The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Old Santa Fe Trail: The Story of a Great Highway
Title: The Old Santa Fe Trail: The Story of a Great Highway
Author: Henry Inman
Commentator: Buffalo Bill
Release date: April 1, 2005 [eBook #7984]
Most recently updated: February 4, 2013
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Michael S. Overton, and David Widger
THE OLD SANTA FE TRAIL
THE STORY OF A GREAT HIGHWAY
By Colonel Henry Inman
Late Assistant Quartermaster, United States Army
With a Preface by W. F. "BUFFALO BILL" CODY
PREFACE.
As we look into the open fire for our fancies, so we are apt to study the dim past for the wonderful and sublime, forgetful of the fact that the present is a constant romance, and that the happenings of to-day which we count of little importance are sure to startle somebody in the future, and engage the pen of the historian, philosopher, and poet.
Accustomed as we are to think of the vast steppes of Russia and Siberia as alike strange and boundless, and to deal with the unknown interior of Africa as an impenetrable mystery, we lose sight of a locality in our own country that once surpassed all these in virgin grandeur, in majestic solitude, and in all the attributes of a tremendous wilderness.
The story of the Old Santa Fe Trail, so truthfully recalled by Colonel Henry Inman, ex-officer of the old Regular Army, in these pages, is a most thrilling one. The vast area through which the famous highway ran is still imperfectly known to most people as "The West"; a designation once appropriate, but hardly applicable now; for in these days of easy communication the real trail region is not so far removed from New York as Buffalo was seventy years ago.
At the commencement of the "commerce of the prairies," in the early portion of the century, the Old Trail was the arena of almost constant sanguinary struggles between the wily nomads of the desert and the hardy white pioneers, whose eventful lives made the civilization of the vast interior region of our continent possible. Their daring compelled its development, which has resulted in the genesis of great states and large cities. Their hardships gave birth to the American homestead; their determined will was the factor of possible achievements, the most remarkable and important of modern times.
When the famous highway was established across the great plains as a line of communication to the shores of the blue Pacific, the only method of travel was by the slow freight caravan drawn by patient oxen, or the lumbering stage coach with its complement of four or six mules. There was ever to be feared an attack by those devils of the desert, the Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas. Along its whole route the remains of men, animals, and the wrecks of camps and wagons, told a story of suffering, robbery, and outrage more impressive than any language. Now the tourist or business man makes the journey in palace cars, and there is nothing to remind him of the danger or desolation of Border days; on every hand are the evidences of a powerful and advanced civilization.
It is fortunate that one is left to tell some of its story who was a living actor and had personal knowledge of many of the thrilling scenes that were enacted along the line of the great route. He was familiar with all the famous men, both white and savage, whose lives have made the story of the Trail, his own sojourn on the plains and in the Rocky Mountains extending over a period of nearly forty years.
The Old Trail has more than common interest for me, and I gladly record here my indorsement of the faithful record, compiled by a brave soldier, old comrade, and friend.
W. F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill."
CONTENTS
PREFACE.
DETAILED CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I. UNDER THE SPANIARDS
CHAPTER II. LA LANDE AND PURSLEY
CHAPTER III. EARLY TRADERS
CHAPTER IV. TRAINS AND PACKERS
CHAPTER V. FIGHT WITH COMANCHES
CHAPTER VI. A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY
CHAPTER VII. MEXICO DECLARES WAR
CHAPTER VIII. THE VALLEY OF TAOS
CHAPTER IX. FIRST OVERLAND MAIL
CHAPTER X. CHARLES BENT
CHAPTER XI. LA GLORIETA
CHAPTER XII. THE BUFFALO
CHAPTER XIII. INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS
CHAPTER XIV. TRAPPERS
CHAPTER XV. UNCLE JOHN SMITH
CHAPTER XVI. KIT CARSON
CHAPTER XVII. UNCLE DICK WOOTON
CHAPTER XVIII. MAXWELL'S RANCH
CHAPTER XIX. BENT'S FORTS
CHAPTER XX. PAWNEE ROCK
CHAPTER XXI. FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS
CHAPTER XXII. A DESPERATE RIDE
CHAPTER XXIII. HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION
CHAPTER XXIV. INVASION OF THE RAILROAD
FOOTNOTES.
