.
\ ukiMiy
THE LATE WM. B. BLOYS
THE ROMANCE OF DAVIS
MOUNTAINS AND BIG
BEND COUNTRY
A HISTORY
BY
CARLYSLE GRAHAM RAHT
DRAWINGS BY
WALDO WILLIAMS
THE RAHTBOOKS COMPANY
EL PASO
COPYRIGHT 1919
BY C. G. RAHT AND O. W. WILLIAMS
Bancroft Library
2 55
This volume is dedicated
to the memory
of the late
William B. Bloys
jr>
PREFACE.
I claim no literary merit for this work. Its very nature,
wherein truth of statements is of the first importance, precludes
the possibility of artistic writing. In gathering my data I have
attempted to eliminate the personal viewpoint of the narrator,
as well as of myself. I have used much material as it was
given to me, simply because I feel that the original expresses
more clearly than I could express the subject dealt with.
I have tried to produce a work that will be of value to my
readers. This book has been written under varying and trying
circumstances. It has taken me two and a half years to compile
my data and write the manuscript. During that time I traveled
57,000 miles in a car, over good roads and bad and in all sorts
of weather. My work has been interrupted by both sickness
and sorrow, and very often my feet have wavered from the
path I had chosen for them to tread. Still, I feel that I have
done my best and that there are many who will appreciate this
work. For those I am writing this introduction.
It is impossible to name separately the sources from which
I have drawn my material, and I must rest content to express
my appreciation collectively to the hundreds who have con-
tributed their knowledge to this book. The cover design was
drawn by Mr. Waldo Williams, who, like myself, r is a native
of the Southwest. To him and his father, Judge 6. W. Wil-
liams, I owe much material and many suggestions. I further
wish to thank for assistance rendered and data given, Mr.
Barry Scobee, Capt. J. B. Gillett, Capt. John R. Hughes, Col.
Geo. T. Langhorne, Mrs. Julia Lee Brown, Lieut. H. O. Flipper,
and C. E. Way.
In this work I have tried to convey something of the real
West as it was and as it is. I have before me a letter from an
old pioneer, which breathes the spirit of the West. He says
"The West? There is no more West. It lives only in memory
THE ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY
CHAPTER I
The first white man to set foot in the Big Bend of Texas
was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the Spanish adventurer.
Forty-three years after Columbus discovered America, de Vaca
discovered the Big Bend. He found a great region of lofty
peaks and deep canyons, magnificent valleys and wind-swept
plains a region, which is an empire in itself, three times the
size of Belgium, and equal in area to Ireland, South Carolina,
or Maine.
The Big Bend embraces the extreme southwestern portion
of Texas, in the heart of the Spanish Southwest, and is some-
times called the Lower Panhandle, from the fact that it forms
an entering wedge between New Mexico, on the north, and
the Republic of Mexico, on the south. Again it is often
referred to and correctly so as the Trans-Pecos region, as
it b bounded on the east by the Pecos River ; but more prom-
inently it is bounded on the south and west by the Rio Grande,
which here forms a great bend, or curve, embracing three-
fourths of the entire territory. For this reason, it is deemed
proper to refer to it as the Big Bend country.
In the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition, so runs the
legend, the Kings of Castile, Aragon, and Navarre, respectively,
were seated in grave council beneath the canopy of their joint
council tent. About them were gathered their captains and
soldiers the flower of Spanish knighthood.
Up in the mountain passes, strongly entrenched, crouched
the Moors. Far outnumbering their Spanish foes, and con-
1
2 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
scious of their strength, they patiently awaited the hour to
strike a fatal blow.
Realizing their desperate plight, the Spanish kings looked
at their followers in growing perplexity. Should these soldiers
be hurled against the Moors, in a desperate effort to break
through the coils, which daily grew tighter about the allied
armies ?
The answer came in an unusual manner and from an
unexpected quarter. A sentry, closely guarding a peasant in
the garb of a goat-herd, pushed through the soldier throng, to
the feet of the three kings. "Sires," said he, bringing up with
a salute, "this man begs an audience with your Majesties."
"Let him speak," said the King of Castile, although he
frowned at the interruption.
The peasant bent low over the King's hand. "Sire," he
said, "my name is Martin Alhaja, a goat-herd. With your
Majesties' permission, I can take you to a pass that I know
in the mountains, which will lead you to the rear of yonder
Moors. I have marked it well with la cabeza de vaca (the head
of a cow), so placed that you can see it from a great distance."
Due to this timely information, the allied armies gained a
strong position, and on the nth day of July, 1212, the battle
of Las Navas de Tolosa was fought and won by the Spanish
kings.
In payment for his services, the humble goat-herd was
ennobled, and he was given the name, Cabeza de Vaca "The
Head of a Cow" to denote the origin of his improved social
condition. From Martin Alhaja descended a long line of
explorers and hardy adventurers.
When Governor Panfilo de Narvaez sailed from the Port
of San Lucar de Barrameda, June 27, 1527, with orders from
Charles V of Spain to explore and conquer Florida, he took
with him as comptroller and royal treasurer, Alvar Nunez
Cabeza de Vaca, a descendant of the one-time humble goat-
herd. No doubt, in his day, the goat-herd had been looked
upon as being a great adventurer; but it remained for Alvar
Nunez and three followers to trace their footsteps across the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 3
American continent, from ocean to ocean, unarmed and almost
naked, in the greatest of all adventures. They were passed
from tribe to tribe, sometimes as slaves, at other times as gods ;
and, in the eight years of their wanderings, they saw no signs
of white men and heard no speech, except the unintelligible
jargon of the strange barbarians in whose midst they were
thrown.
After reaching the shores of Florida, misfortune befell the
Narvaez expedition. Governor Narvaez, with half his force,
numbering three hundred men, marched inland in quest of rich
cities; while he ordered the five ships to proceed westward,
where he would meet them upon his return to the sea. But
few of his land force lived to return, and those who did saw
no ships. Tired of waiting, and confident that Narvaez and
his land force had perished, the ships' crews had sailed for
the home port.
Already starving, the followers of Narvaez built five barges
and put out to sea in search of a Spanish settlement known
to be at Panuco, near the present-day seaport of Tampico,
Mexico.
In a storm off Galveston Island, the barges were wrecked,
and but a small remnant landed safely. So emaciated and ill
were these that a dozen only survived. Four of the most able-
bodied men were chosen to explore down the coast in search for
Panuco, which the Spaniards believed to be nearby.
Following the departure of these men, the weather turned
cold so bitterly cold that the Indians, who had been feeding
the Spaniards on roots and fish caught from the water's edge,
could no longer work. The crude lodges afforded but scant
shelter or warmth, and both Indians and Spaniards died. De
Vaca says, in his naive way, that "five Christians, quartered
on the coast, were driven to such extremity that they ate each
other up, until but one remained, who, being left alone, there
was nobody to eat him."
Almost immediately following the shipwreck and disinte-
gration of the Narvaez expedition, de Vaca had been made a
captive by the Indians, and he remained a slave for six years
4 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
before he attempted to escape. The reason for this long
deferred attempt was due to the fact that on an island not
far from the abode of de Vaca's captors, there lived another
member of the shipwrecked expedition, Lope de Oviedo, by
name. Every year de Vaca went over to the island where lived
this man and tried to persuade him to go in search of their
countrymen. But each year Oviedo put off going, until the
sixth year, when he consented to accompany de Vaca on his
westward journey.
The island, where de Vaca found Oviedo, was appro-
priately called the "Island of 111 Fate," and at the time the
two Spaniards began their journey, they very reasonably sup-
posed that all of their companions had perished. However,
after journeying across four rivers, the fugitives met Indians
of another tribe, who told them that further on were three
white men. De Vaca called these Indians the Guevenes, and
from them he also learned the fate of divers other Christians
who had suffered great hardships and brutalities at the hands
of the savages. By way of illustrating their accounts of ill
treatment of the Christians, the Guevenes beat and kicked
Oviedo in such a manner that death almost resulted, and de
Vaca modestly stated that "neither did I remain without my
share of it."
As a result of this ill-treatment, Oviedo refused to pro-
ceed further, preferring to return to the known dangers and
hardships on the Island of 111 Fate, rather than face new
perils. It is regrettable that Oviedo should have deserted de
Vaca here, because in later years both men wrote largely of
their experiences, and no doubt the combined observation of
the two concerning what lay between the two oceans would
have given a very complete and reliable history of the most
remarkable journey ever undertaken by civilized man.
It must be borne in mind that no settlement had yet been
founded in the United States. The great exploration move-
ment, which started in England to counteract Spanish explora-
tions, was yet in its infancy. The voyage, which resulted in
the founding of Jamestown, was undreamed of, and the set-
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 5
tling of St. Augustine and Santa Fe was the work of a later
generation.
These were the conditions which confronted the intrepid
explorer, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, when he took sorrow-
ful leave of Oviedo and saw his fellow-outcast take the "back
trail." But one gleam of hope remained to keep black despair
from overwhelming de Vaca: somewhere further on were
three Christians like himself, and he turned his attention to
establishing communication with them so that he might per-
suade them to undertake the perilous journey with him.
In the six years of slavery, de Vaca had learned many things
about the ways and customs of the savages, which, while vary-
ing slightly with each tribe, remained basically the same
throughout the country in which he lived. During these years
of servitude, which he spent so miserably on the Island of 111
Fate and the nearby mainland, he became practiced in two
arts. These were the art of healing and the art of barter. The
first of these he had of necessity acquired that he might, in
some degree, escape the ill-treatment accorded him by his brutal
masters. Even the Indians must have felt the influence of de
Vaca's personality, for while they beat and cuffed him unmer-
cifully, they elevated him to the position of medicine-man, a
place of high honor among them.
De Vaca's manner of healing varied slightly from that of
the Indian medicine-men. The general practice of the Indians
was to make a few cuts where the pain was located and then
suck the skin around the incisions. After this they cauterized
with fire a method which de Vaca says was very effective.
However, this method caused great pain to the sufferer, and
produced a very small per cent of cures.
Contrary to this method, de Vaca made the sign of the
cross while breathing upon the patients, recited a Pater Noster
and Ava Maria, prayed God to give them good health, and
"inspire them to do us some favors." In answer to this not
entirely disinterested prayer, de Vaca says, "Thanks to His
will and the mercy He had upon us, all those for whom we
prayed, as soon as we crossed them, told the others that they
6 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
were cured and felt well again." This innocent statement
would lead one to believe that the patient preferred to lie in
favor of the Christian medicine-man, rather than have to
undergo the pain and, perhaps, torture inflicted by the Indian
methods.
For a time de Vaca fared better, but so great was the lack
of food that sometimes he remained without eating for three
days. Finally, unable to stand the torments of hunger and
receiving such brutal treatment at the hands of the Indians, he
decided to run away. So he struck out for the mainland, where
he fell in with a tribe who treated him well. These
Indians persuaded de Vaca to become a trader so that he
might go from tribes along the coast to those . further inland,
bartering and exchanging those commodities held in esteem
by the different tribes. Thus de Vaca would start from the
coast with a stock in trade composed of sea shell, cockles and
shell beads, journey inland, and shortly return with hides for
clothing; red ocher, with which the Indians rubbed and dyed
their hair and faces ; flint for arrow points ; glue and hard
canes, with which they made arrow shafts and many ornaments.
It was impossible for de Vaca to gain a speaking acquain-
tance with all of the Indian tongues which he heard while a
trader. Still, he mastered a great many useful words and a
considerable vocabulary in the common sign language, which
was understood at that time and is to-day by all Indians,
whether of the East or of the West.
De Vaca's period of slavery equipped him wisely for the
journey he was about to undertake. Being a man of quick
wit, initiative, and determination, he looked westward with
optimistic eyes.
Two days after Oviedo turned back, the Guevenes escorted
de Vaca to a grove of pecan trees about three miles from the
Indian village, and de Vaca found Andres Dorantes, one of
the three of whom the Guevenes had already spoken. Later,
Dorantes took de Vaca to where was Alonzo del Castillo, the
second of the three men spoken of. These proceeded to find
Estevanico, the Moor, who was the third man of whom the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 7
Guevenes told. Together the four plotted to make their
escape.
From these men de Vaca learned many things that had
taken place concerning the shipwrecked crews of the five
barges. Governor Narvaez had been swept out to sea and
lost. One by one the other members of the crews were
accounted for. The four concluded that the ships, with those
on board who had not joined the land expedition of Governor
Narvaez, must have returned to Spain. There remained but
one thing for them to do act upon the suggestion of de Vaca
and proceed westward in search of the Spanish colonies known
to exist in Sinaloa, Mexico.
It was now necessary to lull the suspicions of the Indians,
so that the Indians might not kill them and thus prevent their
escape. So de Vaca decided to remain six months longer
with these Indians, who were called Mariames. With them
also stayed Dorantes; and again de Vaca found himself a
slave although, for once, a willing one. The family to whom
de Vaca and Dorantes belonged, consisting of their master, his
wife, their son, and another Indian, were all cross-eyed. Cas-
tillo and Estevanico belonged to their neighbors, the Iguaces.
These people, the Mariames and Iguaces, stand out more
dearly in their tribal characteristics than any other people with
whom de Vaca came in contact. Dorantes told de Vaca that
a Christian, by name Esquival, had fled to the Mariames, and
that because a woman had dreamed that he would kill her son,
the Indians pursued and killed him. In proof of this, the
Indians had shown Dorantes a rosary, a prayer book, and sword
which had formerly belonged to Esquival.
This was the bloodthirsty people with whom de Vaca chose
to remain as a slave until the time came when they should move
westward to the place of the tunas, or prickly pears, upon
which they lived three months in the year.
Unlike the powerful, well-organized tribes of the North,
the Gulf Coast tribes were broken up into small, closely related
family groups, each so-called tribe representing the strength
of one family ; and it is highly probable that the dozen or more
B ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
tribes to which de Vaca gave tribal names in his Neufragious,
became known to Father Massenet, one hundred and fifty years
later, as the Kingdom of the Tejas, or Texas.
It was the custom of these Indians to destroy all girl babies,
because they might marry their enemies and give birth to chil-
dren who would become their foes. Their own wives were
bought from other tribes, the price paid for a woman being a
bow and two arrows.
The women of these tribes were compelled to do all the
hard work, for the men did nothing which might increase their
hunger. Food was scarce, consisting largely of roots and herbs
dug out of the ground, although occasionally, due to their great
speed and endurance, the men would run down and kill a deer.
During the time of the prickly pear, the Indians made merry
with dancing and feasting. They were joined by other tribes
from further west who traded bows and arrows for the dried
tunas, and these were the tribes with whom the Christians
meant to escape.
When the Franciscan father went among the Tejas Indians,
he noted a much improved condition over that which de Vaca
found and described ; but one hundred and fifty years elapsed
between de Vaca's journey and that of Father Massenet, and
in that length of time it is reasonable to suppose that these
Indians showed some progress. Very probably, while de Vaca
was learning much from them, they also were learning much
from him.
Finally the great day arrived for the execution of their
plans. The Indians went inland thirty leagues practically
ninety miles to a country where the tunas were ripe. But the
Christians were doomed to meet with disappointment. The
Indians fell out among themselves about their women and
began to fight; and they all separated, each one taking his
family and going in different directions. So the four Chris-
tians had to part, but not before they agreed to meet again at
the same place the year following.
A year! How slowly the time passed for the captives!
Back to the old life of drudgery and abuse went the Christians,
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 9
not knowing whether they would be alive to meet again. When
they did come together the following year, they were separated
by their captors, and each one was sent a different way. But
they had agreed to meet at the same spot when the September
moon became full. This they did and escaped.
At the time the four Christians made their escape from
their Indian captors, they were in the vicinity of the Lavaca
River. The tunas were still ripe, and de Vaca hoped to gain
food from them until they should reach the tribes further
west where game was more plentiful.
De Vaca journeyed along the Lavaca River which derives
its name the Cow River from the fact that de Vaca saw
his first buffalo there. His description, which follows, was
the first description of the American bison, or buffalo, ever
printed.
"Here also they (the Indians) came upon the cows ; I have
seen them thrice and have eaten their meat. They appear to
me of the size of those in Spain. Their horns are small, like
those of the Moorish cattle; the hair is very long, like fine
wool and like a peajacket ; some are brownish and others are
black, and to my taste they have better and more meat than
those from here (de Vaca wrote his account in Spain). Of the
small hides the Indians make blankets to cover themselves
with, and of the taller ones they make shoes and targets. These
cows come from the north, across the country further on, to
the coast of Florida, and are found all over the land for over
four hundred leagues. On this whole stretch, through the
valleys by which they come, people who live there descend to
subsist upon their flesh. And a great quantity of hides are met
with inland."
From here the four wanderers struck out boldly into the
Unknown, keeping their general course westward, although
on account of natural obstacles they were often deflected north-
ward from their course. For one thing, Castillo and Dorantes
could not swim. This made it necessary that shallow fords
should be sought in the rivers they crossed. Then, too, in
order to obtain food and be able to learn the whereabouts of
10 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
nearby Spaniards, should there be any, they were compelled
to lay their course from village to villdge.
On the afternoon of the first day, the tired fugitives saw
a camp smoke at a distance ; and near sunset they struck the
village of the Avavares. These Indians de Vaca had known
when they had brought bows and ornaments to barter with
his former captors ; and for this reason, as well as because of
his reputation as a medicine-man, de Vaca and his companions
were made welcome.
Hardly had the Christians been properly lodged before a
number of Indians went to Castillo and begged him to relieve
them of their sickness. De Vaca says that as quickly as Castillo
made the sign of the cross over the sick one and recommended
him to God, all pain and illness disappeared. In return, the
Indians brought to them many tunas and pieces of venison,
and so large a number of Indians were cured that the Chris-
tians had not room wherein to store the meat.
But the Indians of the sixteenth century were as improv-
ident as those of later time ; and after five days of feasting and
celebrating, during which the Indians ate their store of tunas,
or prickly peai, and venison, they began to suffer greatly from
hunger. This forced them to move to another spot where the
tunas were plentiful.
At this new camp, de Vaca became separated from the
others and was lost for five days. During this time he tasted
no food and, being naked, he suffered from cold and bleeding
feet. Just as he was about to give up, he happened to strike
the shore of a river and there found the camp of his Indians.
The fame of the Christians had gone all over the Indian
country, so that wherever the Christians went they were sought
after to cure the sick and bless the well. In this new spot came
many different tribes in quest of tunas, and among them they
brought five people who were paralyzed. These Indians, Cas-
tillo was called upon to cure, which he did, as de Vaca affirms
that God "seeing there was no other way of getting those people
to help us so that we might be saved from our miserable exist-
ence, had mercy upon us, and in the morning all awoke in such
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 11
good health as if they never had had any ailment whatever."
Up to this time, Dorantes and Estevanico, the Moor, had not
made any cures ; but the business of healing grew to such pro-
portions that they, too, were compelled to become medicine-
men.
After leaving these Indians, with whom tkey remained over
a year, the Christians made rapid progress westward, and
while they encountered many hardships and suffered hunger
many times almost to the point of death, still they fared much
better than they had fared in the coast country.
So westward toward the Pecos River marched de Vaca,
Castillo, Dorantes, and the Moor. Sometimes they were alone,
hungry, and almost dead of thirst ; at other times they formed
a triumphal procession, with followers numbering three or
four thousand, whose reverence and abject fear felt for the
divine beings sent among them to cure and bless them, caused
de Vaca to say with some impatience "that it was very tire-
some to breathe on and make the sign of the cross on every
morsel of food they ate or drank."
In this country, through which the Christians traveled, the
Indians smoked tobacco and drank an intoxicating liquor,
which they brewed from the leaves of a tree something like the
water oak. The intoxicant might have been an early form of
mescal, so extensively used by the Mexican Indian of to-day.
Here the Indians celebrated the coming of the Christians with
a great feast, at which they ate the mezquizuez, or the mesquite-
bean. This bean the Indians pounded up into a meal which
they mixed with earth and water, and which de Vaca says
tasted very palatable to them. The Christians must have been
hungry, indeed !
Now began a journey through many tribes, halting only
long enough in a village to secure guides to conduct them to
the next. After traveling until late in the afternoon, the four
Christians crossed a large river, waist deep and swift of cur-
rent. And at sunset they reached an Indian village. Here
the people met them with much noise, which was made mainly
with perforated gourds filled with pebbles, which the Indians
12 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
told the Christians came from Heaven, and were sent down
the river to them when the spring rises set in and overflowed
the land.
De Vaca often had a following of a great many people. While
this was ascribed largely to the belief in his divinity, still it was
in a measure due to a mercenary reason. It was the custom
when de Vaca and his companions reached a village, for those
who came with him, guides as well as his followers, to take all
of the possessions of the Indians in that particular place. In
this way the last followers of the Christians returned to their
villages reimbursed for those things of which they had lately
been robbed; and the people of the last village to which the
Christians had come learned this custom from those Indians
who had despoiled them, and followed de Vaca to the next
tribe, with the expectation of being reimbursed for the things
which they had recently lost.
Perhaps this was fortunate for de Vaca, as at all times it
kept him well supplied with guides. That the Indians did not
bewail their losses, but rather looked forward to despoiling
the tribe further on, is evident, for they told de Vaca not to
permit this custom to worry him, as the tribes further on were
rich. t
The Christians now began to see mountains in the distance,
and the Indians near them were of good physique and lighter
skinned than any the Christians had seen in the land. Further-
more, these Indians were quite intelligent, for after those who
arrived with the Christians had sacked their dwellings, they
gave to the white men strings of beads, ocher, bags of mica,
and other ornaments, which they had hidden away for this pur-
pose. Knowing the custom of pillaging, the next day, when de
Vaca was about to leave, these Indians tried to prevail upon
him to go to their friends who dwelt on the spur of the moun-
tain. As an inducement, they said there were a great many
lodges, and the people would give much to the Christians. This
would have been good business for the Indians, as they knew
the Christians took nothing themselves, but gave it to their
followers. Also, they said that nobody lived where the whites
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 13
intended going, neither were there tunas nor any other kinds
of food. But de Vaca persisted in maintaining his course, and
sadly these Indians turned back down the river.
For four days, de Vaca and his companions marched up this
river. Then they turned westward fifty leagues, following the
direction of the mountains. Here they found a village where
they remained a fortnight. Leaving this village, they crossed
a mountain seven leagues long, and reached another village
situated on the banks of a beautiful river.
Here the Christians saw for the first time the signs of
precious metals, the hopes of finding which had motivated
Spanish explorations more than recovering the lost souls of
the savages. The Indians gave Dorantes a big rattle of copper,
upon which was represented a face, and which appeared to
de Vaca to have been cast in a foundry. Again, another tribe
gave them pouches of mica and powdered antimony (silver).
Also, these people ate tunas and nuts of the pine, which grew
on the small trees of sweet pines. Here de Vaca proved him-
self skilled in surgery, by cutting an arrow-head from the breast
of a savage, where it was athwart and had pierced a cartilage;
while with a deer-bone he made two stitches. Before de Vaca
left the village, the Indian had wholly recovered and the wound
had closed up. This successful operation increased de Vaca's
fame ten- fold.
After many days they reached the breaks and canyons in
the neighborhood of the Pecos River. The Indians here were
great hunters, and so large had de Vaca's following grown that
it took one-half of them hunting constantly to supply them all
with food. While some who carried bows and arrows hunted
along the canyons' edges for deer, quail, and other game, others,
armed with clubs three hands in length, hunted the rabbit ; and
so skillful were they, says de Vaca, that "whenever a rabbit
jumped up they closed in upon the game and rained such blows
upon it that it was amazing to see, . . . and when at night we
camped they had given us so many that each one of us had
eight or ten loads."
While continuing in a general westerly direction, but still
14 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
in the country of many breaks and canyons, the Christians
came suddenly upon the banks of the Pecos River. This river
they crossed and continued for thirty leagues over a great plain,
before they struck rugged mountains again. Here also they
found a different people. At the end of this distance, guided by
these new people, the Christians journeyed fifty leagues through
rugged mountains, arid and devoid of game. They now came
to a river that flowed between mountains the Rio Grande, a
short distance below Presidio, Texas, in the Big Bend; and
here for the first time they saw a village composed of real
houses.
From this point in his travels, de Vaca gives us little infor-
mation regarding his route and the characteristics of the Indians
with whom he came in contact. He considers it sufficient to
say that he journeyed westward, until in April, 1536, he came
upon a party of Spanish horsemen, who conducted him to the
settlement of San Miguel.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 15
CHAPTER II
There is no story of the sixteenth century more romantic
than that told in the Neufragious of Cabeza de Vaca. The hero
starts out, armed in his panoply of the sixteenth century war-
fare, to the discovery of some impossible Eldorado. He becomes
the victim of cruel enemies ; he suffers all that man can imagine
of the horrors of shipwreck and slavery ; torn by thorns, blis-
tered by heat, ready to drop from starvation, and plainly
doomed to death by savage masters, he drags himself painfully
along on a tropic coast. From tragic death he is saved by
the sign of the Cross, becomes a great medicine-man, and,
after eight years of suffering, returned to his jealous country-
men, a naked king at the head of barbarian worshipers.
It has been a difficult task to locate precisely the ground
covered by the itinerary of this romantic character. From the
time when the survivors of the Narvaez expedition left Tampa
Bay, Florida, in their boats whose "gunwhales were not over
one span above the water," until the naked remnant of three
whites and a Barbary negro reached San Miguel, State of
Sinaloa, Mexico, there is in the account no natural object such
as river, mountain, spring, or plain mentioned which can be
positively identified. It is certain only that they voyaged west
from Tampa Bay, necessarily hugging close to shore ; that they
were shipwrecked in a storm; that they were in slavery for
about six years; that they escaped finally from the Indians
and started westward, and in that land they passed from tribe
to tribe as medicine-men, with a crowd of followers at times
amounting to three or four thousand people; and that they
finally came back to their countrymen near the present town
of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. The beginning and the end of
the itinerary, as well as the point where these wanderers crossed
16 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
the Rio Grande, are known, and in addition to this de Vaca's
route has been worked out after years of painstaking study.
The element of vagueness in de Vaca's account of his jour-
ney which he gives in the Neufragious, written over a year
after his return to his countrymen, is due to a desire on the
part of de Vaca to report to King Charles V, not the story of
his personal adventures, but to convey to his royal master an
adequate idea of the immensity of the country which he had
traversed, the character of its productions, and the kind and
number of its inhabitants. It was, one might say, an official
report made to the crown by the sole survivors of an exploring
expedition which had been sent out with the expectation of
finding a rich country abounding in gold ; and in the report it is
quite plain the hope lingered that such a country did exist. So
de Vaca did not concern himself with matters so small as the
accurate description of the natural objects of any section of
country with a view to subsequent identification.
It will therefore be of general interest to the reader to go
into detailed reasons why de Vaca's route was outlined as in
the preceding chapter. Judge O. W. Williams, of Fort Stock-
ton, has given material assistance in compiling the following
deductions; and it might be worth while to state that Judge
Williams' opinions, through a first-hand knowledge of the
countries traversed by de Vaca and through years of earnest
study of de Vaca's route, bear great weight.
In his account, de Vaca relates that the tribes of Indians
with whom he and the other Spaniards lived just prior to their
escape to the west, were in the habit of migrating at a certain
season of the year to a part of the country where they lived on
the fruit of the prickly pear cactus for a term of three months
in each year. The prickly pear is found in the Southern States
and as far north as Illinois, but in order to meet the require-
ments of de Vaca's narrative, a country must be found where
the prickly pear ripens in great abundance and endures long
enough to furnish food for the Indians three months of the
year. This is not the case generally in Texas, but applies only
to that portion of Texas lying south of a line drawn from
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 17
Galveston to Eagle Pass. This gives a northern limit to the
location of de Vaca when his party started westward.
The only objection which can be properly urged against
the legitimacy of this northern limit, is the contention that
there may have been a change of conditions during the three
hundred and ninety-three years which have elapsed since de
Vaca passed through the country. This objection as urged
against the defining of the cactus country will also apply to
some points under the same head whose value we shall consider
in advance.
There are three ways in which a considerable change in the
natural growths of this country might have been brought about.
First, we shall consider the probability of a change brought
about by an increase or decrease in the rainfall, or the humidity
of the climate. Drawing upon information given in old Spanish
records from the very beginning of the Spanish occupancy of
Texas, and taking the Mexican Government reports, and the
United States Government reports of a later period, up to the
present time, there is nothing of record to show a material
change in rainfall or climatic conditions in Southwest Texas
during the past four hundred years. Certainly there is no
evidence that the change has been so great as to drive out any
plant or even to alter materially the habitat of any species of
vegetation. Irrigation was just as necessary in the south-
western portion of Texas when first settled by the Spaniards
as it is today. It is quite true that in Southwest Texas, farm-
ing without irrigation is now practiced, while in earlier settle-
ments it was carried on solely by irrigation, but it does not
follow that the same kind of farming could not have been
successfully carried on there from the beginning of the settle-
ments. According to the authorities, the encroachment of
farming upon lands in the United States formerly considered
arid, has not been due to an increased rainfall, but is attributed
largely to improved methods of tillage.
The generally received opinion among scientists of the
present day seems to be that the world is gradually, but very,
very slowly, losing its humidity. However, this rate of decrease
18 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
is so small as to be of little consequence in a period covering
only four hundred years of the world's existence ; hence, so far
as Texas is concerned, this decrease has been so small that it
does not affect our calculations, and unless some special cause
of increase or decrease of humidity has operated, the cactus
would remain to-day suited to growth in large quantities in the
same territory as it was in the day of de Vaca.
But a change of habitat may have occurred through the
agency of fire. De Vaca tells us that the favorite way of
catching game to which the Indians resorted was to set fire
to large areas of country. This necessarily must have destroyed
some vegetation and, if persisted in for years, must have
changed its character to some extent. At the present day, in
West Texas, the effect of fire is shown in the changing char-
acter of our grasses, and in many places some growths of
grasses have been completely destroyed and replaced by other
species. It is not, however, always easy to determine how
far this change is due to fire, or to what extent it may be due
to close grazing by stock. Cactus is not destroyed by fire, but,
on the contrary, the destruction of other vegetation in this
manner makes way for an increase of cactus. If this be true
and those who have observed it say it is true then the cactus
belt was probably not as far north four hundred years ago
as it is now, or, possibly, the belt may remain now as it was
then, with the cactus growth thickest in the original belt rather
than spreading over more territory. Certainly, it seems prob-
able that whatever effect fires must have had in changing the
character of vegetation, and of cacti particularly, this change
must have long been accomplished before the time de Vaca
passed through Texas, as the Indian practice of "firing" for
game was an ancient one.
The third point to be mentioned is that the coming of civil-
ized man must have introduced some changes in the vegetation
of Texas. This would be more largely due to the introduction
of cows, sheep, and horses, and the dissemination of the seeds
of foreign and intrusive forms of vegetation. Take, for
instance, the mesquite tree. De Vaca makes note of this tree
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 19
only in East Texas, not far from the seacoast. To-day, the
mesquite can be found from coast to coast. In the past twenty
years, this tree has made perceptible advance in the country
west of the Pecos. Forty years ago, the first great movement
of cattle started westward, although there were a few herds
prior to that time. Many of these herds reached the Trans-
Pecos country, and, finding good range there, they remained.
Since then the mesquite has encroached on plains once destitute
of it. This result is commonly and reasonably attributed to the
distribution of the seeds by cattle and horses, which are very
partial to the mesquite. This is but one instance of many which
might be given how seeds are carried from one country to
another.
But this can not be said of the cactus. It has been a few
years only since the present breed of man entered Texas, and
there are living to-day men whose memory goes back to the
time when the cactus could have been very little influenced
in its habitat by the advent of civilized man. It is one of the
most persistent, conservative, and hidebound of our native
growths, giving way only with the greatest reluctance, and
in general holding tenaciously to time-honored territories and
habits.
The pifion tree, which will be brought into consideration
later, has been, up to the last half century, out of direct con-
tact with civilization, at least so far as it is found in this state ;
consequently, it can not have been affected by the presence of
man. It is therefore reasonable to assume the situation and
distribution of plants in this state to be very much the same
now as in de Vaca's day, so far as the cactus and pifion are
concerned.
After leaving the cactus region, de Vaca was brought in
touch with a new kind of animal life the American bison, or
buffalo. Just before de Vaca escaped from the Indians and
commenced his westward march with his three companions, he
was at one of the summer stations where the Indians lived
three months on prickly-pear fruit; consequently, he was in
the cactus region, south of the line drawn from Galveston to
20 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
Eagle Pass, and not far from the coast. Of this country, he
says: "Cattle come as far as here. Three times I have seen
them and eaten of their meat"; then follows a clear descrip-
tion of the buffalo and his habits.
From the fact that he had seen buffalo and eaten of their
meat only three times during the six years when he had
remained a slave to the Indians, it is natural to conclude that
the country from which he started on the westward march was
at the extreme southern or southeastern limit of the buffalo
range. De Vaca says, "Cattle come as far as here," as if
they did not go any farther. By determining what that limit
was in Southeastern Texas, in 1 535, we can determine approxi-
mately de Vaca's position before commencing his western
journey. The nearest record, in point of time and locality,
which can be established, is that left by La Salle's party when
they attempted to settle Fort Saint Louis, about 1685, or one
hundred and fifty years later.
According to Parkman, Fort Saint Louis was situated on
the Lavaca River, near Matagorda Bay, and the French were
at this place in the summer of 1685, when buffalo were so
abundant that they were, in the words of the Abbe Jontel, the
"daily bread" for the French settlers there. So, at the time,
the southeastern limit of the buffalo range must have been at
least as far south as the Lavaca River. Up to the time Mata-
gorda Bay was settled by the Americans and the buffalo were
driven further westward, that country was their southeastern
limit, and must have been even prior to the days of de Vaca
and La Salle.
The limits of the buffalo's range, prior to the entrance of
man, were originally set by natural conditions, such as abun-
dance or scarcity of grass and water, or winter temperature ;
so it can be definitely stated that the southern and southeastern
limit of the buffalo range was south of the Lavaca River, and
we may safely conclude that when de Vaca started westward
he started from a point somewhere south of the Lavaca River.
After making their escape from the Indians here, the Span-
iards marched a short distance to another tribe and concluded
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY . 21
to winter with them. They remained with these Indians for
eight months, until the mesquite-bean ripened, when they again
took up their travels westward. The general course at which
they aimed was toward the setting sun. The route could not
be followed closely all day. Then, too, the Spaniards planned
to travel from village to village and depend upon Indian guides.
Very naturally, these guides led them over beaten and long
used trails, which for various reasons often deflected from
the general direction the Spaniards wished to go. In part, these
deflections were caused by tribal treaties and tribal jealousies.
It was but natural that the guides would lead the Spaniards,
who were even then gaining a widespread reputation because
of their miraculous cures, to friends rather than to their
enemies ; consequently, the trail from one village to another
led the Spaniards ^f ar from their course. The other main reason
for these deflections was that the trails followed water-courses,
or, at least, passed by known springs. From such causes their
course lay north-of-west. This is obvious, for had their course
led to the west, or south-of-west, it would have carried them
across the Rio Grande, and de Vaca would certainly have
recorded this fact. Rivers which were not fordable were
avoided as much as possible, due to the fact that neither Cas-
tillo nor Dorantes could swim.
After spending many days on the march, and making cures
in some of the villages, they arrived at "many houses on the
banks of a beautiful river. The people ate prickly pears and
the seed of the pine. In that country were small pine trees, the
cones like little eggs, but the seed is better than that of Castilla,
as its husk is very thin and while green is beaten and made into
balls to be eaten." This clearly is a description of what is
known in West Texas as the pinon tree. It is common on high,
rocky ground west of the Pecos River, but is found east of
that river only in possibly two localities the one on the breaks,
or heads of small canyons, east of the Pecos River, and near
the old Pontoon Bridge Crossing; and the other in Edwards
County. In either premise, de Vaca was obviously being led
over the Great Indian Trail, which crosses the Pecos and
22 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
strikes out for the great cross-roads of trails at Comanche
Springs.
The Spaniards' use of the term river, or "rio," is very
confusing. Their interpretation of the word is different from
its meaning in English. We speak of a river as being a stream
of some importance. The Spaniard may call a dry-wash, or
gully, a rio, and in the next breath designate a strong-flowing
stream by the same term. For instance, the Spaniards spoke
of the Rio Hondo, Rio Alamito, Rio Toyah, Rio Limpia, and
Rio Comanche, all of which would be raised to considerable
dignity by being termed creeks ; but these names were fastened
on these streams in an early day by the Spanish explorers, who
knew no Spanish equivalent to the English word "creek." Of
such streams, Edwards County has several, and to the Span-
iards they were "rios." Also, this country has the prickly-pear
cactus in quantity, although not in such abundance as is to be
found further south and east.
After leaving this place, they traveled through a country
abounding in people and game. "Those having bows were not
with us; they dispersed about the ridges in pursuit of deer,
and at dark came bringing in five or six for each of us, besides
quail and other game."
West of Edwards County lies the great limestone plateau,
extending to a point eighty or ninety miles west of the Pecos
River. This plateau is cut off by canyons, the main canyons
running north and south, while the lateral canyons run a little
north-of-west and a little north-of-east. To one accustomed to
that country, it would be the reasonable expectation that deer
hunters would hunt along the ridges at the edge of canyons,
where deer would be found lying in the shade of cedar trees,
in the heat of the day.
Another important fact to note is that this plateau country
has a vast number of old rock heaps, said to have been used
by Indians for roasting sotol and mescal. During certain
seasons of every year this country must have a considerable
Indian population living on roasted sotol and hunting the deer
and buffalo.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 23
Shortly after, they passed over "a great river coming from
the north." There are several reasons for concluding that this
was the Pecos River, at, or about, the crossing near Sheffield,
near where the Live Oak Creek empties into the Pecos River.
At this point the Pecos River is flowing almost directly from
the north, and as the distance traveled by de Vaca agrees
approximately with the distance from the Pecos River at this
point to the junction of the Conchos River and Rio Grande,
where it is known he crossed into Mexico, and as he makes no
further mention of crossing a river until he reached the Rio
Grande, it may be safely concluded that this was the point
where de Vaca crossed the Pecos River on the old Indian trail.
At the present day the Pecos carries very little water, being
at best a naturally formed irrigation canal for the numerous
irrigation projects along its banks. And, while the Spaniards
would still call it rio, we Americans would hesitate to call it a
river.
In 1880, the Pecos was a very different stream from what it
is to-day. It was a stream of very regular dimensions for three
hundred miles above its junction with the Rio Grande. It was
generally from sixty-five feet to a hundred feet wide, from
seven feet to ten feet deep, of a rapid current, exceedingly
muddy, of a very red cast, and fordable in very few places.
This was what de Vaca saw, and to the Spaniards it was a
"great river," which they forded, the water coming up to their
breasts. The next river the wanderers crossed was the Rio
Grande, at a point just below the present town of Presidio,
Texas. The distance assigned between the two rivers, eighty
leagues, is too great, but their route must have been subject to
a very considerable deflection in order to obtain water, which
is very scarce in that country. Besides, it is very probable
that de Vaca overestimated his distance in his narrative, writ-
ten almost two years later, in which time many of the details of
his journey must necessarily have faded from his mind.
Another fact which would lend plausibility to this assump-
tion is that for eight years he had no means of verifying his
estimates of distance, and in this particular instance he had
24 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
traveled over a desert country where he and his companions
had suffered greatly, both for food and for water ; therefore,
it would have been but natural for him to overestimate the
distance between the Pecos River and the Rio Grande.
After reaching the Rio Grande and crossing to the south
bank, they had traveled but a short distance when they came
to a settlement of fixed habitations. This was one of the
numerous settlements occupied by the Indian tribes found a
few years later by Rodriguez and Espejo. As de Vaca pro-
gressed up the river the settlements became more numerous,
until he reached an Indian town where beans, pumpkins, and
corn were cultivated. Just before reaching this town they had
crossed to the north bank of the river, and he must have been
in the neighborhood of Presidio.
Irrigation is necessary at the present day, and has been as
far back as we have any record of farming in all of West Texas
and New Mexico. In the neighborhood of Presidio, however,
corn has been planted from time immemorable in temporales
that is, in sandy stretches near the river, where it is not irri-
gated, but to bring it to fruitage depends upon the rainfall
and the overflow from the two rivers, the Rio Grande and the
Conchos, whose junction is just above Presidio. That these
people did not depend upon irrigation is evident from the fact
that de Vaca was asked by them to tell the sky to rain, that
they might plant their corn. These Indians told de Vaca there
had been no rain for two years and that the seed had been eaten
up by moles.
One statement in de Vaca's account has caused considerable
confusion in the minds of investigators. This is the statement
that the people whom he found on the river were called
the Cow Nation, on account of their living mainly off the chase
of the buffalo, and de Vaca says, "The cattle are slaughtered
in their neighborhood, and along up the river for over fifty
leagues they destroy great numbers." From the subsequent
record of Antonio de Espejo, some forty years later, it would
appear that de Vaca landed among a tribe of the Jumano
Indians, who, for some reason, had become separated from the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 25
main branch of the tribe living north and east of the Pecos
River. There is no question that the Jumanos were the same
people de Vaca called the Cow Nation. This name they won
because among all other mountain tribes they were more given
to following the buffalo. In the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries this could be said of the Southern Comanches, and,
as will be brought out later, the Southern Comanches were
either the direct descendants of the Jumano Indians or, at
least, very close kin. Therefore it is reasonable to suppose that
de Vaca misunderstood which river the Indians referred to
when they said they hunted "along up the river for fifty
leagues." From the Indians' own statements, the tribes inhab-
iting the upper Rio Grande, from the junction of the Conchos
up to what is now New Mexico, were hostile toward them. On
the other hand,. the natural route of the Jumanos would be
toward the Pecos, where the people were more friendly, where
lay the great salt deposits, from which they obtained their salt
supply, and also where the greatest number of buffalo grazed.
They doubtless meant the Pecos River was the habitat of the
buffalo rather than the Rio Grande.
This is further substantiated by Bandelier and other writers
who have examined the records of the early Spanish explorers.
According to these authorities and present-day research has
failed to refute their statements the buffalo never frequented
the Rio Grande in the Big Bend region. There are a few excep-
tions where the buffalo has been known to cross the Pecos
River, but these exceptions seem to be mere accidents. In 1684,
Mendoza recorded that he killed three buffalo bulls at Comanche
Springs, or Fort Stockton. A few years ago, Mr. H. Huelster,
who resides near Toyahville, on the eastern slope of the Davis
Mountains, found a buffalo horn near Phantom Lake, some
distance from the water, on high, dry land, where neither
camper could have dropped it nor flood-water could have car-
ried it. Mr. Huelster is familiar with the buffalo, and he said
the horn was that of a young animal rather than a cow's horn
or that of an adult bull. He doubts, too, that Indians dropped
it there, as they would have had no purpose in carrying the
26 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
horn, and it was found at a place some distance from any
customary Indian trail. Many other like instances could be
cited where possibly a few animals might have wandered across
the Pecos River, but no instance has been found where buffalo
in any considerable number frequented the Big Bend, or Trans-
Pecos region. A statement made by de Vaca also bears this
out. He says that the men of the village on the Rio Grande
were absent, hunting buffalo.
In this manner de Vaca's route across the American conti-
nent can be limited to a comparatively small area, and knowl-
edge of the old Indian trails, combined with a knowledge of
the laws of nature, which are immutable, enables the investi-
gator to trace with fair accuracy a course, provided two points
are established the starting point and the objective point.
In the case of de Vaca, we have three points which are well
established, the two named above and the point where he
crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico. Even though his manu-
script is often confused in regard to distances and directions,
still he gives a fairly accurate description of plant life and the
topography of the country.
fm .*
MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM RUSSELL
Pioneers of The Big Bend
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 27
CHAPTER III
If a ranchman of the present day, with his family, driving
through Paisano Pass, in his high-powered automobile, should
meet a party of Spanish explorers, monks, and Indian slaves,
decked out in the regalia of three hundred years ago if thus
the Twentieth Century should meet the Sixteenth Century,
which party do you suppose would give the road ?
It is highly probable that the ranchman would hesitate for
one startled moment, then reverse his direction and to use a
modern slang expression "step on the gas" for all he was
worth, meaning that he would leave that vicinity. On reach-
ing Alpine the ranchman would report the approach of a Mexi-
can bandit raiding party. On the other hand, it is probable
that the Spaniards would not hesitate upon sight of the auto-
mobile, but would press eagerly forward, expecting the strange
monster to lead them to some unknown Eldorado.
How much more astounded, then, must the Indians have
been when the Spaniards first appeared among them ; while the
Spaniards, lured on by tales of great cities whose streets were
paved with gold, had their imagination fired to such an extent
that they willingly endured almost unbelievable hardships to
realize their dreams. With them, as co-workers, came the
monks and lay brothers of the Franciscan and Jesuit brother-
hoods, who, too, were fired by tales of the country's wealth,
and dreamed of the spiritual conquest of the land.
So, side by side, monk and soldier, religious and secular,
marched into the land known to-day as the Big Bend country.
And to show the left-handed way of their coming charac-
teristically Spanish Cabeza de Vaca, the first white man in
this region, came from the direction of the rising sun, while
Antonio de Espejo, the second white man to come, entered this
land of romance from the north. Left-handed? Yes. The
28 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
logical direction for them to have come was from the south,
Mexico, where the seeds of conquest and settlement sown by
Hernandez Cortez had borne a rich harvest.
In an indirect way de Espejo's journey had considerable
bearing on the country's development, particularly in the Big
Bend of the Rio Grande. Coronado had made his triumphant
march into New Mexico by way of Arizona. In 1561, the great
province of Nueva Viscaya was formed, embracing the Sierra
Madres and the Great Central Plateau, south of the Big Bend
of Texas. The Franciscan fathers, aided by the soldiery, had
pushed their way as far north as the headwaters of the Conchos
River, the southern tributary of the Rio Grande. As a natural
result of their success, their ambitions to extend their work
into the fabulously rich country visited by Coronado, needed
but small motivation to culminate in an expedition of spiritual
and economic conquest.
This motivation came in the shape of an Indian captured
near Santa Barbara, who told the monks of a populous region
where the people raised cotton for clothing, and crops of grain
and corn. Aroused to zealous action by this information, Fray
Rodriguez obtained his royal master's permission to enter and
Christianize that land. Northward they marched to the junc-
tion of the Mexican Conchos and Rio Grande, near where
now is Presidio, Texas, thence into the fertile valleys above El
Paso, in New Mexico.
But that expedition proved disastrous. Fray Rodriguez,
Fray Lopez, and Fray Santa Maria decided to remain with
the Puaray Indians, whose settlements embraced many well-
established pueblos, while the rest of the party, numbering
nine whites, returned to Nueva Viscaya to report their
discoveries in the new country. Unwisely, Fray Rodriguez
deemed his religion to be sufficient protection for himself and
his two companions against the natural cupidity of the savages.
He kept with him all the stock, including many horses and
goats, as well as a large supply of provisions. But before the
nine whites had reached Nueva Viscaya, they received
word that the Puaray Indians had murdered Rodriguez and
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 29
his companions in order to gain possession of their belongings.
At the same time, Chamuscado, who was captain of the return-
ing expedition, and who was more than sixty years old, fell ill
and died before reaching Santa Barbara.
Instead of discouraging further explorations, however, the
news of the ill-fate of Rodriguez and his companions caused a
half dozen adventurous spirits to petition the King of Spain
for permission to explore and conquer New Mexico.
To Antonio de Espejo, a wealthy gentleman of Santa Bar-
bara, the privilege was granted. On November 10, 1582, the
expedition was begun at Valle de San Bartolome. Espejo's
party included fifteen soldiers ; he had also a number of serv-
ants, a large quantity of arms, munitions, and provisions. He
took with him one hundred and fifteen horses, mares, and
mules ; and from the animals strayed, lost, or stolen from this
herd and those stolen from Fray Rodriguez, can be traced the
beginning of the use of the horse by the American Indian.
In his own words, de Espejo gives a graphic description of
the people he found along the Conchos River and adjacent to
the Rio Grande. These Indians were the forerunners in the
Big Bend region of the savage Mescalero Apaches and South-
ern Comanches, who harassed the frontier many years after
the Americans occupied the country.
"After two days' march of five leagues each," writes de Es-
pejo, "we found in some rancherias a number of Indians of the
Conchos nation, many of whom, to the number of more than
a thousand, came out to meet us along the road we were travel-
ing. We found that they lived on rabbits, hares, and deer,
which they hunt and which are abundant ; and on some crops
of maize, gourds, Castilian melons, and watermelons, which
they plant and cultivate ; and on fish, and the mescales, which
are the leaves of the lechuguilla, a plant a half vara in height,
the stalks of which have green leaves. They cook the stalk of
this plant and make a preserve like quince jam. It is very
sweet and they call it mescale.
"They go about naked and have grass huts for houses.
They use bows and arrows and have caciques whom they obey.
30 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
We did not find that they had idols, nor that they offered any
sacrifices. We assembled as many of them as we could, erected
crosses for them in their rancherias, and by interpreters whom
we had of their own tongue, the meaning of the crosses and our
Holy Catholic faith was explained to them.
"They were with us for about six days from their ranches,
which must have been a journey of twenty-four leagues to the
north. All this distance was settled by Indians of the same
nation, who came out to receive us in peace, one cacique report-
ing our coming to another. All of them fondled us and our
horses. They were friendly."
After passing through a nation of Indians called Paza-
quantes, who lived much the same as the Conchos, de Espejo
came to the nation of Tobosos. From this tribe came the name
of the grass so widely known over the Southwest. This tribe
and the Salineros, their kinspeople, appeared to have been the
most warlike people whom de Espejo found, and they belonged
to the Apache family. Before de Espejo could make friends
with them, the Tobosos attacked the expedition, stole several
horses, and killed and wounded several more; but even-
tually, by numerous presents, the whites made friends with
them.
Reaching the junction of the Rio Grande and the Conchos
River, de Espejo found a nation of Indians living in large, per-
manent pueblos. They were the Jumanos. They were large peo-
ple and lived in five pueblos, situated near what is now Ojinaga,
Mexico, opposite Presidio, Texas, and these pueblos contained
possibly ten thousand inhabitants. Up and down the two rivers
they cultivated their little patches, in which they raised corn,
wheat, and a great variety of citrus fruits.
De Espejo called the Rio Grande the Guadalquivir River,
after the river of that name in Spain, and he says it was a branch
of the Conchos River, which emptied into the North Sea.
(In de Espejo's time the Atlantic Ocean was called the North
Sea while the Pacific Ocean was known as the South Sea.)
These Indians had well-defined trails leading to and from
great saline deposits, where they obtained their supply of salt.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 31
These trails also led to the buffalo country on the other side
of the Pecos River.
A study of the main commercial highways of to-day will
bring out the fact that the trails of yesterday are the trails of
to-day, and will be the trails of to-morrow. The water supply
is the most vital consideration in the making of a trail, whether
it is for the ox-cart or for the railroad. A knowledge of the
history of trail-making will show that the railroads of to-day
practically follow trails which were laid out by the Indians,
possibly many thousand years ago.
However, there are exceptions to this. On account of
hauling facilities, a railroad may divert its lines from the
beaten, well-watered trail, preferring to haul water rather than
spend vast sums to overcome topographical difficulties in track
construction.
