upon this subject, by stating that the territory over which the Apache roamed a conqueror, or a bold and scarcely resisted raider, comprehended the whole of the present Territories of Arizona and New Mexico, one half of the State of Texas—the half west of San Antonio—and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua, with frequent raids which extended as far as Durango, Jalisco, and even on occasion the environs of Zacatecas, I can readily make the reader understand that an area greater than that of the whole German Empire and France combined was laid prostrate under the heel of a foe as subtle, as swift, as deadly, and as uncertain as the rattle-snake or the mountain lion whose homes he shared.
From the moment the Castilian landed on the coast of the present Mexican Republic, there was no such thing thought of as justice for the American Indian until the authorities of the Church took the matter in hand, and compelled an outward regard for the rights which even animals have conceded to them.
Christopher Columbus, whom some very worthy people are thinking of having elevated to the dignity of a saint, made use of bloodhounds for running down the inhabitants of Hispaniola.
The expedition of D'Ayllon to the coast of Chicora, now known as South Carolina, repaid the kind reception accorded by the natives by the basest treachery; two ship-loads of the unfortunates enticed on board were carried off to work in the mines of the invaders.
Girolamo Benzoni, one of the earliest authors, describes the very delightful way the Spaniards had of making slaves of all the savages they could capture, and branding them with a red-hot iron on the hip or cheek, so that their new owners could recognize them the more readily.
Cabeza de Vaca and his wretched companions carried no arms, but met with nothing but an ovation from the simple-minded and grateful natives, whose ailments they endeavored to cure by prayer and the sign of the cross.
Yet, Vaca tells us, that as they drew near the settlements of their own countrymen they found the whole country in a tumult, due to the efforts the Castilians were making to enslave the populace, and drive them by fire and sword to the plantations newly established. Humboldt is authority for the statement that the Apaches resolved upon a war of extermination upon the Spaniards, when they learned that all their people taken captive by the
