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Show 542 WESTERN WILDS. certain death or a long and terrible struggle, in which nothing saves the man but an iron constitution. In the old days a regular back-woods' science grew up among trappers and voyageurs; they treated gunshot wounds and broken bones, extracted bullets and arrows, or amputated shattered limbs in a way that would have amazed the faculty, but was singularly successful. The camp- saw and a well sharpened Jbowie- knife were their surgical instruments; their cauteries, hot irons; and their tourniquets, a handkerchief twisted upon the limb with a stick run through the knot and turned to press upon the artery. Arrows were often drawn through the limb, the feathers having been cut off; and bullets flirted out of an incision quickly made with a sharp razor. In winter the wounded limb was almost frozen by snow or ice applied before the amputation ; in summer there was nothing for it but to suffer it through. An old voyageur, with but one arm, gave me an account of his losing the other, which made my " each particular hair to stand on end." The arm was completely shattered below , the elbow; it was amputation or death, and the party was a thousand miles from any surgeon. But with knife, saw, and red- hot iron the job Avas skillfully done; he survived such rude surgery without a shock to his fine constitution. After a brief rest Custer was again sent to the Washita, where he alternately negotiated with and threatened the savages until he had recovered some captives they held, and located the Indians near the forts. And here originated the difficulty between him and General W. B. Hazen, then in charge of the southern Indians Custer main-taining that Satanta and Lone Wolfs bauds of Kioways had been in the fight against him, Hazen denying it. It was six years before the matter was settled, Hazen producing unquestionable evidence that he was right. We find evidences, from time to time, that Custer was somewhat hasty in his judgments, and very impulsive in giving ut-terance to them in short, that he had some of the faults as well as all the virtues of a dashing, impetuous man. For two years there was peace on the plains; but in the spring of 1873 the first Yellowstone expedition went out. From Yankton the Seventh Cavalry, with Custer in command, marched all the way to Fort Hice, six hundred miles, Mrs. Custer and other ladies accom-panying the column on horseback. There the ladies halted, but it was not till July that the entire expedition started cavalry, infantry, artillery and scouts, numbering seventeen hundred men all under command of Major- General D. S. Stanley. The main object was to explore the Country, and open a way for the surveyors of the Northern |