ine in sufficient strength, being driven by
pressing want, to capture some one of these trains, and thus obtain
the material for renewing the contest. In view of these apprehensions,
it was decided that the regular troops should go out on the plains,
where they could be on hand ready to afford protection in case
of need. Major Blake, in command of the dragoons, started out
and faithfully performed this mission. After this duty was fully
accomplished, he visited the mountains to the northeast of Fort
Massachusetts, and then returned to Taos _via_ the fort and the
intervening Mexican towns.

While intimating the dangers which may befall trains on their journey
across the plains, especially in time of Indian war, it may be well
to narrate a fatal adventure which once happened to a mail party
while traveling this route. Not many miles from Fort Union, and on
the plains, there is a clump of hills known as the "Wagon Mound," so
called from their resemblance to one of those peculiar wagons which
are used to transport valuable freight across the country. It being
dangerous times, a party of ten picked men had been sent out to insure
the safe transit of the mail. Everything went well with the little
band of travelers, and their prospects were becoming bright for making
a safe journey, when, suddenly, a large band of hostile Apaches
and Utahs hove in sight. The mail party, on making this discovery,
immediately halted and prepared for a fight. The Indians very
soon granted to them this favor. At first, the attack was sharply
maintained, but, at last, fortune favored the whites, for the time
being, and they succeeded in repulsing their foes, who retreated out
of sight. The mail party, being thus freed from the unpleasant society
of the Indians, at once hitched up their teams and proceeded on their
route. It was afterwards learned that the Apaches made the first
attack, but, they were countenanced by the Utahs, who remained close
by. On the return of the unsuccessful war party of Apaches to the
Utahs, the latter at once commenced charging them with cowardice, and
boasted that they could have done better. The true state of the case
was, that the Utahs were using the Apaches as tools by which to gain
plunder, crying "go dog," while they themselves were keeping out
of harm's way. The anger of the Apaches was fully aroused at these
derisive imputations. Under the new impulse, they said to the Utahs,
if you will help, we will return and