Show little the dollar loving amer lean has done in prying and peep ing into the great treasie houses of sonora convinced him ears ago that that western dexl can province was a country well worth exploiting it more than halt of the silver ot the world has come out of mexico as is probably the fact then from all leports when the deposits of sonora are properly opened up three fo births of the worlds silver will come from the land of diaz sonora been exporting 12 to 15 of silver a vear and could have exported five times that amount and an incalculable quantity of gold but for one reason the country bis not been sate f r white people except in the larger towns because of the warlike who have been battling for generations against the mexicans but now the good news has been flashed over the mires that the long d awn yaqui warts at an end and that a treat favorable to the indians has been negotiated that soon thera will be such an inrush of gieely grin goes as the mexicans call us into onora as has never been seen before for there will be no more night attacks apon ore wagon and supply trains no more ter izing of the miners in their prospect holes and no more rushes to the gun rack in the lonely cabin on the mesa it Is characteristic of our commercial age that the chief interest of the white people in he yaqui uprisings has not been a humane but a financial one although americans have obtained concessions from the mexican government of mining cattle and farming lands they have never been able to hold undisputed sway over them w the hardy gringo will descend upon sonora bent upon a conquest far more thorough than that t oen scott in 1848 he lusts tor the silver and gold hidden under the bonora mountains for great bands of cattle and for the fruits of the fertile valleys and he will have them ot that the americans have been essentially hostile to the tor many guns and much ammunition have been taken over the border to aid them in their des fight but that when diaz has seen fit to parcel off a comfortable section of yaqui land here and there to an yankee for a con sider atlon it has been only natural that raqul and yank should have be ome embroiled at times the raqul indians are the most stubborn fighters on earth said dent diaz of mexico eight years ago and it eier we are to put them down we must strike at the root of their race we must exile their women and chil dren so month by month since then thou ands of the little brown women of the yaqui nation in sonora have been torn from their hjames on reservations and elsewhere rounded up at guaymas on the west coast of mexico and with their children deported to san bias and thence across country to the tar fever lands of yucatan a many of them have died none have ever returned to sonora this means of subduing a race that has been in almost constant warfare against the mexican government for more than 30 years has at last been effective although it has been feces sary at the same time to keep from 2 to 5 troops in readiness or in the field to fight the diminishing band of who have proved them selves as valiant and as unyielding as the boers the last two stands of the have recently been reported in the dis patches one of these was in a moun tain canyon just north of altar where the mexicans and panagos lured the into ambush and killed a large number of them the other and con eluding engagement followed a skir mish that was made by the mexicans southeast of hermosillo the capital of sonora in which it was reported that bale the chief of the was killed and of his men were slain after this bloody battle the remnant of the raqul forces engaged in that fight marched into hermosillo and dered so many other events have been tak ing place on this populous planet and the affairs of sonora enter so little into the consideration of the people on this 1 of the continent with the ex of thoe american capitalists who have longed to unearth the mining treasures of that rich gold and silver country that we have been more interested in college football contests than in this terrible warfare that has been going on within five days railway journey of new york for the last three decades and even longer for as a matter of tact the have never been at peace with their hereditary foe since the conquest iff of mexico by the spanish in 1519 and from an es timatea tion in 1620 of the race has steadily declined chiefly be cause of its al most incessant warfare to about 40 at the present day having regard ed the aqui at close range and having studied him and marked what manner of man he Is any one may be ex aused for an ad mi ration of him that surpasses my appreciation of any other of the native races of america assuredly these people are the most industrious and most civil iced of all indian tribes being tor the most part farmers miners and craftsmen and far superior to the average of the haciendas and villages who will not work while he has a peso in his pocket and while mescal can be had at the cantina and who when he enters the army Is generally sent there from jail As tor the as a fighter he has proved himself a better man even than the apache while resorting to few it any of the apache s bloodthirsty tricks ot war fare the aai I 1 army has been regularly organized up to the last year 1 as been well drilled in the i se of the rifle has had its generals and colonels and captains and has given such a good account of itself that it has kept 3 mexican troops under gen torres busy