LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDDlfiDD3fiEA LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Slielr UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. /■ THE COMING EMPIRE; OR, TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. UY IT. R MCDAXIELD and N. A. TAYLOR. Nwic mihi curto Ire licet miUo, vel^ si libet, usque Tarentum. Horace, Sat. 6. Lib. 1. A.S.BARNES & COMPANY, NEW YORK, CHICAGO. AND NEW ORLEANS. •V ^ — ^ Copyright, MCDA.NIELD & TAYLOR, 1877. INTRODUCTION. ONE of the most entertaining works to me, is an account by Montaigne of a iiorse-back trip over portions of France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, in the year 1580, by himself and three or four of his select friends. It is a work in which the liveliness of the old Gascon continually sparkles ; though some may think that he talks too much of the stone in the bladder with which he was then afflicted. I have often thought that if I should visit Europe, I would have a great deal of pleasure in pursuing the route marked in his journal : comparing the people and the country along the way with what they were as he saw and described them three centuries ago. It would be, I judge, a most entertaining employment to any one of observing turn of mind : holding continually before him two pictures of the same thing : the one, delineated by a master hand, of what it was three hundred years ago, and the other the Present, with its changed or unchanged conditions. There the dead centuries move in living forms before him, and he may, as he chooses, pluck a rose from the Present, or put forth his hand and gather a fresh lily from the Past. And so it may be that even three hundred years hence, long as we may judge, after the writers of this little volume have gone to explore the mystery of the future, the Texan will ride over the course marked in this journal and feel a 6 INTRODUCTION. peculiar pleasure in what he beholds, as he beholds it as it was years and years and centuries ago ; and it may be that some of them will then think of us as kindly as we now think of Montaigne. And then, however simple it be, this little volume may never lose its interest, but remain immortal, dear to Texans many, many years. And what a giant will Texas be three hundred years from now ! Heavens ! The thought recoils under the stu- pendous contemplation. But this it is safe to say : what- ever change and revolution may shake the American con- tinent and disperse its peoples, she will forever stand One Indivisible, the mightiest Empire of them all : with the flood-lights of her conquest and civilization flashing to the west and south-west. Nature and her God have knitted her together for a great destiny, and man cannot put her asunder. Think of the strides with which she is now bounding forward. Forty years ago, the feeble but struggling de- pendence of an ignorant power ; next an infant nationality toddling along in shirtless penury ; now, the great vigor- ous Hopeful of the American Union ! The next census will place her by the side of Ohio in numbers on the floor of the National Congress ; and the next after that will place her far above New York. The Texan youth of to-day will behold a far grander thing than their fathers beheld , and it is a pleasant thought for some of us to know that we shall be well represented in that line. Of course, the writer of this cannot be a witness of her full-grown glory ; but he will do her all the good he can, and will at least help to twine one little flower with her splendid garland. We have written mostly of wildernesses and rocks. In a few years cities will illumine those wildernesses, and lovers will tell their sweet tales on the very rocks from which we beheld the plaintive wolf, and saw the ravings of the lions of the mountains. INTEODUCTION. 7 Only let her statesmanship be akin to her great destiny. Advance ! is her watchword, but I cannot say that i^. will all be with Peace or not. This little volume is the Joint work of two hands, but we have generally used the single pronoun, as one is less cumbersome than two. co]:^^TE]s^Ts. DIVISION I. From Houston to New Braunfels. Texas Western Railway, 9 — Houston, 10 — My Departure, 11 — The "Houston Prairie," 11 — Wliat I would do, 13 — If I were a Hunter, 15 — The Giant and the Princess, 15 — A Talk about Cat- tle-raising, 16 — The Brazos and its " Bottoms," 18 — The River, 21— The Old Ferryman, 23— San Felipe de Austin, 27— Cat Springs, 29 — Geological, 31 — A Talk with the Merchant, 32 — Of Various Experiences, 33 — A Strange Apparition, 39 — La- grange. The Colorado, 43 — The Devil and Strap Buckner, 49 — He Cometh, 58 — La Noche Triste, 60 — The Day of Events, 65 — He Returns, 71— Snake Prairie, 74— The Vale of Seclusive, 76— Post Oak Belts, 78— Plum Creek, 81— Mesquite Chaparral, 82— Hog-wallow Prairies, 85 — Lockhart, 89 — Wealth Undeveloped. — West Texas Scenery, 91 — The Jackass Rabbit, 93 — The San Marcos, 94 — Some Reflections, 98 — Speculations about Mesquite Grass, 99— The Guadalupe, 101. DIVISION n. New Braunfels to San Antonio. New Braunfels, 103— Westward and Poesy, 106— My Cibolo, 109 — Continuation, 110 — Salado, 110 — Chaparral Thoughts, 113 — San Antonio, 114— Mixed, 116— Society, 117— The Verge.— Whence She Prospers, 117— Her Past, 119— Batile-Scarred, 120— The Alamo, 121— Her Future, 133— The Mexicans, 134— To Arms, 137. CONTENTS. 7 DIVISION III. San Antonio to Fredericksburg. The Texas Pony, 128— The Comal, 129— Rivers Under the Ground, 130— The siiore of the Eocene Sea, 132— Mv Cibolo Again, 133— Three Coyotes, 134— Boerne, 137— The Products, 138— Sheep Husbandry, 139 — The Society of Shepherds, 141— George Wil- kins Kendall, 144 — Wild Nature and Wild Beasts, 146 — The Sisterdalians, 149 — The Finest Country I ev'er Saw, 151 — Wheat, 152— What this Wheat Offers the Texas Ports, 153 — The Peo- ple, 154 — Athena, 155 — Night in Athena, 156 — Geological Ret- rospections, 158 — Heaven, 161 — A Strange Encounter. — Java- linas, 162 — Anchoritic, 166 — Incomprehensible, 168 — Elevated, 169— Dismal, 170— Unearthly, 170— Piscine, 172— Granitic Ex- plosion.— The Primeval World, 174— Earthquake Thoughts, 175 —The Promised Land, 176— Fredericksburg, 176— The Sort of People you see, 178. DIVISION IV. Fredericksburg to Fort Concho. Indian Talk, 179— Fogs and Cloud-Bursts, 180— Lost Rocks.— The Texas Cataclysm, 181— The Primitive Hills, 183— Birds that are Peculiar, 184— Not All Bad, 187— A Disappointment.— The Old Shepherd, 188— Buen Retiro, 190— Loyal Valley.— The Ger- mans and a Higher Civilization, 192 — A Garden in a Wilder- ness, 194 — Physical Features, 195 — How One feels when He cannot tell which End to take, 195 — The Compass and Aurora, 197 — Ruin. — The Young Geologist, 198 — The Frontiersman. — The War of the Sheafs and Horns, 200— Softened, 203— River Llano, 203— Fort Mason.— A Surprise, 205 — The Tamed Lion and the Wild One, 206— R. E. Lee, 208— The Wilderness and the Live-Oak, 209 — A Gentleman in Distressed Circumstances, 210 — Night, 215— The Queen and the Lily, 216— Two Surprises, 218 Peculiar. — Eaves-dropping, 221 — Where the Peris dwell, 222 — Morning, 223— Miranda, 224— Airy Beings, 225— The Wilder- ness and Society, 227 — Ships that meet at Sea, 228 — A Conver- sation on the Road. 229 — River San Saba. — Irrigation, 230 — . Menardville.— The Ultima Thulians, 231— The Female Ultima CONTENTS. Thulians, 235 — Coglan's Cave and what befell, 238 — Ancient Ruins, 241 — Fort McKavett, — Military Life in the Wilderness, 242 — The Horned Frogs, 244 — Bivouac with Ebony Soldiers, 246 — Kickapoo Springs. — Pretty but Scaly, 249 — Hail Storms, 250 — Company Enough. — A Texas Norther, 252. DIVISION V. Concho to Pecos. Camp Concho. — All Grotesque, 259 — Art imitates Her, 261 — Big Expectations. — And what they came To, 263 — The Holy An- gels, 264— The Cemetery.—" Unknown," 266— Col. Anderson. — Compagnons du Voyage, 267 — A Populous City. — Subterra- nean Forests, 269 — A Mixed and Happy Family, 272 — The Last of them, 274— Startled.— The Beautiful Swan, 274— A Serene Picture —The Days of Old, 276— Antelopes, 277— Souvenirs.— The Gorge of the Shadow of Death, 280 — Amazement. — The American Bison, 281 — A Glance into the Past and Future, 285 — The Mourner by the Hearse, 287 — Per contra, 289 — A Specula- tion in which there is Money, 290 — Concho Springs. — Et tu Brute ! 291 — Retrospection. — Artesian Wells, 292 — In Darkness, 294— Voices of the Night, 296— Evoe !— The Charge! 298— Whence came He? 301— Dew-Drops, 303— The Hand of Provi- dence. — The Volcanic Fountains, 304 — The Sentinels and Prophets, 305 — Pursuit and Death. — The Jaguar, 306 — A Change indeed.— The Floral Fiend, 308— A Band of Philosophers, 309 — Seat of Desolation. — The Skeletons in Battle Array, 310 — Of Him that ate Red-Riding Hood, 313 — What it has been. — A Jurassic Sea, 314 — Plains, 316 — A Voice in the Wilderness, 316. DIVISION VL Pecos to Pkesidio Del Norte. A Morning Bath, 320— The Most Remarkable River in the World, 324— The Cause of it.— The Hand of the Architect, 326— His Water, 327— The Nile and my Pecos, 327— The Soil ; Irrigation and Navigation, 328 — Adam's Curse. — Fantastic Shapes, 330 — The Rose in the Wilderness.— W^hat it would be, 332— Remark- able Region.— A Dolorous Day, 335— The Night of Wolves, 337 CONTENTS. 9 — Among the Minerals. — "There they are, for a Factl" 340 — The Lost Creek. — Silver. — The Lions of the Mountains, 345 — The Pass.— The Abysmal Creek and Fall of Bruin, 349— Per- plexity that is Providentially Relieved. — A Ride in Mexico, 353. DIVISION VII. Presidio Del Norte to Houston. How the Vine flourishes, 359— The Mexican Snob.— How Greatness Feels, 360— Presidio at Night.— Fandango, 364— Among the Prospectors.- The Chinati Mountains, 365 — A Supper lost.— The Boast of the Coward, 368— Departure from Friends, 373— The Broncos.— The Great Plains, 374— Arrayed in White.— The Monarch, 375— Fort Davis.— Man's Inhumanity, 378— Limpia Canyon, 383— Barilla Springs.— A Norther on the Staked Plain, 384— Conclusion, 388. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. I. DIVISION I. HAVING lately accomplished a very long ride in the great State of Texas, I have concluded to write out my notes in order that others may see what I saw, and feel somewhat as I felt. And first, as to my motives for the trip. I had taken a contract to do some work on the Texas Western Railway, An enterprise but recently projected and then just taking its start. It was planned by some enterprising gentlemen of Houston, who believed it would add to the importance of their city and become a first-class investment. After investigating the prospects of the road, and considering that the line marked out for it will connect the Pacific in California with the waters of the Atlantic, by a route three hundred miles shorter than any other, over a country offer- ing no great difiiculcies in conformation and none in cli- mate, I became a stockholder, and felt an interest in the 10 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. road. Therefore, after completiTig a portion of my con- tract, and having some leisure, I undertook my long ride on horseback, to study the country along the proposed route, as far as Mexico, with my own eyes. The gauge of this road is three feet — a system upon which I believe most of the railroads of the future will be built. Perhaps in the general railroad system as it is, too much of that has been sacrificed to speed which had been better given to transportation. We can afford to live slower when by that we live better and cheaper ; and what is tlius saved will increase the comforts of those from whose toil the cities are made and the waters of the oceans are white with rich argosies. He who drives the plow does it all. Houston. It was my starting point, as it is of the road of which I spoke. It is the next most populous place in Texas, sec- ond only to that beautiful " Sea-Cybele," which looks from orange and oleander groves upon the bine waters of the Gulf on the one hand, and the broad, placid bay on the other.* Its population is about twenty-six thousand, an increase of three to one in seven years. It is the most in- terior point to which the tide-waters of the Gulf ascend. Though fifty miles inland, the sea practically rolls within six miles of it, and can be easily made to roll at its doors. Ocean steamers ride to Clinton, six miles below, and lesser craft penetrate the heart of the city. Thus by railway to Clinton, Houston is within ten minutes of the sea. It is the centre of eight railways, which are daily extending her commerce and influence, and giving access to every portion of the great domain around her. The sea knocks at her doors, and she has only to heed the summons. It offers her a summer pathway to Mexico, the West Indies, Cen- tral America and South America — regions of the *' sweet * Galveston, TWO TH0USA:N'D miles in TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 11 south," whose trade enriches those who cultivate it. When Houston and Galveston can sell wheat and flour nearly as cheap as St. Louis, their fortune is made, and they step forth at once among the great cities of the land. All tliat they need, to do this, is more farmers upon the fertile bo- som of the great State, whose capacity to produce the best wheat in the world is almost without limit. When they become great flour exporting marts, other manufactures will be necessary and will spring up like works of magic, thus making them great exporters of other articles also. To my view nothing can be clearer than the future great- ness of tliese two cities. Their "back country " will be not only the grand domain of Texas, but the whole vast region between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. My Depaeture. The sun shone brightly on the morning of January 2d, 1876, and the breath of spring was in the air. I had re- tired to bed on the night of the first, ready for my jour- ney when the lark shook the dew off his wings. An early breakfast and my staunch steed stood champing the bit in his eagerness to be on the way. Little recked he of the far journey before him. After the manner of the bold war- rior of old, he said, " I do not ask how long it is, but where it is ?" My paraphernalia consisted of one extra blouse, a haversack, a pocket map and compass and spy-glass ; my arms of a pocket-knife. Thus accoutred, I rode due west along the line of the Texas Western Railway, with no other companion save my eyes and my thoughts. Much of the way there was no road, and my path was much like that of a ship over the trackless sea. The '^Houston Praieie." About four miles from Houston the last vestige of hu- man habitation disappears, and I ride upon a prairie 12 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. which to the westward appears boundless. It is dead of winter, but it smiles with a green luxuriance upon which ten, nay, fifty thousand cattle are feeding, and some are basking in the sunshine, chewing the cud with a lazy air of contentment. To the right and left, ten miles apart, are dark lines of forest, which mark the sleepy course of Buffalo Bayou on the one hand, and Bray's Bayou on the other. This prairie is as smooth as a billiard table, with scarcely perceptible inclination to either bayou. The soil is jet black, and evidently very strong and rich. Marl crops out in many places, indicating that this fine fertilizer exists in abundance a few feet below. Numerous farms are seen in the distance along the bayou's, but not one in- trudes upon the prairie. Why should such an expanse of fertile lands be left in nature's wildness ? Why should this rich heiress not be plucked ? Simply because the Texan tvill hug the forest and the stream. There he builds his home, and tills his field, and this he leaves to his cattle to roam upon at will. He little suspects and little cares for the wealth of the virgin heiress. Give this Houston Prairie drainage into the bayous and then tickle her bosom with a plow, and see how quickly she will laugh with the choicest products of the earth. The advancing tide of population will soon overflow the valleys and break through the forests, and then the Houston Prairie will blossom like a great garden. With a soil so rich that it will produce almost anything, and a climate so gentle that fresh fruits from the field may be gathered every day of the year, it cannot be otherwise. But, one will say, what about water and wood for fencing and fuel ? As for the first, the clouds will keep your under-ground cisterns always filled with tl' e purest and coolest water ; for fencing and building the vast pineries which begin at Houston and extend hundreds of miles eastward, ofi'er illimitable supplies of lumber, and for fuel. TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 13 the railroad passing through the centre of this prairie, will deliver excellent oak from the great Brazos Bottoms at three dollars per cord or less. I regard this very spot as one of the choicest on earth for the farmer, for besides the favorable conditions of soil and climate, he has in the rapidly growing cities within easy reach of him, a cash purchaser for all he can produce ; and they are markets which he need not fear he can overstock. They have abun- dant outlets to other markets, north, east and west, eager to buy all that they cannot themselves consume. And yet these noble lands are now begging for pur- chasers who will utilize them, at fifty cents to two dollars an acre ! What I Would Do. Suppose I should encamp permanently on this prairie. I should in the first place buy two hundred acres of land. This I would immediately enclose with a plank fence ; after which I would plant just inside the fence, a hedge of the beautiful pyracanth, which, long before the fence has decayed, will be ready to take its place with a living wall of green foliage and blossoms, and berries and thorns, through whose intricate mazes nothing larger than a rab- bit can pass. It will endure through generations. Then I would erect my cottage, with stables and barns, and I would take great care, even with little expenditure of money, that they are beautiful and pleasing to the eye — so that the wayfarer in passing by should say: ^^ There lives one of taste and civilization ! " Then I would adorn my grounds witli flowers and shrubbery, not only to please my eye and the stranger's, but that the little ones who might one day prance about them should laugh and be as happy as fairies, and have their little hearts warmed and expanded, from their first impressions with the love of the beautiful and good. And what is so well calculated to do 14 TWO THOUSAKD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. this as the opening perfumed flowers, and the birds and gaudy butterflies that sport and sing among them ? Then I would plant forty acres to the pear, the peach, the plum and the grape ; then I would plant forty acres with young trees gathered from the forests, to be my park and to give a varied beauty to the scene. Then I should buy a dozen excellent milk cows, natives of the prairie. Then I would pitch my crops in season, and garner and glean in season, and accumulate every day. Then if I had not a wife, I should make haste to get one. If things were not yet all beauti- ful in my house and around it, I would expect them at once to become so, and that the curds, cream and butter, manipulated by female hands, would add no small increase to my income. Above all, I should expect her to be beau- tiful and good, and I would make it my duty to see that everything around her was beautiful — so far as I could — in order that'she might excel it. I think a man is an in- tinite villain who puts a woman in a dirty, slouchy home ; and what a wrong he does his young daughters ! A man "who thus lives lias never known the beauty and richness of the female heart. He is only distinguished from the brute in that he walks on two legs and they on four. To do all of this, he need not be rich ; he need only have a good heart and intelligence, and be industrious. I hold that nearly all women would be beautiful and good, if their husbands were only worthy that they should be. Would I not be happy thus encamped ? He who cul- tivates the bosom of mother Earth intelligently and lov- ingly, cultivates God ; and he who cultivates God, culti- vates and secures happiness. I believe no one ever culti- vated mother Earth intelligently and lovingly, who did not live happy and die blest. If one would cultivate Art and Letters also, this is the life he should lead ; because the fancy and thought are so free in their unrestrained independence. The bird sings all the more sweetly TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 15 when he knows that his mate and her little ones are all right. If I WERE A Hunter, I think I would surely pitch my tent right here. As evening fell, the prairie swarmed with wild fowl and was noisy with their clamor. Geese in large flocks were pas- turing on the tender herbage, and other flocks were flying hither and thither, emitting their peculiar cry of ''conk, conk," as they flew. Many came so near me that I might have killed them with a pocket pistol. Sand-hill cranes, like armies in grey marched leisurely over the plain ; curlews and plover were at every turn ; prairie chickens rose con- tinually on the wing, and black-birds or grackle were lit- erally in myriads. The Giant and the Princess. As it grew dusk a long dark line rose up in the west before me, and I knew by this and the increasing mots or islands of timber, that the prairie was about to terminate^ upon the forests of the Brazos Bottoms. At dark I rode upon a small habitation on the edge of the forest, where I asked for and obtained food and rest for the night. It was the home of a stock-man, who paid little attention to till- age of the soil. He was bronzed and freckled, booted and bearded, rough-hewn outwardly, but polite, hospitable and intelligent. There was an air of considerable comfort about his small residence, and his wife was a tidy, pleasant little lady. She was so small in comparison with the size of her husband that I thought of a giant married to a little prin- cess, whom he had stolen and borne away to his castle. There was a meekness and resignation about this little lady which increased the delusion. It occurred to me that she would like to see her giant look handsomer in her pres- ence, and not go about the house in his cow-clothes, with 10 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. liis great spurs clanking at his heels, and was sick at lieart because he would not. Here was an example of a native gentleman who had been turned wrong-side-out by association with rough but honest people, who know little and care less for the ameni- ties of civilization. That he was a born gentleman was palpable, but that he was no gentleman now, at least in outward appearance, was also palpable. He had allowed the polish to be worn away from him gradually until hardly a bit was left. It is said that no gentleman can habitually follow a cow's tail without thus sinking, and evidence of this tendency is pointed to in the semi-civilized or barbar- ous condition of all races who live by their herds ; but in this country ]t is certainly the fault of the gentlemen them- selves that this should be so. I dare say that when this giant courted his princess he did not do so with his cow- clothes on and his spurs, but was adorned and scented like a big lily of the field. Why cannot he thus adorn himself in her presence now, and arrest the tendency to revert back to barbarism ? * A Talk about Cattle-raising. After supper the giant sat by me on the gallery, and we smoked, I a clay pipe and he a cob one. The night was so bland that I could hardly think of it as winter. While he spake his legs were thrown over the railing of the gallery, and his feet projected a considerable distance above his head. I asked him with what rapidity his cattle increased. His reply was : *' That, sir, I can hardly tell you. I keep no books. They say you can calculate on an increase of * The author of the Vestiges of Creation seems to have been convinced that the life of the herdsman leads to barbarism. He says in his chapter on the Early His- tory of Mankind : " Even men who have been civilized, when transfeiTed to a wide wilderness, where each has to work hard and isolatedly for the first requi- sites of life, soon show a retrogression to barbarism ; witness the plains of Aus- tralia, as well as the backwoods of Canada and the prairies of Texas." TWO THOUSAiJ^D MILES LN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 1? twenty-five to thirty-three per cent a year, and that might be so if none were stolen and none strayed away. About all I know of it is that they increase fast enough to keep me pretty busy, what with branding calves and chasing the runaways back from the ends of creation. It is a business that you must watch closely, else you may start this year t^ith a thousand head and in a few years find yourself with none." " What will become of them ? " ^' Other people will brand your calves, while the old ones will die or stray away. After a calf has become a year old without a brand, it is the custom to look upon him as pub- lic property. He belongs to the first one who will catch and brand him. I know men who have accumulated large stocks in this way. A man must be up and doing, sir, and if he cannot make up his mind to do this he had better let the cattle business alone. I am so continually in the sad- dle that I don't feel right elsewhere." " Do you find ready sale for your beeves ?" " No trouble about that. When I find myself run ning short of pocket change, I gather a few head and drivt^ them to Houston, where they will sell readily at fifteen to twenty-five dollars a head. Beeves are like cotton — ready sale in any market in the world." *' You never feed vour cattle ?" ''Oh, no, but I am thinking of starting a little farm near Houston, where I shall raise corn, and always keep a few corn-fed beeves on hand. Such cattle will bring fancy prices." He was totally unable to tell me how many cattle he had, but evidently supposed that he had several thousand. I had ridden nearly forty miles since morning, and slept well. II. The Brazos ais^d its ''Bottoms." THE giant refused to take a fee for my board and lodg- ing, and at sunrise I was on my way. I did not feel so comfortable as yesterday. It was my first trip on horse- back since several months^ and my contact with the saddle had become a great grievance ; insomuch that I often found myself thinking of the cushioned arm-chair before my grate. I was now penetrating the Brazos Bottom, famed for fertility. Its course was marked by a long line of forest rising like a great wall abruptly against the prairie, save where, here and there, the forest showed its tendency to advance beyond tl>e line, by groves and narrow belts of timber thrown out upon the prairie. The level of the bot- tom is about twenty feet below the prairie, and the descent is nearly as precipitous as a wall. On entering it I fo md I had passed from a region of light into one of gloom and darkness. The gigantic pecan, cottonwood and magnolia threw a shade upon the tops of their lesser neighbors, — the oak, the elm, the ash, the hackberry — and these in turn threw a denser shade upon the ground. From the tops of the lesser to the tops of the most gigantic climbed the wild grape, weaving ladders here and a perfect net-work there, on which it seemed that one could climb and w^alk at ease from tree to tree. Below them all was the underbrush, dense as an African jungle, over which the wild convolvulus and woodbine and bramble spread a mantle of texture so close that the tomtit could hardly hop through it. Through TWO THOUSAND AIILES IX TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. '9 all of these mantles the snn utterly refused to shine, and the heavy coating of fallen leaves and limbs and logs rotted on the ground in eternal darkness and damp. The silence was unbroken save by the tapping of the woodpecker, the chat- tering of the squirrel, and the hooting of the owl, even at midday, who here found a perpetual reign of night. Oc- casionally I could see the branches of the pecan and cotton- wood and magnolia waving to the Avind far above, but its voice was unheard through the thick obstruction of vine and bough and foliage. Trees that are deciduous else- where are evergreen here, for in this dark, damp forest no frost ever comes to wither the leaves. He may scatter his glittering gems in profusion on the grass of the prairies hard by, but his sparkling beauty and his crisp touch are here all unknown. I have never seen a forest in my life where the trees stood so closely together. In many places they rest and lean against each other, and their boughs, except of the most gigantic, are all interlocked. What an immense store of fuel and building wood is here accumu- lated for the prairies, which stretch away to the east and west like seas ! The gloom is penetrated here and there by wide open- ings cut by the old-time planters, who derived from the matchless soil princely incomes, which were lavishly ex- pended. After the war these great plantations were aban- doned, some entirely and others in part. Even now many of the richest fields lie waste and un tilled, for the want of willing hands. The generous soil yields readily a bale of cotton to the acre, often a bale and a half, a hogshead of sugar, or sixty to a hundred bushels of corn. I saw a field which had been in cultivation over thirty years in succes- sion, without receiving one pound of manuring, except what the birds and the animals had cast in flying or wan- dering over it, and yet its crops were as exuberant as when first opened. 20 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. But can a residence in this deep entanglement be healthy ? Those who live here say it is so ; and so do the Esquimaux say that their land is the most delightful and salubrious under the canopy. If the alligators should be consulted they would protest that the dark swamps of Louisiana, rich in fogs and vapors, were all that any rea- sonable being could desire. It is simply impossible that the enormous quantity of carbonic acid gas, ev€>lved from the decaying vegetation around me, should not infect the pure air. I have seen none who did not look well and ro- bust, but I dare say that those who were shaking with chills staid home by the fire. There is suspicious evidence in the fact that the old planters built their residences on the high grounds of the prairie, and in the further fact, which I discovered, that quinine seems to be a favorite drug in the locality. In Houston it is common to see empty beer bottles lying about tlie streets, and I saw two empty quinine bottles lying by the road side in the Brazos Bottom. I noticed those two bottles closely, and I thought they spoke a sermon. If I should make up my mind to settle in the Brazos Bottom, I would certainly follow the example of the old planters, and pitch my tent on the prai- rie, and I would select a position from which the wind would reach me as rarely as possible from the direction of the Bottom. Tlie middle of the great Bottom varies exceedingly, from three miles to twenty and even more. As a rule, it narrows ascending the stream, and broadens descending. A few miles below me it broadens rapidly to the east, while to the west, a few miles still lower, it continues un- broken, though not all covered with forest, until it unites with the valley of the Colorado, forming an area of fertility, composing the counties of Fort Bend and Wharton in part, and Brazoria and Matagorda wholly, certainly unsurpassed, if equalled elsewhere in the world. Tliat great tract has TWO THOUSAND MILES IN .TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 21 been formed entirely by the sediment of the two rivers and decayed vegetation^ and is of a depth which no one has ever yet explored. It is a region which absolutely laughs with rich harvests under the plow, with a climate made salubrious by the almost perpetual breeze from the Gulf ; and the jungle there does not exist except on the banks of the rivers. It is unharmed alike by drouglit or much rain, for the soil is so porous and retentive of moisture, that when the rains come not, it nightly drinks its fill from the dews of heaven ; and when the rains come too abundantly, the porous soil swallows it up and conducts it away to un- known depths. And yet with all this fertility and salu- brity, that portion of Texas is now one of the most neg- lected in the State. Formerly the seat of wealthy planters, it is now to a great extent abandoned to negroes, who are said to be falling back to a state of semi-barbarism. For this reason the immigrant shuns it as a Golgotha, and its noble acres are begging for purchasers at almost any price. But so noble a country cannot always remain desolate and a beggar. It will grow prosperous and rich again, as surely as merit wUl one dav a'eap its reward. The River. I rode upon the river so suddenly that had it been night, and my horse's eyes no better than my own, I might have tumbled headlong into the flood, and there an end ; so completely was it hidden by the dense forest and undergrowth on its bank, and so deep was the channel through which it flowed as silently as Lethe. " Far off from there a slow and silent stream, Lethe the river of oblivion, rolls Her watery lab}'rinth, whereof who drinks, Forthwith his former state and being forgets, Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain." I copy these lines because the sombre imagery which 22 TWO THOUSAND MILFS IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. they conjure np conveys a good impression of the Brazos, creeping half stagnant under the dismal shades. Then think of its dark water, four hundred feet across, and picture a half rotten log floating here, and another there, scarcely seeming to move, each loaded with a cargo of terrapins, and you have it. This is the mightiest river in Texas that flows exclu- sively through Texas soil, being a small measure more bulkv in volume than its twin brother, the Colorado. It is between six and seven hundred miles long, marked along its whole course by the same rich valley and tim- bered bottom, forming a region of fertility capable of pro- ducing more wealth probably than any river in the world, the Mississippi alone excepted. On its banks a mighty nation might flourish, independent of the world besides. The sugar of the tropics and all the products of the tem- perate regions find here their most genial home, and yield such abundance as scarcely anywhere else. The old Spaniards called this river Brazos de Dios, the '' Arms of God," by which they meant to express its boundless mu- nificence and a prophecy of the millions who will prosper on its banks. Mighty as it is, it is not navigable except about fifty miles from its mouth, on account of numerous shifting sand-banks that obstruct its course. Silent and sleepy as it now is, it often booms for months like a roaring sea, invading the bottoms almost annually, with just suf- ficient depth to bestow another gift of fertility. When it spreads over the bottoms it is like a dead lake, the water halting to deposit its rich sediment and forbearing to take any away. Surely this does indeed look like the ''Arms of God ! " The extraordinary fertility of the lands bordering the Brazos is easily explained when we consider the remarkable region from which it draws its fertilizing materials. Its main fork flows nearlv two hundred miles through a re- TWO THOUSAIs^D MILES IN^ TEXAS O:^^ HORSEBACK. 23 gion in which gypsum abounds, charging its waters with sulphur and lime ; tlie Salt Fork, a bold, beautiful stream, with water as clear as that of mid-ocean, descends throuo-h salty plains and over beds of salt, mixing its brine with the sulphur and lime ; * the South Fork winds slowly through lands filled with soda and magnesia, and the Clear Fork contributes its volume of sweet water from fer- tile plain and forest whose soil has been formed of the debris of all of these. Thus the Brazos descends from a giant laboratory in which nature compounds the richest mineral fertilizers, and charges its waters with them to bless the regions below. Add to these the millions and millions of tons of vegetable matter decaying annually in the valleys, and the extraordinary fertility is explained. The Mle has been in cultivation probably fifty-five cen- turies, with its annual yield undiminished, and this Brazos, I doubt not, can excel that. The Old Ferrymait. Descending the steep bank to the water thirty feet below, I saw an old ferryman sitting in his boat, with his chin resting upon his left hand, apparently absorbed in meditation. A large white crane standing like a statue on one leg on the opposite shore, seemed to be trying to rival him in lonesomeness and meditation. The soft earth of the bank gave forth no sound under my horse's feet as I descended, and' the old gentleman sat and contemplated * I have never seen any beds of salt, or rock salt, in the region of the Salt Fork, but have no doubt that thej' exist, and that the brine of the river is derived from them. Along its borders I saw native crystal salt, as clear as ice. Its waters are considerably more briiay than the ocean. I saw also a small clear pond near the river, very salty, which was filled with fish resembling the sheeps-head. I saw no fish in the river, though doubtless they are there. I thought the finding of these salt-water fish was remarkable, as they were sepa- ratetl from the ocean at least five hundred miles. How did they get there ? Does a peculiar form of life come, when the peculiar condition suited to its exist- ence, arrives ? 24 TWO THOUSAXD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. until mj horse, stepping on the boat, startled him. He rose with a complaisant obeisance and his eyes sparkled with the prospect of earning a few cents. ^^ Sarvant, sir ! " said he. He was an aged and venerable negro, bis head almost as white as wool, but his stout, straight form and full face showed that age had dealt kindly with him. There was something about him that seemed to say that the old man was of good society and had seen better days. As he pulled me across, I said: "Uncle, what do you think of things ? " He turned to me and looked inquiringly, and said: ''Of what things, sarvant, sir ? " " Of yon crane sitting on the opposite shore, on one leg?" ''' I think that he will soon fly away." '* And leave me as other things have left me ! There seems to be a mystery about that solemn creature. He looks as if he did not have a friend in the world. He looks like the spirit of one departed, who has visited his former haunts and sits melancholy over what he beholds, with his mind far away in the past. Uncle, may not that be the departed spirit of some one of the rich planters who once dwelt hereabout and now stands deploring the desola- tion that has befallen his estates and his children?" The old man looked at me, and then looked at the crane, and when he turned again I thought I beheld a tear in his eye. '* If that is the spirit of my old master," said he, looking at the crane suspiciously, " I know he can't wish any harm to me. Old master always liked old Ned." "And yet he stands \yith his head tucked under his wing, as if he loved you not." "No, sir," said he, shaking his head and eying the crane, "' that is not my old master — God rest him! " The crane pulled his head from under his wing, gave a stately flap, and flew down the dark river, his legs pro- TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 25 jected behind him. The old man watched him departing with a sigh of relief. '^ Uncle Ned, what do you think of the times? " said I. " Ah, young master, they're not what they was in the old timey days. That crane did shorely put me to think- ing. He looked exactly like I feels when I git to thinking of the old timey days. There ain't no sich days now." "^ Uncle Ned, does not the sun shine as brightly; do not the dews descend and the rains fall as regularly; do not the crops grow as well, and do not the birds sing as sweetly as in the old timey days ? " *'The same God," said he, ^Hooks upon us yit, and it rains the same, but the crops ain't what they was, and things ain't prospering. Look at the falling down houses and the rotting fences. It 'pears to me there's a blight upon the yeth."* *^ Uncle Ned, what do you think of freedom and slavery ? " "Well, sir, to talk right straight, I think it's about one and t'other. About the only difference I see is that there's more freedom and less to eat ; more privilege and lesser comfort. We are all slaves anyhow to our backs and our bellies. Them's worser masters than ever the overseers was. We didn't have that slavery in slavery times. And I tell you, young mas., when the nigger git sick now, the nigger gwine die. Es, sir, you hear my racket, the nigger gwine die. There ain't no old master and old mistiss now to send for the doctor and come and nuss you. If you send for the doctor now, ten to one he won't come, 'cepting he knows you mighty well, for he hnow he ain gwine git his money." The boat struck the shore and I gave Uncle Ned a sil- ver half dollar. He was feeling in his pocket for the « Earth. % 26 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. change. I said : " Never mind, Uncle Ned ; you keep that." **Sarvant, sir ; sarvant, sir," said he with a low bow ; and looking straight at me, he added : ^' I believe you, sir, is the son of an old timey planter." Rising on my horse I bade Uncle Ned adieu, remind- ing him to keep a sharp eye on the crane. He had prob- ably been the favorite body servant of some rich planter, whose pleasant duty was to attend to small things about the "great-house," and drive the young ladies to church or to school. III. Sai^ Felipe de Austin". "nrnr AIL holy light! offspring of heaven first born I" Jtl Such was my exclamation as I emerged from the dark forest of the Brazos into the open sunhght of the prairie. I might now have turned aside to visit the ancient municipality of San Felipe, but it would have deflected me a few miles from my course, and I chose to stop and rest awhile, as my horse cropped the sweet herb- age. The scene before me was one of much beauty. Groves of the post or iron-oak stood here and there on the prairie, and a narrow belt of timber ran centrally through a lovely valley to the west. Beyond the valley the land rose in gentle slopes ; pretty farms, half concealed under a blue haze, were visible in the distance, and everything indicated the approach to a prosperous and happy com- munity. San Felipe is chiefly worthy of note for what it has been. In the old timey days it was the most notable and important place in Texas. All roads in the State led to San Felipe. It was the seat of Austin's colony, the home of the three hundred American adventurers who first put foot on Texas soil. A restless and uneasy assemblage they were, gathered here and there from every corner of the United States. Accustomed to a drifting, unquiet life, little cared they for the arts and industries of peace. They tilled the field enough to subsist, but built few or no homes that were comfortable. They left no more 28 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. token of civilization than a band of wandering savages who have encamped a month on a hunting ground. They were chiefly valuable as food for gunpowder ; and to such complexion does it come at last when we look back into the character of those who have penetrated wild and un- known regions and founded empires. Graceless ne'er-do- wells at home, nature seems to have formed them ex- pressly to sustain the losses and undergo the perils of conquest. Under this regime San Felipe de Austin was a clump of unsightly cabins, in which the tin cup dis- charged its ardent contents by day and the fiddle sounded b}^ night. These occupations were more agreeable to them than building homes and cultivating housewives and children. After this, San Felipe became for a while the seat of empire of the struggling young republic of Texas, but its new honors brought no improvement in architecture, and the tin cups rang and the fiddle and dance vexed the ear of night the same as ever. Here Houston, Rusk and Lamar made their headquarters, harangued the law- makers, planned their campaigns and laid the foundations of mighty Texas. Their council room was the joist of a miserable log-cabin, which was the best that Texas could then afford to her statesmen and warriors. They them- selves were clad in buckskin, and some of them at least enjoyed to no small degree the tin cup and fiddle.* As Texas grew stronger and built other more populous cities, the restless denizens of San Felipe hastened thither, in search of new fields of excitement and amusement, leav- ing the old place quite abandoned and desolate. The vil- * Anson Jones, then a j'oungman, just from the colleges of Massachusetts, afterwards President of Texas, visited San Felipe about this time, to seek eniplo3'ment under "^he revolutionary government. He says in his memoirs that he found Houston " dead drunk " in the upper story of a dirty shanty, and the whole population so rough and boisterous that he was " disgusted," and returned to Brazoria, where he had settled. TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 29 luge now has probably a hundred inhabitants, and it is said to be a fact that not one of the original settlers or their descendants dwells in it or near it. Nothing could be better proof of the unquietness of those early adventurers. But feeble and sunken as San Felipe is now, she has that by which she may grow great. Before the revolution, Mexico granted to the municipality four leagues, or nearly seventeen thousand acres of land, situated around her, fronting on both sides of the Brazos. She holds most of these lands yet. They will become of immense value and fill her coffers with gold. With such endowment she might build splendid colleges, atheneums and museums, gather to her the learned and refined, and make herself the most marked place in Texas. Genius was at her birth ; it long sauntered about her cabins, and if it has abandoned her, she may recall it and become the Athens of tlie South-west. It is renown worth gaining. Let her try it. The locality is rich, beautiful and salubrious, enjoying the Gulf breeze that sweeps to her over a hundred miles of prairie, in which there is not a single bog or fen. Cat Springs. I rode up the valley of Mill Creek in Austin county. This valley is a wide and lovely one, and scarcely less fer- tile than the Brazos Bottom. Beauty continually increased around me, until as I approached Cat Springs, I thought the country the loveliest I had ever beheld. To the right, beyond the valley, the prairie rolled away in sunny slopes and graceful swells, growing higher as they faded away in the blue distance ; to the left it was as level as the bosom of a lake sleeping under a summer eve ; all verdant with luxuriant grasses ; dotted with farms and pretty cottages, nestling amid evergreen shrubbery ; diversified with Druid looking groves of post-oak. Everything bore a look of contentment and good cheer — even the lazy cattle and 30 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. grunting pigs, which would scarcely deign to look at me as I passed. Piles of cotton bales were seen in every yard, the prosperous farmers no doubt patiently holding back for better prices. At a distance Cat Springs looks like a town ; but it is not even a village ; it has not even a post-office. As I rode into it I found it only a big assemblage of eighty acre farms, with their cosy cottages and neat barns and stables. The piles of cotton and the rows of stacks of hay and grain served to increase the delusion of town or city which possessed me at a distance. It has only one store, a large and fine one, at which every conceivable variety of articles is offered for sale, from a lady's hair-pin to a barrel of whiskey. I stop at this store and ask entertainment for the night, which is accorded me. Since entering the set- tlement I have heard only the German tongue and seen German faces. The entire population for miles around, so far as I can judge, is German. See how different and home-loving these Germans are from the adventurers who established San Felipe, and won a place among the nations for Texas ! I had travelled only some twenty-two miles during the day, partly on account of the discomfort of my seat in the saddle, and partly my care to observe the match- less country over which I had passed. Cat Springs derives its name from a bold, beautiful spring of cool, soft water, which bursts up in the com- munity and forms the principal water of Mill Creek; ^and the spring no doubt derives its name from a colony of wild-cats found established in the trees which shade it, by its first American discoverers. And I dare say those who discovered and thus christened it, were the graceless adventurers who encamped, not settled at San Felipe, in whose eyes a wild-cat was a highly respectable and delightful creature. No German could thus have christened it. So charming a place and community de- serves a prettier name. Why cannot the Germans re-bap« TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 31 tize it? Will not the name of their sweet poet do as well— Uhland? And the whole place seems to me to breathe of the spirit of Uhland.* Geological. Here I find the first stone on my journey. It crops out on the banks of Mill Creek and along the edges of the undulating swells of the prairie. All below, the country is stoneless. This is a hard, bluish, compact sandstone, and its appearance marks a new geological era. I had up to this point been travelling over a country newer than the Pliocene. A great bog covered the whole extent from Houston up to this point, with shallow brackish water. Its shores run along the foot of the undulating prairie which reaches down to the valley of Mill Creek, and its bottom was gradually filled up with the sediment of the Brazos and Colorado. Eight here then was probably the last stand of the Gulf of Mexico before it retreated to its present position. This stone is clearly of Eocene forma- tion, and the Miocene and Pliocene either did not exist within this area, or have been hidden by the alluvial deposits. The stone makes an excellent and handsome building material, and as it is the nearest stone to Houston, and is in abundance, it will certainly be in great demand when it can be transported on railroad, f * The American explorers have filled the country, particularly the South- west, with ugly and abominable names, frequently for the most beautiful natural objects. One of the prettiest streams I ever saw, in southern Missouri, is entitled with the name of " Cow-skin," which has a rival in " Cow-house Creek, one of the prettiest tributaries of the iRasque. The map of Arkansas is sadly defaced with such wretched names. How poor must have been the vocab- \ilary of these people ! t I am reminded here of a singular geological occurrence. About the same distance from Houston, and the same from Galveston, in Brazoria County, there is a great deposit of Eocene limestone of superior quality, in a mound covering many acres, rising in the midst of a region of the latest geological formation. There is enough of this limestone to furnish Houston and Galveston with building lime for ages, if it only had railroad transportation. It is the only fi« 32 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. A Talk with the Merchant. " A noble country is this of yours, sir/' said I. "We are satisfied with our country/*' said he. "Any man who will work, and they all work here, can live well, and lay away something for a rainy day. They have their crops and their cattle, their pigs and poultry, they never need want for a dollar." "What do they with their money?" said I wonder- in gly. " They send some to Germany to comfort the old ones at home. Some put it in bank in Houston, and lend it on real estate at twelve per cent. There's many a fine house in Houston built with our Cat Springs money. Some poke it away in old boxes and stockings, and there it will stay till their children inherit it, who will be surprised at ihe amount of ready cash they find themselves possessed of. Well-to-do is the rule here, with no exceptions." " I dare say you lose nothing by bad debts in such a community." "Never," said he. "Most of my neighbors pay as they go. With some I keep accounts, and they give me checks on Houston when pay-day comes, which serves me just as well." "What a grand community to grow rich in !" He smiled, and asked me to join him in a bottle of beer. limestone within my knowledge anywhere near the Texas coast. With this abundant limestone so near, and yet so far, Houston and Galveston have until lately been getting their lime from Rockland in Maine ! They now get it from Austin, one hundred and seventy-eight miles north of Houston. IV. Of Vaeious Experiences. I DID not feel so uncomfortable in my saddle this morn- ing, as usage to it had hardened me. The sun shone brightly, and the song of the lark cheered me as I rode from Oat Springs to the westward. I had taken a step upward, and could not only see that I was ascending, but felt that the country over which I had passed lay far below me. I was entering another clime and other regions. The prairie, no longer monotonously level, rolled in undulations, and rose here and there in immense knolls or mounds. The forests, struggling to obtain foothold and conquer other possessions, had thrown their advance couriers forward in every direction, which stood in isolated groves, adding greatly to the beauty of the scenery. These groves, by some singular chance, had established themselves on the most conspicuous elevations. They consisted of the iron oak, of unusually large size and handsome form. Tliey will continue to spread, and after a time will possess all of this, save where the axe of the farmer will bar their ad- vance. Five miles west of Cat Springs the cosy German farms disappear, and I again ride in a wilderness, but a wilder- ness of beauty still. What though no one lives upon it ? • — yet the stately groves adorn the landscape, the graceful undulations continue, the rich, green herbage luxuriates, romantic vales wind hither and thither, and nature has drawn everything with exquisite art. It is all rich — posi- 2* 34 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. tively every foot. It needs only the iron horse to make this lovely land pour out wealth, like Fortune from her cornucopia. The solitary settler passes it by because he would be too remote from neighbors and a market, and others pass because none have come before them. And thus it is left alone in unproductive richness and loveliness. How deliciously the breezes sweep over these undulations and mounds ! By night or by day they cease not. If I were a miller I would want no better locality than this for a motive power. On the top of one of these elevations I would build my structure, and the winds of God would turn the stones. No fear that the stream would diminish from drought. If I were a shepherd, in yonder noble grove would I erect my shelter, from whose eminence I would watch my flocks pasturing in the vales or basking at noon on the banks of the sparkling pools below.* I had ridden over about twenty miles of such country as this, when a beautiful vale allured me to stop, to graze my steed and to bait on the cheese and crackers I had procured at Cat Springs. I stripped my steed and turned him loose, his forefeet manacled with a raw-hide *^ hobble," and bade him eat his fill. I then proceeded to consume the cheese and crackers, after which I took a draught from the bottle which the kindly merchant had filled for me to take along to bear me company on the way. It was exceedingly soft and innocent to the taste, reminded me as I drank it of the discourse of a good, wise old man, who would entertain you and fill you with wisdom, but would not harm you for the world. After this I was seized with a desire for slumber, increased by the contemplation of the profound quietude of the vale. Spreading my saddle- blanket beneath me on the feathery grass, I soon became unconscious of mv own existence and that of the world ft/ * These sparkling pools might disappear in a long, dry summer, but one Artesian well, which might easily be obtained here, would furnish a v,rhole community w th abundance of living water TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 35 besides. Hours passed in this condition, until I was par- tially awaked by a sense of uncomfortable chilliness. Deeming that I was in my bed in Houston, I struggled to gather the covering about me, and had covered perhaps a a foot or part of my flank with my saddle-blanket, when I again passed into obliviousness. I had not, I suppose, remained so long, however, before the chilliness again disturbed me, increased to such a degree that I imagined that I was gradually being submerged into a bath of ice- water. I arose, and was startled to see the shades of night settling around me. What was worse, my horse had dis- appeared. I stared eagerly aronnd, but he was no where in sight. Said I to myself : " Has some heartless tramp stolen upon me in my slumber, and set me afoot to starve in this wild, untenanted region ? " A sense of desolation seized me, the most overwhelming I had ever experienced. I had not long to look, fortunately, when my horrors were dispelled by finding my horse grazing in an umbi'a- geous nook concealed from the jooint where I had slept. He looked at me as if he was perfectly innocent of the distress he had caused me, and was sorry for it. He was soon saddled, and I was again on my way. I took another draught from the bottle to dispel the chilliness that still possessed me. It was extremely soft and mellifluous to the taste, but I observed in a moment that it sent the warm blood coursing through my veins to a surprising degree for the small quantity I had taken. It was a veritable snake concealed under a nosegay of the charmingest and most sweetly scented flowers. I looked at the bottle and saw that the merchant had written on it *' 1853." It was a symbol more cabalistic to me than S. T — 1860 — X. A ISTight's Experience. Just as darkness fell, I came to a forest which seemed perched on higher ground than any I had yet found. As 36 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. I stood on the edge of the forest and looked back in the darkness, the prairie seemed a great sea dotted with islands with castles, rolling below me. The waving grasses con- cealed and then disclosed the rising stars on the horizon, as the waves do on the sea. It lacked only the roar of the billows to complete the delusion. Penetrating the for- est, all was the blackness of darkness, save where the open- ing of the road admitted the starlight. My horse labored along over a surface which seemed a foot deep in fine, loose sand, a remarkable and sudden change from the black, tenacious soil of the prairie. His laboring through this material, sinking beneath his feet, became painful to me to witness, and I listened eagerly for the baying of some honest watch-dog and looked for a glimmering light through the forest, indicating some human residence. But the forest only became denser and blacker, the road heavier, and the silence was unbroken save by the sighing wind and the hooting owl. Fully two hours this toilsome march continued, when the road seemed to grow so ob- scure that I thought I might have strayed away upon some interminable trail made by a woodman in selecting and hauling timber. Fearing to be lost in sucli a wilder- ness, and having compassion for my horse, I resolved to encamp in the woods, though illy provided for such occa- sion. I rode away from the path, and finding a small open space on which I might stake my horse, I dismounted and took off his accoutrements. Leaving him with forty feet of rope, I spread my saddle-blanket under a branching iron-oak to shelter me from the night dew. With my saddle for a pillow, and no other covering but my over- coat, I endeavored to address myself to slumber. I had dozed I cannot tell how long, with no great de- gree of discomfort, when I was disturbed by a few long, lonesome howls in the depth of the forest. These were soon answered bv other lonesome howls in other directions. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 37 I knew from the peculiarly doleful and heart-rending strains that these were wolves, and their sonorousness dis- tinctly declared that they were of the bigger sort. After a while the howls were again heard in every direction, growing nearer and nearer, until I became aware that I was surrounded by a cordon of ravenous beasts. At last they all seemed to gather together, joining in a most tumultuous consultation, in which they expressed them- selves by a mingled howling, yelping and piteous crying. When this ceased, I heard a rushing noise in the rustling leaves, and my horse suddenly starting, dashed away with full force, snapping the rope as if it were a mere thread. Away he plunged through the forest with the speed of the winds, sending forth a rapid sound from under his heels. The woods then seemed alive with wolves, and they snuffed the air all around me. A sense of intense desolation would doubtless have seized me here, but the higher instinct of self-preservation was now pressing me. It occurred to me that these wolves might be in a famished condition, and having failed to get my horse, might not scruple to make a supper of myself, if the temptation were allowed to stand in their way. Such things surely have they done before. What was I to do — a lone stranger in a deep forest without other weapon than a pocket-knife and a solitary black bottle for a club? While pondering this question, the wolves put up a most piteous clamor, as if intending to advise me that they were very hungry, and asking me to pardon the deed they were about to do. I looked up the tree under which I had dozed. A large limb stood temptingly near my head. I reached up and grasped it by both hands, and with a bound sprang into the tree. Looking higher I perceived a com- fortable fork about ten feet above, and climbing from branch to branch, I was soon ensconced within it. I left below a bit of cheese and crackers and a bottle of whiskey 38 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. of the harvest of 1853, and I kindly said to the wolves: '^ Come, poor creatures, and feast!" Would I not have been a heartless man to have said less? They howled and moaned around me for some time, but I could not persuade them to come and partake of my charity. I spoke to them gently and pointed to the cheese and whiskey below, but they responded only with a low moan, as if they meant to say: " Not your cheese and whis- key, but you ! " One fellow amused me exceedingly. He sat on his haunches about twenty feet from my tree, in- tently gazing, now upon the cheese and whiskey, and nojv casting a long, lingering look upon me. Now and then he would lift his head in the air, moving it round and round, fling his jaws wide open, and looking straight at me, pour forth a moan the most disconsolate I ever heard in my life. I thought he was trying to sing the old melody: " Thou art so near and yet so f ar 1 " As they went away one by one, I fell to thinking of the utter ludicrousness of my position; and I felt rather ashamed of myself for a moment when I reflected that had I desyended from the tree and said "boo!" to the wolves, they would probably have run away faster than my horse did from them, and that they had stopped merely to satisfy their curiosity as to what sort of creature they had treed. But I reassured myself with the reflection that it is no part of manhood or courage to expose one's self to needless danger; it is rather the part of fool-hardiness. It is the duty of true courage to preserve itself for danger which cannot be avoided, and it cannot be denied that, to all ap- pearance, I was safer in that tree than out of it. I de- scended, and knowing that it was utterly useless to attempt to follow my horse until morning, soon fell into a pro- found sleep. When I awaked, the first rays of the rising sun were glimmering on the tops of the trees, and I felt none the TWO THOUS.