Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
I did not know at the time whether she was ashamed or whether she
had been with the Indians so long that she was really afraid of a
white person; but Nawasa was not long in getting to her, and the
girl would look at me and then look back, as though she had a
notion to go back to the Apache village.
When I rode up to where she was, she dropped her head and would
not look up for some little time.
I saw that her face was badly tattooed, but her body was not, and
as she stood there, apparently undecided what to do, she was to me
an object of pity, and her dejected countenance would, I think,
have appealed strongly to even Jim Bridger's heart.
I told Nawasa to help her on behind me, for we must be off quick.
Nawasa said: "She don't want to go." I then spoke to the white
girl in Spanish, and said: "My dear girl, why do you hesitate? Get
up behind me and I will take you to your own people. Why do you
want to stay here and be a slave for those Indians?"
I wish I could give in detail the persuasive language used by that
untutored but kind-hearted Indian girl, to get her to leave the
Apaches. She would tell her that if she would only go with me that
I would take her to her own people, and would tell her how happy
she would be with them.
After a great deal of persuasion, as I sat on my horse I reached
down and took her by one arm and told the Indian girl to help her
up behind me. She took her by the foot and helped her on my horse,
and mounting her own horse we flew out of that section about as
fast as our horses were able to carry us.
I was riding Mexico, and he was one of the swiftest horses in that
country, and he had great endurance, also.
We rode some distance before I said anything to the girl, though
Nawasa had kept along at our side, talking to her all the time to
keep her spirits up. Finally I spoke to her in the English
language, but it was some time before I could get her to utter a
word; I don't know whether it was through fear or bashfulness.
Four miles' ride brought us out of the timber into an open
prairie, with low hills covered with bunch-grass, and here and
there a bunch of prickly pears, so rank that one dared not attempt
to ride through them. There were little mountain streams running
through the country, with no kind of timber but willows, strewn
here and there along the banks.
On we went, over the hills and across the valleys, putting our
horses down to what they could stand and at the same time keeping
a sharp lookout behind to see if the Indians were trailing us.
Our course for the first twenty miles, to where we met the young
Indian, was a little north of west, and from there almost due
west.
About two o'clock we arrived at the point where we were to meet
the young Indian, and found him there, waiting.
We dismounted, and I was not long in changing my saddle from
Mexico to my Pinto horse. This horse would weigh nearly eleven
hundred pounds, and had good life and splendid bottom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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