OUR CAMP FIRED INTO. 231 



tented himself with bad language. I at once rode off to the officer 

 who had given us the order and reported what had occurred, 

 on which the matter was inquired into and the negro was 

 condemned to work for a month with a ball chained to his leg. 



I left that day for the Caddo village to visit H } who 



had ridden there two days before and had been taken ill and 

 had been unable to return. When I got back on the following 



day, I found that F and the men had been very much 



startled during the night by a volley which had been fired at 

 the tent, but fortunately had gone high. They had turned 

 out and remained on the watch for some time, hearing bugles 

 blowing at the Post and the troops mustering in haste. 

 Shortly afterwards the Caddo scout arrived at our camp, 

 having been all round the fort and found no signs of 

 Comanches, and asked our party whether they could explain 

 the firing. The thing remained a mystery until the morning, 

 when one of the negro troopers went to the commanding 

 officer and confessed that he and seven or eight of his comrades 

 had crept out in the night, their men being on guard, and 

 had fired at the tent in revenge for the punishment of the 

 smith, of which we had been the cause. There were not enough 

 officers at the fort for a court-martial, so the men concerned 

 were imprisoned till the commandant returned, when they 

 were tried and most of them were sent to the Dry Tortugas, 

 islands off the coast of Florida, and answering to our Botany 

 Bay as it used to be. 



We had now recovered from our fatigue, and our remaining 

 animals were in good condition, having been fed on corn since 

 our arrival at the Post, so we determined to start for Fort 

 Smith in Arkansas, sell off our horses and mules there, and 



