MRS. MARTIN'S REMINISCENCES. 161 



they were pursued, and were sitting round their camp fire 

 smoking, when a volley was fired into them at close quarters 

 and several fell. They were picked warriors, and instead of 

 being demoralized they took cover at once, and a fight began in 

 which the Pawnees and their white allies were beaten, and 

 compelled to fly on foot, losing the horses they had been 

 riding. 



These Pawnees were, at one time, a very warlike tribe, but, 

 as is the case with the Navajoes, no sooner were they partially 

 civilized than they became cowardly, excepting where they had 

 been disciplined like the six hundred at Fort Kearney. 



Mrs. Martin amused us very much with an account of the 

 doings of her husband at the time of the American civil war. 

 He was a southern sympathizer, and had to get all his supplies 

 from a fort garrisoned by northern troops, so that as everyone 

 knew his sentiments he had things said to him which, with his 

 love of fighting, he found it hard to bear. When leaving the 

 post one evening with his wife, as they drove past a whiskey- 

 saloon, some one called out to him and wanted to know when 



that d d little Johnny Bull was going to leave the country, 



as it would soon be made too hot to hold him. On which 

 Martin asked the speaker to step outside, and he at once did so, 

 proving to be a big settler from a ranche on the other side of the 

 fort. Martin told him to take off his coat, and then, although 

 he was himself a small man, he proceeded to give him a sound 

 thrashing, taking only a few minutes in doing it. One of the 

 bystanders saying something he did not like, Martin very soon 

 treated him in the same way, offering then to fight any man 

 in the crowd, on which a cheer was raised for the little 



Englishman, and he was never again insulted by anyone at 



M 



