Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/622

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602
MEXICO IN 1827

circulating medium will of course continue very small: but the exports of the precious metals in bars and grains to Calcutta and Canton are very considerable; the intercourse with India and China being already more frequent than that with any of the Southern Provinces of the Republic.

The inhabitants, who are frank and cheerful in their manners, industrious, brave, and hospitable in the highest degree, will soon learn to turn the advantages of their present position to account. From their former enemies the Apaches, and other savage tribes, North of Arispe, and the Presidio of Fonteras, (latitude 31,) they have no longer any thing to apprehend, for their enmity was always directed against the European Spaniards, who were obliged to avail themselves of the intervention and influence of the Creoles in order to obtain a cessation of hostilities.

The Apaches are said to be an independent and high-minded race, averse to all the arts of civilized life, excellent horsemen, skilful in the use of the lance, and formidable marksmen with the bow and arrow. They do not possess fire-arms, and are fortunately too distant from the frontiers of the United States to obtain a supply, (as the Comanches have done on the borders of Cohahuila and Texas,) from the lawless traders, who precede the advance of civilization across the wilderness. They require little beyond the undisturbed possession of their hunting-grounds, in which they were continually molested by the Spaniards; and as the Creoles already possess