The Collector Series: Cowboy Kingdom ~ Shaman

The General shouted, "ATTENTION," and all the troopers in the area came to attention and there was absolute silence. He said, "Cadet Second Lieutenant Claw Bennett, attention to orders. 1. You are hereby promoted to Captain, Regular Arizona Army. 2. You are ordered to the University of Arizona in Tucson for classes. 3. Upon graduation, you are hereby appointed Military Governor of West Baja Arizona."

Classes had gone well for Claw, he graduated at the top of his class and he been selected as class Valedictorian.

He was now gathering his staff for his appointment as Military Governor of West Baja Arizona, that part of the former Baja California that remained inhabitable. Five years earlier, Claw, as a Cadet Second Lieutenant, had toured the area and brought it into the State of Arizona and made it part of the United States.

Commerce had begun with his loads of grain he had purchased as they were returning home so long ago and the people of Guerrero Negro traded preserved fish and bagged salt in return for manufactured goods, meats and dairy products.

A stream of agricultural goods flowed from San Quentin and Governor Tonho Bennett of Arizona had personally funded the building of a cannery at San Quintin to process the excess fruits and vegetables for shipment to Tucson and beyond.

Annually, Rancher Sabino drove a huge herd of cattle from El Arco north for delivery to the capital and also so that he could visit with his son, First Sergeant Pablo Sabino. Now that Pablo was moving with Governor Capitan Claw Bennett to his new location, the temporary Capital of West Baja Arizona in San Quentin, he would have to find a way to pass through that town also.

His esposa, Maria, was nagging him to take her to see their oldest son, the poor man was torn. He just knew Maria was going to want to stay in San Quentin for a while.

Claw had snatched Sergeant Ferguson and promoted him to Master Sergeant and appointed him head of the State Militia of West Baja Arizona and transferred all of the Baja Cadets to him. In the five years since he had last been there, the cadets had grown to number over two hundred boys and were well respected by the people.

In many villages, the Cadets were the only organized force available and they were greatly feared by the bandits. Those boys did not know when to quit. The bandits had learned that, if the Cadet Soldiers were chasing them, they might just as well sit in the dirt and wait for them to arrive.

Escape was not possible.

The few remaining bandits had retreated to the La Sandia wilderness, high in the desert mountains north of El Arco. By the time West Baja State Capitan Claw Bennett arrived in San Quentin, they had not been seen in eighteen months. Rancher Sabino told Claw that he thought they had perished in the awful desert of those mountains, where, according to the Rancher, not even lizards and snakes could survive.

The first office that Claw set up was that of Public Safety and he had the ideal candidate for the job, First Sergeant Pablo Sabino. When he approached Sergeant Sabino, the young man stammered, "me mmm m ME?"

Claw replied, "YES, You, Pablo, you know the people and you know the country, who better is there to protect both?"

A dubious young horse sergeant asked, "What about men, sir?"

Claw smiled at his friend and replied, "You can have three companies of regulars and three companies of Cadets. Your choice, but you must be ready to ride in two weeks!"

The army grapevine is as good or better than any other, when Pablo had returned from the Governor's tent, there was already a line of soldiers and cadets in front of his own tent!

By sundown, Pablo had six companies of warriors ready to slash heads and take names! He kept one company of each at his headquarters as a rapid response team and the others were stationed in country.

Rancho El Arco was his southernmost point and he stationed men and cadets at Guerrero Negro under the command of Cadet Sergeant Roberto Tonho Bennett, thinking that would be a safe place for Roberto. There was no way in hell Pablo was going to tell Claw that his beloved son Roberto had been hurt, or, Lord God forbid, killed!

Roberto didn't see it that way, he got his command settled and the next day he was raiding suspected bandit hideouts in the nearby mountains! As the reports from Guerrero Negro began to come in, Pablo cringed in horror.

He didn't have time to dwell on it however, the radio never stopped clacking as reports began arriving from Bahia de Los Angeles, El Arco, Guerrero Negro, and as far east as Durango. He appointed Cadet Second Lieutenant Panther Claw Bennett as his Adjutant and Panther terrorized the civilian staff until they shaped up.

