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Show 5O FORTY YEARS AMONG THE INDIANS. down trip would be traded to the Mexican- Californians for other horses, goods or cash. Many times a small outfit on the start would return with large herds of California stock. All children bought on the return trip would be taken back to New Mexico and then sold, boys fetching on an average $ 100, girls from $ 150 to $ 200. The girls were in demand to bring up for house servants, having the reputation of making better servants than any others. This slave trade gave rise to the cruel wars between the native tribes of this country, from Salt Lake down to the tribes in southern Utah. Walker and his band raided on the weak tribes, taking their children prisoners and selling them to the Mexicans. Many of the lower classes, inhabiting the southern deserts, would sell their own children for a horse and kill and eat the horse. The Mexicans were as fully established and systematic in this trade as ever were the slavers on the seas and to them it was a very lucrative business. |