312 ON THE FEONTIER. 



not to be afraid, he advanced to us with " the smile that was 

 childlike and bland," shook hands all round, and said, " You 

 are welcome." 



X. addressed the Apache- Yumayas chief in a patois that 

 was fearfully and wonderfully made up of Mexican-Spanish, 

 English, and Indian dialect, with a running accompaniment 

 or translation thereof in first-class sign-language, and 

 stated the object of the visit. Pah-Squal listened with 

 attention, and replied in a like manner. He said, in effect, 

 that he was very glad to see us, as he much wished for 

 peace, but that to talk when hungry was no good, and so, 

 being his friends, we must eat breakfast with him ; his 

 women would soon have it ready. He was answered 

 we had our provisions with us ; but that, as friends 

 could not do better than eat together, we would take 

 a joint meal with him, and furnish towards it coffee, 

 sugar, bacon, and biscuit ; and the provisions were pro- 

 duced. The Indians grinned the grin of satisfaction. They 

 are inordinately fond of both sugar and coffee, and greatly 

 relish bacon and biscuit. It was a step towards their 

 hearts by the proverbial down-the-throat road ; and hav- 

 ing fasted from coffee or a hot meal since we had started 

 on our expedition, we also were nothing loath to sit 

 down to a " good square meal," even if it had to be eaten 

 with the sauce of personal danger. By this time all the 

 women in camp were busy, building fires, fetching water, 

 and otherwise engaged in culinary affairs. Ever and anon 

 they cast timid glances of curiosity towards us. It was 

 probably the first time any of them had ever seen a white 

 man, except shooting at them from afar, a prisoner, or 



