Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-09-05
A MYSTERIOUS FIND.
The Tragic Fate of Q Party of
 Western Emigrants.

Western Emigrants.
 The Indians of the West were never so fierce and vindictive as after the close of the civil war. Beginning with the spring of 1866, there was Q rush of emigrants into the new States and Territories, and about this time came reports of gold and silver In several localities. Tho Government pushed troops into new districts, established addi- tional posts, and the red man saw the hand writing on the wall He realized that he would be overrun unless the movement could be checked, and the various tribes buried their differences for the time being and united all their energies on the one ob. ject of driving the white man back. The number of emigrants, land brokers, pros. pectors and scouts killed between May. 1868, and the campaign which closed with Custer's death will never be known. Itwas impossible for any one to secure figures: Men were butchered singly, in pairs, and, by lives and tens along frontier thou7 sand miles in length, and not one case in ten was ever recorded in the public prints. It was the beginning of the end, and five years ago the power of the red man was broken, and he was compelled to yield to the inevitable.
 I was sent to Fort Laramie, in Wyoming Territory, early in the summer of 1865, having accepted the position of Government scout, and held that position all through the troubles of the next four years. 1tmay be inferred, therefore, that had my full share of close calls and narrow escapes. As soon as fresh troops arrived at that and other forts, and tho work of subduing the Indians began in earnest, every redskin who could handle gun was put into the field. Indeed, boys no more than twelve years of age, armed with bows and arrows, had tho opportunity to show their mettle, and knew of several fights in which the younger squaws took part. It was Q case of do or die with tho Indian, and he sac rifced his pride and his legends that he might hold his own against the white sol diers. I carried dispatches between Jules burg and Laramie, and between Laramie 1 and Fort Fetterman, and outside of this ac- companied detached bodies on expeditions l or secuted on my own account. There was | never a day of rest, and never day when 1 one felt sure that he would live to see the sun go down. Soldiers wero killed within l a mile of the gates of the fort, and the place | was so constantly under surveillance that it was hardly possible to get in or out with out being fired upon.
 befel me in July, 1886, and there was mystery connected with 1t which has not been solved to this day. I had been out l with detached command of 16O cavalry, l which had secuted along the north fork of the Platte east from Laramie to the Copper mountains. These mountains arc the begin. | ming of tho Black Hills chain. On the east side of the mountains we turned to the north, rode for two days. and the cavalry then made halt for a day and retired to Julesburg. Tho object was to cover as much territory as possible and give the Indians to understand that we were aggressive. had l to report to the commander of Fort Laramie, and instead of returning and ascending the Platte, decided to try for pass through 1 the Copper mountains, my fellow scouts l having told me that several existed. l left the cavalry camp soon after dark, it being l about twenty miles east of the mountains. We had been dogged by Indians for two days, and made my start at night to throw them of the scent 1 had a jet black horse, speedy and intelligent, and the risk was not 80 great providing I did not run into small band by accident.
 l For the first two miles out of camp l walked my horse, both of us watching and l listening. Ills senses were sharper than mine, and all of a sudden he came to dead l halt and pointed his nose 10 tho west, like Q dog flushing bird. That meant danger. He had been trained down fine before 1 got him, and was to be depended on as much as if he could speak was no sooner off his back than he lay down, and had scarcely crouched beside him when three Indians, mounted on ponies and heading to the east, passed us to the right on walk. The near est one was not over ten feet away, and l plainly scented tEe tobacco from his pipe. The ground was broken, with masses of
 rock outcropping here and there, and it
 would have taken sharp eyes to detect us even at that short distance. heard them humble and mutter as they passed on, and not until ten minutes after the footsteps of the ponies had died away in the distance did
 we rise and proceed. Had my horse been
 on the gallop, or had he been ten seconds
 later in discovering the redskins, might
 not have got away.
 Half an hour after daylight, having met | with no further adventure, l was at the
 base of the mountains, striking the range
 seventeen miles from it's southern end, and l at 8 place which has since been named
 Crooks Pass. had little fear of finding
 Indians in the mountains, unless it was Q
 body passing through the gap. As soon as
 was secure from the prairie made fire,
 got ready my coffee, and rested for two hours. Then set out to reach the other
 side of the range, where would either stay
 by until night or push on for Laramie, ac, cording as the signs indicated. The pass for the first half mile was fair enough for 8
 wagon. After that it was scarcely possible . for saddle-horse to mako his way. It was
 difficult to tell which was the main pass and which the branches, and when about hal1 } way over the mountain came to spot
 where l was completely stuck. The pass
 had been following was now split into
 three, each one seeming to be the main
 pass. and, as there was nothing to guide me
 had to take one of them at a venture. Ii
 it was not the right one, must return ant take another. I went to the left, and, aftel ] going Q few rods, found the pass or cut over grown with bushes, and badly choked up by
 a fall of rock The cut was from twelve tt twenty feet wide, twisting about like { creek, but gradually leading upward. I'm
 height of the bank on each sido was iron fifty to two hundred feet, and the mountain was SO densely wooded that the path was il l ,emi-darkness. Funeral Work < Cut Flower
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