Apache The Long Ride Home

''An Apache warrior bent down from his horse, its glossy black flanks still heaving from exertion, to pick me up. As his hand grabbed my arm I bit hard into the flesh of his forearm. It was a deep bite and he shouted with pain. The other Apaches laughed loudly at his discomfort. He reached down again. I tried the same tactic but this time he was too quick. He jerked me upwards onto his horse and sat me in front of him. I fought like a cornered bobcat, spitting, biting and clawing. He struck me on the back of the neck. A vivid flash, then darkness.'' Thus begins the saga of Pedro Bautista captured by the Apache Indians when he was nine years old after a raid on his Mexican village. Adopted into the tribe, he absorbed their culture and survived their eventual confrontation and defeat by American troops.

Grant Gall, a former news reporter and news editor, is one of England's foremost authorities on Western American history. He has appeared on B.B.C. television and radio programs dealing with the Apache Indian Wars.