TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1860-1916
404
Mexico; the statements thereof are regarded as ex cathedra. It shows that the Indians we have so continually complained of are a terror to that country; that they have "always lived in an immense unexplored and rugged region," contigious to the United States, are natural robbers and murderers; and that the Mexican Government, notwithstanding that three or four of its nothern States were so long exposed to, and raided up by, them, did not, or could not, send any relief until now. Also, that these Indians raided and murdered indiscriminately in Texas and Mex- ico, as has been reported by me heretofore. In July, 1877, some fifteen months ago, I telegraphed to the Adjutant General of the Army, as follows: "I don't wish my telegram of yesterday to be understood as asking new instructions. Those I have will achieve the desired results, for rather than endure the expense and unpopularity consequent upon keeping nearly everybody in the field, to meet the respectable force I am collecting to follow the raiders, Tre- vino will soon feel disposed to follow and settle with them him- self, and thus make it unnecessary for me to do so." The grazing near Fort Clark is so good this season that it is economy to assemble my cavalry there. The troops move "with Government transportation," and now General Trevino has said in his Official Gazette that the campaign against these raiding Indians will have to be made and will stop U. S. troops crossing after raiders. As a matter of course, the order for the United States troops to cross in pursuit of them will no longer be operative when there are no raiders to pursue. The character of the country in Mexico occupied and raided over by them is correctly described in the Official Gazette, but its immense extent can only be understood by a study of Mex- ican archives and reports. We have a. good deal of the same sort of country, and the small command I have available gives me about one soldier to every 120 square miles of it. Therefore, it will be a great satisfaction if the campaigns of General Tre- vino are successful, and we can be relieved of the necessity of hunting savages who do not belong to us but to Mexico; and it will be a pleasure, as well as a duty, for us to contribute to his success by every means in our power. In this connection, I have to report that the explorations, by scouting parties, of the mountain country west of the Pecos have developed, unexpectedly, well watered and quite extensive
Powered by FlippingBook