Buffalo Land: Authentic Account of the Discoveries, Adventures, and Mishaps of a Scientific and Sporting Party in the Wild WestWebb, W. E. (William Edward)
History
Buffalo Land: Authentic Account of the Discoveries, Adventures, and Mishaps of a Scientific and Sporting Party in the Wild West
Webb, W. E. (William Edward)
Hunting -- West (U.S.); Paleontology -- Kansas; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
"A person dreaming is not rational, and yet may suffer so, and feel it
too, as to shudder hours after waking up. There was John, running toward
the house with our baby boy, and the savages yelling and whipping their
ponies, trying to get between the open door and him. Alone, he could
have saved himself. And our baby thought John was running for play, and
was clapping his little hands and chirping at me as the savages closed
around my husband. I had only time to pray five words, 'O God, save my
husband!' and it did not seem an instant until I saw the poor body I
loved so well lying on the ground, and they standing over, shooting
their arrows into it. Baby was not killed, but thrown forward under one
of the horses, and I had just taken a step or so toward him, when an
Indian, who seemed to be the chief, lifted him by the dress to his
saddle. I think his first intention was to carry him with them, but,
seeing some of our neighbors hurrying toward us, they struck the baby
with a hatchet, and hurled him to the ground. At the instant they struck
him, he was looking back at me with his great blue eyes wide open and
staring with fright."
And then the poor woman, having finished her story, began sobbing
piteously.
The Solomon had numberless tales of these terrible massacres equally as
harrowing as this, and I could fill pages of this volume with chapters
of woe that terminated many a family's history. The result of these and
other Indian atrocities is probably yet remembered throughout the entire
country. Kansas well nigh rebelled against a government which left her
unprotected. The War Department authorized vigorous measures, and the
Governor of the State raised a regiment and at its head took the field.
Through blows from Custar and Carr, the savages found out, at last, that
the dogs of war which they let loose might return to bay at their own
doors.
Two women from the Saline were carried into captivity by the Indians,
and taken as wives by two of their chiefs. One day Carr, at the head of
his troops, looked down into the valley upon the encampment of a band
especially noted for its hostility, now lying in fancied security below
him. The two white captives were in the wigwams. Suddenly, to the ears
of the savages, came a murmur from the hill-side like the first whisper
of a torrent.
Instantly, almost, it increased to a roar, and, as they sprung to their
feet and rushed forth, the blue waves of vengeance dashed against the
village, and broke in showers of leaden spray upon them. Mercy put no
shield between them and that annihilating tempest. Every savage in the
number was a fiend, and, as a band, they had long been the scourge of
the border. Their hands were yet red with the blood of the massacres
upon the Saline and Solomon, and white women toiled in the wigwams of
their husbands' murderers. One of the captives, Mrs. Daley, was killed
by the savages, to prevent rescue; the other was saved, and restored to
her husband.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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