322 DESERTERS FROM FORT FILLMORE. Book II. 
safety than an estate can be cultivated, for the Apaches 
prefer exercising their marauding propensities upon flocks 
and shepherds to attacking a house. Here I received a 
very practical warning as to the need for caution upon the 
high road, through the most populous parts of New Mexico. 
I had remained at Fletcher's Rancho about half an hour 
after our caravan had started, and was riding after it, when 
I met two North Americans with whom I exchanged a 
few words. Some days afterwards, at El Paso, I learned 
that they had been murdered by some Indians, at no great 
distance from the spot where I had spoken to them. 
Fort Fillmore, which is merely a military station, had 
at this time a garrison of 200 infantry and 200 dragoons. 
We encamped two miles lower down the valley, where its 
breadth is very great, and where the river divides, enclosing 
an island of many square miles in extent, between its 
branches. A German soldier from the fort came to us here. 
He complained of bad treatment, but his jovial, well-fed 
appearance, and excellent clothing, formed a ludicrous 
contrast to his words. He carried a fine hunting-gun, and 
intended to improve his dinner by shooting a hare or a 
wild turkey, such game abounding in the valley. But 
his immediate purpose was to desert ; and I actually met 
him some time later on Mexican territory, whither be 
and several of his companions at Fillmore, all with good 
arms and excellent horses, had made their way. At 
Chihuahua the higher Mexican officers had beautiful 
American horses, which had all crossed the frontier in 
this manner, and been bought for a mere trifle. I ques- 
tioned this man as to the causes of his discontent, and 
learned that they arose from some arbitrary diminution of 
the extra pay allowed for field and building work, — a kind 
of labour occasionally required of the garrison of a fort. 
