + +Who, among bearded and grizzled old fellows like myself, has forgotten +that most sensational of all the miserably executed illustrations +in the geographies of fifty years ago, "The Santa Fe Traders attacked +by Indians"? The picture located the scene of the fight at Pawnee +Rock, which formed a sort of nondescript shadow in the background +of a crudely drawn representation of the dangers of the Trail. + +If this once giant sentinel[61] of the plains might speak, what a +story it could tell of the events that have happened on the beautiful +prairie stretching out for miles at its feet! + +In the early fall, when the rock was wrapped in the soft amber haze +which is a distinguishing characteristic of the incomparable Indian +summer on the plains; or in the spring, when the mirage weaves its +mysterious shapes, it loomed up in the landscape as if it were a huge +mountain, and to the inexperienced eye appeared as if it were the +abrupt ending of a well-defined range. But when the frost came, +and the mists were dispelled; when the thin fringe of timber on the +Walnut, a few miles distant, had doffed its emerald mantle, and +the grass had grown yellow and rusty, then in the golden sunlight +of winter, the rock sank down to its normal proportions, and cut +the clear blue of the sky with sharply marked lines. + +In the days when the Santa Fe trade was at its height, the Pawnees +were the most formidable tribe on the eastern central plains, and +the freighters and trappers rarely escaped a skirmish with them +either at the crossing of the Walnut, Pawnee Rock, the Fork of the +Pawnee, or at Little and Big Coon creeks. To-day what is left of +the historic hill looks down only upon peaceful homes and fruitful +fields, whereas for hundreds of years it witnessed nothing but battle +and death, and almost every yard of brown sod at its base covered +a skeleton. In place of the horrid yell of the infuriated savage, +as he wrenched off the reeking scalp of his victim, the whistle of +the locomotive and the pleasant whirr of the reaping-machine is heard; +where the death-cry of the painted warrior rang mournfully over +the silent prairie, the waving grain is singing in beautiful rhythm +as it bows to the summer breeze. + +Pawnee Rock received its name in a baptism of blood, but there are +many versions as to the time and sponsors. It was there that Kit +Carson killed his first Indian, and from that fight, as he told me +himself, the broken mass of red sandstone was given its distinctive +title. + +It was late in the spring of 1826; Kit was then a mere boy, only +seventeen years old, and as green as any boy of his age who had never +been forty miles from the place where he was born. Colonel Ceran +St. Vrain, then a prominent agent of one of the great fur companies, +was fitting out an expedition destined for the far-off Rocky Mountains, +the members of which, all trappers, were to obtain the skins of the +buffalo, beaver, otter, mink, and other valuable fur-bearing animals +that then roamed in immense numbers on the vast plains or in the +hills, and were also to trade with the various tribes of Indians on +the borders of Mexico. + +Carson joined this expedition, which was composed of twenty-six +mule wagons, some loose stock, and forty-two men. The boy was hired +to help drive the extra animals, hunt game, stand guard, and to make +himself generally useful, which, of course, included fighting Indians +if any were met with on the long route. + +The expedition left Fort Osage one bright morning in May in excellent +spirits, and in a few hours turned abruptly to the west on the broad +Trail to the mountains. The great plains in those early days were +solitary and desolate beyond the power of description; the Arkansas +River sluggishly followed the tortuous windings of its treeless banks +with a placidness that was awful in its very silence; and whoso +traced the wanderings of that stream with no companion but his own +thoughts, realized in all its intensity the depth of solitude from +which Robinson Crusoe suffered on his lonely island. Illimitable as +the ocean, the weary waste stretched away until lost in the purple of +the horizon, and the mirage created weird pictures in the landscape, +distorted distances and objects which continually annoyed and deceived. +Despite its loneliness, however, there was then, and ever has been +for many men, an infatuation for those majestic prairies that once +experienced is never lost, and it came to the boyish heart of Kit, +who left them but with life, and full of years. + +There was not much variation in the eternal sameness of things during +the first two weeks, as the little train moved day after day through +the wilderness of grass, its ever-rattling wheels only intensifying +the surrounding monotony. Occasionally, however, a herd of buffalo +was discovered in the distance, their brown, shaggy sides contrasting +with the never-ending sea of verdure around them. Then young Kit, +and two or three others of the party who were detailed to supply +the teamsters and trappers with meat, would ride out after them on +the best of the extra horses which were always kept saddled and tied +together behind the last wagon for services of this kind. Kit, who +was already an excellent horseman and a splendid shot with the rifle, +would soon overtake them, and topple one after another of their huge +fat carcasses over on the prairie until half a dozen or more were +lying dead. The tender humps, tongues, and other choice portions +were then cut out and put in a wagon which had by that time reached +them from the train, and the expedition rolled on. + +So they marched for about three weeks, when they arrived at the +crossing of the Walnut, where they saw the first signs of Indians. +They had halted for that day; the mules were unharnessed, the +camp-fires lighted, and the men just about to indulge in their +refreshing coffee, when suddenly half a dozen Pawnees, mounted on +their ponies, hideously painted and uttering the most demoniacal +yells, rushed out of the tall grass on the river-bottom, where they +had been ambushed, and swinging their buffalo-robes, attempted to +stampede the herd picketed near the camp. The whole party were on +their feet in an instant with rifles in hand, and all the savages +got for their trouble were a few well-deserved shots as they hurriedly +scampered back to the river and over into the sand hills on the other +side, soon to be out of sight. + +The expedition travelled sixteen miles next day, and camped at +Pawnee Rock, where, after the experience of the evening before, +every precaution was taken to prevent a surprise by the savages. +The wagons were formed into a corral, so that the animals could be +secured in the event of a prolonged fight; the guards were drilled +by the colonel, and every man slept with his rifle for a bed-fellow, +for the old trappers knew that the Indians would never remain +satisfied with their defeat on the Walnut, but would seize the first +favourable opportunity to renew their attack. + +At dark the sentinels were placed in position, and to young Kit fell +the important post immediately in front of the south face of the +Rock, nearly two hundred yards from the corral; the others being at +prominent points on top, and on the open prairie on either side. +All who were not on duty had long since been snoring heavily, +rolled up in their blankets and buffalo-robes, when at about half-past +eleven, one of the guard gave the alarm, "Indians!" and ran the mules +that were nearest him into the corral. In a moment the whole company +turned out at the report of a rifle ringing on the clear night air, +coming from the direction of the rock. The men had gathered at +the opening to the corral, waiting for developments, when Kit came +running in, and as soon as he was near enough, the colonel asked him +whether he had seen any Indians. "Yes," Kit replied, "I killed one +of the red devils; I saw him fall!" + +The alarm proved to be false; there was no further disturbance that +night, so the party returned to their beds, and the sentinels to +their several posts, Kit of course to his place in front of the Rock. + +Early the next morning, before breakfast even, all were so anxious +to see Kit's dead Indian, that they went out en masse to where he was +still stationed, and instead of finding a painted Pawnee, as was +expected, they found the boy's riding mule dead, shot right through +the head. + +Kit felt terribly mortified over his ridiculous blunder, and it was +a long time before he heard the last of his midnight adventure and +his raid on his own mule. But he always liked to tell the "balance +of the story," as he termed it, and this is his version: "I had not +slept any the night before, for I stayed awake watching to get a +shot at the Pawnees that tried to stampede our animals, expecting +they would return; and I hadn't caught a wink all day, as I was out +buffalo hunting, so I was awfully tired and sleepy when we arrived +at Pawnee Rock that evening, and when I was posted at my place at +night, I must have gone to sleep leaning against the rocks; at any +rate, I was wide enough awake when the cry of Indians was given by +one of the guard. I had picketed my mule about twenty steps from +where I stood, and I presume he had been lying down; all I remember +is that the first thing I saw after the alarm was something rising up +out of the grass, which I thought was an Indian. I pulled the trigger; +it was a centre shot, and I don't believe the mule ever kicked after +he was hit!" + +The next morning about daylight, a band of Pawnees attacked the train +in earnest, and kept the little command busy all that day, the next +night, and until the following midnight, nearly three whole days, +the mules all the time being shut in the corral without food or water. +At midnight of the second day the colonel ordered the men to hitch up +and attempt to drive on to the crossing of Pawnee Fork, thirteen miles +distant.[62] They succeeded in getting there, fighting their way +without the loss of any of their men or animals. The Trail crossed +the creek in the shape of a horseshoe, or rather, in consequence of +the double bend of the stream as it empties into the Arkansas, the +road crossed it twice. In making this passage, dangerous on account +of its crookedness, Kit said many of the wagons were badly mashed up; +for the mules were so thirsty that their drivers could not control +them. The train was hardly strung out on the opposite bank when +the Indians poured in a volley of bullets and a shower of arrows +from both sides of the Trail; but before they could load and fire +again, a terrific charge was on them, led by Colonel St. Vrain and +Carson. It required only a few moments more to clean out the +persistent savages, and the train went on. During the whole fight +the little party lost four men killed and seven wounded, and eleven +mules killed (not counting Kit's), and twenty badly wounded. + +A great many years ago, very early in the days of the trade with +New Mexico, seven Americans were surprised by a large band of Pawnees +in the vicinity of the Rock and were compelled to retreat to it for +safety. There, without water, and with but a small quantity of +provisions, they were besieged by their blood-thirsty foes for two +days, when a party of traders coming on the Trail relieved them from +their perilous situation and the presence of their enemy. There were +several graves on its summit when I first saw Pawnee Rock; but +whether they contained the bones of savages or those of white men, +I do not know. + +Carson related to me another terrible fight that took place at the +rock, when he first became a trapper. He was not a participant, +but knew the parties well. About twenty-nine years ago, Kit, Jack +Henderson, who was agent for the Ute Indians, Lucien B. Maxwell, +General Carleton and myself were camped halfway up the rugged sides +of Old Baldy, in the Raton Range. The night was intensely cold, +although in midsummer, and we were huddled around a little fire of +pine knots, more than seven thousand feet above the level of the sea, +close to the snow limit. + +Kit, or "the General," as every one called him, was in a good humour +for talking, and we naturally took advantage of this to draw him out; +for usually he was the most reticent of men in relating his own +exploits. A casual remark made by Maxwell opened Carson's mouth, +and he said he remembered one of the "worst difficults" a man ever +got into.[63] So he made a fresh corn-shuck cigarette, and related +the following; but the names of the old trappers who were the +principals in the fight I have unfortunately forgotten. + +Two men had been trapping in the Powder River country during one +winter with unusually good luck, and they got an early start with +their furs, which they were going to take to Weston, on the Missouri, +one of the principal trading points in those days. They walked the +whole distance, driving their pack-mules before them, and experienced +no trouble until they struck the Arkansas valley at Pawnee Rock. +There they were intercepted by a war-party of about sixty Pawnees. +Both of the trappers were notoriously brave and both dead shots. +Before they arrived at the rock, to which they were finally driven, +they killed two of the Indians, and had not themselves received a +scratch. They had plenty of powder, a pouch full of balls each, +and two good rifles. They also had a couple of jack-rabbits for +food in case of a siege, and the perpendicular walls of the front +of the rock made them a natural fortification, an almost impregnable +one against Indians. + +They succeeded in securely picketing their animals at the side of +the rock, where they could protect them by their unerring rifles +from being stampeded. After the Pawnees had "treed" the two trappers +on the rock, they picked up their dead, and packed them off to their +camp at the mouth of a little ravine a short distance away. In a few +moments back they all came, mounted on fast ponies, with their +war-paint and other fixings on, ready to renew the fight. They +commenced to circle around the place, coming closer, Indian fashion, +every time, until they got within easy rifle-range, when they slung +themselves on the opposite sides of their horses, and in that position +opened fire. Their arrows fell like a hailstorm, but as good luck +would have it, none of them struck, and the balls from their rifles +were wild, as the Indians in those days were not very good shots; +the rifle was a new weapon to them. The trappers at first were +afraid the savages would surely try to kill the mules, but soon +reflected that the Indians believed they had the "dead-wood" on them, +and the mules would come handy after they had been scalped; so they +felt satisfied their animals were safe for a while anyhow. The men +were taking in all the chances, however; both kept their eyes skinned, +and whenever one of them saw a stray leg or head, he drew a bead +on it and when he pulled the trigger, its owner tumbled over with +a yell of rage from his companions. + +Whenever the savages attempted to carry off their dead,[64] the two +trappers took advantage of the opportunity, and poured in their +shots every time with telling effect. + +By this time night had fallen, and the Indians did not seem anxious +to renew the fight after dark; but they kept their mounted patrols +on every side of the rock, at a respectable distance from such dead +shots, watching to prevent the escape of the besieged. As they were +hungry, one of the men went down under cover of the darkness to get +a few buffalo-chips with which to cook their rabbit, and to change +the animals to where they could get fresh grass. He returned safely +to the summit of the rock, where a little fire was made and their +supper prepared. They had to go without water all the time, and so +did the mules; the men did not mind the want of it themselves, but +they could not help pitying their poor animals that had had none +since they left camp early that morning. It was no use to worry, +though; the nearest water was at the river, and it would have been +certain death to have attempted to go there unless the savages +cleared out, and from all appearances they had no idea of doing that. + +What gave the trappers more cause for alarm than anything else, +was the fear that the Indians would fire the prairie in the morning, +and endeavour to smoke them out or burn them up. The grass was in +just the condition to make a lively blaze, and they might escape +the flames, and then they might not. It can well be imagined how +eagerly they watched for the dawn of another day, perhaps the last +for them. + +The first gray streaks of light had hardly peeped above the horizon, +when, with an infernal yell, the Indians broke for the rock, and +the trappers were certain that some new project had entered their +heads. The wind was springing up pretty freshly, and nature seemed +to conspire with the red devils, if they really meant to burn the +trappers out; and from the movements of the savages, that was what +they expected. The Indians kept at a respectful distance from the +range of the trappers' rifles, who chafed because they could not +stop some of the infernal yelling with a few well-directed bullets, +but they had to choke their rage, and watch events closely. During +a temporary lull in hostilities, one of the trappers took occasion +to crawl down to where the mules were, and shift them to the west +side of the rock, where the wall was the highest; so that the flame +and smoke might possibly pass by them without so much danger as where +they were picketed before. He had just succeeded in doing this, +and, tearing up the long grass for several yards around the animals, +was in the act of going back, when his partner yelled out to him: +"Look out! D---n 'em, they've fired the prairie!" He was back on +the top of the rock in another moment, and took in at a glance what +was coming. + +The spectacle for a short interval was indescribably grand; the sun +was shining with all the power of its rays on the huge clouds of smoke +as they rolled down from the north, tinting them a glorious crimson. +The two trappers had barely time to get under the shelter of a large +projecting point of the rocky wall, when the wind and smoke swept +down to the ground, and instantly they were enveloped in the darkness +of midnight. They could not discern a single object; neither Indians, +horses, the prairie, nor the sun; and what a terrible wind! + +The trappers stood breathless, clinging to the projections of rock, +and did not realize the fire was so near them until they were struck +in the face by pieces of burning buffalo-chips that were carried +toward them with the rapidity of the awful wind. They were now badly +scared, for it seemed as if they were to be suffocated. They were +saved, however, almost miraculously; the sheet of flame passed them +twenty yards away, as the wind fortunately shifted at the moment +the fire reached the foot of the rock. The darkness was so intense +that they did not discover the flame; they only knew that they were +saved as the clear sky greeted them from behind the dense smoke-cloud. + +Two of the Indians and their horses were caught in their own trap, +and perished miserably. They had attempted to reach the east side +of the rock, so as to steal around to the other side where the mules +were, and either cut them loose or crawl up on the trappers while +bewildered in the smoke and kill them, if they were not already dead. +But they had proceeded only a few rods on their little expedition, +when the terrible darkness of the smoke-cloud overtook them and soon +the flames, from which there was no possible escape. + +All the game on the prairie which the fire swept over was killed too. +Only a few buffalo were visible in that region before the fire, but +even they were killed. The path of the flames, as was discovered by +the caravans that passed over the Trail a few days afterward, was +marked with the crisp and blackened carcasses of wolves, coyotes, +turkeys, grouse, and every variety of small birds indigenous to the +region. Indeed, it seemed as if no living thing it had met escaped +its fury. The fire assumed such gigantic proportions, and moved +with such rapidity before the wind, that even the Arkansas River +did not check its path for a moment; it was carried as readily across +as if the stream had not been in its way. + +The first thought of the trappers on the rock was for their poor +mules. One crawled to where they were, and found them badly singed, +but not seriously injured. The men began to brighten up again when +they knew that their means of transportation were relatively all +right, and themselves also, and they took fresh courage, beginning +to believe they should get out of their bad scrape after all. + +In the meantime the Indians, with the exception of three or four +left to guard the rock, so as to prevent the trappers from getting +away, had gone back to their camp in the ravine, and were evidently +concocting some new scheme for the discomfort of the besieged +trappers. The latter waited patiently two or three hours for the +development of events, snatching a little sleep by turns, which they +needed much; for both were worn out by their constant watching. +At last when the sun was about three hours high, the Indians commenced +their infernal howling again, and then the trappers knew they had +decided upon something; so they were on the alert in a moment to +discover what it was, and euchre them if possible. + +The devils this time had tied all their ponies together, covered +them with branches of trees that they had gone up on the Walnut for, +packed some lodge-skins on these, and then, driving the living +breastworks before them, moved toward the rock. They proceeded +cautiously but surely, and matters began to look very serious for +the trappers. As the strange cavalcade approached, a trapper raised +his rifle, and a masked pony tumbled over on the scorched sod dead. +As one of the Indians ran to cut him loose, the other trapper took +him off his feet by a well-directed shot; he never uttered a groan. +The besieged now saw their only salvation was to kill the ponies +and so demoralize the Indians that they would have to abandon such +tactics, and quicker than I can tell it, they had stretched four +more out on the prairie, and made it so hot for the savages that +they ran out of range and began to hold a council of war. + +Finding that their plan would not work--for as the last pony was shot, +the rest stampeded and were running wild over the prairie--the Indians +soon went back to their camp again, and the trappers now had a few +spare moments in which to take an account of stock. They discovered, +much to their chagrin, that they had used up all their ammunition +except three or four loads, and despair hovered over them once more. + +The Indians did not reappear that evening, and the cause was apparent; +for in the distance could be seen a long line of wagons, one of the +large American caravans en route to Santa Fe. The savages had seen +it before the trappers, and had cleared out. When the train arrived +opposite the rock, the relieved men came down from their little +fortress, joined the caravan, and camped with the Americans that +night on the Walnut. While they were resting around their camp-fire, +smoking and telling of their terrible experience on the top of the +rock, the Indians could be heard chanting the death-song while they +were burying their warriors under the blackened sod of the prairie. + +I witnessed a spirited encounter between a small band of Cheyennes +and Pawnees in the fall of 1867. It occurred on the open prairie +north of the mouth of the Walnut, and not a great distance from +Pawnee Rock. Both tribes were hunting buffalo, and when they, +by accident, discovered the presence of each other, with a yell +that fairly shook the sand dunes on the Arkansas, they rushed at once +into the shock of battle. + +That night, in a timbered bend of the Walnut, the victors had a grand +dance, in which scalps, ears, and fingers of their enemies, suspended +by strings to long poles, were important accessories to their weird +orgies around their huge camp-fires.