all the while in a warfare that has not been that of savages has in tact been fully as humane as that of its foe men it is not necessary to go back an further than 1878 to get a good idea of what the have been doing in trying to hold cheh own against tl e people of spanish descent in mexico in that year because of trespass upon their lands and because the mexicans had taken large numbers of them to work upon their ranches in practical slavery these tremulously tenacious fighters re s aimed hostilities after a short period of peace gen cajeme their governor took command and for seven years held the passes and strongholds against 5 troops under gen pesquera although the maquis gave a good account of them selves they lost many men and gen cajeme was cap aured and shot still the defensive war was continued and when at last the mexicans drove them out of their strongholds and captured their mines there came a pe nod during which only desultory raids upon the dacien das were made during that period the raqul women and bos and some of the non combatant men of the tribe went out to earn money in the mines ranches and fisheries to buy arms and ammunition to carry on the fight A number of american miners who had been unable peaceably to work their mines brought about the peace of oritz in may 1897 the government then began to take yaqui boys from the reservations and send them to vera cruz on the other side of the continent to make soldiers of them these boys were as good it not better sharpshooters than the boer youth and the saw that in thus depriving them of what would be a great source of reliance in future battle they would eventually have to give up all hope of ever holding their own so that the peace of arltz only lasted a few months before there was another uprising and more fighting chiefly of a guerilla nature which continued tor several years meantime every cent that the non combatants of the tribe child earn and save was handed over to the chiefs who height with this money enough mauser rifles and mountain howitzers to equip very decently an army of men under gen Tet aviate who in april 1899 took the field after having made this statement we are a peaceful and industrious people when the mexicans want workers for their mines or factories they come to us we do not want wai we have never wanted it but we want our rights we made a treaty of peace w ith the mexican government our herd italy foe in may 1897 after a long series of wars the last of which was more than ten ears in duration we intended to keep faith with the government of mexico but it has pursued a course of pruel encroachment and menace we are now ready to fight it again and all the battles of the past will be as nothing compared with the bloodshed art will follow our entry into the field gen Tet aviate began operations in the lower valley of the rio raqul where bis men droe put the white settlers upon raqul lands they cut the telegraph wires and destroyed other means of communication and it was ship oaxaca the desperate indians attacked the hachen ras and also threatened the larger towns terror mad the citizens of nogales fled from their homes and for proclaimed over the fear stricken a time martial law was city of hermosillo ohp capital of sonora during the height of the excitement troops were coming in bringing women and children for deportation and also an occa dional band of raqul soldiers who were generally thrust into prison night and in the morning taken out lined up and shot one of the most terrible slaughters during the last war upon the occurred in june 1902 one evening armed descended upon four haciendas near her and took away of their tribe including women and children who were there employed the band marched toward ures reached mazalan mountain and while batting for the mexican soldiers made bows ar rows and spears for those who were unarmed a on june 1 mexican soldiers around the mountains surprised the chased the armed war giors down the mountain killing many of them and ta king all the hacienda folk prisoners soon after the skirmish ales hrdlicka representing the american mu seum found in a little ravine on the mountain side the bodies of 64 of the indians including a number of worn en a little girl and a bab the skulls of nearly all the victims were so shattered by mauser bullets as to be of no use for the museum for which hrdlicka was collecting in the hospital at hermosillo in 1902 there were as many as 12 wounded women and a girl of seven with three bullet wounds in her body As another example of bruve mexican warfare worn en and children who were captured near the rancho viejo were kept in a corral under guard tor two days during which time they were given nothing to eat but two and one halt bushels 0 raw corn on which they subsisted until night when they were marched to hermosillo 35 miles away in july 1902 an attempt was made by the mexicans to surround in the san mateo foothills but the indians learned of what was afoot slipped into a side valley before the advance of the troops and in the night strangled the sentries and proceeding over to the sleeping soldiers slew the whole column in the darkness and blind the officers to the trees where they were found when relief came one reason why the last ten years war has been more bloody than any that preceded it was that the mexican decreed that every raqul living on the pu ealos or working on ranches or anywhere else was to be treated as a prisoner of war |