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28 - Among the Camanches and Apaches- An Autobiography by Edwin Eastman · Among the Camanches and Apaches- An Autobiography

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty eight seven and nine Years among the Comanches
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Speaker 1: and Apaches, an autobiography by Edwin Eastman. This is a
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Speaker 1: A new departure. Glad to escape from such a scene
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Speaker 1: of riot and violence, I walked rapidly along the narrow street,
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Speaker 1: without any definite idea of where I was going. I
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Speaker 1: soon passed a low, in squalid looking rows of adobe
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Speaker 1: buildings which composed a greater part of the famous quid
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Speaker 1: Ad da Santa Fe, and came out upon the open
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Speaker 1: plane beyond. My attention was attracted by a small group
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Speaker 1: of wagons parked upon the plane a short distance off,
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Speaker 1: and I walked towards them, thinking perhaps to fall in
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Speaker 1: with some of my own countrymen, of a different class
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Speaker 1: from the brutal roughs I had lately met. The wagons
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Speaker 1: were but four in number, and the party to which
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Speaker 1: they belonged comprised only twelve or fifteen persons. They were
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Speaker 1: mostly Americans, and from their dress and manner I took
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Speaker 1: them to be a party of miners. All were stout
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Speaker 1: hardy looking men with an air that bespoke familiarity with
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Speaker 1: hardships and adventure. They had just struck camp and were
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Speaker 1: evidently preparing for departure. One who seemed to act as
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Speaker 1: their leader, was directing operations and apparently exercised a degree
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Speaker 1: of authority unusual among men of this class. He was
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Speaker 1: a stout, broad shouldered man with a good natured expression
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Speaker 1: of countenance, and from his voice and features easily distinguishable
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Speaker 1: as an Englishman. The others addressed him as Harding, or
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Speaker 1: ned One or two, giving him the familiar appellation of
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Speaker 1: hard pan, which seemed a sort of sobriquet by which
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Speaker 1: he was known. There was something in his appearance which
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Speaker 1: inspired me with the belief that in him I might
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Speaker 1: find a friend, And, impelled by this feeling, I approached
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Speaker 1: him and addressed him as mister Harding, explained that I
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Speaker 1: was a stranger and destitute in what was to me
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Speaker 1: a strange land, and implored him to give me employment
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Speaker 1: of some kind with his party, so that I might
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Speaker 1: in time be enabled to return to my home in
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Speaker 1: the distant east. Where do ye come from? Las said he,
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Speaker 1: looking at me with some interest, and noticing the unfaceable
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Speaker 1: marks upon my face, my legacy from the Comanches, and
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Speaker 1: which I am destined to carry to my grave. In
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Speaker 1: as few words as possible, I told him my story,
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Speaker 1: interrupted by many exclamations of wonder and sympathy from my
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Speaker 1: simple minded listener. As I concluded, he slapped me on
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Speaker 1: the back and declared that I should join his party
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Speaker 1: and should never want for a bite or sup while
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Speaker 1: ned harding was to the fore. By this time the
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Speaker 1: other men of the party had gathered around, and I
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Speaker 1: was compelled to repeat my tale, which excited both pity
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Speaker 1: and interest in the breast of the kind hearted miners,
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Speaker 1: who declared that the CUSC commands out to be wopped out. I,
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Speaker 1: every mother son of them added, ned for playing such
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Speaker 1: tricks upon travelers, the bloody minded heathen. It was soon
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Speaker 1: agreed upon that I should accompany the party who were
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Speaker 1: on their way to the old Spanish mine of San Ildefonso,
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Speaker 1: formerly noted as one of the richest in the province
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Speaker 1: of New Mexico, but for many years deserted by the
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Speaker 1: Mexicans from terror of the savage Apache and Navajo. The
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Speaker 1: men composing the party of which I had now become
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Speaker 1: a member were not to be deterred in their search
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Speaker 1: for a golden harvest by any fears of such a nature,
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Speaker 1: and had determined to visit the old mine and prospect
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Speaker 1: in its vicinity with the hope of finding a paying lead.
