CHIHUAHUA CAMPAIGNS. 293 



scalps for the war-dance — they would invaria- 

 bly return to their deeds of ravage and murder. 

 The depredations of the Apaches have been 

 of such long duration, that, beyond the imme- 

 diate purlieus of the towns, the whole coun- 

 try from New Mexico to the borders of Du- 

 rango is almost entirely depopulated. The 

 haciendas and ranches have been mostly 

 abandoned, and the people chiefly confined 

 to towns and cities. To such a pitch has the 

 temerity of those savages reached, that small 

 bands of three or four warriors have been 

 known to make their appearance within a 

 mile of the city of Cliihuahua in open day, 

 kilhng the laborers and driving off whole herds 

 of mules and horses without the sUghtest op- 

 position. Occasionally a detachment of troops 

 is sent in pursuit of the marauders, but for no 

 otlier purpose, it would seem, than to illustrate 

 the imbecility of the former, as they are al- 

 ways sure to make a precipitate retreat, gene- 

 rally without even obtaining a gUmpse of the 

 enemy.* And yet the columns of a little 

 weekly sheet pubUshed in Chihuahua always 

 teem with flaming accounts of prodigious 

 feats of valor performed by the ' army of ope- 

 rations' against hs hdrharos: sho^ving how 

 "the enemy was pui-sued with all possible 

 vigor"— how the soldiers " displayed the great- 



• It has been credibly asserted, that, during one of tliese 'bold 

 pursuits,' a band of Comanches stopped in the suburbs of a village 

 on Rio Conchos, turned their horses into the wheat-fields, and took 

 a comfortable .sVesta— desirous, it seemed, to behold their pursuers 

 face to face ; yet, after remaining most of the day, they departed 

 ■without enjoying that pleasure. 



25 



