they
were all too wild for execution; at last chance favoured us, although we
did not entirely succeed in our enterprise. Three or four deer galloped
across the prairie, and passed not fifty yards from the camp. A fine
buck came in our direction, and two of the Indians who were left in
charge started after him. They rushed in among us, and stood motionless
with astonishment at finding neighbours they had not reckoned upon. We,
however, gave them no time to recover from their surprise, our knives
and tomahawks performed quickly and silently the work of death, and
little remorse did we feel, after the scene we had witnessed in the
morning. We would have killed, if possible, the whole band, as they
slept, without any more compunction than we would have destroyed a nest
of rattlesnakes.

The deer were followed by a small herd of buffaloes. We had quickly
saddled and secured our horses to some shrubs, in case it should be
necessary to run for our lives, when we perceived the ten remaining
Indians, having first examined and ascertained that their captives were
well bound, start on foot in chase of the herd of buffaloes; indeed
there was but about twenty horses in the whole band, and they had been
ridden away by the others. Three of these Indians we killed without
attracting the attention of the rest, and Gabriel, without being
discerned, gained the deserted encampment, and severed the thongs which
bound the prisoners.

The Mexican women refused to fly; they were afraid of being captured and
tortured; they thought they would be spared, and taken to the wigwams of
the savages, who, we then learned, belonged to the tribe of the Cayugas.
They told us that thirteen Indian prisoners had already been eaten, but
no white people. The Comanche prisoners armed themselves with the
lances, bows, and arrows left in the camp, and in an hour after the
passage of the buffaloes, but two of the twelve Indians were alive;
these, giving the war-whoop to recall their party, at last discovered
that their comrades had been killed.

At that moment the prairie became animated with buffaloes and hunters;
the Cayugas on horseback were coming back, driving another herd before
them. No time was to be lost if we wished to save our scalps; we gave
one of our knives (so necessary an article in the wilderness) to the
Comanches, who expressed what they felt in glowing terms, and we left
them to their own cunning and knowledge of the localities, to