Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-07-13

reachery and being overpowered, he | bought in at night and concealed with. 1 in the walls of the fort all the men he could get from all the towns within 15O miles. On the day appointed the In. dians came in vast numbers; all the plains around were black with them. | The Colonel then told them if they had come on a mission of peace they must | lay: down their arms and meet hlm se friends. They complied with his re- quest and then all the people inside of { the walls went among them unarmed. The Colonel gave them one hundred head of cattle, and the boy prisoner was { brought and given to his father and ] they embraced each other and cried, and an erea of reconciliation and peace seem- ed to have arrived. The boy told his father that he liked his captors SO well that he desired to live with them, and in spite of all the presuasions of the old man he still insisted in remaining, and the Indians were compelled to return to their mountain home without him. The boy was great favorite with the peo- pie. Some time afterwards he went to visit his people, but before leaving be saw every one in the village and bade
 them good-by, and promised and did return in fifteen days. A few
 days subsequent to his return he took
 the small-p pox and died. and very soon
 afterwards the Apachas commenced to
 murder and rob the same as before.
 Our informant then remarked with
 good deal of feeling that since her
 earliest recollection she had heard if
 frequently sad that we were going to
 have peace with the Apaches. but every
 hope had been broken and she did not
 believe we should eyer have peace as long as an Apache lived. When she
 was girl they made two attempts to take Tucson. The first time the soldiers and males were nearly all away. The Apaches found 1t out and took advan- tsge of their absence and attacked the town, and would have taken and mur- dered every one in it but for the timely assistance of the Pima and the PapaRo Indians, who came to the rescue ID large numbers and attacking the Apaches on two sides, killed some of them and drove them off. The next time the sentinel on the hull Tn front of town discovered them coming and gave the alarm, and after a severe fight the Indians were re- pulsed.
 They did not have guns in those days and were armed with spears, bows and arrows.
 She referred to the pleasant times they used to have, when their wants were few and easily supplied, and told how they danced and played and en- j1yed themselves. We asked her it she thought the p ople were more happy then than now, but she did not seem in- clined to make comparisons, but re marked that if it had not have been for the Apaches they would hardly have known what trouble was. That crime was almost unknown, and she never knew any one to be punished more sev erely than by being confined n the stocks for few days; that the law of the village required all strangers, un- less they were of established reputation, to engage in some labor or business within three days after their arrival or leave the town, and to this regulation she attributes their exemption from crime. On inquiry as to whether they had liquor in those dsys, she said that she never knew time when there was not plenty of mescal, but that it wac only on rare occasions that they drank to excess, and then they acted to each other like brothers.
 We could not help but realize when she told us how happy these people were, that the accursed thirst for gold is the cause of nearly all our difficulties and sorrows, and will ultimately lead to the destruction of the noblest govern ment ever devised by men.