Three years among the Comanches

Three Years Among the Comanches is Nelson Lee's detailed account of his life as a Texas Ranger, his capture by the Comanches, and his grueling escape through the mountains back to a white settlement. Although his perspective is obviously biased by the fact that he was the tribe's prisoner, the book provides an interesting view of the Comanche way of life before it was forever changed by contact with white people. Lee saw his companions and many other white captives tortured and slaughtered by the Comanches, and he himself was punished brutally for straying beyond the limits of the camp while a prisoner.He believed that the only reason he was not killed by his captors was because he possessed a silver watch with an alarm, through which the Indians believed the Great Spirit spoke: "While they were stripping and dressing me...one of them picked up my coat and discovered the watch...While thus regarding it...the alarm went off. The utter astonishment of the Indian was beyond description...the chief wrapped it carefully and tenderly in his deerskin pouch and placed it in his bosom, not, however, until I had comprehended...that they regarded it as something supernatural which connected m