\N"D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 39 worse for my couch in the forest. My first care was my horse. Throwing the bridle over my shoulders and putting the other accoutrements over the limb of a tree, I walked away to hunt him. About a hundred yards from my en- campment, a narrow, treeless vale or hollow opened in the forest, leading eastward. The grass was very rich in it, and I had little doubt that I would soon see my horse cropping its luxuriance. I was not disappointed, for pres- ently I w^as delighted to behold him about a half mile off, grazing very quietly. When within fifty yards of him, I gathered a tempting handful of grass,. and holding it out to him as I approached, said: "Come, old fellow; come, good fellow ! " He waited until I was ten feet from him, when he tossed his head in the air, kicked up his heels and ran a quarter of a mile, and resumed his grazing. I followed. This time I gathered what I considered the most tempting stock of grass in the prairie, and again endeavored to coax him. He looked at me disdainfully, as if he meant to say: " Do you see anything green in my eye ? Do you think I am such a fool as not to know that I can pluck, with my lips and teeth, as good grass on this prairie as you can pluck with your hands ? " And away he went, stopping about three hundred yards off. A Strange Apparition. I was greatly perplexed and knew not what to do. 1 was considering the position, all involved in distress, when I happened to look to my right, and beheld, standing on the edge of the timber, motionless as a statue and gazing intently upon me, a strange object. I went toward it, and it had the form of a man. This man, or likeness of a man, was about four and a half feet high, broad shoulders, bow-legged. A heavy black beard nearly covered his face, and half concealed a great mouth which appeared six inches in width. There was a singular leer in his little 4:0 TWO THOUSAiq'D MILES II?" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. grey eyes, which expressed I could not tell whether malice^ roguish ness, or idiocy. Of brow, he seemed to have none whatever. He wore buckskin pants, buckskin jacket, moccasins of buckskin on his feet ; and this interesting assemblage was crowned with a coon-skin cap, the tail of the coon falling full length down his back. A heavy dragoon pistol was buckled round his waist, and the same belt held a knife which seemed to have been fashioned from a slab of iron. At his side hung a buckskin sack, fas- tened to his neck by a buckskin thong. His pants and jacket were begrimed and greasy, looking as if the sin- gular creature who wore them had long dwelt in a smoke- house, among bacon and fat-casks. He remained motionless, and did not even deign a wink of the eye until I addressed him. I said : '"Will you be so kind, sir, as to help me catch my horse ? " ^^Oh yes, oh yes," said he. ^^ And I think you need help. I have seen you trying to catch him a long time." he added in a coarse, gruff voice, which seemed better suited to the lungs of a giant than a dwarf. *^ Do you think, sir, you can catch him ?" '' Oh yes, oh yes. Come along and see how quickly I will do it." He led the way and I walked by his side, wondering what he would do. When within fifty yards of my horse he asked me to stand still, while he drew from his sack an ear of corn, which advancing he held out to him, say- ing, *' cubby ! cubby ! " Tlie horse raised his head, looked at him a moment, and then walked straight up to him. He seized him, and the next moment I had my bridle upon him. I offered the dwarf reward, but he scornfully refused it, saying he was *'not so hard up as to come down to that sort o' meanness yet." "Well sir," said I, "with mv saddle I left some verv TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 41 fine spirits. May I not ask the honor of a morning dram with you ? " •*0h yes, oh yes!" And his eyes sparkled. I rode on the horse's bare back and the dwarf walked by my side. I kept my eye upon him, because in truth I was a little suspicious of this unaccountable fellow. Reaching my en- campment I handed him the bottle and a cup, saying, ^* drink largely." He obeyed the injunction; he took a deep potation, raising his head and smiling at the woods as he did so. "Look here, stranger," said he, "this is liquor what's liquor. It cheers me up all the way down." And he smacked his lips with joy. Knowing its latent power I touched it with caution. It made him voluble and hospitable. Hitherto as re- served and unsocial as an owl, he now glowed with viva- city. Never did iceberg melt half so rapidly under a trop- ical sun. "I know you are hungry," said he. "Come with me to my den and have a good breakfast with me I " I did not like that word "den." It sounded suspi- ciously. Was I in fact in company with a Eobin Hood of the forest, or some skulking criminal who had hidden in these deep recesses ? I looked at him more guardedly than ever. How did I know that he might not be seeking some favorable opportunity to pierce me with a bullet from that heavy pistol ? I thanked him, and declined his invitation politely, on the ground that it would probably detain me too long from my journey, and asked him to join me in another smile. " With all my heart, sir ; with all my heart ;" and another heavy draught gurgled down his throat. Then, resting against a tree with both hands in his pockets, he said : " Well, stranger, you don't know what to think of me nohows. Don't you think I am Governor Dicky Coke ? Ah, Dickey Coke — he is the greatest man in the world. Hurrah for Dicky Coke ! When he gits into the Senate, though, w^on't he make 42 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. them fellows stand aroim' ? Well, stranger, I am a stock- raiser by profession — that is, I flourishes by the industry of my SOWS and boars ; that is, I, sir, am a pig-raiser. I can blow my horn- and all these woods will sound with the grunting of my boars and sows and shoats, and the squeal- ing of my pigs, sir. Sir, I am a man of income. Greatest country in the world for boars and sows. These acorns feeds them. I give 'em just corn enough to gin tie 'em, and Avhen killing time comes, just enough to harden their fat. If you would be a man of income, stranger, stop here and raise hogs." " I thank thee,^ said I, ^^ for the advice, and it is not impossible I may one day be a pig-raiser, and thy neighbor too. But how about the wolves ? " ^* Ah, the wolves won't phase your stock at all. You see when the wolves comes, the hogs form in a ring with the pigs in the middle. No wolves darsn't charge that ring ; never, sir ; no wolves darsn't charge that ring. They catch your calves, but never your pigs. Be a pig-raiser, stranger, be a pig-raiser ! " "The sun is mounting high in the heavens, and it is time for another smile. Join me, sir ; join me in another !" " To be sure, sir ; to be sure," said he. I poured the cup for him nearly full. He drank it and slid downward against the tree, and sat at its foot leaning against the trunk. "Grlory !" said he. "Stranger, why don't you send a bottle of this to Governor Coke ? " I invited him to take another. He accepted. I gave him the last drop in the bottle. He drank it and fell over on his side ; then stretched himself out on his back full length, and passed away into profound slumber. I placed his coon-skin cap over his eyes, the Cat Springs bottle by his side, and left him alone in his glory. I mounted my horse and silently stole away. How long he slept I wot not. V. Lagrange. The Colorado. AS I rode on, the forest continued, but the soil grew rich : a sandy loam, the delight of the agriculturist, black with the decayed leaves and trunks of the forest. The wild grape, of several varieties, grew rampant on this mellow soil, awaiting only the hands of the skilled vintager to make the country flow with purple wine.* Noble mulberry trees, the largest I ever saw, were scat- tered here and there through the forest, and became more numerous as I rode along. These were free gifts from the hands of nature, and their noble stature and luxuriance of bough indicate unerringly to these people that they may weave as rich a silk as ever sparkled on a Chinese mandarin. The oaks seemed literally to droop under their crop of acorns, and the pigs gi-unted extreme satisfaction as they stirred the fallen leaves with their noses. I thought of my prostrate friend the pig-raiser, and could not wonder at his * One of the most abundant of the wild grapes of Texas is the Mustang or Cut-Throat, as the Texans sometimes call it. It is a great bearer, hardy as a Polar bear, is universal througTiout the State, and is confined solelj' to Texas, so far as I know. It derives the name Cut-Throat from the acrid juice lying be- tween the skin and the pulp— so acrid that it cannot be eaten with much comfort unless the skin is slipped off before the pulp is put in the mouth. I do not doubt that the finest grapes may be raised on this hardy native vine ; and this has been proved by a gentleman of Waco, who has succeeded in producing probably the handsomest grape in cultivation by impregnating its blossom with the White Hungarian. The grape thus produced has the sweetness of the Hungarian with the game flavor of the Texan. I have little doubt that from this cross will come one of the best sparkling wine grapes of the world — a wine as lively as champagne, but with more heft and strength of body. Of the juice of the Mustang without hybridizati »n. a very fair claret is made. 44 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. eulogy of the pig-bnsiness, where nature showers tender- loins and rich sausages. I was tempted to gatlier and eat a handful of these acorns, and they were nearly as sweet as chestnuts. Of all oaks of the forest perhaps the post or iron-oak yields the richest and most abundant nuts. An hour's ride suddenly disclosed to me, hidden in a nook formed by surrounding forest and wooded hills, nearly concealed under a wealth of mulberry and evergreens, the pretty little town of Lagrange, which struck me at once as a seat of rural opulence. And sooth, so it is. It does not contain, I judge, more than fifteen hundred people, and there are no imposing structures, but there is that about it which declares at once the true gentleman : enough to be at ease, pleasing engagement and aspirations, a happy con- science and a beaming future. We occasionally meet a man, who though a stranger to us, bears this history writ- ten all over him ; and so it is with this village that rests in the nook, where you may hear in the busiest part of the day .the blue Colorado murmuring over its pebbly bottom. Churches and numerous schools bespeak Christian civiliza- tion ; the pretty, neatly dressed girls, who almost forbear to steal a glance at you as you pass, bespeak refinement, and all that is around bespeaks easy well-to-do. It is the capital of Fayette County, one of the richest and most populous regions of Texas. Last year this county produced forty-five thousand bales of cotton, nearly all of which was bought and sold again by the merchants of Lagrange. This turned loose about two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars of gold on her streets. Now add to this the hides, wool, grain, and bacon and lard, yielding another sum as large, annually increasing, and it is not strange that an air of opulence should rest upon this village in the nook. I should mention, too, beer, for they brew here as delightful lager as ever warmed the portly Btomach of Gambrinus. The people seem to be about half TAVO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 46 American and half German, and I judge that they are made up of the best that is German and the best that is Ameri- can. I observe that there is a great preponderance of blonde beauties, by which I judge that the German and the American stream are gradually fading away into each other and becoming inextricably blended. It is a meeting and mingling at last of two streams that have separated and flowed away from the same parent source, each to be reinvigorated probably by the remingling. And yet this community, so rich and populous, has no other means of transferring its products to market but the wagon and team. So anxious are they for a railroad that they say: '^ Build the Texas Western to Cat Springs or Belleville, and we will grade and tie thence to Lagrange. We will not stop by the wayside to build towns and specu- late in lots. We will do the work as quickly as money and muscle can do it." When they get this road this commu- nity and the region around will become to Houston and Galveston what Sicily was to Rome — its granary and lar- der. Rich as it is now, the mine but barely touched, it will become a hundred-fold richer. It is a good region to migrate to.* My horse and myself having breakfasted on the viands that were best for us both, and having enjoyed two full hours of rest, I rode away, my face still to the west- ward : in all respects the same as when I rode away yester- day morning, save that I was minus the Cat Springs bottle. That bottle, innocent as it was, had brought me the long slumber on the prairie, the night melodious with wolves, the perplexing pursuit of my horse, the pig-raiser prostrate under the iron-oak ; and as Lagrange was a superior place, I thought I had better not substitute it with a Lagrange * When Houston and Galveston can sell bacon and lard nearly as cheap as St Loals, how will it affect South American and West Indian trade ? 46 TWO THOUSAND MILES I:N TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. bottle, lest that bottle should prove more fantastic, and call lip more wonders than Aladdin's Lamp. I stood upon the bank of the Colorado, and it seemed a glorious poem moving before me ; so beautiful was it in itself and so beautiful in the reminiscences it recalled. If one when he was a beardless boy, has ever loved a bright little fairy who played on the banks of the Colorado, or any other surpassingly lovely stream, and spoke the first whisper of love amid the murmur of its waters, he can partly compre- hend my feelings as I stood and contemplated. The same sparkling water — a collection it seemed of all the brightest drops of tlie dews of Heaven — laughed and sang over cas- cades here, and eddied in deep blue pools there ; the same bubbles danced along, and every ripple seemed to give me a glimpse of her image. As we grow older we can smile as we choose at the little follies of the first dawn of love, but it is the one spot of our lives that is the sweetest of all, and when we think of it our thoughts involuntarily become a poesy and a music. If this is not Heaven or a taste of it, I cannot judge what is. I believe there is but one love, and that is first love : that which comes after- ward is the rose when its perfume is gone, and when its youth is withered. Better let your love go with the per- fume of the rose. When I stepped upon the ferry boat I stooped and kissed the sparkling Colorado ; for it seemed the very drop which she had just kissed before me, or at least had kissed in the old timey days.* This river is called the twin-brother of the Brazos, but there is no likeness whatever between them. Indeed it is remarkable that there should be such variance in two rivers which for six hundred miles flow almost along-side of each otlier. The Brazos creeps along silently, dark and forbidding, while the Colorado cheers you with a merry * And still I did not marry her. The last time I saw her she had grown large and fat, and was the mother of three bouncing boys, of which I was not the father. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 47 voice and with waters as bright as any that sparkle under the heavens ; clear as the light of a diamond where it leaps over cascades or glances down rapids, and of the deep blue of the skies where they are most ethereal, when it glides quietly through pools. The Brazos makes us think of toads spitting vapors from their mouths, while Pleasure and Youthful Jollity seem to liover incessantly over the Colorado. To one who looks upon these beautiful waters, the name "red-colored," seems a misnomer, and a wickedness ; but a few moments of observation will teach us how care- ful and apt were the old Spaniards in their selection of names for natural objects. Vie behold its wide valleys and all its detritus of a rich chocolate-brown, strongly inclin- ing to red ; and this peculiarity marks the river from its source to its mouth. During periods of swells the river is always Inflamed, and when these come from its main channel, far above, he has put on his war-paint in- deed. I am not sure from what pecuUar sediment this color is derived. I have traced the river far above the mouth of the Concho, and saw nothing from which it may have been derived. Above that river it is inflamed more than ever, showing that its war-paint is gathered from the vast uninhabited region beyond, from a soil derived proba- bly from the decomposition of pprphyritio rocks. Be it what it may, the deposit of red material is enormous, for it has colored the earth of the valley along jts whole course to unknown depths.* And a good fertilizer is this niysjterious sediment, which it almost annually spreads oyer the valley, renewing the richness which the crops have extracted. The valley is not regarded as quite so rich as the Brazos Bottoms, * The red Permian, rich in copper and ochres, ig lapgply developed above the mouth of the Concho, and the Colorado has doubtless obtained its coloring matter from these deposits mostly. 48 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. but it is still rich enough, in all conscience. The same crops that flourish on the Brazos flourish quite as well here, and for grains it is better, producing more weight and substance to the bushel. The valleys are not so wide, or so heavily timbered, but the wood is more compact and durable, and there is not a purer and healthier clime in the world. The river along its whole course is noted for its beautiful and often exquisite scenery. Perhaps no river can furnish more charming pictures for the pencil of the artist.* Crossing the river and clearing the forests of the val- ley, mountains, so-called, rock-ribbed and venerable, ap- pear before me. They are by far the tallest elevations yet seen on my journey, and seem to mark the approach of a new geological era. They are flanked with sandstone at their bases, excellent for building, and higher up with limestone, good for quicklime. From base to pinnacle they are heavily covered with sombre forests of cedar, fur- nishing the neighboring farms with everlasting fencing material. This durable timber abounds in this region, frequently spreading over the lowlands in forests, and of great size. When accessible to railroads it will be of great value for ties. * One of the most remarkable deposits of marble iu the world occurs on this river, at what is known as the Marble Falls, about forty miles above Austin. The river for several miles has cut its way through a bed of marble of several varieties, including black, and all of the finest quality. The whole region round about abounds with marble, so accessible that some of the farmers have built their fences of it, and the chimneys of the cabins are of the same magnificent material ! The locality is remarkable for its picturesque beauty, and the river here has an immense wafpt-power, sufficient to turn all the machinery in Texas, and more. VI. The Devil akd Strap Buckker. A MILE above the ferry, I entered a charming valley leading from the west. It was a succession of farms after farm. The song of the plowman was merry in the air, and there was an odor of the newly-turned soil, which showed just a tint of the coloring matter of the Colorado, proving that the mighty river had invaded the valley with its back-water. Gentle slopes and eminences and detached groves of oak looked upon this pleasant valley from either side. Through the middle of it flowed a small stream known as Buckner's Creek. The invariable cotton bale was piled in every yard, awaiting the pleasure of the farmer to be converted into gold. I had ridden a few miles up this attractive valley when a young horseman cantered wp by my side, travelling the same direction with myself. He was dressed in faultless neatness, but there was something in his Byron collar and the little blue ribbon about his neck, as well as his large, bright, black eyes, which seemed to say that the sunny hill-sides, the shady forests, the murmuring river and the blue distances were to him a delight and love. A soft felt hat sat jauntily on his head, but did not conceal his broad, pale brow. I said involuntarily as he checked his pranc- ing steed beside me and bowed politely : '^ A young gen- tleman and a scholar ! " His steed, handsomely capari- soned, glossy with kind handling and abundant provender, gay with exuberant spirit, seemed meet companion for his rider, and proud of the bui-den he bore. 8 50 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. After an interchange of courtesies and some pleasant conversation, I asked why the sparkling brook was called Buckner's Creek, and why it had not been named for some water-nymph, who, in the mythological days, must have chosen it for her haunt ; or for some Indian prin- cess with a musical name who had lived and loved on its banks ? " Ah," said he, turning upon me with his beaming eyes, which grew larger and brighter, '' and thereby hangs a tale — a tale of the olden time. And as I perceive that you are one who loves knowledge and light, whose delight is to know, I will tell it to you if you will have the patience to hear me." I thanked him and begged him to proceed. You must know then, continued he, that this vale in which you are riding, is one that has witnessed strange company and remarkable events. There is not one foot of this soil beneath your feet, which, had it a tongue to speak, could not a tale unfold that would harrow up your young heart. Even the zephyrs, as I fancy, occasionally lisp it with their airy tongues. In the olden time there came to Texas with Austin, who, you are aware, brought "the first three hundred" Americans who founded this great commonwealth, a youth whose name was Strap Buck- ner. Where he was born, whence his lineage, or why he bore the name of Strap the records do not tell : whether he was so christened at the font, or because he was a stalwart, strapping youth. Certain it is, he was of giant stature, and of the strength of ten lions, and he used it as ten lions. His hair was of the redness of flame, as robust as the mane of a charger, and his face it was freckled. He was of a kindly nature, as most men of giant strength are, but he had a pride in his strength which grew ungovernable. With no provocation whatever, he knocked men down with the kindest intentions and no purpose to harm them. He TAVO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 51 would enter a circle of gentlemen with a smiling visage, and knock them all down ; and when any received bruised or broken limbs, he nursed them with more than the ten- derness of a mother, and with a degree of enthusiasm as if his whole heart was bent on restoring them to health as soon as practicable, in order that he might enjoy the pleas- ure of knocking them down again. Indeed, he nursed- them with the enthusiasm of a true genius which fires itself onward to the fulfillment of some great aspiration ; and his genius was to knock men down. He knocked down Austin's whole colony at least three times over, including the great and good Austin himself. He could plant a blow with his fist so strongly that it was merry pastime with him to knock a yearling bull stark dead ; and even the frontlet of a full grown aniaial could not withstand him. In those days a huge black bull appeared mysteriously in Austin's colony, who by his fero- city became a terror to the settlement, and was known by the dread name of Noche. Strap challenged this bull to single combat, and invited the colony to witness the en- counter. When the day came the entire colony looked from their doors and windows, being afraid to go out ; every one, probably, praying that both Strap and the bull would be slain. He threw a red blanket over his shoulder, and walked on the prairie with the air of a hero who goes forth to meet a mighty foeman. He bore no weapon what- ever. When the bull perceived him, he tossed his tail aloft and switched it hither and thither, pawed the earth, and emitted a roar of thunder. Strap imitated him, and jDawed and roared also ; which perceiving, the bull came toward him like a thunderbolt clothed in tempest and ter- ror. Strap received him with a blow on his frontlet from his bare fist, wliich sent him staggering back upon his haunches, and the blood flowed from his smoking nostrils. Eecovering from his surprise, Noche, to the astonishment 52 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. of all, turned tail and fled away, bellowing. He was never more seen in those parts. Strap's fame greatly arose, insomuch that men looked upon him in awe, and maidens and strong women pined in secret admiration. He became a great hunter, using no other weapon but his fist and an iron pestle or mace, which he threw with the accuracy of rifle aim when the prey refused him encounter in close quarters. The wild- cat and the bear emigrated, and the buffalo bade a lasting farewell to the lowlands. About this time also Strap became addicted to strong drink and grew boisterous, to such a degree that people shunned him in spite of his kindly nature. No man would meet him alone ; but when he was seen approaching, men would shut themselves up in their houses, or collect in knots, all with guns and pistols cocked. Strap now rea- soned within himself and determined he would seek other fields of glory. Said he to himself reflectively: ^' It is ever thus. When a man of genius appears in the world he may be recognized by this infallible sign : That all the dunces are immediately in confederacy against him." So, early on a bright spring morning he arose, "^and throwing his bundle of raiment over his left shoulder, and bearing his iron pestle in his right hand, he turned his back upon the unappreciative community. The people stood at their doors and windows — the men and the women, the boys and the girls — and watched him departing, and with one voice exclaimed: '*Fare thee well. Strap Buckner, and joy go with thee and with thy house ! " Strap turned, and in the kindness of his heart exclaimed: "Fare thee well, San Felipe ! Sweet be thy cradled slumbers ! I go to meet Noche, who has sent me a challenge through the air. Sleep in security, San Felipe ; for Strap Buckner watches over thy slumbers." And in the kindness of his heart he brushed a tear from his eye, and strode rapidly away. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 53 He travelled west over the great plains. It would be long to tell you his many strange adventures by the way, but I may do so should we meet again. Metliinks I see two soft blue eyes over my shoulder, and hear a sweet whisper bidding me hasten to the bower, and I must cut the story short ; besides, the point where we must separate approaches. After days of wonders Strap reached the site where Lagrange now is, and to his surprise found a soli- tarv tradinof-house, where Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall exchanged beads and liquor with the Indians for furs and skins, and for horses they might steal. He liked the coun- try greatly, and whiskey being accessible, he determined to abide in these quarters. On the first day of his arrival, he knocked down both Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall, but he did it so handsomely and with such an air of un- speakable kindness, that they could conceive no offence. Before a week had elapsed he had knocked down every Indian brave who dwelt within ten miles round; and finally he knocked down the great king himself, Tuleahcahoma, in the presence of the queen, Muchalatota, and the fair princess, Tulipita. He gained such renown among the Indians that they called him Kokulblothetopoff ; that is to say; the Red Son of Blue Thunder. The great king held him in such reverence that he presented him with a grey horse with a bob-tail, which though ugly and lank to look at, was famed as the swiftest horse known to all the Indians ; and he offered him the fair Princess Tulipita in marriage. The Princess he rejected, because he prized his strength above all things, and forbore to waste any of it for woman, though a fair princess. Tulipita sobbed in silence, and let concealment, like the worm in the bud, feed on her copper cheeks. Now this great king and his powerful tribe dwelt in this fair valley in which you ride. Strap saw it, and he loved the beautiful land. He resolved to settle within it. 54 TWO THOUSAND MILES IM TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. persuaded thereto partly no doubt, by the sight of the swarming population whom he might pound, and by ob- serving that should he become thirsty, his swift grey nag would quickly bear him where he might imbibe his fill. He chose yon lovely site, and there built his residence of cedar posts. He procured a jug of whiskey and sat up housekeeping, an object of great reverence to his neigh- bors. Daily he went forth and knocked down many Indians with great grace. At last they conceived that they did not like this, and they determined to abandon the vale. On a dark night they silently stole away, and next morning Strap found himself desolate and alone. When he beheld the deserted valley, but yesterday teem- ing with braves and fair maidens, he wept in the kindness of his heart. '^ Other friends," said he, ''have left me before. Such is the common penalty of greatness. The great mountains stand in isolation ; their heads are clothed in clouds and thunder ; their brows are encircled with glittering corouets of ice. They never shake hands, and know no sweet familiarities. They live in cold, solitary grandeur. Thus whom the gods make great they make miserable, in that their greatness lifts them into solitude. Men and women shun me for my greatness, and the bolts of heaven most frequently pierce the sides of the greatest mountains. It is their greatness that invites the shafts." And he wept salt tears in the fullness of his great heart. Two days he pondered on his greatness and his misery, and the struggle between his genius and his better spirit was terrible. You know, sir, that of all the forces that exist, genius is the most subtle, the most unquiet and the most powerful. He who hath it, hath a heaving ocean or a volcano in his breast. It is nursed and strengthened by opposition, as the eagle scorns the mountain tops which have said to him : " Hither shalt thou soar, but no higher ! " Pinching penury and gaunt sickness cannot prevail against TWO THOUSAIN^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 55 it ; nay, not even a mother-in-law hath force to quench it. It is like unto measles and small-pox, for when once im- planted in a man, it will break forth and have its course. He that hath a genius must needs let it work ; else it will prove his ruin. You can conceive then, sir, how terrible was the struggle between Strap and his genius ; which Avas to knock men down. His bosom heaved, and his eyes they rolled. His cabin shook in the agony of the conflict, as Strap or his genius got the upper hand. " Ah," thundered his genius, 'Mvho would not prefer greatness in misery to happiness in littleness ? Who will say that the little tomtit that catches flies under the leaves of the honeysuckle, is not happier than the proud eagle that bathes his wings in lightning and converses with the thun- der ? And yet, what eagle would exchange with the poor tomtit ? Who so poor of spirit ? The wretchedness that greatness brings is its badge of honor and the glorious plume of superiority, in which the great spirit should rejoice. Wear thy plumes and be proud of them 1 Do the polar storms that beat upon the icebergs melt them ? No! They enlarge them; they strengthen them; and by them they are more appallingly beautiful under the dancing aurora. The great iceberg decays under the stupid airs of the tropics, that bear butterflies and bugs. Shame upon your coward thought I" Strap's countenance grew strangely flushed, and a dark light gleamed in his impatient eyes. It was liis genius startled and indignant. He arose with a proud air, ad- miringly gazed upon his enormous fists, and groaned deeply for the presence of some one whom he might knock down. A sweet gentleness stole into and beamed from his eyes as he placed himself in the attitude of one who would strike. His genius possessed him. And now his better spirit spoke in a soft voice : " Ah, Strap, hast thou not glory enough ? Is not thy brow al- 56 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. ready rich with laurels ? Hast thou not knocked down many times nearly every man in Texas — even the great Austin and the mighty king, Tuleahcahoma ? Shall the great man never see rest ? It is the voice of the betrayer that would lure you away from the repose you have nobly won. Under thine own vine and fig tree live with gentle Peace, and she shall bathe thy brow with kisses. Men shall honor thee as they pass, and maidens shall wreathe garlands and sing songs for thee. Heed not the voice of the betrayer. Thou hast glory enough. Seek gentle Peace, who shall encircle her pleasant arms about thee and bathe thy brow with kisses." Strap fell back on his back and said imploringly : ''Come, gentle Peace; encircle thy pleasant arms about me and bathe my brow with kisses. My laurels are suffi- cient, and the great man shall have repose. AVitb thee, gentle Peace, will I live and love I " He rose and walked across his room, his face beaming with a gentleness and meekness and benignness which. were extremely beautiful to behold ; like the countenance of the Angel of Light beam- ing forth from behind the retreating clouds. Said he : " I have fought the great fight, and the victory is won ! Fu- ture ages will applaud Strap Buckner for the greatness that he forbore to pluck, even more than for that which he plucked. I retire from arms in the midst of glorious tri- umph. Come, gentle Peace ; encircle me in thy pleasant arms, and bathe my brow in kisses ! Ah ! " And he again fell back upon his back, and made a motion as if he were hugging and hugged. It is said that his eyes looked liquorish. What a pity it is that there is a devil that always fol- lows the tracks of the Angel of Light, and sows thorns and snakes where that one has sown blessings ! He felt a thirst, and he reached forth his liand for liis jug, but he found it empty. "Ah !" said he, '^this will TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 57 not do. I must pour a libation to gentle Peace." He called his swift grey nag, the gift of the mighty King Tuleahca- homa, and holding his jug in one hand and the rein in the other, hied away; his long red hair streaming like a meteor behind him. When he rose the east bank of the Colorado, as fate would have it, he saw twenty-two Indian braves, who havinor exchans^ed their skins for whiskev and trinkets, were having a gay dance under the boughs of an oak. In their elastic motions their fat bellies and broad breasts were exposed, and glittered in the sun ; the sight of which caused a light to beam on Strap's countenance, as if all the kind- ness in the world had suddenly taken possession of his heart. He smiled a sweet smile, like an ardent lover con- templating his darling, or the old grey goose smiling on the gander. He dismounted, and stepping lightly into the circle of braves, knocked them all down. He then turned to each one and bowed with exquisite grace, and the gentle- ness on his countenance was sweet. You see how treach- erous genius is, and how feeble are the best efforts to with- stand it. He that hath a genius must needs let it work. Lightly he stepped into the trading-house, smiling as the dawn, carrying his clenched fists before him. He met Bob Turket at the door, and instantly knocked him down. His eyes sparkled, his genius was aglow. Bill Smotherall, be- holding the light of his countenance, essayed to escape, but a powerful blow overtook him between the shoulders and felled him face downward to the floor. A clock, in the form of a fat knight with walling and portly belly, ticked on the counter. His genius was in eruption. He let fly at the portly knight, and the clock flew into a hundred pieces. He jumped upon the counter and flapped his el- bows against his flanks, and crowed a crow which rang among the hills and forests of the Colorado. His genius for the first time had overcome and pushed aside his kind- ness of heart; for never before, in all his achievements, 3* 5S TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. had he uttered note of triumph. I fear me it was a mark of the decadence of his noble spirit. HE COMETH ! But all of this perhaps had not been so bad had he not now resorted to that treacherous fluid which men put into their mouths to steal away their brains. Perchance in his next moments of seclusion and meditation his better spirit would have revisited him, and with the tender voice of re- proval and monition led him by the right way. But the sad, one false step ! It seemed Fate had ordained it other- wise. Calling for his jug, he ordered it filled with the fatal 'fluid, and seizing a quart measure, he drank at one draught all it would hold. Instantly, as might be sup- posed, his genius broke all bounds ; it raged. FiUing the quart measure with water, he made with its contents a wet ring on the floor, in the centre of which he leaped like a savage beast. He smote the air with his fists and exclaimed in a loud voice : ''Behold in me. Bob Turket, Bill Smotherall, and ye red men of the forest and prairie — behold in me the champion of the world ! I defy all that live. I wager my swift grey nag, the gift of the mighty King Tuleahcahoma. Who will take the wager ? Yea, I defy the veritable old Devil himself — him of the cloven hoof and tawny hide. Black imp of hell, thou Satanas, I defy thee ! " Scarcely had he uttered these words when a singular murmuring sound issued from the forests of the Colorado, which, growing louder and louder, at last seemed to quiver under the whole heavens. Bob Turket and Bill Smoth- erall looked at one another, speechless and pale. The braves gathered about the door stricken with terror, gazing with startling eyeballs now into the forests of the Colorado, now at Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall, and now upon tJie champion of the world. Said the- great TWO THOUSAND MILES ^ TEXAS ON HaRSEBACK. 59 Medicine Man, sounding his big bongbooree : '' It is— it is— it is he ! The Great Father of the Red Son of Blue Thunder has descended from the clouds. He cometh to aid his great son, Kokulblothetopoff, who raiseth his mighty fists to the skies, and bringeth them down again. Red sons of the forest and prairie, the Wahconda calls ye away ! " The great Medicine Man hung his big bongbooree over his back, and sped away like- a turkey that is afraid. He leaped rocks and fallen logs in his flight. Twenty-one Indian braves, all in a row, sped be- hind him like twenty-one turkeys that are afraid. And they leaped rocks and fallen logs as they fled. Evaserunt or re, abierunt or re ! Outspake Bob Turket : ''Mighty champion of the world, norate to us what is that ! " The champion of the world, still occupying the center of the ring, responded : '' It is not the Great Father of the Red Son of Blue Thunder ; it is not the Wahconda calling- the red sons of the forest and prairie to hie hence. I know that familiar voice : it is Noche — it is dread Noclie ! He sent me a challenge through the air, and behold, he comes ! I conquered him once before, and I will conquer him again. Black, dread Xoche, I defy thee ! I fling thy challenge back upon thy grizzly frontlet ! " The singular murmuring sound again issued from the deep forests of the Colorado, growing louder and louder, till the everlasting hills trembled with the reverberation, and the great oaks bowed their heads. It articulated dis- tinctly, according to the true report of Bob Turket : '-'Ah, Strap, — ah, Strap ! Remember, Strap, remember ! " Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall fell upon their faces, exclaiming : " Mighty champion of the world, depart hence ! And thy memorialists will ever pray ! " The champion seized his Jug by the handle, and pour- ing out a quart measure of the treacherous liquid, imbibed 60 TWO THOUSAND. MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. it at a single draught. He then mounted his swift grey nag and sped away with the fury of a whirlwind. Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall watched him as he passed out of view, and then listened to the rapid clatter of hoofs till they died away in the distance, but durst not venture out of their doors. They relate, in their true report, that as the champion rode away, a strange creature, in the dread form of a red monkey, leaped up behind him and rode away with him. They relate further, that this strange creature turned full upon them, and placing his thumb upon his nose, made at them the sign of derision. Be all this as it may, when Strap reached his cabin and stripped his nag, he observed upon his haunches abundant scratches and blood, as if they had been stricken with the claws of a wild beast. He entered his cabin. • La Noche Triste. Night was rapidly falling, and rolling clouds involved the heavens in pitchy blackness. Sulphurous vapors scudded below the clouds, whose black bosoms were riven with bolts of lightning, and fearful thunder resounded through the deserted vale. A storm of wind and rain burst upon the cabin with terrible fury, and the champion was compelled to bar his door to stay the invasion. Then in the midst of the wild tumult of the elements, he pro- ceeded to cook his supper of hoe-cake and fried bacon. The bacon sizzled deliciously, and the hoe-cake grew to a rich brown. When all was ready, he spread his table, and was invoking an earnest blessing on him who invented fried bacon and hoe-cake, when suddenly an impetuous blast of the tempest blew open one of his windows with violence. Strap raised his eyes and saw two fiery balls, about four inches apart, staring at him through the open window. They were motionless, but stared with an intense and sinister expression, as if they meant mischief, and TWO THOUSAND MILES IJS^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 61 never doubted their power to inflict it. ^* Ah," said Strap, '' Ocelot — wildcat — hast thou come to interview me ? or wouldst thou forget thy sorrows in a sip from my jolly jug ? or wouldst thou take a little fried bacon and hoe- cake ? or is the tempest too much for thy glossy skin, and thou comest to implore refuge with me under my roof ? Truly, I might accord thee all of these and feel myself blessed to do it, but thy glaring, infernal eyes betray thee, and say that thou wouldst return villainy for these mercies. Take thee to my warm couch and sleep with thee — to find my throat cut in the morning, and the warm blood sucked from my veins ? Ocelot, seek the hospitality of fools ? Speed thee away ! What ! Starest still ? and redoublest the fury in thine eyes ? Wouldst fight? Then take this!" He plucked a stone from his hearth and threw it with all his might at the glaring balls, but it missed its mark and they did not move. ^* Ah, thou art brave," said he, *^and my hand is un- steady. Wouldst beard me in my den ? Then let me try thee with my pestle ! " With that he seized his iron mace and strode with it uplifted to the window. He drew back to plant the blow of a giant between the glaring balls. The blow fell, but it struck only against the window-sill, with such force that it sank half through the heart of oak. The balls evaded it and disappeared in the outer darkness. Strap then barred the window more firmly than before, and sat down to sup. He was chewing a lengthy piece of bacon, whose ends protruded from each corner of his mouth, when a blinding flash of lightning fell, accompanied with a burst of thunder so close and violent that it seemed the ancient hills were riven from their foundations and were tottering to their fall. For a moment Strap felt himself stunned with the flame and concussion. ''Bless me," Baid he, "now has 62 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. the Father given us enough of lightning and dire thun- der ! But what, ye gods, is this ? " He beheld, dancing on the floor before him, a remark- able black figure, with insolent eyes of fiery redness. It was in the shape of a man, but was not three feet high, had two red horns on its head, and its feet, which were large, were cloven like the hoofs of a bull. Its nose was prominent and hooked like the beak of an eagle, and its face was gaunt and thin. Though so small of stature, its visage was hard and wrinkled, and showed age and infinite villainy. As it danced before him, it placed the thumb of the right hand against its nose and made at Strap the in- sulting sign of derision ; but it spake not. Strap was amazed, but he was not overcome. He let the long piece of bacon drop from his mouth. '^Is this a creation of the heat-oppressed brain ?" said he ; '^a pen- cilling on my mind of the jolly artist who dwells in yon jug ? Whilst thou dancest, let me ponder. I wake, I know ; I have my faculties, I know. May the mind under control such fantastic forms create?" Ilis soliloquy was cut short by the singular object ceasing to dance, and step- ping by Strap's side, taking a seat unbid in a chair upon the hearth. As it did so, its stature commenced growing, and did not stop till it had grown to twice its original pro- portions. It drew from between its legs a long tail, with a hard pronged point, which Strap had not observed before, and twirled it over so that the point fell on Strap's knee. This disgusted Strap. He hastily pushed his chair away to the opposite corner of the hearth, and observed : " Keep thy prolongation to thyself, strange visitor ! " '' Skin for skin,*' said the figure, resting his elbow on his knee and his chin between his thumb and index finger of the right hand, and regarding Strap with keen interest. At the same time he twirled his tail over again with such force and accurate aim that the sharp point of it TWO THOUSAND MILES I:N' TEXAS OH HORSEBACK. 63 struck deeply into the mantel-piece, and there it hung fixed. "What might thy name be ?" said Strap, "who visit- est me at this unseemly hour ? Speak ! thy name and thy business I " " Skin for skin," said the object. " Skin for skin ! Hast thou no other name on the night's Plutonian shore ? " "Sir," said the object, rising from the chair and ex- tracting his tail from the mantel-piece, advancing a step toward Strap, "men call me by many names. Thou hast called me black imp of hell, thou Satanas ! So be it. Skin for skin ! Thou hast challenged me to duel, and hast wa- gered upon the result thy swift grey nag, the gift of the mighty King, Tuleahcahoma. Thrice hast thou challenged, and thrice have I accepted. I come to meet thee now, or to fling thy challenge into thy teeth ; to pull thy ruddy beard." He seized his tail in his right hand, and held it like a javelin about to be thrust. Strap gazed upon this singular instrument, and meditatively spake : " Good Sir Devil, take a seat. AYouldst thou attack a gentleman in his cups ? None but a thief and coward would do that. Put thy prolongation away, I prithee. Leave me to my sleep and restoration, and I will meet thee man to man. To-morrow morning at nine o'clock Avill I meet thee." The Devil advanced again, saying : "Give us thy hand. Strap Buckner ; skin for skin : to-morrow morn at nine o'clock, under yon oaks that overlook thy dwelling from the south." They clasped hands and shook them heartily. "Now," said he, "will I leave thee to sleep and restora- tion. Truly, he hath neither courage nor honor who would attack a gentleman in his cups." Strap then sang : " Then wilt thou he gone, love ; Wilt thou be gone, love — Be gone, love, from me ? " 64 TWO THOUSAI^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. And the Devil sang : " Nita— Juanita ! " The Devil then stepped toward the door. Strap moved forward to unbar it and let him out, but the Devil made a bound for the keyhole, and passed through, tail and all, in the twinkling of an eye. As he did so he filled the room with a strong odor of brimstone, insomuch that the cham- pion was compelled to hold his nose. " No wonder," said he, ^' since lie was squeezed so tight. Pull me through a keyhole, and I dare say I would not leave a less odorous re- port." He then for a moment, threw open the window to the tempest, and burned a few cotton rags to deodorize the room; which, having done, he sat quietly by his table and ate a hearty repast of hoe-cake and bacon. You would think that placed in such remarkable cir- cumstances — the most remarkable that man was ever placed in — he would have given loose rein to his fancy, and in- dulged in gloomy soliloquies. But he did not. He knew that these things consume the oxygen and wear away the tissues of the flesh, producing languor and prostration. Said he : ^* I have nothing to do but husband my strength and meet the inevitable." After supping he walked his cabin an hour to promote digestion, and by exercise to force out through the pores of the skin the treacherous fluid which he had drunken at the trading-house. He then sank upon his couch and slept as soundly as an infant. I know not how true it is, but it is said that smiles played around his lips all night. The more I think of him, the more am I carried away in admiration of his sublime char- acter. Truly, the world has seen few such extraordinary men. Had he lived in antiquity he would have been a god, and temples would have been erected in his honor. I know not which is the more unfortunate, he that comes too soon, or he that comes too late into the Avorld. Suffice TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 65 it that either must pass through the world misunderstood and misrepresented — alone, and quite friendless. He who lives in advance of his time has few companions. Fortune grant that such be not my fate ! Laurels that come after one is under the sod and flourish over his grave, are well enough, but give me a few while I live ; and those that may not come at all are intolerable. The Day of Evekts. Day liad dawned, but its light struggled almost in vain with the storm which still held carnival in the valley. Strap rose refreshed and vigorous, and the blood ran rosily and merrily through his manly form. The light of battle illumined his countenance. Rather would I have taken him for some conquering knight of old, who after resting from his great exploits, was about to receive the smiles and kisses of his ladye-love, than one who puts on his armor for combat the most dreadful that mortal ever engaged in. First, he took a shower-bath in the slanting storm of rain, whose myriads of big drops fell upon him like rattling musketrv. Durino^ ten minutes he turned his broad, naked back to it, till the skin glittered like rosy velvet under the pelting ; ten minutes he received it on his manly front, standing like a statue with both arms extended ; the light- ning flashing, and the bolts of thunder bursting around him ; then he turned his right flank, then his left. Forty minutes were thus passed in the shower-bath furnished by the warriilg elements, charged with ammonia and subtle electricity ; after which forty more were passed in rubbing the glowing flesh, in his cabin, with matting woven from the shaggy mosses of the forest. Which having done, he stood in the centre of the room, the most glorious picture of perfect manhood ever seen in the world. As he surveyed himself, his bosom swelled with exultation. Said he : ^^Is not this a picture for the Queen of the Amazons to look 66 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS 0>^ HORSEBACK. upon ? Would not the magnificent Aphrodite give half her immortality to encircle this manly form one moment with her glowing locks ? " Ah me, it distresses me to think that such noble manhood should pass from the earth without increase ! Ah, Strap, it was thy greatest fault to have denied to the world and love what was their due ! He breakfasted on the remnants of the hoe-cake and bacon left from the night's repast, first warming them in a pan. The merry jug stood near, inviting him to taste its amber fluid, but he turned away from it with a look of reproach. "I will embrace thee when I return," said he, **if so be it fortune favor. Thou art good for him who putteth off his armor, but ill luck to him who girdeth it on." Donning his garment of buckskin, he said : '^ The hour arrives ! " Taking his iron limb in liis right hand, the only aid he asked from art, this matchless hero stepped out into the storm, and made fast the door behind him. The tempest smote upon his noble brow ; the clouds saluted him with a salvo of thunder, and the lightning garlanded his locks. He called his swift nag, the gift of the great Tuleahcahoma, who came, and he fixed his saddle upon him, whereupon he mounted and rode away to war. He had advanced but a few paces when the Infernal Fiend, in the form of a skinny, ugly dwarf, appeared before him, dancing a jig, but he did not make the insulting sign of derision. He bowed politely and said : " Hail to thee. Strap Buckner ! I see that thou art as good as thy word, and a man of honor. Receive my obeisance to a man of courage ! I will lead and thou wilt follow." "I dare follow where the Foul Fiend leadeth," said Strap. And both moved onward through the storm, the Fiend in advance. A white flame of lightning illuminated the valley, and when Strap looked again the Fiend had dis- appeared, but in place of him a long, black cat hopped TWO THOUSAND MILES 1:5^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 67 along by bis side, and looked into bis face and mewed. " Ab, Ocelot," said be, *^ dost tbou encounter the tempest yet ? Better betake tbee to tby bollow tree, lest tby furs be rubbed tbe wrong way." Again tbe blinding ligbt- nino- came, and tbe tbunder rent tbe air and reverberated tbrougb tbe vale. Wben Strap looked again tbe mewing cat bad disappeared, but in place of it a spry Skye terrier tripped along by bis side, and looked into bis face witb a frisky, silly look. " Ab," said Strap, ^' Skye terrier, dost tbou like tbe tempest ? Better baste tbee to tbe trading house and catch rats under tbe smeltering skins, lest tbe tempest pick tbee up and blow tbee away." Again the tbunder detonated and tbe lightning lit tbe vale. Strap looked and tbe Skye terrier bad gone, but a huge black bear was walking by his side, turning to look at him with a grin. "Ah," said Strap, "this is tbe history and tbe panorama of nature ; tbe lesser forms and tbe lower de- velop into tbe bigger forms and tbe higher. Shall I see, then, in a few minutes what it has taken Old Time myriads of ages to evolve ? What philosopher has ever been so blest ? Dost tbou like tbe flood. Bruin ? Better betake thee to thy cave in tbe rocks and eat acorns. Who knows but thy spouse may play thee false whilst tbou art absent in the tempest — she believing or professing thee lost and dead ?" Again the blinding lightning came, and tbe tbunder shook tbe vale. When Strap looked again tbe bear bad gone, but an enormous bull, black as night, strode before him, his tail tossed over bis back, and the valley trembled as he strode. " Ab," said Strap, "this is Nocbe, I per- ceive ; my old friend Noche, who knows that I am bis innocent friend. How is tby frontlet, ISTocbe ? Hast thou had the screw-worms picked out of thy wounds, and has thy nose ceased bleeding ? Better betake tbee to a pretty, protected nook, and eat cowslips and make calves 68 TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. for an lionest milk-raaid. Pretty work for thee, Noche : and thou exposest thyself to the tempest, and from choice ? I dare say the milk-maid has broken a joint of thy tail that thou earnest it on thy back, and thy females have kicked thee out, an unprofitable drone, to starve from un- kindness." Again the blinding lightning came with such sudden vehemence that it smote sorely on Stray's eyes, and the thunder shook the vale to the solid granite below. *' Bless me," said Strap, '•' another such as this, I fear me, will burst the balls." When he had recovered his sight, Noche had departed, but in his stead the Fiend in stately form marched before him — stately, all save his tail, which he transported behind him, curved up round like a fish- hook. He looked back, and placing his index finger on his nose, licked out his tongue and laughed. ** Ha ! " said Strap, '• laughest thou ! He laugheth best who laugheth last." His heart swelled with the affront, and it was with great ado that he could help seizing the Fiend's tail by the apex of the hook and crushing it off with one blow of his pestle. They had now reached the foot of the upland that looks into the vale. Silently they ascended to a cluster of noble oaks, venerable with mossy beard. The green sward was rich around them, and the plateau was level and smooth. Rather seemed it a place for fairies to dance under the moonlight than for Fiend and hero to meet in the struggle of death. As they looked around, both spake: "JSTow is the hour and here the place." Strap dismounted and turning liis grey nag loose, with his bridle slipped over his head, said to him : ^^ Charge thyself with grass, whilst I charge myself with the Devil. Prosper my work like thine ! " The grey nag wagged his bobtail, and said : ^^I charge." Without the tremor of a nerve, with- out air of fear or air of boast, this matchless hero con- fronted the Fiend. As he did so, this latter meanlv com- TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. G9 menced to grow, and ceased not to grow till he had achieved such stature that his head was an hundred and ninety feet in the air, and he was eighty feet in girth. His tail grew in correspondence, till, seizing it, he gave it a twirl, and the point stru("k the bosom of a black cloud with such force that it penetrated into it and there stuck. As he had a right to do, Strap complained of this injus- tice. Said he : '^Foul Fiend, thou art no fair man to ask me to fight with thee on unequal terms. If thou choosest such terms, I brand thee villainous coward." The Fiend looked down from his lofty stature, and with a voice that confused all living things within a vast circumference, said : " Put aside thy iron limb, thy mace, thy pestle, and I will accommodate me to thy size. Skin for skin ! " Strap tossed his pestle aside, whereat the Fiend commenced shrinking, and ceased not to shrink till he had shrunken to Strap's size — all save his tail, which still remained hitched in the bosom of the cloud. He now took position before Strap in the attitude of a boxer, and Strap took position before him in the same at- titude. He kept his eye on Strap, and Strap kept his eye on him, either guarding against any advantage or cheat by the other. The Fiend now drew back for a pass at Strap, but just at that moment the black cloud in which his tail was hitched was rapidly passing beyond its length, and it drew the Devil backwards and upwards with great force, causing him exceeding great pain at the point of its junc- ture with the body. The air suddenly became impregnated with a fearful odor of brimstone, insomuch that Strap was obliged to burn a few cotton rags to deodorize it. Now had he but used the advantage which offered itself to him, what infinite fame would be his ! Ah, me, it pains my heart to think of the weaknesses and fatal mistakes that good men commit under a false sense of honor. As the cloud was dragging the Fiend backward and upward, nearly 70 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. paralyzed with pain, how easily Strap could have taken a stone and crushed him withal, or his pestle and spilt his brains withal ! Instead of this, under a false sense of honor, and in the kindness of his heart, he proffered the Fiend assistance to unhitch his tail ! Ah, me ! I nearly faint with despair while relating it. The Devil leaped up in the air and rolled himself up in the coils of his tail till he had reached the cloud, and there, with the help of claws and hoofs and horns, succeeded at last in unhitching it. Immediately, back he sprang, and stood before Strap in the attitude of a boxer. My heart sinks within me to relate it. Honor with the Devil ! What wanton weakness ! I might give thee now the many rounds as they occur- red, had I the heart, after Strap's exhibition of his folly, to do so. Suffice it to say that the battle raged with vary- ing fortunes all day, till the Devil, having less honor and more wiles, grew again to monstrous size, and at last wore Strap out on the unequal terms, till the mighty champion sought quarter, crest-fallen and utterly overcome. The country for a great circuit round rang with, the hideous noise of battle, and Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall and forty Indian braves stood on the bank of the river and hearkened to it, amazed. As night fell they saw a great grey horse riding through the air down the valley, with the dread form of a red monkey astride his back in front, and the form of an overpowered man dangling across him be- hind. The horse and riders lit on the top of yon cedar- covered mountain that looks down upon Lagrange from the north, and then all disappeared in the umbrageous forest. When morning came Bob Tiirket and Bill Smoth- erall and a thousand Indian braves crossed over the river and marched to Strap's house, which they found as he had left it, deserted and closed. Looking about, they at last came to the spot where the dread encounter had occurred. The earth had been torn away to the bare rock, and on the TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 71 rock were deep impressions of cloven hoofs and Strap's feet. No earth has ever accumulated, and no green gi'ass or tree has ever grown on that accursed spot since ; but it remains, and will forever remain, in bleak deformity. A pile of gory hair and beard was found near, which they recognized as Strap's. A broken cloven hoof they also found, which had a strange unearthly smell, and near it was Strap's iron limb. This they religiously preserved, and bore it back on poles in solemn silence, and deposited it in his cabin through a crack. And they all wept aloud and shed salt tears, and the great Medicine Man sounded his big bongbooree. He Returns. Three months passed, and one morn as Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall were counting their skins, they were stricken with amazement to see Strap Buckner ride up before them on his swift grey nag, the gift of the mighty King Tuleahcahoma. He dismounted and stood before them, and they were the more amazed. And he looked distant and sad and solemn, as if he were contemplating things afar off. He spake to them not ; but they fell on their faces before him, and said: ^^ Mighty champion of the world, depart hence!" He said simply: "Skin for skin!" " Mighty champion of the world," replied they, "take all of our skins and depart hence ! " He replied simply : "Skin for skin ; " and mounting his grey nag, he crossed over the river and sadly and slowly rode away. Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall watched him departing, and counted no more skins that day. Three mouths he dwelt in his cabin, and thrice weekly he visited the trading-house, whei'e he walked about like one contemplating the dead, with a sad and distant air. He volunteered to speak to none, and the only response to 72 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOHSEBACK:. every question was — ^^ Skin for skin." He was a changed man. He would drink no whiskey, and would knock no man down. Yet Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall and the Indian braves shrank from him with awe and dread, and the great Medicine Man, whenever he saw him, stopped and sounded his big bongbooree. Finally, one night, a great blue flame rose far above the valley, and cast a pale, deathly light over the land. Bob Turket and Bill Smoth- erall and ninety Indian braves watched it all night. On the top of the blue flame they beheld a great grey nag, and astride of him sat the dread form of a red monkey, and behind the red monkey sat the form of a gigantic man waving a gigantic iron pestle, whereat the dread form of the red monkey seemed to cower. When morning arose. Bob Turket and Bill Smotherall and eleven hundred In- dian braves crossed over the river and marched to Strap's house. They found it in ashes and cinders. They stood around it in solemn silence, and with one accord wept aloud and spilt salt tears. The great Medicine Man sounded his big bongbooree. Evasit, ahiit I Since that mysterious and perhaps fatal night, lie has never been seen in his proper person as in the olden time. ^' But still," added my companion, " to quote from the lines of our local bard, who has emblazoned his history in immortal verse : " But still the enthusiast bards relate, In memory of his gallant past, That oft he is seen in gloom of state. To ride his steed on the whirlwind blast. " He rises lowering on the view, His red hair streaming from on high, Clad in a garb of sulphurous blue. Which casts a shade o'er his frenzied eye. " As he whirls like a god on his clouded path, And shakes his locks and his iron limb, He looks on none in the might of his wrath. And he speaks to none though they speak to him. TWO THOUSAND MILES Iiq" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 73 " Let no one scorn the friendly tale, ^ Or doubt unkind its shadowed truth, For still the Buckner boys bewail Their noble but mysterious youth. " He stands a talisman whose spell Shall ne'er forget its generous sway ; And with his folk his name shall dwell — A name not made to pass away." "Yes, sir," continued he, "often at night, when the tempest howls and the thunders roar, his form, or shadow, or image, or whatever it be, is seen to stride this valley in which we ride, on his swift bob-tail nag, the gift of the mighty King Tuleahcahoma. I myself saw him distinctly, in our last great equinoctial storm, shoot down the valley with a sulphurous whirl and glare, and light on yonder cedar-covered mountain, whence he disappeared in the umbrageous forest. When a Buckner Creek baby cries, whether from pure perverseness or colic pains in the bowels, only say to him * Strap Buckner ' once, and he will forth- with scrooch up in his cradle, and you will hear no more from that baby for hours. Behold in him the tutelar divin- ity to whom all the cow-boys lift up their emulation and prayers." "I perceive, sir," said I, "that thou art a true poet, and I thank thee." " And I perceive, sir," said he, "that thou art a true epilogue, and I thank thee. This is the road which bids me depart from thee. Should I meet thee again under favorable circumstances, and thine ear still thirsteth for knowledge, I will impart thee more. And now farewell." He turned his horse and departed away from me, as other friends have done before. 4 VII. Snake Praikie. EMERGING from the legendary vale, I rode upon a prairie whose name is Snake. It is an immense table, rising above all the region round ; treeless, except an occasional mot of oak, and level, save that here and there is a slight depression, marked by a black sticky soil, and covered with dark tussocks of coarse, wiry grass. Elsewhere the soil is thin, often exposing the rough back- bone of the rock. The fertilizing ingredients, as fast as they collect, are driven into the depressions, or beaten off into the subjacent lowlands by wind and rain, thus devot- ing it to hopeless sterility. As I ride over it a sense of loneliness depresses me. My eyes wander in vain to dis- cover some sign of human habitation. No herds feed on its stubby grass ; no bird warbles in the air ; no grass- hopper ; not even a lizard on the rock. The wind which here blows perpetually, passes over it in silence, as if with averted face. No snake would live here unless a stark fool, who pre- ferred miser}'- to happiness, and I cannot conceive why the name was given to this abandoned prairie, unless out of man's despite toward the crawling creature who *^ brought death into the world and all our woe." Of all creatures that fly or swim or crawl or walk, the snake is the most hideous in man's sight. We cannot see him or think of him without feelings of total depravity, and our onlv instinct is to seize a stone and crush his head, or turn TWO THOUSAis^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 75 heel and fly from his detested presence. It makes no dif- ference how prettily marked or how innocuous he may be, we see in his beauty and ugliness alike, nothing but dis- gust and infernal stratagems and spoils. His thoughts toward us are likewise total depravity. No sooner does he see us than he commences to lick out his tongue, and to devote us to the infernal gods. Our poets, our orators, our historians, our harpists, our prima-donnas, our beau- tiful damsels, are to him a disgust and hate, the sight of whom fills him with the desire of murder. We are natural enemies, between whom peace has never existed and never will exist. It is a warfare which the millennium will not terminate. It seems to me that this singular nomencla- ture was given to the prairie as a satire both upon the snake and the prairie. AVhen the true facts of the case shall be elicited, I dare sav it will be discovered that the Devil and Strap Buckner fought all over it before their warfare was over, and hence its forbidding aspect to this day.* * It has always appeared to me that the history of Eve and the serpent is the severest satire ever written or spoken of the fair sex ; and after that they should look with charity upon the little uncharitable flings of the sterner sex at some of their peculiarities. Juvenal, who was a merciless, almost brutal, satirist of the womankind, never wrote anything half so severe. From the Mosaic stand- poiut,Eve was the most perfect as well as the fairest of her sex. She came into the world sinless, by the direct act of the hands of God, and differed from the pure angels only in that she had no wings, and was not of ethereal or spiritual substance ; and yet this most superior woman allowed herself to be led from her allegiance to her husband and her God, and utterly perverted and ruined, by the seductions of a hideous high-land moccasin or a cobra di capello— a creature which no woman since has ever been able to behold without an Involuntary shudder or scream ! The idea of a lady accepting a gift from one of these hid- eou"* creatures, particularly when presented from his mouth, seems utterly out of the question. Note 2, — Two gentlemen, residing near San Antonio, who had been bitten by rattlesnakes, told me that no sooner had the reptiles struck them than they scampered away with every manifestation of delight over the deed they had done. Said one of these gentlemen : "Snakes, you know, glide away smoothly, with the entire body prone to the ground ; but this fellow who had bitten me, scampered away with an up-and-down, or wave-like motion of the body, as if he was thrilled with delight. Getting under a large rock where he was safe from pursuit, he turned and raising his head aloft waved it to and fro, as if he were 76 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. And yet I should be false to every fair consideration if I should speak only of the evil points of this remarkable prairie, and leave its good ones unheralded. In one aspect it is remarkably good — a very angel of beneficence. Standing above the surrounding region, it disperses over the vales and plains below, with every rain that falls, nearly all the fertility it derives from its decomposing roeks and vegetation, from bird or animal, or receives from the atmosphere. The quantity wdiich it thus casts annually upon its neighbors is great, keeping them always rich, though in doing so it condemns itself to everlasting poverty. It distills, collects, disperses and concentrates fertility, and the world is tiie better off for it. It is therefore like unto a great soul that labors incessantly and lovingly with the single thought to confer blessings upon others, contenting itself with the sublime reward which the consciousness of such good bestows. When I think of it in this aspect, I can scarcely repress my admiration of the lonesome, aban- doned prairie, and it almost repents me to have spoken of it as I have. It would, too, make a noble sheep-walk unto the shepherd that dwells in the vales below. Its short, stubby grasses would be the delight of these nibblers, who prefer dainty little morsels to the ranker food of the rich valleys. The Vale of Seclusive. Ten miles over this lonely dispenser of fertility, who worketh only for the good of others, scorning its own, I descended abruptly into another vale where the whole prospect pleases. It was like stepping out of a desert into sajing to himself : ' Ah, old fellow, I have got you now I Don't yon feel good, though ? ' It would require but little stretch of the imagination to conceive that snake the veritable old devil himself ! ' ' Note 3.—" Be as wise as serpents.'"''— The particular sort of wisdom here meant is probably that which holds that everyone will bear watching, and will harm you if he can. Be ever on the alert to take care of yourself ! Trust not at all, unless that ye be "■ deceived and likewise sucked in." TWO THOUSAND MILES liN^ TEXAS OxS'' HORSEBACK. 7? an oasis of roses and fairies. This is called ^' Live Oak Creek," and it is so much like the Buckner Creek valley that each seems either. It is only less in width, but not so in fertility and varied beauty of scenery. Its level bosom is occupied by the same prosperous-looking farms — the cotton bale piled high or tumbled around loosely in every yard. The noble live-oak, with his Druid beard, appears here for the first time on my journey, and is the principal shade tree around the dwellings of the farmers. This valley is so remote from the busy scenes of life that I involuntarily named it Seclusive. Away from railroads, away from town and village, it rests in sweet, sleepy security. " A pleasing land of drowsy-head it is — Of forms that move before the half shut eye : " so gentle, so placid, so remote is it. If one wishes to get away from lawyers, and doctors, and duns, I can recom- mend to him no better locality. I stopped at a comfortable farm house by the road-side and a fair young girl fed me on butter-milk, eggs, honey and a leg of mutton. I asked her if she did not often wish that she had the wings of a dove, so she might fly away from this seclusion and return at will ? She said she had often heard of the sensation of loneliness, but had never had the opportunity to feel it. She tossed back a wealth of locks as if more completely to reveal a face that would be called pretty anywhere, and I have little doubt that she mentally said to me : " There, do you think with so much beauty I could be lonely ? " She said there " were plenty of girls in the valley, and as for that, young men, too," and that they very often had their meetings and rides. '^ And their love scrapes too," said I. ^' Of course," said she with a laugh. She told me that her father and brothers had '''gone to the railroad with the wagons," loaded with cotton and hides no doubt, and that their return Avould be 78 TWO THOUSAND MILFS IX TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. an event in the family, as '' all would then get a present and something new." I asked how often these trips to the railroad were made ? *' x\bont twice a year," she said. And all the rest of their lives were passed on the quiet farm. It would seem impossible that such a people could be otherwise than sober, virtuous and good. Post Oak Belts. Leaving the vale of Seclusive, I rode again into one of those remarkable belts of iron-oak, which occur frequently in Texas. It was of the same character with them all, save that the peculiar featui-es w^re probably better devel- oped than usual : a soil more sandy, the forest denser, and the solitude more profound. The trees were of large size and excellent timber. The hog seems to be sole master of this solitude, and through it he roams and fattens at will, on no other food than that which spontaneous nature provides him. Many of them are in the state ferce nat- urw, the rightful prey of any who may secure them. Occasionally I surprise some of these as I ride noiselessly through the forest. They bound away with immense speed, as if they thought all fury was in pursuit of them, and the woods roar behind them. These great forests seem to me a perplexing and yet in- teresting problem in geology, which to my knowledge has not been solved. They are usually in belts, many miles wide, extending great distances. Their usual or probably invariable direction is north-east and south-west. Two of these belts, known as the Cross Timbers, extend nearly the entire distance of the State ; and all of them, whether great or small, sit on eminet^ces above the contiguous territory. But the most striking feature that distinguishes them from the country through which they pass, is their soil. The soil of the prairies and even the timbered districts which lie against them, is dark and tenacious, while that of these TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 79 belts is precisely the opposite, sand being the predominant feature. Indeed, some of them are so sandy that they are unfit for cultivation. Whence comes this remarkable dif- ference in soils that lie, sometimes for hundreds of miles, immediately alongside of each other ? It is plain that they have been derived from totally different materials, as two things so utterly variant could not come from the same source. It is a fact, too, that the rocks which lie under the prairies are usually some variety of limestone, while those of these hills, according to my observation, are invariably sandstone ; and yet they are of the same geological age as the limestone of the contiguous prairie, and sometimes even of a later date. This latter is the case in this present forest, where all the stone that I see exposed is evidently newer than the out-cropping stone of the contiguous prai- rie ; and yet there can hardly be a reasonable doubt that these post-oak ridges rose above the ancient waters prior to the prairie.* AVhile thinking of these strange features of these belts, I remembered the bars, or long narrow banks of sand that are common in the bays and off the coast of Texas, and they seemed to me to disclose the whole mystery of their formation. At all events, tJiere is a wonderful likeness be- tween them. These sand-bars are raised upon a bottom of hard, marly clay, precisely similar to the formation a few feet under the prairies. Such is the nature of the bottom all about them. Their tendency is to grow continually, and they would in time, if not combatted by the art of man, erect impossible barriers to navigation. Such are the two annoying bars in Galveston Bay, and such the two, still more annoying, off Galveston Island, upon which hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent. Other similar * The state geologist iu his last report, states that this is the case, also, with the upper Cross Timbers, in the northern portion of the state, in which the sur- face development is Tertiary, while all the region about them is Cretaceous or older. 80 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HOKSEBACK. banks have been discovered far out in the Gulf of Mexico, all having the same direction of north-east and south-west. The great " Telegraphic Plateau," running across the At- lantic from New Foundland to Ireland, is probably another example on a larger scale^ and for all that we know the ocean may contain thousands of other instances. Whence they derive their sands, and by what peculiar attraction or forces they are thus agglomerated and heaped up, are questions not here within my line; but we behold the re- sults. If these bars or long banks of sand were left exposed above the surface, the soil which would form upon them would be precisely that of the remarkable post-oak belts of Texas — sand mixed with the carbonaceous matter and other elements of decayed vegetable and animal matter, I be- lieve then, in the absence of a better theory, that these great hills, so strangely d liferent from all the country about them, are but the bars and banks which formed in the seas of the ancient world, and that many of them rose above the surface while the prairies were still under water. I am not able to perceive any other hypothesis that will explain the phenomena, and I give it with considerable confidence that the Texas geologists will find it correct. The bars and banks now forming in the bays and off the coast of Texas, differ from the bottom about them pre- cisely as these belts differ from the contiguous lands, and the conclusion seems irresistible that the same results had similar causes. Thus ages and ages ago, when the vast area of Texas, and perhaps the whole world, lay dormant under the dark ocean, we behold the great Architect so disposing his mys- terious forces as to work out the greatest benefits for the dense populations whom He knew would one day swarm over this land. These great forest-belts, though often sterile in soil, are great natural benefits, without which the land would not be half so blessed. Thev have their TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 81 uses in the inexhaustible supply of fuel and timber for the prairies, their abundant mast, and their equable influence on the seasons. Truly the Great Architect ^^doeth all things well." Plum Creek. I rode ten miles through the forest, when the monotony was relieved by a heavy swell in the ground, running north and south a number of miles. It looks as if it might have been a fortification erected by the embattled giants in the days of old, so regular is it in its outlines. The oaks grow all over it. The sandstones that bulge out along its flanks are infiltrated thoroughly with iron, and masses of ore lie loose on the surface. The outward indications give prom- ise that this ridge holds unlimited store of iron locked in its bowels, and if this be so it will one day be very valua- ble, though now doubtless much despised. Descending its long western slope I entered the valley of Plum Creek, fa- mous in Texas history as the vale in which two hundred Texas boys fought all day hand to hand with a thousand Comanche warriors, and gave them a sound drubbing. Those Texas boys of old were certainly a terrible set of fighters, the like of whom in that line probably the world has never seen. They had a true genius for fight, and their descendants are amply gifted with it to this day. AVhen tliey went in they went in all over, with the full determi- nation to conquer or die in their tracks. This stream is in- significant in itself, sometimes stealing along, a mere rill, sometimes standing in dark, deep pools, hidden everywhere under a dense growth of wild peach ; but its valley is as great as that of a great river, and of fertility that seems unmatched save in Texas. The Texans have a saying : '^ Where the wild peach grows, buy and grow rich ; " and I cannot doubt that it is sound advice and true prophecy, from what this valley discloses. The wild peach here is the principal 4* 82 TWO THOUSAND MILES i:N" TEXAS OJ^ HORSEBACK. growth, the great iron-oak belt having terminated sud- denly at the foot of the ridge. This tree is a beautiful evergreen, closely resembling the orange, but with the smell of the peach, and yields a mast which hogs and fowls delight in. The wild turkey thinks it the choicest offering of the woods, and groweth so fat upon it that when you shoot him in a tree, his breast bursteth as he falls, from the excessive fat. Farms are numerous in the valley, but I judge that hardly one in ten of its noble acres has yet felt the plowshare in its bosom. What a glorious wealth un- plucked ! There is this to be said of these Texas valleys : every successive one the wanderer enters seems to him the richest, and most beautiful, and best. Travelling over the State one soon becomes confused where to choose. Per- haps as good a plan as any is to shut the eye and go it blind. Should he perchance stumble and stop on Plum Creek, it is impossible he should ever regret it, if to till deep and inexhaustibly rich acres, in a land that is a gar- den of health and serene beauty, be his choice. If the people who dwell here can wish for anything that they have not in their lands and climate, their bump of longing must be more unappeasable than that of the horse-leech's daughter. In short, theirs must be a true genius to be discontented. This valley with its Avindings is hardly less than a hundred miles in length ; it is so broad in many places that it does not look much like a valley, and the same amazing fertihty marks it from its source to its con- fluence with the San Marcos. I deliberately write it down as one of the gem spots of earth. Its people are nearly all Americans from the older Southern States, and seem un- usually intelligent and attractive in their manners. Mesquite Chaparral. And what is this that springs up so suddenly before me ? It is something that I have not seen before on my TWO THOUSAND MILES TN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 83 journey. It starts up as unawares as an iron-oak belt, and is like a great army that moves with closed ranks. It is a mesqniie chaparral, and distinctly tells me that I have now entered the great region of Western Texas, of which it is a peculiar plume. Bless me, how thick it is ! A horse- man thirty feet away would be completely buried out of sight. The grass on the shaded ground looks like a rich Turkish carpet, so velvety, clean and luxuriant that one feels inclined to dismount from his steed and roll on it like a boy. That grass is the '^ curly mesquite," the sweetest and most nutritious of all the rich grasses that Texas so abundantly provides for the millions of animals that feed upon her bosom. It is the invariable accompaniment of the mesquite chaparral, though the mesquite chaparral does not always accompany it. The growth of this chaparral or thicket is a brush, shooting out a number of long branches from a common centre at the ground, armed with thorns, and every branch produces a number of smaller branches likewise armed. The foliage is light and feathery, pinnate, and drooping in long racemes. Such is its character here and in all the chaparrals, but when it grows alone, or scattered widely apart, it becomes a tree, about the ordinary size of the peach, and at a distance, when stripped of its leaver iu winter, greatly resembles that tree. In the chaparral it is almost an evergreen, for its long-reaching, multitudinous boughs protect from the cold northers and seem to main- tain perpetual spring. It is a legume, probably of the sub-order of mimosas, and herein is one of its most nota- ble properties. It yields annually an abundant crop of beans, the pods, from five inches to a foot in length, hang- ing in clusters from the boughs. These pods are very similar in appearance to that of the corn-field pea, but; owing to a rich saccharine pulp, they never become shelly or dry. They cannot advance to a higher state of desic- 84 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. cation than the sugar-corn, either in the pod or bean. The bean is small and flattened, separated from each other by a considerable space of pulp in the pod, and when chewed in the mouth is sweet to the taste and sticky to the teeth. When ripe, horses and cattle devour them with great relish, and they will not touch them when not ripe, because they are then bitter and acrid. It can hardly be doubted that in nutritive matter they excel any edible pod in existence, and milk-maids say they produce a greater and richer flow of milk than any food they are acquainted with. I have never known them to be eaten by man as a food, but I dare say if boiled as a " snap- short" when tender, they would furnish a very palata- ble dish. And here comes a singular and interesting point. When the rains have been abundant and the grasses un- usually luxuriant, the mesquite yields but a slim crop of beans ; when the rains have been moderate, and the grasses are of moderate luxuriance, the crop is greatly increased; but when the drought has been severe and the grass is poor, the mesquite is literally burdened with its clusters of rich pods. I admit that this seems singular, but it is a fact which every old Western Texan will confirm. I do not think I ever observed, in all the works of beneficent nature, a more beautiful indication of design, or stronger proof of the infinite goodness and careful provision of the Creator, whose eye nothing escapes. During the winter following a severe drought, myriads of innocent creatures on the plains would suffer, and man would be injured in his property and lessened in his comfort, were it not for the timely offering, from the thorny branches of the mes- quite, of a food as rich as it is abundant. It reminds me of the mysterious quails and manna in the desert.* * The mesquite has three other valuable properties : it exudes a gum, equal to gum-arabic for every purpose for which that gum is used ; it is rich TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 85 But in one point the chaparral is deceptive. To him who approaches it, it presents the appearance of an im- penetrable entanglement; but, on entering, he finds each mesquite separated some feet apart, and though the branches interlap and form numerous arches above, there are open spaces and winding labyrinths, in which the horse and ox find no inconvenience to food and roam, and the skilled horseman, clad in buckskin and heavy gloves, to protect against the thorns, can even dash through them at a sharp pace. Everywhere they are illuminated with patches of sunlight on the grass, and they are pretty places to wander in afoot : there being nothing of gloom about them, if we may bar the suspi- cion that a highwayman may be lurking within them, watching an opportunity to spring upon his prey : some- thing that not unfrequently happens in the chaparral along the Rio Grande. Perhaps I shall have more to say of the chaparral after awhile. Hog- WALLOW Peairie. The prairie which has been seized upon by this chap- arral, has also a peculiarity new to me on this journey. It is filled with saucer-like depressions, from the size of a wash-bowl to many feet in diameter. These are thought to resemble the wallows made by hogs in muddy places, and hence this peculiar style of prairie is called "hog- wallow prairie." The depressions are so numerous that it looks as if the earth had suffered from a severe case of • small-pox, but the pits rarely if ever run into each other. The soil upon this, as upon all other hog-wallow prairies, is of the glossy blackness of tar, and when wet, is nearly of the consistence and quite as sticky as tar. When rubbed in tannin, and as a fuel wood is not surpassed. It would no doubt, when large enough,prove a beautiful timber for cabinet work. 86 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. in the hand it is of a sleek and unctuous feel, and has not a trace of sand. It is the very creme de la creme of fertility. It has a capacity for resisting drought beyond that of all other lands. When the croj)s on adjoining lands are with- ering under the scorching sun, they still laugh with mer- riment on the hog-wallow prairie. They are difficult to reduce to cultivation ; but once subdued, they remain sub- dued. No soil is then more tractable or handsomely be- haved, provided it is not meddled with when wet. How shall we account for these small-pox depressions, and the enormous fertility of the hog-wallow prairie ? I believe that they were once marshes, in which the warm sun and the constantly increasing fertility stimulated a great rankness of vegetation. They were alive with rep- tiles and aquatic fowls. They are always in depressions, and never in a position not favorable to this theory. When marshes are drained, the exposed surface is always found covered with swellings and depressions, resulting from currents, the accumulation of vegetable matter in heaps, and from other causes. In the process of drying, under the hot sun, the earth shrinks and cracks, and the irregu- larities are multiplied by the soil washing into and filling up these openings. They therefore for along time present precisely the same uneven appearance as the hog-wallow, prairie. The soil is also rich and black with decayed vege- tation, free from sand and unctuous to the feel ; and if the drained marsh happens to be in a country having the same mineral ingredients as Western Texas, the soil would be in all respects precisely that of the hog- wallow prairie. In course of time the marshes were gradually filled up by the- accumulated rotted matter of their own vegetation and the drift from the hills, and the hog- wallow prairie was the result. If this is not the true theory of their formation, I am at a loss to know what is. Here then we have the explanation of this enormous TWO THOUSAN'D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 87 fertility, extending many feet below the surface — perhaps fifties and hundreds. Its glossy blackness is nothing but rotted reeds, immense palmate leaves, and myriads of other aquatic plants, with their thick net-work of roots, com- minuted into an impalpable powder, retaining all the ele- ments of which the plants were composed. This of itself ,is the very rankness of fertility, but the neighboring hills and uplands have increased it by discharging into it, with every heavy shower, their finest particles, with a great store of carbonate of lime from their decomposing rocks. In- deed, the soil of these prairies is so thoroughly infiltrated with lime that it is a marl — a humo-calcareous marl, or the richest marl that possibly can exist. Its remarkable capacity for withstanding drought is the result of the absorbent and retentive nature of the materials of which it is composed ; for both humus and lime attract moisture from the atmosphere and retain it ; in other words, they bring copious showers to themselves which come sparingly elsewhere. With deep plowing and faithful stirring of the surface, so as to prevent the formation of a crust, it is not probable that crops on these prairies could be seriously in- jured by the most prolonged drought likely to be seen in Western Texas. I have said that the hog- wallow is of a sticky nature. It sticketh closer than a brother. Let one attempt to walk across a plowed field after a shower. It accumulates upon his shoes until they have become of such prodigious weight that he can hardly drag one foot after another ; and it continueth to accumulate and stick, until at last the wearied wayfarer is relieved by its falling off by its own weight — only to see the huge following renewed after a few steps. It is the same with vehicles travelling a road over a hog-wallow prairie in wet weather ; only more so, as there is greater space for the huge heap to accumulate upon. Even in dry weather, it is extremely disagreeable, 88 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. travelling over these prairies in a carriage, there being a continual bound and jolt, as the wheels sink into and rise out of the depressions. Just at dark I rode into Lockhart, the capital of Caldwell County, and passed the night. VIII. / LOCKHAKT. WHEN the first rays of the sun were sparkling in the dewdrops on the live-oak leaves, I arose and stepped abroad 'for a morning walk in Lockhart. It is an engaging little cluster of residences and country stores, churches and academies, cosily built, and an air of gentil- ity pervades it. Its population is less than a thousand, nearly all Americans, doubtless from the older agricultural districts of the South. Its situation is picturesque ; with broad, open prairie, here and there waving with green chaparral; with stately forest, and sloping hill crowned with forest, around it or in the background. The yards and gardens show taste and cultivation, and it at once strikes me as the capital community of a polite people. I know not how it is, but it marked a very pretty little place in my memory, and I often recall it and think of it with pleasant thoughts. It has written ujwn me the im- pression that it is a sweet, placid, quiet little community, where every one loves his neighbors, and is by them be- loved ; where the sammer nights are melodious with the mocking-bird, and peace reigns ; where boys cannot grow up rowdies, and where girls blossom into sweet and per- fect womanhood, to make some good fellow's home happy. I can hardly account for it, for my stay was not long and my acquaintance limited, and yet such are the lines that Lockhart wrote on my mind and memory. Sweet be its cradled slumbers ! * * Since my visit, Lockhart, in confirmation of these good impressions, has 90 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. Her peculiar physical features are the magnificent groves of live-oak, in which she sits embowered, and the remarka- ble outburst of springs at her feet. The live-oaks are among the most stately of the race, spreading their hori- zontal, thickly-foliaged boughs over a wide area, and have a strange appearance of veneration from the long grey moss that hangs from every limb, like the beard of a patriarch. They are so numerous that they conceal the village until one has entered it. They make a glorious shade, and I judge that Lockhart must be a sweet retreat in sum- mer, for its shady walks. The springs are a dozen or more, all bold and strong, of the purest water, bursting out within a small space in a noble grove. They quickly unite their waters and send a dashing, singing brook away, down a green and shaded dell. They gurgle up from deep fountains in the sandstone, and their deliciously cool water supplies the whole community. I chatted with the gentlemen of Lockhart several hours, because I liked the climate and other things, obtaining whatever information I could of their noble country in an unobtrusive way. They seemed to take much interest in me from the fact that I liked the country, and pressed me with courtesies to stop some days, and ride with them over parts I had not seen and would not see on my route. It makes me pleased with myself to have received such vol- untary courtesies from a people whom I highly respect. I was sorry I could not stay, but they told me that in their county are several sulphur and chalybeate springs, and one of alum, all in charming localities and needing only capital to make them popular resorts. They spoke of a deep vale in which pure soda accumulates in great quan- tity. As for iron, they thought their ^' Iron Hills " had enough to furnish all the railways of Texas. They spoke refused by a large majoritj' of the vote of her citizens, to allow tippling shops on her streets. When I heard of it I could but exclaim, " It is just like her ! " TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 91 of their neighboring town of Prairie Lea as a charming little community, situated in a country unexcelled for beauty and fertility. Indeed I do not hesitate to say that Caldwell County is one of the best regions of Texas, in land, beauty and people. The people in their character seem to partake of the gentleness and amenity of the scenery in which they live. Wealth Undeveloped. — West Texas Scenery. It was ten o'clock on the morning of the 6th of Janu- ary, when I resumed my journey, riding nearly southward. I rode over a hog-wallow prairie five or six miles, dotted with numerous farms. All of this was the great valley of the little Plum Creek, which I now crossed, and the scene instantly changed. Full twenty miles I rode over a great prairie, consisting of an accumulation of swells and undu- lations of the most graceful outlines. The mesquite brush grew upon them in thin and scattering clusters, inevitably predicting the day when the chaparral shall possess them all. They are the messengers of the great army that is advancing. Occasional ravines wind among them in tor- tuous courses, containing no streams but many deep pools of the clearest and sweetest water, being principally rain- water caught from the hills. The rich curly mesquite grass was in complete possession, with its beautiful, smooth carpet of pea-green. Thousands of cattle and horses were visible everywhere, and an occasional flock of sheep cov- ered the hills. For ten miles there was a gradual but steady ascent, until I felt myself lifted far toward the clouds. Then I stood upon an eminence from which I beheld the vast country for many miles to the west, east and south. It was a prospect of singular beauty : the graceful swells and rolling undulations all about and be- low me ; the winding ravines and flashing pools, and long lines of dark, distant forest in every direction except the 92 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. north, whither the swells and undulations grew higher and higher until lost in the distance. Then followed ten miles of easy, almost imperceptible descent. It was a great backbone or ridge separating two great systems of drainage, and the eminence upon which I halted was the apex. Not a human dwelling in all this twenty miles : noth- ing but strolling herds and an occasional traveller to enjoy all this glorious beauty ! And why should this be ? This country is all positively rich, except rare occasions where the rock pushes itself too near the surface. The soil is of that rich calcareous sort which produces the best devel- opment of wheat, aud the climate is exactly that in which it ripens best. In addition to their linfe, the rocks con- tain a considerable per centage of magnesia — a condition all the more favorable. In the dry atmosphere, no dan- ger from rust here. No danger from drought here, be- cause the crop will mature and be gathered in May, a month or more before the summer droughts set in. No timher, says one, for fences or houses ! That is a fact, and until there is easy access to the great forest belts and the pineries of the east, this magnificent country is destined to remain fruitless, except as the feeding ground of thousands, perhaps millions of animals. And yet there is abundant stone to be quarried from the hillsides, a ma- terial beautiful and durable for both house and fence. It is a costly and slow process, says one. I admit it, and yet if I should dwell in this country, I would have my fences and houses only of stone. Water supply uncertain : suppose the pools in the ravines should dry up ? says another. That is a contingency easily provided against, by building a stout dam across any of the ravines. Perpetual lakes may thus be formed, from which irrigation may be practiced, and they may be stocked with trout and other fish. I am sure the day will come when TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 93 all of this will be done, and this region, now considered al- most valueless, will be filled with prosperous farmers, ship- ping rich argosies of wheat and many other products to other lands. The Almighty never intended so beautiful and interesting a country for the sole occupancy of dumb brutes. As for health, it seems quite impossible for one in such an atmosphere as this, to be sick. Such spaces as these, equally beautiful and equally fertile, are of common occurrence all over Western Texas.* The Jackass Eabbit. While passing over this great unoccupied space, I saw frequently a singular creature, which seemed a cross be- tween a jackass and a common hare ; yet I must confess that the resemblance is remote except in the exceedingly elongated ears, wherein it is very striking. For this reason he is called the mule-eared, or more commonly, the jackass rabbit. In other points he is precisely the same as the com- mon hare, except that he is twice as long, more than twice as high, and the white of his belly extends upward and covers a large part of his tlanks. Their ears are also tipped with white, and while sitting still they keep them moving up and down, as the butterfly does his wings when sitting on a flower. They are graceful as a doe, quite as nimble and fleet, and pretty to look upon as they bound over the prairie. They are so swift and strong that no dog but the greyhound can overtake them, and it puts even his speed to the severest test. An old gentleman, moving from Tennessee, tells a tale on his dog, which, he said, had never been known to fail to pick up a common hare when he once got in sight of him. One day, while encamped with his wagons, a jackass rabbit jumped up within ten feet of his dogV nose. That * These great unoccupied spaces belong mostly to the State and railroad companies to whom they have been donated by the State. The State holds all her lands at $1.25 per acre ; but the railroads and private persons will generally sell these lands for much less. 94; TWO THOUSAN^D MILES li^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. worthy, with a yelp of joy, claimed him as his own, and bounded after him over a smooth and beautiful prairie, on whicb was nothing to obstruct the sight. He followed bravely about two hundred yards, then suddenly stopped and gazed strangely at the retreating hare. Then he drop- ped his tail, hung his head and returned with an abashed air to camp, evidently acknowledging that he was fur once magnificently vanquished. Ever after that, when a jackass rabbit appeared in sight, Towser looked at him and whined, but could not be induced to pursue. It is said that no dog, except the greyliound, after becoming acquainted with them, will bother his head at all about them. They inhabit exclusively where the curly mesquite grows, and are seldom or never seen where it is not. They are usually fat, for rabbits, and when well cooked make a decidedly savory morsel. He is undoubtedly the top-sawyer of all the rab- bit race. The Saiv' Marcos. Having descended the slope of ten miles, I found that the dark line of forest, which had so long attracted my eye, was the timber of the San Marcos. Where my road reached the river it did not cross it, but so much was I taken with its exquisite beauty, that like a truant school- boy, I idled some time on its banks. It is more limpid and crystal than even the blue Colorado, and I could see the lazy cat-fish lolling about, the gaudy perch, mo- tionless, but fanning his sides with his fins, and the trout darting like silver arrows hither and thither. Now it rolls swiftly, leaping and foaming over rocks and peb- bles, filling the forest with the murmur of falls ; and now it steals along with a scarcely perceptible current, in pools of profound depth, whose silence is only disturbed by the leaping of the sporting fishes above the surface. So beau- tiful was it, that, dead of winter as it was, I felt an almost TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 95 irresistible impulse to plunge and bathe in its sparkling water. A dense forest of pecans, elms, wild-peach, and a hundred other varieties of timber, shaded it, frequently so locking their boughs above as to leave scarcely an opening for the sunlight ; and squirrels chattered, and birds of brilliant plumage twittered or sang in the boughs. It seemed to me the sweetest and purest stream I had ever beheld — the very semblance of innocence with pleasure ; the sparklingest, the gayest, the laugh ingest. A singularity of this beautiful river is that it bursts up suddenly from the earth, in one gigantic, glorious fountain, and starts forth a full-fledged river from its birth. No drought affects it. When neighboring streams sicken and pine and die under the withering sun, it glides merrily,or steals through its silent pools, with the same volume — rendered all the more chaste and beautiful from the fact that no sediment from the hills is mingled with its water. This great fountain, with its dancing and bursting mounds and pyramids of water, is probably the largest and most beautiful in the world. The length of the river in direct course, is less than a hundred miles, and the fall in that distance is quite a thousand feet. Were it not for its sinuosities, it would fly over the inclined plane with swiftness rivalling the flight of the arrow ; but even with these, one can scarcely ride a mile along its banks without discovering a mag- nificent water power — all unutilized — except at long in- tervals by the simplest grist-mill. What an enormous power is here waiting on man's good time ! The vallev is usually two to three miles in width, with soil as rich as that of any of the grand rivers of Texas. It is a black loam, charged with vegetable matter, and exceedingly mellow under the plow. The river continually shifts sides as it passes ^long — now sweeping against the butting cliffs on one side, and now hurrying across the valley to sweep 96 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. against the butting cliffs on the other. This offers a great facility to irrigation ; and thongh not a single irrigation ditch exists in all the valley, there is not one foot of it that might not be irrigated at trifling cost. I am bound to think, in view of the intelligent people who inhabit the vale, that they do not irrigate because it is unnecessary ; and yet I know that, let their crops be ever so well with- out it, they would be ever so much better with it. The noble soil, being fed with all the moisture it wants, would repay the kind treatment with crops of such luxuriance that the owner and the passer-by would be filled with as- tonishment and admiration. A mere rough dam of stone here and there would do the job. This river reminds me, in its vale and the lofty,rolling country that looks upon it, very much of the Mohawk in the State of New York ; a river that rolls through the mightiest community in America ; yet the San Marcos far surpasses it in width and fertility of valley, as well as the sparkling beauty of its waters. Suppose the seasons of the Mokawk were as capricious as the seasons of the San Mar- cos are, or have been reputed to be ; myriads of irrigation ditches would checker its valley, and its current would be checked every half hour with dams. The Mohawk would bloom infinitely beyond what it blooms now ; but bloom it never so richly, it would be as nothing to the bloom of the San Marcos with the same treatment. That river now supports thousands of factories and hundreds of beautiful cities. The San Marcos could beat it ten to one, and give it half-dozen to one in the game. If I could look forward and see one hundred years hence, I would see the San Marcos far greater than the Mohawk now is. Perhaps this may be much sooner than a hundred years. If spirits may revisit the glimpses of the moon, this is one spot I surely shall revisit. I rode eight or ten miles up the eastern bank, the more TWO THOCSAXD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 97 admiring, as I advanced, the numerous pretty farms by the wayside as well as the river and the natural scenery. At last I forded to the west side and approached a thick settle- ment of farms when the sun was low. I stopped in front of the most spacious dwelling, and asked for lodging for the night. The old gentleman, in shirt-sleeves, was ad- justing his roses and vines in the yard. He did not reply instantly, and I repeated my request. He looked at me and said : *' Nix fuste !" I then pointed to the red, low sun, then to his spacious white house, and tapping my horse on the neck, pointed also to his spacious stables and barns. He shook his head, and again said : "Nix fuste." A fair-haired German lassie now came to my rescue from the house, and acted as my interpreter. The old gentle- man, I could perceive, did not want me to tarry, but I could also perceive that the fair-haired lassie was pleading for me. The old gentleman relented, after surveying me closely, and the lassie invited me to dismount and go in. My horse was pleasantly stored away, and so was I. The lassie was the only one of the family who could talk Eng- lish, and we ran on greatly before the old folks till a late hour. They had not long been in the country. I asked her how she liked the San Marcos as compared with the Faderland ? " Oh, beautiful ! " said she ; " the Rhine is good, but San Marcos is better." I asked her how she liked the American boys, as compared with the boys of Faderland? "Oh they are good," said she, "and I do love the American ladies." And so do I. In fact, I love all ladies. I slept. 5 IX. Some Reflections. I PAID the old gentleman his fee of two dollars, and bade him and his fair-haired lassie good-bye before the sun had yet looked into the valley, though kissing the hills and the tips of the forest with his kisses. I mention the old gentleman's fee because it points a difference in the general German character and the general American char- acter in Texas. The traveller, if he look and behave like a gentleman, who stops with an American by the wayside at night, will usually be sent on his way the next morning rejoicing, without exaction of fee, unless he happens to stop with one who makes a practice of entertaining stran- gers ; then he will be charged lightly, and sometimes heavily enough. I presume this comes less from hospi- tality than pride, and the dread of being looked upon as a tavern-keeper ; and they would rather have less money than wound the one or incur the other. The German on the other hand does not bother his head in the least about pride or tavern-keepers ; his chief consideration is thrift, and to add a few cents to his treasury in an honest way. He has nothing to give away, of his abundance or little. "What he eats and what he sleeps on cost him labor and money, and he will share none of these with strangers without an equivalent, with good, profitable interest be- sides. Therefore he is always prosperous and on gaining ground. He is right, and I applaud him for it. The American does not watch so closely the chances to collect, TWO THOUSAN"D MILES IN TEXAS OS HOIISEBA CK. 99 and despises driblets ; therefore, he as a class is not so prosperous. I think my entertainment at the old gentle- man's house was worth two dollars to me, though probably I did not cost him ten cents ; and I like him rather the better because he charged it. He will leave his children well to do ; and if they have brains, and I am sure the fair-haired lassie has, they will have a chance to employ and enjoy them, to their own and their neighbors' profit. A condition which compels us to be always looking out for first necessities, is destructive to intellect and civiliza- tion ; and many a bright flower has blushed and died unseen from this hard necessity. And yet the American is generally thrifty enough to charge a wayfarer who does not look like a gentleman, if he will take him at all ; because he does not care whether such a fellow thinks him a tavern-keeper or not, and is willing to take all he has. And the American ladies, when their husbands are not about, will invariably stick it on heavily, and sometimes cruelly. While travelling through the country,! avoid the women as much as possible when it comes to settling bills ; for though I like to pay my way, I detest being gouged. I think if the husbands would give their ladies more pocket change, they would not act in this shameful way. It is carrying good sense to a shameful extreme. Speculatioi^-s about Mesquite Grass. As I ride along, the country is very similar to that east of the San Marcos, save that the prairie is not so elevated, the undulations more gentle, and there are extensive table-lands, as level as a parlor floor, and more gaudily dressed in natural carpeting. There are also many beau- tiful, isolated groves of live-oak, and many of the mes- quites are trees. Farms and ranches are very sparse — just enough to give the country the appearance of not 100 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. being totally uninhabited. At noon I halted on a table- land which overlooks a wide circuit, tempted thereto by the charming prospect and the exceedingly abundant grass, on which I turned my horse loose with his hobbles ; I meantime reclining on a noble couch, of just that degree of compact- ness with softness that is most luxurious. I fancy it was on some such couch as this that Sire Adam and Madam Eve passed the nights, though I dare say she did decorate it with '^pansies, daffodils and violets blue." The grass here and all over this extensive prairie is the curly mesquite. There are several varieties of mesquite grass in Texas, inhabiting various localities, best suited to their various natures. They are all rich and sweet, but the curly mesquite, as I have said before, excels them all. So excellent is it that horses will keep as sleek as moles on it, without any other food whatever, and sheep will liter- ally turn to animated suet-balls. One may ride a thou- sand miles and maintain his horse in superb order without visiting a corn-crib, simply by giving him two hours at noon and the night to feed in. It grows in tufts, so thick- ly spread over the ground as to form a perfect carpeting, of delicate, tender blades, often a foot or more in length, usually much less, but so curled up as to give it the ap- pearance of only a couple of inches. In the spring and summer when it is green, nothing can be richer or prettier than this carpeting. It has the singular property of "curing " itself where it grows, and in the dead of winter, when apparently quite dead, it is richest and sweetest. It is then that animals like it best and seek it most eagerly. Cattle do not like it so much as horses and sheep ; they, from the structure of their mouths, pre- ferring the tall, coarser grasses, which they can twist their tongues around and jerk off. Its native habitat is the elevated prairie, and it seldom or never invades the forests or timbered bottoms. It gets its name from the TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 101 fact that it almost invariably accompanies the mesquite tree or chaparral. They seem to be inseparable companions. Where it possesses, it expels all other grasses. This grass is gradually spreading all over Western Texas. Where the taller and ranker grasses are tramped out and destroyed by the innumerable herds of cattle, the curly mesquite immediately appears, and permanently usurps the place. Whole counties, wliich a few years ago had little or none of it, are now blessed with it on every hill and prairie. It is tending eastward as well as all over the West, and the time will doubtless come when even the Houston Prairie will be adorned and further enriched by it. The tendency of the tall and rank grasses to die out and be superceded by the curly mesquite, when the country be- comes comparatively populous, causes me to think that the great cattle-growing district must gradually tend westward into the vast region beyond San Antonio. Indeed, this tendency is now at work, for herds of cattle are continually driven, even from this section, into that wild region. Sheep, hoi-ses and farms will occupy the ranges from which the cattle have been driven ; and wealth and civilization will be increased. But I do not mean to say that even then this part of Texas will not be a better cattle region than any other part of the United States outside of Texas; for the bottoms and the woodlands will still furnish ample provision for hundreds of thousands of cattle, and even if these fail, there is no end to the capacity of this country to produce corn and the cereal grasses to keep them fat. The Guadulupe. I had ridden but a short distance from my couch on the table-land, when another glorious scene burst upon me. It was a great valley, sleeping in the hazy distance, and reaching out of sight north and south. To the westward it seemed to have no limit, but rolled away like a great 102 TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. ocean. A dark line of forest followed its course, but occupied only the centre of the valley. At distant intervals, through openings in the forest, I could see a river flashing in the sunlight. The green of the valley was often re- lieved by black fields of newly plowed earth, and clusters of buildings were numerous. It was not long before I rode into the valley and stood upon the banks of the Guadalupe. I wenc quite into raptures over the San Marcos, and [ should go into much greater raptures here, for the Guadn- lupe is simply an unabridged edition of the San Marcos, carrvino^ about three or four times its bulk of water. It is in all other respects the same : the same limpidity ; the same deep and silent pools, and the same sparkling rapids. The valley is wider, and of the same fertility. This river is three or four hundred miles long, and from its source to its mouth sweeps through a terrestrial paradise — a country that has not its match except in Texas, for beauty and sweet amen- ity of scenery. Half its course is among mountains, then rolling uplands, and then the level plains upon the Gulf of Mexico, and everywhere, except in the latter, its wide val- leys are projected far below the general surface. I crossed the river on a ferry and rode two hours along its bank, at no time, I think, out of sight of plantations and farms. Cedar abounds in the locality, for very many of the fences are constructed wholly of it. DIVISION 11. I. New Braunfels. IAREIVED at this place in the night, and slept soundly — not the heavy sleep of fatigue, but the refreshing slumber that follows a day of pleasant activity, in which the faculties of mind and body have alike been engaged. I arose before the sun and walked on a tour of observa- tion. I seemed to have been transported over seas in my sleep, and to have awaked in a strange land. All the faces I saw were foreign, and I heard nothing but a foreign lan- guage. The signs over the stores were foreign, and the farmers that thronged the streets w^ith their wagons, were all foreign, and spoke to their teams in a foreign tongue. Here is a city of six or seven thousand people, so nearly all German that the exceptions are rare and 'singular. It was founded by a romantic German nobleman, the Count de Braunfels, in 1842, who here established a colony of his friends, which grew and grew, until the present pros- perous city and community are the result. When Texas became a part of the Great Republic, he returned to Ger- many, but his followers remained, smitten with the love of the beautiful and attractive land. The romantic castle in which he dwelt, apart from his followers, still looks from an eminence upon the city — itself hardly changed, but how changed the place upon which it looks ! Then a straggling cluster of gardens and little farms — now a bustling mart 104 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. for a populous region around it, filled with rich merchants and manufacturers, editors, scientists and poets ! * It is not probable that the romantic Braunfels thought or dreamed to what the seed that he had planted would expand. Perhaps it was eccentricity and the love of ad- venture and novelty that drew him hither ; and so these were gratified, he thought little beyond. But I regard this as having greater possibilities and probabilities than any place in Texas, except Houston and Galveston. The future is pregnant of her. Nature seems to have shaped the lo- cality with the design that it should be no humble spot ; for she has poured out her favors from a too abundant horn. If Houston and Galveston may be the Liverpool and Lon- don of Texas, here she has intended to erect her Manches- ter, with industries less gigantic, but infinitely more varied. Here is a river with water absolutely as clear and brilliant as a diamond, falling forty-two feet in its three miles sweep about the town, with volume a hundred feet in breadth. Here is power more than enough for all the wheels of Manchester, and may by art be indefinitely increased. The manufacturer may look, from the upper stories of his mills, upon fields snow-white with cotton in its season, which the planter will deliver to him without freight and the burdens of the middle-man. He may look upon field after field golden with shafts of the ripened wheat, the best in the world for transportation in flour over the southern seas. From the same window he may behold, in the dis- tance, herds of sheep covering the hills or cropping the sweet herbage of the valleys, offering fleeces as fine as those from Saxony or Spain. He may behold cattle on a thou- sand hills ; and sweeping away into the blue distance, he sees forests on every hand, rich in timber for manufacture * The writer is thinking of Mr. Lindhiraer, long the editor of the New Braunfels Zeitung— an accomplished writer and sweet poet in his own tongue, and an enthusiastic botanist. He has done more for the Texas Flora than any one else, and many of its prettiest gems bear his name. