171

XXI. MRS. EASTMAN'S STORY CONTINUED 184

XXII. FEASTS, FASTS, AND FACTS 192

XXIII. THE WAR PARTY 208

XXIV. MY FIRST SCALP 222

XXV. THE FEAST OF THE GREEN CORN 238

XXVI. DANGER AHEAD 242

XXVII. THE ESCAPE 249

XXVIII. A NEW DEPARTURE 263

XXIX. THE "VIGILANTS" 277

XXX. CONCLUSION 290

[Illustration: Edwin Eastman]

SEVEN AND NINE YEARS AMONG THE CAMANCHES AND APACHES.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

In making my bow to the public as an author, I feel it incumbent upon me
to make a brief explanation of the motives that induced me to attempt
this autobiographical sketch of nine years of my life. At intervals
during the past decade, the country has been electrified by the recital
of some horror perpetrated by Indians on white travelers, and those,
who, having journeyed to the Far West, had settled, intending to make
the wilderness blossom like the rose. Through the medium of the press,
the details of these heart-rending cruelties were widely disseminated,
and aroused the just indignation of all peaceful and order-loving
citizens. To such an extent did popular feeling rise at times, that
farmers and drovers on the border, organized themselves into bands, and
on the report of some fresh outrage hastened to the scene, pursued the
perpetrators of the deed, and not unfrequently visited upon the Indians
a vengeance ofttimes of a very sanguinary character.

In these forays of the savages, they frequently carried off to their
mountain fastnesses women and children, who were never heard of more.
Thus, when our feelings were harrowed up by the report of butcheries,
the tales of life-long suffering of the forlorn captives were scarcely
ever known. Snatched ruthlessly from the bosom of their families, they
were mourned for a time and then they, by slow degrees, faded from the
memory of their friends and relatives, and when thought of at all, it
was as of those dead. In these chapters I will detail the trials and
sufferings of such as these, believing that the experiences of my wife
and myself, during our captivity among the Camanches and Apaches, will
serve as a prototype of many similar cases.

It was some time, and