I
told the men we would give him and his comrades a warrior's burial on
the morrow, and returned to camp to make it defensible against a
possible night attack.
The advantage of numbers was decidedly on the side of the Indians, and
I felt if they could show the firmness and dash of white men our
chances of repelling a resolute attack were small. Counting the
Mexicans and the boys, we numbered but forty-eight, to their three
hundred or more.
We were in the centre of a large valley, with no knowledge of our
surroundings nor with any way out except the road by which we had
entered. Should we leave the protection of our ridge and cabins and
take to the open valley we should be at the mercy of our foes.
Even supposing we could pass out of the valley unmolested, there were
the forests and defiles, filled with natural ambuscades. We could not
hope to pass them and reach the Rio Grande alive.
Only a few hours of daylight remained. Whatever was to be done in
preparation for defence must be done at once.
In the wood-yard there were tiers of dry pine-logs, many of them four
feet in diameter, and all about twenty feet long.
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