[65] + +One of the most horrible massacres in the history of the Trail +occurred at Little Cow Creek in the summer of 1864. In July of that +year a government caravan, loaded with military stores for Fort Union +in New Mexico, left Fort Leavenworth for the long and dangerous +journey of more than seven hundred miles over the great plains, +which that season were infested by Indians to a degree almost without +precedent in the annals of freight traffic. + +The train was owned by a Mr. H. C. Barret, a contractor with the +quartermaster's department; but he declined to take the chances of +the trip unless the government would lease the outfit in its entirety, +or give him an indemnifying bond as assurance against any loss. +The chief quartermaster executed the bond as demanded, and Barret +hired his teamsters for the hazardous journey; but he found it a +difficult matter to induce men to go out that season. + +Among those whom he persuaded to enter his employ was a mere boy, +named McGee, who came wandering into Leavenworth a few weeks before +the train was ready to leave, seeking work of any description. +His parents had died on their way to Kansas, and on his arrival at +Westport Landing, the emigrant outfit that had extended to him +shelter and protection in his utter loneliness was disbanded; so the +youthful orphan was thrown on his own resources. At that time the +Indians of the great plains, especially along the line of the Santa Fe +Trail, were very hostile, and continually harassing the freight +caravans and stage-coaches of the overland route. Companies of men +were enlisting and being mustered into the United States service to +go out after the savages, and young Robert McGee volunteered with +hundreds of others for the dangerous duty. The government needed +men badly, but McGee's youth militated against him, and he was below +the required stature; so he was rejected by the mustering officer. + +Mr. Barret, in hunting for teamsters to drive his caravan, came +across McGee, who, supposing that he was hiring as a government +employee, accepted Mr. Barret's offer. + +By the last day of June the caravan was all ready, and on the morning +of the next day, July 1, the wagons rolled out of the fort, escorted +by a company of United States troops, from the volunteers referred to. + +The caravan wound its weary way over the lonesome Trail with nothing +to relieve the monotony save a few skirmishes with the Indians; but +no casualties occurred in these insignificant battles, the savages +being afraid to venture too near on account of the presence of the +military escort. + +On the 18th of July, the caravan arrived in the vicinity of Fort +Larned. There it was supposed that the proximity of that military +post would be a sufficient guarantee from any attack of the savages; +so the men of the train became careless, and as the day was excessively +hot, they went into camp early in the afternoon, the escort remaining +in bivouac about a mile in the rear of the train. + +About five o'clock, a hundred and fifty painted savages, under the +command of Little Turtle of the Brule Sioux, swooped down on the +unsuspecting caravan while the men were enjoying their evening meal. +Not a moment was given them to rally to the defence of their lives, +and of all belonging to the outfit, with the exception of one boy, +not a soul came out alive. + +The teamsters were every one of them shot dead and their bodies +horribly mutilated. After their successful raid, the savages +destroyed everything they found in the wagons, tearing the covers +into shreds, throwing the flour on the trail, and winding up by +burning everything that was combustible. + +On the same day the commanding officer of Fort Larned had learned +from some of his scouts that the Brule Sioux were on the war-path, +and the chief of the scouts with a handful of soldiers was sent out +to reconnoitre. They soon struck the trail of Little Turtle and +followed it to the scene of the massacre on Cow Creek, arriving +there only two hours after the savages had finished their devilish +work. Dead men were lying about in the short buffalo-grass which +had been stained and matted by their flowing blood, and the agonized +posture of their bodies told far more forcibly than any language +the tortures which had come before a welcome death. All had been +scalped; all had been mutilated in that nameless manner which seems +to delight the brutal instincts of the North American savage. + +Moving slowly from one to the other of the lifeless forms which +still showed the agony of their death-throes, the chief of the scouts +came across the bodies of two boys, both of whom had been scalped +and shockingly wounded, besides being mutilated, yet, strange to say, +both of them were alive. As tenderly as the men could lift them, +they were conveyed at once back to Fort Larned and given in charge +of the post surgeon. One of the boys died in a few hours after his +arrival in the hospital, but the other, Robert McGee, slowly regained +his strength, and came out of the ordeal in fairly good health. + +The story of the massacre was related by young McGee, after he was +able to talk, while in the hospital at the fort; for he had not +lost consciousness during the suffering to which he was subjected +by the savages. + +He was compelled to witness the tortures inflicted on his wounded and +captive companions, after which he was dragged into the presence of +the chief, Little Turtle, who determined that he would kill the boy +with his own hands. He shot him in the back with his own revolver, +having first knocked him down with a lance handle. He then drove +two arrows through the unfortunate boy's body, fastening him to the +ground, and stooping over his prostrate form ran his knife around +his head, lifting sixty-four square inches of his scalp, trimming +it off just behind his ears. + +Believing him dead by that time, Little Turtle abandoned his victim; +but the other savages, as they went by his supposed corpse, could not +resist their infernal delight in blood, so they thrust their knives +into him, and bored great holes in his body with their lances. + +After the savages had done all that their devilish ingenuity could +contrive, they exultingly rode away, yelling as they bore off the +reeking scalps of their victims, and drove away the hundreds of mules +they had captured. + +When the tragedy was ended, the soldiers, who had from their +vantage-ground witnessed the whole diabolical transaction, came up +to the bloody camp by order of their commander, to learn whether +the teamsters had driven away their assailants, and saw too late +what their cowardice had allowed to take place. The officer in +command of the escort was dismissed the service, as he could not +give any satisfactory reason for not going to the rescue of the +caravan he had been ordered to guard. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. +FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. + + + +The Wagon Mound, so called from its resemblance to a covered army-wagon, +is a rocky mesa forty miles from Point of Rocks, westwardly. +The stretch of the Trail from the latter to the mound has been +the scene of some desperate encounters, only exceeded in number +and sanguinary results by those which have occurred in the region of +Pawnee Rock, the crossing of the Walnut, Pawnee Fork, and Cow Creek. + +One of the most remarkable stories of this Wagon Mound country dealt +with the nerve and bravery exhibited by John L. Hatcher in defence +of his life, and those of the men in his caravan, about 1858. + +Hatcher was a noted trader and merchant of New Mexico. He was also +celebrated as an Indian fighter, and his name was a terror to the +savages who infested the settlements of New Mexico and raided the Trail. + +He left Taos, where he then resided, in the summer, with his caravan +loaded with furs and pelts destined for Westport Landing; to be +forwarded from there to St. Louis, the only market for furs in the +far West. His train was a small one, comprising about fifteen wagons +and handled by about as many men, including himself. At the date +of his adventure the Indians were believed to be at peace with +everybody; a false idea, as Hatcher well knew, for there never was +such a condition of affairs as absolute immunity from their attacks. +While it might be true that the old men refrained for a time from +starting out on the war-path, there were ever the vastly greater +number of restless young warriors who had not yet earned their eagle +feathers, who could not be controlled by their chiefs, and who were +always engaged in marauding, either among the border settlements +or along the line of the Trail. + +When Hatcher was approaching the immediate vicinity of Wagon Mound,[66] +with his train strung out in single column, to his great astonishment +there suddenly charged on him from over the hill about three hundred +savages, all feather-bedecked and painted in the highest style of +Indian art. As they rode toward the caravan, they gave the sign +of peace, which Hatcher accepted for the time as true, although he +knew them well. However, he invited the head men to some refreshment, +as was usual on such occasions in those days, throwing a blanket +on the ground, on which sugar in abundance was served out. +The sweet-toothed warriors helped themselves liberally, and affected +much delight at the way they were being treated; but Hatcher, with +his knowledge of the savage character, was firm in the belief that +they came for no other purpose than to rob the caravan and kill him +and his men. + +They were Comanches, and one of the most noted chiefs of the tribe +was in command of the band, with some inferior chiefs under him. +I think it was Old Wolf, a very old man then, whose raids into Texas +had made his name a terror to the Mexicans living on the border. + +While the chiefs were eating their saccharine lunch, Hatcher was +losing no time in forming his wagons into a corral, but he told his +friends afterward that he had no idea that either he or any of his +men would escape; only fifteen or sixteen men against over three +hundred merciless savages, and those the worst on the continent, +and a small corral--the chances were totally hopeless! Nothing but +a desperate action could avail, and maybe not even that.[67] Hatcher, +after the other head men had finished eating, asked the old chief +to send his young warriors away over the hill. They were all sitting +close to one of the wagons, Old Wolf, in fact, leaning against the +wheel resting on his blanket, with Hatcher next him on his right. +Hatcher was so earnest in his appeal to have the young men sent away, +that both the venerable villain and his other chiefs rose and were +standing. Without a moment's notice or the slightest warning, +Hatcher reached with his left hand and grabbed Old Wolf by his +scalp-lock, and with his right drew his butcher-knife from its +scabbard and thrust it at the throat of the chief. All this was +done in an instant, as quick as lightning; no one had time to move. +The situation was remarkable. The little, wiry man, surrounded by +eight or nine of the most renowned warriors of the dreaded Comanches, +stood firm; everybody was breathless; not a word did the savages say. +Hatcher then said again to Old Wolf, in the most determined manner: +"Send your young men over the hill at once, or I'll kill you right +where you are!" holding on to the hair of the savage with his left +hand and keeping the knife at his throat. + +The other Indians did not dare to make a move; they knew what kind of +a man Hatcher was; they knew he would do as he had said, and that if +they attempted a rescue he would kill their favourite chief in a second. + +Old Wolf shook his head defiantly in the negative. Hatcher repeated +his order, getting madder all the time: "Send your young men over +the hill; I tell you!" Old Wolf was still stubborn; he shook his +head again. Hatcher gave him another chance: "Send your young men +over the hill, I tell you, or I'll scalp you alive as you are!" +Again the chief shook his head. Then Hatcher, still holding on the +hair of his stubborn victim, commenced to make an incision in the +head of Old Wolf, for the determined man was bound to carry out his +threat; but he began very slowly. + +As the chief felt the blood trickle down his forehead, he weakened. +He ordered his next in command to send the young men over the hill +and out of sight. The order was repeated immediately to the warriors, +who were astonished spectators of the strange scene, and they quickly +mounted their horses and rode away over the hill as fast as they +could thump their animals' sides with their legs, leaving only five +or six chiefs with Old Wolf and Hatcher. + +Hatcher held on like grim death to the old chief's head, and immediately +ordered his men to throw the robes out of the wagons as quickly as +they could, and get inside themselves. This was promptly obeyed, +and when they were all under the cover of the wagon sheets, Hatcher +let go of his victim's hair, and, with a last kick, told him and his +friends that they could leave. They went off, and did not return. + +Some laughable incidents have enlivened the generally sanguinary +history of the Old Santa Fe Trail, but they were very serious at +the time to those who were the actors, and their ludicrousness came +after all was over. + +In the late summer of 1866, a thieving band of Apaches came into the +vicinity of Fort Union, New Mexico, and after carefully reconnoitring +the whole region and getting at the manner in which the stock +belonging to the fort was herded, they secreted themselves in the +Turkey Mountains overlooking the entire reservation, and lay in wait +for several days, watching for a favourable moment to make a raid +into the valley and drive off the herd. + +Selecting an occasion when the guard was weak and not very alert, +they in broad daylight crawled under the cover of a hill, and, +mounting their horses, dashed out with the most unearthly yells and +down among the animals that were quietly grazing close to the fort, +which terrified these so greatly that they broke away from the herders, +and started at their best gait toward the mountains, closely followed +by the savages. + +The astonished soldiers used every effort to avert the evident loss +of their charge, and many shots were exchanged in the running fight +that ensued; but the Indians were too strong for them, and they were +forced to abandon the chase. + +Among the herders was a bugler boy, who was remarkable for his bravery +in the skirmish and for his untiring endeavours to turn the animals +back toward the fort, but all without avail; on they went, with the +savages, close to their heels, giving vent to the most vociferous +shouts of exultation, and directing the most obscene and insulting +gesticulations to the soldiers that were after them. + +While this exciting contest for the mastery was going on, an old +Apache chief dashed in the rear of the bold bugler boy, and could, +without doubt, easily have killed the little fellow; but instead of +doing this, from some idea of a good joke, or for some other +incomprehensible reason, his natural blood-thirsty instinct was +changed, and he merely knocked the bugler's hat from his head with +the flat of his hand, and at the same time encouragingly stroked his +hair, as much as to say: "You are a brave boy," and then rode off +without doing him any harm. + +Thirty years ago last August, I was riding from Fort Larned to Fort +Union, New Mexico, in the overland coach. I had one of my clerks +with me; we were the only passengers, and arrived at Fort Dodge, +which was the commencement of the "long route," at midnight. +There we changed drivers, and at the break of day were some +twenty-four miles on our lonely journey. The coach was rattling +along at a breakneck gait, and I saw that something was evidently +wrong. Looking out of one of the doors, I noticed that our Jehu was +in a beastly state of intoxication. It was a most dangerous portion +of the Trail; the Indians were not in the best of humours, and an +attack was not at all improbable before we arrived at the next +station, Fort Lyon. + +I said to my clerk that something must be done; so I ordered the +driver to halt, which he did willingly, got out, and found that, +notwithstanding his drunken mood, he was very affable and disposed +to be full of fun. I suggested that he get inside the coach and +lie down to sleep off his potations, to which he readily assented, +while I and my clerk, after snugly fixing him on the cushions, +got on the boot, I taking the lines, he seizing an old trace-chain, +with which he pounded the mules along; for we felt ourselves in a +ticklish predicament should we come across any of the brigands of +the plains, on that lonely route, with the animals to look out for, +and only two of us to do the fighting. + +Suddenly we saw sitting on the bank of the Arkansas River, about +a dozen rods from the Trail, an antiquated-looking savage with his +war-bonnet on, and armed with a long lance and his bow and arrows. +We did not care a cent for him, but I thought he might be one of +the tribe's runners, lying in wait to discover the condition of the +coach--whether it had an escort, and how many were riding in it, and +that then he would go and tell how ridiculously small the outfit was, +and swoop down on us with a band of his colleagues, that were hidden +somewhere in the sand hills south of the river. He rose as we came +near, and made the sign, after he had given vent to a series of +"How's!" that he wanted to talk; but we were not anxious for any +general conversation with his savage majesty just then, so my clerk +applied the trace-chain more vigorously to the tired mules, in order +to get as many miles between him and the coach as we could before +he could get over into the sand hills and back. + +It was, fortunately, a false alarm; the old warrior perhaps had no +intentions of disturbing us. We