THE NORTHERN MYSTERY 249 



ring the sickly effusiveness which weeps 

 over a Victorio or a Geronimo, one's sense 

 of justice, or even of ordinary humanity, con- 

 temns equally the bad faith, the blundering, 

 the breaking of treaties, which blot the page 

 recording the dealings of a superior race with 

 an inferior ; and which assuredly were not 

 calculated to root out of the savage nature 

 the treachery and cruelty inherent in it by 

 right of birth. Neither is there anything 

 new or original in the observation that the 

 military leaders in the Far West proved 

 themselves time and again more competent 

 to deal at once fairly and firmly with the 

 Indians than did their official superiors in 

 the East. Many a name on the army roll 

 stands out bright and unblemished above the 

 hopeless fog of Governmental ignorance, im- 

 becility, or corruption. 



Comparatively few years have elapsed 

 since white settlers and their families faced 

 great and manifold dangers in making their 

 homes in New Mexico and Arizona. Even 

 the Mexican, though mortally afraid of the 

 Indian, was not himself entirely reliable. 

 When carried away by excitement, or when 



