Under these circumstances I crossed the desert on mule-back to Los Angeles, with only one companion, and went to San Francisco to take a rest.

III

War-Time in Arizona

The invasion of Sonora in the summer of 1857 by filibusters from California, generally called the “Crabb Expedition,” caused the pall of death to fall on the boundary line of Mexico.  Forty-two Americans had been massacred at Caborca, and many Mexicans had been killed.  The abrasion was so serious that Americans were not safe over the Mexican boundary, and Mexicans were in danger in the boundaries of the United States.

Gabilonda, who was the only Mexican officer who protested against the massacre, came very near being mobbed by Americans in Tucson, although he was perfectly innocent of any crime,—­on the contrary, deserved credit for his humanity in rescuing the boy Evans.  Gabilonda was subsequently tried by a Mexican court martial organized by Pesquiera, the Governor of Sonora, and acquitted.  He lived to a green old age as Collector of Mexican customs on the boundary line, and died honored and respected.

When I returned from San Francisco to the mines, in the winter of 1857, the country was paralyzed; but by the talisman of silver bars the mines were put in operation again, and miners induced to come in from Mexico.  Christmas week the usual festival was given at Arivaca, and all the neighbors within a hundred miles invited.

In 1858 the business of the Territory resumed its former prosperity, and the sad events of the “Crabb Expedition” were smoothed over as far as possible.  The government had subsidized an overland mail service at nearly a million a year, called the Butterfield line, with daily mails from St. Louis to San Francisco, running through Arizona.  The mail service of the West has done a great deal to build up the country; and population came flocking into the Territory with high hopes of its future prosperity.

General Heintzelman obtained a furlough, and came out to superintend the mines.  Colonel Samuel Colt, of revolver fame, succeeded him as president of the company, as he had contributed about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money and arms to its resources, with the intention of enlisting as much capital as might be required from New England.  Machinery was constructed on the Atlantic seaboard, and hauled overland from the Gulf of Mexico to the mines,—­1350 miles.

The Apaches had not up to this time given any trouble; but on the contrary, passed within sight of our herds, going hundreds of miles into Mexico on their forays rather than break their treaty with the Americans.  They could have easily carried off our stock by killing the few vaqueros kept with them on the range, but refrained from doing so from motives well understood on the frontiers.  There is an unwritten law among ranchmen as old as the treaty between Abraham and Lot.