ElvDORADO 253 



Comanches dashed on horseback through the camp, 

 and Boggs, rushing to the aid of the guard, ran in 

 the dark against some object with such force as to pre- 

 cipitate him violently to the earth. Here he lay un- 

 conscious and utterly at the mercy of the savages, 

 when Dr. Craig and Hamilton Carson, a brother of 

 Kit, rushed to his aid and rescued him. 



Had it not been for their coolness and daring, 

 Boggs would have fallen victim to the Indians. It 

 was also during this eventful year that William Waldo 

 and Antone Chenie had a desperate combat with a 

 large body of Comanche and Kiowa Indians, and es- 

 caped almost by a miracle. A few years before. Cap- 

 tain Pratte. a brother of General Bernard Pratte. of 

 St. Louis, fell upon the desert shores of the Gila, and 

 not many years after, Alexander Papin. of another 

 celebrated St. Louis family, spilled his life blood upon 

 the thirsty sands of the winding Arkansas. 



Captain Carr, who had served under Andrew Jack- 

 son in nearly all of his battles ; a Mr. Eustace, a rela- 

 tive by marriage of the Hon. J. L. D. Alorrison, of 

 St. Louis ; Washington Chapman, of P>ooneville, a 

 brother-in-law of Col. James Collins, who published 

 the first newspaper in New Mexico, and who was 

 verv mvsteriously murdered there, and a dozen oth- 

 ers, whose names are not remembered, started from 

 the citv of Santa Fe some time during the winter of 

 18,^2-33. on their wav to St. Louis. Their idea in se- 

 lecting this inhospitable season for their trip was, that 

 they thereby hoped to avoid molestation by the In- 

 dians, as thev had a large amount of gold and silver 

 with them. Their route lay along the Canadian Fork 

 of the .Arkansas river, and they used every precau- 



