CHAPTER VII.

Only two days were left in which to reach our destination. The remainder of the road was level, and no further danger from Indians need be apprehended. Our next encampment was at Willow Grove, a lovely wooded spot where some of our own troops were stationed, and but a short distance from what we supposed was to be our home, at least for a time.

At last Prescott, then a mining-town, was gained. Everything seemed delightful. Situated among the hills, surrounded by trees, and with a most enjoyable climate, never very hot or very cold, but bracing at all seasons, it would indeed prove a desirable home to wanderers like ourselves, and I fondly hoped we might remain there.

We were warmly welcomed at the garrison, which was situated half a mile from town. There were but three houses in the post, and all occupied. The houses contained only three rooms each, and one of the officers kindly relinquished his room in my favor. The ladies were very hospitable in providing me with nourishing food, of which I was in great need.

Our dismay on learning that Mr. Boyd must leave the next day to join his company, which had been sent eighty miles distant to a post called Camp Date Creek, may be imagined. The movement was considered only temporary, as the troop was permanently stationed at Prescott; so, supposing that my husband might return almost immediately, it was decided that I should remain there.

All would have gone well had there been suitable accommodations; but no sooner had Mr. Boyd left than the inspector-general, accompanied by several other officers, arrived, and their baggage was placed in the room I was occupying. There was no alternative but for me to move into the adjoining room, an old, deserted kitchen, which had for years past been the receptacle of miscellaneous _débris_.

My bed had to be made on the floor between two windows, whose panes of glass were either cracked or broken. An old stove, utterly useless, occupied the hearth. As the nights and mornings were very cold I tried to build a fire; but the smoke, instead of ascending, poured into the room in volumes, and compelled me to abandon the task as hopeless. I suffered far more from the cold there than I had while on the march, and longed for a camp-fire.

The kitchen was a perfect curiosity shop. Garments of every imaginable kind, when no longer of use to their owners, had evidently been left there. An “old clothes man” would have rejoiced at the wealth of rubbish. I counted twenty pairs of boots and shoes, and there were quite as many hats, coats, and nether garments. The corners of that room were to be avoided as one would avoid the plague. My chair, which had been brought from California, was planted in the only clean spot—the floor’s immediate center.

I tried to imagine myself camping out, but my surroundings were far less agreeable than they would have been in that case, and whichever way my eyes turned, they met unsightly objects. No one seemed to consider the situation unpleasant, so I simply resigned myself to the inevitable.

After I had been living in that way for ten days, the post surgeon came in and said:

“Mrs. Boyd, I have observed your disagreeable plight if no one else has, and am exceedingly sorry. I am ordered to Camp Date Creek, and if you would like will escort you.”

No farther words were needed. I was ready to leave immediately; and when told of the disagreeables that would be encountered simply laughed, I was so tired of homelessness.

Prescott was in such a healthy location as to be a very desirable station, while Camp Date Creek was low and malarious. The post statistics showed that eighty per cent of the men were then suffering from fever. The extreme heat and numerous supply of vermin were also enlarged upon; but nothing daunted me, and I went on my way rejoicing.

The journey was indeed very trying. The road was principally a lava bed, and we were fearfully jolted. I disliked making trouble, and remember riding for miles, holding on to the basket in which baby was lying, which had been placed on the bottom of the vehicle at my feet. To prevent the basket—precious contents and all—from slipping out under the front seat, I was obliged to cling tightly to it, and at the same time firmly brace myself in order to keep from being tossed about.

However, everything must have an end—even such a journey. I was inexpressibly glad to find a house once more over my head, and to receive my husband’s hearty welcome.

Army life is uncertain in the extreme, and our detail proved no exception to the rule. The troop was sent to Camp Date Creek for a month, but it remained a year, until the regiment left Arizona. The consolidation of regiments was at that time being effected. The infantry had been reduced from forty to twenty-five regiments, which necessitated many moves, and was the occasion for the detention there of some troops until more infantry arrived.

It was indeed a desolate and undesirable locality. The country was ugly, flat, and inexpressibly dreary. The section stretching in front of our camp was called “bad lands” (_mala pice_). The only pretty spot at all near was a slow, sluggish stream some miles away, where no one dared remain long for fear of malaria.

Our only associate was the doctor, and subsequently, when a company of infantry arrived, two officers; but for at least six months of that year I was the only woman within at least fifty miles. I found, too, that housekeeping was a burden; for in all the travel from north to south, and the reverse, through Arizona, every one stopped _en route_. Before we left I felt competent to keep a hotel if experience was any education in the art. Even stage passengers had frequently to be cared for, as in that region it would have been cruel, when delays occurred, to have permitted them to have gone farther without food.

As usual, I had the help of a soldier; but unfortunately one who, when he found that too much was likely to be required of him, took refuge in intoxication; then the entire burden fell upon me. Our little Chinese boy proved a treasure. He could wash and iron capitally, excepting my husband’s shirts and the baby’s clothes, the ironing of both of which came upon me.

