While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Early in the summer of 1882
Crook was reassigned to the command of the
Department of Arizona. He took up his duties
at Whipple Barracks, Prescott, September 4.
During the years of his absence all the good
work he had accomplished in Arizona at the
cost of so much blood and toil had been torn
down. Conditions could scarcely be worse
than he found them. The Chiricahuas were all
in the Sierra Madre on the warpath; many of
the Indians on the reservation were
hostile--ready to break out in case of the
slightest exciting disturbance; all were
miserable, sullen, distrustful.
Within a week after reaching his
headquarters, Crook was once more in the
saddle, steering his stout mule eastward
toward the deep and gloomy canyons and
forests around Fort Apache. In these remote
places he met and talked both with those
openly hostile and those still firmly loyal
in spite of their distrust and discontent.
He knew all these Indians personally, and
the Indians of all conditions and tempers
knew him--knew him and trusted him. What
Crook wanted now was to get exactly and
fully the point of view of the Apaches
themselves; to reassure them as to his good
and just intentions toward them; and to give
stern warning to those among them who were
determined to make trouble that he intended
to handle them with a glove of steel. On
this tour Crook took with him only Captain
John G. Bourke and C. E. Cooley as
interpreter, Al Sieber the scout, and
Surgeon J. O. Sikinner. He met everywhere
influential bands and leaders, hostile as
well as friendly, in conferences where all
that was said was taken down in formal
fashion and put on paper. He had private
talks, also, with scores of the Indians at
Fort Apache, San Carlos, and other places.
He found that the Indians were much more
timid and cautious in what they said in
council when what they uttered was set down
on paper than in private conversations. He
found out that the words and actions of the
various Government officials placed over
them were so contradictory that the Indians
were in doubt about everything and did not
know what to believe. They were constantly
being told by one person or another that
they were to be disarmed, were to be
attacked by troops, were to be sent away
from their own country, etc., etc.; and as a
result many of them had decided that they
had better die fighting like men than be
crushed under foot or driven out.
There were both pathos and humor in the
remarks of some of Crook's old-time friends
now in all but open rebellion. Said Alchise:
"The officers you had here were all taken
away, and new ones came in--a different
kind. . . . We couldn't make out what they
wanted; one day they seemed to want one
thing, the next day something else. . . .
The agent at the San Carlos never gave us
any rations, but we did not mind that, as we
were taking care of ourselves. One day the
agent at the San Carlos sent up and said
that we must give up our own country and our
corn patches and go down there to live, and
he sent Indian soldiers to seize our women
and children and drive us all down to that
hot land. 'Uc'lenni' and I were doing all we
could to help the whites, when we were both
put in the guard-house. All that I have ever
done has been true and honest. I have always
been true and obeyed orders. I made
campaigns against Apache-Yumas, Apache-Tontos,
Pinaleņos, and all kinds of people, and even
went against my own people. When the Indians
broke out at the San Carlos, when Major
Randall was here, I helped him to go fight
them; I have been in all the campaigns. When
Major Randall was here we were all happy. .
. . Where has he gone? Why don't he come
back? . . . Oh, where is my friend, the
captain with the big mustache which he
always pulled? Why don't he come back? He
was my brother and I think of him all the
time." (Bourke John G. On the Border with
Crook, p. 436.)
After his many and extended conferences with
the Indians Crook was satisfied that, in all
manner of ways, they had been treated
unjustly and outrageously by dishonest
agents and scheming citizens. In his report
to the Department of War, he writes: "The
simple story of their wrongs, as told by
various representatives of their bands,
under circumstances that convinced me they
were speaking the truth, satisfied me that
the Apaches had not only the best of reasons
for complaining, but had displayed
remarkable forbearance in remaining at
peace." Five different times the limits of
the reservation had been cut down. The
copper camps of Globe and McMillenville on
the west and Clifton on the east had
encroached upon the territory allotted to
the Indians. Coal mines and a silver mine
had been discovered near the south extremity
of the reservation, and speculators, in
connivance with the agent, were doing their
best to get control of these properties for
their own enrichment. "The agent had
approached a circle of twenty of the chiefs
and head men assembled at the San Carlos and
offered each of them a small bag containing
one hundred dollars--Mexican--and told them
that they must agree to sign a paper, giving
up all the southern part of the reservation,
or troops would be sent to kill them."
