kettle of the water. It was horrible stuff, but we must have some of
it, and climbing an hour we reached, the pooh All around it the sand-
stone had been trodden to powder and was drifting into the water,
which was green, slimy, full of vile poUywogs, and looked and smelt
as if ten thousand goats had waded through it. The horse and burro
drank with many sniffs and brute protests, and John and I downed a
pint or so each ; but it was a signal triumph- of catholic stomachs over
protesting noses. We had no more than reached the plain till both
of us were sick, and in an hour I dismounted, unable to ride further.
John ran about in great distress, gathered some dry yellow flowers,
and burnt them under my nose, producing a violent sneezing and
retching. Placing his hand on my stomach, he indicated, by most
expressive signs, that "it must come up.^' Having lighted my pipe
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WILD LIFE IN ARIZONA. 263
and placed it in my mouthy he moistened some tobacco and placed it
under my arms and on the pit of my stomach. The convulsion was
terrible^ but the vile water did come up.
Two hours more and my thirst, aggravated by the previous sickness,
became intolerable. John decided that we must climb the mountain
to our right, to another " pocket '' which contained good water. We
toiled upward for a thousand feet, to a point where a soft limestone
reef broke across the sand-mountain. Here he pointed out a black
pass between two rocks, and leaving our horses we entered it to find a
beautiful pool of cold, clear water, nearly a rod square and completely
covered by overhanging rocks. Here we drank, filled the canteens,
and rested until the moon was high enough to light us back to the
plain. My horse either smelt the water or heard its splash, and
uttered a low pleading whinny that went to my heart. It was im-
possible to get him under the rocky arch into the cave, and I had no
vessel but a tin-cup. I tried that, but could not even moisten his
tongue; I wet my handkerchief and tried to "swab" his mouth; he
chewed it to rags and bit my finger in the operation. About to give
up in despair, I thought of my wool hat, and filled that for him. It
fitted his mouth admirably, and by eleven trips with it he was satis-
fied. Half a dozen hatfuls sufficed for the 6u?*}*o, and we worked our
vay down hill again. But this time my Navajo's sense of locality
&iled him, and on the steepest part he took the wrong chute, pulling
up hid hurro just in time to avoid his plunging head first into a ravine,
but not in time to save himself, as the saddle girth gave way just at
tie wrong moment. As he went head first into a pile of bowlders and
^^^t I looked on in horror, fully satisfied that I was left alone in this
ferribJe place ; but he sprang up instantly, and with a silly smile, and
^'ahy vah, Melicano, mcUOf mahl^' remounted and rode on, only rub-
Ojng- iiig crown occasionally.
letting back to the plain, we continued our former course south-
^^t along the foot of the mesa. My eyelids began to droop with
^^rtoess, and for fear I should drop off my horse in sleep, I loosed
^ ^^et, and raising the stirrup leathers, wrapped them about each
7^' The position was not fistvorable to sleep, nor could I keep en-
. ^y awake; and soon I suffered from that queer symptom of dream-
5 Mrith the eyes wide open, and fixed upon the very object of my
f^^*^. The bright moonlight fell upon the projecting peaks of the
^ 8^ to our right, and I endeavored to keep awake by contemplating
^^^ beauty ; but as I gazed I saw suddenly a score of bright, clear
*^^^s dashing down as many gulches, and a broad aavanna on the
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264 WESTERN WILDS.
plain below, rich and green with inviting grass. I shouted to the
guide: ^^Kloh! Toh!^^ (grass, water), and jerking up my horse,
pitched forward on his neck and awoke. I braced myself more firmly
to keep awake, and in a few moments, looking on a rock a little ahead,
I saw a hideous painted Indian bound out from behind it and take
position in the sflg^-brush near the trail. I yelled to the guide and
grabbed my gun, and just as the hammer was clicking under my hand,
Indian and rock disappeared, and the answering shout of the guide
brought me to my waking senses. I knew there was not a hostile
Indian in fifty miles, so, for fear I would shoot my own horse, I gave
the gun to the Navajo, and again resolved to keep awake. He still
pointed ahead for grass, but indicated that it was now ^^pokeeto" (a
little way). While gazing on a sand ridge we were crossing, I
seemed to see it covered with gmss and flowers, and shouting that this
was the place, reined up my horse suddenly, and again butted him in
the back of the head, at the imminent risk of giving us both the poll-
evil.