arrived at Fort Lyon in good season, +with our valorous driver absolutely sobered, requesting me to say +nothing about his accident, which, of course, I did not. + +As has been stated, the caravans bound for Santa Fe and the various +forts along the line of the Old Trail did not leave the eastern end +of the route until the grass on the plains, on which the animals +depended solely for subsistence the whole way, grew sufficiently to +sustain them, which was usually about the middle of May. But a great +many years ago, one of the high officials of the quartermaster's +department at Washington, who had never been for a moment on duty +on the frontier in his life, found a good deal of fault with what he +thought the dilatoriness of the officer in charge at Fort Leavenworth, +who controlled the question of transportation for the several forts +scattered all over the West, for not getting the freight caravans +started earlier, which the functionary at the capital said must and +should be done. He insisted that they must leave the Missouri River +by the middle of April, a month earlier than usual, and came out +himself to superintend the matter. He made the contracts accordingly, +easily finding contractors that suited him. He then wrote to +headquarters in a triumphant manner that he had revolutionized the +whole system of army transportation of supplies to the military posts. +Delighted with his success, he rode out about the second week of May +to Salt Creek, only three miles from the fort, and, very much to his +astonishment, found his teams, which he had believed to be on the +way to Santa Fe a month ago, snugly encamped. They had "started," +just as was agreed. + +There are, or rather were, hundreds of stories current thirty-five +years ago of stage-coach adventures on the Trail; a volume could be +filled with them, but I must confine myself to a few. + +John Chisholm was a famous ranchman a long while ago, who had so many +cattle that it was said he did not know their number himself. At one +time he had a large contract to furnish beef to an Indian agency +in Arizona; he had just delivered an immense herd there, and very +wisely, after receiving his cash for them, sent most of it on to +Santa Fe in advance of his own journey. When he arrived there, +he started for the Missouri River with a thousand dollars and +sufficient small change to meet his current expenses on the road. + +The very first night out from Santa Fe, the coach was halted by a +band of men who had been watching Chisholm's movements from the time +he left the agency in Arizona. The instant the stage came to a +standstill, Chisholm divined what it meant, and had time to thrust +a roll of money down one of the legs of his trousers before the door +was thrown back and he was ordered to fork over what he had. + +He invited the robbers to search him, and to take what they might +find, but said he was not in a financial condition at that juncture +to turn over much. The thieves found his watch, took that, and then +began to search him. As luck would have it, they entirely missed +the roll that was down his leg, and discovered but a two-dollar bill +in his vest. When he told them it was all he had to buy grub on +the road, one of the robbers handed him a silver dollar, remarking +as he did so: "That a man who was mean enough to travel with only +two dollars ought to starve, but he would give him the dollar just +to let him know that he was dealing with gentlemen!" + +One of the essentials to the comfort of the average soldier is +tobacco. He must have it; he would sooner forego any component part +of his ration than give it up. + +In November, 1865, a detachment of Company L, of the Eleventh Kansas +Volunteers, and of the Second Colorado were ordered from Fort Larned +to Fort Lyon on a scouting expedition along the line of the Trail, +the savages having been very active in their raids on the freight caravans. + +In a short time their tobacco began to run low, and as there was no +settlement of any kind between the two military posts, there was no +chance to replenish their stock. One night, while encamped on the +Arkansas, the only piece that was left in the whole command, about +half a plug, was unfortunately lost, and there was dismay in the +camp when the fact was announced. Hours were spent in searching for +the missing treasure. The next morning the march was delayed for +some time, while further diligent search was instituted by all hands, +but without result, and the command set out on its weary tramp, +as disconsolate as may well be imagined by those who are victims to +the habit of chewing the weed. + +Arriving at Fort Lyon, to their greater discomfort it was learned +that the sutler at that post was entirely out of the coveted article, +and the troops began their return journey more disconsolate than ever. +Dry leaves, grass, and even small bits of twigs, were chewed as a +substitute, until, reaching the spot where they had lost the part of +a plug, they determined to remain there that night and begin a more +vigorous hunt for the missing piece. Just before dark their efforts +were rewarded; one of the men found it, and such a scramble occurred +for even the smallest nibble at it! Enormous prices were given for +a single chew. It opened at one dollar for a mere sliver, rose to +five, and closed at ten dollars when the last morsel was left. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. +A DESPERATE RIDE. + + + +In the Rocky Mountains and on the great plains along the line of the +Old Trail are many rude and widely separated graves. The sequestered +little valleys, the lonely gulches, and the broad prairies through +which the highway to New Mexico wound its course, hide the bones of +hundreds of whom the world will never have any more knowledge. +The number of these solitary, and almost obliterated mounds is small +when compared with the vast multitude in the cemeteries of our towns, +though if the host of those whose bones are mouldering under the +short buffalo-grass and tall blue-stem of the prairies between the +Missouri and the mountains were tabulated, the list would be appalling. +Their aggregate will never be known; for the once remote region of +the mid-continent, like the ocean, rarely gave up its victims. +Lives went out there as goes an expiring candle, suddenly, swiftly, +and silently; no record was kept of time or place. All those who +thus died are graveless and monumentless, the great circle of the +heavens is the dome of their sepulchre, and the recurring blossoms +of springtime their only epitaph. + +Sometimes the traveller over the Old Trail will suddenly, in the most +unexpected places, come across a little mound, perhaps covered with +stones, under which lie the mouldering bones of some unfortunate +adventurer. Above, now on a rude board, then on a detached rock, or +maybe on the wall of a beetling canyon, he may frequently read, in crude +pencilling or rougher carving, the legend of the dead man's ending. + +The line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, which +practically runs over the Old Trail for nearly its whole length to +the mountains, is a fertile field of isolated graves. The savage +and soldier, the teamster and scout, the solitary trapper or hunter, +and many others who have gone down to their death fighting with the +relentless nomad of the plains, or have been otherwise ruthlessly +cut off, mark with their last resting-places that well-worn pathway +across the continent. + +The tourist, looking from his car-window as he is whirled with the +speed of a tornado toward the snow-capped peaks of the "Great Divide," +may see as he approaches Walnut Creek, three miles east of the town +of Great Bend in Kansas, on the beautiful ranch of Hon. D. Heizer, +not far from the stream, and close to the house, a series of graves, +numbering, perhaps, a score. These have been most religiously +cared for by the patriotic proprietor of the place during all the +long years since 1864, as he believes them to be the last resting-place +of soldiers who were once a portion of the garrison of Fort Zarah, +the ruins of which (now a mere hole in the earth) are but a few +hundred yards away, on the opposite side of the railroad track, +plainly visible from the train. + +The Walnut debouches into the Arkansas a short distance from where +the railroad crosses the creek, and at this point, too, the trail +from Fort Leavenworth merges into the Old Santa Fe. The broad pathway +is very easily recognized here; for it runs over a hard, flinty, +low divide, that has never been disturbed by the plough, and the +traveller has only to cast his eyes in a northeasterly direction +in order to see it plainly. + +The creek is fairly well timbered to-day, as it has been ever since +the first caravan crossed the clear water of the little stream. +It was always a favourite place of ambush by the Indians, and many +a conflict has occurred in the beautiful bottom bounded by a margin +of trees on two sides, between the traders, trappers, troops, and +the Indians, and also between the several tribes that were hereditary +enemies, particularly the Pawnees and the Cheyennes. It is only +about sixteen miles east of Pawnee Rock, and included in that region +of debatable ground where no band of Indians dared establish a +permanent village; for it was claimed by all the tribes, but really +owned by none. + +In 1864 the commerce of the great plains had reached enormous +proportions, and immense caravans rolled day after day toward the +blue hills which guard the portals of New Mexico, and the precious +freight constantly tempted the wily savages to plunder. + +To protect the caravans on their monotonous route through the "Desert," +as this portion of the plains was then termed, troops were stationed, +a mere handful relatively, at intervals on the Trail, to escort the +freighters and mail coaches over the most exposed and dangerous +portions of the way. + +On the bank of the Walnut, at this time, were stationed three hundred +unassigned recruits of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, under the command +of Captain Conkey. This point was rightly regarded as one of the +most important on the whole overland route; for near it passed the +favourite highway of the Indians on their yearly migrations north +and south, in the wake of the strange elliptical march of the buffalo +far beyond the Platte, and back to the sunny knolls of the Canadian. + +This primitive cantonment which grew rapidly in strategical importance, +was two years later made quite formidable defensively, and named +Fort Zarah, in memory of the youngest son of Major General Curtis, +who was killed by guerillas somewhere south of Fort Scott, Kansas, +while escorting General James G. Blunt, of frontier fame during +the Civil War. + +Captain Henry Booth, during the year above mentioned, was chief of +cavalry and inspecting officer of the military district of the Upper +Arkansas, the western geographical limits of which extended to the +foot-hills of the mountains. + +One day he received an order from the head-quarters of the department +to make a special inspection of all the outposts on the Santa Fe Trail. +He was stationed at Fort Riley at the time, and the evening the order +arrived, active preparations were immediately commenced for his +extended and hazardous trip across the plains. Lieutenant Hallowell, +of the Ninth Wisconsin Battery, was to accompany him, and both +officers went at once to their quarters, took down from the walls, +where they had been hanging idly for weeks, their rifles and pistols, +and carefully examined and brushed them up for possible service in +the dreary Arkansas bottom. Camp-kettles, until late in the night, +sizzled and sputtered over crackling log-fires; for their proposed +ride beyond the settlements demanded cooked rations for many a +weary day. All the preliminaries arranged, the question of the means +of transportation was determined, and, curiously enough, it saved +the lives of the two officers in the terrible gauntlet they were +destined to run. + +Hallowell was a famous whip, and prided himself upon the exceptionally +fine turnout which he daily drove among the picturesque hills around +the fort. + +"Booth," said he in the evening, "let's not take a great lumbering +ambulance on this trip; if you will get a good way-up team of mules +from the quartermaster, we'll use my light rig, and we'll do our +own driving." + +To this proposition Booth readily assented, procured the mules, and, +as it turned out, they were a "good way-up team." + +Hallowell had a set of bows fitted to his light wagon, over which +was thrown an army-wagon-sheet, drawn up behind with a cord, similar +to those of the ordinary emigrant outfit to be seen daily on the +roads of the Western prairies. A round hole was necessarily left +in the rear end, serving the purpose of a lookout. + +Two grip-sacks, containing their dress uniforms, a box of crackers +and cheese, meat and sardines, together with a bottle of anti-snake +bite, made up the principal freight for the long journey, and in the +clear cold of the early morning they rolled out of the gates of the +fort, escorted by Company L, of the Eleventh Kansas, commanded by +Lieutenant Van Antwerp. + +The company of one hundred mounted men acting as escort was too +formidable a number for the Indians, and not a sign of one was seen +as the dangerous flats of Plum Creek and the rolling country beyond +were successively passed, and early in the afternoon the cantonment +on Walnut Creek was reached. At this important outpost Captain +Conkey's command was living in a rude but comfortable sort of a way, +in the simplest of dugouts, constructed along the right bank of the +stream; the officers, a little more in accordance with military +dignity, in tents a few rods in rear of the line of huts. + +A stockade stable had been built, with a capacity for two hundred +and fifty horses, and sufficient hay had been put up by the men in +the fall to carry the animals through the winter. + +Captain Conkey was a brusque but kind-hearted man, and with him were +stationed other officers, one of whom was a son of Admiral Goldsborough. +The morning after the arrival of the inspecting officers a rigid +examination of all the appointments and belongings of the place was +made, and, as an immense amount of property had accumulated for +condemnation, when evening came the books and papers were still +untouched; so that branch of the inspection had to be postponed +until the next morning. + +After dark, while sitting around the camp-fire, discussing the war, +telling stories, etc., Captain Conkey said to Booth: "Captain, +it won't require more than half an hour in the morning to inspect +the papers and finish up what you have to do; why don't you start +your escort out very early, so it won't be obliged to trot after +the ambulance, or you to poke along with it? You can then move out +briskly and make time." + +Booth, acting upon what he thought at the time an excellent suggestion, +in a few moments went over the creek to Lieutenant Van Antwerp's camp, +to tell him that he need not wait for the wagon in the morning, but +to start out early, at half-past six, in advance. + +According to instructions, the escort marched out of camp at daylight +next morning, while Booth and Hallowell remained to finish their +inspection. It was soon discovered, however, that either Captain +Conkey had underrated the amount of work to be done, or misjudged +the inspecting officers' ability to complete it in a certain time; +so almost three hours elapsed after the cavalry had departed before +the task ended. + +At last everything was closed up, much to Hallowell's satisfaction, +who had been chafing under the vexatious delay ever since the escort +left. When all was in readiness, the little wagon drawn up in front +of the commanding officer's quarters, and farewells said, Hallowell +suggested to Booth the propriety of taking a few of the troops +stationed there to go with them until they overtook their own escort, +which must now be several miles on the Trail to Fort Larned. +Booth asked Captain Conkey what he thought of Hallowell's suggestion. +Captain Conkey replied: "Oh! there's not the slightest danger; +there hasn't been an Indian seen around here for over ten days." + +If either Booth or Hallowell had been as well acquainted with the +methods and character of the plains Indians then as they afterward +became, they would have insisted upon an escort; but both were +satisfied that Captain Conkey knew what he was talking about, +so they concluded to push on. + +Jumping into their wagon, Lieutenant Hallowell took the reins and +away they went rattling over the old log bridge that used to span +the Walnut at the crossing of the Old Santa Fe Trail, as light of +heart as if riding to a dance. + +The morning was bright and clear with a stiff breeze blowing from +the northwest, and the Trail was frozen hard in places, which made +it very rough, as it had been cut up by the travel of the heavily +laden caravans when it was wet. Booth sat on the left side of +Hallowell with the whip in his hand, now and then striking the mules, +to keep up their speed. Hallowell started up a tune--he was a good +singer--and Booth joined in as they rolled along, as oblivious of any +danger as though they were in their quarters at Fort Riley. + +After they had proceeded some distance, Hallowell remarked to Booth: +"The buffalo are grazing a long way from the road to-day; a circumstance +that I think bodes no good." He had been on the plains the summer +before, and was better acquainted with the Indians and their +peculiarities than Captain Booth; but the latter replied that he +thought it was because their escort had gone on ahead, and had +probably frightened them off. + +The next mile or two was passed, and still they saw no buffalo between +the Trail and the Arkansas, though nothing more was said by either +regarding the suspicious circumstance, and they rode rapidly on. + +When they had gone about five or six miles from the Walnut, Booth, +happening to glance toward the river, saw something that looked +strangely like a flock of turkeys. He watched them intently for a +moment, when the objects rose up and he discovered they were horsemen. +He grasped Hallowell by the arm, directing his attention to them, and +said, "What are they?" Hallowell gave a hasty look toward the point +indicated, and replied, "Indians! by George!" and immediately turning +the mules around on the Trail, started them back toward the cantonment +on the Walnut at a full gallop.