Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4288, 17 December 1874, Page 2

The United States Government has its "native difficulty" to contend with. The Red Man is not, however, by any means so easily managed as the Maori. The Indians draw their annual supplies on their reservations from the Indian agents, and forthwith proceed to the Texan frontier "in quest of herds and scalps." In the prosecution of this national pastime they have occasionally come into collision with the Federal troops ; and since General Sheridan assumed the Southern command, the Indians have had lively times of it. The miserable handful of Modocs, however, who were surrounded in tho lava beds -in Oregon lately, and deservedly exterminated, cannot be compared with the Kiowas and Comanches, whose hunting ground is in the difficult country between Red River and the Texan boundary. They are numerous and well-armed, and possess an intimate knowledge of the country. It is, therefore, a matter of very considerable difficulty to bring regular troops to operate against them successfully. This has been accomplished, however, by a veteran Border leader, General MacKenzie, of the United States army. He has done his work thoroughly and well, but as the New York Herald remarks on the result of Mackenzie's • operations, "the " only thing to regret is that next year the " Native policy will have all to be done "over again." It is a " nevor-ending '' still-beginning" kind of policy, of which we can form a tolerably fair idea from our experience in New Zealand. Our American exchanges contain a detailed report of General Mackenzie's latest expedition against the Comanches, for he has been on the war-path every year since 1871. But the first conflict in this remote region took place in 1869, when two separate commands of Federal troops were attacked by t}ie Indians in open day. The repoiter states that these events were rather surprising, inasmuch as until then, it " was fondly believed " that twenty-five or thirty cavalry could " ride over the country at pleasure, and " whip all the hostile tribes, one after the " other." In 1871, General MacKenzie made a reconnaissance in force, and was wounded in a skirmish with the Comanches. The following year he took the field with a Brigadier and a much larger force, determined to drive out the hostile tribes, who were committing groat atrocities on tho Texan frontier. On that occasion he carried a Comanche village by assault, killed about fifty men, and captured 200 women and 1200 horses. During 1873, little was done, but " as the " Indians seem to have had a general dig- " ging up of little hatchets " in 1874, another expedition was necessary, and it is this one, the details of which occupy a prominent place in American newspapers. Several Indians were killed, and their villages destroyed; 3046 horses were shot to prevent them falling into their hands again, and 300 of the best were retained. The loot of the village was considerable, tho reporter remarking that the Indians "seemed to be richer in " everything than white men who behave " themselves." There was abundance of " flour and sugar and blankets" from the reservations, kindly furnished by tho Washington Government. Stone china, kettles, tools, and implements of every description, together with curiously worked robes, were found in tho village, which was charmingly situated along tho margin of the Rod River, near its head waters. Tho best breech-loading arms, with plenty of metallic cartridges, were also taken by the troops, one mule being loaded with 500 rounds, and another with lead and powder. Two documents wore also found from the United States Indian Agent, recognising the chiefs named therein as friendly to the Government, and accepting their guarantee for the good conduct of their people. The following description of the country which is the haunt of the Comanches and Kiowas will be interesting to our readers:—

The Llano Estacado, or Staked (Plain, is an elevated plateau or table land lying partly in Texas, New Jttexico and tho Indian Territory. Not many years ago it was designated as tho Great American desert upon the maps, and supposed to be a vast sandy waste like the Sahara of Africa. Now, the geographers inform us it is "an elevated tableland without wood or water, across which a waggon route was formerly marked by stakes." The plain rises abruptly four or five hundred feet above the surrounding country, and stretches for hundreds of miles an almost level prairie, covered with a heavy growth of buffalo grass, which remains green during the entiro year, and which, as may well be imagined, is the winter homo of countless herds of bison, who come down from above tho Canadian, and of well mounted bands of Comanclieg and Kiowas, who, after drawing their annuities and supplies upon their reservations, make this a baso from which to go on their raids after Texan herds and scalps. The eastern and southern sides of this groat tablo land is gashed and seamed with a succession of canyons and arrogors, the ruggodness and grandeur of which is beyond description. The edge of the Staked Plain is chaos itself. In these canyons rise all the important rivers of Texas—tho lied, Washita, Pcaso, Brazos, Colorado, and Concho are fed by tho drainage of tho plateau, while their

valleys furnish wood, water, grass and shelter from wind—the only contributions that a red man asks from nature; with their help he can feed, clothe, house, and mount himself, and have at all times plenty of Texan horses, women, and children to barter with friendly tribes and traders for red flannel and whisky.