USA > Arizona > The marvellous country : or, Three years in Arizona and New Mexico, the Apaches' home > Part 3
USA > New Mexico > The marvellous country : or, Three years in Arizona and New Mexico, the Apaches' home > Part 3
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39
WAR WITH THE APACHES.
As often as the missionaries returned, and were attacked, the natives rallied to their defence; but the constant war waged by the Apaches soon destroyed many of their finest cities and towns, completely ravaging their most thriving settlements, massacring the people, and thus, ultimately, compelling the Jesuits to abandon their missions, and seek refuge far in the interior of Mexico, while the remnants of a once happy and prosperous people became victims to a horde of blood-thirsty savages, who thus commenced the extirpation of a civilization, the remains of which are to-day a source of wonder and admiration, the like of which may never again be seen on that portion of our continent. To- day Arizona presents a sad spectacle, one that cannot fail to impress the beholder with wonder and regret; for its mute sentinels silently point to a civilization centuries old, which has not even the poor consolation of a history to record its rise and fall.
CHAPTER II.
ROM the time of the abandon- ment of the Spanish missions in Arizona in 1680, but little attention appears to have been paid to instilling into the minds of the natives any desire to learn more of the mysteries of that religion of which old Father Kino was the true expounder and great
practical teacher.
The Spanish government seems to have devoted itself en- tirely to developing the vast mineral wealth of the country so wonderfully portrayed by Cortez, Diaz, De Cardenas, Niza, Gomara, Juan Matio, and Mangi, who accompanied Father Kino upon his mission in 1670.
However else they may differ, all these writers agree in their statements regarding the almost fabulous mineral
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41
MASSES OF VIRGIN SILVER.
wealth of the country, describing its valleys as rich in pre- cious stones, and its mountains as filled with silver, gold, and copper.
Baron Humboldt, Ward the English ambassador, and Wilson of later years, fully corroborate these statements; and their testimony is confirmed by the records of the Spanish crown, which acknowledge the receipt of dues paid on masses of virgin silver, weighing from twenty to as high as two hundred and eighty-four pounds.
If the reader is sufficiently curious to visit the old Custom House at Guaymas, in Sonora, these statements can be sub- stantiated by reference to the records found there. Among the archives therein contained is rather a remarkable one, establishing the fact that, in 1683, the King's attorney brought suit to recover from the proprietor of the Real del Carmen mine, one Don Roderigo Gandera, a mass of virgin silver, taken by him from his mine, weighing twenty-eight hundred pounds, which the officer claimed as belonging to the King, because it was a curiosity; and all curiosities taken from the soil, of whatever kind or nature, belonged to His Most Gracious Majesty.
We are quite sure that the reader will agree with us in considering such a mass of virgin silver as a curiosity in- deed, but no greater one, perhaps, than the doctrine laid down by the King's most eminent counsel in the case.
This was, without doubt, the largest mass of virgin silver
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42
TESTIMONY OF MODERN WRITERS.
ever found in the world, and its actual existence seems to admit of no question; for so well-authenticated is its history, that the King himself gave to the country producing it the name of Arizuma, or silver-bearing, from which the Territory has derived its present name - Arizona.
Humboldt says that, "Up to the beginning of the present century, the quantity of silver taken from the American mines has exceeded that of gold in the ratio of forty-six to one." *
Other and more modern writers, in commenting upon the vast quantity of treasure taken from these mines with the rude implements of those early days, and the crude manner then in vogue of assaying the ore, declare that fully one half was lost or wasted in getting at the results there ob- tained,- statements that are verified by the richness of the refuse slag left by the miners, thousands of tons of which to-day are to be seen near all the old mines worked by the Spaniards. Notwithstanding all these obstacles, we are told that up to the beginning of the present century, more than twelve million ounces had been paid as tribute to Spain, the tribute being established at one real t in eight - no inconsid- erable amount, if we calculate the loss, waste, and stealings- for the Spaniards are adepts in this latter accomplishment even to the present day - that necessarily followed the honest production of this amount of revenue to His Most
* Political Essays of New Spain, Vol. 3. + 12} cents.
