of the Republican River, where Colonel George A. Forsyth and his fifty followers were at that very time making their heroic defense against an overwhelming number of Indians under the command of the famous chief Roman Nose, although we knew nothing of the affair until some time later. The trail of the Indians led across the country in a direct line toward the battle ground. No doubt they had been summoned by runners to aid their people, and probably this was the reason for their leaving El Paso County. Upon discovering the course taken by the Indians, Captain Templeton, on account of his small force, deemed it imprudent to pursue them farther. An additional reason for facing about was that our supply of provisions was about exhausted, and had we gone farther we should have had to subsist on the wild game of the region, which would have been a risky thing to attempt. As it was, on our way homeward we had to live entirely on the meat of cattle we killed. Having no camp outfit, we broiled the meat on sticks before our camp fires and then ate it without salt. To me this fare was about the nearest to a starvation diet that I have ever experienced. We reached Colorado City in due time, without having seen an Indian during our whole campaign. Whether we were the cause of the Indians leaving this region, or whether it was a coincidence that they were just ahead of us, I do not know, but it was evident that the Indians were gone, and on account of approaching winter we had little to fear from them during the remainder of the year. There apparently being no further use for its services, the company was disbanded. It had been a strenuous period for the settlers from the first appearance of the Indians about the 20th of August until this time. At least a dozen persons had been killed in El Paso County and the country adjacent thereto on the Divide. Many houses had been destroyed; crops had been lost through inability to harvest the grain; probably five hundred horses and at least one thousand head of cattle had been driven off, making an aggregate loss of property that was extremely heavy for a sparsely populated county such as El Paso was at that time. The contest was an unequal one from the start. The settlers were armed with a miscellaneous lot of guns, most of which were muzzle-loading hunting rifles, while the Indians were armed with breech-loading guns using metal cartridges. Fortunately for the settlers, the ammunition of the Indians was of a poor quality, as was proved in the fight east of Bijou Basin and elsewhere, and, judging by the careful manner in which they used their ammunition, it is probable that the supply was not very large. This undoubtedly saved the lives of many of our people. It was noticed from the first that the Indians never wasted their ammunition and seldom attacked an armed person.