Several of the thieves had been mortally wounded, as the signs after their departure showed, but the Indian custom of tying the wounded upon their horses, prevented taking the Indian's trophy of victory, the scalp, and the object of the Indians in their assaults. The success of the Arab-like Camanches is well illustrated by this skirmish, giving best assurance that Carson, who was never surprised in this whole journey, possessed that element of caution so requisite in a commander in such a country.
Of the two soldiers whose turn it had been to stand guard this morning, it was found that one was sleeping when the alarm was given, and when it was reported to Carson, he at once administered the Chinook method of punishment—the dress of a squaw—for that day, and resuming his journey, arrived safely in Santa Fe, where he left the soldiers, and hired sixteen men of his own choosing, to make with him the remainder of the journey, as he had been ordered at Fort Leavenworth. To his great joy, his family were here to meet him, as he had requested. Upon Virgin River, he had to command the obedience of Indians who came into his camp and left it tardily, by firing upon them, which required some nerve and experience in a leader of so small a party, while the Indians numbered three hundred warriors. They arrived at Los Angelos without further incident than the killing and eating of two mules, to eke out their scanty subsistence, in the destitution of game and time to hunt it; whence Carson proceeded to Monterey, to deliver his dispatches at headquarters, and returned to the duty assigned him as an acting Lieutenant in the United States Army, in the company of dragoons under Capt. Smith, allowing himself no time to recruit; and soon he was sent with a command of twenty-five dragoons, to the Tejon Pass, to examine the papers and cargoes of Indians passing this point, the route which most of the Indian depredators took in passing in and out of California; and here he did much good service during the winter.
In the spring he again went overland to Washington with dispatches, meeting no serious difficulty till he came to the Grand River, where in the time of spring flood he was obliged to construct a raft, and the second load over was swamped, the men barely saving their lives, which rendered his party destitute of comforts in their onward journey, but arriving at Taos he stopped with his family, and at his own home gave his men a few days to recruit, and himself the luxury of intercourse with his family and friends, which no one enjoys more than Christopher Carson.
They had encountered several hundred Indians of the Apaches and Utahs, whom Carson told he had nothing to give, and upon whom the appearance of his men gave assurance they would make little by attacking. At Santa Fe, Carson learned that his appointment as Lieutenant by the President had not been confirmed by the Senate, and his friends advised him not to carry the dispatches any further; but Carson was not to be deterred from doing his duty because the honor he deserved was not accorded to him, saying that "as he had been selected for an important trust, he should do his best to fulfill it, if it cost him his life;" and he proceeded to Washington, feeling that if ill-usage had reached him in connection with Fremont, to whom he had been of so much service, it was no more than he might have expected; as, for many months past, political considerations and rivalries had been seen by him to govern the actions of certain men, instead of a care for the best interests of the country. He had seen men in command of troops in the prairies who had the least possible knowledge of the country, and especially of Indian warfare. He would have advised that frontier men be chosen for such appointments, rather than those simply educated in the schools and entirely unaccustomed to endure privations, but if others neglected the wiser course, that was no reason why he should not do his duty.
Learning that the Camanches were upon the Santa Fe road, several hundred strong, he reduced his escort to ten choice mountain men, and determined upon making a trail of his own returned to Taos, and struck over to the head-waters of the Platte, and past Fort Kearney to Leavenworth, where he left his escort and proceeded alone to Washington, and delivering his dispatches as directed, returned immediately to Leavenworth, and thence to Taos, where he arrived in October; and was again at home and free from the burdens and responsibilities of public life, with the settled purpose of making a protracted stay, and providing himself with a permanent home.
Perhaps there is no tribe of Indians besides the Seminoles in Florida, that have given the United States more trouble than the Apaches, in the time that we have held the claim of their country; and the best proof of their bravery may be found in the fact that the warriors nearly all die in battle. Living in a country as healthy as any in the world, and constantly occupied in hunting buffalo, or Mexicans and whites, with whom they are at war, they are exceedingly regardful of their national honor, and as their mountain retreats are almost inaccessible, they have the advantage of regular troops, and almost of old mountaineers, only as the latter can equal them in numbers.
Col. Beale was occupying this department at the time of which we write, and engaged in an effort to chastise the Apaches under Clico Velasquez, their exceedingly blood-thirsty and cruel chief, whose habit was to adorn his dress with the finger bones of the victims he had slaughtered. Col. Beale took charge of the command himself, and employed Carson as his guide. They crossed snow mountains to search for the Indians, and returning came upon a village, which they attacked, and captured a large amount of goods and two of the chiefs of the tribe, with whom Col. Beale had a long talk, and then dismissed to return to their tribe, hoping thus to convince them of the magnanimity of the United States Government, when the command returned to Taos to recruit his troops.
Meantime Carson entertained, at his own home in Taos, Fremont and his party of suffering explorers, who were making a winter survey of a pass for a road to California, and by taking a difficult mountain pass, had lost all their mules and several of their party. Science is not all that is needed for such undertakings, and as labor and learning should act in co-partnership, to be most effective, so theoretic and practical skill should be associated in any effort of difficulty, as this trip of Col. Fremont, without an experienced mountaineer for a guide, proved to him and his men, some of whom had fed upon the others who had starved.