Chapter 20: A Long Trip, New Friends, and More Trouble

We took a few days to gather supplies and finalize who would be traveling with me and my wives to Mexico to purchase more revolving carbines and pistols. Quietly more gold had been gathered, keeping the secret for now.

It was decided that my 4 wives would accompany me and that Red Feather, Loud Duck, Far Runner, Swift Water, Grey Wolf, Singing Elk, from the Comanches; Strong Wind, Little Owl, Bitter Water, Bird Woman, from the Sioux; Bear Claw, Little Deer, from the Pawnee; Eagle Eye, Dancing Fire, Eagle Wing, Dancing Water, Strong Tree, Gentle Breeze, from the Chippewa would make the rest of the party.

Everyone would have three horses, one to ride, two pulling travois, one would carry supplies and one would carry trade goods. Gold would be hidden throughout everything to prevent everything being lost at once. Everyone had a coin pouch on their belt as well. My group were considered the combat force as all of us had three pistols, a rifle, and shotgun. Everyone else in the party had a rifle/carbine and pistol, they all were using the same ammunition making it easier to supply and support each other.

I had my .32 7-shot revolvers crossdraw, the judge and PMR in thigh holsters, the CMR hanging from my right collarbone, my Henry, the greener, and my big Sharp. Each of my wives were carrying three .32 revolvers, 1 in the hidden holster, 1 shoulder holster, and 1 crossdraw, they each had a 9-shot revolving carbine, along with a 4 barrel shotgun.

We began the trip heading southwest toward El Paso. We figured it would take two weeks to get there and the same to return. We made it to the Colorado border before we had our first incident.

There was a gunfight and I decided to check it out. Every one of my wives insisted on coming with me, Red Feather said he would also go with me, and Loud Duck said she was going too (since my wives were going with me). The other got ready for a fight if we came back hard and fast.

There were several riders shooting at an Indian tribe that was moving their entire tribe, or that is what it looked like, as the Indians were pulling many travois. I waved the rest of our party forward and pulled my Sharps. All of my wives simply raised the 4-barrel and fired the two 45-70 rounds at the riders as I shot who I thought was the leader. Their second shots were followed shortly after by my second shot. WE had fired 10 times and 7 riders were down, another 2 seemed to be wounded, and the last was missing his hat.

There were still between 12 and 20 riders who now turned toward our group of five and they all started to charge us. They were about 300 yards or so away when they started and after they had come about 60 yards the rest of our group came alongside of us and fired one round. The results left 10 horses without riders, with 5 or 6 riders riding like hell away from both our group and the other Indians. There were still 3 riders coming toward us, however, they were no longer charging. The horses were kind of strolling toward us, the 3 riders appeared to be seriously injured and were trying to decide if they could stay on their horse or not. They finally fell off.

Our group started to check the dead for anything useful while Red Feather, Loud Duck, my wives and I rode to check on the Indians. Five were riding toward us slowly, so we slowed to a trot ourselves. The remaining 12 memebers of their tribe watched and waited

They were Kiowa, Sitting Bear was their chief, Snowbird was his mate, Big Rock and his mate Clear Water, along with Running Horse were the riders that came out to meet us. We introduced our group and asked if they needed any help.

They had some killed, a few wounded but not seriously, and the normal bumps and bruises from a fight.

They were moving because the whites were killing them off for their land, and the military were not stopping them.

Red Feather looked to me, Loud Duck and my wives. We all nodded and suggested they travel with us for protection, both for them and for us. Strength in numbers. We explained where we were going and why. Sitting Bear asked if we would give them guns to better protect themselves, they only had flintlocks and a few percussion rifles. I decided to let them have all the firearms from the bandits we had killed, yes, they were bandits out for scalps. There was a bounty of 1 silver eagle for 10 Indian scalps.

I said that I would kill anyone who paid for an Indian scalp. Running Horse said that the army protected those who were paying. I just said that I might have to kill some army soldiers too then. White Hawk told me not to go looking for trouble, and that I could only kill anyone and everyone who attacked or tried to attack our group.

There were enough rifles for every adult to get one, so the two youngest girls did not get a rifle. There were only 3 Spencers, Sitting Bear, Big Rock, and White Wolf took them, the rest were standard rolling-block carbines. there were 20 revolvers, 5 were cartridge firing and 15 were cap & ball.

My wives started teaching the Kiowa women that first night we stopped for camp. Red Feather took the braves a side and reviewed how the rifles worked and how to keep them in good working order.

We now number 40. We also slowed down quite a bit but that did not matter, with the large size our group made only a serious war party would consider attacking us.

We arrived at El Paso three days later and decided to make our camp a mile outside of the town.

Red Feather and Loud Duck along with Big Rock and Clear Water went into town with me and all my wives. Just the nine of us.

I found a Mexican gun dealer and asked about the revolver carbines. I lied and said that we were going to give them to the blacks so they could make trouble for the white slavers. He laughed at this and agreed to sell me all he had. 93 was the total he had and I asked if he knew where we might get more. He said that give three days he could be back with 200. I asked if he could bring 207 so I would have a total of 300. This made him laugh and he agreed.

I also went to all the local gunsmiths and was able to buy:

15 Spencer rifles, 100 Rolling-block carbines, 400 rimfire revolvers, 100.36 cal cap revolvers, 300 9-shot carbines,

And 10 crates of 500 rounds .44 cal rimfire ammo.

We also restocked our supplies for the return trip due to the sudden increase in our groups size it was necessary.

I was concerned that several people would take notice of the large purchase our small group was making and think they could help us with transportation. Little did they know our group was not little. We bought two wagons to haul everything out of town and would abandon the wagons once we got to our camp. The Travois would be faster and easier to handle on our return trip.

We had not gone a mile out of town when eleven dumb shits rode out hard on us. I just waved my hand and there were eleven shots, then eleven dumb shits fell out of their saddles. My wives quickly checked them for valuables worth keeping and tied the horses to the back of the wagons. The quick stop only took maybe 7 minutes in total. We rearranged the supplies spread out among all the travois. Then White Hawk, Dark Moon, and Pretty Woman asked if I was going back to town with them to sell the wagons back for at least 2/3 of what we paid. Red Feather laughed until Loud Duck said they were going with them, so I just mounted my horse and shook my head. Everyone else just laughed.