A few shipped out.

By the end of the month, Pablo had his command pretty well in order, the radio officers at each station were developing a callus on their key finger and several stations had requisitioned additional batteries to power their radios.

Every morning, Teniente Panther brought the Governor up to date on all that had taken place in the night. He laid out maps, with colored pins that indicated the severity of the problem.

Roberto chaffed under his orders to Guerrero Negro, he knew exactly why he had been sent there. He gathered a group of the younger soldiers, along with a bunch of the cadets and they started searching the nearby mountains. But it was not in the mountains where his fame was going to be made.

It was against the pirates!

He had stationed a squad at the inlet to the bay that fed the salt ponds and, early one morning, a runner came panting to the command headquarters, there was a strange ship entering the bay and they could see armed men on the main deck.

Roberto called for the bugler and the camp was roused.

All his training paid off, seventy-five armed soldiers and cadets mustered in less than five minutes! Their brand-new cannons were hitched to the mules and they were on their way to the inlet.

Before the pirates could lower their sails, the cannons let go of their first barrage. Masts came tumbling down and two of the ships caught fire! By the time the pirates were able to turn around, five of their six ships had been so damaged, they had to be abandoned!

When Claw heard about the event, twenty surviving pirates had been hanged and their bodies were left swinging from the broken masts of their wrecked ships as a warning to anyone else who thought piracy was an easy way to steal riches.

Claw made an official visit to Guerrero Negro and he was impressed, there was a regular police force on duty in the small fishing town, a jail had been built and a mounted patrol had been organized to protect the road from El Arco and also the other direction north to as far as Punta Prieta.

He was particularly impressed at the leadership shown by his adopted son, Panther, and he decided he needed to make a change. At Morning Formation the next day, Claw addressed the soldiers and a few town folk who were nearby, "Sergeant Panther Claw Bennett, attention to orders; 1. You are hereby promoted to Cadet First Lieutenant, effective this day. 2. You are to take charge of the Military District of Guerrero Negro as El Comandante de Distrito 3. You are to establish a Military Government for this district and govern it accordingly. You shall be assigned an additional two companies of Regular Army and you are to establish two additional companies of Cadets to be recruited locally. Funds for this purpose will be supplied by my government and you are directed to establish the office of Paymaster to handle your district financial affairs."

The Cadets in formation were the first to start cheering and the regulars took up the chant, "Bravo Teniente Panther, BRAVO!" Claw also promoted Pablo Sabino to Cadet Second Lieutenant and appointed him Panther's Adjutant.

The first attack by the pirates was not their last, a few months after Claw had returned to San Quintin, the radio operator rushed into his office waving a radio message that had just come in. Claw looked at the message and had to sit down. He was asking himself, "Just when did my son become so efficient?"

Claw had the message posted and, before noon, there were two dozen requests for transfer to the Guerrero Negro District! Claw had the message forwarded to his own father and it was only minutes before he received a reply congratulating both himself and Panther.

Commerce was growing and Claw commissioned the construction of several additional thumpers and sent them around the Territory rebuilding or replacing the water wells. He intended that his people were going to have safe, clean water in every village, every ranch and every farm!

It was becoming commonplace to see heavily laden wagons hauling produce into the larger towns and returning equally laden with trade goods. The people were using whatever coin they could find, old American dollars, a few pesos issued by the former Mexican government and, even a few old Canadian dollars.

Claw wanted to standardize commerce and, to do that, he had to have a standard monetary system. After much discussion back and forth with Tucson, it was decided that silver coins would be the best.

Claw recommended that the coins be issued in half dollar, dollar, five-dollar and ten-dollar denominations. A month later, a heavily guarded wagon showed up under the command of Cadet Captain Joseph Turner and a company of mixed troopers, Cadets and Regulars.

Joseph reported to Governor Bennett that he was carrying 100,000 New Dollars in silver coins, a set of dies and orders that he was to become the Treasurer of the West Baja Arizona Military District.

