Seven and Nine years Among the Camanches and Apaches: An Autobiography

A firsthand autobiographical account recounts prolonged captivity among Comanche and Apache groups after frontier raids, detailing repeated imprisonment, physical hardship, and psychological strain. The narrative alternates personal episodes with the wife’s parallel testimony, documenting camp routines, ceremonies and dances, hunting and war parties, instances of torture and scalping, survival strategies, and an eventual escape. Practical descriptions of daily life, feasting and fasting, and encounters on the plains are combined with reflections on danger, endurance, and the process of attempting to return to settled society.