ly surrender to him and that the Indians and the troops should
move further north to a more convenient meeting place. To give
confidence to the Indians in this new state {44} of affairs, Captain
Lawton, Leonard Wood and two other officers agreed to travel with
them. Due to a mistake in orders, the American troopers started off in
the wrong direction, and Captain Lawton was obliged to leave in search
of them. This left the three remaining officers practically as
hostages in the Indian camp. Speaking of this incident. General Wood
says:

"Instead of taking advantage of our position, they assured us that
while we were in their camp it was our camp, and that as we had never
lied to them they were going to keep faith with us. They gave us the
best they had to eat and treated us as well as we could wish in every
way. Just before giving us these assurances, Geronimo came to me and
asked to see my rifle. It was a Hotchkiss and he had never seen its
mechanism. When he asked me for the gun and some ammunition, I must
confess I felt a little nervous, for I thought it might be a device to
get hold of one of our weapons. I made no objection, however, but let
him have it, showed him how to use it, and he fired at a mark, just
missing one of his own men, which he regarded as a great joke, rolling
on the {45} ground, laughing heartily and saying 'good gun.'

"Late the next afternoon we came up with our command, and we then
proceeded toward the boundary line. The Indians were very watchful,
and when we came near any of our troops we found the Indians were
always aware of their presence before we knew of it ourselves."

For eleven days Captain Lawton's command moved north, with Geronimo's
and Natchez's camps moving in a parallel course. During these last
days of Geronimo's leadership his greatest concern was for the welfare
of his people. The most urgent request that he had to make of Captain
Lawton was to ask repeatedly for the assurance that his people would
not be murdered.

Captain Lawton in his official report says of Wood's work in the
campaign:

"No officer of infantry having been sent with the detachment ...
Assistant Surgeon Wood was, at his own request, given command of the
infantry. The work during June having been done by the cavalry, they
were too much exhausted to be used again without rest, and they were
left in camp at Oposura to recuperate.

{46}

"During this short campaign, the suffering was intense. The count