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Speaker 1: They had with them all the necessary utensils for their purpose,
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Speaker 1: were well armed and with an abundant stock of provision,
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Speaker 1: and seemed one in all to be confident of success
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Speaker 1: in their enterprise. I will spare the reader unnecessary details
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Speaker 1: and merely state that we started within an hour on
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Speaker 1: our journey, and after a wearisome and uninteresting trip of
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Speaker 1: eighteen days, reached the scene of our future operations, and
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Speaker 1: which was destined to be my abiding place for nearly
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Speaker 1: two years. A suitable spot was selected, convenient to both
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Speaker 1: wood and water, A few rude huts were erected, and
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Speaker 1: the town of Harding sprang into being. After getting fairly
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Speaker 1: settled and resting somewhat from the fatigue incident to our
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Speaker 1: journey and our labors, and preparing our camp, we divided
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Speaker 1: in parties of three and four and went to prospecting
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Speaker 1: in various directions for the precious metal which was the
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Speaker 1: object of our expedition. In this, we were moderately successful,
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Speaker 1: and we soon had our mining operations in full blast.
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Speaker 1: I always worked in company with Ned, as I had
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Speaker 1: learned to call him, and although he favored me to
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Speaker 1: a degree, assigning to me all the lighter portions of
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Speaker 1: the work, I soon found that it was the most
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Speaker 1: severe labor I had ever undertaken, although I had been
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Speaker 1: inured to toil and hardship of almost every kind during my
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Speaker 1: long residence with the Camanches. The old mine was situated
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Speaker 1: at the base of a precipitous cliff of quartz rock.
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Speaker 1: A number of rude shafts pierced the mountainside. Some had
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Speaker 1: penetrated to a considerable depth, others more shallow, showing that
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Speaker 1: the lead had proved unprofitable and been speedily abandoned. On
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Speaker 1: the banks of a little stream which wound around the
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Speaker 1: base of the cliff stood the old smelting house in
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Speaker 1: ruined ranches of the Mexican miners. Most of them were
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Speaker 1: roofless and crumbling to decay. The ground about them was
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Speaker 1: shaggy and choked up. There were briers, mescal plants, and
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Speaker 1: many varieties of cactus, all luxuriant, hairsuit and thorny. These
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Speaker 1: were speedily cleared away, and selecting one of the largest
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Speaker 1: of the old smelting houses we soon put in order
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Speaker 1: for work. Besides our quartz mining in the old shafts
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Speaker 1: and in new ones which we opened, we also engaged
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Speaker 1: in gulch and surface mining in the vicinity. As some
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Speaker 1: account of the different modes employed to get at the
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Speaker 1: precious metals with which the rocks and soils of the
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Speaker 1: far Western States are so richly stored may not be
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Speaker 1: uninteresting to the reader, I will briefly give it. Mining
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Speaker 1: for gold alone is divided into two general classes, that
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Speaker 1: which seeks the metal from the solid rock or quartz,
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Speaker 1: and that which finds it in sand, gravel, or soil.
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Speaker 1: The former process is the universal and familiar one of
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Speaker 1: all rock mining, following the rich veines into the bowels
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Speaker 1: of the earth with pick and powder, crushing the rock
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Speaker 1: and separating the infinitesimal atoms of metal from the dusty,
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Speaker 1: powdered mass. The theory of the geologist is that this
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Speaker 1: is the original form or deposit of the precious metals,
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Speaker 1: that the gold found in gravel, sand or soil, lying,
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Speaker 1: as it does all most universally in the beds of
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Speaker 1: rivers or under the caves of the mountains, has been
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Speaker 1: washed or ground out of the hard hills by the
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Speaker 1: action of the elements through long years. Washing with water
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Speaker 1: is the universal means of getting at these deposits of
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Speaker 1: the gold. But the scale on which this work is
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Speaker 1: done and the instrumentalities of application vary, from the simple
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Speaker 1: hand pan pick and shovel of the original miner operating
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Speaker 1: along the banks of a little stream, to grand combination
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Speaker 1: enterprises for changing the entire course of a river, running
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Speaker 1: shafts down hundreds of feet to get into the beds
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Speaker 1: of long ago streams, and bringing water through ditches and
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Speaker 1: flumes and great pipes for ten or twenty miles, and
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Speaker 1: withal to wash down a hillside of gold and gravel
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Speaker 1: and extract its precious particles. The simple individual panwashers are
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Speaker 1: the first in the field, but it soon ceases to
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Speaker 1: be profitable in this class of operators, and they soon
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Speaker 1: move on in search of richer diggings. The other means
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Speaker 1: are employed on greater or less scales of magnitude by
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Speaker 1: combinations of men in capital. All the forms of gold
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Speaker 1: washing run into each other, indeed, and companies sometimes consisting
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Speaker 1: of only two or three persons with capitals of a
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Speaker 1: few hundred dollars, merely by a sluice claim or seese
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Speaker 1: a deserted bed, and with shovel and pick and a
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Speaker 1: small stream of water, run the sands over and over
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Speaker 1: through the sluice ways, and at the end of the
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Speaker 1: day or week or month, gather up the deposits of
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Speaker 1: gold in the bottoms and at the ends of their sluices.