Claw welcomed Joseph warmly, he was becoming weary of mediating disagreements about the values of the various currencies. They posted notices in all the villages and towns that the old currencies were to be turned in and new, silver dollars would be given to each person turning in the old currency.

After a few problems with young girls turning the shiny, bright silver coins into jewelry, the coins became the standard of the district. An enterprising group of young men asked permission to open a bank and Banco de Baja came into being. Soon, there were branches in every town and even some of the larger villages.

Claw made sure the Army was paid in the new coinage and that spread the New Dollars throughout the District quickly.

They were fast becoming a nation again, with commerce and trade expanding. With the new coins, traders did not have to trade goods that had to be carried to the next town.

Unfortunately, the new dollars also encouraged the bandits.

Panther was the first to take notice of complaints that a trader had been robbed, he began having the Guerrero Negro District patrolled regularly by mounted troops.

He had recruited a company of local youths as Cadets and a local boy, Pedro Jesus Gato outshone all others, so Panther made him Cadet Teniente Gato.

The young Cadet Officer was tenacious as his namesake, a cat! He had thirty Cadets in his Company and they were soon feared by all the would-be bandits.

The company flag was blood red with a black wild cat on it and, when the bandits heard that EL GATO was on his way, they quickly headed for their hideouts in the dry, rocky mountains in Central Baja.

The traders began caravanning, they would gather and ask Teniente Pedro for a squad of Cats to accompany them, and robberies went down to almost zero. The fame of Los Gatos spread throughout Baja and their success was copied elsewhere.

Because of their seaport, Panther had established an Artillery Company early on and he had ordered additional Howitzer Cannons until he had built up the unit with ten, five-inch cannons, each pulled by four mules. The cannons were modeled after the old Army five-inch Howitzers and they could do terrible damage to their targets.

With plenty of practice, Panther's gunners had become feared throughout Baja.

Pedro asked for the loan of two cannon and their crews, he was going to wipe out the nest of pirates holed up at the old Mission San Borja. He went over his plans with his superior, Teniente Panther and everyone agreed it was a "GO".

Taking two squads of his feared Los Gatos and the two cannons and their crews, along with a wagon loaded with ammunition, the force started out, headed for Arroyo Grande.

They traveled north on old Highway One as far as Rosarito. It was a weeklong ride as the mules did not make as much distance each day as the horses.

At Rosarito, they were joined by Cadet Corporal Alonzo Cardenas and two troopers, they had been watching the Arroyo Grande and no bandits had ventured out of their hideout.

The arroyo was broad and sandy, the sand was hard and crusty, with a hard bottom, making it ideal for the heavy guns and the mules. They worked their way up the arroyo to where it began to narrow. Just around the next bend, lay the Mission San Borja.

They knew they were being watched, they had spotted horsemen on the ridges above them ever since they left the highway.

They made camp in the arroyo and build a large fire and set up their tents. In the middle of the night they left, leaving two troopers to keep the fire burning.

They worked the cannons around the bend in the arroyo and set them up, aimed directly at the old mission.

As it began to get light, the gunners adjusted the cannons. Everything was quiet, there was no movement around the mission. They waited until they saw a few men begin to emerge from the buildings when Panther said, "FIRE"

The gunners and their crews began feeding five-inch shells into the guns and they bombarded the mission. Shell after explosive shell landed on the old adobe buildings and they began crumbling down, bandits were running in every direction to escape the rain of death that had awakened them from a sound sleep.

After thirty minutes of bombardment, no activity was seen in the old mission. Panther had his troops mount up and they charged up the bank of the arroyo and entered the old mission.

As they entered the grounds, a man waving a white rag on a stick came hobbling out of the building, asking to surrender.

They rounded up the gang of bandits, Panther ordered the bandit chieftain to be hanged on the spot and they rounded up the remaining survivors and marched them down to the wagons, where they tied them to the backs of the wagons and they departed back down the arroyo, the way they had come.

By the time the caravan got back to Guerrero Negro, the bandits were gaunt and footsore. It didn't matter to Claw, he had them hanged anyway. It would be years before a pirate or a bandit showed his face anywhere in the Guerrero Negro Military District!

