Chap. III. MEETING WITH APACHES. 463 
much tobacco. We are poor and peaceable : we also like 
smoking tobacco. We are your friends." A liberal pre- 
sent of tobacco then sealed our terms of peace and friend- 
ship. Old Soldadito took great pains to make me 
understand that we had no longer anything to fear from 
them. He laid his head in his hand, with his eyes shut, 
whilst pronouncing the word " Seguro !" in order to give 
me to understand that we might sleep in safety. "Don't 
you think," he added, through the interpreter, " that we 
could have plundered you and killed many of you ? We 
have watched you for many days, and have been in your 
neighbourhood. But we are not ill-disposed to you : you 
can travel on without fear ; yon will not see us any more." 
At first the whole troop — which had been considerably 
increased by the women and boys who had come up, and 
who were as well armed as the men- — wanted to accompany 
us to the watering-place ; but, on our objecting to this, the 
chiefs at once yielded to our wishes. One of them said a 
few words to his people, and immediately the whole troop 
dispersed, singly or in couples, to all sides ; and, in fact, 
we did not see them again. Before and behind us they 
have robbed and murdered, but from us they have not 
taken a single mule. 
After the excitement of the day, and our previous suffer- 
ings from the weather, we passed a tranquil night at our 
watering-place, which refreshed and rested both man and 
beast. For four days we continued our journey through 
the Limpia defiles, until we came out on to the plateau 
west of the mountain-chain on the 3rd of March. The 
topographical details of this journey would tire the reader 
too much, and I have already given a general description 
of the natural features of this remarkable country. 
One great evil, from which we had suffered sufficiently 
