en than of the daring of its bravest
warriors. "A virtuous man," they say, "has the ear of the Manitou, he
can tell him the sufferings of Indian nature, and ask him to soothe
them."

Even the Mexicans, who, of all men, have had most to suffer and suffer
daily from the Apaches, [What I here say of the Apaches applies to the
whole Shoshone race.] cannot but do them the justice they so well
deserve. The road betwixt Chihuahua and Santa Fe is almost entirely
deserted, so much are the Apaches dreaded; yet they are not hated by the
Mexicans half as much as the Texians or the Americans. The Apaches are
constantly at war with the Mexicans, it is true, but never have they
committed any of those cowardly atrocities which have disgraced every
page of Texian history. With the Apaches there are no murders in cold
blood, no abuse of the prisoners; a captive knows that he will either
suffer death or be adopted in the tribe; but he has never to fear the
slow fire and the excruciating torture so generally employed by the
Indians in the United States' territories.

Their generosity is unbounded, and by the treatment I received at their
hands the reader may form an idea of that brave people. They will never
hurt a stranger coming to them: a green bough in his hand is a token of
peace; for him they will spread the best blankets the wigwam can afford,
they will studiously attend to his wants, smoke with him the calumet of
peace, and when he goes away, whatever he may desire from among the
disposable wealth of the tribe, if he asks for it, it is given.

Gabriel was once attacked near Santa Fe, and robbed of his baggage by
some honest Yankee traders. He fell in with a party of Apaches, to whom
he related the circumstance. They gave him some blankets and left him
with their young men at the hunting-lodges they had erected. The next
day they returned with several Yankee captives, all well tied, to
prevent any possibility of escape. These were the thieves, and what
they had taken of Gabriel was of course restored to him. One of the
Indians saying, that the Yankees, having blackened and soiled the
country by theft, should receive the punishment of dogs, and as it was
beneath an Apache to strike them, cords were given to them, with orders
that they should chastise each other for their rascality. The
blackguards were obliged to submit, and the dread of being scalped was
too strong upon them to allow them to refuse. At first, they did