Two years later, when Cadet Capitan Pedro Jesus Gato was transferred to Rancho Santa Yenez to establish a fort to protect the area, bandits went streaming away, they were not going to face El Gato again!

NOT EVER!

Pedro and his "LOS GATOS" became famous throughout the military of both Baja and Arizona and, years later, when a Military Academy was established in Arizona, Regular Army Colonel Pedro Jesus Gato was invited to teach tactics until his retirement.

Commerce and business was thriving under the leadership of Claw Tonho Bennett. He had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and his military government staff in San Quintin was growing.

He had commissioned a fort to be built and he intended that all his staff be moved into Fort Wild Cat. He was especially anxious to get the Treasury into the fort, silver had been discovered in the mountains to the northeast, near Arroyo Padre Kino and there was a small, but steady flow of silver being converted to coinage.

They had investigated paper money, but rejected it in favor of the coins.

He recalled Panther and put him in charge of the Militia and the Army. The Militia was primarily the Cadets and the combined forces now numbered over seven hundred soldiers.

Panther had transferred Cadet Capitan Pedro Jesus Gato to the regular Army and he commanded the Artillery Company and the Military Police Units. "El Gato" was greatly feared by the criminal elements in Baja and just the rumor that he was coming was enough to send them running.

Crime had dropped to almost zero and Pedro was working at weeding out the government officials who required a bribe to get something done. He had gotten wind of the problem when two farmers had come to him, complaining that some official was demanding ten silver ten dollar coins for a permit to have a new well drilled on their property.

That official was the first resident in the new prison that Pedro had constructed near El Arco. A more dismal place in the entire country could not be found.

The name "El Gato" still sent fear among the criminals long after Pedro had retired! The unit he had founded remained "LOS GATOS" and would be a force in West Baja for many years!

Panther's newest project was to build a railroad that would connect San Quintin to Yuma. He had first thought to route it through Ensenada, but there was little remaining and wind storms frequently brought radioactive dust from the north.

The surveyors finally found a route through the mountains to San Felipe on the Gulf of Mexico side of the peninsula and work began immediately from both ends.

The tracks were already nearing San Felipe from the north and the engineers had driven the rails about halfway through the rugged mountains to the coast from the west.

He planned on connecting the tracks just south from San Felipe to at least Bahia de Los Angeles on the Gulf side and on the west side, down as far as El Arco.

The people of Arizona and beyond were demanding fresh fruits and vegetables and the folk of West Baja were looking for markets in which to sell their fresh produce.

The steel foundries in the north were rolling out track as fast as the track layers could prepare the right of way. They had reclaimed a steam locomotive from a museum and were in the process of copying it. They had promised it would be ready by the time the tracks were completed.

A year later, the first train in a hundred years pulled into San Quintin, loaded with manufactured goods that sold out in less than a day. It took the entire output of the ice plant to fill the cooling chambers of the refrigerated cars, but thirty carloads of fresh fruits and vegetables arrived in Tucson three days later!

It settled down to two trains a week, except in harvest season, when it was upped to a daily train.

They finally ended the tracks on the east side at Bahia de San Rafael and on the west side at Guerrero Negro, with a spur to El Arco. In the fall, the spur to El Arco was busy shipping cattle to the new slaughterhouse in Guerrero Negro and refrigerated sides of beef went north to San Quintin and also across the border at Yuma.

West Baja Arizona was accepted for statehood as the State of West Baja Arizona and Panther retired from the Army and was elected the first Governor of the state. An office he held until his death.

The years passed and yesterday's heroes were replaced by new heroes. West Baja, matured, its farms spread out and its mineral wealth fueled industry and commerce.

They fought terrible battles with pirates from Central and South America, but they never forgot the bitter lessons they had learned, beginning with those who came from the Kingdom Ranch and the tales passed down about the first Tonho and later, The Shaman Tonho.

Life never regained the hectic pace of the times before the bombs. The leadership of Patrick O'Brian and those who followed him clearly demonstrated the value of the children, that they were to be cared for, nurtured and encouraged, for as the First Tonho had said, "Our Future is in our Children.