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GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
Gracious Majesty, the King. One can scarcely conceive the amount of treasure these mines have yielded; and when we reflect that the value of the peso d'oro, or ounce of silver, in those days, was equal to eleven dollars and sixty-seven cents, the yield is simply enormous.
Certain it is that these mines have always been, and still are, the richest in the known world; they lack but one thing to make them the most valuable, and that is, protec- tion to the miner. Do you ask me why, if these assertions are true, the Territory of Arizona is so little known? Why her mining wealth is, as yet, undeveloped by the present age? Let me tell you. The mines are mostly situated in the western and northern portions of the Territory, in the midst of the Apache country,- a country inhabited by the most cruel and barbarous race of Indians living on the American continent, and who to-day bear the same distin- guishing traits which characterized them in the days of brave old Father Kino, more than two centuries ago.
Let us leave the subject of the silver mines, however, to be further discussed, with that of the Apache tribes, in other chapters; and I will ask the reader to accompany me for a few moments, and glance at the geographical position of Arizona, as located on the map.
We see at once its complete isolation from all the civ- ilized possessions of "Uncle Sam." With no port of entry, nor communication with the Gulf of California; separated
44
DISADVANTAGES.
from the State of California by a desert, across which it re- quires a man of stout heart to venture, and then only when provided with a numerous escort, and no niggardly amount of ammunition and provisions; surrounded by ranges of almost impassable mountains; twelve hundred miles from Lavaca, the nearest seaport in Texas, six hundred of which are through a country almost destitute of water, and inhabited by a race of Indians second only to the Apaches in barbarity and cruelty.
Is it any wonder that Arizona, rich though it is in its mineral wealth, with its fertile valleys untilled, its uplands shorn of their flocks and herds, its settlers' homes ravished and desolated by bands of marauding savages, should fail to attract by its beauties, what it embraces but to destroy ? That its mines are less known than those of Washoe, Idaho, Nevada, or Colorado ?
Remember, too, that Arizona never yet possessed a pop- ulation of more than two thousand Americans, and those the worst class of gamblers, renegades, and cut-throats that could, by any possibility, be gathered together from the four quarters of the globe, a very large portion of whom sought a home in Arizona, only when driven by the Vigilance Committees of Texas and California, to find some country where law was unknown, and justice recognized only so far as it suited the particular ideas of the party administering it, and who, under its sacred guise, assumed the right to
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45
QUESTIONS.
gratify his worst passions, answerable only to the stronger, or most dexterous in the use of the bowie-knife, or pistol.
Do not these facts answer, in some measure, at least, the questions of the reader? We trust so, although we say, in truth, that the half has not been told.
If you will accompany us in our travels through the Ter- ritory, visit the ruins of its vast cities and towns centuries old, descend with us into its deep mines, admire its won- derful scenery, stand upon the brink of its vast cañons, gaze out upon its mighty rivers, enjoy the quiet of a camp in its beautiful valleys, or share the perils of an Apache fight, we shall soon be able to convince you that Arizona is the most marvellous portion of this wonderful country - America.
1
CHAPTER III.
T the time when the western AnApache boundary of the southern por- tion of our Republic was declared by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to be the Rio Grande, there lay south of the Territory of New Mex- ico, and west of that part of Texas known as the "Pan Handle," extending through to the Pacific coast, a strip of what was supposed to be an arid, worthless country, nearly, if not quite, destitute of water, intersected by a number of ranges of moun- tains and vast deserts, inhabited chiefly by Indians, and utterly useless for any practical purpose that could be imagined.
This tract of country was about four hundred and sixty miles in length, by one hundred and thirty in its widest
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47
PURCHASE BY THE UNITED STATES.
part, and contained about forty thousand square miles, forming, at that time, a portion of the State of Sonora.
It was acquired by purchase from the Mexican government in 1853, and was then known as the "Gadsden Purchase," for which the United States paid the sum of ten million dollars.
The commissioners who made the treaty were greatly surprised and perplexed at the manifest reluctance of Mexico to part with this strip of apparently worthless land; and those few Americans who took any interest in the acts of the commissioners, were equally perplexed to know what the United States proposed to do with the purchase.