(Ibid., p. 441.) At the north limit of the
reservation Mormon settlers had encroached
on fields already planted by the Apaches at
Forestdale. In these greedy attempts of
white men to grab territory that did not
belong to them the interest of the Indians
was never taken into account. All this, and
much more of like damnable import, Crook
brought to light in his preliminary
inquiries.
When Crook returned to Arizona, the civil
agent at San Carlos was P. P. Willcox.
However, full control of the Indians on the
reservation was placed in Crook's hands. The
sole duty of the agent was the rationing of
the Indians. There were at that time five
thousand Apaches on the reservation. Four
thousand were settled near the agency at San
Carlos, and one thousand White Mountain
Apaches had been allowed to remain in the
neighborhood of Fort Apache. Both Willcox
and Colonel Beaumont, his clerk, a former
Civil War officer, an able and honorable
gentleman, cooperated harmoniously with
Crook and his representatives.
The General now set about his program of
reconstruction. He drove off all squatters
and miners who could not show dear right and
title to be on the reservation, boldly and
strenuously resisted further efforts to cut
down the limits of the reservation, and
squelched the disturbing talk about removing
the Apaches to the Indian Territory. He
caused a complete census to be taken of
every Indian able to bear arms, and made it
obligatory for each one to have constantly
on his person a metal tag whereon should be
written his number and a letter to indicate
his band. On the census roll, opposite each
name, a description must be written to
correspond with the tag. It was required
that, for the present, the Indians be
counted at frequent intervals. He made it
dear to them that all this was done for
their own protection, as in this way they
could prove at any time, if ill-disposed
white men accused them of committing
depredations off of the reservation, that
they were not guilty. Crook told them that
as soon as they had convinced him that they
could be trusted, the roll call would be
infrequent, and promised them that the
different bands, under the direction of the
Army officer placed over them, could go
where they pleased on the reservation to
select for themselves the places to plant
the crops they would be expected to raise
for their own support. He notified them
sternly that a stop would be put to the
making of tizwin. In the spring of 1883,
when new scouts were enlisted, they were
placed on a different basis from the one
used in the past. When not engaged in
scouting expeditions on the war trail, they
were to be assigned to duty among their
respective bands to direct and advise their
people and to keep the military officers
informed concerning their progress and
behavior. Crook's dictum, in brief, was that
they should "live among their own people and
control them just as we control ours."
October 5, as soon as Crook returned from
his intimate survey of conditions on the
reservation, he issued a general order in
which he said, "Officers and soldiers
serving in this department are reminded that
one of the fundamental principles of the
military character is justice to
all--Indians as well as white men--and that
disregard of this principle is likely to
bring about hostilities and cause the death
of the very persons whom they are sent here
to protect.
"In all their dealings with the Indians,
officers must be careful not only to observe
the strictest fidelity, but to make no
promises not in their power to carry out;
all grievances, arising within their
jurisdiction, should be redressed, so that
an accumulation of them may not cause an
outbreak. Grievances, however petty, if
permitted to accumulate, will be like embers
that smoulder and eventually break into
flame.
"When officers are applied to for the
employment of force against Indians, they
should thoroughly satisfy themselves of the
necessity for the application, and of the
legality of compliance therewith, in order
that they may not, through the inexperience
of others, or through their own hastiness,
allow the troops under them to become the
instruments of oppression.
"There must be no division of responsibility
in this matter; each officer will be held to
a strict accountability that his actions
have been fully authorized by law and
justice, and that Indians evincing a desire
to enter upon a career of peace shall have
no cause for complaint through hasty or
injudicious acts of the military."
