River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-01-08
had found in many accessible local.

bCICSt III dSpudlS anu us pcSSlpIllCACe,
listening with wide-eyed delight to
my description of it's uses and values
in the big cities. Though he never
told me till later, was already sure
that he had never been in the states.
but he was so keen for information.
SO ambitious for work, SO apt in
grasping ideas, that L never could
make up my mind to believe that he
had any Indian blood in him.
When / left him that time his mind
was fully made up to go prospecting
for asphalt, and sorry as / felt for
him, / couldn't help but admire the
splendid optimism which seemed TO
surmount all his strange i'll luck and
lead him always on to new enter
prises. / gave him two or three ad-
dresses, where letters might reach
me during the next year, and prone
ised in case he should find a consid-
cradle deposit of asphalt, to rejoin
him, and if possible unite With him
in the business of acquiring leases
and developing the property.
1 was in Pittsburg late that sum-
mer, when L got letter from Ba1lln
dated at Ardmore, in the ChickasaW
country, telling me that he had found
a great and hitherto unknown depos-
it of asphalt in the black hills above
TaiIa. and seven miles to the north
west by the trail. 1t was nearly SIX
weeks later, after days mean rid
ing, that 1 got well up into the rocky
hills into which the trail had led me.
| had a pack mule, besides my saddle
pony. for [ didn't know how Baffin
was situated, and [ had stopped with
the intention of frying some bacon
for nv dinner when L heard rifle
shot sound across the valley, rever-
berating against the high rocks with
roar that fingered like recediug
thunder. ! looked about and at last
saw Baffin standing on point of
rock far above me, his rife on his
arm and eyes searching across the
deep canyon. I called his name, and
was astonished to see him drop fiat
on his face like a man pursued, and
peer over the edge of his hiding
place.
I scrambled into my saddle and was
soon within speaking distance of him
He came out with a glad smile, but
noticed that there was a hunted
look in his wide, black eyes, and some
gray hairs above his temples that l
had not noticed before. He asked
me if had heard the shot. "Of
course" said /, what we're you shoot
ing at?' But he said that he didn't
shoot at all, that it was somebody
else, and SO led me up the narrow
passageway between the rocks till
we came into little clearing at the
top. ] saw that he had built a good
shanty there, and | also saw that the
old squaw was yet with him, for she
was sitting there by the front door
as if doing in the westering sum
light.
But l was not prepared for the
sudden change that came over Baffin
when he SOW her. With an awful
oath he stopped me, and when l
looked at him his face was ashen
and his fiery eyes were fixed upon the
old bag. [ was afraid he was i'll,
and asked him, but he said no, and
then, becoming quite calm, he sat
down on a shady rock and said:
did you ever hear that story, what
you might call a legend, about the
massacre of the Tonkawas?"
l thought it a queer, irrelevant
question, but / sat down and said
/ had not.
81 never believed it," he resumed.
''and | never heard it before, but I'd
rather you heard it from me than
from someone else. 1t is said that
in the old days the Tonkawas ate
their prisoners. They were cannibals,
as you call them. 1t must be a lie,
But the Apaches and the Iowas, as
we'll as the Comanches, wish to be-
lieve it. ] don't know how long age,
but some time when the Tonkawas
were at war with the Comanches.
they stole baby from the Comanche
village that was in the West Cache,
near the foothills of the Washita,
and cooked it for the TOnkawa chief.
1t was two nights later that 600 XII
owas and Comanches fell upon the
Tonkawa camp in the rock gorge Of
Bloody mountain and massacred the
whole tribe. They slew and burned
till there was not a Tonkawa left,
and when they had counted the
scalps they knew that every fighting
man was dead. But when they came
back into the valley they found that
one woman and her baby had es-
capped"
There were tears in his eyes when
he looked across the sunlit clearing
toward his shanty, and, pointing his
big, brown hand at the old squaw,
said:
There she sits. She was the last
of the Tonkawas, unless [ can be
called Tonkawa."
"You?" l said, not understanding
but he went on: 'She was my moth
er's mother. My father was Gerald
Baffin, an English trapper. He mar
ried the Tonkawa baby. But the &C.
manche followed them as they have
followed me. They shot my mother
while she was nursing me. Ny father
disappeared, but old Shaiga hid me
and l have repaid her well till now"
''She must be very Old [ said, NOT
knowing why he bowed his tousled
head so low.
More than a century," he an
swered.
And you think it was your enc
mics who burned your houses and
manned YOUR cattle?"