Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-03-11
A Mexican Eden.
FIpm a Va Y1rk 81.

| A romantic story comes from Mexico,
growing out Of the Apache raids and the
/ various pursuits Of the raiders by the
United States troops. For many months
past IL has Q n matter Of comment that
these Apacnes, no matter how closely
pursued, would after penetrating GER
tain distance into Chihuahua, mvster-
iously and efectually disappear, Guiding
pursuit 50 utterly as To battle the troops
beyond all hope, and leave them without
| a vestge by which to follow. This
popularity has been found to be unplea-
sanity bewilderng, and has thrown =
damper over the spirits of all engaged in
the Apache war--if war IL can be called.
Officers and men alike have acquired that
/ saddened and daZed air which possesses
those who feel as though they CROPPED in
the dark at the mercy of conditions
wholly outside their knowledge or expert
| ence. Dwellers within the aired and
lighted precincts of civilization make
themselves bOisterously merry over the cir
cumstance Of the inability OF three or four
thousand United States troops to suppress
less than one hundred hostile savages, but
the troops themselves quite fail TO realize
the humOr Of it.
Brave men. commanded by ACCOMPLISH
ed officers perfectly equipped and mount
ed, cannot enjOv the sensation OF absolute
| helplessness. They make long and weary
marches, endure incredible fatigues, en-
counter a thousand hidden dangers. yet
all for nothing. The Apache devils raid
and burn and KILL leaving behind them
hideOus track OF blood and rapne, and
then retire into chihuahua, where Jhey
vanish as usual and always in about the
same neighborhood.
But now it appears that at least one
| United States officer has obtained an ink
ling of the Apaches' hiding place. Lieu
tenant Davis, who has acquired consider
able reputation as an Indian fighter, aud
made himself prominent as one OF the
closest and most eager in the chase, has
been telling some wonderful stories of
veritable fairy land into which he Dene-
trated on the occasion of rec MT pursuit.
| Roughly stated. the point in question is
| about 100 miles south OF the Mexican bOr-
der, and about 80 miles west of the Next
can Central Railway. Here it was That, late
one afternoon. at the close Of long days
ride, and after climbing painfully through
a most torbdding country, he at last
reached an eminence from whence there
dawned upon his enraptured gaze the
fairest landscape he had ever beheld-
nay, ta1rer than he had seen in song or
| story, or even IN dreamland. Beneath
him, spread out ia wondrOus cOmblna-
tions OF form and color, lay a valley or
plateau, the limit whereof his eve could
not discern, save as it was indicated by
the purple rim OF the encircling hills. For
estand stream, lake and waterfall, green
sward and pasture, all these unfolded
themselves in raVishing effects of grace
! and beauty.
Those who have looked upon Mexican
mountain scenery as it is visible from the
railway connecting Vera Cruz aud the
capital, will understand the hopelessness
OF any attempt to clothe it in adequate
/ l., n fpf,f,
the mouth of the InfiernillO down into the
! Valley Of Maltrata. nesting 5000 feet be-
! low, with the vegetation of a hundred
| ATTITUDES grouped in a single coup d'mtl,
and the gaunt, gray peaks OF Oriza and
! her giant, sisters losing themselves in
eternal ice scarce three miles from the
riotous green of the tropics, tangling and
INTERVIEWING at their feet-whOsO has seen
this sight will not wonder at the failure
of the shr widest pen to reproduce it.
Lieut.. Davis says that his fairy valley in
Chihuahua is even more exquisite. The
| elevation is less than that OF the City of
! Mexico, being between 1880 and 5000 ieet,
nor are the mountains which hem in the
more Northern plateau comparable in
height with OriZaba, POpOcatapetl or
| Yxtazihuatl: but for the loveliness that
can be wrought by prairie and forest and
water. Lieut.. Dayis claims that his valley
has no peer on earth.
Next day our discoVerer extended his
| field of observation. He found IN the val
ley primevai forests of live oak and pine,
without underground, and opening out on
| every side in avenues and Vistas carpeted
with turf. He found vast reaches of open
country, covered waist deep with sweet
| grasses, which the horses ate TaVenOusly.
There were clear brooks filed with trout.
and. far away, a splendid waterfall. iced
ing the valley from mountain gorge,
cleaning broadly like some titanic prism
in the radiant sun. He found the ruins of
prehistoric city far antedating those of
the Zunis, and giving evidence OF an inf
| nitelY higher civilization; and in the bill
| side, here and there, were the empty cave
| dwellings OF some later but equally yan-
! isbed race, with rude and dizzy staircases
! approaching them from without, and in
| teriOrs glazed with that wonderful enam-
! Ell the art whereof we have lost.
/ But further explorations were cut short
by the discovery that the whole Apache
tribe was hiding somewhere ia this mys-
teriOus valley, amid whose trackless lab
yTinths Davis and his small party might
easily be lost. We have had, therefore,
but q glimpse OF the enchanted realm, and
the rest of the story is yet to be told.
| Lieutenant DAVIS has spoken of what he
saw, and we give here a brief. and OF course
| imperfect, reproduction, obtained from
! second hand. Neither do we know, nor are
we able to conjecture, how far the lieuten-
ants recent and unexpected resignation
! from the army has been Influenced by the
| discovery or by tue projects growing out of
| it. There can be little doubt, however,
that territory so fertile and 50 beautiful.
50 royalty endowed by nature for indus
! trial pursuits OF any kind, must soon be
! thrown open to civilization. 1t includes
more than a million acres of wood and
| pasture land, bountifully watered, re-
| iOicing in a climate OF eternal spring
and so protected by mountainous sur
roundings as to form kingdom of
| itself.
Here the Apacbes have for an unknown
| period found a secure refuge. but here,
! OF course, they cannot much longer hide.
| Civilization will soon and inevitably
claim 10 rich prize lying at its very
threshold.
AFTER duel n gentleman arriving at his
0 IL