October 15, at San Carlos, and again,
November 2, Crook called into council the
chief representatives of the various bands
on the reservation and made known to them in
terse and simple language his plans for them
and the rules by which they were to conduct
themselves in future. The Indian Agent was
present at the conference of November 2, and
the following officers reported to him
there: Captain Emmet Crawford, Lieutenant
Charles B. Gatewood, and Lieutenant Britton
Davis. To Crawford was committed full
military control of the reservation, with
headquarters at San Carlos; Gatewood was
stationed at Fort Apache and given
particular supervision of the White Mountain
Apache; and Davis was assigned to duty at
San Carlos as assistant to Crawford and
commander of the Apache scouts there. They
were listed as on detached service and were
to report directly to Crook. No braver, more
honorable, more competent soldiers ever had
dealings with American Indians than General
Crook and these three young officers into
whose hands he now committed the affairs of
the reservation. All four of them have
achieved lasting fame in the history of the
Army and the literature of the Southwest for
their resolute and just, yet gentle and
humane, dealings with these fierce,
misguided, mistreated Apaches.
Crook's plans worked out well. One hundred
and seventynine families in the spring of
1883 moved from the hot, flat San Carlos
region to the cool mountain valleys around
Fort Apache, Cibicu, and Carizo. They were
encouraged to farm and raise stock. They
produced crops ten times as large as those
of the previous year, and cut and sold to
the quartermaster four hundred tons of hay
and three hundred cords of wood, for all of
which they received good pay. They behaved
themselves well. There were no more cases of
evil-doing and consequent punishment than
among the same number of civilized people.
Said Crawford in his annual report: "These
Indians will require nothing from the
Government after they gather their crops";
and Crook wrote in his report: "From the
date of my arrival in this Territory until
the latter part of March, there was not a
single outrage or depredation committed on
Arizona soil, either by reservation Indians
or renegades."
It was, after all, the outlaw Chiricahua and
Warm Spring Indians, some five hundred
strong, in the wild, high mountains of
northern Mexico that gave Crook and
everybody else in Arizona the greatest
anxiety. The General was convinced, from
information he had been able to pick up on
the reservation, that these turbulent
absentees would cross the border before long
to make trouble in Arizona. He lost no time
in taking what precautions were possible.
Even before mid-October, with two staff
officers, an interpreter, and half a dozen
Apache scouts, he rode to the extreme
southeastern corner of the Territory and
sent out his scouts into the mountain ranges
to try to get some news of them. But no
trace could be found of them. He was,
however, none the less confident that sooner
or later they would make a mid into Arizona;
so he began at once to get his pack trains
into tiptop order. In the art of the pack
train he was now, as ever, supreme; and in
the pursuit of hostile Apaches the only hope
of success and salvation resided in the pack
train.
For the strenuous work ahead of him Crook
enlisted five companies of Indian scouts.
Usually a company of scouts consisted of
twenty-six privates, two sergeants, and two
corporals, but in the expectation of a
campaign in Mexico, the companies now
enlisted were much larger. Sergeants and
corporals were chosen from the chiefs and
other leading men of the tribe; and so far
as possible the personnel of a particular
company was drawn from the same band. Seven
scouts were selected to serve as a
secret-service force--very dangerous duty
assigned only to the most discreet and
trustworthy Indians on the reservation. Two
of the seven were women. They had no part in
military expeditions; their duty was to note
and report secretly to Crawford and Gatewood
any sign of mutiny, hostility, or unrest. Al
Sieber was made chief of scouts and Sam
Bowman and Archie MacIntosh served with him
as assistants and masters of the pack
trains. The ill-starred Mickey Free (adopted
son of the Irishman, John Ward) was attached
to the organization as interpreter with the
rank of a first sergeant. A chapter might
well be devoted to extended
characterizations of these four remarkable
men, each of whom bore a significant part in
Apache affairs during the seventies and
eighties. As soon as the enlistment and
organization of the scouts had been
completed, the five pack trains in the
department were ordered to San Carlos to be
reorganized and equipped. Each train
consisted of forty pack mules, and to each
unit was assigned a chief packer and ten
assistants. When these five pack trains had
been whipped into shape under Crook's own
vigilant eye, it goes without saying they
represented the very top notch of what pack
trains should be.
