The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-04-28
FEATS Of THE INDIAN TRAILER
Success Depends Entirely on Various
Marks and Signs.

Nnen the trOnuerSmdn talks Oh a
trail, he may mean anything that in
dicates the passage that way of
somebody or something. But there is
another sort of a trail that the In
dians become experts in following,
and some of the feats of the abort
gines of the West have bordered on
the miraculous. An old Indian left
his people in Southern California
and wandered over the desert, after
having become demented through
senility. This same Indian, in his
younger days, had been noted for his
ability to trace the slightest trail
left by man or beast and his recov-
cry and return to the care of friends
were due entirely to the ability of
members of his tribe to follow the
feeble trail on the desert which he
left as he started on his aimless
wanderings.
1t is difficult in the extreme to fol-
low the trail of one who does not at
tempt to hide the fact that he has
been travelling across the country,
writes Clarence E. Edwards in the
San Francisco Chronicle, and, this
being true, it may be understood how
much more difficult the task becomes
when the person followed has used
every endeavor and precaution to eff
face all marks that show his pas
sage. Take such a trail, and sue
ceeds depends entirely on the ability
of the trailer to follow for miles by
means of discovering marks left by
accident or inadvertent slips of the
foot.
An expert trailer can follow trail
where a trained hound would fail
to find a scent. Signs mean any evi-
dence that something has been where
the object is seen. Ashes, tin cans
gun shells, pieces of paper or cloth
ing, broken sticks, footprints, any
thing indicating that man has been
there is a sign Broken bushes,
overturned logs and stones, muddy
water, scratched bark or earth
paches of hair, footprints, all indi-
cate the passage of an animal and
are signs"
Where the signs are continuous
they make the trail, and where the
trail is used frequently and for a
long time it is known as an old trail.
Where the signs are new and recent
ly made it is fresh trail. AS the
trail is the continuation of the sign,
or rather succession of signs" it
follows that trailing is the ability to
find this succession of sign in orde"
to follow the route taken by the OBJ
iect being trailed. To become a good
trailer, therefore, it is necessary to
have a keen eye, a good knowledge
of the country, & thorough acquain-
lance of the habits of animals and
the character of sign that each kind
of animal makes. If the object trail
ed be white or red men knowledge
of the habits of these must be had.
Indian Bests White.
In this branch of field craft the
white man must always take second
place to the Indian, for in the red
men there is the weight of genera
tons of trailers to make the art one
that is almost second nature. | am
sure that in good many cases which
have come under my observation the
art of trailing has amounted to an
/ instinct. Whites never become 50 OK
pert as do Indians, but | have known
| MeXicanS who have eXce]led and sur
passed the Indians. | hav, heard OF
many expert white trati+lt, but in
every instance the expGrtne,'s was
good for white man, but woud have
/ been considered as indifferent had
the work ooon done by az Indian.
Even white men who nave been CAP
! tured as boys by Indians and train
ed to manhood have never been as
good as the Indians themselves.
Probably the finest trailer ever
known was Pedro Espinosa, Next
i can, whose power bordered upon the
mythical A story told by General
Dodge will illustrate what an expert
| trailer is able to accomplish under
conditions which seem to preclude
the possibility of success.
/ Il was sent in persuit of a party
| of numbering Commanches,' said
! the General, who had been pursued
| scattered and the trail abandoned by
party of Texas Rangers, who haG
! found the task of follow the In
dians too difficult for them. Eign1
J days after the Indians had been scat
tered and had taken different routes
! to some prearranged meeting place
! put Espinosa on the trail One Of
! the horses ridden by the Comanch
es was shod, the rest were barefoo-
and Espinosa followed the trail o.
I the shod horse. When we were FAIR,
/ in the rough and rocky Gaudelupe
Mountains, Espinosa stopped, dis
mounted and picked from a crevi~t
! in the rocks the four shoes of The
! horse. Its owner had found out the
fact that this horse would leave ar
easily followed trail, and he put him
+; self on an equality with the rest .n1
the band by removing the sho IS
| With grim smile Espinosa handej
them to me and said the Indian in
tended to hide his trail.
For six days we journeyed over
the toughest mountains, turning an
! twisting in what was apparently the
| most objectless manner. Not maj
in my whole command was able tr
discover a single evidence that any
| human being had gone that way
ahead of us, except at times whe1
| Espinosa would call attention tC
some faint mark left by the Indiar
| horses. On one or two occasions
| lost patience and demanded that he
show me some evidence that we we !
after the band of Commanches, and
he would blandly answer, POGO ten
po' Ga little while). Then in a shor,
| time he would point to mark OF
! footprint or some other unmistak
able sign. We followed. the devious
windings of this amost indistinguish.
| able trail for nearly $50 miles, and
| L 4 ~