Not one of our people then realized or imagined that by this purchase the United States had acquired a large portion of the identical country for which Cortez imperilled the possession of an empire; for which Coronado's expedition, under the direction of the viceroy Mendoza, was fitted out; for which De Soto so long sought, but never found; the land of which Spanish poets had for centuries sung, and for which kings had so long sighed; the country that for three hun- dred years had yielded by far the greater portion of the immense treasury that filled the coffers of Spain.
The territory was but sparsely inhabited at the time of the purchase, there being only about sixty families in the , celebrated "Mesilla Valley," who had settled there on the first of March, 1850, with Don Raphael Ruelas as their leader, under the auspices of the "Chihuahua Colonization
48
"HEAD RIGHTS."
Society," of which Rt. Rev. Ramon Ortiz was commissioner and a small Sonoranian settlement around the old Mexican fort of Tucson, near the centre of the purchase.
There were, also, some thirty Americans in the country, who had gone there to "spekelate" in "head rights" that had been issued by the State of Texas to such persons as had served in her wars.
These head rights were for six hundred and forty acres of land each, and entitled the possessor to select any un- occupied land in the State.
These claimants generally cared little where they located, and in many instances they seemed to regard a "head right" as a sort of nest-egg, locating their mile square of land, and claiming around it as far as the eye could reach in every direction. They frequently entered upon the cul- tivated lands, that had been in the quiet possession of the descendants of old Spanish families for centuries.
If one of the Mexicans dared to remonstrate in any way for the unwarrantable intrusion, he was answered by the lirk or revolver, an argument that always "settled it." The Mexican invariably "vamosed the ranche," leaving "he "spekelator" in undisputed possession. It was the facility with which these "head rights" were located, that mduced those Texans, who were found occupying the ter- 'itory in '53, to "Go West," where they could enjoy the fascinating life of the Mexican frontier.
49
THE RIO MIMBRES.
Here they were free and untrammelled, and away from those laws which, at that time, were rigidly enforced in the interest of those who had families in that State.
In all, there were about one thousand souls inhabiting the purchase, aside from the native Indian tribes.
During the next few years, there was little change in the Territory.
By an act of Congress, in 1854, it was attached to New Mexico, a commissioner appointed to survey the boundary line between Mexico and the United States; and it is from the report of this expedition, as well as from subsequent surveys, that we derive much valuable information concern- ing the country at that time.
Forty miles west of the Rio Grande, is the Mimbres River, one of those singular streams which are so common in that country. It sinks into the plain in places, reap- pearing miles below, and then flows on as peacefully as if its mad freaks had never astonished old Father Kino, or travellers of more modern date.
In 1858, the writer, in company with three other gentle- men, determined to visit the copper mines situated on the Rio Mimbres, and known as Santa Rita del Cobre. Pro- curing a guide, and the necessary mules and attendants, we set forth from the town of Mesilla, one bright morning in June. No lovelier day could have dawned.
Our party numbered seven persons, and, including our
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50
REMARKABLE HOT SPRING.
pack mules, thirteen animals. Striking on to the high lands northwest from the town, we soon left the beautiful valley of La Mesilla behind us, although the grand and lofty peaks of "Los Organos," lying directly east of Mesilla, remained in sight during the whole day. We passed a few ruined ranches, but saw nothing worthy of note, save here and there a spot, pointed out by our guide, where travellers had been murdered by the Apaches.
Camping for the night near a small aroya, through which ran a little stream, we reached the next day the Mimbres River. Crossing its bed, we commenced the ascent of its west bank, which we followed for about ten miles, when our guide informed us that we were near the "Ojo Cali- ente," or hot spring. We determined to visit it, and encamp there for the night. It is among the most remark- able springs I have ever seen. It lies in the top of a mound nine hundred and sixty-two feet in circumference at its base, and forty-six feet in height, the whole mound being undoubtedly a deposit made by the water of the spring. We found the surface of the water, about five feet below the top of the mound, very clear and quite hot, showing a tem- perature of 135º Fahrenheit, while it discharged large quan- tities of carbonic acid gas. When cooled, it was quite palatable.
About seventy-five feet from the summit of the mound is a small opening, through which the water pours, in a little
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51
GOLD AND COPPER MINES.
stream, into a pool at its base, evidently designed for bath- ing purposes. We tried it, and found, even then, as hot a bath as we cared to take. The medicinal properties of this water are said to be very wonderful; and, judging from cases which have come under our own observation, we think they have not been overrated. In scrofulous and syphilitic cases they are especially efficacious.