At last, near midnight, we reached the little oasis I had anticipated
in so many fitful dreams. There was abundant bunch-grass but no
water, and we made a "dry camp.'* While the Navajo hoppled the
horses, I wrapped my blankets about me, laid my head upon my sad-
dle, and in two minutes was sound asleep. It seemed that I had
scarcely closed my eyes when I was awakened by a " Hah-hohy Mdi^
cano/^' and, starting up, saw my Navajo holding the animals ready
to mount, and pointing to the east, already rosy with the coming dawn.
Moving his hand thence towards a point half way to the zenith,
he remarked: ^^ Kloh, tohf No calor/' Navajo, Spanish and sign-
language, meaning in full: "By starting now we shall reach grass and
water the middle of the forenoon, and before the heat of the day.''
Nevertheless, I decided that a cup of coffee would help things, as
there was sage-brush enough for a fire, and a pint of water still in the
canteen.
Aft^r coffee and bread, we found the morning ride delightful, and
through a better country which produced considerable grass. The
valley slowly narrowed to a mere pass; beyond the rugged jaws of
this red cafion there opened an extensive plain, and in its center rose
an oval mesa, which the guide designated as Moqui. We made our
midday halt at the point of the mountain; but when the guide indi-
cated grass and water up and over a perfectly bare white sand-hill, I
shook my head. He only smiled, and led the way. With frequent
rests to our horses, we had toiled up and over the rising sand-hills for
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WILD LIFE IN ABIZONA. 265
something like a mile^ when a sudden descent brought us into a cir-
cular hollow, containing half a dozen shrubs and nearly an acre of
densely matted grass. At the foot of the cliff was a slight moisture,
and pointing to a black rock which appeared nearly five hundred feet
straight above us, the guide intimated th^e was our spring. Every
thing was stripped from the animals except the lariats, but how we
ever got them up that hill is a mystery to me; but we did, and found
plenty of good water, brought down our supply, and remained in this
camp until 3 P. M. We cooked a fresh supply of bread, ate a big
dinner, and enjoyed a delightful "laze" in the shadow of a big rock.
We here overhauled our kit, brushed up a little, and put on our
best gear for a visit; and, when the aflemoon breeze had sprung up,
entered upon the sandy plain, and followed a slight trail towards the
meao. Occasional depressions were filled with yellow bunch-grass, but
most of the plain was of hard, bare white sand, seeming to literally
bake in the heat of the sun. Approaching the foot of the mesa we
found the sand a little more loose and dark. Here I noticed rows of
stones a foot or so apart, and was amazed to find, on examination, we
were in a Moqui^' field. By every little hill of com or beans they had
laid a stone^^e object being to mark the spot during the long period
between pmnting and the appearance of the shoot above ground.
From the foot-hills I gazed with astonishment upon the perpendic-
ular walls and projecting clifib of the mesa^ rising a thousand feet
above me. It is little over half a mile long and half as wide, and
rises abruptly from the plain on every side; around it run gal-
leries and foot-paths, winding in and out upon the crevices and pro-
jecting shelves of rock ; and fistr above my head, as it seemed almost
in midair, I saw goat-pens upon the very fiau^e of the cliff, opening
back into dark cool caves, where the stock is inclosed at night. Here
and there was to be seen a Moqui woman toiling wearily up the rocky
gallery with a water-jug strapped upon her back.
It was a strange sight. I was thrilled at the thought that I was
looking upon the chosen stronghold of the most peculiai" race of Amer-
ican Indians: a city about which conjecture and romance had taken
the place of knowledge, a country vaguely described by hunters, but
never by careful writers, and therefore one the very existence of which
is often pronounced fabulous. It is perhaps the strongest natural
fortification in the world. Around the entire mesa there is but one
narrow way that a horse can ascend, and on that, at a score of points,
a squad of boys with nothing but stones could defy the cavalry of the
world. The springs which supply the community are situated around
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266 WESTERN WILDS.
the base of the highest cliffs, where the foot-hills begin, but so far up
that most of them can not be reached by horses from below; and
even most of their little fields are hidden among the foot-hills, and
only to be found from above. From the general level of the plain to
the flat top of the meBa I estimate at a thousand feet. Half of this
rise is by a succession of rolling sand ridges, and then we come to a
perpendicular cliff, only surmountable by these rock-hewn galleries.
