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