Then he arose, thirsty, hungry, lame,
overworn, and presently went in search of Belding and the business
of the day.
"Your Yaqui was near dead, but guess we'll pull him through," said
Belding. "Dick, the other day that Indian came here by rail and
foot and Lord only knows how else, all the way from New Orleans!
He spoke English better than most Indians, and I know a little
Yaqui. I got some of his story and guessed the rest. The Mexican
government is trying to root out the Yaquis. A year ago his tribe
was taken in chains to a Mexican port on the Gulf. The fathers,
mothers, children, were separated and put in ships bound for
Yucatan. There they were made slaves on the great henequen
plantations. They were driven, beaten, starved. Each slave had
for a day's rations a hunk of sour dough, no more. Yucatan is low,
marshy, damp, hot. The Yaquis were bred on the high, dry Sonoran
plateau, where the air is like a knife. They dropped dead in the
henequen fields, and their places were taken by more. You see,
the Mexicans won't kill outright in their war of extermination of
the Yaquis. They get use out of them. It's a horrible
thing....Well, this Yaqui you brought in escaped from his captors,
got aboard ship, and eventually reached New Orleans. Somehow
he traveled way out here. I gave him a bag of food, and he went
off with a Papago Indian. He was a sick man then. And he must
have fallen foul of some Greasers."
Gale told of his experience at Papago Well.
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