The Arkansas advocate., 1835-05-08


 do they serve them any better. On the tifth of July last, {1s32) they killed the nephew of the Comnandant Yiscara, while out alone and unarmed, with the oxen of bis uncle, about three miles from Little Red River. and with thirty or forty troops, F. sight. They gave him thirteen wounds, took off all his hair except the foretop, and still left him alive.
 When Mr. Flint, in his Francis Berrian, described these Indians as noble, brave, and generous, he was immensely out in the mat ter. They are mean, cowardly, and treach- erous. Neither (sinee l am correcting a gentleman for whom have a great regard) is there any village of the Cumanches on the Heads of the Arkansas. Neither Is the Governors palace, in Santa Fe, any, thing more than mud building, fifteen feet high, with undiscovered portico, support ed by rough pine pilers. The gardens and fountains, and grand stair-cases, &c., are, of course wanting. The Governor may raise some red pepper in his garden, but he gets his water from the public spring. But to return.
 The next day after my arrival, we kept on down the Pecos, agreeably to the direc- ton of our guide, intending 10 follow the river as far as Bosque Redondo, or Round Grove. This river Pecos, which derives it's name from the Peces tribe of Indians, rises iii tie same lake with the river of Ss,an- ia Fe, and passing by San Miguel, keeps south-easterly course. Al a distance of about one hundred and twenty miles from San Miguel, il being there deep stream about thirty yards wide, it bends to the south, and runs into deep, narrow, and rocky canon, in which it cannot be followed. l know not how far 1t goes in this canon, but emerging from it below, it keeps on its course southwardly, and runs into the Del Nofte near San Antonio. It is a long but narrow river, and however important 1t may be to the people of San Miguel, 1t is of no great consequence in any other ~ay.
 On the fifteenth, we started, all to9e thef, down the Peeos; but early in the morning. dispute arose between Harris and Camp bell, which ended in a separation. Harrls was now for going on to Little Red River, through dry prairie. Ne were for folow- Ing our guide and the Pecas. We turned down to the river. and Harris kept OH ahead, but soon followed our example by turning 10 the river. Campbell and myself were delayed, recovering a mule which had joined to those of Harris, and in the mean time cur party had eneamped on the river. larris went Into the canon oi the river, and followed 1t down, and the next morning We turned to the hills above the caaon, and came upon the river below, leaving him struggling ia t among the rocks. He was obliged at last, finding egress below impos- slble, to ascend the precipitous sides of the canon and come out upon the hills. After this, we never encamped together til we reached the Bosque Redondo, the point where We were to leave the river and strike into the prairie. We were six days in reaching the Bosqae, including the if teenth, and during the time we traveIed in a southeast direction. The country along the river was hilly, red, and barren, devoid of timber, except on the river. At the Bosque we encamped near some lodges of poles, the remains of an old Cunanche camp, and Harris encamped half a mile or more above us.
 The Spaniards who composed our party were now getting frightened. We had al- ready had two alarms of Indians, which, al- though untounded, still tended to diseou- rage the cowardly pelayos; and, added to this, the name of the i4lano Estacado, on whose borders we then were encamped. and which lay before us like boundless ocean, was mentioned with sort of terror, which showed that 1t was by them regarded as q place from which we could not escape alive. This Stake Prairie is to the Gu manche what the desert of Sahara is to the Bedouin. Extending from the Bosaue Re- dondo on the vest, some txenty days jour hey on the east, northward to an unknown distance, and southward to the mountains on tbe Rio del Norte, with no game but here and there solitary antelope, with no water except in here and there Il holc, and with it's whole surface hard, barren and dry, and with the appearance always of having been scorched by fre-the Cumanche alone can live in 1t. Some three or four human souls greeted us in our passage through 1t; and 1t is said that every year some luckless Spanard leaves one of these mementos lying in the desert. It is place Tn which none can pursue. The Cuman- ches, mounted on the best steeds which the immense herds of the prairie can supply, and knowing the solitary holes of water, can easily elude pursuit.
 Just before encamping at the Bosque Redondo, some of our Spaniards were met by party of their countrymen. who had