[68] + +"Hold on!" said Booth to Hallowell when he understood the latter's +movement; "maybe it's part of our escort." + +"No! no!" replied Hallowell. "I know they are Indians; I've seen +too many of them to be mistaken." + +"Well," rejoined Booth, "I'm going to know for certain"; so, stepping +out on the foot-board, and with one hand holding on to the front bow, +he looked back over the top of the wagon-sheet. They were Indians, +sure enough; they had fully emerged from the ravine in which they had +hidden, and while he was looking at them they were slipping off their +buffalo robes from their shoulders, taking arrows out of their quivers, +drawing up their spears, and making ready generally for a red-hot time. + +While Booth was intently regarding the movements of the savages, +Hallowell inquired of him: "They're Indians, aren't they, Booth?" + +"Yes," was Booth's answer, "and they're coming down on us like a +whirlwind." + +"Then I shall never see poor Lizzie again!" said Hallowell. He had +been married only a few weeks before starting out on this trip, and +his young wife's name came to his lips. + +"Never mind Lizzie," responded Booth; "let's get out of here!" He was +as badly frightened as Hallowell, but had no bride at Riley, and, +as he tells it, "was selfishly thinking of himself only, and escape." + +In answer to Booth's remark, Hallowell, in a firm, clear voice, said: +"All right! You do the shooting, and I'll do the driving," and +suiting the action to the words, he snatched the whip out of Booth's +hand, slipped from the seat to the front of the wagon, and commenced +lashing the mules furiously. + +Booth then crawled back, pulled out one of his revolvers, crept, or +rather fell, over the "lazy-back" of the seat, and reaching the hole +made by puckering the wagon-sheet, looked out of it, and counted +the Indians; thirty-four feather-bedecked, paint-bedaubed savages, +as vicious a set as ever scalped a white man, swooping down on them +like a hawk upon a chicken. + +Hallowell, between his yells at the mules, cried out, "How far are +they off now, Booth?" for of course he could see nothing of what +was going on in his rear. + +Booth replied as well as he could judge of the distance, while +Hallowell renewed his yelling at the animals and redoubled his +efforts with the lash. + +Noiselessly the Indians gained on the little wagon, for they had not +as yet uttered a whoop, and the determined driver, anxious to know +how far the red devils were from him, again asked Booth. The latter +told him how near they were, guessing at the distance, from which +Hallowell gathered inspiration for fresh cries and still more vigorous +blows with his whip. + +Booth, all this time, was sitting on the box containing the crackers +and sardines, watching the rapid approach of the cut-throats, and +seeing with fear and trembling the ease with which they gained upon +the little mules. + +Once more Hallowell made his stereotyped inquiry of Booth; but before +the latter could reply, two shots were fired from the rifles of the +Indians, accompanied by a yell that was demoniacal enough to cause +the blood to curdle in one's veins. Hallowell yelled at the mules, +and Booth yelled too; for what reason he could not tell, unless to +keep company with his comrade, who plied the whip more mercilessly +than ever upon the poor animals' backs, and the wagon flew over +the rough road, nearly upsetting at every jump. + +In another moment the bullets from two of the Indians' rifles passed +between Booth and Hallowell, doing no damage, and almost instantly +the savages charged upon them, at the same time dividing into two +parties, one going on one side and one on the other, both delivering +a volley of arrows into the wagon as they rode by. + +Just as the savages rushed past the wagon, Hallowell cried out to +Booth, "Cap, I'm hit!" and turning around to look, Booth saw an arrow +sticking in Hallowell's head above his right ear. His arm was still +plying the whip, which was going on unceasingly as the sails of a +windmill, and his howling at the mules only stopped long enough to +answer, "Not much!" in response to Booth's inquiry of "Does it hurt?" +as he grabbed the arrow and pulled it out of his head. + +The Indians had by this time passed on, and then, circling back, +prepared for another charge. Down they came, again dividing as before +into two bands, and delivering another shower of arrows. Hallowell +ceased his yelling long enough to cry out, "I'm hit once more, Cap!" +Looking at the plucky driver, Booth saw this time an arrow sticking +over his left ear, and hanging down his back. He snatched it out, +inquiring if it hurt, but received the same answer: "No, not much." + +Both men were now yelling at the top of their voices; and the mules +were jerking the wagon along the rough trail at a fearful rate, +frightened nearly out of their wits at the sight of the Indians and +the terrible shouting and whipping of the driver. + +Booth crawled to the back end of the wagon again, looked out of the +hole in the cover, and saw the Indians moving across the Trail, +preparing for another charge. One old fellow, mounted on a black +pony, was jogging along in the centre of the road behind them, but +near enough and evidently determined to send an arrow through the +puckered hole of the sheet. In a moment the savage stopped his pony +and let fly. Booth dodged sideways--the arrow sped on its course, and +whizzing through the opening, struck the black-walnut "lazy-back" +of the seat, the head sticking out on the other side, and the sudden +check causing the feathered end to vibrate rapidly with a vro-o-o-ing +sound. With a quick blow Booth struck it, and broke the shaft from +the head, leaving the latter embedded in the wood. + +As quickly as possible, Booth rushed to the hole and fired his +revolver at the old devil, but failed to hit him. While he was +trying to get in another shot, an arrow came flying through from +the left side of the Trail, and striking him on the inside of the +elbow, or "crazy-bone," so completely benumbed his hand that he +could not hold on to the pistol, and it dropped into the road with +one load still in its chamber. Just then the mules gave an +extraordinary jump to one side, which jerked the wagon nearly from +under him, and he fell sprawling on the end-gate, evenly balanced, +with his hands on the outside, attempting to clutch at something to +save himself! Seeing his predicament, the Indians thought they had +him sure, so they gave a yell of exultation, supposing he must +tumble out, but he didn't; he fortunately succeeded in grabbing +one of the wagon-bows with his right hand and pulled himself in; +but it was a close call. + +While all this was going on, Hallowell had not been neglected by +the Indians; about a dozen of them had devoted their time to him, +but he never flinched. Just as Booth had regained his equilibrium +and drawn his second revolver from its holster, Hallowell yelled +to him: "Right off to your right, Cap, quick!" + +Booth tumbled over the back of the seat, and, clutching at a wagon-bow +to steady himself, he saw, "off to the right," an Indian who was in +the act of letting an arrow drive at Hallowell; it struck the side of +the box, and at the same instant Booth fired, scaring the red devil badly. + +Back over the seat again he rushed to guard the rear, only to find +a young buck riding close to the side of the wagon, his pony running +in the deep path made by the ox-drivers in walking alongside of their +teams. Putting his left arm around one of the wagon-bows to prevent +his being jerked out, Booth quietly stuck his revolver through the +hole in the sheet; but before he could pull the trigger, the Indian +flopped over on the off side of his pony, and nothing could be seen +of him excepting one arm around his animal's neck and from the knee +to the toes of one leg. Booth did not wait for him to ride up; +he could almost hit the pony's head with his hand, so close was he +to the wagon. Booth struck at the beast several times, but the +Indian kept him right up in his place by whipping him on the opposite +of his neck. Presently the plucky savage's arm began to move. +Booth watched him intently, and saw that he had fixed an arrow in +his bow under the pony's shoulder; just as he was on the point of +letting go the bowstring, with the head of the arrow not three feet +from Booth's breast as he leaned out of the hole, the latter struck +frantically at the weapon, dodged back into the wagon, and up came +the Indian. Whenever Booth looked out, down went the Indian on +the other side of his pony, to rise again in a moment, and Booth, +afraid to risk himself with his head and breast exposed at this game +of hide and seek, drew suddenly back as the Indian went down the +third time, and in a second came up; but this was once too often. +Booth had not dodged completely into the wagon, nor dropped his +revolver, and as the Indian rose he fired. + +The savage was naked to the waist; the ball struck him in the left +nipple, the blood spirted out of the wound, his bow and arrows and +lariat, with himself, rolled off the pony, falling heavily on the +ground, and with one convulsive contraction of his legs and an "Ugh!" +he was as dead as a stone. + +"I've killed one of 'em!" called out Booth to Hallowell, as he saw +his victim tumble from his pony. + +"Bully for you, Cap!" came Hallowell's response as he continued his +shouting, and the blows of that tireless whip fell incessantly on +the backs of the poor mules. + +After he had killed the warrior, Booth kept his seat on the cracker box, +watching to see what the Indians were going to do next, when he was +suddenly interrupted by Hallowell's crying out to him: "Off to the +right again, Cap, quick!" and, whirling around instantly, he saw an +Indian within three feet of the wagon, with his bow and arrow almost +ready to shoot; there was no time to get over the seat, and as he +could not fire so close to Hallowell, he cried to the latter: +"Hit him with the whip! Hit him with the whip!" The lieutenant +diverted one of the blows intended for the mules, and struck the +savage fairly across the face. The whip had a knot in the end of it +to prevent its unravelling, and this knot must have hit the Indian +squarely in the eye; for he dropped his bow, put both hands up to +his face, rubbed his eyes, and digging his heels into his pony's +sides was soon out of range of a revolver; but, nevertheless, he was +given a parting shot as a sort of salute. + +A terrific yell from the rear at this moment caused both Booth and +Hallowell to look around, and the latter to inquire: "What's the +matter now, Booth?" "They are coming down on us like lightning," +said he; and, sure enough, those who had been prancing around their +dead comrade were tearing along the Trail toward the wagon with a +more hideous noise than when they began. + +Hallowell yelled louder than ever and lashed the mules more furiously +still, but the Indians gained upon them as easily as a blooded racer +on a common farm plug. Separating as before, and passing on each +side of the wagon, they delivered another volley of bullets and +arrows as they rushed on. + +When this charge was made, Booth drew away from the hole in the rear +and turned toward the Indians, but forgot that as he was sitting, +with his back pressed against the sheet, his body was plainly outlined +on the canvas. + +When the Indians dashed by Hallowell cried out, "I'm hit again, Cap!" +and Booth, in turning around to go to his relief, felt something +pulling at him; and glancing over his left shoulder he discovered +an arrow sticking into him and out through the wagon-sheet. With a +jerk of his body, he tore himself loose, and going to Hallowell, +asked him where he was hit. "In the back," was the reply; where +Booth saw an arrow extending under the "lazy-back" of the seat. +Taking hold of it, Booth gave a pull, but Hallowell squirmed so that +he desisted. "Pull it out!" cried the plucky driver. Booth thereupon +took hold of it again, and giving a jerk or two, out it came. He was +thoroughly frightened as he saw it leave the lieutenant's body; +it seemed to have entered at least six inches, and the wound appeared +to be a dangerous one. Hallowell, however, did not cease for a moment +belabouring the mules, and his yells rang out as clear and defiant +as before. + +After extracting the arrow from Hallowell's back, Booth turned again +to the opening in the rear of the wagon to see what new tricks the +devils were up to, when Hallowell again called out, "Off to the left, +Cap, quick!" + +Rushing to the front as soon as possible, Booth saw one of the savages +in the very act of shooting at Hallowell from the left side of the +wagon, not ten feet away. The last revolver was empty, but something +had to be done at once; so, levelling the weapon at him, Booth shouted +"Bang! you son-of-a-gun!" Down the Indian ducked his head; rap, rap, +went his knees against his pony's sides, and away he flew over +the prairie! + +Back to his old place in the rear tumbled Booth, to load his revolver. +The cartridges they used in the army in those days were the +old-fashioned kind made of paper. Biting off one end, he endeavoured +to pour the powder into the chamber of the pistol; but as the wagon +was tumbling from side to side, and jumping up and down, as it fairly +flew over the rough Trail, more fell into the bottom of the wagon +than into the revolver. Just as he was inserting a ball, Hallowell +yelled, "To the left, Cap, quick!" + +Over the seat Booth piled once more, and there was another Indian +with his bow and arrow all ready to pinion the brave lieutenant. +Pointing his revolver at him, Booth yelled as he had at the other, +but this savage had evidently noticed the first failure, and concluded +there were no more loads left; so, instead of taking a hasty departure, +he grinned demoniacally and endeavoured to fix the arrow in his bow. +Booth rose up in the wagon, and grasping hold of one of its bows +with his left hand, seized the revolver by the muzzle, and with all +the force he could muster hurled it at the impudent brute. It was +a Remington, its barrel octagon-shaped, with sharp corners, and when +it was thrown, it turned in the air, and striking the Indian +muzzle-first on the ribs, cut a long gash. + +"Ugh!" he grunted, as, dropping his bow and spear, he flung himself +over the side of his pony, and away he went across the prairie. + +Only one revolver remaining now, and that empty, with the savages +still howling around the apparently doomed men like so many demons! +Booth fell over the seat, as was his usual fate whenever he attempted +to get to the back of the wagon, picked up the empty revolver, and +tried to load it; but before he could bite the end of a cartridge, + Hallowell yelled, "Cap, I'm hit again!" + +"Where this time?" inquired Booth, anxiously. "In the hand," replied +Hallowell; and, looking around, Booth noticed that although his right +arm was still thrashing at the now lagging mules with as much energy +as ever, through the fleshy part of the thumb was an arrow, which was +flopping up and down as he raised and lowered his hand in ceaseless +efforts to keep up the speed of the almost exhausted animals. + +"Let me pull it out," said Booth, as he came forward to do so. + +"No, never mind," replied Hallowell; "can't stop! can't stop!" and up +and down went the arm, and flip, flap, went the arrow with it, until +finally it tore through the flesh and fell to the ground. + +Along they bowled, the Indians yelling, and the occupants of the +little wagon defiantly answering them, while Booth continued to +struggle desperately with that empty pistol, in his vain efforts +to load it. In another moment Hallowell shouted, "Booth, they are +trying to crowd the mules into the sunflowers!" + +Alongside of the Trail huge sunflowers had grown the previous summer, +and now their dry stalks stood as thick as a cane-brake; if the wagon +once got among them, it would be impossible for the mules to keep up +their gallop. The savages seemed to realize this; for one huge old +fellow kept riding alongside the off mule, throwing his spear at him +and then jerking it back with the thong, one end of which was fastened +to his wrist. The near mule was constantly pushed further and further +from the Trail by his mate, which was jumping frantically, scared out +of his senses by the Indian. + +At this perilous juncture, Booth stepped out on the foot-board of +the wagon, and, holding on by a bow, commenced to kick the frightened +mule vigorously, while Hallowell pulled on one line, whipping and +yelling at the same time; so together they succeeded in forcing the +animals back into the Trail. + +The Indians kept close to the mules in their efforts to force them +into the sunflowers, and Booth made several attempts to scare the +old fellow that was nearest by pointing his empty revolver at him, +but he would not scare; so in his desperation Booth threw it at him. +He missed the old brute, but hit his pony just behind its rider's leg, +which started the animal into a sort of a stampede; his ugly master +could not control him, and thus the immediate peril from the +persistent cuss was delayed. + +Now the pair were absolutely without firearms of any kind, with +nothing left except their sabres and valises, and the savages came +closer and closer. In turn the two swords were thrown at them as they +came almost within striking distance; then followed the scabbards, +as the howling fiends surrounded the wagon and attempted to spear +the mules. Fortunately their arrows were exhausted. + +The cantonment on the Walnut was still a mile and a half away, and +there was nothing for our luckless travellers to do but whip and kick, +both of which they did most vigorously. Hallowell sat as immovable +as the Sphinx, excepting his right arm, which from the moment they +had started on the back trail had not once ceased its incessant motion. + +Happening to cast his eyes back on the Trail, Booth saw to his dismay +twelve or fifteen of the savages coming up on the run with fresh +energy, their spears poised ready for action, and he felt that +something must be done very speedily to divert them; for if these +added their number to those already surrounding the wagon, the chances +were they would succeed in forcing the mules into the sunflowers, +and his scalp and Hallowell's would dangle at the belt of the leader. + +Glancing around in the bottom of the wagon for some kind of weapon, +his eye fell on the two valises containing the dress-suits. +He snatched up his own, and threw it out while the pursuers were yet +five or six rods in the rear. The Indians noticed this new trick +with a great yell of satisfaction, and the moment they arrived at +the spot where the valise lay, all dismounted; one of them, seizing +it by the two handles, pulled with all his strength to open it, and +when he failed, another drew a long knife from under his blanket and +ripped it apart. He then put his hand in, pulling out a sash, which +he began to wind around his head, like a negress with a bandanna, +letting the tassels hang down his back. While he was thus amusing +himself, one of the others had taken out a dress-coat, a third a pair +of drawers, and still another a shirt, which they proceeded to put on, +meanwhile dancing around and howling. + +Booth told Hallowell of the sacrifice of the valise, and said, +"I'm going to throw out yours." "All right," replied Hallowell; +"all we want is time." So out it went on the Trail, and shared +the same fate as the other. + +The lull in hostilities caused by their outstripping their pursuers +gave the almost despairing men time to talk over their situation. +Hallowell said he did not propose to be captured and then butchered +or burned at the pleasure of the Indians. He said to Booth: "If they +kill one of the mules, and so stop us, let's kick, strike, throw dirt +or anything, and compel them to kill us on the spot." So it was agreed, +if the worst came to the worst, to stand back to back and fight. + +During this discussion the arm of Hallowell still plied the effective +lash, and they drew perceptibly nearer the camp, and as they caught +the first glimpse of its tents and dugouts, hope sprang up within them. +The mules were panting like a hound after a deer; wherever the +harness touched them, it was white with lather, and it was evident +they could keep on their feet but a short time longer. Would they +hold out until the bridge was reached? The whipping and the kicking +had but little effect on them now. They still continued their gallop, +but it was slower and more laboured than before. + +The Indians who had torn open the valises had not returned to the +chase, and although there were still a sufficient number of the +fiends pursuing to make it interesting, they did not succeed in +spearing the mules, as at every attempt the plucky animals would +jump sideways or forward and evade the impending blow. + +The little log bridge was reached; the savages had all retreated, +but the valorous Hallowell kept the mules at their fastest pace. +The bridge was constructed of half-round logs, and of course was +extremely rough; the wagon bounded up and down enough to shake the +teeth out of one's head as the little animals went flying over it. +Booth called out to Hallowell, "No need to drive so fast now, +the Indians have all left us"; but he replied, "I ain't going to stop +until I get across"; and down came the whip, on sped the mules, +not breaking their short gallop until they were pulled up in front +of Captain Conkey's quarters. + +The rattling of the wagon on the bridge was the first intimation +the garrison had of its return. + +The officers came running out of their tents, the enlisted men poured +out of their dugouts like a lot of ants, and Booth and Hallowell were +surrounded by their friends in a moment. Captain Conkey ordered his +bugler to sound "Boots and Saddles," and in less than ten minutes +ninety troopers were mounted, and with the captain at their head +started after the Indians. + +When Hallowell tried to rise from his seat so as to get out every +effort only resulted in his falling back. Some one stepped around +to the other side to assist him, when it was discovered that the +skirt of his overcoat had worked outside of the wagon-sheet and +hung over the edge, and that three or four of the arrows fired at him +by the savages had struck the side of the wagon, and, passing through +the flap of his coat, had pinned him down. Booth pulled the arrows +out and helped him up; he was pretty stiff from sitting in his cramped +position so long, and his right arm dropped by his side as if paralysed. + +Booth stood looking on while his comrade's wounds were being dressed, +when the adjutant asked him: "What makes you shrug your shoulder so?" +He answered, "I don't know; something makes it smart." The officer +looked at him and said, "Well, I don't wonder; I should think it +would smart; here's an arrow-head sticking into you," and he tried +to pull it out, but it would not come. Captain Goldsborough then +attempted it, but was not any more successful. The doctor then told +them to let it alone, and he would attend to Booth after he had done +with Hallowell. When he examined Booth's shoulder, he found that +the arrow-head had struck the thick portion of the shoulder-blade, +and had made two complete turns, wrapping itself around the muscles, +which had to be cut apart before the sharp point could be withdrawn. + +Booth was not seriously hurt. Hallowell, however, had received two +severe wounds; the arrow that had lodged in his back had penetrated +almost to his kidneys, and