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 105 and fuel. Thus, the manufacturer of cotton and woolen goods ; he who fills argosies of flour for foreign lands, and he who works in leather and wood— all have before them here, stores of the raw material which are inexhaustible, and an empire around them eager to absorb the products of their skill. In addition to all of these, is a climate so pure and healthful that it is positively delicious : airs that have gone forth with all of Nature's blessings, not only to preserve but bestow health ; a climate rarely cold and never sultry. The city sits on an elevation above all the region south, and the splendid Gulf breezes strike her full in the face. The artisans may labor summer and winter with open door and window, and drink health while they work. With all of this and these, and especially the great, clamorous empire around her, how can the colony of the romantic Braunfels refuse to be great, and thus cross Nature ? How can she decline to be the Manchester of Texas ? * In planting the thrifty and ingenious German here. Fortune played lieutenant to Nature, in assisting her plans. Braunfels is backed by that great people at home, for upon it she can draw for capital, labor and skill ad libitum. Already she treads the path of her destiny. Here is a woolen mill whose cassimers and blankets are sold all over the west, and recently they have invaded Broadway with success. Uncle Sam buys them for his Boys in Blue. Here are flouring mills, with capacity above the local de- mands, and the Braunfels saddles have grown famous. The vaquero, who rides like a Comanche, is not happy without a Braunfels ''tree." And this is but the be- ginning. The city is built of limestone and cedar, and to add * The exceeding, sparkling purity of the Comal water makes it unequalled for the calico and paper manufacturer. 5* 106 TWO THOUSAND MILES II^T TEXAS ON HORSEBACS:. that it is neat and comely would be unnecessary after mentioning its German people. The Germans have es- tablished many noble communities in Texas, but this is the crown of them all. It grows apace, but when it has a railroad, it will step forth with the tread of a giant. Want of cheap and rapid communication with other communi- ties is all that retards it. Westward an"d Poesy. After breakfast — at which native wine, in pUice of cof- fee, was offered me, if I preferred it, by the host from the Ehine — I called to see the livery-man and charged him to stuff my horse well until I should return ; and then leap- ing into an open carriage, drove into the west. What a beautiful, picturesque country is this about Braunfels ! And I cannot help admiring the exquisite taste of the romantic German nobleman, who preferred it above all other in its native beauty ! To the north the Creta- ceous hills lift their solid front, like a great rampart, trending to the west, and on a spur of this formation Braunfels sits and looks over all the region except the frowning rampart. To the east lie the forests of the great Guadalupe valley, eight or ten miles across ;* to the south and west the prairie rolls in undulations and swells of the smoothest outlines, adorned here and there with evergreen groves of live-oak. It is all rich — a black, oily soil, on which the fruits of the temperates, and cotton and the cereals jflourish side by side. Farms occupy indiscrimi- nately the winding vales, the undulations, the broad table- lands, and even climb over the lofty tumuli. It is, indeed, •'a lovely rural scene of various view," so that I found snatches of pastoral verse continually running through my mind. * The country between the Guadalupe and Cbmal is really one continuous valley. After the streams have united, the valley is narrower. TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^ TEXAS OJ^ HORSEBACK. 107 "Delightful Wyoming ! beneath thy skies, The happy shepherd swaius had nought to do But feed their flocks on green declivities. Or skim perchance thy lake with light canoe, From morn till evening's sweeter pastime grew, With timbrel, when beneath the forest brown, Thy lovely maidens would the dance renew ; And aye those sunny mountains, half way down, Would echo flageolet from some romantic town. " Then where of Indian hills the daylight takes His leave, how might you the flamingo see Disporting like a meteor on the lakes — And playful squirrel on his nut-grown tree : And ever}'' sound of life was fuil of glee. From merry mock-birds' song, or hum of men ; While hearkening, fearing nought of revelry. The wild deer arched his neck from glades, and then, Unhunted, sought his woods and wilderness again." Had Campbell written from this spot he could nothaye given a more accurate description of the scenes around Braunfels. The '^ happy shepherd swains" — the "flocks on green declivities" — "the forests brown," the "lovely maidens" and "the sunny mountains" — the "romantic town " — are all accurate to tlie life. 'Tis true I see not the "lake" and the "light canoe ;" but not far roll the Comal and the Guadalupe, and who shall say that the light canoe is not skimming over their diamond waters ? The " flamingo ! " Here he is in troops and squadrons, marching over the prairie, and occasionally lifting his wings for a short flight; here " the playful squirrel on his nut-grown tree" — the pecan; the "merry mock-bird" pours his melody from every tree ; here the " wild deer unhunted ; " here his " woods and wilderness " — " And every sound of life is full of glee." The poet continues in the next verse : " And scarce had Wyoming of war and crime Heard, but in transatlantic story rung ; For here the exile met from every clime, And spake in friendship every distant tongue ; Men from the blood of warring Europe sprung, 108 TWO THOUSAI^"D MILES IN TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. Were but divided by the running brook ; And happy where no Rhenish trumpet sung, On plains no sighing mine's volcano shook, The blue-eyed German changed his sword to pruning-hook." Literal to the life — save the " war " only " in transat- lantic story rung ; " for most of the dwellers in Braunfels and around it, saw our own great war, and many of them participated in its thunder and carnage — a war the most tremendous in the world's annals, and which none could have fought but Americans enraged at each other. But to that last verse of Campbell. When I repeated it in my mind, it seemed unmistakable that his spirit, at least, hovered over these scenes when he wrote ; " Here the exile met from every clime And spake in friendship every distant tongue." For here is the Frenchman, the Pole, the '^free Switzer," the Englishman, the Spaniard, as -well as the American and German. And the blue-eyed German changing his Bword into pruning-hook, caps tlie climax of the descrip- tion. Truly, genius, like omnipresence, pervades every- thing ! Campbell and Braunfels will hereafter dwell in my mind together. two thousand miles in texas on hoeseback. 109 My Cibolo. Passed the Cibolo — a river of great valley, prodigious channel, and no water. Into its banks the mighty Colo- rado would fit comfortably, and yet Cibolo here runs not a drop, but glares upon you with a rugged, arid, stony bot- tom. It is a desert in an oasis, its borders fringed with fertility and beauty. The lilies bend over from the edge of the oasis and look into the abhorrent desert below, and so do the willows. What a strange freak ! This is the death, the skeleton, the ghost of a river : nothing left but the bleached and grinning bones. Where has this river gone to ? Is it the Styx below, of which Homer and Vir- gil sang, and over which Charon paddles the shivering souls ? Shadow and grim desolation of a river, you are indeed a perplexity ! And yet there is water after all. Below me I perceive a dark, grizzly pool, which Jehu says is **deep as a pit ;" and above me I perceive another through the glimpses of the overhanging trees, which he says is '^ miles long, and can float a man of war." ''And does this thing never run ?" said I. *' Like an ocean turned loose ! " said he. " Once I had to camp out on yan side three days and nights, waiting for it to run down. When it runs, it runs !" " And when it stops it stops ! " said I. "It does for a fact," said he ; ''it stops months at a time, and has been known to stop for years. And it is a comical river anyhow. Some miles above here, it is bold like the Comal ; then it gets sick and reels and staggers, and little by little disappears under ground ; and then miles below here, it comes out a big river again and hides no more. It is a comical river, the comicalest lever saw," added he with a laugh. Cibolo means buffalo, but I perceive no buffaloes here. 110 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. At the village of Selma " on jan side," we halted and drank some excellent beer. Continuation. A lofty, rolling country, consisting of great rounded swells after swells, like immense choppers on the ocean, after a roaring storm. No timber but mesquite, and mostly chaparral, except in the green vales, where labyrin- thine brooks wander and the live-oak spreads its broad boughs. The winds blow without rest. Occasionally the home of a ranchero is seen buried in the deep vales, as if shunning human society. Vale and tumuli are dressed in the beautiful mesquite grass, shoe-top deep, thicker than hair on a dog's back ; cattle, horses, sheep and goats look saucy from excess of good cheer. Occasionally a flock of a thousand of these latter pass the road before us, and look extremely saucy and independent as they bite off a bough and walk along. Generally a young Mexican and a dog or two follow these. The country is nearly all fer- tile. What grand crops of wheat, barley and oats might here be raised ! But live stock is too profitable, and the denizen thinks it is easier work, and he cares nothing for any more of these fruits of the earth than he and his family can devour. This grand country is a mine untouched. The air is purity itself. The scenery is varied and lovely. On the top of one of these immense tumuli, it is quite glorious to look over this great rolling ocean of green. Salado. To use the language of my Jehu, this is also a comical stream. If I should paint a portrait of it in map style, it etc., ad infinitum, would be as here presented. TWO THOUSAND MILES II!^ TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. Ill The light lines denote a pretty, babbling creek, and the heavy spaces, deep pools of bine, alive with perch, cat-fish, trout and snakes. Indeed this alternation of purling brook and deep, bine pool, is characteristic of the prairie streams of Texas. Even the little rill, creeping concealed nnder the tall grass, has these deep pools at short intervals, all filled with sport for the angler. Though the stream may often cease to run, under the withering drought, these pools never flag, but have the same volume of sweet, clear water at all seasons. Does not tliis look like Providential design ? What hands wrought these deep, inexhaustible pools of pure, sweet water ? The Salado sports a wide valley, winding amid the over- looking tumuli and mesas, from which the rains drift into it their choicest mineral elements, mixed with the decaying grass and leaves of the prairie. The soil is thus charged with calcareous and vegetable matter, and is a black, mellow loam of amazing productiveness. My Jehu said that in spring time he could actually hear the crops grow as he passed them on the road. A dense forest of pecans, oaks and elms, the wild grape almost uniting them in one great arbor, conceals both stream and pool, and often obtrudes on the valley to the foot of the graceful swells. This valley is well settled, and the appearance of the buildings on the farms and haciendas, denotes a people prosperous and quite refined. Their houses are all of white lime- stone, and their fences invariably cedar or stone. Salado means salty, but I tasted no salt in its sweet, pure water. Across the Salado, the country falls — that is to say, it does not tower so loftily as between that stream and the Cibolo ; still, it is greatly elevated. The tumuli and un- dulations roll more smoothly, and there are wide spaces of level lands. From the top of these elevations, it is a sin- gular scene. Here rolls a chaparral so dense that a horse- 112 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. man departing from the road is immediately hidden from sight. It extends inimitably, and every green bough is waving to the wind, which brings to my ear a sound, not unlike that of seas, continuous and indescribable. The glorious pea-green, velvety carpet of curly mesquite, looks as chaste as untrodden snow, and the soil, where exposed, is dark and rich. Chaparral Thoughts. A few years ago this was a vast, rolling prairie, with no growth but scattering trees of mesquite and isolated groves of live-oak. The chaparral has now possessed every foot, and is crowding hither and thither. It forces its way by overwhelming numbers, and crushes, by smothering, what- ever opposes its advance. From the Rio Grande and be- yond, it has pushed its way in one grand phalanx. What is its purpose, and who has called it forth to this conquest ? These great armies do not move without a head. Many of the cattle men look upon it with aversion and curse it, in spite of its grateful shade and abundant beans. They say : " It is ruining our country for cattle. We can- not now see our cattle twenty feet where we could formerly see them for miles. It is now like hunting needles in hay- stacks ; although we admit that the grass is made far bet- ter than ever." Many of them have pulled up stakes and departed for regions where the chaparral does not exist, probably, in time, to be driven forth again. But I regard this invasion as one of singular beneficence, whose commander is the Grreat Architect. At His com- mand, the chaparral stepped forth to conquer, and to dis- pense blessings as it conquers. Already it has wrought a great change in the climate of Western Texas, and that change is becoming constantly more marked. By shading and cooling the earth, it has made it attractive to the clouds, TWO THOUSAJ^'D MILES IK TEXAS OJ?" HORSEBACK. 113 and the rains come. Until late years, this region was sub- ject to prolonged and destructive droughts, in which crops died, rivers fainted and disappeared, and even the grass on the prairie was burnt to the roots. As the chaparral ad- vanced, these conditions abated, and simultaneously with its spreading over a great scope of country, they ceased entirely, and nowhere since then have the seasons been more equable as a rule. The farmer thanks God and plows his lands in the confidence of abundant crops, but does not suspect that the thorny chaparral is God's messenger to announce and work this change. Can this connection between the chaparral and the extinction of the droughts be accidental ? Not so. It is the natural and inevitable result of such agency. See how the enlightened Khedive^ has converted the deserts of Egypt into a blooming garden, by crowding them with living trees which drew the clouds I Should he cover the Great Sahara with a forest, he would convert that dread desolation into a garden also. Even in the desert it rains in the forest-covered oases. This new forest came unplanted and uninvited, so far as man's asrencv is concerned. It is the w^ork of Him that rules. To read the designs and plans of the Great Archi- tect is not mine or yours ; but that the chaparral is exe- cuting his plans, no one can question. It seems to me a building of this mighty Empire — '* prepare ye the way" — which I behold so grandly beautiful around me ; whose airs, if it is not sacrilege to say so, are as sweet as the airs of Heaven. It converts Western Texas from a wilderness to a populous hive of industry ; it makes her the noblest and most blessed land on earth. Thorny Chaparral, I touch my h^ to you as the messenger of Him who rules, and loves, and works ! You are the messenger to an- nounce the tread of the coming Giant ! II. Sak Antokio. FIVE or six miles through the ranks of the great in- vader, our carriage halted on a lofty eminence, from which a glorious view burst upon us. It is San Antonio, a city of twenty thousand people — the place where the famous battle of the Alamo was fought— where Crockett fell. It sits in a wide and deep amphitheatre, whose northern wall is the Cretaceous mountains, and the rounded tumuli and undulations of the prairies slope down to it from the west and east. Through this amphi- theatre meanders a river, bending hither and thithei', as if it desired to kiss every foot of ground, whose course is marked by tall timber. Along the banks of this river and stretching out widely over the amphitheatre, nestles the city, half concealed in the wealth of green foliage; its white stone houses glittering like glass and marble in the declining sun, and contrasting strikingly with the wealth of deep green. Tall spires and stately edifices rise here and there above the rest and the green foliage. The scene is so charming that I feel half afraid to proceed, lest the charm may vanish as I approach. Involuntarily I thought of Constantinople, but I repulsed the thought.* It was night when we stopped in front of a fine stone hotel, where Jehu was paid off and dismissed. Does it come up to the rosy picture which it paints of * Famous for its splendid appearance at a distance, and for dogs and bones within. TWO tkousa:^d miles in texas o:n" horseback. 115 itself on the eye of him who beholds it from that hill ? After two days' delay, I cannot say that it does ; and yet it is a weird and winning place. Two rivers wind through it, San Antonio and San Pedro — St. Antony and St. Peter — both of sky-blue water, and hundreds of canals unite their waters ; so that there is hardly a street which has not its running stream.' Shade trees, bananas, fig-trees, flowers and creep- ing vines abound, and many of the residences are almost completely hidden under bowers. In spring, summer and autumn, when these bowers are gaudy with myriads of va- riegated blooms and purple grapes, alive with humming birds, and the breezes laden with perfume and kept cool by the running streams that sparkle as they run, I can well im- agine it a place of great delight. The structures are nearly all of white blocks of stone, many of them imposing and some palatial ; but too frequently the unsightly hovels, the memorials of the feeble race that is giving place to the strong one, sit side by side with these splendid structures, and mar the scene. There are three large public squares, and a cathedral as large, if not larger than any in the United States ; but the streets are narrow and ill-paved, and the two rivers and its wealth of foliage are its chief glory to the eye. These rivers leap from the earth in gigantic fountains ; the San Pedro from two in the city, and the San Antonio from a hundred, two miles above the city. These fountains and the seats of them are all a glory. Those of San Pedro burst up in a noble grove of elms, the property of the city, supplied with rustic chairs and benches, and here, almost every summer evening, the city discharges her gay throngs, who pass the hours in prom- enade or the waltz and quadrille. Those of the San Anto- .nio burst forth under bowers of vine and in nooks that are suggestive of fairies. Labyrinthine walks lead under bowers from nook to nook, and are here extremely sugges- tive of youthful hearts and the first whisperings of love. 116 TWO THOUSAKD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. I dare say tbat there is many a couple in San Antonio, and even at a great distance, whose first vows were spoken along these labyrinthine walks and in these nooks. Above the fountains rise the majestic Cretaceous hills, with their green slopes and forests of oak and cedar. Mixed. I have never seen a population so mixed, and on this point I will match San Antonio against the world, giving all other places a big start in the game. I chatted to-day with a stalwart Bedouin of the Desert, a bronzed giant ; studied the physique of a coal-black Australian ; and a Greek from the Acropolis quoted, within my hearing, sonorous verses from Homer, at the fountains of the San Pedro. The San Antonians say that there are people here from every race in the world, except the Lap and the Es- quimaux. Of the twenty thousand population they assign one-third to the Americans, one-third to the Germans and Sclaves, and one-third to the Mexicans and French, with batches to every other race under the sun, except the unappreciative Lap and Esquimaux. The negro is here, but they allow him no place in the estimate. This is a remarkable filigree work. Some writer attributes the rest- less, undaunted push of the Americans to the mingling and effervescence of the various bloods in their veins. If the theory is correct, San Antonio should be the epitome of all the restless energy of the American nation. In a few years its youths will not be able to tell what: blood dominates in their veins. The young San Antonian will be the epitome of all the races of the world. If the city shall not then prove itself a magazine of enterprise, the theory of the writer just mentioned will be cruelly exploded. Of these races the American and the German seem to affiliate and coalesce naturally, while the Mexicans gravi- tate mostly toward the French and other Latin races. I TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 11? could not hear of a single marriage between German and Mexican, and such instances are very rare between American and Mexican, while close quarters between the latter and other races seem quite common. Society. There is much of it that is excellent. Indeed this whole region seems to have an attractiveness to the better class of people. There is something in the air and scenery that is congenial to these, and favorable to the development of intellectual and moral refinement. The people drink it from the heavens and become filled with it, as Una on the mossy bank was by the sunbeam. I dare say the peculiar meteorological and physical features of his country had much to do with the remarkably refined devel- opment of the ancient Grecian ; and his land is a Mecca to people of that class yet, though in ruins and but the shadow of what it was. It seems that the first American settlers of San Antonio were shoots of the best classes of the older States, and their families have been continually recruited from the same class, while Germany and Spain have freely sent their contributions. Its population is much swelled in winter by well-to-do people from the east, seeking a genial climate ; in summer, by the fam- ilies of the planters and others from the alluvial *^ bottoms," and at all seasons by the best and wealthiest people of Mexico, whose frequent revolutions have driven them into temporary exile. Churches and schools abound here. I doubt if there is a city on the continent which can show a more varied and interesting society of the better class, or which holds a larger proportion to the whole. The Verge. — Whence She Prospers. This city sits on the verge of civilization. To him who enters it from the west, it opens the gate to the bus- 118 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. tling, populous American world ; and he who departs from it to the west, enters a wilderness. It is true that the daring stock-man has pushed his wigwam and tent a hundred miles further, and there are a few villages scat- tered widely apart, but it is a wilderness nevertheless, tra- versed frequently by murderous bands of savages, and the hiding-place of worse bandits from every country. Through this wilderness, a great valley of thickets, you may penetrate five hundred miles to the Sierras of Mexico. Across it the two great tides of American civilization, the Anglo-Saxon and the Iberian, stand front to front, the one sullen and retreating, and the other aggressive and advan- cing. The Anglo-Saxon tide has pushed its avant-couriers to the banks of the Rio Grande, on the other side of which the rear-guard of the Iberian stands watching, oppressively conscious of the fate that awaits him. To the north-west and south-west it is equally a wilderness, while in all other directions lies a great territory very sparsely settled. San Antonio then is a great torchlight in the midst of a wilderness, and it may well perplex the stranger to conceive whence she drew her irradiation and opulence, and how she prospers. A look at the map readily solves this riddle ; for though she sits in a wilderness, and on the edge of ^^ the waste howling," yet the region that is tributary to her wealth is enormously vast ; and though the populations are sparse, yet in the aggregate they are large. She supplies not only all Texas, west and north and northwest of her, with all the fabrics her people consume, and all the delicacies they enjoy, but she reaches out her arms into central Mexico and distant Chihuahua, seven hundred miles away, and draws into her lap a flood of silver and gold. She receives and dis- tributes and levies contributions upon every pound of wool, every hide, and every nugget of ore that is raised, grown or produced in this enormous region. Every Mexican bandit TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 119 is indebted to her for the pistol, blade and ammunition at his belt ; every ranchero for the saddle on which he rides, for the covering on his body, and the dram with which he clears his throat in the morning ; every damsel for her silks and ribbons and slippers, her cologne and pomatums, and the pen, ink and paper with which she despatches her love missives. All of this makes a peculiar and gigantic trade, in w^iicli tlie profits are large and certain ; and when we take it well in mind, we cease to wonder at this torch- light in the wilderness — her splendid emporiums and pal- atial homes. Through this traffic many of her citizens have built large wealth, beginning on nearly nothing. Her Past. San Antonio is one of the most venerable of American things. She was founded in 1692 by Franciscan friars from France, who here established themselves to introduce civilization and Christianity among the Indians — a work in which they seem to have had but indifferent success. Their great churches or " missions," filled with dormitories, still stand, in an excellent state of preservation, and the candles lighted on their altars at that day, are still burn- ing, and have never been allowed to be extinguished. In these churches there is some fine statuarv and ornamental work, showing that even in tliat remote day, artists of no small ability trod the soil of San Antonio. The churches were all built in enclosures of high, strong wall, with em- brasures for defensive weapons. They are below San An- tonio, on either side of the river, at intervals of a mile or so apart, and their names ^re La Purissima Concepcion, La Espada, San Jose, and San Juan, Their number and size indicate that the population about San Antonio in those re- mote days, must have been large — perhaps not less than it is now. If the records of these old monks could be obtained and translated, they would n^ake a most interesting chap- 120 TWO thousa:?^© miles in texas on hokseback. ter in the history of Texas. It is little credit to the Legislature of the State that no step in this direction has ever been taken. In 1762, when Texas passed from the possession of France to that of Spain, San Antonio had grown in seventy years to a mixed population of two thousand French, Spaniards and Indians, Thus she began the mingling process at a remote day. Truly, " the way the twig is in- clined the tree will grow ! " At that time it was stated that the twenty head of cattle brought from France by the monks had increased to one hundred thousand ; and these were the ancestors of the Texas cattle. At this date they have increased to several millions. Battle-Scaeked. In the meantime furious battles had been fought be- tween the Europeans and the Indians for the possession of the beautiful country. The name — Espada — the "sword" — of one of the Missions, and their defensive walls and embrasures show that the olive branch did not exclusively reign over the domicils of tlie monks. They probably bore the cross in one hand and the arquebus in the other. After the junction with Spain and Mexico, war grew hotter and fiercer, and San Antonio was the centre of it. The Texans, now mostly Mexicans, raised the standard of revolt against Spain, and after a severe struggle captured San Antonio on the 4th of March, 1813. On the 4th of June following, eight thousand Spaniards and Mexicans attempted to retake the city, but were driven olf with ter- rible slaughter. On the 18th of A'ugust, the Spaniards again advanced ; the revolutionists marched out on the open plain to meet them ; were defeated ; some six hun- dred adventurous Americans among them Avere slain or captured, and the city was again in the hands of the Span- iards. Other Mexican States soon followed the example of TWO THOUSAND MILES 1:N^ TEXAS O:^ HORSEBACK. 121 Texas in revolt, and the Spaniards were at last driven out of all Mexico and Texas. The Texans — now mostly Americans — soon became rest- less, and revolted against Mexico. October 24, 1834, a fierce battle was fought around Purissima Concepcion, in which the Americans under Bowie and. Travis defeated the Mexicans and captured their cannons. In December, after a four days' fight in the streets of the city, the Mexi- cans were driven out and the Americans took possession. This was a terrible struggle, in which the city was well nigh battered to pieces, and was a fit prelude to the bat- tle of The Alamo, probably the most remarkable battle ever fought, which took place in February and March following. One hun- dred and eighty Americans, under Bowie and Travis, re- sisted, during thirteen days, six thousand Mexicans under Santa Anna, and fought until not one of their number was left to tell the tale. Here the renowned David Crockett fell fighting as a private soldier, apart from his companions, leaving nine dead Mexicans, as the story says, piled around his dead body. The State government has erected a monument to these stubborn heroes, on the Capitol grounds at Austin, on which their names are recorded with this in- scription, which has always seemed to me the most beauti- ful in monumental literature : " Thermopylas had her messengers of defeat : the Alamo had none." The Mexicans gathered their dead bodies and burned them on the sacred ground where they fell. Why did not these stubborn heroes retreat, seeing themselves so hopelessly over-numbered ? Had they done so, they would have saved the slaughter of five hundred heroes as brave as themselves — the commands of Fannin and Ward, who were overpowered and captured a few days G 122 TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^ TEXAS O:^ HORSEBACK. afterward, arid mercilessly shot down in cold blood, by Santa Anna's order, after they had surrendered. While applauding his matchless courage, history will probably condemn Travis for the useless slaughter of his brave band, whose devotion and heroism anything told in Gre- cian or Koman story can hardly equal. The old church or chapel of the Alamo, built in 1774, in and around which these terrible scenes occurred, still stands, though the wall which surrounded it has long since been torn away. Let it remain until its white stones have crumbled into dust! The citizens of San Antonio should adorn that plaza with monuments to Bowie, Travis and Crockett, and a tablet sacred to the memory of those who fell with them. Thus San Antonio has more history than any place on the American Continent. If told by some fine writer, it would live and charm forever, and make every foot of her a classic ground. Her Future. As the beautiful wilderness fills with people and be- comes the seat of varied industry, she must needs grow great. It will be impossible to dwarf her future, unless she be unnaturally supine. The great region in which she sits mistress, can build many populous cities. Her two rivers, with their wealth of power, invite her to man- ufactures, and it is singular that she has not already em- barked in some of these ; in particular, that she does not manufacture leather and shoes for all Texas, since the mesquite and sumach offer her illimitable resources of tannin, her countless herds the raw material, cheaper than elsewhere in the United States, and the Mexicans offer cheap and quickly taught labor. What a folly to ship these hides to New England, and ship them back in leather and TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOSSEBACK. 123 shoes, paying freight and insurance both ways, besides the labor and profits of the tanner and manufacturer ! It is this folly that makes a people poor and dependent. When she embarks in manufactures as well as commerce, her prosperity will be great. TIL The Mexicans. I WOULD not do well to leave San Antonio without speaking of these people and their quarters. They dwell principally west of the San Pedro, and that portion of the city is called by all the rest of the inhabitants, " Mex- ico," by way of distinction or derision. I have said that the houses of San Antonio were all, or nearly all, built of stone. I was at fault in this, for I did not then have " Mexico" in my mind. Here the houses are of straight cedar posts, stuck upright into the ground, and covered with roofs of grass. The cracks between the poles are daubed with mud. They generally have but one room, and very rarely more than two. Some of them have chim- neys, but most do not, and none, I believe, have floors. The black earth is beaten hard and made smooth with grease, and this is all the floor that they want. Some of the most pretentious have windows. These edifices are called jacels, which, I suppose, is the Aztec for ''palaces ;" but the Americans call them hay-ricks. When there is not a chimney to these palaces, the residents cook out of doors when it does not rain, and over a pan full of coals in the house when it does rain. Fire about these palaces must be dangerous, in view of the great abundance of straw, and yet it is a provokingly rare thing that one be- comes ignited. Their beds consist of a well-dried cow- skin spread out on the ground in one corner, and on this they pile a quantity of straw. You will invariably find. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 125 living in these residences with the rest of the occupants, a couple or two of black dogs, utterly hairless, and the ugliest things in tile world. Their being hairless, how- ever, is a great advantage, in that they can harbor no fleas. What these dogs are good for, I could not possibly learn, as they are too lazy to catch rats, and they certainly could not master a rabbit, even should they by chance catch one. Yet the Mexicans love these strange creatures with a ten- der affection, and I have seen even old men take them in their arms and let them lick their lips. The color of the Mexicans varies from that of new- tanned leather to a peculiar reddish black. Their hair is coarse, coal-black and straight as an Indian's. Their cheek-bones and noses are generally prominent, and many of the latter are aquiline. They do not average so much in size as the Americans, but a few of them are of robust stature, and some are fat to obesity. Their shoulders and chests are broader than the Americans in proportion to size, indicating strength and endurance. They are always smoking cigaritos, both male and female, and they always puff the smoke through their nostrils. They wear broad- brimmed woolen hats, of a grey or bluish color, and many have bands coiled aboat them, representing snakes. The number of these snakes is said to indicate the rank or es- timation in which the wearer of the hat is held : one snake indicating a gentleman, two snakes a more advanced gentleman, and three snakes an exalted gentleman. They seem to me to take much more after the Indian than the Spaniard. I have indeed seen scores of them who were as much like the Digger as possible. They live principally on hash made of dried beef and rendered fiercely hot with red pepper. With this they eat pods of red pepper, raw onions, and cornbread made into crackers, which have a strong taste of ley. In summer they sometimes appear to live for days together on nothing 126 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. but watermelons, for which their fondness is remarkable and really child-like and affecting. They seem to be a free and easy folk a Jid apparently enjoy life greatly. They are, under all circumstances, exceedingly polite, and no stranger can speak to them without being pleasantly im- pressed by them. Their politeness is of natural growth, as you perceive it even in the naked children who run around their houses. In winter they wrap themselves around in blankets having all the colors of the rainbow. These are woven by their women ; they will shed water like the back of a duck, and they have a hole in the mid- dle, through which the wearers protrude their heads, so that almost the entire body is covered. Many of their women are absolutely pretty in spite of their dark features. They have not the angular outlines of the men, but generally a rich and rather voluptu- ous emhonpoint. This when they are young, for as they advance in life they gi'ow ugly. The Mexican women have a singular way of squatting on the ground in groups and circles, about the doors of their domicils, where they sometimes remain without moving out of their tracks, for hours. I suppose they contract this habit from the fact that chairs are an article of furniture rarely found in their houses. The men make excellent teamsters and herdsmen, and the women are said to make very docile and superior housewives. Indeed, I think that the Mexicans need only education to make them a very respectable people. They are generally very ignorant, and the women know nothing whatever except what transpires in their own little circle. Not one in a thousand, even of those who have lived, longest in San Antonio, can speak one word of English. They are the most devout believers. Every day precisely at noon the great Cathedral bell tolls in San Antonio, and every Mexican within the sound of it immediately takes off his hat and stands bare-headed until it ceases tolling. TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^ TEXAS OIT HORSEBACK. 127 All of this is of the lower classes of Mexicans, or those who compose about ninety-nine out of every hundred you meet ; for there are Mexicans in San Antonio of pure Cas- tilian blood, who are quite as white as the Americans, and are a fine-looking and elevated race. They look upon the dark Mexicans with contempt, and call them Peons and Indians. The ladies of this class are nearly always of wonderful beauty, and they and their musical voices are among the principal attractions of the wealthy parlors of San Antonio. The Mexicans of all classes seem to me to be infatuated on the subject of dancing. They are ready to dance at all hours, at all seasons, and under all circumstances, and they perform with great gracefulness and ease. Perhaps there is no people in the world of whom it may be so truly said that their genius lies in their heels. To Arms. Up to this point I had travelled without arms, receiv- ing nothing but kindnesses on the road. Believing I should feel better hereafter to have an arsenal about me, I purchased a sixteen-shooting Henry rifle, two of Colt's navy six-shooters, and a quantity of ammunition. Now, feeling like a monitor with turrets, I leaped on the stage- coach and sped away to New Braunfels and slept. DIVISION III I. The Texas Pont. "TT"7"HEN I mounted my horse, I found him in excel- VV lent condition and full of mettle. He is of the hardy half-breed — the product of an American stallion and a mustang mare, a cross which produces an animal of good size, and unequalled for such a journey as this. The pure mustang, or Mexican horse, of Texas, is a small crea- ture, hard-headed and self-willed, tricky and treacherous, but withal a wonder of endurance. Give him a chance to engorge himself twice in twenty-four hours with grass, and he will endure any reasonable amount of hard riding without complaint. The Texans gauge the endurance of a mustang by his capacity to hold grass. If his belly be un- usually large, they say he will do to tie to, and will wear out half a dozen American horses on a rough trip. These little shaggy, unkempt creatures, will, while the traveller is sleeping, crop grass all night, and when led to the saddle in the morning, they have stuffed themselves so greedily that their sides stick out ludicrously, and the girth will hardly be long enough. As the day goes on the girth loosens, and the rider will have to dismount before noon to tighten it. Eaised on the grass, they want no other food, and frequently it is a hard job to teach them to eat any- thing else. Totally unused to shoes, their hoofs are wellnigh as tough as iron, and they care no more for the rocky hills TWO THOUSAN'D MILES IX TEXA.S OX HORSEBACK. 129 than a goat. When discontented with their rider, they have an ugly habit of gathering themselves up in a knot and springing perpendicularly into the air, coming down with a terrible jolt. They will repeat this exploit rapidly, and he must be a good horseman who will not be dislodged. While they do this, they frequently let fly some unearthly yells or bawls. The Texans call this '^pitching," and the young stockmen who are the best riders in the world, take delight in it. I have seen them prick their mustangs just for the fun of enjoying a good pitch. The Comal. The Braunfelsians say that this is the most beautiful river in the world, and let it be borne in mind that most of those who say so have seen the Rhine, the Rhone, the Seine, the Guadalquivir, and the other famous and beautiful rivers of Europe. I too have seen the most famous and beautiful rivers of America, and as the spark- ling Comal dashes by me, I freely offer to it the crown of beauty. If not the stately Venus, yet it is the brightest, laughingest nymph of them all. To call its playful waters crystal, would not express it : they flow like melted dia- mond over a bottom of pearl. So limpid are they that pools ten to twenty feet deep disclose the smallest object at the bottom. You can look into its depths and see the picture of yourself as distinctly as in a mirror. Milton says that when Eve first waked into existence, she found herself sitting by a pool, and leaning over to drink, saw the image of herself below, and loved it to distraction, till Adam came. I sometimes think Milton was taught the truth by inspiration, and if what he says of this be true, it must have been in the Comal that she saw her image, and here must have been Eden ! May not the great Cre- taceous wall which rises above me, have been the north wall of the garden ? 6* 130 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. One unused to this river may get himself into trouble with its water, if he watch not where he plants his steps. He may come upon a pool, twenty feet deep, and so clear is the water and distinct every object in it, that the bottom seems not more than a foot or two under the surface. He steps in, and, to his amazement, sinks like a rock and thinks the bottom has fallen out beneath him ! Occasionally from its north bank great clijffs of stone hang beetling over the river. In these are several caverns; one with a hall eight acres in extent, illumined with sta- lactites and great pillars of snow-white. Perhaps these were the concert halls of the gnomes and genii. EivERs Under the Ground. About three miles above Braunfels this river, like the San Marcos, San Antonio, and San Pedro, gushes sud- denly out of the ground, in innumerable springs — some with such force that they produce dancing cones of water on the surface of the fountain. This is peculiar, and with- in my knowledge there is nothing like it in other lands. Other rivers are made by slow accretions, but these jump up full-fledged, like Minerva from the brain of Jove. They must be rivers under the ground, running perhaps hun- dreds of miles in perpetual darkness, before leaping into Hght. This would explain the limpidity of their waters ; passing through subterranean grottoes, untinged with the sediment of the hills and fields, and their channels undis- turbed by intruding man or animals. But if this be so, would there not be found occasionally in these waters eye- less fishes like those in Mammoth Cave, or strange varieties unsuited to streams above ground ? And yet none such have been found. It may be that pure as they are when they have reached the light, their subterranean grottoes are charged with deadly gases which forbid piscine life. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 131 I prefer not to believe this of streams so beautiful. I would rather believe that the nymphs of the grottoes stand watch and ward at the portals that lead to light, and herding the finny tribe, drive them back when they would pass through. Or perhaps those subterranean grot- toes sparkle so brilliantly with gems,, that the sun's light is not needed, and the finny tribe sport indifferently within and without. I have noticed that, so far, these remarkable rivers gush to the surface where the Cretaceous formation ter- minates and the Eocene begins. The line of demarcation between these formations in every instance is very dis- tinct : sometimes rising in precipitous bluffs, as in the case of the Comal, but usually the Cretaceous slopes to the Eocene in regularly descending undulations, and it is at the foot of these long slopes that the great fountains mostly burst forth. The cavernous nature of its limestone rocks makes this formation favorable above all others to subterranean streams. Its extent in Texas is enormous, and its thickness at least two thousand feet. Its north- western edge is tilted up, and thence it slopes to the south- east in an immense inclined plane, studded with beautiful mountain scenery, and the loveliest vales and lawns on the American continent, or elsewhere. These subterranean rivers probably take their rise near the upper edge of this • formation ; flowing down through winding ca\4'ns, por- ticoed, pilastred, architraved and jeweled, falling over great precipices, murmuring along smooth channels, and rolling silently through dark pools. By the time they have reached the termination of the formation, they have doubtless cut their way to the base of the strata, where, coming in contact with the harder rocks beneath, and the impermeable clays in front, they are brought to a halt, and pressed upward with such force by the rushing cur- rent behind, that the superincumbent .masses of rock are 132 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. rent asunder, the rivers rush to the surface, and the glo- rious fountains are the result. That these rivers come from great depths, is proved by the temperature of their water, which never varies at the fountain, in summer or winter. They are so temperate that one may bathe in them with delight even in winter, and during cold days they smoke like a boiler. I have never obtained the exact temperature, but believe that it is at least 80° of Fahrenheit. The temperature of under- ground cisterns in Texas averages about 50°, showing a difference of 30° between the water of the surface and that of these fountains. As the heat of the earth increases one degree for about every sixty feet of descent, this would place the source of the fountains eighteen hundred feet below the surface, or about the base of the Cretaceous strata. The Shore of the Eocene Sea. Leaving the fountains, my pathway led up the declivity, whose stony ascent rang with a metallic sound under my horse's feet. On the top of it, the territory rolled away to the north in a continuous elevation, rising higher as it faded away in the distance ; cut by ravines, sinking in green valleys, or thick with cedar-covered or bleak and stony mountains.* Below was the vast, green prairie, with its smooth undulations and tumuli, its long lines of forest marking the course of rivers and creeks, thp white city of Braunfels, and the villages and farms. It was a sudden elevation of the country, a hundred or more feet above the fountains, and rapidly ascending to the north and north- west. It is a total change of the physical conditions/ and a region utterly new lay before me. Here was the shore of the Eocene Ocean ; in other words, all before me was good dry land, and all below, an * So-called, but thej' ai'e simply large hills, putting on mountain airs. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 133 illimitable misty ocean, whose billows thundered and hurled their spray on these very rocks at my feet. There was no island on that sea for thousands of miles, and no sails on its bosom ; for then man was not. But it was not alone ; for the ^' spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep," preparing the young world for the habitation of man, and perhaps the winged angels hovered over it and walked up- on this shore, assisting in the great work. This ancient sea-shore extends westward to the Rio Grande, in curved lines, — eastward to Austin and thence north-east to an un- defined distance. I know of no other region where the line of separation between two distinct epochs of the world's creation, is so boldly drawn. It is in fact almost as distinct as shore and sea. This point is eight hundred feet above the level of the sea, and to that depth the ocean has subsided since it beat upon these rocks. George Wilkins Kendall used to say that Texas begins at this ancient shore, and that all below it is not Texas or even akin to it. He loved the romantic wilderness of the Cretaceous. My Cibolo Again. Riding some fifteen miles over this New Switzerland — sparsely populated with shepherds and small farmers — I again descended into a wide, delightful valley, well filled with farms. Down the centre of it ran a pretty rivulet, shaded with pecans, elms and oaks, and sometimes embow- ered under vines. I was amazed when they told me it was my Cibolo. Here it sparkled, laughed, murmured and sang ; and yet where I had left it some twenty miles below, its channel was the bleakness of desolation, ugly and de- formed, without a drop of running water ! What manner of stream is this, which enlarges as you ascend it, and is belittled and ceases altogether as you descend it ? Truly, I cannot help but think with my Jehu that it is the comi- 134 TWO THOUSAi^D MILES li^" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. calest stream in the world. It is a contradiction of a river ; a turning of nature upside down ; standing the pyramid on its apex. I account for it by supposing that it steals away through fissures or crevices in the limestone, and runs along in caverns under its own channel, till meeting some obstruction it is forced to rise again. My Cibolo does not like too much company, and steals away into sub- terranean solitudes to enjoy his own meditations and phi- losophy ; and when he has his fill of these, he emerges. Truly, he is an original genius.* And when I reflect that even the streams here are philosophers, I cannot won- der that the population should be infected with philoso- phy ; for all this region hereabout is filled with philoso- phers and learned gentlemen and ladies, who are mostly shepherds. It is the Greece — I cannot say the Athens — of Texas. So much for the influence of my strange and original Cibolo. This is a land flowing with milk and honey. It is a Paradise to the poor man who works, and to the rich man who loves philosophy. They have an aristocracy together. . Three Coyotes. While riding up the valley, three coyotes crossed the road a short distance before me, and did not seem to con- sider my presence one of much moment. They stopped and gazed at me a moment and then pursued their course. They had probably just had their fill of carrion, and were on their way to slake their thirst at the rivulet. These creatures are of a reddish brown, or brindled color, and as much like a dog as two black-eyed peas are similar to one another. Indeed, I have seen many dogs in the domestic state from whom it would be difficult to dis- tinguish them. Their ears are stiff and long, and their tails * The Hondo, fifty miles west of the Cibolo, behaves precisely in the same way — frequently disappearing and rising again. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 135 bushy. If a lar^e vellow cur should associate with a female buU-fice of nearly similar color, I judge that the product would be very much the same as the coyote. They are about three feet in length, exclusive of tail, and about eighteen inches in height. They invariably carry with them an air of profound melancholy, as if some mortal anguish was at their hearts. This appearance is so striking that no one can look upon them without being so greatly impressed by it that he feels melancholy himself. What can be the reason of this is a mystery to me. I conceive it to be a true melancholy, for I can think of no ends which the coyote may subserve by hypocrisy. I have thought that it might be the result of a very hard life, in which there is a continual struggle for the first necessities, making pro- longed and painful fasts of frequent occurrence. But this explanation is overthrown by the fact that ever}'" coyote I ever handled was in excellent order, — far more so than the general run of dogs in the domestic state — and I never saw one who appeared uncomfortably lean. Food, also, is so abundant in this country that they need never feel dis- tress about their next meal. The most probable explana- tion seems to me this : It is the nature of the dog to love the society and protection of man. A dog without a master is the most melancholy thing in nature, and I have known the dogs of bachelors to lie down and die with inconsolable grief after the death of their masters. It is said that man is the only animal that sheds tears, but I have seen a dog shed tears after the death of its master. The coyote is but a dog, with all of the dog's nature, and it may be that his melancholy is the result of some unsatisfied desire which he cannot understand, like '^ the desire oi the moth for the star;" or that he feels that he is entitled to man's friendship and protection, and pines with sorrow because they are withheld. Certain it is, that he hangs closely and longingly around the haunts of men, and is rarely if ever 136 TWO THOUSAJ^D MILES 1'^ TEXAS OJ^ HORSEBACK. found remote from them. Though shot at, pursued and poisoned by man, it may be that he loves from afar off the hand that is uplifted against him, and yearns for the day when he shall be taken to its protection and his love re- turned. If this be not the true explanation, my faculties are entirely at a loss to suggest what may be. They often meet in considerable company and form a circle, facing each other, all sitting on their hind-quarters. After a series of low barks and yelps, they break forth into most piteous moans and howling, as if their hearts had broken. I fancy that on such occasions they are re- ceiving reports on the prospect of man receiving them into friendship, and when an unusually cruel story is related of his unrelenting persecutions, their grief becomes ungov- ernable, and they involuntarily give vent to it in their dismal lamentations. I have listened to them until I felt exceedingly sorry for them, and have often thought that if the writers of operas could hear them, they might re- ceive valuable hints in forming the mournful parts of their music. Certainly I have never heard from any other source such deeply melancholy and affecting notes ; and I have heard most of the operas of any note on the stage. They are very numerous on the Texas prairies, partic- ularly those that are covered with chaparral. About San Antonio they are so tame that they enter the city every night, and travellers sleeping in the chaparral often have their sacks of victuals stolen from under their heads. They will eat anything that comes along, whether it be a fat shoat or a tender lamb, and will drive buzzards awav from a festering carcass. But the morsel which seems to them most delicious above all others, is a dried cow-skin. By this they will encamp and gnaw for days in succession, until hardly a hair is left to tell where the skin had been. I have never known them to do any damage, except by picking up an occasional stray pig or weakly lamb that had been lost bv its mother. II. BOERNE. A FEW hours' ride up the vale of my Cibolo — whose waters continually increased as I ascended it — brought me to the hamlet of Boerne, the capital seat of Kendall County, and the rose of all this new Switzerland. It reminds me of many pictures I have seen of villages hidden in dells, forming a little world to themselves. On the west and north is a mountainous wall of stone, crowned with evergreen mountain growths, shutting it out com- pletely from those horizons ; and from the east the high- lands slope down to it with a long descent, covered with forest. My Cibolo sweeps against the abutment of this dark, precipitous wall, and Boerne sits mostly on its east bank. To the north the wall is some miles off, allowing quite a sweep to the eye in that direction. The population is five or six hundred, two-thirds German ; the houses are stone, all neat, and many evidencing the prosperity and refinement of their owners. The rapid elevation of the country, after reaching the Cretaceous wall, is shown by the fact that Boerne sits fifteen hundred feet above the sea, while Braunfels at its foot, not a day's journey away, is only seven hundred. The atmosphere here is of the upper strata, pure as the icicles on Dian's temple, and in summer never hot. Hence, at this season it is a favorite resort to those seeking delightful quarters, where there is no temptation to spendthrift. Here is a fine chalybeate spring, which increases the attractiveness. 