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Show 50 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN HISTORY In 1834, having met with a Missourian and some companions, they had stolen a number of their horses; having been pursued into the mountains near Taos, a fight occurred in which several Indians were killed and the horses regained. A few days later all of the Jicarilla warriors visited Santa Fé and demanded of the Mexican authorities that the Americans be given over to them for vengeance. All of the foreigners in the capital began preparations for a defense, and the savages shortly departed for their mountain homes. Through experiences of this sort the frontiersman and trader came to have but a poor opinion of the Indian in the southwest and soon entertained the same regard for his usefulness as did the Mexican, who believed that the only manner in which these merciless freebooters could be made to fear and respect them was by killing them off as rapidly as circumstances would permit and by any means which good fortune presented for the purpose. TERRITORY i OF THE REPUBLIC OF MEX ICO o1 and as sure as you’re born, Cap., that’s thie ont y way. Tain’ usee toto talk about honor with t hem, Cap. ; they hain’t got nary no such thing inum . They won’t show fair fight and they kill and sculp a white man when-ar they get the best on him, and ef you treat um decent, they think you are afea rd. No, Cap., the only way is to whip um and then the balance will sorter take to you and beha ve themselves, ’’ The foe to civilization and prog ress in the southwest, the India n, from the days of De Vargas, for two centuries, continued to be a menace to the peace and prosperi ty of the country, and only after the expenditure of millions of dollars by the government of the United States was he finally subdued. The opinion of a hardy frontiersman, given to Captain R. B. Marcy, in the days of the American occupation, relative to the Apache Indian, only too well voices the sentiment of the times among Americans as well as Mexicans. Captain Marcy says that he does not endorse all of the sentiments of this mountaineer, yet most of them were deduced from long and matured experience and critical observation. This ‘‘mountain-man’’ who had lived upon the plains and in the mountains, trapping and hunting during nearly all of the first half of the nineteenth century, said: ‘‘They are the most onsartainest varmints in all creation, and I reckon tha’r not mor’n half human; for you never seed a human, arter you’d fed and treated him to the best fixing in your lodge, jist turn round and steal all your horses, or ary other thing he could lay his hands 02. No, not adzackly. He would kinder feel grateful, and ask you spread a blanket in his lodge ef you passed that-a-way. But the Injun he don’t care shucks for you, and is ready to do you a heap of mischief as soon as he quits your feed. No, Cap.; it’s not the right way to give um presents to buy peace ; but ef I war governor of these yeer United States, I'll tell you what I’d do. I’d invite um all t04 big feast, and make b’lieve I wanted to have a big talk; and as 800? a . aN all together, I’d pitch in and sculp about half of um, - cg half would be mighty glad to make a peace that wer ) at's the way I’d make a treaty with the dog’ond varmints} Mepatiions or THE Emperor AvuGustiINn ITURBIDE |