the wound in his thumb was very painful, +not so much from the simple impact of the arrow as from the tearing +away of the muscle by the shaft while he was whipping his mules; +his right arm, too, was swollen terribly, and so stiff from the +incessant use of it during the drive that for more than a month +he required assistance in dressing and undressing. + +The mules who had saved their lives were of small account after +their memorable trip; they remained stiff and sore from the rough +road and their continued forced speed. Booth and Hallowell went out +to look at them the next morning, as they hobbled around the corral, +and from the bottom of their hearts wished them well. + +Captain Conkey's command returned to the cantonment about midnight. +But one Indian had been seen, and he was south of the Arkansas in +the sand hills. + +The next morning a scouting-party of forty men, under command of a +sergeant, started out to scour the country toward Cow Creek, +northeast from the Walnut. + +As I have stated, the troopers stationed at the cantonment on the +Walnut were mostly recruits. Now the cavalry recruit of the old +regular army on the frontier, thirty or forty years ago, mounted on +a great big American horse and sent out with well-trained comrades +on a scout after the hostile savages of the plains, was the most +helpless individual imaginable. Coming fresh from some large city +probably, as soon as he arrived at his station he was placed on the +back of an animal of whose habits he knew as little as he did of the +differential calculus; loaded down with a carbine, the muzzle of which +he could hardly distinguish from the breech; a sabre buckled around +his waist; a couple of enormous pistols stuck in his holsters; +his blankets strapped to the cantle of his saddle, and, to complete +the hopelessness of his condition in a possible encounter with a +savage enemy who was ever on the alert, he was often handicapped by +a camp-kettle or two, a frying-pan, and ten days' rations. No wonder +this doughty representative of Uncle Sam's power was an easy prey for +"Poor Lo," who, when he caught the unfortunate soldier away from his +command and started after him, must have laughed at the ridiculous +appearance of his enemy, with both hands glued to the pommel of his +saddle, his hair on end, his sabre flying and striking his horse at +every jump as the animal tore down the trail toward camp, while the +Indian, rapidly gaining, in a few minutes had the scalp of the hapless +rider dangling at his belt, and another of the "boys in blue" had +joined the majority. + +The scouting-party had proceeded about four or five miles, when one +of the corporals asked permission for himself and a recruit to go +over to the Upper Walnut to find out whether they could discover +any signs of Indians. + +While they were carelessly riding along the big curve which the +northern branch of the Walnut makes at that point, there suddenly +sprang from their ambush in the timber on the margin of the stream +about three hundred Indians, whooping and yelling. The two troopers +of course, immediately whirled their horses and started down the +creek toward the camp, hotly pursued by the howling savages. + +The corporal was an excellent rider; a well-trained and disciplined +soldier, having seen much service on the plains. He led in the flight, +closely followed by the unfortunate recruit, who had been enlisted +but a short time. Not more than an eighth of a mile had been covered, +when the corporal heard his companion exclaim,-- + +"Don't leave me! Don't leave me!" + +Looking back, the corporal saw that the poor recruit was losing ground +rapidly; his horse was rearing and plunging, making very little +headway, while his rider was jerking and pulling on the bit, a curb +of the severest kind. Perceiving the strait his comrade was in, +the corporal reined up for a moment and called out,-- + +"Let him go! Let him go! Don't jerk on the bit so!" + +The Indians were gaining ground rapidly, and in another moment the +corporal heard the recruit again cry out,-- + +"Oh! Don't--" + +Realizing that it would be fatal to delay, and that he could be of +no assistance to his companion, already killed and scalped, he leaned +forward on his horse, and sinking his spurs deep in the animal's +flanks fairly flew down the valley, with the three hundred savages +close in his wake. + +The officers at the camp were sitting in their tents when the sentinel +on post No. 1 fired his piece, upon which all rushed out to learn +the cause of the alarm; for there was no random shooting in those +days allowed around camp or in garrison. Looking up the valley of +the Walnut, they could see the lucky corporal, with his long hair +streaming in the wind, and his heels rapping his horse's sides, as he +dashed over the brown sod of the winter prairie. + +The corporal now slackened his pace, rode up to the commanding +officer's tent, reported the affair, and then was allowed to go to +his own quarters for the rest he so much needed. + +Captain Conkey immediately ordered a mounted squad, accompanied by an +ambulance, to go up the creek to recover the body of the unfortunate +recruit. The party were absent a little over an hour, and brought +back with them the remains of the dead soldier. He had been shot +with an arrow, the point of which was still sticking out through his +breast-bone. His scalp had been torn completely off, and the lapels +of his coat and the legs of his trousers carried away by the savages. +He was buried the next morning with military honours, in the little +graveyard on the bank of the Walnut, where his body still rests in +the dooryard of the ranch. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. +HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. + + + +In the spring of 1867, General Hancock, who then commanded the military +division of the Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, +Kansas, organized an expedition against the Indians of the great +plains, which he led in person. With him was General Custer, second +ranking officer, from whom I quote the story of the march and some +of the incidents of the raid. + +General Hancock, with the artillery and six companies of infantry, +arrived at Fort Riley, Kansas, the last week in March, where he was +joined by four companies of the Seventh Cavalry, commanded by the +intrepid Custer. + +From Fort Riley the expedition marched to Fort Harker, seventy-two +miles farther west, on the Smoky Hill, where the force was increased +by the addition of two more troops of cavalry. Remaining there only +long enough to replenish their commissary supplies, the march was +directed to Fort Larned on the Old Santa Fe Trail. On the 7th of +April the command reached the latter post, accompanied by the agent +of the Comanches and Kiowas; at the fort the agent of the Cheyennes, +Arapahoes, and Apaches was waiting for the arrival of the general. +The agent of the three last-mentioned tribes had already sent runners +to the head chiefs, inviting them to a grand council which was to +assemble near the fort on the 10th of the month, and he requested +General Hancock to remain at the fort with his command until that date. + +On the 9th of April a terrible snow-storm came on while the troops +were encamped waiting for the head men of the various tribes to arrive. +Custer says: + + It was our good fortune to be in camp rather than on the + march; had it been otherwise, we could not well have escaped + without loss of life. The cavalry horses suffered severely, + and were only preserved by doubling their rations of oats, + while to prevent their being frozen during the intensely + cold night which followed, the guards were instructed to + pass along the picket lines with a whip, and keep the + horses moving constantly. The snow was eight inches deep. + The council, which was to take place the next day, had to be + postponed until the return of good weather. Now began the + display of a kind of diplomacy for which the Indian is + peculiar. The Cheyennes and a band of Sioux were encamped + on Pawnee Fork, about thirty miles above Fort Larned. + They neither desired to move nearer to us or have us + approach nearer to them. On the morning of the 11th, + they sent us word that they had started to visit us, but, + discovering a large herd of buffalo near their camp, + they had stopped to procure a supply of meat. This message + was not received with much confidence, nor was a buffalo + hunt deemed of sufficient importance to justify the Indians + in breaking their engagement. General Hancock decided, + however, to delay another day, when, if the Indians still + failed to come in, he would move his command to the vicinity + of their village and hold the conference there. + + Orders were issued on the evening of the 12th for the march + to be resumed on the following day. Late in the evening + two chiefs of the "Dog-Soldiers," a band composed of the + most warlike and troublesome Indians on the plains, + chiefly made up of Cheyennes, visited our camp. They were + accompanied by a dozen warriors, and expressed a desire to + hold a conference with General Hancock, to which he assented. + A large council-fire was built in front of the general's + tent, and all the officers of his command assembled there. + A tent had been erected for the accommodation of the chiefs + a short distance from the general's. Before they could + feel equal to the occasion, and in order to obtain time to + collect their thoughts, they desired that supper might be + prepared for them, which was done. When finally ready, + they advanced from their tent to the council-fire in single + file, accompanied by their agent and an interpreter. + Arrived at the fire, another brief delay ensued. No matter + how pressing or momentous the occasion, an Indian invariably + declines to engage in a council until he has filled his pipe + and gone through with the important ceremony of a smoke. + This attended to, the chiefs announced that they were ready + "to talk." They were then introduced to the principal + officers of the group, and seemed much struck with the + flashy uniforms of the few artillery officers, who were + present in all the glory of red horsehair plumes, + aiguillettes, etc. The chiefs seemed puzzled to determine + whether these insignia designated chieftains or medicine men. + General Hancock began the conference by a speech, in which + he explained to the Indians his purpose in coming to see + them, and what he expected of them in the future. + He particularly informed them that he was not there to make + war, but to promote peace. Then, expressing his regrets + that more of the chiefs had not visited him, he announced + his intention of proceeding on the morrow with his command + to the vicinity of their village, and there holding a + council with all the chiefs. Tall Bull, a fine, warlike-looking + chieftain, replied to General Hancock, but his speech + contained nothing important, being made up of allusions to + the growing scarcity of the buffalo, his love for the white + man, and the usual hint that a donation in the way of + refreshments would be highly acceptable; he added that he + would have nothing new to say at the village. + + Rightly concluding that the Indians did not intend to come + to our camp, as they had at first agreed to, it was decided + to move nearer their village. On the morning following the + conference our entire force, therefore, marched from + Fort Larned up Pawnee Fork in the direction of the main + village, encamping the first night about twenty-one miles + from Larned. Several parties of Indians were seen in our + advance during the day, evidently watching our movements, + while a heavy smoke, seen to rise in the direction of the + Indian village, indicated that something more than usual + was going on. The smoke, we afterward learned, arose from + burning grass. The Indians, thinking to prevent us from + encamping in their vicinity, had set fire to and burned all + the grass for miles in the direction from which they + expected us. Before we arrived at our camping-ground, + we were met by several chiefs and warriors belonging to the + Cheyennes and Sioux. Among the chiefs were Pawnee Killer, + of the Sioux, and White Horse, of the Cheyennes. It was + arranged that these chiefs should accept our hospitality + and remain with us during the night, and in the morning all + the chiefs of the two tribes then in the village were to + come to General Hancock's head-quarters and hold a council. + On the morning of the 14th, Pawnee Killer left our camp at + an early hour, as he said for the purpose of going to the + village to bring in the other chiefs to the council. + Nine o'clock had been agreed upon as the time at which the + council should assemble. The hour came, but the chiefs + did not. Now an Indian council is not only often an + important, but always an interesting, occasion. At this + juncture, Bull Bear, an influential chief among the + Cheyennes, came in and reported that the chiefs were on + their way to our camp, but would not be able to reach it + for some time. This was a mere artifice to secure delay. + General Hancock informed Bull Bear that, as the chiefs + could not arrive for some time, he would move his forces + up the stream nearer the village, and the council could be + held at our camp that night. To this proposition Bull Bear + gave his consent. + + At 11 A.M. we resumed the march, and had proceeded but a few + miles when we witnessed one of the finest and most imposing + military displays, according to the Indian art of war, + which it has been my lot to behold. It was nothing more + nor less than an Indian line of battle drawn directly + across our line of march, as if to say, "Thus far and no + further." Most of the Indians were mounted; all were + bedecked in their brightest colours, their heads crowned + with the brilliant war-bonnet, their lances bearing the + crimson pennant, bows strung, and quivers full of barbed + arrows. In addition to these weapons, which, with the + hunting-knife and tomahawk, are considered as forming the + armament of the warrior, each one was supplied with either + a breech-loading rifle or revolver, sometimes with both-- + the latter obtained through the wise forethought and strong + love of fair play which prevails in the Indian department, + which, seeing that its wards are determined to fight, + is equally determined that there shall be no advantage taken, + but that the two sides shall be armed alike; proving, too, + in this manner, the wonderful liberality of our government, + which is not only able to furnish its soldiers with the + latest style of breech-loaders to defend it and themselves, + but is equally able and willing to give the same pattern + of arms to the common foe. The only difference is, that if + the soldier loses his weapon, he is charged double price + for it, while to avoid making any such charge against the + Indian, his weapons are given him without conditions attached. + + In the line of battle before us there were several hundred + Indians, while further to the rear and at different + distances were other organized bodies, acting apparently + as reserves. Still further behind were small detachments + who seemed to perform the duty of couriers, and were held + in readiness to convey messages to the village. The ground + beyond was favourable for an extended view, and as far as + the eye could reach, small groups of individuals could be + seen in the direction of the village; these were evidently + parties of observation, whose sole object was to learn the + result of our meeting with the main body and hasten with + the news to the village. + + For a few moments appearances seemed to foreshadow anything + but a peaceable issue. The infantry was in the advance, + followed closely by the artillery, while my command, + the cavalry, was marching on the flank. General Hancock, + who was riding with his staff at the head of the column, + coming suddenly in view of the wild, fantastic battle array, + which extended far to our right and left, and was not more + than half a mile in our front, hastily sent orders to the + infantry, artillery, and cavalry to form in line of battle, + evidently determined that, if war was intended, we should be + prepared. The cavalry being the last to form on the right, + came into line on a gallop, and without waiting to align + the ranks carefully, the command was given to "Draw sabre." + As the bright blades flashed from their scabbards into the + morning sunlight, and the infantry brought their muskets + to a carry, a contrast was presented which, to a military + eye, could but be striking. Here in battle array, facing + each other, were the representatives of civilized and + barbarous warfare. The one, with few modifications, stood + clothed in the same rude style of dress, bearing the same + patterned shield and weapon that his ancestors had borne + centuries before; the other confronted him in the dress + and supplied with the implements of war which an advanced + stage of civilization had pronounced the most perfect. + Was the comparative superiority of these two classes to be + subjected to the mere test of war here? All was eager + anxiety and expectation. Neither side seemed to comprehend + the object or intentions of the other; each was waiting + for the other to deliver the first blow. A more beautiful + battle-ground could not have been chosen. Not a bush or + even the slightest irregularity of ground intervened between + the two lines, which now stood frowning and facing each other. + Chiefs could be seen riding along the line, as if directing + and exhorting their braves to deeds of heroism. + + After a few moments of painful suspense, General Hancock, + accompanied by General A. J. Smith and other officers, + rode forward, and through an interpreter invited the chiefs + to meet us midway for the purpose of an interview. + In response to this invitation, Roman Nose, bearing a white + flag, accompanied by Bull Bear, White Horse, Gray Beard, + and Medicine Wolf, on the part of the Cheyennes, and Pawnee + Killer, Bad Wound, Tall-Bear-That-Walks-under-the-Ground, + Left Hand, Little Bear, and Little Bull, on the part of the + Sioux, rode forward to the middle of the open space between + the two lines. Here we shook hands with all the chiefs, + most of them exhibiting unmistakable signs of gratification + at this apparently peaceful termination of our rencounter. + General Hancock very naturally inquired the object of the + hostile attitude displayed before us, saying to the chiefs + that if war was their object, we were ready then and there + to participate. Their immediate answer was that they did + not desire war, but were peacefully disposed. They were + then told that we would continue our march toward the + village, and encamp near it, but would establish such + regulations that none of the soldiers would be permitted + to approach or disturb them. An arrangement was then + effected by which the chiefs were to assemble at General + Hancock's headquarters as soon as our camp was pitched. + The interview then terminated, and the Indians moved off + in the direction of their village, we following leisurely + in the rear. + + A march of a few miles brought us in sight of the village, + which was situated in a beautiful grove on the bank of the + stream up which we had been marching. It consisted of + upwards of three hundred lodges, a small fraction over half + belonging to the Cheyennes, the remainder to the Sioux. + Like all Indian encampments, the ground chosen was a most + romantic spot, and at the same time fulfilled in every + respect the requirements of a good camping-ground; wood, + water, and grass were abundant. The village was placed on + a wide, level plateau, while on the north and west, at a + short distance off, rose high bluffs, which admirably served + as a shelter against the cold winds which at that season of + the year prevail from those directions. Our tents were + pitched within a mile of the village. Guards were placed + between to prevent intrusion upon our part. We had scarcely + pitched our tents when Roman Nose, Bull Bear, Gray Beard, + and Medicine Wolf, all prominent chiefs of the Cheyenne + nation, came into camp with the information that upon our + approach their women and children had all fled from the + village, alarmed by the presence of so many soldiers, and + imagining a second Chivington massacre to be intended. + General Hancock insisted that they should all return, + promising protection and good treatment to all; that if + the camp was abandoned, he would hold it responsible. + The chiefs then stated their belief in their ability to + recall the fugitives, could they be furnished with horses + to overtake them. This was accordingly done, and two of + them set out mounted on two of our horses. An agreement + was also entered into at the same time, that one of our + interpreters, Ed Gurrier, a half-breed Cheyenne, who was in + the employ of the government, should remain in the village + and report every two hours as to whether any Indians were + leaving