With thepossible exception of the Sioux, the Apaches were the most formidable of allour Western Indian tribes. Indeed it is conceded that in cunning, ferocity andendurance they have never had an equal on this continent, or a superior on thisglobe.
GeneralCrook, who was an acknowledged authority, has seen an Apache lope for fifteenhundred feet up the side of a mountain without showing any sign of fatigue,there being neither an increase of respiration or perspiration. A band ofApaches have been known to ambush a party of whites on an open plain, wherethere was neither tree, shrub, nor blade of grass growing. It was done byburrowing in the sand and covering their bodies, all but their eyes, andremaining motionless until the unsuspecting whites were within a hundred yardsof them...
The leaderof this band of Chiricahua Apaches is the far-famed Geronimo, the bestadvertised Indian on earth. He is a son of Tah-Clish-Un, and a pupil ofCochise, from whom he had learned every detail of Indian generalship, and hadsucceeded him in his marvelous influence over the tribe...
