Page:Life among the Apaches.djvu/134

 height we found a rancho owned and inhabited by a big-hearted gentleman, who ministered to our wants and furnished us with two fresh mules. Next day we resumed our march, and soon after passing the old battle ground of San Pascual met Col. Heintzleman, in command of three hundred troops, on his way to chastise the Yuma Indians for their many murders and robberies. The officers were surprised to meet us coming from the river, and asked many questions, which we were delighted to answer, giving valuable information.

Col. Heintzleman's force was subsequently increased to five hundred men, and after two years' active warfare he succeeded in reducing the Yumas, who have never since presumed to contend against our power. Since then Fort Yuma has become a noted frontier fortification, surrounded by many hundreds of American citizens, who live, for the most part, on the eastern bank of the river, and carry on a lucrative trade with the interior of Arizona and the Yumas, Cocopahs, Cushans, Amojaves and other tribes. The waters of the Colorado are now plowed by half a dozen steamers, and my old enemies, the Yumas, do the "chores" and menial offices for the whites. The next day after meeting Col. Heintzleman we reached San Diego, devoutly thankful to Providence for our many and almost miraculous escapes from the tomahawks and scalping knives of the Indian tribes through which we had passed for the distance of two thousand eight hundred miles.