Daily Los Angeles herald., 1881-08-31
MANA, THE APACHE CHIEF.
Recolleetions of This Savage Mafauder of the
Southwestern Frontier.
[St. Paul Pioneer Press.l

Colonel Guido Igles is a perfect
mine of information to the news
paper reporter fortunate enough to
have his acquaintance, and though
he never volunteers supplies from
the knowledge nearly score of
years of active life Oh the frontier
has given him, he Is always cour-
teously ready to answer questions.
Yesterday a Pioneer Press attache,
meeting him, bethought TO ask If
he knew aught of Mana. the
Apache chief, who is just now
making the Southwestern frontier
SO dangerous. Following Ia, in
brief, the Information obtained:
"Of course 1 know Mana; ought
to; l came very near eXterminat-
ing him and his band once. and at
another time had rather sharp
skirmish with q lot of thieves of
whom he was the he'd. He is not
hereditary chief, but has proba-
bly, more influence with the Mez-
caleros, tribe OF Apaches--so
called because OF their fondness for
mezcai, the American aloe--thau
any other man. He really tried to
be good once. [ believe that he is
as good as an Apache can ever hope
to be, but with all his influen0e,
that of the bucks under him was
stronger, and be had TO obey their
behests or lose his power.
"Like all of his nation, Mana is
short of atature, wears short hair,
has full, round face, eyes that
dart fiendish light whenever he
looks at you; slight body, thin
arms and well developed calves,
| the latter popularity coming from
the habits Of running, early Ineul-
Gated among all those Indiana. /
irst saw him at Fort Grant, a post
at the junction of the San Pedro
and Arizona rivers, in 1855,
and 1 should have judged HIM
to have peen 32 years old at that
time. He and his Mezcaleros,
with lot of Tontos-Spanish for
fools-auother tribe OF Apaches,
came to the fort and camped, say
ing they wanted to be helped and
taught to farm. There must have
been 200 of them in all, and my
men dug ditch TO ifrigate land
for them, but they only staid a
while. Some night they would
kill a ranchman or two, steal a
lot of cattle or horses and flee to
the mountains on the other side o!
the Gila, iu the iastnesses OF which
they were safe from pursuit. A
month or two would pass, and
some morning | wOuld see a smoke
way off on some hill. A little
later another smoke, nearer the
fort, would ascend, then another
and another, until finally an OLD
squaw would come toward the
siockade. carrying aloft rag on q
pole, and would open negotiations
leading TO a return. stood this
thing until one night they killed q
couple of my soldiers and then de.
camped with u lot of oatUle. 1 then
said 1 would get even with them
and l would have daue so on theil
next return, but just when L was
ready TO open on them, the ambu.
lance of the Inspector General oi
the Department hove in sight from
the cafion road, and he Seeing my
preparations and learning my OBJ
ject, said it would never do, and
ordered me TO desist.
"An0ther time [ went after Mana
on an order from General Critten.
den, who informed me that the
Apaches had stolen 100 head OF
cattle from the vicinity of Prescott,
and as he reported only eighteen OF
twenty bucks in the party, l start
ed out with all the mounted men l
could get together-only twelve be-
sides my self, as L didn't have any
cavalry at that time. The A paches
are, or were then, footmen, and SO
we easily caught up with them,
but to my surprise, Instead of 20
there were more than 100 men, and
L thought at first sight they had
several thousand head of cattle,
but 1t afterward appeared they had
only 800. l tried 90 skirmish with
them, but my men had the old
muzzle leaders, aud the Indians
surrounding us partially Twas COM
PEELED to retreat. Calhoun, who
was killed with Custer, was with
me, and he had q Ballard rife,
which [ firmly believe 1 captured
this winter from the Sioux at Pop.
lar Creek. During the ride back
to tue fort on that occasion my
! knee was broken by kick from 1.
\ mule, and L was laid up for more
than two MONTHS"
To some further questions rela-
tive to the ApaGhes the Colonel re-
piled that in 1866 they were not on
reservations, and were armed for
the most part with bows and al
rowe, which are not effective at q
distance greater than thirty yards;
but eince then they have secured
the best kind of Winchester oi
other magazine guns, and seem to
have no difficulty In procuring
! cartridges ad libitum. They are 4
puny race, filthy as the Diggers In
habits and appearance, and wear q
shirt and belt and mocasins made
OF antelope or coyote hide, and are
utterly destitute of fnery of anY
| daaasis-s--sn. rrhnxY --.ii s~sri VI II l VI
anything possible, and don't kpo W
the meaning of the word faith.
The Navajoes, some Of whom sre
said to have Joined the Mescnleros,
are just the reverse of the Apaches,
so far as physique and appearance
\ ora cnnnarpaI apd ,ra taII vii