DETAILED CONTENTS.
The First Europeans who traversed the Great Highway—Alvar Nunez
Cabeca de Vaca—Hernando de Soto, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado—
Spanish Expedition from Santa Fe eastwardly—Escape of the Sole Survivors.
CHAPTER I.
UNDER THE SPANIARDS.
Quaint Descriptions of Old Santa Fe—The Famous Adobe Palace—
Santa Fe the Oldest Town in the United States—First Settlement—
Onate's Conquest—Revolt of the Pueblo Indians—Under Pueblo Rule
—Cruelties of the Victors—The Santa Fe of To-day—Arrival of
a Caravan—The Railroad reaches the Town—Amusements—A Fandango.
CHAPTER II.
LA LANDE AND PURSLEY.
The Beginning of the Santa Fe Trade—La Lande and Pursley,
the First Americans to cross the Plains—Pursley's Patriotism—
Captain Ezekiel Williams—A Hungry Bear—A Midnight Alarm.
CHAPTER III.
EARLY TRADERS.
Captain Becknell's Expedition—Sufferings from Thirst—Auguste
Chouteau—Imprisonment of McKnight and Chambers—The Caches—
Stampeding Mules—First Military Escort across the Plains—
Captain Zebulon Pike—Sublette and Smith—Murder of McNess—
Indians not the Aggressors.
CHAPTER IV.
TRAINS AND PACKERS.
The Atajo or Pack-train of Mules—Mexican Nomenclature of
Paraphernalia—Manner of Packing—The "Bell-mare"—Toughness of
Mules among Precipices—The Caravan of Wagons—Largest Wagon-train
ever on the Plains—Stampedes—Duties of Packers en route—Order of
Travelling with Pack-train—Chris. Gilson, the Famous Packer.
CHAPTER V.
FIGHT WITH COMANCHES.
Narrative of Bryant's Party of Santa Fe Traders—The First Wagon
Expedition across the Plains—A Thrilling Story of Hardship and
Physical Suffering—Terrible Fight with the Comanches—Abandonment
of the Wagons—On Foot over the Trail—Burial of their Specie
on an Island in the Arkansas—Narrative of William Y. Hitt,
one of the Party—His Encounter with a Comanche—The First Escort
of United States Troops to the Annual Caravan of Santa Fe Traders,
in 1829—Major Bennett Riley's Official Report to the War Department
—Journal of Captain Cooke.
CHAPTER VI.
A ROMANTIC TRAGEDY.
The Expedition of Texans to the Old Santa Fe Trail for the Purpose
of robbing Mexican Traders—Innocent Citizens of the United States
suspected, arrested, and carried to the Capital of New Mexico—
Colonel Snively's Force—Warfield's Sacking of the Village of Mora
—Attack upon a Mexican Caravan—Kit Carson in the Fight—
A Crime of over Sixty Years Ago—A Romance of the Tragedy.
CHAPTER VII.
MEXICO DECLARES WAR.
Mexico declares War against the United States—Congress authorizes
the President to call for Fifty Thousand Volunteers—Organization of
the Army of the West—Phenomenon seen by Santa Fe Traders in the Sky
—First Death on the March of the Army across the Plains—Men in
a Starving Condition—Another Death—Burial near Pawnee Rock—
Trouble at Pawnee Fork—Major Howard's Report.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE VALLEY OF TAOS.
