[Dr. George Gwyther, Sage Brush Bill, The Overland Monthly, November 1871]

 

1871.]  SAGE-BRUSH BILL.    455

 

SAGE-BRUSH BILL.

            WHEN the men who trouble themselves slightly, and the world thoroughly, with useless statistics, have had a plenitude of work in the estimates of mankind they deduce from the economics of cities, there will still be an interesting field for them in fathoming the motives which bring travelers into the wilds of Arizona. What a change a few years' residence in the latter produces in a man ! Your friend, whom, in 1860, you knew in San Francisco, wore a tall, glossy beaver, shining boots, and bright neck-tie ; but now, his beaver is low-crowned, wide-brimmed, and of accommodating shapes ; boots rusty, thick-nailed, patched, and large—to incase the frayed edges of his well-worn pantaloons ; and he knows the full value of a thick, woolen shirt, though it is button-less, flies open at the neck, and is guiltless of a tie. Our friend, too, has become reticent, and as devout a believer in physiognomy as a child ; he looks, without speaking, into your face, and he calculates, without intending to be scientific, on the correlation of mental and moral qualities, as developed in your countenance. Slang is his great weakness, and he pets it ; but then, slang is phonetic —the condensation of vigorous thoughts, the multam in parvo of speech.

            It will never do, in Arizona and similar countries, to conclude from a man's outward appearance, that he is either an insignificant or an unworthy character. The man who flavors his speech with the coinage of the country, and deals in the current, meaningless profanity of the community he is cast into, may have unconsciously adopted the policy of doing as others do, merely to avoid singularity; but his best and favorite apparel is still looked after, and is kept ready for appropriate occasions. Neither will it be wise to conclude that your neighbor with the pick and shovel, or he who drives your vehicle, or the other who cooks your meal, is unworthy to share your company, for mental, any more than for moral, reasons, since the causes influencing men, in their desire for change, are as potent with those whose education has been of the highest and smoothest, as with those for whom it has been scanty and rough ; and as you will rarely find a man here in whom good sense and sound judgment do not predominate, it is wise policy to beware of hasty decisions on personal appearance. Some one has remarked, that California's population is an aggregation of keen instincts and intellects, gathered from all parts of the globe ; this is eminently the case in the Territories.

            It was my fortune, some time since, while traveling on a long and rather slow journey through portions of Arizona, to have as driver an individual possessing in his person what seemed to me to be a combination of the various peculiarities found in the class of men I have been describing. We were alone, the road was dreary and monotonous, as well as dangerous ; my companion was shrewd-looking, but silent ; always on the alert for possible Indian attacks, and careful that I was, too. My experience in travel was considerable, but I found that his was greater, and his practice faultless. Every condition necessary to safe travel was attended to: feeding and watering animals, examination of their hoofs, mouths, and general health ; scrutiny of harness, axles, wheels, screws, bolts,

456      SAGE-BRUSH BILL.    [Nov.

chains, fire-arms, ammunition, food, and water, came under his untiring personal supervision. Yet, with all this, his silence was so great, his reticence so provoking, that I spitefully dubbed him "William the Silent," and told him so, finding, to our mutual amusement, that I had unwittingly given him part of his right name—as he informed me, with a quiet laugh, that in Nevada folks used to call him "Sage-brush Bill." Now, whether he had imagined that I was punning on his old name, that silent meant wise, and wise meant sage, I did not stop to discover, but asked him, "What was the reason they gave you that name ?" determined not to let the fire die out, now that I had succeeded in producing a spark. "Well," said he, "there were two reasons ; first, I had a shanty all alone in the sage-brush plains, where I raised stock, and did a little mining for some years; and then I was the only doctor that fellows, twenty miles off from me, could get when they had the mountain fever, and the only medicine I had was sage-brush, from which I used to make hot and strong tea, and then made them drink it by the pint, until the sweat ran off by the quart, and I suppose the fever come out through the skin, for they generally got well."

            From some remarks that Bill made that day, I became satisfied that I was fast rising in his estimation, and I also became aware of a little fact, not flattering to my self-esteem, that Bill had been quietly taking my measure, and that much of his reticence arose from his having been for some time undecided as to whether I was of sufficient "quality" to become communicative with. I can not say his opinions were all orthodox, but his honesty and shrewdness made them very acceptable as conversation. Naturally enough, we first spoke about Indians, and, very much to my surprise, there was a remarkable absence of the usual indiscriminate abuse of that people, and the wholesale condemnation of every thing, men and measures, that have become mingled with their affairs. Not that Bill was one likely to travel with an empty gun, or a gun not at hand when wanted, or be slow in its use in defense of himself and others ; but he held stoutly to the theory, that they, being the original owners of the soil, had aright to some consideration and compensation from our race.

