Others of the party were killed and wounded, and still others, with the ferocity of tigers, fought their way out through our feeble lines, and made their way to the point of rendezvous at the head of the Santa Maria. Word was at once sent to them by members of their own tribe that they must come in and surrender at once, or else the whole party must expect to be punished for what was originally the crime of a few. No answer was received, and their punishment was arranged for; they were led to suppose that the advance was to be made from Date Creek, but, after letting them alone for several weeks—just long enough to allay to some extent their suspicions—Crook pushed out a column of the Fifth Cavalry under command of Colonel Julius W. Mason, and by forced marches under the guidance of a strong detachment of Hualpai scouts, the encampment of the hostiles was located just where the Hualpais said it would be, at the “Muchos Cañones,” a point where five cañons united to form the Santa Maria; and there the troops and the scouts attacked suddenly and with spirit, and in less than no time everything was in our hands, and the enemy had to record a loss of more than forty. It was a terrible blow, struck at the beginning of winter and upon a band which had causelessly slaughtered a stageful of our best people, not as an act of war, which would have been excusable, but as an act of highway robbery, by sneaking off the reservation where the Government was allowing them rations and clothing in quantity sufficient to eke out their own supplies of wild food. This action of the “Muchos Cañones” had a very beneficial effect upon the campaign which began against the Apaches in the Tonto Basin a few weeks later. It humbled the pride of those of the Apache-Yumas who had never been in earnest in their professions of peace, and strengthened the hands of the chiefs like “Jam-aspi,” “Ochacama,” “Hoch-a-chi-waca,” “Quaca-thew-ya,” and “Tom,” who were sincerely anxious to accept the new condition of things. There was a third element in this tribe, led by a chief of ability, “Chimahuevi-Sal,” which did not want to fight, if fighting could be avoided, but did not care much for the new white neighbors whom they saw crowding in upon them. “Chimahuevi-Sal” made his escape from the reservation with about one hundred and fifty of his followers, intending to go down on the south side of the Mexican line and find an asylum among the Cocopahs. They were pursued and brought back without bloodshed by Captain James Burns, a brave and humane officer of the Fifth Cavalry, who died sixteen years ago worn out by the hard work demanded in Arizona.