COPPER MINES. 
317 
Dalgadoto . — What will you give ? 
Commissioner , — ^If my brethren will come with me 
I will show them. 
Here the council dissolved and repaired to the com- 
missary’s stores, attended by the Mexican purchaser, 
where goods to the amount of two hundred and fifty 
dollars were laid out, which they accepted, and thus 
the business was concluded. 
Under no other circumstances would I have been 
instrumental in remunerating these Indians for their 
captives : but in the present state of the Boundary 
Survey, this affair, had it not been amicably adjusted, 
might have proved a most serious obstacle to the pros- 
ecution of our duties. 
The Indians remained encamped on both sides of 
us in large force. Mangus Colorado with his band, 
being on the west about four miles off, and -Dalgadito 
at the distance of eight miles near the Mimbres, where, 
on account of the superior grass in the valley of that 
stream, the greater portion of our horses and mules 
were kept. It was therefore completely in the power 
of the Indians to drive them all ofi*, if they were so 
disposed. In promising them our friendship, I told 
them that they must deserve it by protecting our 
animals ; and if unfriendly Indians should attempt to 
steal them, they must restore them to us. This they 
promised to do, and they faithfully adhered to their 
undertaking. Once, some of our animals were stolen, 
^ These boys were not detained a moment at the camp of the Mexi- 
can Commissioner, but sent to Janos, the nearest military post in 
Mexico, from whence they were taken to their families. 
