The Old Santa Fe Trail: The Story of a Great HighwayInman, Henry
History
The Old Santa Fe Trail: The Story of a Great Highway
Inman, Henry
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); New Mexico -- History; Santa Fe National Historic Trail
He once killed five buffaloes during a single race, and used but four
balls, having dismounted and cut the bullet from the wound of the
fourth, and thus continued the chase. He it was, too, who established
his reputation as a famous hunter by shooting a buffalo cow during an
impetuous race down a steep hill, discharging his rifle just as the
animal was leaping on one of the low cedars peculiar to the region.
The ball struck a vital spot, and the dead cow remained in the jagged
branches. The Indians who were with him on that hunt looked upon the
circumstance as something beyond their comprehension, and insisted that
Kit should leave the carcass in the tree as "Big Medicine." Katzatoa
(Smoked Shield), a celebrated chief of the Kiowas many years ago,
who was over seven feet tall, never mounted a horse when hunting the
buffalo; he always ran after them on foot and killed them with his
lance.
Two Lance, another famous chief, could shoot an arrow entirely through a
buffalo while hunting on horseback. He accomplished this remarkable feat
in the presence of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, who was under the
care of Buffalo Bill, near Fort Hays, Kansas.
During one of Fremont's expeditions, two of his chasseurs, named
Archambeaux and La Jeunesse,[43] had a curious adventure on a
buffalo-hunt. One of them was mounted on a mule, the other on a horse;
they came in sight of a large band of buffalo feeding upon the open
prairie about a mile distant. The mule was not fleet enough, and the
horse was too much fatigued with the day's journey, to justify a
race, and they concluded to approach the herd on foot. Dismounting and
securing the ends of their lariats in the ground, they made a slight
detour, to take advantage of the wind, and crept stealthily in the
direction of the game, approaching unperceived until within a few
hundred yards. Some old bulls forming the outer picket guard slowly
raised their heads and gazed long and dubiously at the strange objects,
when, discovering that the intruders were not wolves, but two hunters,
they gave a significant grunt, turned about as though on pivots, and in
less than no time the whole herd--bulls, cows, and calves--were making
the gravel fly over the prairie in fine style, leaving the hunters to
their discomfiture. They had scarcely recovered from their surprise,
when, to their great consternation, they beheld the whole company of
the monsters, numbering several thousand, suddenly shape their course
to where the riding animals were picketed. The charge of the stampeded
buffalo was a magnificent one; for the buffalo, mistaking the horse
and the mule for two of their own species, came down upon them like a
tornado. A small cloud of dust arose for a moment over the spot where
the hunter's animals had been left; the black mass moved on with
accelerated speed, and in a few seconds the horizon shut them all from
view. The horse and mule, with all their trappings, saddles, bridles,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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