Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1902-05-20
HORRIBLE DEATH.
An Insane Surveyor Wanders Of to
Die Of Hunger and Thirst.
ON THE BLEAK DESERT.

a letter received from J.. p. Fay. a
civil engineer, by John McMillen, of
San Bernardino. brings the particulars
of the horrible manner in which John
A. Adams. who until recently was a
deputy under County Surveyor NJ. l..
Cook, met his death while on a survey
ing trip on the Colorado desert. saws
the Sun. In giving an ccoun of the
tragedy, Mr.. Fay in his letter saws:
I'VE were out on the desert pros
pecting for gold when the accident hap
pened. An Indian whom we had en-
ployed to show us where to find water
on the desert, while mounting his
horse caught his foot in the stirrup
and fell on his back, and the horse
started to run with the Indian hanging
to the stirrup by his foot. AS the
ground was covered with jagged rocks
the Indian would have been killed in q
very few moments had not MIR. Adams
ran up and grabbed the horse by the
bit. The horse, now wild with fright,
reared and plunged. and Mr.. Adams
was twice thrown on the rocks and
nee the horse struck him with its
feet, but he still gripped the bit. until
Mr.. Lamere and | succeeded in getting
the Indian loose. After all the danger
was over, Mr.. Adams sat down upon a
rock and began laughing. and when
asked If he vas hurt replied, ''Oh. no"
I'm only a little tired, but | guess you
will have to help me set this arm" II
was then that we discovered that he
had broken his arm. And it was then
that we found that that man had more
grit than any other man who ever had
a broken arm. for. taking q rope and
knotting one end around his wrist and
the other end around a rock, and plac-
ing n foot against the rock, he pulled
that broken arm into place ana held it
there until we could bind some sticks
on it to keep the broken member
straight. We then started for Yuma,
Mr.. Adams riding some twenty-five
miles that afternoon and never once
complaining, although we could see by
his drawn features that he was suf-
fering intense pain. About dark we
camped for the night and within an
hour the sick man was out of his head
and raving like a maniac. BY using
cold water on his arm and head we at
last succeeded in getting him quieted
down, though he was for some time
restless, and kept talking in his sleep.
About midnight he had settled into a
sound sleep and |, who was then
watching, decided to try to catch a
short nap. For this ! shall never for
give myself, for shortly after | had
dozed Off only slept about an hour
MI. Adams arose ano left without wax
ing any of us. AS soon as we discov-
cred that he had gone. we made every
effort to find him. but could not do
much until daylight, when we found
his tracks in the sand. These we fol
lowed for some thirty miles that day.
At times he would stop and take off
his shoes and walk or run for perhaps
a half mile, and would then stop and
put on his shoes again. 1t was easy to
see he did not know where he was or
what he was doing, as he would some
times travel around in a circle. We
followed the tracks all that day and
until about 9 O'Clock the next day,
when we came to a hard. rocky place,
at the foot of some rocky hills. Here
we lost the track entirely and try as
we would we could not find ii again.
For three days we searched those hills
over, but not a trace of the man could
we find, though we well knew that
somewhere within a radius of twenty
or thirty miles lay the dead body of
one of the bravest men that ever lost
his life in that great death trap, the
Colorado desert"