138 TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. There is, as the French would say, ^' I do not know what " of an air of a higher and most refined civilization sitting over this whole community. It impresses one with the conviction that here might his family reside in happi- ness and plenty, he being away himself, and his sons and daughters left to grow up almost at will, confident in the faith that they would develop into good men and women. The Products. The products of this region are exceedingly varied, and hence the unusual and universal good condition of its peo- ple. Every countryman has his quiver full of arrows, and all are well-to-do, and most of them independent. Wheat is a never failing harvest, yielding from twenty to thirty bushels to the acre, on lands which have never received an ounce of fertilizers from the tillers. Should these lands occasionally receive a dressing of phosphatic guano, there can be no doubt that their yield would be greatly increased — perhaps as much as a third. Oats, barley and rye flour- ish as well, the two former producing extraordinary crops. Cotton is not grown, but would do as well here as else- where, in the valleys. The tiller is independent of the merchant or the great planter for his sweets ; for the sorghum flourishes almost without attention, and the bee nearly the whole year round accumulates his stores. He is independent of France or the Rhine for his wines, for the wild grape is so abundant that not less, as I am told, than fifty thousand gallons of wine were made the past season in Boerne and the vicinity. This wine, to my taste, is usually a strong-bodied claret, but some of it is much like the Catalan wines of Spain. Peaches, pears, plums, cherries and figs are grown on every place, and the region is also proving itself well adapted to some varieties of the apple. In addition to all of these, consider that while the farmer plants and gathers his crops and the fruits of his TWO THOUSAND MILES IJST TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 139 orchards and vineyards, his herds are constantly increasing his property without increasing his labor to an appreciable degree. Sheep Husbandry. But the most distinguished industry of this region, and that which has given it its most interesting society, is sheep husbandry. It has the name of the sheep region far excellence of Texas, but I cannot see that it is better than many districts I have passed over, if so good. I sus- pect that, like many other things, it owes its reputation to the pen ; which, let us say what we will, is far mightier than the sword. Here George Wilkins Kendall came to live, some twenty-five years ago, after he was full of honors obtained in other fields. He began the sheep-raising busi- ness on a small scale as an experiment ; and his flocks prospered beyond anything he had known in his native Vermont, or in France and Spain. Being a most lively writer, he wrote profusely on the subject, and his articles seemed to go everywhere. Men with money came to Boerne from every portion of the United States ; from Scotland, England, and even distant Australia. Many en- gaged in sheep-raising in Kendall's neighborhood, in order that they might have his advice and example ; and thus the reputation of the region grew, until there are now be- tween thirty and forty thousand fine sheep within a small circumference about Boerne. Besides wool the shepherds , derive an income from the sale of bucks ; for a ''■ Boerne " or a ^' Kendall" buck is a sine qua non to all young men embarking in the business. Kendall from this source per- haps made as much money as from the sale of his fleeces ; for a portion of his flocks was derived from the finest bucks and ewes of Spain and Fnince, which he had selected and imported himself. Before his experiment there was no sheep husbandry in Texas ; but since then, by the light 140 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. of his example, it has grown to exceed that of any other State, or if this is an over-estimate it soon will not be. The basis of nearly all the flocks, and most of the Ken- dall flocks, is the coarse, shaggy, diminutive Mexican ewe, whose fleece seems to be a genuine hair instead of wool. These singular creatures are associated with the purest Merino bucks, and their product in a few removes becomes 60 fine that none but an expert can distinguish them from the true Merino, and finally they are entirely lost in the Merino. Indeed, they are probably a true Merino them- selves, for they were brought by the Spaniards to Mexico, where they have been allowed to degenerate from want of intelligent husbandry. They have their merit in their ex- ceedingly healthy and hardy constitution, and in the fact that they are natives of the climate. There are a few flocks which have been graded up from the common American ewe, from Missouri and Arkansas, and I discussed with a wool-grower the relative merits of that stock and the Mexican to breed from. He held that while the American crossed with the Merino gave a larger and handsomer animal, and was better in the early results, yet these advantages were overcome by the more rapid and thorougli improvement of the Mexican. In favor of the Mexican it is also a fact that they can be obtained at about half the cost of the American — a matter of much impor- tance to the young man without much money who pro- poses to embark in the business. The flocks are divided into brigades or regiments of not more than a thousand each, and the sexes kept separate, except during a short period when the finest bucks are allowed to visit the females. One shepherd, usually a Mexican, accompanies each brigade on its walk over the ** range," assisted by one or two well trained dogs, which are taught not to allow the sheep to scatter. They ai'e driven up every night to their cotes, and the dogs sleep TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 141 with them and never abandon their posts. They receive no other food than the grass they pick on their walks, and this is abundantly sufficient. Tliey are not allowed to walk over the same track two days in succession ; so that the grass is restored by the genial clime and fertile soil as fast as they pluck it. It is estimated that a well graded flock will average annually about four pounds of wool to the head, worth at this time in San Antonio and Braunfels twenty to twenty- five cents per pound. As the care of a flock of two thou- sand need not exceed three hundred dollars a year, for service and maintenance of two shepherds, and the increase of animals is at least fifty per cent, the profit of the busi- ness seems apparent. The Society of Shepherds. No one can travel among the sheep- raisers of Texas without being struck with the fact that they are almost invariably people of intelligence, and often of high culture and refinement. They are the aristocracy of the stock- men. The cattlemen as a general thing are unmistakably rough, and rarely have many evidences of civilization about them. Indeed, they seem to me to have a scorn of the amenities and humanities, and look upon them as pitiable weaknesses. Were the world filled with them alone, there would be a darkness thicker than that of the medieval ages : no song, no poetry, no eloquence, no railroads, no ships, no pretty gardens and flowers ; but in place of these there would be abundance of chivalry and broken heads, for the cattle-raisers are bold, reckless and adventurous. Should there be dragons spitting fire and consuming things with their breath, they would be sure to find them out and annihilate them. The horse-raiser is a long adA'ance to- ward civilization, and many of them very closely approxi- mate the sheep-raiser. Were the world filled with them 14:Z TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. alone, there would be a moderate supply of poetry and eloquence, and no lack of wars. On the other hand, if we were all shepherds — and I may judge from my own obser- vations — it would be all poetry, music, eloquence, all hu- manity and no war. The valleys would re-echo with the notes of the flageolet and pipe. These are curious points, but they stick out so prom- inently that a traveller would behoove to be very benighted not to observe them. I have thought a good deal over the phenomena, and have come to the conclusion that the animals we associate with have a much greater influence over us than we are willing to admit ; in fact, that they impress us much more than we impress them ; in other words, that they gradually convey their natures into us, receiving in return little or none of our nature from us. Man is a very impressible creature, undoubtedly, and may be greatly affected by the society about him, whether it be of other men or animals. If the society about us is more elevated than we are, our tendency is to be elevated to it ; if it is infinitely below us, our tendency is to bo degraded to it. Now, the Texas steer is the roughest thing in the world, having no trace whatever of civilization or the amenities. He will rush through thorny thickets like a thunderbolt, leap stony ravines, and speed over rocks and mountains like a tempest, tail up. These are his delight, and like the man with the ass' head in the play, he would not give a bunch of thistles or peascods for all the ameni- ties and preserves. This is the cattle-raiser's constant companion and friend, and not only that, but his bene- factor, from whom he derives all his income and suste- nance. It is natural that he should entertain a very high regard for him, and at last look upon him as a model of human perfection. As time passes, he assimilates more and more to him, and before he is aware of it, has become more a steer or a bull than a man, except in outward TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 143 shape ; and his wife and daughters are in danger of be- coming to as great a degree, cows and heifers, and his sons buU-vearlina^s. Of course, I do not mean to say that this is always the case ; but nature makes few exceptions, and it invariably results so unless the cow-man and his family are exposed to frequent influences from without, in the shape of a re- fined society, which may overcome the steady, silent influ- ence of the wild cattle. The cattle-raiser should hedsre himself about with books, papers and music, beautify his home, and frequently transj^ort himself and his family into other scenes. The horse is a much more beautiful and refined animal than the steer, and even in his wildest state is by no means devoid of accomplishments. He is the noblest of all the quadrupeds, both in comeliness of person and grace of mind. Man may therefore associate with him not only without being greatly lowered, but sometimes l)e actually elevated ; and I account for the great superiority of the horse-raiser over the steer-raiser, by this great difference in favor of the horse over the steer. The sheep from time immemorial, and in all languages, has been the symbol of gentleness, patience, and purity, and has always been associated with pastoral verse and a refined life. These things cannot pass into proverbs with- out being correct, and from nature. Even the Most High spoke of those who are chosen to life in heaven as his lambs ; and the Christ was the Lamb of God. It is but the natural result then, that the sheep-raiser should be of chaste, beautiful and refined life, such as he generally is, and such as I behold him here— occupying, by right of merit, the first place m society. It is the gentler influ- ence of the animal whom he loves and cares for and who in turn loves aqd cares for him, pervading him with its naturg. IM TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OiV HOKSEBACIi. I have also observed that the slieep-raisers of teji have a strongly reflective and philosophic cast of mind. I judge that the constant contemplation of the calm visages of the sheep leads to meditation ; and meditation leads to phi- losophy. Geokge Wilkins Kendall. This whole region has been made classic by the pen and residence of George W. Kendall, to whom it owes its fame and most of its prosperity. He is dead, but he is still the central figure here, and one often hears his name. He impressed himself deeply on the popular heart about him. His was a remarkable character, in which there was that strange contradiction of the sternest common sense with an overflowing fancy and spirit of romance ; a rare com- bination which makes the strongest and grandest of men. His spirit was one of those that never grow old, but ^' flour- ish in immortal youth." He had built up one of the greatest presses in the country and amassed a fortune by it ; had lived in the gayest capitals of Europe, with the gayest of their people ; yet he abandoned all of these for beautiful, but then wild, Texas, and chose to be a shep- herd. What was it but the singular spirit of romance that did this ? AVhat else impelled him on that wild and long tramp to Santa Fe, over a country till then untrodden by white men, and which has been made immortal by his vivid and sparkling, yet so genial pen ? From his home and occupation as a shepherd he would often break loose like a truant, to disappear sometimes for days and weeks in succession, in the deepest wilderness, with a few chosen friends, to commune with wild nature and wild animals ; living in the meantime on scarcely anything save what his rifle brought down. Some student of human nature has said that as we are all descended from savao^es who loved o' the floods and the wild woods and mountains, the ances- TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 145 tral instinct will still frequently crop out in the highest specimens of the race, impelling them to what their fathers loved ; and Kendall makes me think that this philosopher was right. Another great Texan, Sam Houston, while governor of Tennessee, unaccountably abandoned his office and resided some years among the Indians, adopting their dress and mode of life. When visited by his friends and urged to return to civilization, he pretended to have for- gotten their language, and responded simply with a grunt.* Was this the spirit of romance, or the savage instinct of the ancestry ? Kendall's family still resides at his favorite seat near this i:>lace, and his shepherd business thrives under, the management of the accomplished Mrs. Kendall. I hope it will not be intrusive in me to say it, but the fact seems so in point that I cannot forbear it. George Wilkins Ken- dall won his lady in the salons of Paris — the daughter of a French army officer — where she was born and grew into womanhood. One of the most beautiful and accomplished of ladies, young and of the most brilliant society, yet she cheerfully gave up all of these for her husband and beauti- ful but wild Texas ; and I am told that she has always so much loved this life, that, rich as she is, she cannot be in- duced to abandon it, even temporarily. Thus even the ladies, under the influence of the ancestry, may be smitten with the love of the romantic, as well as men. How do I know but that it is something of the kind that is impelling me on this wild trip ? For I certainly do not know of any imperious necessity that I should make it. * Such is the story told of him by those who knew him most intimately, and itis jast like him. III. Wild Natuee and Wild Beasts. AFTER abundant rest and good fare, I rode north. Fiye or six miles from Boerne the path led into a congeries of grizzly hills, crowded, with rocks, and starving a scrubby growth of cedar and various oaks and nettles. It is a forbidding country, given over to grimness and ruin. The ground, clanks under my horse's feet and occasionally gives forth a hollow sound, as if from caverns below. The road climbs these great hills or ridges in quick succession ; the valleys being mei-e gorges, piled wath naked rocks that have thundered from the precipices above. The fury of the torrents that sometimes sweep down these gorges is shown by the bleak, stony surface, on which there is not a handful of earth. Nothing lives here. Only a few scat- tering cattle are seen occasionally, browsing on the coarse grass and stumbling over the ringing heaps of stone ; and I can imagine that these are only wayward adventurers, "who when they get out of the district will not return. I was mistaken : there goes a flock of turkeys before me, dashing up the steep mountain in a long, black line, with the fleetness of race-horses. What do tliey live on here ? Looking around, I see numerous scraggy hackberry trees, loaded with red berries, and from these I suppose these birds draw their rations. But what is that noise ? It sounds like a shriek and a wail, and seems to be right on my path. I involuntarily grasped one of my pistols and drew it from the holster. TWO THOUSAND MILES I>f TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 147 Again I hear it, and it is absolutely a shriek and a wail. Is it possible some horrible murder is being committed in this lonely and grim region — by a band of ferocious In- dians, perhaps ? I felt my hair rise, actually stand on end, but still rode on toward a thicket on the right of the road, whence the noise seemed to come. As I approached it my horse grew suspicious, and pricked up his ears and shied away from that side of the road. I momentarily expected something, but could not tell what. When immediately opposite the thicket everything was as still as a mouse, but suddenly my horse leaped to the left, almost causing me to fall from my saddle, and at the same moment two — not Indians — not murderers — but two splendid panthers bounded across the road immediately before me. I drew a breath of relief and lauo'hed at mvself for the asfitation I had felt. My horse also seemed greatly relieved, for he became at once quite gay and continued so for some dis- tance. The panthers disappeared in the brush, but one of them leaped on a large stone not more than fifty yards from me in full view, and stood there long enough for me to have shot him, had I been so disposed. But he looked so splen- did that I did not have the heart to do it. He was of a mouse color, apparently about three feet high, long and slender, with a head for all the world like a monstrous cat's, a long sweeping tail, which rested partly on the rock while the end of it, curled upwards, slowly waved hither and thither. He was eisfht or nine feet in len^'th. Pres- ently he leaped gracefully from the rock and bounded out of sight. This animal is a true cat, and the king of all cats, whom the tabbies should be proud of. They are in noth- ing distinguished from the domestic cat, save their greater .size, uniformity of color, more slender and graceful form, and more graceful movements, which are the poetry of mo- 148 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. tion. They even have the voice of the cat — with a greatly enlarged compass, of coarse. If one has -heard Tom and Tabby caterwauling on the eaves of a house at night, he can easily judge what the voice of the panther is. Some- times they make a noise almost exactly like that of a weep- ing child ; and the young folks think that they do this to decoy people into the woods, in order to devour them. They are not uncommon on the frontier and wilder dis- tricts of Texas, and are sometimes quite destructive to live- stock. They are particularly fond of young colts, and are for this reason thoroughly detested by the horse- raiser, who can only destroy them with his gun, as, unlike the wolf, they cannot be poisoned, refusing, as it is said, to touch any flesh which has not been slain by themselves. Xor will they eat any that is not fresh and sweet, being as cleanly as pussy-cat on the hearth. They have never been known to attack man in Texas, but have sometimes ap- peared to threaten it. An old Texan* told the writer that one evening while riding through a densely timbered valley, he was followed a considerable distance by two panthers, who kept but a little distance from him, bounding along sometimes before him, and stopping until he had passed. He was unarmed, but did not dare increase the speed of his horse, fearing that if he showed sign of alarm, the ani- mals would bounce upon him. They followed him until he had passed out of the valley into the open prairie. He afterward concluded that these panthers had their kittens closely by, and adopted this strategy to lead him away from them — as we sometimes see turtle-doves and other birds feign to be wounded and flutter before mischievous boys to lead them from their nests. Another instance was told me by a gentleman who had seen much experience of frontier life. He and a compan- ion had encamped in a deep forest, and had retired to their * Judge William Manifee of Fayette. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 149 blankets, without a fire, which they were afraid to build, as marauding Indians were known to be in the neighbor- hood. Presently they were disturbed by a thumping on the ground, apparently quite near them. This was at in- tervals of a few seconds. When they arose to see what was the matter, the noise ceased and they could see nothing. Returning to tlieir blankets, it soon began again as before, but apparently nearer. They arose again and looking around carefully, saw, under the feeble moonlight, a huge panther crouched in a depression in the ground, not over ten feet from wliere they lay. Said the gentleman: '^1 might have shot him dead with my pistol, but did not dare do "feo, for fear of attracting the Indians. But I held my pistol upon him while my companion hurled a big chunk at him. He bounded away and we heard no more of him. Had we remained quietly in our blankets or been asleep, I have no doubt he would have bounced upon us. You have seen a cat when watching to jump upon a bird ; she will continually raise her tail and stroke the ground with it, and this huge panther was practicing the' same sort of game on us." The frontiersmen sometimes eat the panther, but they do not consider it a first-class dish, saying its flesh has a peculiar sweetish taste which they cannot become used to. I should say that the flesh of a cat would be quite as good. The Sisterdalians. The grim desolation of stone and gorge abutted abruptly upon the sparkling Guadalupe, which has pierced it through the centre, cutting a tortuous, constricted channel, and the great rocks hang over it, sometimes on both sides at once. Deep in the shaded dell sits the little German hamlet of Sisterdale, shut up from every horizon, hemmed in by precipice, clanking rock and gorge. When I first saw it, I thought of a nest of robbers in the Alps ; 150 TWO THOUSA^'D MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. but perhaps a more gentle, contented and happy people do not exist. But what sort of whim or fancy was it that im- pelled these people to choose this remote and isolated spot, when Texas has such millions of better lands to be had for the asking ? It takes all sorts of fancies to make a world ; else what scopes of God's globe would not be tenanted, and man would not truly possess the earth ! The Lap and the Esquimaux think that their lands of snow-clad hills and icebergs, with their nights of six months' duration, illumined by tlie gaudy curtains of the Aurora, are the most charming of earth, and they can dream of nothing more beautiful ; and so the Sisterdalian loves his deep gorges, the stony mountains and the roaring river, beyond all the fairest of the Texan domain. Let liim love on ! There is no likelihood that encroaching populations will ever jostJe these eagles in tlieir eyrie, or invite them to vacate their nests for new comers. They devote themselves to cattle- raising — and their cattle are almost as gentle as themselves — and to the cultivation of wheat, corn and grapes in the narrow Tales, or wherever a stoneless slope offers on the declivities. The Guadalupe has changed its course. Below the Cretaceous, it flows from the north. Here it flows from the west. It is the same sparkling stream as where I left it m the lowlands, with volume apparently not diminished, but how boldly different the scenery ! It is the difference between the mountains and the plains. Here it glances and flashes, roars, plunges and thunders ; but there are also many silent pools, through wdiich its blue waters creep with a scarcely perceptible motion. It is ever varying its beauty, and each picture seems more beautiful than the one that preceded. Thus I thought as I rode along. Eode up the valley fifteen miles to Comfort, a pros- perous little German town on the northern bank, and passed the night. Rode very leisurely up the valley twenty miles to Kerrville, and here I rest. IV. The Finest Coun^try I eyer Saw. rjTlHUS having ridden thirty-five miles up this valley, JL in a very observant humor, I am prepared to express an opinion of it; and the above heading I have written de- liberately. This upper Guadalupe valley is as rich as it is beautiful, as beautiful as it is rich, and as delightful in climate as it is beautiful in scenery or rich in soil. I have fallen completely in love. It winds through a region of noble highlands, generally covered with open forests of oak — grand, natural parks — in which the grasses of the prairie grow luxuriantly, and ranges or groups of moun- tains diversify the scene, in the blue distance or towering closely upon you. The valley itself is perfectly smooth, and down its centre flows the beautiful river, bordered with pecans, elms, and gigantic cypress. Frequently it is sev- eral miles in width, and over all this expanse there is not one inch of soil that is not deeply, perhaps inexhaustibly rich ; for do not the neigliboring hills renew as fast as cul- tivation could absorb their fertility ? The population is still sparse, but the farms only increase the native beauty of the scenery. It is dead of winter, it is true, but these fields of wheat are glorious to behold. I have seen noth- ing so luxuriant elsewhere. They absolutely seem to laugh with the glorious abundance, as if they were conscious of their superb merit. What there is that is desirable in a country, and which may not be had here, is past my find- ing out. How this valley will one day swarm with a most thrifty and happy population ! 152 TWO THOUSAl^D MILES 11^ TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. I scarcely know how it is, but all of this valley has been continually reminding me of G-reece, though I never saw Greece. The skies are the same, the climate the same, and where Greece is best and most beautiful, the countries are the same. At least such is the thought that has been running involuntarily through my mind these two days past ; and the idea is so irresistible that it seems to me that Kerrville is really named Athens ! The skies the same, the climate the same, the country the same, why may not the upper Guadalupians be great the same as Greece has been ! Wheat. Though cotton, corn and other grains grow quite as well here as elsewhere, wheat is the favorite crop of the farmers, and there is not one who does not devote a large share of his tillage to its raising. I asked them if they found it profitable ? *' No," said they, " because it grows so well that we are tempted to make too much. It grows so well that it is a pleasure more than a labor to make it, and we plant it more for pleasure than the expectation of profit. We are too remote from market, and wheat is too heavy to transport on wagons. If we only had a railroad, sir, we would grow too rich and make tlie outside world too happy with abundance of good bread." They assured me that the crop is subject to no disastrous contingencies and never fails to deliver its harvest. The droughts come sometimes, said they, but this is in the summer, and the crops have matured long before they come. They sow in fall, and pasture their calves and horses on the fields in winter, which, they held, increased the harvest, and pre- vented it from heading too early and thus running the risk of frost. The harvest varies from twenty-five to forty bushels per acre, but forty-five, and even more, is not an uncommon product. They use no fertilizers, and no in- TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 153 strument in the tillage but the common plow. With the use of occasional phosphatic manures and the improved implements and methods for tillage, what might not these noble acres produce ! And what splendid wheat this is ! If not the best in the world, it is certainly not surpassed by any that is grown elsewhere. It usually weighs about sixty-six pounds to the bushel, or six pounds over the standard, and has been known to exceed seventy pounds, as I am told. A bushel of this wheat will therefore furnish from six to ten pounds more of bread than a bushel of Illinois wheat, which will not always yield so much as sixty pounds to the bushel measure. Whence this excessive weight and this singular production of bread, bulk to bulk, as compared to other wheats ? It is in the perfect adaptability of the soil to the perfect development and maturity of the grain. The soil which gives wheat its best development is a calcareous mag- nesian, and here we have that soil in perfection, mixed with many other fertilizing ingredients. To assist this best development to a perfect maturity, a dry and elevated atmosphere under a southern sun is necessary, and here we have that atmosphere, under the brightest rays of a sub-tropical sun. Thus soil, elevation and clime combine to give to this wheat every advantage to make it what it is — unsurpassed, if not the best in the world. What this Wheat offers the Texas Ports. It offers to contribute largely toward establishing Houston and Galveston among the greatest flour-exporting marts in the world. It is known that for transportation on the high seas, and particularly southern seas^ the south- ern has a great advantage over western and noi'thern flour. The latter will quickly sour and greatly deteriorate, while the other may be rocked on the seas almost indefinitely and remain unaffected ; because, in the sunny regions in 154 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. which southern wheat matures, its moisture is completely eliminated, while in the northern wheat, it is retained.* Hence the different effect of a warm, moist climate upon these different fioars ; the northern ferments, while the southern does not. For this reason southern flour has a special market in New York, and always commands a fancy price as compared to flour from other quarters. This "southern flour" so-called, comes from Virginia, Mary- land and North Carolina ; and if such is the superiority of the flour of these comparatively hyperborean regions, how much superior must be the flour of the sunny Guadalupe ! Therefore I cannot hazard much in predicting that the day is not remote when the product of these beautiful grain fields will be the favorite brands in the warehouses of exporters, and in Kio, Mexico and the West Indies ; and it is by Houston and Galveston that this great com- merce must be conducted. Their nearness to these inex- haustible fields and the superiority of the article, will give them an advantage that will place them beyond the reach of competition by other cities. New Orleans, St. Louis, and Baltimore or New York, cannot draw the product of these fields without transporting it through Houston or Galveston, and would have to add to its price at these cities the cost of transportation to their warehouses or wharves. A little three-foot railway running from Houston up the Guadalupe would immediately set this great trade in motion. The People of this valley are fit to inhabit such a home ; and that * This is also the reason why a barrel of Texas flour will make so much more bread than a barrel of Illinois, or other northern flour. A considerable percent- age of the latter is water, while the former has very little ; and water does not make bread. There is therefore more flour in one Texas barrel than one from Illinois, but kow much move is not exactly ascertained. An old baker in Houston, Mr- Jno. Kennedy, told the writer of this note that fourteen ounces of flour from north Texas made more bread than sixteen of the best from Illinois. TWO THOUSAND MILES I^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 155 seems to me about as high praise as I could pass upon them. They are intelligent and hospitable ; mostly Americans from the Southern and Western States, and a good many Germans. While riding and conversing among them, I could hardly realize that I was on the remote fron- tier, where men are supposed to be unkempt and ill-man- nered ; yet another day's journey westward would place me in a region uninhabited, except by wild beasts and prowl- ing savages. They dwell in neat houses of stone, and many of the damsels are as pretty as lilies. Truly, female beauty flourishes everywhere, and man is the hap- pier for it. Athena, for such I will call it — is an assemblage of residences, whereof each stands on a five-acre lot, with a due quantity of stores all in a row, and the usual concomitants of churches and schools. The five acres are skilfully and thoroughly tilled, so that every inhabitant lives in the midst of a farm in the midst of a city. Thus Athena, unlike any other city, lives or may live, entirely upon herself. Her architecture is all of stone, generally pretty, and in her court-house it is imposing. Why did not the Athenans build this stately conrt-house on the pattern of the Parthenon ? for then the illusion that this is Greece would have been complete. Its modern structure seems to me a violent anachronism. Athena boasts a newspaper, *^ The Frontiersman," and I do not know that I ever read a paper with more interest. It is terse, vivacious, sensible, and I thought of Pericles and Aspasia. Athena has five or six hundred people, and the day was when Athens had not so many. This seems to be the headquarters of the buyers of beeves, from St. Louis and other cities of the west. They tell me that forty or fifty thousand beeves are sold here each year, at twelve to eighteen dollars a head — making 156 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. about three quarters of a million dollars annually turned loose upon these little streets. The cattle-man contracts with the buyers to deliver so many beeves on a day certain, and forthwith despatches his boys into the wilderness to gather and drive them up. The boys have a grand sport of it, and sometimes enjoy a few pitched battles or rough and tumble fights with the Indians, but they are sure to deliver their charge in good season. Father then receives his money and retires to his home on his five-acre lot, to enjoy his ease while his flocks are industriously making him another herd of beeves, to be converted into gold in their turn. A cattle-man who has boys, is here a prince at ease; and this is better than living in the midst of his cattle. If a railroad were here, what a business it would have in transporting beeves ! This alone would make it rich, and the buyers would be saved the expense and risk of the tedious drive. Night in Athena. The moon is pouring a flood of silver light upon the little city ; the air is vernal, and Athena is still as a mouse. No rumbling busses, no whirling carriages, no carousing bacchanals here. I listen if I may not catch the notes of a piano floatiug on the breeze, accompanied with a voice of sweeter melody. The song of a white-throated songster occasionally reached me, and I hear the music of the Guadalupe rolling its sparkling tide over the rocky chan- nel ; but the note of the piano is not here. There is not a piano in Athena. It is not surprising ; for how could a rich Grand or a voluptuous Steinway stand a voyage in an ox-wagon over these stony hills ? The ladies of Athena must wait for the rail. And here I think I may feel a secret sort of satisfaction and right honest pride in the reflection, that they will be partially at least indebted to me for their pianos when they get them ; for have I not con- TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 157 tribiited a good many round thousands and much good muscle in putting a road on foot that may reach them ? An honest, manly satisfaction with one's self need not argue egotism or personal vanity ; and I am not ashamed of the feeling here recorded, though 'tis myself that re- cords it. Who would not be proud to serve Athena's ladies ? Y. Geological Retrospections. DURING- the night a cloud passed over the valley and shook from its wings a shower of dew-drops : so that w^ien I mounted my horse and rode up the river, all nature seemed to sparkle with diamonds. And though this is mid-winter, the air is still like that of spring. How different to-day in tlie land whence I came. There doubt- less the earth is wrapped in sleet and snow, and instead of zephyrs, the wind howls a fearful storm. Some may de- light in the snow-scenes, the icicled forest and the nipping Arctic winds ; but give me the green jn-airies, the flowery valleys, the hazy mountains, and Zephyr with Aurora may- ing : in other words, give me Texas ! The geology of this country is full of interest to those who have a fondness for such research and specula- tion, as I have. Indeed, so great is my fondness for it that I can travel over no region to which it does not give a new charm; and it gives me abundant company in all my solitary rides. Every stone has a wonderful story to tell me, if I have the ears to hear it. They are historians whose volumes are infinitely more remarkable than those traced by human pens ; for they tell of the achievements of the Great Architect, and how and by what agencies he worked ; of the rise, progress and fall of the races that preceded ; and prophets, too, they may be, of man's des- tiny and the higher races that may succeed him. This little historian, however humble he may appear, — this lit- TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 159 tie pebble that I hold in my hand as I ride along, was an atom of the original fiery ocean, and saw the Great Arcni- tect when he laid the foundations of the globe and built thereon. Longer than he has been, he will continue to be. To my mind, these rocks and the stars of heaven are the revelation and the inspiration by which the Architect would have his creatures read him ; and if perchance they lead us into doctrines strange and erroneous, the error must be a pardonable one in the eyes of Him who gave them to us to teach us, and gave us our ears to hear them. Thus while I ride along the vale of the Guadalupe, I listen to the voice of His historians, and adore Him of whom they tell. The formation here is the lower Cretaceous, and the strewn boulders tell of the closeness of still older beds. The Ammonite is a very common fossil here, some of them of as great circumference as a cart-wheel. I saw two fragments of this class of fossils, one a Hamite and the other a Orioceras ; both peculiar to the lowest Cretaceous beds. They were exhibited to me by a farmer, who had picked them out of the Guadalupe and ke})t them about his house as curiosities. *' This," said he, ^'is a petrified cow's-tail, and this is a buck's horn ; but he must have been a big one to carry such a thing as this on his head." When I told him that they were ancient sea-shells, he was of opinion that I was mistaken, and still held to the cow-tail theory. He then showed me a fossil which was clearly the tooth of the iguanodon. " Now," said he, ''this thing is sorter strange, but I have studied it out that it was some sort of a weapon made by the Injuns." "No, sir," said I, after fingering it well, and scrutiniz- ing it with melancholy interest, " this is the mortal re- mains — the last tooth that is left, sir, of the great Iguan- odon — the great Lizard of the Ancient World, whose body was sixty feet in length and thirty feet in girth ; who wore 160 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OJ?" HORSEBACK. a great horn on his head whose weight was hundreds of pounds : in short, sir, this is the tooth of the Great Dragon of Ancient Days." He looked at me a moment and quietly said : " You be dam !" After a moment he contemptuously kicked with his foot another fossil which he saw lying on the gallery be- fore him. '^ And that," said he, "is a petrified wasp's nest." *' No, sir," said I, as I held the fossil in my hand and gazed upon it with melancholy interest, ^Hhis is a frag- ment of the ' coral groves deep in the sea,' through which the mermaidens wandered and led their lives of bliss. Perhaps upon this very fragment they sat and sang and combed their locks. Sir, right over this spot where we stand rolled the Cretaceous Ocean, and here grew this coral on which the mermaidens sat and combed their locks. That was in the long, long time ago, and all the mer- maidens are now dead." He became very reticent, and looked at me with an ex- pression which seemed to say: "Well, ding you, if you were not in my house, I'd like to give you a good licking, if I could." He measured my heft with his eyes. How different this scene to-day from what it was then ! Then, indeed, a mighty ocean was here, whose great bil- lows broke on the granite walls evidently not far off, bear- ing fleets of ammonites and crioceras ; the monster moso- saurus sported in the foam or pursued the flying prey ; its shores covered with glorious forests of ferns and palms, resounding with the bellowing of iguanodons in battle, con- tending for the mastery of the young world. They did not know that they were but links, doomed to extinction, in the chain that leads to man. And man does not know but that he is but a link, doomed to extinction, in the chain that leads to a higher nature ! !rWO THOUSAIs'D MILES IIT TEXAS OK HOKSEBACK. 161 If one could revert back and see with his natural eyes what has been, sail on those seas and converse with those monsters, might he not read the future ? One is as easy as the other. Knowledge is Futurity as well as the Past. Heave'i^. If the soul is immortal, as I think it is, and we become, after we have passed the river, purely intellectual exist- ences, knowledge-loving and knowledge-seeking, what a grand, eternal field have we for investigation, in the Archi- tect's infinite works ! When we have explored this planet and learned it all, and lived it all, perhaps assisted by the lips of some great archangel who was present at the foun- dation, what will prevent us, embodied ethereal essences, from winging our flight to another planet, and another, and another, through an eternity of knowledge and adora- tion of Him who made all these ? Such is an occupation worthy of angels and existences all intellectual. But how would the whore-master, the cheat, the swindler, the sor- did m.an enjoy all of these ? They must be provided with different occupations. When one steps across the river, he is fortunate if he can take with him a mind stored with knowledge and filled with the love of the works of Him who made him. If he does not, I cannot well perceive what he will do when he crosses the river. Such is my idea of Heaven. It is not that of every one. I once talked with a negro woman in a southern State, who was noted for her religious fervor. When she attended a meeting she never failed to strike great awe among the negroes by the singular fervor of her demeanor, both while the meeting was in progress and for some time after it had adjourned. She was loud and incoherent in her praises of God and the intense happiness that comes from religion. She accompanied these expressions with strange physical demonstrations, which seemed to me much 162 TWO THOUSAND MILES I:N^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. like those of a maniac or one who had lost all reason ; but the negroes seemed to regard them as proof of the highest development of piety, and looked on with awe, not un- mixed with envy of her good fortune in being so favored of God. I asked this woman what she thought was the occupation of souls after they had passed into eternal bliss. She said she had been to Heaven in a trance and knew all about it. Heaven was a great plain filled with houses of gold, and silver trees. The angels wandered over the plains shouting and singing, and when they felt inclined to eat, there were great numbers of roasted pigs running about bearing knives and forks in their mouths, and the blessed angels only needed to call them to them and eat their fill. I asked her if she would not tire of shouting and singing and eating roasted pig ; but she had no conception that she ever would. Her mind was evidently never ruffled by a single doubt ; she received every word of the preacher, however ignorant and stupid, as God's truth, and she ap- peared a very paragon of religion ; and yet I could not help but think that an honest doubt in my mind was more pleasing in God's sight than all her boundless religion. What will this poor creature do, if she finds Heaven not filled with roasted pigs ? I have heard that this woman afterwards produced several bastards ; a fact which must have caused wide-spread demoralization in the minds of the negroes who had held her in such devout esteem as a model of godliness. Knowledge is not only Power, but it is Life ; and the love of it is Life also. '' The soul that thirsteth shall be filled," and it is impossible for it to be filled in the circum- scribed sphere of mortality. A Strange Encounter. — Javalinas. About five miles above Athena — otherwise called Kerr- yille — my pathway left the Guadalupe and diverged to the TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 163 north-east, going up a valley about a half mile in width, but constricting as I ascended it. It is walled in by stony ridge and precipice. There are many beautiful live-oak groves and pretty sites for small farms, but no farm is visible. This valley is virgin, whose bosom no plow has touched. There are clusters of wild grapes, hardly bigger than duck-shot, of which I plucked and ate, and found them not unpleasant, but of sharp, sprightly acidity. Birds of many varieties fed on these grapes, and some of them raised a great clamor as they crushed the acidulous globules between their bills. Some six or seven miles up the valley I saw a company of hogs, in full view, but a few hundred yards off. Thinking a farm must be near, I fired my gun, hoj)ing a dog would bark and guide me to it. Instantly on the report of my rifle, these hogs dashed out of the brush from several places, hoofing as they ran, and smacking their mouths at a great rate. They formed in a squad, about sixty yards from the road, ahead of me, and as I approached them they seemed to grow exceedingly in- dignant ; all hands bristling uj) their backs and popping their jaws together as if they had a notion of making a meal of me. When about a hundred yards from them, the largest advanced to the front, deliberately began to ap- proach me, looking the very picture of wrath and indigna- tion, as if he craved the honor of disposing of me at once, without assistance. As he advanced, the others expressed their applause by rounds of boofs and a great popping of the jaws. My horse became uneasy, and as the advancing rascal seemed bent on battle and displayed two formidable tusks, I became uneasy in iwni, and thinking I had better look out for mv safetv, I raised mv rifle and sent a mass of lead through his body. He fell dead. The others on seeing this raised a bigger hoofing and popping than ever, and I expected a charge en 7nasse, but as they were not precipitate about it, I dismounted to view the dead duellist. 164 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. The others then retired toward the brush, slowly and dog- gedly, going mostly tail foremost. When in the brush they disappeared, but I still heard them hoofing and pop- ping quite near at liand, as if they were still undetermined whether to charge upon me or not. I had no doubt I could easily get a battle out of them, if I chose to court it. As I approached the dead brave, who deliberately brought on his own destruction by marching out to attack a heavily armed traveller, who had in nowise interfered with him, my nostrils were assaulted by a fog of odor, which was well-nigh unendurable. Seeing I had slain a peccary, I determined to learn all about him, let him stink never so loudly. I judged him to weigh about sixty pounds, and therefore about the size of a small hog or shoat. His head was too big for his body, and his short, thick neck showed that he had great strength. His hair was coarse and bristly, and so long about the neck that it might almost be called a mane. He had a mere stump where the tail ought to be, and this was evidently not the result of a misfortune or surgical operation, for I observed no tail on his friends. His color was of a darkish yellow or dirty red, and the hairs were ringed with various marks or shades. Tliere was a faint band of white at the root of the neck, partly on each shoulder, resembling a collar. He bore his perfume on his back, close to the tail, in a lump or swelling quite as big as the fist. As this lump was con- tinually discharging its odor, I forbore to examine it closely. This odor was musk, and in small doses might not be unpleasant, but as he gave it forth, it was certainly tremendous, insomuch that I required to have great reso- lution to stay by him. He differed from a hog in that his head was more pointed, his ears much smaller and almost buried in the hair, and his formidable tusks turned up- ward instead of backward. On his hind feet he had but one upper toe, instead of two as the common hog. I am TWO THOUSAXD MILES IN TEXAS O:^ HORSEBACK. 165 told that they live on nuts, roots and berries, and scorn to eat the uncleanly food which the domestic hos^ will revel in. The Texans sometimes eat them, and say that when fat they make a very fair pork or bacon, if the stink paunch is taken off as soon as they are shot. If it is left on even for a few moments, the whole body becomes infiltrated and cannot be eaten. The Texans sometimes call these animals javalinas, the Mexican name, but generally the musk hog. They some- times enter a cultivated field and play havoc. Dogs are mortally afraid of them and cannot be induced to attack them. The Texans say they are the most dangerous ani- mals in the country — panthers, bears, wolves and lions being as nothing compared to them in courage and fero- city. If a man on foot encounters them, his only hope is to climb a tree, and they will then hang round him some- times for hours. They are probably the gamest rascals on earth, and as I studied their cranial development, I could not help thinking that there is truth in phrenology. Mur- derers and other ferocious villains are generally largely developed about the ears and neck, and these rascals have this murderous mark to an inordinate degree. It is said that they are always ready for a fight, and becoming once engaged, they know no retreat. The writers on natural history do not know everything of which they Avrite. They say that the peccary is found only in South America, and this I know not to be so. It is quite common all over Western Texas, particularly in regions that are thinly settled, or not settled at all. I inquired if these creatures ever crossed with the common hog and bred hybrid varieties. I was told that no such in- stance had ever been witnessed. It is probable that if a flock of common hogs should unwarily stroll upon a flock of these creatures, they would be immediately set upon and demolished. 166 two thousand miles in texas on hoeseback. Anchoritic. The valley terminates in a nook whose secluded beauty contrasts singularly with the stony escarpments, the bronzed and shrivelled thickets, and the black precipices that frown upon it. Pleasant little groves of live-oak, shady recesses and sparkling brooks are here, with none but the chance wayfarer to love them. This is a pretty little spot of the globe not possessed : a dear little lassie without a laddie, and yet so capable of filling some laddie's heart with all the warmth and happiness of love. It is be- cause she is so seclusive and retiring that tlie laddies while loving her, fear to pursue. I thought it would make so blessed a retreat for some anchorite, wlio wishes to with- draw from the world and devote his life to innocence and holy contemplation. The stony precipices, the bronzed thickets and the stern country around would remind him of the world, with its sins and troubles, from which he had withdrawn, and the smooth, green nook would keep ever present to his mind the innocence and heaven he seeks. But how if my anchorite, while strolling on foot, absorbed in his holy contemplation, should step unawares into a herd of peccaries ? He would be obliged to climb a tree, and while thus imprisoned, and the furious, popping beasts standing guard around him, what would become of his in- nocence, his philosophy and holy contemplation ? When I reflected on this, I thought if I should turn anchorite I would seek other quarters. And yet how cheaply and well he could live here, bar- ring the discomfort arising from danger of peccaries, Any Guadalupe farmer woald sell him a bushel of the finest wheat in the world for fifty cents, so that his flour should not cost over two cents a pound, or five dollars forty-seven and a half cents a year. His meat and lard need cost him only the price of the powder and lead for a single charge TWO THOUSAND MILES . IN TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 167 of his rifle ; for with one shot he could secure a bear which would yield him two hundred and fifty pounds of bacon and at least thirty-five pounds of excellent lard or oil. This would furnish him a year without the least effort at stinting. Tlie salt to cure it would not exceed a dollar, and yet leave him abundance to season his food during the rest of the year. The ammunition to secure this bacon and lard, I estimate exorbitantly at one cent. Coffee he would rarely care for, but we will allow him ten pounds a year, costing two dollars and fifty cents. He would need no sugar, because he could readily secure a bee-tree, or enter a bee-cave in the rocks and despoil it. Thus I esti- mate the entire cost of his provender as not necessarily exceeding seven dollars and ninety-eight cents a year, or about sixty-six cents a month, or two and a quarter cents a day. He could vary this fare greatly without increasing the cost perceptibly, with trout from the brook, or venison or turkey from the hills, and abundant store of grapes and berries. I believe that venison and turkey would be better viand for him, in his peculiar circumstances, than bear-meat, as being less stimulating and provocative. The cost of dress w^ould be a trifle, as he would soon rig up a suit of buckskin, which would last him indefi- nitely. Five dollars a year would be a very large allow- ance under this score. There might be some need of soap, but the cost of this would be so infinitesimal that it is un- necessary to include it in the estimate. Thus we have all that is wanted to keep him fat and heart:y, ^t twelve dol- lars and ninety-eight cents a year, or one dollar eight and one-sixth cents a month, or about three and three-fifth cents a day. Now let us look on the other side of the sheet. Of course our anchorite would not wish to pass his life away in nothing but holy contemplation and rest ; for this would be a sin and in violation of the divine law — "by 168 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." Some labo- rious exercise would be requisite to his health. He would therefore enclose a twenty-five acre field, of which he would plant fifteen acres to corn, and ten to sweet potatoes, as being crops that are easily tilled. This would yield him, ordinarily, six hundred bushels of corn and two thousand bushels of potatoes. He would save fifty bushels corn for his pony, and sell the balance at twenty-five cents a bushel, netting one hundred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents. Of the potatoes, he might save one hundred bushels for his own use and for seed, and sell the rest at twenty-five cents per bushel — netting four hundred and seventy-five dollars. Thus we have the statement of his income and expenditures : Annual Income from field products $612 50 " Expenditure for food and clothing, etc $12 98 Taxes, 50 cents on the $100 of realty 1 00—13 98 Net annual profit $598 52 This he would probably send to Houston or Galveston or San Antonio, to be invested in morto^as^es on the real estate of widows, bearing twelve per cent. These pledges would of course be forfeited, and he would in a few years find himself the owner of storehouses of brick and stone, receiving a large annual rental. It is at this point that the Devil may step in and cheat him of all his philosophy and holiness, and he be confronted at last with the hard conditions of the camel, to go through the eye of a needle or be lost. It is thus that men grow rich. Incomprehensible. And when I think of the fat comforts of this anchorite —barring the peccaries — and his easy road into wealth, I cannot but wonder at the singular folly of some men, who, in spite of pinching penury, will stay in the cities ; the TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 169 seedy lawyers, the quaking merchants, and the poor editors. I know some of these whose bellies are said to have become accustomed to no other food but smoked herring and water- crackers, with such tit-bits as they may pick up in saloons during lunch time. And yet they will stay there and put up with all of this hard fare, when they could come to these nooks, and live on the fat of the land and grow rich. One of these pinched and purple men remarked to me that what he suffered here, he would not suffer in heaven. I told him I thought there was no need of his suffering either here or in heaven, and the suffering which we bring upon ourselves by willful blindness is no recommendation to us in another world ; wherein I spoke of my judgment, not of my knowledge.* Elevated. Rising out of the cove, I felt myself lifted distinctly far above the vale of the Guadalupe. It is two thousand feet or more above the sea. The clear atmosphere enabled me to see that the country beyond the Guadalupe, though ele- vated, sits much below it, and in the north and west it rises by steps. As far as I could sweep to the north and west with my glass, it is a region of ridges, mountains, ravines, valleys and table-lands, all covered with a thin growth of oak or thickets of cedar. Only the valleys and table-lands are arable ; but all is excellent for stock. It is a vast solitude, in which no one dwells, but is frequently scoured by the stockmen, gathering beeves or branding calves. It is populous of bears, panthers, wolves and pec- carries, and an occasional dread Comanche. The sportsman cannot go amiss for a jolly time, and may lose his scalp. * I have known several instances of men in Texas leading the solitary life of the anchorite, and finally emerging with more money than Ihey knew what to do with. Some embarked in trade in cities, bnt usually went back to solitude after a short venture. A few were killed by Indians and one went crazy. I have not known one yet to get married. 8 170 two thousand miles in texas on horseback. Dismal. A few miles over the lofty ridge, I descended into a deep, narrow gorge, down which ran a brook. The timber and brush were so thick, and the walls of stone on each side so close and high that the sun was quite shut out. Everything was so still that the clangor of my horse's feet over the occasional piles of loose rock, was painful, and went out and re-echoed through the gorge. The country looked murderous and Indiany, and a suspicion came to my mind that the red rascals might hear the noise. I became as melancholy as the gorge, and fain would creep along as stealthily as a fox. A bird occasionally flitted across my path, and the sound of his wings was oppressive. How would the war-whoop of a painted savage sound through this melancholy vale ? The reflection almost made my blood run cold. I would not care so much if he would come one at a time and meet me in the open field ; but how, if out of that dark thicket that I must pass through, he should, unseen, despatch an arrow through my heart ! Unearthly ? The water in the limpid brook looked so cool and re- freshing that I dismounted to take a drink. I kneeled down, with my knees upon a rock, my left hand on another, and thus poised over the stream, inclined downward till my lips touched the water. I had thrown my bridle over the limb of a tree. While in this graceful position, my ears were suddenly assaulted with an unearthly sound : so it appeared. I felt my hat lifted up on my head, and sweat broke out on my brow. I seized the bridle hastily and leaped into the saddle. My horse seemed agitated, probably catching the infection from myself. I heard the noise again, apparently from the bluff over the chasm, a hundred jai*ds below, and instantly, when it ceased, a loud TWO THOCSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 171 " ha ! ha — ha ! ha ! ha ! " — broke out from the brush not twenty steps below me, as it seemed. I cannot say exactly how I felt at this moment, but a grim resolution suddenly nerved me, and I laughed a little laugh as I determined to give them the best I had. Were they painted, furious Indians who were after me, or had I unintentionally disturbed a nest of witches in their infernal orgies ? Again the noise from the liill, and again the jolly "ha\ ha! — ha! ha! — ha-ha-ha — h — a — h!" from the brush. Just then I heard a noise in the brush, as of a rotten limb falling from a tree, and a large owl flew out and lit on a limb projecting over the road. There he sat about a second and then burst forth with that same loud devil-mav-care laus^hter, to which that other thin 2^ of the bluff responded with his remarkable note, wliich I had taken to be the war-whoop of a Comanche chief I I felt that I had a good joke on myself, and laughed at my weakness. But no human being, riding through an Indian coun- try and hearing this Texas owl the first time, would ever think owl once, while he would think Indian fifty times. He might occasionally think wolf, as I did. These owls soon got together, and the racket they raised was aston- ishing. One would break out with his long whoop, and the other would join with a great burst of laughter, as if his sides would burst. Knowing what they were, no one could hear them without joining in their fun. They are not so large as the boo-hoo owls of the dark bottoms of the older States, and on seeing them, one is surprised at the pro- digious noise they can get out of their mouths. They are about the same in color as the Virginia owl, and have e\^es that stare at you as if they were stark mad. Though flour- ishing mostly in the night and evening, they are not nearly so nocturnal as their cousins, for their loud lauglUer and war-whoop may often be heard at mid-day. It is impossible 172 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. to express their war-whoop in words or syllables. The young Texans say it is : " Miss Bettie cook — for me — and who cook — for — you all ? " and some of them can mimic him so precisely that not even an owl could tell the difference. Indians in the settlements also frequently imitate both their whoop and their laughter. i Piscine. The brook debouched into a creek whose name is "Wolf, which also a few miles further down becomes the Per- dinalis river. The Wolf valley is wider than the other, but still it is more a gorge than a valley, whose soil is sometimes covered with masses of shivered rock hurled from the precipitous hills. It has some excellent land, but no one dwells here, it being abandoned to wolves, and perhaps to rattlesnakes. I stopped on a grassy plot to graze my horse, and while he grazed I studied the nature of Wolf Creek. It was literally alive with brook trout,* and these were not in the deep pools only, but in places so shallow that their fins and backs glittered above the sur- face. No need of rod and line here. A diminutive pistol would do, or simply stealing upon the wary fellows in the shallows and damming them up with a few stones, so as to prevent egress : then wade in and catch to your heart's content. Wagon loads might be captured in this creek in this manner. This j)redatory fish seems to delight in shal- low water ; else he crowds into it in pursuit of the smaller fry. They are from a little finger in size to four pounds weight. Some of the pools of this creek were so still and dark- blue that I was tempted to explore them, and with a thirty-foot rope found no bottom. This is peculiar and almost unaccountable for so small a stream, f So far as I * Not Salmo fontinalis, but probaWj'^ gi'ystes salmcAdes. t These deep holes are said to be numerous in the Perdinalis. Some of them are circular and of unknown depth. They may be fountains issuing far below, whose buoyancy prevents the stone from sinking. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 173 could judge, the banks of these pools were either perpen- dicular or shelved under. I was struck with the absence of birds in this gorge-ous, rock-ribbed and caverned coun- try. No duck swam on the blue pools, and not even a woodpecker pecked on the trees. It was solitude profound. VI. Crossed the creek and journeyed onward. Rocks ; mountainous rocks ; terrific rocks. A country given over to witches, gorges, and Jiorresco referens. Had I a com- panion, I think I would like to encamp in these shudder- ing wilds one night, to hear what manner of things prowl through them in darkness. But without a companion it would not be so comfortable. Misery loves company. VII. My path diverged from the creek, and led abruptly up a gorge, northwest, while my course should be nearly east. Cut off from the direct route by rocks, terrific rocks ; hills, tremendous hills, which no man may cross — not even a goat ; not even a rat ; not even a snake ; not even a snail, though supplied with glue to help him climb. This is Alpine. VIII. Granitic Explosion". — The Primeval World. A FEW miles np the gorge, the path turned abruptly east, and I was not surprised to see before me a grand outburst of granite. Cretaceous rocks rested un • disturbed, in horizontal layers, in the valleys and ravines at its feet. This, then, is evidently the top of a great mountain of the primeval world — one of the first foot- stools planted by the Almighty upon the molten orb. It is probably the only island that rose above the Primeval Ocean in a circumference of some thousands of miles ; for though outbursts of granite occur frequently north of this, the nptilted strata at the base show that the upheaval took place long after the territory about them had been formed. If not the oldest spot on earth, I am justified in claiming it as old as any. It rose into being when the young world was an orb of liquid fire, and the waves of this fiery ocean thundered at its base. How do we know that the winged messengers of the deep may not have often stopped on this rock to rest ? It stood sentinel over the boiling Azoic Sea ; watched the slow formation of the solid earth at its feet ; saw the advent of man, and will probably see his departure. And yet there is nothing re- markably striking in his appearance : a bald-headed, weather-beaten, very unpretentious old rock. To view him unobservincrlv, vou would never take him to be the grand old historian, philosopher and prophet that he is. two thousand miles in texas on horseback. 