As early as November, 1842, a rumour was current in Santa Fe, and along
the line of the Trail, that parties of Texans had left the Republic for
the purpose of attacking and robbing the caravans to the United States
which were owned wholly by Mexicans. In consequence of this, several
Americans were accused of being spies and acting in collusion with the
Texans; many were arrested and carried to Santa Fe, but nothing could
be proved against them, and the rumours of the intended purposes of the
Texans died out.
Very early in May, however, of the following year, 1843, a certain
Colonel Snively did organize a small force, comprising about two hundred
men, which he led from Northern Texas, his home, to the line of the
Trail, with the intention of attacking and robbing the Mexican caravans
which were expected to cross the plains that month and in June.
When he arrived at the Arkansas River, he was there reinforced by
another Texan colonel, named Warfield with another small command. Gregg
says:
This officer, with about twenty men, had some time
previously attacked the village of Mora, on the Mexican
frontier, killing five men, and driving off a number
of horses. They were afterward followed by a party of
Mexicans, however, who stampeded and carried away, not only
their own horses, but those of the Texans. Being left
afoot, the latter burned their saddles, and walked to
Bent's Fort, where they were disbanded; whence Warfield
passed to Snively's camp, as before mentioned.
The Texans now advanced along the Santa Fe Trail, beyond
the sand hills south of the Arkansas, when they discovered
that a party of Mexicans had passed toward the river.
They soon came upon them, and a skirmish ensuing, eighteen
Mexicans were killed, and as many wounded, five of whom
afterward died. The Texans suffered no injury, though
the Mexicans were a hundred in number. The rest were all
taken prisoners except two, who escaped and bore the news
to General Armijo, who was encamped with a large force
at Cold Spring, one hundred and forty miles beyond.
Kit Carson figured conspicuously in this fight, or, rather, immediately
afterward. His recital differs somewhat from Gregg's account, but the
stories substantially agree. Kit said that in April, previously to the
assault upon Armijo's caravan, he had hired out as hunter to Bent's and
Colonel St. Vrain's train caravan, which was then making its annual
tour eastwardly. When he arrived at the crossing of Walnut Creek,[22] he
found the encampment of Captain Philip St. George Cooke, of the United
States army, who had been detailed with his command to escort the
caravans to the New Mexican boundary. His force consisted of four troops
of dragoons. The captain informed Carson that coming on behind him from
the States was a caravan belonging to a very wealthy Mexican.
It was a richly loaded train, and in order to insure its better
protection while passing through that portion of the country infested
by the blood-thirsty Comanches and Apaches, the majordomo in charge
had hired one hundred Mexicans as a guard. The teamsters and others
belonging to the caravan had heard that a large body of Texans were
lying in wait for them, and intended to murder and plunder them in
retaliation for the way Armijo had treated some Texan prisoners he had
got in his power at Santa Fe some time before. Of course, it was the
duty of the United States troops to escort this caravan to the New
Mexico line, but there their duty would end, as they had no authority to
cross the border. The Mexicans belonging to the caravan were afraid they
would be at the mercy of the Texans after they had parted company with
the soldiers, and when Kit Carson met them, they, knowing the famous
trapper and mountaineer well, asked him to take a letter to Armijo,
who was then governor of New Mexico, and resided in Santa Fe, for which
service they would give him three hundred dollars in advance. The letter
contained a statement of the fears they entertained, and requested the
general to send Mexican troops at once to meet them.
Carson, who was then not blessed with much money, eagerly accepted the
task, and immediately started on the trail for Bent's Fort, in company
with another old mountaineer and bosom friend named Owens. In a short
time they arrived at the Fort, where Owens decided not to go any
further, because they were informed by the men at Bent's that the Utes
had broken out, and were scattered along the Trail at the most dangerous
points, and he was fearful that his life would be endangered if he
attempted to make Santa Fe.
Kit, however, nothing daunted, and determined to do the duty for which
he had been rewarded so munificently, started out alone on his perilous
trip. Mr. Bent kindly furnished him with the best and fastest horse he
had in his stables, but Kit, realizing the dangers to which he would be
exposed, walked, leading his animal, ready to mount him at a moment's
notice; thus keeping him in a condition that would enable Carson to fly
and make his escape if the savages tried to capture him. His knowledge
of the Indian character, and wonderful alertness in moments of peril,
served him well; for he reached the village of the hostile Indians
without their discovering his proximity. Hiding himself in a rocky,
bush-covered canyon, he stayed there until night came on, when he
continued his journey in the darkness.
He took the trail to Taos, where he arrived in two or three days,
and presented his letter to the alcalde, to be sent on to Santa Fe by
special messenger.
He was to remain at Taos until an answer from the governor arrived, and
then return with it as rapidly as possible to the train. While at
Taos, he was informed that Armijo had already sent out a company of one
hundred soldiers to meet the caravan, and was to follow in person, with
a thousand more.
This first hundred were those attacked by Colonel Snively, as related by
Gregg, who says that two survived, who carried the news of the disaster
to Armijo at Cold Spring; but Carson told me that only one got away,
by successfully catching, during the heat of the fight, a Texan pony
already saddled, that was grazing around loose. With him he made
Armijo's camp and related to the Mexican general the details of the
terribly unequal battle. Armijo, upon receipt of the news, "turned
tail," and retreated to Santa Fe.
Before Armijo left Santa Fe with his command, he had received the letter
which Carson had brought from the caravan, and immediately sent one in
reply for Carson to carry back, thinking that the old mountaineer might
reach the wagons before he did. Carson, with his usual promptness,
started on the Trail for the caravan, and came up with it while it was
escorted by the dragoons, thus saving it from the fate that the Texans
intended for it, as they dared not attempt any interference in the
presence of the United States troops.
