He accordingly
sailed without it, announcing that, whether the Mexican
Government asked him to do so or not, he would see that the
women and children on the border of Mexico and Arizona were
protected from massacre by the Indians. It will be remembered that
when Dr. Jameson raided the Transvaal he also went to protect
"women and children" from massacre by the Boers. Walker's
explanation of his expedition, in his own words, is as follows. He
writes in the third person: "What Walker saw and heard satisfied
him that a comparatively small body of Americans might gain a
position on the Sonora frontier and protect the families on the
border from the Indians, and such an act would be one of humanity
whether or not sanctioned by the Mexican Government. The
condition of the upper part of Sonora was at that time, and still is
[he was writing eight years later, in 1860], a disgrace to the
civilization of the continent...and the people of the United States
were more immediately responsible before the world for the
Apache outrages. Northern Sonora was in fact, more under the
dominion of the Apaches than under the laws of Mexico, and the
contributions of the Indians were collected with greater regularity
and certainty than the dues of the tax-gatherers. The state of this
region furnished the best defence for any American aiming to
settle there without the formal consent of Mexico; and, although
political changes would certainly have followed the establishment
of a colony, they might be justified by the plea that any social
organization, no matter how secured, is preferable to that in which
individuals and families are altogether at the mercy of savages.
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