Forty Years Among the Indians: A true yet thrilling narrative of the author's experiences among the nativesJones, Daniel W. (Daniel Webster)
History
Forty Years Among the Indians: A true yet thrilling narrative of the author's experiences among the natives
Jones, Daniel W. (Daniel Webster)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America; Latter Day Saint pioneers -- Biography
We visited a few days with the Moquis, who received us very kindly.
After taking into consideration our instructions to visit Salt River
valley, we tried to hire an Indian to pilot us across the country to
the Little Colorado river, wishing to strike it at the nearest point.
We were told that there was no water on the route. No one seemed to
want the job to guide us. Finally an Indian was found who said he
would go for a certain number of silver dollars. We agreed to give him
his price. We packed up, filled our water kegs and started out in the
afternoon. The guide was to come on in the morning and overtake us.
We traveled a few miles and camped. Next morning the guide came up,
but demanded more pay. Finally we consented. We had traveled but a
short distance when he demanded another advance. This we did not feel
inclined to make, so Brother Tenney told him we could get along without
him. He then turned back. There was no trail. We took a southerly
direction trusting to our own judgment to get through.
After traveling a few hours we approached near some hills where the
country looked like there might be water. We turned off from our
direction, went up into the hills and found a spring of good, fresh
water. We re-filled our kegs and watered our stock. It was somewhat
difficult as the banks were steep and the water was a foot or more
below the surface.
All our stock drank except a little Mexican burro that would not
approach the spring. We all got around him and pushed him up to the
brink several times but he would slip away from us. We knew he was
thirsty, but, donkey-like, he would not drink. At length we grabbed
hold of him, lifted him clear from the ground and put him in the middle
of the spring, where he stood quite still but would not drink; so he
beat us after all. We named the spring Tussle Jack. I doubt if anyone
has been there since.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account