The
cattle made a few surges, but once the remuda was safe, there was
an abundance of help in holding them, and they quieted down before
sunrise. The Comanches had no use for cattle, except to kill and
torture them, as they preferred the flesh of the buffalo, and once
our saddle stock and the contents of the wagon were denied them, they
faded into the dips of the plain.
The journey was resumed without the delay of an hour. Our first brush
with the noble red man served a good purpose, as we were doubly
vigilant thereafter whenever there was cause to expect an attack.
There was an abundance of water, as we followed up the South Fork and
its tributaries, passing through Buffalo Gap, which was afterward a
well-known landmark on the Texas and Montana cattle trail. Passing
over the divide between the waters of the Brazos and Concho, we struck
the old Butterfield stage route, running by way of Fort Concho to
El Paso, Texas, on the Rio Grande. This stage road was the original
Staked Plain, surveyed and located by General John Pope in 1846. The
route was originally marked by stakes, until it became a thoroughfare,
from which the whole of northwest Texas afterward took its name. There
was a ninety-six mile dry drive between the headwaters of the Concho
and Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos, and before attempting it we
rested a few days. Here Indians made a second attack on us, and
although as futile as the first, one of the horse wranglers received
an arrow in the shoulder.
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