The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-16
JUMPED BY APACHES.
A TenderfOOt's One and suficing Ex-
pcrience in Indian Warfare.
From the New York Sun.

A Tenderfoot's One and sumcing Ex-
perience in Indian Warfare.
From the New York Sun.
ct was only once in my life, but it was
quite enough for me. The affair was
sprung on me with little warning, and it
was over in fifteen minutes. But l had
enough of Indian fighting in those few
minutes to suffice for the rest of my life
time"
1t was Charles c. Edgar, a land survey
or from Arizona, who was speaking. His
listeners were a group gathered about
a table at the cafe of an uptown hotel.
| He went on:
1T was in the August of 1875 the year
1 came to the west. that our government
| land-surveying party, eleven men in num-
| Der, with three wagons, left Silver City,
n. M, for Camp Grant, Ari. There had
been no trouble from Apaches so far in
| the year, although the Chiricahuas of Co.
| chise's old band had done a great deal of
| killing of white people the year before.
On the second day out from Silver City
our route lay through a canon in the Bur-
| TO mountains. We came out of the canon
| an hour before sunset and went into camp
| half mile beyond. In the open ground
just beyond the mouth of the canon was
| a spring. Here we watered the mules and
horses III DdSSliSs DuL utSlctlGu 70 III l1le
| water keg, so two of us, a little fellow
named DaVis-he hailed from Boston, l
belieVe-and myself volunteered to go
| back the half mile to the spring for water.
"As Davis and 1 sat by the spring my
| eye CHANGED to fall on a low, rocky bluff
some fifty yards away. I got the idea
that something was moving among the
| cactuses. 1 said nothing to Davis, but
| kept my eye on the bluff After several
minutes 1 was beginning to think 1 had
| been mistaken, when what had seemed
| part of the dusty ground between two
oak thickets certainly did move; and then
for the first time I could trace the outline
of an Indian in the place 1 had been look
ing straight at for full minute. Flatten-
ed on the ground like a snake, he was
| crawling from one thicket to the other.
| His motion was so slow and even, and the
tint of his buckskin shirt and leggins
merged so nicely with the tints of the
rock and dry grass that If had not been
| looking with unusual closeness I should
| have missed seeing him. Then, in another
part of the bluff, through the spikes of
! a soap plant, 1 caught for a second the
CLEAN of an eye-nothing more. But had
seen enough, and I knew that a band Of
Apaches, which, perhaps, had been follow
ing our party all day, were in hiding upon
the bluff. I knew the Indians would GER
tainly attack Davis and me the instant
they suspected / had discovered them. AS
! emptied a cupful of water into the keg
| l had time to reflect that, If they were
following UP our outfit, so long as they
believed themselves undiscovered they
| would scarcely care to throw away the
chance to capture dozen good horses and
mules that night for the sake of killing
Davis and me and thereby putting all
the rest of our party on their guard. MY
first care was to keep my companion from
seeing them.
The kegs full to the bung, Davis 1
| Il e., he 4orV
they're reckoning to us to hurry along!"
He was all unsuspicous as we walked
toward the camp, carrying the key by its
handle between us. For me it was bit
trying the effort to walk along in care
less sort of way, knowing as 1 did what
eyes were watching us from the bluff. We
had got 100 yards from the spring when
one of those accidents happened that beat
all care and calculation. A raw recruit
in our outfit, strolling from camp, took
notion to try his rife, and made two shots
at a tree on the bluff. That must have
given the Indians the idea that they were
discovered-at any rate, as the greenhorn's
second shot crashed on the rocks they
turned loose on Davis and me. At the
sound of a dozen rifles cracking behind us
and a yelling that sounded worse to our
ears than the shooting, we dropped our
key and sprinted for camp. Bullets were
whizzing past US, and, looking over my
shoulder, l saw the Apaches coming after
US, twelve or fifteen of them, running like
deer and firing as they ran.
up at the camp the men were jumping
for their guns and rounding up the stock;
and two of the best shots in our outfit,
Hasketh and Reynolds, both old Indian
fighters, came running toward us. rifles in
hand. One thing was clear to Davis and
me very early in the game-that the Apa-
ches were better runners than we. and
We're sure to overtake us, even II they
failed to stop US with their bullets. BY
the time we had run two or three minutes
| Davis was losing his breath and tagging.
So 1 told him that he had better hunt
some kind of cover to fight behind and |
turned with my rifle and blazed away at
the enemy. My rife was a chambered
Winchester. of what was known as the
1876 model, carrying 70 grains of powder
behind a long H-caliber ball. 1t was a
viciously kicking piece at the shoulder.
| but II sent bullet far and spitefully, and
the whiz OF a heavy bullet makes Indians
nervous. The nearest Apache was not
hundred yards behind me when / turned
and he was coming right along, but he
jumped behind a rock, and / Rugged the
ground az my second shot although ]
don't suppose l came within a yard OF
hitting him. The other Apaches who
| were foremost In the running went to cover
as fast as the first one had done az my
first shots at them. Those coming on be-
hind turned to right and left and circled
so as TO surround US. I walked back
ward stu fring-and then Irheard Davis
calling behind me, and the next minute
my footing gave way beneath me. and /
tumbled down somewhere, landing all In a
! heap on Davis.
ut was prospcctor's test hole one of
the pits you'll find so many OF everywhere
that men look for mines. II was about
| six feet wide by four feet deep. and ID
made as good a rife pit as . man could
ask for / didn't Kill any Apaches that /
know Of. with my Winchester working