THE CHIRICAHUI APACHES. 43 
| h his man had been killed. He had never any difficulty 
wards in finding some one else sufficiently reckless to 
k his life for the ordinary remuneration. 
a u During the latter ten miles of our march most of the route 
“iy through thick brushwood, composed of mezquit, grease- 
M¥ood (Obione canescens), two kinds of aloe, yucca, a very 
| arge species of prickly pear, and other cacti, besides many 
“Other kinds of thorny bushes, which formed an almost im- 
Fpenctrable thicket, very well adapted for an ambuscade. 
Here and there my companion pointed to spots where one or 
other of his mail-carriers had been killed, or where he himself 
had been “jumped,” and related how he had escaped at this 
Place by the speed of his horse, or at that by good service 
one by his revolver. 
W Many of his anecdotes were most exciting, yet there was 
n) I 10 apparent tendency towards exaggeration; while, on the 
other hand, he openly avowed that the more you have to do 
‘with Indian warfare, the more you dread the Indians, and try 
to keep out of their way. ‘Men may be very brave at first, 
t the continual anxiety soon takes the dash out of them— 
u bet!” and this avowal came from a man of undoubted 
ourage. : 
_ On reaching the mountains at the entrance of Apache Pass, 
he pointed to a foot-hill on the right, and gave me a little 
sketch of the Chiricahui Apaches during his residence on 
the spot. . 
Until the winter of 1861-62 the Apaches of that =o 
(Chiricahui Mountains) had not shown any very deter- 
mined hostility to the Americans, and the mail company, 
for the two years during which they ran coaches along this 
route, kept on good terms with them, by giving occasional 
presents of blankets and food. At the breaking out of the 
‘ 
