Captured by the Navajos | Page 5

here."
"I hear your brook is full of fish."
"There's where you make a mistake," he replied. "There is not a fish in
this valley. The water is spring water, and must possess some mineral
property distasteful to trout, for they never run up here. In San Antonio
Valley, six miles to the west, in a brook less clear than this, you can
catch them by the cart-load."
"I suppose you intend to take this venison with you?"
"Not if you will accept the gift of all but a few quarters, which we will
take for friends in the city."

"Thank you and your men. It will be a treat to us, and keep us going
until we can put in a hunt on our own account."
We went back to the parade, and stood looking at the surrounding
mountains in the deepening twilight.
"What other ways are there in and out of the valley, besides the one
which we entered?" I asked.
"Well, on the east and south sides there is a trail between the peaks,
four in all, and one good bridle-path to the Pueblo of Jemez. That
descends from the valley level to the Jemez River bottom, a drop of
nearly three thousand feet, in a distance of three miles, zigzagging
twice that distance."
"And to the west and north?"
"To the north there is a trail to Abiquiu, rarely used, and to the west
there is only La Puerta, into which all the other trails from the east and
south concentrate. It is to watch La Puerta that this camp was
established."
"And you say you have seen no Navajos or signs of them since you
came?"
"Yes, plenty of signs, but no Indians. Parties have passed here in the
night, but none were driving stock."
I learned all I could of the captain while his men hurried their baggage
into the wagons, but he was too much excited over the prospect of
leaving the Great Valleys, as well as curious to know of events in Santa
Fé, to give me much information. When the guard of regulars relieved
the volunteer guard, I placed my sentinel on a beat a dozen yards in rear
of the guard-house, which enabled him to see several hundred yards
back of the ridge, and yet not show himself prominently to an
approaching foe.
The volunteers at last marched away, and I made a casual examination

of the cabins. I noticed that the inner surface of the log walls had been
hewn smooth, and the names, company, and regiment of the former
occupants had been carved with knives or burned in with hot pokers
along the upper courses. Each had a wide, open, stone fireplace and
chimney set in one corner, after the Mexican fashion.
No uniform design had been observed in the construction of the cabins,
the occupants having followed their own ideas of what would prove
comfortable. Height, width, and depth were variable, but their fronts
were in perfect alignment.
The hut which had been occupied by the officers and which fell to the
boys and myself was at the right of the line, next the storehouse, a little
removed from the others. It was twenty by twenty feet, partitioned on
one side into two alcoves in which were rude bedsteads, one of which
was assigned to the boys and one to myself. A door opened on the
south side, and a window, the only glass one in camp, looked out upon
the parade. Floors in all the cabins were of earth, raised a foot higher
than the outside surface of the ground, smoothed with a trowel and
carpeted with blankets, until later, when skins of wild animals took
their place. Doors were made of puncheons, swung on wooden hinges
and fastened with wooden latches operated by latch-strings.
Our first day in camp was principally spent in making ourselves
comfortable. The men were busy in filling bed-sacks from the
hay-stacks, and in repairing the cabins and articles of furniture. Ten
head of beef cattle had been turned over to me with the other property
of the camp. I had placed them in charge of a soldier, with orders to
herd them in the valley immediately in front of the opening, where they
could be plainly seen from the parade as well as the guard-house.
At noon two Mexican hunters, father and son, rode up to my door, the
former mounted on a mule and the latter on a burro, or donkey. The
elder said their names were José and Manuel Cordova, of Cañoncito,
that they were looking for deer, and would like permission to make the
camp their place of rendezvous. I gave them permission to do so, and
their animals were turned loose with our stock.

About four o'clock in the