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Show 32 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN HISTORY of the northern states of Mexico, and in broad daylight, and nearly unopposed, carry into captivity hundreds of human beings and thousands of horses and mules, oftentimes laying under contribution populous towns, and even large cities. To the Mexican, the Comanche was an object of great terror. The very sight of a halfnaked Comanche, with his shaggy horse, his lance, and his quiver of arrows produced a perfect paralysis of fear. Shut up in their walled and closely barred villages, the Mexicans, as a rule, would look forth despairingly upon one-third of their number of armed Comanches, ravaging the fields and haciendas under their very eyes, and carrying off into hopeless captivity the miserable women and children who had not succeeded in making good their escape. Under the uncontrollable influence of this singular and despicable ap- prehension it does not seem strange that the Mexican people should have attached so much value to American protection from these Indians,”* nor that they should have insisted with so much earnest- ness upon inserting, in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the provision relative to guarding the frontier from the ravages of these desert marauders. S a? Q ed Whenever the Comanche took Mexican women and children captives, they took the women as wives and made ser- vants of the boys; the men, after a probation more or les lengthy, were adopted into the tribe, most generally in a dependent condition.?° *8 Pope, Brevet Captain John, Report of Eaploration | er eer Ot eefdcoe © OO eer or be <8 pial Sal ae eree ded ee 4-8 ae ee ee et ere SY oo* Poe Pe ce ea ST: pee Pa Pacific Railroad, p. 14: ‘It is related that a single of a Route for the Comanche, even at mid- day, dashed at speed into the public square of the City of Durango, and by his mere presence caused the hasty closing of the stores and public places of the city, and the rapid retreat of a population of thirty thousand souls to their barred houses. He remained an hour roaming through the deserted streets and en only captured by being lassoed from the window of a house as he was niding triumphantly but carelessly from the suburbs. Such an occurrence must pn agaet amazing to the last degree to an American, ge obese the Indian upon terms of advantage.’ — the Hh e 15: ‘Of a who the many was willing who has been accustomed t I have seen thus held in captivity, I havé to return to his home or his country. 12 subjected ¢ " eeling is not difficult to understand. They have all beet a ‘ Sap omega but invariable outrages which are perpetrated by eae P n their female prisoners when captured; and they afterwards most Y by whom torm attachments th 7 to the ; warriors who ; have taken them to wife, 42 favored of the hate pamae cluldrey,. who enjoy every privilege of the most tand. the the feeling isj more difficult to unders men n shuffling feeling is , timid Theirwii cow agp raion In vehithe is manner, sufficiently ek to their hom elr avowed reluct: ; an ) ; eluctance to return to ) 18 probabl vin veal i. . a fear of the punishment which the expression of such 4 gy inilnceaaiaic si ; . Bans arly a Traders, a Tr appers, 2. Dr. Josiah Gregg. . James Magoffin Robidoux. 5. James P. Beckwourth. Bridger. 8. William oe | Mountaineers 4. Antoine 3. Lucien B. Maxwell. 6. Dick Wootton. 7. James oon Plainsmen, Bent. and 9. Ceran St. Vrain |