To her fierce utterances they listened with attention, because she told them what they wanted to hear, and the next day saw them upon the warpath. They had escaped punishment, for a time at least, for it is an axiom of Indian warfare, the truth of which is at once apparent, that you can not do anything to an Indian until you have caught him.
The leader of this band of Chiricahua Apaches is the subject of this sketch—the far-famed Geronimo, the best advertised Indian on earth. He is a son of Tah-Clish-Un, and a pupil of Cochise, from whom he had learned every detail of Indian generalship, and had succeeded him in his marvelous influence over the tribe.
Lieut. Britton Davis, Third Cavalry, under whose control the Chiricahuas were, telegraphed at once to General Crook a report of the case, but the wires were working badly and the message was never delivered. Had the message reached Crook, he would at once have taken action to head them off and it is quite probable no trouble would have occurred, as he would have nipped it in the bud.
The troops were at once prepared for pursuit, and the long chase began about the middle of April, 1885. Their earliest field of operations was in that portion of New Mexico between the Ladron and Magdalena Mountains and the boundary of Arizona, and just north of the Gila River. "Geronimo knows this country as well as if he had made it himself," was the quaint remark of a newspaper correspondent; and indeed it would not have suited his purpose better, had it been made to order.
From mountain fastnesses beyond the reach of the ordinary white soldier, the warriors of Geronimo and Naiche could look down upon the troops sent in pursuit. From their hiding-places among the caves and cañons they could make a sudden dash upon scouting parties, or cut off supply trains; and the cunning savages knew how to time these descents so as to avoid danger of diminishing their band.
"But," as Kelsey says, "it was not only in finding secure hiding-places that the Indians were too much for the whites. Had that been all, they might have been surrounded by a cordon of soldiers and reduced by famine. They had pathways known only to themselves, by which they could elude pursuit. Issuing from their rocky caves and lofty eyries, the untiring children of the plains would descend upon the isolated settlements which are scattered over the two territories, and write in fire and blood the message of defiance to the general whom they had once feared. Now and then, perhaps a captive woman or child would be carried off to a fate worse than death; but more often all fell beneath the murderous stroke of the Apache. Possessing themselves of the horses which had once belonged to the murdered settler, they would ride off. However hot the pursuit they were not to be caught.
"The cavalry must have rest, not only for themselves, but for their horses. But if the steeds of the Indians tired, they had but to steal others at the settlements which they passed, and freshly mounted, the unwearied red men laughed at the white men's best speed. From ninety to one hundred miles in the course of the day was no unusual achievement, though they were encumbered with their women and children; and if necessity required they could travel much farther without resting."
General Crook had a theory that the best way to catch Geronimo and his band of marauders was to employ other friendly Apache warriors as scouts, trailers and Indian police.
This was accordingly done, and between two and three hundred were sworn into the service of the United States, and placed under the command of Captain Crawford.
With the aid of these Apache scouts they were now able to match cunning with cunning, to interpret the smoke signals, to trail the enemy night or day where no track was visible to the eyes of the regulars.