I said to General Miles: "All the officers that have been in charge of the Indians have talked that way, and it sounds like a story to me; I hardly believe you."
I said: "General Miles, I do not know the laws of the white man, nor of this new country where you are to send me, and I might break their laws."
He said: "While I live you will not be arrested."
Then I agreed to make the treaty. (Since I have been a prisoner of war I have been arrested and placed in the guardhouse twice for drinking whisky.)
We stood between his troopers and my warriors. We placed a large stone on the blanket before us. Our treaty was made by this stone, and it was to last until the stone should crumble to dust; so we made the treaty, and bound each other with an oath.
I do not believe that I have ever violated that treaty; but General Miles[41] never fulfilled his promises.
When we had made the treaty General Miles said to me: "My brother, you have in your mind how you are going to kill men, and other thoughts of war; I want you to put that out of your mind, and change your thoughts to peace."
Then I agreed and gave up my arms. I said: "I will quit the warpath and live at peace hereafter."
Then General Miles swept a spot of ground clear with his hand, and said: "Your past deeds shall be wiped out like this and you will start a new life."
[35] These are the exact words of Geronimo. The Editor is not responsible for this criticism of General Crook.
[36] Governor Torres of Sonora had agreed to coöperate with our troops in exterminating or capturing this tribe.
[37] Captain Lawton reports officially the same engagement, but makes no mention of the recapture (by the Apaches) of the horses.
[41] The criticisms of General Miles in the foregoing chapter are from Geronimo, not from the Editor.
On February 11, 1887, the Senate passed the following resolution:
"RESOLVED, That the Secretary of War be directed to communicate to the Senate all dispatches of General Miles referring to the surrender of Geronimo, and all instructions given to and correspondence with General Miles in reference to the same." These papers are published in the Senate Executive Documents, Second Session, 49th Congress, 1886-7, Volume II, Nos. 111 to 125. For an exhaustive account of the conditions of Geronimo's surrender the reader is referred to that document, but this chapter is given to show briefly the terms of surrender, and corroborate, at least in part, the statements made by Geronimo.