With Crawford in Mexico [pp. 78-83]

80 Wit/ Crauford in Mexico. [Jul
one's foot on the table in order to reach that we were in a foreign country, and th
things, unless absolutely necessary. Our fare a not over-friendly one, with a small forc
was but little better than the ordinary sol- in the company of such utterly irresponsib
dier's ration, and it was always safe to say beings; moreover, some of our savage allis
that for dinner, breakfast, and supper it had been raiding in this very country onl
would consist of bacon, bread, beans, and a short time before, and might be tempte
coffee. Our dinner over, it grew cooler as to try it again.
the sun went down, and after a smoke nearly Our march the next day led down a valle
every one turned in to sleep, so as to be up by the side of a stream grown up with im
by daybreak the next morning for another mense cane-brakes, and about ten o'clock
long day's march. After leaving the Sierra the morning we camne out of the valley
en Media, we went back to the main range front of the town of Babispe, which o
to the west, and after two days' travel in the Apache friends were so anxious to avoid tl
mountains, through a beautiful wooded coun- day before. Babispe is a little Mexica
try covered with live oaks, we camped at an town, built in the usual Mexican style, wi
old abandoned ranche on the trail crossing a plaza in the centre, in which is a church
the Sierra Madre, leading from Janos, in Chi- apparently considerable antiquity. The tow
huahua, to Babispe, in the State of Sonora. is situated on the river of the same nam
Chatto had been having frequent inter- which here runs nearly due north along t
views with Captain Crawford, which were western base of the Sierra Madre. It is
carried on through the medium of two inter- clear running mountain stream, and there
preters, one Spanish, the otherApache. The considerable land under cultivation in th
Apache rejoiced in the name of "Mickey vicinity of the towns in the valley.
Free," and it was said that he was not an We observed that all over this count
Indian, but the son of an Irishman and a there seems to be no attempt to occu
Mexican woman, and had been a captive ranches at any distance from the towns;
among the Apaches all his life. Mickey cer- though the abandoned ranches all over t
tainly had a MIilesian cast of countenance, country indicate that at one time it was n
although in every other respect he seemed a so, and that insecurity of life and proper
thorough Indian. His knowledge of Span- at any distance from the towns has caus
ish did not include any use of tenses, so that this state of affairs. The Apaches have ma
it was extremely difficult to tell whether he their homes in the Sierra Madre, and liter
meant the present, future, or past, in his ly devastated the surrounding country.
translations from Apache into Spanish. We, The Mexicans in the towns we passe
however, learned enough to know that Chat- recognized Captain Chatto, and asked
to was exceedingly averse to going through ter Captain Geronimo, not as yet knowi
an of th Meia tons on acout as tha thtnbecifanwsaogte