The Valley of Taos—First White Settler—Rebellion of the Mexicans
—A Woman discovers and informs Colonel Price of the Conspiracy—
Assassination of Governor Bent—Horrible Butcheries by the Pueblos
and Mexicans—Turley's Ranch—Murder of Harwood and Markhead—
Anecdote of Sir William Drummond Stewart—Fight at the Mills—
Battle of the Pueblo of Taos—Trial of the Insurrectionists—
Baptiste, the Juror—Execution of the Rebels.
CHAPTER IX.
FIRST OVERLAND MAIL.
Independence—Opening of Navigation on the Mississippi—Effect of
Water Transportation upon the Trade—Establishment of Trading-forts—
Market for Cattle and Mules—Wages paid Teamsters on the Trail—
An Enterprising Coloured Man—Increase of the Trade at the Close of
the Mexican War—Heavy Emigration to California—First Overland Mail
—How the Guards were armed—Passenger Coaches to Santa Fe—
Stage-coaching Days.
CHAPTER X.
CHARLES BENT.
The Tragedy in the Canyon of the Canadian—Dragoons follow the Trail
of the Savages—Kit Carson, Dick Wooton, and Tom Tobin the Scouts
of the Expedition—More than a Hundred of the Savages killed—
Murder of Mrs. White—White Wolf—Lieutenant Bell's Singular Duel
with the Noted Savage—Old Wolf—Satank—Murder of Peacock—
Satanta made Chief—Kicking Bird—His Tragic Death—Charles Bent,
the Half-breed Renegade—His Terrible Acts—His Death.
CHAPTER XI.
LA GLORIETA.
Neglect of New Mexico by the United States Government—Intended
Conquest of the Province—Conspiracy of Southern Leaders—
Surrender by General Twiggs to the Confederate Government of the
Military Posts and Munitions of War under his Command—Only One
Soldier out of Two Thousand deserts to the Enemy—Organization
of Volunteers for the Defence of Colorado and New Mexico—
Battle of La Glorieta—Rout of the Rebels.
CHAPTER XII.
THE BUFFALO.
The Ancient Range of the Buffalo—Number slaughtered in Thirteen Years
for their Robes alone—Buffalo Bones—Trains stopped by Vast Herds—
Custom of Old Hunters when caught in a Blizzard—Anecdotes of
Buffalo Hunting—Kit Carson's Dilemma—Experience of Two of Fremont's
Hunters—Wounded Buffalo Bull—O'Neil's Laughable Experience—
Organization of a Herd of Buffalo—Stampedes—Thrilling Escapes.
CHAPTER XIII.
INDIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGENDS.
Big Timbers—Winter Camp of the Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arapahoes—
Savage Amusements—A Cheyenne Lodge—Indian Etiquette—Treatment
of Children—The Pipe of the North American Savage—Dog Feast—
Marriage Ceremony.
CHAPTER XIV.
TRAPPERS.
The Old Pueblo Fort—A Celebrated Rendezvous—Its Inhabitants—
"Fontaine qui Bouille"—The Legend of its Origin—The Trappers
of the Old Santa Fe Trail and the Rocky Mountains—Beaver Trapping—
Habits of the Beaver—Improvidence of the Old Trappers—Trading with
"Poor Lo"—The Strange Experience of a Veteran Trapper on the
Santa Fe Trail—Romantic Marriage of Baptiste Brown.
CHAPTER XV.
UNCLE JOHN SMITH.
Uncle John Smith—A Famous Trapper, Guide, and Interpreter—
His Marriage with a Cheyenne Squaw—An Autocrat among the People
of the Plains and Mountains—The Mexicans held him in Great Dread—
His Wonderful Resemblance to President Andrew Johnson—Interpreter
and Guide on General Sheridan's Winter Expedition against 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.
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.
FOOTNOTES.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION.
