128 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
These were the cries. I was on my way to the Yaqui — 
country, to examine the coal-fields there, and these reports 
effectually stopped my progress southward by land. | 
This is the way volunteering was carried on at Hermosillo. — 
In the evening the military band usually played either in the — 
plaza or opposite some gentleman’s house. One evening, — 
whilst listening to it from a window, and watching the men ~ 
and women going to and fro, I suddenly perceived that | 
soldiers had taken possession of all the approaches leading to | 
the band, and were encircling the crowd on all sides. They | 
seized all the young men who were present, and carried them | 
off to the Government coralle, where they passed the night, 
and where next morning they had either to pay a fine if they | 
possessed any money, or to volunteer if they did not. | 
Then there came a proclamation that fire-arms were | 
required, and that five dollars would be given for any © 
weapon that would shoot; but if this proclamation failed, 
and the police had to come and fetch them, no money would — 
be paid. Thus the unfortunate people were stripped of | 
their arms, while robbers infested the country, and Apaches 
made raids upon them, almost to the gates of Hermosillo. — 
Ifow crest-fallen and dejected these volunteers looked — 
as they marched through the streets, armed with old flint- 
locks, broadswords, or any other weapon they could obtain ! 
Their pay was a mere farce, for after years of service — 
they would, on dismissal, receive a draft for the sums 
due to them, to be cashed when the treasury had been re- 
plenished—which meant, never. As this kidnapping of young — 
men for the army has been going on year after year, it has 
produced so great an inequality of sexes amongst the Mexican 
population that in Hermosillo there are seven females for 
_ eyery one male. 
