xpedition, 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."

While at the time of Jameson's raid the women and children in danger of
massacre from the Boers were as many as there are snakes in Ireland, at
the time of Walker's raid the women and children were in danger from the
Indians, who as enemies, as Walker soon discovered, were as cruel and as
greatly to be feared as he had described them.

But it was not to save women and children that Walker sought to conquer
the State of Sonora. At the time of his expedition the great question of
slavery was acute; and if in the States next to be admitted to the Union
slavery was to be prohibited, the time had come, so it seemed to
this statesman of twenty-eight years, when the South must extend her
boundaries, and for her slaves find an outlet in fresh territory.
Sonora already joined Arizona. By conquest her territory could easily
be extended to meet Texas. As a matter of fact, strategically the spot
selected by William Walker for the purpose for which he desired it was
almost perfect. Throughout his brief career one must remember that the
spring of all his acts was this dream of an empire where slavery would
be recognized. His mother was a slave-holder. In Tennessee he had been
born and