A day or two after the arrest, Colonel Mackenzie, in command of the troops from Fort Richardson, arrived at Fort Sill and reported that the heavy and continued rains had obliterated the tracks of the raiding Indians so that they could not be followed. After remaining a few days, the colonel with his troops took charge of the prisoners to convey them to Texas for trial. Satank was so refractory that he was put into a wagon with two soldiers, and Satanta and Big-tree were put into another wagon. George Washington, a Caddo Indian, rode alongside of the wagons as they left Fort Sill. Satank called to him and said: "I wish to send a little message by you to my people. Tell them that I am dead. I died the first day out, and my bones will be lying on the side of the road. I wish my people to gather them up and take them home." Satanta also sent a message, saying: "Tell my people to take the forty-one mules that we stole from Texas to the agent, as he and Colonel Grierson require. Don't commit any depredations around Fort Sill or in Texas." When about a mile from the post Satank sang his death song, and with his back to the guard drew the shackles off his hands by taking some of the skin with them. Then with a butcher knife which he had secreted, he started for the guard in the front part of the wagon, cutting one of the soldiers slightly in the leg. They both jumped out, leaving their guns. Satank picked up one of them and commenced loading it, wanting to kill one more man. Before he got it loaded he received several shots, and in twenty minutes died in much agony, gritting his teeth. Colonel Grierson had him buried at Fort Sill. He gave the Indians permission to take him up and convey him to their camp for interment, which they declined to do. Mr Leeper, my interpreter, who has since been a practicing physician in Chicago, and Horace P. Jones, the post interpreter, attended the trial of Satanta and Big-tree at Jacksboro. The jury brought in a verdict of murder in the first degree, and sentenced them to be hung on the 1st of the following September. I had requested that they be not executed, and gave my reasons for thinking that such a course would have a better effect upon the Indians of the reservation. The judge wrote me that he approved of my request and would ask the governor to commute the sentence to life imprisonment, which was done. The Kiowas delivered to me the stolen mules, as Satanta requested.