Our C at/10/ic Heritage i11 T exns
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the new post. Romero, who previously had visited San Saba, was to serve as guide. With five other mission Indians, they set out on their exploring expedition, following the Pecos River to the south and east from Pecos, New Mexico. For five days they kept together, but at the end of the fifth, four decided they would go no farther and took leave of their companions, who continued for two days more before coming to a ranclier,a. This was a village of Lipan Indians who had established themselves near a spring called Coyote, located some six leagues north of the Pecos River. The spring and village must have been approximately some two hundred miles southeast of Pecos, New Mexico, allowing about twenty- four miles per day for the seven days' travel of the Indians. In the village there was a large number of men, women, and children. Romero and Miraval estimated the number of warriors at three hundred. After a stay of five days in the 1·ancl1er1a, just as the two native messengers were about to leave, the village was attacked early in the morning by a band of twenty-one Comanches and two women. Six of them had guns, eight had swords, four were armed with lances, and the rest with bows and arrows. The fight, in spite of the small number of the enemy, lasted until three, and ended only with the death of every member of the Comanche band, except one of the women, who was captured. Better that she had fallen in the combat, for she was properly roasted with all ceremony during the festivities that followed to celebrate the victory and joyously devoured in a triumphant banquet. The Lipans lost one man killed, but had many wounded, among them the guest Romero, who was transfixed by an arrow that penetrated his chest and almost killed him. The celebration of the victory lasted twenty days, but Romero was forced to stay with his companion three months in the ranchena to recover fully from his dangerous wound. They sent back to New Mexico Miguel Romero, brother of the wounded man, with a report of every- thing that had occurred to them up to their arrival in the ranchena by the spring north of the Pecos River. Francisco Romero finally recovered and set out for San Saba once more in company with Joseph Antonio Miraval. For three days they followed the Pecos River until they came to a large ra11chena called Faraones (Pharos) by those of New Mexico but better known by the Spaniards of Coahuila and Texas as Mescaleros. This was at Los Medanos (The sand-dunes) where they were welcomed and treated with kindness. But shortly after their arrival there came into the camp two Mescaleroa, one severely wounded and the other with his ears cut off. They narrated how the Spaniards and the Julimes from El Paso del Norte and its vicinity
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