The proposed route of the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient
Railroad, with its present terminal at Alpine, followed the
northeastern trail of the Jumano Indians. This trail leads to
the salt deposit in Crane County, which borders the northern
bank of the Pecos River. As this railroad enters the Trans-
Pecos country from the extreme northwestern part of Crockett
County, below Horsehead Crossing, it does not strike the old
Salt Trail until it reaches Fort Stockton. At this place the
famous Comanche Springs, with a daily flow of sixty million
gallons of water, is the source of a great irrigation district.
From Fort Stockton to Presidio, Texas, the proposed route of
this railroad never once leaves the old Salt Trail.
Owing to the present settled condition of the country, the
network of railroads, and that wonderful common carrier, the
automobile, it is no longer necessary that Man observe distance
and location of water supply; but, up to the advent of the
railroad and other modern conveniences, the one thing most
required of guides and scouts was a knowledge of convenient
water.
Two other salt deposits, or salt lakes, might be mentioned,
to which the Indians resorted for their supply of salt, since
time immemorable. The first of these is in Culberson County,
32 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
forty miles north of J. M. Daugherty's Figure 2 Ranch head-
quarters, and a few miles west of Guadalupe Peak. The other
large deposit is in Hudspeth County, and was the point of
dispute which brought on the Salt Lake War, in 1877.
The Jumano Indians were egregious. They covered a vast
area of country similar in scope to that covered by the South-
ern Comanches two hundred years later. When de Espejo began
to inquire into their form of worship, he found that they
believed in a God, whom they called Apalito, and whom they
asked for all things. They gave de Espejo to understand,
through interpreters, that there had passed through the country,
three white men and a negro, from whom they obtained the
idea of their God. This establishes the point where Cabeza de
Vaca struck the Rio Grande.
The Jumanos wore gamuzas a combination vest and shirt
made of deer skin, well tanned. They also tanned hides that
were obtained from the humpbacked cows, called by the Indians,
cibolos, which they hunted beyond the Pecos River at certain
seasons of the year.
The manner in which de Espejo was handed from tribe to
tribe, recalls the like treatment of Cabeza de Vaca. It was
against Indian nature to love work, and breaking new trails was
work ; consequently, de Espejo, in a manner similar to that of
de Vaca, was guided over well-known ground, and handed
from tribe to tribe, following a beaten path up the Rio Grande.
When he reached the country of the Puarays, de Espejo
found corroborative evidence of the deaths of the three fathers,
Rodriguez, Lopes, and Santa Maria. Thus having accom-
plished the object of the expedition and his forces were too
small to undertake a campaign of conquest, he decided to return
to Nueva Viscaya by a new route.
The Puaray pueblos were in the vicinity of the present town
of Santa Fe. Leaving the Puarays, July I, 1583, de Espejo jour-
neyed eastward to the Pecos River, which he called Rio de las
Vacas the River of the Cows, on account of the number of
buffaloes he found in that vicinity. After crossing this river,
de Espejo passed down the eastward bank for one hundred and
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 33
twenty leagues, where he met three Jumano Indians, who had
gone from their homes on the Conchos River to the salt lakes,
to gather salt. These Indians told him that he was twelve days
journey from the junction of the Conchos River and the Rio
Grande.
Up to this time, Espejo had not penetrated the Big Bend
proper. He had traveled along the south, west, and north
sides, but now he was compelled to cross this region in order
to strike the trail leading from the Conchos River to the Valle
de San Bartolome.
Led by the three Jumanos, he crossed the Rio Pecos, a few
miles above the mouth of Comanche Creek, at the old Salt
Lake Crossing, followed a southerly direction until he struck
Comanche Creek, which he followed until he reached the great
springs.
These springs', known to-day as Comanche Springs, have
been through all the ages the cross-roads of the Southwest.
With every changing race of people to enter the Big Bend
region, these springs have been a mecca. De Vaca must have
camped near them in 1535 ; the Jumanos, from the Rio Grande
and Conchos River, made it their camp on the way to and
from the buffalo country and the salt lakes; the Haupaches,
or Apaches, camped near its source on their way from their
rancherias in New Mexico to raid and steal from the Jumanos
and Tejes nations, living east of the Rio Pecos ; in 1839, Dr. H.
Connelly, with a great train of bullion, made these springs a
resting-place between Chihuahua City and Arkansas, on the
initial trip which opened up the great Chihuahua Trail; ten
years later Lieutenant Whiting, of the U. S. Topographical
Engineers, mentioned these springs, on his way from San
Antonio to El Paso; and to-day they mark the site of Fort
Stockton, a trans-continental automobile highway, and the line
of the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railroad. Once a trail,
always a trail.
But Antonio de Espejo was bent on reaching his base of
supplies in Mexico. He and his followers had remained a
year in the wilds ; their provisions and ammunition were spent ;
34 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
and worn out from constant vigils against the marauding
Indians, they were anxious to reach their countrymen in Nueva
Viscaya. So, after a brief rest at the wonderful springs, they
resumed their march southward.
Passing Leon Waterholes, Leoncita, and Kokernot Springs,
near Alpine, they continued on the trail through Paisano Pass,
down the Alamito Creek, up the Rio Grande, until the junction
of the Rio Grande and the Conchos River was reached. From
this point they followed the Rio Conchos to their destination,
San Bartolome, east of the present City of Chihuahua.
Antonio de Espejo's journey through the heart of the Big
Bend region was an accident and quickly passed from the
memory of the savages. It remained for another and later
people, the Americans, to conquer this land and make it what
it is to-day. Credulous as the Spaniards were of every tale told
them by the cunning natives, not one of them sought to con-
quer and settle this land. All they saw were rugged moun-
tains and unwatered plains ; and, while they were ever ready
to endure the dangers of an unknown land that they might
rifle it of its treasure, this unknown land they deemed without
treasure.
For this reason the tide of Spanish exploration split upon
the rock formed by the Big Bend country, and ebbed and
flowed along either side for two centuries. To the east, the
Kingdom of the Tejas was the objective point of both explorer
and monk; to the west, New Mexico, with its cities of many-
storied houses, rich mines, and farming centers, was the objec-
tive. For this reason, also, the records of the Big Bend country
during the Spanish occupation of the Southwest, are meager
of detail.
The report of de Espejo, concerning New Mexico, created
general interest in New Spain. Scores of adventurers peti-
tioned for the exclusive privilege of entering the new country
for the purpose of conquest and exploitation, but it was not
until 1598 that the King of Spain granted the permission. Don
Juan de Onate, a wealthy resident of Guadalajara, and hus-
band of the grand-daughter of Cortez, was appointed first
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 35
Governor of New Mexico, and immediately set out with his
company for the upper Rio Grande.
Reaching the headwaters of the Conchos River, he left the
trail hitherto used by the explorers and bore northward along
the present line of the Mexican Central Railroad. Onate was
the first explorer to use wagons for transporting supplies. His
explorations in New Mexico and the settlements which he
built were of lasting importance to the development of that
section of the Spanish Southwest. As he touches no part of
the Big Bend, nothing concerning him will be considered,
except a description he gives of his discovery of the buffalo.
It is from his own pen, under date of 1599, and concerns the
activities of certain of his men :
"The corral constructed, they went next day to a plain
where on the previous afternoon about one hundred thousand
cattle had been seen. Giving them the right of way, the cattle
started very nicely toward the corral. But soon they turned
back in a stampede toward the men, and rushing through them
in a mass, it was impossible to stop them, because they are
cattle terribly obstinate, courageous beyond exaggeration, and
so cunning that if pursued they run, and that if their pursuers
stop or slacken their speed, they stop and roll just like mules,
and with this respite renew their run. For several days they
tried a thousand ways of shutting them in or surrounding
them, but in no manner was it possible to do so. This was not
due to fear, for they are remarkably savage and ferocious, so
much so that they killed three of our horses and badly wounded
forty, for their horns are very sharp and fairly long, about a
span and a half, and bent upward together. They attack from
the side, putting the head far down so that whatever they seize
they tear very badly. Nevertheless, some were killed, and
over eighty arrobus (a ton) of tallow were secured, which
without doubt is greatly superior to that of pork. The meat
of the bull is superior to that of our cows, and that of the cow
equals the most tender veal or mutton.
"Seeing therefore that the full-grown cattle could not be
brought alive, the sargento mayor ordered that calves be cap-
36 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
tured, but they became so enraged that out of the many which
were brought in, some dragged by ropes and others upon the
horses, not only got a league toward the camp, for they all
died within about an hour. Therefore it is believed that unless
taken shortly after birth and put under the care of our cows
or goats they cannot be brought until the cattle become tamer
than they now are.
"In shape and form they are so marvelous and laughable,
or frightful, that the more one sees it the more one desires to
see it, and no one could be so melancholy that if he were to
see it a hundred times a day he could not keep from laughing
heartily as many times or could fail to marvel at the sight of
so ferocious an animal. Its horns are black, and a third of a
vera long, as already stated, and resembles those of the bufalo.
Its eyes are small, its face, snout, feet and hoofs are the same
form as of our cows, with the exception that both the male and
female are very much bearded, similar to he-goats. They are
so thickly covered with wool that it covers their eyes and faces,
and the forelock nearly envelopes their horns. This wool,
which is long and very soft, extends almost to the middle of
the body, but from there on their hair is shorter. Over the
ribs they have so much wool and the chine is so high that they
appear humpbacked, although in reality and in truth they are
not greatly so, for the hump easily disappears when the hides
are stretched.
"In general they are larger than our cattle. Their tail is
like that of a cow, being very short and having a few bristles
at the tip, and they twist it upward when they run. At the
knee they have natural garters of very long hair. In their
haunches, which resemble those of mules, they are hipped and
crippled, and they run therefore as already stated, in leaps, and
especially downhill. They are all of the same dark color, some-
what tawny, in parts their hair being almost black. Such is their
appearance, which at sight is far more ferocious than pen can
depict."
For one hundred years after Antonio de Espejo's journey
across the Big Bend no further incursions were made, except
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 37
a few small parties of slavers, who operated among the Indian
tribes near the junction of the Rio Grande and Conchos River.
This was due to the disturbed condition of the Indian
country under the jurisdiction of the Franciscan and Jesuit
fathers. In 1644, the Concho, Toboso, and Salinero Indians
drove back the Spanish outposts to Durango. Hardly had this
revolt been overcome, when, in 1648, the Tarahumares, a
powerful tribe dwelling on the eastern slope of the Sierra
Madres, revolted and forced the abandonment of practically
all of the Jesuit and Franciscan missions in northern Nueva
Viscaya, including those established along the Mexican Con-
chos and Rio Grande. But when peace was declared, after
four years of bloodshed, these brotherhoods resumed their
efforts with renewed energy to proselytize the savages.
While the Jumano Indians heretofore met by the Spaniards,
were those living in their rancherias, in the Conchos River
and Rio Grande district, their rancherias extended as far north
as the Arkansas River, and as far east as Central Texas. The
Spaniards, through traders who had come up from Monclova
into the country east of the Pecos River, possessed some knowl-
edge of these far-away Jumanos.
In the early part of 1683, a deputation was sent to El Paso,
by several Indian tribes living in the Big Bend and east of the
Pecos, among whom were the Jumanos and Tejas representa-
tives. The object of this commission was to encourage more
traders to come into the Indian country, and the return of the
fathers to teach the Indians Christianity. The deputation was
headed by a Christianized Jumano Indian of unusual intelli-
gence, Don Juan Sabeata. Governor Cruzate received the depu-
tation favorably, but the Franciscan fathers, who had but
recently suffered from Indian treachery, refused to go unless
they had stronger assurance of the Indians' sincerity.
Immediately, Sabeata dispatched Indian runners to the
various villages along the Conchos River and Rio Grande, as
well as to the rancherias east of the Pecos, with instructions
to the natives to build churches and houses for the use of the
padres. In an incredibly short time, these Indians returned
38 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
with the news that Sabeata's instructions had been carried out.
Upon this assurance the Franciscans agreed to take up work
among those Indians.
In the meantime, Governor Cruzate prepared an expedi-
tion, which he put in charge of Captain Juan Dominguez de
Mendoza, who, thirty years previously, had been among the
Jumanos, east of the Pecos. This expedition was clearly a
commercial enterprise. The Jumanos had asked for traders
and missionaries, and in this way the Spaniards expected to
profit both in commerce and in winning religious converts.
Don Juan de Sabeata, in order to impress more favorably
the Franciscans, on first reaching El Paso, had told them a
tale of the marvelous appearance of a cross in the sky near
La Junta the junction of the Conchos River and Rio Grande.
The place where the apparition was said to occur was later
named by the Spaniards, La Navidad en los Cruces. Sabeata
later confessed that the story was a pure fabrication, intended
to stir the Spaniards to action. His ruse succeeded so well,
however, that in early December, 1683, Captain Mendoza and
his expedition, accompanied by Father Zavelata and Father
Lopez, began their journey down the Rio Grande, to the junc-
tion of the Conchos River.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 39
CHAPTER IV
Mendoza's expedition is the first expedition into the Big
Bend of which we have a complete record. The worthy Cap-
tain, in his diary, gives a daily accounting for his movements.
On reaching La Junta, a term used to cover some half dozen
Indian pueblos, in the neighborhood of the junction of the
Conchos River and Rio Grande, Mendoza left Fathers Zava-
lata and Lopez. He then proceeded down the Rio Grande to
the mouth of the arroyo flowing from the north, which we
know to-day as Alamito Creek. It is easy to determine his
camping places from his description of the country. Every
landmark that he mentioned in his diary has been located
to-day, with the exception of a spring of hot water, the origin
of which was in a hill near Alamito Creek, about forty-five
miles above the mouth of the creek. In the great gap known
to-day as Paisano Pass, he found a reservoir of water, sufficient
to water any number of horses. Traveling through the Pass,
he followed the old Salt Lake trail to Comanche Springs. Here
he mentions killing three buffalo bulls one of the few times
we hear of buffalo in the Big Bend.
Eventually, Mendoza reached Horsehead Crossing. Here
he struck the rancherias of the Jediondos, who built him jacales
of tule, the reed grass so common along our creeks and water-
holes. He speaks also of this crossing as being on the trail
which leads to the Salt Lake, and he calls the Rio Pecos the
Rio Salado, or Salt River.
In time, he reached the villages of the Jumanos, and estab-
lished a mission, the ruins of which may to-day be seen near
San Saba, Texas.
Mendoza speaks of the Haupaches, who were the inveterate
enemies of the Jumanos, and who at this time were harassing
the Jumanos in their rancherias along the San Saba River.
The significance of Mendoza's journey among the Jumanos
40 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
was that the Spaniards came more frequently into the Big
Bend, both to trade and win religious converts.
After leaving the Jumanos, he crossed the country known
as the Kingdom of the Tejas; and upon his return to New
Spain, he carried the news of the French invasion in territory
which the Spaniards considered solely their own.
A brief survey of the map of Texas will show the observer
that the Big Bend, or Trans-Pecos, region is composed of nine
counties Terrell, Pecos, and Reeves, which border the Pecos
River on the west ; while Brewster, Presidio, Jeff Davis, Cul-
berson, Hudspeth, and El Paso Counties border the Rio Grande.
Some time between the Mendoza expedition, 1683, and the
year 1724, some slight changes took place in the names of Indian
tribes indigenous to the Big Bend. Instead of speaking of
the Jumanos, the Tobosos, the Salineros,, and other kindred
tribes, the records began to carry the names Comanche and
Apache. Just when this change took place, and why, is not
known. The territory occupied by the Comanches was iden-
tical with that occupied by the Jumanos ; and as no extended
Indian war is recorded which could have caused the Jumanos
to lose their territory, it can be accepted as a fact that the
Comanches are the descendants of the Jumano Indians.
Father Massenet, who made a journey in the Tejas country,
reiterated the statements made by Mendoza concerning the
encroachment of the French upon Spanish territory ; and the
fears of the Spaniards were regarded as well founded. The
French manner of approach was in strong contrast to that of
the Spaniard. The French kept their promises when once
made; the Spaniards did not. The French gained their ends
by diplomacy ; the Spaniards gained theirs by force ; and it is
but natural that of the two methods the Indians should prefer
the Frenchman's manner of approach.
In 1724, the first important French post was established
near the country inhabited by the Comanches. This was Fort
D'Orleans, established on the present site of St. Louis, Mis-
souri. In an extended visit among the Comanches on the
Kansas River, M. de Bourgmont sought to establish trade
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 41
relationship with all the tribes, ranging from Southwest Texas
to Northern Kansas. Of these tribes the Comanches were the
most powerful.
While the Spaniards spoke of the Comanches, the French
spoke of the Paducas. The word Paduca came to the French
through their intercourse with the Sioux Indians, whose name
for the Comanche was Padouca. The Comanche name for
themselves was Num "people."
M. de Bourgmont's description of the Comanches and their
customs was the first authentic record of this powerful and
warlike tribe. Those of the Comanches who lived far from
the Spaniards raised no grain, but lived solely by the chase.
They had permanent dwellings and large villages, composed
of cabins, each of which were occupied by several families.
From these villages they sent out hunters, sometimes to the
number of a thousand in a band.
On account of their long acquaintanceship with the Span-
iards, who had introduced the horse into America, these Indians
took more readily to the use of these animals than any of the
kindred tribes. Justly they have been called "The Horsemen
of the Plains."
The hunters were armed with bows and arrows. They
traveled three or four days' journey from the villages, where
they found herds of buffalo. The manner of carrying their
belongings on these hunting trips was to fasten the ends of
two poles, one on either side of a horse, with the rear ends
dragging the ground. On these poles were placed the packs,
and upon these rode the children. A man on horseback con-
ducted this party, and the hunters, women, and young people
marched freely and lightly along the trail. When they arrived
at the place of the hunt, they camped near a stream where both
water and wood were obtainable for cooking.
Next morning, each hunter mounted a horse and rode to
the nearest herd, having the wind to its back, the purpose of
the Indian being to allow the buffalo to discover him through
their delicate sense of smell, and start running from him. When
this was accomplished, the hunter followed them closely at a
42 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
gallop. Upon reaching the side of the animal he had chosen,
the hunter leaped to the ground and, with his arrows, shot the
buffalo behind the shoulder. Ordinarily, the cows were chosen
for beef. After the chase was over, the Indians, including the
women and children, joined in to skin and dismember the
carcasses. They boiled what meat was necessary for their
immediate wants, and, while the hunters returned to the chase,
the squaws smoked the remainder.
This nation raised neither corn, melons, nor tobacco, but
the Spaniards furnished them these provisions in return for
deer and buffalo skins. The villages nearest the Spaniards of
New Mexico had knives and hatchets made of steel, but those
farthest from the Spaniards had implements made only of flint.
The Comanche nation was very populous, and extended
from the Kansas River on the north to the Rio Grande on
the south. The particular village in which M. de Bourgmont
visited the head chiefs was composed of 140 cabins, where
lived 800 warriors, 1,500 women, and 2,000 children. When
these Indians lacked horses on which to carry their baggage,
they made use of large dogs, which they raised and trained
especially for this purpose.
The Paducas, or Comanches, were almost entirely desti-
tute of European articles of merchandise, for in 1724, natu-
rally, there were no manufactories in America. The men were
covered with breeches of old hides, the lower part of which
were bell-shaped, a fashion taken from the Spaniards. Unlike
the civilized woman, who has a variety of material from which
to make attractive clothing, the Indian woman wore a simple
garment of deer skin, fastened about the belt with a thong.
Before the arrival of M. de Bourgmont, these Indians knew
nothing of firearms, for the Spaniards were too crafty to give
such an advantage to a potential foe. When they went to war,
the Comanches rode horseback, and they covered their horses
with thick hides to protect them from arrows.
On the afternoon of October 20, 1724, M. de Bourgmont
made a treaty with the Comanches which had a most impor-
tant effect on the future destiny of the Big Bend country.
MR. AND MRS. FRANCIS ROONEY
The pioneer builders of Fort Stockton
DEATH OF BAJO-SOL
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 43
This pact remained unbroken up to the day the French with-
drew from the American continent. M. de Bourgmont prom-
ised guns and ammunition to the new allies, in trade for their
skins, and he paved the way for an aggressive campaign against
the Spaniards.
The attitude the Indian maintained towards both the French
and the Spaniards was made quite clear by the head chief of
the Comanches in his speech, in response to the speech of
M. de Bourgmont.
Before beginning his speech, the great chief said to the
interpreter that he would willingly give two fingers from his
hand to be able to make himself understood by the French chief.
"My father, my heart is crushed, as if it were between two
rocks," he said. "How can I speak so you may understand me ?
Can I speak as my heart wishes ? It would be better that my
heart had a mouth which could make itself understood. For
a long time bur hearts trembled like the leaves stirred by the
wind at the last cry of the night birds ; all our warriors were
on foot and could not sleep without arms in hand. Even the
young men hid away from discovery in the day. Hardly had
ceased falling the tears for a warrior slain, when they began
to fall for another; our women hardly dared to go hunt for
wood to cook something for us to eat, and our children, who
cried from hunger day and night; we hardly dared to go to
the chase, since the sun was red, the time was dark, the roads
were covered with briars and thorns, the muddy water hid
from us the fish, the game fled far from our villages, and we
had lean bellies and hollow jaws. The birds which perched
above us seemed from their mournful singing to sing over us
as they sing over the dead.
"But to-day, my father, you bring us the beautiful days.
How serene is the sky, how bright the sun ! The roads are
cleared, the water is no longer muddy, the game comes back.
Our women begin to laugh, to dance, and to prepare food at
their ease ; our children begin to run and leap like the fawns
of the deer; and living in peace with those who have been
our enemies, we will march without fear on the same road,
44 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
the same sun will light the way for us, we will feast together
as brothers, and, although our nations are far apart, we will
be as if we lived together, each of us carrying the other in his
heart.
"Ah ! What a happy day which has brought you among us,
my father. Much will our descendants remember you, when
they will call up thy name and the bounty of thy sovereign,
who sent you here to bring us peace and those beautiful mer-
chandises. Can we ever forget the bounty of the French heart,
who gave us everything without price ? All that has been told
me of the French is nothing compared to what I see. I have
heard good reports of the French bravery, but you have proved
even more in giving us frightful arms, of which the noise alone
makes us to tremble.
"The Spaniards on the contrary trade us horses of which
they have so many that they do not know what to do with them ;
on the other hand, they will only trade us some poor hatchets
of soft iron, and some little knives, of which often they break
the point for fear that we may use it some day against them,
and they only give us something which they trade to us very
dear. How different are the French from the Spaniards, of
whom I know nothing more from now than this earth" here
the chief stopped and picked up a handful of dirt, which he
threw in the direction of the Spanish Southwest "while I
regard the French as the sun !" pointing to it with his other
hand.
The descendants of this old chief made good his word.
From this year, 1724, until the Spanish withdrew from the
Southwest, a century later, the Comanches gave them and their
proselytized Indian adherents no peace.
While on their East the Spaniards had proper cause to be
jealous of the French, from the Big Bend of Texas to the
Pacific Ocean, they remained unmolested. By the year 1760,
Durango, Southern Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Sonora were held
by the Spaniards, and with these points as their bases of opera-
tion they extended a network of presidios, or army posts, far
into the Indian country to the north.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 45
Since the first Spaniards had entered the Big Bend of Texas,
they had confined their operations to the great waterways the
Gonchos River and the Rio Grande. In the territory extending
from Paso del Norte to La Junta, there were approximately
one hundred thousand Indians, many of whom were farmers
and stock raisers. The Spaniards had brought in oxen and
the domestic cow, which, like the horse and mule, multiplied
rapidly and gradually became very common among the Indians.
Eventually, the Viceroy of New Spain found it expedient to
throw a line of presidios along the banks of these rivers. The
presidio at El Paso had been moved by Governor Cruzate,
from twenty miles below the pass, to a point opposite the old
Hart mill, above the present Mexican town of Juarez. In 1760,
the presidio of Belen was founded and garrisoned by fifty men.
This presidio occupied the present site of Ojinaga, Mexico.
In 1773, the presidio system was reorganized, and six pre-
sidios erected, which extended along the Rio Grande from
Cerro Gordo, known to-day as San Carlos, to Carrizal, Mexico.
In this year, the presidio at Huajuquilla was moved to Valle de
San Elceario, known to-day as San Elizario, three miles south
of Clint, Texas. About midway between San Carlos and San
Elceario, on the Rio Grande, was located the Presidio de
Pilares. The aim of the Government was to have five "flying
companies," which could be quickly switched from one presidio
to another, as the exigencies of the situation demanded.
The presidio San Vicente, the ruins of which to-day may be
seen on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande between Boquillas
a>nd Glenn Springs, was founded in 1780.
There was no one determinate thing which brought about
the end of the presidios and the missions. It had been the policy
of the Spanish crown to furnish protection to the Franciscan
and Jesuit brotherhoods in their work. In return for this
protection, from mine and field the royal treasury was amply
rewarded for its concessions to these brotherhoods.
In 1794, the strength of the Spanish padres began to wane.
The dates of their withdrawal from the Rio Grande and Con-
chos River territory varied. In 1795, the presidio of Guadalupe
46 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
was suppressed, and the garrisons of the various other pre-
sidios began to dwindle away. The changes incident to the
Hidalgo revolution, in 1810, in Mexico, heralded and brought
about the end of the presidio system on the Rio Grande. After
Hidalgo's defeat, in 1811, the presidios were never restored.
Up to that time the presidios had flourished. The soldiers,
under the commanding officers at Presidio del Norte, San Carlos,
Pilares, and San Vicente, lived with their families, in their own
homes, tending their small farms or herding their goats. Some-
times, at irregular intervals, they were called upon to drill.
At other times, at even less regular intervals, they were called
upon to fight Indians. Acting, in a way, as a sort of militia,
these few remnants of the former glory of Spanish soldiery
garrisoned the presidios.
Coincident with the revolution of Hidalgo, the religious
brotherhoods fell into disrepute with the Spanish government.
Less attention was paid to the presidios, and the missions were
abandoned; the practice of forwarding the Catholic religion
by keeping soldiers with the padres, died out. The garrisons
were not renewed with new blood, and gradually the men died
or were killed by Indians, and others moved away or were
recalled.
Of these old presidios, that of Del Norte, which to-day is
Ojinaga, was the last to disappear with the dust of time. Prob-
ably this presidio was abandoned and reoccupied several times.
In 1820, the mother of John Burgess was in Presidio del Norte,
when three hundred Apaches entered the village and killed
many inhabitants. This occurred at an interval when the sol-
diers had been withdrawn to Chihuahua City. On record in
the Land Office in Ojinaga were two land titles, under date of
1828 and 1835, respectively, which bear the signature of El
Capitan Jose I. Benquillo. It is highly probable that this officer
was the last commander of the decayed presidio system along
the Rio Grande.
Valle de Piedra, commonly called Valpiedra, is still a small
settlement situated between Ojinaga and Pilares. Originally
it was a penal colony. It was founded on the site of irrigated
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 47
farms, and convicts from both Presidio del Norte and Chi-
huahua were sent there to work. Concessions were given by
the government to certain prominent men, sometimes to com-
manders of the garrison itself, and it might be noted that in
this latter case very often the commanders would increase their
labor by their own judicial decisions, when necessary.
There is no definite date available as to the time of the
establishment of Valle de Piedra, but it was the last one of
the old colonies to be in operation. Cotton was the usual crop,
and during the days of the Civil War, the cotton was shipped
to northern markets. At the close of the Civil War, when
the South resumed cotton planting, Valle de Piedra lost its
importance.
One other old ruin known as Old Fortin, which was settled
in 1848 by Ben Leaton, and which to-day is owned by John
Burgess, was at one time one of the seven presidios located in
the vicinity of the junction of the Conchos River and the Rio
Grande.
As early as 1800, trappers and hunters came to Presidio del
Norte, to trap beaver on the Conchos River, but the Mexican
authorities turned them back. From 1820 to 1850, the St. Louis
Fur Company and Bent Fur Trading Company had a few trap-
pers and hunters in the country, but very little can be told about
their activities.
The Santa Fe Trail had been in operation since 1822, and
ran south from Santa Fe, New Mexico, through Paso del Norte,
to Chihuahua City. With a view of encouraging commercial
development and finding a shorter route than the Santa Fe
Trail from Chihuahua City to the Red River frontier of
Arkansas, the Mexican Government agreed to reduce the im-
port duties to a very low rate in favor of a pioneer enterprise,
and to furnish an escort of dragoons for the protection of the
traders. An American merchant, Dr. H. Connelly, and a num-
ber of wealthy Mexicans undertook the adventurous trip. The
caravan set out from Chihuahua City, April 3, 1839. ft con-
sisted of 100 men, including 50 dragoons. There were seven
wagons in all, 700 mules, and from $200,000 to $300,000 in
48 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
specie and bullion. Following the Conchos River, as did the
old Spanish explorers, they crossed the Rio Grande at Presidio
del Norte. They kept the old Salt Lake Trail, to Horsehead
Crossing, and met with no greater accident between the Cross-
ing and Fort Townsend than to confuse the Red River with
the Brazos.
It was the intention of the adventurers to return to Chi-
huahua the ensuing fall, but, suffering much delay, they did
not get started until the following spring. On the return trip,
the caravan consisted of sixty or seventy wagons, laden with
merchandise, and about 225 men, including their escort, the
Mexican dragoons. After being lost, by missing their old trail
in the "Cross Timbers," they finally reached the Pecos River,
where, in contrast with its small flow of water to-day, they were
compelled to use water-kegs to float their wagons across. At
the Pecos, they met a large body of Comanches, but their
number was sufficient to make the Indians appear friendly.
Upon reaching Presidio del Norte, or Ojinaga, they learned
that General Irogoyen, with whom they had celebrated the
contract for diminution of their duty, had died in their absence.
The new commander insisted on the payment of the full duty,
which would have caused financial disaster to the expedition.
After a delay of forty-five days at Presidio, they made a com-
promise ; and on the 27th day of August, 1840, safely reached
Chihuahua City.
The delays and accumulated expenses of the expedition
caused such disastrous results to those interested that it was
nine years before the Chihuahua Trail became a generally used
highway.
George F. Ruxton, a noted English traveler, throws con-
siderable light on Indian conditions in, and adjoining, the Big
Bend of the Rio Grande, in the years 1845-46, gained in travel-
ing through the danger zone of Northern Mexico.
In Ruxton's time, the city of Durango was considered the
Ultima Thule of the civilized portion of Mexico. Beyond it,
to the north and northwest, stretched away the vast uncultivated
and unpeopled plains of Chihuahua, the Bolson de Mapimi, and
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 49
the arid deserts of the Gila. In these wild regions, the hostile
tribes of Indians had their dwelling-places, from which they
continually descended upon the border settlements and hacien-
das, drove off the herds of horses and mules, and barbarously
killed the unarmed peasantry. This warfare if warfare it
could be called, where the aggression and bloodshed were on
one side only, and passive endurance on the other had existed
from time immemorial; and the wonder is, that the country
had not long before been abandoned by the persecuted inhabit-
ants, who at all seasons were subjected to their attacks.
The Apaches, whose country bordered upon the Department
of Durango, were untiring and incessant in their hostility
against the whites; and, being near neighbors, were enabled
to act with great rapidity and unawares against the haciendas
and ranches on the frontier. They were a treacherous and
cowardly race of Indians, and seldom attacked even the Mexi-
cans, save by treachery and ambuscade. When they had carried
off a number of horses and mules, sufficient for their present
wants, they sent a deputation to the governors of Durango and
Chihuahua, to express their anxiety for peace. This was
invariably granted them, and, when en paz f they resorted to the
frontier villages, and even the capital of the Department, for
the purpose of trade and amusement. The animals they had
stolen in Durango and Chihuahua, they found a ready market
for in New Mexico and Sonora; and this traffic was most
unblushingly carried on, and countenanced by the authorities
of the respective states.
But the most formidable enemy, and most feared and
dreaded by the inhabitants of Durango and Chihuahua, were
the warlike Comanches, who descended from their distant
prairie country beyond the Pecos River, at certain seasons of
the year. Annually, these Indians undertook regularly organ-
ized expeditions into these states, and frequently into the inte-
rior, as far as the vicinity of Sombrerete, Durango, for the
purpose of procuring animals and slaves, carrying off the young
boys and girls, and massacring the adults in the most wholesale
and barbarous manner.
50 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
So regular were these expeditions, that in the Comanche
calendar the month of September was known as the Mexican
moon, as the other months were designated the buffalo moon,
the young bear moon, the corn moon, etc. They generally
invaded the country in three different divisions, with two to
five hundred warriors in each. One, the most southern, passed
the Rio Grande between the old presidio of San Juan and the
mouth of the Pecos, and harried the fertile plains and wealthy
haciendas of El Valle de San Bartolome, the Rio Florido, San
Jose del Parral, and the Rio Nasas. Every year their incur-
sions extended farther, into the interior, as the frontier hacien-
das became depopulated by their ravages, and the villages
deserted and laid waste. For days together, in Bolson de
Mapimi, Ruxton says that he traversed a country deserted on
this account, and passed through ruined villages, untrodden for
years by the foot of man.
The central division entered between the Presidio del Norte
and Monclova, where they joined the party coming in from
the North, and passed the mountains of Mapimi and traversed
a desert country destitute of water, where they suffered the
greatest privations, ravaged the valleys of Mapimi, Guajo-
quilla, and Chihuahua, and even the haciendas at the foot of the
Sierra Madre.
It appears incredible that no steps were taken to protect the
country from those invasions, which did not take the inhabit-
ants unawares, but at certain and regular seasons and from
known points. Troops were employed nominally to check the
Indians, but very rarely attacked them, although the Comanches
gave them every opportunity, and, thoroughly despising them,
met them on the open field, and with equal numbers almost
invariably defeated the regular troops.
The people themselves were unable to offer any resistance,
however well inclined they were to do so, as it was the policy
of the Government to keep them unarmed; and, being un-
acquainted with the use of weapons, when placed in their hands,
they had no confidence, and offered but feeble resistance. So
perfectly aware of this fact were the Comanches, that they
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 51
never hesitated to attack superior numbers. When in small
parties the Mexicans never resisted, even if armed, but fell
upon their knees and begged for mercy. Sometimes, however,
goaded by the murder of their families and friends, the ran-
cheros collected together, and, armed with bows and arrows,
and slings and stones, went out to meet the Indians, and were
slaughtered like sheep.
In the years 1845-1846, the Indians were more audacious
than in previous years. It may be that they were rendered
more daring by the knowledge of the war between the United
States and Mexico, and the supposition that the troops would,
consequently, be withdrawn from the scene of their operations.
They overran the whole Departments of Durango and Chi-
huahua, cut off all communications, and defeated, in two pitched
battles, the regular Mexican troops sent against them. Upward
of ten thousand head of horses and mules were carried off, in
those two years ;- scarcely a hacienda or rancho on the frontier
was left unvisited ; and everywhere the people were killed or
captured. The roads were made impassable, all traffic was
stopped, the ranchos were barricaded, and the inhabitants were
afraid to venture out of their doors. The posts and expresses
traveled at night, avoiding the roads, and news came daily of
massacres and harryings.
52 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
CHAPTER V
After the decay of the presidio system, the mightiest and
most dangerous tribe of Indians in the Big Bend were the
Comanches. Their wanderings and forays spread over an
immense territory. By preference, their fixed seats of abode
were chiefly in the rocky highlands which stretch between the
upper part of the Red River and the Rio Grande. East and
west, they extended from the San Saba Valley to the thickly
settled portion of New Mexico, which was given over to the
Apaches, the inveterate enemies of the Comanches. However,
they were great wanderers and often were known to roam
along the banks of the Arkansas River on the north, and to
the interior of Durango, Mexico, on the south.
They were essentially a hunter folk, without enduring
homes, and no liking for agriculture. They continually wan-
dered about in this immense territory, following the march of
the buffalo, north and east of the Pecos River, and to a great
extent their manner of living was fixed by this running wild
cattle. Year in and year out, the meat of the buffalo was their
main food. Even the two-year-old children were fed "jerkey"
buffalo meat cut in narrow strips and dried by the sun.
The only plant food which they occasionally ate, appeared to
be the inch-thick root of a specie of the pea, sometimes called
Indian bread-root. At one time this bread-root was quite
common along the banks of the San Saba River, at the timber's
edge. Very naturally, the need and want of provisions was
frequently felt by a people solely accustomed to the chase ; and
in them was bred a natural indolence and carelessness, which,
at certain seasons, caused great suffering from hunger. In such
straits, which happened often when they were on their period-
ical forays and could not devote the time to the chase, they
killed a horse or a mule.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 53
Owing to the fact that they trusted to Nature and their
ability to kill a sufficient number of buffalo for their sustenance,
they were prevented from gathering together in any consider-
able number. Had this not been so, it is doubtful if the white
settlers, who pushed their way into the hunting-ground of the
Comanches, could have withstood the forays of the Indians.
Just as essentially as they were a hunter folk, they were a
wandering folk. All their chief pursuits were carried on by
the horse. They fought, hunted, and traveled on a horse. It is
needless to say that they were expert horsemen, and often in
battle it was observed that as they rushed upon their enemy,
their horses running full speed, they swung to the far side,
shooting at their foes from the under-side of the horse's neck,
and exposing no part of their body but their foot, the heel of
which was hooked over the horse's withers.
The women sat astride the horses just as the men did, and
rode scarcely less skillfully. The horses were, necessarily, of
the breed brought into the country by the Spaniards, and, while
not imposing in appearance, were capable of great endurance.
In part, these horses were raised by the Indians, and, in part,
they were captured on their forays into Mexico, or stolen from
the Texas settlers. The stealing of horses they justified by
saying that it was manifestly an injustice on the part of the
Great Spirit that He had given so many horses to the white
men, who were so trifling in number, while they themselves
had received so few ; and they sought to equalize this disparity
as much as possible.
Perhaps no race of Indians had their mode of living so
greatly changed as had the Comanches by the coming of the
Spaniards. From that first moment when they learned to use
the horse, dates all the peculiarities and terms of their later
material existence.
The weapons of the Comanches were bows, arrows, and the
long lance. Their bows, four feet in length, were manufac-
tured from the bois d'arc, which was indigenous to East Texas
and Arkansas. The arrows were two feet in length and were
carried on the back of the warrior, in a quiver made of horse-
54 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
hide, and, sometimes, of cougar or jaguar skin. The earlier
arrow-points were of flint ; but long years before the Apaches
began to use the iron points, the Comanches adopted them
through trading with the Spaniards. The arrow-head was
attached to the shaft by means of a thong or deer tendon, and
was so held that after an arrow was embedded in an object,
the shaft might be removed but the arrow-head would remain.
So skillful were the Indians with the bow and arrow that while
a bullet would often fail to penetrate the buffalo's hide, some-
times the arrow was shot with such force that it protruded
from the opposite side of the animal. The lance, which varied
in length from six to ten feet, was spiked with an elongated
iron point, which was manufactured in many cases from a
hundred-year-old Toledo sword-blade. Occasionally, however,
but not sufficiently common to be of great importance at this
period, the Comanches were provided with the American long
rifle, but at no time was the rifle in the hands of a Comanche
so dangerous as his home-made bow and arrow.
The clothing of the Comanche was not greatly different
from that of other North American Indians. It consisted
usually of leggings, moccasins, the breech clout, or "flap," and
the buffalo-skin, or woolen cloth, which covered the whole body
as a cloak. Often they wore, besides, a tight, close-fitting
jacket or short shirt of buckskin, split in front, called gamusas.
The women were clothed in a short dress or tunic of deer
leather, which was often adorned with embroidery and loose
hanging metal pieces. Besides this, they wore moccasins and
short leggings. The women cut their hair moderately short,
but the men wore their hair long, either flowing over the back
or hanging in ornamented plait. For head-covering they had
in general as little as the other Indian races.
The popular conception of an Indian is a dark-skinned,
haughty-countenanced person, with a great head-dress, out of
which rises the tail feathers of the eagle; but amongst the
southern and western Indians, the heat from the sun's rays
prohibited the use of anything on the head, except, possibly,
a band of gaudy cloth, tied around their heads to keep their
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 55
hair from blowing into their eyes. Although deer and buffalo
skins were chosen, when possible, for the clothing of the
Comanches, yet woolen and cotton shirts, and other articles of
American manufacture, were often found among them ; such
articles coming from the Government through exchange at the
trading-posts, for skins. In the main, their clothing was less
neat and spruce than that of their neighbors, the Lipan Apaches.
In bodily structure, the Comanche was seldom handsomely
built, usually being squat of stature and crooked of limb. They
could in no way compare with the half-civilized Delaware and
Shawnees, among whom handsome forms and high-bred, noble
countenances were frequently seen. The Comanche women
were small and undersized, and only in first youth, well- formed
and of pleasing countenance. They faded early, due in part to
the series of hard bodily labor which fell to their lot, and to
their naturally exposed manner of living. In contrast, were
the little children, with coal black, fiery eyes, glistening dark
hair and brown complexions, through which the bright red of
the cheeks showed a happy, healthy youngster, as a rule, who
was handled with great tenderness by the older people. As
was the usual custom with the Indian mother of other tribes,
the Comanche mother carried her little one on her back,
wrapped in skins and laced up on a board.
In comparison with other Indian races, the Comanches
stood out as possessing great contempt for the enjoyment of
spirituous drinks. It is well known that distilled drinks gave
all other North American Indians passionate enjoyment, and
that firewater, which was brought to them by unscrupulous
traders, often in the form of alcohol, was next to smallpox in
evil. The Comanches not only rejected spirits for themselves,
but scorned all others who used intoxicants. Von Roemer, who
had extensive dealings with these Indians about 1840, said that
while in San Antonio, Texas, he watched a pair of Comanches
viewing a drunken Delaware Indian, who was reeling along the
street, and that he never forgot the expression of deep con-
tempt which showed on their countenances. Perhaps, this one
trait in the Comanche people caused the general fear and
56 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
respect for them as fighters, which was so widely felt, both
by the white settlers and their red foes.
The villages of the Southern Comanches were composed of
tents or tepees. These tents were excellent for their purpose
and comfortably arranged. They were of cone-shaped form
and twelve to fourteen feet high; the material of which they
were constructed was the tanned buffalo-hide. Several hides
were sewed together and spread over the framework of long
tent-poles, which crossed each other at a point near the top.
From the ground up to this point, extended a small chink,
which was covered in time of storm by two flaps. Through
this chink escaped the smoke of the fire, placed in the center
of the lodge. A bear-skin formed the flap to the entrance.
All tents were so placed that the smoke-hole and the doors lay
towards the prevailing direction of the wind. Buffalo-skins
and bear-skins were spread on the ground, which formed the
floor of the lodge, and in a circle sat the family of the house-
hold the master on a bear-skin opposite the door, where he
could observe what was passing without ; at his side his wife,
occupied with the care of the children, or working bead em-
broidery. In the center of the tent was a round hole in the
earth, upon which the household cooking was done. From the
cross-points of the tent-poles, in the peak of the tent, was a
leather thong fastened to a tent peg, driven in the ground,
which served to give greater strength to the structure and
prevent its being overturned by wind-storms.
3 In point of bravery, the Comanches stand high above the
Apaches. While the latter attacked their enemy almost always
in ambush, and were concealed as much as possible, on the
contrary the Comanches shirked not to stand in open field
against the whites. Many times has this been verified.
Von Roemer, commenting upon the fact of the Comanches'
bravery, cites as an example an incident which occurred at
San Antonio, while Lamar was President of Texas. The
Comanches had been long at war with the Texans, without
either side gaining material advantage. Because of this, the
situation became burdensome to the Texans, and they decided,
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 57
if possible, to make a treaty of peace with the Indians. With
this in view, they invited the chiefs of the Comanches to a peace
conference, at San Antonio; and at the same time summoned
the Indians to bring along their captives, for whose freedom
the Texans would negotiate. As a result of this summons,
some fifteen chiefs appeared in San Antonio at the time set;
but they left behind the captives in a camp many miles from
the town.
The peace conference began, and, conformably, the first
day was spent debating the amount of ransom to be paid for
the captives. On the following day, the prisoners were not
only not produced, as the Indians had promised, but the chiefs
demanded a higher ransom. Broken up over this breach of
good faith, the Texas officer, presiding, declared to the chiefs
that they themselves would be held back as prisoners until they
had produced their captives.
The moment they heard they were prisoners, the head chief
raised the war-cry and shot one of the Texas commissioners
through the breast with an arrow. The others followed his
example, and before the Texans could make use of their weap-
ons, many of them were dead or wounded. Still, the Texans
outnumbered the Indians, and, aided by the armed guard held
ready in front of the assembly-house for such an emergency,
they succeeded in killing all but one of the Indians. This last
Indian broke through and fled into a stone house, in which he
long defended himself. Then, for a second time breaking
through the multitude besieging the house, he escaped. When
the fight first began a thirteen-year-old son of the chief was
playing in front of the door of the assembly-house ; when the
war-cry of his tribe reached his ears, he sprang up, and, with
his small bow and arrow, shot down one of the Texans who was
hastening towards the council-house.
Von Roemer, whose relations with the Comanches covered
an extended period, gives an interesting and informative account
of a visit to the Comanches, under the chiefs, Ocol, Buffalo
Hump, and Santa Anna. This latter chief was quite friendly
with the whites. He had shortly returned from a trip to
58 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
Washington, at the time Von Roemer visited him, and he had
brought back a full impression of the power of the white people
an impression the Government desired to make by having
several of the Indian chiefs visit the capital.
As Von Roemer got within a half mile of the Indian camp,
a representative of the chiefs, splendidly dressed and carrying
a flag, met him and ceremoniously escorted him to the lodges
set aside for him and his party. Hardly had the white men
settled themselves, when a great number of men, women, and
children gathered around them to get a look at "the white
strangers. Already, they began to eat and steal little things,
and to be very troublesome, a practice which in the following
days, through greedy crowding, became still worse. The whites
let their horses run free after the chief gave them the promise
that none would be stolen. "That we found them all again on
our departure," says Von Roemer, "is certainly a noteworthy
evidence of the reliability of the Comanches when they have
once pledged their hospitality, especially when it is considered
that such horses as those of ours are a treasure for any Indian,
for whose winning he is gladly ready to risk his life.
"Very early in the evening," continues Von Roemer, "our
Indian hosts took themselves back and left us to rest, but which
we could not soon find, so excited were we by the multiplied
impressions of the day."
When the whites awoke on the following morning, they
saw before their tents their new friends, the three chiefs, seated
by the rekindled fire, waiting patiently for their appearance.
They were very soon convinced, however, that this early visit
was not only to wish them a good morning in Comanche-
land, but that also a much more solid design lay at the bottom
a square meal. The so-called Comanche hospitality was more
often a negative kind, although, with the exception of a few
trifling articles, the Indians committed no theft against their
guests. It was highly amusing to see how Santa Anna, a power-
ful man in his best years, lingered near the supply of provisions,
and used flattering words and signs in order to obtain sweet-
meats. As an excuse for the importunity, however, it was
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 59
evident to the whites that the Indian camp contained no provi-
sions except a little buffalo meat.
This particular camp was composed of one hundred and
fifty tents, of different sizes, which were dispersed, without
order, along the edge of the wood. One of these tents, in which
all official business was conducted, was set apart from the
others, and before the entrance was placed a shield, a peculiar
head-dress of buffalo-skin, with the buffalo-horns and a lance
on it. These weapons so placed were "medicine" and were
sacred to the religious mysteries, for which reason no one
dared to touch them.
On this trip of inspection, as Von Roemer and his party
approached a tent, they were always welcomed by the sullen
barks of a number of vicious, lean dogs, who stole cowardly
away when one went straight toward them. Everywhere they
saw the busy squaws occupied with the housework. Some
twisted ropes of horse-hair, used for tying horses; others
plaited leather straps or lassoes from small strips of horse-
hide ; still others worked the hard buffalo-hide into use, from
which they cut off the still clinging fleshy and fatty parts from
the inner sides with a hook-shaped, short-handled work-tool;
others were cleaning house, and farther away a squaw was
leading into camp a pack-horse loaded with venison.
At another place a number of women were engaged in
taking down tents and packing them on mules. A mule packed
with skins on the back, with a thick bundle twelve feet long,
and the tent-poles dragging on the ground behind, presented a
strange sight to the members of the white party. One of the
most easily read Indian signs, which usually marks an Indian
expedition, was the trail which the dragging tent-poles left
behind on the ground.
While on their review of the village, the whites were offered
different objects for trade. One could get a good buffalo-skin
for a woolen horse-blanket ; a smaller skin of the grey fox or
civet-cat for a small portion of salt or corn ; and Von Roemer
mentioned that he exchanged a leather lasso for a small quan-
tity of cinnibar, which must have been obtained in the Ter-
60 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
lingua district, Brewster County, Texas, as that was the only
country inhabited by the Comanches where cinnibar has been
found. The general preference of the Indians was always for
purely decorative things or trinkets of no practical use.
About the village, grazed easily one thousand horses, many
of which, including some mules, bore Mexican brands. One
distinction about the Comanche horses was that the points of
their ears were slit.
Toward noon of that day, the Indians arranged a council
with the whites, to which assembled the three head chiefs and
the most conspicuous warriors. Ocol, the first head chief, who
attended to all political matters, was a small, insignificant-
looking man, in a dirty cotton jacket, and his only distinguishing
trait was a sly, diplomatic face. Different from him was the
war chief, Santa Anna, a strong man with a benevolent and
sprightly countenance. The third chief, Buffalo Hump, pre-
sented the real, typical picture of the North American Indian.
Real, because, unlike most of his tribal kin, he disdained Euro-
pean clothes. With the upper part of his body naked, a buffalo-
skin wrapped around the hips, yellow brass rings on the arms, a
string of beads about the throat, the long, coarse black hair
hanging down, he sat in the council with a stern, apathetic
expression of countenance popularly conceived to belong only
to the typical savage.
As the council began, the women and children drew away
from the circle to a more decorous distance, and formed a
gayly-colored background for the assemblage. In the middle
of the circle, lay a small pile of tobacco, and a pipe. This an
Indian picked up, filled with tobacco, and, after he had lighted
it, took a couple of puffs, then sent it around the circle. Twice
around the peace pipe went, with the silence remaining un-
broken ; after this ceremony, the Comanches entered into the
negotiations for a peace treaty with the possible settlers.
In the evening following the negotiations, which had been
successfully carried out, the party of whites were treated to a
customary spectacle. A number of horsemen in festive attire
formed into a procession, which filed slowly past the camp of
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 61
the white men. The faces of the warriors were painted red,
and on their heads they wore remarkable head-dresses of
buffalo-skins, with the horns still on them. They were the
same head-dresses that had been seen in front of the tents. In
one hand, each warrior carried a long lance, daubed in red;
in the other, a round shield of tanned buffalo-hide, with gay
colors daubed, and bordered with a margin of different feath-
ers, which, when the shield was swung, fluttered in the breeze.
The horses shared in the grotesque appearance of their riders,
as they were colored a most fiery red on tail and head. So
paraded this fantastic procession many times before the tents
of the whites, then they passed away in a long gallop, and
disappeared in the darkness.
It was an expedition of young warriors leaving on a war
trip or, more correctly, a robbing and plundering trip
against Mexico, " who wished to show their white visitors
something of their strength and preparedness for trouble.
