134 UNDER WAY AGAIN. 
wards, at the very time such a bustle was be- 
ing made in Chihuahua to raise troops for 
my ‘special benefit,’ the Indians entered the 
corn-fields in the suburbs of the city, and kill- 
ed several labradores who were at work in 
them. In neither of these cases, however, 
were there any troops at command to pursue 
and chastise the depredators—though a whole 
army was in readiness to persecute our party. 
The truth is, they felt much less reluctance to 
pursue a band of civil traders, who, they were 
well aware, could not assume a hostile atti- 
tude, than to be caught in the wake of a 
band of savages, who would as little respect 
their lives as their laws and their property. 
Early on the morning of the 10th, I once 
more, and for the last time, and with anything 
but regret, took my leave of Chihuahua, with 
my companions in trouble. Towards the af- 
ternoon we met my old friend the captain, 
with his valiant followers, whom I found as 
full of urbanity as ever—so much so, indeed, 
that he never even asked to see my passport. 
On the evening of the next day, now in the 
heart of the savage haunts, we were not a lit- 
tle alarmed by the appearance of a large body 
of horsemen in the distance. They turned 
out, however, to be Pasefios, or citizens of the 
Paso del Norte. They were on their way to 
Chihuahua with a number of —— 
laden with apples, pears, grapes, wine, and 
aguardiente—proceeds of their hodtichres or- 
chards and vineyards. It is from El Paso that 
Chihuahua is chiefly supplied with fruits and 
