Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-19
THE ONLY SURVIVOR.
WHAT AN OLD COMANCHE TELLS
ABOUT A FIGHT.
Brave Warrior and the Way He Fought.
A Horrible Revenge Taken-Burned
Alive by a Remorscless Enemr.
Special to the Gazette.

Special TO the Gazette.
TAHLEQUAu, l. T., Sept 1S.-The follow
| ing account of the experience of the early
| settlers of the Texas border was given to
| your reporter last year by old Tom starr, u
Cherokee nlnety-Seyen years OF age, who
| was for many years a leader of the hostile
| Comanches in their bloody expeditions
| against the whites:
The tribe of Comanche Indians were at
one time the most fierce and powerful in
| Texas. For more than one hundred years
| this tribe waged an unceasing war against
| every other people who attempted to make
| settlements in that country. They watched
| with lynX'S eye and experienced wild
| thrill of pleasure at the many revolutions
| that occurred in the Mexican provinces.
They never failed TO take advantage when
they discovered both parties broken down
and their ranks thinned by the ravages of
civil war, to rush from their mountain
Businesses and hiding places and destroy
all, appropriating the spoils to themselves.
a marked case of this kind occurred dur
ing the domestic disturbances under Presi-
dent Iturbide of the Mexican government.
The theater of war was changed from the
city and adjoining provinces to the broad
| and beautiful prairies lying on the San An
tonic river. Here native prince, with a
band of Spaniards and those friendly to his
cause, determined to "breathe tie chainless
air. and
"Victors exult, or in death be laid low.
With their backs to the aeld and their feet to
the foe"
The opposing army held the mission Of
San Juan, three miles away. and from their
greatly superior numbers, the leaders were
confident of victory.
The morrow was to decide the contest,
whether prince was to reign or general
govern this people. Each party, slumber-
ing in the arms of hope, never dreamed that
large and warlilse band of their deadliest
enemies were lowering near. watching their
movements, with pent-up hate of half
century burning in their breasts. and the
maddened vengeance of a wroused and in
iured people flashing from their piercing
black eyes.
As their gaze rested upon those towers of
strength and Jesuitical oppression, in which
their eternal foes were reposing, every
stone seemed to tell in lines written in blood
that these huge walls were reared by the
forced labor of their people; that for the
propagation Of a creed which they could not
! understand, their people had been moved
down like grass, and worked like beasts of
burden.
Deep, settled and fixed desperation ap-
peared in the swarthy countenance of each
warrior; the very winds of heaven as they
swept over this beautiful land with soft
and refreshing mildness, whispered tale
of vengeance.
The morrow dawned and with it came
the ''pomp and circumstance of war" The
young, the brave, the chivalry of the land
graced either army's front ranks.
On smooth level prairie near San An
tonic the opposing forces were marshalled
in battle array, every pulse beating high
for victory. The engagement was fierce,
long and bloody. The evening sun was fast
sinking in the West, and the soldiers of
both armies were sinking from exhaustion
fatic tyban foe tlll
heard. Nearer it came, and yet more near,
until an immense troop of horsemen were
seen rushing up fast and fierce, with their
wild and unearthly yell, to the appalled,
sight of the scattered, exhausted and wound
ed soldiers. Each army reused itself
for last and desperate struggle for life,
but the exhausted troops made but feeble
resistance against the unerring shaft and
deadly lance of this new and frenzied
throng. That night sealed with death the
high aspirations of the contending hosts.
The next morn Ng's sun found the prairie
crimson with human gore and piled with
slaughtered men, but the conQuerers had
fed.
1t was with this tribe that the Texans,
continually troubled and harassed, and
every week losing some Of their best citi-
zens, sought TO make a treaty. To effect
this very desirable object, they in
yited forty Of the principal men of the
CO0laQcQe trlDe 10 COILe 10 Dan 1utOulO anu
hold council with a set of commissioners
on the part Of Texas. So after much delay
on the part of the Indians, and great anx-
iety of the Texans flor the Indians held
captive some eight or ten Anericans), one
morning in the fall of $780, a long line of
horsemen were seen crossing one of the
swells in the prairie surrounding the town.
They were coming directly toward the
town, and an instant's glance told they
were Comanche Indians. Their heads COW
cred witt. long locks of black hair floating
in the wind, their painted bodies, we'll
trained horses and silent movements were
not to be mistaken. As they rode into town
in single file under the command of the tall
and stately form Of q war-bleached leader
with bow and arrow ready for attack or de-
tense, the sight was interesting and i'm
posing. The affrighted citizens, recollect-
ing by gone days, fed to their houses and
prepared their weapons for defense. There
was sensation OF pneasiness felt through
the little town as these stately Indian war
fiors, with a proud look Of scorn and def
yance, rode to the uubic square, where they
were met by the commissioners on part
Of Texas, and through an interpreter, asked
to alight and go to the courthouse.
One of the warrtn's fF',Jn some cause un-
known. had h"ou.I. WIKI dim his wife, an
old Wrinkle. 80 -,..-. =. III :; dark and cum