“As far as I can savvy the trouble, that Colyer man has spilled the soup,” complained Joe, this evening after his return from Tucson. “Some o’ these agencies are located in awful pore places, not fitted for the Injuns at all—like that Date Creek reservation whar the Apache-Mohaves are herded. But that Cañada Alamosa of the Ojo Caliente (Warm Spring) country jest suited old Victorio, an’ Cochise, too, an’ they weren’t doin’ any harm.
“Now ’long comes Colyer, an’ he says to the Government: ‘The settlers ’round the Cañada Alamosa don’t like to have the Injuns thar. It’s good cattle ground, an’ they want it for themselves. So to avoid hard feelin’s I recommend we move the Injuns all up yonder to the Tularosa country, which nobody wants!’
“Natur’ly, bein’ as the same Injuns had been promised the Cañada Alamosa if they’d live on it, an’ thar’s plenty other land for the settlers, they see no good reason for swappin’. They say that up at the Tularosa the weather an’ land an’ water are as bad for Injuns as for white men, an’ it’s ghost country. I tell ye,” concluded Joe, “when you make an agreement with an Injun you got to stand by it, or he’ll never believe in you ag’in. You can’t fool him, or he’ll fool you! I’m curyus to see what kind of a man this Gen’ral Howard is.”
Jimmie, too, was “curyrus” to see this General O. O. Howard, who was visiting the peaceful Yumas and Pimas in western Arizona and was expected, any day, at Tucson. His next stop probably would be Camp Grant itself, so that he might talk with the Pinals and Arivaipas.
Veteran Sergeant Warfield, who had served under the general in the Union Army, at Antietam and Gettysburg and in other big battles, said that he was a great man, had commanded as high as thirty thousand soldiers, in the field; had lost his right arm, by two wounds, at the battle of Fair Oaks; was a hard fighter and was very religious—knew the Bible by heart and almost had resigned from the army to go into “preaching.”
“But let me tell you this,” added the grizzled sergeant, to Jimmie: “Arizony’ll find out that General Howard’s a man who’ll see that right is done to both white and red. He’s got a heap of sense, and he’s as square as a piece of hard-tack.”
“A great American soldier chief is coming to talk with the Arivaipa,” informed Jimmie, to old Santos, at the reservation.
“What does he want?” demanded Santos, in Apache.
“He wants to make peace with all the Indians.”