Seven and nine years among the Camanches and Apaches; an autobiography - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1874 edition. Excerpt: ...that I had but little time to spare, I now prepared for flight. Hastily collecting such articles of use or ornament as would be likely to seem of great value in the eyes of the Indians, and such as I could easily carry, I made them into a pack of small compass, and returning to the azoiea, I lowered them to the ground with a lariat, which I had previously placed there. I then sought the apartment of Guadalupe. Entering it without noise, I beheld her, by the dim light of a night lamp, reclining upon her couch, buried in profound sleep. I quickly bound her hands and feet, and gagged her in the Indian fashion, with a pear-shaped piece of wood secured by a strip of leather. I then raised her to my shoulder, and bore her to the roof, and by the aid of the lariat, which I had secured to the parapet, I easily descended with her to the plain below. A few seconds rapid walking enabled me to gain the horses, and a few minutes later I had fastened her to the saddle, and we were riding at full speed to the northwest. Knowing the. route well, I lost no time, and at daybreak had nearly reached the point at which I intended to cross the Rio Grande. "Day was just breaking when I rode through a belt of chaparral, and emerging npon the prairie beyond it, came suddenly npon a horseman, whom I at once recognized as one of the Mexican hunters attached to the hacienda d'Echeverra. Before he could recover from his astonishment at our unexpected meeting, I had literally ridden him down, and brained him with a single blow of my steel mace, one of the weapons which I had taken from Don Rafael's armory, and the same one you have frequently seen me carry. Adding hia scalp to those I had already taken, and rifling his person of whatever of value he possessed, I resumed my...