186 NEW TRACKS IN NOETH AMEBIC A 



remaining sul)-tril)es — tlie Coyoteros, Finals, and Tontos. 

 Yery little is knoAvn about themselves, far too mucli about ^ 

 their ravages. Their numbers are very variously estimated, 

 but the general belief is that they are not numerous. They 

 occupy the centre of the Apache country, and the few 

 attempts as yet made to '^ clear them out'' have resulted in 

 complete failiu'o. The commander at Camp Grant told me 

 that two years ago he made a raid into their country, but 

 before he had gone many miles he found that his enemies 

 were gathering around him in such numbers that his small 

 force of fifty soldiers had to beat a rapid retreat. One of 

 our parties had a tenible fight with the Tonto Apaches in 

 Northern Arizona. An account of it will be found in 

 cliap. xi.j Tol. ii. 



The fayomite field for ]3lunder duiing the last centiuy has 

 been I^orthern Sonora. The Apaches seem never to have 

 lived there, but their custom was to descend in bands along 

 the whole length of the Pina-leno and Clii-ri-ca-hui Moun- 

 tains, which, so to speak, form a bridge two hundred miles 

 long across the Madi-e Plateau from the mountains north of 

 the Eio Gila to the Sierra Madre of Mexico. 



The Spaniards protected theii' outlying provinces fi'om these 

 hordes by a complete system of military posts from San 



Antonio, in Texas, to the 



the Eio 



Grande, the Presidio del Rio Grande, San Carlos, Presidio del 

 Korte, and San Eleazario; across the State of Chihuahua, 

 Carrizal, Cayome, Galcana, and Janos; and across Northern 

 Sonora followed, in close succession, the Presidios of Babispe, 

 Fronteras, Bacuachi, Santa Cruz, .and Tubac, reaching to the 

 outskirts of Papago country and the Sonora desert. Thus 

 the Spanish miners and rancheros -were protected, and tne 

 country south of these limits became rich in flocks, herds, ana 



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