The Old Santa Fe Trail | Page 3

Dick Wooton--Jim Baker--Lucien B. Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin--James Hobbs.

CHAPTER XVII.
UNCLE DICK WOOTON. Uncle Dick Wooton--Lucien B. Maxwell--Old Bill Williams--Tom Tobin-- James Hobbs--William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill).

CHAPTER XVIII.
MAXWELL'S RANCH. Maxwell's Ranch on the Old Santa Fe Trail--A Picturesque Region-- Maxwell a Trapper and Hunter with the American Fur Company-- Lifelong Comrade of Kit Carson--Sources of Maxwell's Wealth-- Fond of Horse-racing--A Disastrous Fourth-of-July Celebration --Anecdote of Kit Carson--Discovery of Gold on the Ranch-- The Big Ditch--Issuing Beef to the Ute Indians--Camping out with Maxwell and Carson--A Story of the Old Santa Fe Trail.

CHAPTER XIX.
BENT'S FORTS. The Bents' Several Forts--Famous Trading-posts--Rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Trappers--Castle William and Incidents connected with the Noted Place--Bartering with the Indians--Annual Feast of Arapahoes and Cheyennes--Old Wolf's First Visit to Bent's Fort-- The Surprise of the Savages--Stories told by Celebrated Frontiersmen around the Camp-fire.

CHAPTER XX.
PAWNEE ROCK. Pawnee Rock--A Debatable Region of the Indian Tribes--The most Dangerous Point on the Central Plains in the Days of the Early Santa Fe Trade--Received its Name in a Baptism of Blood-- Battle-ground of the Pawnees and Cheyennes--Old Graves on the Summit of the Rock--Kit Carson's First Fight at the Rock with the Pawnees--Kills his Mule by Mistake--Colonel St. Vrain's Brilliant Charge--Defeat of the Savages--The Trappers' Terrible Battle with the Pawnees--The Massacre at Cow Creek.

CHAPTER XXI.
FOOLING STAGE ROBBERS. Wagon Mound--John L. Hatcher's Thrilling Adventure with Old Wolf, the War-chief of the Comanches--Incidents on the Trail--A Boy Bugler's Happy Escape from the Savages at Fort Union--A Drunken Stage-driver--How an Officer of the Quartermaster's Department at Washington succeeded in starting the Military Freight Caravans a Month Earlier than the Usual Time--How John Chisholm fooled the Stage-robbers--The Story of Half a Plug of Tobacco.

CHAPTER XXII.
A DESPERATE RIDE. Solitary Graves along the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Walnut Crossing--Fort Zarah--The Graves on Hon. D. Heizer's Ranch on the Walnut--Troops stationed at the Crossing of the Walnut-- A Terrible Five Miles--The Cavalry Recruit's Last Ride.

CHAPTER XXIII.
HANCOCK'S EXPEDITION. General Hancock's Expedition against the Plains Indians--Terrible Snow-storm at Fort Larned--Meeting with the Chiefs of the Dog-Soldiers--Bull Bear's Diplomacy--Meeting of the United States Troops and the Savages in Line of Battle--Custer's Night Experience-- The Surgeon and Dog Stew--Destruction of the Village by Fire-- General Sully's Fight with the Kiowas, Comanches, and Arapahoes-- Finding the Skeletons of the Unfortunate Men--The Savages' Report of the Affair.

CHAPTER XXIV.
INVASION OF THE RAILROAD. Scenery on the Line of the Old Santa Fe Trail--The Great Plains-- The Arkansas Valley--Over the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico-- The Raton Range--The Spanish Peaks--Simpson's Rest--Fisher's Peak --Raton Peak--Snowy Range--Pike's Peak--Raton Creek--The Invasion of the Railroad--The Old Santa Fe Trail a Thing of the Past.
FOOTNOTES.
PUBLICATION INFORMATION.

INTRODUCTION.

For more than three centuries, a period extending from 1541 to 1851, historians believed, and so announced to the literary world, that Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, the celebrated Spanish explorer, in his search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and the Kingdom of Quivira, was the first European to travel over the intra-continent region of North America. In the last year above referred to, however, Buckingham Smith, of Florida, an eminent Spanish scholar, and secretary of the American Legation at Madrid, discovered among the archives of State the Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, where for nearly three hundred years it had lain, musty and begrimed with the dust of ages, an unread and forgotten story of suffering that has no parallel in fiction. The distinguished antiquarian unearthed the valuable manuscript from its grave of oblivion, translated it into English, and gave it to the world of letters; conferring honour upon whom honour was due, and tearing the laurels from such grand voyageurs and discoverers as De Soto, La Salle, and Coronado, upon whose heads history had erroneously placed them, through no fault, or arrogance, however, of their own.
Cabeca, beyond any question, travelled the Old Santa Fe Trail for many miles, crossed it where it intersects the Arkansas River, a little east of Fort William or Bent's Fort, and went thence on into New Mexico, following the famous highway as far, at least, as Las Vegas. Cabeca's march antedated that of Coronado by five years. To this intrepid Spanish voyageur we are indebted for the first description of the American bison, or buffalo as the animal is erroneously called. While not so quaint in its language as that of Coronado's historian, a lustrum later, the statement cannot be perverted into any other reference than to the great shaggy monsters of the plains:--
Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size of those of Spain. They have small horns like the cows of Morocco, and the hair very long and flocky, like that of the merino; some are light brown, others black. To my judgment the flesh is finer