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Speaker 1: From this operations ascend to a magnitude, involving hundreds of
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Speaker 1: fouls and employing hundreds of men as partners or day
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Speaker 1: laborers for the managers. Sometimes too, the enterprise is divided,
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Speaker 1: and companies are organized that furnish the water alone and
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Speaker 1: sell it out to the miners or washers according to
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Speaker 1: their wants. The raising of a rifferous sands and gravel
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Speaker 1: from the deeply covered beds of old streams by running
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Speaker 1: down shafts and tunnels into and through such beds is
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Speaker 1: called deep diggings or bedrock diggings, And in their pursuit
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Speaker 1: the bottoms of ancient rivers will be followed through the
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Speaker 1: country for mile after mile, and many feet below the
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Speaker 1: present surface of the earth. The miners in this fashion
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Speaker 1: go down until they reach the bedrock along which the
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Speaker 1: water originally ran, and here they find the richest deposits.
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Speaker 1: The other sort of heavy gold wall, employing powerful streams
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Speaker 1: of water to tear down and wash out the soil
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Speaker 1: of hillsides that cover or hold golden deposits, is known
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Speaker 1: as hydraulic mining. This is the most unique and extensive process,
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Speaker 1: involving the largest capital and risk. The water is brought
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Speaker 1: from mountain lakes and rivers through ditches and flumes, sometimes
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Speaker 1: supported by trestle work fifty or one hundred feet high,
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Speaker 1: to near the scene of operations. Then it is let
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Speaker 1: from the flumes into large and stout iron pipes, which
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Speaker 1: grow gradually smaller and smaller. Out of these it is
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Speaker 1: passed into hose like that of a fire engine, and
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Speaker 1: through this it is discharged with terrific force into the
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Speaker 1: bank or bed of earth, which is speedily torn down
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Speaker 1: and washed with resistless separation power into narrow beds or
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Speaker 1: sluices in the lower valleys, And as it goes along these,
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Speaker 1: the more solid gold particles deposit themselves in the rifts
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Speaker 1: or slight barriers placed for that purpose across its path.
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Speaker 1: Usually in large operations of this kind. The main stream
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Speaker 1: of water is divided in the final discharging hose into
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Speaker 1: two or more streams, which spout out into the hillside
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Speaker 1: as if from so many fire engines, but with immensely
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Speaker 1: more force. One of these streams would instantly kill man
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Speaker 1: or animal that should get before it, and fatal accidents
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Speaker 1: frequently happen from this source. Sometimes a water company taps
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Speaker 1: lakes fifteen or twenty miles off in the mountains and
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Speaker 1: turns whole rivers into its ditches. There are, in some
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Speaker 1: locality supposed rich gold banks and beds which only require
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Speaker 1: water for development, but to get which would require an
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Speaker 1: outlay for ditches of many hundred thousand dollars. It is
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Speaker 1: probable that it would be richly paying investment, however, and
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Speaker 1: the principal reason why it is not undertaken is the
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Speaker 1: lack of certain laws regulating mining claims, and the conflicts
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Speaker 1: and doubts that are occasioned by the neglect of the
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Speaker 1: government to establish the terms of ownership in mining lands.
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Speaker 1: As it is now, possession is the principal title to
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Speaker 1: mining properties. Prospectors and miners have established a few general
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Speaker 1: rules for determining the rights of each other, and they
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Speaker 1: can occupy the properties that they discover or purchase to
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Speaker 1: a certain limited extent. No one person is permitted to
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Speaker 1: take up more than a certain amount in feet or acres.
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Speaker 1: The government so far has done nothing with these mineral lands,
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Speaker 1: whose real ownership is still in itself and derives no
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Speaker 1: revenue from them. Whenever difficulties arise and are brought before
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Speaker 1: the courts, the regulations of the miners of the district
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Speaker 1: where the properties are located has generally been sustained. But
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Speaker 1: the apprehension that the government will yet assume its rights
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Speaker 1: and establish different rules for the possession and use of
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Speaker 1: these lands, and the uncertainty and controversies growing out of
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Speaker 1: the present loose ways of making and holding claims, are
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Speaker 1: a serious obstacle to large enterprises and a hindrance to
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Speaker 1: the best sort of mining progress and prosperity. Throughout all
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Speaker 1: the western mining country. The profits obtained in some cases
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Speaker 1: of extensive deep diggings and hydraulic mining are very great.