By late October all was in readiness for
active campaigning. Small garrisons had been
called in from scattered positions and
located at strategic central points where
they could be used to the greatest advantage
in case of emergency. Crawford, with three
companies of Indian scouts, had been ordered
to take station in the neighborhood of
Cloverdale, New Mexico, and from that point
to patrol the border westward. He sent his
spies far south into Mexico in search of
some trace of the renegades, but none was
found. All remained quiet in Arizona up to
late March, 1883. Then came the anticipated
irruption. Two raiding parties left their
remote strongholds in the Sierra Madre--one
under Geronimo with about fifty warriors to
harry Sonora and steal stock; a band of
twenty-six under Chatto to secure ammunition
in Arizona.
Chatto's raid was cyclonic in swiftness and
destructiveness. His party crossed the
border southwest of Fort Huachuca, March 21.
That evening they killed four men at a
charcoal camp. The next evening three men
near the Total Wreck mine, west of the
Whetstone Mountains, suffered a like fate.
That night the party crossed the San Pedro
River and the Southern Pacific railroad near
Benson. Two men were killed at Point of
Mountain on the twenty-third. The raiders
now broke up into small parties. A main
trail led across the Pinaleņo Range into the
San Simon Valley, thence northward to the
Gila Valley, and near Ash Springs, crossed
into New Mexico--not later than March 27.
March 28 Judge McComas and his family were
killed on the road between Silver City and
Lordsburg and their small son was carried
away. Chatto was in Arizona not more than
six days. During that time he traveled about
four hundred miles. Nothing that alert and
experienced generalship, supported by the
prompt and indefatigable efforts of brave
veteran soldiers, could do was left undone
in the attempt to catch and punish the
raiders; but not a soldier got a glimpse of
a single hostile during the six-day raid,
and Chatto rode triumphantly back into the
mountains of Mexico. He returned, however,
without any additional supply of ammunition.
On March 24 Crook had telegraphed Britton
Davis, temporarily in command at San Carlos,
notifying him that a band of renegades had
crossed the border and cautioning him to be
on the alert for them. When the news of the
raid was made known to the Indians who daily
frequented the agency, they instantly betook
themselves to their respective villages,
brought out arms and ammunition that the
officers had no knowledge they possessed,
and prepared to fight the hostiles in case
they should appear. Some of the Tontos
volunteered to do outpost duty in the
mountains. It was supposed that the object
of the raiders was to persuade disaffected
Indians on the reservation to join them and,
in particular, to replenish their supply of
ammunition. On the night of March 28 Davis
received a telegram informing him of the
McComas tragedy. He was in constant suspense
and for days had been able to get little
rest. At midnight, March 30, he had barely
dropped to sleep when he was awakened by the
slight creaking of his door to find
confronting him an armed Indian. He reached
instantly for his revolver; but the intruder
was no enemy; he was a secret-service man.
He informed Davis in an excited whisper that
the Chiricahuas had come. Word had reached
this scout that they were in the village of
some White Mountain Apaches who lived about
fourteen miles from San Carlos. Davis called
in the scouts near the agency, and in the
starlight led the way to within half a mile
of the White Mountain Camp and waited for
day to break. He advanced cautiously upon
the camp at dawn. None of the people were in
sight, but the Indian first sergeant called
out to them. A man's voice replied from one
of the wickiups. It was that of Tzoe--a
member of the raiding band, but not a
willing one. He was not a Chiricahua but a
White Mountain Apache married to a
Chiricahua. He had been forced to go with
the Chiricahuas when last they fled into
Mexico, and he was here now trying to get
news about his mother and his family.
Because he had a certain rosiness of
complexion, the soldiers always called this
Indian "Peaches." He seemed glad to give
himself up. From him and from others of the
party captured later, Davis learned the
details of the raid. He said that with
Chatto was the subchief Benito; that during
the six days they were in Arizona they
traveled about four hundred miles; that they
were armed with the latest Winchesters; that
they repeatedly changed their mounts from
horses stolen at ranches along the way; and
that Chatto got no sleep during the raid
except what he could snatch on horseback,
since he stood guard whenever the party
stopped to rest.
Even before Chatto's raid, Crook had been
pushing preparations for a strong expedition
into the Sierra Madre. March 31 he received
orders from the General of the Army to
pursue the raiders without regard to Army
Department or national boundary lines. Crook
telegraphed to Davis to ask if "Peaches"
could be induced to lead the expedition into
the mountain haunts of the hostiles. Tzoe
willingly agreed to assume this most
dangerous task. (I met and interviewed Tzoe
in the summer of 1933 at his home on Cibicu
Creek. His hut, a sort of combination ramada
and shack, was located on the site of the
Battle of Cibicu fought in August, 1891.
