324 INCIDENTS AT THE 
lived on the frontier, having frequent intercourse with 
them at Janos, and who knew all their chiefs. Ameri- 
can authority places their numbers much higher, esti- 
mating them by thousands, instead of hundreds. But 
notwithstanding their depredations, they have from 
time to time been at peace with the Mexicans, receiv- 
ing from the military authorities at Janos monthly 
supplies of corn and other articles of food. Hence the 
latter have had a better opportunity to judge of their 
numbers than we have. 
Between the Sacramento Mountains and the Pecos 
are other Apache tribes more numerous than those in 
question, from whom they are separated by an unin- 
habited desert region between eighty and one hundred 
miles in width, extending from the Sacramento Moun- 
tains to the Rio Grande. The country which they 
occupy is believed to be one of the richest portions of 
New Mexico. It has not yet been explored; but I 
-have been told by Mexicans who have crossed it at 
various places, that it has an excellent soil, is well 
watered and timbered. They keep up a show of 
friendship with the settlements by sending their old 
women to trade and beg; but the warriors rarely 
show themselves. It is not my intention to dwell 
largely on the Indian tribes in the present work, but 
merely to speak of them as we met them, to point out 
their localities, and to relate such occurrences as took 
place between us. There is much to be said relative 
to them all, which the limits of this work will not 
_ admit of, nor does it seem proper in a “ personal narra- 
tive” of incidents, to enter into the broad field of eth- 
, nological investigation which presents itself west of the 