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Speaker 1: One thousand dollars a day is often washed out by
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Speaker 1: a company holding rich soil and employing a large force,
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Speaker 1: and a run of several weeks averaging from fifty to
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Speaker 1: one hundred dollars a day for each man employed is
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Speaker 1: frequently recorded. A single cleaning up after a few weeks
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Speaker 1: washing in a rich place has produced fifty thousand dollars
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Speaker 1: in gold dust and nuggets, and in some cases even
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Speaker 1: one hundred thousand dollars has been reported. These are the
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Speaker 1: extreme cases of good fortune. However, other enterprises are run
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Speaker 1: at a loss or with varying results, but the gold
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Speaker 1: washing as a general thing, pay good wages and a
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Speaker 1: fair return to the capital invested. It is hardly possible
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Speaker 1: to imagine, and wholly impossible to describe the ruin and
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Speaker 1: wreck to be seen everywhere in the path of the
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Speaker 1: larger gold washing operations. Streams naturally pure as crystal become
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Speaker 1: changed to a thick yellow mud from this cause. Early
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Speaker 1: in their passage out from the hills. Many of them
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Speaker 1: are turned out of their original channels, either directly for
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Speaker 1: mining purposes or in consequence of the great masses of
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Speaker 1: soil and gravel that come down from the gold washing. Above.
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Speaker 1: Thousands of acres of fine lands along their banks are
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Speaker 1: ruined forever by deposits of this character. The mining interest
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Speaker 1: respects no rights but its own. A farmer may have
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Speaker 1: his whole estate changed to a barren waste by a
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Speaker 1: flood of sand and gravel from some hydraulic mining up
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Speaker 1: the stream. If a fine orchard or garden stands in
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Speaker 1: the way of the working of a rich gulture, bank,
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Speaker 1: orchard and garden are doomed. They are torn down, dug out,
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Speaker 1: washed to pieces, and then washed overside. Hills where the
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Speaker 1: process of hydraulic mining has been or is being carried on.
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Speaker 1: The country presents an appearance of devastation and ruin that
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Speaker 1: is scarcely imaginable, forming a frightful blot upon the face
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Speaker 1: of nature. For this sort of mining on a large scale,
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Speaker 1: we had no facilities, so we were compelled to work
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Speaker 1: in a very small way and be satisfied with correspondingly
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Speaker 1: small results. News of our successful establishment of the old
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Speaker 1: mine in some way reached Santa Fe, and, rushing to
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Speaker 1: the conclusion that we had found a new El Dorado,
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Speaker 1: all the floating population of that decaying city swooped down
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Speaker 1: upon us, and we soon found quite a populous settlement
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Speaker 1: growing up around us. A very decided change in our
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Speaker 1: situation resulted from this, and some rather exciting events transpired,
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Speaker 1: but these I will leave for another chapter. Soon after
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Speaker 1: the accessions to our community had become so numerous, my
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Speaker 1: friend and partner, Ned Harding fell ill. This put a
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Speaker 1: sudden stop to our mining operations, and for several weeks
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Speaker 1: I was compelled to remain by the side of his
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Speaker 1: rude couch, attending to his wants and doing all that
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Speaker 1: I could to facilitate his recovery. Among the new arrivals
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Speaker 1: at our diggings was a Mexican who had followed the
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Speaker 1: profession of a medico in former times, but who was
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Speaker 1: now an inveterate gold one of the sort who are
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Speaker 1: perpetually on the move from place to place, seeking placers
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Speaker 1: of fabulous richness, but never working any claim long enough
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Speaker 1: to fairly develop it. Perhaps they have no sooner commenced
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Speaker 1: operations in one place, When a rumor comes of rich
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Speaker 1: finds at some far distant point, and off they go
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Speaker 1: to repeat the same performance indefinitely. When Ned was first
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Speaker 1: taken sick, I thought of this Mexican doctor, and at
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Speaker 1: once went in search of him. With some difficulty, I
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Speaker 1: persuaded him to get out of the hole in which
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Speaker 1: he was working and go to see my friend. We
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Speaker 1: had a few simple medicines among our supplies, and from
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Speaker 1: some of these the ex doctor prepared a potion for Ned,
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Speaker 1: which he declared would be mucho bueno and that the
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Speaker 1: patient would be all right and trace dia set the most.
