Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-03-05


FERocIrr-rHE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
WHITE AND RED.
Capt John G. Bourke in ION the Border With croof. I"
For years have collected the data and have
contemplated the project OF writing the his
tory of the Apaches, based not only upon the
accounts transmitted TO us from the Spaniards
and their descendants, the Mekicsns, but upon
the Apaehe's own story conserved in his
myths and traditions: but have lacked both
the leisure and the inclination 20 put the pro-
Ject into execution. IL would require O man
with the even-hsnded sense Of justice possessed
by Guizot and the keen. critical, analytical
powers OF Gibbon TO deal fairly with ques-
ton In which the ferocity of the savage red
man has been more than equaled by the feroc-
ity Of the Christian Caucasian: IN which the
occasional treachery Of the aborigines has found
its best excuse In the unvarying punic faith of
the Caucasian invader; in which promises on
each side have been made only to deceive and
to be broken; in which the red hand Of war
has rested most heavily upon shrieking mother
and wailing babe.
HoSoRs ARE EASY.
II from this history the Caucasian can eK-
tract any cause of self-laudation 1 am glad
OF IT. Speaking Al q censor, who has read the
evidence with as much impartiality as could be
expected from one who started in with the
sincere conviction that the only good Indian
was a dead Indian, and that the only use TO
make of him was that of fertilizer, and who.
from studying the documents IN the case and
listening little by little TO the savage's own
story, has arrived at the conclusion that per
haps Pope Paul LII was right when he solemnIy
Declared that the natives Of the
new world had souls and must he
treated as human beings, and admitted
to the sacraments when found ready 20 receive
them, L feel it TO be my duty TO say that
the Apache has found himself in the very
best OF company when he committed any
atrocity, it matters not how vile. and that his
complete history, If it could be written by him
self, would not be any special cause Of self-
complacency TO such white men as believe IN a
just God, who will visit the sins OF parents upon
their children even to the third and fourth
generation.
CAUCASIAN CRUELTY.
We have become SO thoroughly Pecksniffian
In our self-laudation, in our exaltalion OF our
own virtues. that We have become grounded in
the error of imagining that the American saw
age Is more cruel In his war customs than other
nations Of the earth have been; this, as have
already minated, Is a misconceptlon. and sta
tistics, for such care TO dig them out. will
prove that am right. The Assyrians cut their
spared neither parent nor child; the Romans
crucihed head downward the gladiators who
revolted under Spartacus; even in the civil
lied England OF the past century the
wretch convicted of treason was exc
cuted under circumstances of cruelty
which would have been too much FOR the
nerves of the fiercest of the Apaches or Sioux.
Instances In support OF what here assert crop
up all over the page OF history; the trouble Is
not to discover them, but to keep them from
to remember. Certainly the American Abort
CINE is not indebted to his pale-faced BROTHER,
no matter OF what nation or race he may be,
for lessons in tenderness and humanity.
From the moment the Castlilan landed on
the coast OF the present Mexican republic there
was no such thing thought of as justice for the
American Indian until the authorities of the
church took the matter in hand anu compelled
an outward regard for the rights which even
animals have conceded TO them.
Christopher Columbus, whom some very
worthy people are thinking OF having elevated
to the dignity of a SAINT made use OF blood
hounds tor running down the inhabitants Of
Hispaniola.
the expedition of dayton to the coast Of
Chicora, now known South Carolina. repaid
the kind reception accorded by the natives by
the basest treachery; two shiploads of the I'M
fortunates euticed on board were carried of to
work IN the mines OF the invaders
GIrolamo Benzonl one OF the earliest authors
describes the very delightful way the SpanIards
mad of making slaves of all the savages they
could capture and branding them with a red
hot iron on the hip or cheek, SO that their new
owners could recognize them the more
readily.
Cabeza de yaca and his wretched companions
carried no arms, but nat with nothing
but an ovation from the supplemented and
grateful natives, whose ailments they endeav-
ored to cure by prayer and the sign OF the
cross. Yet Naca tells US as they drew near the
settlements of their own countrymen they
found the whole country in q tumult due to
the efforts the Castiliaus were making to en-
slave the populace and drive them by fire and
sword to the plantations newly established.
humboldt is authority tor the statement that
the Apaches resolved upon a war of extermina-
ton upon the Spaniards when they learned
that all their people taken captive by the king
forces had been driven of, TO die q lingering
death upon the sugar plantations OF Cuba or in
the mines Of Guanaxuato.
~ LATER DAYS.
Drawing near to our own days we read the fact
set down in the ciearest and coolest black and
white that the state governments Of Sonora and
Chihuahua had offered and paid rewards of $500
for each scalp of an Apache that should be pre-
sented at certain designated headquarters and
We read without Q tremor of horror that in
dividuals clad in human form-men like the
Engllshman johnson or the Irishman Clan
ton-entered into contracts with the governor
of Chihuahua to do such bloody work.
johnson was "a man of honor" He kept his
word faithfully and invited large band of the
Apaches in to see him and have a feast at the
old Santa Rita mine in New Mexico-I have
been on the spot and have seen the exact site
and while they were eating bread and meat
suddenly opened upon them with q light field
piece loaded 10 the muzzle with nails, bullets
and scrap iron and filed the court yard with
dead.
johnson, say, was gentleman" and
sbided by the terms of his contract; but CLAN
ton was a blackguard, and sat out to kill any
thing and everything in human form, whether
Indian or Mexican His first victory" was
gained over q band Of Apaches with whom he
set about arranging peace IN northern Chi
huahua, not far from FL Paso. The bleeding
scalps were torn from the heads Of
the slain and carried in triumph to
the city Of chihuahua, outside of whose
limits the "conquerors" were met by
procession Of the governor, all the leading
state dignitaries and the clergy, and escorted
back to the city limits, where, az we are told
by Ruxton, the English officer who travelled
across the chihuahua on horseback in 1885 and
1887, the scalps were nailed with frantic joy to
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