The second William Penn : $b a true account of incidents that happened along the old Sante Fe trail in the sixties — John Shaqi
The second William Penn : $b a true account of incidents that happened along the old Sante Fe trail in the sixtiesRyus, W. H. (William Henry)
History
The second William Penn : $b a true account of incidents that happened along the old Sante Fe trail in the sixties
Ryus, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- West (U.S.); Santa Fe National Historic Trail
Billy Ryus and Col. Leavenworth Invade Camp Where There Are 30,000
Hostile Indians.
When Col. Leavenworth introduced Satanta to me he grinningly answered
"Si; all my people know this driver, for we have drank coffee with him
on the plains before this day." This was spoken in the Indian tongue and
interpreted by Col. Leavenworth.
Satanta immediately ordered some of his young warriors to go out and
herd our mules for the night--he told them to stake them where they
could get plenty of grass and put sufficient guard to protect them. I
told Satanta that we would want to start on our journey by daylight.
Leaving Col. Leavenworth with Satanta I returned to my two coaches two
and a half miles back, accompanied by about two hundred or more young
Indian lads and lassies. The drivers unhitched the mules from the
Concord coach and put the harness up on the front boot of the coach. One
of the Indian herders asked me if I had some lariats. I told him I did
and he got one and tied it to the end of the coach tongue, then put two
lariats on the tongues of each coach, leaving a string about sixty feet
long--much to the wonderment of the passengers--motioned for me to mount
the seat and take up my whip. When I did this all these young Indians,
both boys and girls, laughingly took hold of the lariats and started to
pull our coach into camp. This occasioned much mirth. This was a great
sight for the tender-foot. My passengers declared it excelled any
fiction they had ever read. The boys and girls pulling and pushing the
coaches went so fast that I had difficulty in keeping the little fellows
from being run over. I applied the brakes several times.
When we reached the camp the whole tribe began such screeching that many
passengers took the alarm again. Satanta came out, looking very erect
and soldierly, commanded the young men to haul our coach to the front of
his lodge so we could see all that was going on. Satanta's next order
was for the squaws to get supper. He said to the passengers, "We must
eat together, lots of buffalo meat and deer." After kindling their fire
of buffalo chips they soon had supper "a-going." I ordered my drivers to
take bread, coffee and canned goods from our mess box and we dined
heartily and substantially.
At eleven o'clock I laid down in the front of my coach and snatched a
little sleep. I doubt whether the passengers took any sleep. I know that
Col. Leavenworth and Satanta were talking at three o'clock in the
morning, at which time Satanta called out his cooks and informed us that
we must "eat again." We breakfasted together. Just at daybreak the
Indians gave the whoop and the little fellows were on hand to haul our
coaches outside the camp. They hitched our mules and Satanta and the
chiefs of the other tribes went with us about ten miles and stopped and
lunched again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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