While encamped on the 24th of April, at a spring near the Spanish Trail,
we were surprised by the sudden appearance amongst us of two Mexicans; a
man and a boy. The name of the man was Andreas Fuentas, and that of the
boy, a handsome lad of eleven years old, Pablo Hernandez. With a cavalcade
of about thirty horses, they had come out from Puebla de los Angelos, near
the Pacific; had lost half their animals, stolen by the Indians, and now
sought my camp for aid. Carson and Godey, two of my men, volunteered to
pursue them, with the Mexican; and, well mounted, the three set off on the
trail. In the evening, Fuentas returned, his horse having failed; but
Carson and Godey had continued the pursuit.
[Illustration: KIT. CARSON.]
In the afternoon of the next day, a war-whoop was heard, such as Indians
make when returning from a victorious enterprise; and soon Carson and
Godey appeared driving before them a band of horses, recognised by Fuentas
to be a part of those they had lost. Two bloody scalps, dangling from the
end of Godey's gun, announced that they had overtaken the Indians as well
as the horses. They had continued the pursuit alone after Fuentas left
them, and towards nightfall entered the mountains into which the trail
led. After sunset, the moon gave light until late in the night, when it
entered a narrow defile, and was difficult to follow. Here they lay from
midnight till morning. At daylight they resumed the pursuit, and at
sunrise discovered the horses; and immediately dismounting and tying up
their own, they crept cautiously to a rising ground which intervened, from
the crest of which they perceived the encampment of four lodges close by.
They proceeded quietly, and got within thirty or forty yards of their
object, when a movement among the horses discovered them to the Indians.
Giving the war shout, they instantly charged into the camp, regardless of
the numbers which the four lodges might contain. The Indians received them
with a flight of arrows, shot from their long bows, one of which passed
through Godey's shirt collar, barely missing the neck. Our men fired their
rifles upon a steady aim, and rushed in. Two Indians were stretched upon
the ground, fatally pierced with bullets; the rest fled, except a lad, who
was captured. The scalps of the fallen were instantly stripped off, but in
the process, one of them, who had two balls through his body, sprung to
his feet, the blood streaming from his skinned head, and uttered a hideous
howl. The frightful spectacle appalled the stout hearts of our men; but
they did what humanity required, and quickly terminated the agony of the
gory savage. They were now masters of the camp, which was a pretty little
recess in the mountain, with a fine spring, and apparently safe from all
invasion. Great preparation had been made for feasting a large party, for
it was a very proper place for a rendezvous, and for the celebration of
such orgies as robbers of the desert would delight in. Several of the
horses had been killed, skinned, and cut up--for the Indians living in the
mountains, and only coming into the plains to rob and murder, make no
other use of horses than to eat them. Large earthen vessels were on the
fire, boiling and stewing the horse beef, and several baskets containing
fifty or sixty pair of moccasins, indicated the presence or expectation of
a large party. They released the boy who had given strong evidence of the
stoicism, or something else of the savage character, by commencing his
breakfast upon a horse's head as soon as he found he was not to be killed,
but only tied as a prisoner.
[Illustration: AN INDIAN CAMP.]
Their object accomplished, our men gathered up all the surviving horses,
fifteen in number, returned upon their trail, and rejoined us at our camp
in the afternoon of the same day. They had rode about one hundred miles in
the pursuit and return, and all in about thirty hours. The time, place,
object and numbers considered, this expedition of Carson and Godey may be
considered among the boldest and most disinterested which the annals of
western adventure, so full of daring deeds, can present. Two men in a
savage wilderness, pursue day and night an unknown body of Indians into
the defiles of an unknown mountain--attack them on sight without counting
numbers--and defeat them in an instant--and for what?--to punish the
robbers of the desert, and revenge the wrongs of Mexicans whom they did
not know. I repeat it was Carson and Godey who did this--the former an
American, born, in Booneslick county, Missouri; the latter a Frenchman,
born in St. Louis--and both trained to western enterprise from early
life.