THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL by COLONEL HENRY INMAN (best fiction novels of all time .TXT) 📕

The

Allied plains Tribes--His Stories Around The Camp-Fire.

 

 

 

Chapter Xvi.

Kit Carson.

Famous Men Of The Old Santa Fe Trail--Kit Carson--Jim Bridger--

James P. Beckwourth--Uncle Dick Wooton--Jim Baker--Lucien B.

Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin--James Hobbs.

 

 

 

Chapter Xvii.

Uncle Dick Wooton.

Uncle Dick Wooton--Lucien B. Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin--

James Hobbs--William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill).

 

 

 

Chapter Xviii.

Maxwell'S Ranch.

Maxwell'S Ranch On The Old Santa Fe Trail--A Picturesque Region--

Maxwell A Trapper And Hunter With The American Fur Company--

Lifelong Comrade Of Kit Carson--Sources Of Maxwell'S Wealth--

Fond Of Horse-Racing--A Disastrous Fourth-Of-July Celebration

--Anecdote Of Kit Carson--Discovery Of Gold On The Ranch--

The Big Ditch--Issuing Beef To The Ute Indians--Camping Out With

Maxwell And Carson--A Story Of The Old Santa Fe Trail.

 

 

 

Chapter Xix.

Bent'S Forts.

The Bents' Several Forts--Famous Trading-Posts--Rendezvous Of The

Rocky Mountain Trappers--Castle William And Incidents Connected

With The Noted place--Bartering With The Indians--Annual Feast

Of Arapahoes And Cheyennes--Old Wolf'S First Visit To Bent'S Fort--

The Surprise Of The Savages--Stories Told By Celebrated frontiersmen

Around The Camp-Fire.

 

 

 

Chapter Xx.

Pawnee Rock.

Pawnee Rock--A Debatable Region Of The Indian Tribes--The Most

Dangerous Point On The Central Plains In the Days Of The Early

Santa Fe Trade--Received its Name In a Baptism Of Blood--

Battle-Ground Of The Pawnees And Cheyennes--Old Graves On The

Summit Of The Rock--Kit Carson'S First Fight At The Rock With

The Pawnees--Kills His Mule By Mistake--Colonel St. Vrain'S

Brilliant Charge--Defeat Of The Savages--The Trappers' Terrible

Battle With The Pawnees--The Massacre At Cow Creek.

 

Contents

Chapter Xxi.

Fooling Stage Robbers.

Wagon Mound--John L. Hatcher'S Thrilling adventure With Old Wolf,

The War-Chief Of The Comanches--Incidents On The Trail--A Boy

Bugler'S Happy Escape From The Savages At Fort Union--A Drunken

Stage-Driver--How An Officer Of The Quartermaster'S Department

At Washington Succeeded in starting The Military Freight Caravans

A Month Earlier Than The Usual Time--How John Chisholm Fooled

The Stage-Robbers--The Story Of Half A Plug Of Tobacco.

 

 

 

Chapter Xxii.

A Desperate Ride.

Solitary Graves Along The Line Of The Old Santa Fe Trail--The Walnut

Crossing--Fort Zarah--The Graves On Hon. D. Heizer'S Ranch On

The Walnut--Troops Stationed at The Crossing Of The Walnut--

A Terrible Five Miles--The Cavalry Recruit'S Last Ride.

 

 

 

Chapter Xxiii.

Hancock'S Expedition.

General Hancock'S Expedition Against The Plains Indians--Terrible

Snow-Storm At Fort Larned--Meeting With The Chiefs Of The

Dog-Soldiers--Bull Bear'S Diplomacy--Meeting Of The United states

Troops And The Savages In line Of Battle--Custer'S Night Experience--

The Surgeon And Dog Stew--Destruction Of The Village By Fire--

General Sully'S Fight With The Kiowas, Comanches, And Arapahoes--

Finding The Skeletons Of The Unfortunate Men--The Savages' Report

Of The Affair.

 

 

 

Chapter Xxiv.

Invasion Of The Railroad.

