A large band of warriors came threateningly into the town.  They had killed two hawks and, decorated with their feathers, were on the warpath.  As they were in such numbers the Mexicans realised that it would be useless to attempt resistance, and therefore sued for peace, which was granted.  A peace-banquet followed, during which mescal, the Mexican brandy, flowed freely, distributed without stint to the warriors by their wily hosts, who were abiding their time.  When the Apaches were intoxicated the villagers fell upon them and captured seven men; most of the band, however, managed to escape.  Next day the prisoners were taken to the ravine and speared, charges of powder being deemed too good for them.  Only el capitan, pointing to his head, requested, as a special favour, to be shot, which was done.  Their bodies were buried in the ravine where they fell, but too long a time had already elapsed since the event to enable me to secure for my collections the specimens for which I had been on the lookout.  Yet I was told by the inhabitants that the ground about the town was so full of Apache remains that I should have no difficulty in gaining my object in places close by.  A number of Apaches, men and women, I was informed, had once been dumped into a well.  I set to work at the place indicated, and our efforts were rewarded by the exhumation of eight skulls in perfect condition, besides many typical bones.  The last raid of the Apaches on Fronteras was in 1875.

Passing Cochuta about a hundred miles south of Bisbee, we came upon a deposit of fossils.  It was scarcely more than a mile in extent, but many bones were said to have been taken away from it as curiosities.  I had already observed isolated fossil bones along the creeks on several occasions during our travels, but we could find nothing here of value.

Signs that the country was in former times occupied by another race than its present inhabitants are seen everywhere throughout the region we traversed following the road to the south.  Here they appear frequently as remarkable groupings of stones firmly embedded in the ground.  Only the tops of the stones (the total length of which is about one foot) are seen above the surface, much as stones are used in parks and gardens for ornamental purposes.  They are arranged in circles or in rectangles.  I saw two circles close to each other, each six feet in diameter.  One rectangle measured fifty feet in length by half that in width.  Low walls divided it into three indistinct partitions.  There was never any wall built underneath these surface stones, nor were there any traces of charring.  Among the ruins found on top of the hills we collected a lot of broken pottery and some flint arrowheads.  In several places in this district we found gold and coal, but not in paying quantities.

Some forty miles south of Cochuta we turned in a southerly direction, ascending a hilly plateau 3,200 feet above sea-level.  Here we observed the first orchids, yellow in colour and deliciously fragrant, and in the canon below we met the first palms.  The rocks continued to show volcanic and metamorphic formation.