An idea of the general condition in 1840 may be gained
through Von Roemer's comment :
"The uncertainty and misery. in the Mexican border prov-
inces of Coahuila, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, in which these
Indians make their regular inroads, must be boundless. If a
stronger authority does not take the place of the present in
Mexico, then these provinces under the Spanish dominion,
which tried to hold in check the strong, ever-robbing tribes,
will be gradually devastated and depopulated. As a result,
always more encouraged, the Indians will spread their forays
into the heart of the Mexican lands. Probably an energetic
movement of all the provinces will not be sooner than a peace-
able or warlike 'robbery' brings Texas, New Mexico and Upper
California under the banner of the United States. We saw
among the Comanches all kinds of movable property, stolen in
Mexico, costly woolen cloths, mules, horses and bridles; also
captive Mexicans, sometimes women and children. Some lived
so long already among the Indians that they feel no wish to
return to their native people, and which are therefore not
handled any longer as prisoners. A young Mexican was brought
62 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
by us from his owner, who was dissatisfied with him, for the
small piece of forty dollars."
The morning after the treaty, an amusing incident occurred,
at least amusing to Von Roemer and his companions. An old
man appeared before the chiefs and complained with woeful
look that the same young people who had held the warlike
proceedings the evening before had stolen his wife from him,
and two of his best horses, and had taken them away. The
chiefs advised him to set out with some other young people, and
to take back his stolen goods.
Late that evening, the old man returned, with satisfaction
expressed in every seam of his face, and related that he had
found the war party at no great distance, and, while they were
occupied in drying the flesh of horses for their journey, he had
surprised them, regained his wife, also a span of good mules,
and made off with them. The wife was still young-looking and
not ill-favored. To the question why he did not cut off her
nose, he replied that he was glad enough to get her back. As a
punishment for unfaithfulness, it was generally the custom
among the Comanches to mutilate the guilty woman in this
fashion, and then to repudiate her. Von Roemer relates that
he saw many such women, with noses cut off and with short,
bristly hair.
"The Southern Comanches were distinguished from the
Northern Comanches, who held their rancherias on the Purga-
toire and other branches of the Arkansas River, in Colorado.
The Southern Comanches, from the hills under the staked
plains in Texas, had been, at the time of the war of Mexico
with the United States, for many years incessantly raiding the
Mexican border states. So long had this continued that the
younger generations had been reared, trained in all the arts and
practices of predatory warfare, and had become accustomed to
consider raiding into Mexico as their future hope of gain and
distinction.
"The scenes of their life of rapine lay in the semi-arid Big
Bend region ; and in this country there is usually an abundance
Quoted from O. W. Williams.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 63
of rain in the months of August and September, when the
grasses start into vigorous growth and the charcos pools
formed from rain-water are full of water all across the desert
wastes. So, in the month of September of each year, when
the moon became full, the war parties of young, ambitious
bucks began to trail across the four hundred miles of wild
country which lay between the Llano Estacado the staked
plains and the homes of the vaqueros and farmers in Durango
and Chihuahua.
"Magnificent horsemen as they were, a half-wild horse
taken from some herd of mustangs, a bit with a rawhide rein
for bridle, and a tanned sheep-skin or a patch of buffalo-hide
for a stirrupless saddle, the long trip over thorny plains and
through stony mountains was to them a festive occasion.
"With a bow of Osage orange wood bois d'arc and arrows
of the river reeds, or the 'vara dulce/ slung over the shoulder
in quivers of lynx-hides ; carrying the lance of ash- wood shod
with iron and resting across the saddle with the chimal, or
shield, of the buffalo-hide, fringed with turkey feathers ; and
occasionally an old Spanish escopeta, with a bell-shaped muzzle,
much resembling the muzzle of a trombone a gun which shot
a slug of lead as large as a quail egg slung under the leg in
a rawhide case ; with a Bowie knife from Texas, or a machete
from Mexico, carried anywhere room could be made, these
freebooters of the plains were ready to fight any foe.
"Each year, in the light of the Mexican moon for so they
came to term the September full moon the Comanche war
trail swarmed with parties of these barbaric warriors, in troops
of a half dozen to a hundred and more, including outlaws from
many other tribes and even renegades from Mexico, who hur-
ried forward to the carnival of bloodshed and rapine on the
south side of the Rio Grande.
"The trail carried them over the southeastward shoulder of
the great Llano Estacado, where, for a hundred miles, nothing
was to be seen but the open, grassy plain tenanted only by the
jack-rabbit and antelope, and sentinelled by the gull and hawk,
down through the terraced pass, the Castle Gap, just above the
64 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
Pecos River, into the wide mesquite plains of the Pecos River,
across Horsehead Crossing, on past the noted Comanche Springs
into the mesa-topped limestone hills, then into the mountains of
burnt rocks monuments of primeval fires and over the Rio
Grande into the promised land. Here the parties diverged,
each to its own chosen area. One scourged the fertile valleys
of the Conchos River, up to the very walls of Chihuahua City ;
others carried fire and lance into the confines of Durango;
some went to the mines, some to the farming valleys, but most
of them sought the haciendas, where they might find horses and
cattle, the great source of savage wealth.
"Along in November or December, following, the parties
began to return. The great Comanche war-trail then again
presented an animated picture. A party here would be driving
a herd of cattle; a party there, a troop of half-wild horses.
In another band might be seen a small train of captives, 'laced
like Mazeppa to a Tartar of the Ukraine breed/ and herded
and driven as any other beasts devoted to man's use. There
might be a great prairie fire started by a party of raiders to
escape pursuers, while the party itself deflected from the main
trail.
"But there was no way to cover or hide the Great Trail itself.
It was worn deep by the hoofs of countless travelers, man and
beast, and was whitened by the bones of many animals. It was
a great chalk line on the map of West Texas, cutting through
the heart of the Big Bend.
"Among the habitual tenants of this great trail, the Coman-
ches were easily the lords. Their flag of sovereignty was
lowered to one necessity only the lingua franca of the Trail
the Spanish language. This concession was granted because
the Kiowa, the Utah, the Cheyenne, the Apache, and Comanche,
each in time, learned some Spanish from his Mexican captive,
while the captive in turn became a good Indian, and at the
same time a good interpreter; so it came about, as has so
often happened among the languages of the world, that the
tongue of the vanquished became the tongue of the war trail.
This was aided and supplemented in many ways by the sign
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 65
language common to the Indians of the Spanish Southwest, so
that on the trail these Indians of divers races and tongues had
a common language which was foreign to each one of them.
"Among these lords of the war trail, Tave Tuk, or as he was
generally called, Bajo el Sol, the Comanche, was the most noted
war-chief. He was distinguished for skill in arms, for address
in the battle plan; but mostly for indomitable courage in the
fight. It was said that he took his name because he feared
nothing 'under the sun/
"His mother, old Tave Pete, was a kind of female shaman
in her tribe. She was old so old, the time-honored Mexicans
said, that when she rode on the forays, she tied up her lower
jaw by a thong passing up over her head, in order to prevent
it dropping down against her throat and breast, as it otherwise
would have done ; yet she had great influence with her people.
An old Mexican, who formerly told the story of the prowess
of Bajo el Sol, said that he listened to Tave Pete once deliver
her orders to her people from the belfry in the church at the
old presidio of San Carlos; and that immediately after her
harangue, the Indians hastily packed, mounted their horses,
and took their way to the hills.
"On account of his mother's power and that of his brothers,
Mauve and the two pelones, but chiefly on account of his own
powers, Tave Tuk was a great chief of the war trail. The
Indians attached themselves to such leaders as they chose, and
Tave Tuk, or Bajo el Sol, always carried the largest war-party,
and his power extended very largely to other bands over which
he was not in immediate control.
"The forays of the Indians in Chihuahua and Durango were
most destructive to life and property. The country was being
depopulated. The center of government at the City of Mexico
when there happened to be one was entirely occupied in
trying to uphold itself against hostile factions, and had no time
to aid its frontier states. These states themselves were more or
less divided among warring factions ; all was confusion. The
states were suffering both from the Comanche war-trail and,
also, from the mountain Apaches, who, from their rancherias
66 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
in New Mexico, Chihuahua, and the Davis Mountains in the
Big Bend, descended upon the defenseless borders in a separate
warfare of their own. The Comanches descended upon these
frontiers once a year, but the mountain Apaches like the poor
were with them always.
"In despair over the situation, the State of Chihuahua re-
solved to make a treaty with the Indians for that state alone. As
the lesser of two evils, and also as probably being a more reliable
ally, it was decided to treat with the Comanches. The treaty
was made with Bajo el Sol, as the main chief, and with other
chiefs of the war trail, by which Bajo el Sol and his associates,
for a consideration, agreed to make war on the Mescalero
Apaches, and to refrain from ravaging Chihuahua, being left
free, however, to raid any other Mexican states. To carry out
the agreement more effectually, the Indians of the war trail
moved into Chihuahua, to the borders of Lake Haco. From
this seat, they could more conveniently carry on the fight with
the Mescalero Apaches, and at the same time harry Durango.
"While this treaty was in force, Bajo el Sol, with his wife
and her younger brother, was traveling near the Del Carmen
Mountains, on the Rio Grande, above Boquillas, Brew-
ster County, when they ran into a band of about thirty Mes-
calero Apaches. These Indians had in their possession a captive
Mexican boy, by name Domingo Porras.
"The wife of the Comanche chief entreated him to go on
and leave the Apaches unmolested. To this, Bajo el Sol replied
that his treaty with Chihuahua bound him to fight the Apaches
wherever he met them, and he would not have it said that he
feared the face of living man. So he sent on his wife and her
brother, and prepared to make his lone fight against thirty
Apaches.
"He tightened the cinch of his skin saddle, and examined the
rawhide bits in the mouth of his horse. Then he looked to see
that the point of his ash-wood spear was well set, saw that his
arrows were good and in place, strung his bois d'arc bow, and
placed his chimal buffalo-hide in readiness.
"His preparations complete, he rode up to the Apaches and
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 67
in the lingua franca of the Southwestern Indians, demanded
the surrender of the captive boy. This was refused. He then
informed them that he would fight them and that they must get
ready. In reply, they taunted him. He set his spear firmly
under his right armpit, and charged.
"The Apaches scattered to avoid the charge, and, while they
ran and dodged among the bushes and rocks, Bajo el Sol shot
at them with his bow and arrows. After this erratic manner,
the fight continued for several hours, during which time he
killed two Apaches and wounded several others. His arrows
all being shot, Bajo el Sol continued the fight with his spear
alone, which the Apaches, owing to the broken nature of the
ground, were easily able to avoid.
"In some manner the Apaches had gained possession of an
old escopeta, and the owner had only one load. At last, it was
planned among the Apaches that the owner of the escopeta
should hide behind a certain rock, while the other Indians con-
tinued to lure Bajo el Sol to charge them by the side of this
rock. He charged, as they intended him to do, and the Indian
with the escopeta came out from behind the rock just after he
had passed and fired at him at point-blank range. The slug
struck Bajo el Sol in the back of the head, and he fell from
his horse. Thus ended, in the foothills of the Del Carmen
Mountains, the last fight of the most heroic Indian of the old
Comanche War Trail."
68 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
CHAPTER VI
The immediate predecessors of the white man in the occu-
pancy of the country known as the Big Bend, were Indians of
the Apache family, a southern branch of the Athabascan lin-
guistic group. While the Apaches were often encroached upon
by the Comanche tribes north and east of the Pecos River, and
while these latter Indians often occupied territory west of this
river, still they had no permanent habitations or rancherias, as
did the Apaches.
The past few years have seen the greatest advance in
research work along ethnological and anthropological lines in
regard to the Indian races in the Spanish Southwest. Still,
much remains to conjecture. The Apache family, the different
branches of which occupied Southwest Texas, still remains a
great puzzle to the scientists. At different times, and given
by different writers, the name Apache varies greatly. We find
such names as Salinero, Faraone, Perillos, and Mescaleros
applied to the Indians who lived between the junction of the
Pecos River and the Rio Grande, and westward into New
Mexico. Besides these branches of the Apache family, we find
that in the early settlement of Chihuahua and Coahuila, the
Spaniards were greatly harassed by the Tobosos, a tribe then
living on the Rio Grande, between the mouth of the Conchos
River and the Santa Rosa Mountains, to the east. This name
survives as applied to the well-known Toboso grass, but it seems
to have utterly died out two hundred and fifty years ago as the
name of a tribe.
These Indians were described as being numerous, and they
fought in guerrilla warfare with the usual Apache tactics. No
serious defeat was registered against them, yet about the year
1660 they disappeared from the pages of history. At the same
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 69
time, or a little later, we hear of Mescalero Apaches in South-
west New Mexico, and in 1749 the records state that they killed
Padre Silva on the Coahuila Road, in Mexico.
The connecting link between the Tobosos and the Mesca-
leros is fairly well established. All over the old Toboso hunting-
grounds, south of the Rio Grande, there still remain those
characteristic rock-piles which the Mescaleros, as well as their
progenitors, the Tobosos, made in roasting sotol, lechuguilla,
and mescal ; hence it is very easy to draw the conclusion that
the Tobosos were the Mescaleros, and occupied both sides of
the Rio Grande west of the junction with the Pecos River,
at the first approach of Spanish settlements. Therefore, it can
be readily seen that the Apaches were the lords of the soil in
the Big Bend, from the first coming of the Spaniards to about
the year 1870, when the last band left the lower part of old
Pecos County and took up their home and made their last
rancheria/ in the Chisos Mountains. Among the Mexican
descendants of the earliest Spanish settlers on the Rio Grande,
there is a tradition that there was an earlier race of people in
this country, whom their forefathers designated as Cholumbos.
They say that the flint arrow-heads, spear-heads, obsidian
knives, fire-drills, and the round hammer-heads of tuff, the
broken fragments of which are so abundant in this section, are
the remains of this early people and not of the Apaches.
Just how much of this tradition is true cannot be ascer-
tained, but an examination of the remains and evidence extant
has failed to establish a connecting link between this lost race
and the Athabascans who followed them.
Mrs. Sarah M. Janes, who spent a number of years in the
Davis Mountains, and devoted considerable time to Indian
culture, has perhaps the finest private collection of Indian pot-
tery, implements, arrow-heads, and other Indian paraphernalia,
in the Big Bend. Mrs. Janes, who is accredited with being the
first white woman to climb Mount Livermore the apex of
the Davis Mountains and the second highest peak in Texas
made seven trips to the summit of Mount Livermore, in the
interest of Indian culture.
70 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
These trips were made with a view of establishing more
facts in regard to a cache of Indian arrow-heads that was dis-
covered under a rock monument on Mount Livermore. The
discovery of these arrow-heads created considerable interest in
the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. T. A. Merrill
first examined the "grave," as it is commonly called. Until
recently, the monument was supposed to have been erected by
the Indians at the time they buried their arrows. It was argued
that no one would spend time and energy to erect a monument
of such dimensions, without a motive. The fact that arrows
were found beneath it, would seem to prove the monument to
be the work of Indians. But a knowledge of the Indians' dis-
inclination to do unnecessary work, brought about further
investigation, with the result that the builder of the monument
was found. Captain W. R. Livermore, now a retired colonel,
while engaged in surveying the Big Bend, for the War Depart-
ment, in 1884, used the peak which later became known as
Mount Livermore, for his base of observation. By a coinci-
dence, without knowledge of the "grave," he erected his base
monument on the very spot used by the Indians for the disposal
of their arrow-points.
However, two representatives of the Smithsonian Insti-
tution Professor Douglas, United States Inspector of Surveys,
and Vincent Bailey, the naturalist, who inspected the cairn,
or Indian "grave," separately and at different times agreed
that the evidence found on Mount Livermore points to a pre-
historic people, and to-day specimens of the arrows discovered
in the crypt can be seen in the Smithsonian Institution, labeled
"Prehistoric."
These arrows corresponded in size to those generally used
by Indian children, commonly called "bird arrows." A great
many of them were of obsidian, a glassy, silicious rock, kin
to quartz ; others were of the ordinary flint. At the time of
this discovery, there had been no other such discoveries made
outside of a similar cairn in Death Valley, California ; but in
the past two years, in the research work relative to gathering
this historical data, similar finds, differing only in quantity,
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 71
have been made in the Davis Mountains and in the vicinity
of the Rio Grande.
The fact that similar arrows have been found in the sites
of former Apache rancherias, and also in favorite camping
places of these Indians, where the arrow-makers plied their
trade, would seem to prove a relationship between the tribes
who buried the arrows on Mount Livermore and those Indians
who later became known as Rancheria Apaches Mescalero
Apaches who lived in settlements near springs or other sources
of water supply.
The remains of these primitive people may be classified in
three groups. First, are the domestic implements, and those
used in the war and chase, referred to by the Mexicans. They
a*re flint arrows, spear-heads, obsidian and flint knives, beads
of mussel-shell and of soft stone, flint scrapers, and the flat-
tened rock inetates, used in grinding corn, acorns, and mesquite
beans ; besides, a few other implements, generally of stone or
of bone, which were used in savage life. The flint implements
are made of rock lying abundantly in the mountain regions
west of the Pecos River. These implements are found scat-
tered over the country in great quantity, especially in the
neighborhood of permanent water, where the Indians had their
favorite camping-places.
Second, a peculiar class of rock mounds are found, known
as mescal-pits. They are scattered over the country, in the
neighborhood of rock croppings, and are located apparently
without any convenience to permanent water. They may be
found in the Big Bend by the thousands, and are generally of a
certain and well-defined shape. Each mound is circular in
shape, fifteen to twenty-five feet in diameter, hollow in the
center, and with a rim of rocks of uneven height around the
circumference, generally much higher on the north or north-
west side than anywhere else, to agree with the prevailing
direction of the wind. In the middle will be found strong
signs of fire, both ashes and charcoal being evident. These
mounds are found of largest size and most frequently in places
where there is now an abundance of sotol or lechuguilla, but
72 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
they are also found in localities where neither of these plants
grow. In such cases the mounds are smaller and the circular
pit form is not so well denned, showing that perhaps ages have
elapsed since that country was covered with sotol or iechuguilla.
The third class of remains is mortuary, and in some re-
spects quite peculiar. Graves are found in high, prominent,
exposed places. A high bluff, overlooking a valley, is a favorite
place for the most elaborate of these graves a location that
an Indian chief would naturally select for his burial place.
The body appears generally to have been laid on the ground,
without regard to any especial attitude. Ornaments and im-
plements of the war and chase were placed in the hands, and
the corpse was then covered with stones, and the grave often
marked by an outside ring of flat stones, set on end, extending
around the body in a circle. Graves of this character indicate
the prominence of the dead, and are probably those of shamans,
medicine-men, or chiefs.
Another class of graves is found on the slopes of prominent
hills or bluffs, where the stratum of rock crops out and leaves
an exposed face one or two feet in height, where the front
drops to the next lower stratum. Here the body is laid against
the face of a rock and stones piled over it, generally giving
the grave the appearance of a semi-circular pile of rock, hard
to distinguish from the broken slides of talus usually found
in such places. As in all other graves, implements and weap-
ons are found buried with the dead, but in these graves the
character of the implements found indicates often that women
are buried in them. Here you will find the flat stones used
for grinding corn and beans, the flint scrapers used in dressing
gamusas, or deer skins, and the bone-needle, such as an Indian
woman used. The Indian had no more idea of the honor due
his squaw in her death than he had in her life. She was
buried on the hillside, while her lord and master was laid on
the highest and most prominent spot, where he could continue,
after death, to look down upon his inferior half.
The three above classifications may be supplemented by two
other evidences of Indian occupancy. The first of these is the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 73
remains of former irrigation systems which were in operation
before the advent of the Spaniards. That the Indians were
the builders of these aceqmas, rather than the Mexicans, can
be established in one's mind simply by a brief survey of Mex-
ican settlements. When once the Mexican settles a spot, there
remains to-day, if the settlement is abandoned, the usual adobe
structures. On account of the durability of adobe, ruins
are standing to-day which date back to the very beginning of
Spanish occupation, three hundred and ninety years ago. In
the case of the Indian settlements, or rancherias, there remains
no sign of habitation in the nature of buildings or homes. One
of the most pronounced signs of former Indian occupancy are
those found in A. J. Tippett's Mitre Peak apple orchard, situ-
ated some four miles off the road leading from Fort Davis
to Alpine.
The Tippett orchard is located on a bench of rich loam,
which, at some former age, had washed down from the moun-
tains above. Between the mountains and the orchard are a
series of broken hills, at the foot of which is a magnificent
spring, the source of water used at present to irrigate the
orchard. This spring at one time had been sealed up by the
Indians, and even to-day the flow of water comes from a
partly dammed up exit. Although the orchard is thirty years
old, or more, signs still remain of the former Indian ran-
cheria. From the spring to the back of the orchard there is
a gradual slope, and the Indians had terraced this, using walls
of rock to retain the water on each terrace, each terrace form-
ing a semi-circle, with the spring as the center of circumfer-
ence. There were perhaps a dozen terraces, all forming a semi-
circle, facing the spring. On the east side of the orchard,
farthest from the spring, Mr. Tippett excavated for a reser-
voir and found the bones of a number of Indians, and several
implements peculiar to the Apaches. He also found a number
of arrow points, similar to those taken from the crypt on
Mount Livermore. In the broken hills just above the springs
are scores of molinos, or hand-mills, hollowed out of the
igneous rock, which were used to grind corn and which go to
74 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
show that perhaps the crop most raised by the Indians was
corn.
The remains of another extensive irrigation system can still
be seen near the Kendrick ranch, northeast of Agua Spring,
in Brewster County. The main ditch can be seen to have been
at least half a mile long, and it is built zig-zag, twenty-five
feet down a slope, then turning to the right or left twenty-five
feet, thus preventing the water flowing fast enough to wash
the soil badly. Considerable skill is shown in its construction,
and at one time it must have been the main ditch in an exten-
sive irrigation system. Had the Mexicans built this ditch there
would still be other evidences of their buildings.
Again, on Limpia Creek, just up the canyon from the pres-
ent site of Fort Davis, was another rancheria of the Apaches,
where they used ditches to convey the water from Limpia
Creek to their corn fields. As late as 1849, when the first Gov-
ernment reconnaissance passed through Fort Davis on its way
to El Paso, corn was seen growing, under irrigation, and the
Indians, upon the sight of the soldiers, fled into the mountains.
The other evidences of Indian occupation are the crude draw-
ings and paintings, so commonly found in countries occupied
formerly by the Indians. Specifically, these works of Indian
art tell us little; to the Indian they doubtless meant much.
The drawings were guide posts to the warrior or hunter, away
from his home country, pointing him to the water, the trails,
the ranges of game, and other things of importance to the
nomadic savage. The intelligence and civilization of a people
are judged largely by their art and literature ; these drawings
and paintings represented the art and literature of the Indians.
And as their works in the Big Bend were inferior to those
of the pueblo tribes of New Mexico and Arizona, we can
safely assume that the Indians of the Big Bend were of a
lower grade of intelligence and occupied a lower position in
the scale of Indian civilization than the tribes farther west. In
a general way, this is what the Indian drawings and paintings
tell us.
Considering the various classes of remains, the evidence
THE SENTINEL
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 75
goes to show that either the Cholumbos were a people of the
same grade of culture as the Mescalero Apaches, or that they
were the Mescaleros themselves. The latter is not improbable,
because, as we have seen, the Mescaleros appear to have been
known to different people, at different times, under widely
different names. This is a very common circumstance in the
history of Indian tribes, for the tribe may be known by its
own name, or by the name given it in derision or compliment
by other tribes, enemies or allies. For example, the Comanches
are often alluded to in early history by the French as Paducas,
by the English as lataus, while they called themselves Num.
Taking this evidence up in detail, we are reasonably certain
as to the first class of remains, that flint, obsidian and tuff
weapons and implements were common to all Indian tribes
before the coming of the white man. Beyond a very limited
amount of native copper, no metal was in domestic use among
them. One piece of metal, found in connection with Indian
raiding in Pecos County, was discovered on Leon Creek, in
an old grave. It was a small circular piece of copper, beaten
flat, and having a small hole bored in the center. It may have
come to this region by barter among primitive Indians from
the Lake Superior mines, which were worked by the Indians,
or it may have been fashioned by a white man in the last hun-
dred years.
The remains of these flint implements are all of the same
class of workmanship. There is no difference in construction
and finish ; they are of a common kind. What is found in one
grave, in one cave, or around one mescal-pit, that same class
of implements, of the same pattern, will be found around
another. So far as these remains show there is no evidence
that more than one people ever lived in the Big Bend before
the coming of the whites.
As to the second class of remains, there is also little room
for doubt. They belong peculiarly to the Apaches. The name
given the Tobosos or rancheria Apaches Mescalero, meaning
mescal-makers was given to these Apaches from their dis-
tinctive custom of roasting and fermenting mescal or sotol.
76 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
This custom was probably connected primarily with a sort
of spirit or fetish worship. The term, mescal, is now con-
nected with several objects, but in each case the underlying
significance is in some way connected with intoxication. The
word mescal is Indian and seems originally to have meant a
peculiar kind of melon cactus, called by the Indians peixoto.
It was the custom of the Mescaleros to build a fire on a
flat pile of rock and, after the rocks were sufficiently heated,
the mescales were placed on it and covered with other rocks,
after which fire was again built over all, and kept up until
the mescales were sufficiently roasted ; then the mescales were
put away for safe keeping until the proper time should come
for their use in the ceremony. During this time the sugar in
the plant became fermented or probably converted to alcohol.
When the time came for the mescal feast, or ceremony, certain
of the leading men women were excluded from joining
took the mescales and went to a secluded spot in the hills,
and, sitting in a circle, each Indian ate his mescal. This was
done in silence, which continued unbroken twenty-four to
forty-eight hours. While under the influence of the mescal, the
Indians had many dreams and saw many visions. Then, at
a signal, the circle broke up. The visions and dreams were
considered as interviews with the spirits and were looked to
for guidance in temporal affairs.
But these mescal-pits were used for more than roasting
mescal. The sotol, which is close kin to the mescal, was
quite an article of food with the Mescaleros. It was roasted
and eaten fresh in a similar manner to our corn roasting-ears.
After roasting it was often powdered and carried along as
food. In time, it became sour, and finally worthless, but it
had to obtain a bad odor indeed before the Mescalero would
refuse to eat it. Again, these pits served for roasting lechu-
guilla, which, it is said, nothing but a deer, javelin the wild
Mexican hog or a Mescalero would eat. In these pits used
for this purpose, game animals were often roasted whole;
a mule, being considered by the Apache as the finest flavored
of the "game" animals, was roasted whole, unless the Indian
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 77
was a trifle hungry, in which event he did not wait to cook his
meat but took it "rare."
As to the third class, the rock-covered graves, it is fairly
certain that they are of Apache origin. The custom of burying
on high points prevailed among a few Indian tribes other
than the Apaches. The custom of burying the weapons and
implements of the deceased with him was a common practice
of all North American Indians, and resulted from what seemed
to have been a general belief among them that there was a
life hereafter in the Indian paradise, hence his favorite weap-
ons of the chase and hunt were buried with him, to be used in
the spirit land.
So it appears that the remains of ancient inhabitants of
this country can be reasonably attributed to the Mescaleros,
while some of these remains can not well be assigned to any
other tribe concerning whose habits we have any knowledge ;
and the Cholumbos, if there was such a people, were either
the Mescaleros, or a people of similar customs.
Among some of the older Mexicans along the Rio Grande
border, there are a few ancient story-tellers, who have been a
repository of legends handed down from father to son for
several generations, and whose stories should be taken for
what they are worth. There live to-day only a few of these
ancient bards, who sing their prose songs about former great
days, and one of these, Natividad Lujan, told the following
story. In the early '8o's, Judge Williams, with a party, was
running surveys in the Big Bend, near the Rio Grande, and
Natividad was his guide.
"After a long climb through artenisias, fouquieras, yuccas,
and other thorny plants of this thorn infested country," said
the Judge, "we arrived, late in the afternoon, at the summit
of the hill towards which our burros had all day been headed.
We stopped to allow the animals to gain a breathing spell and
I looked around me at the extensive view.
"It was a goodly sight, for on three sides of me the peaks
and mountains of two thousand square miles of territory were
visible. To the south could be seen the curves in the gigantic
78 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
wall of limestone, out of which crept the Rio Grande. This
was the Grand Canyon of the Rio Grande, the walls of which
tower two thousand feet above the water. To the east the cir-
cled tops of the Chisos, or Ghost Mountains, glistened in the
western sun, like the pearly points of a coronet.
"Sixty miles away to the north stood up the square, mesa-
like top of Santiago Peak, which can be seen from the Southern
Pacific Railroad, between Marathon and Alpine. This peak
towered among the plains and smaller hills around it like
Saul among his brethren. I had often fancied that it was a
relic of the Cretaceous age, eroded by centuries of rain and
storm, from a large mesa to a narrow, flat-topped peak, and
left on guard by the convulsions of nature like the Roman sen-
tinel of Pompeii.
"I had pictured to myself that the very name Santiago
must have come down from some adventurous hidalgo of
the old Spanish times, when the Spaniards had carried their
crosses and monons to the Indians of the wilderness, in search
of the fabulous Eldorado ; so I turned to our guide and said
to him:
" 'Natividad, how does yonder peak get its name of San-
tiago ?'
"Now, Natividad had a face like his deer-skin jacket, in
color and texture. The wind and sun for sixty years had been
tanning and hardening and dressing its surface, until by no
possibility could any passion throw the red blood to the outer
part of the epidermis. Of men's usual facial expression there
was only one left a pair of keen black eyes, under shaggy
eyebrows, and a few archaic wrinkles about his mouth, which
showed on duty feebly when he attempted to laugh, but it
seems to me that Nature, with a view to compensation, had
given to his crown of red hair a sort of limited expression,
and that it grew deeper or lighter according to the varying
emotions that might move the soul inside that deerskin mask.
"At my question, his eyes flashed, the archaic wrinkles
deepened, and even his poll seemed to flush a deeper red, as
he replied, 'Senor, that peak was named after my uncle.'
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 79
"Pride was plainly visible even in his voice, and one might
think from his manner that he considered the peak to owe its
notoriety and possibly its dimensions to the fact that it was
named after his uncle !
"It was patent at once that one of Natividad's stories lay
ahead of me, so I said to him, 'Very well, as soon as we get into
camp you shall tell it to me/
"The jaded burros were set in motion along the trail,
down the hill, and soon we were setting up our night camp in
a diminutive park near the usual tinaja water hole. Then
Natividad, with a good deal of importance, made an unusually
large cigarette, and proceeded thus with his story :
" 'Sefior, my uncle Santiago was a great man of war when
he lived in Presidio del Norte, many years ago. When the
Indians raided or killed any of the Nortenos, as we call the
people of Presidio del Norte, it was my uncle who must lead
in the pursuit. He had led the chase after Apaches into their
rancherias near where Fort Davis now stands, and fought
the Comanches on their retreat into the stately plains beyond
the Rio Pecos.
" 'So when the Indians came in the dead of night and took
away the horses of Gregorio Jiminez, from the corral at his
very door, it was to my uncle that Gregorio went to help him
on the trail; and my uncle Santiago gathered five men, and,
with Gregorio, took up the pursuit.
' 'The trail led to the east, and it was at first thought the
Indians must be the Apaches from the Chisos Mountains, but
on the second day it turned again to the north and began to
point toward the great peak that was afterwards named after
my uncle.
" 'By this time they had learned from the signs around the
camp-fires left by the Apaches, that it was a small party,
and the Nortenos pushed on the pursuit rapidly. On the even-
ing of the fourth day, the signs were plain to my uncle that
they were close upon them, s6 they camped early and sent out
two scouts, who located the Indian camp just about dark.
" 'Very early the next morning, my uncle and his men sad-
80 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
died up their horses and rode until the scouts of the evening
before told them that they were near the Indian camp. The
Nortenos then dismounted, tied their horses, and took their
way silently and cautiously on foot. Light was breaking in the
east, and by it they saw a small smoke from the Indian camp
fires, and made out a small cavallado of horses on a hill about
a mile to the east. Very quietly, the Nortenos slipped up an
arroyo and soon reached a point where they could see six
Indians, eating a breakfast of horse meat.
" 'At a word from my uncle, the Nortenos fired upon them,
and killed three of their number; the others ran away. My
uncle did not follow them for he was an old Indian fighter
and knew that they must get back to their horses. As the
Nortenos started back to their horses, they heard a shot and
yell of an Indian from the hill to the east, where they had seen
the cavallado of horses, and they caught glimpses of an Indian
riding furiously toward them.
"'The Nortenos had barely mounted their horses, when
this Indian came riding at them, yelling and shooting, and
followed at a distance by three others, on foot. By his actions
he showed that he meant to kill or be killed.
" 'Now, the Nortenos, Senor, are not bred to that kind of
fighting, so they began to ride away quite rapidly all except
my uncle Santiago, who was shooting at the charging Indian.
" 'But all at once he fell from his horse, shot through the
hips, and at the Indian's mercy. As the Indian rode up to
give my uncle his death wound, the Nortenos heard him call
out, "Santiago," for the Indian must have known my uncle
"why do you cry? You have killed three of our side,
while you have lost only one of your own?"
" 'With that he killed my uncle, then rode away with the
other Indians, and they were never seen again. But I feel it
now to explain to you, Senor, that the Indian did not put the
matter fairly about my uncle, for he did not cry only because
one of his side was killed, but because he had to be that one.
"'The Nortenos buried him there at the foot of the great
mountain, and put up over him a monument of stones, and
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 81
called the peak by his name. When I now go by that pile of
stones I pick up a stone and add to the pile, saying as I do so :
"Do you still weep, my uncle, for that one of your side who
was lost in the fight ?"
" 'Only the priest says that my uncle has long since ceased
to cry, as his soul is among the blessed who have died for the
Faith among the heathen. Surely he knows, for did not
Gregorio Jiminez pay him to say masses for the soul in pur-
gatory, and did not I, twenty years afterwards, pay him again
to say more masses ; for Gregorio was a poor man, Senor, and
I feared he had not paid the priest enough to get my uncle's
soul entirely out/
"After the burros were watered," continued Judge Wil-
liams, "we returned to the camp, where we found supper about
ready. When supper was over some of the Mexicans pro-
ceeded to set a sotol on fire, and as fast as the fire from one
burned low, another was lighted. The heat was great and the
green leaves of the crown popped like the report of guns.
While this was going on I reminded Natividad of his promise
to relate more of his legendary history, and, after seating
himself comfortably on an aparajo, or pack saddle, he began
another story.
"'Senor, my grandfather was a soldier of Spain, born, I
have been told, in Estremadura. That must be a country of
fair-skinned men, because from my grandfather I inherit my
red hair. You hardly ever find it in this country ; on account
of it, the Comanches called me Pyote, the Mexicans, Alasan,
while you Americans call me Sorrel Top.
" 'My grandfather was sent to serve in Mexico, and, after
a time, came to the old presidio of San Carlos, just across the
Rio Grande from us, in Chihuahua. The presidio was built
as an outpost against the Indians of the north, the Apaches,
Comanches, and Lipans, and at that time was far out. My
father married there/
"Here followed the history of his grandfather's life, his
father's life, and that of sundry relations, told in excruciating
detail, but he finally came to his own life."
82 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
" 'Here in San Carlos I was born, and raised among wild
Indians, many of whom lived temporarily in and about the
presidio. When a tribe was in danger from their enemies, they
would promise to be good to our people of the town and not
rob or kill any of them, no matter what they might do to other
people, and we would let them live among us. I remember the
time when six kinds of Indian people lived among us. They
were the Comanches, Kiowas, Apaches Mescaleros, Apache
Gilenos, Rayados, and Cionabos. So I grew up to know
many Indians, and could even speak in Apache.
"'My most intimate friend among the Indians was an
Apache boy, named Guero Carranza, who afterwards became
a great brave among the Mescaleros, and stole horses, took
scalps, and did other meritorious actions more than any other
man in his tribe.
" 'Guero, you know, Senor, among us means a light-skinned
person. This boy was the lightest colored Indian I ever saw,
and maybe he prided himself on it. At any rate he was always
very partial to the white people, and in his later years he be-
came so much so as to prefer the scalp of a white man to that
even of a dreaded Comanche. So he was always a great
friend of mine and often told me what a pretty scalp I had.
After he had left us and had gone back to his people in the
Chisos Mountains, along the Tas Linga Creek, which you
Americanos call Terlingua Creek, he sent for me to come
and visit him. I went up in the mountains and stayed with him
for some time.
" 'We hunted the cimarron the big horned sheep in the
Grand Canyon, and the oso prieto the black bear in the
Chisos Mountains. From him I learned to strike a fire out
of the dried bloomstalk of the sotol, by whirling the sharp
point of the chaparro pinto in the pith of the sotol-stalk until
it took fire. There, too, I learned to eat the powdered flour
of the sotol. I learned how easily one could go into a bear's
cave and kill the brute with a knife as it rushed out. And,
Guero showed me the mescal and told me how the wise men
and warriors had mescal feasts every year, when they went
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 83
away to themselves in the mountains and dreamed dreams and
had talks with the spirits, while under the spell of the potent
plant. The mescal was always roasted some time before the
fiesta and laid away in dry places to wait the time.
"'Something of this I one day saw. Guero and I were
hunting a black-tail deer, which he had wounded with his ar-
row. We became separated and I lost the trail. So I went
up on the top of a high mountain to look for him. While
up there, I saw some Indians in a glen below me, and as their
number and their quietness aroused my curiosity, I carefully
slipped down the mountain side, until I got to a place where I
could easily watch them.
* 'They were sitting in a circle on the ground and were
quiet and motionless. I watched them for a long time and was
getting tired and about to go away, when I saw one of them
rise and go to a cave at the foot of the high rock on which
I was lying. In a few moments he came back, carrying a
basket of willow bark, in which were a number of roundish
black things which I .took to be the roasted mescals. Without
a word he offered this basket in turn to each Indian, who
took out one mescal, and slowly ate it, while the basket was
returned to the cave. Not a word was spoken, and, after
waiting a long time to see something more, I became tired
and silently slipped away.
" 'When I found Guero again I told him what I had seen.
He was very much interested and told me never to tell anyone,
at any time, what I had seen; that the spirits would be very
angry with me and do me great harm; and that I had better
go back to my home at once.
"'I never was much afraid of Mexican spirits, Sefior, ex-
cept when they came along in the shape of custom-guards, in
the days when I was smuggling; but I was not acquainted
much with Indian spirits, so I went back home and kept my
peace for many years. But the Indians have departed this
country long ago and have taken their spirits with them, so
it comes that I tell you, to-night, Sefior, how it happens that I
know that the Apaches called the cactus mescal.' "
84 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
CHAPTER VII
Up to the time of the war between the United States and
Mexico, the Big Bend had been but little visited by American
whites. Their coming marked an epoch in the history of the
country and brought about a change in conditions. After
years of struggle, it was possible for this oldest settled country
in the United States to come into its own.
The events leading up to this change of conditions were
caused primarily by the successful termination of Texas* fight
for freedom against Mexican misrule, and, later, the admission
of Texas into the Union. The difficulty between the United
States and Mexico was over the western boundary of the new
state. Texas claimed the Rio Grande as her western boundary,
while Mexico claimed the Nueces River. The struggle, which
culminated in the victory of the United States Army, in 1847,
resulted in fixing the Rio Grande as a permanent boundary;
and thus the Big Bend was brought under the sovereignty and
protection of the United States. This step called this wild
country to the attention of white pioneers, and as a result the
actual settlement by Americans began.
The first organized company of Americans to enter the Big
Bend was a troop of the Ninth Dragoons, who crossed this
region in 1847, on their way to reinforce General Fremont, in
California. A year later, actual settlers began to come. These
settlers had gone to Chihuahua City, by way of the Santa Fe
Trail, which, since 1822, had been in operation, with only a
broken interval during the Mexican War.
A party headed by John W. Spencer followed the trail of
the early explorers up the Conchos River, to its junction with
the Rio Grande, and entered the old presidio of Del Norte, in
the early part of 1848. About the same time came Ben Leaton,
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 85
John Burgess, and John Davis. These men formed the nucleus
of an American colony on the banks of the Rio Grande, and
exerted great influence over that and adjoining territory.
After a short stay in Presidio del Norte, Spencer crossed
the river and founded the present town of Presidio, Texas.
This land he bought from four or five Mexican families whom
he found living there. The titles to this property were held
under Spanish land grants, dated 1832. Spencer immediately
located the land under the Texas Settlement Law, and started
to lay the foundation of a fortune which, in later years, reached
substantial proportions.
The only connection, in 1848, that the Presidio colony had
with the outside world was through Chihuahua City. Mer-
chandise had to be freighted to Chihuahua over the Santa Fe
Trail, and back up the Conchos River to Presidio. By 1849,
the emigrants had opened an important trail between San
Antonio and what is now El Paso. This formed one of the
great arteries which fed the gold-fields of California.
At the time of the "gold rush," the War Department insti-
tuted a number of surveys, in order to determine the most
suitable route for travel, from the eastern portions of the
United States to the newly-settled territory of California.
The West Coast country was being settled rapidly. The
War Department, in order to test the feasibility of such a
course, ran preliminary surveys through and parallel with
the Rio Grande Valley, to ascertain the best route for a trans-
continental railway. In 1849, Lieutenants N. Michler, W. H.
C. Whiting, F. T. Bryan and Wm. F. Smith were detailed for
this work, under Brevet Colonel Joseph E. Johnston, of the
Topographical Engineers.
These several surveys covered a period of five years, and
Major W. H. Emory summed up briefly the result, in 1854,
while he was determining the United States-Mexico boundary,
in conjunction with the Mexican Commission. "The reports
from the War Department clearly demonstrate the practica-
bility of a railway route through the newly acquired territory
and goes to confirm the opinion, heretofore expressed by me,
86 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
that it is the most practicable, if not the only feasible one, by
which a railway can be carried across the Sierra Nevadas
and its equivalent ranges to the south." Thus, a third of a
century before the Southern Pacific came into existence, the
idea of a railway was conceived.
These military explorations, under command of the above-
named engineers, entered the Big Bend at two points on the
Pecos River: one, at the crossing near the junction of Live
Oak Creek and the Pecos ; the other, at the famous Horse-head
Crossing. Both of these crossings were Indian highways,
and had become historic. Over Live Oak Crossing, de Vaca
had followed his barbaric guides on his journey through the
Big Bend; and over Horse-head Crossing, the Comanche
hordes passed to and from their raiding trips into Mexico.
At the time of these military explorations, the Pecos River,
though insignificant in size and importance, defined sharply
the eastern limits of the Big Bend. No traveler, upon reaching
its banks, would by any chance mistake it for another stream.
With the exception of a few well-known fords, animals could
not with safety approach it for water, so steep were its banks
and so swift its current. Only the catfish inhabited its depths ;
and the antelope and wolf alone visited its desolate banks.
Even the Indians avoided it.
Great must have been the wonder of the engineers when
they first beheld Comanche Springs. For four days the party
had traveled steadily away from the Pecos, across the great
limestone plateau, barren and devoid of game. There had been
but one break in the monotony of the landscape Escondido
Springs, which received its name from the fact that the In-
dians attempted to hide it from travelers. Out of this desert
they came suddenly upon the great springs, around which the
bleaching bones of thousands of animals showed it to be a
favorite Indian camping-place. Indeed, these springs were
the cross-roads of the Southwest. At this time, however, they
bore the name of Ahuache Springs, Ahuache meaning water,
in the language of that tribe. As the Comanche Indians were
driven westward by the settlers, the Apaches were in turn
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 87
driven westward by the Comanches, until this tribe occupied
the great plateau country west of the Pecos, including the
great springs. As the Comanches were "horse-back" or plains
Indians, they made no effort to encroach upon the mountain
retreats of their inveterate enemies, the Apaches.
About nine miles west of Comanche Springs, the engineers
came upon Ojo de Leon. These water-holes were remarkable
for their great depth, and for the peculiarity of the soil sur-
rounding them. The soil was a dull gray volcanic ash, and
the cavities, or gashes, from which flowed the large bodies of
artesian water, possibly were, ages before, the outlets for
pent-up internal fires. Many travelers camped at these water-
holes in preference to Comanche Springs; and it was the
misfortune of one wagon-master to pay dearly for his knowl-
edge of their depth. Upon reaching the ojos, "eyes" or holes,
he removed a wagon-wheel, which had almost rattled to pieces,
and cast it in the largest water-hole, for the purpose of swelling
the spokes tighter in the hub. Down, down went the wheel,
disappearing from the sight of the astonished wagon-master;
and although he fished for it with a grappling-hook, he never
recovered it. Having no extra wheel, he fastened a drag-pole
under the axle, and in this manner completed the journey to
Paso del Norte, a distance of two hundred and seventy miles !
After leaving Ojo de Leon, the party began to see lofty
mountains, the first on their trip, and after traveling forty
miles, they entered Limpia Canyon. The limestone formation,
so much in evidence around Comanche Springs, disappeared,
and the hills presented a somber appearance from the dark
rocks of the primitive formation. So wide was the canyon
that it might be termed a valley, and the hills on either side
were clothed in verdure. After the engineers had progressed
up Limpia Canyon fifteen miles, the valley terminated in Wild
Rose Pass, with walls of vertical rocks rising up a thousand
feet above their heads. Several years later in this rugged spot,
while driving the first mail coach which ran between San An-
tonio and El Paso, Big Foot Wallace drew rein to shoot a
large buck deer that he saw grazing on the mountain-top.
88 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
At the crack of the rifle the buck plunged over the cliff with
a rock-slide following in his wake. He rolled down the moun-
tain, and brought up under the dancing feet of Wallace's thor-
oughly frightened stage-mules. To one of the stage guards,
Big Foot remarked : "Them's the first mountains I ever seen,
whur the game comes to heel after being killed."
The mountains of the Davis Range do not form a single
continuous ridge, but rise in irregular order, mountain on
mountain, and peak on peak, covering an immense extent of
country, and forming innumerable; small and shaded valleys,
deep canyons, and ravines, that wind in a circuitous course
around the base of the mother range. The country, viewed
from the top of one of the highest mountains, presents in
every direction hills of pristine grandeur, and countless as
the billows of the ocean. Far and near, these thousand single
conical mountains rise, intersecting each other at their base
or higher upon their sides, and they would have formed an im-
passable barrier had not some convulsion of Nature opened
the pass and canyon through which the trail ran.
The next camp on the trail was Painted Comanche Camp,
which, in 1854, became Fort Davis. At the time the engineer-
ing party reached this point on the Limpia, and a little distance
up stream from their camping-place, there was growing a
small field of corn, planted by Indians, and along the banks
of the creek were some of their lodges, constructed of willow
sticks, bent in the form of an arc, and interlaced at the top.
The general custom of the Apaches was to construct their
lodges in this manner. As the Indians fled from their village
on the approach of the engineers, no attempt was made to iden-
tify the tribe. Doubtless, they were Mescalero Apaches.
The first sufficient water supply beyond the Limpia was
found at Smith's run, an arroyo which flows through Captain
J. B. Gillett's Barrel Springs Ranch, twenty-five miles west
of Fort Davis. At this point the trail led near the apex of
Davis Mountains Mount Livermore. From there the road
ran by El Muerto, or Dead Man's Hole, although at this time
these springs had not received their sinister name. From
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 89
this point, the road left the Davis Mountains and crossed the
great Van Horn Flats for a distance of sixty miles, to Eagle
Springs, in the Eagle Mountains.
From Eagle Springs, the trail ran near the Eagle Moun-
tains, until it crossed the Devil's Back Bone, to the plains be-
yond, and ran thence towards the chain of mountains that rise
near the Rio Grande Valley.
The bottom lands of the Rio Grande Valley, on the Amer-
ican side, for a distance of fifty-five miles, to the lower end of
Fabens Island, were in many places very fertile. The trail
crossed over a shallow ford to the Island and passed
through the villages of San Elceario, Socorro, and Ysleta.
At this point, it recrossed to the mainland and con-
tinued to the intersection of the Santa Fe Trail, opposite Paso
del Norte, at the ranch of Ponce de Leon, which is to-day mod-
ern El Paso. The distance from San Antonio was six hundred
and seventy-three miles.
In this same year, 1849, another survey was run from San
Antonio to El Paso, which, instead of crossing the Pecos
River and passing through the Davis Mountains, skirted the
Pecos River up to Delaware Creek, where it turned westward
to the foot of Guadalupe Peak, passed by the Hueco Tanks,
and from there down to Paso del Norte ; and, while this route
was some twenty-five miles shorter than the Davis Mountains
route, still the lack of water was such that it was not recom-
mended by the engineers.
For a time there were hopes that a shorter route would be
established, parallel to the whole length of the Rio Grande,
from Eagle Pass to El Paso. No less an authority than Colonel
Joseph E. Johnston suggested this route ; his reason being first,
the enormous cost of transporting supplies to the outposts on
or near the upper Rio Grande; and second, a road near the
river would facilitate the settlement of the valley of the Rio
Grande, which he considered the most extensive tract fit for
settlement west of the Devil's River. So slight was the knowl-
edge of the Rio Grande possessed by the engineers of 1850
that Colonel Johnston suggested, as being practicable, the use
90 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
of navigation to facilitate communication between posts situ-
ated on its banks.
But on account of topographical difficulties encountered at
many points along the Rio Grande, in the Big Bend, this idea
was abandoned. Therefore, we find that the Davis Moun-
tains route was adopted as the permanent military road, as
well as the overland mail route, across the Big Bend.
These reconnaissance parties were not the first to put
wagons over this trail, as emigrants had already begun their
westward march. Still, from the reports of these parties, the
military authorities mapped out their future course of action
in Southwest Texas.
Prior to the Mexican War, military posts had been advanced
far enough in the Indian country to afford only a limited
amount of protection to the settlers. A more extensive system
was required. The defensive warfare against the Indians,
heretofore carried on by the War Department, had proved
inadequate. It now became necessary to establish strongly
garrisoned posts in the heart of the Indian country, from
which aggressive campaigns could be inaugurated against the
red marauders, either to teach them a respect for the Govern-
ment forces, or to exterminate them.
The line of posts recommended by the engineers extended
from the Red River to the Rio Grande, in the Big Bend. The
policy of small, fixed garrisons of infantry had proved a
failure. For these heavily armed, foot troops, it was recom-
mended that cavalry, lightly armed and well mounted, should
be substituted. Being located near the rancherias, these
mounted troops, upon the first sign of unrest of ambitious
warriors, could quell the war-party before they had time to
strike the settlements. Thus, the troops would become a
preventive, rather than a doubtful cure.
It was not until four years later, however, that these recom-
mendations were acted upon. And until that time, the sole
protection of settlers and travelers lay in their strength of
numbers. Unfortunate, indeed, was the white party whose
trail crossed that of a superior force of Indians.
CHARLES MULHERN
Of Fort Davis
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 91
The population of the Southwest grew rapidly, as a result
of the explorations in 1849. This growth was supplemented
by the great number of emigrants to the California gold-fields,
who had already become wearied with the hardships and dan-
gers of the Big Bend. Alarmed by this new encroachment
of the whites, the Indians prosecuted their warfare with in-
creased fury. It was impossible to bring these deluded people
to a sense of their weakness compared with the power of the
United States, except by severe chastisement, which could not
be effected without carrying the war into their homes and
mountain fastnesses. For the same reason, the United States
could not comply with the eleventh article of the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, which guaranteed Mexico relief from the
depredations of Indians belonging in the United States.
