360 ON THE FEONTIEE. 



his deliberately incurring personal risk for what was con- 

 sidered an adequate object, comes to my recollection. Its 

 recital, however, necessitates a long preamble ; fortunately, 

 one not totally devoid of interest. Two years prior to the 

 occurrence, a friend of mine, having some capital, engaged 

 a number of employes, principally Mexicans, and went 

 into the country now known as the territory of Arizona, 

 intending for he was of an enterprising and adventurous 

 turn of mind to establish a rancho near to the probable 

 site of a then-talked-of military post, with the view of 

 supplying it, at great prices, with grain, forage, and cattle, 

 and so to become quickly enriched. It was a good idea, and 

 was well carried out. The place chosen for the rancho had 

 great natural advantages, and my friend's information must 

 have been good, for the district head-quarters was esta- 

 blished only thirty miles by mountain trail, and forty-five 

 by practicable waggon-way, from his rancho soon after its 

 being " taken up " near enough to give a practical mono- 

 poly. My friend's settlement was on the site of an ancient, 

 a prehistoric city. Wide low mounds scattered over the 

 valley it was in, looking like undulations in its surface, 

 where the partly standing walls of large stone buildings, 

 buried by the accumulated dust of ages, and fragments of 

 broken pottery were found everywhere. The stonework 

 used about his house and outbuildings were excavated 

 from these mounds, already squared and finished to his 

 hand ; he got paving-tiles from their floorings, curious 

 crockery out of their rubbish. 



The valley was about six miles in length, two at its 

 widest, and in form resembled the longitudinal section of a 



