The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-07-17
ATTACKED BY APAOHES,

waiter j. DAVIS, formerly q deputy
United States land surveyor, in the
New York Sun, is interesting because
Of its authenticity;
''My government contract for sur
veying public lands covered several
ranges Of townships extending over
the part of the San Simon plain which
lies east of STEMS Peak, from Lords
burg northward to the ella river, in
New Mexico" said Mr.. Davis ut
was the spring OF 1856, and the war
with Geronimo's Apaches was at its
height 1t was a dangerous time to be
out with my little party, especially as
the military escort promised rs from
Washington never appeared. But /
had my men to pay whether
they we're working or idle, and
the terms of the contract left
small margin of time for delays. So
1 armed my men with army carbines
of the Springfield pattern, and laid in
a good supply Of ammunition, and
then we set to running lines on the
lonely plain as busily as if we were
not liable to be jumped on by the
Apaches at any hour OF the day or
night.
81 had two parties in the field, each
numbering seven men. The two were
usually working at least a township
apart with separate camps, so that one
could not be relied on to help the
other in case of trouble with the
Apaches. On the day tell of the
party in charge of my assistant had
gone into Lordsburg. The party that
1 headed, working to the northward,
went into camp at q small runlet flow
ing out of the foothills, eighteen miles
northeast Of Lordsburg and five or six
miles northwest of the little mine
camp of Gold Hill The cook and
pack burros arrived at the spot in adj
vance of the surveyors, and he had
dug well-hole in the sand and started
fire by the time the rest of us came
in, half an hour before sunset. The
men had set about unpacking the
burros, the cook was mixing dough
for bread, and 1 had taken ray solar
compass from the tripod and put il
away in the box.
"We did not know that Geronimo's
baud had raided the ella Valley the
day before, and on this day had passed
through the Burro Mountains, sack
ing and burning half dozen ranches
and killing all the people he coulG
find. The Indians had lost q man OF
two of their number, and were feeling
more than usually ugly and revenge
full as they started to cross the plair
on their way to the Pelencillo Range
Once among these mountains they
could defy pursuit, making their way
by the old Apache trails down into
the Sierra Madre across the Mexican
border.
CATER I had set my solar compass
away it occurred to me to take a lool
around with my field glasses. Moth
ing suspicious or unusual met IN,
gaze, and / was about to put tn
glasses down when something moving
off in the northwest came into tn
field OF vision, and looked again
, -Four or five miles away band o
horsemen were coming into view
. moving in single file out from benin,
, a foothill and heading Southwestern
! across the plain. 1 watched an
a counted them, until they were oil i
sight, forty-two in number Ny glas
t was strong one, and l could plainl
distinguish the head-bands, colore
e shirts and blankets slipped dow
!. about their loins as they rode, whic
: showed them to be Indians. Th
Y course they we're taking would nc
4 where bring them any nearer to nj
and there was bare chance that the
!. might pass on without seeing us.
"'Put out the fire, I said TO I'll
: cook, and men, make yourselvc
small. Get down behind the burros