The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-11-03
Letter from the Land Of Romance
and Tragedy.
THE CAPTURE OF GERONIMO.
Some New and Interesting Facts Regarding
The Savages Career and Downfall
Other Details.

so much as misunderstood. But
Sonora is a land of mourning. Filibuster
expeditions and Apache revolutions have
scourged the country until the people are
III despair. Great numbers of mines, hacl
endas and ranches are abandoned, and the
industry of the state is completely para
lyzed."
All that, however, was ended with the
capture of Geronimo, the brave miscreant
who led General Howard, General Miles,
and The best soldiers of the United States
on such protracted war-dance Never
since the days of Rob. Roy has there been
such q warrior as that same copper-hued
rascal, who for years subsisted on the roots
of the desert and the serpents of the noun
tains, keeping thousands of people in per
petual terror and devastating whatever
section he descended upon. Though part
of the time wounded and sick and always
his own commissary and chief of trans
portation, he wore out well-equipped
army, set two great governments at de
tiance, and surpassed anything in history
by his barbarouS heroiSm.
One hears in Sonora a good many points
al out
THE WONDERFUL CAMPAIGN WITH GERONIMO
that are not known to the world at large.
The final revolt that was brought to a
close by the capture of the stubborn chief
tain, was brought about by spy, now the
wife of Chief Magnus. This Apache Joan
of Arc is described as handsome woman,
Of great force of character. and intellectual
for an Indian. She alone it was who
planned the escape of Geronimo from Fort
Al ache in May of 49,, and who melted the
band to their most desperate DEEDS. That
expedition was truly Amazonian, for the
chief had with him only thirty-four
men and half a dozen small boys and ninety
one women. They travelled l20 miles before
camping, and the pursuers, though close
upon their tracks, did not get sight of an
Indian. Finally, when, as the world
knows, Geronimo was captured in the fast
nesses of the mountains, after desperate
campaign, he was held only one night be
fore he escaped again. Soon afterwards
he
RETURNED TO THE FORT
with four indians and Selling white
woman, told her that if she did no inform
him where his wife's tent was he would
kill her The terrified woman pointed it
out Geronimo took his wife and
was again at large, having &C
deeds ever recorded. This notori-
Gus Indian belongs to the Chiricahua branch
of Apaches, who are natives of Sonora,
and in their best days never numbered
more than four hundred warriors
Through long and fearful years their
tracks were marked by the corpses of out
ragged women, butchered men and blazing
homes, but now they no longer go about
collecting tithes of blood and plumber from
travellers and defenseless citizens, and are
remembered as past evil, not as living
curse. No romance of the noble red man"
| fingers over this land where they lived
| only blood-curdling tales of murders and
atrocities innumerable.
The Yaqui Indians are as different from
the ferocious Apaches as black from white,
and it would be as unjust to trace any par
allel between the two nations as between
| their respective chieftans,
GERONIMO AND JOSE MARCIA cAJEME.
| The Yaqui nation has always maintained
a virtual independence in Mexico. being
ruled by their own customs even during
colonial times, and being actually free from
any government but their own since 1921.
| They are an agricultural people, the bone
and sinew of labor in Sonora and Sinaloa
They claim a royal charter for their lands
| from Spain, and are quite able, to-day, to
maintain themselves against feeble re
public which is too poor to pay even its de-
partment clerks. Although hard fighters
and brave soldiers, the Yaquis are inclined
to peace, and their late struggle, like sew
eral preceding ones, was for the self gov
eminent to which they have been accus-
toned, as they regard the Mexican repub-
lie as rather weak upstart neighbor who
desires undue supremacy.
| 1t is 300 years since Catholic missions
| were established
AMONG THE YAQuIs
and the rudiments of European civiliza,
ton developed. Their skill as boatmen is
renowned. Their pottery. and the clothes
| they weave from cotton, wool and native
| fbres is unsurpassed, and they own great
farms, mines, which they work patiently
and well, and vast herds of cattle and live
stock. Their proper home is along the
| Yaquis river, which rises in the Sierra
| Madre and runs across Sonora in south
westerly direction, crossing the Sierra del
| Na2arrno, and emptying into the Gulf of
| California, a few miles from Guaymas.
Their houses are generally from six to
ten feet square, with walls of wild cane
bound together by withes, the roofs
| matched with palm leaves. There are no
windows, aud the low doorways are hung
with pontoons, so to speak, of old blankets
| OF strips of faded cloth. The Yaquis are
particularly expert in saddlery and the
manufacture of straw goods. Their
earthenware is remarkable, and the
| blankets they weave by hand are even bet
| ter than those of the Navajos-so firm and
| fine the exture that water may be carried
in them without leaking drop. By the
way, in war they have
A METHOD OF DEFENSE
as novel and effectual as it is simple. Lay
ing their blankets in stream until
thoroughly wet, each Indian carries his on
pole, stretched out straight by cross
piece at the top, held high enough to just
clear the ground, and it is said that show
ers of bullets, grapeSand canister, striking
these swaying bulwarks, glance of harm
lessly to the earth, never penetrating one
OF them.
With very few exceptions, Yaqui de-
sires nothing more than sufficiency of
food, and to be let alone in the practice of
hereditary customs, and is the most peace
full, industrious and inoffensive of crea-
lures, when not interfered with. A pair of
wide, short drawers, and a shirt
worn with FLAPS" outside is all
the clothing he has any use for
except, perhaps, blanket when
the nights are chilly. His wife wears only
petticoat and scanty chemise, with the
addition of rebosa thrown over her head
when she desires to ''dress up" while the
children, almost to manageable age,
MEANDER THE EATRH ABSOLUTELY UN-
ADORNED,
like mother Eve before the fashion of fig
leaves Though copper colored, they are
universally handsome, having good fea-
EDa ovoc abundant h1ocly hair opd