The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1886-10-21
BRAVE SCOUTS.
General rrss...t's sesst., Iii carssa s.i d.

General Erssnsst's sesuts, III Carssa sai C..
lsy.
In tho afternoon of the next day.
writes Gen. Fremont in his autobiog:
raphy, . warhoop was heard, such a.
Indians make when returning from q
victorious enterprise, and soon Carson
and Cooley appeared, driving before
them q band of horses, recognized by
Fuentes to be part Of those they had
lost. Two bloody scalps dangling
from the end of Godey's gun announc-
ed they had taken the Indians az we'll
as the horses. They informed us that
after Fuentes left them, from tho fail.
ure OF his horse, they continued the
pursuit alone, and toward nightfall
entered the mountains into which the
trail led. After sunset the moon gave
light, and they followed the trail by
moonshine until late in the night,
when It entered a narrow defile and
was difficult to follow. Afraid Of los
ing it in the darkness of the defile, they
tied up the horses, struck no fire, and
lay down to sleep in silence and in
darkness. Here they lay from mid
night till morning. At daylight they
resumed the pursuit, and about sun
rise discovered the horses, and imme-
diately dismounting and tying ur
their own, they crept cautiously to q
rising ground which interviewed, from
the crest of which they perceived the
encampment OF four lodges close by.
They proceeded quietly and got with
in thirty or forty yards of their OBJ
lect, when g. movement among the
horses discovered them the Indians.
Giving the war shout, they instantly
charged into the camp, regardless of
the number which the four lodges
would imply.
The Indians received them with a
fight of arrows shot from their long
bows, one of which passed through
Godey's shirt collar, barely missing
the neck. Our men fired their rifles
upon steady aim and rushed in.
Two Indians were stretched on the
ground fatally pierced with bullets.
The rest fled, except lad who was
captured. The scalps of the fallen
were instantly stripped of, but in the
process one of them, who had two balls
through his body, sprang to his feet,
the blood streaming from his skinned
head, and uttered a hideous howl. An
old squaw, possibly his mother, stop
ped and looked back from the mount
ain side she was climbing, threaten
ing and lamenting. The frightful
spectacle appalled, the stout
hearts OF our men; but they did
what humanity required and quick
~ terminated the agonies OF
the CORY savage. They were now
master Of the camp, which was a very
pretty little recess in the mountain,
with a fine spring and apparently free
from all invasion. Great prepara-
tions had been made to feast large
party, for it was very proper place
for a rendezvous and for the celebra-
ton of such orgies as robbers of the
desert would delight in. Several of
the best horses had been skinned and
cut up, for the Indians living in the
mountains, and only coming into the
plains to rob and murder, make no
other use of horses than to eat them.
Large earthen vessels were on the fire,
boiling and stewing the horse beef, and
several baskets, containing fifty and
sixty pairs of moccasins, indicated the
presence or expectation of a consider
able party. They released the boy
who had given strong evidence Of the
stoicism or something else of the saw.
age character in commencing his break
fast upon q horses head as soon as he
found he was not to be killed, but on
ly tied as prisoner. This object &C.
complished, our men gathered up all
the surviving horses, fifteen in num-
Der, returned upon their trail, and re.
joined us at our camp in the afternoon
of the same day. They had ridden
about one hundred miles in the per-
suit and return, and all in thirty
hours. The time, place, object, and
numbers considered, this expedition
of Carson and Cooley may be consid-
cred among the boldest and most
disinterested which the annals Of
western adventure, so full of daring
deeds, can present. Two men, in g.
savage desert, pursue day and night
an unknown body of Indians into the
defiles Of an unknown mountain, at
tack them on sight, without counting
numbers, and defeat them in All in
slant, and for what? To punish tho
robbers of the desert and to avenge
the wrongs OF Mexicans whom they
did not know.