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"As soon as the teams had arrived and unloaded, they started back. I waited in Prescott five days, then left at sunset, reaching the train at Juniper, at the same camp that had been made on the way out. The boys had killed three deer and one bear, so meat was plenty, but they saw no signs of Indians. I travelled with the train the next day, then travelled during the night and arrived home during the next night, making the trip, one hundred and sixty-five miles, in three nights.

"A word about these young men who formed this little crew of teamsters or band of scouts. They were all bricks, and had not a cowardly hair in their heads. Several of them live in this Territory at the present time. During the two years that these men were in my employ, not one got killed or wounded. Three men in my employ who were at work repairing the road near Union Pass were killed by Indians during the summer of 1866. Their names were Thomas McCall, William Brown, and John Killian. McCall was caught in the same kind of a trap that the Dutchman was. A horse had been stolen. McCall followed and got in sight of it, but was filled with arrows before reaching his property.

"This trap business is an old game of the Indians. General Custer was caught in a trap. When Custer saw the Indians in force, had he fallen back to high ground and allowed the Indians to attack him, he might have got away with the fight. A man to deal with hostile Indians must have no fear. He must look and laugh the Indians in the face, though danger and death is at hand. It won't do to weaken.

I was several times within the ten years from 1864 to 1874 in tight places among Indians, but got out. I never feared but that an Indian would run or get behind a shelter to get an advantage. When I had the advantage, I cared but little for an Indian. I looked upon them as upon wild animals. They are wild human beings, and when hostile are but little better than a wolf or bear. Killing makes good Indians of them.

"About the wild game that was in Arizona at that time. The mountains were alive with game. The particular section described lies between two tribes of Indians, the Wallapais, sometimes spelled in Spanish, Hualapais, and Yavapais, or Apaches. As these tribes were at war they dare not hunt or be found in small parties in this country.

"It was not uncommon in travelling through the Aztec Pass, to see two or three hundred deer and antelope in a day. A little to the north of this there were large bands of elk. There was also the brown, the cross, and the cinnamon bear, too plenty for fun. There were also many carniverous animals: the cougar, the panther, the large grey wolf, and coyotes without number. Turkeys and quail were quite common.

"I have known three crack shots to leave Prescott in the fall of the year, and in camping on this divide, kill a four horse wagon load of game in three days, and return to Prescott, not being gone from home but six days in all. Sam accompanied this crowd. At one time as a band of antelopes ran past him, he emptied his Spencer six shooter rifle at them, killing five, and wounding three more that they got the next

day. The five were shot through the heart at a distance of from a hundred and fifty to two hundred yards, the antelope on the dead run at that. You would hardly think they had time to get their guns to their faces before they would fire, and the game would fall. This game has all been driven out or killed off, and the whole country around is overstocked with cattle and horses. Game is rarely seen, but there are cattle on a thousand hills.'

The last expedition of King Woolsey, which is given in the preceding volume, was directed against the warlike tribes along the Colorado River, and, naturally it had a tendency to deter the Indians from open and aggressive warfare, but their sentinels were along every road on the lookout for plunder.

In the winter of 1867, according to Judge E. W. Wells, of Prescott, one night, when the faro banks and saloons were running at high speed in Prescott, there came into one of the principal saloons a Mexican youth, garbed as an Apache. He explained that he had been taken captive a few years before by the Indians, and that two of them had a camp upon the hill adjacent to the present waterworks of Prescott, where they had kept a lookout for two or three years previous. From this place they could spy upon Fort Whipple and the town of Prescott and locate every outgoing body of citizens or soldiers. He said that the two bucks who had accompanied him had left their camp in the early evening for further investigation around Fort Whipple, and he proposed to conduct a party to their camping ground, that they might be ambushed and killed or captured upon their

return. There was some delay in organizing the party, and when they reached the camp they found signs that the Indians had returned and, not finding the Mexican captive, had immediately fled. This will illustrate the policy pursued by the Indians at that time, which was to send out scouts in all directions, so they were advised at all times of any party leaving Prescott or Whipple on any excursion into the Indian country, and it was extremely dangerous for any party of two or three to go in any direction without exercising great caution and care, for at any time their lives might pay the forfeit of their temerity.

An interesting happening in Arizona, which, unfortunately, bears no date, but which may have occurred in either of the years 1865, 1866, 1867 or 1868, was the providing of the first Christmas tree. A description of this, taken from Orick Jackson's "The White Conquest of Arizona," is as follows:

"There is one Arizonan alive to-day who holds a unique station among men, and who enjoys a distinction that is beautiful and praiseworthy. His name is J. N. Rodenburg, and to him belongs the honor of being the first man who conceived the idea of zealously and fervently observing the birth of the Savior in a wild land, and providing the first Christmas tree to be erected in Arizona. This tribute to Christianity was initiated by him under conditions that would seem in this day of peace and plenty as difficult of execution, but those who are yet alive bear evidence to it in its every detail.

"Every desert has its oasis. When the day arrived that Arizona was to have its first Christ

mas tree, and the birth of the Savior was to be fittingly celebrated, there was evidence of much humorous curiosity among the frontiersmen as to how the plan was to be carried out. Where were the goods and wares, toys, candies, and the like to be had? And where were the children to come from to brighten the occasion, as is so customary in events of this character? A census was taken and in the skirmish seven eligible 'kids' were rounded up, together with a half a dozen others who were still young, but grown tall. Mr. Rodenburg then got into the theological harness, and, with an escort of six men went into the woods to get the tree end of the occasion.

A beautiful fir was secured, and the Indians permitted the party to return in safety. This tree was erected in Rodenburg's house, and thus was the 'big doings' started. A call was issued to the public for the presents to ornament the tree. In that day, over forty years ago, the stores carried absolutely nothing in the line of toys or trinkets, candies or bonbons, and it was here that the first serious problem confronted the committee. A big stock of brown sugar was purchased, and, with the assistance of a New Orleans negro, three kinds of blackjack were skillfully moulded. This settled the sweet end of the programme, the candy being encased in manilla paper bags glued together with flour paste. The tree must have illumination, so the market was searched for all the tallow candles obtainable. These were cut in two, and after being tied to the limbs with ordinary twine, another obstacle was conquered. There was a scarcity of ribbons to give the scene the beauty and brilliancy necessary, but the bottom of every

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