The military force in the West was inadequate to under-
take a general war promising success. Supply depots and
posts had to be advanced. At the same time, the chain of
posts then in existence had to be maintained to prevent the
enemy from getting into the rear of the more advanced posts,
thus exposing the frontier settlements to Indian massacre
and destruction.
Surely, the United States was a nation powerful enough
and possessed superiority sufficient in point of numbers and
necessary supplies to carry out this objective. It was not a
good policy for the Government, while possessed of such
advantages, to place itself on an equality with the Indians;
and when the great number of valuable lives, both in the settle-
ments and in the army, were considered risked and jeopardized,
because they could not enforce a reign of peace, it became evi-
dent to the most pronounced jingoist at Washington that steps
should be taken by which the Indians would be compelled to
respect our Government.
The delay in taking the proper steps to effect this object
could be traced to a desire on the part of the Government to
effect an agreement with the State of Texas, regarding a
proper boundary between the settlements and the Indians. In
this manner the Indian tribes infesting the Big Bend would
92 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
be placed on the same footing as those of the North and North-
west ; thus .they would be brought under the protection and
sovereignty of the United States. To do this required con-
siderable time, and, even then, complete success was not to be
expected immediately in regard to the Mexican situation. In
the latter case the number of posts had to be increased on the
Rio Grande. At a point on this river, in the Big Bend, opposite
San Carlos, which was the key to the country in Mexico called
Bolson de Mapimi, there would have to be a strong garrison ;
and further up the river, at Presidio, Texas, another garrison.
It was necessary to strengthen these positions sufficiently to
permit an active force to be in the field, constantly operating
against the roving bands of thieves and murderers, who knew
no difference between American and Mexican property, ex-
cept that they could plunder with greater safety in Mexico.
It was strongly recommended, in the event of a boundary
being thus established for the Comanches and Apaches in the
Big Bend, that these Indians should be subsidized, receiving
annuities as in the case of the northern tribes, because they
actually did not have the means of subsistence unless they
continued their thieving practices and followed the mustangs
droves of wild horses which were to them what the buffalo
was to the Indians east of Pecos. Otherwise, if they were
kept from stealing and plundering on American soil, these
Indians would be necessarily forced into Mexico,
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 93
CHAPTER VIII
In the year 1850, the troops in Texas were more like an
army in the field in active war than in garrison. The regular
force had been increased by an auxiliary volunteer force and
had been furnished supplies, with extensive means of trans-
portation, both public and private, and with horses to mount
a portion of the foot soldiers, but the territory of the Big
Bend was so vast that troops employed for its defense, as well
as the defense of the trains which supplied the various posts
on the frontier, had to traverse routes so long and so entirely
unimproved that the expense of transportation and all
supplies was extremely heavy. In order to facilitate troop
movements and those of supplies, engineers detailed for that
work constructed good roads between the frontier posts and
those posts and accessible points on the coast and rivers.
It has been previously mentioned that Indian relations in
Texas were in an awkward and embarrassed state. In Texas
there were no enforced laws which regulated the trade and
intercourse with the Indian tribes, nor could there be without
the consent of the State of Texas. The same unfortunate con-
dition existed in Texas that existed in New Mexico, and the
same remedial measures were equally necessary in the two
cases. It was true that the Constitution of the United States
gave Congress the power to regulate commerce with Indian
tribes, but without the faithful co-operation of not only the
state government, but also the several groups of settlers and
pioneers adjacent to the territory occupied by the Indians, it
was a difficult matter to exercise rightfully this power to punish
citizens of the state for trespassing on lands occupied by In-
dians, or trading with them, unless licensed by the Govern-
ment. It would have been wisdom on the part of the Texas
state government to have given the Federal Government
94 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
absolute authority in these matters. It was necessary to assign
the Indians to a suitable country, exclusively their own and
remote from white population. By doing so, arrangements
could have been made for regulating trade and intercourse
with them, and other measures adopted for their gradual civ-
ilization and improvement.
That these measures were not adopted proved costly and
disastrous to the western part of Texas. In this year, 1850,
the Indians seemed to be in a better mood to enter into amicable
arrangements with the Government ; but the delay and uncer-
tainty displayed by the officials, aroused the Indians* suspicions
that such delays were brought about for the purpose of matur-
ing some plan, or occasion, to their disadvantage or injury.
Indians were exceedingly jealous and selfish, as well as decep-
tive, yet, strange to say, there was nothing that they abhorred
more in a white man than like characteristics.
The plan was conceived and carried out to appoint five
agents for the five following tribes: Southern Comanches,
Mescalero Apaches, Navajos, Utahs, and Northern Apaches,
or Jacarillas. Likewise, the President appointed three com-
missioners for the purpose of procuring information, collecting
statistics and making treaties with the Indians along the Mex-
ican border. This was the first consolidated effort made by
the Government to solve the Indian problems along the Mex-
ican border, and attempt to alleviate the sufferings of the
whites and Mexicans, caused by incessant Indian depredations.
When the early Spaniards entered the Big Bend and New
Mexico, they found dwelling in houses of adobe, numerous
Indian tribes who farmed by irrigation. They were the Pueblo
Indians, receiving their name from the fact that they dwelt
in pueblos or villages. They lived mainly along the banks of
the upper Rio Grande, but extended as far down as the junc-
tion of the Conchos River and Rio Grande. In later years,
this Indian practically disappeared from the neighborhood of
the Conchos River, but from the El Paso Valley up to the
head waters of the Rio Grande they remained in large numbers.
In time they became a peaceable, honest, and industrious peo-
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 95
pie, possessed of many of the rights of citizenship, and, in
1850, they numbered about seven thousand. They owned the
best farms under cultivation in the country, and, while their
land came into their possession through legal grants from the
Spanish, and later Mexican Government, for some years tres-
passes and encroachments upon these lands had been com-
mitted by Mexicans. This was but one of the thousand per-
plexing problems which the United States had to solve after
the war with Mexico. These pueblos were divided into three
districts, and three agents were appointed, whose duties were
to adjudicate claims and furnish these Indians with counsel
in their fight to retain their lands. In return for this assistance,
the Pueblos became the scouts for military parties in their
chase of the wild tribes.
A policy was inaugurated to have delegates from each of
these wild tribes go to Washington, in order to give these dis-
tant savages some idea of the strength and power of the Gov-
ernment. It was wisely decided that, could the Indians obtain
a correct knowledge of the power which they were fighting,
they would have a better disposition to enter into formal stipu-
lations and would observe better faith in the execution of
their treaties.
In connection with this, neither superintendents, Indian
agents, nor former commissioners could be effective without
the presence and co-operation of a strong and active military
force.
Contrary to previous suggestions, and at the same time
showing that the Government officials had gained knowledge
from their experience in Indian warfare, it was decided that a
force of volunteers, as well as regular troops, should be placed
in the field. These volunteers were composed of those hardy
and adventurous pioneers and mountain men who were to be
found upon the frontier, and were commanded and officered
by men well acquainted with Indian character and warfare.
In the main, these officers were vigilant, prompt, and ener-
getic, undaunted by any difficulties or obstacles, and pursued
the Indians to their mountain haunts and wild retreats with
96 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
the result that, sooner or later, they visited upon the savages
the punishment so richly deserved. So long had the Govern-
ment delayed this punishment that the Indians believed they
could commit any depredation with impunity ; and it was very
hard to bring them to the point where they desired to make a
treaty. Naturally, in a country which was so rapidly being
settled, the number of outrages increased in proportion. In
carrying out this new policy, however, the Government was
able to check the Indians at comparatively small cost, without
having to institute a warfare of extermination.
It was but natural where raiding was so frequent that
the Indians should obtain a great many captives. Out of this
condition grew a trade which the Government found necessary
to suppress. The trading in captives had been so long tolerated
in the Big Bend and other portions of the West, that it had
ceased to be regarded as wrong, and the traders, both Mexican
and American, who purchased these unfortunate people refused
to release them, without adequate ransom. It was necessary to
bring strong legislation to bear in suppressing this nefarious
trade, and a limit was placed upon the expenditures incurred
in releasing captives. Unless the Mexicans were paid for such
captives, few of them would have been released. And it was
found that it did not answer to allow captives to make their
choice in the matter of releasing, for their submission to their
masters was almost perfect, and by them were instructed to
make proper replies to interrogatories.
In order to observe proper economy in gaining the release
of captives, arrangements were made, through authorized
Mexican agents who resided along the border, that these cap-
tives should be returned early to Mexico. An effort was made
to make a similar treaty with the Apaches and Comanches, by
which the Indians would be required to deliver up all captives,
free of charge, and all stolen property in their possession.
This, however, failed, except when it suited the convenience
of the Indians. The handling of these captives naturally
entailed upon the Government considerable expense.
As is very often the case, the Government and the settlers
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 97
worked at cross purposes. An instance of this was the atti-
tude of the settlers when a Mexican killed an Apache family.
Whether the Mexican was justified in slaying the Indians, is
not known; but a quotation from the report of the Indian
Agent will make clear the opposing views taken by that official
and the local inhabitants:
"The Mexican who caused the murder of the Apache
Indians, has been in prison here for the last three days, and
will be set at liberty upon a mere nominal recognizance. The
demoralization of society here is such that it would be impolitic,
if not altogether impracticable, to administer justice in this
case. A considerable sum of money has been subscribed to
procure a gold medal, to be presented to this cold-blooded
murderer, and this is done chiefly by Americans."
In the light of subsequent events, the circumstances sur-
rounding this killing might not be the crime which the official's
report seemed to make of it. The Indian, with eighteen or
twenty others, appeared at the house of the Mexican, and
begged or demanded food. In either case it meant the same.
Possibly, the Mexican had suffered at the hands of the Indians
at some former time and took advantage of this occasion to
retaliate. That the Americans applauded his act was but natu-
ral at a time when the Apache name struck terror to every
heart.
The Government had succeeded in establishing a number
of traders' reservations and at various times granted annuities
to the border tribes. This, of course, was when the Indians
had made a temporary peace. From these reservation Indians,
the war trails in the Big Bend were largely recruited. One of
the reasons for this was a general dissatisfaction caused by the
Indian agents withholding portions of the Indians' annuities to
satisfy damage claims brought against them by white claimants.
It had been a practice of the War Department for years to
adjudicate and allow claims against the Indians, and retain
portions of the annuities to satisfy the claimants. These claims
were generally allowed upon ex parte statements of the whites,
thus giving the Indian no opportunity for defense. It too
98 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
frequently happened that the Indians received the first informa-
tion of the existence of claims against them from the agents,
or sub-agents, when their annuities were about to be paid.
They were then told that a certain sum of their money had
been retained and paid over to individuals who presented claims
of a national character against them, at Washington.
It was useless for the Indians to protest against this, or
deny the justness of the claims. The only satisfaction they had
was the poor one of abusing the Government and its officers.
Justly, they claimed that the whole amount of their annuities
should be fairly and honestly paid over to them and let them,
in the tribal or individual capacity, settle with their creditors.
There is no question that ordinarily this course would have
been advisable, but it is doubtful if it would have in any way
bettered the character of the Indians. Such a course, how-
ever, would have decreased the practices of Indian traders in
crediting the Indians until after their return from a raid, gener-
ally in Mexico, as it would be at their own risk and with the
full knowledge of the fact that they must look only to the
Indians for payment. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
Mr. J. S. Calhoun, was of the opinion that all claims against
the Indians, either tribal or individual, should have been pre-
sented in the Indians' country, at the time their annuities were
being paid. This would have given the Indians an opportu-
nity to produce testimony against any claim they might pro-
nounce as fraudulent or unjust Should the officer making
the payment be convinced that the claim was just and the
Indians, notwithstanding, refused to pay it, then it was that
officer's duty to report all the facts of the case to the War
Department for its future action.
As a basis of his opinion, Mr. Calhoun claimed that no
department of the Government had the legal power to take one
dollar out of the Indians' annuities for any purpose whatever,
without their knowledge or consent, as among all laws or regu-
lations treaty stipulations were paramount. On the other hand,
if the Department had the authority which so long had been
exercised over the Indians' annuities, then the treaties with
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 99
these Indian tribes were nothing more than "scraps of paper."
As an example, Mr. Calhoun cited our treaty stipulations with
Mexico, by which the United States pledged her national faith
and honor to pay Mexico, in the shape of annuities, fifteen mil-
lions of dollars, the price of lands ceded by her to the United
States. The Commissioner stated that our Government had
no legal right to take any portion of this money to pay over
to merchants, or other American citizens, who may have had
claims against the Republic of Mexico, or the citizens thereof.
And if our Government had no authority in the one case, he
could not understand why it had in the other.
Commissioner Calhoun's opinions were upheld by several
prominent legal authorities, who contended that the Indians
had a right to require the Government of the United States to
refund every dollar that had not been paid in accordance with
their treaty stipulations. Had the Indians been of a nature
which enlisted sympathy, and had they been inclined to accept
the changing order of conditions and meet the march of civiliza-
tion with an effort to better their condition, they doubtless
would have received at least a partial refund of these misappro-
priated annuities. But their acts of atrocity and their continual
breaking out in predatory warfare brought down upon them
the wrath of the Nation and caused them, whether justly or
unjustly, to lose the territory for which they so stubbornly
fought
The best manner of controlling the various Indian tribes
which came under the guardianship of the United States upon
the annexation of Texas and the treaty with Mexico, was a
problem which could not be easily solved ; indeed, it never was
successfully solved, except by the natural conditions arising
from increased settlement of the West and the gradual decline
of the Indians' strength by the ravages of smallpox and other
diseases, and through their losses sustained in almost con-
tinuous warfare. It was estimated that, in 1850, the Indians in
the Southwest numbered one hundred and twenty-four thou-
sand. Many of the tribes thus brought under our control were
of fierce disposition and predatory in their habits, and it was
100 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
difficult to restrain them from committing outrages upon the
persons and property of the inhabitants, in the Big Bend and
New Mexico, as well as in Mexico proper. The step taken by
Congress to appoint agents to take charge of the numerous
tribes, whereby necessary and satisfactory information could be
obtained respecting their conditions and wants, did much to
alleviate the sufferings of the settlers, but failed to furnish a
remedy.
This, however, could apply only to the American settlers.
The Indians appear to have been the natural enemy of the
Mexicans, for the Indians killed the Mexicans wherever they
were found, and frequently for no possible reason. The Mexi-
cans had such a dread of Indians, that they never stood their
fire, but ran at the very first indication of their presence. For
the previous two years the Indians had been very troublesome
to the Mexicans and had appeared in large bodies as far south
as Durango. To fight a party of some two hundred Indians,
who were in the neighborhood, the military commander of
Chihuahua hired, at an extravagant compensation, a company
of Americans, who were on their way to California. This
occurred at a time when there was stationed in that city, a large
garrison of Mexican regulars, and several thousand citizens
capable of bearing arms.
The attitude of the Indians, toward the Americans in the
United States, became even more hostile ; because they consid-
ered it an overt act on the part of the Americans in Mexico, in
thus interfering with their rights to plunder Mexico. But the
United States authorities could make no appeal to the Mexican
authorities to prevent this body of Americans from meddling
in Mexico. Each Mexican state made its separate treaties with
the Indian tribes, which harassed them, and often this treaty
was made at a considerable disadvantage to a sister state. At
this time, large bodies of men could cross and re-cross the
International Boundary without meeting challenge from cus-
tom officers or troops of either nation.
Owing to this newly-disturbed condition, traveling was
rendered extremely dangerous, and immigration in the Big
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 101
Bend was almost entirely arrested. The United States forces
stationed in the Indian country, represented a large portion of
our standing army. Most of these troops were infantry, which
could only guard a certain locality and were never able, through
lack of horses, to pursue Indians for the purpose of punishing
them. This gave rise to the necessity for more cavalry, which
did not arrive, however, until the following year.
On the part of the settlers, many complaints had been made
against the United States Government for neglecting to extend
to the inhabitants a greater and more reliable protection than
they had received. Here, again, the military officials and the
settlers disagreed. In reports made by commanding officers,
it can be gathered that they considered the complaints ground-
less so far as the Government was concerned. They claimed
that enough troops, if properly managed, had been stationed
there to secure and protect the people against all the Indians
able to reach that country. They further claimed that the men
who complained so loudly, were those who trafficked and traded
in that country, and lived and thrived on the expenditures of
the troops. These profiteers cared less for the protection of
the inhabitants than they did for augmenting and increasing the
expenses of the general government in the Big Bend, for their
personal enrichment.
These same military commanders, however, made a strong
recommendation to the Government that by stationing mounted
troops in close proximity to the Indian rancherias, a better state
of affairs would come about and the ravages of the Indians
would be lessened. They emphasized the fact, which later was
proved true, that the frontier would always be in an unsafe
and insecure condition until troops intended for border service,
instead of remaining in garrison, would travel and campaign
over the country continuously. This course of action, they
contended, would not add to the expenses of maintaining the
troops, but, on the contrary, would be a great saving in many
respects, and particularly in the article of forage for their
animals. In garrison, this forage consisted mainly of wheat,
hauled at a great expense, from Chihuahua or Presidio del
102 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
Norte ; or of prairie hay, the cutting of which was contracted
at high prices, to private individuals or concerns.
It was maintained that until some such course was adopted,
no reliable state of safety or security from Indian depredations
could be expected, owing to the precarious and uncertain state
of feeling and disposition of the uncivilized and untamed sav-
age, whose chief and sole ambition was to plunder and destroy
his fellowman. It would be more to the welfare of the troops,
watching and observing the Indians, for them to travel about
the mountains and over the plains, where game, grass and pro-
tection for man and horse were to be found, than for them to
remain in the garrison the whole time, subject and liable to
arrests and punishments, which are invariably brought upon a
soldier through idleness and dissipation.
Just the reverse, however, were the existing conditions,
which was the secret of their inefficiency and inability to keep
in check a few wretched savages. The life of the garrisons
was not at all calculated to improve the soldiers, either physically
or morally. The most ruinous vices of savage and civilized
man were practiced around them, without even the check of
public opinion to disapprove or condemn such conduct. What
service then, from the military point of view, could possibly
be expected from men habituated for years, or even for months,
to such a life?
There was no desire on the part of anyone to disparage the
United States army. Practically all of these troops were vet-
erans of the Mexican War, in which they rendered gallant ser-
vice; but the information which frequently came from the
Indian country, and which was familiar equally to the whites
and the Indians, had an almost ruinous effect upon the feelings
and dispositions of the Indians. There was nothing to keep
them in check but a dread of the power of the United States ;
this dread they lost after several years of encounters with the
troops.
In the fall of 1850, J. H. Rollins, Special Indian Agent,
made an eleven hundred mile trip in Texas, to meet the various
Indian tribes, of which the Southern Comanches were the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 103
strongest, in order to make treaties and bring about peace-
ful relations between his charges and the settlers. On the fifth
day out from Fort Graham, Rollins found the Comanche chiefs,
Cfctnmpsey and Little Wolf, and a portion of their people.
These Indians were at first greatly frightened, but the assur-
ance that no violence was intended, soon removed their fears,
acd they collected around Rollins for a council.
Rollins informed them of the object of his visit and of their
supposed unfriendly disposition and conduct. The Indians
expressed the strongest desire to be considered friends, and
readily agreed to meet him as soon as he succeeded in finding
Buffalo Hump and Shanaco, the other chiefs of the Southern
Cotnanches. In order to show their sincerity, they sent a young
Comanche captain along to assist Rollins in his search for the
other chiefs a thing unprecedented among the Comanches.
Three days later,. Rollins found Buffalo Hump and Shanaco,
and met them in council.
Rollins explained to them that on account of their absence
from his councils, their frequent robberies and occasional mur-
ders, the Government inferred that they had abandoned the
treaty of 1846, and decided to be hostile. The agent recounted
many reasons that existed for supposing them unfriendly, and
told them that the Government had determined not to submit
to this state of things any longer, but intended, unless satis-
factory explanations and atonements were made, to make war
upon them immediately.
Buffalo Hump, for himself and the other chiefs, replied
that "the talk was very good" and that, although it was very
plain and not the kind they had been accustomed to hear, it was
nevertheless not offensive, and he believed it to be true and
warranted by the circumstances. He said there had been many
violations of the treaty on both sides, and it was better either
to renew and abide by the treaty or disregard it altogether.
Buffalo Hump admitted that in company with other Indians,
against his wishes and in violation of his express orders, his
people had been on the Rio Grande occasionally, in small num-
bers ; but that as some of them had been killed, he hoped that it
104 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
would be a lesson to the others. As an excuse for these depre-
dations, he said that he and his people generally were friends to
the whites, but that they had bad men among them whom they
could not control, and he hoped that the innocent would not
be made to suffer in common with the guilty. On account of
the difficulties on the Rio Grande and the West generally, and
upon receiving information that all Indians found west of
the Colorado River would be attacked indiscriminately, the
Comanches had fled to the Brazos River, where they were in-
formed there was no war and they would be safe. Buffalo
Hump said his people had been anxiously waiting for some time
to learn the disposition of the Government toward them and
the course intended to be adopted, and that all the Southern
Comanches were ready and anxious to deliberate with Rollins
at any time and place appointed by him.
In his report, Rollins expressed the belief that the Comanches
would meet him at the time and place agreed upon ; but, as in
many similar instances, this meeting never took place, nor were
the treaties observed, and in the year following the Comanches
resumed their raiding across the Rio Grande and harassed, to
the very doors of San Antonio, the newly-made Chihuahua
Trail, east of the Pecos River.
Aside from the warfare of the Indians, the Big Bend coun-
try was being slowly settled. The great emigrant trails swarmed
with caravans, which traveled in large bodies to withstand the
Indians. The trend of emigration was toward California, but a
considerable number stopped along the way, some at Presidio
del Norte, and others at El Paso, or points in New Mexico.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 105
CHAPTER IX
One of the stipulations of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
February 2, 1848, was that a survey was to be made to determine
the United States-Mexico boundary. The members of the
Boundary Commission began their work in 1850. The Commis-
sion was given instructions to examine the country contiguous
to the line, with a view of ascertaining the practicability of a
transcontinental railway route. It was also instructed to collect
information with reference to the agricultural and mineral re-
sources, and such other conditions as would give a correct
knowledge of the. fiscal condition of the country and its present
occupants.
Practically all of the first three years of this work was in
charge of John R. Bartlett. At the end of that time, Brevet
Major W. H. Emory superseded Mr. Bartlett, and carried the
work to its completion.
Bartlett gives an interesting account of conditions in the
Big Bend, as they were at that time. The Boundary Commis-
sion landed at Galveston, in August, 1850, and immediately
began employing teamsters, laborers, cooks, and other help
necessary to carry on the work. Unfortunately, the quarter-
master was obliged to take such as offered themselves, naturally
giving preference to those who could produce testimonials of
good character. Many of these had been formerly in govern-
ment employ, and came well recommended ; but there were many
others of questionable character.
The Boundary Commission was divided into a number of
parties, which extended from California to the Gulf of Mexico.
Several of these parties or trains, reached El Paso at the same
time, and it became necessary to discharge a large number of
men, chiefly teamsters. Because of this, and the fact that a
large number of emigrant trains bound for California were dis-
106 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
banded here, a great many of the tricksters of society were left
stranded, with no means of support.
The discharge of so many men at Socorro, a village near El
Paso, let loose upon the peaceful inhabitants of that place a
gang of outlaws, who by daily increase of numbers, had become
so formidable that no one was considered safe beyond the walls
of his own house. Several of these men actually forced the
inhabitants to give them homes.
Upon the arrival of the main party of the Boundary Com-
mission, under charge of Mr. Bartlett, a temporary check was
piaced upon this band of gamblers, horse thieves, and murder-
ers. The presence of such a well-armed force tended to make
the outlaws more circumspect for a time ; but as the members
of the Commission were drafted off to enter upon the duties
connected with the survey, the outlaws became more threaten-
ing in their conduct. Houses were opened for the indulgence
of every wicked passion ; and each midnight hour heralded new
riolence and often bloody scenes, for the fast-filling records of
crime. The peace-loving Mexicans gathered their little store
of worldly wealth and, with their families, fled from the rapidly
depopulating village. Every new outrage was overlooked by
the local authorities. No one dared stir from home without
being doubly armed and prepared to use his weapons at a
moment's warning ; for the turning of a corner might bring one
face to face with the muzzles of a dozen pistols.
After several murders had been committed, the engineers
sent a note to the military commander at San Elceario, giving
an account of what had occurred and presenting the alarming
condition of things in the community. The messenger returned
with an answer from the commanding officer, Major Van Home,
declining to furnish any assistance, on the ground that the ap-
plication should be made first to the civil authorities.
In the evening a dancing-party, or baile, an almost nightly
amusement in all Mexican and frontier towns, was given, which
as nsual was attended by quite a mixed company. As the baile,
or fandango, was open to all, the gang of outlaws was largely
represented, and its members made themselves conspicuous by
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 107
their conduct. Pistols were fired over the heads of the women,
who, in their alarm, attempted to escape from the room. This
was prevented, however, by confederates stationed at the door.
At this stage of the disturbance, great excitement prevailed
in the dance-hall, and several outlaws began using their Bowie
knives. Edward C. Clark, assistant quartermaster of the Com-
mission, was the first person attacked by the ruffians. Four of
them set upon him with their knives and he fell near the door,
mortally wounded. He was immediately taken to the quarters
of the surgeon of the Commission, Dr. Bigelow, who, on ex-
amination, found he had received nine or ten serious knife
wounds in his breast and abdomen. Mr. Clark died next day.
Another man, named Gates, was wounded by a pistol-shot in
the leg.
When the startling announcement was made that an officer
of the Commission had been foully murdered by the wretches
who had already gone too long unchecked, the question arose
as to the best course of action to take.
At this turn of affairs, the members of the Commission were
moved to action and resolved upon a plan to protect, not only
their own lives and property, but, also, those of the dismayed
population about them. Aid from the military had been re-
fused. The alcalde of the village, a weak and sickly imbecile,
had transferred his authority to another, even more timid and
less reliable than himself. Yet this person was invested with
the powers of a justice of the peace, and constituted the entire
civil authority at Socorro.
Messengers, calling for assistance, were sent to the main
body of the Commission, at San Elceario. The call was promptly
answered and in three hours, a party of Americans and Mexi-
cans was formed. They hastily secured arms, and, with the
members of the Commission, proceeded at once to Socorro.
Strengthened by these reinforcements, the citizens divided into
small parties and began a systematic search to ferret out the
murderers. Every house was examined, and eight or nine per-
sons arrested ; but Alexander Young, the ring leader, could not
be found.
108 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
The outlaws caught in the drag-net, were immediately con-
ducted by an armed force to the house of Justice Berthold,
where a court to suit the emergencies of the case, was instituted.
Jurors were summoned and sworn in ; a prosecuting attorney
named, and counsel offered to the prisoners. This offer they
declined, treating the whole matter as a jest, and making
facetious remarks about their condition. The prisoners were
under the impression that nothing could be done with them, and
that they could easily swear themselves out of the difficulty.
The examinations were conducted with propriety, and the
prisoners made to keep silence by the resolute demeanor of the
citizens.
In selecting the jury, six jurors were taken f r6m the Mexi-
can citizens of Socorro and six from the Boundary Commis-
sion, as there were no other Americans in the place.
The trial took place in one of the adobe houses, which was
dimly lighted from a single small window. Scarcely an indi-
vidual was present who had not the appearance and garb of men
who spend their lives on the frontier, far from civilization and
its softening influences. Surrounded, as they were by savage
Indians and constantly mingling with half-civilized and renegade
men, it was necessary for citizens to go constantly armed. No
one ventured forth a half mile from home without first putting
on his pistols, and many carried them upon their persons, even
when within their homes. But at the trial, circumstances
rendered it necessary that all should be armed, for safety, as
well as for the purpose of thwarting any attempt on the part of
the outlaws to free their comrades from the grip of the law.
There sat the judge, with a pistol lying on the desk before him;
the clerks and attorneys wore revolvers at their sides ; and the
jurors were either armed with similar weapons or carried with
them an unerring long-rifle.
The members of the Commission and citizens, who were
either guarding prisoners or protecting the Court, carried by
their sides a revolver, a rifle, or a shot-gun ; thus presenting a
scene more characteristic of feudal times than of the Nineteenth
Century. The fair but sunburnt complexion of the American
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 109
portion of the jury, with their weapons resting against their
shoulders and with pipes in their mouths, presented a striking
contrast to the swarthy features of the Mexicans, muffled in
checkered scrapes, or the conventional capote, cape cloak
and holding their broad-brimmed, glazed hats in their hands,
while between their lips rested delicate cigarritos.
The reckless, unconcerned appearance of the prisoners,
whose unshaven faces and disheveled hair gave them the ap-
pearance of Italian banditti, rather than of Americans; the
grave and determined bearing of the jury ; the varied costumes
and expressions of the spectators, clad in scrapes, blankets, or
overcoats, with their different weapons, and, generally with
long beards, formed altogether one of the most remarkable
groups that ever graced a court-room.
Two days were occupied in the examination and trial, for
the one immediately followed the other. In the meantime, a
military guard of ten men had been sent promptly by Major
Van Home, upon a request from Mr. Bartlett ; so that the open
threats which had been made by the prisoners during the first
day of the trial were no longer heard. They now saw that the
strong arm of the law would triumph.
All fairness was shown to the outlaws, and on the second
day, a member of the Commission was requested to act as their
counsel. His efforts, however, to prove an alibi, to impeach
the testimony of the witnesses for the prosecution, or to estab-
lish the previous good character of the defendants, proved
futile. The prisoners were then heard in their defense, but
they could advance nothing beyond the mere assertion of their
innocence. At the close of the testimony, an attempt was made
by the friends of the prisoners to postpone the trial for the pur-
pose, as they stated, of obtaining counsel and evidence from
El Paso. But the Court had been appraised of the existence
of a plot to attempt a rescue that night, and accordingly the
request was refused.
The evidence being closed, a few remarks were made by the
prosecuting attorney, followed by the charge of the judge,
after which the case was given to the jury. In a short time,
110 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
the twelve men returned to the courtroom with the verdict
of guilty, against William Craig, Marcus Butler, and John
Wadel, upon whom the judge then pronounced sentence of
death.
The prisoners were escorted to the little plaza, or open
square, in front of the village church, where the priest met
them to give them such consolation as his holy office offered ;
but the conduct of these men, notwithstanding the desire on the
part of all to afford them consolation and comfort, continued
reckless and indifferent, even until the last moment. Butler
was alone affected. He wept bitterly, and excited much
sympathy by his youthful appearance, but his companions
scoffed at him and begged him not to cry, as he could die but
once.
The sun was setting when they arrived at the place of execu-
tion. The assembled spectators formed a guard around a small
alamo, or cottonwood tree, which had been selected for the
gallows. It was fast growing dark, and the busy movements
of a large number of the condemned men's friends, dividing
and collecting together again in small bands, at different points
around and outside of the party, and then approaching nearer
to the center, proved that an attack was meditated, if the slight-
est opportunity should be given. But the sentence of the law
was carried into effect.
The scene was of a character which the participants never
again desired to witness. The calm but determined citizens on
the one side, and the daring companions of the condemned out-
laws on the other, remaining keenly on the watch throughout ;
the former for the protection of life and the support of good
order in the community, the latter with the malicious eyes of
disappointed and infuriated malcontents, who would have been
willing to sacrifice a hundred additional lives, to rescue their
companions.
Socorro now resumed its previous quiet and good order, for
the authorities had directed all persons who were not con-
nected with the Commission and who were without employment,
to leave the village within twenty-four hours. This, however,
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 111
was hardily necessary, for the vagabonds already had begun
to depart and before the close of another day all had left;
but before the indignant populace would be satisfied there
was another, the original leader, who was yet to be appre-
hended.
Four hundred dollars was subscribed by the employees of
the Commission and offered as a reward for the capture of
Alexander Young. Volunteer parties set out in all directions ;
and word was finally brought that he had been caught further
down the Rio Grande, at Guadalupe.
The prisoner was brought to Socorro and placed in con-
finement, well chained and guarded. The careless, dogged look
had left his eyes, and was replaced by a supplicating glance,
which plainly told of a change within. He was anxious to know
if either of the three who had been executed, had made a con-
fession. He expressed a wish to have a letter written to his
mother, who had not heard from him in six years. The letter
was written and the prisoner appeared much affected. He con-
fessed the truth of the charges against him, incriminating clearly
the three who were first hanged, besides many others.
At ten o'clock, the following morning, the Court again con-
vened and a jury was impaneled. The prisoner's confession
was publicly read, signed by himself, and witnessed by several
members of the Court.
With the testimony in hand, the jury could have returned
a verdict ; but it was deemed advisable to present further evi-
dence to show the unmistakable guilt of the men who already
had been punished. This was done for the reason that several
persons who passed for honorable men were interesting them-
selves in defending these outlaws because of what they called,
humanitarian grounds.
The prisoner was found guilty and sentenced to hang. That
afternoon he was taken to the church, where, on bended knees
and with trembling lips, he made his final confession, received
the blessing of the priest, and was taken to the alamo, where
he was to be executed. His last request was that he might be
buried as respectably as circumstances would permit. At half-
112 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
past four o'clock, in the afternoon of the same day that the trial
began, using the same tree where the three others were exe-
cuted, the law was carried into effect. Justice was served with
dispatch in 1850.
The well-merited punishment of these four men was loudly
applauded and Justified by both the civil and military authori-
ties of the frontier. Such an example as this had been needed
for some time. The vicinity was again freed from worthless
desperadoes ; and as the Mexican citizens of the peaceful old
town of Socorro remarked, "We can now sit in the evening by
our doorsides and not be obliged to retire with the sun, fix bolts
and bars, and huddle in corners with fear and trembling."
While these examples of justice served to promote the wel-
fare of the people and to curb the activities of the vicious ele-
ments, who naturally resorted to the settlements, still it had no
effect upon the Indian marauders in the Big Bend. The rela-
tion between the Indians of this region and several of the Mexi-
can towns, particularly San Carlos, below Presidio del Norte,
was peculiar, and the source of considerable worry to the
United States and Mexico. The Apaches were usually at war
with the people of both countries, but had friendly relations
with the people of certain towns, where they traded and received
supplies of arms and ammunition in exchange for stolen mules
and, often, captives. This was the case with the people of San
Carlos, who had amicable relations with both the Apaches and
the Comanches ; and these Indians made San Carlos a depot of
arms in their annual excursions into Mexico.
While at Presidio del Norte, Major Emory, of the Boundary
Commission, received authentic accounts of the unmolested
march of four hundred Comanches, under Bajo el Sol, through
Chihuahua, toward Durango. Chihuahua, not receiving the
protection to which it was entitled from the central government
of Mexico, had made an independent treaty with the Comanches,
the practical effect of which was to aid and abet the Indians in
their war upon Durango. In 1851, Bishop Leamy, of Paso del
Norte, upon his return from a visit to the Bishop of Durango,
said that the wealthy state of Durango would soon be depopu-
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 113
lated by the Indians. Within a few leagues of the city,
haciendas, that once possessed a hundred thousand animals,
had been abandoned.
This condition of affairs, together with the three years'
drought, had brought ruin to the inhabitants of the State, and
had driven them to unmanly despair. On the occasion of a
great fiesta, in the State of Durango, where no less than ten
thousand people were assembled in and around a plaza, the cry
"Los Indies ! Bajo el Sol !" was heard. In a very short time
every one had disappeared, leaving no one to face the enemy.
The alarm proved to be false on this occasion, but the instance
conveys a good idea of the general fear felt toward the Indians
by the Mexicans.
In the autumn of 1851, Major Emory, with a small party
of the Boundary Commission, escorted by a detachment of
fifteen soldiers, was making a rapid march across the Pecos
country. After being without water a considerable time, as
they approached Comanche Springs, the party discovered graz-
ing near the springs a herd of a thousand horses, divided into
three different squads, and held by Indians just before the
Springs, on a small plateau, where now stands the business
section of Fort Stockton. Watching the advancing whites,
thirty or forty Indian warriors were drawn up. It looked as
if a fight was inevitable ; so without making a halt, the men, as
light infantry, were deployed to the right and left of the
wagons, and the whole moved rapidly toward the water. The
Indians raised a flag, which was answered by Lieutenant Wash-
ington and two others, who rode forward. Believing it to be a
ruse to divide his forces or to gain time to deliberate, Major
Emory increased the speed of the column, so as to keep Lieu-
tenant Washington under cover of a defense fire. In this way,
the American party reached advantageous ground within pistol-
shot of the water, before they halted to parley. A man was sent
to the top of a large hill, with a spyglass, to look back, as if the
party was expecting additional forces. They promptly corralled
their wagons near the water and put themselves, without ap-
pearing to do so, in a good position to fight. They succeeded
114 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
in conveying the idea that they were only the advance guard of
a large force, which was but a short way behind. They assumed
the mien of a superior party and camped on the ground eighteen
hours. The next day they moved off as if they had an armed
force behind them. How different would the story have been
had the Americans been Mexicans.
The party were Kioways and Comanches returning with
nearly a thousand animals, from a forage into Mexico. Mucho
Toro, the chief of this party, who spoke Spanish well, said he
had purchased the animals in Mexico, and that this was but the
advance party of several hundred warriors who were close
behind him.
Mucho Toro, in full dress, paid Major Emory a visit, on
which occasion he displayed great humility, and exhibited con-
spicuously upon his breast an immense silver cross, which he
said had been given him by the Bishop of Durango, when the
chief was converted to Christianity. He had, no doubt, robbed
some church of it. His features showed the profile of the
Mexican Indian peon, but the warriors he commanded had the
bold aquiline profile of the Kioways and Comanches. He rep-
resented a type of that class of Mexicans, who, by affiliation
with the wild Indians, had wrought such irremediable ruin in
the northern states of Mexico.
The Americans desired very much to attack Mucho Toro's
party, but their force was too small, and they were three hun-
dred miles from support. The next day, when crossing the
dividing plain between Comanche Springs and Ojo de Leon,
they discovered the dust rising from the trail coming from the
south, as far as the eye could reach. They had just missed
meeting with Bajo el Sol and four hundred warriors.
In his work on the Boundary Commission, Major Emory
had many similar adventures with these Indians, and he gave
orders that none should be allowed to enter his camp, and if
they did, they were to be killed at sight. By taking this harsh,
but necessary step, he was one of the few persons passing
through the Big Bend at this time, who did not experience a
loss. The Mexican Commission was robbed repeatedly, and
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 115
upon more than one occasion was obliged to suspend its opera-
tions.
Indeed, so bold had the Indians become that they raided the
Magoffin ranch, where stood old Fort Bliss, and in plain
view of the little settlement of Franklin, or El Paso, drove off
forty head of mules.
Much light is thrown on conditions, as they existed in 1850,
by a series of communications between several American and
Mexican officers. At the time John W. Spencer settled across
the River from Presidio del Norte, Ben Leaton settled a few
miles below Spencer's ranch, where at one time had been an
old Spanish fort. For that reason it was called Fort Leaton ;
today, it is known as Old Fortin. Major J. Van Home, of the
Third Infantry, stationed at El Paso, received two communica-
tions one from Governor Trias, of Chihuahua, the other from
Emilio Laughberg, inspector of military colonies at Paso del
Norte. These letters accused Leaton of furnishing the Indians
with arms, powder, and lead, and also, of the purchase of prop-
erty, stolen from the Mexicans by the Indians.
Major General George M. Brooks, commanding the Eighth
Department, informed Major Van Home that steps had been
taken to redress this evil. He was instructed to inform Gov-
ernor Trias of the difficulties which had prevented the Gov-
ernment of the United States from carrying out faithfully and
honorably the specifications of the peace treaty with Mexico.
He was instructed to say that the United States had most
serious and grave cause for complaint against the high authori-
ties of Chihuahua, particularly with reference to the employ-
ment of Americans in making war on the Apaches and other
Indians, not only in Mexico, but on the territory of the United
States, in the Big Bend. By this action, the Indians had been
made to believe that the American Government approved of
those aggressions. As a consequence many American citizens
had been murdered and robbed by the Apaches and other
Indians, and unless parties were accompanied by expensive
military escorts, traveling in the Big Bend was extremely
dangerous. Before the violation of our soil and the employ-
116 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
ment of expatriated Americans, there had been safety as far as
El Paso, at least; while at this time, all of the tribes were
revengefully hostile.
Governor Trias made counter-complaint that for some time
Leaton had kept an open treaty with the Apache Indians, con-
trary to what he had been expressly advised to do. He had been
repeatedly charged with this vicious conduct, but it had been
impossible to stop it, as Leaton respected neither the authori-
ties of the Presidio nor the laws of his own country. Governor
Trias presented positive proof that the great portion of this
illicit traffic, in which Leaton dealt, consisted of selling and pur-
chasing from the Indians goods and property stolen by them
from the citizens of Mexico. But the evil consisted not only in
this, but in return for the plunder he received from the Indians,
Leaton furnished them with arms, powder, lead, and other
articles of ammunition.
Just to what extent Leaton was guilty, was not clearly
established. Evidently, the War Department took the stand
that he was to blame. Leaton was following the practice then
customary among the Indian traders, and no doubt this traffic
did encourage Indian depredations on both sides of the Rio
Grande. Leaton claimed that for two years previous to this,
he had endeavored to pacify the Apaches about Presidio del
Norte, and advised them to preserve friendly relations with the
United States ; his idea being that an Indian agent would soon
visit the settlement and make a treaty with them. According to
his statement, the causes of the hostilities with the Apaches
was a party of American outlaws under Glanton, who had at-
tacked the Indians and killed a large number of them. This was
the same company of Americans, Leaton averred, who had
enlisted in the service of Chihuahua, and as the Indians knew
no distinction between Glanton's party and other Americans,
they had become hostile toward all Americans as well as toward
him. Leaton contended that, in many instances, he had turned
the Indians from their purpose of attacking emigrant trains
and other parties, traveling through the country.
The case of Leaton was but one of many which showed the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 117
inability of the two governments to control their Indian wards.
If the United States was guilty of violating her treaty, Mexico
was equally guilty. The vacillating policy of the State of
Chihuahua, whereby they were at one moment bribing the
Indians to keep peace, and the next moment hiring American
outlaws at a compensation of one hundred and fifty dollars per
scalp, to slaughter the Indians, did more than any other cause
to stimulate the Indians in their depredations. Instead of
co-operating with the American Government, in an effort to
control the Indians, the Mexican Government failed in every
promise and threw all responsibility upon the United States.
118 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
CHAPTER X
The year 1850 may well be regarded as the beginning of
that period in the history of the Big Bend, marked by the first
footsteps of the vanguard of civilization, which, in time, made
the beaten trail ready for the future commerce. The first two
groups of actors have been introduced ; their character and their
conduct have been shown ; the stage needs but to be set and the
curtain lifted, to introduce the characters of the third epoch of
the great historical romance of the Southwest. The first two
epochs concerned the Spaniard and the Mexican ; the third has
to do with the American.
It is necessary first to take up in detail the nature of the
country which comprises the Big Bend, and outline more in
detail the natural causes which impeded the progress of ad-
vancing civilization. One who is unfamiliar with this great
territory, can not fully appreciate the obstacles which the
pioneers encountered in making it, not only habitable, but, in
time, a country of prosperous ranches, wealthy communities,
and law-abiding citizens. To accomplish this result, fifty years
of untiring labor was required.
The Big Bend is an oblong stretch of territory, thirty thou-
sand square miles in extent ; on the south and west is the Rio
Grande ; on the east and northeast, the Pecos River ; while New
Mexico is at the upper end. In such an immense tract, it is
impossible to go into a detailed topographical account, because
of the many and often abrupt changes in the formation of the
country. So isolated has been this region and so different in
character from the greater portion of Texas, that few realize
the magnificent scenery of the Big Bend. Hypothetical
geography has been carried to such an extent in information
given the public concerning this region, that the newcomer often
exclaims, "I did not know there was such scenery in Texas !"
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY
For Texas is supposed to be a land of plains, and not of lofty
mountains and gaping canyons.
In 1850, there were only two settlements in the Big Bend,
both of which were on the banks of the Rio Grande. One was
the settlement of Franklin, now El Paso, opposite the Mexican
town of Paso del Norte, which to-day is known as Juarez ; the
other was opposite Presidio del Norte, the Mexican town at the
junction of the Conchos River and the Rio Grande.
As all trading was on the Mexican side of the River, it was
later in the fifties that American settlements, dignified by post
names, sprang into existence in this country. Paso del Norte
and Presidio were the only depots of refuge and supply for
the travel-worn Americans in this great region.
The Mexican settlements, however, were more numerous,
nestling along the banks of the Rio Grande wherever the val-
leys were of sufficient width to permit farming by irrigation.
The first in this line of villages extending up the Rio Grande,
and one of the oldest Spanish settlements in Northern Mexico,
was Presidio del Norte. In this particular year, 1850, the
Indians drove off most of the cattle ; the drought had caused a
failure in the corn crop for the previous three years, and the
town, isolated from other settlements, had suffered from famine.
At Presidio, very little farming was carried on by irrigation, as
the farmer depended upon the rainfall and the overflow from
the two rivers.
Presidio del Norte was an adobe built town, situated upon
a gravelly hill, overlooking the junction of the Conchos River
and the Rio Grande, then called Rio Puerco, from the contrast
of its muddy waters to that of the Conchos River, which, except
during freshets, was clear. The town contained about eight
hundred inhabitants, but on account of the nearness of the
great Indian Trail, at this time extensively traveled by maraud-
ing bands, there was much talk of abandoning it.
The church was within the walls of the presidio, or fort, and
contained one or two pictures of more value than are usually
found discoloring the walls of frontier churches. In almost
every house was found, in addition to the Cross, a figure of our
120 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
Saviour, which was sometimes so very grotesque that piety
itself could not divest it of its ridiculous appearance. These
images and pictures, however, were sources of comfort and
happiness in prosperity and adversity to the simple Mexican
people. They rilled the imagination and gave occupation to the
idle. The padre, who had charge of the church in this district,
was by nature intended for the military profession. Brave,
frank, handsome, and energetic, he was the leading spirit in
every foray against the Indians; and upon his person were
many wounds received in battle. In the isolated and defense-
less condition of the Presidio, he was the type of spiritual and
temporal advisor most needed.
Passing through Presidio del Norte, was the great thorough-
fare, the Chihuahua Trail, which was destined to have very
important bearing on the settlement of the Big Bend. Across
the Rio Grande, just below the Presidio, was the Spencer farm,
on the American side, and six miles further down, also on the
American side, was Fort Leaton, the home of the Indian trader,
Ben Leaton.
From Presidio del Norte to Vado de Piedras, a distance of
twenty-four miles, the valley of the Rio Grande had a course
from the northwest, and varied in width from three to four
miles. This valley was enclosed by hills on the American side,
and on the Mexican side by a large mountain range.
Vado de Piedras, named from the rock ford of the River,
opposite the town, was a military colony where convicts were
kept, and at this time contained three hundred prisoners. The
main building was a large cuartel, or barracks. Around the
town were small cultivated fields, watered by irrigation and
yielding bountiful crops of wheat and corn.
From here, the Rio Grande took a course from the north,
through a valley, varying in width from one-half to one and one-
half miles, until Pilares, forty-five miles above Vado de Piedras,
was reached. Pilares was at one time a military colony and
convict camp, similar to Vado de Piedras ; and from numerous
signs visible to-day, the smelting of silver ore was carried on
here extensively. This old presidio was abandoned about 1873.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 121
Fifty miles above Pilares, the Rio Grande emerged from a
narrow valley through which it had flowed for twenty-four
miles, and entered Quitman Canyon, where the El Paso-San
Antonio road left it, and where in later years was located Camp
Quitman.
From Quitman Canyon to El Paso, a distance of ninety miles
by the windings of the river, the valley of the Rio Grande aver-
aged from six to ten miles in width ; and, had water been plenti-
ful, all of this fertile valley would have been susceptible to cul-
tivation.
Before reaching San Elceario, and on the Mexican side of
the Rio Grande, there were two small military colonies of about
five hundred inhabitants each Guadalupe and San Ignacio.
From San Elceario to El Paso, a distance of thirty miles by the
river, there was almost one continuous settlement of Mexicans,
Suma and Piro Indians, with here and there an occasional
American farmer or trader.
At this time, Franklin had only two hundred inhabitants, and
San Elceario, with a population oi twelve hundred, had just
been made the country-seat of the Big Bend district. As can
be seen from the number of Mexican villages and outposts along
the Rio Grande, on the Mexican side, that republic should have
been in a better position to control the Indians along the border
than the United States.
The topography of the lower country from Presidio del
Norte to the Pecos River along the Rio Grande, was even more
rugged than that above. Just below Fort Leaton, the Bof ecillos
Mountains bisected the Rio Grande, thus forming a canyon
through which the River passed. From there to the Comanche
Pass, the country was broken and very rough. This pass crossed
the Rio Grande above old San Carlos, below which on the
Mexican side rose the San Carlos Mountains.
Below San Carlos was the Grand Canyon of the Rio Grande,
which forms one of the many phenomena occurring in this land.
In ages past the walls of this canyon had been a great lime-
stone plain, but from some cause a section twenty miles long
had been disturbed by the earth's internal action, and had
122 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
forced the lower end of the plain to an elevation of two thousand
feet above the surrounding country. The process of upheaval
was carried on so slowly that the Rio Grande was able to con-
tinue its flow through the old channel, cutting deeper into the
limestone as rapidly as the plain was pushed upward.
Next in order was the mountains of San Vicente, which take
their name from the old presidio, long since abandoned by the
Spaniards. From this point in the windings of the River, lying
some distance northwest of the Grand Canyon, were the Chisos,
or Ghost Mountains, the peak of which, rising seven thousand
eight hundred and thirty-five feet in elevation, was named
Mount Emory, in honor of Major W. H. Emory, of the
Boundary Commission.
Almost directly east of the Chisos Mountains, after the
Rio Grande turned its course northeastward, lay Sierra del
Carmen, on the Mexican side. From here to the mouth of the
Pecos River, the eastern limit of the Big Bend, was a distance
of approximately one hundred and thirty miles. Here canyon
followed canyon, and rapids, swift and treacherous, one after
the other, made the Rio Grande unfordable, except in two
or three places.
J As can readily be seen, a route of travel along the Rio
Grande was impracticable. The trail through the Davis Moun-
tains ; the one up the Pecos over the Delaware and Guadalupe
Mountains ; and the Chihuahua Trail from Presidio to Horse-
head Crossing, naturally became the three main highways used
by settlers and emigrants. The two first named trails led from
San Antonio, or other eastern points, to El Paso. Of these
two, the Davis Mountains trail became the more generally used
on account of the water supply. The Guadalupe trail was used
but a few years and abandoned ; and to-day there remains but
little trace of any habitations along that route.
These trails were traversed both by troops and by emigrants,
while the number of freight outfits was gradually increasing
and much trade was being diverted from the Santa Fe Trail to
the San Antonio-El Paso Trail.
Emigrants, however, were the travelers who were subject
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 123
to the most dangers from Indians and hardships, from lack of
water, death of work-stock, and other misfortunes. A certain
knowledge of conditions was necessary for an emigrant to make
a successful passage across this vast country. The best season
for them to leave the eastern sections of the United States for
California by the Davis Mountains, or southern route, was
about the first of June. There was then good grass and water
as far as Camp Quitman on the Rio Grande, which they could
reach the last of July. This method of travel gave them enough
leisure to stop two or three weeks for their animals to graze and
recuperate, and lay in additional supplies for the remainder of
their journey.