            "We have come here," said he, "by the thousands ; we have taken their best land, their best water, their finest timber, driven off by our mines and works their venison and all other wild animals on which they live, and they ought to be paid for this by being partially fed at every military post in the country, or else at once classed as coyotes and wildcats, whom it is right to exterminate. It is not an Indian's nature to think as we think, or work as we work, and no amount of training can ever make him a man of our kind, because his traditions and his training all scorn the results which we have attained, and the means by which we attained them. As for military posts, I would have more of them: one in every district where Indians are plentiful, and encourage them to live around, and be as lazy as they choose; better that than they should be made hostile by hunger, and kill travelers to obtain their horses and mules for food. Count up the loss to the nation from the interruptions they so effectually give to commerce, and balance it against an issue of flour and beef to the various tribes, and see where the gain would be. And I think it will pay, in the long run, to put a reservation as near as you can to the place they have been used to live in; it makes them more contented, for they have feelings about birth -places and graves the same as we have.

            "I don't know about employing volunteers, unless you adopt the exterminating plan ; for they would be likely

1871.]  SAGE-BRUSH BILL.    457

enough to effect it, if you had enough of them, and provided they had plenty of supplies, and officers who knew and did their duty. Still, I think the feeding plan would be the cheapest, quickest, and kindest plan, after all ; for those who lived around a military post, and were well fed and treated, would soon lose all desire for hostile acts, and become as demoralized as their greatest enemy could wish. What do I think of gradually civilizing these Indians ? Well, I'll tell you a conversation I had, a few months ago, with a young man, passenger of mine, who had come out here from the East, almost expressly, as he told me, to report to some society he was agent for—Quakers, I reckon—about the best way of civilizing them. He told me his business, and then said, as I had lived here some time, he would like to get my ideas of the matter ; so I just told him that it did them all great credit who were taking so much trouble and expense, and it was a very pretty theory they were indulging in; but that he could get a cheaper way of finding out whether the plan would work, by trapping a few coyotes, and trying to change them, by feeding and training, into good, useful shepherd dogs, there's perhaps a few years of experimenting would teach him there was as much difference in the breed of men as of dogs, that to transform one breed into another was difficult and expensive. It is the best policy to let all the wild animals, whether two-legged or four-legged, die off quietly ; so I recommended the feeding process to him."

            "Well, Bill," said I, "these are very unusual sentiments for a man in your position ; perhaps, however, your experience has not been sufficiently adverse to eradicate the lessons taught you in some peaceful home, far away from danger. We all know how difficult it is to forget these lessons." Bill did not answer me for several minutes ; and, as I turned toward him to see if he had heard me, I saw that he was looking into vacancy. His thoughts were far away, and a shadow had stolen over his face.

            "If I measured my sentiments about the Indians," he slowly said, "by what I have suffered from them, no good word in their favor would come from my lips. I tell you, I have worked and worked, early and late, to get along in the world by energy and honesty, until I am tired of profitless industry. I have made money—plenty of it—particularly in stock-raising, and been successful in mining, too ; but I have lost, by Indian robberies, three distinct times, all I ever made, and I don't think I shall try to get rich again. In that far-off home you mention, there are those whose comfort in their old age was my daily thought, and it was that which gave nerve and firmness to heart and hand in the lonely shanty on the sage- plains of Nevada, and in the rough cabin on the rougher hills of Washoe, where my prospects were so good that I made sure of a quick and happy return to the old folks at home. But the Indians got all—every thing I had; didn't leave me a hoof; burnt my cabin; stole my stock ; shot me twice—and an arrow went through this arm; a bullet under this rib—doctor says it has got a case round it, and won't hurt me. It is no use fighting any more and against such luck as that. I knock under for the future, though I shan't pass in my checks till they are called for. I always treated the Indians well, but then others didn't, and that was the trouble.  They were strangers who attacked me—Shoshones and Winnemuccas—from a distance, whom some White Man had injured, and they, as many White Men do, attacked the first men of the people who injured them, without asking any questions."

