Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/522

 precaution against escape." Unless he treacherously murdered them in cold blood, he was unable to see a way out of the dilemma; and Crook was not the man to lie to any one or deal treacherously by him. If there was one point in his character which shone more resplendent than any other, it was his absolute integrity in his dealings with representatives of inferior races: he was not content with telling the truth, he was careful to see that the interpretation had been so made that the Indians understood every word and grasped every idea; and all his remarks were put down in black and white, which, to quote his own words, "would not lie, and would last long after the conferees had been dead and buried."

The whole subject of the concluding hours of the campaign against the Chiricahuas, after Crook had been relieved from command, has been fully covered by documents accessible to all students, among which may well be mentioned: Senate Documents, No. 117; General Crook's "Resumé of Operations against Apache Indians from 1882 to 1886"; the report made by Mr. Herbert Welsh, Secretary of the Indian Rights Association, of his visit to the Apache prisoners confined at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida; the reports made to General Sheridan by General R. B. Ayres, commanding the military post of St. Francis Barracks (St. Augustine, Florida); the telegrams between the War Department and Brigadier-General D. S. Stanley, commanding the Department of Texas, concerning his interview with "Geronimo" and other prisoners, etc.

It may be laid down in one paragraph that the Chiricahua fugitives were followed into the Sierra Madre by two Chiricahua Apaches, sent from Fort Apache, named "Ki-e-ta" and "Martinez," who were assisted by Lieutenant Gatewood, of the Sixth Cavalry, and Mr. George Wrattan, as interpreter. Not all the band surrendered; there are several still in the Sierra Madre who, as late as the past month of January (1891), have been killing in both Sonora and Arizona. But those that did listen to the emissaries were led to believe that they were to see their wives and families within five days; they were instead hurried off to Florida and immured in the dungeons of old Fort Pickens, Pensacola, Florida, and never saw their families until the indignant remonstrances of Mr. Herbert Welsh caused an investigation to be made of the exact terms upon which they had surrendered,