ROC ICY MOUNTAIN NEWS , 
ber of the band had increased to fifteen 
lodges, which he said would represent twen- ] 
ty-five to thirty fighting men. The success 
of this old desperado and his family has at- 
tracted the lawless spirits of the surrounding 
tribes, probably both Utes and Pah Utes. 
He has gone so many years unpunished that 
his evil example is beginning to tell power- 
AjIIv on his neighbors., Ouray had supposed 
Ifi'ac tbefe were only seven or eight men when | 
he advised me that seven of us would be safe. 
He recalled this to me, and said though mis- 
taken in the number, he had nevertheless j 
stated explicitly that they would either kill 1 
or rob if they got an opportunity. I then 
told him that it was as much for the interest 
of the Utes to suppress this band of guer- 
rillas as it would be for that of the whites to , 
j capture any band of Americans who should 
go about shooting and robbing Indians ; and 
that if he would furnish me some Utes to aet 
as scouts, so that I might be able to tell the 
difference between Ute and renegade camps, 
I would immediately return with five of my 
men and undertake to kill the whole of the 
gang. To this he answered that the old man, 
their leader, was a Pah Ute, and that the Pah 
Utes, who had never been his friends, would 
consider that he was making war upon one 
of their sub-chiefs ; but that if the govern- 
ment would supply regular troops and make 
a formal request of him, he would supply 
Ute^guides who knew every trail around the 
iierra La Sal. I then asked where these rene- 
gades got so much ammunition, and said, 
“by trading with the Utes.” 
Ouray did not express the slightest doubt 
but that they would have killed us, as they 
did the others before. It was certainly the 
best opportunity for plunder that they had 
ever had. To mm der a prospector is to se- 
cure but poor pay ; a lew pounds of flour 
and bacon, a blanket or two, a frying pan 
and a shovel, with a few burros, comprise 
his all. But here were eighteen heavily 
loaded pack mules, with provisions, tents, 
blankets, ammunition, etc., sufficient to last 
them for an indefinite period ; fifteen saddle 
animals, seven goad rifles, and last, but not 
least, thirteen scalps to capture, which 
would make them rioted braves for life. 
Already reckless from years of unpunished 
crime, secure in their mountains and cafions 
which no white men had befL-e entered cer- 
tain wealth and reputation WQ re theirs if 
they could only hold us twenty f©* r hours in 
that cliff walled desert valley. As robber 
band ever came nearer realizing then f u ] i e8 t 
ambitions. That they fought so long 
out killing any of us — for which we seem to 
owe the public an apology — is due to the fact 
that they shot at Buch long range, all but 
one beiDg armed with muzzle loading rifles ; 
and that they were shooting at objects mov- 
ing. across the line of fire. It is a mistake 
t© suppose that Indians are good shots when 
under excitement. They are not nearly equal 
to practiced white men. I have many times 
been shot at for the purpose of frightening 
by Indians, and they always slot far over- 
head or off to one side ; but the second shot 
which I saw these fellows fire, coming ob- 
liquely from behind, passed between two of 
the men who were so close that it must have 
.been aimed at the foremost of the two. We 
then drove them to sueh a distance that their 
muzzle-loaders were of no use except to bom'* 
bard the camp in a general way, hoping that 
a stray ball might take effect somewhere in ; 
so large a group as was formed by our mules 
and men. At night all firing at two hundred 
yards and over is mere chance ; for one can j 
neither see the sight on their gun clearly, nor 
can they see where the halls strike so as fo 
get the correct elevation. In the night the 
bullet which by accident lodged in our bell 
mare, would have hit a man had it gone a 
foot to the left. If ext morning we again kept 
driving them to a distance by the accurate 
long range practice of our fine breech-load- 
ers. Once when obliged to pass within four 
Denver, September 1875 
hundred yards of a rocky promontory the 
firing of the Indians was very last— too fast 
for good aim — and the balls fell thickly 
around the hurrying train. Here Mr. Atkin- 
son’s mule was shot under him. In a few 
moments all were sheltered by a hill, except 
Mr. Adams, who was carrying orders from 
me to the train. As he alone was exposed 
the Indians all fired at him. as he rode up the 
slope on a trot, their distance from him being 
about five hundred yards. I could see the 
bullets raise a little cloud of dust about him 
as they struck the ground. The range was 
too long for accurate shooting at a moving 
object with their guns. But it is to be 
remembered that uuring this half 
day, whioh we spent marehing around 
the valley seeking for an exit, these 
Indians knew that we must evidently fail 
and return to the trail to force our way up 
the cafien — the only way that a pack train 
could be taken to water. Once between 
those rocky walls— along whose wooded and 
terraced sides these Indians eould run their 
agile ponies — it was evident to us and to 
them that we could all be killed, with hardly 
a chance of revenge ; they therefore chose 
to take no risks, since the game seemed 
theirs without it. When at last we appeared 
to be eluding" them by a plan that they had 
not expected, and they closed with us in that 
final struggle in the woods, we were behind 
trees and rocks as well as they. Our exposed 
mules were shot at the first, but as scon as 
they found us crawling around and above 
them so that the least exposure meant death, 
not one coward of them dared rise from his 
hiding place to take aim. The whole history 
of the frontier proves that where the Indian 
and white come face to face in equal fight, 
his nerve fails before that of the Anglo 
Saxon. In this trying time, when the enemy 
was within a hundred yards, Mr. Mills was so 
anxious to get a shot at an Indian that the 
bullets cut the twigs first ©n one side of his 
head and then on the ether, before his com- 
rades could persuade him to seek complete 
shelter. After we had abandoned the packs, 
is it probable that the Indians would have 
ridden twenty-five miles to cut us off from 
the next water unless they had wanted rifles, 
mules and scalps ? Two of the packers who 
fought bravely from first to last, were fron- 
tiersmen — Shepard Madara became used t© 
the sound cf bullets years ago in Montana, 
and Chas. McCreary rose from the ranks to 
a eaptainey fighting in the western army, 
and afterward lived as a miner in Arizona 
among the Apaches, where most of his party 
were killed. These men do not frighten 
easily, and know too well the sound of the 
war ery and when the Indians mean death. 
If this renegade band, after their former 
record and this attack upon the United 
States geological and geographical survey, 
are allowed to escape immediate punish- 
ment, their success will embolden every 
desperate character in the neighbor- 
ing tribes to join them or imitate 
their _ example. Ho amount of white- 
washing can make • these fellows pass 
as injured brethren. The Sierra La Sal lie 
on the most direst and what would be the 
best trail — were it not for these robbers — 
| from Salt Lake to the newly discovered 
mines in the La Plata mountains, and at the 
head of the San Miguel and Dolores rivers. 
The route is practically closed by this hand- 
ful of renegades who are bringing disgrace 
on the peaceful tribes about them, and whom 
the head chief of the Utes has promised to 
assist in catching. Their home is within a 
day ’s ride of the new Uncompagre agency, to 
which a wagon road has been built. Their 
country being thus accessible, I would re- 
spectfully suggest that it be urged upon the 
government to take immediate steps to pun- 
ish the renegade band occupying the region 
around the Sierra La Sal. 
Very respectfully yours, 
James T. Gaebnee, 
Geographer. 
To Peqf. F. V. Hayden. 
