Through the Giant Cactus Forest 129 



to see that in less than a decade one of the real 

 wonders of the plant world will have disap- 

 peared, and be replaced by American and Eng- 

 lish farms, and where stood the gigantic hecho 

 and pitahaya, orange groves, wheat, corn, and 

 barley fields, cattle ranches, alfalfa and beet 

 fields, will rise before the irresistible wave of 

 intellectual progress. It is somewhat pathetic 

 that it has taken the Mexicans three hundred 

 years to discover that the real wealth of their 

 country lies not in gold mines, but in agricul- 

 ture, and it is still more pathetic to see the 

 alien reap the benefit, and the Mexican peon do 

 the work. 



The town of Esperanza, our headquarters, 

 stands near the ancient town of Corcorit, with 

 Mounts Osocahui, Tebache, and Zaperboa to the 

 east, while to the west is the Rio Yaqui and 

 Los Hornos with its radiant outlook of river and 

 islands, its picturesque mountains, and adobe 

 village in the shadows of the army post, where 

 one sits and watches the mules and burros 

 cross the river in the twilight, or the long line 

 of Yaqui women along the shore lying in the 

 water, washing on the big flat metates. 



It was not three miles from Esperanza that 

 Major Burnham had found the inscription on 

 the rock a year previous, and we bore off toward 

 the town of Bachoco to relocate it. There was 

 a good trail for a long distance, along which we 