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:—
and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size
of those of Spain. 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 Florida1 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. 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 structure, 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 humane and treated the Indians kindly, in contradistinction to De Soto, who was the most inhuman of all the early Spanish explorers. He was of the same school as Pizarro and Cortez; possessing their daring valour, their contempt of danger, and their tenacity of purpose, as well as their cruelty and avarice. De Soto made treaties with the Indians which he constantly violated, and murdered the misguided creatures without mercy. During the retreat of Moscoso's weakened command down the Arkansas River, the Hot Springs of Arkansas were discovered. His historian writes:
it was the long-searched-for "Fountain of Youth," reported
by fame to exist somewhere in the country, but ten of the
soldiers dying from excessive drinking, they were soon
convinced of their error.
After these intrepid explorers the restless Coronado appears on the Old Trail. In the third volume of Hakluyt's Voyages, published in London, 1600, Coronado's historian thus describes the great plains of Kansas and Colorado, the bison, and a tornado:—
is almost three hundred leagues distant, through mighty
plains, and sandy heaths so smooth and wearisome, and bare
of wood that they made heaps of ox-dung, for want of stones
and trees, that they might not lose themselves at their
return: for three horses were lost on that plain, and one
Spaniard which went from his company on hunting....
All that way of plains are as full of crooked-back oxen as
the mountain Serrena in Spain is of sheep, but there is
no such people as keep those cattle.... They were a
great succour for the hunger and the want of bread, which
our party stood in need of....
One day it rained in that plain a great shower of hail,
as big as oranges, which caused many tears, weakness
and bowes.
These oxen are of the bigness and colour of our bulls,
but their bones are not so great. They have a great bunch
upon their fore-shoulder, and more hair on their fore part
than on their hinder part, and it is like wool. They have
as it were an horse-mane upon their backbone, and much hair
and very long from their knees downward. They have great
tufts of hair hanging down on their foreheads, and it
seemeth they have beards because of the great store of hair
hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have
very long tails, and a great knob or flock at the end,
so that in some respects they resemble the lion, and in some
other the camel. They push with their horns, they run,
they overtake and kill an horse when they are in their
rage and anger. Finally it is a foul and fierce beast of
countenance and form of body. The horses fled from them,
either because of their deformed shape, or else because
they had never before seen them.
"The number," continues the historian, "was incredible." When the soldiers, in their excitement for the chase, began to kill them, they rushed together in such masses that hundreds were literally crushed to death. At one place there was a great ravine; they jumped into it in their efforts to escape from the hunters, and so terrible was the slaughter as they tumbled over the precipice that the depression was completely filled up, their carcasses forming a bridge, over which the remainder passed with ease.
The next recorded expedition across the plains via the Old Trail was also by the Spaniards from Santa Fe, eastwardly, in the year 1716, "for the purpose of establishing a Military Post in the Upper Mississippi Valley as a barrier to the further encroachments of the French in that direction." An account of this expedition is found in Memoires Historiques sur La Louisiane, published in Paris in 1858, but never translated in its entirety. The author, Lieutenant Dumont of the French army, was one of a party ascending the Arkansas River in search of a supposed mass of emeralds. The narrative relates:
other bank of the river, and our people were no sooner
arrived than they found there a party of Missouris, sent to
M. de la Harpe by M. de Bienville, then commandant general
at Louisiana, to deliver orders to the former. Consequently
they gave the signal order, and our other two canoes having
crossed the river, the savages gave to our commandant the
letters of M. de Bienville, in which he informed him that
the Spaniards had sent out a detachment from New Mexico
to go to the Missouris and to establish a post in that
country.... The success of this expedition was very
calamitous to the Spaniards. Their caravan was composed of
fifteen hundred people, men, women and soldiers, having
with them a Jacobin for a chaplain, and bringing also a
great number of horses and cattle, according to the custom
of that nation to forget nothing that might be necessary for
a settlement. Their design was to destroy the Missouris,
and to seize upon their country, and with this intention
they had resolved to go first to the Osages, a neighbouring
nation, enemies of the Missouris, to form an alliance with
them, and to engage them in their behalf for the execution
of their plan. Perhaps the map which guided them was not
correct, or they had not exactly followed it, for it chanced
that instead of going to the Osages whom they sought, they
fell, without knowing it, into a village of the Missouris,
where the Spanish commander, presenting himself to the great
chief and offering him the calumet, made him understand
through an interpreter, believing himself to be speaking
to the Osage chief, that they were enemies of the Missouris,
that they had come to destroy them, to make their women
and children slaves and to take possession of their country.
