Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/489

 and tribulations of life in Arizona and New Mexico before Crook's genius and valor had redeemed them from the clutch of the savage. On the Colorado River Captain Jack Mellon still plied the good ship "Cocopah," and Dan O'Leary still dealt out to expectant listeners tales of the terrible days when he "fit" with Crook; within sight of the "Wickytywiz," Charlie Spencer still lived among his Hualpai kinsmen, not much the worse for the severe wounds received while a scout; the old Hellings mill on the Salt River, once the scene of open-handed hospitality to all travellers, still existed under changed ownership, and the Arnolds, Ehls, Bowers, Bangharts, and other ranchmen of northern Arizona were still in place; but the mill of Don José Peirson no longer ground its toll by the current of the San Ignacio; the Samaniegos, Suasteguis, Borquis, Ferreras, and other Spanish families had withdrawn to Sonora; and, oldest survival of all, "Uncle Lew Johnson" was living in seclusion with the family of Charlie Hopkins on the Salumay on the slopes of the Sierra Ancha. It would pay some enterprising man to go to Arizona to interview this old veteran, who first entered Arizona with the earliest band of trappers; who was one of the party led by Pauline Weaver; who knew Kit Carson intimately; who could recall the days when Taos, New Mexico, was the metropolis of fashion and commerce for the whole Southwest, and the man who had gone as far east as St. Louis was looked upon as a traveller whose recitals merited the closest attention of the whole camp.