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
This being agreed to, I started ahead of the train and rode about
five miles in advance all the time, keeping my eyes peeled for
Indians. In the forenoon I saw a small band of the savages, but
they were a long way off and were traveling in the same direction
we were. I was sure they could not see us, for I could only see
them faintly through my glasses.
That evening we made an early camp at a place we named Horse-shoe
Bend, and I am told that the place is mentioned yet by that name.
It is a big bend in the Arkansas river almost encircling two or
three hundred acres, and where we camped it was not more than a
hundred yards across from one turn of the river to the other.
That night we drove all our horses into the bend and did not have
to guard them or keep out a camp guard. I remained out in the
hills, about three miles from camp, until dark, selecting a high
point and with my glasses watching all over the country for
Indians. The boys were all well pleased when I returned and told
them there were no red-skins anywhere near, and that they all
could lie down and sleep that night. They turned in early.
The next morning we broke camp early, and about eleven o'clock
came on to four emigrant wagons returning from Pike's Peak. The
Indians had stolen the horses.
There were sixteen men in the party and they had been there three
days and had not been two miles away from camp. They made some
kind of arrangement with the train we were with to haul their
things to St. Joe, Missouri, and left their four wagons standing
by the roadside.
We had no more trouble while with this train, and everything moved
along nicely.
When we were near Pawnee Rock, where we were to leave the train,
and some twenty miles from the Kiowa village, I met about thirty
Kiowa Indians going out to run the buffalo near there. Of course
they all knew me, and after shaking hands we stopped to await the
arrival of the train. When it came in sight and the men saw the
Indians all around me they thought I had been taken prisoner. They
at once corralled their wagons for a fight, and all the talking
Jim Bridger could do would not make them believe otherwise, until
he rode out to where we were. When he told me this I thought to
have a little sport with the boys before leaving the train, and I
proposed to Jim that we start to the wagons with the Indians
riding on either side of us, so as to make it appear they had
taken both of us prisoner. But Jim thought it would not do, as
they were so excited they would shoot at our Indians before we
were near the wagons. So we rode to the train and told the
emigrants that these Indians would not molest them, and that they
were my friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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