(p 
Professor Gardner’s Party Attacked "by 
A Band of Renegade Redskins At- 
tack tke Hayden Party. 
: Tke Scientists Fate Incessant Wire 
For Twenty Soars. 
Fotiv Mules and On© Good In* 
dian Killed. 
A He treat of Two Btandred. Miles. 
The following letter, from James T. Gard- j 
ner. Geographer in charge of the Western j 
Division of the Hayden Survey, detailing 
the thrilling experiences of the party in the 
| wilderness of Western Colorado, was re- 
I ceived in this city last night : 
La Plata JKivek Miking Camp, ■> 
| Aus. 22, IS75, S 
| On Wednesday, August 4th, I met 
Mr. Gannett, as I had hoped, on the Gunni- 
son river, near its junction with the Grand. 
Owing to high water, we had taken the re* 
i sponsibility of changing the plan pre - 
! viously approved by us of putting the sup- 
ply camp at the junction of Grand and Gun- 
nison rivers, and had pushed it westward 
with his own train to the Dolores river. I 
1 followed and overtook them in one day, 
(' within eighteen miles of the Dolores. This i 
point being on the Ute reservation, Mr. Gan- 
nett considered it sate for a supply camp. I 
| had, however, been informed by Ouray that 
! the Indians in the Sierra la Sal mountains, 
which lie in U tah, about thirteen miles west 
of the Colorado line, were likely to steal 
stock if they got a; good chance. He said 
that a party of seven armed men would be 
safe in the region, but they must watch 
their animals carefully, and if one man was 
caught out alone he might not be safe. In 
! short, these Sierra la Sal Indians were repre- 
| sented to me as sneak thieves, who would \ 
bear much watching. ) 
| For the sake of making it easier on the 
night guard, and having enough men to sup- 
| ply escort to the topographers, I had deter- 
mined that if I could meet Mr. Gannett I 
j would unite the two parties for the survey of 
the country west of the Dolores. This was 
accordingly done August 7th, when W8 left 
Mr. Gannett’s supply camp on the Rio 
Dolores, he leaving there Messrs. Holman 
and Dallas, and sending back Hovey and 
Babcock for more provisions. After the two 
j parties had joined, I, of course, took general 
charge of the whole, and am responsible for 
all movements. 
The scientific party now consisted of seven 
men, viz : James T. Gardner, Henry Gannett, 
A. C. Peale, Robert Adams, W. R. Atkinson, 
Cuthbert Mills, Frank Pearson ; the em- 
ployes, six in all, were Shep. Medera, Clar- 
ence Kelsey, Jacque Charpiot, Benj. North- 
ington, Charles McCreary and Judge Porter, 
— thirteen in all. Seven were armed with 
rifles ; the remainder with revolvers. Dur- 
ing the march the men with rifles rode in 
front and rear, and in camp a guard, regu- 
larly relieved at stated times, watched the ani- 1 
mals ; all except the cooks taking their turn. 
During theflrst few days no fresh Indian signs 
were seen, though we were continually 
| scouting. When, at last, we marched to the 
south end of the range to climb the highest 
peak, which is a station of the primary tri- 
angulation, we found fresh signs, and I took 
the train far up through the woods to a little 
(sheltered basin, directly under the peak, and 
9,500 feet in altitude. The position was admir- 
ably situated for concealment or defense. Two 
thousand feet below, to the east of us six or 
eight miles, we discovered an Indian camp 
of nine lodges. This was August 11th. 
These were just about on the line between 
Utah and Colorado. On the 12th it rained 
so that work was impossible. On the 13th 
we climbed 3.000 feet to the top of the peak, 
Kelsey and Pearson carrying the large the- 
odolite. The day was too cloudy for trian- 
gelation, but Mr. Gannett was able to com- 
plete cue topography to our western line 109° 
30. Six more lodges had joined the Indians 
below us, making fifteen in all. On the 14th 
I again climbed the peak with Pearson, mak- j 
ing the last 2,000 feet in fifty-five minutes. 
I worked six hours and made a very fine set 
of observations of angles, completing the 
primary triangles eastward, and carrying 
new ones westward across the Colorado 
Canon eighty miles to the Henery Range, 
Powell’s triangulating points. In the even- 
ing I made an excellent set of azimuth ob- 
servations in Polaris, and thus completed 
the work at the most important of our west- 
ern stations. 