The community owns neither horses nor cattle; nothing but goats, and
equally agile burros, can surmount the obstacles of such a situation.
We entered upon the ascent in a hot and narrow pass between two
sand ridges, and soon reached the first spring, below which was a suc-
cession of walled fields. Each field was about three rods wide and six
long, and contained some three hundred hills of corn; they were
built up against the sand ridge, a stone wall four or five feet high
forming at once the division for one and support for the dirt in the
next, the fields rising in a succession of terraces. The feeble stream
was exhausted before it passed the second field, and it is only in the
night that the lower ones can be irrigated. Farther down, where there
is no water, the Moqui digs a hole in the sand eighteen or twenty
inches deep, and plants his corn where a slight moisture has perco-
lated from above. We passed the slope, and were about to enter
on the gallery road, when a Moqui shouted to us from directly over-
head, and in obedience to his directions, though at the imminent risk
of our necks, the guide turned down a rocky foot-path to another gal-
lery. A few steps showed us that a vast sand-rock had fidlen across
the other road, and a new one had been built.
As we turned the last groove in the gallery, and, almost before we
were aware of it, the houses looking so much like stone, we were
right in the first town, all the men of which seemed to be absent. At
Defiance I was told to ask for Chino, the Capitan of this mesa, before
I talked to any one else ; so I shouted to call out some one. A woman
came on top of the nearest house, and seeing me immediately set up
a cry of jokowf johowl Then from every house women and children,
with occasionally a man or good-sized boy, came running on to the
house-tops and down the ladders to the street, while the cry went
ahead from house to house, jokoto / jokow / jokow I A population of
several hundred was soon crowding about me, or gazing in astonish-
ment from the house-tops ; the women were chattering and exclaiming,
and the children when I rode near a house yelling with fright, and
altogether we were creating a decided sensation. Again I called for
Chino, and a dozen boys jumped into the road and ran along the
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WILD LIFE IN ARIZONA.
267
clifl^ beckoning me to follow. We passed through the first town, the
ivhole population following in a tumultuous mass, and in the second
town — a hundred yards on — found and were admitted to the lower
part of Chino's house. He was not at home, but they let us into an
extension of his dwelling, containing but one story, where we de-
posited our packs. Twenty boys and women were already on the
house-top, jostling each other to look through the square opening at
us ; as many more were crowding into the room, and about four hun-
dred were outside struggling for a good place.
It is not pleasant to be stared at, even by barbarians, and I was
greatly relieved when a tall old fellow,^ with a merry twinkle in his
^ye, arrived, addressed me in pretty good Spanish, and intimated that
he did the talking for Chino when stranger^ came. His name, which
he had on a card written by some white man, was Misiamtewah; he
had visited the Mormon settlements and Santa Fe, and could speak
Spanish, Moqui, Tegua and a little English and Navajo, besides being
fluent in the sign language. I cultivated his acquaintance at once.
Cbino soon arrived, and assured me, per Misiamtewah, that this was
tny town, my house, my country as long as I wanted to stay, and
assigned me quarters in a very comfortable room, one they usually
reserve for white visitors. We stored our baggage, sent out our
animals to graze with the common herd, opened our provisions and
*ook supper with Chino and hig son. I was in pleasant quarters again,
^Jjrf devoted a few days to rest, study of these peculiar people, and
Jotting down notes on my trip through the two Territories, for all of
^Uch see next chapter.
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CHAPTER XVIL
AMONG THE AZTECS.
Ahizona and the western half of New Mexico constitute a vast par-
allelogram^ down the center of which, as dividing water-shed, runs
the Sierra Madre range. From its summit, varying from seven to
ten thousand feet high, the country fiiUs off each way in a succession
of plateaus to the two great rivers. The traveler proceeding west-
ward from the Rio Grande, over an almost level mesa, sees rising be-
fore him a range of rocky hills from a hundred to a thousand feet
high, and naturally looks for a corresponding descent on the western
side. Instead, on reaching the summit, he finds again the level, bar-
ren mesa spreading away before him, till its sandy and glistening sur^
face &des into the blue horizon. Across this succession of terraced
plateaus a few valleys put out eastward, and in the lowest portions of
these, where some running water is found, are the only cultivable
lands. A series of such valleys, connected by singular natural passes,
furnish a feasible route for the Thirty-fiflh Parallel Road.
