THEIR CRUELTY.
experience realities, and have your all and dearest on earth torn from you, and hear their heart-rending cries as they are carried off by savage demons, and see how the red devils can mock mercy and torture helpless innocence; and if the fire within your bosom does not kindle and you do not say that the devils have it only too good, there must be little soul within. God knows that I would be the last to mention violence; but I have seen decency outraged and sweet infancy tortured, and have witnessed so many sickening sights that my blood boils whenever I think of them and my right arm twitches for vengeance. The first tribe that starts a war should be made an example of, and the last wretch laid low; then outbreaks would be fewer. As it is, there is continually trouble all along the frontier, and no man is safe. If the Government would only empower a company of cow-boys and hunters to pursue them when out on the war-path, there would be less damage and severer reprimands; but until the soldiers capture them, with their blue ribbon and military maneuvers, the devils have done all the mischief they want to do and are ready to surrender.
The Indians all appear friendly; but a chance is all that is wanted to place your scalp bleeding upon a pole while they sing their bloody songs around it. It is their nature.
“And as long as his skin is rough and red,
His cruel heart is the devil’s bed.”
We followed the river to its junction with the Canadian. This is a most splendid country. Here God again does the raining, and no irrigation is needed. The agencies are the same. We then concluded to go up the Canadian to the west. It was not long, however, until we had left the rich farming country and were again upon the dry, sandy wilderness. The country for some distance upon either side of the river is intensely rough, rocky, barren, and sandy. Great herds of cattle range along the river and up and down all its tributaries. As we went to the west trees grew few and scrubby and dwarf-bushes grew among the rocks and bluffs, and little streams of clear water came tumbling down over the rocks from the springs away under the barren hills. We often thought of the mountains as we wound along, and we thought we must be near the jumping-off place. We killed several deer and antelopes among the hills, and saw some strange-looking tracks in the sand at the water.
Early one pretty morning, as we were strolling up the ravines in search of game, I noticed Charles stop suddenly, and dropping behind a rock he beckoned me to him. He pointed up the river to where some bushes were shaking; and crawling closer, by the aid of our glass we found it to be a large lion feasting upon the carcass of a deer. We crept away, and after gathering the other boys we held a council and determined to tackle him, let come what would. We cautiously crept along under rocks and brush until we were within one hundred and fifty yards of him, when he spied us, and uttering a loud roar, crouched low upon his prey. Now was our time; so, resting my rifle upon a rock, I deliberately fired. He was almost hidden in the brush, and I struck him in the shoulder. He uttered a terrible roar, and bounded toward us with his shattered blade. We had shrunk from the lion behind the bars; but, my Lord, here we were in the same cage with him, and no chance to shrink. I tell you, a lion can jump like thunder with three legs; and he came directly at me. The boys were flanked upon either side, and they were to reserve their loads until he was near enough to be sure. I waited until I could see his eyes bat, and he was about to make his last spring, and then pulled; but, great God! the cartridge failed. I dodged behind a large rock, and as he sprung down over my head, with his powerful paws extended and his great claws protruding like bayonets, his low growl sounded like the voice of hell; and though things looked a little cloudy, I never conceded for one moment that I was ever created for lion-meat. The blood-hound sprung forward and sunk his huge teeth into his hind leg; but he was no more to the infuriated animal than a gad-fly would be to a buffalo, and before I could shove a new cartridge home he was again crouched to spring, when the boys rushed forward, and, with the muzzles of their rifles so close that the hair was singed, sent three well-directed balls grinding through his body. The shots all went near the heart, and he never arose from the earth, but rolled over upon his side, and with a low, gurgling groan, trembled and died. It was sport, all through; but I enjoyed this stage of the proceedings better than any other. As he lay there, with his nine feet of power stretched upon the sand so closely to me that I could feel his dying-breath and touch his shaggy mane, I felt happy that he was dead. He was nine feet in length, and was the most powerful lion we had ever seen. Some of his teeth were two inches long; and after looking carefully at the huge mouth and powerful jaws, I concluded that I was at one time nearer being lion-meat than I had before believed. The blood-hound stood proudly by, wagging his tail as though waiting for the praise for killing him. Poor fool! He was not as much as a gray-back in the folds of the shirt of a professional tramp. I felt very glad that I did not tackle the animal alone. We carefully examined every cartridge we had. Charles said if I could have caught the tail I might have gone to thunder and fought my own battle, like he did with the buffalo. We looked carefully around that day, expecting to find the mate; but we saw no more, and the next morning journeyed on.
When we were about the center of the territory we struck south for the Red River, which bounds the territory on the south. We struck the Washita River, Wild Horse Creek, and many other small streams, finding many cattle along every water, and game in all directions. Great herds of buffaloes were daily seen heading to the north. There being plenty of good water all along the route from the Canadian to the Red River, the journey was a pleasant one. The country of the Red River was rough as the Canadian, and was good for naught but raising stock. We left the Red River and went down the Big Washita; and then on to the Brazos, and down its head-waters to the Double Mountain, Texas, which we had been told was the range of the main buffalo-herd of the south. The story was certainly correct, for they were here by the thousands; and not being nearly so wild as where we had hunted, it was no more to shoot a buffalo here than to kill a cow. The country was rough, and destitute of all but short grass; and though there were cattle here, they were not nearly so numerous as at other places where we had been. There was a little ranch now and then stuck in among the rocks—and one man stays in each; but they carry their lives in a holy pocket every day and night. They have become somewhat reconciled to this hermit-life, and do not give the danger its full weight. This is about as wild a country as lies within the borders of our Union; and if a person had the material, and were prepared, he could make crooked whisky here without molestation by the authorities.
We were now prepared to cross the staked plains, which had been reported to us as a broad, dry, and barren country; that it required several days’ journey to cross, upon which many persons had perished, and where, several years ago, a whole company of soldiers had been led by the Indians whom they were pursuing, and there became bewildered and died in this waterless region. We filled our barrel and three skins with water from a cool, crystal spring that bubbled from beneath a rock and headed the Colorado River, and steered due west for the Rio Pecos in New Mexico. The first night out we camped upon a dry, barren plain, level as a floor, and almost destitute of grass, all animation having disappeared. We traveled beneath the burning sun; and resting at night upon the broad couch of nature, we breathed the light, warm air. It was all the same in any direction, with no object to obstruct the vision, and not one cloud to dim the splendor of the setting sun. On the eve of the third day out our attention was attracted to some white objects upon the prairie ahead, and which, upon coming up, we found to be the skeletons of four men bleaching in the sun. The thirsty reptile had doubtless strangled them; and as we stood gazing upon the whitened forms, we thought of the agonies of that last hour. They must have lain there for some years, for there was not even a vestige of else but the bones. They had undoubtedly cast away everything to hurry on; and when the weakest fainted, the others in their delirium sunk by his side, all determined to soar upon the same wings to the land beyond, where the crystal fountains are flowing freely.