no INDIAN STORIES. fcH/CP. v. 



account of the last engagement at which he was present. 

 Some Indians, who had been taken prisoners, gave informa- 

 tion of a tribe living north of the Colorado. Two hundred 

 soldiers were sent ; and they first discovered the Indians by 

 a cloud of dust from their horses' feet, as they chanced to be 

 travelling. The country was mountainous and wild, and it 

 must have been far in the interior, for the Cordillera were 

 in sight. The Indians, men, women, and children, were 

 about one hundred and ten in number, and they were nearly 

 all taken or killed, for the soldiers sabre every man. The 

 Indians are now so terrified that they offer no resistance in 

 a body, but each flies, neglecting even his wife and children ; 

 but when overtaken, like wild animals, they fight against 

 any number to the last moment. One dying Indian seized 

 with his teeth the thumb of his adversary, and allowed his 

 own eye to be forced out sooner than relinquish his hold. 

 Another, who was wounded, feigned death, keeping a knife 

 ready to strike one more fatal blow. My informer said, 

 when he was pursuing an Indian, the man cried out for 

 mercy, at the same time that he was covertly loosing the 

 bolas from his waist, meaning to whirl it round his head 

 and so strike his pursuer. " I however struck him with 

 my sabre to the ground, and then got off" my horse, and cut 

 his throat with my knife. " This is a dark picture ; but how 

 much more shocking is the unquestionable fact, that all the 

 women who appear above twenty years old are massacred 

 in cold blood ! When I exclaimed that this appeared rather 

 inhuman, he answered, "Why, what can be done? They 

 breed so ! " 



Every one here is fully convinced that this is the most just 

 war, because it is against barbarians. Who would believe 

 in this age that such atrocities could be committed in a 

 Christian civilized country? The children of the Indians 

 are saved, to be sold or given away as servants, or rather 

 slaves, for as long a time as the owners can make them 

 believe themselves slaves ; but I believe in their treatment 

 there is little to complain of. 



In the battle four men ran away together. They were 

 pursued, one was killed, and the other three were taken 

 alive. They turned out to be messengers or ambassadors 

 from a large body of Indians, united in the common cause 

 of defence, near the Cordillera. The tribe to which they 

 had been sent was on the point of holding a grand council : 

 the feast of mares' flesh was ready, and the dance prepared : 



