BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE vuis 47
The secret that lies at the roots of the whole Yaqui
affair was revealed to me and the whole matter summed
up in a few words by Colonel Francisco B. Cruz of the
Mexican army, in one of the most remarkable interviews
which I obtained during my entire trip to Mexico.
For the past four years this officer has been in immediate
charge of transporting all the Yaqui exiles to Yucatan.
I was fortunate enough to take passage on the
same steamer with him returning from Progreso to
Veracruz. He is a stout, comfortable, talkative old campaigner
of about sixty years. The steamship people put
us in the same stateroom, and, as the colonel had some
government passes which he hoped to sell me, we were
soon on the most confidential terms.
"In the past three and one-half years," he told me, "I
have delivered just fifteen thousand seven hundred Yaquis
in Yucatan—delivered, mind you, for you must remember
that the government never allows me enough expense
money to feed them properly, and frorn ten to
twenty per cent die on the journey.
"These Yaquis," he said, "sell in Yucatan for $65
apiece—men, women and children. Who gets the money?
Well, $10 goes to me for my services. The rest is turned
over to the Secretary of War. This, however, is only
a drop in the bucket, for I know this to be a fact, that
every foot of land, every building, every cow, every
burro, everything left behind by the Yaquis when they
are carried away by the soldiers, is appropriated for the
private use of authorities of the state of Sonora."
So according to this man. who has himself made at
least $157,000 out of the business. the Yaquis are deported
for the money there is in it—first, the money
from the appropriation of their property, second, the
money from the sale of their bodies. He declared to me