"Peaches" was then a very old man and was
ill. He died about a year later. He was able
to give interesting details concerning his
part in the events here narrated.)
As a preliminary to his campaign in Mexican
territory, Crook journeyed by rail to both
Sonora and Chihuahua in order to have a
clear understanding with the civil and
military officers of these states. He was
received kindly and hospitably and was
promised full cooperation in his determined
attempt to subjugate the Chiricahuas. May 1
Crook left San Barnardino Springs on the
international border with one hundred and
ninety-three Apache scouts, forty-five
cavalrymen, and two pack trains. The other
officers in the expedition were Captains
Crawford, Chaffee, and Bourke, and
Lieutenants Gatewood, West, MacKay,
Fieberger, and W. W. Forsyth. Dr. George
Andrews went as surgeon, J. B. Sweeney as
hospital stewad, Sieber as chief of scouts.,
MacIntosh as his assistant, and Mickey Free
and Severiano as interpreters. Every pack
animal in the Department was used.
Provisions were carried sufficient to last
for sixty days, and every man was provided
with one hundred and fifty rounds of
ammunition. The officers messed with the
packers, and clothing and bedding were
reduced to the minimum.
The command moved southwestward for three
days without seeing a human being. The whole
region through which they marched had been
ravaged by the Apaches. Moving now only at
night, May 8, they entered the Sierra Madre.
Here were found fresh and abundant signs of
the hostiles--abandoned camps that gave
evidence they had recently been occupied by
families of from fifteen to forty, and
cattle and horses both living and dead all
along the route. No rougher terrain could be
imagined, "hopeless for any kind of
campaigning other than with Indians afoot."
It was a paradise, however, for those who
could reach it and inhabit it. Says Crook:
"We found at all times an abundance of the
purest water and plenty of fuel, the
mountains being covered with forests of pine
and oak. We made our way cautiously, and
with considerable difficulty farther and
farther into the recesses of the Sierra
Madre, the trail becoming very precipitous.
A number of mules were lost by slipping over
precipices, but in each case the contents of
their packs, when not too much damaged, were
saved with much trouble.
"On the 12th, the guide 'Peaches' conducted
us to the stronghold of the enemy, a
formidable place, impregnable to attack, had
such been dreamed of. To be explicit, the
whole Sierra Madre is a natural fortress,
and to drive the Chiricahuas from which, by
any other method than those we employed,
would have cost hundreds of lives. The enemy
was not to be found in this particular
fortress. The nature of the Apache impels
them to change their camps every few days,
and thus avoid as much as possible anything
like a surprise."
On May 15 the scouts, led by Gatewood, found
the camp of Chatto and Benito. These two
chiefs were absent at the time. The camp was
located halfway up the front of a very steep
mountain, cut by ravines and arroyos. The
attack by Crook's scouts came as a complete
surprise. A fight ensued that lasted seven
hours. The Indians were defeated and the
camp was captured. Nine renegades were
killed and five half-grown children
captured. About forty mules and horses were
taken and other property, all of which had
been stolen from Mexicans or Americans. When
the attack was made, some of the women had
fled into the thick undergrowth taking with
them a captive white boy whom Crook believed
to be Charlie McComas. He was not recovered
and his fate has never been known. The
oldest of the girls who had been captured by
the scouts said that only a few days before
two messengers had been sent to San Carlos
to find out whether the renegades would be
allowed to return to the reservation. She
said she knew her people wanted to make
peace and that, if permitted to do so, she
would find a delegation of them and bring
them in. She was given permission to go. The
next day a signal smoke went up which
heralded the approach of six women. Crook
declined to talk with them. He said that if
the hostiles wanted to surrender their chief
men must come to him for a talk.
