ll show the
success or failure of this Utopian scheme.

The usual routine at Tubac, in addition to the regular business of
distributing supplies to the mining camps, was chocolate or strong
coffee the first thing in the morning, breakfast at sunrise, dinner at
noon, and supper at sunset.

Sunday was the day of days at Tubac, as the superintendents came in from
the mining camps to spend the day and take dinner, returning in the
afternoon. One Sunday we had a fat wild turkey weighing about
twenty-five pounds, and one of my engineers asked permission to assist
in the _cocina_. It was done to a charm, and stuffed with pine nuts,
which gave it a fine flavor.

As we had plenty of horses and saddles, a gallop to the old Mission of
San Jose de Turnucacori, one league south on the Santa Cruz River,
afforded exercise and diversion for the ladies, especially of a Sunday
afternoon. The old mission was rapidly going to ruin, but the records
showed that it formerly supported a population of 3,500 people, from
cultivation of the rich lands in the valley, grazing cattle, and working
the silver mines. The Santa Cruz valley had been and could apparently
again be made an earthly paradise. Many fruit trees yet remained in the
gardens of the old mission church, and the "Campo Santo" walls were in
a perfect state of preservation.

The communal system of the Latin races was well adapted to this country
of oases and detached valleys. Caesar knew nearly as much about the
governing machine as the sachem of Tammany Hall, or a governor in
Mexico. At least, he enriched himself. In countries requiring irrigation
the communal system of distributing water has been found to produce the
greatest good for the greatest number. The plan of a government granting
water to corporations, to be sold as a monopoly, is an atrocity against
nature; and no deserving people will for long submit to it. The question
will soon come up whether the government has any more right to sell the
water than the air.

In the spring of 1857, a garden containing about two acres was prepared
at Tubac, and irrigated by a canal from the Santa Cruz River. By the
industry of a German gardener with two Mexican assistants, we soon
produced all vegetables, melons, etc., that we required, and many a
weary traveler remembers, or ought to remember, the hospitalities of
Tubac. We were never a week without some company, and sometimes had more
than we required; but nobody was ever charged