Still, there is a sort of regularity on the New Mexican side; but
far otherwise west of the summit There the high plateaus are broken
across by awful chasms; gorges with perpendicular sides go winding
tortuously through the formation ; all the streams run in great cafions
from two to five thousand feet in depth, with bottoms from one to
four thousand feet above the level of the sea. Here and there the
barren plateau appears to drop suddenly to a level plain, and rocky
ranges of hills inclose an oval valley, walled in on every side by inac-
cessible mountains, and with passes out only up or down the beds of
ancient streams, long since dry. It is the oldest country on e^rth, ex-
cept perhaps the " back-bone '* of Central Africa ; natural convulsions
have slowly heaved it fiir above the region of abundant rains or
dews, and the great Colorado, with its affluents, has for ages been
slowly cutting deeper and deeper channels in the sandstone formation,
tapping the sources of the springs at lower points, and steadily suck-
ing the life out of its own basin. On the rocky hills are still some
fine forests; on the slopes the Indians find abundant bunch-grass and
wild sage for their hardy animals ; and, at rare intervals, a hidden
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AMONG THE AZTECS. 269
valley is found, low enough to have a growing season without frost,
with water enough for irrigation, its soil the volcanic detritus of neigh-
boring hills, and of wonderful fertility. Perhaps one-fortieth of the
entire area is fit for agriculture.
ON THB MESA CALABASA.
Three races inhabit this strange region. The white Americans of
both Territories number, perhaps, twenty thousand ; the Mexicans at
least a hundred thousand. The latter are the result of miscegenation
between the Spanish conquerors and the aborigines, the blood being
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270 WESTERN WILDS.
about half and half; but the aristocracy have more Spanish, the peons
more Indian. The pure Indians of all the South-west are div^ided
in two general classes — Pueblos and Nomads. The first are all
friendly, including the Zunis, Moquis, Teguas, Oraybes, Papagoes,
Pimos and Coco-Maricopas. Of the Nomads, the Navajoes are now
friendly, the Apaches and Comanches fiercely hostile, and the Utes a
little doubtful, but nominally peaceful. In the southern sections, the
San Francisco, White and MagoUon Mountains and their spurs
break up the country into a thousand hidden valleys, in which the
murderous Apaches hide and graze their stock ; the few trails go twist-
ing through narrow cafions, in which, at most unexpected places, the
savages let fly upon the unwary traveler a shower of poisoned arrows;
and dreary intervals of desert separate the scant water-holes on w^hich
the way-worn explorer must depend.
On the map Arizona appears to have abundance of water, but it is
an optical illusion. Nine-tenths of the so-called " rivers " are dry ; in
the four hundred miles between Agua Azu and Lee's Ferry, on the
Colorado, I crossed eleven considerable river-beds, and saw running
water in but one place. The Colorado is barely navigable for part of
the year, and not far up, as Brigliam Young found to his cost when he
built the Callville warehouses. The channel is crooked and changea-
ble below the caflon, rocky and full of cataracts in the cafton, shallow
and impassable above it. Practically it is useless above Fort Yuma.
For fifteen hundred miles it will float no boats ; there is no timber on
its banks that can be got at or is worth getting, no gold deposits in
its bars, no fish in it worth catching, no quarries along it that o^n be
utilized, and no land that can be cultivated. It is purely an orna-
mental stream.
Along the Gila (Heelah) live the semi-civilized Pimos, Maricopas
and Papagoes. They cultivate the earth with some skill, and produce
abundance of wheat, corn, pumpkiqs and melons. Like all the Pu-
eblos the men are scrupulously honest — the women virtuous to a most
un-Indian degree. They are \rell supplied with horses, cattle, sheep
and goats, are exposed to Apache raids, and freely join with the
whites in fighting the latter. The Papagoes took a very prominent
part in the notorious Camp Grant massacre. At first these Indians
were delighted at the coming of the whites ; now they are sullen and
uncommunicative, saying that the agents have defrauded them and
tried to debauch their women. Probably correct.
The nomadic tribes, except the Navajoes, are dying off at a very
satisfactory rate. The Yavapais have four natural deaths to one
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I orm-
AMONG THE AZTECS.
271
birth. One-tenth of the Moha ves have died annually for some years.
It is rare to see one of this tribe entirely free from the scrofulous
taint. The whole Apache race numbers less than 7,000; 2,000 war-
riors is the utmost they can raise. Forty years ago they numbered
'CONVERTED ON THE SPOT.'
