Jeffords can be forgiven for having somewhat embellished the account of his first meeting with the great chief, if in fact he did.  Descrepencies in his stories over time might just as well have been the result of a poor memory in his advanced years, though that seems doubtful.  It's more logical to assume that he, like so many other colorful characters of that era, knew how to tell a wonderful tale and felt justified in perhaps salting the stew a bit -- though I hasten to add that this is pure conjecture.

      No matter how much Jeffords' telling may have strayed from hard fact, the friendship that grew between he and Cochise was nothing less than a marvel, fully worthy of the legend that has grown up around it.  In a few short years these two men formed a bond of trust and kinship that has few parallels in history.  Jeffords failed to leave us a written record of this part of his life (a fact that I personally feel is a tragedy, for the few writings we have of his reveal a true gift for expression and a no nonsense style), but we know from comments to his friends and to his assistant Fred Hughes that he became perfectly comfortable in the company of Cochise and in Cochise's camp, and that the friendship between the two men never soured, right to the day of Cochise's death roughly 4 years after their initial meething (if we are to assume that event actually took place around 1870).  This astonishingly in spite of the fact that Jeffords lent himself out to the military on occasion to scout against some of Cochise's men.

     Jeffords told Thomas Farish that he and Cochise became as close as brothers.  In fact, Cochise's name for him was Chickasaw ("brother" in Apache), and he was known to Cochise's people affectionately as Tyazaliton, meaning Sandy Whiskers.  It was not the custom of the Apaches to address someone using their actual name.  This was considered very rude except in times of emergency, or in war.  So it goes without saying that Jeffords rarely, if ever, addressed his new firend as Cochise.  He often referred to the chief as "the old man" when speaking of him to others -- undoubtedly a good-natured and affectionate nickname, though it's equally unlikely he ever called Cochise such to his face (it should be remembered that there was a fairly sizeable age difference between the two -- a fact overlooked in the casting of the famous movie "Broken Arrow" and the ensuing TV series of the same name). 

      The swiftness of this relationship's solidity becomes apparent when it is considered that Cochise sent for Jeffords in 1871 (very possibly within a year of their first meeting) when the chief was about to visit the newly formed reservation at Cañada Alamosa for the first time.  He would consider making the trip only in the company of the one white man he had come to trust -- Thomas Jeffords.