Chap. XII. SHEEP HEEDED WITH ARTILLEEY. 397 
an illumination every night by the burning of the prairie. 
Fortunately the grass in this region is neither thick nor 
long, or we should have been often in danger, and, as it 
was, we were several times in great anxiety as to the 
safety of our ammunition. We encamped the first night 
near the buildings of the Rancho del Sause, which belongs 
to the hacienda of Encinillas. On the morning of that day 
the Apaches had murdered a man there. A flock of 6000 
sheep were grazing here, under cover of two pieces of artil- 
lery, which, one on each side the flock, were driven up 
and down the plain. A few weeks later, however, as I 
returned from El Paso, the space before the buildings was 
covered with dead and dying sheep. Nothing remained 
of the large flock ; and the guns were without horses. 
The women came out to us weeping and lamenting. A 
band of Apaches had attacked the flock, killed the shep- 
herds, put to flight the artillerymen, driven the larger por- 
tion of the flock into the mountains, and for amusement 
had speared about 100 — a pleasure which these savages 
never deny themselves on such occasions. A few days 
afterwards, these savages were in their turn surprised by 
the inhabitants of the village San Andreas, the stolen 
sheep retaken, and sixteen or eighteen Apache scalps 
brought away in triumph to Chihuahua. In May I under- 
took a journey from Chihuahua to the Presidio del Norte. 
On the second day we arrived at the Hacienda de 
Bachimba, where we found its inhabitants in the greatest 
state of excitement. The Apaches had just murdered on 
the road, quite near, a party of men, women, and children 
— in all fourteen — who were returning from the warm 
baths at Julimas. The bodies of four women were found 
pierced by lances, stripped, and with their hair tied in a 
knot ; the children had been dashed against the rocks ; 