            Having duly expressed my sympathy regarding what he had endured, and my concurrence in some of his views, I re-

458      SAGE-BRUSH BILL.    [Nov.

marked, it was wonderful so many men should continue in so profitless an employment in so wearying a country; but Bill rejoined, by asking me if there was any thing very profitable or easy in the life of a sailor or soldier : "for you see," said he, "I have been both, found both hard enough, and yet people stay at both. I ran away to sea when a boy, took a whaling voyage, had a perfect devil for a captain, deserted from him twice, but he caught me each time, and punished me until I wished myself dead ; but I served my voyage out, was discharged in Boston, and, in two months, shipped for another voyage. After that, enlisted, in 1846, for the Mexican war, and went through all of it; was with Scott from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, and had some hard duty and hard fighting, and plenty of sickness ; but none of these hardships took away my taste for that kind of adventure, any more than my troubles since have for this kind of life, with all its perils ; and I relish the wild, open life of the hills and the plains, where the air blows fresh and free, and I like the silence and solitude of the cañon and the mesa as well now—aye, better—than when I first tried it, in 1850. No denying it, 'tis hard work to pack a couple of blankets and a pick, and perhaps your grub, forty miles a day, and I have done that many a day ; ran all risks of losing my way, finding no water, and with an Indian on my trail, watching for a chance to take my scalp. It is hard enough, but it is healthy; and I prefer health and hardship on these hills and plains, where you can fill your lungs with pure and dry air, until you feel like flying.

            " No, never was married ; and I sometimes thank God for that, especially when I see some of those poor Texas emigrants, toiling along with their wagons loaded with care-worn and tired women and children. How they get along as well as they do, I don't know, for there are many hardships, without reckoning the scarcity of feed and water, for them and their stock. Sometimes they get too much water," continued he, thoughtfully. "Do you see that wash ahead?—there where the sand is so deep and dry, half hiding those big, granite bowlders, where the mesquit bushes are growing out of a solid rock, as it seems, though their roots take hold in the crevices and dig down, splitting the rock until it holds moisture for them ? Well, just there, I saw the water, in 1867, eight feet deep, and I was almost an eye - witness of a sad occurrence that took place then. A Texas family had come out to California, been disappointed, and were going back again. The old man, wife, two girls of nineteen and seventeen, and a boy of thirteen, with a wagon drawn by six good animals, and two running loose, were coming through this dry wash, when a water-spout burst over them, and all were lost.     

            "Shortly afterward, I also had a narrow escape from one of these sudden and fearful mountain torrents. Jack Seely, myself, and two others, had been out prospecting, and found a lead, which we had determined to work. On our way we camped, early one day, on a narrow, winding arroyo. The weather was sultry, and black, thick clouds were forming on the hill-tops. Suddenly, we heard a dull, thundering noise, which seemed to shake the earth like a band of horses on the stampede. Nearer and nearer came the sound, and we soon realized the fact that a water-spout had spent its force in the cañon above. On came the roaring torrent, and before we could roll our blankets, a bank of water two feet deep came sweeping upon us. A second bank of water, then a third and a fourth, came rushing down, until the flood, in an incredible short time, was five feet deep. We saved our lives, but nothing else ; the broken remains of our wagon and the carcasses of the horses were lodged against a large bowl- 

1871.]  A FEW FACTS ABOUT JAPAN.          459

der, about half a mile down the wash. In an hour's time, not a drop of running water was left in the wash."

            "I suppose, Bill, you still hope to make a rich strike in the mines, some of these days, and then go back to the East ?"

            "Well, no ; I've about given that idea up. I am thinking of taking up a half-section or more, on the Salinas, this summer—fine land down there, good many families moving in—and raising stock for the mining camps and small towns that the new railroad will make. I am not quite broke yet, and I think, by hiring a few Sonoranians to look after the beasts, I can do pretty well in grain, hay, and stock. I learned their language and ways, during the Mexican war. Besides, I am acquainted with a Mexican, who wants to go shares with me. Fernandez has considerable stock, and he owes me a good turn, for saving his life from the Apaches ; and he is one of those foolish fellows that a debt of that kind tells on, and he'd like to pay it, if he could."

            After detailing the desperate encounter they had with the Indians, he concluded by saying: "We bagged fifteen Apaches, all told, that day—real fighting men, no boys or squaws. Fernandez and I became such good friends that we have not got over it yet, and so we intend to become partners in ranching, down in the Salt River country; and if you or any of your friends ever come that way —'tisn't far from Phenix—we will welcome you with the best we have."

            And so I parted with Sage-brush Bill.