Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/423

 hundred souls remained, and all the trade of the place was dependent upon the three saw and shingle mills still running at full time. Here we found another wagon-train of provisions, under command of Captain Egan and Lieutenant Allison, of the Second Cavalry, who very kindly insisted upon exchanging their fresh horses for our tired-out steeds so as to let us go on at once on our still long ride of nearly one hundred miles south to Robinson; we travelled all night, stopping at intervals to let the horses have a bite of grass, but as Randall and Sibley were left behind with the pack-train, our reduced party kept a rapid gait along the wagon road, and arrived at the post the next morning shortly after breakfast. Near Buffalo Gap we crossed the "Amphibious" Creek, which has a double bottom, the upper one being a crust of sulphuret of lime, through which rider and horse will often break to the discomfort and danger of both; later on we traversed the "Bad Lands," in which repose the bones of countless thousands of fossilized monsters—tortoises, lizards, and others—which will yet be made to pay heavy tribute to the museums of the world. Here we met the officers of the garrison as well as the members of the commission appointed by the President to confer with the Sioux, among whom I remember Bishop Whipple, Judge Moneypenny, Judge Gaylord, and others.

This terminated the summer campaign, although, as one of the results of Crook's conference with Sheridan at Fort Laramie, the Ogallalla chiefs "Red Cloud" and "Red Leaf" were surrounded on the morning of the 23d of October, and all their guns and ponies taken from them. There were seven hundred and five ponies and fifty rifles. These bands were supposed to have been selling arms and ammunition to the part of the tribe in open hostility, and this action of the military was precipitated by "Red Cloud's" refusal to obey the orders to move his village close to the agency, so as to prevent the incoming stragglers from being confounded with those who had remained at peace. He moved his village over to the Chadron Creek, twenty-two miles away, where he was at the moment of being surrounded and arrested.

General Crook had a conference with the head men of the Ogallallas and Brulés, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and told them in plain language what he expected them to do. The Government of the United States was feeding them, and was entitled to loyal