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
The day before I was to start I was walking down Sampson street
near the American Exchange Hotel, where I was stopping while in
the city, when I heard a voice across the street that sounded
familiar, say, "Hello chief." I looked around and who should I see
but George Jones, who was then coming on a run to me; and you can
rest assured that I was glad to see him, as it had been nine years
since I had met him. He told me of his trip back to Fort Klamath
the time that he accompanied me to San Francisco and returned with
the mail; of the hardships that he underwent on his way back, and
also his various speculations after leaving the service and said
that it seemed that everything he turned his hand to went against
him.
I told him my intention was to go to Arizona and secure a position
as scout, and he at once made up his mind to go with me, and it is
useless to say that I was well pleased with his decision from the
fact that when he was with me I always knew just what to depend
on.
It was in the fore part of February when we started on this long
and tedious trip, and we made up our minds to take our time to it.
From here we went to Los Angeles, and there we stayed four days to
let our horses rest, and while there we lived principally on
fruit.
From Los Angeles to Fort Yuma it is called five hundred and fifty
miles and the greater part of the way it is over a desert country.
From Los Angeles we struck across the Mojave desert, crossing the
extreme south end of Death Valley to avoid the sand desert, and
made our way to the Colorado river without any mishap, but
sometimes having to ride as much as forty miles without water for
our horses.
When we struck the river we traveled down on the north side until
just below the mouth of the Gila we crossed the Colorado, where
Jim Beckwith and I had crossed a number of years before. We had
not gone far after crossing the Colorado when we came to the Yuma
Indians, spoken of before as not wearing any clothing. Here George
Jones declared that he had gone far enough, saying he had found a
place that he had been looking for for a long time where people
did not have to wear clothing nor till the soil for a living. And
he added: "This is good enough for me."
The next day at noon after crossing the river we reached Fort
Yuma. We rode up to the guard and asked if Lieut. Jackson was
stationed at this fort. The guard replied that he was, and
directed me to his quarters. I walked up to his door and rapped.
He came to the door, but did not recognize me as my hair had grown
out long and my beard was all over my face, but in his usual
kindly way he asked what he could do for us. I asked him if my
friend and I could get our dinner.
By this time his wife had recognized my voice and came to the
door, and as she was approaching him he asked if she could let
those two gentlemen have their dinner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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