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Show TERRITORY THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO 45 . - aee et ge ah ea a a te ee edee een ee a 0-#95 al il tel 6-6-0 $8. ee ed Py Rete : . @~-Sr ed 6-0-0Dae 9—2 re am ‘The northern Mexicans have often been accused of cowardice, ’’ says Gregg, ‘‘but this stigma shoul d not be permitted to rest upon the rancheros, or as they might still more appropriately be styled, the yeomanry of the country. Inured as the people of this perio d in the history of the country were to every kind of fatigue and danger, they possessed as a race a high grade of courage, Their want of firmness in the field was partially the result of their want of confidence in their commanders, while the inefficacy and worthlessness of their weapons was alone sufficient to fill a valiant heart with dismal forebodings. In the early days of Mexican independ ence the regular troops were provided with Engli sh muskets, but a great portion of the militia were obliged to use the clumsy, old-fashioned escopeta, or fire-lock of the sixteenth cent ury; while others had nothing but the bow and arrow, and sometime s the lance, which was a weapon very much in use at that time. The people of the lower classes in this period were really possessed of a superlative degree of courage; they undertook journeys solit ary and alone through desert wildernesses teeming with murderou s Savages, frequently undertaking these perilous trips wholl y unarmed.’’ During the rule of Perez the Americans at that time in the country seem to have acquired the same opinion of the Apache as that entertained by the Mexican; at any rate one Ameri can named James Johnson, acting under a commission from the govern or of the state [ioe ee ‘ ACL Mane laess) OF of Sonora, began the work of exterminating the Indians and was not particular as to the means by which the end was accomplished. At this time there was a celebrated Apache chief called Juan José, A aN)11 whose extreme cunning and audacity caused his name to be dreaded throughout the entire country. What thing elge to render him a dangerous contributed more than any- enemy was the fact of his hav- ing received a liberal education at Chihuahua, which enabled him, when he afterwards rejoined his tribe, to outwit his pursuers, and, San this individual (Hinéjos) was concer ned. On Start on a belligerent expedition, he directed one his occasion, being about to orderly-sergeant to fill a Powder-flask from an unbroached keg of twenty-five pounds. The sergeant, aving bored a hole with a gimlet, and finding that the powder issued too slowly, began to look about for Something to enlarge the aperture, when his ‘yes haply fell upon an iron poker which lay in a of the fire-place. To heat the poker and apply it to the hole in the keg corner was the work of but a few woments widing ; j when an explosion took place which blew the upper part treet, tearing and shattering everything else to escape a tough they were cTgeant ae Offic was memory, ®$ of At state, whole both afterwards and has but is‘ now may appear, operation, very severely secretary the sergeant, remained more scorched and of state to nearly ever since held a captainfo ue as well in the regular frightened than bruised. Governor peel army. This Gonzales, a clerkship ag Boe of the atoms. as the captain hurt, ingenious of revolu- in some of the |