That year of my life was, in spite of many hardships, a very happy one. I have often since wondered how it could have been so, for surely no one ever lived more queerly. The houses were built of mud-brick (adobe), which was not, as is usual, plastered either inside or out. Being left unfinished they soon began to crumble in the dry atmosphere, and large holes or openings formed, in which vermin, especially centipeds, found hiding-places. The latter were so plentiful that I have frequently counted a dozen or more crawling in and out of the interstices. Scorpions and rattlesnakes also took up their abode with us, and one snake of a more harmless nature used almost daily to thrust his head through a hole in the floor. Altogether we had plenty of such visitors.

In faithfully recording my experiences, honesty compels me to state that although I have encountered almost every species of noxious and deadly vermin, from the ubiquitous rattlesnake to the deadly vinageroon, my real trials have arisen from the simpler sorts, such as wasps, gnats, fleas, flies, and mosquitoes, which, everywhere prolific, are doubly so on the frontier. I think a kind Providence must have watched over our encounters with deadly reptiles, though nothing could save us from ordinary pests.

Perhaps the most trying of all my experiences was when we made our camp after dark. On those occasions we would be almost certain either to find that our tents had been erected close beside a bed of cacti, to fall into whenever we moved, or over an ant-heap of such dimensions that cannot be conceived of by any one in the East. The busy population of one of those ant-hills was among the millions; and evidently each inhabitant felt called upon to resent our intrusion, for soon we would be literally covered with the stinging pests. When our little ones were the victims, as often happened, we longed to live in a land where such creatures were unknown.

But to return to a description of our home. The house consisted of one long room, with a door at either end, and two windows on each side. The room was sufficiently large to enable us to divide it by a canvas curtain, and thus have a sitting-room and bedroom. We felt very happy on account of having a floor other than the ground, though it consisted only of broad, rough, unplaned planks, which had shrunk so that the spaces between them were at least two inches in width, and proved a trap for every little article that fell upon the floor.

The brown, rough adobe walls were very uninviting, and centipeds were so numerous I never dared place our bed within at least two feet of them. The adjoining house, which was vacant, I used for a dining-room. Our kitchen stood as far away in another direction, so I seemed to daily walk miles in the simple routine of housekeeping duties.

The country was very desolate, and the dismal cry of the coyotes at night anything but enlivening. Those animals became so bold as actually to approach our door, and one night carried off a box of shoe-blacking. They evidently did not care for that kind of relish, as it was discovered next day a short distance from the house.

We killed so many snakes that I made a collection of rattles. One of the tales told about me was that a box of them sent to New York was labelled “Rattlesnakes’ Rattles! Poison!” Of course that was not true; but our lives were so monotonous we enjoyed any joke on each other.

I thought the last would never have been heard of my early pronunciation of “Fort Mojave,” which it is probably needless to state was exactly in English accord with its spelling. Probably had I known the word was Spanish, not understanding the language, my pronunciation would have been the same.

I was always delighted when ladies passed through the post, and invariably begged them to remain as long as possible. One lovely woman, whose husband had been ordered from Southern to Northern Arizona, only to find on reaching there that his station was to be but twenty miles from the place he had just left, gladdened me twice by her presence. When I expressed regret because she was obliged to traverse the same road again during such extremely warm weather, her assurance that she did not in the least mind it, surprised and relieved me.

I found Arizona even worse than Nevada, so far as supplies were concerned. We could seldom obtain luxuries of any kind, and when procurable they were exorbitant in price. Eggs cost two dollars and fifty cents a dozen; butter the same per pound; chickens two dollars and fifty cents apiece; potatoes, twenty cents per pound; kerosene oil, five dollars a gallon, and I was told it had been as high as fourteen dollars. Fortunately we could buy candles at government rates.

We were often at our wit’s ends to supply food for guests. I had five bantam chickens, that each laid an egg daily for some time, which we considered great cause for thankfulness. I actually learned to concoct dainties without many of the ingredients usually supposed necessary, and they were declared very good.

Finally, after having been at Camp Date Creek some months, another lady joined us, at which I rejoiced exceedingly. She proved a very great acquisition to our army circle.

Our mail was due once a week, but became very uncertain on account of the Indians. Mr. Boyd was twice awakened late at night by sentries, who reported the return of one man very badly wounded, and that the other had been left dead, and the mail scattered all over the country. Whenever the drums beat over the remains of any young man, thoughts of his absent friends always came to me. Our miserable little cemetery, out on that lonely plain, had not one grave whose quiet occupant was more than twenty-three years of age, and none had died a natural death.

My husband was the busiest man imaginable. He had not only to command his company, but was also in charge of all stores and buildings. The quartermaster’s storehouse was a long distance off, and Mr. Boyd was there all day long. I used to be in continual fear lest Indians should attack him. No greater diligence could have been displayed by any one, and no one could have worked more conscientiously or faithfully than he did all through life.

We feared to ride over the country on account of the Indians, and therefore had less amusement and recreation than while in Nevada, yet contentment shed its blessed rays about us. I was always joyful, and ceased to wish that the hardships we were enduring might be exchanged for even attic life if in New York. My regret on learning that we were to leave for New Mexico was keen, although aware better quarters were awaiting us. But I had grown to love my Arizona home, if the walls were only rough adobe ones. In just nine months from the time of my arrival at Date Creek, and in mid-winter, we left for our new destination. It was with vexation of spirit that I again took up the march.