Occasionally a horse would get a bunch of cactus in his fetlock joint, and then he would turn up his heels to let the lightning pick it out, regardless of his rider. Once or twice the peccaries were sighted as two faint gray streaks, just outlined against the dark green brush, into which they disappeared at once. Several times it looked as if we ought to overtake them in a minute or two, but that minute never came. Our Yaqui guide was valiantly to the front, making leaps over cactuses that would have shamed a kangaroo, and keeping well ahead of the horses. Suddenly he stopped and gave up the chase on the near side of a broad river, the result of the rain. His face was melancholy in the extreme, and it was known he would not give up the chase without the best of reasons, as he was to receive a month's wages (five dollars) if a jabali were killed. He explained in Spanish that the party had been following the hogs with an absolute certainty of catching them, so tired had they become, when, to his dismay, the tracks of three other fresh peccaries were seen coming in at this point. Whenever fresh jabalis join those worn out enough to come to bay, the latter change their minds as to fighting, and will run as long as their fresh companions hold out. We thus would have had another eight to twelve miles' chase through the slippery mud, which the horses and mules could not have endured, so exhausted were they already. We had seen the beasts, nevertheless, and in losing them had learned one of their distinct peculiarities, which fact was sufficient compensation for our first, but never to be forgotten, hunt for wild pigs.
The peccary, as already stated, is a ferocious little beast, never hesitating, when in numbers, to attack other animals. The coyote leaves them alone if numerous, and even the mountain lion passes them to look for other game. Their tusks are deadly weapons, and they click like so many hammers when the creature is angry. If any ambitious Nimrod wants a hunt after the most peculiar game extant in the United States and Mexico he ought to take a peccary chase in Central Sonora.
The country around Guaymas is extremely fertile, and in no part of the American continent is there a richer country than lies along the eastern and northern portion of the Gulf of California. Sonora and Sinaloa are conceded to be the richest States in Mexico, and just as Mexico has been the most backward country of North America, so these two States are the least advanced portion of Mexico. This condition of affairs is due almost wholly to the same cause that has retarded the growth of Arizona and New Mexico, namely, the raids of hostile Indian tribes. These two States have not only been a favorite hunting and scalping ground for the Apaches, but within their own borders have been superior and warlike races to contend with in the Yaqui and Mayo Indians. The last war of the Yaquis with the Mexican Government lasted over twelve years, but since its close a number of years ago the Indians are settling in the towns and villages, where they are the most industrious portion of the working population. With the disappearance of this disturbing element the most important problem regarding the growth and development of the garden of the Pacific appears to have been solved. Every grade of climate can be found here, from the tropical seacoast to the temperate great plateaus, a short distance inland. The country has a rich, well-watered soil; there are vast, well-wooded mountain ranges, where all kinds of game are found in abundance; the rivers and bays are filled with every variety of fish, and two or more crops of fruits or staple articles can be raised yearly. Such a country cannot long remain unnoticed and unsettled; for when railways are constructed through it the attention of outsiders must be drawn to the land.
