Page:Memoir of a tour to northern Mexico.djvu/53

Rh that, they are afflicted with two diseases, very common among them, and not apt to promote propagation, syphilis and lepra. In Cosihuiriachi itself they cultivate only a few gardens, but in the neighborhood are some villages and settlements, with cornfields and orchards; and if it were not for the scourge of the country, the hostile Indians, all the plains might be cultivated, and the people might get richer by the raising of stock than by the mines. But the Mexicans are at present so under fear from those savage highway robbers, that they dare not even pursue them. During our stay in Cosihuiriachi, a party of Apaches stole away a drove of mules and killed six persons in a neighboring village, but nobody thought of pursuing them till they saw us determined to do so. A few badly armed Mexicans joined us then, and we followed all day the trail of the Indians, who were ahead of us for six hours, till we convinced ourselves that they had already retreated into the deepest recesses of the mountains, where it would have been more than temerity to have followed them in the night. One company of American rangers, roaming about like the Indians themselves, would soon sweep these enemies of all cultivated life out of the country; but the Mexicans, with the resignation of fatalism, rather suffer than take up arms and fight to the last.

The elevation of Cosihuiriachi above the sea is, according to my own observations, 6,275 feet, and the height of the "Bufa," the highest mountain in the chain, 7,918 feet above the sea, or 1,643 feet above Cosihuiriachi. The climate is, notwithstanding the high elevation, more temperate than cold; during the winter we had sometimes ice, but no snow.

In the beginning of the year 1847 our prospects began to brighten. The battle of Brazito had been fought, and the relief which we had in vain looked for from below seemed to approach now from the north. But, for two long months yet, we were kept in a dreadful state of suspense, the more excruciating the nearer the time came when a decisive battle between the two armies could be expected. Of the American troops we had no reliable information, but on the part of the Mexicans we witnessed all the strenuous exertions which they made for a vigorous resistance. They had procured a goodly number of cannon and small arms, with ammunition; new taxes had been gathered by a forced loan; about 4,000 men were pressed into the service; in the public press and from the pulpit, the people were excited against the "perfidious Yankees;" heroic deeds, and death for the fatherland, became every-day phrases. But to what, alter all, could such theatrical display avail against the cool, determined bravery of the Missouri volunteers, which sought no vent in words, but in actions! Near the time of the expected battle, our suspense was of course on the highest point; but only vague rumors penetrated into our distant, isolated mountains, till, two days after the battle, some fugitives of the Mexican army returned as the first indication of a lost battle; and soon after, an express, sent out by our friends in Chihuahua, informed us positively of the glorious victory at Sacramento. There was no further authority in the place that would have tried to retain us under such circumstances. A part of the Mexican population, whose conscience was not quite clear from self-reproach, fearing revenge, fled even to the mountains, while we in the meanwhile prepared in all haste or baggage and animals, for our return to Chihuahua. Next morning, on

March 3, 1847, we left the place of our exile. Having taken leave of our old prefect and several better minded Mexicans of the town, and embraced,