This military reservation lies on the eastern boundary of New Mexico, on the edge of the staked plains of Texas.  Here the Navajos were kept in mortal terror of their hereditary enemies, the Comanche Indians, for several years, and they were so thoroughly cowed and subdued by this stratagem that they were good and peacable ever after.  The Government allowed them to reoccupy their native haunts and granted them a reservation of seventy-five miles square.  These Indians are blood relatives to the savage Apaches.  They speak the same language, as they are also of Mongolian origin.  They came originally from Asia in an unexplained manner and over an unknown route.  They have always been the enemies of the Pueblo Indians, who are descendants of the Toltec and Aztec races.  Unlike the Pueblo Indians, who live in villages and maintain themselves with agricultural pursuits, the Navajos are nomads and born herdsmen.

The Navajo tribe is quite wealthy now, as they possess many thousands of sheep and goats, and they are famed for their quaint and beautiful blankets and homespun, which they weave on their hand looms from the wool of their sheep.  They owned large herds of horses, beautiful ponies, a crossed breed of mustangs and Mormon stock, which latter they had stolen in their raids on the Mormon settlements in Utah.  As saddle horses, these ponies are unexcelled for endurance under rough service.

Mentally the Navajo is very wide awake and capable of shrewd practices, as shown by the following incident, which happened to my personal knowledge.

A tall, gaudily appareled Indian, mounting a beautiful pony, came to town and offered for sale at our store several gold nuggets the size of hazelnuts.  He took care to do this publicly, so as to attract the attention of some Mexicans, who became immensely excited at the sight of the gold and began to question him at once in order to ascertain how and whence he had obtained the golden nuggets.  They almost fought for the privilege of taking him as an honored guest to their respective homes.  The Indian was very non-committal as regarded his gold mine, but very willing to accept the sumptuous hospitality so freely rendered him.  He was soon passed on from one disappointed Mexican to another, who in turn fared no better and invariably sped the parting guest to the door of his nearest neighbor.  When the Indian had made the circuit of the town in this manner he looked very sleek and happy, indeed, but the people were no wiser.  The knowledge of having been shamefully buncoed by an Indian and disappointed in their lust for gold made the Mexicans desperate.  They held an indignation meeting and resolved to capture the wily Navajo and compel him, under torture, if necessary, to divulge the secret of his gold mine.  Consequently, they overcame the Indian, and when they threatened him with torture and death, he yielded and said that he had found the gold in the Rio de San Francisco, a mountain