I have never been able to find any account in the papers of its destruction, but the report at the railroad station was that Amatlan contained three hundred and fifty Mexican families, nearly of all whom perished. Those who were not shot were burned in the firing of the village.
Yet on this trip I met only two soldiers and two rifles; one an anti-Carranzista guard at a railroad station, and the other a picturesque anti-Carranzista general who rode with our party through the hills after we left the railroad train. It was said that he had associated with him thousands of anti-Carranzistas.
When the government troops appear, the rebels are just plain Mexican people with no arms and no organization. When the army divides into small bodies, the plain Mexican people are suddenly in the bush with plenty of cartridges and the government soldiers are ambushed or perhaps given opportunity to change sides.
Similarly, when the soldiers surround the opposition, the anti-Carranzistas are either recruited or shot. It is astonishing how many Mexican prisoners, when the question is asked, "Carranzista or anti-Carranzista?" will respond
