In the course of the summer friendly Indians visited me, but never stopped long, and gave me to understand that I lived too much among the white men. It would be much better for me to move nearer to them and then they would visit me more frequently. Thus arrived one evening just before sunset my old friend Pahajuka, accompanied by his good old squaw, and his granddaughter, and a few Comanches. The joy of the old folk was great, and they said that had not the white men blocked the road to me, they would willingly stay some time with me, but as it was we were daily more separated. Tahtoweja said nothing, but her black eyes plainly expressed that she too felt happy at being with me again. She could not in her silent admiration gaze sufficiently at the decorations of my room; and for hours she would gaze at the pictures on the walls, or turn over the sketches in my portfolio, when business prevented me from being with her. Music seemed to be her delight, and she often came late at night into the gallery and begged me to play the guitar, when she seemed to fall into a happy dreamy state and entirely forget the world. She too begged me to come away from among the pale faces and settle nearer to them: the Comanches loved me more than they did. The people remained some weeks with me, but one morning they came into my room, and the old lady said with tears, that this was the last visit they would pay me, as the road to me was growing too narrow. I was obliged to promise them a visit at the parts where the buffalo still grazed, and the antelopes and stags had not so many feet as here.
After breakfast I saddled Czar and rode with my guests to the mountain springs, where we spent the night, and the next morning we took leave of one another. I promised to join them the next winter on the Puerco, when a great council of the Comanches was to take place. They often looked with tears in their eyes in the direction of the Fort: then they offered me their hand once again and rode off, never again to cross the threshold of my house, to which they were so attached.
Tiger too seemed dissatisfied at the new settlements, and could not understand how people could have an objection to his pulling down the fences and riding across the fields to save distance. They had also forbidden him taking dry corn leaves for his horse out of the stacks, or fastening his piebald to the grand stockade in front of the house, while he went in to beg a drink of water. What I had long foreseen happened, he was beginning to feel the trammels of civilization and wrestled against them, while its comforts still attracted him. Shortly after Pahajuka's departure Tiger's tribe arrived in the neighbourhood of the Fort, and the chief paid me a visit with several of his warriors. He told me that Tiger wished to go home with them, in order to see his relations and return to me in the following spring. Though I felt sorry for it, I saw that he could not remain much longer in our settlement without parting from us on unfriendly terms: hence I offered no objection, and on the day of their departure I accompanied them as far as Widow White's, as I wanted to pay a visit to Mac on Mustang River. I took a hearty farewell of Tiger, as I was really attached to him, and he was obliged to promise me a visit ere long.
MacDonnell's, when I found everything prospering. His field had produced a rich maize crop, and was now covered with beans, potatoes, melons, gourds, &c. His orchard already contained fine young trees; his garden supplied him and his negroes with magnificent vegetables. The yard round his house was crowded with poultry of every description, and the interior of his blockhouse was very neat and tidy. A large new patchwork quilt was thrown on his bed; over the mantelpiece was a handsome looking-glass, and by its side hung the framed portraits of three men, which are very frequently found in frontier houses, and by which the Americans do not pay themselves the worst compliment. They represent the greatest, the best, and the most useful men of our century—Washington, Alexander von Humboldt and Liebig.
The now frequently traversed road from Turkey Creek to the Leone shortened the distance between the two rivers much, as the greater portion of it could be galloped over. I reached the Fort again at an early hour, and helped Königstein in his preparations for a start on the next morning. He was going with Antonio, Lambert, and several pack animals to fetch our saddles and traps, which we cached after the loss of our cattle in the prairie to the north of the San Saba Mountains.
Although we are still living on the frontier of the desert, we have now in front of us a line of settlements facing the Indians, which keep off us the ordinary dangers of a frontier life; and we are rarely reminded by the personal appearance of these savages in our vicinity, that their hunting-grounds are not a great distance from us.