The rumour current in Santa Fe in relation to a probable raid of parties
of Texans along the line of the Trail, for the purpose of attacking and
robbing the caravans of the wealthy Mexican traders, was received
with so little credence by the prominent citizens of the country,
that several native trains left for the Missouri River without their
proprietors having the slightest apprehension that they would not reach
their destination, and make the return trip in safety.
Among those who had no fear of marauders was Don Antonio Jose Chavez,
who, in February, 1843, left Santa Fe for Independence with an outfit
consisting of a number of wagons, his private coach, several servants
and other retainers. Don Antonio was a very wealthy Mexican engaged in
a general mercantile business on a large scale in Albuquerque, who made
all his purchases of goods in St. Louis, which was then the depot of
supplies for the whole mountain region. He necessarily carried with
him on these journeys a large amount of money, in silver, which was the
legal currency of the country, and made but one trip yearly to replenish
the stock of goods required in his extensive trade in all parts of
Mexico.
Upon his arrival at Westport Landing, as Kansas City was then called,
he would take the steamboat for St. Louis, leaving his coach, wagons,
servants, and other appointments of his caravan behind him in the
village of Westport, a few miles from the Landing.
Westport was at that time, like all steamboat towns in the era of water
navigation, the harbor of as great a lot of ruffians as ever escaped the
gallows. There was especially a noted gang of land pirates, the members
of which had long indulged in speculations regarding the probable wealth
of the Mexican Don, and how much coin he generally carried with him.
They knew that it must be considerable from the quantity of goods that
always came by boat with him from St. Louis.
At last a devilish plot was arranged to get hold of the rich trader's
money. Nine men were concerned in the robbery, nearly all of whom
were residents of the vicinity of Westport; their leader was one John
McDaniel, recently from Texas, from which government he claimed to hold
a captain's commission, and one of their number was a doctor. It was
evidently the intention of this band to join Warfield's party on the
Arkansas, and engage in a general robbery of the freight caravans of the
Santa Fe Trail belonging to the Mexicans; but they had determined that
Chavez should be their first victim, and in order to learn when he
intended to leave Santa Fe on his next trip east, they sent their spies
out on the great highway.
They did not dare attempt their contemplated robbery, and murder if
necessary, in the State of Missouri, for there were too many citizens of
the border who would never have permitted such a thing to go unpunished;
so they knew that their only chance was to effect it in the Indian
country of Kansas, where there was little or no law.
Cow Creek, which debouches into the Arkansas at Hutchinson, where the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad crosses the historic little
stream,[23] was, like Big and Little Coon creeks, a most dangerous
point in the transcontinental passage of freight caravans and overland
coaches, in the days of the commerce of the prairies. It was on this
purling little prairie brook that McDaniel's band lay in wait for the
arrival of the ill-fated Don Antonio, whose imposing equipage came
along, intending to encamp on the bank, one of the usual stopping-places
on the route.
The Don was taken a few miles south of the Trail, and his baggage
rifled. All of his party were immediately murdered, but the wealthy
owner of the caravan was spared for a few moments in order to make a
confession of where his money was concealed, after which he was shot
down in cold blood, and his body thrown into a ravine.
It appears, however, that the ruffians had not completed their bloody
work so effectually as they thought; for one of the Mexican's teamsters
escaped, and, making his way to Leavenworth, reported the crime, and was
soon on his way back to the Trail, guiding a detachment of United States
troops in pursuit of the murderers.
John Hobbs, scout, trapper, and veteran plainsman, happened to be
hunting buffalo on Pawnee Fork, on the ground where Larned is now
situated, with a party from Bent's Fort. They were just on the point
of crossing the Trail at the mouth of the Pawnee when the soldiers from
Fort Leavenworth came along, and from them Hobbs and his companions
first learned of the murder of Chavez on Cow Creek. As the men who were
out hunting were all familiar with every foot of the region they were
then in, the commanding officer of the troops induced them to accompany
him in his search for the murderers.
Hobbs and his men cheerfully accepted the invitation, and in about
four days met the band of cut-throats on the broad Trail, they little
dreaming that the government had taken a hand in the matter. The band
tried to escape by flight, but Hobbs shot the doctor's horse from under
him, and a soldier killed another member of the band, when the remainder
surrendered.
The money, about twelve or fifteen thousand dollars,[24] was all
recovered, and the murderers taken to St. Louis, where some were hung
and some imprisoned, the doctor escaping the death penalty by turning
state's evidence. His sentence was incarceration in the penitentiary,
from which he was pardoned after remaining there two years. Hobbs met
the doctor some years after in San Francisco. He was then leading an
honest life, publishing a newspaper, and begged his captor not to expose
him.
The money taken from the robbers was placed in charge of Colonel
Owens, a friend of the Chavez family and a leading Santa Fe trader. He
continued on to the river, purchased a stock of goods, and sent back the
caravan to Santa Fe in charge of Doctor Conley of Boonville, Missouri.
Arriving at his destination, the widow of the deceased Chavez employed
the good doctor to sell the goods and take the sole supervision of her
immense business interests, and there is a touch of romance attached to
the terrible Kansas tragedy, which lies in the fact that the doctor in
about two years married the rich widow, and lived very happily for about
a decade, dying then on one of the large estates in New Mexico, which he
had acquired by his fortunate union with the amiable Mexican lady.