Mary Greenwater was not the ugly, coarse-featured woman that many
squaws are. She possessed many of the fine features of her white
sisters. She had been well educated at the Carlisle Indian school, and
had traveled much. While, with other Cherokee Indians, she drew her
annuities from the government, yet she was known to be the wealthiest
woman of the tribe. She was lavish in the expenditure of money. Her
home in the Cherokee hills was elaborately furnished with the richest
of carpets and furniture; even a grand piano adorned her parlor. But
with all its costly appointments, the house was a wilderness of
disorder. Like other of her race, she despised anything akin to
neatness. Her dresses were gaudy in color and extravagant in style.
Pearl necklaces, diamond brooches and rings were worn on all
occasions. She owned fine carriages and many spirited horses. As a
horsewoman, she was an expert and as a pistol shot she was accounted
the best in the Cherokee nation. Her servants were the half-breed
Indian Negroes to whom her word was as absolute a law as any Caliph
ever possessed over a tribe. She was accustomed to command, and if
disobeyed she enforced her orders at the point of the revolver she
always carried.
The source of Mary Greenwater's wealth was a mystery. Those of her
tribe gave themselves no concern about it, but the matter was a
subject of much comment among the few white men in the territory.
Mercer, a young man of adventurous spirit, hearing of her fabulous
wealth, sought her hand in marriage. After the wedding, he used all
his arts to wring from her the secret of her riches. Once when she
started on one of her lone journeys to the hills of the Grand River,
he attempted to follow and that was the last ever seen or heard of
him. That the woman possessed the secret of a vast amount of lost
treasure was evident, as she spent many Spanish gold coins of ancient
date as months rolled on, and this induced Grim, a farm hand, to marry
her. She elevated him from a menial position, to overseer of her
ranch. She gave him money, which he recklessly spent at the faro
tables at the Garrison. When she refused to further indulge him in his
reckless expenditures, he, like Mercer, attempted to follow her on her
journey to the Grand River hills one night. He was missed by his
companions who went in numbers to search for him, taking an Indian
guide. They were led in an opposite direction from the way he went and
his fate remained a mystery, until many months later his body was
found in the Grand River, with a bullet in the brain.
Two years after the death of Grim, Carson and a negro were hunting in
the Grand River country and were encamped one night in the hills.
While seated beside their campfire, they heard a cry of distress.
Upon going to the spot, they found a lone Indian woman pinioned
beneath her pony, which had stepped into a wolf hole and broke its
leg. The woman was badly injured and they carried her to their
campfire and made her comfortable. The next day they constructed a
rude litter and carried her twenty miles to a place where she could
receive medical attention.
The woman was Mary Greenwater, and this was, perhaps, the first act of
kindness she had ever received.
A certain escapade at the close of Carson's college days had caused
him to migrate to the West, where, like many others, he became a
soldier of fortune, drifting whither the strongest tide wind blew.
When Mary Greenwater recovered she sought him, and in her gratitude
made him the overseer of her ranch at a princely salary.
In course of time they were married by the ancient Indian ceremony of
the Fastest Horse. When the days of feasting were over, and Mary
Greenwater's relatives had returned to their cabins richer by a
number of ponies, Mary told Carson a wondrous story of how, many
summers ago, when her grandfather was a boy, a Spanish caravan came
from Santa Fe and was besieged in the Grand river hills for many days,
and of how, finding that they would eventually be starved to death if
they remained, the travelers had hidden their possessions among the
lime rocks and undertaken to cut their way through the Indian hordes
to a place of safety. Her grandfather had found the hiding place of
the treasure and had kept it a profound secret from all except
herself, to whom he told it only when he began to sing his death
song.
Mary Greenwater swore to Carson that the hiding place of the Spanish
treasure would never be known except to one other member of her tribe,
and then not until after her death. She told him there were valuable
papers which she knew none of her people could ever use, and which she
later gave to Carson.
The documents were discolored and the ink faded and this much Carson
was able to decipher: "Jean Maldonado visited a far distant country
north of Santa Fe--a wide valley through which flowed a stream, along
the banks were bushes that bore fruit like unto those of Spain--in the
valley were herds of oxen of the bigness and color of our bulls--their
horns are not so great--they have a great bunch upon their fore
shoulders and more hair on the forepart than on the hindpart; they
have a horse's mane upon their backbone and much hair and very long
from the knees downward--they have great tufts of hair hanging from
their foreheads and it seemeth they have beards--they push with their
horns--they overtake and kill a horse--finally it is a fierce beast of
countenance and form of body--we feared these beasts and stayed near
the mountains named the Sangre de Christo.... Climbed the mountain to
a great flat rock that stood on end like a platter.... Jean Maldonado,
commander of an expedition reached this place 1750.... The mine
yielded much gold in a rock like white china--Babtiste beat it out
with--Mattheo returned from Santa Fe with more donkeys--loaded donkeys
with much unbeaten rock--returned to Santa Fe"--
Here the ink was so faded that nothing more could be made of the
manuscript. The accompanying map was more perfect. The tracings showed
the mountain ranges. It had been drawn almost with the precision of an
engineer. The route from Santa Fe through the mountain passes was
clearly shown; there were marks of each day's stops. Where the map
showed the end of the journey there was the rude drawing of a cliff
set on edge and below it was marked "Gold."
Carson pondered over the quaint document for many days. The Indian
marriage with Mary Greenwater had become a matter of regret. While the
woman loved him, yet her love was like a new bowie knife, to be
handled with care. He decided to leave the Grand River country and
bide his time until Mary Greenwater should make one of her long visits
to the hills. One night he mounted the best horse on the ranch and
driving thirty others ahead of him, set out for Colorado. On the way
he sold most of the horses to ranchmen and cattlemen and netted a neat
sum.
When Mary Greenwater returned and found her spouse had vanished, her
fury knew no bounds. Ordinarily the Indian squaw might be deserted by
her lord and she would stoically accept her fate. Mary might have done
so had she not been spoiled by being educated at Carlisle. Her savage
blood grew hot for revenge. She made another trip to the Grand river
hills, presumably for a larger amount of money, placed her affairs in
the hands of her Indian-Negro servants, and started on the trail of
Carson, believing she would have no trouble in overtaking a man
driving that many head of horses. Meanwhile the fall rains set in and
the shallow rivers of the plains became raging torrents. But to a
woman of Mary Greenwater's determined character, these things were
obstacles only for the time being. Her heart was bad and her love of
revenge strong.