Scenery On The Line Of The Old Santa Fe Trail--The Great Plains--

The Arkansas Valley--Over The Rocky Mountains Into New Mexico--

The Raton Range--The Spanish Peaks--Simpson'S Rest--Fisher'S Peak

--Raton Peak--Snowy Range--Pike'S Peak--Raton Creek--The Invasion

Of The Railroad--The Old Santa Fe Trail A Thing Of The Past.

 

Introduction

For More Than Three Centuries, A Period Extending From 1541 To 1851,

Historians Believed, And So Announced to The Literary World,

That Francisco Vasquez De Coronado, The Celebrated spanish Explorer,

In His Search For The Seven Cities Of Cibola And The Kingdom Of Quivira,

Was The First European To Travel Over The Intra-Continent Region

Of North America.  In the Last Year Above Referred to, However,

Buckingham Smith, Of Florida, An Eminent Spanish Scholar, And Secretary

Of The American Legation At Madrid, Discovered among The Archives

Of State The _Narrative Of Alvar Nunez Cabeca De Vaca_, Where For

Nearly Three Hundred years It Had Lain, Musty And Begrimed with The

Dust Of Ages, An Unread And Forgotten Story Of Suffering That Has No

Parallel In fiction.  The Distinguished antiquarian Unearthed the

Valuable Manuscript From Its Grave Of Oblivion, Translated it Into

English, And Gave It To The World Of Letters; Conferring Honour Upon

Whom Honour Was Due, And Tearing The Laurels From Such Grand Voyageurs

And Discoverers As De Soto, La Salle, And Coronado, Upon Whose Heads

History Had Erroneously Placed them, Through No Fault, Or Arrogance,

However, Of Their Own.

 

 

 

Cabeca, Beyond Any Question, Travelled the Old Santa Fe Trail For

Many Miles, Crossed it Where It Intersects The Arkansas River,

A Little East Of Fort William Or Bent'S Fort, And Went Thence On

Into New Mexico, Following The Famous Highway As Far, At Least,

As Las Vegas.  Cabeca'S March Antedated that Of Coronado By Five Years.

To This Intrepid Spanish Voyageur We Are Indebted for The First

Description Of The American Bison, Or Buffalo As The Animal Is

Erroneously Called.  While Not So Quaint In its Language As That

Of Coronado'S Historian, A Lustrum Later, The Statement Cannot Be

Perverted into Any Other Reference Than To The Great Shaggy Monsters

Of The Plains:--

 

 

 

          Cattle Come As Far As This.  I Have Seen Them Three Times

          And Eaten Of Their Meat.  I Think They Are About The Size

          Of Those Of Spain.

Introduction

.  They Have Small Horns Like The Cows

          Of Morocco, And The Hair Very Long And Flocky, Like That

          Of The Merino; Some Are Light Brown, Others Black.  To My

          Judgment The Flesh Is Finer And Fatter Than That Of This

          Country.  The Indians Make Blankets Of The Hides Of Those

          Not Full Grown.  They Range Over A District Of More Than

          Four Hundred leagues, And In the Whole Extent Of Plain Over

          Which They Run The People That Inhabit Near There Descend

          And Live On Them And Scatter A Vast Many Skins Throughout

          The Country.

 

 

 

It Will Be Remembered by The Student Of The Early History Of

Our Country, That When Alvar Nunez Cabeca De Vaca, A Follower Of The

Unfortunate Panphilo De Narvaez, And Who Had Been Long Thought Dead,

Landed in spain, He Gave Such Glowing accounts Of Florida[1] And The

Neighbouring Regions That The Whole Kingdom Was In a Ferment,

And Many A Heart Panted to Emigrate To A Land Where The Fruits

Were Perennial, And Where It Was Thought Flowed the Fabled

Fountain Of Youth.

 

 

 

Three Expeditions To That Country Had Already Been Tried:

One Undertaken In 1512, By Juan Ponce De Leon, Formerly A Companion

Of Columbus; Another In 1520, By Vasquez De Allyon; And Another By

Panphilo De Narvaez.  All Of These Had Signally Failed, The Bones

Of Most Of The Leaders And Their Followers Having Been Left To Bleach

Upon The Soil They Had Come To Conquer.

