Democratic messenger., 1902-11-15
THE LAND SAILOR.
The STORY OF A SLAYER OF MEN.

bers. The Mexicans. not suspectirg
danger. had retired even without sc,-
ting watch. ard the first thing thcy
knew was when we were among them.
slaugh;ering right and lef. before they
| could as much as draw their weapons.
FOR the reason that if we ever let il 40
that far We would have been over
| powered at the close range. where
accuracy of fire was no longer Il
strong factor on our side alone. We
| killed % out of 80 men that night. for
we had not the means to bother with
| prisoners, and we got every horse
owned by the band.
| Likely you have heard of the Mexi-
can lancers- the chaps provided with
that graceful but useless weapon uD-
on which they hoped TO spear us Ike
so many swine. Many good man the
Mcxicans lost before they learned that
tho lance was no fit tool with which
10 approach an American eC-'irped
with his fayorite weapon. The lemy
never had more chance with the lance
than the Indians had with their bows
and arrows. Before they could come
| near enough TO make use of their toy
| they were toppled off their horses like
so many ninipins before the skill rf
| an expert bowler.
Il accompanied Capt. Hayes on mis-
| raid against the notorious priest-leader
| OF MeXicans-Padre Jarante-in all
| the history of outlawry perhaps the
most skilful in the business of fight
ing and deviltIy. We chased after the
leader for two days. and. without
knowing it. passed him. so that when
we got to San Juan he was briiind u.s.
But we were tired cut for want of two
nights sleep, and we stripped our
horses and ate and went to sleep, new
| er expecting trouble. Our body of men
was safely housed under a roof, but
we had five men out on post, as Il
mere matter of precaution, tor we sus-
| pected that laramie did not mean 10
escape us, but intended to give fight
About sunrise We were awakened Dy
warning shouts and cries and firing
of shots. We grasped our revolvers
and carbines and FASTENED TO the win
dows. The five men on the outpost
| had stood their ground and had gone
under-one. lying wounded on an el-
bow. was still pouring a CALLING fire
| into the ranks of the enemy until the
butt of rife was laid over his head.
Three times the padre charged us, ami
| three times he was repulsed by our
fire. and the third time he was keeled
of his horse, dead. We had emptied
| a great many saddles of Mexicans that
day, but no sooner was the fight over
than cne of the spies brought word
that COO Mexicans were on the march
| toward US. The captain examined his
ammunition supply and found it run
alarmingly low, AMI decided the 500
were more than we could safely bite
eff and chew, and we retreated.
"All of these were interesting fights.
but the most desperate. think came
when one of opr lieutenants, Edward
| Burleson, was ordered to hand one Of
cur Indian prisoners over TO the au
thorities at Fort Mcintosh. | was in
the party detailed to accompany the
lieutenant and on the way back. near
ing the Nueces river we spied couple
of Indians. | was also one Of seven
chosen by the lieutenant TO capture
the Indians. while the remainder of
the detachment continued along the
read. The red fellows, however, had
set q trap. Steadily the others of our
command proceeded. leaving us 20
settle with the pair discovered, until
finally we were out of ear shot of one
another. We dug bravely after the
two Indians. The two suddenly turned
| into II. and they were ready and wait
| ing for us when we crossed the brow
of a hiiiock which had concealed the
snare. There was neither time nor
necessity for retreat, however. We
got the order to dismount and it came
so quick and fast while we were riding
at top speed that remember my
horse went back on her launches, cut
| ing the same in the effort to stop
short. Then from the middle of our
circle of horses we opened fire with
the Colts siX-shooting rifles. We killed
every Indian except one that Pot a.
way to spread the wholesome tale but
the fellows had charged us so closely
that several of them lying PROSTATE
we could have touched with our ride
butts without moving from where we
| ctccd.
I'VE had among us in that fight a
remarkable young chap who behaved
extraordinarily during the fight. His
parents had been scalped by Indians
and he had been captured and raised
among the Comarches and was devot-
ing the days of his natural life bring
ing down Indians to avenge the death
of his parents. But he had acquired
Indian habits and Indian tactics and
throughout the fight danced around
from spot to spot hoping to make a
difficult target of himself exactly in
the manner of the ignorant reds them
selves who felt safer when moving
about, not knowing that to a white
shot there is after all little difference
whether a target move or stand still
so long as 1t presents a reasonable
mark. BY the way. 1t was in that fight
cheek. The missile just grazed me but
laid part of the cheek open to the bone
as neatly as If cut with a surgeons
knife.
In 1858 / had worked up the line
to a captaincy and was then with the
frontier battalion of state troops with
a headquarters camp at Deer Fork on