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
After we left Colonel Boone's place, going toward Independence, we met
several tribes, some of whom knew me just as soon as they "got their
eyes on me," but I did not understand their language, and their
interpreter told me that they wanted to know if I was coming back on the
route. Several spoke about Colonel Leavenworth and Satanta and asked for
news concerning the Little White Chief, for that was the way they loved
to remember their little boy friend.
There was something like 45 or 50 Indians in this gang, and the driver
was anxious to get rid of them, for he was not only afraid of them,
because of the trouble they had been having with the Long Route
conductors, but they wanted to be "driving on" getting nearer their
destination. I told the driver to let me manage the Indians and we would
"pull through" all right.
I told the Indians to sit down around us and I would get some coffee for
them and a very small lunch. The conductors never had anything hardly,
and gave the Indians nothing but abuse. I managed to get together from
the conductor's mess, a small lunch, which they ate, and I invited them
to go with us to our next stopping place, fifteen miles distant, and eat
with us properly.
On our way to the next stopping place, however, these Indians were
joined by other small bands which kept collecting. When we camped for
lunch and to let our mules go out to eat, the Indians let their ponies
graze, also. As provisions were scarce, we had a very slim meal, but
were all good humored over it.
When the coach was ready to resume its journey, I shook hands with every
one of the Indians and told them I was going to the States and wanted
that they come to see us there. There were eight other passengers,
besides myself, on the coach, who laughingly said that they had crossed
the plains several times and had never witnessed such a scene between
white man and Indian, only when they traveled with me.
There were five conductors. Four conductors were on the road all the
time and one resting all the time. In other words, while one conductor
rested one week, the other four worked until the time came for him to
rest and the other work. We usually rested either in Kansas City
or Santa Fe.
Before leaving this chapter, I desire to tell my readers what brought
Mr. Service into the limelight again. About twenty-five years after he
killed the Mexican, he sold out his ranch and cattle and took the money
he had on hands, which amounted to something like $43,000.00, and
deposited it in the Denver National Bank of Denver, Colorado, and went
to Springer, New Mexico, in the locality of where he had killed the
Mexican. He went to the sheriff and asked him if he had ever heard of
the man, Service, wanted in that country for the murder of the rich
Mexican. The sheriff told him that he "guessed" that the murder had
occurred before his day, but that he had heard of it, and it must date
some thirty years back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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