110 3 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
afresh after a good breakfast, directing our course for a couple 
of miles further down the Altar valley, and 
then branching off to the southward on a trail 
leading to Santa Anna, across another rough belt of oa 
lying between the Altar and San Ignacio streams. 
We passed on the way two more collections of Papago 
huts, made but a few days back to shelter the same party 
from the heavy showers which had lately fallen. Not ong 
had we met any one on the road since entering Sonora, and 
we were congratulating ourselves upon nearing an inhabited 
region, and having safely escaped all dangers from Indians, 
when a Mexican gentleman and his servant came in view. 
Seeing that we were travellers, he stopped and had an ani- 
mated conversation with Van Alstine, the purport of wha : 
was, that some miles further on the road we intended to tal 
he had been attacked by robbers, and but for the bold front ot 
shown by himself and his servant, they would most certainly 
have been robbed, if not murdered. Both were well armed, 
and they kept the brigands at bay by holding their loaded” 
rifles steadily to their shoulders as they passed rapidly on. 
This gentleman also stated that, a few days previously, an 
obnoxious justice of the peace had been robbed and murdered 
‘on the road, that the people were afraid to pass from 
village to another, and that this lawless state of affairs” 
extended down to the outskirts of Hermosillo. This news 
was not pleasant for us. ‘ 
After riding twenty miles we caine to some stagnant water, 
where we gave our mules a drink and filled up our canteens. 
A little further we entered a timbered country, covered chic 
with mezquit, and here we rested until night arrived, whet 
we saddled up and continued our journey. The moon 
about ten o’clock, and gave rather too much light for peace 
Dec. 7. 