175 Earthquake Thoughts. I could not help but measure in my mind the prodi- gious height of this old historian when he stood in the midst of the original fier}^ sea. If the central fires are eighty miles below us, as the philosophers say, then the historian's was all of that height, and may be yet, for his feet are still bathed in the central fires. What an enor- mous time did it take the successive oceans to erect about him the immense breastwork of stone until it has left only a few hundred feet of his ancient head uncovered ! The world is old, very old ; old enough to drop into its grave. Perhaps it already has one foot in the grave. But it is probable that in regions built exclusively, or nearly so, of granite and primitive rocks, the crust of the earth may be thin, and the heaving and tossing of the cen- tral fires quite near. This is made almost certain by the fre- quency of earthquake shocks in snch regions, and their in- frequency or total absence elsewhere. In Tertiary regions, the crust of the earth is so thick and strong that the cen- tral forces are held in check and driven to the primitive regions to do their destructive work. Thus Manhattan and New England are treated almost every year to several little earthquake oscillations, but these are never felt in the thick Tertiaries. Indeed, I believe that such a thing as an earthquake has never been known in a Tertiary region. Such regions were built up carefully, quietly and peaceably by the sea, every joint closely welded together : this took eons of ages to perform ; while the granitic re- gions were tossed up by the central forces in gigantic spasms, out of the fiery pit ; leaving rents and chasms, and the work not half performed. IX. Eocks — granitic rocks — Cretaceous rocks ; enough to lav the foundations of a new world. X. The Promised Land. FINALLY, as the sun was near its setting, a glorious view burst ujDon me. It was a wide expanse of level country, thickly dotted with farms and covered with for- est. But beyond it in every direction save the north, rose rocks, mountainous rocks. It was the first view of human habitation since early morn, and the effect upon both horse and rider was exhilarating. So the wandering and jaded Israelites felt when they beheld Canaan from the heights of Pisgah. He that has never travelled a whole day over a rough and uninhabited region, can never appreciate the music of a farm-yard cock. Near the close of such a day it is the sweetest of melodies — suggestive in every note, of Avarm fire-sides, smoking viands and delicious rest. De- scending the eminence, [ entered the level expanse, and just as night fell, rode into Fkedericksburg. This is a town of three thousand people, of whom at least four-fifths are Germans. It is built of stone, and has decidedly the air of a little city. I could not have expected to see a town so pretentious jammed away in these rocks, and so remote. It is brisk and busy, as the numerous '' floating population " at every hand attests. It has three flouring mills, with a joint capacity of about three hundred barrels a day, and its chief industry is based upon the manu- TWO THOUSAIs^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 177 facture and sale of flour. It supplies a considerable part of the consumption of San Antonio, and nearly all the military posts of the frontier. This trade attracts to it a considerable trade in other lines. The yield of wheat in the vicinity is twenty to thirty bushels per acre. Wine- making is also an industry, though only followed as an ad- junct to other business. The mountains are loaded in their season with the ^' mountain grape " — black and about the size of a buck-shot — and from this they make a sprightly, purple wine. Fredericksburg was founded by a German colony, about the time the romantic Braunfels planted the city that bears his name. They named it in honor of the Prussian Crown Prince, Frederick William — he that is now emperor of Germany. It had a hard time in its infancy, and suf- fered greatly from Indians. At one time they were pressed so hard by the Indians, that they entered into a treaty with them, one of the conditions of which was that the whites and Indians should intermarry and raise families together. One German youth fulfilled the treaty stipula- tion by taking a squaw, but when the Indian bucks, naked and painted, came to take the German lassies, they would not consent, and the war broke out afresh. Finally, by the aid of the Texas Rangers, the Indians were expelled. Still, every now and then, they make forays upon the country people to avenge the slight put upon them by the German girls. If Fredericksburg is ever reached by a railroad from the lower country, it will be from its rear, or the west. A narrow gauge is practicable by the route that I travelled from Athena, by following the valleys, gorges and ravines ; but from any other direction it is sealed up by rocks, mountainous rocks, interminable rocks. It seems singular that the German colony should have pitched upon this locality. 8* 178 two thousand miles in texas ok horsebacki The Sort of People you See. Slept well, and remained in Fredericksburg all day. Here one first appreciates that he is on the frontier, where it behooves him to take care of himself. Every man one sees coming into the city has his six-shooter, and many have their rifles or shot-guns besides. They are roughly clad, some in buckskins. Those coming with wagon trains from remote settlements, are particularly of this descrij)tion. A stalwart, robust set. And though I mingled freely among them, I received nothing but cour- teous treatment, and saw none who received not the same. These people rarely engage in difficulties, but when they do they are dangerous. Kever put your hands on your pistol, say they, but if you do, shoot quick. They are not a familiar folk, and do not address a stranger unless spo- ken to. They impress me as a highly individualized and manly race. The habit of universal arms-bearing has grown more from the necessity of protection against In- dians, than a natural penchant for weapons. The people of the town share to some degree their simplicity of dress, but not their weapons. DIVISION lY. I. Indiai^ Talk. THE few to whom I spoke of my trip advised me not to proceed beyond Fredericksburg alone, saying few ever did so unless under urgent necessity. They held that one was not absolutely safe even on the road to San Anto- nio ; for though he might go through in safety ninety-nine times, yet on the one-hundredth he might lose his scalp : the Indian hovered over the skirts, and, like death, ye know not the day nor the hour he cometh. They spake of trains which would be on the road in a day or two, ad- . vising me to wait on their company ; but when I did not relent, they undertook to instruct me in Indian warfare. If you see them, said they, depend upon your horse's heels, and if pressed too hard, take to the brush : there the Indian will not pursue you, for he dreads a hidden foe, armed with our destructive guns. He knows that one or more must fall in the effort to secure you, and as each will think it likely that this fate may be his own, they will finally conclude that you are not worth the sacrifice, and let you alone. These marauding Indians are mostly Comanches, generally armed with bows and arrows, but, said they, they can flirt these arrows through a buffalo at fifty yards. One said that he had seen the spike of an 180 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. arrow go through the tough spoke of a wagon wheel. I had great confidence in my formidable armament and my horse's heels, and came deliberately to the conclusion that I was so ugly a customer that the Indians would probably be willing to give me a wide berth, if I would treat them with like civility. Moreover, I thought if I could not select my company, I would prefer to have none, or even that of an occasional straggling Indian. I have sometimes had some most intolerable bores in road acquaintance, and one does not know but that they may be dishonest. Therefore, on the second morning after my arrival, I filled my haversack with crackers and chips of dried beef, and departed from Fredericksburg, northwest. Fogs and Cloud-Bursts. A very thick fog rested in the ravines and valleys, and against the sides of the mountains. It was so thick that as I rode through it my gun dripped with water, and my beard and woolen coat were saturated. The water depos- ited by it was equal to a nice shower. And yet this is in a lofty mountainous region, where there are no expanses of water, and no streams but brooks. This fog seemed to me a cloud which had fallen bodily to the earth. Eesting against the sides of the mountains, it had precisely the appearance of a cumulus. They say that in this region cloud-bursts are not uncommon : that is, a cloud suddenly letting go all hold in the upper regions and tumbling to the earth, discharging a young ocean at once. I myself once witnessed one of these. I was standing on the bank of a dry ravine which headed at the foot of a mountain near by. Suddenly a roaring torrent rushed down the ravine and overspread its banks. Looking to the moun- tain, it was enveloped in a dense, agitated fog ; and though light clouds were overhead, not a drop of water had fallen where I was. Those with me called this a water-spout, TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 181 but it struck me as a tumbled-down cloud. At certain seasons, these unjorecedented fogs appear every morning in the mountainous regions of Western Texas, and the rancheros consider them valuable for crops. It is remark- able that they occur only during seasons of drought, and are confined to the valleys and flanks of mountains. They do not dispense their benefits over districts incapable of tillage. * Lost Eocks. — The Texas Cataclysm. My attention was attracted to a number of stones lying about in the open post-oak forest. Some of tliese are of fantastic form, and look like ruins. Some stand bolt up- right like pillars. In the level forest there are no other rocks but these. The formation about them is cretaceous, while they, in every instance, are granite or gneiss, or a very compact, almost vitreous sandstone. They were not formed here ; they were not protruded from below : they are away from their home, and are true '4ost rocks." Whence came these rocks, and how did they get here . There are no mountains near from which they could have been projected by the ordinary agencies by which boulders are precipitated into valleys. Is this glacial ? To con- clude that it is, would be to fly into the face of geologists, who maintain that the remarkable invasion of flood and ice from the Pole, did not reach below the line of the Ohio. And yet it is certain that these rocks were borne here by some extraordinary force. As I rode along, the boulders increased in number and size, showing that the force that had borne them came from the west or northwest, and that I was approaching the district whence Ihey came. At last the level forest terminated at a creek, beyond which rose a range of dark * These remarkable fogs may result from the almost thermal waters of the streams that gush up out of the Cretaceous formation of Texas, being so much warmer than the air, which has been chilled during the night. 182 TWO THOUSAKD MILES IIT TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. colored hills. Entering them I found them composed of precisely the same material as the boulders, and at once recognized their parent bed. I first saw these rocks within a short distance of Fred- ericksburg, and this range of primitive hills is fifteen miles northwest ; so that they have been transported ten to twelve miles certainly, and perhaps some of them much further. Some are many tons in weight. Now what was the giant that tore these 1)oulders from the parent rock and hurled them this distance ? That giant was of pro- digious strength indeed. The force that did it was probably exerted long anterior to the Glacial Flood, and was short and convulsive in its action. It deposited no vast heaps of clay, gravel, and rounded pebbles, as the glacial did in its long prevalence over the northern regions. It was one immense, tremen- dous exertion of force, passing away as suddenly as it came. Its ancient date is attested by the fact that the masses of rock that were hurled into the valley at the foot of the hills, have been completely covered up by the slow accumulation of the wash and debris of ages, and that no rocks of recent date are among the boulders. It is my be- lief that this force was exerted at the close of the Creta- ceous epoch by the upheaval of the great plateau of the Eocky Mountains, and the vast plains that border it on the east. At that time the ocean covered all that region ex- cept a few Primitive, Silurian and Carboniferous districts, and was hurled southeastward in one tremendous surge, and did not stop till it fell below the Cretaceous wall that runs north of San Antonio and New Braunfels. There it rested and became quiet, having been dispossessed, by the action of the turbulent central fires, of a vast domain. This idea has not been suggested, so far as I know, by any who have written of the geology of America, but I give it in great confidence that it will be found correct. I can TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 183 find no other hypothesis which will account for the singu- lar phenomena before me. This rano^e of azoic hills at that time stood above the water, and the dispossessed ocean, hurled back nearly two thousand miles at one sweep, struck it with inconceivable fury, ripping up the solid rock and transporting the frag- ments miles away. It seems almost inconceivable that such masses of rock could be borne so great a distance by water alone ; but it must be recollected that oceanic power under such circumstances is inconceivably great. The fantastic form of many of the rocks is the result of corroding atmospheric agencies. Some are crowned with blocks of stone resembling Dutch cheeses. The child of fire, granite, seems to be the only sufferer from this de- gradation ; the gneiss and vitreous sandstone having appar- ently undergone no change at all. If one had any data by which he could estimate the waste of granite when exposed to the atmosphere in separate blocks, he could get a fair idea from these boulders, of how much time has elapsed since the upheaval of the Cretaceous.* The Primitive Hills. These primitive hills are dark, squatty, well rounded protuberances, resembling heaps of stone upon which soil has been lightly scattered. They are so bare that a goat could hardly pick his rations upon them. If they are a fair representation of what the earth was in its early stages, nothing could have been more bleak and desolate. No bird, insect, reptile or animal, flew, crept, crawled or walked over its inhospitable rocks ; and no vegetation existed. And such, almost, is this primitive district to-day. As God made it, myriads of ages ago, still it is, with aspect * Lost rocks may be seen almost anywhere near primitive hills in Texas, streaming out from them in an easterly or south-easterly direction. In Llano County, on the Fredericksburg road, they are particularly numerous. 184 TWO THOUSAN^D MILES II^" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. scarcely softened. Yet in the winding vales between the pro- tuberances; there is sometimes a pretty little lawn of rich crisp grass, with groves of dwarfed black-oak and live-oak. Sometimes on the eastern or south-eastern exposure of the protuberances, thickets of dwarfed and gnarled cedars drag out a precarious existence. What they -draw their subsistence from, seems past finding out. The only sign of animal life is a buzzard floating here and there at a great altitude. I notice that against the eastern side of these mountains, there are almost invariably huge masses of detached rock, while on the opposite side there are few, and often none. This is another proof of the great spas- modic billow that swept over them from the west or north- west. * Birds that are Peculiar. My horse's hoofs clanked over these stony witnesses of the primeval desolation some ten miles, when I descended * This primitive district, of which these hills form the southern boundary, is one full of interest to the mineralogist. .Gold and silver have been found at many places, and several mining parties are now at work for these minerals, with what success is not yet known. Magnetic iron ore, that smelts seventy to eighty per cent pure iron, exists in quantities apparently inexhaustible. Not far from the road followed by our traveller, in Llano County, is a mass of this ore, nine hundred feet long and five hundred feet wide, rising thirty feet above its visible base. It has been reduced and used to a small extent, and bhxcksmiths pronounce it the same as the celebrated Swedish iron which is manufactured from precisely similar ore. This mass of iron lies between granite ridges, is traversed by quartz veins, was evidently upheaved with the granite, and is therefore a true metallic vein. In the same locality are other masses or beds of iron of equal if not gi-eater extent. It is a timbered region, offering plenty of charcoal, and limestone for flux abounds in the vicinity. Stratite or soapstone is near at hand in large beds. When this wonderful iron region is penetrated by a railroad, these deposits will become of immense value. The manufacture of railroad iron for the railroads of Texas alone, would make a great business. It is, without much doubt, the richest deposit of iron on the American continent. A four-foot vein of coal has been discovered in the vicinity, in a depression between the granitic and metamorphic hills ; and the carboniferous formation has a wide development a day's journey to the north, in which coal is known to abound. Salt is manufactured from well-water, issuing from Silurian rocks. Indeed, Llano County is a remarkable mineral region, and will no doubt one day be famous for its minerals. TWO THOUSAKD MILES 11^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 185 into a secluded valley, running north-east. No one dwells in it, and the aspect of the whole country was decidedly lonesome ; but the brook was sparkling and the grass good, and I halted for noon-day rest. I wan- dered on foot some hundred yards np the brook and shot a peculiar bird with my pistol ; not that I wanted to eat him, but to study him, for he is a strange creature. Some call him the bird of Paradise, and others the chaparral cock ; but he has a strong general resemblance to the female pea-fowl. He is a bit larger than a pigeon, but looks much larger by reason of his long legs, and a tail a foot to a foot and a half in length, which projects straight out and trails on the ground. He lives in secluded, bushy retreats, makes no note whatever, and when disturbed runs away with great fleetness. I have never seen them fly more than twenty to thirty feet, and its tail is so cum- bersome that I judge it cannot fly much further. Their short flights seem more of a hopping than a flying. They are said to be easily domesticated ; so that even old ones have been trained to visit farm- yards daily, where they wandered around almost as unconcerned as chickens. A lady told me she had quite a number that visited her every day to receive gifts of corn and wheat. At night they would slip away to the brush ; and they hid their nests so well she could never find them. Although inhabiting such secluded districts and flying so swiftly when they see you, they have a singularly sweet and gentle look out of their large, soft black eyes, which are a prominent feature of their ensemble. They go almost always in pairs, and are seldom found east of the Colorado, and only in mountain- ous districts. The name, '^ bird of Paradise," has doubtless been given him on account of his elongated tail, like that of the Para- dise bird of the East ; or it may be connected with some pretty sentiment which the Texans may entertain for the 186 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. bird. For he is as much protected from the murderous aim of the youthful sportsman, as the uuiversally beloved mocking-bird — the sweetest songster of the feathered tribe. I am at a loss where to place this bird, as an ornitholo- gist. It is said that not a single member of the family of the PhasianidcB has been found native in America ; but if this bird is not a variety of the pheasant — I am mistaken. In shape it is precisely similar to the European pheasant, and only lacks his size and gaudy plumage. Another curious Texas bird — which I have seen almost every day, but do not see here — is called by some the Mexi- can mocking-bird, and yet others not inappropriately call him, also, the bird of Paradise. He is the same in ap- pearance as the common mocking-bird, save that his colors are much bolder and more distinct, that he is much more gaudily dressed, and is ornamented with two long tail- feathers which curl outwards, gracefully and airily, toward the ends. The common mocking-bird appears very mod- est and homely beside him, but unfortunately he is gifted with none of the musical genius of that sweet bird. He has a note, but it is a mere squeak. Like the mocking- b'ird, he is fond of perching on the topmost branch of a tree, but instead of thrilling the neighborhood with his sweet minstrelsy, he amuses himself in looking out for and catching flies. He seems filled with great envy and dislike of his highly gifted but homely cousin, for when one hap- pens to come near him, he immediately assails him, and is joined in this ugly behavior by all his tribe in sight. Un- like the mocking-bird, he is rarely if ever found alone, but in little companies of several; if not absolutely together, yet separated but a little distance apart. The mocking- bird loves the haunts of men, by whom he seems to know instinctively that he is beloved ; but this fellow avoids them, and is generally found remote from their dwellings, even far beyond the limits of civilization. I believe he TWO THOUSAN^D MILES IK TEXAS O^ HORSEBACK. 18? rarely ventures east of the Colorado ; and he seems almost exclusively a prairie bird, as I have not seen him in tlie timbered regions. A tree he loves, but it must be in the open prairie, from which he has a wide prospect. One of his favorite perches is a tall spike of grass, or slender reed, on which he delights to sit and rock in the wind. But unmusical and vicious as he is, nothing can be more grace- ful than this bird on the wing. He has a way of asc^d- ing high in the air, with an easy, gentle motion— again descending in curves or circles to his perch, as if wishing to show his fine plumage and tail to most advantage. He seems always merry and happy, except when the true mocking-bird approaches him, and then he is simply vil- lainous. Not All Bad. Hence, it is not all bad. The primitive baldness or rugged hairiness prevails, but frequently a smooth scope of table-land intervenes, covered with post-oak forest, and the rocks do not always clank. Eunning through these forests are numerous strips of black, fertile land, in slight depressions, thick with underbrush and luxuriant grass. These are favorite haunts of deer ; for in nearly all such I encounter them in squads and sometimes herds. They gaze at me a moment, then switch their tails and depart. These strips often contain hundreds of acres, and would doubtless produce grand crops^ of grain, but no plow has ever touched them. These table-lands, lying between granitic hiJls, invariably begin and terminate at hollows, down which a brook runs and frets over innumerable rocks, and generally hidden under an entanglement of vine and brush. The rocks here exposed are generally sandstone,* probably of Cambrian age. On the table-lands, if such they may be properly called, noticed a true boulder occasion- * Calciferous sandstone ? 188 TWO THOUSAND MILES 12^ TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. ally, but no protruding rock. Lonesome exceedingly. Begin to grow weary even with myseil Won't I break down before my tri}3 is ended ? A DisAPPOiKTMEKT. — The Old Shepherd. Finally, the sun was sinking in the west, when I saw the first indication of humanity since leaving Fredericks- burg. 'Twas in a dell that might by courtesy be called a valley. 'Twas a flock of a thousand or fifteen hundred Mexican sheep, under the leadership of an old man and two dogs. Having a mind to hear the sound of human voice, I rode up to the old man and addressed him; but he was a Mexican, and shook his head and said simply — ^' 7io e7itie7ido.^'* I felt discouraged, and discharged some ob- jurgations upon the barbarous ignorance of the Mexicans, who will not learn the language of the people they live among. It is the rarest thing to find one who can speak an English word, even among those who have been in con- tact with Americans thirty or forty years. I tried fre- quently in San Antonio to speak with old Mexicans, who looked as grizzly as the hills, but they always re- sponded with that everlasting 710 entiendo. While return- ing from that city to New Braunfels, I had as sole com- panion in the carriage, a splendid Mexican woman who seemed the queen of the race. She had an imposing physique and all the charms of full-blown womanhood. I felt a strong desire to eagage her in conversation, as it seemed becoming to do under the circumstances ; but she shut me up, on my first venture, with a musical — '^Yo no liablo Englcs, senor ;"f and I sank back to my corner of the coach, where I remained disconsolate during the rest of the trip, which occupied four hours. I believed that I never looked so like a fool in my life, and I am sure that I never felt so like a fool as I did on that occasion. There * '' I do not understand.'" + "I do not speak English, Sir. TWO THOUSAN"D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 189 we sat, face to face, two feet apart, but for all practical purposes the distance might have been a thousand. We occasionally looked at each other in a very silly way, and I fancied that she felt as stupid as myself. I was heartily glad when the journey ended. I fancied that I had a full foretaste of Plato's hell, which is to be plunged up to the ears in something that one ardently wants, and yet cannot get a taste of it. I have thought of this ad- venture a thousand times since, and wondered, had this lady and myself been forced to live alone together some months, how we would have got along, and what sort of language we would have formed. A compound of the best of the Spanish and the best of the English, would make a noble language indeed ; and I judge that is the sort of compound we would have made. I have thought also about the meaning of the first word we would mutually compound, but have arrived at no satisfactory conclusion in regard to it. The Mexicans of Texas are peculiar in this thick igno- rance of English, as nearly all other strangers learn it in a short time. The Americans themselves quickly pick up enough Spanish when thrown among the Mexicans, to get along with them very well, and even the negroes soon learn to talk it. I think this may be owing to the general dis- inclination of the Mexican to mental effort, and his con- tentment with stupidity ; but it may result partially from the toughness of our language. A young Mexican in San Antonio, who had been educated in Kentucky, said to me on this subject ; • * Many Mexicans read English and under- stand it well, but few try to speak it, because its pronuncia- tion is to them almost impossible. There is one language that a Mexican or Spaniard never can speak, unless bred to it from a child, and that is the French ; and after that comes the English. Many Mexican ladies in San Antonio speak English pretty well, but it fits their mouths so badly 190 TWO TilO'JSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. that they cannot be prevailed on to speak it before strangers. They prefer to be a sealed music- box." It was one of those sealed music- boxes, though a pretty big one, that I had with me on that trip. I wish I had had the key to unlock it. And the old shepherd may be a music-box, too. Possi- bly. And I ride on reflecting what an admirable chance he has to turn philosopher, if he only had the stuff in him. Nothing to do but to wander over these hills and along these vales from morn until dusk, often stopping for hours to bask on a sunny slope. If I should turn shepherd, me- thinks I would also turn poet, or philosopher, or historian, in spite of myself ; for how can one lead such a life with- out eternally reflecting and projecting? And yet I dare say that all the thoughts that well up in this old man's mind in a day, could they be collected and weighed, would not balance against a humming-bird's pin-feather. His life is probably a continuous sleep, and when it is ended there is a bunch of bones to tell that a man had been. This is dreary consolation. What is life without those thoughts that wander through eternity ? — without knowl- edge — without ambition — without the restless desire to accomplish good ? To die like a rock tossed into the sea, and leave not a lipple behind ! This is not life ; it is vegetation — the life of the weed on the prairie. When the weed has lived its time, it dies and leaves a humus to en- rich tl\e soil. So when man dies, he leaves his bones to crumble into phosphate of lime, which at last will become good solid rock, which the husbandman will quarry to en- rich his grounds, or the architect to erect into some wall. Thus we go on doing good in spite of ourselves; for thus nature designed us. BuEN Retiro. Sunset found me on an eminence from which a glori- ous green valley, from three to five miles in width, spread TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 191 out before me, winding among the rugged hills like a great river. Its banks are solid, precipitous walls of rock. Farm houses here and there look like white sails on the river, and a village in the distance seems a fleet at anchor. I descended the steep declivity and stopped at the village of Loyal Valley, thirty-five miles from Fredericksburg. 11. Loyal Valley. — The German^s an"d a Higher ClVILIZATIOiq^. THIS is exclusively a German settlement ; and here the conviction impresses me that the Germans as a colonizing race, excel the Americans or any other race. In Texas they have certainly pnshed forward and possessed exposed points, far in advance of the Americans. It is said of Goldsmith that he touched no subject that he did not adorn ; and it may be truly said of the Germans, that they touch no country which they do not fill with beauty, hap- piness, and wealth. They have two marked characteris- tics which eminently fit them for colonizing : their singu- larly social disposition, and their universally good, and often high education. This social nature makes them love to live in communities, and every member becomes an im- portant social factor, whose well-being is inseparably con- nected with the well-being of the whole; and every one labors as hard as he can to be esteemed and fill his part well in this social life. Their education makes them as- pire for a higher civilization ; indeed, it is but a higher civilization ; and they express it in making their homes attractive and beautiful. Thus, let them take hold of the wildest country, and it soon blossoms like the rose, and becomes the seat of prosperity and contentment ; in other words, it becomes " home, sweet home." They advance in force, and once possessed, they cannot be dispossessed. The American is more isolated in his character ; he likes to TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 193 stand upon his own bottom, without being rubbed against by neighbors, and hence scatters so badly that he cannot advance far into the wilderness, until the German communi- ties have preceded him and built bulwarks against savage incursions. Then he comes and locates his isolated farms. He does not set his heart upon them as a home, does not care to beautify them, as he has little taste in that direc- tion, and is prepared to pull up stakes and depart any time, if things do not go to suit. When the German stops, he is fully determined to make things suit him, and im- mediately goes to work to that end and accomplishes it. I notice that all the Germans here appear to speak English, and to prefer it to their own tongue. I remarked to the gentleman with whom I stopped, that I was sur- prised to see this in so isolated a German community. '^It is true," said he, *^ we are isolated, but we cannot tell how soon we may be inundated by Americans; and we want to be prepared for the flood wiien it comes. Besides, we often have Americans with us, and we should feel very awkward if we could not speak to them in their language. This is our home now, and we do not feel that we could be as good citizens as we want to be, unless we spoke our home language." I asked if the Germans learned English mostly by contact with Americans, or from books, '*By prac- ticing it," said he, ^^ among themselves, getting their start mostly from books." The more I see of the Germans, the more I think of them. They almost invariably have nice and happy homes, and always have something good to eat and drink. I am unable to say whether this latter is a cause or result of their high civilization ; but this is certain : a people who do not eat and drink well, are never of a high civilization ; and this will be noticed as niuch among private families as among" peoples and races. Poor, miserable, or coarse eating seems to dwarf the intellect and suppress every noble 9 194 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. aspiration of the heart. Thus, the Mexicans appear to live mainly upon onions and red pepper, and behold what a folk they are ! The Esquimaux lives mostly on oil and tallow, and behold him ! Tlie Hottentot lives mostly on squashes and pumpkins, and behold the thing that has the form of man ! I think it is very true that if you will find what a people put into their bellies, you will have no diffi- culty in judging what may be expected to come out of them in the way of character and talents. A Garden in a Wilderness. This is indeed a garden in a wilderness, a spot in w^hich one can linger and be happy. Here is a nursery in which sixty varieties of roses grow, and hundreds of the finest flora of three continents : sixty varieties of pear, forty of peach, and an army of apples, plums and grapes — all cul- tivated and arranged with taste and skill that cannot be excelled. It was curious to see such an industry in so isolated and remote a region ; and nothing could possibly indicate so well the higher civilization of the people of the valley, as the fact stated to me by the proprietor, that he had in them liberal and profitable customers. "I am sure,'*' said he, *'• that our valley will soon have as fine vine- yards, orchards and gardens as any country in the world, and I feel some little pride in the thought that it is I that am doing it." He held that people could not be happy and really blessed until they had vineyards and orchards ; in which view I heartily concurred. The proprietor is a German gentleman, of high educational attainments, and he is a blessing to Loyal Valley, and to remote regions bevond it. His liHit shines afar off.* The people of the valley are farmers, but all have their cattle, and some have herds of sheep. Wheat is the chief product. Their houses are stone, and often they have stone * Mr. J. O. Meusebach. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 195 fences, though timber is abundant. They said they were not annoyed by Indians, because they were so isolated, and kept but few horses to tempt them. '^They think we are too poor," said they, '^ to steal from." Physical Features. This valley is a very remarkable one ; insomuch that it greatly worried my studying cap. It is thirty or forty miles long, and as big where it begins as where it ends. It lies between solid stone walls, from one hundred and fifty to three hundred feet high, and is a true canyon. It has no running stream, but in place of it a channel with numerous deep pools. It seems to me that it is the bed of an ancient river, which might have flowed south- west, though its drainage is now in the opposite direction. It is either this, or the earth was disrupted by a great ex- plosion, leaving a vast chasm three to five miles in width, which has been gradually filling up by silt from the higher land ; or the bottom must have sunken and fallen to its present pitch. But whatever cause may have produced it, it is certainly one of the most charming regions of Texas. The soil is black and very fertile, and groves of live-oak occur at short intervals. The walls appear to be of Silurian age, and consist of limestone as far as I noticed them. How ONE Feels when He cannot tell which End TO Take. Rising above the wall, I rode through a fine forest of post-oak and black-jack, in which deer and squirrels swarmed. A remarkable strip of exceedingly rich, land with its jungle alive with these animals, tempted me to stray into it. When I turned out of it, I pursued the general direction of the road I had left, hoping to strike it obliquely after a time. I was checked up a while by a ravine, which seemed to wind in every possible direc- 196 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. tion. so that after crossing it three or four times, I was still unable to say on which side I was. In this singular }30sition I got so completely wrapped np that I hardly knew my head from a shot-gun, but finally struck out on a course which seemed to be correct. I rode into a flock of peccaries which immediately bristled up and commenced popping their jaws. Wishing to provoke them to see ^v]v.it they would do, I rode slowly toward them, while they stood hoofing and popping, and seizing a piece of dead branch, threw it in their midst, at the same time call- ing them an ugly name. They charged me instantly, raising an infernal noise, and my horse taking fright, dashed through the woods at wild speed, my head being in great danger of being shorn off by a limb. I was unable to stop him until we reached another ravine, at least a quarter of a mile from where we bounced the peccaries, and here I found myself again confused. However, I got myself straight at last, or thought I did, and rode on until I found the road; but was totally unable to say whether my course lay to the right or left. It was the road un- doubtedly, but which end was which ? I was seized with a feeling of drivelling idiocy, in which I seemed not to have a vestige of mind left. I felt like a piece of dry sponge, to be blown about by the winds ; I had a most dis- tressing sense of idiocy. My horse seemed to be even a bigger fool, and I appealed to him in vain to show me the way — he insisting that I should show him. Finally I re- covered sense enough to recollect that I had a compass in my coat pocket. This was tied behind the saddle, and I had sense enough to nndo the bundle. The way the com- pass indicated I should go, now seemed all wrong, but I pursued it and by degrees my senses returned, and I found I was right. If any one has been in similar circumstances, he will remember what an exceeding drivelling idiocy he felt. If I fall into such condition again, having no com- TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 197 pass, I will lie down to sleep until the idiocy has passed. I have seen wild geese frequently attacked by the same sort of stupidity, while on their annual passage. During the occultation they sail around in circles, now this way and then that way, until they appear to have gone utterly crazy, and iSnally settle on the ground in a state of ex- haustion and desperation. The Compass and Aurora. And right here I cannot but think of the vast results that have sprung from the discovery of that singular law of nature which attracts the needle toward the pole. What multitudes has it saved from idiocy and starvation, and what revolutions and achievements have followed in its wake ? The discovery of no other thing has wrought such vast results to mankind ; for without it, this great constellation of States would not exist. The space cov- ered by them would still be a wilderness, tenanted by beasts and savages ; the seas would be almost as sail- less as those that covered the primeval world, and civiliza- tion would never have lighted its torch beyond Europe and the shores of Asia. It is probable that civilization would finally have been extinguished, and the beneficent influences of Christianity died with it in its cradle. The natural law under which this strange attraction exists, is, to my mind, an unexplained mystery, like the beautiful Aurora which lifts its gaudy curtains over the pole. Per- haps it is the Aurora that- has charmed the needle, and makes it always look to behold it. I see in them another evidence of the Grand Architect, who finds beautiful and mysterious ways to lead us to his work. It is remark- able that His ways are all of infinite beauty. He unfolded the gaudy curtains of Aurora, and behold, the needle leapt up to it and points tremblingly to it forever ; and all the seas immediately became white with sails, and Christianity 198 TWO THOUSAIn'D miles in TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. and civilization went forth hand in hand to illumine all the dark places of the world ! Little instrument, what a revolution has been that caused by thee ! The stars sang together when thou wert born ! Ruin. — The Young Geologist. Passed out of the forest into a congeries of terrific hills ; black, brown, and grey ; some misshappen and jagged, and others leaning over abysses, as if contemplating the ruin below them. Here the volcanic forces thundered, ripped up the bowels of the earth, tossed the ancient strata hither and thither, and poured out their molten floods. It is a seat of confusion almost unequalled — '^ of desolation lorn and wild." The rocks are granite, gneiss, porphyry, masses of quartz, slates, agates, and glittering micaceous sandstones. Some of the mountains are split into halves and quarters, and the detached portions thrown into chasms and gorges at their feet, in immense piles of ruin. The disturbances here must have been of long continu- ance often repeated. The older granite is upheaved and pierced by new discharges of granite, and the strati- fled rocks are tossed upward and pitched downward in every conceivable direction ; sometimes lying across each other in promiscuous heaps, like piles of fagots thrown to- gether by urchins for a bonfire. The date of these dis- turbances is probably back in the Silurian, and this for- saken region has lain in ruin ever since. It was above the surface when the great tidal wave swept from the north- west, for its boulders are strewn from the foot of the hills to Loyal Valley. This is the sanctum sanctorum of the young geologist — a retreat in which his devotions to science would rarely be disturbed. Let him put this country together again, as it was before the tumultuous central fires tossed it into atoms, and he will have learned it all. He might build a little TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 199 palace of agates of all colors, or micaceous sandstones tliat sparkle of silver, supported on pillars of porphyry, and adorned with chambers of quartz crystal. Or if he be not architecturally inclined, I doubt not he could find some glorious grotto under the hills, spangled with crystal and gems, where he and his nymph might revel in the luxury of love and learning ; for surely he would not be without a nymph. Would not such a residence with some fairy of these grottoes be charming ? With her wand she might bring him honey from the hills, or sparkling wine from the fountains in the rock, and he could sip ambrosia from her lips. Perhaps with that same wand she might touch his forehead, making his mind gush with brilliance, before which the clouds that cover the mystery of creation would be instantly dispelled •? Would it not be passing sweet to be taught, in such a place, science from the female lips and eyes of a young fairy ? Child of science — here is thy home ! Come hither — hasten hither ! 11. There are no pretty little vales winding amid these ruins of the Silurian world. There are vales, but they are strewn with boulders that have thundered from the hills. The road winds amid the ruins like a ship tacking against a contrary wind ; now hither, now thither, but ever urging slowly ahead. I would not give three cents for ten square miles of this country, except as a school of science. III. The Froktiersmak. — The War of the Sheafs an^d Horns. I HAD loitered so much that darkness was on me the moment I emerged ont of the chaos into the valley of the river Llano, only twenty-three miles from Loyal Valley. I solicited entertainment at a small stone house — the first I had seen since morning — and it was accorded. My en- tertainer was a robust old man, as grizzly as the granite promontories, and in person quite as rugged. His face and lips were covered with a stiff greybeard, his head shingled, so that the crisp hair stuck upward like the quills of a por- cupine, and his waist and shoulders were Atlantean. He was evidently sixty years of age or beyond, but it was equally evident that he still retained the strength of a lion ; and that he would use it as a lion, should occasion make it at all necessary, no one could look upon him and doubt. His steel-grey eyes denoted caution and resolution ; in short, he looked like a man bred to rough things, and to the control of them, not courting danger, and the last to avoid it when it comes. He was of few words, and those straight to the point. He manifested the profoundest in- difference as to who I was or what was my business. I endeavored once or twice to pique his curiosity on these points, but he pushed it off. He treated me with all be- coming politeness, but no familiarity. He received me as a stranger, and was evidently resolved that I should depart as one. The poise of the old man was so perfect that it TWO TH0USA2!q"D MILES IK TEXAS OJ^ KORSEBACK. 201 sometimes seemed to me almost burlesque. When he came out to meet me at the gate he had a book in his hand, which I afterwards learned was the poems of Robert Burns. It was about the last book I would have expected to see in his hands, and it caused me to gaze at him with all the more wonder. This county of Mason has the most evil reputation in Texas for dark deeds. Indeed, until latterly, war prevailed in it: neighbor shooting down neighbor as he would a wolf or hyena, and the law was a dead letter. I asked this man of few words what was the cause of this, not doubting that he had had his share in it. He said' the quarrel arose be- tween the farmers and stock-men, the latter being all Americans, and the former nearly all Germans. The farmers were too lazy or too negligent to build substantial fences about their fields, and the cattle broke in and de- stroyed their crops. The farmers, instead of making their fences strong, undertook to protect their crops by shooting their neighbors' cattle. It was useless to appeal to the law for redress or to correct the evil, for the small farmers greatly preponderated and would control all juries. To retaliate and repair the loss, the stock-men drove off the few cattle the farmers had, and sold them. This opened the warfare, and some thirty of the citizens were shot, some of them in the presence of their families. The usu- ally peaceful German was as ready to pull trigger as any- one, and from all I could learn from the old man, shared about equally with the Americans in the dark deeds. Mine host was evidently a partisan of the stock-men, and for all I know, one of their leaders. He remarked : " I hope it is all over. Enough blood has been shed to bring a bad name on our county, and satisfy all that no good can come in that way. There has been no shooting for sometime past. It is all with the farmers to stop this thing or continue it. If they continue to shoot our cattle for 9* 202 TWO THOUSAND MILES IIT TEXAS OIT HORSEBACK. breaking into their fields, which have no proper fences, the feud will go on, and no one knows where it will end. Let them build good fences or quit farming, and there will be peace. And there is no excuse for not building good fences where stone and timber abound. I am no farmer ; at least, that is not my trade, but I have strong fences about my fields, which no animal can break through. Why cannot they have the same ? If my fences were poor, I should expect my neighbors' cattle to break into my fields ; but the fault would be mine, not my neighbor's, and I would have no right to shoot his cattle — much less to shoot him."* * Mason county is now one of the most quiet in the State, and has been for some months. The feud between the cattle-men and farmers has ended, and per- manent peace seems to reign. III. SOFTEKED. A SHUCK mattress to him who rides over these mountains is sweeter than a bed of roses to the voluptuary. I have tested both, and I know. Venison and fresh trout from the Llano formed a conspicuous fea- ture of my breakfast, flanked by eggs, and cake and honey. Asking for my bill, the response was: *^I do not keep hotel ; you owe me nothing ; if you pass this way again, I will be pleased to have you stop." So much for this rugged old frontiersman, who loves Burns, and would probably not step round the corner to avoid any danger, whether from wild beasts, savages, or farmers who shoot his cattle. His most polite words were his last. I was not surprised at- his excellent degree of civilization after seeing how well he fed. River Llaxo. River Llano sparkles with almost Comal limpidity, and carries about that bulk of water. From its source to its mouth in the Colorado, it is perpetually singing or roaring over cascades ; sometimes creeping along silently a few hundred yards through deep chasms. Like Niagara, it has quarried its way through miles of solid rock, but the material it has labored in is infinitely harder, being mostly granite, gneiss, quartz, and massive iron. Occa- sionally the volcanic forces have come to its assistance, rending the obstructing rock and lifting it apart in per- pendicular walls. It is alive with perch, trout, eels and big-eyed, blue cat-fish, which take the hook eagerly, and 204 TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. it is one of the most delightful retreats in the world for the sportsman. He may play Isaac Walton to his heart's content in its waters, and Nimrod on its banks, its forest and mountainous recesses, and the scenery is always beau- tiful or grand. Should he' wish occasionally to turn phi- losopher and study nature, its infinitely varied rocks and gems and minerals furnish studio and laboratory on every hand. For a water-power, I doubt if there is a river in the world, of no greater size and length, that is its equal. And yet not one ten-thousand-millionth of this enormous power is utilized. Its valley is usually about a mile wide, but often the elevations bathe their bases in its water on both sides. Its soil is of a reddish cast, derived from granite and porphyry, not so fertile as the valleys of most Texas streams, but yields abundantly of grain. It has this splendid advan- tage : there is hardly a foot of it that may not be irrigated with little cost of labor or money ; but, as easy as irriga- tion is, the people have little or none of it. They are mainly engaged in stock, and make agriculture a third- rate matter. The valley is thinly settled with a hospita- ble people. I notice that many of the ladies can walk bare- footed over rocks and pedrigals, and seem to prefer this way of locomotion. It is unnecessary to go beyond this fact to learn what their husbands are. The latter wore six-shooters and buckskin, and were bronzed and rugged. I imagine that few of them would stop to contemplate a daisy or tulip, or even a big sun-flower. They are Cossacks. * IV. Eode up the valley. Beautiful region; the dark Primi- tive hills across the river to the left ; the smooth valley * I wish to be understood thattliis remark is meant only for the lords of those ladies who walk barefooted over rocks. TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 205 before me, dotted with noble groves of live-oak, and ele- vated and smooth or njidulating woodlands to tlie right, covered with open forests of live-oak and post-oak, and occasional prairie lawns between. Eich mesquite grew everywhere. The timber on the river bank is mostly pecan, elm and ash. Air delightful. Elevation two thou- sand feet above the sea. White farmhouses at wide dis- tances basking in the sun-light. Fort Mason. — A Surprise. Some ten miles brought me to the capital of Mason County. It is a site that is all beauty. It sits on a lofty prairie, with a noble prospect of great circumference. To • him who approaches it, it seems a new Mecca, with its white walls and green foliage ; and when he enters It the pleasing impression is not dispelled. It is a village of seven or eight hundred people, whose houses are granite and other stones, and many of them are spacious and fine. This is the characteristic of all the stores, and they are numerous and carry large stocks. In- such a region I was surprised at such architecture and such wealth of com- merce. The conviction at once seized me that these people are of much greater population than I had supposed, and all rich. In the first conviction I was wrong, for I was assured that the entire population of the county did not exceed two thousand, spread over a thousand square miles of territory. In the latter I was right, for the merchants told me that they all have plenty of money, and spend it liberally for everything except dress. We have tried, said they, to introduce dressy notions, but not even the ladies will take to tliem. Said one : Were it not for the winter northers and summer heats, I believe all sorts would pre- fer the original dress — a good coat of skin and hair. It is not strange that men in such a region, and of such occu- pation, should care nothing for dress, except as covering 206 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. from thorns and weather; but the ladies shouhi do better. It would have a mollifying and subduing and an elevating influence on their lords, who need it. They should beau- tify and adorn themselves, and spikenard themselves for their lions. I doubt if the most ferocious and savage in the world could long remain uncivilized, if subjected to the influences of a sensible and tastily dressed lady, par- ticularly if she would sing. As for myself, I regard music and female beauty as the most powerful forces in the world. They need only to be exerted to create revolutions. Man was not made to withstand such influences. In the midst of all this attractiveness, there is one great harshness. The men, excepting those who live in the village, are walking arsenals. They bristle with pis- . tols, blades and rifles, and their heels clank with prodigious spurs. The village looked as if it had been entered by a regiment of Cossacks, and was strongly suggestive, on that account, of force, bloodshed and robbery. Yet these arse- nals bore themselves with courtesy to all, and I heard no harsh voices and saw no demonstrative demeanor even in the drinking saloons, which I also visited. They evidently solicit no quarrels, but seem to be ever on the alert, and being in them, blood would flow. A gentleman among them would be as secure and as hospitably cared for as anywhere in the world ; but still, all of this is disagreeable to see. The Tamed Lion and the Wild One. I dined at an inn, and was waited upon by a bright little miss of fifteen or sixteen summers, who was a sweet little chatter-box. I told her I did not like the Mason people, with their pistols and big blades. "Oh, they are horrid," said she. "I am sometimes so fjightened in the dining-room, when they are all at the table, that I can hardly handle the dishes ; and if I am asked for sugar and TWO TH0USA:N-D miles IK TEXAS 05q- HORSEBACK. 207 pies, I am just as apt to give them pepper and beef. Sup- pose one of those great pistols should full on the floor ; it might go off and kill me ! But the gentlemen are mighty well-behaved, at least when they are here. But oh, those terrible pistols and knives ! I wish there were none in the world." " Do they wear their pistols and knives when they at- tend weddings and balls ? " " Yes, sir, they do ; but they don't always dance with them on." " Would you dance with a gentleman wearing a pistol or bowie-knife ?" ^*No, sir, I would not. I have refused to dance with many a gentleman because he had on his pistol, and I told them so." '' How did they take that ? " '^ They said I was right, and they always took them off." *' You think then, you could tame one of these fierce lions ? " * a could try!" *^ Which would you prefer — a wild, fierce lion whom you could tame, or a gentle one, already tamed ? " '•^Mav be the tame one would be tamed too much ! " " So, if two lions should besiege your castle, one wild and the other tame, you would unbar the gates and let the wild one in." '^ Oh I would not let either of them in. I would set the dogs on them and drive them off.". But this was spoken with a coquettish laugh which showed too plainly that the wild one might enter, and the tame one could go on and fare worse. Such are female hearts. Being gentle themseh^es, they rather admire the ungentle. A sub-lieu- tenant with a copious array of buttons, is a thousand times more formidable in the eyes of average young women than -208 TWO THOUSAND MILES I;N^ TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. a whole army of bishops and monks. I was charged fifty- cents for my dinner and horse-feed. The viands were in- finitely good. There were venison and wild tnrkey, and a glorions array of wild honey. Mason is snrrounded with farms, some of them very handsome and showing high tillage. The products are almost exclusively wheat and corn. R. E. Lee. Not far from the town, near the road I travel, stand the ruins of Fort Mason, a military post before the war, but now abandoned. Here for a long time dwelt Robert E. Lee, a lieutenant-colonel in a regiment of U. S. Cav- alry. Albert Sidney Johnston was his colonel, but then commanded on the Pacific coast. The people delight to speak of him and tell how he visited their houses. They say he was the most courteous, simplest and purest of men, with native dignity, gentle and unobtrusive, yet singularly commanding. A lady said to me:* '^'He was full of affa- bility and small talk to the ladies, but none of us could be in his presence a moment without the instinctive feeling that one of the greatest of men was before us." A gen- tleman once remarked to me : " I never saw General Lee but once, but he made an impression upon me^I cannot forget. He was standing upon the gallery of the govern- ment building in San Antonio, watching a squad of infan- try that were being drilled by a lieutenant. His appear- ance was so impressive that I stopped to look at him and ask who he was. There was a remarkable repose about him, singularly in contrast with the group of officers about him. He seemed a column of antique marble, a pillar of state — so calm, so serene, so thoughtful, and so command- ing ! I stood within a few feet of him, perhaps five min- utes, and during the time he did not once open his lips. The conviction possessed me at once, and I said involun- * In San Antonio. TWO THOUSAND MILES I:N' TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 209 tarily to myself : 'There stands a great man!' At that time the idea of the States at war with each other had never crossed my mind. After the war had broken out and I had heard that Lee had been appointed to a high command in the southern army, I said to a major of the U. S. army, who knew him well, that I believed he would turn out the greatest figure of the war. The major said : ' Give Lee a city and tell him to fortify and defend it, and it never will be captured. But give him a command in the open field, and he will prove a failure. He will prove too slow, too cautious, too methodical. The bad man of this war will be Albert Sidney Johnston — not Lee ! ' I said — • * wait and we will see ! ' And the terrible battles in the open field against McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, Meade and Grant, doubly and trebly out-numbered as he Avas, proved that my involuntary exclamation when I saw him, was prophetic. The fame of this man'^ military ge- nius will grow bi-ighter as the ages advance, and generals will study his campaigns to learn how to fight." And I will add that the people of the North will, as time advances, feel quite as much pride in the genius and deeds of Lee as the people of the South. The names of Wallace and Bruce are to-day heard as pleasantly along the banks of the Thames as in the Scottish Highlands. Time and Death are terrible things to prostrate men's prejudices. The gem may be obscured, but it shines nevertheless, and its light bursts forth after a while. The Wilderness ai^d the Live-oak. A few miles from Mason the settlements totally disap- pear, and I am again in the wilderness, but it is a ^vilder- ness of beauty — so beautiful that it seems strange that in this populous world it should be a wilderness. The land flows in green undulations, here and there rising into a solitary mountain, and here and there into groups of moiin^ 210 TWO THOUSAN"D MILES IN" TEXAS ON" HOESEBACK. tains ; wide belts of timber ever in sight, and the prairies laid off into parks of live-oak : the soil always rich. The live-oaks are the grandest specimens I have seen of that tree, and they look as if the ancient centuries had waved their wings above them. Some are sixty feet high, with branches reaching outward nearly an equal distance from the trunks. Sometimes these branches incline -downward until they quite touch the ground, forming shady recesses like the tent of a circus, their dark evergreen, glistening foliage serving for the tent-cloth. This is perhaps the hardest, toughest, heaviest and most durable of woods. Let one be seasoned, and then attempt to cut it with an axe: ^^hic opus, hie labor est. ^'' I have seen the strong- est man strike it the heaviest bloAv that he could, and the only token was a sharp, metallic ring and the rebound of the axe. It is so compact that in the fire it burns like an- thracite. A decayed live-oak perhaps no man ever saw, and its growth, from its compactness and hardness, must be infinitely prolonged. I have never seen the man who could say: "I knew this live-oak when it was a sapling." I doubt not that many of these before me are a thousand years old. Its acorns are abundant, and make an excellent food for bears and hogs. The botanists say that this tree grows only in the "maritime or low districts of the Southern States." Here it attains its most splendid development, three hundred miles inland, and at an elevation at least two thousand feet above the sea ! So much for those who write botany at home ! A Gentleman in Distressed Circumstances. The country was so gloriously beautiful that I chose to loiter by the way. I was sitting on the bank of one of those Peri-haunted brooks of Mason, chewing a little dried beef and watching the trouts like a bevy of boys and girls TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 211 playing in the water, wLen quite a little incident befell me. which certainly I could not have expected in this soli- tary region of beauty. I beheld descending the long slope which led into the valley of the brook, a solitary red dog trotting along the road toward me, with his head to the ground. Wheu within fifty yards, he suddenly halted, and looking around perceived me. For some moments he stood motionless, gazing upon me as if he felt astonished to see a human being in this region. Presently he dropped his hind-quarters deliberately to the ground, and com- menced gazing more intently than before. I thought he was the advance courier of some stock-man or train, and expected every moment to see a horseman or wagon ap- pear on the hill. But none appearing, I began to feel quite as much interest in the stranger as he evidently felt in me. I called him: "Come, Towser!" No response. "Come on, old fellow ! " A wag of the tail. These invi- tations repeated several times, he at last rose from his haunches and began to approach me cautiously and indeci- sively, and again placed himself on his hind-quarters when about twenty yards off. Here he sat intently gazing, as if resolving some extremely doubtful but interesting prob- lem in his mind, lifting his ears and wagging his tail when I addressed him, but never budging an inch. At last I held out a long strip of dried beef, inviting him to come and partake, at the same time taking an occasional bite of it myself, and chewing it in a manner to indicate to him that it was very good. A breeze just then wafted a savory odor into his nostrils, which was more than he could stand; for he immediately began to advance and did not stop until he was within ten feet of me, when he again planted him- self upon his hind-quarters and gazed, first on me, then on the strip of beef — then on the strip of beef, and then on me. He was a sight to behold — a sight to startle the blood 212 TWO THOUSAND MILES IIT TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. with amazemeni, and to chill it with horror. He was a walking, animated death, in all save his eager eyes, in which a dozen lives seemed concentrated, and gleamed with an unearthly fire. He reminded me so much of the horrid pictures which used to harrow up my young blood in child- hood days, in an old book in my father's library, called " Death's Doings," that I was stricken with awe, and felt a shadow of superstition creeping over me. Yet the gleam of those eyes, eager and fiery as they were, was not savage or cruel ; it seemed the light of other and more prosperous days gleaming through a present of the profoundest dreari- ness and sorrow. Every rib and every angle of his frame was shockingly protuberant. His belly was so pinched up that I thought his entrails had withered away and turned into dust. His skin stuck around him so closely that it seemed that the poor bones would break under the pres- sure, and fall, in rattling fragments, into the dry cavity. The hair had mostly fallen off, and appeared only here and there in meagre patches. His legs were scarcely bigger than pipe-stems, and looked utterly incompetent to bear even the fragile form above them. His tail was but a black, rusty, hairless prolongation of skin and bone. In short, he was the very shadow of desolation. How such a creature as this had the vitality to walk, much less to trot, I could not comprehend. I said to myself, this surely is a gentleman in reduced circumstances, waited by some mer- ciful zephyr into my presence, that I may do him good and thus honor myself. I gave him a strip of dried beef, and as he took it, not ravenously, but modestly, into his jaws, I positively saw a cx'ystal tear of gratitude course down his poor cheeks. He squatted on the ground, on his belly, at full length, and holding the jerked beef between his two paws, ate. Gi'ateful as was this luscious morsel to his poor palate, he did not forget in his enjoyment the benefactor to whom he owed it. Ever and anon while. chewing it-, he TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OH^ HORSEBACK. 