492 SANTA CRUZ. Book ill. 
place since leaving the valley of the Rio Grande. The 
North American travellers who accompanied us had pre- 
ceded us to this little town, following the road to the moun- 
tains. They had succeeded in penetrating through them, 
and reaching Santa Cruz, and had had the good sense 
to send to meet us a native, to whom the road was 
known. This man conducted us round the mountain, and 
we came into a beautiful valley, shaded by splendid ash- 
trees, walnuts, poplars and plantains. Behind the grassy 
hills in the vicinity, with here and there a few oaks, arose 
lofty and steep mountains, their summits crowned with 
pine forests. The whole country looked cleared and 
orderly as if it had been cultivated for a century. But 
a heap of the remains of burned waggons reminded us 
that we were still in a wilderness, where the Apaches still 
practise their ill deeds with impunity. We spent the night 
in this fine valley ; and, as our people shot two wild oxen, 
there was plenty both for man and beast. Crossing some 
flat grassy heights, with groups of gigantic agaves, we 
arrived the next day in the valley of Santa Cruz, one of 
the most beautiful parts of northern Sonora. 
