382 THE PEON SYSTEM. Book II. 
places would soon be filled by those who remained. " Que 
muchacheria !" " what a housefull of girls !" exclaimed 
Dominguez, as upon our arrival we were surrounded by 
a dozen young women ; while the court swarmed with 
children, of whom these were the mothers. I could not 
discover a proportionate number of fathers. But be that 
as it may, large families are common in this country. At 
Santo Tomas I saw a very young-looking woman who was 
the mother of eight children. 
Temosachic was the farthest extent of our journey. The 
river here breaks to the west through such a narrow cleft 
of the Sierra Madre that the opening is scarcely per- 
ceptible, and one wonders to where it goes. The village 
of Yepomera, a few miles farther north, is the last in this 
region of the State of Chihuahua. An uninhabited dis- 
trict, with the ruins of buildings destroyed by the Apaches, 
with wild cattle, the remains of former herds, extends 
towards Corralitos, Casas Grandes, and Yanos, the most 
northern limits of the State, whither a rarely-used road 
leads from hence. There are many springs in the valley, 
near Temosachic and Yepomera ; and some of these are 
sufficiently warm to promote the growth of the grass in 
winter, a great advantage for the cattle of these villages. 
The course of my narrative affords me an opportunity 
of showing how the peon system influences the existence of 
the Mexican people. 
A respectable man in Temosachic had from time to 
time bought goods of Don Guillermo in Chihuahua, who 
had never hesitated to give him credit for a few hundred 
dollars, and the debt was always paid at the expiration of 
the term. The man died, and his son came to Chihuahua 
with a letter, written apparently by his dying father, in 
which he requested the merchant to show his son the same 
