Page:Life among the Apaches.djvu/154

 frequently visitors. Fortunately, we escaped their attentions at that time. Our far-reaching carbines swept the whole expanse around us, and we had formed a sort of redoubt of earth, as a defense in case of attack, within which our ammunition, spare arms, provisions and personal effects were ensconced. One kept guard while the other slept. Our animals were placed in a line which could be swept by our fire, and the wagons so arranged as to furnish additional defense. In this unpleasant and inglorious manner several days passed, until the arrival of Col. E. A. Bigg, who was quite astonished at the facts brought to his knowledge and immediately imparted them to the commanding General, by whom I was ordered once more in the advance, and the major part of of my company reunited under my control.

The grazing ground to which we resorted during our stay near the Maricopa villages had been the scene of a desperate conflict between that tribe and the Pimos, on one side, and the Yumas, Chimehuevis, and Amojaves, on the other. Victory rested with the Maricopas and Pimos, who slew over four hundred of the allied tribes, and so humiliated them that no effort has ever been made on their part to renew hostilities. This battle occurred four years before our advent, and the ground was strewed with the skulls and bones of slaughtered warriors. Every day large numbers of the Maricopas visited my camp and were received with kindness, which they never failed to appreciate. On one occasion the head chief, Juan Chivari, and his Lieutenant, Palacio, paid me a visit, and almost immediately recognized me as the man who, ten years before, they had dubbed with the title of "Captain Killmoon," by reason of the part I took when Lieut. Whipple was observing an eclipse of the moon. I acknowledged the soft impeachment and