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COPPER MINES. 337 
Commissioner.—‘* Your words are good and true. 
You speak with a heart full of feeling. I feel as you 
do. All the Americans feel as you do. Our hearts 
are sad at your loss. We mourn with this poor woman. 
We will do all that we can to assist her and her family. 
I know that neither money nor goods will pay for their 
loss. I do not want the Apache chiefs, my brothers, 
so to consider it. What I propose is for the good of 
this family. My wish is to make them comfortable. 
I desire to give them the aid of which they are de- 
prived by the loss of their protector. If the prisoner’s 
life is taken, your desire for revenge is satisfied. Law 
and justice are satisfied. But this poor woman and 
her family get nothing. They remain poor. They 
have no one to labor for them. Will it not be better 
to provide for their wants?” ~° 
The chiefs now exchanged views with each other, 
all having more or less to say; when Ponce, their prin- 
cipal speaker, said they had all agreed to leave the 
matter entirely with the mother of the deceased, and 
that by her decision they would abide. She evidently 
desired the life of the prisoner. Her desire for revenge: 
or justice, was more to her than money or goods. The 
discussion was resumed. 
Ponce.—“ Tf an Apache should take the life of an 
American, would you not make war on us and take 
many Apache lives ?” 
Commissioner.— No; I would demand the arrest 
of the murderer, and would be satisfied to. have him 
later to run off some mules, he received a rifle ball in his thigh, which 
or a while checked his thievish propensities. : 
VOL. 1.—22 
