his
stratagem that they were good and peacable ever after. The Government
allowed them to reoccupy their native haunts and granted them a
reservation of seventy-five miles square. These Indians are blood
relatives to the savage Apaches. They speak the same language, as they
are also of Mongolian origin. They came originally from Asia in an
unexplained manner and over an unknown route. They have always been the
enemies of the Pueblo Indians, who are descendants of the Toltec and
Aztec races. Unlike the Pueblo Indians, who live in villages and
maintain themselves with agricultural pursuits, the Navajos are nomads
and born herdsmen.

The Navajo tribe is quite wealthy now, as they possess many thousands
of sheep and goats, and they are famed for their quaint and beautiful
blankets and homespun, which they weave on their hand looms from the
wool of their sheep. They owned large herds of horses, beautiful
ponies, a crossed breed of mustangs and Mormon stock, which latter they
had stolen in their raids on the Mormon settlements in Utah. As saddle
horses, these ponies are unexcelled for endurance under rough service.

Mentally the Navajo is very wide awake and capable of shrewd practices,
as shown by the following incident, which happened to my personal
knowledge.

A tall, gaudily appareled Indian, mounting a beautiful pony, came to
town and offered for sale at our store several gold nuggets the size of
hazelnuts. He took care to do this publicly, so as to attract the
attention of some Mexicans, who became immensely excited at the sight
of the gold and began to question him at once in order to ascertain how
and whence he had obtained the golden nuggets. They almost fought for
the privilege of taking him as an honored guest to their respective
homes. The Indian was very non-committal as regarded his gold mine, but
very willing to accept the sumptuous hospitality so freely rendered
him. He was soon passed on from one disappointed Mexican to another,
who in turn fared no better and invariably sped the parting guest to
the door of his nearest neighbor. When the Indian had made the circuit
of the town in this manner he looked very sleek and happy, indeed, but
the people were no wiser. The knowledge of having been shamefully
buncoed by an Indian and disappointed in their lust for gold made the
Mexicans desperate. They held an indignation meeting and resolved to
capture the wily Navajo and compel him, under torture, if necessary, t