there. This was about seven o'clock in the evening. + At half-past nine the half-breed returned to head-quarters + with the intelligence that all the chiefs and warriors were + saddling up to leave, under circumstances showing that they + had no intention of returning, such as packing up every + article that could be carried with them, and cutting and + destroying their lodges--this last being done to obtain + small pieces for temporary shelter. + + I had retired to my tent, which was some few hundred yards + from that of General Hancock, when a messenger from the + latter awakened me with the information that the general + desired my presence in his tent. He briefly stated the + situation of affairs, and directed me to mount my command + as quickly and as silently as possible, surround the Indian + village, and prevent the departure of its inhabitants. + Easily said, but not so easily done. Under ordinary + circumstances, silence not being necessary, I could have + returned to my camp, and by a few blasts from the trumpet, + placed every soldier on his saddle almost as quickly as it + has taken time to write this short sentence. No bugle calls + must be sounded; we were to adopt some of the stealth of the + Indians--how successfully remained to be seen. By this time + every soldier and officer was in his tent sound asleep. + First going to the tent of the adjutant and arousing him, + I procured an experienced assistant in my labours. Next the + captains of companies were awakened and orders imparted + to them. They in turn transmitted the order to the first + sergeant, who similarly aroused the men. It has often + surprised me to observe the alacrity with which disciplined + soldiers, experienced in campaigning, will hasten to prepare + themselves for the march in an emergency like this. + No questions are asked, no time is wasted. A soldier's + toilet, on an Indian campaign, is a simple affair, and + requires little time for arranging. His clothes are + gathered up hurriedly, no matter how, so long as he retains + possession of them. The first object is to get his horse + saddled and bridled, and until this is done his own dress + is a matter of secondary importance, and one button or hook + must do the duty of half a dozen. When his horse is ready + for the mount, the rider will be seen completing his own + equipment; stray buttons will receive attention, arms will + be overhauled, spurs restrapped; then, if there still remain + a few spare moments, the homely black pipe is filled and + lighted, and the soldier's preparation is complete. + + The night was all that could be desired for the success of + our enterprise. The air was mild and pleasant; the moon, + although nearly full, kept almost constantly behind the + clouds, as if to screen us in our hazardous undertaking. + I say hazardous, because none of us imagined for one moment + that if the Indians discovered us in our attempt to surround + them and their village, we should escape without a fight-- + a fight, too, in which the Indians, sheltered behind the + trunks of the stately forest trees under which their lodges + were pitched, would possess all the advantage. General + Hancock, anticipating that the Indians would discover our + approach, and that a fight would ensue, ordered the + artillery and infantry under arms, to await the result of + our moonlight adventure. My command was soon in the saddle, + and silently making its way toward the village. + Instructions had been given forbidding all conversation + except in a whisper. Sabres were disposed of to prevent + clanging. Taking a camp-fire which we could see in the + village as our guiding point, we made a detour so as to + place the village between ourselves and the infantry. + Occasionally the moon would peep out from the clouds and + enable us to catch a hasty glance at the village. Here and + there under the thick foliage we could see the white, + conical-shaped lodges. Were the inmates slumbering, + unaware of our close proximity, or were their dusky defenders + concealed, as well they might have been, along the banks of + the Pawnee, quietly awaiting our approach, and prepared to + greet us with their well-known war-whoop? These were + questions that were probably suggested to the mind of each + individual of my command. If we were discovered approaching + in the stealthy, suspicious manner which characterized our + movements, the hour being midnight, it would require a more + confiding nature than that of the Indian to assign a + friendly or peaceful motive to our conduct. The same + flashes of moonlight which gave us hurried glimpses of the + village enabled us to see our own column of horsemen + stretching its silent length far into the dim darkness, and + winding its course, like some huge anaconda about to envelop + its victim. + + The method by which it was determined to establish a cordon + of armed troopers about the fated village, was to direct + the march in a circle, with the village in the centre, + the commanding officer of each rear troop halting his + command at the proper point, and deploying his men similarly + to a line of skirmishers--the entire circle, when thus formed, + facing toward the village, and, distant from it perhaps a + few hundred yards. No sooner was our line completely formed + than the moon, as if deeming darkness no longer essential + to our success, appeared from behind her screen and lighted + up the entire scene. And beautiful it was! The great + circle of troops, each individual of which sat on his steed + silent as a statue, the dense foliage of the cotton trees + sheltering the bleached, skin-clad lodges of the red men, + the little stream in the midst murmuring undisturbedly in + its channel, all combined to produce an artistic effect, + as striking as it was interesting. But we were not there + to study artistic effects. The next step was to determine + whether we had captured an inhabited village, involving + almost necessarily a severe conflict with its savage + occupants, or whether the red man had again proven too + wily and crafty for his more civilized brothers. + + Directing the entire line of troopers to remain mounted + with carbines held at the "Advance," I dismounted, and + taking with me Gurrier, the half-breed, Dr. Coates, one of + our medical staff, and Lieutenant Moylan, the adjutant, + we proceeded on our hands and knees toward the village. + The prevailing opinion was that the Indians were still + asleep. I desired to approach near enough to the lodges + to enable the half-breed to hail the village in the Indian + tongue, and if possible establish friendly relations at once. + It became a question of prudence with us, which we discussed + in whispers as we proceeded on our "Tramp, tramp, tramp, + the boys are creeping," how far from our horses and how + near to the village we dared to go. If so few of us were + discovered entering the village in this questionable manner, + it was more than probable that, like the returners of stolen + property, we should be suitably rewarded and no questions + asked. The opinion of Gurrier, the half-breed, was eagerly + sought for and generally deferred to. His wife, + a full-blooded Cheyenne, was a resident of the village. + This with him was an additional reason for wishing a peaceful + termination to our efforts. When we had passed over + two-thirds of the distance between our horses and the + village, it was thought best to make our presence known. + Thus far not a sound had been heard to disturb the stillness + of the night. Gurrier called out at the top of his voice + in the Cheyenne tongue. The only response came from the + throats of a score or more of Indian dogs which set up a + fierce barking. At the same time one or two of our party + asserted that they saw figure moving beneath the trees. + Gurrier repeated his summons, but with no better results + than before. + + A hurried consultation ensued. The presence of so many dogs + in the village was regarded by the half-breed as almost + positive assurance that the Indians were still there. + Yet it was difficult to account for their silence. Gurrier + in a loud tone repeated who he was, and that our mission was + friendly. Still no answer. He then gave it as his opinion + that the Indians were on the alert, and were probably + waiting in the shadow of the trees for us to approach nearer, + when they would pounce upon us. This comforting opinion + induced another conference. We must ascertain the truth of + the matter; our party could do this as well as a larger + number, and to go back and send another party in our stead + could not be thought of. + + Forward! was the verdict. Each one grasped his revolver, + resolved to do his best, whether it was in running or + fighting. I think most of us would have preferred to take + our own chances at running. We had approached near enough + to see that some of the lodges were detached some distance + from the main encampment. Selecting the nearest of these, + we directed our advance on it. While all of us were full + of the spirit of adventure, and were further encouraged + with the idea that we were in the discharge of our duty, + there was scarcely one of us who would not have felt more + comfortable if we could have got back to our horses without + loss of pride. Yet nothing, under the circumstances, but + a positive order would have induced any one to withdraw. + + Cautiously approaching, on all fours, to within a few yards + of the nearest lodge, occasionally halting and listening to + discover whether the village was deserted or not, we finally + decided that the Indians had fled before the arrival of the + cavalry, and that none but empty lodges were before us. + This conclusion somewhat emboldened as well as accelerated + our progress. Arriving at the first lodge, one of our party + raised the curtain or mat which served as a door, and the + doctor and myself entered. The interior of the lodge was + dimly lighted by the dying embers of a small fire built in + the centre. All around us were to be seen the usual + adornments and articles which constitute the household + effects of an Indian family. Buffalo-robes were spread like + carpets over the floor; head-mats, used to recline on, were + arranged as if for the comfort of their owners; parflêches, + a sort of Indian band-box, with their contents apparently + undisturbed, were carefully stowed away under the edges or + borders of the lodge. These, with the door-mats, paint-bags, + rawhide ropes, and other articles of Indian equipment, + were left as if the owners had only absented themselves for + a brief period. To complete the picture of an Indian lodge, + over the fire hung a camp-kettle, in which, by means of the + dim light of the fire, we could see what had been intended + for the supper of the late occupants of the lodge. + The doctor, ever on the alert to discover additional items + of knowledge, whether pertaining to history or science, + snuffed the savoury odours which arose from the dark + recesses of the mysterious kettle. Casting about the lodge + for some instrument to aid him in his pursuit of knowledge, + he found a horn spoon, with which he began his investigation + of the contents, finally succeeding in getting possession + of a fragment which might have been the half of a duck or + rabbit, judging from its size merely. "Ah!" said the doctor, + in his most complacent manner, "here is the opportunity I + have long been waiting for. I have often desired to test + the Indian mode of cooking. What do you suppose this is?" + holding up the dripping morsel. Unable to obtain the + desired information, the doctor, whose naturally good + appetite had been sensibly sharpened by his recent exercise, + set to with a will and ate heartily of the mysterious + contents of the kettle. He was only satisfied on one point, + that it was delicious--a dish fit for a king. Just then + Gurrier, the half-breed, entered the lodge. He could solve + the mystery, having spent years among the Indians. To him + the doctor appealed for information. Fishing out a huge + piece, and attacking it with the voracity of a hungry wolf, + he was not long in determining what the doctor had supped + heartily upon. His first words settled the mystery: "Why, + this is dog." I will not attempt to repeat the few but + emphatic words uttered by the heartily disgusted member of + the medical fraternity as he rushed from the lodge. + + Other members of our small party had entered other lodges, + only to find them, like the first, deserted. But little of + the furniture belonging to the lodges had been taken, + showing how urgent and hasty had been the flight of the + owners. To aid in the examination of the village, + reinforcements were added to our party, and an exploration + of each lodge was determined upon. At the same time a + messenger was despatched to General Hancock, informing him + of the flight of the Indians. Some of the lodges were + closed by having brush or timber piled up against the + entrance, as if to preserve the contents. Others had huge + pieces cut from their sides, these pieces evidently being + carried away to furnish temporary shelter for the fugitives. + In most of the lodges the fires were still burning. I had + entered several without discovering anything important. + Finally, in company with the doctor, I arrived at one the + interior of which was quite dark, the fire having almost + died out. Procuring a lighted fagot, I prepared to explore it, + as I had done the others; but no sooner had I entered the + lodge than my fagot failed me, leaving me in total darkness. + Handing it to the doctor to be relighted, I began to feel + my way about the interior of the lodge. I had almost made + the circuit when my hand came in contact with a human foot; + at the same time a voice unmistakably Indian, and which + evidently came from the owner of the foot, convinced me that + I was not alone. My first impressions were that in their + hasty flight the Indians had gone off, leaving this one + asleep. My next, very naturally, related to myself. + I would gladly have placed myself on the outside of the + lodge, and there matured plans for interviewing its occupant; + but unfortunately to reach the entrance of the lodge, I must + either pass over or around the owner of the before-mentioned + foot and voice. Could I have been convinced that among + its other possessions there was neither tomahawk nor + scalping-knife, pistol nor war-club, or any similar article + of the noble red-man's toilet, I would have risked an attempt + to escape through the low narrow opening of the lodge; + but who ever saw an Indian without one or all of these + interesting trinkets? Had I made the attempt, I should + have expected to encounter either the keen edge of the + scalping-knife or the blow of the tomahawk, and to have + engaged in a questionable struggle for life. This would + not do. I crouched in silence for a few moments, hoping + the doctor would return with the lighted fagot. I need not + say that each succeeding moment spent in the darkness of + that lodge seemed an age. I could hear a slight movement + on the part of my unknown neighbour, which did not add to + my comfort. Why does not the doctor return? At last I + discovered the approach of a light on the outside. When it + neared the entrance, I called the doctor and informed him + that an Indian was in the lodge, and that he had better + have his weapons ready for a conflict. I had, upon + discovering the foot, drawn my hunting-knife from its + scabbard, and now stood waiting the denouement. With his + lighted fagot in one hand and cocked revolver in the other, + the doctor cautiously entered the lodge. And there directly + between us, wrapped in a buffalo-robe, lay the cause of my + anxiety--a little Indian girl, probably ten years old; + not a full-blood, but a half-breed. She was terribly + frightened at finding herself in our hands, with none of + her people near. Other parties in exploring the deserted + village found an old, decrepit Indian of the Sioux tribe, + who had also been deserted, owing to his infirmities and + inability to travel with the tribe. Nothing was gleaned + from our search of the village which might indicate the + direction of the flight. General Hancock, on learning the + situation of affairs, despatched some companies of infantry + with orders to replace the cavalry and protect the village + and its contents from disturbance until its final disposition + could be determined upon, and it was decided that with eight + troops of cavalry I should start in pursuit of the Indians + at early dawn on the following morning. + + The Indians, after leaving their village, went up on the + Smoky Hill, and committed the most horrible depredations + upon the scattered settlers in that region. Upon this news, + General Hancock issued the following order:-- + + "As a punishment of the bad faith practised by the Cheyennes + and Sioux who occupied the Indian village at this place, and + as a chastisement for murders and depredations committed + since the arrival of the command at this point, by the + people of these tribes, the village recently occupied by + them, which is now in our hands, will be utterly destroyed." + + The Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches had been united under + one agency; the Kiowas and Comanches under another. + As General Hancock's expedition had reference to all these + tribes, he had invited both the agents to accompany him + into the Indian country and be present at all interviews + with the representatives of these tribes, for the purpose, + as the invitation stated, of showing the Indians "that the + officers of the government are acting in harmony." + + In conversation with the general the agents admitted that + Indians had been guilty of all the outrages charged against + them, but each asserted the innocence of the particular + tribes under his charge, and endeavoured to lay their crimes + at the door of their neighbours. + + Here was positive evidence from the agents themselves that + the Indians against whom we were operating were deserving + of severe punishment. The only conflicting portion of the + testimony was as to which tribe was most guilty. Subsequent + events proved, however, that all of the five tribes named, + as well as the Sioux, had combined for a general war + throughout the plains and along our frontier. Such a war + had been threatened to our post commanders along the + Arkansas on many occasions during the winter. The movement + of the Sioux and Cheyennes toward the north indicated that + the principal theatre of military operations during the + summer would be between the Smoky Hill and Platte rivers. + General Hancock accordingly assembled the principal chiefs + of the Kiowas and Arapahoes in council at Fort Dodge, + hoping to induce them to remain at peace and observe their + treaty obligations. + + The most prominent chiefs in council were Satanta, Lone Wolf, + and Kicking Bird of the Kiowas, and Little Raven and Yellow + Bear of the Arapahoes. During the council extravagant + promises of future good behaviour were made by these chiefs. + So effective and convincing was the oratorical effort of + Satanta, that at the termination of his address, the + department commander and his staff presented him with the + uniform coat, sash, and hat of a major-general. In return + for this compliment, Satanta, within a few weeks, attacked + the post at which the council was held, arrayed in his + new uniform. + +In the spring of 1878, the Indians commenced a series of depredations +along the Santa Fe Trail and against the scattered settlers of the +frontier, that were unparalleled in their barbarity. General Alfred +Sully, a noted Indian fighter, who commanded the district of the +Upper Arkansas, early concentrated a portion of the Seventh and Tenth +Cavalry and Third Infantry along the line of the Old Santa Fe Trail, +and kept out small expeditions of scouting parties to protect the +overland coaches and freight caravans; but the troops effected very +little in stopping the devilish acts of the Indians, who were now +fully determined to carry out their threats of a general war, which +culminated in the winter expedition of General Sheridan, who completely +subdued them, and forced all the tribes on reservations; since which +time there has never been any trouble with the plains Indians worthy +of mention.