Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/387

370 A LITTiai EXPERIENCE LEARNED. The gentlemen of the rnemorable "thirty-six" have made a discovery by their trip to Qairira: thoy have learned by experience how little can be gotten alon^ with when necessity compels; they were life Corporal Cy Klfe^^, who, when a boy joined the Union Army, and his good old mother Outfitted him with several Suits of underclothing, tooth and shoe brushes, extra suit of clothes, a Bible, etc., but poor Cy soon discovered how heavy his knapsack was, and reluctantly the #ery last thing he discarded was the Good Book; thus limiting his wardrobe to that on hia back but not in a knapsack. And so with our cava- Uers: they have given as presents a great number of articles to the Indians, thus relievin]g themselves and tblir horses of a large amount of fool dead we^ht, which makes it possible to travel often forty miles a day, when no other obstructions occur until reaching the Indian country and plains of Texas, when the Comanches began to ^how a disposition to tuarass them, not so much on account of a desire to slay, but they had for several years come in contact with that new animal, which to them appears hke the mythological Pegasus or winged horse; in fact they already had procured a few plugs; and now every Red Skin is crazy to secure one, and racked their brains with all manner of schemes how to obtain a steed. Talk about the mania for bicycles and auto- mobiles when first invented, there was no comparison, for all those who got their heads set on a wheel would part with their all; but the Indian would do thab and risk his life in the bargain. And now the vicissitndes of the party com-