The emigrants soon learned from experience that oxen were
the best kind of work-stock for the country over which they had
to travel. Before leaving their starting points they provided
themselves with one or two extra yoke of oxen, to replace any
which might be lost or stolen on the way. At this time they
used light, strong wagons much lighter than the prairie
schooner which came into use a few years later. They took with
them only those supplies which they required for the journey.
These provisions were wrapped in oilcloth or other material,
which kept them from dampness, rain, and immersion when
deep fords were crossed. Each wagon carried a double canvas ;
two water-casks lashed to either side ; and extra axle, pole, and
a pair of hounds. The parties usually consisted of seventy-five
to a hundred men, who were sufficient protection against
Indians, and a guard for the herd and work-stock. At night
the wagons were arranged in a circle, forming a corral, into
which the work-stock was driven in time of danger. While
traveling through the Indian country, the emigrants herded
their animals night and day, and never allowed them to move
from camp without an armed guard.
The relative merits of the mule and oxen was a much de-
bated question. Mules were more gregarious than oxen and
more easily herded at night ; also more liable to be stampeded.
Sometimes one mule with his saddle or harness on, by suddenly
joining the herd, caused a stampede of every animal belonging
124 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
to the train. At night, an Indian, coyote, or a horse running by
was sufficient cause for the loss of the herd ; and once in the
possession of the Indians it could not often be regained by the
pursuing party. On the other hand, oxen traveled so slowly that
they could be overtaken. But oxen would stray from the herd,
lie down in the bushes, and thus often be lost. Mules would
subsist where oxen could not, and in mountainous countries they
could always feed on the hillsides. Their power for endur-
ing fatigue, hunger, and thirst were greater, and, particularly
so, when the marches were made during the day. They re-
quired only one-fourth as much water. Oxen had the advan-
tage in strength when it came to service in wet, boggy soil,
or on level plains ; while the mules had the advantage where
the country was rugged and there were many steep ascents.
Generally, when the emigrants began their westward jour-
ney, their mules were wild and unbroken. As native grass
was their sole sustenance, this was at first cut for them. After
a few days on the trail, they were hobbled while grazing but soon
both of these methods were abandoned from necessity. During
a stampede, when the mules were being led away by a horse,
their flight was often arrested by shooting the horse. Horses
were not permitted to run loose with the herd of mules, for
the mules would almost invariably follow them. They had
such an attachment for a horse that they would follow wher-
ever he led, and be governed by sight of him or by sound of a
bell attached to his neck.
The frontiersman and emigrant soon learned to display
much sagacity in detecting and reading signs along the trail,
when and by whom made, strength of the party, whether they
were Indians, Mexicans, or Americans, and their direction.
So with the places where there had been encampments ; these,
the wary traveler on the trail inspected with care, to see
whether friend or enemy had preceded him. If they were
Indians, he would find wigwam-poles, fragments of skins,
deerskin thongs, and beads. A little experience enabled him
to distinguish whether the campers were Comanches, Lipans,
or Mescaleros. The principal characteristic was the form of
I
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 125
their wigwams. The Comanches set up erect poles ; the Lipans
bent them over in circular form ; and Mescaleros gave them a
low, oval shape. Then, too, there was a difference in their moc-
casins and the footprints they made. Each tribe of Indians
had its particular fashion, which were chiefly shown in their
methods of fixing their hair and covering their feet. Amer-
ican emigrants, or travelers, left many marks to indicate their
nationality and character, such as scraps of newspaper, bits
of cigars, fragments of hard bread, pieces of hempen rope,
and other known articles of American manufacture. The
Mexicans had none of these articles, but were identified by
the remains of cigarritos, pieces of rawhide, which they used
instead of rope ; or, if they left any portion of their camp out-
fit or cooking utensils, these differed from those of the Amer-
icans. The remains of their food also differed. This con-
sisted of tortillas, cakes made of corn or wheat flour, similar
in shape to the American pancake; frijoles, a brown bean;
tamales, minced meat rolled up in cornshucks and baked in
cakes; chili Colorado, Mexican red pepper; and dried beef.
If the Mexicans wore shoes, they were unlike the American
shoe.
The extent of the party was shown by the number of foot-
prints. These could not be told while the party was in motion
as there might be a large number of animals driven in a herd
with but few attendants ; but when the camping-place was
reached, the number of persons could be detected with a con-
siderable degree of certainty. The freshness of footprints,
broken twigs, and similar signs, showed how recently the
party had passed.
As before stated, the year, 1850, was the beginning of
the third epoch in the history of the Big Bend the American
epoch. The Spaniards spent two hundred and seventy years
in an effort to conquer and colonize this region ; the Mexicans
threw off the yoke of the Spaniards, and upon the crumbling
foundation of ,the Spanish civilization, they, too, attempted
to subdue this country but it remained for th Americans, a
more northern race, with different ideas and ideals, to accom-
126 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
plish that which the two first named peoples had failed to
accomplish*
Before the economic pressure, which forced the lines of
civilization westward, became so great in the eastern portion
of the United States, the Big Bend had attained a state of semi-
civilization which might truly be called, from the Indians'
standpoint, the Golden Age. Under the Spanish rule, prior
to 1810, all the Indians, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf
of California, were brought under the benign influence of the
Roman Catholic Church, through the efforts of the Franciscan
and Jesuit brotherhoods. Under the Spanish dominion, a cor-
don of military and ecclesiastical stations existed, from ocean
to ocean, for a distance of fifteen hundred miles. Troops,
known as flying squadrons, passed regularly from station to
station ; and at each station great structures were erected for
the accommodation of these troops, for religious worship, and
for storing provisions. The remains of these structures still
may be seen, silent witnesses of former Spanish greatness.
Two causes brought about the downfall of this magnifi-
cent cordon of military and ecclesiastical establishments and
the return of Indians to a savage life, far more ferocious than
ever before. First, the revolution, where both the Monarch-
ists and Republicans courted the co-operation of the Indians,
and thus invited them to insubordination. Second, and more
lasting, the attempts at amalgamation by intermarriage of the
Spaniards and the Indians. This last cause, which has oper-
ated so banefully over the whole Spanish America, and which
after years of practice resulted in almost universal disease
among the Mexicans, or Mexico Indians, has not been suf-
ficiently stressed in the many attempts to account for the
retrogression and decay of the population of the Spanish-
speaking countries.
The second, or Mexican epoch, was of such short duration
that judgment can not well be passed upon what the ultimate
outcome might have been. But the internal affairs of Mexico,
from that time until to-day, have been kept in a continual agi-
tation by a succession of revolts and revolutions, which have
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 127
precluded the successful operation of any fixed policies in
regard to the frontiers of that republic.
In order that we Americans, as a people, may not take more
credit than is due us for winning the Big Bend to civilization,
it might be well to advance the suggestion that our prede-
cessors laid a foundation upon which we, as a stronger and
more energetic race, have built and remodeled to a better
advantage.
While the third epoch really began with the successful termi-
nation of the war with Mexico, 1846-48, the two years following
were given over entirely to exploration and reconnaissance,
in order that a policy for the betterment of the newly-acquired
empire might be formulated. The first two important steps
taken were the establishment of mail routes and military out-
posts. Strange to say, the mail routes were established prior
to the posts. This was due, not to local conditions in the Big
Bend, but to the fact that a tremendous volume of mail fol-
lowed the rush of the emigrants and gold-seekers to California,
and there was need for a shorter route than by ship down
the Atlantic to Panama, across that country, and up the Pacific
Coast to California.
In 1850, the San Antonio-El Paso link in the chain of
mail routes, which crossed the continent, was welded; and
the first contract was awarded to Henry Skillman. The initial
"run" was made with six wild mules and a Concord coach,
guarded by a party of eighteen well-armed, mounted men
under the captaincy of the famous Indian fighter, Big Foot
Wallace. This "run" required thirty days to cover the dis-
tance of six hundred and seventy-three miles, due to the fact
that only daylight "runs" were made and there was no equip-
ment for the various stations along the route. It must be
borne in mind that the whole distance was infested by hostile
Indians, and that these mail parties faced the ever-present
danger of attack by superior numbers. The contract called
for three mails a week, each way; but until after the Civil
War, no more than one mail a week, each way, succeeded in
reaching the terminals.
128 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
In a short time, along this route, thirty or forty miles
apart, stage stands, or stations, were established, according
to their nearness to water and their location in regard to pro-
tection from the Indians. The personnel of the guard accom-
panying each coach, consisted of frontiersmen, inured to hard-
ships and experienced in Indian fighting.
Big Foot Wallace, perhaps the most widely-known Indian
fighter in the history of Texas, figured as the chief character
in many of the tales of romance along the frontier. One day,
while living on his ranch about thirty miles west of San An-
tonio, he heard his dogs barking a short distance from the
house. He knew from the sound of their baying that they had
treed some animal, and, as customary, he took his rifle and
went to their assistance. What was his surprise to find an
Indian up in the forks of a tree, just out of reach of the dogs !
The Indian was a young warrior, on his' first raid, and had
become separated from his companions. While he was armed
with bow and arrow, these were strapped to his back, and evi-
dently he had been too frightened to use them. Big Foot
hauled him out of the tree, put him in the saddle on his horse,
tied his feet under the horse's belly, and in this way carried
him to Castroville. Riding into the village, this strange couple
attracted much interest.
"Say, Big Foot, give me that Indian/' called one of his
friends.
"No, this is my Indian," replied Wallace. "If you want an
Indian go out and get one. There are plenty left."
Another story is told, which illustrates Wallace's bravery
and quick wit. Big Foot was out horse-hunting on a mule,
when he came upon a fresh Indian trail leading in a northerly
direction, over a divide. To make certain that the Indians
took the same trail on the other side of the divide, Wallace
spurred up his mule to reach the top of the rise. If he could
establish the fact that the Indians had continued in the same
direction, he intended to hurry on to Castroville and organize
a party to intercept them. As he rode over the crest of the
hill, he came suddenly upon twenty-five or thirty Indians,
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 129
who were busy catching saddle-horses out of a big herd they
had stolen.
Big Foot instantly saw his danger; there were too many
Indians for him to fight, and if he attempted to run, the swifter
horses of the Indians would soon overtake his mule. Without
a second's hesitation, he charged down upon them, waving
his hat towards his rear, and shouting at the top of his voice,
"Come on, boys ! Come on ! We've got em !"
This was more than the Indians could stand. Naturally
supposing that a company of "badly riled" frontiersmen were
just over the hill, out of sight, they jumped on their horses and
fled. Wallace leisurely drove the stolen horses back to their
owners.
Two other hardy frontiersmen who accompanied Wallace
as guards with the first mail party to enter the Big Bend
were Diedrick Dutchover and E. P. Webster, both of whom
settled and lived at Fort Davis, where to-day their numerous
descendants reside.
The name, Dutchover, is of peculiar significance on account
of its origin. In 1842, a youth, by the name of Anton Died-
rick, in Antwerp, Belgium, happened to be the sole witness of
a cold-blooded murder. The murderers, fearing exposure,
drugged and shanghaied Diedrick; and when he awoke, he
found himself virtually a prisoner on board a tramp wind-
janimer a sailing vessel carrying nondescript cargoes from
one port to another. For three years he remained a prisoner
on board of this boat, and during that time he sailed the high
seas and made many ports. Eventually, the wind-jammer
reached the port of Galveston, and there Anton Diedrick was
allowed to go ashore.
The struggle between the United States and Mexico had
just begun; all the able-bodied men, who could fight, were
being urged to enlist in the army. Impelled by curiosity and
wondering at the strange commotion around him, Anton Died-
rick one day found himself near a recruiting station. Sud-
denly a man in a blue uniform grabbed him by the arm and
began talking to him rapidly in English of which Diedrick
130 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
understood not one word. Before the dazed youth could make
out the situation, he was pulled into the recruiting station and
called upon to give his name. Not understanding the question
asked him, naturally he made no answer. Whereupon the
recruiting officer exclaimed, "Aw, he's Dutch all over. We'll
name him Dutchallover !" In this manner he became an Amer-
ican soldier and answered to the name of Diedrick Dutchall-
over.
As time passed, after serving with merit in the Mexican
War, the name of Dutchallover became too cumbersome, and
the second syllable was therefore stricken from the name
leaving Dutchover. In after years when Diedrick Dutchover
applied for pension papers, as a Mexican War veteran, he had
considerable trouble in establishing the co-identity of Anton
Diedrick, Diedrick Dutchallover, and Diedrick Dutchover.
By the close of the year, 1850, the stage-stands along the
mail routes were completed and the mail facilities expedited.
The stage-stands of adobe were all built on the same plan.
They were usually placed on a rise or sweep of ground, which
permitted the stage-tender to see several hundred yards in
every direction. On either side of the broad entrance was a
large room. This entrance, or gateway, was barred, and opened
into a passage-way, which was covered overhead by a roof
extending from the rooms on either side. In the rear of these
rooms, and large enough to accommodate a number of teams,
was the corral or patio. The walls of the corral were twelve
or fifteen feet high, two or three feet thick, and constructed
of adobe brick. One of the rooms was used for cooking and
eating; the other was used for sleeping quarters and a store-
room. The stage company furnished each stage-tender with
supplies, and he cooked for the passengers when there were
passengers charging them fifty cents a meal. The stage-
tender was allowed to keep for his recompense all money col-
lected in this manner.
When the stage rolled into the station, the tender swung
open the gates, and the mules, which were of the untamed
Spanish breed, dashed into the corral. As soon as they were
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 131
unhitched from the stage-coach, the men would turn around
the stage by hand, pointing it towards the entrance. When the
fresh mules were hitched to the stage-coach and the gates again
opened, with a yell from the driver, and a crack from his whip,
the mules would dash out of the enclosure on a wild run,
which did not slacken until the next stage-stand was reached.
Often, when the Indians were quiet, the detachments of
troops which ordinarily camped near the stage stations were
ordered away; and during these unprotected periods, the In-
dians would creep up to the stage-stand unobserved and, not
infrequently, succeed in killing the stage-tender. A few years
after the establishment of the mail route, an amusing incident
occurred at the old Barila stage-stand, thirty miles northeast
of Fort Davis, near the present J E F Ranch. The stage-
tender was in the act of feeding his stock in the corral, and
was bending over a barrel containing shelled corn. The In-
dians had been quiet for some time and he had no thoughts of
them. Suddenly a great shadow was thrown on the ground
near him, and at the same time he heard a noise overhead. It
flashed into his mind that a bear had climbed the wall, and
he was blaming himself for not keeping his gun by his side.
He realized how tired he had become of salt pork ; and visions
of a juicy bear-steak arose in his mind. He looked up. As he
did so a big buck Indian lit on the ground an arm's length
from him. The surprised stage-tender yelled for fear. The
Indian, too, stood amazed in his tracks. He was as much
surprised as the stage-tender. The yell of the white man still
confused him ; and while he stood transfixed, the stage-tender
scrambled over the wall. Later, the old stage-tender remarked,
"I left it with him, and ran nine miles to a ranch settlement."
From 1850 to 1857, or until the Government subsidized
the Butterfield Overland Daily Mail route through the Guada-
lupe Mountains, the Davis Mountains' route was the highway
over which passed the freight, mail, and passenger traffic from
the East to the West. Comanche Painted Camp (later Fort
Davis) became known as La Limpia, the name being derived
from the clear running stream which flowed down the great
132 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
canyon in the Davis Mountains. As yet, no intermediate post-
offices had been established on the mail route west of the Pecos
River, but letters were delivered at the various stage stations.
A few settlements sprang up here and there. On account of
the Chihuahua Trail and Overland Trail passing through La
Limpia, a few Mexicans settled on Limpia Creek and raised
corn and cut prairie hay for the stage-stands. On Alamito
Creek a few settlements likewise sprung up. Also, on the
northern side of Davis Mountains, where now is Toyahvale,
along the banks of Toy ah Creek and at the famous Head
Springs, a few of the more daring of the Mexicans built their
ranchos. These settlements, however, could not be called per-
manent. Hardly were they established, before the Mescalero
Apaches destroyed them, killed the men, and took the women
and children away into captivity.
After the establishment of the line of stage-stands, E. P.
Webster became stage-tender at La Limpia, while Diedrick
Dutchover continued riding as guard for two years.
There was so much trouble in getting the mail over the
route that a change took place whereby the escort guard was
reduced to four men, and the War Department stationed de-
tachments of troops along the routes, thus forming an almost
continuous picket-line from San Antonio to El Paso. These
troops worked in relays from permanent camps, which in time
automatically became known as posts.
Until 1852, there was no official postoffice on the north
banks of the Rio Grande. Opposite Paso del Norte, there had
grown up a village of two hundred inhabitants, which included
the majority of the dwellers in the El Paso district. In order
to satisfy the needs of this growing community, the Postoffice
Department established a postoffice, giving it the name of
Franklin, in honor of the first postmaster, Franklin Coontz.
At the same time, San Elceario became Americanized, and the
name of the town changed to San Elizario. This town, with
a population of two thousand inhabitants, had grown to be
the largest town in the Big Bend. Two years before, the Big
Bend had been divided into two immense counties, El Paso
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 133
and Presidio. El Paso county included the extreme western
corner of the state, and San Elizario was made the county seat,
with jurisdiction over Presidio county, which was not then or-
ganized.
While settlement was growing in the El Paso district and
the great trails were becoming more and more travel worn,
the Boundary Commission was progressing slowly with its
work along the Rio Grande. Major W. J. Emory had been
removed from duty in 1850, but was reinstated in the fall of
1851. Work on the commission was greatly handicapped by
complications arising from the control of the work being trans-
ferred from the Department of State to the Department of the
Interior. Drafts to the amount of forty-three thousand dollars,
drawn by the commissioner in charge at that time, J. R.
Bartlett, had been repudiated by the Department of the Inte-
rior ; and the affairs of the commission were in a bad way. By
the prompt action of the War Department, in having Major
Emory reinstated, and thus placing, the commission in the
hands of the military, the situation was saved. In 1853, a new
boundary treaty was made with Mexico, known as the Gadsden
Treaty, which superseded the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
of 1848. The field or exploration work under charge of Major
Emory was not completed until 1856. The American Com-
mission during these several years of work had crossed the
continent from the mouth of the Rio Grande, in Texas, to San
Diego, California, with the loss of only two men, while the
Mexican Commission was robbed twice by the Apaches, and
otherwise handicapped by the inability of the Mexican Govern-
ment to furnish means of carrying on the work as had been
agreed.
The year 1854, witnessed the next important step in ad-
vancing the line of civilizatipn west of the Pecos. The Mes-
caleros had gathered in large bands in the Davis Mountains
and were striving fiercely to hold back the tide of whites, which
was now flowing steadily into the country. The principal
points of attack lay along Limpia Creek and the western slope
of the Davis Mountains. For years, the military authorities
134 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
had been recommending and urging the War Department to
establish permanent posts along the Overland Trail, to compel
the Indians to remain in their haunts, beyond striking distance
of the line of travel. Posts had been established east of the
Pecos and soldiers had followed the Indians westward. Thus
the region west of the Pecos was subjected more severely
than ever to Indian depredations ; and at last, the Secretary of
War, Jefferson Davis, decided to establish in the center of
this great region a post, the influence of which would tend
to discourage Indian interference with settlers and Govern-
ment work in that country.
Heretofore, no man's life was safe on the Limpia. Even
with the added protection of the few troops, so inadequate was
their ability to do the work demanded of them, that almost
daily an emigrant train, a freighter on the Chihuahua Trail,
or a mail party brought word of an Indian attack. Fortunate,
indeed, was the party, who reached their destination without
the loss of one or more men, or perhaps the loss of their entire
work-stock. The Indians had retreats within rifle-shot of
the little settlements and could easily escape pursuit; and
after an attack they have been known to return to a settle-
ment by a circuitous route, and unmolested, burn, murder,
and pillage to their hearts' content, while all the available
men were away following their trail.
When the Eighth Infantry, under the command of Lieu-
tenant Colonel Washington Seawell, arrived on the Limpia,
four hundred men strong, on October 3, 1854, he was com-
pelled to fight his way into camp, through an Indian ambush,
where the warriors, stationed behind every rock and boulder,
had an unobstructed view of their target. Four days later,
October 7, Fort Davis was formally established and named;
and from the moment the first adobe brick was laid in the
construction of the post buildings, a new era dawned for the
country.
The Eighth Infantry, the first troops to occupy this post,
was composed of six companies of mounted riflemen. The
news of the establishment of the post spread rapidly over the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 135
West. Traders and merchants came ; and, unfortunately, with
them came saloonkeepers and gamblers. But, true to the rough
times, these several elements the useful and the parasitical
stood together in building up a sturdy town, which in time
became the metropolis of the Big Bend.
The nearest point of supplies, to the east, was San Antonio ;
to the west, El Paso; to the south, Chihuahua City. These
distances necessitated expensive hauling. In the valleys sur-
rounding the Davis Mountains, the black gramma grass was
knee-high; and on the little irrigated farms, wheat could be
successfully raised. With so many local resources, it was
but natural that in a short time grain was harvested and hay
cut for the use of the new post command.
The naming of Fort Davis has long been an unsettled ques-
tion. Historians are loath to accept evidence submitted in
proof of a point unless that evidence bristles with truth. It
has long been the custom of the War Department to name
forts, fortresses, military posts and cantonments after leaders
who have been prominent in the army or navy. Usually the
names are chosen from the honored dead. This custom is to-
day more closely adhered to, however, than in early times*
When Fort Davis was established Jefferson Davis was Secre-
tary of War. The post was located, either after a personal in-
spection by Mr. Davis, or upon the recommendation of some-
one considered authoritative by him. Despite the fact that his-
torians generally hold to the opinion that Jefferson Davis was
never west of the Pecos River, many bits of evidence would
point to the fact that he had visited this country.
When Jeff Davis County was organized, in 1887, James
Stewart, the first county clerk of the new county, wrote to
Mr. Davis, informing him that the county had been named
in his honor. In reply to this letter, Mr. Davis wrote Mr.
Stewart that he recalled well his visit to the old Fort Davis,
while on a trip of inspection he had made to the frontier
posts. Unfortunately, this letter has been misplaced. A close
reading of Mr. Davis* Annual Report to the President, while
Secretary of War, shows an intimate knowledge of the country
136 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
west of the Pecos, which could only have been obtained through
personal observation and travel. The fact that Mr. Davis
introduced camels into the country shortly after establishing
Fort Davis is but further evidence that he had a personal
knowledge of conditions in this arid region.
Bearing out Mr. Davis* letter to Mr. Stewart, there was
another letter, also lost, written by an army officer, while
attached to the Jeff Davis party. The letter was to the officer's
wife and described Mr. Davis* trip of inspection along the
frontier.
It is unfortunate that these proofs of Mr. Davis* visit to
the Big Bend cannot be produced. Many months of earnest
effort have been spent to substantiate this interesting point.
The oldest inhabitants and there are some whose memory
can reach back to 1854 claim that Fort Davis was named
in honor of Jefferson Davis.
Prior to the coming of the troops, there were but few cat-
tle in the country. It was now necessary that beef should be
obtained; and beef contracts were made. John W. Spencer,
at Presidio, had failed in the horse raising business the In-
dians had attended to that. He then turned to cattle, buying
his first cattle from the great haciendas in Chihuahua. With
the coming of the troops, came a Virginian, Milton Favor,
who, striking out with that certainty of self, so characteris-
tically American, established a ranch a few miles above Pre-
sidio. This same year, Senor Manuel Musquiz settled in the
canyon, six miles southeast of Fort Davis ; which later became
known as Musquiz Canyon. Musquiz was a political refugee
from Mexico, of prominent family; to-day the remains of
his ranch-house and corral may be seen on the road between
Fort Davis and Alpine, and the great alamos, or cotton-wood
trees, planted by him, still stand.
It did not take long for the word to spread among the
Indians in the West that a fort had been established, the pur-
pose of which, as they saw it, was to cheat them out of their
domain. They had seen the result of the establishment of
other posts east of the Pecos River; and with prophetic eyes
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 137
they saw truly the result of this new post, which had been
established in the very heart of their stronghold.
To the Indians, depredating and murdering were a religion ;
and in the minds of these savages one idea became fixed and
remained so, until the remnants of the last band of Mescalero
Apaches was driven from their retreat in the mountains of the
Big Bend, many years later. Their idea was to destroy Fort
Davis, and thereby so greatly discourage the white settlers
that the country west of the Pecos River would be left to the
Indians. In the twenty years following the establishment of
Fort Davis, perhaps that fort stood more attacks from the
Indians than any other post of that day.
In pursuance of the policy, which after years of delay and
indecision has been put into operation by the War Department,
Colonel Seawell began a systematic campaign to drive back
the Mescaleros from the strip of country bordering either side
of the Overland Mail route. It was imperative that this be
done, not only in order to protect the American settlers, but
in order that the Government might not become embroiled
with Mexico, on account of the Indians raiding south of the
Rio Grande.
One advantageous condition resulted from this active
campaign. There had been considerable complaint from
the officers commanding the different posts on account of the
unsatisfactory class of recruits which had filled up the ranks
since the Mexican War. The Eighth Infantry had been ex-
ceptionally hard hit in this regard. Immediately following the
war, in 1848, this regiment raised a purse of eight hundred
dollars and employed counsel at Washington to have a law
passed, by which they would all be discharged. In 1849, the
regiment was recruited almost entirely anew, and by the time
these men had learned something of military tactics, they were
transferred to the Pacific division, and, for the third time
in six years, the regiment was built up from raw material.
The campaign against the Indians in the Davis Mountains,
in 1855, converted this raw troop into efficient and formidable
fighting men. The active warfare waged against them in the
138 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
Big Bend and Davis Mountains country, caused the Mescalero
Apaches, Comanches, and Lipans to enter Mexico in large
numbers, not to depredate, as formerly, but to make treaties
with the different Mexican states and to gain protection from
the American troops.
For a time, the usual Indian situation was reversed. In-
stead of the Indians raiding into Mexico, from their mountain
retreats in Texas and New Mexico, they now raided into Texas
and New Mexico, from their mountain retreats in the northern
states of Mexico.
Owing to the vacillating policy practiced by the Mexican
Government in matters pertaining to the Indians, it was im-
possible for the American settlers to look for redress. It
was but a short time after Colonel Seawell had cleared the
country of the marauders, when they again began their depre-
dating. The first intimation of the return of the Indians the
settlers had, was the attack at El Muerto, or Deadman's Hole,
on a detachment of mounted riflemen from Fort Davis. A
sergeant and a musician were killed before the Indians could
be driven off. Between El Muerto and Van Horn, the same
party of Indians attacked the west-bound stage, but were kept
from doing serious damage by the appearance of the east-
bound stage with a heavily-armed guard.
Lieutenant Horace Randell, with a detachment of mounted
riflemen, intercepted these Indians, who proved to be Mesca-
leros, in Canyon de los Lamentos, or Quitman Canyon. A run-
ning fight began midway between the Canyon and Eagle
Spring, and covered the same ground where one of the hardest
Indian fights took place twenty-five years later. The punish-
ment inflicted upon the Indians by Lieutenant Randell had a
salutary effect upon many other bands which were preparing
to cross the Rio Grande and attack the mail route at various
points.
There is no question but that the soldiers rendered invalu-
able service in keeping the Indians out of the Big Bend, in the
years '54-'55 ; they were aided to a certain extent, however,
by a drought, which covered an unbroken period from 1850-55.
^m^^^^^jj&^^j^fSj&BJML
JUDGE AND MRS. J. F. MIEIR
Their first home in Toyah Valley
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 139
The Indians were even more dependent upon rainfall than the
whites ; it was necessary that their trails should be well sup-
plied with water ; that game be plentiful, and that grass contain
nourishment for their horses. They carried neither commis-
sary nor water canteens, as did the whites. If their trails
crossed a country devoid of springs, they waited for rains
to fill tenejas and char cos the former being great rocks in
which the wind had burrowed holes ; the latter were the ponds
and water-holes filled by drainage during the rainy season.
On account of this severe drought, raiding parties were less
frequent; and no big movement, numbering several hundred
warriors, could be undertaken.
This drought was so severe that, in the second year, the
Rio Grande was dry below the El Paso district; and a party
of whites drove a bunch of mules from Presidio del Norte to
San Elizario, traveling the whole distance in the bed of the
River.
The Davis Mountains were the only section during this
time that had any considerable rainfall, and, in the last year
of drought, Milton Favor Don Milton, as he was called by the
Mexicans and John W. Spencer drove their cattle out of the
Rio Grande and Alameto ranges into the Davis range.
In the same year that Fort Davis was made a post, another
important settlement was founded. This was at the cross-
roads of the great trails Comanche Springs. The Govern-
ment here located a military post, and named it in honor of
Commodore Stockton, who occupied Monterey, California,
during the Mexican War. It was not, however, until 1859
that General Anson E. Mills, deputy surveyor of El Paso
County, formally laid out old Fort Stockton.
One very interesting point, which either has passed unno-
ticed or has been ignored by chroniclers of Texas history, is
the fact that Jefferson Davis, while Secretary of War, intro-
duced camels in the arid portions of the Southwest. In 1856,
the first cargo of thirty-two camels refached the coast of Texas,
and was distributed from San Antonio to the Davis Mountains.
The year following, upon the arrival of a second cargo of forty
140 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
head, the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona began to know
these strange beasts of burden.
Considerable time was required for the first lot of thirty-
two camels to recover from their long sea voyage and become
acclimated. During the period of acclimation, two of the
beasts died. When one considers the great change in climatic
conditions from that to which they had been accustomed and
the difference in grasses and foodstuffs, it speaks well for the
hardiness of the animals that only two succumbed.
The first practical tests made to ascertain the suitability of
the camel for burden carriers in the Southwest proved suc-
cessful. On one occasion a train consisting of wagons drawn
by army mules and a caravan of six camels were sent from
Campe Verde to San Antonio, a distance of sixty miles, over a
road no worse than was usually found on the frontier. The
result was much in favor of the camels. Two wagons, with
a combined load of 3,684 pounds, and each wagon drawn by
six big army mules, took four days to make the trip. The six
camels, likewise with a combined load of 3,684 pounds, made
the trip in two and one-half days. On another occasion, the
capacity of the camel for traveling over rough, stony country
and muddy roads was tested with satisfactory results. This
journey was made during an unusually heavy rain, which at
first glance would seem a serious handicap, but which later will
be shown to have been the cause of such a successful trip.
Instead of following the wagon road, which the rains had made
impassable for a wagon at that time, the caravan followed a
trail over the mountains, each camel loaded with 328 pounds.
Despite rain and mud, these beasts covered sixty miles in two
days, suffering neither unusual fatigue nor inconvenience.
After these and similar tests made under what was con-
sidered most unfavorable conditions mud and rain forty
more camels were imported; and transportation authorities
began to show considerable surprise that the camel, among the
first beasts to be domesticated by man, had not been introduced
long before. The theory was advanced that if the camel, being
accustomed to desert sands, could perform well in mud and
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 141
rain, he should perform better as conditions approached those
to which he was accustomed.
It was beginning to look as if hard times were in store
for the old time "mule-skinner" and "jerk-line" teamsters; it
seemed as if the time had come when he must degenerate into
a camel-driver. To add to the teamster's dislike of the beasts,
each time he met them meant the runaway of his mules. So
with accumulative hatred he waited the seemingly inevitable
development.
With the coming of summer, came a long drought, ac-
companied by hot winds and sand storms. Typically Saharian,
said the camel experts ; and they waited expectantly to see the
imported camels out-perform the native mules. And they did.
They carried more than the mules could pull; they needed
little water and less food; sun, heat, sand, and wind failed
to bow their serenely-poised heads. With a shuffling, pacing
gait, they passed slow-plodding, heat-maddened mules, who,
upon the strange beasts' passing, invariably wasted a day's
worth of energy in a desperate effort to get as far from them
as possible.
Gradually, then more rapidly, the terrible heat of the sum-
mer and the hot winds, began to draw the moisture from the
earth. The ground cracked open and a hard-baked crust
formed on the surface. Less frequently, the camel-trains
passed the wagon-trains. The teamsters began to look more
cheerful. Evidently, something was wrong with the "critters."
Then occasionally teams began to pass a caravan on the road,
the camels, with heads still held serenely high, resting upon
their leathery knees.
The experts began to look anxious, then dubious; then
disgusted. Finally, the staunchest friends of the camel ac-
knowledged that the beasts would not do for American use.
From Texas to Arizona, the small, sharp, igneous rocks had
literally cut to shreds the soft-padded feet of the camels. They
were irrecoverably tenderfooted ! Unlike the mule, whose
tenderfootedness could be remedied by proper shoeing, the
bottom of the camels' feet were gristly pads. The first sea-
142 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
son of tests the beasts performed so well because the continual
rains kept the ground soft, both on plains and on mountains.
The weakness of the camels' feet did not show up until the
ground became hard and dry, which prevented the small sharp-
cornered rock from being mashed into the earth when trod
upon by the camel.
For a time after the experiment with the camels was aban-
doned, these animals were herded and cared for by the Govern-
ment, principally in Arizona. But being of no further value
in fact, being considered a burden and a nuisance the herders
became slack in their herding, and many of the beasts strayed
away unsought and unmourned. Many stories are centered
about these pilgrims of the desert how they were shot by
Indians, and hunters who thought they had discovered a pre-
historic species. Then, in time, they disappeared, and, to-day,
the only trace that remains of the camel's brief life in the great
deserts of the Southwest is contained in a few scattered Gov-
ernment records.
In 1857, the Government subsidized the Butterfield Over-
land Daily Mail, from Saint Louis to San Francisco ; and for
a short period the mail route left the old line at the Pecos
River, turning northwest and following that stream to the New
Mexico line ; from there it crossed to the foot of the Guada-
lupe Mountains, on to the Huaco Tanks, and down to El Paso.
On account of the scarcity of water this route was abandoned
in a short time and the old trail, through Fort Stockton and
Fort Davis, was resumed.
We have considered the first early efforts of the American
pioneers to win homes in the new country west of the Pecos
River. We have seen them wrest the land from the savage.
So occupied had been these people with their own struggles
that they had not heard the rumbling sounds of dissension,
which soon would divide the North and the South, and precipi-
tate a struggle which would not only have a far-reaching effect
over the more civilized sections of the United States, but
which would wipe out the growing settlements west of the
Pecos River and cause the Big Bend again to be overrun by
redskins. *
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 143
CHAPTER XI
The conditions in the Big Bend country, in 1860, were
more favorable to a healthy growth of the settlements than
in any other year since the establishment of the military posts.
Both Fort Davis and Fort Stockton were at this time flourish-
ing settlements of several hundred people, including large
bodies of troops stationed at these points along the Overland
Mail routes. The route by way of Delaware Creek and Guada-
lupe Mountains had been abandoned, and a daily mail had
been established over the San Antonio-El Paso division, by
way of Comanche Springs and the Davis Mountains. And
another mail division, coming from Fort Worth, converged
with the main route at Fort Stockton. Traffic over the Chi-
huahua Trail had grown to enormous proportions, and as many
as two hundred freight outfits made round-trips over the trail
between Chihuahua and San Antonio. Another freight line
followed the mail route from San Antonio to El Paso. Just
as the advent of a railroad in modern times expedites the
growth of the towns through which it goes, so did these great
freight trails hasten the growth of the settlements through
which they passed.
The Indian situation was well in hand; although there
were times when spasmodic raiding was carried on by small
bands, who broke away from the control of the authorities
in New Mexico. The habit so long established among the
Comanches and Apaches to follow the lure of the Mexican
moon, or September moon, could not be overcome in one gen-
eration. Still, these raiding parties were so small that they
dared not attack a well-armed freight outfit or mail party.
In the El Paso district, the postoffice of Franklin had grown
to be a "metropolis" of one thousand people. San Elizario,
still the most important town in the Big Bend, with a jurisdic-
144 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
tion over thirty thousand square miles of country, contained
two thousand inhabitants! In the more southern section, the
Big Bend settlement, started by John W. Spencer and others,
had grown until it rivaled the town on the Mexican side of the
Rio Grande, Presidio del Norte. At this point, the Govern-
ment encouraged the settlers to raise wheat for the troops at
Fort Davis and Fort Stockton. A small flour-mill was erected,
and a new industry was added to that of stock-raising, which
had been started in 1854, by Spencer and Favor. In a way, the
United States was taking reprisal on the Chihuahua state
government for a decree, which had been issued in 1855, for-
bidding the exportation of corn across the Rio Grande. This
decree, made to annoy the Americans, was put into effect dur-
ing the time of a great drought, when practically no forage or
grain were obtainable elsewhere than in Chihuahua.
While the Government was lavish in the quartering of
troops for the protection of various settlements in the Big
Bend, and while for years military commanders had urgently
advised that such a step be taken, the Government steadfastly
refused to station troops at Presidio, the port of entry opposite
Presidio del Norte. It is incomprehensible that the United
States should neglect to protect that settlement, especially as
the grain supply for several large bodies of troops was grown
and milled there. Possibly, the fact that the feeling between
the American and the Mexican troops was of a nature none too
cordial might have caused the Government to take no chances
in engaging our country in another war with Mexico.
These were the conditions in the American settlements west
of the Pecos River at the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861.
The six companies of the Eighth Infantry, which had made
Fort Davis their headquarters since 1854, had been scattered
in small detachments along the mail routes, as guards for the
stage-stands and mail company's property. Immediately after
the outbreak of the Civil War, these troops were cut off from
communication with the North. In the meantime, the Second
Texas Confederate Cavalry, under the command of Colonel
John R. Baylor, was enroute from San Antonio to El Paso.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 145
At every troop station, the Federals were given the choice of
being paroled or joining the Southern cause. As the Eighth
Infantry was composed largely of Northern men, they accepted
parole and were allowed to withdraw.
The advance guard of Colonel Baylor's command, under
Captain Parker, on April 13, 1861, marched into Fort Davis,
just as Company H, Eighth Infantry, Captain Edwin D. Blake
commanding, retired.
The change of governments had little effect upon local con-
ditions in the Big Bend. Those whose sympathies were with
the North were given ample time to close up their affairs and
depart. In this first year, under Confederate protection, there
was no perceptible decrease in freighting over the great trails.
The mails continued to run as usual, although at less regular
intervals. Detachments of Confederates filled the stations
which Federal troops had occupied.
But while trade conditions remained practically the same,
the Indian situation became more menacing. Owing to the dis-
turbed condition of the country and the withdrawal of large
forces of Federal troops, which had heretofore been employed
in controlling the Apaches, these Indians had sensed the great
war the whites were waging among themselves, and conceived
the idea that the appointed hour had arrived when they could
gain control of the hunting-ground of their forefathers. With
this idea prominent in their minds and their spirits fired by
mescal feasts, the fierce Mescaleros debouched upon the Big
Bend in war parties of unusual numbers.
The effect of this was soon apparent; and once again the
frontiersman learned to accept with equanimity the loss of his
work-stock and, often, a member of his family, or a friend;
a thing which boded no good for the red marauders if caught.
In a letter written by Pat Murphy, a storekeeper at Fort Davis,
tinder date December 29, 1861, the casual manner in which
raids were mentioned is clearly shown. The letter was a long
business letter, addressed to John W. Spencer, at Presidio,
and the following excerpt was the last paragraph: "Night
before last, the Indians came to my corral and drove off a num-
146 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
ber of my cattle. A party of thirty-three men pursued them
yesterday, hot on the trail, and I hope will be successful.
Yours, P. Murphy."
The Indians, as a rule, preferred to strike small, outlying
settlements, rather than risk losing warriors in what might
prove to be a sanguinary battle with well-armed forces. With
the coming of the troops, in 1854, Senor Manuel Musquiz
settled in the beautiful canyon, six miles from Fort Davis.
Here he built a substantial ranch home along the edge of a
well-watered meadow, which was sufficiently large to furnish
grazing for his cattle. Including his family and servants, or
peons, this little settlement numbered twenty people. Don
Manuel made frequent trips to Presidio del Norte, and it was
during one of these trips that old Nicolas, the chief of the
Apaches, with two hundred and fifty warriors, attacked the
ranch, killed three members of the Musquiz household, and
drove away all the cattle.
As soon as the Indians left, a messenger was dispatched
to Fort Davis for aid. Lieutenant Mayes was at that time
stationed at the post with a detachment of twenty men. Not
knowing the size of the raiding party, the lieutenant took up
the pursuit with twelve soldiers and four civilians, at the same
time sending for reinforcements to Fort Stockton, where the
main body of the Confederate troops was then stationed.
The trail was plain. The Indians followed down the can-
yon to Mitre Peak, a well-known landmark, ten miles north-
west of Alpine ; from there they headed south toward Cathe-
dral Peak, where they struck a well-watered canyon, which
led them toward the Rio Grande.
Lieutenant Mayes, with his well-mounted detachment,
pressed hard upon the heels of the Indians and overtook them
the following day. Seeing a small band of Indians, Mayes
engaged them in a running fight down a great canyon. This
fight continued until the Indians reached a point in the canyon
where the sides rise precipitously several hundred feet. All
at once a storm of arrows from the rocks and trees overhead
greeted the pursuers. Too late, Mayes saw the ambush. As
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 147
he turned to retreat from the death trap, he found the passage
blocked by a hundred warriors. The Indians, who had been
luring them on, now turned and, reinforced by those who had
been hidden in the rocks overhead, rushed upon the soldiers and
closed the death trap.
But one man escaped the Mexican guide, who sprang
from his horse and fled up the sides of the canyon. Unob-
served by the Indians, he managed to hide in a cave, where he
lay all day and night. The Indians, knowing he was in the
neighborhood, searched thoroughly for him, but finally they
gave up the hunt and departed. The next day the guide made
his way on foot to Presidio with the news of the massacre.
A messenger was dispatched on horseback through Paisano
Pass to intercept the Fort Stockton reinforcements. This he
succeeded in doing; and although the troops pushed on with
renewed speed at the news of the massacre, they were unable
to overtake the Indians, who were by that time safe with their
friends and relatives in Mexico.
Outside of the immediate vicinity of El Paso, nothing of
importance transpired in the Big Bend relative to the Civil
War; although the results of the campaigns of Sibley's brigade,
C. S. A., and Canby's Brigade, U. S. A., had direct bearing
upon the country. In May, 1861, George W. Baylor was sent
from Fort Clark to El Paso, to become the adjutant of Colonel
John R. Baylor, his brother. The first regiment of the Union
army against which these brothers were called upon to lead
their forces was the old Seventh Infantry, to which their
father had been attached during his lifetime. Before the close
of the war, George W. Baylor rose to the rank of Lieutenant-
Colonel; and almost continually in the years following the
Civil War, Colonel Baylor was identified with the Big Bend,
as a fearless Indian fighter and Texas Ranger captain.
As the months of struggle between the states passed into
years, both the passenger and freight traffic on the great trails
decreased. The settlements lost their prosperity, and, one by
one, the settlers drifted away, either to enter the army or to
seek elsewhere a livelihood.
148 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
Many of the old freighters on the Chihuahua Trail changed
their routes from San Antonio to Santa Fe. But even this was
too hazardous. John W. Burgess, who was one of the first men
to arrive at Presidio with John W. Spencer, attempted to make
a trip from San Antonio to Santa Fe. Like his neighbors, he
liad espoused the Southern cause. His train consisted of
twenty-two wagons and two hundred and twenty mules. When
he reached the state-line of New Mexico, his entire outfit was
captured by the Federals ; and by the merest chance, he, with
one of his men, escaped on fleet horses, and eventually reached
Presidio in a starving condition.
An effort was made by the Confederate troops to punish
the Mescalero Apaches for their recent misdeeds ; more espe-
cially, by pursuing Chief Nicolas and his band. Finally, this
crafty old chief called on Colonel McCarty at Fort Davis, and
offered to negotiate peace terms. He agreed to accompany
Colonel McCarty to El Paso and talk the matter over with
Colonel John R. Baylor. This was done; and after a treaty
had been satisfactorily arranged, Nicolas, accompanied by
Colonel McCarty and an escort of soldiers, began the journey
hack to Fort Davis, on the stage.
Whether or not Nicolas had arranged a meeting place with
his warriors was not known, but when the party reached Barrel
Springs, the first stage station west of Fort Davis, Nicolas
jerked Colonel McCarty 's six shooter out of the scabbard,
jumped from the stage, and ran down the canyon where his
band awaited him. Unsuspecting danger, two soldiers followed
fiim and were killed. Colonel McCarty pursued Nicolas a short
distance, but fearing an ambush gave up the chase. George W.
Baylor was then sending a herd of contract beeves over the
trail to Fort Davis, and later in the day word was brought in
that Nicolas and his band had attacked and killed Baylor's
herders and had driven off these cattle.
In 1862, freighting and traveling over the trails ceased.
The able-bodied men of the country had either gone to war or
to Mexico. The enforcement of Lincoln's blockade naturally
curtailed transcontinental shipping, and mails and imports
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 149
from Mexico were now diverted to San Antonio, by way of
Laredo and Brownsville, on the Rio Grande.
The settlements at Presidio and El Paso alone remained,
and to the population of these settlements had been added refu-
gees from the other communities. Troops were no longer
needed in the Big Bend. There was nothing in the country
to protect. This was the prime reason for the abandonment
of the Big Bend, by the Confederates.
During all these years, Diedrick Dutchover remained with
the mail company. He established a small ranch, five miles
down Limpia Canyon from the post, where he attempted to
raise sheep attempted to raise them, for the Indians rarely
failed to rob him. When the post was abandoned, Dutchover,
who had taken no part as yet in the struggle between the
North and the South, was left in charge of the post buildings
and of such equipment as could not be handily removed.
Another reason for selecting Dutchover as caretaker was that
he had taken no part in any of the fights against the Indians.
He was considered by them to be a harmless fellow, and he
would probably be treated friendly by them.
The post at Fort Davis was built of adobe brick, and many
of the out-buildings and stables had the conventional Mexican-
style flat roof, with a parapet some three feet high, extending
above the roof on all sides. Shortly after the Confederate
troops left the post, Chief Nicolas, with two hundred and fifty
Indians, entered the town. For some reason, Nicolas was in
an ugly mood and his actions were so threatening that Dutch-
over found it advisable to gather his party and take refuge
on the top of an old building.
The refugee party consisted of Dutchover, a Mexican
woman with two children, and four Americans, one of whom
was quite ill. Dutchover expected the stage from San Antonio
any moment and it was his intention to send the sick man to
a doctor. The only provisions they were able to carry with
them were a sack of flour and two barrels of water. Fortu-
nately, on the roof of the house they found some old wagon-
wheel spokes, with which they built fires for cooking. Every
150 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
precaution was used to hide the smoke and flames and avoid
betraying their position to the Indians, who, as yet, were so busy
pillaging the post that they paid no attention to Dutchover's
movements.
For two days and nights, the refugees remained on the
housetop. By that time, the Indians grew tired of their work
of destruction in the post buildings, and scattered over the
valleys and mountains in search for stray cattle left by the
troops. The third night, under cover of darkness, Dutchover
and his party, with the exception of the sick man, crept out of
their place of concealment and struck out for Presidio, ninety-
two miles away.
When the stage arrived, the day after Dutchover left, the
sick man was dead. Four days later in an exhausted and
starving condition Dutchover, and the three Americans, the
Mexican woman and children, staggered into Presidio.
One of the most interesting spots in the country is that
known as Skillman's Grove, where the Bloys Campmeeting
Association holds the annual campmeeting. This beautiful
grove derives its name from the original locator, Captain Henry
Skillman. While a mail contractor, Captain Skillman lived
at Franklin, the present El Paso, and was a well-known char-
acter there. As long as the tide of war was in favor of the
Southern cause, the mail-stage kept up communication between
the Confederate headquarters at San Antonio and the western
posts. After the abandonment of Fort Davis, however, from
lack of protection against the Indians, it was no longer pos-
sible to get the stage through, and it fell to the lot of such men
as Captain Skillman to act as couriers for the Confederate
Army.
Captain Skillman was a Kentuckian a great blonde giant
with flowing beard and hair the "Kit Carson of the Big Bend."
He had been an Indian fighter, mail contractor, guide and scout
for the United States troops, and later served with credit in the
Southern army. He was highly esteemed by both the Amer-
icans and Mexicans, but had one great fault. At rare inter-
vals he drank heavily, and while under the influence of liquor
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 151
would "shoot up the town" and "wind up" by ordering every-
one to close their stores, as he wanted "to run the town" him-
self. After sobering up, he would return to the scene of his
exuberance, pay the damages, and apologize to everyone for
his actions.
But he permitted no one else to do likewise. At one time,
when a desperado attempted a similar action, and had terrified
everyone, including peace officers, Skillman disarmed him, gave
him a good thrashing, and ordered him out of town.
After the Union army occupied Franklin and Fort Bliss,
which had been established shortly after Fort Davis, the Con-
federate colony gathered in Mexico, at Paso del Norte, or
Juarez, as it is known to-day; and it was Captain Skillman's
duty to keep communication between San Antonio and that
colony.
The Union commander desired to capture Skillman and
his party, and Captain Albert H. French was detailed for that
duty. But Skillman was not the kind of man to be captured.
On the night of April 13, 1864, Skillman, with a party of thirty
men, went into camp a mile below Presidio, in the Big Bend,
on the old Fortin road.
At the same time, Captain French had gone into camp with
his command near the ford above Presidio, opposite the Mex-
ican custom-house. Diedrick Dutchover, seeing their camp,
paid French a visit, and French told him his purpose. Dutch-
over had enjoyed years of friendship with Captain Skillman,
but had no knowledge that the Confederate scout was camped
below Presidio. Had he had this knowledge, the affair might
have had a different termination.
At midnight, French, with his command, slipped into the
unguarded camp of the Confederates, who suspected no enemy
nearer than El Paso. At the signal from Captain French, the
Federals sprang into the midst of the sleeping Cqn federates
and called for surrender.
Skillman, with his gun in his kand, sprang up at thfc first
sound, barely awake ; and Captain French killed him the first
shot Then followed a volley from the Federals, which killed
152 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
two and wounded one of Skillman's party. The others sur-
rendered and were taken to San Elizario.
The termination of the Civil War, in 1865, saw the Big
Bend, with the exception of the settlements of Presidio and
El Paso, re-occupied by the Indians. Once again the Indians
had established their rancherias in the Chisos and the Davis
Mountains. On the north slope of the Davis Mountains, where
the Head Springs are located, which to-day furnish water for
fourteen thousand acres of irrigated land at Balmorhea, the
Apaches had again established a rancheria, and the springs
were called San Solomon Springs, after the chief of that band.
In Limpia Canyon, and as far east as Horse-head Crossing, on
the Pecos River, old Espejo, or Looking-glass, ranged with his
warriors and hunters in undisputed possession. But the sig-
nificant fact was quite clear that no Comanches came west of
the Pecos. While the Apaches and Comanches were invet-
erate enemies, and fought each other relentlessly for the pos-
session of a broad strip of country running north and south
the whole distance of the Big Bend, including the Davis and
Chisos Mountains, and east to the Pecos River, still it was not
the prowess of the Apaches which caused the Comanches to
give up forever the Big Bend.
