That is natural enough, for they know that if gold mines were once opened in their country, the whites would pour in, and they would soon be wiped out.

Anyhow, everyone who goes prospecting in that part of Arizona knows well enough that he takes his life in his hands.
"All along the country by the Gila River is the stronghold of the Apaches, the terror of Northern Mexico.

Many parties of miners have set out, but very few have ever come back again; but those that have tell of gold richer by a hundred times than ever was seen in California, and have brought with them sacks of nuggets to prove it.

These are men who have had the luck to get in and out without ever having been seen by the Injuns; the large parties have never succeeded.

So you see, young fellows, the odds are strongly agin you.