Chap. XI. CANADA DEL FKESNO. 365 
it, found the way so beset with crosses as to resemble a 
graveyard ; and he ordered them to be taken down and 
burned, saying that the sight of them made men cowards. 
But since that time the number of these Memento Mori 
has quite sufficiently increased to make travellers familiar 
with the thought of death. Fortunately, we reached 
the higher ground without accident, where herds of cattle 
were grazing, and from whence we could see the fine 
buildings of the hacienda de los Charcos. This beautiful 
and valuable estate belongs to Don Estanislao Porras, 
whose name I have already mentioned in a foregoing 
chapter. He was at this time erecting a strong building 
at the upper end of the Canada, in which travellers might 
find shelter and safety from the savages. The building 
was almost completed as we passed. But four weeks 
later, when we had returned safe and unmolested to Chi- 
huahua, it was seized in the night by a band of Apaches, 
who attacked from it, in the early dawn, a passing caravan, 
and murdered from twelve to fifteen persons. In the 
savannah above, we saw another evidence of Don E. Porras' 
enterprising activity. It was a canal he had cut from the 
mountains to the north-east, as far as the road, a distance of 
at least eight or ten miles, in order to irrigate the inter- 
vening land, which is all his property. But the Apaches 
had actually made use of this as an intrenchment, in order 
to reach the road unperceived, and, lying in the hollow, had 
thence shot down some passing travellers. 
Before proceeding farther in my narrative, I must 
remark that the character of the vegetation in the south- 
west portion of the State of Chihuahua changes greatly. 
The chaparral of the steppes of the Rio Grande, which ex- 
tends north-west down the Gila to the Californian, and 
south-east to the Mexican gulf, disappears from the moister 
