CHAPTER IV.
Journey to Sonora.—Adventure with Apaches.—Fronteras.—Mexican dread of Indians.—Gen. Carasco.—Janos.—Mexican Policy toward the Apaches.—Carasco's Raid.—Gandara, Monteverde and Urea.—Death of Carasco.—Arispe.—Apache Prisoners.—Mexican Guard.—Apaches Attacking a Mexican Train.—Curious Style of Pursuit.—Return to the Copper Mines.—Americans Attacked by Apaches.—Traits of Apache Character.—Craftiness.
Were I to diverge from the proposed plan of narrating only what appertains directly to the elucidation of Indian character, etc., this work might be continued through a series of volumes; but the object of the writer is to condense his remarks to such incidents as have relation only to the various Indian tribes he encountered in the course of nine years experience among them.
In May, the Commissioner resolved on a journey into Sonora, to ascertain whether supplies of corn, flour, sheep, and cattle, could be depended upon from that State for the use of the Commission operating along its northern frontier, and also for other objects immediately affecting the welfare of the body under his orders, and the prosecution of the work committed to his charge. On the afternoon of the third day we camped at a place where several holes had been dug by previous travelers, and being full of sweet water they offered us the first refreshment of the kind we had enjoyed for forty-eight hours. The country for a long distance was a perfect plain, unbroken even by rocks or trees, with here and there a shrub, but none over eighteen inches high. At this place, on a subsequent occasion, an incident illustrative
