Yaqui (Curley Large Print Books)

This book contains one of the most beloved Indian stories Zane Grey ever wrote. First published in 1920 in Country Gentleman it has always been a fan favorite. Captured and taken away from wife and family to become a slave far away from his mountain home and forced to live in the tropical lowlands of the Yucatan, Yaqui plots his escape and revenge on the man who did this to him--a young arrogant officer in the Mexican army named Perez. Perez means to break the Indian as well as obtain the land and the power of an aristocratic elite by marrying a powerful landowners' daughter. I won't tell you any more, you'll have to read it for yourself. The other stories in this collection are actually excerpts from other works. The story, Escape, comes from the novel Desert Gold; The Breaker of Wild Mustangs from The Heritage of the Desert; and The Hogan of Nas Ta Bega from The Rainbow Trail. These excerpts, provided you have never read any Zane Grey novels, should provoke you to want to read the books from which they were taken; they are all among his best fiction written early in his career. The only other place I know where the story Yaqui can be found is in a short story collection called Tappan's Burro, another fine grouping of works. The story, The Land of the Wild Musk-Ox is missing in this large print edition but in the original paperback Belmont Tower 1976. Enjoy.

Zane Grey considered himself 1/16th Indian as the Zane side of the family had married Indians in the 18th century. So he had a fondness for the red man and it shows in such works as The Vanishing American and others. Yaqui is the tale of that tribe of Indians and how they were mistreated by the Mexican government and removed from their tribal lands--the mountains of Mexico--and forced into the jungles causing many of them to die from the climate. It was Zane Grey's belief the Yaqui were descendants of the Aztecs. This tribe were made slaves and forced to work in the fields. There is one lieutenant, Perez, who is particularly harsh and sadistic and Yaqui plans his revenge on him, and that makes for one of the most dramatic and memorable endings there ever was to a story. You have to read it to believe it. Great story by Zane Grey.