The Comanches were a nomadic people, who depended
largely upon the buffalo for sustenance. These animals never
frequented the Big Bend. Then, too, after the establishment
of the overland mail routes and numerous military posts be-
tween San Antonio and El Paso, the constant travel of troops
to and fro, emigrants and freighters, who traveled in large
well-armed parties, formed a southern boundary over which
the Comanches could not with impunity cross. This they had
learned by bitter experience on occasions when small bands
more daring than their fellows crossed the boundary into
the more thickly settled country to the southeast.
Just before the beginning of the Civil War, Captain L. S.
Ross, later a governor of Texas, with a mixed troop of cavalry
and mounted frontiersmen, numbering one hundred and thirty-
two men, inflicted such severe punishment on the Comanches
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 153
that they were driven far up into the Panhandle of Texas
and the present State of Oklahoma. This fight took place
several hundred miles east of the Big Bend, but it was one of
the direct causes of the Comanches relinquishing their hold
upon Southwest Texas.
Hardly had Lincoln's blockade been removed from that
great trans-continental highway, when commerce began again
to move along the overland trails. Once again, after a silence
of five years, the musical jingle of harness bells and the creak-
ing of heavily laden wagons, could be heard in the Big Bend.
Two of the first freight outfits to leave San Antonio were
the wagons belonging to James and John Edgar, loaded with
government supplies and merchandise, consigned from San
Antonio to El Paso. Each outfit comprised twenty wagons
and two hundred head of mules. The two outfits traveled three
days apart, and they made good time until Horse-head Cross-
ing was reached. About midway between Horse-head Cross-
ing and Escondido Springs, the second train under James
Edgar encountered a terrific rain-storm, which turned into a
snow with the thermometer at zero. Such extreme weather
coming at that late time of year April 22 Edgar was wholly
unprepared to meet it, and one hundred head of mules froze
to death that night. In this crippled condition, he pressed on
with half of his outfit to Fort Stockton, twenty-six miles away~
There he dispatched a messenger to his brother, who by that
time should have reached Fort Davis.
In the meantime, John Edgar was also having trouble.
His lead outfit had reached Wild Rose Pass, but here he en-
countered old Espejo and his warriors, numbering one hun-
dred. Being an experienced Indian fighter, John Edgar cor-
ralled his wagons, preparatory to making a last stand. Old
Espejo attempted to make a treaty with the freighter, and
while doing so he took inventory of the twenty-five deter-
mined, well-armed frontiersmen and their well-protected posi-
tion. Although the twenty loaded wagons greatly aroused
his cupidity, the wary old chief saw that to gain them meant
the sacrifice of many warriors more warriors than he could
154 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
afford to lose. Arriving at this conclusion and meeting a
refusal to enter into a treaty, Espejo withdrew with his war-
riors into a deeper, more rugged part of the canyon. Believing
Espejo still planned an ambush, John Edgar turned his train
back to Fort Stockton. On the road he met his brother's mes-
senger with the story of his disaster. After a short rest at Fort
Stockton, the brothers stored part of their wares, joined the
two trains together and proceeded unmolested to El Paso.
In 1866, the Postoffice Department let a new mail contract
for the Overland Daily Mail. Fickland and Sawyer were
awarded the contract. No two men could have been apparently
more mismatched as partners. Ben Fickland was economical
to parsimony, while Sawyer was a light-hearted, "devil-may-
care" fellow. Both, however, were good managers and busi-
ness men notwithstanding their different dispositions.
One time Fickland stopped at Fort Concho with a large
drove of horses and mules, which he was distributing along
the several thousand miles of mail route covered by his con-
tract. Some of the animals needed shoeing badly. Fickland
went to the commander of the garrison and asked to have
his horses shod by the post farrier, or blacksmith. The com-
mander replied that if the farrier wished to do the work and
had time, he had permission to do so. The stage-man found
the farrier ; and took four days to shoe all the horses.
When the big job was completed Fickland proffered a
Mexican dollar to the smith, saying as he did so, "I want to
make you a little gift after all that work."
"Gift, hell !" replied the farrier, "you can't 'gift' me. You'll
pay me for that work."
After considerable argument, Fickland went to the com-
manding officer to prove that the soldier had been ordered to
do the work. He explained that had he known there were to
be charges he would not have had all the horses shod.
The commander pointed out that he had said the farrier
could do the job if he cared to, and in the end Fickland was
compelled to pay the soldier twenty-five United States silver
dollars.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 155
After the mail contract had been going for a year or so,
Frederick P. Sawyer was called to Washington to explain why
the contractors were unable to get the mail over the route on
schedule time ; also, to explain why so many of his mules died
of disease. When Sawyer was on the witness-stand, he painted
a fearful picture of the hardships, the Indians, the bad men,
the dry country, the lack of water, and many other evils. In
astonishment, a congressman asked him, if conditions were so
hard and dangerous, how he ever managed to get drivers for
the coaches.
To which question Sawyer replied, "If you would start a
mail line to hell, I could get all the drivers I wanted."
Sawyer, a good mail-coach man, liked to be on the road,
with the coaches, and he knew the outdoor business ; while
Fickland knew how to make every dollar count and never
allowed even a piece of broken leather to be wasted.
The first stage to run west out of San Antonio for El Paso,
under the contract of Fickland and Sawyer, was under charge
of Captain T. A. Wilson, with Sam Miller as one of the guards.
Both men had been in the Big Bend with Sibley's Brigade,
and both men in later years were prominent in public affairs
of the Big Bend.
On the trip west they encountered signs, but had no trouble
with the Indians until they reached Escondido Springs, eighteen
miles east of Fort Stockton ; here the mail party was rounded
up by old Espejo, who now had a following of three hundred
and fifty Indians.
Captain Wilson, an old Indian fighter who had with him
Texans well versed in Indian warfare, quickly reviewed the
situation and prepared to make a stand. There were forty men
in the party, and they fortified themselves on a hill, a quarter
of a mile from the Indians.
For forty-eight hours the Indians held them in this posi-
tion and occasionally old Espejo would circle within range
of the Texans' "long" rifles, but at a volley from the whites,
immediately withdraw to a safe distance. On the second day,
156 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
old Espejo tried to make a treaty one of his customary de-
vices to pave the way to later treachery but Captain Wilson
was too wise to fall into the trap. Furthermore, there was
nothing about which a treaty could be made. While the In-
dians held the water they had no food, and the mail-party had
food and some water in their canteens. With the full knowl-
edge of this, and as his attempt at making a treaty had failed,
Espejo withdrew.
The first stage-party to run from El Paso, however, did
not fare so well as the party under Captain Wilson. The east-
bound party was composed of Northern men, who knew little
or nothing about Indian warfare, and while they had two
Mexican guides, they were not willing to listen to their advice.
This party was ambushed in Wild Rose Pass, by Chief Espejo,
in the same spot that John Edgar's party had been caught less
than a month before. Had the white men followed the advice
of their Mexican guides, they would have come out of the
ambush unscathed.
Espejo followed his usual tactics of rushing the party out
of their lodgment, but failing in this, he offered to make a
treaty. The leader of the mail-party, a Mr. Davis, agreed,
and with due solemnity drew up a formal treaty with the In-
dians.
In pursuance of the treaty, Espejo apparently withdrew,
but when the mail party emerged from their stronghold, the
Indians attacked them with full force. The first man wounded
was an army officer. This happened when he and an Irish-
man became separated from the others. Pat attempted to
carry the wounded officer back to the party, but was forced
to lay down his burden and fight. While Pat had his back
turned, feeling his case was hopeless, the officer placed a pistol
to his own head and killed himself.
Eventually, the Indians were beaten off, but not until sev-
eral men had been killed and the stage and horses stolen. After
the Indians had retreated, the party walked into Fort Stockton,
sixty-eight miles. Before the fight began the Mexican guides,
knowing only too well what would happen when the treaty was
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 157
made, deserted the party and walked all the way to San Felipe
Springs, to-day Del Rio.
Fickland and Sawyer's contract called for three mails per
week, with Fort Stockton as the meeting place between San
Antonio and El Paso, but during 1866, the year before the
return of the Federal troops to abandoned posts along the
mail route, not more than one mail a week, each way, was put
through, owing to the activities of Espejo and his band.
The restless feeling of the people in the more thickly set-
tled sections of East and Central Texas had not been quieted
by Lee's surrender at Appomattox. As a result immigration
was heavy, and once again the great trails resounded to the
creaking ox- wagons, the lowing of cattle, the crying of travel-
worn, thirsty children, and the loud commands of the frontiers-
men, as they pushed westward seeking more elbow room.
Years of raiding by the Apaches and Comanches in the
Northern states of Mexico had drained that country of cattle.
Great haciendas embracing thousands of acres had been laid
waste. After the Comanches had been driven further north
and the Indian agents had gained a hold, although none too
firm, upon the various tribes coming under the head of
Apaches, these great haciendas in Mexico began to offer good
prices for imported cattle. These prices tempted the more
adventurous and hardier cattlemen in Central Texas to drive
great herds of cattle over the Chihuahua Trail, to this newly
established Mexican trade. In 1868, one of the first men to put
cattle over the trail was Captain D. M. Poer. He drove twelve
hundred head from Fort Concho, which to-day is San Angelo,
by way of Fort Stockton, Paisano Pass and Presidio, to the
great Terrazas Hacienda in Chihuahua. This drove of cattle
passed through the unsettled country unmolested either by
Indians or cow-thieves.
In the same year, W. O. Burnam left Burnet County, for
Chifiuahua, with a party of twenty-five neighboring cowmen,
and over a thousand head of cattle, to trade for sheep. Two
months were spent on the trail, and from the time they left
the Pecos River until the Rio Grande was reached, they never
158 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
saw a white man. While at Burgess Springs, or Charco de
Alsate, just east of Alpine, seven or eight suspicious-looking
Mexicans, with a bunch of Texas cattle, were observed. They
had evidently picked up "strays" from other herds, and Bur-
nam, suspecting that some of his cattle were included, started to
investigate. In the fight which followed the Mexicans were
overcome and their herd inspected to observe the brands.
There was not a single Mexican brand in the outfit, but Bur-
nam failed to find any of his cattle. By necessity, he turned
the rascals loose, although he knew they had stolen their herd
from other Texan outfits.
On account of the new trades' relations between the citizens
of the United States and the Northern states of Mexico, and
the reopening of the Chihuahua Trail, a friendly feeling sprang
up between the Americans and the Mexicans. The Big Bend
once again was rapidly becoming habitable ; and it needed but
the re-entrance of the United States troops to keep in check the
Indians and other reckless, lawbreaking elements for the settle-
ments to again become thriving and prosperous.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 159
CHAPTER XII
On June 29, 1867, four troops of the 9th Cavalry, Lieuten-
ant-Colonel Wesley Merritt commanding, reoccupied Fort
Davis, after an abandonment of six years. Fort Davis now
for the first time became a regimental post. The Qth Cavalry
was a negro regiment officered by white officers. Colonel
Merritt at once started building permanent quarters, and for
the fortsite, he chose ground well above the high-water mark
in Limpia Canyon. While the War Department had acquired
a block of land for the post buildings, a more suitable site was
chosen on land owned by John James, upon which the Govern-
ment took a long term lease. In 1856, John James, a prominent
pioneer and surveyor, had laid out a townsite for the growing
settlement. In some manner, not stated in the records, James
obtained six hundred and forty acres adjoining the townsite
from A. C. Lewis, original owner. Lewis had obtained the
land when Texas was granting land to settlers. John James
had also acquired the fortsite of Fort Stockton and a number
of other posts in the West. He had the distinction of surveying,
platting, and recording more land than any other surveyor in
the state.
Colonel Merritt did his work thoroughly, although handi-
capped by lack of tools ; and, to-day, much of it remains in a
well preserved state. In 1854, while exploring the neighbor-
ing mountains, Major Simonson had found a quantity of pine
timber, up Limpia Canyon, eleven miles from the post. From
this point, Colonel Merritt hauled logs and sawed them by hand
at Fort Davis. Later, a sawmill was erected in what is to-day
known as Sawmill Canyon, and the sawed logs were brought
to the post by ox-teams.
With the troops at the time they returned to Fort Davis,
came Whitaker Keesey, as head baker, and Sam R. Miller, as
160 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
butcher. Both of these men have left the mark of their work
upon the country.
Fort Davis, under the encouragement and protection of the
troops, soon became the most important town west of the Pecos
River, until San Elizario was reached. It was not long before
merchants opened their doors to catch the passing trade over
the Chihuahua Trail and the mail route. Hunters made it
their headquarters, and daily these silent mannered men came
into the post leading their horses laden with venison, antelope,
or bear meat and, occasionally, the honey from a bee-tree. For
the bee was the sure forerunner of settlements. Various sorts
of contractors came in to secure government contracts for
wood and forage. Every three months, the paymaster visited
the post, and usually he was accompanied by two sisters of
charity, who came to collect money for St. John's Orphanage,
at San Antonio. One of these sisters of charity, Sister Ste-
phens, of the Order of the Incarnate Word, is living to-day, in
San Antonio.
Just west of the parade grounds, opposite the barracks,
stood the well built houses of Officers' Row. Colonel Merritt
lived in Number Seven, and in this house he had the first
Christmas tree. Near the old spring at Murphy's Grove, but
a step from the south walls of the post, Dan Murphy had his
home and store. Here nightly, the officers and their wives
gathered to indulge in such amusements as the western outpost
afforded. On the other side of the post, Abbot & Davis, the
post traders, had their commodious store. Here, too, Patrick
Murphy, no wise related to the patriarchal Daniel Murphy,
had reopened the doors of his store, which had been closed
since the first year of the Civil War. In these two famous old
trade emporiums, gathered those rough and ready members
of western society who lay no claim to class distinction, the
soldier, the hunter, the trail driver, and here could be heard,
deleted of all fancy phrases, stories of daring, of bravery, of
human kindness, as well as of human hate.
At the time the troops re-occupied Fort Davis, Sam Miller,
who had the regiment's beef contract, had brought in one
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 161
hundred and sixty-five head of beeves and stock cattle. While
these cattle, with one hundred and fifty work-oxen, were being
herded by Mexicans, in the flats east of the post, a band of
Apaches attacked and killed the herders, and stampeded the
cattle.
By the time word reached the post, the Indians had several
hours' start, but as quickly as possible a detachment of troops,
with Sam Miller as guide, started on the well-marked trail.
After killing enough beeves for their immediate wants, the
Indians had attempted to drive the remainder; and the trail
followed by the troops was marked by the carcasses of cattle,
which the Indians, in pure maliciousness, had shot down when
they could go no further. The trail followed down Limpia
Canyon, along the north slope of the mountains, to Gomez
Peak, and from there up the Van Horn Flats, to the foot of
the Guadalupe Mountains. At this point, the Indian signs
showed that several large parties had met, and the captain in
charge of the troops refused to follow them further. Against
the earnest protests of Miller, the chase was abandoned and
the party returned to Fort Davis. A short time afterward this
captain was court-martialed and cashiered from the army,
because he had refused to go on.
This statement should not be construed as being a condem-
nation of the military in general. It was no fault of the officers
in command of the western garrisons that troop movements
were slow. They were bound by rules and regulations which
were meant for civilized warfare, if there is such a thing; and
before orders could be conformed to by the troops, the Indians
would have a start which could never be overcome. The
frontiersmen, also, had a considerable advantage over the
soldier, as they, like the Indian, carried no excess baggage,
slept where night overtook them, ate what they could, and
depended largely upon their rifles for meat ; while, on the other
hand, in any considerable movement of soldiers, it was neces-
sary to provision both men and horses, which resulted in the
loss of much valuable time.
Presidio, for so had John W. Spencer's farm been named,
162 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
although lacking troops to form the base for its prosperity,
still, next to Fort Davis, was the most important town on the
Chihuahua Trail. So important had this port of entry grown
that an American custom house was opened. Captain Mose
Kelly, who for some time since the Civil War had been em-
ployed in the El Paso custom house, was sent to Presidio to
organize and officer the new port of entry. Accompanied by
Juan Ojchoa, William Leaton, and John Burgess, Captain Kelly
floated down the Rio Grande in a boat from El Paso to Pre-
sidio. Kelly was a lively, kindly, and dashing young fellow
and had won a captaincy in the Union army as a cavalryman.
He rented two rooms from John Spencer, and established his
office and his home in them. Shortly after establishing the
custom office, Captain Kelly opened a general merchandise
store in Ojinaga, or Presidio del Norte, the Mexican port over-
looking Presidio, Texas. Shortly afterwards, Charles Spencer,
a son of John W. Spencer, became interested in the store with
Captain Kelly, and he took charge in Ojinaga. The American
colony at Presidio had been strengthened by the addition of
several men who later became prominent in the affairs of the
country. Richard C. Daily, who had seen service in the
Mexican War and also served with the army of the South,
entered Presidio by way of Chihuahua. William Russell came
about the same time ; he, too, was a veteran of the Civil War.
Milton Favor Don Milton and John B. Davis had pushed
out boldly from the settlement and established ranches in the
mountains. The majority of these men had married among
the prominent Mexican families, and, to-day, their descend-
ants are numbered among the most worthy citizens of the
country.
These were Arcadian days for Presidio. While the Indians
were raiding in every other portion of the Big Bend, the little
colony remained undisturbed. What a few years before had
been the cultivated fields of John W. Spencer, was now a
cluster of prosperous stores, ranged along either side of a long
street, which also served as a passage way for the Chihuahua
Trail drivers.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 163
In the peaceful quiet of their patios, the families gathered
at night, with no fear of being disturbed by the terrifying war-
whoops of the Apaches. The doors were without locks, for
nobody stole.
One instance, which is a matter of record, throws consider-
able light upon the attitude of the Presidio pioneers. With the
overthrow of the Maximilian regime, the conditions in Ojinaga
for a few years were chaotic. This was in 1867. Some of the
inhabitants of the Mexican border towns fled across the Rio
Grande to Presidio, Texas, and amongst the number were
quite a few characters of questionable repute.
The coming of so many undesirables into the peaceful com-
munity became the subject of grave consideration for the city
fathers. One giant Mexican, particularly, was a subject of
suspicion ; and it was not long before he was caught entering
the living quarters of some of the women in the Spencer house-
hold, with the intent of theft.
But a short time before, Judge J. Hubbell, the local justice
of the peace, had been killed by the Indians at El Muerto, and
no new justice had been elected to fill his place. But action
was quick and certain. The giant was seized and hauled before
a body of law-enforcing citizens. Judge and jury were quickly
chosen. John W. Spencer was made judge, and his jury was
composed of Captain Mose Kelly, Larkin Landrum, Robert C.
Daily, and a number of Mexican citizens, among whom was
Patricio Juarez, the blacksmith, a man of powerful physique.
After a brief trial, the prisoner was found guilty, and sentenced
to have one hundred lashes delivered upon his bare shoulders.
And Patricio was delegated to wield the lash.
The blacksmith went down to the river bottoms and re-
turned with an armful of willow switches; but so powerful
were his strokes that the willows broke easily, and he threw
them away in disgust. He stalked into his shop and returned
with a heavy rawhide bull-whip the kind used by the Chi-
huahua Trail drivers. Doubling this in his great fist, he de-
livered the remaining blows. Not liking his first taste of
American justice, the Mexican meddler returned to the Mex-
164 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
ican side ; and the story of the first law on the border, reaching
others of his kind, discouraged any ambition they may have
entertained of overrunning the little American colony.
The United States custom service was not well organized
in those days, and in the afternoons many hundreds of pack
mules forded the river and drew up to the American stores in
Presidio. Later, under cover of darkness, they returned to
the Mexican side, their cargoes free of duty. The coin most
current was the silver peso, or Mexican dollar. The fact that
Presidio was the port of entry for the Chihuahua Trail,
brought many characters whose names are woven into the
history of the Southwest. Most of the local men had freight
outfits on the Trail, while such men as Ed Frobboese, August
Santleben, John Holly, Shay Hogan, Seferino Calderon, at
regular intervals, directed their trains of ten to twenty wagons
to their camping places on the Rio Grande, near the custom
house.
While Presidio was unmolested by the Indian attacks, other
portions of the Big Bend were filled by marauders. Once again
the Apaches saw the Big Bend wrested from their grip ; and,
in reprisal, they left such scenes of horror behind them that
any sympathy which might have been felt for them, over the
loss of their domains, was destroyed.
John Burgess had secured a contract for hauling large
quantities of supplies from San Antonio to Fort Stockton and
Fort Davis. After delivering his freight, he would continue
soutli to Presidio del Norte his home recuperate his animals,,
attend to necessary repairs, then load up with grain and flour,
which he would deliver to the posts on his return trip to San
Antonio.
The previous year a considerable number of cattle had
been driven over the Chihuahua Trail, but instead of going
through Fort Davis they had gone down the great valley
between the Davis Mountains and Glass Mountains, through
Paisano Pass, and struck the old Chihuahua Trail on Alamito
Creek. When Burgess was loaded with grain for Fort Stock-
ton, he took this short cut, by way of Paisano Pass; and the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 165
spring just east of Alpine, on the Kokernot ranch, became
known as Burgess' Spring.
It received the name after Burgess' encounter with Chief
Leon and his braves. While the wagon train was corralled
about the springs, Chief Leon, who had started on a raid into
Mexico, surrounded the outfit. But Burgess had between thirty
and forty wagons and a corresponding number of men, which
caused the chief to hesitate to attack, and instead, send an
Indian for re-enforcements. There had not been a single shot
fired by either side, and the Indians were squatting stolidly
about their camp-fires fully aware, as were the whites, that the
trail-drivers could not escape.
It was the custom of the wagon-master to ride horseback,
so that he might better oversee the progress of the train. Some-
times the line of wagons was strung out for a distance of two
or three miles. It happened on this trip that Burgess was
riding a very fine racehorse, and that night, after the Indians
had laid down, Burgess quietly mounted the lightest man in
his party on the racehorse, tied the horse's feet in sacks, and
sent the man charging straight through the Indians' camp.
Before the Indians recovered from their surprise, the horse-
man was safely through the lines, headed straight for Paisano
Pass. The Indians pursued him on their fleetest ponies, but
the racehorse easily outdistanced them.
It was now a question as to which party's re-enforcements
arrived first. All day the besieged and besiegers kept their
positions, and that night both parties slept upon their arms.
The next morning, Burgess' worn-out party saw a great cloud
of dust rising at the point where Paisano Canyon spilled out
into the grassy plains. His re-enforcements were arriving.
Chief Leon, also, saw the cloud of dust, and his guttural com-
mands to his warriors could be heard in Burgess' camp. A
moment's confusion, a whirlwind of horses, and the Indians
swept away to the north at full gallop.
Burgess' messenger had ridden his horse to death twenty
miles out of Presidio, and he had run and walked the remainder
of the distance in four hours.
166 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
While the Kokernot Spring was known to the whites as
Burgess' Spring, in the lingua franca of the Indian war trail,
it had become known as Charco de Alsate. Usually the Chi-
huahua Trail ran through Fort Davis, but after John Burgess
had opened up the route through Paisano Pass, this new route
became quite popular among the more intrepid of the trail
drivers. It was the same route used by the Jumano Indians,
by de Vaca, by de Espejo, and Mendoza, in their travels
through the Big Bend, as well as being the great Indian thor-
oughfare of the middle nineteenth century. Perennial rains
had formed a chain of water holes, or charcos, at the spring,
which led the Indians and Mexicans to refer to that watering-
place as the Charco. The name Charco de Alsate was given
to it because the most powerful chief on the war trails at that
period was the Apache chief, Alsate a leader who ranked
with Bajo el Sol, Guera Carranza, Victor io and Geronimo, the
ablest Indian generals of their time.
We Americans have been accustomed to place the Indians
in one category to us there are no good Indians. We go so
far as to use the word, Indian, as a synonym for every evil and
ferocious propensity in the human animal. When we say, "He
behaves like an Indian," we infer that his conduct was in some
manner uncouth, or inhuman. Being thus brought up to regard
the Indian, it is very difficult to appreciate or understand the
attitude of the Mexican people toward the Red Man. Refer-
ence is here made to the common, or pilado Mexican.
Perhaps a parallel illustration will bring this point more
clearly to the reader. A half-dozen mounted men ride down
the main street of a small western town, surround the bank,
dismount, and stage a bank robbery. It doesn't matter whether
they escape or are captured, the point is they are considered
outlaws. If they should return again and be recognized, there
would, no doubt, be a strong effort made to capture them. Now
suppose a similar appearing band of mounted men good citi-
zens, however should enter that town, ride up to the bank,
dismount and enter that institution, how would they be re-
garded? They, too, were strangers, their behavior up to the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 167
time of entering the bank had been identical to that of the first
party. Outwardly their appearance and bearing was identical.
But they would not be regarded as outlaws.
So among the Mexicans there was a differentiation between
the good and bad Indian, which we Americans never recog-
nized. This seeming forbearance on the part of the Mexican
is explained by the fact that a relationship existed between
them. Two or three hundred years of civilizing influences had
raised the Mexican to a higher plane of existence than his
Indian cousin. A Mexican himself will tell you, "Yo estoy
puro Indo!" ("I am pure Indian!") That is, he will tell you
this if he has imbibed sufficiently of mescal.
Parenthetically, it is well to add that the Mexican manner
of judging between the good Indian and the bad was not always
based upon the Indian's moral status. It also involved to a
greater or lesser degree a consideration of the Indian's ability
and strength to retaliate when he was interfered with. There-
fore, when at the head of a score of warriors, Alsate, chief of
the Mescalero Apaches, marched into Presidio del Norte, one
crisp autumn morning, 1867, he entertained no fear of being
molested by the Mexican authorities.
The salutations which greeted him on every side bore wit-
ness to the respect he elicited. Carious children followed
mothers to the doors and clung to the protecting skirts, while
they gazed with awe at the Indian chief about whom centered
many thrilling tales, false and true. Many times had these
children seen the Apache chief thus enter Presidio del Norte,
but never before had they seen him wearing an overcoat of
the white man's pattern; they looked and wondered. What
unfortunate Americano had crossed the trail of the Apache
brave ?
The procession of half-naked savages filed silently down
the street, the quick bird-like motions of their heads and the
restless glitter in the eyes showed that the Indians noted every-
thing, perhaps in anticipation of the time when they would
take the war-path against the Nortanos, to rob and to plunder
them in a carnival of bloodshed. The Indians filed past the
168 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
casa in which lived John Burgess, who at this time was away
on the Chihuahua Trail, in company with John Davis and
William Brooks. In common with her neighbors, Mrs. Burgess
came to the door to look curiously at the passing savages. She
gave a start, and her eyes strained horror-stricken at the tall
Indian in the overcoat her husband's overcoat !
The Burgess family was one of the oldest and most influ-
ential in Presidio del Norte. Mrs. Burgess hurried to the
alcalde with her fears and suspicions. The result was that
Alsate and his band were thrown into prison, upon the charge
of having murdered John Burgess.
The day of trial came. In sullen silence, Alsate and his
band looked through the bars of their prison. Alsate had
related to the Alcalde a strange, wholly improbable story. The
Mexican had smiled unbelievingly; and, thereafter, Alsate
maintained a dignified silence. Heavily guarded, the Indians
were escorted to the juzgado, where the trial was to be held.
Presidio del Norte overlooked the Rio Grande from a high
gravelly bluff. As the prisoners were being led to the juzgado,
they cast longing eyes across the River, to the beckoning hills
beyond. With eyes inscrutable, they watched a long line of
freighted wagons, with their teams of eighteen or twenty mules,
as they plowed through the deep sands of the alluvial river
bottom just before crossing the stream to the rocky and more
secure footing on the Mexican side.
It was a customary sight to the guards, who hurried the
prisoners to the tribunal. The court was called to order, with
the Alcalde presiding. The evidence of the overcoat was intro-
duced. Mrs. Burgess swore to its identification. There was a
settled air on the face of the Alcalde.
At this juncture, a disturbance broke out at the door of
the courtroom. All present looked hastily around, expecting
perhaps, a surprise attack by Alsate's tribesmen. But it was
a white man an Americano. Mrs. Burgess gave a cry of
relief as she recognized her husband.
The trial proceeded no further. Burgess* appearance put
an end to that. Then followed the trail-drivers' recital of the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 169
manner in which Alsate had gained possession of the over-
coat.
For mutual protection, Burgess had joined forces with
John Davis and William Brooks. The three outfits were loaded
with grain and corn, raised at Presidio and bought by the
Government, for the troops at Fort Stockton. After delivering
their cargoes, it was customary to proceed to the salt lakes
beyond the Pecos River, and load with salt, which found easy
sale at Presidio del Norte.
Up Alamito Creek, through Paisano Pass, into the grassy
plains beyond, without sign of the Indians, drove the freighters.
But when they drew near Charco de Alsate, they were halted
by a large force of Apaches, led by Alsate and Leon. Imme-
diately, the freighters formed a large circle with their wagons,
corralling their work-stock in the enclosure for protection
against arrows and to prevent them from stampeding. For
four hours, by every wile known to the savage general, the
whites and their teamsters were tempted to leave their im-
promptu fort. The Indians swept by on their horses, then
formed in a madly racing line which disappeared over the
nearby hills. After time had been given the freighters to con-
clude the attack was abandoned, the Indians swooped down
from another direction, thus hoping to catch the whites off
guard.
Finally, becoming tired of the exhibition, Burgess and
Davis walked out some distance from the wagon train, although
careful to remain under the protecting cover of the freighters'
long-rifles, and, in the commonly understood sign language,
invited Alsate and Leon to a parley.
Burgess told his story, simply, dramatically and, of course,
in Spanish, every word of which Alsate understood. When
Burgess reached this point in his narrative the discomfited chief
shot a look of understanding and hatred at the trail driver.
Should another meeting occur, plainly there would be a differ-
ent story to tell.
When the two chiefs advanced to meet Burgess and Davis,
the white men drew their pistols which they had concealed, and
170 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
under threats of death, forced the chiefs to order their warriors
to withdraw to a distant hill. So well did the bluff work, that
Burgess stripped off his overcoat and presented it to Alsate
with a view of, at least, partly placating the disgruntled chief.
After reaching Charco de Alsate, the freighters made them-
selves safe from attack; and being aware of this, Alsate and
his band gave up their attempt to trap them.
At the close of Burgess* story, Alsate and his warriors were
set free. No thought was given to the evident intention of the
Indians in waylaying the wagon-train. Attempts at murder,
unless successfully carried out, were not deemed important.
In justice to the Indians, however, it must be admitted that
all of them were not bad. To illustrate : After the re-occupa-
tion of Fort Davis, the little settlement, located as it was in the
heart of the Apache country, stood the brunt of the Indian
attacks. One morning, the inhabitants were awakened by the
war-whoop, as the Apaches poured into the outskirts of the
town from the nearby hills and canyons. The surprise was
complete ; but, aided by the presence of several large freight
outfits which had camped in Fort Davis on their way over the
Chihuahua Trail, the soldiers and citizens managed to beat off
the attack and inflict severe punishment on the marauders.
Many dead and wounded Indians were left on the ground.
Among the latter was a young Indian girl. She was badly
wounded, and would have been taken to the hospital with the
other wounded had not a Mrs. Easton insisted on taking charge
of her. Mrs. Easton finally nursed the young squaw back to
health, and kept her for a companion and servant.
For two years, Emily, as the girl was named, lived with the
Easton family. She had grown accustomed to the ways of the
whites and her stay among them seemed indefinite. Mrs.
Easton's son, Lieutenant Thomas Easton, was a great favorite
with Emily, and in a shy, unobtrusive way, she attended his
wants.
Then the Nelsons moved to Fort Davis. Immediately,
Thomas Easton was attracted to Mary Nelson, an occurrence
which did not escape the keen eyes of the Indian girl. She
I. L. KLIENMAN
Presidio, Texas
MR. AND MRS. J. D. JACKSON
Of Alpine, Texas
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 171
began to act queerly, and for hours, at a time, she would sit and
gaze at the mountains, as though she was considering some
action of which she was uncertain. The day the engagement
of Tom and Mary was announced, Emily disappeared.
For some time, Mrs. Easton hoped for Emily's return, but
the months stretched into a year, with no word of the girl. The
newly acquired daughter, however, made up for the loss of
Emily ; but the Indian girl was not forgotten.
The Apaches had become more troublesome than usual;
raids were more frequent and increased in boldness. The
soldiers were kept busy and the post command was constantly
on the lookout for an attack on Fort Davis. One night, during
this troublesome time, a sentry heard someone trying to pass
him. Suspecting it might be an Indian, he called, "Halt, or I
fire !" Instead of making reply, the intruder broke into a run
towards the post buildings. The sentry took careful aim and
fired. The shot was answered by a scream in a feminine voice.
The soldier rushed up to the fallen woman, who proved to be
an Indian squaw, and lifting her carefully in his arms, he
carried her to the commanding officer's quarters. It was Emily,
and she was mortally wounded.
Mrs. Easton was immediately sent for. Upon seeing her
friend, Emily, with failing breath, gasped out : "All my people
come to kill I hear talk by light of morning maybe you
know Tom no get killed good-bye" and the faithful Indian
girl was gone. The Indians did come, and in a force sufficient
to annihilate the unprepared settlement ; but Emily's warning
had been in time to make preparation, and the Indians were
beaten back with heavy losses.
When the tide of gold-seeking reached high- water mark,
those who failed in their efforts to moil a fortune from the rocks
and sands of California, drifted eastward on the ebb tide. New
Mexico and the Big Bend of Texas became a haven for many
adventurous barks. After braving the perils of the great
Arizona deserts, the weary travelers were afforded a breathing
spell in the settlements along the Santa Fe and El Paso-San
Antonio Trails, and many, seeing opportunities which they
172 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
had failed to find in the goldfields of California, -remained in
this new country.
Heretofore, immigration to Southwest Texas had been
from the older settled eastern sections of the United States.
Now, in the recoil from the goldfields, immigration flowed in
from the far west. This was due largely to the reason that
when the emigrants to the goldfields passed through the Big
Bend on their way to California, they crossed a country devoid
of settlements and trails. When they returned, on their way
eastward, they found many towns, populous and thriving.
Their stay in California had weaned them of a desire to return
to their old homes in the eastern states ; the West had gotten
into their blood. But little persuasion, therefore, was necessary
to induce many of these travelers to cast their lot with the
young and optimistical Southwest.
It was natural that many of these newcomers belonged to
that class of adventurers who were not sticklers in the observ-
ance of the laws, either of their own country or of Mexico. It
must be borne in mind that in the early days questions of polity
in no way hampered the movements of bodies of men or of
individuals. The seats of government, Washington, D. C,
and the City of Mexico, respectively, were several thousand
miles away, with but a few scattered officials to enforce a
semblance of restraint. It was not regarded as a moral
breach to become a free-trader or filibuster, any more than
it was to become a racehorse man, a gambler, or a saloon-
keeper.
But the administrations at Washington and the City of
Mexico, when that republic had one, were as much opposed
to the smallest infraction of the laws along the Rio Grande as
they were at either of the above named seats of authority, espe-
cially in regard to filibustering or an avoidance of customs
duty. So when Harry Hinton, late of the goldfields, with
twenty-five men, armed with Sharp buffalo-guns and convoying
a pack-train of valuable merchandise, crossed the Rio Grande
one dark night, unobserved by the handful of customs guards,
he felt no qualms of conscience on the score of unpaid duties.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 173
The money thus saved would add much to their already assured
handsome profits.
Straight for Chihuahua City headed the filibusters. The
trail was free from Indians, weather conditions were favorable,
and all signs were propitious. In high spirits, the party entered
the city, displayed their goods to the merchants, and sold out
at a price exceeding that anticipated.
Their business satisfactorily closed, the Americans tarried
in the city for a few days, basking in the smiles of the fair
senoritas, enjoying the plaza life, the siestas, and the quaintness
of the Chihuahua capital. They were in no hurry to quit the
life of ease and pleasure which their profits had opened for
them. Finally, however, Hinton rounded up the several mem-
bers of the party who had become widely separated in pursuing
their several sources of pleasure. Then something happened.
Inexperienced in dealing with Mexicans, Hinton had failed to
"salve the palm" of the local custom officers. This was an
oversight for which he dearly paid. Los Americanos had
broken the law and evaded the customs, therefore merited
punishment. The first intimation the filibusters had of this
was when a much-uniformed Mexican officer with a squad of
bare-footed soldados, with rifles thrust forward in the most
threatening manner, surrounded the departing pack-train. Hin-
ton attempted diplomacy ; it was too late. To have used their
fire-arms would have brought upon them the death penalty.
But one other course remained ; and, at a low command from
Hinton, each man picked a weak spot in the cordon of soldiers.
Surprising the Mexicans by the suddenness of their attack, the
Americans managed to escape.
Between them and the American boundary lay two hundred
miles of desert. Across this, Hinton with two companions
made his way. The journey was one of thirst, hunger, and
untold hardships ; but, eventually, the Rio Grande was reached,
and they crossed to the Texas side a few miles below Presidio.
So relieved were they to reach the United States and the
protection of the Stars and Stripes, that they proceeded no
further, but cast themselves upon the ground in a thicket of
174 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
tules, and dropped into an exhausted sleep. Night came, the
moon rose full and bright, and cast upon their haggard, up-
turned faces its mellow glow, but the three Americans slept on.
Technically, they should have been safe from Mexican
pursuit, but then, as to-day, the Rio Grande furnished a boun-
dary only in the physical sense. After they had been asleep
for some hours, Hinton was awakened by feeling some object
being thrust over his head. Springing up he gave the alarm.
There stood three Mexicans who had quietly crept upon them
and were attempting to put sacks over their heads. It would
have been useless for the Americans to inform the Mexicans
that they were on United States soil; sometimes explanations
are better made to surviving relatives. At least, so Hinton
must have thought, for when the Americans departed, they
left three Mexicans in the sleep from which there is no
awakening.
Eventually, the three white men reached Fort Stockton.
Their filibustering days were over. Neither Hinton nor his
companions ever learned the fate of the other twenty-two men.
Presumably, most of them reached the United States, as the
two Governments were enjoying friendly relations, and, at that
particular time, the death penalty to the Americans who had
committed misdemeanors on Mexican soil, was being pre-
scribed only in extreme cases.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 175
CHAPTER XIII
Slowly, but none the less surely, the Indians were being
forced westward in the Big Bend. While Fort Davis was yet
the center of attention of the retreating Mescaleros, Fort
Stockton, the metropolis of the great plateau country lying
east of the Davis Mountains, enjoyed a period of uninterrupted
quiet. Comanche Springs, already famous as a watering-place
and for being the cross roads of the great western trails, rapidly
became a farming and commercial center.
In 1868, such men as, George M. Frazier, Peter Gallager,
and Joseph Frelander had found the western post a good
stopping-place. The year following, came Francis Rooney, an
Irishman, who left the stamp of his name upon the West-of-
the-Pecos country. Caezario Torres came also, and, to-day,
the great alamos and adobe-brick buildings stand witness to the
energy of the founder of the 7D Ranch.
For the first time, the waters of Comanche Springs were
turned to productive use. Canals, or acequias, were dug, into
which was turned the precious life-giving water, which hereto-
fore had been allowed to waste its virtues on useless salt grass
and tules. Alfalfa, corn, and other forage crops were raised.
Sheep and cattle were brought into the country and grazed on
the stubble-fields in the winter ; while in the spring and summer,
they were herded on the surrounding plains.
Not only were the waters of Comanche Springs brought to
obey the will of man, but Leon Waterholes, nine miles west
of Fort Stockton, was utilized. George M. Frazier and George
Lyle located farms in Leon Valley, where, to-day, a seven-
thousand-acre feet reservoir stores water for the three thou-
sand and more acres of farm lands in the valley.
The community life in Fort Stockton differed little from
that in other settlements. At the army post, three or four
companies of troops were constantly stationed. This blending
176 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
of army and civilian life produced a kaleidoscopic picture. The
pioneers and their families, the West Pointers, their wives, and
daughters, presented a contrast which was heightened by the
sprinkling of Indians, army scouts, cowboys, and Mexicans.
The prices of all commodities were high. Drygoods and
groceries were freighted from San Antonio, a distance of four
hundred miles. Store and saloon usually occupied the same
building, and often were to be found in the same large room.
Some of the prices rivaled the existing high prices of to-day
butter, $1.50 per pound ; eggs, $1.00 per dozen ; milk, blue with
water, 25 cents per quart ; potatoes, bacon, ham, and like staples,
50 cents per pound. Still, the community was prosperous. The
wealth of the local ranchmen, coupled with the Government's
liberality in letting high-priced contracts for wood, grain, hay,
and freighting, offset the high cost of living.
With the exception of a trail which follows the windings
of the Pecos River into New Mexico, all trails passed through
Fort Stockton. This added largely to the importance of that
settlement. Usually, these travelers were cowmen and farmers,
whose fathers had migrated to Texas from the states east of
the Mississippi River. They inherited the pioneer instincts of
their fathers, which caused them to move westward in advance
of civilization seeking more elbow-room.
A page chosen here and there from the life of one of these
particular old pioneers, will create a much clearer picture of
the conditions met with and overcome by the builders of the
West, than an unlimited indulgence in generalizing statements.
The inhabitants of the region in Texas, west of the Pecos
River, have much in common with the inhabitants of that
portion of New Mexico which lies immediately north of the
Big Bend and adjacent to the Pecos River, in that state. This
is due largely to the similarity in topography, geology, and
climatic conditions of the two countries, which are separated
only by an imaginary line the state line. Both are cattle and
irrigated farms countries, and many men of the two are asso-
ciated in business enterprises. Therefore, an illustration which
holds good in the one holds good in the other.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 177
In 1868, Robert Casey rounded up his cattle on his Menard
County ranch, packed his household belongings, put his wife
and five children in a covered wagon, and headed west for
New Mexico. With the help of one man, a Mexican, he under-
took to drive eighteen hundred cattle through a country in-
fested by the thieving Apaches, while he depended upon Mrs.
Casey to take care of the children and drive the wagon.
Some time before, Casey had made a trip to New Mexico,
over the same trail, so he knew the location of water and grass
along the route. The Caseys had not traveled far when they
fell in with another cow outfit, consisting of the owner, Mr.
Gooch, and two cowboys. These outfits joined forces for
mutual protection.
As the party approached the Pecos River, they began to
see Indian signs. For several nights, lights had been discern-
ible in the distance, sometimes to the north of the trail, at
other times to the south. Mr. Gooch ridiculed the assertion of
Mr. Casey that the lights were Indian fires calling together the
different roving bands in the neighborhood for the purpose of
attacking their outfit, and he contended that the lights came
from another cow outfit. In proof of this, he volunteered to
find the camps and return with a firebrand.
The discussion was ended, however, one morning about
daylight. Mrs. Casey was the first to hear a low, rumbling
noise. At first, she thought the noise was thunder, and she
raised up in her bed to see the direction of the approaching
storm. Clouds of dust, not of rain, met her gaze, and she
caught glimpses of dust-hidden Indian horsemen, as they raced
down full speed upon the bedding-ground of the cattle. Robert
Casey had stood night-guard over the cattle and was sleeping
peacefully when he was grabbed roughly by the shoulder and
jerked to a sitting position by Mrs. Casey.
"Get up, Robert!" she cried, "the Indians are taking our
cattle!"
Instantly, Casey was alive to the situation. Before he had
reached his feet, he had his gun in hand and began shooting.
Mrs. Casey hastily put the children in the wagon, then grabbed
178 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
a double-barreled shotgun -a muzzle-loader which she began
to load. Being excited, however, she rammed the powder into
one barrel and the shot into the other. This harmless weapon
she thrust into the hands of the bewildered Mexican, who soon
discovered the mistake, and could only use the gun as a "bluff"
throughout the fight.
One of the Gooch cowboys had a new suit of clothes, of
which he was very proud ; and, after their efforts to move their
wagon closer to the Casey outfit had failed and his companions
were retreating to the safety of the Casey shelter, he remarked
that he would stay with his clothes, and quietly climbed into
the wagon. Strange to say, he was not molested by the Indians,
although they ransacked the back of the wagon, where the
provisions were stored.
With the exception of Casey, the other men were practi-
cally powerless, as they had used most of their ammunition on
game. Single-handed, he held the Indians away from his pro-
visions, although they succeeded in running off thirteen hundred
head of his cattle. In the fight, Casey wounded one Indian.
Mrs. Casey had a bunch of pet sheep, which the Indians
noticed, and a band of them got off their horses to drive these
sheep before them. When Mrs. Casey saw what they were
doing, she grabbed up a tin pan and ran out some distance from
the wagon She beat on the pan and called, "Nannie ! Nannie !"
When the sheep heard the familiar sound, which to them
meant a generous supply of shelled corn, they turned upon their
Indian herders, and, upsetting every Indian who attempted to
bar their progress, ran blithely back to their mistress. Had
Mr. Casey not rushed to his wife's rescue, she, too, would have
been taken captive.
The loss of the cattle would not have been felt so greatly
had the Indians not taken all their work-oxen as well. Travel-
ing through the heart of an unsettled and hostile country, with
practically no ammunition, with few provisions, in the dead of
winter, the future welfare of the little caravan was a question
of grave consideration.
But Robert Casey was not the man to grumble at mis-
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY
fortune. With the optimism which undying lay in the hearts
of those sturdy old pioneers, he and his wife gathered the few
straggling cattle the Indians had failed to run off, broke in a
new team of wild steers, and continued their westward journey.
As though by a preconcerted arrangement with Fate, the
newly-broken oxen made all the trouble they could. They
would either sulk and refuse to pull, or they would take a
running start, which would land them and the wagon in a pile
at the bottom of an arroyo or gully. This was fine sport for the
children, who shouted with glee at every new disaster. But
to the pioneer and the worried mother, it brought home their
desperate situation.
Up the Pecos River, to the point where the old Immigrant
Trail struck Pope's Crossing, thence into New Mexico, to
Fort Stanton, struggled the brave little party. The last three
weeks of the journey was made without flour ; and upon reach-
ing their destination, the children, seeing their first wheat-
bread, thought it was cake and offered to exchange their most
highly treasured keepsakes for some of it.
Casey settled on the Rio Hondo, about twenty-five miles
south of Fort Stanton, and immediately began the construction
of a house, barns, and corrals. When this work was well under
way, he cleared and broke ground for wheat and corn. After
the hardships experienced on the journey across the plains, the
new home soon became the center of a cheerful and contented
family.
Surrounding the house and barns was a high adobe wall,
which served at night as a corral for the cattle. With the
exception of two large swinging gates, which were locked at
night, there was no other opening. Neither bear nor other wild
creatures could kill the calves, nor could the Indians run off
the cattle without first arousing the household.
So thought Robert Casey. One morning, however, he went
out to open the gates in order that the cattle could graze over
the hills, and he found the corral empty.
Upon investigation, he discovered a gap in the adobe wait
where the Indians had used their rawhide lariats for saws, by
180 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
an Indian standing on either side of the wall and dragging the
lariat back and forth over the top, thus cutting through it from
top to bottom, after which they had pushed over the sawed
section of adobe and quietly drove the cattle through the aper-
ture without making a noise. Indeed, it was fortunate that
Casey had not awakened, as moccasined prints showed that a
guard had been stationed at the front and back doors of the
house; and Casey, undoubtedly, would have been killed had
he attempted to leave the house.
The only source of aid was Fort Stanton, twenty-five miles
away. Casey rode to the fort and made his report ; but troops,
who were immediately dispatched to run down and capture the
Indians, returned empty-handed.
Finally, Casey, after being depredated upon several times
by the Indians, and, growing discouraged at losing each herd
of cattle as fast as he built it up, proposed to the officer in
command at Fort Stanton that he might be permitted to go
with the troops as guide and scout. This was readily agreed
to by the post commander, who was glad to have the aid of
one so well versed in Indian signs as was the frontiersman.
After traveling several days on the Indians' trail and finding
the carcasses of cows and calves, which the Indians had killed
to eat while in flight, the pursuers lost the main trail and were
debating as to which way to go. Casey and several of the
older troopers had been sent out to circle the end of the trail,
when one of them discovered some freshly cut grass. From
this point, Casey wanted to go in one direction, and the com-
manding officer another.
When the officer ordered his detachment to follow him,
Casey rode off in the direction he favored, muttering half to
himself, "That's why you never find the Indians. When you
get on a hot trail, you turn off in some other direction."
Hardly had he finished speaking, when up jumped what he
supposed to be an Indian, from behind a clump of bear-grass.
Casey called to the officer for orders, but the detachment was
some distance away and he was not heard. In the meantime,
the Indian was yelling, "Cautivo ! Esclavo !" Casey thought he
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 181
said, "Cow! Cow!" and began to shoot. Fortunately, the
frontiersman's shots went wild ; and about that time it dawned
upon him that his target was only an unarmed boy who was
crying "Captive! Slave!"
Casey's firing attracted the attention of the soldiers, who
rode back to learn its cause, and the Mexican boy for such
he proved to be told his story. He had been captured by the
Indians while herding sheep in Chihuahua, Mexico. He could
speak some Mexican, although the Indians never permitted
him to use his own language, and had often punished him
because he persisted in using it. His story was typical of
Mexican captives. He told of the time when he was tied to a
post to be shot, because he would not obey his savage master,
and an Indian squaw saved his life by giving a red blanket for
him. Across his forehead was a deep mark, caused by a rope
which he used to- secure a pack on his back when the Indians
forced him to carry heavy burdens.
With the one exception of the squaw who had saved his
life, Timio, the Mexican boy, feared the sight of the Indians.
He was given to Robert Casey, who cared for him. After the
death of the old pioneer, one of Casey's sons took him, and,
to-day, Timio, very old and feeble, lives upon Casey's New
Mexico ranch which is located on the same spot settled by
Robert Casey. At one time, Jose de la Paz, an Apache-Mexican
renegade chief, offered Robert Casey three fine horses for
Timio, and the boy was greatly frightened for fear that Casey
would make the trade.
Close questioning of the Mexican boy disclosed the fact that
he and several of the Indian bucks had been grazing their
horses. Timio cut the grass while the bucks looked on. After
a time they all became drowsy and fell asleep. Timio, taking
advantage of this, fell asleep also. Evidently, the coming
of the soldiers had awakened and alarmed the Indians, who
did not have time to find and warn Timio before they fled.
After obtaining all the facts possible from Timio in regard
to the whereabouts of the Indians, the soldiers followed his
guidance over a rise into a canyon. There, spread out before
182 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
them with the camp-fires* smoke curling lazily up into the
sky, the squaws busying, equally lazily, about their duties,
and children of every size and description playing about the
camp, the watchers saw the Indian village. No warriors were
in sight, but thinking possibly they might be hidden in the
low, oval-shaped tepees, the whites wasted no time on the
picturesqueness of the scene, but charged, yelling and shooting,
straight down upon the village.
Robert Casey, on his swiftest saddle mule, was in the
lead, and was the first to reach the tepees. The women and
children, at the first sound of the charge, huddled together or
scurried into the nearest tepees, seeking escape from the
whistling bullets. After searching several tepees for possible
bushwhackers, and failing to find them, Casey raised his hand
and called to the shooting soldiers to cease firing. The order
was quickly obeyed.
With the true instincts of the child, no matter what the
color, the little Indian children ran up to Casey, seeing in
him a protector, and, catching him about the legs, fairly
swarmed over him, jabbering at him in their shrill, unintelli-
gible lingua.