_ >0Oo, and could easily collect 4,000 warriors for a grand raid into
^^ioo. But they are incurably wild, and often hunted like wild
^ts, For the most part they attack white men at sight, and many
, ^^e fearful tragedies enacted in these wilds. When an Apache is
^^^ the white settlers, in gleeful sarcasm of Collyer and other " hu-
^itarians," speak of him as "converted," or *^ civilized on the spot."
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272 WESTERN WILDS.
Among the Arizona Indians there are no strong tribal organiza-
tions, and no men of much influence. The hostile parties are not
made up from any one clique or small settlement, nor do the members
join at the command of a chief; but some ambitious leader s'^nds
word that he will start on a raid, and invites the braves of the vicin-
ity to join. It is therefore impossible to govern the tribes through
the chiefs in the manner practiced east of the Rocky Mountains.
To all these remarks the Navajoes constitute an encouraging ex-
ception. They are the original Romans of New Mexico. Spanish
accounts say that at the Conquest a branch of the ancient Mexican
Indians, disdaining to submit, took refuge in the hidden valleys and
on the inaccessible plateaus of the Sierra Madre ; there they joined a
wild tribe of the Athabascan stock, and from the union of the two
sprang the present Navajoes. Kindred, on the Athabascan side, of the
Shoshonees, Comanches, Apaches and Arapahoes, they have all the
bravery and best qualities of the wild tribes, while from the old Aztec
or Toltec blood they inherit a peculiar civilization, fair habits of in-
dustry and thrift, and something like a spirit of progress. For two
hundred years they carried on almost perpetual war with the Span-
iards; then a sort of peace was patched up and continued till the
Americans got control of the country, and established agencies. Then
war followed, of course. It lasted seven years, and did not end till
General \V. H. Carleton, in 1863-'64, had destroyed all their or-
chards and corn-fields, killed their sheep and goats, and literally starved
them out.
Barboncito, thefir. great chief, a born diplomat, succeeded in 1868
in making a very advantageous treaty with General Sherman; and
since then the tribe has slowly built up again. Before the war they
numbered 12,000, and it is claimed they owned over a million sheep
and goats, and at least 30,000 horses. Even now there are few adults
in the tribe who do not own one or more horses each. Ganado
Mucho ("Big Herd"), a prominent chief, owns four hundred. In
1870 they began farming under direction of the agent, but so far it
has not been much of an improvement on their own system. In
1871 they planted extensively, and had a young orchard growing
finely, wh«i, on the night of May 31st, a storm of sleet killed every
tree. The seeds furnished by the department were utterly unsuited
to this altitude, and they have returned to their old system. The
country appears to get dryer year by year. It is a pity they could
not be transferred en masse to the Indian Territory.
They work in iron, wool and leather ; but to no great extent, ex-
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AMONG THE AZTECS. 273
cept in the second. Of this they make blankets, which arc the
wonder of all who see them. The loom is rude and primitive, con-
sisting only of beams to which two sticks are lashed; on these the
warp, or " chain," is stretched" very tight, the two sets of strands
crossing in the middle. This, with two loose sticks, dividing the
" chain," and a curved board, looking like a barrel stave with the
edges rounded, constitute the entire loom. The squaw sits before this
NAVAJO LOOM.
with her balls of yarn for " filling" conveniently arranged, works
them through the strands, and beats them firmly together with the
loose board, running it in between the strands with singular dexterity.
The woolen yarn for " filling " is made from their own sheep, gen-
erally, and is of three colors — black, white and red, from native col-
oring. Running these together by turns, with nimble fingers, the
squaw brings out on the blanket squares, diamonds, circles and fanci-
ful curves, and flowers of three colors, with a skill which is simply
amazing. Two months are required to complete an ordinary blanket,
five feet wide and eight long, which sells at from fifteen to fifty dol-
lars, according to the style of materials. At the Fort, officers who
18
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274 WESTERN WILDS.
wish an unusually fine 'article, furnish both " chain ^* and "filling,"
but those entirely of Navajo make are very fine. One will outlast
a life-time ; and though rolled in the mud, or daubed with grease for
months or years, till every vestige of color seems gone, when washed
with the soap-weed {moU cactus) the bright native colors come out as
beautiful as ever.