TO LA MAGDALENA. 
415 
shrubbery. Cotton-wood trees and sycamores of a 
large size grew along the margin of the stream, and 
at intervals were found in groups. The grass every 
where was rich and abundant. It was really sad to 
see so beautiful a region reverting to the condition of a 
wilderness in consequence of the attacks of ruthless 
marauders. We now approached the dreaded canon, 
where our fair captive, Inez Gonzales, had been taken 
and her companions murdered, one year and seven 
days before. Our Mexican companions had been talk- 
ing of it all the morning ; and as we drew nearer and 
were about to enter the defile, they huddled more 
closely together, each fearful of taking the lead, or of 
being ten feet from the rest. They were going to the 
same fair as before ; and it was believed that the Apa- 
ches, knowing of the large numbers that annually col- 
lected at Magdalena, were on the watch for their victims 
in all the mountain passes, where they could lie in ambush 
and throw their lances or arrows at the passing travel- 
ler. We soon came to a spot where, in a dense thicket 
of forest and shrubbery, our attention was directed to 
a rude cross. Here was the fatal spot where, on the 
occasion above referred to, the savages rushed from 
their ambuscade, shooting several of the Mexicans with 
their muskets, and piercing others with their long 
lances, before they could recover themselves and act 
on the defensive. Within twenty feet of the path ran 
the stream, whose mysterious murmuring beneath the 
dense foliage seemed a fit appendage to such a deed 
of blood. The mountains here on either side of the 
defile approached within a hundred feet of the path ; 
though in some places they are much nearer, and rise 
