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Now and then he paused beside Kaydessa and spoke, his uneasiness plain to Travis although he could not understand the words. Travis had settled down in the shade, half dozing, yet alert to every movement of the three Tatars. He tried not to think of what might be happening in the rancheria by switching his mind to that misty valley of the towers.
Buck had dispatched scouts to meet them, and knowing his people's skill at the business, Travis was certain the Tatars would never suspect their flanking unless the Apaches purposefully revealed themselves. Also the Tatars were not to go to the rancheria, but would be met at a mid-point by a delegation of Apaches. This was no time for the Tatars to learn just how few the clan numbered.
We set out at a rapid rate, and when daylight comes we are in sight of the canyon of the Moenkopi, into which we soon descend; but the rancheria has been abandoned. Up the Moenkopi we pass several miles, in a beautiful canyon valley, until we find a pool in a nook of a cliff, where we feel that we can defend ourselves with certainty, and here we camp for the night.
The great performance of the morning, however, was a head-hunter dance, arranged by Barton; that is, he had gone out a day or two before and told a neighboring ranchería, that they must furnish a show of the sort for the apos whose visit was imminent. But, according to the old women of the village, he had made a great mistake in that he said it was not necessary to hold a cañao in advance.
About two o'clock I set a couple of men to prepare a hasty lunch, call up all hands, and we saddle, pack, eat our lunch, and start off to the southwest to reach the Moenkopi, where there is a little rancheria of Indians, a farming settlement belonging to the Oraibis, so we are told.
It is like this: the padres make me Christian in the mission, and her family take me to work ¡n the house; I no living on the rancheria like the Indians who work outside. Bime by Doña Juana marrying and I go live with her.
It was decided at this council to send a large party to the Main, to the de la Hacha River, "to assault a small village" of the name of La Rancheria the chief granary in all the "Terra Firma." The pirates were to seize as much maize there as they could find enough, if possible, to load the ships of the expedition.
We left our miserable Indian pilot at his rancheria. I gave him the shirt from my back, out of compassion for his sufferings he well deserved a dressing of another kind. Securing our animals in one of the inclosures, we encamped in the deserted dwelling. The storm soon commenced, and raged and roared with a fierceness and strength rarely witnessed.
Then he put more ashes on the hopper and set the pans of milk in place for the evening call of Billy and his companion. He pointed out the rancheria by the river where the Indian herders lived with others of their tribe, among them, Billy and his mother.
But it needs men used to command, well educated, and with habits of discipline the picked men of the army. At present, an Indian reservation differs from an Indian rancheria or village only in that it contains more food, more vice, and more lazy people.
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