[69] + +General Sully, about the 1st of September, with eight companies of +the Seventh Cavalry and five companies of infantry, left Fort Dodge, +on the Arkansas, on a hurried expedition against the Kiowas, Arapahoes, +and Cheyennes. The command marched in a general southeasterly +direction, and reached the sand hills of the Beaver and Wolf rivers, +by a circuitous route, on the fifth day. When nearly through that +barren region, they were attacked by a force of eight hundred of the +allied tribes under the leadership of the famous Kiowa chief, Satanta. +A running fight was kept up with the savages on the first day, +in which two of the cavalry were killed and one wounded. + +That night the savages came close enough to camp to fire into it +(an unusual proceeding in Indian warfare, as they rarely molest +troops during the night), I now quote from Custer again: + The next day General Sully directed his march down the + valley of the Beaver; but just as his troops were breaking + camp, the long wagon-train having already "pulled out," and + the rear guard of the command having barely got into their + saddles, a party of between two and three hundred warriors, + who had evidently in some inexplicable manner contrived to + conceal themselves until the proper moment, dashed into the + deserted camp within a few yards of the rear of the troops, + and succeeded in cutting off a few led horses and two of + the cavalrymen who, as is often the case, had lingered a + moment behind the column. + + Fortunately, the acting adjutant of the cavalry, Brevet + Captain A. E. Smith, was riding at the rear of the column + and witnessed the attack of the Indians. Captain Hamilton,[70] + of the Seventh Cavalry, was also present in command of the + rear guard. Wheeling to the rightabout, he at once prepared + to charge the Indians and attempt the rescue of the two + troopers who were being carried off before his very eyes. + At the same time, Captain Smith, as representative of the + commanding officer of the cavalry, promptly took the + responsibility of directing a squadron of the cavalry to + wheel out of column and advance in support of Captain + Hamilton's guard. With this hastily formed detachment, + the Indians, still within pistol-range, but moving off with + their prisoners, were gallantly charged and so closely + pressed that they were forced to relinquish one of their + prisoners, but not before shooting him through the body and + leaving him on the ground, as they supposed, mortally wounded. + The troops continued to charge the retreating Indians, + upon whom they were gaining, determined, if possible, + to effect the rescue of their remaining comrade. They were + advancing down one slope while the Indians, just across + a ravine, were endeavouring to escape with their prisoner + up the opposite ascent, when a peremptory order reached the + officers commanding the pursuing force to withdraw their men + and reform the column at once. The terrible fate awaiting + the unfortunate trooper carried off by the Indians spread + a deep gloom throughout the command. All were too familiar + with the horrid customs of the savages to hope for a moment + that the captive would be reserved for aught but a slow, + lingering death, from tortures the most horrible and painful + which blood-thirsty minds could suggest. Such was the truth + in his case, as we learned afterwards when peace (?) was + established with the tribes then engaged in war. + + The expedition proceeded down the valley of the Beaver, + the Indians contesting every step of the way. In the + afternoon, about three o'clock, the troops arrived at + a ridge of sand hills a few miles southeast of the + presentsite of Camp Supply, where quite a determined + engagement took place between the command and the three + tribes, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowas, the Indians + being the assailants. The Indians seemed to have reserved + their strongest efforts until the troops and train had + advanced well into the sand hills, when a most obstinate + resistance--and well conducted, too--was offered the + farther advance of the troops. It was evident that the + troops were probably nearing the Indian villages, and that + this opposition to further advance was to save them. The + character of the country immediately about the troops was + not favourable to the operations of cavalry; the surface + of the rolling plain was cut up by irregular and closely + located sand hills, too steep and sandy to allow cavalry + to move with freedom, yet capable of being easily cleared + of savages by troops fighting on foot. The Indians took + post on the hilltops and began a harassing fire on the + troops and train. Captain Yates, with a single troop of + cavalry, was ordered forward to drive them away. This was + a proceeding which did not seem to meet with favour from + the savages. Captain Yates could drive them wherever he + encountered them, but they appeared in increased numbers + at some other threatened point. After contending in this + non-effective manner for a couple of hours, the impression + arose in the minds of some that the train could not be + conducted through the sand hills in the face of the strong + opposition offered by the Indians. The order was issued + to turn about and withdraw. The order was executed, and + the troop and train, followed by the exultant Indians, + retired a few miles to the Beaver, and encamped for the + night on the ground afterward known as Camp Supply. + + Captain Yates had caused to be brought off the field, when + his troop was ordered to retire, the body of one of his men, + who had been slain in the fight. As the troops were to + continue their backward march next day, and it was impossible + to transport the dead body further, Captain Yates ordered + preparations made for interring it in camp that night. + Knowing that the Indians would thoroughly search the deserted + camp-ground almost before the troops should get out of sight, + and would be quick, with their watchful eyes, to detect a + grave, and, if successful in discovering it, would unearth + the body in order to get the scalp, directions were given + to prepare the grave after nightfall; and the spot selected + would have baffled any one but an Indian. The grave was + dug under the picket line to which the seventy or eighty + horses of the troop would be tethered during the night, + so that their constant tramping and pawing should completely + cover up and obliterate all traces. The following morning, + even those who had performed the sad rites of burial to + their fallen comrade could scarcely have indicated the exact + location of the grave. Yet when we returned to that point + a few weeks later, it was discovered that the wily savages + had found the place, unearthed the body, and removed the + scalp of their victim on the day following the interment.[71] + +After leaving the camp at Supply, the Indians gradually increased +their force, until they mustered about two thousand warriors. +For four days and nights they hovered around the command, and by the +time it reached Mulberry Creek there were not one thousand rounds of +ammunition left in the whole force of troopers and infantrymen. +At the creek, the incessant charges of the now infuriated savages +compelled the troops to use this small amount held in reserve, and +they found themselves almost at the mercy of the Indians. But before +they were absolutely defenceless, Colonel Keogh had sent a trusty +messenger in the night to Fort Dodge for a supply of cartridges to +meet the command at the creek, which fortunately arrived there +in time to save that spot from being a veritable "last ditch." + +The savages, in the little but exciting encounter at the creek before +the ammunition arrived, would ride up boldly toward the squadrons of +cavalry, discharge the shots from their revolvers, and then, in their +rage, throw them at the skirmishers on the flanks of the supply-train, +while the latter, nearly out of ammunition, were compelled to sit +quietly in their saddles, idle spectators of the extraordinary scene.[72] + +Many of the Indians were killed on their ponies, however, by those +who were fortunate enough to have a few cartridges left; but none +were captured, as the savages had taken their usual precaution to +tie themselves to their animals, and as soon as dead were dragged +away by them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. +INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. + + + +The tourist who to-day, in a palace car, surrounded by all the +conveniences of our American railway service, commences his tour of +the prairies at the Missouri River, enters classic ground the moment +the train leaves the muddy flood of that stream on its swift flight +toward the golden shores of the Pacific. + +He finds a large city at the very portals of the once far West, +with all the bustle and energy which is so characteristic of American +enterprise. + +Gradually, as he is whirled along the iron trail, the woods lessen; +he catches views of beautiful intervales; a bright little stream +flashes and foams in the sunlight as the trees grow fewer, and soon +he emerges on the broad sea of prairie, shut in only by the great +circle of the heavens. + +Dotting this motionless ocean everywhere, like whitened sails, are +quiet homes, real argosies ventured by the sturdy and industrious +people who have fought their way through almost insurmountable +difficulties to the tranquillity which now surrounds them. + +A few miles west of Topeka, the capital of Kansas, when the train +reaches the little hamlet of Wakarusa, the track of the railroad +commences to follow the route of the Old Santa Fe Trail. At that +point, too, the Oregon Trail branches off for the heavily timbered +regions of the Columbia. Now begins the classic ground of the once +famous highway to New Mexico; nearly every stream, hill, and wooded +dell has its story of adventure in those days when the railroad was +regarded as an impossibility, and the region beyond the Missouri as +a veritable desert. + +After some hours' rapid travelling, if our tourist happens to be a +passenger on the "California Limited," the swift train that annihilates +distance, he will pass by towns, hamlets, and immense cattle ranches, +stopping only at county-seats, and enter the justly famous Arkansas +valley at the city of Hutchinson. The Old Trail now passes a few +miles north of this busy place, which is noted for its extensive +salt works, nor does the railroad again meet with it until the site +of old Fort Zarah is reached, forty-seven miles west of Hutchinson, +though it runs nearly parallel to the once great highway at varying +distances for the whole detour. + +The ruins of the once important military post may be seen from the +car-windows on the right, as the train crosses the iron bridge +spanning the Walnut, and here the Old Trail exactly coincides with +the railroad, the track of the latter running immediately on the +old highway. + +Three miles westward from the classic little Walnut the Old Trail ran +through what is now the Court House Square of the town of Great Bend; +it may be seen from the station, and on that very spot occurred the +terrible fight of Captains Booth and Hallowell in 1864. + +Thirteen miles further mountainward, on the right of the railroad, +not far from the track, stands all that remains of the once dreaded +Pawnee Rock. It lies just beyond the limits of the little hamlet +bearing its name. It would not be recognized by any of the old +plainsmen were they to come out of their isolated graves; for it is +only a disintegrated, low mass of sandstone now, utilized for the base +purposes of a corral, in which the village herd of milch cows lie down +at night and chew their cuds, such peaceful transformation has that +great civilizer, the locomotive, wrought in less than two decades. + +Another five or six miles, and the train crosses Ash Creek, which, +too, was once one of the favourite haunts of the Pawnee and Comanche +on their predatory excursions, in the days when the mules and horses +of passing freight caravans excited their cupidity. A short whirl +again, and the town of Larned, lying peacefully on the Arkansas and +Pawnee Fork, is reached. Immediately opposite the centre of the +street through which the railroad runs, and which was also the course +of the Old Trail, lying in the Arkansas River, close to its northern +bank, is a small thickly-wooded island, now reached by a bridge, that +is famous as the battle-ground of a terrible conflict thirty years ago, +between the Pawnees and Cheyennes, hereditary enemies, in which the +latter tribe was cruelly defeated. + +The railroad bridge crosses Pawnee Fork at the precise spot where +the Old Trail did. This locality has been the scene of some of the +bloodiest encounters between the various tribes of savages themselves, +and between them and the freight caravans, the overland coaches, +and every other kind of outfit that formerly attempted the passage of +the now peaceful stream. In fact, the whole region from Walnut Creek +to the mouth of the Pawnee, which includes in its area Ash Creek +and Pawnee Rock, seemed to be the greatest resort for the Indians, +who hovered about the Santa Fe Trail for the sole purpose of robbery +and murder; it was a very lucky caravan or coach, indeed, that passed +through that portion of the route without being attacked. + +All the once dangerous points of the Old Trail having been successively +passed--Cow Creek, Big and Little Coon, and Ash Creek, Fort Dodge, +Fort Aubrey,[73] and Point of Rocks--the tourist arrives at last at +the foot-hills. At La Junta the railroad separates into two branches; +one going to Denver, the other on to New Mexico. Here, a relatively +short distance to the northwest, on the right of the train, may be +seen the ruins of Bent's Fort, the tourist having already passed the +site of the once famous Big Timbers, a favourite winter camping-ground +of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes; but everywhere around him there reigns +such perfect quiet and pastoral beauty, he might imagine that the +peaceful landscape upon which he looks had never been a bloody arena. + +I suggest to the lover of nature that he should cross the Raton Range +in the early morning, or late in the afternoon; for then the +magnificent scenery of the Trail over the high divide into New Mexico +assumes its most beautiful aspect. + +In approaching the range from the Old Trail, or now from the railroad, +their snow-clad peaks may be seen at a distance of sixty miles. +In the era of caravans and pack-trains, for hour after hour, as they +moved slowly toward the goal of their ambition, the summit of the +fearful pathway on the divide, the huge forms of the mountains seemed +to recede, and yet ascend higher. On the next day's journey their +outlines appeared more irregular and ragged. Drawing still nearer, +their base presented a long, dark strip stretching throughout their +whole course, ever widening until it seemed like a fathomless gulf, +separating the world of reality from the realms of imagination beyond. + +Another weary twenty miles of dusty travel, and the black void slowly +dissolved, and out of the shadows lines of broken, sterile, +ferruginous buttes and detached masses of rocks, whose soilless +surface refuses sustenance, save to a few scattered, stunted pines +and lifeless mosses, emerged to view. + +The progress of the weary-footed mules or oxen was now through ravines +and around rocks; up narrow paths which the melting snows have +washed out; sometimes between beetling cliffs, often to their very +edge, where hundreds of feet below the Trail the tall trees seemed +diminished into shrubs. Then again the road led over an immense broad +terrace, for thousands of yards around, with a bright lake gleaming +in the refracted light, and brilliant Alpine plants waving their +beautiful flowers on its margin. Still the coveted summit appeared +so far off as to be beyond the range of vision, and it seemed as if, +instead of ascending, the entire mass underneath had been receding, +like the mountains of ice over which Arctic explorers attempt to reach +the pole. Now the tortuous Trail passed through snow-wreaths which +the winds had eddied into indentations; then over bright, glassy +surfaces of ice and fragments of rocks, until the pinnacle was reached. +Nearer, along the broad successive terraces of the opposite mountains, +the evergreen pine, the cedar, with its stiff, angular branches, and +the cottonwood, with its varied curves and bright colours, were +crowded into bunches or strung into zigzag lines, interspersed with +shrubs and mountain plants, among which the flaming cactus was +conspicuous. To the right and left, the bare cones of the barren +peaks rose in multitude, with their calm, awful forms shrouded in snow, +and their dark shadows reflected far into the valleys, like spectres +from a chaotic world. + +In going through the Raton Pass, the Old Santa Fe Trail meandered up +a steep valley, enclosed on either side by abrupt hills covered with +pine and masses of gray rock. The road ran along the points of +varying elevations, now in the stony bed of Raton Creek, which it +crossed fifty-three times, the sparkling, flitting waters of the +bubbling stream leaping and foaming against the animals' feet as they +hauled the great wagons of the freight caravans over the tortuous +passage. The creek often rushed rapidly under large flat stones, +lost to sight for a moment, then reappearing with a fresh impetus and +dashing over its flinty, uneven bed until it mingled with the pure +waters of Le Purgatoire. + +Still ascending, the scenery assumed a bolder, rougher cast; then +sudden turns gave you hurried glimpses of the great valley below. +A gentle dell sloped to the summit of the pass on the west, then, +rising on the east by a succession of terraces, the bald, bare cliff +was reached, overlooking the whole region for many miles, and this is +Raton Peak.[74] + +The extreme top of this famous peak was only reached after more than +an hour's arduous struggle. On the lofty plateau the caravans and +pack-trains rested their tired animals. Here, too, the lonely trapper, +when crossing the range in quest of beaver, often chose this lofty +spot on which to kindle his little fire and broil juicy steaks of the +black-tail deer, the finest venison in the world; but before he +indulged in the savoury morsels, if he was in the least superstitious +or devout, or inspired by the sublime scene around him, he lighted +his pipe, and after saluting the elevated ridge on which he sat by the +first whiff of the fragrant kinnikinick, Indian-fashion, he in turn +offered homage in the same manner to the sky above him, the earth +beneath, and to the cardinal points of the compass, and was then +prepared to eat his solitary meal in a spirit of thankfulness. + +Far below this magnificent vantage-ground lies the valley of the +Rio Las Animas Perdidas. On the other verge of the great depression +rise the peerless, everlastingly snow-wreathed Spanish Peaks,[75] +whose giant summits are grim sentinels that for untold ages have +witnessed hundreds of sanguinary conflicts between the wily nomads +of the vast plains watered by the silent Arkansas. + +All around you snow-clad mountains lift their serrated crowns above +the horizon, dim, white, and indistinct, like icebergs seen at sea +by moonlight; others, nearer, more rugged, naked of verdure, and +irregular in contour, seem to lose their lofty summits in the intense +blue of the sky. + +Fisher's Peak, which is in full view from the train, was named from +the following circumstance: Captain Fisher was a German artillery +officer commanding a battery in General Kearney's Army of the West in +the conquest of New Mexico and was encamped at the base of the peak +to which he involuntarily gave his name. He was intently gazing at +the lofty summit wrapped in the early mist, and not being familiar +with the illusory atmospheric effects of the region, he thought that +to go there would be merely a pleasant promenade. So, leaving word +that he would return to breakfast, he struck out at a brisk walk for +the crest. That whole day, the following night, and the succeeding +day, dragged their weary hours on, but no tidings of the commanding +officer were received at the battery, and ill rumours were current +of his death by Indians or bears, when, just as his mess were about +to take their seats at the table for the evening meal, their captain +put in an appearance, a very tired but a wiser man. He started to go +to the peak, and he went there! + +On the summit of another rock-ribbed elevation close by, the tourist +will notice the shaft of an obelisk. It is over the grave of George +Simpson, once a noted mountaineer in the days of the great fur +companies. For a long time he made his home there, and it was his +dying request that the lofty peak he loved so well while living should +be his last resting-place. The peak is known as "Simpson's Rest," +and is one of the notable features of the rugged landscape. + +Pike's Peak, far away to the north, intensely white and silvery in the +clear sky, hangs like a great dome high in the region of the clouds, +a marked object, worthy to commemorate the indefatigable efforts of +the early voyageur whose name it bears. + +In this wonderful locality, both Pike's Peak and the snowy range over +two hundred miles from our point of observation really seem to the +uninitiated as if a brisk walk of an hour or two would enable one to +reach them, so deceptive is the atmosphere of these elevated regions. + +About two miles from the crest of the range, yet over seven thousand +feet above the sea-level, in a pretty little depression about as +large as a medium-sized corn-field in the Eastern States, Uncle +Dick Wooton lived, and here, too, was his toll-gate. The veteran +mountaineer erected a substantial house of adobe, after the style +of one of the old-time Southern plantation residences, a memory, +perhaps, of his youth, when he raised tobacco in his father's fields +in Kentucky.