Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1892-04-21

right into the Indians arms
Golfers unexpected action and b;o
bloody appearance so startled the BLACK
loot that he stumbled, and the lance
thrown ten feet, stuck in the ground
ana broke OF. While the redskin tried
to recover his equilibrium, Golfer picked
up the piece of spear that retained the
mead and drove it through the BODY of
tne indian, pinning him to the ground a
dead man. But fearing that the rest of
the band would presently appear the
trapper stopped only long enough to Sc
cure the dead mans weapons and then
ran on, reaching the river more oeao
himself than alive.
After rest of minute or two be
plunged into the stream and swan a
snort distance to a drift of trash and
nmDs OF trees and brush. This drift had
lodged against the shore of small sand
bank and Golfer dived beneath II com.
ing up with his head among the thickest
leaved branches. In few minutes tbe
Indians reached the dead BODY of the
warrior, whom Golfer now knew tn
nave been chief by the wailing of the
band over his corpse. When this ex.
preston Of grief was over, Golfer heard
their yells for vengeance, and, knowing
that If captured that a death by the
most horrible torture awaited him. re-
solved to drown himself rather than fall
into their hands. They ran to the banks
OF the stream and, suspecting his hiding
place, swan out to it, and twenty times
the trapper sank beneath the drift by
grasping a sunken tree that was i'm
bedded in the sand. But, though the
Blackfeet spent over an hour searching
for him and poking the drift with their
spears. they finally concluded that he
had gone farther down the river and de-
parted to beat the banks.
Heard by the wretched trapper, they
spent nearly the whole day searching
for him, but returned toward evening to
the spot where the dead chief lay, and
Golfer could tell by their retreating
voices as they walled that they were
carrying home the body. AS soon as he |
thought they must be out of sight, Col.
ter crawled out, SO chilled by the water
that he could scarcely use his limbs, and
so exhausted by the loss of blood and his
terrible race that he thought himself
dying. But courage revived after a
time, and he started for Lisa's fort on
the Yellowstone.
His situation was so desperate that he
dared not let his mind dwell on it, for
fear that he would lose his resolution
and die of despair. The fort, the near
est place where he could hope to fall in
with white man, lay full weeks jour
ney from him, and he was not only stark
naked, but without a weapon with which
he could kill game and so support life.
His feet were in fearful condition, cut
by the sharp rocks and the thorns of the
cacti over which he had run his race.
Exposed TO the heat of the sun by day
and the dews of night, and tortured
often by hunger and thirst, the trappel
still pushed on, determined to live
through it all.
He subsisted for days on the wild
plant known as sheep sorel, and the few
weeds and grasses peculiar to the wild
stretch of country. over which his way
lay. One day he found the hole of a
rabbit. in which was litter of young.
Having no way of cooking, and too fam
ished to wait to do it if he had had, Col
ter seized the little creatures and hastily
killing them with a sharp stone that
served him for knife, devoured their
still palpitating bodies, tearing off their
skins with his naked hands. On another
occasion Golfer attacked a wildcat with
only his stone weapon and killed it,
sucking the blood and eating it to the
very entrails.
On the ninth day after he had escaped
from the Blackfeet party of two traders
and trapper named Mcclellan set out
from Lisa's fort for the south, and when
about six miles on their journey came
across an object lying on the plain with
several buzzards lowering over it. TAX
ing it for the carcass of calf or deer
the travellers were about to pass it at a
distance of twenty or thirty yards, when
Mcclellan happened to see it make a
gesture, as if to fight off a buzzard that
had alighted near it. The movement
excited the hunters curiosity and he
rode nearer the object.
"Good God!" he cried. Boys, it is
manr' 1t was Golfer, who, unable to
take another step, had lain down to die.
He was blistered from head to foot by
the suns fierce heat, and had had nothing
to eat for over two days and no water
for twenty-four hours. With all posi-
BILE care he was taken back to the fort
and there regained his health and
strength. With his sufferings in mind
Golfer became an Indian scout, and is
said to have killed with his own hand a
hundred Blackfeet. He wore belt to
which dangled the scalps of that number
of that Philadelphia Times.