Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-04-04

"A rev weeks previous the men Ier5 uJan &c
go to the United Verde copper mines in the
Yavapai country, Arizona, following the
Lees ferry road. Being attracted by some
mountains, they left the road for the purpose
Of prospecting them for the precious metals,
and some days later found themselves run.
ming short of water. They had encountered
some water tanks in coming out on the desert,
and had made up their minds to retrace their
way to the road by these, and then proceed
south, when they met with the almost in
credible experience which nearly resulted in
their death. Just at dawn one morning
Rooney was surprised but delighted to see
small troop of cavalry riding by, and calling
the attention of his companion to the fact,
hailed them. To use Rooney's language, ''they
was most curious set of chaps, and wore
uniforms like none 1 ever saw, and although
they were only bit of ways off, they didn't
seem to make any noise riding. You may
not believe it, but when passed the time of
day. what did those crazy soldiers do but
bout face, and take shot right square at
US, but their guns didn't make any noise at
all. This scared Dave and me bad enough,
but it put the devil into the mules and they
run off like wild. The brutes and the sol
diers went out of sight at the same time, but
while 1 could see the direction the mules took
I'll never know whether the uncivil troop
went up in the air or were swallowed by the
ground; they just faded away" 1t was not
until the day following their strange meeting
with the mysterious soldiers that the unfortu-
nate prospectors regained their pack animals
and for a week afterwards they had been
travelling over the desert, four days without
any water. They reached the spot in the
canyon the day previous to our discovery of
them, for which alone they could rejoice that
it had not became their tomb.
Rooney's story was peculiar in but one re-
specific meeting with the soldiers. 1t was
utterly impossible that the military would
show such incivility under any circumstan-
ces, and their presence in that section was ex-
tremely improbable. 1t was off all usual lines
of their travel, and as the Painted Desert is
not inhabited by white men, and is religiously
avoided by all Indian tribes, through some
great superstition, no reason could be assigned
for an expedition of troops to that desolate
region. To the phenomenon of the mirage or
the effect Of fevered Imagination did we at
tribute this portion of Rooney's tale; but
while we gave it no credence, it at the same
time decided us upon making trip to the
mountains where the prospectors had met
their queer experience, in the hope that adj
venture would fall to our lot
Two days subsequent we assisted the pros
pectors out of the canyon and turned back
on our new enterprise of exploration, not
withstanding the most earnest protests and
entreaties to the contrary the part of the
two grateful men. A week later we were
somewhere in the neighborhood of the spot
where Rooney and Briggs had been over
taken by misfortune and strange to say our
situation was scarcely more pleasant than
that described by them. 1t is true that we
were camped by spring, but we found our
selves on mountain surrounded by impass-
able canyons, and were even unable, after a
search of two days, to locate the place by
which we came upon the plateau, much less
to discover another route of egress.
One afternoon, after having left Ackley to
look after the camp for two OF three hours,
Waite and l, upon returning from another
futile search for a passage more important to
us than one to the north pole were surprised
at statement he made, which was to the
effect that two or three times since our alb
sence he had distinctly heard military call