Part 6

The command was threatened by a great prairie fire on coming down into the broad grassy valley of the Janos. Under the impetus of a fierce wind the flames were rushing upon camp. There was not a moment to be lost. All hands turned out,--soldiers, scouts, squaws, Chiricahua warriors, and even children. Each bore a branch of willow or cotton-wood, a blanket, or scrap of canvas. The conflagration had already seized the hill-crest nearest our position; brownish and gray clouds poured skyward in compact masses; at their feet a long line of scarlet flame flashed and leaped high in air. It was a grand, a terrible sight: in front was smiling nature, behind, ruin and desolation. The heat created a vacuum, and the air, pouring in, made whirlwinds, which sent the black funnels of soot winding and twisting with the symmetry of hour-glasses almost to the zenith. For one moment the line of fire paused, as if to rest after gaining the hill-top; it was only a moment. “Here she comes!” yelled the men on the left; and like a wild beast flinging high its tawny mane of cloud and flashing its fangs of flame, the fire was upon, around, and about us.

Our people stood bravely up to their work, and the swish! swish! swish! of willow brooms proved that camp was not to be surrendered without a struggle.

We won the day; that is, we saved camp, herds, and a small area of pasturage; but over a vast surface of territory the ruthless flames swept, mantling the land with soot and an opaque pall of mist and smoke through which the sun’s rays could not penetrate. Several horses and mules were badly burned, but none to death.

For two or three nights afterwards the horizon was gloriously lighted with lines of fire creeping over the higher ridges. As we debouched into the broad plain, through which trickled the shriveled current of the Janos, no one would have suspected that we were not a column of Bedouins. A long caravan, stretched out for a mile upon the trail, resolved itself upon closer approach into a confused assemblage of ponies, horses, and mules, with bundles or without, but in every case freighted with humanity. Children were packed by twos and threes, while old women and feeble men got along as best they could, now riding, now walking. The scouts had decked themselves with paint and the Chiricahua women had donned all their finery of rough silver bracelets, wooden crosses, and saints’ pictures captured from Mexicans. This undulating plain, in which we now found ourselves, spread far to the north and east, and was covered with bunch and grama grasses, and dotted with cedar.--The march brought us to Alisos Creek (an affluent of the Janos), a thousand yards or more above the spot where the Mexican commander García, had slaughtered so many Chiricahua women and children. Human bones, picked white and clean by coyotes, glistened in the sandy bed of the stream. Apache baskets and other furniture were strewn about. A clump of graves headed by rude crosses betrayed the severity of the loss inflicted upon the Mexicans.

Between the 5th and 8th of June we crossed back (west) into Sonora, going over the asperous peak known as the Cocospera.

In this vicinity were many varieties of mineral--granite gneiss, porphyry, conglomerate, shale, sandstone, and quartz,--and travel was as difficult almost as it had been in the earlier days of the march. We struck the head waters of Pitisco Creek, in a very rugged cañon, then Elias Creek, going through another fine game region, and lastly, after crossing a broad tableland mantled with grama grass, mesquite, Spanish bayonet, and Palo Verde, mescal, and palmilla, bivouacked on the San Bernardino river, close to a tule swamp of blue, slimy mud.

The scouts plastered their heads with this mud, and dug up the bulbs of the tule, which, when roasted, are quite palatable.

On the 15th of June the command recrossed the national boundary, and reached Silver Springs, Arizona, the camp of the reserve under Colonel Biddle, from whom and from all of whose officers and men we received the warmest conceivable welcome. Every disaster had been predicted and asserted regarding the column, from which no word had come, directly or indirectly since May 5th. The Mexican captives were returned to their own country and the Chiricahuas marched, under Crawford, to the San Carlos Agency.

Unfortunately the papers received at Silver Springs were full of inflammatory telegrams, stating that the intention of the government was to hang all the Chiricahua men, without distinction, and to parcel out the women and children among tribes in the Indian Territory. This news, getting among the Chiricahuas, produced its legitimate result. Several of the chiefs and many of the head men hid back in the mountains until they could learn exactly what was to be their fate. The Mexican troops went in after them, and had two or three severe engagements, and were, of course, whipped each time. When the road was clear the Chiricahuas kept their promises to the letter, and brought to the San Carlos the last man, woman, and child of their people.

They have been quietly scattered in small groups around the reservation, the object being to effect tribal disintegration, to bring individuals and families face to face with the progress made by more peaceable Apaches, and at same time to enable trusted members of the latter bands to maintain a more perfect surveillance over every action of the Chiricahuas.

Charlie McComas was never found; the Chiricahuas insist, and I think truthfully, that he was in the _ranchería_ destroyed by Crawford; that he escaped, terror-stricken, to the depths of the mountains; that the country was so rough, the timber and brush-wood so thick that his tracks could not be followed, even had there not been such a violent fall of rain during the succeeding nights. All accounts agree in this.

Altogether the Chiricahuas delivered up thirteen captives,--women and children,--held by them as hostages.

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Transcriber’s note:

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

Pg 10: ‘one was suprised’ replaced by ‘one was surprised’.

Pg 11: ‘boldness, and sublety’ replaced by ‘boldness, and subtlety’.

Pg 14: ‘the Cayote saw’ replaced by ‘the Coyote saw’.

Pg 18: ‘the Amercan troops’ replaced by ‘the American troops’.

Pg 23: ‘not infreqently the’ replaced by ‘not infrequently the’.

Pg 24: ‘or millitary posts’ replaced by ‘or military posts’.

Pg 34: ‘like the cayote’ replaced by ‘like the coyote’.

Pg 51: ‘constantly patroled’ replaced by ‘constantly patrolled’.

Pg 76: ‘dead Chiracahuas’ replaced by ‘dead Chiricahuas’.

Pg 98: ‘and his beleagured’ replaced by ‘and his beleaguered’.