Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/409

 The squaw complied and returned to the edge of the ravine, there holding a parley, as the result bringing back a young warrior about twenty years old. To him General Crook repeated the assurances already given, and this time the young man went back, accompanied by "Big Bat," whose arrival unarmed convinced "American Horse" that General Crook's promises were not written in sand.

"American Horse" emerged from his rifle-pit, supported on one side by the young warrior, on the other by "Big Bat," and slowly drew near the group of officers standing alongside of General Crook; the reception accorded the captives was gentle, and their wounded ones were made the recipients of necessary attentions. Out of this little nook twenty-eight Sioux—little and great, dead and alive—were taken; the corpses were suffered to lie where they fell. "American Horse" had been shot through the intestines, and was biting hard upon a piece of wood to suppress any sign of pain or emotion; the children made themselves at home around our fires, and shared with the soldiers the food now ready for the evening meal. We had a considerable quantity of dried buffalo-meat, a few buffalo-tongues, some pony-meat, and parfleche panniers filled with fresh and dried buffalo berries, wild cherries, wild plums, and other fruit—and, best find of all, a trifle of salt. One of the Sioux food preparations—dried meat, pounded up with wild plums and wild cherries—called "Toro," was very palatable and nutritious; it is cousin-german to our own plum pudding.

These Indians had certificates of good conduct dated at Spotted Tail Agency and issued by Agent Howard. General Crook ordered that every vestige of the village and the property in it which could not be kept as serviceable to ourselves should be destroyed. The whole command ate ravenously that evening and the next morning, and we still had enough meat to load down twenty-eight of our strongest pack-mules. This will show that the official reports that fifty-five hundred pounds had been captured were entirely too conservative. I was sorry to see that the value of the wild fruit was not appreciated by some of the company commanders, who encouraged their men very little in eating it and thus lost the benefit of its anti-scorbutic qualities. All our wounded were cheerful and doing well, including Von Leuttewitz, whose leg had been amputated at the thigh.