THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL, COLONEL HENRY INMAN [well read books .txt] 📗
- Author: COLONEL HENRY INMAN
Book online «THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL, COLONEL HENRY INMAN [well read books .txt] 📗». Author COLONEL HENRY INMAN
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
Comments (0)