Chapter I: Preface

The recent outbreak of a fraction of the Chiricahua Apaches, and the frightful atrocities which have marked their trail through Arizona, Sonora, New Mexico, and Chihuahua, has attracted renewed attention to these brave but bloodthirsty aborigines and to the country exposed to their ravages.

The contents of this book, which originally appeared in a serial form in the _Outing Magazine_ of Boston, represent the details of the expedition led by General Crook to the Sierra Madre, Mexico, in 1883; but, as the present military operations are conducted by the same commander, against the same enemy, and upon the same field of action, a perusal of these pages will, it is confidently believed, place before the reader a better knowledge of the general situation than any article which is likely soon to appear.

There is this difference to be noted, however; of the one hundred and twenty-five (125) fighting men brought back from the Sierra Madre, less than one-third have engaged in the present hostilities, from which fact an additional inference may be drawn both of the difficulties to be overcome in the repression of these disturbances and of the horrors which would surely have accumulated upon the heads of our citizens had the _whole_ fighting force of this fierce band taken to the mountains.

One small party of eleven (11) hostile Chiricahuas, during the period from November 15th, 1885, to the present date, has killed twenty-one (21) friendly Apaches living in peace upon the reservation, and no less than twenty-five (25) white men, women, and children. This bloody raid has been conducted through a country filled with regular troops, militia, and “rangers,”--and at a loss to the enemy, so far as can be shown, of only one man, whose head is now at Fort Apache.

JOHN G. BOURKE.

APACHE INDIAN AGENCY,
SAN CARLOS, ARIZONA,
_December 15th, 1885_.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

CRAWFORD’S COLUMN MOVING TO THE FRONT _Frontispiece._

APACHE VILLAGE SCENE to face 7

APACHE WAR-DANCE 17

APACHE INDIAN SCOUTS EXAMINING TRAILS BY NIGHT 23

APACHE AWL-CASES, TOBACCO BAGS, ETC. 26

APACHE AMBUSCADE 34

APACHE HEAD-DRESSES, SHOES, TOYS, ETC. 49

APACHE WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENTS 64

APACHE GIRL, WITH TYPICAL DRESS 79

APACHE WARFARE 88

APACHE BASKET-WORK 100

FIGHTING THE PRAIRIE FIRE 107

AN APACHE CAMPAIGN.