Mills established his
headquarters about one mile from the trail, in a beautiful spot;
plenty of water, an abundance of good grass, and a few pine trees
scattered here and there, making it an unusually pleasant place
for quarters that summer.
Not being able to ride, I stayed in camp, but sent all the other
scouts out. The second day my first assistant returned and
reported having found the trail, as he thought, of about fifty
Indians, traveling west, and about parallel with the emigrant
trail.
The next morning I started my assistant and three scouts after the
Indians, with orders to report as soon as they had the redskins
located.
They were gone four days and no word came from them. I began to be
very uneasy, as well as Capt. Mills, thinking something must have
happened them or they would have returned, as they only took three
days' rations with them. I took four other scouts and went on
their trail.
The reader will understand that in this country the soil is
somewhat sandy, and a horse is easily tracked. Our horses being
shod, it was easy to distinguish their tracks from that of the
Indians' horses. My wound gave me much trouble, but we followed
the trail of the other scouts for some distance after striking the
trail of the Indians, and their horses being shod, we could easily
track them, but finally they became so obliterated that we could
see no more trace of the shod horses.
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