Chapter 12

They could get a lot of good from bronze, if they could just get enough tin. Copper was no real problem, since there was a convenient location a reasonably short distance away, certainly closer than the impact crater where they were getting iron. The only source of tin known to Doug was a bit farther away than the copper, but could be reached. Zinc was available for making brass, but it was located too far east to make it practical. The best solution was definitely to stick with tin to make bronze. The problem here was that Doug was not sure enough of the appearance of raw tin to describe it to anyone; however, he could recognize it if he saw it. Therefore, it seemed that he was going to have to make a trip to the future location of El Paso to identify the mineral in person.

A major expedition was launched to get the copper and tin. The plan was for some of the people to pick up copper while the rest went to obtain tin. Doug decided to take along some iron picks for trading to locals, hopefully in exchange for copper or tin. It would be a help if locals would gather the copper and tin ore and trade it for finished goods. Not only would this make less work for Doug's people, it would help to push the locals toward the idea of trade and help to pull them out of the Stone Age.

Evening Star and Cactus Flower decided that they wanted to make the trip with Doug; all of the kids were old enough to make the trip and would learn from the journey. Doug readily agreed, and appropriate plans were made. They had enough carts for all of the children to ride, so they would not be delayed by the slow walk of the kids. By the time everything was organized for the trip, about half of the town wanted to go, so Little Bear was left in charge of the town with enough people to defend it, should that become necessary.

It was somewhat out of the direct line of march, but they went to find the copper first. They encountered several small villages, and a few families from each one wanted to join Doug's People. They were welcomed to the group once Doug was sure that they understood what they were joining. A few backed out when they found out that Doug was not offering anyone a free ride, but most were willing to join in the required responsibilities. The men were especially attracted by the gift of an atlatl and the promise of a crossbow when they returned to Doug's Town.

Doug now had five children from his two wives, and he took every opportunity to tell them all the interesting and useful things that he could as they traveled. Of course, the children were too young to have much detail thrown at them, but Doug was able to begin their education in the things that they would need to know as future leaders of their people. Being a chief was not hereditary, but the sons of chiefs were usually elected as the next chief if they wanted the job and were qualified. Doug was intent on making sure that all of his children were competent to be leaders, whether they were male or female.

When they reached the area of the copper deposits, Doug was delighted to find that the local people were familiar with the metal and were willing to trade it for items they lacked. The atlatl was worth a lot of copper and a single iron pick was enough to fill all of the available carts with copper ore. This was such a good deal, that Doug couldn't pass up the opportunity, so all but one of the carts were filled and sent back to Doug's Town. As soon as possible, they were to turn around and pick up another load of copper, this time trading one crossbow for the lot.

Doug led his family and three other families in search of the source for tin. He hoped that they could strike as favorable a deal with the people living near the tin source as they had with the copper people. They were not pressing to travel as fast as possible, so they enjoyed their trip through mostly forested country. There was plenty of water, so the plants were vigorous and healthy. His people were more used to open plains, so they were intrigued by so many trees.

Doug could not identify much of the topography, since it looked nothing like what he had seen in the 21^st century, so they had to ask directions from the people they met. They consistently met friendly people, so they had no trouble from the locals, and they again picked up a few recruits. Now that they had the space in their monster cave and the prospect of all of the metal that they would need, Doug was willing to accept anyone who wanted to join them, provided only that the new people were compatible with the current group.

It took some searching, but they eventually found the people who knew where to find the tin ore. These local people had no idea of the value of the tin they were standing on, since it was not in the form of raw metal, as the copper often was. Doug showed then how to smelt the tin and collect the liquid metal into ingots. They traded some ingots of low-quality tin for an atlatl. They promised the equivalent of one ton of tin for a crossbow. This would be enough tin to last Doug's People a very long time, since bronze is only 4-12% tin, and most of the applications they had for bronze were in the 4-6% range. Nevertheless, Doug wanted to accumulate as much tin as he could before the cold weather struck.

Now that the arrangements were made for the acquisition of tin, Doug was in a hurry to return home. He wanted to get started as soon as he could on the manufacture of bronze and steel tools and weapons. He was very anxious to establish trade routes which would spread his brand of civilization, hopefully throughout the continent in the next few thousand years. He felt that he was in a race to get the natives ready for the onslaught of the Europeans. He figured that he had only 30-40 years to teach his people what they needed to know to resist being overrun by the Europeans.

He was especially concerned about two factors which weighed heavily in favor of the invaders: disease and the lack of political unity among the natives. He could not do anything about the diseases, beyond teaching his people about hygiene and sanitation, neither practiced very well by the Europeans. The political unity he thought that he could achieve, if he could do a good enough job educating the children in the advantages of cooperation among groups. Trade was the route to this cooperation, and that was what he wanted to work on for the rest of his life. He wanted his ideas to be welcomed by the natives, not forced onto them by conquest—the latter was only a last resort out of desperation.

When they got home, Doug found that the trade in copper was going well, so that was not something he needed to micromanage. The leader of the group that had been left at the copper mines had taken on the new name of Copper Man and was pushing to trade for as much copper as he could get. Doug warned Copper Man not to get too pushy, but to work within the capabilities of his suppliers—in the long run that would work to his advantage. Copper Man had been ready to march in and take over from the locals, but Doug convinced him that peaceful trading was the better way to go.

One of the men who had gone on to the tin source wanted to take on the management of that operation, so Doug appointed him Tin Man and sent him off with as many wagons as they could build in a hurry. It took a lot of small wagons to transport a ton of tin ingots. There was no question about it, they had to have a larger draft animal, the dogs were willing, but just not big enough nor strong enough.

At this time, the most likely prospect was the North American camel. These animals were not plentiful, in large part because they made such tempting targets for predators, including humans. Doug sent out hunters to capture, not kill, as many camels as they could find. It took a month, but they finally had five camels, three females and two males. By this time, most of the people had moved into the inner cavern, so there was plenty of room at the old location to rework some of the apartments into a stable. At first, the camels didn't like their new habitations, but came to appreciate that food and water were provided and they were in no danger from predators. Some of the older children were detailed to care for the camels and befriend them, which the children took delight in doing.

Doug just let the camel situation simmer for a while so that the camels could get familiar with human contact. He did not want to ride the camels, he wanted them to pull the wagons, so he thought that the training would be a bit easier. Almost from the first day of captivity, the camels had been wearing a halter. Naturally, they objected to it at first, but accepted it when they could not find a way to rid themselves of it. The training started by having the children lead the camels around with lead ropes attached to the halters. This went on for several weeks, and the camels got used to the idea. Nothing was forced, but the camels were praised and petted by the children when they did what was asked of them. This seemed to make an impression on the animals.

Finally, the big day came! A sled was attached to ropes that were fastened around the camel's shoulders and body. The camels were very unhappy at having this strange thing following them wherever they were led, and there was some trouble at first. However, the animals eventually got used to the strange thing that followed them everywhere, but never harmed them, so it was time for the next step. The sled had been empty, but now was loaded with a few pounds of rocks. The added weight was a surprise to the camels, but did not tax their strength, so they agreed to pull the sled when their human friends urged them to do so.