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Speaker 1: The result, however, failed to justify his expectations, for Ned
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Speaker 1: became no better, although there was no mark change for
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Speaker 1: the worse. It went on this way for several weeks,
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Speaker 1: I continuing to give the medicines prescribed by the Mexican physician,
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Speaker 1: but without any apparent result. Ned seemed to be in
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Speaker 1: a kind of low fever and to constantly lose strength.
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Speaker 1: The stomach seemed to entirely refuse its office, and it
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Speaker 1: was almost impossible to give him any food, however, light
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Speaker 1: that he could keep down much longer than while eating it.
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Speaker 1: He complained greatly of pain in the back and head,
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Speaker 1: and a constant feeling of nausea at the stomach, or
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Speaker 1: as he expressed it, I tell ye lad, there's something
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Speaker 1: there has wants to come up. And kant finally, seeing
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Speaker 1: no signs of improvement from the treatment pursued by our
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Speaker 1: Mexican friend, and becoming greatly alarmed at Ned's condition. I
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Speaker 1: was sitting one day in great despondency upon a stump
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Speaker 1: in front of our hut, when it suddenly flashed upon
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Speaker 1: my mind that I had never tried the Indian remedy
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Speaker 1: in the preparation and administration of which I had spent
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Speaker 1: so great a part of my life. For some reason,
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Speaker 1: it had never occurred to me to use it, And indeed,
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Speaker 1: I did not know whether it was possible to procure
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Speaker 1: the necessary ingredients in my present location, although I judged
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Speaker 1: it probable that I might do so at all events,
22:49
Speaker 1: I determined to make the attempt, and accordingly I went
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Speaker 1: prospecting for the required herbs, roots, et cetera. That very day.
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Speaker 1: After two days spent in this way, I succeeded in
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Speaker 1: procuring all the ingredients which I had so many times
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Speaker 1: compounded under Wacho Mechla's direction, and lost no time in
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Speaker 1: preparing the medicine. I then commenced giving it to my
23:17
Speaker 1: patient in small doses at intervals of four or five
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Speaker 1: hours through the day, and was soon gratified to find
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Speaker 1: an almost immediate improvement in his condition. The second day
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Speaker 1: after commencing this treatment, the fever left him. He broke
23:36
Speaker 1: out into a profuse perspiration and fell into a deep sleep,
23:41
Speaker 1: which lasted for many hours. When he awoke, he complained
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Speaker 1: of feeling very hungry, and when I prepared some food,
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Speaker 1: he ate quite heartily and retained it on his stomach
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Speaker 1: without difficulty. Encouraged by these favorable indications, I continued the medicine,
24:01
Speaker 1: and with surprising results, his recovery was so rapid that
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Speaker 1: it seemed almost miraculous. In eight days, he declared himself
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Speaker 1: entirely well, and almost overwhelmed me with expressions of gratitude,
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Speaker 1: declaring that I had saved his life. I told him
24:22
Speaker 1: that his thanks were due not to me, but to
24:25
Speaker 1: Waco Meclaw, the strange old medicine man of the Comanches,
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Speaker 1: or more properly, to that higher power which had enabled
24:34
Speaker 1: this uneducated savage to discover and prepare from the simple
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Speaker 1: grows of the forest and mountain, so wonderful a remedy
24:43
Speaker 1: for all the ills that flesh is heir too. Ned
24:48
Speaker 1: was so universal a favorite among the miners that his
24:52
Speaker 1: illness had excited great sympathy and commiseration. As he went
24:58
Speaker 1: about trumpening forth my mind praise as a medical practitioner,
25:02
Speaker 1: I soon found that I had gained considerable notoriety the
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Speaker 1: miners dubbed me doctor and called for my services in
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Speaker 1: all cases requiring medical assistance. With Waco Mechla's remedy alone
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Speaker 1: as my entire pharmacopeia, I battled with many forms of
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Speaker 1: disease incident to our rough and exposed life, and met
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Speaker 1: with almost unvarying success. In fact, in that region, I
25:33
Speaker 1: expect I shall never be known by any other title
25:36
Speaker 1: than doctor, although I do not claim or fancy such
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Speaker 1: a designation. It would be well for the people if
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Speaker 1: the old school mineral physicians, who are rapidly ruining the
25:49
Speaker 1: health of the entire nation by the free use of
25:52
Speaker 1: deleterious and poisonous drugs, would take a leaf from the
25:56
Speaker 1: book of Nature and re study their profession in the
26:00
Speaker 1: same school from which I graduated, the School of Nature.
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Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty eight.