rio  defeated  Hatch  and  whip- 
ped the  ninth  cavalry  at  San  Andreas,  it  was 
Roman  Chiquito  who  tenderly  nursed  and  cared 
for  his  friend.  Captain  Henry  Carrol,  of  the 
Ninth  Cavalry,  when  that  gallant  officer  was 
shot  through  the  body,  a victim  of  Hatch’s  “su- 
perior generalship.”

Hatch,  finding  himself  outgeneraled  and 
outfought  at  every  point  by  the  hostile  chief, 
sought  to  regain  his  lost  prestige  by  an  unpro- 
voked attack  upon  the  then  peaceable  Mesca- 
leros. He  invited  them  to  meet  him  in  council 
at  the  Mescalero  agency.  Unsuspicious  of  dan- 
ger they  came ; Hatch  surrounded  them  with 
the  ninth  and  tenth  regiments  of  cavalry,  and 
without  warning  opened  fire  upon  the  mass  of 
men,  women  and  children.  Twenty-two  Mesca- 
leros, mostly  women  and  children,  were  left 
dead ; the  remainder  broke  through  the  lines  of 
soldiery  and  fled  to  the  mountains  threatening

( 25  )

to  take  a bloody  vengeance.  It  was  then  that 
Roman  Chiquito  accompanied  the  writer  to  the 
frenzied  Mescaleros  in  their  White  Mountain 
fastness  where  they  were  preparing  for  a gen- 
eral massacre.  Through  his  earnest  persuasions 
they  were  induced  to  abstain  from  war,  return 
to  the  agency  and  rely  upon  the  good  faith  of 
the  government  to  redress  their  wongs ; a hope, 
it  is  perhaps  needless  to  say,  that  was  never 
realized.