The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-03-26
ON AN ARIZONA TRAIL.
THE GRUESOME STORY OF A MUIR
DER.
Transfers Murderer Himself Killed by
Indinns- Fronttersman Read the His
tory of the Crimo by ".signs" Found
Along the Road.

Along the Road.
Travelling from our claim in tn
Bueno campo district toward Tucson W
took the Rock canon route" said Ott
Harstadt of San Francisco, in speaking
of his mining experiences in Arizoni
when that territory was new. "Th
Apaches were thick as pods in pei
field in southeastern Arizona in thos
days and they We're bad all the time
so our party of four men, all wei
armed, was no bigger than it should
have been for our safety, When on the
second day out from our camp We
struck into the Rock canon trail, which
was little travelled. we saw the tracks OF
a wagon and team of horses Which
had paSser about day ahead of us
Later along we came to where it haC
halted for noon, and at night, and we
saw by the footprints and other signs
that only one man was with the outfit
At about noon of the second day after
striking the trail we came to where the
teamster. in making his incoming for the
1 day before, had been Joined by another
man who had come on foot from the di-
rection of some wooded hills in the east
| That the newcomer was not an Indian,
or a Mexican of the humber class, was
plain from the fact that he wore boots
and not moccasins, and the shape of the
boats, as indicated in the tracks, partic-
ularly at the heels made 1T evident TO
| our minds that he must recently have
come from town. The teamster had
| taken him into his wagon and they had
! travelled in company, had camped to-
| gether that night and had gone on to-
| gether next morning. We had kept a
day behind them, regulating our stop
ping by the facilities for obtaining grass
and water, but, being in a hurry to get
to Tucson We on the third night, made
a forced march that shortened the dis
| lance between us and the outfit ahead
| by one-half Making our start as usual
the next morning, we at noon came in
Rock canon upon the place where the
two men with the wagon had camped
the night before.
MURDER ON THE TRAIL.
"a man travelling the Arizona trails
in those days, thirty years ago, learned
to take notice and to head every sign
on the earth and in the air An hour
before we arrived at the place we had
spoken to one another of the way the
buzzards were gathering from every
quarter Of the sky and dropping, one by
one, down into the canyon. We had an
instinct that this might mean something
wrong with the wagon outfit, our first
thought naturally being of Apaches
NJ w w
saw that the wagon had started away
that morning, seemingly with every
thing packed on board, and there were
no signs of Indians to be seen around.
1t did not take more than brief exam
nation, however, to show that there
had been foul play on the spot only
few hours before. There were blood
marks on the ground over which earth
had been schraped and trampled,
showing that care had been taken by
some one to prevent their being detect
ed by whoever might come afterward on
the trail The settling down of the
buzzards and the trail Of blood and bits
Of torn garments through the bushes,
which we presently found, were guides
enough after that. and we found the
dragged by his murderer the man
whom he had taken into his wagon two
days before. He had been shot in the
back at close quarters, apparently after
the horses had been harhessed and eve
rything made ready for the start In the
morning.
This was black murder, but there
wac nothing for us to do in the matter
save bury the victim, mark the grave.
and place big stones on it to keep foxes
and coyotes from digging up the re-
mains.
THE murderer had a clear six hours
start, with an extra horse for a re-
mount If pursued and forced to leave
his wagon behind, so there was no hope
of overhauling him. We could no moth
ing more than hurry on and report the
case at the first settlement we came to,
and we made our start after incoming
as short as we could make it with what
we had tod o. An hours ride brought
us out into view of the thirty mile-wide
stretch of plain beyond the canyon, and
every one of us clutched for his shooter
as the first man to spy it shouted out
Injunsn
AVENGED BY THE APACHES.
They were not very near band of
twenty or twenty-five mounted Apaches
some five miles out on the plain, riding,
not toward us, but for the distant
beyond the plain. With our
field glass we could see them very dis
tinctly while they could not discern us
against the racks and shadows of the
canyon walls. They We're driving two
loose horses and were travelling in haste.
One of our party climbed up among the
rocks to point where he could COM
mand wider view of the plain with the
glass, and after looking intently min
ute he called out to the rest of us:
" There's a wagon stalled off to the |
north, no team in sight and dead man
on the ground alongside it. It's the
Apaches work, sure enough, and l be- |
ieve they've got the man that did the |
killing
1--WE all climbed up and looked |
through the glass at the wagon and |
dead man, and the story was as plain |
rs writing to our eyes. The murderer |
1ad pot gone far with his booty. What |
he story was of chase and attack we |
'ould not tell, except to surmise that
he Apaches, seeing him coming on the
plain, had waited among the low
Mountains in the range cut through by |
Rock canyon, and had dashed out on
lin as he came opposite. After the
ApaChes hAu passed nom view, anu We
'SSumed our Journey we saw on the