To this he agreed and the next day the party was increased to six by a
young doctor. Ten days later we were in Rawlins, Wyoming, where horses
and a general outfit were purchased and the journey to the Wind River
country in the Shoshone Indian reservation was begun.
July had come and the plains and valleys were beautiful in billowy
green. Cole, always in the lead, headed west of Lander. There was
nothing I could see about the man to indicate that he was other than he
represented, although several of the party whispered suspicions as, day
by day, we penetrated the wild and almost uninhabited country.
We entered the reservation at a point about thirty miles west of Lander,
which town we had purposely avoided, not wishing to incite others to a
gold hunt.
We broke camp and were riding down a beautiful valley one morning, when
we came upon some antelope. I wounded one, and as it was getting away I
spurred my horse after the antelope on the run. My horse stumbled into a
badger hole, and the next thing I remember distinctly was the awful
pain as the doctor of our party was setting my broken ankle.
My horse was also lame, but later in the day I made out to ride him five
miles to the camp of some Shoshone Indians.
The pain in my limb was so great I could go no further, and as the
Indians were friendly and hospitable, I begged to be left in their camp.
A bed was made for me upon the ground in one of the tepees, and after
giving me surgical attention, and leaving me such comforts as we
carried, the party proceeded, at my request, for I knew it would be
weeks before I could travel, and even then I would be a hindrance.
I felt secure from the kindly attention I had received from the Indians,
who seemed desirous in many ways of alleviating my sufferings. Knowing
that the Indian despises any manifestation of pain, I managed never to
utter a groan, or show distress in my face, no matter how excruciating
was Nature’s process of healing.
After three or four days an Indian cut away the doctor’s splints and
bound my limb in a huge pack of wet clay. From that moment the pain
grew less, and as I felt more like talking, the Indians would gather in
the tepee and sit about like children. I made pictures to amuse them,
taught them the game of mumbledy-peg, and in various ways won their
simple affections.
The days had been dragging wearily, when the monotony was broken by an
Indian wedding. Bright Eyes, a damsel of no exceeding beauty, was of
that age when the consent of her father could be secured for her
marriage for a consideration of ponies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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