648 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



The South Americau weapon is half as long' again and may do better 

 farther off. 



At the reijuest of the author the president of the Washington Arch- 

 ery Club, Mr. Maxon, made experiments in the penetrating power of 

 Indian arrows and the propulsive power of Indian bows. The result 

 was that the self or plain bows are not equal to the best archery bows. 

 But the sinew-backed bows of the Pacific coast were capable of as great 

 execution as man is capable of making.* 



"Constant i)ractice," says Capt. John G. Bourke, ''had made the 

 Apaches dextrous in the use of the bow, arrow, and lance; their aim 

 was excellent, and the range attained was perhaps as much as 150 yards. 

 I am able from my own recollection to supply a number of illustrations of 

 the great force with which the arrow was discharged, although a person 

 observing for the first time an arrow coming toward him would be sur- 

 prised at its apparent lethargy. 



"In the summer of 1871 I was riding by the side of Gen. Crook on the 

 summit of the elevated plateau known as the Mohollon Mountains, in 

 Arizona. We were a short distance ahead of a large column of cavalry 

 and our immediate party was quite small. We ran into an Ai^ache 

 ambuscade. A number of arrows were discharged, two of them pierc- 

 ing pine trees to a depth of at least G inches. On another occasion a 

 pine door three-eighths of an inch thick was penetrated. In July, 1870, 

 a friend of mine, M. T. Kennedy, was mortally wounded by an Apache 

 arrow which pierced his chest. The autopsy disclosed the fact that the 

 arrow had no head." 



"Mackenzie speaks of having driven a headless arrow 1 inch into a 

 jiine log on the Colnmbiu Kiver in 1703. (See Voyages, London, 1800, 

 p. 2G9.) 



"Maltebrun speaks of the force with which the Apaches shot their 

 arrows. 'At a distance of 300 paces they can pierce a man.' ( Univ. 

 Geog., art. ' Mexico,' Eng. translation, Philadelphia, 1832, vol. in, lib, 

 or cap. 85th, }). 293.) I doubt this very much, as in my own experience 

 I have limited their range to 150 yards. 



"Cabeza de Vaca seems to have been greatly impressed with the dex- 

 terity of the Indians seen along his route from Florida to the Pacific 

 coast settlements. He tells us that with their arrows they could pierce 

 through oaks as thick as a num's thigh; that the range of the arrow 

 was 200 paces; that Spaniards had been transfixed by arrows notwith- 

 standing that they wore good armor. (In Teniaux, vol. Vii, p. 107.) 



"Don Antonio Espejo also asserts that the wild tribes living in the 

 drainage of the Rio Grande could pierce a coat of mail with their 

 arrows. (iSee his ' Relacion,' in Hakluyt, vol. in, 160, p. 4G1, A. D. 

 1581.) 



"Domenecli says that the Indians have trials of skill with arrows and 

 will often keep ten in the air at one time. {Deserts, vol. ii, p. 198. ) Refers 



*For the contest between bow aucl musket, iu 1792, at Pacton Greeu, Cumberland, 

 and also at Chalk Farm, at 100 yards, see Hansard, vol. ix, p. xiii. 



