Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/174

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make no such promises; and as the way in which they might remember a thing might happen to be different from the way in which he remembered it, he would do all he could to prevent misunderstandings, by having every word he said to them put down in black and white on paper, of which, if they so desired, they could keep a copy. When men were afraid to put their words on paper, it looked as if they did not mean half what they said. He wanted to treat the Apache just the same as he would treat any other man—as a man. He did not believe in one kind of treatment for the white and another for the Indian. All should fare alike; but so long as the Indian remained ignorant of our laws and language it was for his own good that the troops remained with him, and he must keep within the limits of the Reservations set apart for him. He hoped the time would soon come when the children of the Apaches would be going to school, learning all the white men had to teach to their own children, and all of them, young or old, free to travel as they pleased all over the country, able to work anywhere, and not in fear of the white men or the white men of them. Finally, he repeated his urgent request that every effort should be made to spread these views among all the others who might still be out in the mountains, and to convince them that the safest and best course for all to adopt was that of peace with all mankind. After a reasonable time had been given for all to come in, he intended to start out in person and see to it that the last man returned to the Reservations or died in the mountains.

To all this the Apaches listened with deep attention, at intervals expressing approbation after their manner by heavy grunts and the utterance of the monosyllable "Inju" (good).

The Apaches living in the vicinity of Camp Apache are of purer Tinneh blood than those bands which occupied the western crest of the long Mogollon plateau, or the summits of the lofty Matitzal. The latter have very appreciably intermixed with the conquered people of the same stock as the Mojaves and Yumas of the Colorado valley, and the consequence is that the two languages are, in many cases, spoken interchangeably, and not a few of the chiefs and head men possess two names—one in the Apache, the other in the Mojave tongue.

After leaving Camp Apache, the command was greatly reduced by the departure of three of the companies in as many directions;