One squaw, at the outset, had jumped on a large sorrel
horse and broke for the hills. But the soldiers shot the horse
from under her. She then tried to escape on foot, but by
that time the troops had formed a cordon about the village,
and they drove her back.
It may seem remarkable that no one was wounded nor
killed in the charge. The soldiers shot only to frighten the
defenseless women and children. Had a warrior appeared,
no doubt he would have been riddled with bullets. Robert
Casey was looked upon by the Indians as being their preserver
and protector a matter which proved, later, to be of much
importance to him.
The surprise of the village wa's complete. When the
bucks discovered the soldiers so near to them, they were
forced to flee in another direction, and had no time in which
to warn the village of danger.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 183
A peculiar custom of the Mescalero Apaches was brought
to the attention of Casey upon his return to Fort Stahton.
The squaws and children were taken to the post and held there,
with the view of persuading the bucks to come in for a council.
Among the squaws was one who had been bitten by a rattle-
snake. She had been left in an abandoned camp, with an
earthen vessel of water and a small quantity of jerked meat
to stay her thirst and hunger until she should die.
Upon reaching the army post, this squaw was placed in a
house under the care of several other squaws. The sentry, on
duty not far away, saw the squaws rush suddenly from the
house, and, try as he would, he could not prevail upon them
to return. With some impatience, he entered the room to in-
vestigate, and found the sick squaw had died. It was custom-
ary in camp when a death occurred to move to another spot.
The military authorities exerted all their persuasive powers,
but were unable to induce the Indians to return to the cabin
formerly occupied by the snake-bitten squaw.
The captured squaws and children were comfortably quar-
tered at Fort Stanton, and a systematic effort made to induce
the bucks to come in. The squaws were fed, clothed, and
otherwise well treated. After several months had passed,
one of them was dressed up and given a mule, loaded with
presents and blankets, and told to go out, find her buck, and
bring him back with her.
This squaw was never heard from. In a short time, an-
other squaw was sent out, and returned later on foot. She
gave as excuse that her mule broke away from her. For a
second time, this squaw was sent out; and, before long, she
returned, bringing several bucks. These were well fed and
cared for, and sent out in like manner, until the whole band
was induced to come in. The Government set aside a reserva-
tion for these Indians, and monthly rations were issued to
them. To-day, this is known as the Mescalero Apache Indian
Reservation, and lies principally in Otero County, New
Mexico.
The establishment of this reservation did much to free
184 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
the Big Bend of Texas from Indian depredations. It enabled
the Indian agents to keep in closer touch with the Govern-
ment's wards, and to see that those returning, after leaving the
reservation on raids, were properly punished.
Up to the time of this chase after the Indians, in which
he acted as scout, Robert Casey had never been able to keep
cattle or horses on his ranch any great length of time. The
Indians would steal even the milch-calves; and, at one time,
so said Timio, the Mexican, they had planned to steal the
two young daughters of Casey. But after Casey had caused
the firing to cease at the attack of the Indian village, the
Apaches made him a promise never again to harm him or his
property. Often the Indians would break out on the war-
path, and steal from the ranchmen below and above the Casey
ranch, but never did they molest the Caseys.
That the old pioneer had the respect and esteem of the
Indians is illustrated by a story told by his daughter, Mrs.
J. L. Moore, of Balmorhea, Texas. At the time of this occur-
rence, she was six years old. She was staying with an officer's
wife, at Fort Stanton, and Robert Casey often came to the
post. Mrs. Moore says, "When Father came to Fort Stanton,
the little Indians, even at that age, evincing that keenness of
eyesight for which they are famous, would spy him before I
did, and run, pell-mell, to meet him. Father would stop his
team and take them into the wagon with him, after which he
would drive slowly along, smiling in reply to their excited
jabbering. They seemed to think that they had more right to
him than I had."
Up to the time of the establishment of the Mescalero
Apache Indian Reservation, 1869, the troops, stationed along
the overland mail route from San Antonio to El Paso, were
kept constantly in the field. This applied more especially to
the troops stationed at Fort Stockton and Fort Davis.
From the day his command had reached Fort Davis,
Colonel Wesley Merritt had been erecting post buildings and
otherwise improving his station. This work was not carried
on without constant danger from Apache ambush, and, almost
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 185
daily, some unpleasant incident took place which brought to
the notice of the post commander the constant watchfulness
of the red marauders.
In examining the records covering the Indian depredations
for a period of twenty years for which later the Government
paid the early settlers millions of dollars in indemnities one
is astonished at the number of times certain of these old pioneers
had all their cattle and other belongings taken from them in a
single night's work of the Apaches.
Perhaps Dietrick Dutchover whose name had been short-
ened from Dutchallover was the most persistently raided
settler in the Big Bend country. For one thing, his ranch was
located in Limpia Canyon, in easy striking distance of the
Indian trails leading to and from New Mexico. Another
potent factor which caused the Indians to have no fear of him,
was their knowledge that he had not been an active belligerent
in the Civil War and never carried a gun.
Dutchover had a hauling contract with the quartermaster
department, at Fort Davis, to haul vigers heavy rafters
from the post sawmill, twenty-five miles up Limpia, in Sawmill
Canyon. A squad of soldiers was stationed at the sawmill,
to protect it, and Dutchover and his men were camped near
them for protection. Notwithstanding this fact, the Mescaleros
slipped up to the corral, where the work oxen were kept at
night, and managed to steal thirty of them. The soldiers pur-
sued them the following morning, but failed to get near enough
to the Indians to strike a "warm" trail.
Not long after this theft, five Mescaleros passed by the
Dutchover ranch, four miles from the post, and drove off fifty
head of cattle. Again the Indians escaped, although a detach-
ment of troops was sent after them.
Prior to 1871, the only effort made to use the water from
Head Spring and Phantom Lake, on the north side of the
Davis Mountains, was by a few scattered Mexicans. In this
year, however, the beautiful Toy ah Valley the valley of
flowers attracted the attention of Sam Miller, George B.
and Robert E. Lyle, and Daniel Murphy. Lyle was the first
186 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
American to use the waters from Toyah Creek for irrigation
purposes. His farm was near Victorio or La Loma the hill
about a mile and a half down the valley from Head Springs.
But it was Sam Miller who first located Head Springs, or, as
it was named then, San Solomon Springs, the name being
taken from a locally famous Mescalero Apache chief.
Daniel Murphy, who had arrived at Fort Davis shortly
after the reoccupation of the post by the Eighth Cavalry, also
located a farm in Toyah Valley, at La Mata, ten miles down
the valley from San Solomon Springs. To-day, the canal he
built in that first year is used by the farmers at Balmorhea.
The coming of Miller and Murphy brought on a water-
right controversy, which, in later years, developed into a water
feud. But, for several years, the two owners kept an agree-
ment to divide the water equally between them.
While Murphy maintained his home at Fort Davis, he
spent considerable time in Toyah Valley, looking after his
farm and cattle. . In time, he built a ranch headquarters on
the opposite side of Toyah Creek from Miller's farm. Mr. H.
Huelster, who worked for Murphy in the early days, de-
scribes Murphy's ranch house as being of adobe and sur-
rounded by a stone corral, ten feet high, large enough to ac-
commodate three hundred cattle or horses. Into this corral
the herd was driven at night. Mr. Huelster says that he has
seen Mr. Murphy sit on one of the sheds or outhouses, where
he could view all his cattle, and, laboriously, count them, over
and over. If one was missing, the Mexican herders were sent
out to look for it.
The first year after Murphy had located his ranch near
San Solomon's Springs, both he and Miller had a large crop
of wheat, and between the two farms, they were using all
the available water. Further down the valley, at the present
town of Saragosa, there was a settlement of Mexican farm-
ers. It was a dry year, and, to live, all had to have water.
Ed Brady, the seventeen-year-old stepson of Murphy, with
Jim Riley, a boy two years his senior, was living at the Murphy
ranch, taking care of the wheat crop and the cattle. Murphy
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 187
was at Fort Davis, but Sam Miller was living on his farm
across the Toyah Creek. A dam had been thrown across the
creek between the two farms, from which each owner took
his water.
One day a Mexican brought to Sam Miller a letter which
stated that if the Americans did not let the water come down
the creek the Mexican farmers down the valley would come
in force and tear down the dam. As the water belonged to
the men who had located it, Miller consulted with the boys
on the Murphy farm and they decided to fight for it.
Miller had two white men working for him, which made a
force of five men to stand off the Mexican mob.
"How are you boys fixed for ammunition?" asked Miller.
"We've got a thousand rounds," informed Brady, eagerly ;
the boys were spoiling for a fight.
"All right. Build a breastwork of adobe on top of your
house, and get up there with your guns and cartridges. If you
see any Mexicans coming, shoot. Don't ask any questions
just fire away."
Then Miller returned to his side of the creek, to clear his
house-top for action.
By the middle of the afternoon all was in readiness for
the expected attack. With eyes strained down the valley, the
two boys waited expectantly and impatiently. They finally
decided that the Mexicans had postponed their attack until
darkness came to their aid and they could creep up the bed of
the creek, in the shadows of the tules or along in the purple
black of the banks. With the coming of night, the boys stood
guard with unabated watchfulness. They listened for a step
for the sound of crunching gravel under foot with guns ready,
anxious for a skirmish.
So intent had they been on watching for the Mexicans that
neither of the boys had noticed gathering clouds over the
mountains. Suddenly, great cooling drops began to fall,
slowly at first, then more rapidly, until with a burst of thunder-
claps, a storm was upon them. The boys retreated hastily
from their barracks, although not before they were drenched
188 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
to the skin. Wet and shivering, they huddled in the house.
Still the rain fell in increasing torrents. It rained all night;
all the next day ; and the next. The whole valley was a solid
sheet of water; the adobe buildings, which were not built to
withstand such storms, began to crumble and to melt away.
The Mexican farmers got water aplenty; and there was no
fight.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 189
CHAPTER XIV
The dangers and difficulties attendant to operating a trans-
continental mail line is well described in an article written by
C. Babock, in the Texas Almanac, published January I, 1870.
Relative to the San Antonio-El Paso mail line, it says,
"This line starts from San Antonio and runs via Boerne,
Fredericksburg, Loyal Valley, Fort Concho, Camp Stockton
(Fort Stockton), Fort Davis, Fort Quitman, Fort Bliss, to
El Paso, a distance of 735 miles, carries the United States mail
and passengers weekly. . . . From Fort Davis to Presidio
del Norte, a distance of 100 miles (this distance applies to
the old mail road), there is a weekly line carrying mail and
passengers.
"Entirely along this portion of the line the Comanches
and Apaches, the most troublesome and bloodthirsty tribes of
Indians, frequently commit severe depredations, not only to
the mail line, but to the government trains and droves of cattle
passing through the country. They frequently, by their skill
(if it may be called such) stampede every hoof of stock be-
longing to a mail station, and more frequently, by the same
means, manage to get possession of a whole cavayard (caval-
lado) of mules belonging to a government train, thus leaving
the train and wagoners at a complete standstill, their train being
loaded with stores for the different military posts along the
lines, and they in a wild Indian country without food or wa-
ter. As a matter of consequence, great suffering on the part
of the train employees is occasioned, as well as for the stores
and by the troops for whom such stores are designed.
"The Indians, thus far, have only captured three mails
since the establishment of this line, the managers using every
effort to guard against capture, etc. We are informed and
see by various accounts in newspapers, that these Indian dep-
190 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
redations are frequently committed by small parties of In-
dians. Still, while they are small, the United States forces to
watch them are much smaller, which the Indians are smart
enough to know hence the casualties.
"This line is under the supervision of B. F. Ficklin, who is
the same man that first established the pony express between
San Francisco and the States, and who, it may be said, was
indirectly instrumental in the building of the Union and Cen-
tral Pacific Railroads. We trust that his advent in Western
Texas may prove means of an early construction of a South-
ern Pacific Railroad. Mr. Ficklin is an experienced frontiers-
man, mail contractor, and stage man, and we think and expect
much will be accomplished by him for the settling up and de-
veloping the many resources of this fine country."
Ficklin and Sawyer had the overland mail contracts which
covered the entire Southwestern part of the United States,
both on mail lines and branches. The various divisions of*
these lines were sub-contracted, but at all times were super-
vised and inspected by Ficklin and Sawyer. On the whole, the
contracts were filled to the satisfaction of the Postorfice De-
partment; but in 1870, complaint was made to the department
by several of the larger towns along the route for neglect of
the Mail Company to get the required number of mails through
to their destination. W. W. Mills and James A. Zabriskie, of
El Paso, represented the complainants at Washington. The
charge was made, and proved, that in some instances post-
masters along the route signed up for mails which had never
arrived. As a result of the investigations, the Mail Company
was penalized several thousand dollars, and the situation was
considerably bettered.
The concurrent opinions of the passengers who traveled
on these great mail and passenger routes, as to the characteris-
tics of the typical stage driver, is well expressed in a descrip-
tion of them given by W. W. Mills, in relating one memorable
trip from El Paso to San Antonio, accompanied by Mrs. Mills.
The other passengers on the stage were Judge Charles H.
Howard, who was killed in the Salt Lake War, in 1877; and
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 191
a young St. Louis lawyer, who was receiving his first lesson
in frontier life and customs.
In substance, Colonel Mills says : "If I desired to learn a
man's true character, I would take a long day-and-night jour-
ney with him in a stage-coach. The lack of sleep and other
annoyances, vexations, and privations, bring out, at times, all
the ill nature and selfishness one may possess; and, again,
when everything goes smoothly and all are moving leisurely
and silently over some long stretch of prairie or plain, and the
weather is pleasant, men appear to cast all cares and reserve
to the winds and converse with each other more frankly and
confidentially than elsewhere.
"Here, and during other like experiences, Mrs. Mills made
the acquaintance of the stage driver a character difficult to
describe. He possessed the courage of the soldier and some-
thing more. The soldier goes where he is told to go, and
fights when he is told to fight, but he has little anxiety or re-
sponsibility. The stage driver, on the other hand, had to be
as alert and thoughtful as a general. There was not only his
duty to his employers, but his responsibility for the mails (he
was a sworn officer of the Government) ; and the lives of
passengers often depended upon his knowledge of the country
and the Indian character, as well as his quick and correct judg-
ment as to what to do in emergencies. Like the sailor, he was
something of a fatalist ; but he believed in using all possible
means to protect himself and those under his charge.
"Your stage driver was usually of a serious, almost sad,
disposition; inclined to be reticent, particularly about himself
and his former life; and his surname was seldom mentioned
either by himself or his associates. He was known as 'Bill/
r 'Dave/ or 'Bobo/ or 'Buckskin/ or some like sobriquet.
When, however, he could be induced to talk about himself as
a stage driver, his stories, were interesting and sometimes thrill-
ing. There was, occasionally, a liar among them, but most
of them had really experienced such serious adventures and
hair-breadth escapes, that it was not necessary for them to draw
upon their imaginations.
192 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
"R!ough, profane, and unclean of speech among their asso-
ciates, they were remarkably courteous to lady passengers,
and ever thoughtful of their comforts and feelings. More than
once, upon arriving at a station where the drivers were to
be changed, I have heard one whisper to another, 'Remem-
ber, Sandy, there is a little lady in the coach/ That was
sufficient.
"During the most interesting portion of the trip, we had
two drivers, 'Uncle Billy,' who was going to San Antonio
on leave, and 'Bobo/ the regular driver. They vied with each
other in trying to make everything comfortable and pleasant for
Mrs. Mills. They would prepare the driver's high seat with
cushions and blankets, and assist her to mount to the seat.
Then for hours, they would call her attention to points of in-
terest or entertain her with stories of their experiences, both
humorous and tragic.
"One morning, just after daybreak, Bobo halted the coach
and said, 'Gentlemen, get your guns ready. The print of
moccasins are as thick as turkey-tracks/ And so they were;
and fresh, at that. A large party of Indians had recently
crossed the road; but we neither saw nor heard more about
them."
After crossing the Pecos River and reaching the Concho
River, the mail coach party ran into a herd of buffalo. "Of
course, we dismounted and wantonly fired into them," con-
tinued Colonel Mills. "With what effect I do not know, ex-
cept that some one wounded an immense bull so seriously that
he became angry, and sullenly refused to run away, as the
others did.
"We, with our deadly Winchesters, ceased firing at him, as
he was of no use to us ; but not so the young St. Louis lawyer.
He wanted to do something he could tell about at home, and
he advanced upon the irate animal with his little thirty-two
calibre pistol, firing as he went. He was encouraged and ani-
mated by the shouts of Bobo and Uncle Billy.
"'Charge him, mister!' they shouted. 'You've got him!
The next shot will fetch him !' "
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 193
"Why, Unele Billy I* exclaimed Mrs. Mills, 'that animal
will kill the man ! Call him back/
" 'Of course, he'll kill him,' agreed Uncle Billy. 'Now, you
just watch and you'll see the fun. He'll toss that little lawyer
higher'n the top of this coach!'
"Still," says Colonel Mills, "neither Uncle Billy nor Bobo
were bloodthirsty men. So, to satisfy Mrs. Mills, the tender-
foot was called back."
The Mescalero and Lipan Apaches principally the former
were the only Indians giving trouble in the country west of
the Pecos River the Big Bend. On account of the friendly
relations which had sprung up between these Indians and the
Mexican inhabitants of San Carlos, San Vicente, and Presidio
del Norte (Ojinaga, Mexico), populous Indian rancher ias were
built along the Tres Linguas Creek and in the Chisos, or Ghost
Mountains. These mountains, of which Mount Emory is the
apex, were the most rugged and precipitous mountains in the
Big Bend. Even to-day they furnish a safe refuge for in-
dividuals who desire to remain without the pale of the law.
The name, Tres Linguas, is derived from the fact that three
different races of Indians the Comanche, the Apache, and the
Shawnee lived on the three branches of this creek. There is
no record available which explains the presence of the Shaw-
nees in this, far-off country. Therefore, the creek was called
the Creek of the Three Languages ; and this name, by usage,
has been gradually slurred into Terlingua Creek. ^
Soon the bands of Apaches who settled in this country
became known as Chisos Apaches, and, while Fort Davis and
Fort Stockton had formerly been considered the strategical
bases from which to operate against and control these maraud-
ers, it was found necessary to establish another post, Pifia
Colorada (red rock), six miles below the present town of
Marathon. At the time of establishment, Pifia Colorada was
isolated from all settlements, the nearest being Fort Davis,
sixty-five miles to the northwest.
From their retreats in the Chisos Mountains, the Apaches
harassed the Chihuahua Trail; and, if pursued, they crossed
194 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
into Mexico, where they found protection among their friends
and kinspeople in the Mexican settlements along the Rio
Grande. From the south banks of this river, they could defy
their pursuers on the north bank without fear of punishment.
In 1870, William Russell, with Dario Rodriguez, his father-
in-law, established a sheep ranch at the foot of Capote Moun-
tain, fourteen miles north of Candelaria, a settlement on the
American side of the Rio Grande. The Indians had never
before molested the settlements along this portion of the Rio
Grande, as it lay too far away from the Indian trails.
Two years prior to establishing his sheep ranch, Russell
had established an extensive irrigated farm on the Rio Grande,
near Candelaria, on which he raised grain for the troops at
Fort Davis and Fort Stockton. The river, in a freakish mood,
changed its channel in flood time, and swept away the Russell
farm.
As if to aid and abet the forces of Nature in bringing ruin
upon the hardy old pioneers, the Apaches attacked the sheep
ranch and killed four of his herders, while Matildo Rodriguez
alone escaped by hiding behind a large boulder. The Indians
lost three of their number in the fight, however, before they
killed the herders.
No troops had ever been stationed regularly at Presidio
del Norte since the abandonment of that post by the Spaniards,
and up to the beginning of the Madero Revolution, in 1911.
Every year or so, however, two or three hundred troops would
appear suddenly at the old presidio and camp for a few
months. Ostensibly, they came to fight Indians, but, in reality,
they came to take care of some captain's smuggling interests,
or to collect port receipts. Upon news of the Capote Moun-
tain massacre reaching the authorities, a company of Mexican
regulars was sent to chastise the Apaches. In a sense, the
Nortafios felt that the Indians had violated their friend-
ship.
Much has been said in regard to the alien votes which are
yearly cast along the border. On account of the overwhelming
majority of Mexicans in the country, this question has long
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 195
been a cause for the serious consideration of every American
citizen.
In the early days, however, nothing was thought of import-
ing Mexicans from across the Rio Grande and voting them in
droves. This was considered a privilege shared equally by all
candidates for office. If the candidate failed to take advantage
of his opportunity, and his opponent did, no one was to blame
but the negligent candidate.
The story is told about the Democratic candidate for Con-
gress, who made the long journey by mail coach from Ysleta
to Fort Davis, to garner in the votes in that thinly settled
portion of his district.
At Fort Davis, the first man the candidate saw was Cap-
tain Mose Kelly. Captain Kelly had come up from Presidio
on some business. The two men shook hands warmly; they
were old friends.
"Help me get elected, Kelly/' said the candidate, after the
preliminary greetings had been gone through with.
"I'd like to," replied Kelly, "but I am a Republican."
"Politics don't matter," explained the office-seeker. "This
is a Democratic state, and a Republican can't be elected. So
why waste your energies trying to elect one?"
"All right," said Kelly, after a moment's consideration.
"I'll do it. How many votes do you need to be elected ?"
"One hundred arid fifty," said the candidate.
"Can you buy two barrels of whiskey?" asked Kelly.
The candidate could, and he gave the money to Kelly with
the admonition to "make it count."
The day before election, Kelly was in Presidio. That
night, he gave a big celebration and invited the Mexicans from
the south side of the Rio Grande. Fully one hundred and fifty
attended. One of the barrels of whiskey was opened, and soon
the fiery liquor was flowing down the throats of the thirsty
Mexicans.
"To-morrow is election day," shouted Kelly, above the up-
roar. "Will you all vote for me?"
"Segurro! Sure!" cried the hombres. "Viva la Kelly!"
196 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
So Kelly began to poll their votes.
"Will you cast your vote for me, Juan?" he would ask;
and when Juan would cry, "Yes!" very gaily and enthusias-
tically, Kelly would write down the ballot for his friend, the
Democratic candidate.
Then he would say to Juan : "Have you a father, a brother,
or a good friend, you can vouch to vote for me ?"
"Oh, si, si, Senor!"
"What is his name?"
"Pedro Sanchez, my cousin, Senor." Whereupon, Kelly
would write down Pedro Sanchez* vote for the candidate.
The election went merrily on. By the time each man had
cast his vote, and the vote of a friend or relative, the first bar-
rel of whiskey was emptied ; and still it was only around mid-
night. But who was there to question such a small detail as
casting votes before election day!
By the time the first barrel of "voting juice" was empty,
all had voted ; so, as Kelly pulled the bung stopper of the sec-
ond barrel, he remarked, "Just to make certain, it will be a
good idea for everybody to vote over again, and have four or
five hundred votes."
"Sure! Segurro!" shouted the happy Mexicans. "Viva
la Kelly!"
All of which transpired in the year, A. D. 1872.
The year, 1873, was of considerable moment in the history
of the Big Bend, owing to the fact that the Government de-
cided to place all of our Indian wards upon reservations. It
will be recalled that the experiment had already been tried out
at Fort Stanton, New Mexico.
To the Indian, this was the land of his forefathers, and
had been for unknown ages. Better to understand the Indian
situation, some idea of the Indians' viewpoint must be dealt
with. His claim was that of prior possession. To him, the
Rio Grande had no particular significance, and the fact of
its being the initial boundary between two powerful republics
was never recognized. He had learned by experience that the
troops on the north side of the river were more to be feared
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 197
than those on the south side. Therefore, the Rio Grande was
the limit of his activity only in a physical sense. Wherever
the trails crossed the Rio Grande, thus overcoming the phys-
ical obstruction of that stream, it meant no more to him than
the Pecos River or other streams crossed by the trails.
In fact, the country claimed by the Apaches lay on both
sides of the Rio Grande. Therefore, it was difficult to de-
termine whether the Indians depredating in the Big Bend were
the wards of the United States or of Mexico. Hence, the
necessity of co-operation between the two governments in
rounding up these Indians. This co-operation was extended,
in so far as the Mexican Government could give it.
For some years the Apaches had been led by Chief Alsate,
who stands a spectacular figure in the annals of the Apaches.
In the roundup of these Indians, which followed the arrival
of Colonel Williams at Presidio, almost all of the Chisos
Apaches, including their chief, Alsate, were taken to the City
of Mexico. His subsequent return to his old haunts in the
Big Bend furnishes a chapter in itself, and will be dealt with
later. One of the last hostile acts accredited to Alsate, before
his capture, was his attack on the freight outfits of Wolff and
Hagelstein, at Charco de Alsate, east of Alpine. The freighters
were returning from the salt lakes, in what is now Crane
County, loaded with salt for Presidio. Alsate had a hundred
warriors, but the freighters fought them off without loss on
either side.
The Comanche and Kioway Indians had been eliminated as
factors in the disturbed conditions in the Big Bend. In 1872-3,
a campaign was inaugurated by the civilian organization which
later became known as the Texas Rangers. This campaign
culminated in the Deer Creek fight and the Pack-saddle Moun-
tain fight, two of the last engagements with the Comanche and
Kioway Indians on Texas soil.
But different from either of these Indians, were the Lipans
and Mescaleros, who belonged to the Apache family and in-
habited the rugged mountain country adjacent to the Rio
Grande, in the Big Bend. After Colonel Williams had gathered
198 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
all the Indians whom he could find and had placed them on res-
ervations in the Indian Territory and New Mexico, there still
remained scattered bands, numbering from a dozen to fifty
men, women, and children.
Against these, the Government instituted a vigorous cam-
paign, either to capture or to exterminate them. In May, 1873,
Lieutenant John L. Bullis, of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, took
charge of the Seminole Negro-Indian scouts ; and in the follow-
ing eight years of active campaigning against these Indians, his
record was such that Brigadier-General D. S. Stanley, in rec-
ommending Bullis for promotion, declared that his career in
Southwest Texas was the most successful of any Indian fighter
in the history of the United States Army.
In 1875, Charles Mulhern, who for fifty years has been
closely identified with the upbuilding of the Big Bend, was ordi-
nance sergeant, C troop, Fourth Cavalry, under Captain John
A. Wilcox. While stationed at Fort Clark, on the east side
of the Pecos River, a citizen came into the post one day with
the information that he knew the location of a band of Apaches
who had in their possession a bunch of stolen horses, and that
these horses could easily be retaken by the soldiers.
At that time, Captain Wilcox and most of the troop were
out on an Indian scout, so Lieutenant Irwin, the next in com-
mand, with five soldiers and five citizens immediately went in
pursuit. In the meantime, another citizen had trailed the horses,
until he found them herded by two Indians. Considering him-
self the equal of two Indians, he fired upon them, and suc-
ceeded in running them off and retaking the horses. Later,
Lieutenant Irwin and his party had met the valorous citizen
and were helping him drive the horses back to Fort Clark,
when, by accident, they struck a fresh Indian trail, which
showed signs of having been made by a large band.
Leaving the citizen alone to drive the horses into the post,
the Lieutenant's party struck out on the newly discovered trail.
They rode rapidly ; but the Indians evidently expecting pursuit
did likewise ; and it was the second day before the pursuers saw
their first encouraging signs. This was a camp, where the In-
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 199
dians had killed and eaten a young colt. This sign spurred
the party's flagging hopes, and, despite hunger, they pressed
on rapidly. They had ridden only a few miles, when they came
upon the Indians, camped on Devil's River, in a canyon shaped
like a washbasin, where they were preparing a meal.
All fear of pursuit had left them by this time, and they were
cooking a meal of colt's meat. One lone Indian was driving
their tired saddle-horses to water, and so secure did they feel
that the usual custom of posting a sentinel was not observed.
Unfortunately, in maneuvering for a better position for their
attack, one of the Americans became over-eager and fired his
gun. The shot alarmed the Indians about the camp, and they
fled precipitously to the hills.
The horses of the party were almost exhausted, and, at the
command of Lieutenant Irwin, they were abandoned, and the
whites took up the pursuit on foot. But this did not last long,
as the Indians easily outdistanced them.
Giving up the chase, the party returned to the Indians' camp,
and after rounding up the scattered horses, sat down to a hearty
meal, consisting of barbecued colt's meat.
While the hungry whites feasted, the Indians sat up in the
rocks, out of rifle shot, and watched them, no doubt envying
them the feast.
It was customary for the army quartermaster to sell all cap-
tured horses when the owner did not claim them. This was
done with the horses captured on this trip. The animals were
sold to the highest bidders, for seventy-five cents to one dollar
each. Mr. Mulhern bought two fine animals for the total sum
of $1.50!
An hour or so after the sale was over, the owner reached
the post, anxious to recover his horses. But the buyers had
either departed or could not be found. The owner was not
reimbursed, for by the rough and ready military laws of the
rough and ready West, he was loser for "keeps."
It was probably due to this incident, a short time after, that
a general order was issued from the department headquarters
at San Antonio for all captured horses to be sent to the depot
200 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
there and disposed of after a sufficiently long period had
elapsed for the owner to make claim for his stock.
In 1875, the Indians were very active, especially along the
northern slope of the Davis Mountains. At that time, Sam
Miller ran a mail stage from Fort Davis, north, through Toyah
Valley, into the Seven Rivers country of New Mexico. Miller
kept his work stock on his farm at San Solomon Springs, and
found it difficult to provide a sufficient number of mules for the
stage journeys, because of repeated thefts by Indians.
Fires to the number of seventy or seventy-five were fre-
quently observed on the cliffs of the Davis Mountains. These
signals proved to be the Indians calling together their families
before a general attack on the settlers in the valleys below.
After they had gotten their women and children out of the way,
they struck daily at some settlement or lone settler.
While Robert Lyle was cattle hunting near the present
Seven Springs Ranch, five Mescaleros attacked him. For two
hours, he stood them off, although he was shot in a leg, an arm,
and had a bad bullet wound in the forehead. It would have been
his last fight, had not Daniel Murphy happened along, on his
way from Fort Davis to his Toyah Valley farm. The two men
succeeded in driving off the Indians, and Murphy took Lyle to
his Toyah Valley farm.
Another fight occurred a short time afterward with the same
band of Indians. Four white men were hauling corn to Fort
Davis for Whitaker Keesey, from his Phantom Lake farm.
One of their wagons had broken down and half a load of corn
had been left on the ground, while they continued to Fort
Davis with the remainder. On a return trip to mend the wagon
and pick up the corn, they walked into an Indian ambuscade,
which had been formed about the scene of their late break-
down. The men ran for a small hill nearby, and succeeded in
gaining its summit, where they quickly built up a barricade of
loose boulders. All day, the besieged held the Indians at bay,
but finally three of the whites were killed. As evening ap-
proached, worn out by the strain, his companions dead, seeing
the Indians were ready to close in upon him, the fourth man
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 201
was about to turn his gun upon himself, when a shout from
down the canyon, told him that aid was at hand.
Robert Lyle, with ten Mexicans, who had been working
cattle further down Limpia Canyon, hearing the shots, had
ridden up the canyon to investigate. At sight of these rein-
forcements, the Indians fled.
This fight took place at a little knoll, along the present road
leading down Limpia Canyon, between the ranch homes of Ben-
nett B. and Willis W. McCutcheon ; and the barricade of rock
still stands, mute evidence of the tragedy.
202 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
CHAPTER XV
On July 24, 1875, by an act of the state legislature, Presidio,
which hitherto had been attached to El Paso County, was made
a county, with Fort Davis as county-seat. This act made Pre-
sidio the largest organized county in the United States, embrac-
ing approximately twelve thousand square miles.
The unsettled condition of the country is illustrated by the
fact that when the new county was divided into five districts,
or precincts, the fourth district had no justice of the peace nor
tax collector, the reason being that no one lived in that district.
The roll of new county officers contained the names of men
who played important parts in the upbuilding of the South-
west. John R. Davis, justice of peace and tax collector for the
third district, had come to Presidio del Norte with John W.
Spencer, in the late forties. In time, he had established a ranch
headquarters above Presidio, on Alamito Creek, and his ranch
became one of the stopping places on the great Chihuahua Trail.
Captain Theodore A. Wilson, sheriff, and Sam R. Miller,
justice of the peace and tax collector for the second district, are
already well known to us from their activities in fighting In-
dians and outlaws ; while Whitaker Keesey, a grand old man,
who, perhaps more than any other one man, helped build up
the cattle industry in the Davis Mountains, had come as head
baker with Merritt's troops in 1867. From his meager army
pay, Mr. Keesey saved enough money to found a mercantile
establishment, in 1873, which has never closed its doors. With
almost prophetic vision, he saw the great future of the country
and, consistent with his views, in later years, he risked his per-
sonal fortune, time after time, in carrying cattle men through
disastrous droughts and hard years.
Fort Davis was rapidly settling with a sturdy class of
pioneers whose descendants to-day are meritoriously upholding
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 203
the dignity of their names. George Crosson, for a number of
years had been wagonmaster on the San Antonio-Santa Fe
and the Chihuahua Trails. After the organization of Presidio
County, he gave up trail-driving and brought sheep to Fort
Davis. Upon the arrival of Mrs. Crosson and the children, two
years later, Crosson established permanent ranch headquarters
several miles away from the army post. In those days, living
on a ranch was very hazardous, on account of the Indians.
Time after time, the Crosson ranch was raided. The Indians
seemed to prefer sheep to cattle, as they could be driven more
easily and readily over mountain passes; and, when pressed
closely by irate citizens or soldiers, the Indian herders could
secrete the sheep in small bunches, where their tracks would
pass unnoticed by the trailers.
In this year, the Indians were unusually active around Fort
Davis. The spreading out of the settlers, who dared brave
the perils of raids in order to have the fine pasturage for their
stock, had attracted the Indians' attention. Graf ton T. Wilcox,
county and district clerk, lost eighteen head of beeves, forty-
two young cows, and several fine horses in an Indian raid upon
Captain Wilson's ranch, down Limpia Canyon. None of these
was recovered. At that time Wilson was a young man, just
beginning life with this little bunch of cattle, which would have
grown him a fortune. He lost all in one raid !
Indeed, the Indians became so bold that they crept up to the
adobe wall surrounding the post buildings and shot a soldier
who was working in the post garden. Again, they stole the
sheep and goats from a corral in the rear of Patrick Murphy's
store, and succeeded in reaching their mountain fastnesses with
their slow-moving captives.
Were the records obtainable concerning the thrilling experi-
ences of the stage-drivers, they would be replete with interest.
In 1877, the Twenty-fifth Infantry, a negro regiment, com-
manded by white officers, was stationed at Fort Davis. Their
duty was to keep the Indians pushed back from the overland
ill route.
An amusing incident connected with this stage route, and
204 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
an instance of ironical retribution, took place, which brings out
the iron-fisted way a proper regard for the code of the West
was taught.
At every stage stand, army pickets were posted. In addi-
tion to this, soldiers acted as guards for United States mails.
The stages were the Concord coach type, with a driver and two
guards riding in the driver's seat.
One day, something had incapacitated the regular driver,
and E. P. Webster, who had charge of the stage stand at Fort
Davis, mounted the driver's seat to take the stage over the first
division west. As usual, two negro soldiers climbed up in the
seat with him. All went well until the stage reached a thicket
of live-oaks between El Muerto and Van Horn Wells. At
this point, the stage was ambushed by the Indians, who closed
in from both sides of the road. Webster was driving a team
of four wild, half-broken mules, and successfully ran the gant-
let of the Indians' cross-fire, without man or beast being dis-
abled.
The Indians were poorly mounted, but in the first burst of
speed to regain their lost advantage, they came up almost
abreast of the stage. Webster carried only a six-shooter, and
was too busy managing his thoroughly frightened mules to be
able to use it. But the two soldiers were armed with the regu-
lation army guns, and replied to the fire of the racing Indians.
As the Indians momentarily gained on the stage, one of these
negroes, thinking a position inside the stage would be less
perilous, scrambled back over the top to get inside. He failed
to consider that the canvas side of the stage afforded but
scanty protection. In crawling down, he caught his gun in the
rear wheel and it was jerked from his hand, rendering him use-
less in the fight. His mishap was greeted with a yell of glee
from the Indians. Naturally, he felt very uncomfortable.
However, after the first burst of speed, the Indian ponies
were outdistanced by the wiry stage mules, and the mail raced
into Van Horn Wells at top speed. A report was made of the
attack to the officer in command, who immediately arrested
the unfortunate soldier.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 205
Instead of dismissing him from the service, with a dishon-
orable discharge as a punishment, the soldier was placed on
night guard for one year, at a lonely station, without either
rifle or side-arms. With the Indians ever threatening, the ter-
rorizing noises of the night and the rough men of the day,
this unofficial punishment was meted out to the careless sol-
dier. At the end of the year, he was taken to Fort Davis, and
dismissed from the service.
This same year, Lieutenant Bullis, with his Seminole scouts,
made a dash into Mexico after a band of Mescalero Apaches,
who had been raiding and murdering in the neighborhood of
the Pecos River. Bullis had been on a chase after the Indians
operating in the Davis Mountains, and was returning to Fort
Clark, when he picked up the fresh trail of a large party. The
Indians were headed for the old war trail, which crossed the
Rio Grande a hundred miles above the mouth of the Pecos
River. Across the Rio Grande, at the old crossing, into Mexico,
followed Bullis. This point was afterwards called the Bullis
Crossing.
On the third day of pursuit, the scouts came upon the In-
dians as they were resting. Never dreaming that they would be
followed into Mexico, the Indians were completely surprised.
The advantage in position was in their favor, however, and
after a short stand, they fled up the mountain side, where the
scouts, smaller in number and worn out from their three days'
steady riding, could not follow. Bullis rounded up twenty-
three head of stolen horses and returned to the Texas side.
When he first discovered the Indian signs, Bullis had dis-
patched a courier to inform General Ord, commanding the De-
partment of Texas, of his purpose to give chase ; and Ord had
ordered Colonel Shatter to march to Bullis' relief. Before the
Colonel's forces had gotten under way, however, Bullis, in per-
son, rode into Fort Clark to make his report. He had left his
scouts in camp, and had ridden 140 miles in thirty-six hours.
Lieutenant Bullis was a remarkable man. No military
commander, until the coming of Gaston and Langhorne, was so
well liked by the frontiersmen. At one time, a request was sent
206 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
to General Ord, by the citizens of a border county which Bullis
had successfully rid of Indians, to assign Lieutenant Bullis an
independent command of seventy-five men, to be selected by
himself. This could not be done on account of army regula-
tions. Again, Frederick Remington, who needs no introduction
to the reader, in an article written for the Century Magazine,
pays a tribute to Bullis after Bullis had been assigned to
the charge of the San Carlos Indian Reservation, in Arizona.
The artist draws this word picture :
"The affairs of the San Carlos agency are administered at
present by an army officer, Captain Bullis, of the Twenty- fourth
Infantry. As I have observed him in the discharge of his du-
ties, I have no doubt that he pays high life insurance premiums.
He does not seem to fear the beetle-browed pack of murderers
with whom he has to deal, for he has spent his life in command
of Indian scouts and not only understands their character, but
has gotten out of the habit of fearing anything. If the deeds of
this officer had been on civilized battle fields instead of in
silently leading a pack of savages over the desert wastes of the
Rio Grande, they would have gotten him his niche in the Tem-
ple of Fame. But they are locked up in the gossip of the army
mess-room, and end in the soldiers' matter-of-fact joke about
how Bullis used to eat his provisions in the field, by opening a
can a day from the pack, and, whether it was peaches or corned-
beef, making it suffice. The Indians regard him as almost
supernatural, and speak of the 'Whirlwind' with many grunts
of admiration, as they narrate his wonderful achievements."
The Seminole scouts were the one-time slaves of the Kicka-
poo Indians. The name, properly Simanoli, means renegade, or
runaway, in reference to their secession from the Creek con-
federacy early in the eighteenth century. In time, a branch
of Seminoles crossed with the Southern negro, and became the
slaves of the Kickapoos. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War,
six hundred Kickapoos left their reservation in Oklahoma to
settle in Mexico, taking their half-breed slaves with them.
After the abolition of slavery, they desired to return to the
United States, but, before they could do so, they had to free
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 207
their Seminole slaves. Gradually, these slaves drifted back
across the border, and, on account of their knowledge of Indian
customs and habits, were employed in the army as scouts.
One of the men to cross trails with Bullis in the early days,
was Judge Joseph Jones, judge of the Sixty-third District. At
that time, Judge Jones was a surveyor, and was running surveys
in the country infested by both the Lipan and Mescalero
Apaches. Sometimes, Lieutenant Bullis and his scouts were
detailed as escorts for the Jones' surveying party, when the In-
dians were particularly bad. On one of these occasions, the
surveying party was camped near a water hole, and, early in the
morning, Bullis saw a suspicious looking smoke not a great
distance from their camp. Although the party had not break-
fasted, Bullis decided to attack before the Indians should dis-
cover them.
The surprise was complete ; the Indians, five or six in num-
ber, fled ; no casualties. But when the whites rushed into their
camp they found nice, juicy horse meat broiling on the fire;
and, joining in with the others, Judge Jones ate a hearty break-
fast of the meat.
Another peculiar incident happened to the Jones' surveying
party while surveying across the Devil's River, above the pres-
ent town of Del Rio. In reports to the War Department, in
the early fifties, Colonel Joseph E. Johnston, in command of
the topographical engineers, mentioned losing a man, with a^
surveyor's transit and chain, in a quick rise of the San Pedro
River (Devil's River).
Thirty years later, the Jones' party was surveying the same
stream. In crossing a shallow place, a Polish boy, by name
Wyschetzky, stepped on a sharp-pointed object, like the fin of a
large fish. He made for the bank, plunging and yelling. Upon
investigation, an old surveyor's transit was dug out of the mud,
with the initials "J* E. J." stamped upon it.
The events which led up to the so-called Salt Lake War
are difficult to relate. The personal prejudices which are bound
to crop out in any bitter struggle between two factions are hard
eliminate. Our oldest and best citizens alive to-day who
208 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
took part or were in any way connected with or sympathized
with one faction or the other see, from their personal view-
point, tjie incidents and tragedies of that darkly-clouded year,
1877. In so far as available, this account is drawn from offi-
cial sources and reports.
It is inevitably true that two races so widely dissimilar in
temperament, business and moral standards, historical prece-
dents and traditions, as are the Anglo-Americans and Latin-
Americans commonly called Mexicans can never come to
an understanding, unless the above named differences are over-
come through education, and a stable form of government under
which the Mexican people, as a whole, are taught to aspire to
higher ideals, both in national polity and in personal behavior ;
and until we Americans cultivate, not forbearance, but a more
sympathetic understanding of these people, which will enable
us to render them assistance. We must ever bear in mind, when
dealing with lawlessness along the border and in Mexico, that
since the coming of Hernandez Cortez to the present time, these
people have had to live under conditions which absolutely pre-
clude a possibility of their attaining higher standards, either
morally or spiritually. Slaves they were ; slaves they are to-
day ; slaves they will be to-morrow, unless they receive assist-
ance from without. And it must be remembered that when for
a brief space they break their bonds and run mad with rioting
and killing a throw-back to their Indian progenitors that it
is but the resultant reflex action from the terribly miserable lives
they are wont to live.
Under the Spanish and Mexican rules, the Mexican citizens
of the settlements along the Rio Grande were given the free
use of the several large salt deposits, about one hundred miles
north of the Rio Grande. For many years after Texas became a
state, this custom was continued, as the country was unsettled
and there was no demand for either the salt or the land.
As the country became more settled, however, and citizens
began locating land under the Texas settlement law, Judge
Charles H. Howard, of El Paso, and his father-in-law, George
Zimpleman, of Austin, located the largest of these salt lakes,
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 209
which lies northeast of San Elizario, at that time the county-
seat of El Paso county.
Immediately, a protest arose from the Mexicans, who main-
tained that the treaty by which the territory was ceded to the
United States did not extinguish the rights of the public to use
these salt lakes. To add to their dissatisfaction, Judge Howard
would permit no one to take salt from the deposits. He was
acting within his rights, and had filled every requirement of
the law.
As soon as Howard took possession of the salt lake, he put
into execution plans to market quantities of salt in Chihuahua
and other points. This was transported by wagon, and, to
overcome the dearth of water between San Elizario and the
salt lakes, he had water barrels placed at intervals along the
road.
The situation had by this time grown tense. Heretofore,
the Mexican populace, on both sides of the Rio Grande, had
expressed their discontent in mutterings and veiled threats.
Now, the situation took on a political aspect.
In every county along the border, not only in Texas, but
elsewhere, the Mexican vote was, and is, controlled by certain
political bosses or factions. 'As a rule, national political creeds
did not figure prominently in these fights ; but, when they did,
the bitter feelings engendered took on a more personal aspect.
This statement holds good to-day.
Judge Howard had been placed in office by the white vote.
Opposing him was Luis Cardis, an Italian, who had come to
the Southwest in the 6o's. Up to five or six years prior to the
Salt Lake trouble, Cardis had been the political lieutenant of
W. W. Mills. He knew the Spanish language and understood
the Mexican people thoroughly. He succeeded Colonel Mills
as leader of the Mexican people, and was the acknowledged
dictator of the Mexican vote. Cardis was a Republican ; How-
ard was a Democrat. Also, Cardis had the sub-contract on the
Overland Mail between El Paso and Fort Davis. A statement
is on record which claims that Cardis collected $2.50 revenue
from each cart-load of salt the Mexicans hauled away from the
210 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
salt lakes. Yet, the Mexican people loved and obeyed Cardis ;
and therein lies the crux of the trouble.
Judge Howard was a man of imposing appearance, powerful
physique, and wonderful determination and courage, and was
district judge of El Paso, Presidio and Pecos counties. Be-
fore coming to the Southwest he had served in the Confederate
army. Howard's chief characteristic was force ; that of Cardis,
persuasion and management a natural diplomat.
On September 10, 1877, the real trouble began. Judge How-
ard had two prominent Mexicans of San Elizario arrested for
making public threats against him. No sooner had this been
done, than a mob of forty or fifty Mexicans broke into the jail
and forcibly released their countrymen ; and, in turn, arrested
Howard and the county judge, held a farce which they called
"court," and possibly would have killed them both, had not
Luis Cardis and the parish priest appeared in time to cool the
Mexicans' thirst for blood. After a promise was extorted from
Howard to leave the country and never return, he and the
county judge were released.
Howard then proceeded to New Mexico, where he tele-
graphed Governor Hubbard, of Texas, for protection. There
was great excitement in the state, and the incident, much to the
detriment of many good citizens of Mexican blood, was gen-
erally termed a race war.
Major John B. Jones, Adjutant-General of Texas, suddenly
appeared in El Paso, organized a company of rangers, com-
missioned John B. Tays as lieutenant, and returned to Austin.
On October loth, Judge Howard returned to El Paso. He
had already accused Cardis of being the instigator of the trouble
by creating dissatisfaction among the Mexicans about the salt
lakes. Howard went out to hunt for Cardis, and found the
Italian in the store of S. Schutz & Brother, where Cardis had
gone to have Adolph Krakauer write a letter for him. Howard
walked into the store, and with a double-barreled shotgun,
killed Cardis. When the dead man's body was removed, a six-
shooter was found in his pocket, in a scabbard, and cocked.
The details of this tragedy is a matter of record.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 211
Again Howard fled to New Mexico, but he returned in De-
cember to hold court at Fort Davis. From El Paso to San
Elizario, he was escorted by the rangers, twenty in number,
under command of Lieutenant Tays. But they never got be-
yond San Elizario.
A detachment of regulars, under command of Captain
Thomas Blair, was stationed at San Elizario, and his report on
the subsequent occurrences was as follows :
"As soon as Howard arrived in San Elizario, the town was
surrounded by a cordon of armed men (Mexicans) and pickets
posted on all roads. As soon as Tays saw the state of affairs
he and his party retreated to their quarters (which was a de-
tached building with corral) and barricaded the doors and win-
dows and cut port-holes in the walls. On Thursday morning
the firing began, and continued with but few intermissions until
the rangers surrendered on Monday forenoon. Mr. Ellis, a
merchant, was the first one killed ; that was Wednesday night.
When the tumult began, he went "out to find out what it was,
and not stopping when halted by one of their sentinels (Mexi-
cans), was shot. Afterward his throat was cut and his body
thrown into an acequia (water-ditch).
"On Thursday morning, Sergeant Mortimer, of the Rang-
ers, was killed while making his way to the building where the
others were posted. The Rangers consisted of just twenty men,
I believe. With them in the building were Howard and his
colored servant ; Mr. Adkinson, a merchant of San Elizario, a
Mr. Loomis, from Fort Stockton, I believe, and Mrs. Campbell,
the wife of one of the rangers, and her three children.
"After hearing that I had been inside, Mrs. Marsh and Mrs.
Campbell (senior) went down from El Paso on Sunday morn-
ing. Mrs. Marsh got out her son who was with the rangers,
but the Mexicans disarmed him and retained him prisoner.
Mrs. Campbell (senior) got out her daughter-in-law and her
two children.
"The ranger party on Monday found that they could not hold
out much longer, the men were being overcome by sleep, and
under a flag of truce went out and had a talk with the leaders,
212 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
who told them if they would give up Howard it was all they
wanted. This they refused to do. They then said that if Howard
would come out he could make arrangements by which it would
be all right. Tays returned and told him so, but told him not to
go unless he wanted to do so, that he would defend him to the
last man. Howard returned with Lieutenant Tays to the lead-
ers. However, after some talk they asked Tays to leave How-
ard to them and go into another room, which he refused to do,
whereupon he was seized by about a dozen men and carried
out, and then found that all his party had surrendered at the
instigation of Adkinson (it is said).
"During the afternoon, Howard, Adkinson, and McBride,
Howard's agent, were taken out and shot. A strong effort was
made by the more violent of the party, and by those from the
other side, to have all the Americans shot, but Chico Barela
opposed this, said there had been enough blood shed, and that
only after they had killed him could any more Americans be
killed.
"Thursday forenoon they were all released, each one having
his horse returned to him, but their arms were retained. Some
of the rangers with whom I have talked, informed me that they
were all asked whether they were employed by the Governor of
Texas or by Howard, and then each one was required to sign a
blank paper. They were then escorted by guard as far as
Socorro.
"The mob is estimated by Lieutenant Tays at no less than
five hundred, many of the leaders being from the other side.
The loss was five Americans killed and at least one Mexican,
belonging to a party under Captain Garcia, who tried to assist
the Americans. The losses on the side of the mob are un-
known, but at least five or six are known to have been killed and
a large number, not less than thirty or forty, wounded."
During the five days of fighting, Captain Blair states that
he held frequent communications with the leaders of the Mexi-
can mob. He says :
"I found the people excited over the fact that Howard, who
had taken a life, was permitted to go at large, while two of
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 213
their number, who had only said they would go for salt to his
salinas, had been arrested. They said Howard had killed their
friend, Cardis, and they would have his life, cost what it might.
"I found their force to consist of about three hundred and
fifty sober, well-organized, well-armed, determined men, with
a definite purpose. Howard they wanted, nothing less, nothing
else. I told them I thought they would regret their course, that
for Howard personally I cared nothing, but I would be sorry if
anything happened to Lieutenant Tays. Yes, they said, but
why was he defending Howard?"
