W. F. CUMMINS—THE TEXAS METEORITES. 
15 
The Nachitoches party arrived a few days later, and after searching 
several days succeeded in finding the object of the search. Being pro¬ 
vided with tools, they made a truck wagon, to which they harnessed 
six horses, and set off with their prize toward the Red River. They 
crossed the Brazos River without much difficulty, but a straggling 
party of Indians having one night.stolen all of their horses, they were 
detained until two of their party could go to Nachitoches for more 
horses. On arriving at the Red River some of their party went down 
in a boat with the iron, while others took the horses down by land. 
From Nachitoches. the iron was taken down the Red River and Missis¬ 
sippi to New Orleans, whence it was shipped to New York, and was 
afterwards placed in the Yale Museum by the wife of Col. Gibbs. It 
is still there, and is known as the Texas Meteorite. 
11 In February, 1812, John Maley went with a few associates up the 
Red River, with a view of exploring the country and trading with In¬ 
dians, and, if practicable, to bring away the two remaining masses of 
metal. He saw one or both of the masses, but being unable to make 
the remuneration for them demanded by the Indians, he continued his 
tour further west. Returning, he contracted to barter for the pieces of 
metal a certain quantity of merchandise, to procure which he returned 
to Nachitoches. On his second expedition up Red River, in 1813, he 
and his associates being robbed by a party of Osages of their merchan¬ 
dise and horses, were compelled to return on foot, relinquishing their 
object.” 
Nothing more seems to have been done at that time to obtain the 
other two pieces mentioned by Capt. Glass. 
In 1829, Mr. Robert Cox, of Sparta, Tenn., wrote the editor of the 
American Journal of Science that a gentleman had returned from a 
five years absence in the province of Texas, during which time he had 
frequently been with the Comanche Indians, and a small party of them 
conducted him to a mass of metal lying on a creek, but he does not 
give the locality. 
This is supposed to be one of the pieces mentioned. 
In the month of May, 1856, Major R. S. Neighbors, who was United 
States Indian Agent at the reservation on the Brazos River, in Young 
County, Texas, a few miles south of where the town of Graham is now 
situated, obtained a piece of meteoric iron from the Comanche Indians. 
The meteorite was then on the eastern side of the Brazos River, about 
sixty miles from the reservation, in latitude 34 and longitude 100. 
The history of this meteorite, as furnished by Major Neighbors, is 
as follows: For many years its existence was known to the Coman- 
ches, who regarded it with high veneration and believed it to be pos¬ 
sessed of extraordinary curative virtues. They gave it the names Ta- 
pic-ta-carre (standing rock), Po-i-wisht-carre (standing metal), Po-a- 
cat-le-pi-le-carre (medicine rock), and it was the custom of all who 
