The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 26, July 1922 - April, 1923 Page: 247
324 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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New Light on Pattie and Southwestern Fur Trade 247
Young made the journey. Upon his arrival in Santa F6, he says,
he found business at a standstill, having been overdone by enter-
prising Americans. He was at last induced to join a band of
free trappers under license from the governor of New Mexico to
trap the Gila and Colorado rivers for beaver. On his way to the
Gila his party passed the copper mines, in the vicinity of which
they remained some three weeks. At the Boiling Springs three
men abandoned the party which Yount then says had numbered
sixteen. This agrees with our previous calculations. The eleven
in the Young party under the command of Wolfskill and the five
in the Smith group bring the number up to the sixteen referred
to by Young. According to his statement the party proceeded
down the Gila .to the vicinity of the mouth of Salt River, on
their way passing through the Pima villages. When near the
mouth of Salt River they came upon the place where the Robidoux
party had been massacred, as Yount says, "within the last three
weeks."
Here the manuscript statement of Yount, preserved in the Ban-
croft Library, ends abruptly. This statement is apparently a
copy of a fragment of a more complete account which seems to
have been used as the basis of The Sketch of the Life of George C.
Yount, written by his granddaughter, Elizabeth Ann Watson.
This Sketch continues the narrative by saying that "the trappers
now numbered thirty-two and it was not long before they were
surrounded by Indians, painted and with nodding plumes, drawn
bows, clubs, and spears. Smith, one of the trappers, fired his rifle;
an Indian fell, and Smith, regardless of danger, secured his scalp
and holding it at arm's length bade defiance to the Indians. Shot
after shot followed and it was not long before the enemy fled,
leaving their dead. Not a single trapper was hurt." That this
is an account of the activities of the same party about which
Barrows narrates, is evidenced by the fact that both accounts
refer to "Peg-leg" Smith as being in the party. But Yount makes
no reference to the party's being defeated and driven back to
New Mexico and of its being reorganized and enlarged from six-
teen members to thirty-two before reaching the place of the mas-
sacre of the Robidoux party and the battle with the Maricopas.
But, from the fact that he does give the number in the company
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 26, July 1922 - April, 1923, periodical, 1923; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101084/m1/253/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.