intended to kill both women to prevent them from telling how cruelly
they had been treated.

[Illustration: INDIAN VILLAGE.]

The attack lasted but a short time, and the Indians were driven several
miles away. The soldiers then gathered in the herd of Indian horses,
which were running at large over the country and drove them back to the
camp. After taking a survey of what we had accomplished, it was found
that we had killed about one hundred and forty Indians, and captured one
hundred and twenty squaws and papooses, two hundred lodges, and eight
hundred horses and mules. The village proved to be one of the richest I
had ever seen. The red-skins had everything pertaining to an Indian
camp, besides numerous articles belonging to the white settlers whom
they had killed on the Saline. The Pawnees, as well as the soldiers,
ransacked the camp for curiosities, and found enough to start twenty
museums, besides a large amount of gold and silver. This money had been
stolen from the Swedish settlers whom they had murdered on the Saline.
General Carr ordered that all the tepees, the Indian lodges, buffalo
robes, all camp equipage and provisions, including dried buffalo meat,
amounting to several tons, should be gathered in piles and burned. A
grave was dug in which the dead Swedish woman, Mrs. Alderdice, was
buried. Captain Kane, a religious officer, read the burial service, as
we had no chaplain with us.

While this was going on, the Sioux warriors having recovered from their
surprise, had come back and a battle took place all around the camp. I
was on the skirmish line, and I noticed an Indian, who was riding a
large bay horse, and giving orders to his men in his own
language--which I could occasionally understand--telling them that they
had lost everything, that they were ruined, and he entreated them to
follow him, and fight until they died. His horse was an extraordinary
one, fleet as the wind, dashing here and there, and I determined to
capture him if possible, but I was afraid to fire at the Indian for
fear of killing the horse.

I noticed that the Indian, as he rode around the skirmish line, passed
the head of a ravine not far distant, and it occurred to me that if I
could dismount and creep to the ravine I could, as he passed there,
easily drop him from his saddle without danger of hitting the horse.
Accordingly I crept into and secreted myself in the ravine, reaching the
place unseen by the Indians, and I waited ther