XX.
A DAUGHTER OF THE CHEROKEES.
Mary Greenwater was not the ugly, coarse-featured woman that manysquaws are. She possessed many of the fine features of her whitesisters. She had been well educated at the Carlisle Indian school, andhad traveled much. While, with other Cherokee Indians, she drew herannuities from the government, yet she was known to be the wealthiestwoman of the tribe. She was lavish in the expenditure of money. Herhome in the Cherokee hills was elaborately furnished with the richestof carpets and furniture; even a grand piano adorned her parlor. Butwith all its costly appointments, the house was a wilderness ofdisorder. Like other of her race, she despised anything akin toneatness. Her dresses were gaudy in color and extravagant in style.Pearl necklaces, diamond brooches and rings were worn on alloccasions. She owned fine carriages and many spirited horses. As ahorsewoman, she was an expert and as a pistol shot she was accountedthe best in the Cherokee nation. Her servants were the half-breedIndian Negroes to whom her word was as absolute a law as any Caliphever possessed over a tribe. She was accustomed to command, and ifdisobeyed she enforced her orders at the point of the revolver shealways carried.
The source of Mary Greenwater's wealth was a mystery. Those of hertribe gave themselves no concern about it, but the matter was asubject of much comment among the few white men in the territory.Mercer, a young man of adventurous spirit, hearing of her fabulouswealth, sought her hand in marriage. After the wedding, he used allhis arts to wring from her the secret of her riches. Once when shestarted on one of her lone journeys to the hills of the Grand River,he attempted to follow and that was the last ever seen or heard ofhim. That the woman possessed the secret of a vast amount of losttreasure was evident, as she spent many Spanish gold coins of ancientdate as months rolled on, and this induced Grim, a farm hand, to marryher. She elevated him from a menial position, to overseer of herranch. She gave him money, which he recklessly spent at the farotables at the Garrison. When she refused to further indulge him in hisreckless expenditures, he, like Mercer, attempted to follow her on herjourney to the Grand River hills one night. He was missed by hiscompanions who went in numbers to search for him, taking an Indianguide. They were led in an opposite direction from the way he went andhis fate remained a mystery, until many months later his body wasfound in the Grand River, with a bullet in the brain.
Two years after the death of Grim, Carson and a negro were hunting inthe Grand River country and were encamped one night in the hills.While seated beside their campfire, they heard a cry of distress.Upon going to the spot, they found a lone Indian woman pinionedbeneath her pony, which had stepped into a wolf hole and broke itsleg. The woman was badly injured and they carried her to theircampfire and made her comfortable. The next day they constructed arude litter and carried her twenty miles to a place where she couldreceive medical attention.
The woman was Mary Greenwater, and this was, perhaps, the first act ofkindness she had ever received.
A certain escapade at the close of Carson's college days had causedhim to migrate to the West, where, like many others, he became asoldier of fortune, drifting whither the strongest tide wind blew.When Mary Greenwater recovered she sought him, and in her gratitudemade him the overseer of her ranch at a princely salary.
In course of time they were married by the ancient Indian ceremony ofthe Fastest Horse. When the days of feasting were over, and MaryGreenwater's relatives had returned to their cabins richer by anumber of ponies, Mary told Carson a wondrous story of how, manysummers ago, when her grandfather was a boy, a Spanish caravan camefrom Santa Fe and was besieged in the Grand river hills for many days,and of how, finding that they would eventually be starved to death ifthey remained, the travelers had hidden their possessions among thelime rocks and undertaken to cut their way through the Indian hordesto a place of safety. Her grandfather had found the hiding place ofthe treasure and had kept it a profound secret from all exceptherself, to whom he told it only when he began to sing his deathsong.
Mary Greenwater swore to Carson that the hiding place of the Spanishtreasure would never be known except to one other member of her tribe,and then not until after her death. She told him there were valuablepapers which she knew none of her people could ever use, and which shelater gave to Carson.
The documents were discolored and the ink faded and this much Carsonwas able to decipher: "Jean Maldonado visited a far distant countrynorth of Santa Fe--a wide valley through which flowed a stream, alongthe banks were bushes that bore fruit like unto those of Spain--in thevalley were herds of oxen of the bigness and color of our bulls--theirhorns are not so great--they have a great bunch upon their foreshoulders and more hair on the forepart than on the hindpart; theyhave a horse's mane upon their backbone and much hair and very longfrom the knees downward--they have great tufts of hair hanging fromtheir foreheads and it seemeth they have beards--they push with theirhorns--they overtake and kill a horse--finally it is a fierce beast ofcountenance and form of body--we feared these beasts and stayed nearthe mountains named the Sangre de Christo.... Climbed the mountain toa great flat rock that stood on end like a platter.... Jean Maldonado,commander of an expedition reached this place 1750.... The mineyielded much gold in a rock like white china--Babtiste beat it outwith--Mattheo returned from Santa Fe with more donkeys--loaded donkeyswith much unbeaten rock--returned to Santa Fe"--
Here the ink was so faded that nothing more could be made of themanuscript. The accompanying map was more perfect. The tracings showedthe mountain ranges. It had been drawn almost with the precision of anengineer. The route from Santa Fe through the mountain passes wasclearly shown; there were marks of each day's stops. Where the mapshowed the end of the journey there was the rude drawing of a cliffset on edge and below it was marked "Gold."
Carson pondered over the quaint document for many days. The Indianmarriage with Mary Greenwater had become a matter of regret. While thewoman loved him, yet her love was like a new bowie knife, to behandled with care. He decided to leave the Grand River country andbide his time until Mary Greenwater should make one of her long visitsto the hills. One night he mounted the best horse on the ranch anddriving thirty others ahead of him, set out for Colorado. On the wayhe sold most of the horses to ranchmen and cattlemen and netted a neatsum.
When Mary Greenwater returned and found her spouse had vanished, herfury knew no bounds. Ordinarily the Indian squaw might be deserted byher lord and she would stoically accept her fate. Mary might have doneso had she not been spoiled by being educated at Carlisle. Her savageblood grew hot for revenge. She made another trip to the Grand riverhills, presumably for a larger amount of money, placed her affairs inthe hands of her Indian-Negro servants, and started on the trail ofCarson, believing she would have no trouble in overtaking a mandriving that many head of horses. Meanwhile the fall rains set in andthe shallow rivers of the plains became raging torrents. But to awoman of Mary Greenwater's determined character, these things wereobstacles only for the time being. Her heart was bad and her love ofrevenge strong.
Where Strongest Tide Winds Blew Page 20