May 18 Chihuahua, one of the ablest and most
intelligent leaders among the renegades,
made his appearance. He said that hitherto
they had thought these strongholds to be
unapproachable; that never before had either
Mexican or American soldiers been able to
come beyond the foothills; that several of
the chiefs were now out on raids into Sonora
and Chihuahua, but that he was sure most of
the Chiricahuas were very tired of constant
war and would gladly settle down and be at
peace.
Soon after this the scattered renegades
began to come in-among them Loco, Nachez,
Chatto, Geronimo, Benito, and Ka-ya-ten-nae,
a very capable and popular young chief who
had never been on a reservation but had
always remained in the Sierra Madre. All of
them wanted to surrender and go on the
reservation. Geronimo, with thirty-six
warriors, had been on a long raid in western
Chihuahua. They had stolen hundreds of
cattle and had been killing Mexicans all
along the route. May 9 five Mexican women
and a child had been captured. They had
suffered cruel treatment for two weeks but
had been abandoned to their fate and had
found their way into the American camp. They
said it had been Geronimo's intention to
exchange them for Apache women and children
captured by the Mexicans; but that when he
and his band found out that a large force of
Apache scouts had penetrated into the Sierra
Madre they were so alarmed that they
released them and also abandoned three
hundred head of cattle they had rounded up
during their raid.
When these leading chiefs came before him
and made known their desire to go back to
the reservation, Crook sternly charged them
with their bloody and innumerable crimes,
and told them he had not gone to the trouble
of coming there with this expedition merely
to capture them, but to wipe them out. He
told them that they were bad Indians and
deserved to be exterminated; that if they
wanted to fight he was able and ready to
fight them at any time; that the Mexican
troops, also, were approaching from every
side; and that, if they thought they could
do it, the best thing for them was to fight
their way out. Several days passed before he
would give his consent to their surrender.
At the last the chiefs fairly besought him
to take them back to San Carlos. He replied
that he had no authority to place them on
the reservation again; that both Army and
civilians were demanding their utter
destruction; and that the Mexicans, also,
demanded satisfaction for the outrages
committed against them. Geronimo and the
others then said they would give themselves
up and he could do as he pleased with them.
They begged him to stay a few days until
they could gather up all their people, so
widely scattered and in places so difficult
to reach that they could not be brought in
at once. Crook could not do this as his
rations were running so low that he feared,
with the additional demands made upon him by
the many Chiricahuas he was already feeding,
his command might suffer before he could get
back to his supply camp at the border.
It was finally agreed that the General
should proceed toward the border, by short
marches, with Nana, Loco, and Benito, and
about fifty other men and two hundred and
seventy-three women and children ready to
start at once; and that runners should be
sent out to get word to those who had not
come in that they should come on and
overtake Crook at San Bernardino or, failing
in this, come on along the mountain ridges
to San Carlos at their own risk. Crook
reached his supply camp June 10, and the
Chiricahuas were sent on to San Carlos in
charge of Captain Crawford and the scouts,
where they arrived June 23, 1883. It was
supposed that it would be about "two moons"
before the remaining chiefs and their one
hundred and fifty followers would arrive at
the border. In his report of July 23, 1883,
Crook wrote: "The fact that the Indians left
behind have not come in is a matter of no
significance. Indians have no idea of the
value of time. The members of Loco's band
who came into San Carlos in May last were
sixty-six days in making the journey, though
they had 40 or 50 miles less distance to
travel than those whom I left in the Sierra
Madre." By way of comment on these words of
the General, it is perhaps only fair to say
that Geronimo's tardiness in making his
appearance was extremely significant as a
mark of his despicable character, for he was
taking his time in order to add to his large
herd of stolen stock which he fondly hoped
to trade to good advantage to reservation
Indians when once more in their midst. The
Indians who came in with the General were
nearly all of the Warm Spring band. Most of
the Chiricahuas were still behind, with
their leaders Nachez, Mangus, Geronimo,
Chatto, and Zele.
The months rolled by; October arrived; and
still nothing was heard from the loitering
Chiricahuas. Meantime, the newspapers of
Arizona lost no opportunity to abuse Crook
for bringing back these hostiles. "The
telegraph wires were loaded with false
reports of outrages, attacks, and massacres
which had never occurred; these reports were
scattered broadcast with the intention and
in the hope that they might do him injury.