££ About sixty miles travel southward of our 
station lies the Sierra Abajo. The country 
D a desert, intersected with barren ridges 
aud impassable cafions. Only one spring is j 
.known in the whole distance. This I judged 
to fAvfor loiJps travel. F'rom the Sierra 
Abajo a great plateau, whose altitude is 6,000 
to 3,500 feet, stretches away one hundred 
miles to the east and southeast. Seeing, 
from our mountain, that the abrupt escarp- 
ment which terminates this table on the 
| north was only broken in one place, and this 
was in the exact direction in which the 
spring was laid down on MeComb’s map, we 
directed our march toward this point on the 
morning of the 15th, hastening to get away 1 
from the dangerous region. When rocky f 
blaffs hemmed us in, we took an Indian 
trail leading in our direction. About 11 
o’clock we came suddenly upon an old In- 
dian and a boy, who, at the sight of us, 
dashed away over a pinion -covered hill. We 
Indians, 1875. 
J laughed at their fright. In a few moments 
| 'tfe came upon some patches of com which 
they were irrigating by a little stream from 
the very southern most point of the Sierra 
La Sal. Two of the men declaring that they 
had seen a number more Indians in the 
thick pillion growth, we did not halt for wa- 
ter, but pressed on. Ten miles further on 
thft trail entered a canon country where 
the endless precipices would have been im- 
passable without its aid. We passed some 
pools of muddy rain-water in the rocks, 
where the muies got some to quench their 
thirst. It was, however, so alkaline as to do 
them little good. 
About half-past four, when I was ahead 
searching for water-pools, in a ravine, and 
, Mr. Gannett was half a mile in the rear of 
\ tb» train taking topography, nine Indians 
came riding after him, making signs of f'riend- 
sV' i and then shaking hands. He rode on 
with them to the main party, when they de- 
sired to shake hands with everybody. Messrs. 
Gannett, Peale, McCreary and Northington 
recognized three of them as being with a 
band of women and children that they had 
met on the reservation, twenty miles east of 
the Dolores, where the band were engaged 
in hunting. The Indians recognized Mr. 
Gannett’s party, and recalled some incidents 
of their former meeting. McCreary also said 
quite confidently that he had seen the 
spokesman of the party at the Los Pinos 
Agency, ‘At the ration issue on July 1st. This, 
■with the fact that they called themselves 
Yampa Utes, and showed a mutilated paper 
from White River Agency, quite disarmed 
suspicion. They were very anxious for us 
to camp at some mud-holes close by, but we 
found that neither men nor animals could 
drink the nasty fluid. They then tried to 
trade for tobacco and powder. As we had 
neither to spare, we shook hands, and, bid- 
ding them “adios,” started forward over the 
hill. 
No sooner had the rear guard passed the 
brow than the Indians commenced firing 
from behind it. Kelsey and Adams came 
very near being killed, bullets striking the 
ground close to them. Being in the ad- 
vance, I rode at once to the rear. The boys 
begged to be allowed to charge the Indians, 
but I considered it unadvisabie, considering 
that they were protected by a hill, and 
mounted on swift horses, and we on tired, 
slow mules. I therefore ordered the train 
forward in a trot to get out of range of the 
hill behind ; then, taking Madera and Me 
Creary with me, galloped toward a hill on 
the right, and in advance, under which the 
train must pass to reach more open ground. 
The redskins were already upon the opposite 
slopes, but we drove them from it, and held 
the point till the train was out of shot. 
Taking the advice of my most experienced 
men, we camped in a sagebrush plain, as far 
as possible from the hills. The position was, 
however, exposed to fire at three hundred 
yards from a ravine that would shelter the 
enemy, and from a ridge five hundred yards 
distant. I formed a skirmish line of Adams, 
McCreary and myself, three hundred yards 
from camp, and so placed as to command 
these positions and protect the rest of the men, 
who were unpacking and building a circular 
barricade of the apparejos and baggage. The 
Indians were thus forced to fight at very 
long range, for we were hidden in the sage- 
brush, aud fought to excellent advantage. 
