480 
LONG MARCH 
Book III. 
Mexican girl, carried off by the Apaches, by the North- 
American boundary commissioner. 1 
I was tempted to penetrate several miles alone into the 
mountains, whilst our caravan was passing the mouth of 
this hollow. My adventurous ride, on a beaten Indian trail, 
trusting to the swiftness of my horse and my excellent arms, 
led me into a mountain-scene of great interest and beauty, 
shut out from the world. The rocks, consisting of a bluish, 
yellowish, and greenish grey pearl-stone, presented twisted 
and elongated stripes, similar to half-melted glass. Here 
and there I started a herd of stags, but did not venture to 
fire, for fear of betraying my presence to the Indians in 
the vicinity. 
In this part of the country the road makes a bend 
due south, and crossing the most north-eastern spur of the 
Great Sierra Madre, in the Guadalupe Pass, famous for its 
difficulty, it leads through Santa Cruz, San Xavier del Bac, 
Tubac, and Tucson, the three latter places of which have 
since then been incorporated in the territory of the United 
States, with the so-called " Gadsden Purchase." But a 
man of the name of Leroux had tried successfully a 
much shorter line, which, cutting off the whole bend, leads 
straight to Tucson, and which since has come into use 
under the name of Leroux's Boute. It had been our in- 
tention to take this shorter road, on which as yet, however, 
there were no waggon- tracks. At El Paso we made the 
acquaintance of a man with a large drove of cattle, on his 
way to California, and who had obtained all the neces- 
sary particulars relating to the route. This man (and I 
mention the circumstance as characteristic of the state of 
1 The account of Inez Gonzales, 
which is only one of a thousand similar 
stories that happen in the north of 
Mexico, may be seen in Bartlett's ' Per- 
sonal Narrative,' in Chapters xiii., xvu., 
and xviii. of Vol. II. 
