Seven and nine years among the Camanches and Apaches: An Autobiography

About this book

This work presents itself as an autobiographical sketch by Edwin Eastman, a self‑described “tyro” author, recounting nine years spent among the Comanche and Apache peoples. The opening pages frame the narrative as a response to the sensationalized reports of Indian raids that have inflamed public opinion, promising a personal account of captivity that will serve as a “prototype” of similar experiences. Eastman begins by explaining his family’s westward migration from a Puritan‑rooted farm in Massachusetts, detailing the impulsive decision to follow a charismatic stranger to California, the arduous overland trek, and the early signs of misfortune that foreshadow the tragedy to come. The prose is grounded in the period’s concerns with frontier violence and the moral imperative to bear witness, setting the stage for a tale of hardship, loss, and endurance.

The voice is earnest and reflective, marked by the formal diction of late‑19th‑century memoirs and a penchant for moralizing commentary. Eastman’s style mixes vivid travel description with a didactic tone, offering both the adventurous spirit of a pioneer narrative and the intimate anguish of a captive’s testimony. Readers who appreciate historical accounts of the American West, especially those interested in the human dimensions of frontier conflict and the personal perspective of a settler family, will find this book compelling. It also appeals to scholars of early American literature who enjoy exploring how personal experience was fashioned into public moral discourse during a time when the nation grappled with its expansionist identity.

Opening lines

In making my bow to the public as an author, I feel it incumbent upon me to make a brief explanation of the motives that induced me to attempt this autobiographical sketch of nine years of my life. At intervals during the past decade, the country has been electrified by the recital of some horror perpetrated by Indians on white travelers, and those, who, having journeyed to the Far West, had settled, intending to make the wilderness blossom like the rose. Through the medium of the press, the details of these heart-rending cruelties were widely disseminated, and aroused the just indignation of all peaceful and order-loving citizens. …

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