and another, being unfit for duty, and the lieutenant commanding was a coward. On the way down, within seven miles of the settlement, the soldiers were attacked by the Apaches, the commissary wagon captured and burned, one or two troopers wounded, and two government mules killed. It was a notorious fact throughout the country that Indians would not hesitate to attack a party of troops double the number of a party of settlers or miners that would be left unmolested, the reason being that the soldiers had little heart in the fight and, up to the days of General Crook, were poorly commanded, while the settlers and miners were fighting for their homes, for honor, for life itself.

"When the soldiers had been in the valley about one month, the savages made another attack, capturing all the remaining cattle except seven, being the last but seven of a herd of fiftyfive head brought into the valley less than eight months before. In this raid the direction and management of the defenses was left to the military, though the settlers joined them with their old-time vigor. Lieutenant Baty gave his orders, detailing a sergeant to execute them, and was immediately taken ill, returning to his tent, keeping a man to fan him, and did not come out again for more than an hour, not until the fight was over and the Indians gone. The savages had made the raid from the hills northeast of the fort, and were back again with their booty under cover before the sergeant with nine troopers and eight settlers got started in pursuit. But half a mile back in the bluffs they made a stand, and but for the watchfulness and intrepidity of two of the settlers, Culbertson and Sanford, part of

the troops would have been surrounded and probably killed. The Indians were well managed, a large party of them rapidly retreating, followed by the sergeant and five men, not knowing that another party of Indians were concealed while the troops were passing them. But several of the settlers coming at an angle, discovered a savage belonging to the concealed band, and knowing that a trap had been set, began firing. This brought the savages from their cover, and made the soldiers aware of their danger. The latter at once began to retreat, and the Indians, leaping forth by dozens, turned their whole attention to the settlers, who stood their ground manfully, and finding that the savages were being reinforced, and that it was retreat or be scalped, Melvin and Ruff immediately sought the shelter of a ravine and escaped unhurt, but Culbertson and Sanford were not so fortunate. The latter was surrounded, and defending himself as best he could, when Culbertson rushed to his assistance. The savages were then driven back, and the two men then began to dodge from cover to cover, loading and firing as opportunity offered, until assistance arrived and the Apaches fell back. Both men were wounded, Culbertson quite seriously. In the meantime the sergeant had succeeded in extricating his men from what came near being a serious ambuscade.

"Although October, the day was hot, and one of the funny incidents connected with the fight was the appearance of one of the Indians, evidently a chief from the active part he took, wearing during the whole time a soldier's heavy cape overcoat.

"A few weeks after this, Baty was relieved of the command, Lieutenant McNeal, with a small reinforcement, being sent to take his place. McNeal was a very good man, who seemed to realize the situation.

"The government made arrangements to take all the corn and grain which the settlers wished to sell, paying for the corn, without its being shelled, thirteen dollars per hundred. This was some compensation, but when it is remembered that during the season the Indians had destroyed or carried away barley and corn to the amount of nearly $2,000, driven off horses to the value of $500, and cattle to the value of over $6,000, for none of which the settlers have ever received any reimbursement, the profits were not large, considering the labor, anxiety and privations, not to mention the sufferings of the men who established and maintained the first settlement in the valley of the Verde."

Never in the history of the world did men have to contend against so formidable a foe as did the pioneer settlers of Arizona. Harassed on all sides by the relentless Apaches, cut off from civilization by the desert plains of New Mexico and California, they lived a life of warfare and privations, a few determined men against hordes of savage foes. Many of these hardy settlers fell victims to Indian cunning, and the finding of a few bleached bones in after years was all the record left of their untimely departure.

CHAPTER XII.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS (Continued).

FIRST SETTLEMENT IN LOWER SAN PEDRO VALLEY-MILITARY PROTECTION WITHDRAWNINDIAN DEPREDATIONS-WM. A. BELL'S DESCRIPTION OF SETTLEMENT-FISH'S DESCRIPTION OF EARLY SETTLEMENTS - RUSLING'S DESCRIPTION OF EARLY ARIZONA-YUMATUCSON EHRENBERG-LA PAZ-CASTLE DOME LANDING DESCRIPTION OF PRESCOTT BY BEN C. TRUMAN-"SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER'S" DESCRIPTION OF PRESCOTT-ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY BIOGRAPHY OF BEN H. WEAVER-HOOPER & Co., FIRST MERCANTILE ESTABLISHMENT IN ARIZONA-MEMBERS OF BIOGRAPHY OF EDWARD N. FISH. Colonization in the southern portion of the Territory was also begun contemporaneously with the colonization in the north. From the Fish manuscript I quote the following:

"The occupying of the lower San Pedro (the term lower is used to distinguish it from the settlements above Benson made later on), was the earliest of any point in this district. On December 15th, 1865, Mark Aldrich, John H. Archibald, F. Berthold, Jarvis Jackson, John Montgomery and H. Brown, of Tucson, came into the lower San Pedro valley, and located lands. They immediately put in a crop of wheat and barley. In February, 1866, they commenced work on the ditch which was to carry water to their lands. Things went on quite well, and by the 25th of April, all were ready to plant a crop of corn. Houses had been erected and a few

troops came for their protection, and in a short time there were about one hundred men, women and children in the valley. In September the troops were taken away. The crops for the first year were very good, considering the circumstances. The total amount of grain, such as wheat, barley, corn and beans was about 350,000 pounds.

"The first Indian depredations were in the next year, 1867, when some Mexicans were attacked while plowing, and one was killed. Some weeks later the Indians killed the herder, and drove off one horse and four yoke of oxen. Things began to look very discouraging, and some of the settlers in the lower part of the valley talked about leaving, but a petition was gotten up for troops, and General Crittenden sent ten men to aid them. The Indians continued to be troublesome, and in September they stole three more horses. The grain crop this year was not as good as the year before. It amounted to about 250,000 lbs., mostly corn.

William A. Bell, in his work entitled "New Tracks in North America," being, as he himself calls it, a journal of travel and adventure whilst engaged in the survey for a southern railroad to the Pacific Ocean during 1867-68, and who, while engaged in this work, visited the San Pedro Valley in 1867, says:

"I visited a farm in the San Pedro Valley before leaving Camp Grant; it was only four miles from the fort, and yet all the crops that autumn had been cut down and carried off before they were ripe by the Aravaipa Apaches, and all that remained of the stock was a few pigs. Half a dozen soldiers were kept at this ranch all the