418 INDIANS. 



As a fair sample, I will here repeat two of these, 

 both of which he knew to be true, so far as a man can 

 be sure of what he did not actually see. 



When he was about twenty-four years old, a party 

 of Comanches (from the same camp in which he lived), 

 while on a raid into Mexico, attacked a large ranche. The 

 inhabitants, being poorly armed, made little resistance, 

 except a few men, who, getting into a courtyard, vigor- 

 ously defended themselves with such weapons as came to 

 their hands. All were soon despatched, except one man, 

 an almost giant in stature and strength, who, although 

 armed only with an axe, killed one or two of his assailants 

 and kept the others at bay. At last an Indian, getting 

 on the wall, threw a lasso over his head, and, jerked off 

 his feet, he was soon bound hand and foot. After the 

 ruthless violation and murder of all the women, the chil- 

 dren were fastened in a room, the ranche pillaged and 

 set on fire in a dozen places. Taking with them as pri- 

 soner the one man who had signalised himself in the 

 defence of the ranche, the Indians departed for their own 

 country. On the long march the prisoner, though closely 

 watched and guarded by day, and securely bound at night, 

 was treated with extreme kindness. They complimented 

 his courage in the highest terms ; told him they intended 

 taking him to their camp, adopting him into the tribe, 

 and making a great chief of him. The trail followed, 

 after leaving the head of the Nueces River, and crossed the 

 southern end of the high table land known to whites as 

 the ' Staked Plain.' At a water hole on this table land 

 the party halted for several days. Telling the prisoner 

 that they wanted it for some religious ceremony, they 

 set him to digging a hole in the ground. Working with 

 knife and hands he, in a day or two, completed a pit 

 about three feet in diameter and over five feet deep. 

 Early next morning a rope was tightly tied about the 

 ankles of the captive and wrapped spirally round his legs 

 and body to the neck, binding his arms tightly to his 