 

 

 

The Unfortunate Issue Of The Former Expeditions Did Not Operate As

A Check Upon The Aspiring Mind Of De Soto, But Made Him The More

Anxious To Spring as An Actor Into The Arena Which Had Been The Scene

Of The Discomfiture And Death Of The Hardy Chivalry Of The Kingdom.

He Sought An Audience Of The Emperor, And The Latter, After Hearing

De Soto'S Proposition That, "He Could Conquer The Country Known As

Florida At His Own Expense," Conferred upon Him The Title Of

"Governor Of Cuba And Florida."

 

 

 

On The 6Th Of April, 1538, De Soto Sailed from Spain With An Armament

Of Ten Vessels And A Splendidly Equipped army Of Nine Hundred chosen Men,

Amidst The Roar Of Cannons And The Inspiring Strains Of Martial Music.

 

 

 

It Is Not Within The Province Of This Work To Follow De Soto Through

All His Terrible Trials On The North American Continent; The Wonderful

Story May Be Found In every Well-Organized library.

Introduction

It Is Recorded,

However, That Some Time During The Year 1542, His Decimated army,

Then Under The Command Of Luis De Moscoso, De Soto Having Died

The Previous May, Was Camped on The Arkansas River, Far Upward Towards

What Is Now Kansas.  It Was This Command, Too, Of The Unfortunate

But Cruel De Soto, That Saw The Rocky Mountains From The East.

The Chronicler Of The Disastrous Journey Towards The Mountains Says:

"The Entire Route Became A Trail Of Fire And Blood," As They

Had Many A Desperate Struggle With The Savages Of The Plains,

Who "Were Of Gigantic Stucture, And Fought With Heavy Strong Clubs,

With The Desperation Of Demons.  Such Was Their Tremendous Strength,

That One Of These Warriors Was A Match For A Spanish Soldier,

Though Mounted on A Horse, Armed with A Sword And Cased in armour!"

 

 

 

Moscoso Was Searching For Coronado, And He Was One Of The Most Humane

Of All The Officers Of De Soto'S Command, For He Evidently Bent

Every Energy To Extricate His Men From The Dreadful Environments

Of Their Situation; Despairing Of Reaching The Gulf By The Mississippi,

He Struck Westward, Hoping, As Cabeca De Vaca Had Done, To Arrive

In Mexico Overland.

 

 

 

A Period Of Six Months Was Consumed in moscoso'S March Towards The

Rocky Mountains, But He Failed to Find Coronado, Who At That Time

Was Camped near Where Wichita, Kansas, Is Located; According To His

Historian, "At The Junction Of The St. Peter And St. Paul" (The Big

And Little Arkansas?).  That Point Was The Place Of Separation

Between Coronado And A Number Of His Followers; Many Returning

To Mexico, While The Undaunted commander, With As Many As He Could

Induce To Accompany Him, Continued easterly, Still In search Of

The Mythical Quivira.

 

 

 

How Far Westward Moscoso Travelled cannot Be Determined accurately,

But That His Route Extended up The Valley Of The Arkansas For More Than

Three Hundred miles, Into What Is Now Kansas, Is Proved by The Statement

Of His Historian, Who Says: "They Saw Great Chains Of Mountains And

Forests To The West, Which They Understood Were Uninhabited."

 

 

Another Strong Confirmatory Fact Is, That, In 1884, A Group Of Mounds

Was Discovered in mcpherson County, Kansas, Which Were Thoroughly

Explored by The Professors Of Bethany College, Lindsborg, Who Found,

Among Other Interesting Relics, A Piece Of Chain-Mail Armour,

Of Hard Steel; Undoubtedly Part Of The Equipment Of A Spanish Soldier

Either Of The Command Of Cabeca De Vaca, De Soto, Or Of Coronado.

The Probability Is, That It Was Worn By One Of De Soto'S Unfortunate Men,

As Neither Panphilo De Narvaez, De Vaca, Or Coronado Experienced any

Difficulty With The Savages Of The Great Plains, Because Those Leaders

Were