Connecticut western news., 1889-10-02
VOL. XIX.
remembered to have seen in Johnson's

possession. It had contained whiskey, but was now empty. The posture of the bodies was proof that every warrior had died of poison, but I did not know until month that Johnson fixed up the dose before leaving Fort Ransome on his return. He seemed to have presentaiment that he would be captured, and he bought two quarts of whiskey and dosed it with strych- nine knowing that it would surely revenge him.
 A couple of years later was trans ferred to Fort Davis, in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas, and in the Apache country. A commission was sent to the East to locate post on the Rio Pecos River, and as the country was full of hostiles the party was made pretty strong. There were six scouts, thirty private soldiers, three or four officers, and some seven or eight pro- spectors and hunters and trappers who wanted to get sight of that country. All the scouts were paired of, and the name of my partner was Calvin. l did not know until we had started on the march that he had prepared any trick against the Indians, who would be sure to menace us, but at our first camp he showed me canteen of whis- key, which he said was poisoned. He had about half pound of smoking to- bacco in bag, and poison had been mixed with this. On the third day Calvin and myself, accompanied by Q corporal and two private soldiers, rode up the Pecos about ten miles, crossed over and started to come down on the other side.
 We had not advanced forty rods into the ''bad ground" and had not caught sight of so much as an Indians feather, when we received a volley from 25 Indians ill gulch. They were only 200 feet away, and one would have thought every man of us would have been riddled. On the contrary, how ever, the last three of us were un- touched, and not one of our horses was hit. The corporal and Calvin were both wounded and their horses killed. Simultaneously with the volley hum dred or more Indians exhibited them selves in front and on our left, shouting and firing. In such an emergency every man acts for himself. The three of us wheeled and retreated as fast as our frightened horses could run, all the time under fire. But as soon as we had cleared the ssbad ground" we took shelter in small grove on the edge of the stream and prepared for defence. We were charged by sixty or seventy warriors on foot, who per haps imagined us sbadly frightened, but we begged away at them so steadily that they broke and took to cover, leaving six dead men in plain view.
 This was at 10 o'clock in the morn ing, and we did not get another glimpse of an Indian until 4 in the afternoon, when I climbed one of the trees and saw a body of them making off to the mountain. then made a scout of the neighborhood, and soon ascertained what had occurred. Both Calvin and the corporal had been put to torture, but they had been amply re- venged. The six we had killed lay where they fell, as our fire commanded the spot. We found, in sort of a pocket covered with bushes and limbs, eleven other dead, every one of whom died o1 poison. One was Chief White Bird, s noted warrior, and the others were veteran warriors of his band. Tho bottle was empty, and the tobacco bag had been turned wrong side out Three or four years afterward I met an Apache who was present on thai occasion, and he said that White Bir6 and his chosen few drank the whiskey and then smoked their pipes while the others were making the prisoners ready for torture. The corporal die6 before they could malss ready, and when the warriors began to die of tho poison Calvin was soon despatched by a blow of tomahawk. The bodie. were badly mutilated, but it wa! mostly after death. The band los seventeen to our two, and was so dis heartened that it retreatcd and wen
 into mourning for weeks.