Leaving the "Ojo Caliente" early the next morning, we journeyed as far as the "Santa Rita del Cobre," where we arrived about night-fall. These mines are situated in a magnificent valley abounding in the most luxuriant vegeta- tion, and surrounded by lofty mountains, whose peaks are crowned with ice and snow, while the country for leagues around is covered with exceedingly valuable timber. That these mines were worked as early as 1678, is undoubtedly true, although we have no authentic history of them until 1799, in which year they furnished employment for some six hundred persons who came there from Chihuahua, four hun- dred miles distant. Provisions were dispatched by mule and ox teams to the miners every month, and the wagons were freighted back with ore, which was delivered to the Mexican government at a cost of sixty-five cents per pound, the gov- ernment extracting from it more than enough gold to pay for the ore, using the copper only for purposes of coinage, it being far superior to any other copper known to them. Masses of virgin copper have been taken from these mines
52
SANDSTONE FORMATIONS.
weighing tons; and the ore itself, which is a red oxide, seems inexhaustible.
We spent several days in this vicinity, during which time we visited some remarkable sandstone formations near by.
We found about forty columns, worn by the winds and rains into most singular shapes. One of them measured nearly sixty feet in height, and more closely resembled an inverted bottle than anything we could compare it to. At its greatest circumference it measured eighteen feet, while at its base it was scarcely three feet. Some looked like churches, towers, castles, or barracks, and others very like human beings of colossal proportions. So striking were these resemblances, that it was hard to believe the hand of man had nothing to do with their formation.
It was on the return from these mines that our party met with an adventure, which may not prove uninteresting in this connection.
Our attendants, with the pack mules, had gone on early in the morning to select a camping-ground, and give our burdened animals a chance to rest, while, later in the day, our party of three accompanied by the guide, started to overtake them.
As we rode along carelessly, laughing and jesting, I noticed that the mule ridden by Mr. Laws showed unmis- takable signs that Indians were near. Calling attention to the fact, it was voted a false alarm, Dr. Steck remarking,
A NATURAL SANDSTONE FORMATION.
53
SKIRMISH WITH THE APACHES.
jocosely, that savages though they were, still they knew better than to attack their "Great Father," as he was called by nearly all the Indian tribes in the Territory; therefore no further attention was paid to the matter.
We had just entered a small cañon, or pass, through the hills to the prairies beyond. Rocks bare and sterile towered far above us on either side. The only vegetation visible was an occasional cactus, twenty or thirty feet in height, and three or four feet in circumference, fluted with the regularity of a Corinthian column, and covered with beau- tiful variegated blossoms; or, perchance, high up in a cleft of the rocks, a prickly-pear, with its bright green leaves, and magnificent scarlet flowers, looking like the gift of some good fairy, hung there to relieve the eye by contrast with the sombre background of the rock.
Suddenly the appalling war-whoop of the Apaches sounded on our ears like a death-knell, echoed from side to side by the massive walls. It resembled the incarnate shrieks of ten thousand devils holding high carnival over the agony of some lost soul.
Startled as we were, we yet had presence of mind enough to spur our mules forward towards the mouth of the cañon, which was only a short distance before us. It took but a moment to reach it; and as we escaped from between the gloomy walls out into the beautiful green prairie, we uttered an involuntary shout of triumph; but alas! it came
54
LOSS OF A COMRADE.
too soon. One of the shower of arrows sent whizzing after us, struck poor Laws in the back, and he fell from his saddle dead, his riderless animal galloping frantically over the plain.
To reach the nearest knoll, out of range of the arrows of the Apaches, was but the work of an instant. Here we halted, determined to sell our lives as dearly as possible.
We waited an hour, revolvers in hand, for the appearance of the Indians, but they did not come. We then cautiously proceeded to remove the dead body of our companion, which still lay where it had fallen; and, taking it on our saddles before us, sadly rode to the highest eminence we could find in the vicinity, and there encamped. When night had veiled the earth in its shadows, by the soft light of the moon we hastily scooped a shallow grave with such implements as were at hand, and deposited within its nar- row walls the body of our comrade.