[76] + +The most charming hour in which to be on the crest of Raton Range is +in the afternoon, when the weather is clear and calm. As the night +comes on apace in the distant valley beneath, the evening shadows +drop down, pencilled with broad bands of rosy light as they creep +slowly across the beautiful landscape, while the rugged vista below +is enveloped in a diffused haze like that which marks the season of +the Indian summer in the lower great plains. Above, the sky curves +toward the relatively restricted horizon, with not a cloud to dim +its intense blue, nowhere so beautiful as in these lofty altitudes. + +The sun, however, does not always shine resplendently; there are +times when the most terrific storms of wind, hail, and rain change +the entire aspect of the scene. Fortunately, these violent bursts +never last long; they vanish as rapidly as they come, leaving in +their wake the most phenomenally beautiful rainbows, whose trailing +splendours which they owe to the dry and rare air of the region, and +its high refractory power, are gorgeous in the extreme. + +In 1872 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad entered the +valley of the Upper Arkansas. Twenty-four years ago, on a delicious +October afternoon, I stood on the absolutely level plateau at the +mouth of Pawnee Fork where that historic creek debouches into the +great river. The remembrance of that view will never pass from my +memory, for it showed a curious temporary blending of two distinct +civilizations. One, the new, marking the course of empire in its +restless march westward; the other, that of the aboriginal, which, +like a dissolving view, was soon to fade away and be forgotten. + +The box-elders and cottonwoods thinly covering the creek-bottom were +gradually donning their autumn dress of russet, and the mirage had +already commenced its fantastic play with the landscape. On the sides +and crests of the sparsely grassed sand hills south of the Arkansas +a few buffaloes were grazing in company with hundreds of Texas cattle, +while in the broad valley beneath, small flocks of graceful antelope +were lying down, quietly ruminating their midday meal. + +In the distance, far eastwardly, a train of cars could be seen +approaching; as far as the eye could reach, on either side of the +track, the virgin sod had been turned to the sun; the "empire of +the plough" was established, and the march of immigration in its +hunger for the horizon had begun. + +Half a mile away from the bridge spanning the Fork, under the grateful +shade of the largest trees, about twenty skin lodges were irregularly +grouped; on the brown sod of the sun-cured grass a herd of a hundred +ponies were lazily feeding, while a troop of dusky little children +were chasing the yellow butterflies from the dried and withered +sunflower stalks which once so conspicuously marked the well-worn +highway to the mountains. These Indians, the remnant of a tribe +powerful in the years of savage sovereignty, were on their way, +in charge of their agent, to their new homes, on the reservation +just allotted to them by the government, a hundred miles south of +the Arkansas. + +Their primitive lodges contrasted strangely with the peaceful little +sod-houses, dugouts, and white cottages of the incoming settlers on +the public lands, with the villages struggling into existence, and +above all with the rapidly moving cars; unmistakable evidences that +the new civilization was soon to sweep the red men before it like +chaff before the wind. + +Farther to the west, a caravan of white-covered wagons loaded with +supplies for some remote military post, the last that would ever +travel the Old Trail, was slowly crawling toward the setting sun. +I watched it until only a cloud of dust marked its place low down +on the horizon, and it was soon lost sight of in the purple mist +that was rapidly overspreading the far-reaching prairie. + +It was the beginning of the end; on the 9th of February, 1880, the +first train over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad arrived +at Santa Fe and the Old Trail as a route of commerce was closed +forever. The once great highway is now only a picture in the memory +of the few who have travelled its weary course, following the windings +of the silent Arkansas, on to the portals that guard the rugged +pathway leading to the shores of the blue Pacific. + + + + +FOOTNOTES. + + + +[1] The whole country watered by the Mississippi and Missouri was +called Florida at that time. + +[2] The celebrated Jesuit, author of _The History of New France_, +_Journals of a Voyage to North America_, _Letters to the Duchess_, etc. + +[3] Otoes. + +[4] Iowas. + +[5] Boulevard, Promenade. + +[6] Notes of a Military Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, +in Missouri, to San Diego, in California, including parts of the +Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila Rivers. Brevet Major W. H. Emory, +Corps of Topographical Engineers, United States Army, 1846. + +[7] Hon. W. F. Arny, in his Centennial Celebration Address at Santa Fe, +July 4, 1876. + +[8] Edwards, _Conquest of New Mexico_. + +[9] I think this is Bancroft's idea. + +[10] _Historical Sketches of New Mexico_, L. Bradford Prince, late +Chief Justice of New Mexico, 1883. + +[11] D. H. Coyner, 1847. + +[12] He was travelling parallel to the Old Santa Fe Trail all the time, +but did not know it until he was overtaken by a band of Kaw Indians. + +[13] McKnight was murdered south of the Arkansas by the Comanches +in the winter of 1822. + +[14] Chouteau's Island. + +[15] _Hennepin's Journal_. + +[16] The line between the United States and Mexico (or New Spain, +as it was called) was defined by a treaty negotiated in 1819, +between the Chevalier de Onis, then Spanish minister at Washington, +and John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State. According to its +provisions, the boundary between Mexico and Louisiana, which had been +added to the Union, commenced with the river Sabine at its entrance +into the Gulf of Mexico, at about the twenty-ninth degree of north +latitude and the ninety-fourth degree of longitude, west from +Greenwich, and followed it as far as its junction with the Red River +of Natchitoches, which then served to mark the frontier up to the +one hundredth degree of west longitude, where the line ran directly +north to the Arkansas, which it followed to its source at the +forty-second degree of north latitude, whence another straight line +was drawn up the same parallel to the Pacific coast. + +[17] This tribe kept up its reputation under the dreaded Satanta, +until 1868--a period of forty years--when it was whipped into +submission by the gallant Custer. Satanta was its war chief, +one of the most cruel savages the great plains ever produced. +He died a few years ago in the state prison of Texas. + +[18] McNess Creek is on the old Cimarron Trail to Santa Fe, a little +east of a line drawn south from Bent's Fort. + +[19] Mr. Bryant, of Kansas, who died a few years ago, was one of +the pioneers in the trade with Santa Fe. Previous to his decease +he wrote for a Kansas newspaper a narrative of his first trip across +the great plains; an interesting monograph of hardship and suffering. +For the use of this document I am indebted to Hon. Sol. Miller, +the editor of the journal in which it originally appeared. I have +also used very extensively the notes of Mr. William Y. Hitt, one of +the Bryant party, whose son kindly placed them at my disposal, and +copied liberally from the official report of Major Bennett Riley-- +afterward the celebrated general of Mexican War fame, and for whom +the Cavalry Depot in Kansas is named; as also from the journal of +Captain Philip St. George Cooke, who accompanied Major Riley on +his expedition. + +[20] Chouteau's Island, at the mouth of Sand Creek. + +[21] Valley of the Upper Arkansas. + +[22] About three miles east of the town of Great Bend, Barton County, +Kansas. + +[23] The Old Santa Fe Trail crosses the creek some miles north of +Hutchinson, and coincides with the track again at the mouth of +Walnut Creek, three miles east of Great Bend. + +[24] There are many conflicting accounts in regard to the sum +Don Antonio carried with him on that unfortunate trip. Some +authorities put it as high as sixty thousand; I have taken a mean +of the various sums, and as this method will suffice in mathematics, +perhaps we can approximate the truth in this instance. + +[25] General Emory of the Union army during the Civil War. He made +an official report of the country through which the Army of the West +passed, accompanied by maps, and his _Reconnoissance in New Mexico +and California_, published by the government in 1848, is the first +authentic record of the region, considered topographically and +geologically. + +[26] _Doniphan's Expedition, containing an account of the Conquest +of New Mexico_, etc. John T. Hughes, A.B., of the First Regiment +of Missouri Cavalry. 1850. + +[27] Deep Gorge. + +[28] Colonel Leavenworth, for whom Fort Leavenworth is named, and +who built several army posts in the far West. + +[29] Colonel A. G. Boone, a grandson of the immortal Daniel, was one +of the grandest old mountaineers I ever knew. He was as loyal as +anybody, but honest in his dealings with the Indians, and that was +often a fault in the eyes of those at Washington who controlled +these agents. Kit Carson was of the same honest class as Boone, +and he, too, was removed for the same cause. + +[30] A narrow defile on the Trail, about ninety miles east of +Fort Union. It is called the "canyon of the Canadian, or Red, River," +and is situated between high walls of earth and rock. It was once +a very dangerous spot on account of the ease and rapidity with which +the savages could ambush themselves. + +[31] Carson, Wooton, and all other expert mountaineers, when following +a trail, could always tell just what time had elapsed since it was +made. This may seem strange to the uninitiated, but it was part +of their necessary education. They could tell what kind of a track +it was, which way the person or animal had walked, and even the tribe +to which the savage belonged, either by the shape of the moccasin +or the arrows which were occasionally dropped. + +[32] Lieutenant Bell belonged to the Second Dragoons. He was +conspicuous in extraordinary marches and in action, and also an +accomplished horseman and shot, once running and killing five buffalo +in a quarter of a mile. He died early in 1861, and his death was +a great loss to the service. + +[33] Known to this day as "The Cheyenne Bottoms." + +[34] Lone Wolf was really the head chief of the Kiowas. + +[35] The battle lasted three days. + +[36] Kicking Bird was ever afterward so regarded by the authorities +of the Indian department. + +[37] Lorenzo Thomas, adjutant-general of the United States army. + +[38] Kendall's _Santa Fe Expedition_ may be found in all the large +libraries. + +[39] A summer-house, bower, or arbour. + +[40] Frank Hall, Chicago, 1885. + +[41] The greater portion of this chapter I originally wrote for +_Harper's Weekly_. By the kind permission of the publishers, I am +permitted to use it here. + +[42] These statistics I have carefully gathered from the freight +departments of the railroads, which kept a record of all the bones +that were shipped, and from the purchasers of the carbon works, +who paid out the money at various points. Some of the bones, however, +may have been on the ground for a longer time, as decay is very slow +in the dry air of the plains. + +[43] La Jeunesse was one of the bravest of the old French Canadian +trappers. He was a warm friend of Kit Carson and was killed by the +Indians in the following manner. They were camping one night in the +mountains; Kit, La Jeunesse, and others had wrapped themselves up +in their blankets near the fire, and were sleeping soundly; Fremont +sat up until after midnight reading letters he had received from +the United States, after finishing which, he, too, turned in and +fell asleep. Everything was quiet for a while, when Kit was awakened +by a noise that sounded like the stroke of an axe. Rising cautiously, +he discovered Indians in the camp; he gave the alarm at once, +but two of his companions were dead. One of them was La Jeunesse, +and the noise he had heard was the tomahawk as it buried itself +in the brave fellow's head. + +[44] This black is made from a species of plumbago found on the hills +of the region. + +[45] The Pawnees and Cheyennes were hereditary enemies, and they +frequently met in sanguinary conflict. + +[46] A French term Anglicised, as were many other foreign words by +the trappers in the mountains. Its literal meaning is, arrow fender, +for from it the plains Indians construct their shields; it is +buffalo-hide prepared in a certain manner. + +[47] Boiling Spring River. + +[48] For some reason the Senate refused to confirm the appointment, +and he had consequently no connection with the regular army. + +[49] Point of Rocks is six hundred and forty seven miles from +Independence, and was always a favourite place of resort for the +Indians of the great plains; consequently it was one of the most +dangerous camping-spots for the freight caravans on the Trail. +It comprises a series of continuous hills, which project far out on +the prairie in bold relief. They end abruptly in a mass of rocks, +out of which gushes a cold, refreshing spring, which is, of course, +the main attraction of the place. The Trail winds about near this +point, and many encounters with the various tribes have occurred there. + +[50] "Little Mountain." + +[51] General Gatlin was a North Carolinian, and seceded with his +State at the breaking out of the Rebellion, but refused to leave +his native heath to fight, so indelibly was he impressed with the +theory of State rights. He was willing to defend the soil of +North Carolina, but declined to step across its boundary to repel +invasion in other States. + +[52] The name of "Crow," as applied to the once powerful nation +of mountain Indians, is a misnomer, the fault of some early +interpreter. The proper appellation is "Sparrowhawks," but they +are officially recognized as "Crows." + +[53] Kit Carson, ten years before, when on his first journey, met +with the same adventure while on post at Pawnee Rock. + +[54] The fusee was a fire-lock musket with an immense bore, from +which either slugs or balls could be shot, although not with any +great degree of accuracy. + +[55] The Indians always knew when the caravans were to pass certain +points on the Trail, by their runners or spies probably. + +[56] It was one of the rigid laws of Indian hospitality always to +respect the person of any one who voluntarily entered their camps +or temporary halting-places. As long as the stranger, red or white, +remained with them, he enjoyed perfect immunity from harm; but after +he had left, although he had progressed but half a mile, it was just +as honourable to follow and kill him. + +[57] In their own fights with their enemies one or two of the +defeated party are always spared, and sent back to their tribe to +carry the news of the slaughter. + +[58] The story of the way in which this name became corrupted into +"Picketwire," by which it is generally known in New Mexico, is this: +When Spain owned all Mexico and Florida, as the vast region of the +Mississippi valley was called, long before the United States had +an existence as a separate government, the commanding officer at +Santa Fe received an order to open communication with the country +of Florida. For this purpose an infantry regiment was selected. +It left Santa Fe rather late in the season, and wintered at a point +on the Old Trail now known as Trinidad. In the spring, the colonel, +leaving all camp-followers behind him, both men and women, marched +down the stream, which flows for many miles through a magnificent +canyon. Not one of the regiment returned or was ever heard of. +When all hope had departed from the wives, children, and friends +left behind at Trinidad, information was sent to Santa Fe, and a wail +went up through the land. The priests and people then called this +stream "El Rio de las Animas Perditas" ("The river of lost souls"). +Years after, when the Spanish power was weakened, and French trappers +came into the country under the auspices of the great fur companies, +they adopted a more concise name; they called the river "Le Purgatoire." +Then came the Great American Bull-Whacker. Utterly unable to twist +his tongue into any such Frenchified expression, he called the stream +with its sad story "Picketwire," and by that name it is known to all +frontiersmen, trappers, and the settlers along its banks. + +[59] The ranch is now in charge of Mr. Harry Whigham, an English +gentleman, who keeps up the old hospitality of the famous place. + +[60] "River of Souls." The stream is also called Le Purgatoire, +corrupted by the Americans into Picketwire. + +[61] Pawnee Rock is no longer conspicuous. Its material has been +torn away by both the railroad and the settlers in the vicinity, +to build foundations for water-tanks, in the one instance, and for +the construction of their houses, barns, and sheds, in the other. +Nothing remains of the once famous landmark; its site is occupied +as a cattle corral by the owner of the claim in which it is included. + +[62] The crossing of the Old Santa Fe Trail at Pawnee Fork is now +within the corporate limits of the pretty little town of Larned, +the county-seat of Pawnee County. The tourist from his car-window +may look right down upon one of the worst places for Indians that +there was in those days of the commerce of the prairies, as the road +crosses the stream at the exact spot where the Trail crossed it. + +[63] This was a favourite expression of his whenever he referred +to any trouble with the Indians. + +[64] Indians will risk the lives of a dozen of their best warriors +to prevent the body of any one of their number from falling into +the white man's possession. The reason for this is the belief, +which prevails among all tribes, that if a warrior loses his scalp +he forfeits his hope of ever reaching the happy hunting-ground. + +[65] It was in this fight that the infamous Charles Bent received +his death-wound. + +[66] The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad track runs very +close to the mound, and there is a station named for the great mesa. + +[67] The venerable Colonel A. S. Johnson, of Topeka, Kansas, +the first white child born on the great State's soil, who related +to me this adventure of Hatcher's, knew him well. He says that he +was a small man, full of muscle, and as fearless as can be conceived. + +[68] The place where they turned is about a hundred yards east of +the Court House Square, in the present town of Great Bend; it may +be seen from the cars. + +[69] See Sheridan's _Memoirs_, Custer's _Life on the Plains_, and +Buffalo Bill's book, in which all the stirring events of that +campaign--nearly every fight of which was north or far south of the +Santa Fe Trail--are graphically told. + +[70] A grandson of Alexander Hamilton; killed at the battle of the +Washita, in the charge on Black Kettle's camp under Custer. + +[71] This ends Custer's narrative. The following fight, which +occurred a few days afterward, at the mouth of Mulberry Creek, +twelve miles below Fort Dodge, and within a stone's throw of the +Old Trail, was related to me personally by Colonel Keogh, who was +killed at the Rosebud, in Custer's disastrous battle with Sitting Bull. +We were both attached to General Sully's staff. + +[72] It was in this fight that Colonel Keogh's celebrated horse +Comanche received his first wound. It will be remembered that +Comanche and a Crow Indian were the only survivors of that unequal +contest in the valley of the Big Horn, commonly called the battle +of the Rosebud, where Custer and his command was massacred. + +[73] Now Kendall, a little village in Hamilton County, Kansas. + +[74] Raton is the name given by the early Spaniards to this range, +meaning both mouse and squirrel. It had its origin either in the +fact that one of its several peaks bore a fanciful resemblance to +a squirrel, or because of the immense numbers of that little rodent +always to be found in its pine forests. + +[75] In the beautiful language of the country's early conquerors, +"Las Cumbres Espanolas," or "Las dos Hermanas" (The Two Sisters), +and in the Ute tongue, "Wahtoya" (The Twins). + +[76] The house was destroyed by fire two or three years ago. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL *** + +This file should be named 8osft10.txt or 8osft10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8osft11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8osft10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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