The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-01-31

to bother my mount; some hard-tacK,
sowbelly, or salt pork, and black coffee
is the extent of my larder. In case the
grub runs out, l don't hesitate to kill
my animal for sustenance. For water
and fuel we usually trust to luck, which
dom always pan out well. have more
than once ridden one hundred and fifty
miles without seeing creek of running
water, or finding stick as big as a
match. Sometimes we are sent out
with dispatches for command week
ahead of us. Do we find themP Yes,
generally, but we have to trail the COM
mand. Sometimes it is easy enough;
other times it isn't easy at all. In Or
binary weather | can generally tell, by
trailing within two hours how long it is
since they passed, or how old the tracks
are. Well, yes, guess we are pretty
well paid for our services, as general
thing. Sometimes the service is par
ticularly dangerous one, and the CON-
handing officer offers a reward for a
volunteer to carry the dispatches, but
even the reward don't always secure a
volunteer.
Right after the Custer massacre a re-
ward of $4,000 was offered to anyone
who who would carry sealed letters to
the nearest command and bring an
swers; three soldiers volunteered and
got through safely, but they could not
be induced to return with the answers.
Indiansp Well, yes, l think l have
seen few of them during the past six
years; have seen them and felt them
closer than l ever want to again.
Treaties don't amount to anything; the
Indians are nasty and treacherous,
and you just mark my words, they kill
white man whenever they get a
chance. It's in their nature, and they
can't help it. The Piutes in and around
Nevada and Utah are quiet and peace
able enough, but that's because they are
not strong enough to be fighting. Well,
| don't want to blow my own horn, but
| should remark have had few mar
now escapes. If you think you would
like to hear a couple of them, will
just as leave tell them as not. No,
thank you, l don't drink; in our bust
ness q man must keep a stout heart, a
steady eye, and cool head, and liquor
won't help to give him any of them.
"In June, 1877, think it was about
the 21st, | started to take a train of
prospectors from Deadwood to the Big
Horn country. In the party were sew
eral tender-feet-pretty green ones. A
man named John Snyder, of Cheyenne,
and myself thought we would scare
them little; so we sneaked off about
two miles from camp and lit fire.
Coming back into camp, we woke the
boys up with the remark, There's In
dians around; see the fire. and to carry
out the joke, we put them to work dig
ging rifle-pits. There's many true
word spoken in jest, you know, and so
it was in our case. At dawn in the
neighborhood of our fire, which had,
doubtless, been seen by them, were
about eighty Indians, in war paint, and
excellently mounted. l think they were
of Lame Deer's band. l knew they
wouldn't attack us till daylight, because
Indians are superstitious of the dead
and killing at night time, so we got
ready to fight, and awaited movements
on their part. You bet, we didn't have
long to wait. In about ten minutes
after daylight they were upon us, and
shooting commenced in good ear
nest. In the first round three of our
men, tender-feet, got killed; they seemed
to be crazed with excitement and COM
pletely lost their wits; they jumped out
of the rifie-pits and ran toward the In
dians; they had not got twenty feet
from us when they were 'goners.' The
scrimmage lasted nearly all day, four
more of our party being killed in the
afternoon. Toward evening the In
dams fell back out of sight, and, think
ing it safer for us to be on the move,
we abandoned lots of good grub, and,
under cover of the darkness, made
tracks for the Big Horn country. l
guess the Indians got about as good as
they gave us.
Soon after this, l think it was in
August. was in company with an In
dian called Longtoe. | was carrying
dispatches from General Miles, at Fort
Kehoe, along the line to Fort Welsh.
About dark, on the fourth day, ] told
Longtoe to get supper ready-hard-
tack and coffee-while l sauntered
around for about mile or so to look
for fresh signs. When 1 came back |
found the fool had built a fire on high
ground, and, my mad getting up, l
kicked everything over and rebuilt the
fire in the bottom of little hollow.
The first fire must, however, have been
seen by the Indians, for next morning,
when | had left Longtoe to pack the
mules, and had travelled less than q
mile, l looked back and saw him, about
quarter of a mile behind me, and ten
Indians about a half mile behind
him, and / waited for him to come up
to me. Our horses were too tired to
run, having been ridden about one
hundred miles the day before, so we
waited for the Indians to come up to
us, which they did in just about as long
as it has taken me to tell you this. Not
expecting them to fire-Indians being
always anxious to parley-we did not
shoot, but let them come within hun
dred yards of us, when, without a mo-
ment's warning, they fired on us
killing Longtoe and both the horses,
and hitting me in the shoulder. Before
he was killed, Longtoe had cooked one
of the savages, and Ianother. dropped
behind my dead animal and waited for
second charge. They soon came.
drew a bead on the first one and killed
L: