into their country, but before he got very
far he found enemies gathering around
him in such numbers, that his small
force of fifty soldiers had to beat a rapid
retreat. The favourite field for plunder
during the last century has been Northern
Sonora. The Apaches seem never to
have lived there, but their custom was
to descend in bands along the whole
length of the Pina-leña and Chiracahui
Mountains, which, so to speak, form a
bridge two hundred miles long across
the Madre Plateau from the mountains
north of the Rio Gila to the Sierra Madre
of Mexico.

The Spaniards protected their outlying
provinces from these hordes, by a complete
system of military posts from San Antonio,
Texas, to the Pacific. Thus the Spanish
miners and Rancheros were protected,
and the country became rich in flocks,
herds, and productive mines, while the
population increased with great rapidity.
But as the power of Spain declined,
and the central government at the city
of Mexico degenerated into a chaos of
contending factions, the troops which
garrisoned these frontier stations were
gradually withdrawn; the grand military
system, which had so effectually
done its work, was allowed to fall into
decay until most of the presidios were
relinquished altogether. The Apaches were
not long in discovering the weakness of
their wealthy neighbours, and year by year
their raids became more numerous, and
their ravages more destructive. At first
the stock of the outlying rancheros fell a
prey to the enemy, and, although probably
but a small proportion of the vast herds
which formerly occupied the rich grazing
regions of North-eastern Sonora and
Northern Chihuahua were really carried off
by the red men, still the rancheros had to
fly for their lives, and leave their cattle to
their fate. This accounts for the herds of
wild cattle and horses which are still to be
found in those districts. Then the miners
began to be molested, their stock, chiefly
mules, driven off, and their peons so terrified
that they could not be induced to
remain.

When the country districts were cleared,
the little towns were next attacked. The
Apaches would lie concealed for days, until
an opportune moment had arrived for
capturing the cattle, and plundering the place.
The people at last became so terrified, that if
they heard of a band of Apaches fifty miles
off, they very frequently left everything and
fled. Against such an enemy they were
almost powerless, for the mountain
fastnesses from which he came lay far away
to the north, and anything approaching
an open fight was always avoided by
him.

This state of things, in fine, going on
year after year, has entirely depopulated
that country. Its ruin was almost
complete before the Treaty of 1854 had finally
settled the question of boundary line
between Mexico and the United States; but
one of the chief stipulations of the treaty
was that the latter government should keep
the Apaches in their own country, and
prevent them from making any more raids
into Mexican territory. Although this
was promised, it could not be
accomplished; for the United States military
have, up to the present time, been almost
powerless in their attempts either to
"wipe out" or to restrain these marauding
hordes. They have neither protected
their own subjects on their own
soil, or sheltered the helpless Mexicans
across the border. But the Apaches
do not lay waste northern Sonora as
they formerly did, chiefly because there
is now no one to plunder; all is
desolation. Destiny, however, seems to be
doing what the government has failed
to do; it is destroying the Apache nation.
Although very few are yearly killed in
fight, and the white man has not as
yet penetrated into the heart of their
country, still they are dying out fast;
already the total population, as far as it
can be estimated, is so small as to appear
at first to be beneath our notice; but the
scalp of many a brave settler will yet be
taken before these bloodthirsty savages are
crushed.

In the region lying between the Rio
Verde, which is about the limit of the
Apache country and the Rio Colorado, two
tribes, few in number, and of the lowest
type of humanity, are met with. These are
the Walapais (Hualpais) and the Yampas.
The latter chiefly inhabit little strips of
marshy land at the bottom of the deep
canons, which debouch upon the Rio
Colorado. The valleys of the Colorado
from the end of the Black Canon almost
to the head of the Gulf of California, are
inhabited by Indian tribes, who occupy
an intermediate position between the
semi-civilised Pueblo Indians and the wild
Apache races.

They have for some time kept peace with
the whites, but contact with them appears