Lest the fresh earth should disclose the location of the grave to those human hyenas, whose rapacity knows no bounds, we coralled our animals above the spot, that their uneasy footsteps through the night might obliterate all traces of our sad labor.
Regretfully we turned away from the lonely resting-place of our friend; and as we wrapped ourselves in our blankets, while Dr. Steck kept guard, I shall never forget the im-
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BURIAL OF LAWS.
A
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TOUCHING NOTE FROM HIS MOTHER.
pression made upon my mind by his repeating, with a beauty and pathos indescribable, these touching lines,-
"No useless coffin enclosed his breast, Nor in sheet, nor in shroud we wound him, But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloak around him."
Three months later I received from a heart-broken mother in Philadelphia, a few lines, acknowledging the receipt of a lock of hair, and some articles we had taken from the body, and thanking us in such language as only a mother could use, for the last sad offices performed towards her first-born and only son. God help her!
There are many mothers in our land, who, like her, mourn for their sons, whose bones lie bleaching on the plains of Arizona, denied even the poor consolation of the thought, that a few handsful of earth hide them from the rapacity of the Apache and the prairie wolf.
P
CHAPTER IV.
WO days later, and we again reached the valley of the Me- silla; and here let me give the reader some idea of this really beautiful place and its inhabitants.
This valley is about one A Mou: hundred miles in length, and from twenty to thirty miles in width, the whole surface be- ing easily irrigated by the waters of the Rio Grande. The principal towns in the valley are Mesilla, Santa Barbara, Las Cruces, and Doña Ana, which together contain a population of about three thousand souls. The real boundary on the eastern side is the Sierra de los Organos, or Organ Mountains, a range running from north to south about one hundred miles in length. These mountains are about three thousand feet in height, and are composed chiefly of a light-gray granite.
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57
THE VALLEY OF LA MESILLA.
They receive their name from the peculiar shape of their pinnacles and sides, which resemble very closely the pipes of an organ. In this range are to be found considera- ble quantities of live-oak and pine timber. Here, also, is the celebrated silver mine of "Hugh Stevenson," discovered by that gentleman in 1851, and which, since that year, when the Apaches would permit its being worked, has yielded large quantities of silver. The soil of the Mesilla Valley is very fertile, and susceptible of a high state of cultivation. On each side of the Rio Grande are to be found large acequias, or ditches, through which the waters of the river are conducted in such a manner that from them the entire surface of the valley can be irrigated or overflowed, and thus cultivated. Large crops of corn, wheat, rye, and barley are raised, while figs, peaches, pears, apricots, and grapes are produced in great abundance. The grapes are particularly fine, and are called the "El Paso" grape, from which place the vines were brought. They were introduced into El Paso in 1680 by the Jesuits, and came originally from Portugal. About one hundred thousand gallons of wine are made annually in this valley, almost equal in quality to fine port or Burgundy; it will not bear trans- portation, however.
Notwithstanding the fertility of the soil in this charming valley, the mildness of the climate, and the peculiar adapta- tion of the land to agricultural purposes, only enough is
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58
PRIMITIVE CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE.
raised to supply the immediate wants of the people, as its great distance from any market precludes the possibility of exportation.
Could a person familiar with Bible history be suddenly transported and set down in the Mesilla Valley, he would cer- tainly imagine himself among the Children of Israel, so prim- itive are the habits and customs of the people. They usc as a plough a sharpened stick of wood fastened to a beam, which beam is tied to the horns of the cattle by thongs of rawhide, serving the purpose of a yoke. No iron ever enters into the construction of their carts; they are made entirely of wood and rawhide, the wheels being sections of the stump of a tree. It has often occurred to me, when I have heard one of these lumbering old carts creaking along the road, that the genius who invented the steam-whistle must have obtained his first idea from the noise made by their wheels.
The houses are built of sun-dried brick - adobes - or else after the style described by Father Kino, when they are called jaculs. All the grain is threshed in the field, by driving oxen over it; "nor do they muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn."
It is rarely that a chair or table is seen in a Mexican house. The people eat, sitting upon the floor, and fingers take the place of knives and forks. Their food generally consists of tortillas - unleavened bread, chilli - red pepper, frejolies -- or beans, and garlic.
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