The San Francisco call., 1909-02-07
Yaquis in the Prison Yard at Guaymas'.

else a prisoner OF The
arrested and put in the chain gangs al
Hermosillo and the and children were sent
to Yucatan. The warning Indians 6ercely resented
these cruel wrongs and remembered them when they
into battle.
The Yaquis are extremely loyal to their peo
pie. No captive has ever been to turn traitor
where his life hung in the balance. When asked
for information about the doings of his people the in
variable answer of prisoner has been, mo sc" (-I
don't know").
As rule they have not molested Americans but
they have found it difficult at times to dferentate
between them and the Mexcans particularly in the
dark, and such occasions. OF course the grngc
has had the of it. Although the stages have
regularly from the railroad stations tha
American mines, only has of them been
tackled and its occupants killed Two Americans
from Hermosillo were slain by Yaquis TOrin
in peculiar circumstances. They were trying to
photograph armed band of Indians, and when
they warned not to do and would not desist
they were promptly shot
SO long did the recent war 1ast-it has been aboul
ten years since the outbreak in the lower Rio Yaqu
valley-and in such determined fashion was it carried
that the government became tired of sending new
recruits from the City of Mexico to Hermosllo and
began to lose interest in the operations To the
officials at the Mexican capital Sonora was sparsely
settled frontier state in which fighting was always
likely to be going on if not with the Yaquis, then
6cias at the capital needed picturesque little
object lesson, and day it was given to them
After repeated and unavaing requests for reinforce
ments to make up for the many who had gone
down before the Yaqui Mausers General Torres had
1,10O uniform caps boxed up and shipped the head
of the war department. at the City of Mexico accom-
panied by this brief but meaningfu note:
please fill these caps with soldiers"
This the best appeal he could have made and
the men were sent to him forthwith
Throughout Sonora "The of determination" as
it called after Diaz issued his famous deportation
of decree, assumed the nature of very
CHASTITY joke, albeit joke that more appreciated
by those sitting at the actual of warfare than at
Nogales and Guaymas, though both those towns have
had their Indian scares" Men have been shot down
the very outskirts of Guaymas, while the Yaquis
held virtual possession of Nogales.
In 1904 an expedition of 800 Mexicans under Gen.
era1 Rafael Ysabel, governor of Sonora went out in
pursuit of Yaqui band so miles north of Guaymaa
and barely escaped ambush and slaughter Near thu
Sonora railway in the same year the Indians made
a successful raid upon a wagon train that was
going from Carlo to the Sultana mine Just
the teamsters were tying up the horses for tha
night a bowling band of so Yaquis descended upon
them. The teamsters captured and the wagons
looted of $4,000 in silver and then burned There
were many other attacks by marauding bands chiea1
for the purpose of obtaining food and means to carry
upon the foragers, killing many of them on sight and
strnging others up to the telegraph poles so that
Pullman passengers along the line have been treated
to some strange and CHASTITY sights.
There has been nothing by way of decisive battle
in any of the great fights made by the Mexicans
with the Yaquis. Even when, soon after the at.
tempted occupation of Nogaes by the Yaquis General
Torres with 5000 soldiers marched against a
force of $500 Yaquis he failed TO engage
them, the Indians quickly scattered about as
sharpshooters, lhung about the Mexican camp at
night and picked off after without SUFFERING
any loss whatever. When was uncommon mass
movement of the Indians made the tactics pur-
sued were the quick rushing in of the main bodv of
warriors. the firing of several voleys and the hastv
scattering in all directions, when, behind mesouit
shrub or stone, the sharpshooters would bang awav
and do deadly work
Like the subjugation of the brave Beers the war.
so far as the Yaquis have been concerned has beep
one OF erosion By the gradual wearing away of their
forces they have down from great strong race
to mere handful. After the order by which thew
were all to be treated prisoners of war wherever
found they dared not go to work to earn money on
the ranches or in the mines and so their resources
dwindled from year to year until of late thew have
been IN half starved condition. Then, too the
Mexcans have managed to stir up the Papagos
against them. These Indians really gave the finish
ing touches to the work Of conquest