Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/143

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A STRANGE STATE OF SOCIETY.
137

and carried off, to be tortured with every atrocity which Apaches are capable of, and die a lingering death; even my family would be persecuted, and perhaps meet a fate as terrible as my own."

"But are the leaders of the band so highly connected as I have been told?" I asked.

"You may be your own judge in that matter. I saw you introduced to one of them yesterday, and holding a long conversation with him!"

"But you did not put me on my guard," I said.

INDIAN EMBROIDERERS AND THEIR WORK.

"Not I; I have even visited at his house and dined with his family since my release, and his daughter is a warm friend of my own. That man received the money from my brother, and he knows that I know him to be the regular financial agent and broker for the band!"

It is hardly possible for a stranger to understand how such a state of affairs can exist without the direct connivance of the authorities; but it does so exist, nevertheless; and the rigor with which Gov. Cuervo and his associates execute the laws, leaves no room for doubting that they are in earnest in the work.

Guadalajara boasts of two Indian specialties, viz: the wonderfully elaborate embroidery in cotton and linen,