213 cast upon me a look of singular tenderness, which affected me very much — insomuch that I took out of my haversack the last morsel of dried beef that I had, and placed it be- fore him, bidding him to eat heartily, to eat it all. I can remember but few scenes in my life which gave me so much genuine satisfaction as the contemplation of the intense joy which fortune had enabled me to bestow upon this poor dog. After he had consumed the last strip of dried beef, I also gave him my entire stock of hard-tack, which he also ate with great enjoyment. Having finished the last cracker and. licked up the crumbs that had fallen to the ground, he went to the brook and drank heartily, drank deeply, and then came and placed his poor head upon my knee, as if he would say — " Whither thou goest, I will go." In consideration of the mighty strength which I fancied had once dwelt, and might still lurk, within his poor frame, I named him ''The Quadrilateral." Whence came this poor waif and what was he ? Recollecting that if I would not sleep in the woods or on the solitary prairie, I must be up and going, I mounted my horse and moved onward. Here my reduced friend again startled me. He arose also, and full of joyous ex- pressions, galloped and curvetted all around me. 1 was amazed, wondering how such merriment and such activity could inhabit that poor body. I advised hi;n to be cautious and moderate in his merriment, lest he should hurt him- self. He followed me along, trotting gaily by my side, several miles. Toward sunset he suddenly galloped some distance in advance of me, and turned oil to the right of the road and stopped; and resting on his haunches, he looked straight at me. Riding past him, he still did not move, but sat look- ing wistfully upon me. When I had passed him about a hundred yards, he turned repeatedly to look to the right and then upon myself, as if he would invite me to go in 214 TWO THOUSAI^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. that direction. Seeing that I did not stop, presently he came galloping toward me, but instead of continuing to follow when he overtook me, he stopped again and looked to the right. As I rode on I called him, but he did not come. After watching me some time, he gave a low bark, and departed as rapidly as his poor bones could carry him, fortified as they were with all my dried beef and hard- tack, over the undulating hills to the North. Finally, as he rose upon one hill and I upon another, a quarter of a mile apart, he again stopped and gazed upon me, but when I rode onward, he lifted his head in the air and poured forth a piteous howl and immediately disappeared under the hill. And that was the last that I saw of my reduced friend. Quadrilateral. I said : '' And wilt thou thus leave me, Quadrilateral ? And wilt thou thus abandon thy benefactor, who has fattened thee on all his dried beef and crackers ? Alas, such is the way of the world ; and thy nature is but human nature after all !" I put it up that he belonged to some frontiersman, liv- ing perhaps not far off in the valley of the San Saba, whom he had followed on a trip; and some cruel accident or severe sickness befalling him, he had retired into a thicket to die of starvation or recover his health unaided, as best he could. Having in some measure recovered his health, he was now struggling to bear his poor bones home. In- deed, I thought it was somewhat ungrateful in my reduced friend, after the great benefit I had bestowed upon him, to leave me thus alone in a strange, wild country ; but I haven't a doubt that it cost him a cruel pang to do so. And did he not, in the best way he knew how, kindly in- vite me to his home ? As he stood motionless upon that last hilL I doubt not that he was debating within himself whether it was better to abandon his benefactor thus, or to return to his old friends at his old home. I dare say he thought of some bright-eyed boys and girls, his master's TWO THOUSAND MILES l'^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 215 children, who had wept bitter tears over his loss, and he thought how happy those bright eyes would be to see him again — how they would pat him on the head with joy, and fill him with raw beef and venison ! And it may be that a thought also stole across his mind, that however kind the stranger had been to him in his distress, yet he might not like his company always, and he knew that the bright- eyed boys and girls would always like it. These reflec- tions were enough to decide his mind, and I cannot blame him. T hope that he may always be prosperous and happy, and remember me as I shall remember him. Perliaps without me he would not have reached his home, and felt the intense joy that I know he felt when he reached it ; but however that may be, I know that I did him good, and it is a sweet thought to know that. I had made up my mind that he might follow me as long as he chose, and be- lieved that he might render me service in the wild country through which I am to pass. Night. The shades of a moonless and cloudy night fall upon me, and I wander alone over the wild, beautiful country. I fancy that I feel like a lonely mariner on a sea of which he has no chart — whose frail craft may be driven at any moment on some fatal rock. How do I know that I may not ride at any moment into a squad of murderous sav- ages, or a company of ferocious beasts ? It is easy enough to ride alone through thes^ wildernesses in daylight^ when one has all nature before hjm to keep him company and divert his mind ; but at night it is a different matter. Then the mind recoils back upon you and hangs doggedly around, refusing to scale the black walls which encompass you. Then it is that " Darkness visible Serves only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades." 216 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. Every sound that yon hear sends your fingers to your pistol or rifle ; every Indian atrocity you ever heard of flits through your mind, and you think of wild beasts with great, gaping mouths. And suppose I should lose the trail and strike out, Heaven knows whither, on the bound- less plains, with nothing in my haversack, and not a match to light a fire. On I speed, my horse picking up his hoofs faster and faster, unable to see ten paces before me, the laughing owl mocking me from almost every tree, and the big wolf howling sometimes so close that I feel the vibra- tions in the atmosphere caused by his voice. Sometimes a night-bird of some diminutive species flits so closely to my ear that it sounds like tlie whiz of a poisoned arrow aimed at my heart. Three hours I speed along till I enter what appears an illimitable range of mountains. Tlie stones clank under my horse's feet, and I can see the big black outlines loom- ing up against the leaden sky. The clouds are growing darker, and a thick mist puffs up into my face from the gorges and chasms. Now, say I to myself, I am in for an all night ride, for if I would stop, where can I find a rest- ing place on these sharp rocks ? ^ ^ ^ •!• T» H* The Queen and the Lily. A half dozen big dogs barked and growled furiously around us, but my horse was not afraid of them in the least — neither was I. Had my reduced friend Quadrilate- ral been here, how quickly they would have crushed his poor bones into atoms ! I called aloud, and presently a light appeared through the openings of a log-house. The next moment a strong man, bearing a lantern, stood before me. I said : " I am a wayfarer who would ask for rest to-night for myself and horse." ** You are welcome, sir," said the man with the lan- tern, '' if you can put up with such as we can give you." TWO THOUSAND MILES IN^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 217 He opened the gate and bade me ride in. He led. to a barn, where my horse was placed in comfortable quarters. Then I was conducted into the house, and a bright fire soon glowed on the hearth. I looked at my watch, and it was a quarter past eleven o'clock. He asked me from what point I had travelled. I told him and he said, '^It is a long day's ride. You must be hungry as well as tired." In truth I was hungry, but I said: '* Never mind about that, sir. I am content to-night with lodging, I can well wait till morning for my supper." ^^Oh, no," said he; *' one who has been out all day should have some supper. I know what it is myself." This was so promptly spoken, and there was withal so much good man and sincerity about it, that I made no further objection. The frontiersman stepped to a room adjoining the one in which I sat, and standing in the door, said : '' Girls, rise and get this gentleman some supper." He then went into another room and seemed to busy him- self in making a fire. While he was out, I observed the room. The house was built of logs, but it was commo- dious and scrupulously neat. . Along the walls were a number of bucks' antlers, so arranged that they served as shelves for several rifles and shot-guns, and from some of them hung flask's and pouches of powder and ball. The furniture was of the modest sort ; one or two plain tables and chairs with raw-hide bottoms. Rather a costly clock clicked from the mantel-piece, and several books were ranged upon it, mostly devoted to subjects connected with rural life. There was some evidence of female taste and hands in the numerous pictures along the walls, some of which had been cut from pictorial weeklies. Notwith- standing this unpretentious residence and its meagiT furni- ture, there was something that seemed to say that the air of a higher civilization rested about it. My host soon returned. He was certainly not a showy - 10 218 TWO THOUSAI^D MILES lif TEXAS Ois HOKSEBACK. man. His vizage was bronzed, his hands rough and pow- erful, and his whole appearance showed that his life was passed mostly out of doors, in strong physical exercise. Yet his bearing was that of a gentleman, and it was easy to perceive that he was a man of sense and some scholar- ship. He spoke pure English, and put the words pat in their place, and there was sometimes even a little sus- picion of the stronger poets about them. I said to myself: ** This is the style of man to subdue the wilderness and make it blossom : vigor of body with vigor and some grace of mind." And yet, I had as yet seen none of the blos- som, but only perceived a faint suspicion of it. I said again : " This is either a column of marble transported out of place, or it is a phenomenon amid rocks and bram- bles." I asked him if he was engaged in agriculture ? ^' Not much," said he ; '' only enough to furnish ourselves, and a little for those who may be passing. Our country is noble for agriculture, but we are too remote to make it our business. What we raise must be able to transport it- self on its own legs. I make my living by the copulation of my bulls and cows." That other quotation from the same play immediately flashed upon my mind : '^ Good sooth, she is the queen of curds and cream ! " — and it was prophetic. Two Surprises. Two girls now entered the room and passed into an adjoining one, both casting a look upon me as they passed. That was the kitchen, for my nostrils were presently sa- luted with the pleasing odor of cooking rations. Soon one returned and spread a white cloth on a table at my side, other articles of table-ware quickly following. This girl was about fifteen or sixteen, and a blonde. So fair was she that I could see the blue veins, like little *^ rivers run- ning through a field of snow." A wealth of fair locks fell TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 219 over her shoulders unrestrained, save by a single little rib- bon. Her eyes were blue, like the bJue-bird's egss I used to rifle from the nests when a boy. Sylph-like, not fragile, she looked as if she had done nothing all her life but laugh in shaded gardens or dance in marble halls. To say thlit she was pretty would simply be to say that the queen rose is so. Her beauty was of that style which seems to be ever mviting pursuit, yet ever fleeing when the pursuit begins. Love was in her soft eyes and in all her motions. How could this apparition be but a surprise in this deep wil- derness ? I said to myself : ^^ This is the Lily : this is the nymph of the lilies ! " I thought it strange that this fair creature should be the daughter of this gnarled sire. And yet have I not written him down as a column of mar- ble transported out of place ? The chips that fall from a column of marble must needs be marble. She returned to the kitchen and brought out plate after plate of smoking viands. Then came her sister, bearing a pot of coffee. This sister was the opposite of the Lily: she was all that is beautiful contrasted sharply with all that is beautiful. She was not a brunette : just a shade less fair than her blonde sister, but her hair was of the glossy blackness of the raven's wings, falling in a profusion of ringlets. Her eyes sparkled with a brilliancy • of black- ness. Her features were of the Grecian cast, and as reg- ular as if they had been chiselled by an artist. She was much taller than her sister ; so much so as to be imposing, and her movements were all grace. How could this but be a surprise to me ? Two sisters of the same father and mother, and yet so markedly unlike, except in the beauty that marked them both : the beauty of each being the best of its class ! This shows the various fountains °from which our multitudinous American race descended : the Lily from the pure font of Saxon, and her sister from the pure font of Norman, and each the purest and best of her 220 TWO THOUSAND MILES II^" TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. line. As she moved before me so majestically, I said : *'This is the Queen I" I took her age to be about nineteen. I do not know the names of the various parts of the female dress, or the materials of which they are composed, and I am therefore lost when I come to one. Suffice it to say that each wore a neat and tasty pattern suited to the houseliold, and a bright yellow apron in front. Each wore a single plain ring, and there were no diamonds pendent from their ears. Perhaps their diamonds are in their hearts and lips. For a moment I found myself debating within myself — which of these two sisters would I take, if I could take either ? — and I concluded that I would take both, or either if the other were away. The frontiersman brought my mind back by asking me to be seated at the table, and the Queen sat in front of me to wait on the stranger. The Lily sat in a corner, as if musing to herself and saying : ^^He who would take me must come for me, and I will hide when he comes." I made apology to the Queen for disturbing her at so late an hour. *^0h, sir, don't mind that. We are always pleased to assist travellers, and we see them so rarely. Sometimes for a month we do not see any one but our few neighbors." Paterfamilias amused himself by reading a newspaper, and the Queen and I chatted gaily as I partook of the bountiful repast. She was as easy and ready as any lady I ever met in the parlors of the great cities, and more attractive ; for, besides her remarkable and commanding beauty, she was full of naivete, and originality ; the fresh- ness of nature, tlie bouquet and aroma of the virgin prai- ries and woodland. Like a bird, she " warbled her native wood-notes wild." And this was in the deep wilderness beyond the confines. Was not Eve, when she dropped from the hands of God in that wilderness of Eden, queenly and TWO THOUSAN'D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 221 of winning grace ? Were her thoughts not all original and beautiful ? But how if she evolved from a polyp, and found herself lying, rough and hairy, in a slimy ooze ? After I had supped, the frontiersman asked me to join him in a pipe, and the Queen and Lily disappeared with the cloth an5 dishes, and I saw them no more that night. When we had burned out one pipe each, the father said : " I suppose you must be tired. Let me show you your room." I had seen the blossom — yea, two of them, and had felt the fragrance. Peculiar. — Eaves-dropping. He took a light and led me to the door of the next room. It was the same from which the Queen and Lily had emerged, to get supper for the stranger. I entered, and there was a bed, but not a single article of covering was on it ! Said the father : We are short of covering, and as the night is cold, you had better let me get your blankets for you.'' He brought them in from the room where I had placed them when I came in, and bade me good-night. I took in the position at once. This was the sleeping apartment of the Queen and the Lily, which they had abandoned to make room for the stranger. They had given me their bed, but had taken away the covering to spread a nice little pallet for themselves on the floor by the fire, in the room where I supped ! I knew this to be so, because I heard them gaily chatting while they were mak- ing the pallet by the fire-place. I heard every word, be- cause the partition was thin, and there were chinks through which I might have seen, had I sought. Paterfamilias went out of the house and returned with a big armful of wood. He said : " Girls, you must keep a good fire all night. It is freezing, and I do not want my babies to catch cold." 222 TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OK HOESEBACK. "Never mind about the cold, papa; we will get along all right. We will snug up by the lire like two little kit- tens." I knew by her voice that it was the Lily that said that. •' Say, papa, don't you want a kiss to-night ?" That was the Queen. " Oh, I reckon I can do without kisses till morning," said the frontiersman. " Besides, if you give me a kiss, 1 reckon voull both be comino^ after me for ten dollars in the morning ; and times, you know, are hard." The Queen and Lily laughed, but they both ran to him, and I heard them deliver upon the powerful frontiers- man's lips two hearty kisses. " Now/' said they, ''you may tell us good-night I " I felt heartily ashamed of myself. I felt that they should have the bed, and I the pallet before the lire. I was on the point of rushing out, but the father had already retired, and that restrained me. Did ever man oust two pretty ladies from their bed before, compelling them to sleep on the floor like kittens, while he occupied their bed ? I have never thought of this since without blushing with indignation at myself ; and yet how could I help it ? Where the Peris Dwell. While undressing, I observed the furniture of the room. Here again was simplicity the simplest and so outre ! A small table sat in the centre, and a few chairs around it ; a number of bucks' horns adorned the walls, and from these depended numerous dresses of the Peris, which they had neglected to take away in their flight, or else had left intentionally — thinking perhaps that if I should grow cold in the night, the dresses might be of ser- vice to keep me warm. The bedstead was of planks nailed together, and at the head of it was a double-barrel shot- gun, capped and half-cocked. Invade those premises who TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 223 dare ! But the bed and pillows were luxurious, stuffed full, as I suppose, with down from the breast of the swan. Such is the place where Peris dwell ! There were many books on the table : among them Ivanhoe, Peveril of the Peak, Quentin Durward, several of Bulwer's and Cooper's novels, Scott's peems, Milton, Tup- per and others. Will not the reading of these works, thought I, make these young creatures unhappy in this wilderness ? Will it not make them pine for the gay scenes with which such works must fill their imagina- tions ? I soon slept profoundly on the bed of the Queen and the Lily. I only hope that they on their pallet by the fire slept as well. Morning. Paterfamilias awaked me by tapping on the door and saying breakfast would soon be ready. On lighting the lamp, I saw that it was an hour to sunrise. This struck me as peculiar, as Western people are not generally given to earlv rising. In a few minutes I sat at breakfast with the family. The Queen and Lily looked as fresh as water- nymphs that have just risen from the laughing brooks. They had evidently suffered not much from sleeping on the pallet by the fire. Materfamilias was present, — a quiet lady of forty years, more like the Queen than the Lily. The same dark locks, the same brilliant eye, thoagh softened by time, and much the same graceful demeanor. But the Queen's splendid brow showed where the superi- ority lay. Her mother had given her what was best in herself, and nature in improving the gifts had bestowed others. After breakfast the frontiersman left the house, and as I had no inclination to move at so early an hour, I indulged the opportunity to chat with the Queen and Lily. 224 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. I spoke of the Centennial, and the Queen spoke as vividly about it as any Philadelphia lady in sight of the great Art Hall. She said she had a great desire to attend it, and was endeavoring to persuade her father, but as yet he had not consented. I said I expected to visit the Centennial, and nothing would please me so much as to have a young lady accompany me. I then somewhat impudently asked if she would not be that one ? " Oh," said she, "if I should go with you, you might run away and leave me alone in Philadelphia, and what would become of me, a frontier girl, turned adrift in that great city ? " This with a laugh, indicating that she thought she might still be able to paddle her own canoe, even under circumstances so strange. She added that it would be fool- ish to suppose that a city gentleman would be pleased with a wild frontier girl like herself. '' I guess in company you would try to keep me veiled, and my tongue tied." Miranda. I told her — tempting her — that the most beautiful and interesting tome of all the creations of Shakespeare's fancy, was the young Miranda, raised by her father on a solitary isle, where she saw no other human being until accident threw in her way : " Ca—Ca— Caliban, Get a new master, g;el a new man ! " She was, I said, as lovely as Eve when Adam first saw her in the garden of Eden ; and neither Miranda nor Eve were less lovely from not having been trained in what they call fashionable society ; in other words, from having been girls of the frontier, as they certainly were. On the con- trary, their loveliness was the more perfect, coming fresh from the hands of God and nature. After a while a Prince was wrecked on this solitary isle, and seeing Miranda, he instantly fell deeply in love with her. I would have done TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 225 the same, if I had been the Prince. I see no difference between San Saba and Miranda's isle, and perhaps there is not much difference between the Prince and me. He took her to his gay capital, and he did not abandon her. He made her his Princess, and she became renowned. What pity if he had left her on her isle in the sea ! " " That is a very pretty story," said the Queen ; *^ but if I had been Miranda, I would much rather have gone away with the man whose genius invented it, than with the Prince himself." Airy Beings. And she neatly turned the point by immediately adding : " What a wonderful man Shakespeare was ! Do you not think that he knew everything ? And yet they say he was an ignorant man, too, — at least as to scholarship." I said Shakespeare's mind was omnivorous ; he devoured every book he could lay his hands on, but those were few. Besides, he found '' books in the running brooks, sermons in stones." The truth is, he probably had more learning than any man of his age. " But that would not account," said she, ^^for all his wonderful wisdom. Secrets of nature were familiar to his mind when they were undreamed* of by others. The stores of knowledge were opened to him through mysterious ways. He knew more than Milton with all his learning, who came long after him. I sometimes think that those airy beings whom the poets often speak of — the Muses, the Nymphs and the Naiads — were not all imaginary, but true, immor- tal, celestial beings, with whom they held secret conversa- tion, receiving light and knowledge from their lips. Else, how could they have created such beautiful things, and known all knowledge before others ? " I did not speak ; I listened, and she continued : 10* 226 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. " Was not Undine a real existence who told of herself to the poet, who merely repeated the story that the spirit told him ? I believe these celestial spirits talked with Milton night and day, and that throngh them Paradise Lost is a divine inspiration like the Bible. May it not be an unguarded reference to these strange visitors when he said : ' Mj'riads of spirits unseen walk the earth. Both while we sleep and while we wake ? ♦ "And when Shakespeare speaks of the 'airy tongues that syllable men's names,' may he not have had in his mind the spiritual guardians of his genius, who syllabled his own name ? And then there is Homer, who lived in the profound ages of darkness when books were unknown; yet with nothing to guide him, as they say, but his own genius, he produced a work that has been a model to all after-times, unsurpassed and unequalled, except by Milton, who is greatest where he shows that he studied and loved Homer. Do you not think that Homer wandered in the groves of Parnassus conversing with those celestial beings who love the gifted great ? or that they descended from Olympus and whispered into his ear his grand creations while he slept ? " I spake not. The Queen, warming, continned : '* And so Milton, when he speaks of his blindness, says : ' Yet not the more Cease I to wander where the Muses haunt Clear spring, or shadj' grove or sunny hill : Then feed on thoughts that voluntary move Harmonious numbers ; as the wakeful bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid, Tunes her nocturnal note.' " Is not this a confession of his strange, celestial vis- itors ? And thus, he who dwelt in Fairy Land and wrote the Faery Queen : TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OJ^ HORSEBACK. 22? * How oft do they their silver howers leave, To come to succor us that siiccor want I How oft do they with golden pinions cleave The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant, And their bright squadrons round about us flaunt 1 ' Is not this a confession of these celestial visitors ? " " It may be," said I, " for the gift of fancy is a fearful gift. So at least said one of the greatest of those thus gifted ; and perhaps he had in his mind, as you say, the celestial visitors who fed the flame of his genius." " I do not doubt that it is so," said the Queen. And while she spake, her brilliant eyes sparkled, and it seemed that she might be one of those celestial visitors herself. Thus Byron : *' Such inhabit many a spot — Though with them to converse can rarely be our lot." It was my first time. Is she not a true naiad — a wood- nymph ? After this I did not think it worth while to ask the Queen whether the rocks about her were Silurian, Devo- nian or Carboniferous. She had sounded the depth of the Pierian spring ; and why should a nymph and naiad not ? The Wilderi^ess ajs^d Society, I said tautalizingly that I could not see how people could be content to live so remote from the busy world and society — particularly the educated and refined. This brought out materfamilias, who previously had had very little to say. ^' As for myself, I care for no other society than my home, my husband and children. This is world and society enough for me, of which I can never become tired. I feel now that the settlements are growing too near, and I would like to go further out." 228 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. The Queen and the Lily said they were happy in their home, and were by no means ambitious to leave it. " As for intelligence, if we have any," said the Queen, ^' it is the possession of it that makes these apparent solitudes the more agreeable. If I did not have some intelligence, I would go to the cities, where frivolity might make igno- rance endurable." I now questioned not that I had fallen into a home of nymphs and naiads, and that the frontiersman was a Gnome or one of the Genii. Ships that meet at Sea. It was eight o'clock before I thought of my onward journey. As I walked out to saddle my horse, I hoped that he had fallen ill during the night, that I might have excuse for delay. But he nnfortunately was well and hearty. Had he been sick who can say what history might not have been made ? It was a sly thought, emanating perhaps from one's love of self — but I thought there might be some regret in that liome at my departure. I know there was in my own breast. Two ships often meet at sea, and after exchanging courtesies an hour or so, they spread their sails and separate. They watch one another sinking beneath the horizon with regret. My horse being equipped, 1 returned to the house. I took the Queen and Lily by the hands and bade them adien, and I did not see a tear in their eyes ! But I consoled my- self for this apparent indifference with the reflection that nymphs and naiads do not weep, and '' great griefs are dumb." Paterfamilias came to bid me adieu, and said, *^I will always be pleased to see you when you pass." I felt my heart grow sick as I rose on my horse and left. Suppose one of these noble girls should marry a rusty- legged cow-driver, who never had a thought higher than his quirt, or a chew of tobacco ? What a death in life TWO THOUSAIfD MILES IJ?- TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 229 would be hers ! And yet such women might be able, pos- sibly, to manufacture ^^ a thing of beauty" even out of a cow- driver. A Conversation" on" the Road. After leaving the home of the Queen and Lily about a mile, a young horseman rode beside me. He was mounted on a prancing pony, and dressed in a gay buckskin suit, very prettily trimmed. A tine looking, vigorous young fellow was he ; a rifle on the pommel of his saddle and a six-shooter buckled to his waist. After some general con- versation I asked him if he knew the gentleman at whose house I had passed the night, giving his name ? " Certainly I do," said he ; *' I have known him always, and a first class man is he." " He is very poor," said I quietly, "is he not ?" " Poor ? good God ! " said the young horseman. " That man's got more money than both your horse and mine to- gether can pack. Suppose you had two or three thou- sand beeves to sell every year, at fifteen to twenty dollars a head, wouldn't you have pretty much of money ?" " I should think I would." *^ Well, sir," said he, "that is that man's case exactly. I tell you he has oceans of it." "And he is rich also in two pretty daughters, is he not ? " The young horseman turned, and looking steadfastly upon me a moment, said : " You bet ! " He then left, in another direction, saying : " Take care of yourself, and look out for the red-skins." And I con- tinued my solitary ride into the Far West. V. EiVER Sa:n' Saba. — Irrigatiois'. rjMHE San Saba carries a bulkier volume than the Llano, _L but' it has not its ethereal limpidity. Its blue waters are stained with an impalpable white sediment, as if they had a small ingredient of milk ; which caused me to sus- pect that they bear white sulphur or gypsum in solution, though this is not observable to the taste. Its valley is a noble one, smooth as a floor, of the blackest, richest soil, often spreading out many miles in width. It is famous for its wheat — thirty to forty-five bushels to the acre, — and its splendid white-skin onions, which may be eaten almost like apples ; its wealth of grapes, and its abundant pecans, which here seem to have found their choicest abode. A dam across the river here and there, with lateral and longi- tudinal ditches, would irrigate all the valley. For forty- miles above its mouth it is tolerably settled ; thence on- ward, very sparsely, and often for great distances, not at all. With this valley supplied with dams and ditches and railroads, it would be one of the most charming and desir- able spots of earth, and soon one of the richest. The populations of these Western valleys are yet too sparse to enable them to effect a general system of irrigation, and State aid would well come in. The small outlay would be rapidly repaid in the gi*eat increase of wealth and the num- ber of her tax-paying citizens. The San Saba now has a few thousand acres irrigated, and the product of such fields is immense. It is almost beyond human credulity to be- TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HOKSEBACK. 231 lieve what the crops will yield on this noble soil, when well tilled and never allowed to suffer from needed moisture. I saw one of these irrigation ditches, twelve feet in width and eight in depth, which the enterprising farmers were ex- cavating by their own joint labor, at such times as they could spare from other duties. They intend to make it eight miles in length, so that it will irrigate some eight or ten thousand acres. This is secured by simply tapping the river at a point where it is above the land to be irri- gated, and diverting a small portion of its water out of the channel. When it is desired to inundate the land, the ditch is dammed and the water spreads over the surface, increasing the fertility by depositing the gypseous or sul- phurous sediment of the river. Mekardville. — The Ultima Thuliaks. Rode into Menardville and delaved two hours. This is the jumping-off place^ — the watch-tower on the borders of civilization. Passing out of the limits of the little burg and facing West, a dangerous and almost trackless wil- derness rolls away before you some hundreds of miles. To this point has the great> aggressive American tide ad- vanced, and not an inch further, and its representatives here are merely the skirmishers that foretell the coming of the main body. Its population is about two hundred, and its appearance is as peculiar as its position. No grand boulevards, paved with marble and asphaltum, here. It is built in a thicket of brush, and so securely hidden that the traA'eller does not see it until he has entered it. No mar- ble palaces and long rows of brick here. Indeed, a traveller Tuight ride through it at night and never suspect the pres- ence of a city, except from the occasional gleaming of a light through the brush and the barking of dogs. I doubt not that panthers, wolves and bears prowl nightly through it, and slake their thirst at the brook on whose banks 232 TWO THOUSAND MILES IJ^" TEXAS 0^ HORSEBACK. laughing children romped but an hour before. It is said that these beasts prowled nightly through the first cities built by man, and wherein dilfers this from a city built by primitive man ? The houses are peculiar. They are boxes built of rough and warped oaken boards, innocent of paint or whitewash. Often the boards have shrunken so much in drying that wide gaps are left between them, through which the winds of heaven have full play. In case of a slanting rain, the occupants have no other recourse but to huddle together on the side whence the rain conies, and wait till the elements have spent their fury. The flood falling to the floor would speedily be devoured by the cracks. In case of a fierce Texas Norther, the position must be nearly intolerable ; for though that portion of the body next to the fire might be kept comfortably warm, the opposite exposure must suffer greatly from the eager, nipping wind. Sudden and tremendous outbursts of rain are common in this country. Imagine one of these falling in the dead of night during the paroxysm of a norther, when the fire has gone out and no split wood in the house, driving the people from their beds and huddling them, half naked and shivering, in the corner for hours at a time ! It is said that our poor primitive ancestors sometimes suffered greatly from the elements, and I can now have no doubt of it. Many a time were men, women and babies expelled by the storms from their comfortable beds of skins, to take refuge in the opposite corners. It is quite enough to make one's heart sick to think of the inconveniences which our poor ancestors were put to, from not being so smart as their children are. There are two or three little stores here, mere shells, which the most unhandy cracksman could exploit in three minutes ; and the fact that these stores are never exploited, is ample proof of the honesty of these primitive people. TWO THOUSAND MILES 15^- TEXAS OlS" HORSEBACK. 233 and of our ancestors whom they resemble. A dishonest rogue is a thing unknown in this region, unless perchance there may be some skulking villain hiding from pursuit of law ; and here it behooves him to keei3 himself exceedingly well behaved ; otherwise these primitive people would speedily mete out to him the primitive justice of our ances- tors, without the slow help of judge and jury. The men who dwell in this city are also peculiar: a stalwart, sinewy race, bronzed, and bearded like a dozen pards, all armed to the teeth ; but they wear their arms just as other people w^ear coats and vests — mainly because it is fasliionable and a matter of course. A more amiably inclined people I never saw ; and they seem to vie in hos- pitality to the stranger, not obtrusively, but with a native, inborn, quiet hospitality, which gives him at once to un- derstand that they mean what they say. They are nearly all young or middle-aged men. To subdue tlie wilderness and stand guard over the watchtowers of civilization does not belong to the old, to whom "the grasshopper is a burden ;" and yet I see a few strong old men here whose heads are as white as if a hundred winters had sprinkled their snows uj)on them — old men youthful in everything except years. They are a sharp, quick and intelligent people, and there are some w^ho are evidently of superior education. These were doubtless stray young gentlemen, whom a restless spirit of adventure decoyed from their homes in tlie old States, finally stranding them on the shore of this Ultima Thule. They -are appreciated here; for as I have often observed, these rough frontiersmen do dearly love to see educated and sensible young men set- tling among them. They perhaps regard them as the flt- tle lump of leaven that is to leaven the whole loaf, and rarely fail to help and promote them when the opportunity offers. Of such is the gentleman who keeps the records of the Court of Menard, with whom I chatted a good 234 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. deal. I dare say when a boy lie rubbed his back against the walls of some university ; and here he is, on this remote confine, shedding a light around him, esteemed by all, and destined to grow upward as the country grows. I found him in the court-house, a rough box twelve by fifteen, where he sits lord and master. Let no pin-feather youth, however, think that he may come among these frontiersmen and be made a lion of at once. A pretentious, foppish young fellow would be grievously discounted by them, in spite of all his book- learning and elegance of manner. He must have good store of common sense, and understand how to adapt him- self to the situation. He must eschew all airs of assumed superiority, for these frontiersmen are nearly all men of as much sharpness of mother-wit as boldness of heart. Most of them have seen a good deal of the world, and they speedily detect the spurious. He must show a heart for honest, manly work, be companionable, bear himself toward all respectfully and courteously, and I will warrant that he will soon find that he has a noble army of friends around him, who will always be glad to advance him, and will feel proud of him as one of themselves. The mothers and daughters will esteem him as much as the fathers and brothers, and perhaps take a livelier interest in him ; for the female heart, always and everywhere, aspires to a higher condition, and it is by no means difficult for a sen- sible young man in a position like this to warm their fancy with the idea that he is to be one of the props of the better order of things. When he comes to the frontier let him bear my suggestions in mind, and I do not doubt that, as he prospers and grows happy, he will always bear me in grateful remembrance.* * The writer of this note has often thought of his first appearance among a frontier people, with considerable amusement to himself. When a boj'. almost beardless, just from the schools, he appeared on horseback in San Saba, wearing a nice silk hat, carrying a silver-headed cane, and dressed as young gentlemen TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 235 These men are nearly all engaged in stock-raising, and so were our primitive ancestors. They have built this lit- tle city for mutual protection and society. They are all Americans, as far as I noted. The Female Ultima Thuliaks. I regret that I had no opportunity to exchange courte- sies with a single one of them. I saw them, but as the humming-bird or butterjQy sees the laden flowers in a glass house whose doors are closed. I saw a number on the banks of the pretty Menard brook, engaged in washing their garments in tubs, while a troop of little ones romped on the grass at their feet. I was near enough to observe their healthful and powerful development ; the solidity of the plastic moulding that covered their frame ; for they were kirtled to the knees, and their arms were bare to the shoulder, and their shoulders were bare. As I contem- plated them I could not help but think that no dand^dsh boys would be fit mates for these primitive ladies, but that they behoove to be men who would be the masters of their generally dress in the best communities of the older States. The old frontiers- men looked upon me with almost intolerable scorn, and there was some serious talk of hanging me as a suspected horse-thief, for no other reason in the world than that I was a well-dressed, well-educated, and decidedly well-behaved, though rather reserved young fellow ! One old fellow, rough and hairy, and, to ID}' eye, quite a monster in appearance, with hardlj' enough clothes on to hide his exceedinglj"^ ugly nakedness, actually talked of this within mj' hearing. The look of scorn that he cast upon me was sublime. I was quick to perceive the drift of things ; and as Indians were then stealing and scalping at a great rate, I threw off my nice clothes and silver-headed cane, put on a rough suit, and went Indian hunting with the frontiersmen some six months, sleeping with them in their houses, in the woods, and on the prairies. They soon seemed to almost love me, and I never have been in a country where I had such warm friends ; though they never ceased to joke me about my "• three-story silk hat "' and sil- ver-headed cane. I even stopped several nights under the hospitable roof of the rough old fellow who talked in my presence of hanging me, and felt a malicious sort of pleasure in kissing his plump daughters every chance I could steal. Had I not thrown aside my silk hat and fine cane, it is not at all impossible I might have been hung. Since that time San Saba has advanced mightil}\ and I dare say there are many very nicely dressed young fellows among them ; but her peo pie's hearts are no warmer now than they were then. 236 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON" HOESEBACK. hearts. What cares a woman for a man upon whom she must look downward ? That lady's heart is always sick, and it may be, sometimes untrue, who feels her lord to be her inferior ; for it is a reversal of the order of nature, which teaches her to look upward instead of downward. To her, life is a desolation unless she has ambitions of her own to cultivate, or children in whom she may forget her husband. If my brows may not be crowned by female hands with laurel, I will endeavor to secure at least indif- ference by keeping away from them. I would not believe in the tale of Venus and Adonis if the popular idea of Adonis were the correct one. It is supposed by the un- thoughtful that this unaccountable youth was only re- markable for his feminine beauty ; but he was a wild-boar hunter and a prodigious horseman. He was a noble speci- men of the physical development of manhood, accompanied by daring and heroic courage. Had he been a little effemi- nate beauty, bepowdered and bescented, as the popular idea usually represents him, I dare say the imposing Queen of Beauty would have scorned him, instead of surrendering without summons to his discretion. And is such female development, as I see it in this group before me — vigorous, muscular, conveying the im- pression of force — averse to the sentiment of love ? or does the love of men prefer the delicate, the fragile, the weak ? I think not so. Venus was but a female Antinous, a very giantess of beauty. She overthrew the hearts of men and gods alike : Mars, Vulcan, and Hercules, were willing slaves at her feet : Helen, who caused the most renowned war in history, was a big, muscular woman ; such were Cleopatra, Zenobia, and in fact all of them who have most stirred up mankind with the love of them. We may make pets of and amuse ourselves with the little beauties, but it is the big ones that tyrannize our hearts and drive us to war and desperation : not the fat, or the squabby, by any TWO THOUSAISTD MILES 1:N" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 23? means. Was there ever a little woman who produced a bigger commotion than a tempest in a tea-pot ? As I rode past the group, one of the ladies, though laughing, seemed a little disturbed, as if she would shrink from my observation. Her wish to avoid observation at- tracted it the more. I thought I beheld a history in her. When I was a boy, I was much in the habit of passing a magnificent grove, in which was a large seminary of learn- ing for girls. It was a place considered aristocratic, and fathers and mothers who would be aristocrats, generally sent their daughters thither, though it pinched many of them severely to do so. I dare say the lady at the wash-tub who shrank from my observation, was schooled at that place, as a '•' high-born lad ye." Truly, life is filled with pictures : then a romping school-girl, living in palaces in the air, breathing atar of roses ; now a stately mother at the wash- tub, with a squadron of laughing babies tumbling at her feet. Thus life goes on, and we fulfill the purposes for which we were created. But why should she shrink from my observation ? Did she think that I would esteem her less, seeing her performing her duty at the wash-tub ? I esteemed her the more, and it is possible a thought of envy of her husband may have passed over me. That young woman may be the mother of great men, and I dare say she will. If we will trace the lives of all great men, we shall find none whose mothers ever hesitated to stand at the wash-tub, if it befell them in their line of duty to do so. None but strong-minded women can be the mothers of strong-minded men. Kitten women are the mothers of kitten men. V. Coglan's Cave akd What Befell. LEAVIlNiG the ladies at the wash-tub, and observing my arms to see if all was right, I rode beyond the confines into the great wilderness, passing six miles through a fertile but brushy region, to Coglan's Cave, where a beautiful stream*issues out of a large rock ; the aperture leading into the recess six feet high and wide enough for two men to pass in abreast. It being noon, I stopped. I did not attempt to enter the dark cave, but it is probably a large one. While wandering about this pretty place, I stepped sud- denly within a few feet of a beautiful animal. I said : "this is a porcupine, with all his quills set !" A portion of his body, including his head, was jet, glossy black, while the rest of it was as white as snowy satin, except the kirge bushy tail, which he carried erect over his body, spread out like a fan : that was composed of a succession of black and white rings. He seemed very little alarmed at my pres- ence, but moved off slowly in an exceedingly graceful man- ner, as if conscious of his superb beauty and wishing to show it to the stranger. No belle in a ball-room ever moved with more graceful motion, or was more beautifully decked out. I pursued admirins:. As I gained upon this beautiful and graceful creature, it stopped and turned broadside toward me, looking upon me with a singular look of not being much afraid, and not particularly de- siring my company. I then saw that there was a bright white band across its forehead, just above the eyes, look- TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 239 ing like a wreath or garland. I had approached within fifteen or twenty feet of this rare beauty, when it suddenly made a quick motion or sweep with its magnificent tail, and instantly my nose was assaulted with a most formida- ble odor, of a suffocating character, and pungent in the nostrils like a mixture of cayenne pepper and ammonia. I staggered back under the volley, overwhelmed. I also felt at once a strong disposition at the pit of the stomach, as if I would retch. It was a skunk I had fallen in love with and pursued, and the knowledge of it broke upon me with disgust. Knowing the dreadful character of the beast, and dreading another volley, I retreated precipi- tately, insomuch that I stumbled over some vines and fell into a nest of brambles. On rising, I saw the foul beauty retiring with an apparent air of triumph, and as gracefully as ever. Fortunately, none of the fluid which creates this odor, struck me : had it done so, my position would have been disastrous in the extreme. As it was, the air was so saturated with it that my clothes were considerably in- fected, so that I carried a distinct odor of it about my per- son several days. I had often seen the skunk before, but never one so beautiful and large as this, though 1 saw many of the same sort afterward. There are many varieties of them, and this was the glory of them all. What glorious pets these creatures would be if they could only be divested of their perfume box ; for I dare say they are of a nature to be easily tamed. How odd that such extravagant beauty should be so foul ; and what a remarkable provision for defence, that of discharging an insufferable stink upon the adversary, and proudly retiring under the confusion thus produced ! It is difficult or impossible to comprehend what is the position or duty of the pole-cat in the economy of nature. It is to me a problem without a solution. fhese dreadful animals are sometimes extremely vicious, 240. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. and have been known to attack men unprovoked. A gen- tleman who witnessed it gave me this instance : '' 1 was/' gaid he, '"far out on the frontier, hunting bears, Indians, and other wiki animals, with a party of seven or eight, headed by Judge Oowan, of Llano. We had encamped on a little creek that flows into the Colorado, not far from the mouth of the Concho. Judge Cowan and myself were sit- ting on the opposite banks of a little dirty, greenish looking pool, trying to course some bees that came there to get water and suck the mud. When we stepped up to the pool we saw two pole-cats a few paces from us, apparently engaged in courtship, but we paid them no attention. The Judge was sitting on his hunkers closely watching a bee that seemed about to depart, when one of these pole-cats leaped upon his back and clamped his teeth into the collar of his coat. The Judge grabbed him, and seeing the nature of the animal, uttered an exclamation of despair. He threw him to the ground with violence and as quickly as possible ; but it was all too late. The animal had let fly all over him, enveloping him in a dense fog of intolerable smell. His clothing was saturated. The Judge vomited violently, and said he would die the most miserable death that ever man died. I could not approach him near enough to give him any succor, had it been in my power to do so. He was compelled to strip himself to his shirt and drawers, and even then emitted so great an odor as to be well-nigh unendurable. The worst of it to him was, that it was winter ; a fierce norther might be momentarily expected, and there was not a human residence, where clothing could be obtained, within a hundred miles. The result was that the Judge had to wrap up in blankets and stay by the fire for several days, while his clothes were buried in the earth to extract the smell. It had that effect to a great degree, but still the Judge was rather a disagreeable neighbor during the rest of the expedition." TWO THOUSAi^D MILES lis^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 241 AlfCIENT Ruii^s. From Coglau's Cave rode south-west five miles to .river San Saba, whose glorious valley is here a solitude, but such it has not always been. Here are the crumbling ruins of a mighty edifice of carved stone ; and the remains of a net- work of irrigation ditches, extending miles along the river, tell of a former population, enlightened, pros- perous, and multitudinous. This was a colony of farmers, miners and evangelists, established by the devoted Fran- ciscan Fathers to do good in the dark places, and after years of peace, they were set upon by the treacherous sav- ages about them, and not one was left to tell the sad tale. In a single night, perhaps in a single hour, the red-handed savages did more harm than they ever have been, or ever can be capable of doing good.* This terrible butchery struck such horror into the hearts of the devoted Fathers that they never attempted to reestablish their* colony, and this beautiful land has been left in its native wildness since. Even the adventurous Americans and colonizing Germans have not sought to possess this ground that has drunk torrents of innocent blood. This is said to have occurred in 1742, but the ruins might lead one to suspect a more ancient date. * The Catholic priests of Texas believe that this colony was not destroyed by Indians, but by Mexican and European robbers. Some color is given to this by the fact that silver mines were worked in the vicinity, and the robbers may have supposed it was in the possession of the priests. And yet it is hard to believe that those in search of silver alone, would have imbrued their hands in such wholesale slaughter, allowing not one to survive. II VII. FoKT McKavett. — Military Life ik the WlLDERjq^ESS. QUARTERED at night at Fort McKavett, with the sutler, who kindly gave me shelter, as there were no citizens to whom I might apply. This is a place that nature has made all beautiful; situated at the head of the San Saba in a deep amphitheatre, in a noble grove of oak and elm. An immense, boundless plain rises just beyond, and rolls away hundreds of miles, rising here and there into mountatnous ridges. Six companies of troops, four of negroes, are stationed here, to guard the frontier and lead a life of unsurpassed laziness. The officers and men, so far as I saw them, carried about with them an air of immense languor — as if they had nothing to do and did not particularly desire anything to do. I should think the life of a United States officer at one of these remote posts, unless he has great resources within himself, must be one of profound stupidity. And what must it be to ignorant men, whose life is bounded by what they see ! It seems to me that nature would rot. I once heard a good old lady say that "an idle mind is the devil's workshop." This is true, for if the mind is not diverted by some good and useful occupation, it will go into wickedness and pro- duce a foul crop of uncleanliness. What crops of unclean- liness must grow in the minds of these men, languidly and nervelessly strolling before me, as if the noise of the grass- hopper in his little flight was an insufferable weight! TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 243 Place a body of French officers and troops in the same situation, and thejAvould soon hatch a new revolution. I do not believe that an idle man can go to Heaven ; and none of them are virtuous. While among these people I was continually thinking of Thompson's " Castle of Indo- lence," and I doubt not that this singularly somnolent creation was suggested to his mind by observing a military encampment in time of peace. VII. Rode north over a mighty, rolling prairie, with parks of live oak, mounting higher and higher into the ethereal regions. Grandest grazing country in the world, whether for sheep, horses, or cattle. VIII. AT noon rode on a loffcy '^backbone," from which it seemed that the entire universe lay below me! This point is probably three thousand feet above the sea. Naked stones and desolation. It is a region of profound silence, save the perpetual beating of the winds. The only living creatures are a few Mexican buzzards, with white wings, floating lazily in the upper regions, and lizards warming themselves on the rocks. The Horn^ed Feog. Some of these lizards are so original in their appear- ance that I stop to capture one, which is easy to do, as his motions are not fleet. He is an oddity, and if he were as big as an elephant, he would be the most monstrous of creatures. Even as he is, only three to five inches long, his appearance is decidedly monstrous. He is the connect- ing link between the frog and the lizard, and so much of either that it is hard to say of which he most partakes! He is called the horned frog, but I can see no reason why he may not just as well be called the horned lizard. His feet are those of the lizard, his body jmrt frog and part lizard, the lizard predominating; his tail part lizard and part pollywog. He has however, portions of his building which are peculiarly his own, suggesting neither frog nor lizard, nor any other animal or reptile that walks or swims or flies. His head is a complete, widely open angle, adorned with a multitude of brisk scales projecting upward and backward like horns, two of them towering TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 245 prominently above all the rest, giving the little creature an exceedingly ferocious aspect. Two lines of horns project down his body, one on each flank and the other above the spinal column. He is a dark grey, with minute white spots sprinkled all over him, and his eyes are a brilliant, jet black, like two bird-shots stuck into his frontispiece. His mouth when open is prodigious, looking as if it might swallow Jonah as easily as the whale did. His motion, like his general make up, is a mixture of frog and lizard — a hop, skip and crawl, but the latter seems his favorite method of propulsion. Now imagine this creature, with all his horns and monstrous assemblage, increased in size to an elephant or buffalo, and conceive yourself coming upon him unawares on the wide prairie or in the deep for- ests ! Would not the hair stand on end, and would not human nature sink under the dreadful apparition ! And yet, during the Cretaceous age, just such a creature as this, only many times bigger than the buffalo or elephant, peoi3led these very plains— the great iguanodon. This little creature is, possibly, the lineal descendant of that monster of the ancient world, altered by adaptation to the changing circumstances and climes. And singularly enough, this little descendant of the great iguanodon, sticks closely only to the Cretaceous regions in which his monstrous ancestors flourished ages ago, and is rarely seen beyond them. Formidable as he seems, and terrible per- haps his ancestry, this little creature is a model of gentle- ness and docility. When you take him into your hands, he looks at you with his little dark, brilliant eyes, with an expression which seems to say — '' I would not hurt you for the world ! " You may turn him over and tickle and pro- voke him ever so much, yet his temper will remain unruf- fled, and he will still look at you with the same tender ex- pression. Such is his sweetness of temper under all cir- cumstances, that he is a great favorite with the little 246 TWO THOUSAN^D MILES IN^ TEXAS Ols HORSEBACK. Texans, who frequently drop him under their dresses, at the neck, that he may tickle them as he crawls upward or downward on the naked flesh. He is a pet with all who know him and have leisure to fondle him. He takes his m^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. asleep, old mother rattlesnake, with a swarm of little sons and daughters, crawls in and coils up around all the rest, thrusting her cold head under the warm furs of the dogs and rabbits ! Is it not a wonderful family ? In the mean- time, old father rattlesnake stands faithful sentinel at the door. As for the owls, allj except the little featherless babies, are out at night catching grasshoppers and lizards, and have a whole bed to themselves in day time, while the others are gathering food in the underground forests, or having filled themselves, are frolicking out of doors in the sunlight. ISTow, if my reader is a little boy or girl, would not he or she like to pile into that bed too ? It would doubtless be so warm and comfortable I These cities ai'e sometimes a day's ride from water, and as the household cannot live without it, there can be no doubt that the subterranean forests arc supplied with lakes and streams. Thus, how careful the Great Architect is of all his creatures ! Thus, I have said that I would conduct the reader into subterranean forests, populous with life and cool with brooks and pools, and I have done so. The Last of Them. \ About twelve miles from Fort Concho we ride through a herd of cattle, browsing in a green nook, protected from the moderate norther and misty rain. They are up to their bellies in grass, and as fat as prairie dogs. They are the advance skirmishers, and here is their last post. They raise their heads and look upon us with a mingled expres- sion of wonder and stupidity, as if they would say to us : " Poor things, are ye lost and gone ? " They are as gentle as milk-kine, and would scarcely move out of their tracks to let us pass. Startled. — The Beautiful Swak. Riding quietly along the banks of the blue Concho, ad- miring the lovely valleys, the smooth, green hills, and the TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 275 misty mountains in the background, we were suddenly startled, as if with a noise of a thousand horses plunging violently in the river. We thought of an army ol Comanches plunging across to charge us, and every man grasped his gun. It continued some moments, and presently a flock of glorious swans rose above the steep banks and flew up the river, sending forth a great "kwonk!" ^* kwonk ! " There were not less than fifty, and the noise that startled us was produced by striking the water with their wings in the effort to rise. In this manner they go several yards on the water before they clear it and mount into the air ; and the uproar is very great. Even the Texans do not know what their noble State contains. I read an article in the Texas Almanac by an intelligent gentleman who claims to know all about the birds of Texas, in which he says the swan is not found in the State except on the coast in winter. Yet here he is, in all his pride of beauty, far, far from the ocean. As we continued to ride along, we could scarcely look into the Concho without beholding the superb bird floating on its bosom, and their *^ kwonk ! " '^ kwonk ! " was continually in the air.