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
Those emigrants were from Dallas, Texas, and apparently well-to-do
people. On learning that the Lieutenant was out on a scouting
tour, they prepared a nice supper for the three of us. The
following morning the Lieutenant detailed twenty men in charge of
a sergeant, to escort the emigrants to Fort Yuma. George Jones
went along as a scout and I remained with the command. They were
ten days making the trip, as the emigrants having ox teams,
traveled slowly. On the return of the escort the Lieutenant
concluded to move some fifty miles south on this road, where we
made our headquarters while we remained in this section of
country, being on a tributary of the Grand river, which runs down
through the western part of New Mexico.
One day while I was out on a scouting tour I ran on to a little
band of Navajo Indians on their way to the St. Louis Mountains for
a hunt. They had some blankets with them of their own manufacture,
and being confident that the Lieutenant had never seen a blanket
of that kind, I induced them to go with me to our quarters to show
their blankets to the Lieutenant and others as well. I told the
Lieutenant that he could carry water in one of those all day and
it would not leak through. We took one of them, he taking two
corners and I two, and the third man poured a bucket of water in
the center of it, and we carried it twenty rods and the water did
not leak through it. The Lieutenant asked how long it took to make
one of them, and the Indian said it took about six months. He
bought a blanket for five dollars, being about all the silver
dollars in the command. The blanket had a horse worked in each
corner, of various colors, also a man in the center with a spear
in his hand. How this could be done was a mystery to all of us, as
it contained many colors and showed identically the same on both
sides.
By this time our three months' supply was running short, and
Lieut. Jackson commenced making preparations to return to
headquarters with his entire command. We pulled out for the fort,
and did not see an Indian or even a fresh track on our way.
When we arrived at the fort and Lieut. Jackson made his report
Gen. Crook was more than pleased with the success we had met, and
I succeeded in getting George's wages raised from seventy-five to
one hundred dollars per month, unbeknown to him.
It was now in the fall of the year, and the General decided to
send us back again with two companies of cavalry and one company
of infantry, calculated more for camp and guard duty than for
actual service.
After we had rested up a month or such a matter the General had
six or eight mule teams rigged up, also fifty burros for pack
animals, and started Lieut. Jackson back again with three hundred
soldiers.
CHAPTER XXX.
A WICKED LITTLE BATTLE.--CAPTURE OF ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO
HORSES.--DISCOVERY OF BLACK CANYON.--FORT YUMA AND THE PAY MASTER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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