He begged the chief to be willing to form an alliance
with them, against a nation whom the Osages regarded as
their enemy, and to second them in this enterprise, promising
to recompense them liberally for the service rendered,
and always to be their friend in the future. Upon this
discourse the Missouri chief understood perfectly well
the mistake. He dissimulated and thanked the Spaniard for
the confidence he had in his nation; he consented to form
an alliance with them against the Missouris, and to join
them with all his forces to destroy them; but he represented
that his people were not armed, and that they dared not
expose themselves without arms in such an enterprise.
Deceived by so favourable a reception, the Spaniards fell
into the trap laid for them. They received with due
ceremony, in the little camp they had formed on their
arrival, the calumet which the great chief of the Missouris
presented to the Spanish commander. The alliance for war
was sworn to by both parties; they agreed upon a day for
the execution of the plan which they meditated, and the
Spaniards furnished the savages with all the munitions which
they thought were needed. After the ceremony both parties
gave themselves up equally to joy and good cheer. At the
end of three days two thousand savages were armed and in
the midst of dances and amusements; each party thought
nothing but the execution of its design. It was the evening
before their departure upon their concerted expedition,
and the Spaniards had retired to their camps as usual,
when the great chief of the Missouris, having assembled
his warriors, declared to them his intentions and exhorted
them to deal treacherously with these strangers who were come
to their home only with the design of destroying them.
At daybreak the savages divided into several bands, fell on
the Spaniards, who expected nothing of the kind, and in
less than a quarter of an hour all the caravan were murdered.
No one escaped from the massacre except the chaplain, whom
the barbarians saved because of his dress; at the same time
they took possession of all the merchandise and other
effects which they found in their camp. The Spaniards had
brought with them, as I have said, a certain number of horses,
and as the savages were ignorant of the use of these animals,
they took pleasure in making the Jacobin whom they had saved,
and who had become their slave, mount them. The priest gave
them this amusement almost every day for the five or six
months that he remained with them in their village, without
any of them daring to imitate him. Tired at last of his
slavery, and regarding the lack of daring in these barbarians
as a means of Providence to regain his liberty, he made
secretly all the provisions possible for him to make,
and which he believed necessary to his plan. At last,
having chosen the best horse and having mounted him,
after performing several of his exploits before the savages,
and while they were all occupied with his manoeuvres,
he spurred up and disappeared from their sight, taking the
road to Mexico, where doubtless he arrived.
Charlevoix,2 who travelled from Quebec to New Orleans in the year 1721, says in one of his letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, dated at Kaskaskia, July 21, 1721:
from New Mexico, and intending to get into the country of
the Illinois and drive the French from thence, whom they
saw with extreme jealousy approach so near the Missouri,
came down the river and attacked two villages of the
Octoyas,3 who are the allies of the Ayouez,4 and from
whom it is said also that they are derived. As the savages
had no firearms and were surprised, the Spaniards made an
easy conquest and killed a great many of them. A third
village, which was not far off from the other two, being
informed of what had passed, and not doubting but these
conquerors would attack them, laid an ambush into which
the Spaniards heedlessly fell. Others say that the savages,
having heard that the enemy were almost all drunk and
fast asleep, fell upon them in the night. However it was,
it is certain the greater part of them were killed.
There were in the party two almoners; one of them was
killed directly and the other got away to the Missouris,
who took him prisoner, but he escaped them very dexterously.
He had a very fine horse and the Missouris took pleasure
in seeing him ride it, which he did very skilfully. He took
advantage of their curiosity to get out of their hands.
