The second William Penn

Produced by Juliet Sutherland and PG Distributed Proofreaders
A true account of incidents that happened along the old Santa Fe Trail in the Sixties.
1913
By Col. Milton Moore
You who take the trouble to read these reminiscences of the Santa Fe Trail may be curious to know how much of them are literally true.
The writer of this preface was intimately acquainted with the author of this book, and knows that he has not yielded to temptation to draw upon his imagination for the incidents related herein, but has adhered strictly to the truth. Truth is, sometimes, stranger than fiction, and is an indispensable requisite to accurate history, yet it may sometime destroy the charm of fiction.
The author of this book had a real and exceptional knowledge of Indian character and Indian traits, and his genuine tact in trading and treating with them, and the success which he had in sustaining friendly relations with them was one of the wonders of the West, and was a circumstance of much comment by those who had occasion to use the Santa Fe Trail.
It is small wonder, then, that Little Billy of the Stage Coach won for himself the title of the Second William Penn.
In the early Sixties, the region through which the Old Trail passed was an unexplored territory where constant struggles for supremacy between the Wild Red Man and the hardy White man were carried on.
Many and tragical were the hardships endured by those who attempted to open up this famous highway and establish a line of communication between the East and the West. The only method of travel was by odd freight caravans drawn by oxen or the old-fashioned, lumbering uncomfortable Concord Stage Coaches drawn by five mules.
The stage coach carried besides its passengers the United States mail and express.
An escort of United States militia often accompanied the stage coach in order to protect it against attacks of the Indians at that time when the plains were invested with the Arapahoes, Comanches, Cheyennes, Kiowas and other tribes, some of whom were on the warpath, bedecked in war paint and feathers.