En route the Apaches raided Jesus Cota's ranch, killed his herder and drove off one hundred and forty head of cattle. In crossing the river forty of the animals mired in the quicksands. The heartless Indians thereupon pounced upon the unfortunate cattle and cut chunks of flesh out of their living bodies. Many of the mutilated animals were still alive when we found them. The redskins, with a freakish sense of humor, perpetrated a grim joke on the murdered herder. He was rendering out some tallow when surprised and killed, so the murderers rammed his head into the melted tallow to make him a greaser!
After the fight at Quitman, Victorio and his band crossed into Mexico and there found temporary safety, as the United States troops were not permitted to enter that country in pursuit of Indians, though negotiations to permit such pursuit of Indians were even then pending between the two governments. Alone, we were no match for Victorio's hundred braves, so we returned to our camp.
Victorio, however, did not remain idle in Mexico. He made a raid on Dr. Saminiego's San Jose ranch and stole one hundred and seventeen horses and mules, besides killing two Mexican herders. Don Ramon Arranda, captain of the Mexican Volunteers, invited the rangers to Mexico to cooperate with him in exterminating the Apaches, so, on September 17, 1880, Lieutenant Baylor with thirteen rangers, myself included, entered Mexico and marched to Tancas Cantaresio, Don Arranda's ranch. Here we were joined by Mexican volunteers from the towns of Guadalupe, San Ignacio, Tres Jacalas, Paso del Norte, and from the Texan towns of Ysleta, Socorro, and San Elizario, until our combined force numbered over a hundred men.
On the night of the 19th we crossed an Indian trail south of the Rancheria Mountains, but could not tell the number of redskins in the party, as it was then dark and the trail damaged by rain. The same night we saw Indian signal fires to the east of the Arranda ranch. Next morning, with a detail of five rangers and ten Mexican volunteers, I scouted out in the direction of the fires but did not have time to reach the sign, as I was ordered to take and hold the Rancheria Mountains before old Victorio and his band reached them.
At Lucero, the first stage stand, the Apaches were reported within a league of Carrizal. We made a night march with our rangers and seventy-three volunteers, but found the Indians had left, and, as a heavy rain had put out the trail, we struck east toward El Copra Mountains. Here we again picked up the trail and, following it until night, we found a few loose horses of Saminiego's. The marauders now went west toward some tanks and we returned to Candelario, where Victorio's entire band had crossed the Chihuahua stage road. Thence we marched back to San Jose and went into camp to await the arrival of General Joaquin Terrasas.
The Mexican general made his appearance on the 3rd day of October with two hundred cavalry and one hundred infantry. This general, a member of a well known family of Chihuahua, was more than six feet in height, very dark and an inveterate smoker of cigarettes. He used four milk white horses, riding one while his aides led three. His cavalry, well armed with Remington pistols and carbines, was nicely uniformed and mounted on dark colored animals of even size. The infantry were Indians from the interior of Mexico. These foot soldiers wore rawhide sandals on their feet and were armed with Remington muskets. Each soldier carried two cartridge belts, containing one hundred rounds of ammunition. I was impressed with the little baggage and rations these infantrymen carried. On the march each man had a little canvas bag that held about one quart of ground parched corn, sweetened with a little sugar—and a table-spoonful of this mixture stirred in a pint cup of water made a good meal. Of course when in a cattle country plenty of beef was furnished them, but when on the march they had only this little bag of corn. This lack of baggage and rations enabled them to move quickly and promptly. This light infantry had no trouble at all in keeping up with the cavalry on the march and in a rough country they could move faster than the horsemen.
With General Terrasas' three hundred soldiers and our hundred volunteers we could bring to bear against Victorio about four hundred men. From San Jose the combined command marched to Rebosadero Springs, twenty miles south of El Caparo, on the new Chihuahua stage road. There we rested two days and then marched forty miles to Boracho Pass, where the Apaches had camped after killing General Byrnes and stealing Jesus Cota's stock. We crossed the Indians' trail twenty miles west of the pass and formed our line of battle, as we expected the enemy was camped at some tanks there. He did not appear, so we camped at the pass to await supplies.
When the supply wagons arrived, General Terrasas sent an orderly to Lieutenant Baylor and invited him to send his men to draw ten days' rations. While I was standing in my shirtsleeves near the wagon one of the Mexican soldiers stole from my belt a fine hunting knife that I had carried ten thousand miles over the frontier. I discovered the loss almost immediately and reported it to Lieutenant Baylor, who, in turn, mentioned it to General Terrasas. The Mexican general at once had his captains form their respective companies and had every soldier in camp searched, but the knife was not found. The thief had probably hidden it in the grass. The Mexican volunteers remained with General Terrasas until after the defeat of Victorio, and one of them told me afterward he had seen a Mexican soldier scalping Apaches with it. Just one year later an orderly of General Terrasas rode into the ranger camp at Ysleta and presented Lieutenant Baylor, then a captain, with the missing weapon and a note stating that Terrasas was glad to return it and to report that the thief had been punished.
While at Boracho we were joined by Lieutenant Shaffer, the Twenty-third United States Cavalry (negroes), Lieutenant Manney, Captain Parker and sixty-five Apache scouts. These latter were Geronimo's Chiricauhaus, who later quit their reservation and wrought such death and destruction in Arizona, New Mexico, and Old Mexico. From the first General Terrasas viewed these Indian allies with distrust, and as soon as we had scouted southeast from Boracho to Los Pinos Mountains, about seventy-five miles distant, and learned that Victorio's trail turned southwest toward Chihuahua, General Terrasas called Captain Parker, Lieutenants Baylor, Shaffer and Manney to his camp and informed them that, as the trail had taken a turn back into the state of Chihuahua and was leading them away from their homes, he thought it best for the Americans to return to the United States. I was present at this conference and I at once saw my chance for a scrap with old Victorio go glimmering. But there was nothing to do but obey orders, pack up and vamoose.