One day as he was prancing and exercising his horse before
them, he got a little distance from them insensibly; then
suddenly clapping spurs to his horse he was soon out of sight.
The Missouri Indians once occupied all the territory near the junction of the Kaw and Missouri rivers, but they were constantly decimated by the continual depredations of their warlike and feudal enemies, the Pawnees and Sioux, and at last fell a prey to that dreadful scourge, the small-pox, which swept them off by thousands. The remnant of the once powerful tribe then found shelter and a home with the Otoes, finally becoming merged in that tribe.
CHAPTER I. UNDER THE SPANIARDS.
The Santa Fe of the purely Mexican occupation, long before the days of New Mexico's acquisition by the United States, and the Santa Fe of to-day are so widely in contrast that it is difficult to find language in which to convey to the reader the story of the phenomenal change. To those who are acquainted with the charming place as it is now, with its refined and cultured society, I cannot do better, perhaps, in attempting to show what it was under the old regime, than to quote what some traveller in the early 30's wrote for a New York leading newspaper, in regard to it. As far as my own observation of the place is concerned, when I first visited it a great many years ago, the writer of the communication whose views I now present was not incorrect in his judgment. He said:—
of "City," would be a keen irony; not greater, however,
than is the name with which its Padres have baptized it.
To call a place with its moral character, a very Sodom
in iniquity, "Holy Faith," is scarcely a venial sin;
it deserves Purgatory at least. Its health is the best
in the country, which is the first, second and third
recommendation of New Mexico by its greatest admirers.
It is a small town of about two thousand inhabitants,
crowded up against the mountains, at the end of a little
valley through which runs a mountain stream of the same
name tributary to the Rio Grande. It has a public square
in the centre, a Palace and an Alameda; as all Spanish
Roman Catholic towns have. It is true its Plaza, or
Public Square, is unfenced and uncared for, without trees
or grass. The Palace is nothing more than the biggest
mud-house in the town, and the churches, too, are unsightly
piles of the same material, and the Alameda5 is on top of
a sand hill. Yet they have in Santa Fe all the parts and
parcels of a regal city and a Bishopric. The Bishop has a
palace also; the only two-storied shingle-roofed house in
the place. There is one public house set apart for eating,
drinking and gambling; for be it known that gambling is here
authorized by law. Hence it is as respectable to keep a
gambling house, as it is to sell rum in New Jersey; it is
a lawful business, and being lawful, and consequently
respectable and a man's right, why should not men gamble?
And gamble they do. The Generals and the Colonels and
the Majors and the Captains gamble. The judges and the
lawyers and the doctors and the priests gamble; and there
are gentlemen gamblers by profession! You will see squads
of poor peons daily, men, women and boys, sitting on the
ground around a deck of cards in the Public Square, gambling
for the smallest stakes.
The stores of the town generally front on the Public Square.
Of these there are a dozen, more or less, of respectable
size, and most of them are kept by others than Mexicans.
The business of the place is considerable, many of the
merchants here being wholesale dealers for the vast
territory tributary. It is supposed that about $750,000
worth of goods will be brought to this place this year, and
there may be $250,000 worth imported directly from the
United States.
In the money market there is nothing less than a five-cent
piece. You cannot purchase anything for less than five cents.
In trade they reckon ten cents the eighth of a dollar.
If you purchase nominally a dollar's worth of an article,
you can pay for it in eight ten-cent pieces; and if you
give a dollar, you receive no change. In changing a dollar
for you, you would get but eight ten-cent pieces for it.
Yet, although dirty and unkempt, and swarming with hungry
dogs, it has the charm of foreign flavour, and like
San Antonio retains some portion of the grace which long
lingered about it, if indeed it ever forsakes the spot
where Spain held rule for centuries, and the soft syllables
of the Spanish language are yet heard.
Such was a description of the "drowsy old town" of Santa Fe, sixty-five years ago. Fifteen years later Major W. H. Emory, of the United States army, writes of it as follows:6