I come now to speak of the _Apaches_, the most extensive and powerful, yet the most vagrant of all the savage nations that inhabit the interior of Northern Mexico. They are supposed to number some fifteen thousand souls, although they are subdivided into various petty bands, and scattered over an immense tract of country. Those that are found east of the Rio del Norte are generally known as _Mezcaleros_, on account of an article of food much in use among them, called _mezcal_,[45] but by far the greatest portion of the nation is located in the west, and is mostly known by the sobriquet [Pg075] of _Coyoteros_, in consequence, it is said, of their eating the _coyote_ or prairie-wolf.[46] The Apaches are perhaps more given to itinerant habits than any other tribe in Mexico. They never construct houses, but live in the ordinary wigwam, or tent of skins and blankets. They manufacture nothing--cultivate nothing: they seldom resort to the chase, as their country is destitute of game--but depend almost entirely upon pillage for the support of their immense population, some two or three thousand of which are warriors. For their food, the Apaches rely chiefly upon the flesh of the cattle and sheep they can steal from the Mexican ranchos and haciendas. They are said, however, to be more fond of {291} the meat of the mule than that of any other animal. I have seen about encampments which they had recently left, the remains of mules that had been slaughtered for their consumption. Yet on one occasion I saw their whole trail, for many miles, literally strewed with the carcasses of these animals, which, it was evident, had not been killed for this purpose. It is the practice of the Apache chiefs, as I have understood, whenever a dispute arises betwixt their warriors relative to the ownership of any particular animal, to kill the brute at once, though it be the most valuable of the drove; and so check all further cavil. It was to be inferred from the number of dead mules they left behind them, that the most harmonious relations could not have existed between the members of the tribe, at least during this period of their journeyings. Like most of the savage tribes of North America, the Apaches are passionately fond of spirituous liquors, and may frequently be seen, in times [Pg076] of peace, lounging about the Mexican villages, in a state of helpless inebriety.