[29]. Killed on the Island
[30]. Charles F. Lummis refers to the Apaches as among the most ferocious and most successful warriors in history.
[31]. The reason a large body of men had not been detailed for the pursuit was that the greater the number the slower the movement would have been, and the Indians could and would have kept out of the way with ease. If the Indians were laying a trap for Forsyth, he was tempting them to stop and fight.
[32]. In dry seasons I have often seen Western river beds half a mile wide absolutely devoid of water. In the wet season these same beds would be roaring torrents from bank to bank.
[33]. As the Indians surrounded the island and the fire came in from all quarters, the men had to dig the earth for protection in rear as well as in front, and the rifle-pits were, in fact, hollows scooped out of the ground just long enough for a man to lie in.
[34]. Two of the scouts had been left behind, at Fort Wallace, because of illness.
[35]. The reason why an Indian will sacrifice everything to remove the body of one of his tribe or kin who has been killed, is to prevent the taking of his scalp. The religious belief of the Indians is that a man who is scalped cannot enter the happy hunting grounds, but is doomed to wander in outer darkness forever. For that reason he always scalps his enemy, so that when he himself reaches the happy hunting grounds he will not be bothered by a lot of enemies whom he has met and overcome during his lifetime. Naturally, it was a point of honor for him to get the bodies of his friends away, so that they might not be debarred from the Indian Heaven in the hereafter. Sometimes, however, the Indian did not scalp the body of a particularly brave man, for this reason: It is his belief that if he kills a man in battle and does not scalp him, that man will be his slave or servant in the happy hunting grounds, and although the victim still possesses capacities for mischief, the Indian sometimes risks all in the future glory that will come to him from holding in slavery a brave man, or a noted warrior, as a spiritual witness to his prowess. It is stated that the Indians never scalp the bodies of negroes and suicides. “Buffalo soldier heap bad medicine,” is their universal testimony when asked why they do not scalp negro troopers whom they have killed or captured. Perhaps they cannot scalp a woolly, kinky-haired black soldier, and that is the reason it is “bad medicine.” Suicide is “bad medicine,” too, for some unexplained reason.
CHAPTER SIX
The Journey of the Scouts and the Rescue of Forsyth
I. The Adventures of the Scouts
Trudeau and Stillwell, the first pair of scouts despatched by Forsyth with the story of his desperate situation on Beecher’s Island, left their commander about midnight on the evening of the first day of the attack. The Indians had withdrawn from the immediate vicinity of the river and were resting quietly in the camps on either side, although there were a number of warriors watching the island. The men bade a hasty good-by to their comrades, received their captain’s final instructions, and with beating hearts stole away on their desperate errand.