Crook made no reply to these scurrilous
attempts at defamation. . . . But he did
order the most complete investigation to be
made of each and every report, and in each
and every case the utter recklessness of the
authors of these lies was made manifest."
(Bourke J. G.Op. cit., p. 454. See following
pages for a fuller account of these attempts
of Crook's detractors.)
Britton Davis was now ordered to take
station on the border with a company of
Indian scouts to try to send word to the
tardy chiefs to hurry up and protect them,
also, on their march from the border to San
Carlos. At San Bernardino he waited for
weeks but was unable to get word from the
delayed bands. Finally, there rode into camp
Nachez and Zele with about twelve warriors
and twenty-five women and children. They
were all in prime condition and were riding
Mexican ponies. Davis gave them swift and
safe conduct to San Carlos. Then he returned
to his camp, and after a wait of several
more weeks Chatto and Mangus arrived with
about sixty followers and a hundred stolen
horses. Riding from thirty to forty miles a
day, Davis delivered them at the agency
without interference on the part of the
whites.
No news had been received concerning
Geronimo. So back to the border with his
scouts rode Lieutenant Davis to await his
coming. Six weeks passed and still there was
no sign of him. Disgusted at the long delay,
Davis was about to leave the border with his
scouts, when one day in April, 1884, to the
southward a great cloud of dust was seen
approaching, and within a few hours Geronimo
appeared, mounted on a white horse,
accompanied by some fifteen men and seventy
women and children, and behind him a herd of
three hundred and fifty Mexican cattle. With
his usual insolence he rode up to Davis, and
wanted to know why he was to go into San
Carlos under military guard. He insisted
that they move very slowly so that his
cattle could feed and rest along the way. At
Sulphur Spring, in the ugliest of moods, he
demanded that a three-day halt be made so
that the cattle could rest and graze. With
great difficulty Davis compromised on a halt
of one day. But now something serious
happened. The Collector of Customs from the
port of entry at Nogales and the United
States Marshal for the Southern District of
Arizona made their appearance and demanded
the arrest of Geronimo and his men for the
murder of Arizona citizens, and the
confiscation of the stock they had smuggled
in from Mexico. Davis said he could not
allow such action to be taken without a
direct order from General Crook. The Marshal
had no such order; but then and there he
wrote out a subpoena and served it on Davis
as a citizen of the United States, and
ordered him to effect the arrest of the
Indians. Davis was thus placed in an almost
incredibly difficult situation--as between
the domineering attitude of the fierce and
faithless Geronimo and the demand of these
reckless and stupid officers of the Federal
Government. He was equal to the situation,
however. At Fort Bowie was a young officer,
J. Y. F. Blake, who had been Davis' chum at
West Point. Davis had written to him, naming
the day he would be at Sulphur Spring and
inviting him to ride over for a talk. To
Davis' delight Blake rode into camp at this
moment of direst need; and like a flash
there came to the mind of the perplexed
officer a solution to his problem. He
explained his predicament to Blake, reminded
him that he was his senior in rank, besought
him to take command, order him, Davis, to
remain at Sulphur Spring subject to the
orders of the United States Marshal, and, as
soon as the civil officers and the cowboys
were all asleep, to pull out with the pack
train, the Apaches, and their stock, and
make a rapid night march toward the
reservation. Blake fell in with the plan at
once. He and Davis spent a convivial evening
with the Marshal and the Collector, in the
course of which these patriots drank freely
of Blake's Scotch whisky. The seriousness
and urgency of the situation was at once
made known to Geronimo and he consented to
slip away in the night. The officers slept
long and deep; and when they awoke after
sunrise, Geronimo with his entire outfit had
been gone for many hours. Davis was on hand,
but was unable to inform them of the
direction taken by his superior officer and
the Indians. The Marshal climbed to the roof
of the house and surveyed the horizon in
every direction, but there was no sign of a
marching body within twenty miles. The
chagrin of the two officers can better be
imagined than described, when they
discovered how adroitly they had been
outwitted. Geronimo's success in stealing
his large herd of cattle and getting them to
San Carlos availed him little; for he was
forced to turn them over to the agency for
beef, the Mexican owners in due time
receiving pay for them from our Government.
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