An agricultural company
from Kentucky had obtained from the Texan government a grant of lands on
the upper forks of the Trinity. There twenty-five or thirty families had
settled, and they had with them numerous cattle, horses, mules, and
donkeys of a very superior breed. On the very evening I met with the
Texan rangers, the settlement had been visited by a party of ruffians,
who stole everything, murdering sixty or seventy men, women and
children, and firing all the cottages and log-houses of this rising and
prosperous village. All the corpses were shockingly mangled and scalped,
and as the assailants were painted in the Indian fashion, the few
inhabitants who had escaped and gained the Texan camp declared that the
marauders were Comanches.
This I denied stoutly, as did the Comanche party, and we all proceeded
with the Texan force to Lewisburg, the site of the massacre. As soon as
I viewed the bodies, lying here and there, I at once was positive that
the deed had been committed by white men. The Comanche chief could
scarcely restrain his indignation; he rode close to Captain Hunt and
sternly said to him--
"Stoop, Pale-face of a Texan, and look with thy eyes open; be honest if
thou canst, and confess that thou knowest by thine own experience that
this deed is that of white men.
Pages:
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350