The frank acknowledgment of Captain Blair that he had
held communications several times with the outlaws, but still
made no move to prevent the killing of his five countrymen,
on United States soil, especially as the most of these outlaws
were known to have come from Mexico, makes quite clear the
principal reason the army was respected neither by the Amer-
ican settlers nor by the Mexicans. It is true that Governor Hub-
bard called on President Hayes for assistance, but by the time
the President's instructions had been acted upon by the War
Department, the instructions passed to the commander of the
Department of Texas, who, in turn, passed them on to the
commanding officer at Fort Bliss, who instructed Captain Blair
what to do, the tragedy had occurred, and the outlaws had
escaped to the south side of the Rio Grande.
Upon news of the killing reaching the Governor, he ordered
an additional force of rangers recruited to assist the authorities
in restoring order and calm. In reviewing the testimony, the
Judge Advocate General of the Army reports :
"Many outrages were committed on innocent people in the
neighborhood during the excitement, but of these not a few
were perpetrated by members of the State force raised in New
Mexico under authority of the Governor of Texas. These last
seem especially to be responsible for the crimes of which the
people justly complain."
The United States Commissioners, Colonels King and
Lewis, before whom all the testimony was placed, say :
"On December 22d, another small force of about thirty
214 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
men (this was the force already referred to) arrived from Sil-
ver City, who had been called into temporary service under
telegraphic instructions from the Governor, but, unhappily, as
was natural and according to experience in raising volunteers
along the border when the exigencies of the occasion do not
permit that delay which a wise discrimination in the choice of
material would cause, the force of rangers thus suddenly called
together contained within its ranks an adventurous and law-
less element which, though not predominant, was yet strong
enough to make its evil influences felt in deeds of violence and
outrage, matched only by the mob itself. Notably among these
atrocities, should be classed the shooting of two Mexican pris-
oners who were bound with cords when turned over to the
guard at Ysleta, ostensibly to bury the bodies of Howard, Ad-
kinson and McBride then lying in the fields of San Elizario
and when next seen, about an hour after, were pierced with
bullet holes, their appearance giving rise to grave apprehension
in unprejudiced minds that their deaths were neither necessary
nor justifiable."
No one was punished for this last tragedy. Lieutenant Tays
was forced to resign, and the Adjutant General of Texas or-
dered Colonel George W. Baylor, captain of Ranger Battalion
Company D, to proceed to Ysleta as quickly as possible, and
restore order.
Thus ends the story of the Salt Lake War. No one was
punished for this last tragedy. In the rough code of that day, it
was "an eye for an eye." Just ever so often, a similar occur-
rence takes place, for instance, the Glenn Springs raid; the
Columbus raid; the Brite's ranch raid end upon end, they
could be enumerated. Can Mexico cite us to similar deeds com-
mitted by Americans upon Mexican soil?
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 215
CHAPTER XVI
Pecos and Presidio counties had been created in 1870. It is
not convincingly clear regarding the formation of these coun-
ties, but a search through the records revealed that the first
legislative act to form them went by default, and that the elec-
tion in 1872 was held on the authority of a proclamation of a
"township" 'or "precinct" in Presidio County. It is possible
that this precinct was called Pecos. The records say that, in
1870, Pecos and Presidio Counties were created by the legisla-
ture, by boundaries which were found to be incorrect. In
1871, Pecos County was again created by boundaries, and a
board appointed to organize on the first Monday in May, but
the board members were not appointed until May 12. This is
why the organization seemed to go by default. The board con-
sisted of Peter Gallagher, George Frazier, and Caesario Torres.
In 1874, Pecos and Presidio Counties were attached to El
Paso County for judicial purposes. On March 13, 1875, a board
of commissioners was appointed to organize Presidio County,
under act of 1871, with power to organize that which was en-
acted under the provisions of 1871. Pecos County, being also
approved under act of 1871, is presumed to have been organ-
ized in this same manner, for it is a fact by all records that
Pecos County was organized in 1875, wi^ 1 Saint Gall as the
county seat.
Following is a report of the first grand jury in Pecos County,
in June, 1875 : "We have thoroughly investigated all matters
of a criminal nature which have been brought before us, which
have occurred since the organization of the county. We have
found the county generally in a quiet and peaceable condition."
The document is signed by Bernardo Torres, foreman.
Despite this statement from the jury, it appears that there
were many cases of murder, attempted murder and theft per-
216 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
petrated at this time, as is evidenced by the report of the crimi-
nal docket.
The grand jurors were, perhaps, lolling in their self com-
placency, as the following portion of their report from Pecos
County, October 10, 1875, will indicate: "We, the jurors, rec-
ommend there be some suitable place erected or provided for the
safe keeping of prisoners, as, at the present time, we are en-
tirely dependent upon the military authorities at Fort Stockton
for the safe keeping of prisoners, and they, the military authori-
ties, may at any time refuse to receive a prisoner in their guard
house. The grand jury has discovered, with regret, that in
this county there is a looseness of moral conduct based upon
old habits, and found in a new and somewhat uncivilized
country.
"The grand jurors have a reason to congratulate themselves
upon the prompt and efficient manner in which they have dis-
charged their duties. They have found a large number of in-
dictments and have thoroughly investigated other matters that
are common within their knowledge."
The first district judge was Charles H. Howard, who was
afterward killed at San Elizario by a Mexican mob in the Salt
Lake War of 1877. In the year 1871, on June 28th, the district
court was opened, under the supervision of the district attor-
ney, James A. Zabriskie.
In 1875 the first commissioners' court met. Officers present
were George M. Frazier, presiding justice, as the record says;
Caesario Torres, Francis Rooney, Hipolito Carrasco, E. W.
Bates, clerk, and Andrew Loomis, sheriff.
Then followed the passing of laws which dealt first with the
primary necessity of life the preservation of food. After this
most important act, laws were drawn up against murderers and
thieves. Then came readjustment of titles, and, ultimately,
laws against such minor offenses as gambling and "boot-leg-
ging."
The fourth law passed by the commissioners, at the first
meeting, held forth that if any description of livestock be
found tresspassing between March 18 and December I, the ani-
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 217
mals would be impounded and the owners held liable for dam-
ages and fine.
It was not, however, until 1881 that Fort Stockton was
named the county-seat. The commissioners called a meeting
for August 1 3th, of this year, to choose a permanent seat, and
the choice lay between Fort Stockton and Saint Gall, lying side
by side. Ninety-four votes were cast in the election; Fort
Stockton received sixty-four of this number ; Fort Davis, sit-
uated in Presidio County, receiving one, and Saint Gall the
remainder.
The courthouse at that time was an adobe building which,
at the present time, is still standing, and is being used for a
Mexican school. The present courthouse is standing just across
in the southwest corner from the old one. A point of interest,
which elicited little or no attention at the time of the old court-
house, was the fact that it was situated within the precincts
of Saint Gall, and was continued to be used in this capacity for
many years, although Fort Stockton was the county-seat.
About this time the shortness of water in Limpia Canyon
necessitated the mail route being changed temporarily to Mus-
quiz Canyon. Judge Joseph Jones made a trip over this route
when he was sent out to Fort Davis and Fort Stockton to meas-
ure wood contracts for the quartermaster department. Colonel
Lawton, afterwards of Spanish-American war fame, was head
of the department, and had his command divided between the
two posts. At this time, however, he was away on leave of
absence, and Lieutenant Kendall was acting quartermaster.
Lieutenant Kendall refused to receive the wood, which was
mesquite, because it was all roots. After an investigation, how-
ever, on the part of the War Department, following a recom-
mendation by Judge Jones, the lieutenant was ordered to receive
the wood.
The contractors for the wood were Francis Rooney and
Caesario Torres, who had been clearing some farm lands of
mesquite grubs, and had used the mesquite trunks for fence
posts. Their contract with the Government had been filled with
the roots.
218 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
In 1878, Captain Shavley built a road through Wild Rose
Pass, and during the same year, Lieutenant Kendall worked a
road in Musquiz Canyon, which later Colonel Grierson com-
pleted.
Mrs. Kendall, wife of Lieutenant Kendall, while her hus-
band was absent on one of his trips of inspection, during the
time he was acting as quartermaster, had an experience with a
negro trooper. With her and her little children was Lizette
Stivers, the daughter of a neighboring officer. In the night,
after they had retired, they heard a noise, and plainly saw a
negro man picking the glass from the window to gain an en-
trance. Although frightened, Mrs. Kendall did not lose her
nerve, and immediately got her revolver, which she kept under
her pillow. With this, she crept quietly to the foot of the bed,
and, within a few feet of the negro, fired at him point blank
range. The negro was not given a military funeral. Mrs.
Kendall deeply regretted the occurrence, but was highly praised
for her bravery and presence of mind. After this happening,
she would no longer go about alone, but was always attended
by an escort.
In 1879, a flood completely washed away the old telegraph
office, which was located near Limpia Creek, below Fort Davis.
The telegraph line was from Fort Concho to El Paso, and con-
nected at Fort Davis with the telegraph line to Presidio and
Pina Colorada. After the flood the telegraph office was moved
to the south side of the present post.
During the year 1878 the Indians were at their worst. The
country for miles about was continually infested with them,
and soldiers and rangers had to be kept constantly in the field to
ward off their attacks. The troops finally drove them eastward
from the field of operation around Eagle Springs, Diablo
Mountains, and other points west of the Davis Mountains.
As a result of this, however, the Indians retaliated by raid-
ing in and around Fort Davis. Dutchover's ranch, four miles
north of Fort Davis, was raided, in July, 1879; twenty-one
head of horses stolen; one Mexican woman killed, and other
damages perpetrated by the savages. Captain Carpenter, com-
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 219
mandant at the post, hurried a detachment after the marauders.
After scouring the country, and failing to apprehend any of
the band, four of the soldiers were left to guard the ranch for
a month.
Another striking incident connected with the Indian activi-
ties at this time was the attack on three stonemasons who were
coming from New Mexico by way of the El Paso trail. They
had walked from Ysleta to within a half a mile of Barrel
Springs, on their way to Fort Davis, where they intended to
catch a Chihuahua freight-outfit and ride into San Antonio.
Cautiously and successfully they passed through the most dan-
gerous part of their route, and were in sight of the stage sta-
tion. Fatigued and worn out, they were sighted by a band of
Indians, and in plain sight of witnesses at the station who were
powerless to interfere, were brutally attacked. Two of the
masons were killed. One of them swung a trowel across his
back, which a bullet pierced, penetrating his heart. The third
man escaped and reached the stage station.
Another incident occurring about the same time was when
John Spencer, and his son, William, a small lad, were riding across
the Fort Stockton Trail, between Charco de Alsate and Lioncito.
The son glimpsed a group of horsemen at a distance, and sug-
gested to his father that they were Indians. The elder man
was of the opinion that they were cowboys, and paid no attention
to them. He alighted from his horse to arrange something about
the saddle, when, suddenly, he was startled by the yells of
Indians sweeping, in full speed, toward him and his son.
Spencer jumped quickly upon his horse, but the Indians were
so close that they shot the horse underneath him. Immediately
he sprang up behind his son, whose horse, though heavily handi-
capped, outdistanced the Indians' ponies and escaped.
In 1879, Colonel W. R. Livermore, retired, after whom the
highest peak in the Davis Mountains is named, was instru-
mental in completing a route for the approaching Southern
Pacific Railway. Previous attempts had been made during the
fifties, of the last century, to find such a route, but it was left
for Colonel Livermore to perfect a successful expedition.
220 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
Colonel Livermore's experiences were similar to those of
other explorers, scouts, and travelers in the Fort Davis region
during that period. His explorations followed a tour of ob-
servation made by him when he was engaged in Mexico on a
mission of international courtesy, together with the Honorable
Elihu Washbourne, and his topographical assistants, Butter-
field and Cetera. At this time the party made a rough survey
from Fort Clark to Fort Davis.
An appropriation had been made by Congress for explora-
tions to establish the sites for a series of military posts to de-
fend the frontier lands from any possible plundering raids from
Mexico or from the Indian reservations, and to protect the
scanty population from outlaws.
Such protection made explorations more possible than
before, and in 1880 an expedition was organized by Colonel
Livermore at San Antonio and Fort Clark. This consisted of
a company of the Eighth United States Cavalry, under William
A. Shunk and John W. Pullman, who were at that time lieu-
tenants in the United States army. The expedition also in-
cluded a detachment of Comanche and Seminole Negro-Indian
scouts from Lieutenant Bullis' company. They were supplied
with plenty of six-mule teams, and a large pack-train, so that
on passing the plains and climbing the mountains, new roads
and paths were opened up. From Fort Clark to Fort Davis
the explorers followed almost in the trail made by Butterfield
and Cotera. This trail has been erroneously confused, how-
ever, with the trail of the Butterfield Daily Overland Mail ; but
which has no connection with the Butterfield-Cotera trail.
Colonel Livermore and his attendants completed the wagon
road and the survey, halting at points some twenty or thirty
miles apart, which, but a few years later, became stations along
the Southern Pacific Railroad.
In the year of 1880 H. Huelster moved to Leon Water-
holes, which, in an earlier period, was known as Ojo de Leon,
to take charge of the mail stage stand. Later he was joined by
Mrs. Huelster from St. Louis, who assisted him in conducting
the stand, with the help of an old Mexican.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 221
The stand was a rudely constructed adobe building, contain-
ing two rooms. The only interest outside of daily work was
the daily mail coach, which gave them something to look for-
ward to during the monotony of their existence.
The Huelsters had sixteen mules to care for, and as the
Indian troubles had abated somewhat, they were enabled to put
the mules on grass. As a sentinel for the mules, an old gray
cavalry horse, with a bell jingling about his neck, was staked
out, and the mules stayed in close vicinity.
During July and August of 1880 great rains fell at Leon
Waterholes. The dirt roof of the Huelster adobe leaked so
badly that the passengers who came on the stage coach, and
the Huelsters, were compelled to move about inside, and eat in
a room almost knee-deep in water. It is said that during the
rainy season of the year the quartermaster clerks at Fort Davis
had to work under umbrellas in their adobe house to keep the
rain off their ledgers.
The Huelsters moved from Leon Waterholes to Barila
stand in 1881. Here conditions were about the same. They
lived in a similar two-room adobe, which had a dirt roof,
through which Mrs. Huelster, from her bed, could see the
north star.
The stand was close to the present site of the JEF Ranch
headquarters, and the only commodity for which the proprietors
did not have to stake their last dollar was the water, which was
procured from a well nine feet deep, and which was made
deeper from time to time. Prices were soaring, and as the
Huelsters supplied meals to the passengers who came on the
daily stage from San Antonio, it was necessary that they have
a full table. Coffee and sugar sold at fifty cents a pound ; beans
fifteen cents a pound ; raisins fifty cents a pound ; starch forty
cents a pound. A bar of cheap laundry soap cost ten cents,
and many commodities were almost unpurchasable. To allevi-
ate the high cost of living, Mrs. Huelster tried to keep a well-
filled and flourishing garden to furnish vegetables for the table,
as well as to raise many chickens to furnish eggs and fowl for
the passengers.
222 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
That all stage stations did not serve the passengers so bounti-
fully as did the Huelsters is evidenced by the story going the
rounds at the time Huelster moved to the Barila station.
One night the stage driver to Barila had two very fastidious
passengers coming from El Paso, on their way back to civiliza-
tion. They were exceedingly irritable from their journey across
the country. That they did not love the stage coach nor the
country was evident from their many complaints which they
hurled, ever and anon, at the driver's head.
Finally, they requested the driver to awaken them for break-
fast, and went to sleep. They arrived at Barali station at two
o'clock in the morning.
"Breakfast !" shouted the driver, shaking and kicking them.
The men tumbled out, stiff and sore from their long journey,
and went grumbling into the stage stand quarters.
Even at that unearthly hour, the driver announced that they
must have breakfast then or not at all, as the next stop was at
Fort Stockton, fifty miles away.
Inside the stage stand a tender brought out a pan of beans,
dry, not very well cooked, and rattling in the pan.
"I can't eat beans," said one of the men in disgust. "I am a
victim of dyspepsia. I just can't eat them."
The cook then served them with bacon, fat and juicy, which
he slammed down before his guests indifferently.
"Bacon !" exclaimed the other passenger. "Why, whoever
heard of one eating bacon so early in the morning? It doesn't
agree with me this early."
"Well !" retorted the driver, snatching up a bottle from the
shelf," here's some French mustard eat that, damn you!"
One of the tasks of the Huelsters, besides serving meals,
was to note the time of arrival and departure of the stages. The
company kept a clock in good order in each stand for this pur-
pose, and the stage drivers carried books, like modern express
messengers, in which the time was inserted in the proper places.
There was no postoffice at the place, but the Huelsters got their
mail from the little pouch that contained this report book.
As memories of hardships seem to linger with a greater
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 223
poignance than those of happier events, Mrs. Huelster remem-
bers occurrences connected with their pioneer days. Events
were so few and far between, and wealth still a dream not soon
to come true. There were still the fears of the Apache Indians,
and the attendant privations met in such surroundings. The
Huelsters were the first married couple to live in that section
away from the garrisons, and their cattle were the first to be
brought to that vicinity. The first child born away from a gar-
rison in that section was Frank Huelster at Barila station.
During the same year Colonel Shafter was in command at
Fort Davis, where the monotony of camp life at such a post was
almost unbearable. Colonel Shafter had been more than once
criticised for his general lines of conduct, which were said to
have been not above reproach. Notwithstanding this, there
were a number of humane acts which the world deserves to
know.
The story goes that with several officers, Colonel Shafter
was sitting on the veranda of No. 7 officers' quarters, after a
particularly good meal, when a soldier walked across from the
barracks and saluted him. The soldier held a tinplate, contain-
ing a few morsels of meat and vegetables, which, he, trembling
with indignation, displayed before the eyes of the officers.
"Sir," he exclaimed, "this is my dinner !"
The Colonel leaned forward in his easy chair, and took an
inventory of the plate and its meagre contents.
"Well, eat it, you damn fool!" he answered. "I've had
mine."
Without a word the soldier saluted and turned toward the
barracks. Naturally, the soldier continued to curse the service,
and also the Colonel, as did his comrades who heard the story.
None of them knew the outcome of the soldier's complaint, but
Shafter, upon the disappearance of the man, sent for the cap-
tain of his company.
"Sir," he demanded, when the captain stood before him,
"how much money have you in your mess fund ?"
"Eighteen hundred dollars, Colonel," answered the captain,
proudly ; he was of a saving nature.
224 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
"Well, sir," said Colonel Shafter with lowered brows. "Im-
mediately change that eighteen hundred dollars into provisions
for your company, and do it damn quick 1"
And the soldiers never knew why the quality of their food
improved so quickly.
During the same year, 1880, E. L. Gage established a ranch
south of Marathon, with headquarters near the McKihney
Springs, named for T. D. McKinney, Gage's ranch foreman,
and his brother, John C, who also worked for the Gage outfit.
Following the establishment of the Gage ranch, Francis
Rooney, a nephew of the old pioneer, Francis Rooney, came and
established a ranch at Leoncita, twenty-five miles north of
Alpine. There were no fences nor fixed boundaries to a man's
ranch in those days, and the roundup reached from the Pecos
River to the Guadalupe Mountains, east and west, and from the
Rio Grande to the Pecos, north and south. The ranchmen
drove their herds, mostly steers, to the Indian Territory, in the
fall of the year, over the old trail that ran through Fort Stock-
ton, down to Horsehead Crossing, up through Midland, to
Dodge City, Kansas, where the northern buyers bought the
stock.
All during this time there was the continuous fear of possi-
ble attack by either renegade Mexicans or Indians. J. D. Jack-
son was ranger at this time under Captain Bryan Morris, Co. B.
After his ranger service, Jackson became a cowboy, and, finally,
one of the biggest ranch operators in the country. Jackson at
one time served on the grand jury, when six indictments were
found for cow stealing. The jury agreed that no member
could go on bond of the accused men, and, outside of the jury
there was no one else who could furnish bond.
During the time Jackson was ranger there were many ways
planned by the ranchmen to outwit the Indians in their game
of pillaging and murdering. One of the most interesting is the
story of Colonel George W. Baylor, who proved to be more
adroit one time than the Indians. Baylor, with a Mexican, was
traveling with a supply wagon, and knew the Indians would kill
him to get his provisions. A hundred of them were about to
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 225
attack when he hastily poisoned some of the sugar, and other
supplies, after which he and the Mexican jumped on their
horses, and outran the pursuers. The Indians took the supplies,
and several of them died from the effect.
Another rancher who was instrumental in building up this
region was Milton Favor, who had three ranches, on two of
which were fort-like houses. One was the Cibolo, situated
at the southeast end of the Chinati Mountains, where the still
for peach brandy was built, the remains of which are standing
to this day. Another ranch was Cienaga, six miles east of
Shafter, and another was called Morita, meaning Mulberry, sit-
uated southeast of Shafter a few miles. The larger fort-house
was located at the Cibolo ranch, the smaller at the Cienaga
ranch. At Morita was planted a large peach orchard, while
similar smaller ones were at the other two ranches. The F
brand of cattle was well known at this time, and spread from
the Rio Grande to the Pecos River, and to the Guadalupe
Mountains on the north. John Beckwith was the first cowman
to locate at Pina Colorada. He was a post trader, also, and
maintained a store and a saloon. After operating his place for
five years, he sold out to Hess Brothers and moved to Fort
Davis, where he lived a short time, ultimately moving to New
Mexico.
In the late '703 and early '8os the term "rustler" took on a
new meaning. The origin of the word resulted from the free,
open range of country at that time. Ranchmen employed
cowboys by the month to brand all mavericks, or unbranded
cattle, with the employer's brand; hence, the term "rustler"
became a synonym for a cowboy who "rustled" for his em-
ployer.
In time, however, the rustlers decided to rustle for them-
selves. Why brand all unbranded cattle with the employer's
brand, when they could use one of their own? Consequently,
tthey began to brand the unknown cattle with a mark of their
own. This privilege soon degenerated into the pernicious habit
of branding other people's cattle, by "burning" the brand, and
other methods.
226 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
The famous band of rustlers included Sand Hill George,
who was later charged with murder; Barney Gallagher, John
Boyd, members of the Jesse Evans gang, including the Graham
brothers. The leader of this gang was Billy the Kid. They
operated in Eastern New Mexico and in the hills north of Fort
Stockton. The gang drove stolen cattle to New Mexico and
sold them. In New Mexico they stole other cattle, drove them
back to Texas and sold them.
The rustlers were almost as feared as the Indians had
been. They took anything and everything they wanted, regard-
less of right or law. Any person who was a lawbreaker could
join the gang, and the band was made up of men from almost
every state in the Union. Families living in sections where
they operated were in constant fear of these men who possessed
no ideals of law and order, and who stole cattle and murdered
citizens without the least compunction.
A very interesting story is told of an incident connected
with the killing of Barney Gallagher, who was a leader among
the rustlers. George M. Frazier had a cow outfit working
along the New Mexico border, and was present at the death of
Gallagher. Two cowboys, Lon Neil and Phil Rock, were also
present.
It appears that Barney possessed a handsome silver-
mounted hat, which he had left either to Neil or Rock on his
dying bed. There was some contention as to whom it was
willed, and a quarrel ensued between the two men, which con-
tinued until they arrived days afterward at Fort Stockton.
Late on an evening Neil and Rock met at Silverstein's sa-
loon, where they agreed to settle the dispute. Clasping each
other by their left hands, and aiming their pistols with their
right hands, they shot each other to death. Neil was killed out-
right, and Rock lived an hour or two. They were buried face
to face in the same grave, Neil with his boots on, because he
had died immediately, and Rock without his boots, because
they had been removed before he expired.
During the rustler reign there were trials, fears and sorrows
among the women who lived in the cow country. Pioneers,
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 227
indeed, they were ; but they were more than that. Had they
not been strong, courageous, and almost fearless, they could
not have survived the privations and fears always attendant on
their lives. Perhaps it was the open, free life of the range, too,
that imbued them with that unrelentless strength they possessed,
which resulted in not only building up an unsettled, lawless
country, but in giving to the world some of its staunchest men
and women, who in turn will produce another generation of
strong citizens.
One particular family that experienced some extreme trials
was the Casey family, herein before referred to, living on their
ranch in the country infested by the rustlers. After the death
of Robert Casey, Mrs. Casey, who was a pioneer to the very
marrow, and who perhaps learned the lesson during the first
of those days that a woman's "nerves" are half imagination,
made an earnest effort to keep her family together. There
were two daughters, Mrs. J. L. Moore, of Balmorhea, Texas,
and Mrs. L. C. Klasner, at present living in Chaves County,
New Mexico, and two sons, W. D. Casey and R. A. Casey,
both prominent cattlemen in Southwest Texas and New
Mexico.
The Casey ranch was more than once invaded by the rustler
band, who stole cattle, and committed other thefts. Following
one of the cattle thefts by the band at one time, Mrs. Casey de-
cided to go and use all of her persuasive powers in regaining
her property.
Putting two of the children in the wagon with her, she
started for Seven Rivers. They had to spend the night with a
Mexican family, and the next morning Mrs. Casey bravely met
the rustlers, pleading for her cattle, but to no avail. Unsuccess-
ful in her attempts, there was nothing to do but return to her
ranch.
While at Seven Rivers, the Caseys witnessed a shooting
affair caused by the rustlers. There was an old man living on
a farm nearby, and the rustlers decided they would get rid of
him. They took his cattle and ordered him to leave the country.
In his flight, he had paused long enough at Seven Rivers to re-
228 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
late his story, when at that junction one of the very men who
had robbed him, rode up. The old man was so angry that the
sight of the rustler drove him to a frenzy. Notwithstanding
the poor chance he had of escaping, he shot the rustler off his
horse. He then jumped on this horse and, although pursued,
escaped.
Mrs. Casey and a Mexican woman carried the wounded man
into the house, after which Mrs. Casey left ; but she heard later
that he recovered.
At one time a man named Hart came to the Casey ranch and
asked for lodging. While Mrs. Casey was preparing his supper,
one of the children became interested in the large Mexican hat
he was wearing. The band string was of an unusual pattern.
The man left, and, shortly afterward a Mexican came to the
ranch wearing the identical hat. One of the children who had
been attracted by Hart's hat cord, called her mother's attention
to it, but Mrs. Casey thought nothing of it.
It developed, however, that Hart was missing, and his body
was later found in a hole some distance from the house of the
Mexican who was wearing the hat. When the Mexican found
he was suspected of the murder, he tried to escape, but was
intercepted, and captured by a band of cowboys.
Many men would break jail, and stop at the Casey ranch
for provisions. The kind-hearted ranch woman always fed
them. On one occasion the family had just eaten breakfast,
when, to their consternation, they saw Billy the Kid, the fero-
cious outlaw head of the rustler band, ride up to the gate. He
had been in a fight the day before, and had lost his horse, saddle
and bridle. He found a little pony which he rode to the Casey
ranch, where they gave him breakfast, glad for him to go on
his way.
These glimpses of the rustler days can give but a faint idea
of the hardships and dangers of the pioneer cattlemen, and their
families. In later years, after the word "ranchman" became
synonymous with wealth, the cry has arisen that the country
made them. But it has been the history of every pioneer land,
that in the battle for life and in the protection of family and
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 229
property, only the fittest and strongest have survived; and,
justly, wealth and prosperity have come to those hardy pioneers
who, while they were building for themselves, built up the
frontier.
230 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
CHAPTER XVII
Much history has been written about the Santa Fe Trail ;
little about the Chihuahua Trail. Yet, statistics show that more
commerce in merchandise, silver, copper, lead and gold passed
over this trail than over the Santa Fe Trail.
_ The Chihuahua Trail, as it became known, was begun in
1848 by a small group of pioneers, including John W. Spencer,
John B. Davis, Ed Frobboese, August Santleben, John Holly,
Sha Hogan, John Burgess, Brooks, Calderon, Richard Daly,
William Russell and others. These were the first set of ad-
venturers, who later became known as the trail drivers, to com-
plete successful journeys; although the Connelly expedition,
from Chihuahua City, across Texas, into Arkansas, and return,
was made in 1839.
The Connelly expedition was the first commercial enterprise
undertaken to establish trade relations between northern Mexico
and the United States, other than by way of the Santa Fe Trail.
This expedition resulted in a failure, however, due to a change
of administration at the port of entry, Presidio del Norte, and
a resultant raise in the customs duties, which dampened the
ardor of the merchants at that time.
For these reasons the Chihuahua Trail was not used again
until the trail drivers, who had settled along the banks of the
Rio Grande, opposite Presidio del Norte, sought an outlet
through the Big Bend to San Antonio. It was not long before
they were hauling through freight back and forth between these
metropolises of Texas and Mexico.
The first trips were made prior to the Civil War from In-
dianola to Chihuahua, Mexico, a journey of eleven hundred and
fifty miles. But it was not until 1869 that the trade reached
substantial proportions. The goods were loaded out of bonded
warehouses belonging to commission merchants in Indianola
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 231
and San Antonio, and the trail drivers gave a heavy bond, pay-
able to the United States, as a guarantee of their responsibility
and to insure prompt transportation of supplies.
The trail ran westward from Indianola to San Antonio,
thence to San Felipe Springs, which is to-day Del Rio. From
this point it led to the lowest ford on the Pecos River, a few
miles above where is now the Southern Pacific Railroad high
bridge spanning the river at a height of 321 feet above the
water. It then turned in a northerly direction to Horse-Head
Crossing, where the Fort Concho trail intersected with the
route. The next important point on the trail, forty miles
further west, was the military post, Fort Stockton. The en-
tire distance of 230 miles from Del Rio to Fort Stockton was un-
inhabited. The country was open and rough, but its most ob-
jectionable feature consisted in the strong alkali dust which
almost smothered teamsters and drivers.
Nine miles west of Fort Stockton was located Leon Water-
holes, with its clear, sparkling waters. The main spring was
thirty feet in diameter, and was so deep that the bottom could
not be touched.
The Chihuahua trail diverged from the El Paos road at the
Leon Waterholes, and followed a route leading in a southwest
direction to Presidio del Norte. Thirty miles beyond Leon
Waterholes was the Leoncito, a watering place, which was set-
tled in 1869 by Joe Head; while forty miles farther was the
Burgess Spring, which also was known as Charco de Alsate.
The trail then ran through Paisano Pass, twenty miles beyond
to Antelope Springs, better known as Berrindo, while thirty
miles beyond this, arrived at the Tinaja San Esteben. After
this came El Alamito at a distance of twenty-five miles, which is
forty miles from Presidio del Norte. Alamito was settled in
1870 by John Davis.
These distances made 195 miles, and the road was not in
very bad shape, except the last forty miles, which was hilly, and
at intervals the sand was heavy. However, there was an abun-
dance of grass, which afforded good pasturage.
Presidio del Norte was situated on the Mexican side of the
232 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
Rio Grande, below the mouth of the Rio Conchos, and one of
the old presidios was on the Texas side. Custom houses were
established by the two republics, in both the American and
Mexican towns through which a large quantity of goods passed.
For the expedition prairie schooners, or large covered wag-
ons, were used. These were immense structures, and the fol-
lowing dimensions of a few of the parts will convey an idea of
their strength : the hind wheels measured five feet ten inches in
height, and the tire was six inches wide and one inch thick;
the front wheels were built similar to the hind wheels, but were
twelve inches lower ; the axles were of solid iron, with spindles
three inches in diameter. All the solid running gear was built
in proportion for hard service. The wagon bed was twenty-
four feet long, four and one-half feet wide, and the sides were
five and a half feet high. Wagon bows attached to each were
overhung with heavy tarpaulins, which completely covered the
sides and protected the freight. On the covers the train owner's
name was painted, and beneath, the number of the wagon, in
which freight was loaded as it was entered on the bill of lading.
Every wagon was furnished with a powerful brake, which
was used to regulate the speed when going down steep hills.
The beam that constituted the brake was seven feet in length,
and was made out of choice hickory timber. It was placed be-
neath the wagon box, behind the hind wheels, in two heavy
iron stirrups, that were secured to the frame on either side by
heavy braces or bolts. A block of wood was fastened near each
end, which pressed against the wheels when the lever was
manipulated by the driver in his seat. He could control the mo-
tion of the wagon, according to the grade, by forcing the brake
against the wheels until they ceased to revolve, or check them at
will with a motion of his hand as easily as a motorman controls
his car. Two heavy chains were attached to the wagon body for
use in cases of necessity. Occasionally, accidents happened to
the brakes, and the heavily loaded wagon would become uncon-
trollable. As a result, driver and mules were often crushed to
death under the wheels.
An average load for such a wagon was about seven thou-
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 233
sand pounds, but generally with sixteen small mules attached,
sixteen bales of cotton was a load. The great capacity of such
wagons may be estimated by comparing them with the wagons
used by the United States government which hold an average
load of three thousand pounds, with six large mules.
The mules used for freighting purposes were small, but
active, and possessed an untiring energy, with a constitution
that enabled them to endure extreme hardships. The manner
in which they were hitched brought them close to their load, and
made them almost a unit when a steady pull was necessary.
Before the prairie schooner was adopted as a means of com-
munication between Texas and the northern states of Mexico,
commercial energy in that direction was hampered; but after
they had been introduced, and when the benefit to be derived
from direct trade between these regions and the seaports of
Texas was understood, wagon trains of six or more prairie
schooners were introduced, with a capacity to move a large
amount of freight in a given time. These were conducted un-
der a systematic management, which inspired confidence. As
a result, it was not long before both countries realized advan-
tages through the arrangement.
San Antonio was encouraged to extend her business con-
nection with Mexico, and much was done toward stimulating
the trade between Mexico and the countries of Europe, through
Texas seaports, which continued to grow until it reached large
proportions.
A way was opened up for the railroad which followed in the
wake of the trail drivers, and which removed all competition in
the way of travel and transportation by offering superior ad-
vantages. The prairie schooner was an humble pioneer that
plodded its way slowly over the plain and mountain, through
a wilderness peopled by warlike savages; yet, it was appre-
ciated in its day, and its arrival at its destination was greeted
with far more interest than is manifested when a modern, up-
to-date train arrives at its station.
The Mexican trains could not compare with those of the
Americans in general appearance, but, in many respects they
234 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
were decidedly superior, and were managed more successfully
because of the strictness with which they were conducted. The
Mexican wagons were clumsily built, with beds twenty-four feet
long that rested on heavy running gears, and had no sides. They
were capable of carrying heavy loads. A wagon train of twelve
wagons, each drawn by fourteen mules, distributed in three
sets of four working abreast, and 'two to the tongue, would
transport 120,000 pounds of freight with ease over the roads
in Mexico.
The Mexican mules were superior to the American mules,
because they were raised on Mexico ranches, where the native
drivers could select the best. Neither did they depend upon
grass alone for feed, as the Americans were forced to do, but
always carried a sufficient amount of corn and wheat straw,
which kept the animals in fine condition. The teams belonging
to the Americans showed hard service because of their long
journeys, as they were frequently exposed to privations on
drives of ninety miles in length.
The same drivers were employed continuously by train
owners in Mexico, and were subject to strict obedience. The
mules were easily controlled, as they had become trained to
routine movements. So well were they trained that when the
cap oral walked to the center of the corral among the loose
mules, he had nothing to do but crack his whip and they imme-
diately filed into their proper places and stood with their heads
raised, waiting for the bridles.
The Gonzales brothers, of Saltillo, owned a train of twenty-
five carts with five mules each. They used shafts in which a
mule was hitched, with one on either side, and two in front.
These mules were so well trained, it is said, that they knew
their own carts from the others, and would back up to their
proper places of their own accord.
The trail drivers experienced many hardships during these
journeys, such as attacks by Indians and scarcity of water. The
scarcity of water and grass on the route frequently made it
necessary for them to divide their daily journey into three
drives, or camps, especially where the watering places were
J. M. DAUGHERTY
SCENES ON F. S. MILLS' FARM
Lion Valley, Pecos County
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 235
fifty miles apart. In making a long drive, they generally started
about one o'clock, postmeridian, and drove until about six, when
they stopped to eat supper and graze the teams. They again
started at ten o'clock at night, and drove until three o'clock
in the morning, when they camped without water. At seven
they were again under way, and by ten o'clock, they arrived
at the watering place, where the teams were turned loose to
graze for about four hours, after which they were again watered
and the journey resumed. Traveling at night made it possible
for the teams to do with less water, along that portion of the
trail where it was scarce.
However, the inconveniences they experienced on account
of a scarcity of water could in no way compare to the necessity
of protecting the mules from the Indians. Knowing the In-
dians were constantly watching for a chance to overpower
them, the trail drivers were compelled to keep forever on the
alert against surprises. Sentries, similar to the military, were
posted about the camps, and teamsters stood on guard while
the mules were grazing. The type of arms used on the trains
were Sharp needle-guns, of fifty caliber, made especially for
the trail drivers. The gun was carried in a scabbard, fast-
ened to the driver's saddle mule, and when in camp it was
usually placed against the left wheel of the driver's wagon,
within easy reaching distance. A forty-five caliber six-shooter
also was carried in a scabbard on a cartridge belt, strapped
about the driver's waist. It, too, was Always in reach. The
"belt carried fifty rounds of cartridges for the Sharp needle-
gun, and twelve rounds for the pistol. The needle-guns ranged
about 800 feet and the pistols about 300 feet.
As drivers, Mexicans were found to be more efficient than
the Americans. In an almost uncanny manner, they could pick
out their teams in the darkest night, when colors were not dis-
tinguishable, rarely making a mistake, and taking but little more
time to hitch at night than in daylight. This talent seemed to
be confined to teamsters of the Mexican race.
Every wagon train was under the personal supervision of a
wagon master. He directed the train's movements, and was
236 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
responsible for his train in the same degree as the modern rail-
way freight conductor. The next person in importance, was
the cap oral. He was in charge of the herd of extra mules and
the teams after they were unhitched from the wagons; he
directed the way to watering places, grass, and camping places,
and he prevented the teamsters from mistreating their mules.
A train of twelve wagons was divided into two six- wagon
sections, with each section in charge of a captain who was
held accountable for certain duties and the accuracy with which
his wagons were placed when forming a corral. These captains
were expert drivers, and when forming a corral, errors seldom
occurred, even in an emergency. The driving was done sys-
tematically, changes being made in the positions of the wagons,
in order that no section should be strained too much on account
of frequent stops, which would occur if they traveled con-
tinuously in the same order.
The corral was an important institution on the trail, on
account of the large number of animals to be handled and fed.
It was indispensable for the safety both of the animals and the
drivers, when encamped, and served as sufficient fortification
for man and beast, when attacked by Indians or other enemies.
To form a corral, the wagons of the first section were
driven in a half-circle to the right of the road, while those of
the second section were driven in a half-circle to the left of
the road; thus all teams were brought facing inward toward
the center of the completed circle. The openings, or gaps, be-
tween the wagons were closed with heavy ropes, stretched from
wagon to wagon, and these could be removed quickly when
the mules were to be driven out to graze or to water.
A corral could be formed as readily in any open space where
there were no roads or guides, and they were a necessity on
account of their convenience which no other arrangement could
have supplied. The mules were always taken from the wagon
and unharnessed on the outside, and there was no place in
which they could have been secured so well. When turned
loose, they passed through the rear openings, into the corral,
where they were fed in long canvas troughs which were
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 237
stretched from the wagons. After feeding, they were driven
in a herd through one of the large openings to a watering place
or pasture by drivers in charge of the caporal.
When the mules had returned to the corral, the caporal gave
the first intimation that it was time to move by cracking his
whip in the center of the corral, thus ordering the mules to take
their places. Soldiers did not move in a more orderly man-
ner to their places than did the mules, who knew their places
as well as the trained horses of a fire engine. Frequently when
the herd was driven in from the grazing, the better trained
mules did not wait for the signal, but, with almost human
intelligence, took their places at once with their backs against
the wagon, thus avoiding the jam caused by the commotion the
herd was thrown into by the crack of the cap oral's whip.
When traveling through the western country, a train was
occasionally attacked by Indians, and it became necessary to
form a corral immediately for the protection of the men and
mules. On such occasions, the wagons were placed in the same
order as for an ordinary camp, except that no openings were
left in between. Thus protected, the train men could repel
any attack that might be made, unless overwhelmed by numbers.
Sometimes the trail drivers were caught in the midst of
terrible blizzards. On one occasion, during a trip from Chi-
huahua, the drivers encountered a ten days' spell of sleet and
snow, and at one place, the head of the Texas Concho, the grass
was covered for days with snow. In 1 866, a long train of
wagons in charge of Capt. James Edgar, bound for El Paso,
was exposed to such a blizzard that sixty mules were lost. The
mules had gathered close together for protection against the
cold, but were frozen to death ; and the place was known for
years afterward as "Edgar's Boneyard."
In the spring of 1870, the wagon train belonging to August
Santleben, on its way to Chihuahua, had reached Fort Davis.
The old trail driver, delayed by business in San Antonio, had
arranged to follow on the overland stage, and overtake it at
this point. Colonel Terrell, paymaster in the United States
army, was also on the stage, and, traveling under his protection,
238 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
was Sister Stephens, of the Order of the Incarnate Word, of
San Antonio, who was on her way to visit Fort Davis, in the
interest of the orphans. There were several other passengers
on the stage, including Mr. Joe Head and Mr. Peter Gallager,
of Fort Stockton, two soldiers, and others. Sister Stephens
was an entertaining traveling companion, always in a pleasant
humor with the trail drivers and passengers. She was one of
the few women making such a trip at that time.
One of the trail drivers asked Sister Stephens what service
could she render in case of an Indian attack.
"Sir," she replied with a smile, "I would have work to do.
While you do the fighting, I'll do the praying."
On his return trip, Santleben passed the place where the
Miguel brothers had met with a serious misfortune a short time
before. The Indians attacked their camp, eighteen miles east
of Johnson's Run, and captured the entire herd of mules be-
longing to the train. The cart men retreated to an elevation and,
with loose rock, built a circular breastwork, behind which they
defended themselves until the enemy retired with the herd.
Two Mexicans were killed in the engagement, and were buried
at the foot of the hill where the rude fortification was situated.
Soon after Santleben's return, his wagons were loaded with
government freight and sutler's supplies, for Fort Davis and
Fort Quitman. This train was placed in charge of Entinio
Mageras, an experienced wagonmaster. After delivering the
freight, according to contract, Mageras with his empty wagons,
established a camp to recuperate his teams, near Beaver Lake,
adjoining the Eighteen Mile crossing on Devil's River. The
mules, which were turned loose to graze on the excellent
pasturage, were left unguarded. No danger was suspected, un-
til the quiet was broken by the fearful warwhoops of the
Comanches. Before the trail men could assemble to resist, the
Indians charged between the wagons and the grazing herd.
The caporal and four men were cut off and escaped through
flight. The majority of the Indians engaged the remaining
teamsters in battle, while the remainder, after roping the bell
mare, took charge of the herd and galloped away over the hills.
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 239
The men in the camp, though much startled, returned the
fire of the marauders, but the battle quickly ended when the
Indians secured the rich prize they were after. A half-hearted
attempt was made to give chase on foot, but its uselessness was
apparent and the idea was abandoned.
The caporal and his herders were thought to have been
killed in the first attack ; but anxiety on this score was removed
when they ventured forth from their place of refuge. For-
tunately, none of the men were hurt, and if casualties occurred
among the Indians, the fact was never known. It cost Santle-
ben six hundred dollars to get his train pulled into San Antonio.
Santleben and his trail drivers possessed a fine lot of teams
and prairie schooners with which to carry on their work. His
experimental trips to and from Chihuahua had netted him
handsome returns, and he decided to confine his freight line
to that point.
One of the celebrated characters on the Chihuahua Trail,
who worked for Santleben at this time, was Olojio Danda, a
citizen of Presidio del Norte. He was celebrated, not as a
trail driver, but as a great Indian fighter. His reputation was
acquired on the trail that passed between Presidio del Norte and
Fort Davis, over which marauding bands of Mescalero Apaches
and other warlike tribes passed in making raids in the Big Bend
and Mexico. Occasionally the Indians fought openly, but their
favorite mode of attack was from ambush. The services of
such men as Danda were always much in demand in that re-
gion, because of their knowledge of Indian warfare, and because
their courage was equal to any occasion.
Considerable light is thrown upon internal conditions in
Mexico, especially in Chihuahua, in and around 1874, by ac-
counts drawn from the trail drivers of that period. Upon
reaching Chihuahua City the teams were quartered at Meson de
Messarre. This establishment was a great convenience to trav-
elers and freighters, and similar ones are found in many cities
throughout Mexico. Senor Messarre was the owner of this
particular meson or hotel. The buildings of the meson formed
a large square, and along the walls were arranged stalls,
240 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
equipped with cement troughs sufficient for stabling at least
six hundred animals. The square inside had sufficient room
for trains of heavy wagons. In the center stood the granary,
a peculiar stone structure, in the shape of a bottle, with a round
tower which resembled the neck. The structure, resembling
the silo of the American farmer, was seventy-five feet high and
twenty feet in diameter, with steps that wound around the
outside to the top, to a platform. The corn was carried up
and deposited in an opening at the top. When the tower was
full, the opening was sealed with adobe mortar, which made it
air-tight. Its capacity was about fifteen thousand bushels, and
that quantity could be kept for three years, in perfect condition,
without becoming infested with weevils.
A few days after the arrival of the trail driver who related
the incident, a large body of friendly Indians came into Chi-
huahua City to celebrate a recent victory they had gained over
one of the tribes to the northeast about fifty miles distant. The
authorities of the State of Chihuahua had granted them the
privilege of passing through the streets in triumphal procession,
for the purpose of displaying the trophies they had won in their
foray into the enemies' country.
The wild Indians represented by the Apaches, Comanches,
Lipans, Navajos, and other fierce tribes, had proved them-
selves a great scourge on the northern part of Mexico,
where they had materially injured the country. In order to
suppress them, Governor Luis Terrazas, of the State of Chi-
huahua, offered a reward of $250 for the scalp of every un-
friendly Indian. The agreement was that the scalp should be
identified by other trophies taken from the enemy, so that no
impositions should be practiced. As the dress and ornaments,
as well as the bows and arrows, of every tribe were different
and could easily be recognized, by those familiar with them,
deception could not easily be practiced. These were turned
over to the government officials, and, if the evidence was suffi-
cient, the reward was immediately paid.
The friendly Indians on the reservations, influenced by this
reward, made a regular business of waging war on the wild
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 241
tribes, and would absent themselves from their villages for
the purpose of seeking scalps. Frequently their object was
accomplished by surprises that resulted in the extermination of
whole Indian settlements. The state did not concern itself
with their manner of warfare; it approved any method the
Indians cared to use.
An enmity had always existed between the peaceful and
warlike tribes ; and it was easy to arouse the cupidity of the
former by offering liberal rewards. By such means, Chihuahua
rid itself of a large number of savages, and gave protection to
its citizens.
The celebration above referred to was not only approved
by the city authorities, but was arranged beforehand by them.
The procession entered the city about ten o'clock in the morn-
ing, headed by a brass band. The warriors followed on horse-
back in their war paint, and decked out in all their finery. About
fifteen of them carried long poles, to which were secured the
scalps of their victims, killed in battle, together with the bows
and other trophies necessary to prove their valor. The women
and children of the tribe came next on horses, and also in sin-
gle file. Their oddity and bizarre appearance added much to
the effect. . :^.
In this same year, August Santleben started for Texas, with
his wagons heavily loaded with freight, to which was added a
large sum of money. Upon arriving at Mula, about forty miles
south of the Rio Grande, where a custom house officer was
stationed, Santleben was arrested and his train sequestered
upon the suspicion that part of his freight was contraband.
The preliminary circumstances that led up to the arrest Ot
Santleben were connected with the fact that the Mexican gov-
ernment, in order to get rid of copper money that flooded the
country, provided for the coinage of five and ten cent pieces,
and the mint in Chihuahua was obliged to coin ten percent
of its total silver output in coins of such denominations. As
the merchants of the city were opposed to retiring the copper
money from circulation, because it was the money of the
poorer classes, they agreed among themselves that they would
242 ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS
not pay out the small silver coin, which was received in their
business transactions. Consequently large sums accumulated
on their hands, and when the government learned that it was
unpopular, and again made copper the legal tender, they had
to dispose of it in some way.
Small change was very scarce 1 in San Antonio at that time,
especially five and ten cent pieces, and such denominations
readily commanded ten per cent premium. The exorbitant
export duties exacted by the government, amounting to ten
per cent, prohibited the shipping of the five and ten cent pieces
through legitimate channels; therefore, certain persons deter-
mined to avoid this duty by smuggling the money across into
the United States, in order to take advantage of the excellent
market that was offered to them. In this way, the greater part
of the holdings were transferred to the United States. A part
of the sum, amounting to about $1,100, was placed in a sack of
beans, and shipped with similar freight .in one of Santleben's
wagons.
Upon arriving at Mula, the officer stationed at that place
inspected his freight without discovering the money, and every-
thing was thought to be correct. Santleben was ready to move
on when a second inspection was made, and, as the officer acted
upon newly received information, the sack of money was /found.
A courier was dispatched to Presidio del Norte with the in-
formation and the whole train was detained until a squadron of
mounted custom house guards arrived. Santleben was ar-
rested and held under indictment for smuggling money out
of the country. Santleben's defense, however, was sufficient to
show that he was innocent of any attempt to defraud the gov-
ernment, and that he had obviously been imposed upon by
others who were using his train for illicit purposes. He was
honorably acquitted, and the money was confiscated by the gov-
ernment. A few days after his release from custody, he
crossed the Rio Grande and passed the United States custom
house, after a satisfactory inspection.
He camped the same day beyond the river, and that night
was joined by James Clark, who was then in charge of the
AND BIG BEND COUNTRY 243
American customs house, and a party consisting of his wife,
two young ladies, Hi Kelly, and an escort of six men on horse-
back. The party was traveling in an ambulance, and were out
on a pleasure party. Santleben made them welcome at his en-
campment, and after supper it was decided to have a dance.
For this purpose several wagon sheets were spread on the
ground inside the corral. Traveling with Santleben was the
Loza family, representing several members, and Prof. Manuel
Manso and his orchestra troupe. The dance place was illu-
minated by candles placed on the wagons. Such occasions con-
stituted the social life of the people living in that part of the
country at that time.
On one occasion, in the year 1875, Santleben was returning
from Chihuahua with a valuable load of freight and $150,000 in
silver coin, when his wagon was attacked.
He was camped near the Rio Grande crossing, after having
passed the customs house inspection. The usual precautions
were carried out for the protection of the train, and the cus-
tomary guard was selected to watch over the camp. The mules
were grazing on the west side of the canyon, on the mountain
slopes, under the watchful care of the caporal and his herders,
and before the evening shadows closed about them, the only
noises that disturbed the silence of the wilderness was the
twinkling of the bell-mare.
The calm that enveloped the camp was not broken until
some time after Henry Vonflie and his men, who were first on
guard, had retired. Santleben, Timps, a young American, and
three Mexicans relieved the guard, and were seated outside the
corral, near the two wagons which were loaded with money,
when a shot was fired near the wagons. Immediately after
they heard the tramp of men running over the rocks toward the
camp. They realized that an attack was being made on the
train and instant preparations were made to meet it. Santle-
ben fired the first few shots a few moments before his com-
panions commenced firing, and their assailants answered with a
volley that brought Vonflie and his men to 
