Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-07-18
COCHISE'S DUEL.
His Startling Revenge ON an Inter
prefer.
Il. wHITMORE,
Publisher and Proprietor.


From the St. Louis Dispatch.l
The Apaches have had many chief
none as desperately wicked as Cochise.
When | saw him last he was filty-two.
Six feet tall, with delicate feet and hands,
sharp, angular features, piercing dark
eve. and great Roman nose, wide about
the nostrils and thin where 1t curved. If
his soul passes after death into anything
that has a face akin to his own, instead
of the Indian there will be the bald eagle.
He hated the Americans so bitterly that
il one of his tribe learned word of the
English language, Cochise expelled him
or forced him TO forget it He succeeded
Red Sleeves, great giant of butcher,
who took his name from the fact that
every time he killed an enemy he smear
ed his blood over his arms from the
wrists to the elbows And thoroughly
and terribly in keeping with his charac-
ter, too, was Cochises initiation or in
stalment. There had been a feast in the
village. Amid the general revelry he
refused to drink. While others got dan
gerously drunk and helplessly drunk,
Cochise stood firmly by, watching the
furious orgy with a look of sullen and
supercillious irony on his expressive
face. Finally young brave, too far
gone to be discreet, went up TO him with
coiled RATA in his LETT hand and cup
full Of whisky in his right. He pressed
Cochise to drink, but the newly made
chief refused abruptly. Some words were
had. and as an end of it the warrior
smote his leader twice or thrice with his
heavy rope. The objectionable sin had
been committed. 1t is safe to knock an
Indian down, pound him with club,
beat him with stick, bruise him with
bludgeon; but it were better to beard the
grizzly bear than lay over his shoulder a
cowhide or anything that savored of the
lash.
Chief as he was, Cochise sternly de-
manded that the young brave should
figh, him at daylight the next morning
with rifles. The duello is not much in
vogue with any Of the Indian tribes, and
it is but rarely that individual quarrels
pass so far beyond the point of settle
ment that an exercise Of something of
persuasion or resolute authority will not
serve to restore good feeling; but in this
instance Cochise would agree TO nothing
short of the actual combat. They met
and fought. 1t was early morning, and
the measured distance was thirty PAGES.
Probably three hundred warriors were in
attendance, and these clad in full war
costume. and formed upon the flank OF
the duelling ground, presented pictur'
esoue adornment to a scene otherwise
pitiless and unforgiving. At the first
| Ere Cochise's bullet found the heart of
his antagonist. He leaped high into the
air, and before he reached the ground he
was dead.
In every way more notorious was Co
chise's next feat of savage bravado and
prowess. A Scotch interpreter, named
Harrison Englehart, had fallen under his
displeasure, and he received word from
his desperate enemy that the fcud was
mortal, and that he meant to kill him
whenever aud wherever found. Engle'
hart affected to laugh at the threat but
he prepared himself for the worst, never
theless, and went about warily, without,
however, meeting with an opportunity
to kill or be killed.
One day news came to Tucson that
Cochise, at the head of small war party,
was in camp tkirty miles to the south.
east. A federal captain took thirty men,
an Indian agent and Englehart as inter
prefer, and went out to have talk with
the Apaches. 1t is supposed that the
captain was ignorant Of the feud exist
ing, for upon Englehart making some
objection to the proposed expedition the
officer insisted and finally prevailed
upon him to go. The meeting was most
friendly, and lasted several hours Meth
er Cochise nor Englehart referred to the
subject of the quarrel between them, and
sat upon their horses in friendly con-
verse, while the soldiers of the escort
and tie Indians of the war party we're
getting ready to march and to separate.
OF sudden. and with wild yell that
had hatred and vengeance in it, Cochise
leaned from his saddle, seized Englehart
by the collar, drew him up clear from bis
stirrups and over upon his left leg and
thigh. and then dashed of at furious
rate, partially dragging and partially
carrying his struggling victim. So IN