THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL, COLONEL HENRY INMAN [well read books .txt] 📗
- Author: COLONEL HENRY INMAN
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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.
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