MooxET] MEETING OF DRAGOONS AND COMANCHE 265 



wliiti^ tl;ig was sent a little iu advance and waved as a signal for them to approach, 

 at whieli one of their party galloped out in advance of the war party on a milk- 

 white horse, carrying a piece of white buffalo skin on the point of his long lance in 

 reply to our flag. . . . The distance between the two parties was perhaps half a 

 mile, and that a beautiful and gently sloping prairie, over which lie was for the 

 space of a <iiiarter of an hour reining and spurring his maddened horse and grad- 

 ually approaching us by tacking to the right and left like a vessel beating against 

 the wind. He at length came prancing and leaping along till he met the flag of the 

 regiment, when he leaned his spear for a moment against it, looking the bearer full 

 in the face, when he wheeled his horse and dashed up to Colonel Dodge with his 

 extended hand, which was instantly grasped iind shaken. We all had him by the 

 hand in a moment, and the rest of the party seeing him received in this friendly 

 manner, instead of being sacrificed, as they undoubtedly expected, started under 

 full whip in a direct line toward us, and in a moment gathered like a black cloud 

 around us. . . . The warrior's (juiver was slung on the warrior's back, and his bow 

 grasped in his left hand ready for instant use if called for. His shield was on his 

 arm; and across his thigh, in a beautiful cover of buckskin, his gun was slung, and 

 in his right hand his lance of fourteen feet in length. Thus armed and equipped 

 was this dashing cavalier, and nearly iu the same manner all the rest of the party 

 {Cullhi, 4). 



Wheu the purpose of the expedition had been explained to them, the 

 Comanche said that their great viHage was a few days farther ahead, 

 and abaudoiiiug' their war expedition, tliey turned and escorted the 

 troops to their camp. According to statements made by old men of 

 the tribe to Horace P. Jones, post interpreter at Fort Sill, this Comanche 

 village in 1834 was situated on Chandler creek, close to its junction 

 with Cache creek, about ten miles north of the present Fort Sill. The 

 artist gives a glowing account of the surrounding country and of their 

 reception by the Comanche. 



Having led us to the top of a gently rising elevation on the prairie, they pointed 

 to their village at several miles distance, in the midst of one of the most enchant- 

 ing valleys that human eyes ever looked upon. The general course of the v.alley is 

 from northwest to southeast, of several mih'S in width, with a magnificent range of 

 mountains rising in distance beyond, it being without doubt a huge spur of the 

 Rocky mountains, composed entirely of a reddish granite or gneiss, corresponding 

 with the i>ther links of this stupemlous chain. In the midst of this lovely valley 

 we could just discern amongst the scattering shrubbery that lined the banks of the 

 water courses, the tops of the Comanche wigwams and the smoke curling above 

 them. The valley for a mile distant about the village seemed speckled with horses 

 and mules that were grazing in it. The chiefs of the war party requested the legi- 

 ment to halt until they could ride in and inform their people who were coming. 

 We then dismounted for an hour or so, when we could see them busily running and 

 catching their horses, and at length several hundreds of their braves and warriors 

 came out at full speed to welcome us, and forming in a line in front of us, .as we 

 were again mounted, presented a formidable and pleasing iippeariince. As they 

 wheeled their horses, they very rapidly formed iu a line and dressed like well- 

 disciplined cavalry. The regiment was drawn up in three columns, with a line 

 formed in front, by Colonel Dodge and his staff, in which rank my friend Chadwiok 

 and I Wire also paraded, when we had a tine view of the whole manu-uvre, which 

 was picturesque and thrilling iu the extreme. 



In the center of our advance was stationed a white flag, and the Inilians answered 

 to it with one which they sent forward and planted by the side of it. The two lines 

 were thus drawn up face to face within 30 or 30 yards of each other, as inveterate 



IT KTH 31 



