TRAVELS IN MEXICO.
to this devastated territory. Of the Chihuahua territory on the eastern side of the mountain range a Mexican writer recently said: "At present every hacienda must be converted into a castle of the Middle Ages, every shepherd into a soldier; proprietors of estates enjoy no security in their possessions, and the common people gather themselves into villages to escape from the exposed country in which they are certain to become the victims of the bloodthirsty savages from the wilderness."
The last extensive raid of which we have information was committed in 1882, when a band of seventy-five warriors roamed over entire Northern Sonora, spreading everywhere death and desolation, even to the very suburbs of the large cities, as Ures, the former capital. Though it is difficult to get any data as to the extent of these outrages, it is safe to say that at least one hundred people were murdered during this raid, without the loss of a single Indian. They then departed for Chihuahua, where their work of blood was continued, in the neighborhood of Carmen and Casas Grandes, and they returned to their stronghold with six captives and three hundred head of stock.
Nor have they confined their operations to Mexico, for the annals of New Mexico and Arizona tell similar tales of woe; even so late as 1882 they killed seventeen people in these territories. The Mexicans have again and again sent expeditions against them, which generally returned unsuccessful. Their repeated failures are not difficult of explanation, though it is hard for one unacquainted with Indian warfare to understand why a small band like this, which seems never to have contained more than three hundred warriors, has not been subjugated or exterminated. One of the reasons is, that the Indians live in an unexplored wilderness, without fixed habitations, camping in small bodies, here to-day and off to-morrow, and ever ready to scatter at the signal of danger. Hence there is no fixed objective to which troops can march. Following on the trail of the last raiding party, they reach, perchance, the outskirts of the Indian stronghold; without guides to head the advance, they find themselves in a perfect labyrinth of trails, leading in all directions, with no signs of the foe, save here and there a deserted rancheria. To
