Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/529

Charles Dickens] before they gave in, the advantage has been on the side of the settlers against the Navajos, he assures me that there are at the present time not less than two thousand captives in the hands of the Mexicans, who, of course, profess to bring them up, and to take care of them as members of their families and households. As regards the present condition of the Indians on the Bosque reservation, I cannot do better than give a quotation from the report of Colonel A. B. Norton (superintendent of Indian affairs in New Mexico), for the year 1866:

"At Fort Sumner they have about two thousand five hundred acres of land under cultivation, mostly in Indian corn, with an admirable system of irrigation. The water, however, is very poor in quality, and wood so scarce, that it has to be hauled from twenty-five to thirty miles to the post, while the mezquite root, the only wood used by them for fuel, must soon give out. Add to this that the Comanches make constant raids upon them, to within a few miles of the fort, and as they are very little able to protect themselves, this adds still more to their discontent. Of the state of health and morals of these Navajos, the hospital reports give a woful account. The tale is not half told, because they have such an aversion to the hospital that but few of those taken sick will ever go there, and so they are fast diminishing in numbers; while the births are many, the deaths are more. Discontent fills every breast of this brave and light-hearted tribe, and a piteous cry comes from all as they think of their own far-off lands, 'Carry me back, carry me back!'"

While the Navajos spread terror and desolation through the north and east of New Mexico, the Apaches followed the same system of plunder in the southern part of the state, and throughout the greater part of Arizona and northern Sonora; with this great difference, that among the former booty was the only object, and they spared life unless resistance were offered; but with the latter, war to the death was, and still is, the undeviating practice. In battle the Navajo never stoops to scalp his fallen enemy, and many acts of true generosity are related of him; but the cowardly Apache creeps upon his victim like a snake in the grass; if he can capture him he invariably tortures him to death, but otherwise he scalps and mutilates him in the most horrible manner, and has never been known to show one trace of humanity or good faith.

Several independent though kindred tribes are rightly classed under the term Apaches; the following table gives their names, the localities in which they are usually encountered, and the probable population of each.

The first of these tribes is now quite harmless, and as they are too few and cowardly to hold their own against the other tribes, they willingly submit to being fed and taken care of at the expense of the government. The second tribe was formerly a very warlike one, and it is chiefly owing to their ravages that the fertile valley of the Rio Grande, from San Antonio, north of Fort Craig, to La Messilla, a distance of over one hundred miles, is now an uninhabited waste. War, disease, and scarcity of food have of late years so thinned their ranks, that the government succeeded a short time ago, in collecting them together and placing them on the Bosque reservation with the Navajos. As these tribes were sworn enemies, they did not long live together, for on the night of November 3, 1866, the Apaches deserted, and have since that time been committing depredations on the government stock, and murdering and plundering the settlers so far north as Las Vegas and Galistro.

All the Mogollon bands are still at large. They mostly inhabit the vast region formed of lofty table-lands and mountain ranges in which the head waters of the Rio Gila rise; and from these fastnesses, still unexplored, they have for ages been making raids upon their more civilised neighbours on all sides of them.

It is only necessary here to say a few words about the remaining sub-tribes—the Coyoteros, Pinals, and Tontos. Very little is known about themselves, far too much about their ravages. Their numbers are very variously estimated, but the general belief is that they are not numerous. They occupy the centre of the Apache country, and the few attempts as yet made to "clear them out" have resulted in complete failure. The commander at Camp Grant told me that two years ago he made a raid