Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881Gillett, James B.
History
Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881
Gillett, James B.
Frontier and pioneer life -- Texas; Gillett, James B., 1856-1937; Texas -- History -- 1846-1950; Texas Rangers
At Quitman, Captain Baylor learned that the trail of the stage robbers
bore southwest to Ojo Calienta, and as the foothills of Quitman
Mountains are very rough, he went down the north bank of the Rio
Grande, as he felt quite certain he would cut signs in that direction.
About twenty-five miles below Quitman he struck the trail of a freshly
shod mule, two barefooted ponies and two unshod mules, and within
fifty yards of the trail he found the kid glove thought to have been
Crenshaw's. The trail now bore down the river and crossed into Mexico,
where the Indian band made its first camp. Captain Baylor followed,
and the next day found the Apaches' second camp near the foothills
of the Los Pinos Mountains, where we had left General Terrasas the
fall before. Here all doubts about the Indians were dispelled, as the
rangers found a horse killed with the meat taken as food and a pair of
old moccasins. Besides, the camp was selected on a high bare hill after
the custom of the Indians. The same day Captain Baylor found another
camp and a dead mule, and on the trail discovered a boot-top recognized
as that of Morgan, the driver. Here also was the trail of some fifteen
or twenty mules and ponies, quite fresh, coming from the direction of
the Candelario Mountains with one small trail of three mules going
toward the Rio Grande. The rangers passed through some very rough, deep
canyons and camped on the south side of the Rio Grande, this being
their second night in Mexico.
Next morning the trail crossed back into Texas. Going toward Major
Carpenter's old camp above the Bosque Bonito the scouting party found a
camp where the Indians had evidently made a cache, but Captain Baylor
only tarried here a short time and followed on down the river a few
miles when he found the Apaches had struck out on a bee line for the
Eagle Mountains. The captain felt some hesitation about crossing the
plains between the Eagle Mountains and the Rio Grande in the daytime
for fear of being seen by the Indians, but as the trail was several
days old he took the risk of being discovered. He camped within three
or four miles of the mountains and at daybreak took the trail up a
canyon leading into the peaks. The party came suddenly upon an Apache
camp which had been hastily deserted that morning, for the Indians left
blankets, quilts, buckskins and many other things useful to them. They
had just killed and had piled up in camp two horses and a mule, the
blood of which had been caught in tin vessels. One mule's tongue was
stewing over a fire and everything indicated the redskins were on the
eve of a jolly war dance, for the rangers found a five-gallon can of
mescal wine and a horse skin sunk in the ground that contained fifteen
or twenty gallons more. Here Captain Baylor found the mate to Morgan's
boot-top and a bag made from the legs of the passenger's pantaloons,
besides express receipts, postal cards and other articles taken from
the stage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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