* What a glorious bird is the swan ! White and chaste as the snow-drift — arched neck, resting partly upon the back, exposing the full, snowy bosom, — and bills, and large eyes of jet ! " Fair as the bosom of the swan— I've seen thy breast with pity heave ; • And therefore love I thee, sweet Genevieve ! " That bosom must indeed be fair, to rival the bosom of the swan ; for it is beauty's paragon : a rounded swell- ing out of perfect symmetry ; the emblem of heavenly health and virgin purity. When floating on the water, * The writer of this note has seen the swan in thousands on The Colorado, above the settlements ; which river flows by the door of tiie gentleman who wrote the article in the Texas Almanac. 276 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON nOKSEBACK. nothing so graceful as the swan. It is the mnsic and the poetry of motion. It is said that Jupiter sought in vain, in his proper person as king of the gods, to win the love of Leda. He at last came in the guise of the swan, and she fell before a beauty that excelled her own. A Serene Picture. — The Days of Old. About noon we stood upon the brow of a precipice or parapet of stone that extended a great distance to the northwest, and below us lay one of those pleasing scenes peculiarly Texan. It was an immense vale of level beauty, deep green, whose western wall was beyond the vision, yet indicated by a low range of misty mountains. Herds of deer and antelopes were feeding on the rich pasture, and flocks of blue cranes stalked slowly over it, apparently cull- ing the tenderest morsels. One of these flocks was so large that it seemed a herd of sheep, but my glass soon resolved them into an army of stately birds. As I beheld all this and swept the field in every direction with my glass, I thought I had never witnessed so lovely a scene. And yet so still, so serene, it seemed asleep ! Descending into the vale, we found a beautiful creek sweeping along the base of the wall, over a bed of solid stone. In a depression some distance from the creek, I found a number of shells, such as still live in the waters of Texas. While viewing the vale from the cliff I said to myself : '^ This was a Lake of the Days of Old : " and these shells convinced me this was truth. When the vale is struck with the plow, these shells will be turned up everywhere.'' * This lake existed within the present geological day ; and if its waters were such as now flash in the beautiful Concho, what glorious expanse of liquid beauty it was ! And there' were none to love it ? There were flocks of swans, like white spirits of the blest, disporting upon its * Unios. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 277 peaceful surface ; and how do we know but that the hierarchs who witnessed creation, lingered upon its banks and bathed in its pearly waters ? " Like Maia's son he stood and shook his plumes That heavenly fragrance filled the circuit wide." The Concho has cut its way through this lake-shore of stone near its eastern extremity, and the channel seems to show that it was first by slow erosion and lastly by vio- lent disruption, or a sudden giving away of the wall from the pressure of the water. There was no doubt a beautiful cascade here in the days of old, nearly as tall as Niagara, but far less mighty in volume.* The vale is all rich, very rich. Antelopes. We encamped in the lake bed, a dozen miles from the eastern shore, on the bank of the Concho, in a small thicket of mesquite brush, having made some thirty miles since morning. It was more than an hour before dark ; and after turning my horse on the luxuriant grass, I walked off alone toward a herd of antelopes that were feeding a half mile up the vale. As I approached them they showed disturbance by huddling together, and then bounded a hundred yards further away, when they stopped to gaze at me. I then stopped myself, and the pretty animals seemed to have their curiosity greatly excited; some of the boldest advancing a good way toward me, then stopping, occasionally bowing at me and pawing the ground. Observing the interest they were taking in me, I lifted the skirts of my coat over my head, and bending the body forward in a stooping way, began to advance upon them, now veering to the right, now to the left, like * There is the bed of a large ancient lake above the Marble Falls on the Colorado, which was drained off by the Colorado slowly cutting its way through a mountain of marble. This was also in the present Geological Day— shells of the Unto being very numerous in the ancient bed 278 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. one that is well drunken, — they all the time gazing at mo with great amazement, backing occasionally a little dis- tance further oil. Finally, when within a few hundred yards of them I stood still, and bowed at them repeatedly, which they seemed to regard as a very nnaccountable transaction — looking first at me and then at one another, and snuffing the air in the manner of a goat. I believe if I had remained in this position they would have burst with curiosity, or charged deliberately upon me, to solve the riddle of what I was; but observing that the sun was setting, I drew a bead with my rifle npon one of the boldest, and firing, it fell. It was a tender nanny, but full-grown, and in admirable order. I cut the ribs out of each flank and a foot of the spinal column from the rump, and while thus engaged, the others, which had retired but little distance, showed more sign of unsatisfied curiosity than ever. I think I might have destroyed half the flock before seriously alarming them or satisfyiug their curiosity. When I got back to camp, the two soldiers had a smart fire of mesquite brush, before which the game was roasted, dripping all the while with gravy. It was sweet, juicy, tender, excellent. It ate much like the best, juiciest mut- ton, improved by the addition of a game flavor. • While the meat and coffee were cooking I told my ad- venture to the soldiers, one of whom said : ^^ Of all fools in the world, antelopes is the biggest. If you try to creep on one, you can't get near enough to kill him with a rifle cannon. But just throw an old red blanket over your shoulder, and step right out on the prairie where they can see you, and they'll come running to you from every which way. You can shoot 'em down like dogs." These animals seem compounded of the deer, sheep and goat, with strong points of resemblance to each. They are larger than a deer and more heavily built, have the horns and head of a goat without his beard, and the general TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 279 bodily appearance of a goat, though they carry their heads erect like a deer. They are all of a reddish color with a large white spot on each flank, white belly, and short, stumpy tail like a deer's. They run but indifferently well, and their gait is precisely that of a goat. The cow-boys on horseback often catch them with lariats, when they bawl very like a goat. They are easily tamed, but make too affectionate pets. They will stay continually about you, rubbing you with their heads, and are liable to butt you like a goat, out of pure friendship. They are peculiarly a prairie animal ; no man, I think, ever having seen one, in the wild state, in a forest, or even on the edge of one. Indeed, they seem to regard forests with singular aversion, as if they thought them the abode of the wicked. Hence, they are never seen except on the almost boundless plains, where they are numerous. Their coating is a mixture of that of the deer and sheep, with a peculiarity that is its own : long, coarse straight hairs, hollow like a goose-quill, which break to pieces with the sliglitest handling, as if rotten ; and under this comes a thin coating of fine wool. The long hairs, besides breaking to pieces so readily, very easily come out of the flesh, and one could hardly go through a forest or thicket without coming out well shorn. This may be a reason why he so hates the timber. Their flesh is much more like mutton than kid or venison. After supper we put the fire out, lest Indians might be attracted to waylay us in our sleep ; and though the night was raw and chilly, I slept well in my blanket in the tall grass in the brush. III. Souvenirs. — The Gorge of the Shadow of Death. AFTER a short ride, the Jake bed terminated against an abrupt elevation, running north and south. This was the western shore of the hike. Up this elevation we rode through a dark, natural pass, walled in by rock on either side, with numerous grizzly and cavernous recesses. This spot is known far and wide in Texas as Dead Man's Hol- low ; and from its looks alone, it surely deserves its dismal name. An unseen enemy could here glut his vengeance; and being attacked, there is little hope of escape. The whole place is suggestive of murder, and the wind as it sighs through the hollow or shrieks through the crevices, seems to say — *' Take care ! " The raven shakes his letif- erous plumes about you, and seems to look into your eyes and say — "Take care!" And there is no telling how many have gone to the last account from this spot. Fif- teen graves mark the wayside, all with crosses bearing the ominous word — "Unknown." These were all mur- dered where they lay, either by Indians or highwaymen. One of these murders was not long since. Two young men were travelling to Mexico with money to buy mares. When in this pass, while conversing probably about the graves by the roadside, one of them drew a pistol and shot the other dead, and taking all his money, hurried away, leav- ing his companion on the spot where he slew him. Some soldiers from Concho, going the same way, soon found the dead body, and recognizing in it one of two travellers who TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 281 had stopped at the post the previous night, they pursued the murderer and captured him. He is now in the Texas penitentiary for life. Of the others, 1 learned no tra- dition. They are probably men whose disappearance will forever remain a mystery to their friends. Besides these, l)erhaps many more have been murdered on the same spot, whose bodies were concealed by the murderers or dragged away by wild beasts. It is impossible to pass over this grim spot without a shudder and a dread. The drivers of the El Paso mail-coaches approach it with terror, and enjoy a relief when they have cleared it. It is the Gorge of the Shadow of Death. Amazement. — The American Bison. Rising out of Dead Man's Hollow upon a lofty, rolling plain, locked in on the north and west by a beautiful chain of mountains, a scene of amazement was before us. As far as the eye could reach, almost every foot of ground was hidden by a black, moving mass, and a noise came up to us like the sound of millions of tramping feet. There was an odor of musk in the air. We stopped and gazed upon this scene of wonder. The edge of the great mass was not more than two hundred yards off, and it lay athwart our way. It is no exaggeration to say that twenty to thirty thousand buffaloes were before us. They seemed number without number. As we moved upon them those nearest us commenced moving to the north, pushing those before them, and suddenly the whole mass was in lively motion. The plain trembled beneath their feet and emitted a roar like continuous distant thunder. From the other side of the Concho and out of the valley they came surging, all moving to the north. Those coming out of the valley completely surrounded us, and for an hour we rode slowly in the midst of the herd, which separated and left only a little elliptical circle about us, often but a few vards in ex- 282 TWO THOUSAiN^D MILES I:N TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. tent, so that we could have popped the great animals with a coach whip. I sometimes felt alarmed lest those pushing behind would force the front ones upon us. Our horses were at first greatly excited, but after a while stared upon the scene as if they enjoyed it. When the pressure was over I could restrain myself no more, but drawing my rifle, brought down six, in probably not so many minutes. The soldiers did not open fire, saying that one battery was enough to glut us with slaughter. And indeed, it was so. After the great army had passed to the north beyond the chain of mountains, and I beheld the noble animals stretched on the plain, the blood smoking from their nos- trils and cruel holes in their bodies, I felt remorse that I had been guilty of a wanton and unmanly wrong. Of tons of quivering flesh around us we took less than a hun- dred pounds, mostly from the rumps of a fat heifer, leaving the rest for the ravens and wild beasts. One spectacle, particularly, made me ashamed of my barbarity. I had severely hurt a noble fellow, who looked as if he mio-ht be a prince of the herd, and as he staggered with the wound, his companions nearest him gathered closely around him, as if to support his tottering body and help him out of the reach of danger. This scene was so affecting that I stood still to watch it, and could not be mistaken that it was a conscious act of the buffaloes, to help their stricken com- rade. They were ivilling themselves to undergo danger if they could help their friend.* It is no sport to hunt these animals, lordly in appear- ance and gigantic as they are, when encountered in these vast herds. It is nauseating slaughter, not a whit more inspiriting than to walk into a flock of unresisting seals on shore and crush their heads with clubs, or beating pigeons from their roosts with a pole. You can stand in your * Any one who has much bunted the bufEaloes has doubtless often witnessed similar scenes. TWO THOUSAi^D MILES II^^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 283 tracks while the great herd is thundering by you, and shoot them down until the soul sickens at the work. All that you have to guard against is being tramped to death by the surging mass, against their will ; and there is little danger of this if you are mounted on a manageable horse, for they will always, if they can, divide and leave a vacant spot about you. Those who write of this animal often enter- tain us with fearful battles and hairbreadth escapes, but I believe that nearly all of this is fancy ; though I have no doubt that if an old bull should be wounded and left be- hind by his herd, he would turn upon his persecutor and give as good an account of himself as he could. I consider a herd of wild Texas beeves as infinitely more terrible. And yet what a formidable and ferocious aspect he bears ! There is not a more formidable looking creature in existence than an old buffalo bull. He seems a great mass of terror, always prepared for scenes of conflict and danger. His monstrous size, the great hump on his shoulder, his enormous head and neck enveloped in a dense mass of shaggy hair and beard, his eyes blazing amid a tangled mass of dark locks — all make him as grizzly and ferocious to the eye as it is possible to conceive. A flock of rampant lions would certainly look puny by the side of these monstrous beasts. And yet, he is so harmless and inoffensive ! A mere boo-hoo or a clap of the hands will divest him of all his terror. He is the true Quaker gun of nature, whose grizzly aspect should excite more our pity than our fear. There is another point in which I suspect buffalo ap- pearances to be deceptive. I do not believe him to be nearly so prodigious as he appears. His long, shaggy hair makes him seem much bigger than he really is ; just as I have seen a lady's lap-dog that looked portly, dwindle to a mere rat in size on being shorn. So, if the buffalo were shorn of his profusion of locks, on his head, neck, shoul- ders and bellv, he would certainly be greatly reduced. I 284 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. doubt much if any buffalo will turn fifteen hundred pounds of true carcass, or yield as much flesh as hundreds of cattle slaughtered in our abattoirs every day. In color they are tawny like the lion, and there is a lighter and a darker shade observed among them. Their tails are like a lion's, with a black tuft at the end ; their eyes a brilliant, melt- ing black ; their horns black, stout, keen at the point, enormously wide apart and almost straight. In regard to its flesh as a food, there cannot be two opinions. It is as juicy and tender as stall-fed beef, and it is better, in that it has no flavor of the stall. The flavor of game is about it, and of all game animals, perhaps it is the best. It is astonishing what quantities one can consume of it, without feeling oppressed by the load. For some time I ate five or six pounds a day, not only without inconveni- ence, but felt all the better for it, and had no suspicion that I was a glutton ; and this when it Avas cooked in the most crude manner, on a stick before the fire, with no con- diments but a little salt. One of my soldier companions thought he had eaten ten pounds at one meal. I cannot imagine a more savory dish than a choice piece of buffalo meat prepared by a skilful cook. But this applies only to a well chosen animal. The old bulls are unfit to be eaten, tasting gummy, coarse and saliferous, and leave an unpleas- ant odor of urine in the mouth. This is especially the case at certain seasons, when they are chiefly engaged in bellow- ing on the plains and pawing with their feet. One of my soldiers said that while out with a hungry scout, they en- countered and killed a solitary old bull in a lonesome valley. They ate him heartily, in spite of his disagreeable flavor ; " but," added he, "^my mouth tasted and my whole body smelt like a peach-orchard boor for a week." This is like the condition of Caliban, who after having been wallowed in a stable, protested : " I do smell all horse, at which my nose is in great indignation." TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 285 They devote the months of August and September to multiplication ; and then these vast plains roar night and day with the thunder of the bulls, who engage in terrible battles with each other. At such seasons the old bulls, no longer able to bear a good front in such encounters, retire by themselves in secluded valleys and gorges, — lis- tening no doubt with melancholy interest to the bellowing of their more lusty brethren, as superannuated veterans on the retired list may hear the roar of battle afar off. Their young are brought forth in April or May, usually a male and female at a birth. When captured young they are very readily tamed. A friend of mine reared a heifer and a bull, captured when suckling calves. They became so fond of him and his family that they could hardly be kept out of the house, and followed his people about like dogs. AVhen they grew older they contracted the habit of knock- ing down his fences, invading his gardens and fields ; and not being able to restrain them, he concluded that their beef was better than their company, and slew them. He and his neighbors declared that they had never eaten such excellent meat. I have never known the buffalo to pro- duce hybrids with the domestic cattle ; but I have little doubt that it is practicable, and that such a cross would work an admirable improvement of our beef stock.* A Glance into the Past and Future. As this vast army went thundering to the north, dis- appearing behind the blue chain of mountains, I looked upon them with a sad interest. I thought of what they have been and what they soon will be, and beheld in them * Since the trip of our traveller, the buffalo has covered the plains of North- west Texas in such herds as have not been known before, at least bj' the wliite man. They broke into the Post gardens at FortMcKavett. the officers shooting them from the windows of their quarters. During the winter of 1876-'7, hun- dreds of thousands were slaughtered for their hides and tongues alone, and many from wantonness. 286 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. a great race rapidly marching away into the shadowy depths, out of sight and out of memory of the living. And alonsr with them marches another race, whose destiny is bound up with theirs. Time was wlien the buffalo ranged over the American continent, from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains : he is now confined to a territory that is daily contracting its boundaries. His enemies are increasing upon him on every hand, and a hundred years hence I doubt if there will be a single specimen of his race on the continent. Within a short period, those who come after us will look upon his bleaching bones with as much curiosity as we now look upon the fossil relics of the mastodon and mammoth. And it is not the advancing white man alone that is hedging him around with destruc- tion. Nature has placed the seal of doom upon his brow, and moves to his destruction with as certain tread as the white man, if not so rapidly. The buffalo, like the ante- lope and the prairie dog, is the son of the prairie : the broad, sunny plains are his beneficent mother : the shaded forests are not his, and he loves them not. Condemned to them, he would soon die of melancholy, if not of starva- tion : as the albatross would soon die if transported whither he could not hear the multitudinous voice of the sea and ride on its foamy billows. In time the American conti- nent has all been a great prairie ; and as the forests ad- vanced, the buffalo retired before their gloomy grandeur. Tlie forests are still advancing, slowly and steadily, step by step, to the grand music of the centuries, and will at last push their great columns to the shores of the Pacific. In this condition of things, the buffalo would not live if he could. Life would be a burden to him without his boundless prairies, and death a welcome relief to his sickened heart and wearied bones. When Nature has set its seal of doom upon a race, death becomes to it an asj^ira- tion, and the paths that lead to extinction are easy and TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS O:^ HORSEBACK. 287 desirable. It is euthanasia. Thus Nature executes the sentences of her law in love. As I beheld the last black line of the great thundering mass sink behind the mountains, I thought it might be the last I should ever see of this departing race, and I spoke an involuntary farewell — "Vale, vale, longum vale !" Nature's volume in which their , history is written is nearly closed, and a ncAV Epoch dawns over their land from the east, bringing a total change of scenes and conditions. The Mourner by the Hearse. I have said that the Indian is following this funeral march into the Shadowy Depths. He lingers but a little behind, and is drawn irresistibly onward. It is the fascina- tion of impending doom leading him down great declivities *' to shores where all is dumb ; " a fascination that he can- not resist if he would. The Indian cannot live without the buffalo, any more than he can without the sun. From him he procures his food, his raiment, the material with which he covers his cabin, the shield that protects him from the arrow of his enemy, and often even the fuel with which he warms himself and cooks his food. Take the buffalo away from him, and you take his all, making him a miserable outcast, shivering and starving. It will force a total change in his conditions of life, which would of itself speedily work his extinction. When the last buffalo is gone, there will be nothing left of the North American Indian, save a few dejected hangers-on about the out- skirts of civilization ; listless, and silently awaiting the impending doom which they know is above them, casting its shadow into their hearts. Like the last of the buffaloes, death will be to them a poetry and iispiration, and a sweet 288 TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. boon : because they are walking the paths that Nature has made to lead them to the shore. Does not every Indian know of this impending doom, and feel the shadow upon his heart ? It may be that all do not comprehend it, but I believe there are none who do not feel that there is a shadow upon them which no sunlight can dispel. There is a strange funeral dirge whose notes continually^ break upon his ears during the day and startle his slumbers at night ; a sweet note of melody from the eternal spheres, as sweet as it is melan- choly. They may not all know that this is the Syren, Fate ; but many of them do. I believe I never saw an Indian even of the least exalted tribe, in whose countenance I could not detect a trace of melancholy ; and in many this spirit was conspicuously present. In my youth I knew the noble old Placido, chief of the Tonkaways. This man possessed a grand soul and a great heart, and of him nature had written in every lineament: "This is a man?" There was a sweet, sad gentleness about this old warrior, which could not fail to attract many observers. He seemed a prophet contempla- ting the future while he spake of the indifferent things around him ; and it was the future that threw the strange, sweet shadows about him. It was the shadow of the doom of him and his race reaching down into his heart, and the old man knew it. He knew that the Great Spirit had called for His red children, and that they must depart from the earth, and sink into the great Ocean of Forget- fulness, leaving not even a waif on the surface to float to the shore and teli that the Tonkaway had lived. He saw his own tribe passing away until scarcely a hundred were left of the thousands he had led. When Capt. Jack was informed that he must die, he heard it unmoved, and said : "My Indian heart is dead, and I do not mind to die." Those five words — "My Indian heart is dead" — tell the TWO THOUSAND MILES lif TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 289 whole story. The shadow of the doom of his race had chilled the vital power, and made death a dream and aspiration. Per Coi^TRA. How different the conquering race, before whom the Indian and buffalo are dwindling away, and to whose con- quests even Nature lends her auxiliary hands ! No shadow of doom upon that brow, no subsidence of the vital power there ! Fortitude and daring burst up within that heart, like the strong waters of a big fountain, and Nature spurs it with the ambition of a higher destiny. The volume of its history is but just opened, and perhaps its greatest achievements yet await it. May not even I, in this vast wilderness, the home of the buffalo and Indian, with but two by my side, be an unconscious prospecting courier of the great conquering hosts that linger a little behind — sent forward to blaze the way ? 13 IV. A Speculation in" which there is Mo:n"et. "T'T'jrE rode over a prairie three miles in width and an VV uncertain number in length, composed of white, sharp sand, with a thin coating of wiry grass. It is a sin- gular geological phenomenon, and the first sand-prairie I have seen in Texas. The stampeding buffaloes had much torn it up, and our horses sank to the fetlock. "Now," said Jones Johns, " if I only had this sand-prairie near San Antonio, I would quit soldiering and grow rich — sell- ing sand to the plasterers and for the streets and yards. The San Antonians go twelve miles to get their sand, and pay a big price for it at that. Ugh ! it just makes my mouth water to look at this sand. If I could only move this prairie to San Antonio ! " I suggested to him that perhaps he would do better by buying the prairie and let- ting it stay where it is; "for," said I, "by moving the prairie to San Antonio all at once, there would be a glut in the market and sand would fall. This is probably the only sand for miles and miles ; and this region must soon fill with people who will want sand for their mortar. This prairie will then become a mine of gold to the owner, who will have naught to do but sit on the road-side and sell sand. Railroads will be built, and he can then open a sand-store in San Antonio, becoming a great merchant. It is one of the greatest opportunities of the age." He looked eagerly at the sand, and said : "It is so ! If E survive this 'venter, I intend to buy this tract. I'll TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 291 get a land-warrant at two-bits an acre and locate it here." " Don't be in a burry ! " '*No — don't break your neck," said John Powell; " for if a million of men were to come here to buy land, they'd every one cuss this spot. They wouldn't have it as a gracious gift." ^'That is so," said Jones Johns. "Men's foresiglit ain't as good as their hind-sight. But I'm going to save up my money, and right here will I stretch my tent." This sand is clean quartz grit, and its presence here is phenomenal. Concho Springs. — Et Tu Brute ! Arrived at Concho Springs, the apparent head of the Concho, sixty miles from Concho Post. It is one of the loneliest looking spots on earth — a depression in a bound- less plain, into which numerous ravines debouch. Chains of low mountains west and north shut out the incognita beyond. It is more silent than the Arctic regions beyond the Esquimaux line, where the beating of the heart in the bosom is all that is heard ; that is to say, that it would be if it were not for the ominous raven that shrieks above us and disturbs the air with his funereal wings. We dis- mount and picket our horses on the grass in silence, look- ing curiously around and feeling instinctively that we should not separate too far apart. The Concho, which had been rapidly dwindling, is here a mere brook, rising out of the earth in two or three bubbling fountains. As we leaned over the fountain to fill our cups, we beheld a number of moccasin tracks recently made. We looked at them and then looked at one another. Presently Jones Johns picked up an arrow, with a keen, barbed point of steel, that had evidently just dropped from a hostile quiver. We examined it with a grim smile, knowing that 292 TWO THOUSAN"D MILES 11^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. it was of no use to turn pale. Johns broke the silence : •^'I smell something like ajoole-cat. That's the way Injuns smells. I tell you they are clost about." We discussed what we should do, and concluded we were as safe here as anywhere within sixty miles, and therefore would rest in peace and calmly take whatever fortune might send us^ feeling that if we should fall, being innocent, we would alight on a silken couch. AVe reclined on the grass and ate our mid-day meal, our guns by our sides and our eyes on the watch. Retrospection. — Artesian Wells. This whole Concho country at no remote day will sup- port a great population. It is a country yet unfinished, on which the hands of the Architect are still engaged in bring- ing it to the perfection he intends for it. It is embryonic ; and yet, in its incomplete condition, it is a grand country. What will it not be, when creative energy has put on the last stroke ! Besides its delicious climate and thick car- peting of all the richest grasses of Texas, it is so nearly all fertile that poor spots are rare ; and this not only of the valleys, but of the rolling highlands and lofty table lands. The soil has been derived from calcareous, gypseous and magnesian rocks, and so loamy is it that it would be a work of love to the plow to slip through it. There is probably no region on earth where the small grains would yield larger crops or of better quality. Wheat would here revel to its most splendid development. This region wants trees for the unshaded plains, more running streams, and more rain. These will come in time from bountiful nature ; but in order that this noble region may not so long be unpossessed and unenjoyed, man should encourage and assist nature. As for the valleys, the work is easy to give them abundant vegetation and moisture to sustain it ; but there are wide spaces so destitute of water TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 293 that a bird would hardly dare fly over them without taking his canteen. The rain-fall on these arid scopes is barely sufficient to support the hardy grasses ; indeed, sometimes they almost perish from thirst. Until the forests have advanced, bringing with them rains and springs, and new creeks and rivers, the Artesian well must be resorted to, to make these extensive areas useful even to the herdsman ; and these can be secured only by the aid of the State. Artesian wells would here work wonders greater than Aladdin's lamp. The forests would hasten their advancing steps, the rains would descend, and the vast and lonely wilderness would become almost at once a region of boundless wealth and unequalled beauty and pleasure. This is the work of the statesman, and that Governor of Texas who shall ac- complish it, will build for himself a '' monument m^ore lasting than brass and taller than the regal heights of the Pyramids." He will in fact enlarge Texas by creating and adding to it another empire. Jefferson Davis, while United States Secretary of War, conceived this grand idea, worthy of a statesman, and dis- patched Captain John Pope, of the army, to show its prac- ticability. That officer accomplished nothing, boring a few shallow holes here and there, and Davis' term as Sec- retary expiring too soon, the experiment was never renewed — Pope's failure causing many to think that Artesian wells cannot be obtained in this country. Nothing could be more absurd. There are myriads of fountains and rivers in the dark recesses of the earth, and it is quite impossible to sink a shaft that will not reach some of these. The only conditions of success are that the bore shall be deep enough, and that the strata shall rise at some point, not too remote, above the surface of the bore. The strata in all this region lie precisely in a position most favorable to these wells, and are not broken up or intercepted. They rise step by step toward the northwest, forming an im- 294 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. mense inclined plane, till at last, within less than one hun- dred and fifty miles, they are two thousand feet or more above the lower edge of the plane. If vigorous subter- ranean currents do not sweep down this plane, it would be without precedent and an anomaly in nature. I dare say that a shaft sunk a thousand to two thousand feet at any point of it in Texas, except probably its extreme northern edge, would be followed by a great outburst of water. The fact that all the great rivers of Texas have their sources either on, or at the foot of this plane, leaves no doubt of this. It is a work which will be demonstrated and accomplished. In Darkness. Two hours at Concho Springs, during which our horses stuffed themselves greatly, as if providing against an im- pending famine, did not lose us our scalps, and we rode west with whole skins. Ascending out of the depression we rode on a plain that seemed interminable, level as a carpet, and covered with luxuriant grass, on which the set- ting sun poured a golden flood. Hundreds of antelopes fed on the expanse, or stopped to gaze at us. It was a sudden elevation of the whole territory a hundred feet above the spot Ave had just left. Night came upon us, and it seemed the most uncon- fined, limitless night I ever belield. It did not seem to come from above ; for the stars shone with wonderful brilliance through the rarefied air ; but rather that we rode on a promontory, with an ocean of darkness below us, from which it puffed up and covered the spaces about us. So real did this spectral ocean appear that I seemed to hear at intervals the roar of the billows pushing one an- other and bursting against rocks below us. Such is the singular effect of witnessing night fall on one of these promontories of the globe. And it was not all phantas- magoria ; for the darkness did literally move up from the TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 295 subjacent lowlands, which are first submerged in light. It was not all stillness. Numberless birds of night whisked through the air, some of them making a pleasing melody as they vaulted into the heavens. Suddenly we were startled by a sound like that of a brigade of cavalry charg- ing furiously over the plain. Our horses arched their necks, pricked their ears, and almost danced with excitement. " Injuns ! " said John Powell. "Injuns !" said Jones Johns. "Buffaloes !" said I, in a suppressed voice. We stopped and tried to look into the darkness ; but, though the point whence the sound came seemed at first to be but a little distance off, we could see nothing. We grasped our rifles tighter. It gradually died away, and then ceased altogether. " If them's Injuns they've taken a tremendous stam- pede," said Jones Johns. " Guess they think the Tenth Cavalry is at their heels." At that moment we heard the distinct neigh of a horse, answered immediately by many others from different direc- tions. " What do you make of that now ?" said John Powell, with manifest uneasiness. " If them's Injuus there's a caution of 'em," said Jones Johns. The neighing soon ceased, and all was silent again, save the flight and melody of night birds. We rode onward cautiously, our horses stepping spirit- edly and gaily, as if they wanted to show themselves. Presently we rode upon a pool of water, reflecting the stars in its bosom. When our horses put their heads down to drink, they smelt around and snorted before tasting the water. "These horses feels suspicious," said John Powell; " they know something's up. They smell Injuns." 296 TWO TH0USA1!^D MILES IK TEXAS Olf HORSEBACK. I dismounted and filled all our canteens from the clear pool. "Boys, shall we camp ?" '^Not here, by no means," was the response of the soldiers. "If them's Injuns they'll come here sure, to get water. Let's move on. " As I did not wish to leave this water until morning, we rode two miles south, and coming to a small clump of mes- quite brush, dismounted and took up our abode for the night. Our horses were both picketed and hobbled, so that in case of an attempt to stampede them, it could not prove a success. The grass was knee-deep, and a grateful couch it made to our weary limbs. We had travelled over forty-four miles during the day. We kindled no light, but wrapping ourselves up in blankets, profound peace soon reigned in camp. Voices of the I^ight. Before falling asleep I amused myself some time by taking note of the voices that broke the stillness of night. At intervals I heard distinctly what seemed the sound of a waterfall at great distance, or water rushing suddenly over a rocky channel — heard but a moment and then all was still. This waterfall may have been fifty miles away, but a breeze passing by, caught up the sound and bore it to my ears in the still night. I listened to these sounds with interest, to catch every note ; for when a boy, I was startled once by a precisely similar sound, which I have thought of a thousand times. As in this case, the sound seemed to come from the skies, was heard distinctly a sec- ond, and then ceased. As I knew there was no waterfall in that region, I thought in my boyish fancy I had heard one of the crystal fountains of Paradise, and for fear I would not be believed, never told it. I was alone in a wide campus, in the early part of a clear morning. What TWO THOUSAN-D MILES IIS" TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 297 singular acoustic phenomenon is it that brings to ns these distant sounds ? Occasionally some heavy bird of night hovered closely over us, his feathers cutting the wind with a peculiar noise. Some of these were so large that I judged them to be eagles, attracted by the bulfalo meat we had with us. Then there was the snipe, or lark, or whatever it might be, springing into the air and singing as he soared. His music was a most sweet melody that gradually lost itself in the skies, like the song of ^^an unbodied joy whose race is just begun." The lonesome cry of the big wolf mingled with these sweet sounds, and broke over the plains like the wail of a lost soul on the banks of the Styx. Sometimes the cry of a dozen of these rose into the air from as many different directions at once. At last I fell asleep to the music of sweet larks and prowling wolves. 13* V. EvoE ! — The Charge ! IT was grey of dawn when a loud snort from our horses awakened me. The two soldiers bestirred themselves at the same moment, and we all grasped our artillery. As I did so I beheld two large wolves sitting side by side, not more than thirty yards off, — looking straight at us. I was about to pull trigger, when the soldiers asked me to desist, saying that our horses, which now snorted again very vig- orously, were not disturbed by the wolves, but evidently by something else. I assented, and paid no further atten- tion to the wolves. At the same moment we heard the neighing of a number of horses. * *^ There now !" said John Powell ; '^didn't I tell you so ? The Injuns are upon us, certain." Stepping to the edge of the brush, we saw a brigade of horses approaching us. " It is so !" said I. '' It is so ! " repeated the soldiers ; and we put our thumbs to tlie ham- mers of the guns. The brigade was not more than three hundred yards from us, and steadily advancing. In a moment we observed that the horses were riderless, and there was a feeling of relief and a decided sensation when we exclaimed — '' Wild horses ! Mustangs ! " Our horses were becoming more and more excited as the gay cavalcade drew nearer, but knowing they were safe from stampede, we fell back into the brush to conceal our- selves, so that the mustangs might come upon us. The p5int was an excellent one, both for concealment and ob- TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS Oiq" HORSEBACK. 5^99 servation. It was on a knoll, or slight elevation of the sur- face, and the brush and tall grass were so thick that not even the keen eye of these sons of the prairie could detect us, until almost immediately on us. On they came, and it was a beautiful sight to behold. They had seen our horses, and were coming directly upon them. When about a hundred yards off, they stopj^ed with one accord, as if suspicious of a lurking enemy ; their heads lifted up and looking toward us. Presently a squad- ron of the boldest pranced out before the others, and after a few curvettings marched deliberately, with arched necks, to our hobbled steeds. These were the most beautiful ani- mals I ever beheld. Some of them were pure milk white, without a spot or stain ; their long, flowing tails, thick mane, pendent forelocks and feet, of jetty blackness. Bless my soul ! thought I ; suppose I had a couple of yon fellows to draw my buggy through the streets of Houston — would I not cut a swell ? Others were as black as ravens and almost as lustrous as a mirror in the sunshine ; others were bay, others chestnut, others sorrel, others cream, and others spotted with red and white or black. These advance fel- lows were all stallions. They came right np to our horses and bit at and squealed at them. The others, taking cour- age, galloped bravely up, so that in a moment our three horses were surrounded and hidden out of sight by the gay throng. It was the most magnificent cahallado lever saw ; not a poor or shabby one among them ; all fat and sleek as moles — looking as if they had just been carefully rubbed by the most skillful hostlers. It was a sight worth a trip to see. " Look here ; I'm afraid they'll kick our horses to death," said John Powell. *^ I think we'd better get out o' here." In that opinion I agreed ; and all of us stepping out on the plain, not forty yards from them, it was as if a thou- 300 TWO THOUSAi^D MILES 11^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. sand fearfnl apparitions had fallen suddenly among them. They bounded away, their heads and tails lifted liigh in the air, dashing furiously off, as fast as their gay legs could carry them ; and they continued to go in this way till they sank out of sight and out of hearing. Our horses made a foolish effort to follow them, and when we went up to pacify them, they did not wish us to come near them, but turned their heels to us and squealed. Their eyes blazed with excitement, and they behaved for all the world as if they thought that they were wild horses too. I could but laugh at the ridiculous put-on of the poor beasts of bur- den ; but it was, after all, nature boiling up within them. If they had not been hobbled with good rawhide thongs, we would have been set afoot ; for nothing could have re- sisted their headstrong fury to run wild too, to live with their beautiful free brethren of the plains. I certainly could not blame them ; for should I discover on this trip a race of wild ladies as surpassingly beautiful over their tame sisters as these wild steeds are over the tame ones, I should undoubtedly run wild too, and take up my abode with the wild ladies. Eailroads and cities and foundries and the haunts of civilization would know me no more. My life would thenceforth be the color and the fragrance of the rose. We brought our horses to their senses by a strong pull of the stake-rope ; and yet after we mounted them, it was amusing to see how they behaved. They arched their necks, shook their heads, lifted their heels extraordinarily high, and emitted snort after snort. These horses are not as large as the domestic horse, but are more compactly put up, and seem to be stronger in proportion to size. There is nothing lean or lank about them, but all is closely knit and well-rounded symmetry. The true Morgan stallion seems to come about as near their size and appearance as any breed of horses I can think of. TWO THOUSAN-D MILES IN TEXAS OIH HORSEBACK. 301 They are the true equine Achilleses— so beautiful, strong and agile. They are larger than the Mexican horses, commonly called mustangs in Texas, and infinitely better looking. The latter are generally coarse and shaggy, but the true mustangs are the belles and beaux of their race. The dark shades prevail among them, but nearly all other colors and shades are well represented. In the early days of Texas, when these wild horses were common on all the great prairies, the settlers made it a business to hunt them, catching them with the lasso ; and there are not a few old Texans who obtained their start in horse-stock from this source. They are said to be easily tamed, even when caught full grown, and make superior saddle-horses, « When-ce Came He ? All who have written of this prairie-horse, state that he has descended from the stray or lost horses of the first Spanish settlers or explorers. I do not accept this theory. I believe that he is an American production, as much so as Powhatan or Montezuma, and roamed over these prairies as freely when Columbus discovered America as he does to-day. That he receives accessions from the domestic horse is certain ; for I saw one large individual in this herd, very unlike the rest, who had distinct saddle-marks on his back and flanks; but these are waifs who have contributed very little to the common stock— not even enough to impress upon it a variety of form and size. I look upon him as the native son of the prairie, like the antelope and buffalo, and like these he will cease to exist when the prairies have been occupied by the forest. The fact that the horse Avas unknown to the Indian on the coast and to the Mexican, when the new country was dis- covered, does not prove that the horse did not exist within it. It proves only that he did not exist in those regions where there were few or no prairies ; and such was the 302 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS Oif HOESEBAGK. territory where the first European adventurers touched. The Indians of those days were not accustomed to long journeys;* they were circumscribed within narrow limits by hostile tribes, who scrupulously maintained the doctrine of non-intercourse ; and they were not apt to learn that horses existed on the boundless prairies of the west, or that their red brethren ever rode on their backs. Some will say that if it is true that he is a native son of the prairie, he should have been found by those who first visited the northwest, where great prairies abound. The fact that the horse in the wild state is necessarily a sub-tropical animal, will answer this objection. He could not exist in a region subject to intense cold and deep snows ; and even if he would visit the nortbein prairies in summer, his way to them was barred by wide belts of forest, which, like the buffalo and antelope, he abhors. I dare say when La Salle visited the Texas coast he saw wild horses in abundance, if he pushed far into the prairie region, f AVhen the first Americans came to Texas, they found some of the Indians rich in herds of horses, and they brought on severe troubles with them by raiding upon them, to steal their horses — a game Avhich the Indians have been constantly playing upon the whites ever since. If these wild horses are the descendants of domestic horses that strayed from the early settlers, why were none found on the prairies of Florida and Louisiana, which were, and are yet, ample for the support of large herds ? If the theory is correct, we must suppose that the settlers of those States were much more careful of their horses tlian those who first came to Texas and Mexico ; or that their horses were much less inclined to run away. * Neither are they now. t This surmise is correct. La Salle found the Indians on the Neches well supplied with horses. They received him kindly and generously gave him horses to mount his company of twenty men, who were trying to find their way on foot from the coast of Texas to the French missionary posts in the north. TWO THOUSAIJ-D MILES Ilf TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 303 The horse in a diminutive form, is found fossil all over Texas, in the later Tertiary deposits and alluvial soil. His fossil bones of larger size are also found in Kentucky, and even as far north as Minnesota in the same deposits. It is certain then that he existed in this country long be- fore the days of Columbus, or even Adam. Having been here then, why should he not be here now ? There is no evidence in geology that he became extinct, but rather that he continued to improve in form and size, and retired west- ward and southward only before the advancing forests, and the increased rigor of the climate which took place about the time of man's advent in the world. The bos also ex- isted in those remote days, and we have his descendants in the buffalo ; which, for all that we know,, was as much unknown to the Indians east of the Mississippi, as the horse. If the bos could survive, why not the equus ? Dew-Deops. As we rode back to the pool at which we watered last night, the prairie was radiant with myriads of little suns. Globules of bright water sat upon every blade of grass, and from ail of these miniature suns, flashed and shot their rays into our faces — the reflection in the dew-drops of the great orb tliat had just risen. The grass was as wet as if a heavy cloud had settled upon it and parted with all its moisture. Thus, in mid-winter as well as summer, the dews come nightly upon this lofty plain, and the heaviest I ever saw. In other regions the dews affect the lowlands, and come only in the warmer seasons ; but here they come alike to the lofty table-land and the valley, and at all seasons. Is not this design in Him Who Eules ? Without these extra- ordinary dews, where would be this luxuriant verdancy and the fertility of these plains ? What is now one of the most beautiful parts of creation, would be a barren desolation — 304 TWO THOUSAN'D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. the sport alternately of hot whirlwinds and frozen tempe'sts, shunned as a region of death by all living things. The Hand of Providence. — The Volcanic Foun- tains. Arriving at the pool, instead of one, we found a dozen or more. These are the Mustang Water Holes, as written in the maps. They are circular, as much so as a well, and apparently not less profound ; the water cool and pure. Some of them are three hundred feet in diameter, and none less than a hundred. They are separated a few feet apart, and each rises a few inches above its nearest neighbor to the east, so that in case of overflow, the water of the most remote would flow through all. They have no current flowing into them, and none flowing out, that is percepti- ble. They are situated in a level plain ; but two parallel ridges of low rounded mountains, forming a beautiful valley between, extend nearly down to them from the west, and a very slight depression leads away toward the head of the Concho. These fountains, pools, or cisterns, or whatever else they may be called, are said never to diminish their pure sparkling water, but it remains at the same level, quite up to the top, even during the severest droughts. Whence came they, and what are they ? I can account for them on no other ground than that they are the rem- nants of a deep volcanic fissure, and that their waters issue from profound depths. Such phenomenal pools or cisterns are not uncommon on these streamless plains. One who has seen nearly all of this vast region told me that often, when he believed he should perish for water, he had sud- denly come upon them — many of them as round as a well and but little bigger, and so deep that he could find no bottom with his stake-rope. Some of these, said he, looked precisely as if they had been wrought by human hands, the water standing nearly level with the top, and always TWO THOUSAND MILES IIT TEXAS 01s HORSEBACK. 305 sweet and pure even when in the midst of salty and gyp- seous regions.. Why are not such as these found in regions tilled with springs and traversed by streams ? Because they would answer no purpose', and supply no necessity. Without them even the buffalo, the antelope and the wild horse could barely venture upon the borders of this great unfinished country, and the dews would be distilled to nur- ture the luxuriant crops of grass, in vain. The roads that penetrate it bend hither and thither to reach them like a ship beating against a contrary wind, and without them, the populous part of Texas would be separated from north- ern Mexico and the Pacific, almost as effectually as if an ocean of fire rolled between them. They were necessary, and therefore they were ordered, and the volcanic forces were despatched to form them. The Sektii?"els axd Prophets. A little distance from these remarkable fountains, three sentinels stand side by side, alone in the vast ex- panse. As is fitting in those who are pushed forward to blaze the way of the advancing hosts, they are robust and strong. They are three solitary live-oaks, hearts of iron, rising in grandeur, and stretching out their broad arms as if saying to the prairies : " And you shall all come under our dominion ! " There they stand — grand, noble trees — at least a hundred miles in advance of their hosts, and not another tree of any sort probably within fifty miles ; seem- ing to feel proud of their solitude, as if by tiiis they knew they were the chosen agents of the Architect, by whose fiat they were thus advanced. Let them stand forever, or until their iron hearts are wasted by eternal time ! They probably saw this country before the foot of the European touched American soil ; the buffalo and the red man have rested under their shade for centuries; and now let them stand to witness the teeming populations of the east, that 306 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. are destined to swarm around tliem under the torch-light of civilization. The messengers of God to foretell the advance of the hosts^ let them stand until he calls them hence ! The Cypress of Somma, which still stands on the lofty flanks of the Alps, was written of by Julius Caesar nineteen hundred and nineteen years ago. When Napoleon was cutting his great road over the Simplon, he stood in its shade and directed his engineers not to touch that tree. Thus we know that at least twenty centuries extend their shadowy wings around this venerable tree, and we are taught by it something of the age of the monarchs of the forest. Let him who dwells on this plain in the centuries to come, know by these signals that in the year of our Lord 1876, these three oaks, alone in the wide expanse, were apparently in middle life, fresh, powerful and vigor- ous. From this let them measure the life of the iron- hearted oak ! Pursuit and Death. — The Jaguar. After breakfast under the mantle of the prophets, we rode west, up the green valley between the mountains, and witnessed a scene which shows that all is not peace, even in this solitude. An antelope swept down the valley rap- idly toward us, a strange beast following closely behind him. They passed within thirty yards of us, and neither appeared to notice us. The antelope seemed nearly ex- hausted, while the animal in pursuit bounded along ap- parently without effort, as if conscious that the end was near. This was the ydgimr—felis onca — more commonly called the Mexican lion, one of the most ferocious of beasts : color light brown, body five to six feet in length, two and a half to three feet in height, and a heavy, tiger- like head. Our first impulse was to relieve the pretty antelope by discharging a volley into the jaguar, but we TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 807 concluded to watch the result. The antelope changed his course, running through a narrow pass in the moun- tains to our left, and both disappeared. We followed, and had gone but a few hundred yards when we saw the antelope coming back on his tracks, the jaguar still in pursuit and almost at his heels. When opposite us, about fifty yards off, the jaguar with an easy bound sprang into the air, alighting upon the antelope's shoulders. He clasped his forefeet closely around the antelope's neck and buried his head under his throat — the poor animal in the meantime bawling and crying piteously. He stag- gered under the weight of the carnivore, and after a few steps fell to the ground, the latter still chnging to his throat. John and myself now jumped from our horses, and handing the reins to Powell, liastened to take part in the deadly scene, and to save the antelope if we could. At fifteen paces we opened fire with our pistols ; the jaguar turned to look at us a second, and then dashed up the mountain side — bullets in rapid succession striking the rocks about him. We fear we did not wound him, and he disappeared. The antelope rose and staggered a few paces and fell again. A large wound had been torn at the base of his throat, from which his blood was gushing. His flanks and shoulders were also torn by the sharp claws of the beast, and seeing that there was no hope for the poor animal, we shot him through the head to relieve him of his pain. It appeared from the wound, and the way that the jaguar crouched to his throat, that he had actually been drinking his blood while he struggled. Did such scenes occur before that fatal apple was eaten ? Ah, Mother Eve, if ancient legends are true, how grievous has been thy sin ! In thy gentleness and beauty, what a pity thou didst not know what cruel scenes would follow thy transgression ! Thy gentle heart would have sickened, and 308 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. Eden would have needed no angel bands to ward thee against the tempter, and yet in vain ! * A Change Indeed. — The Floral Fiend. We did not return to the valley, but turned to the south-west, following an obscure trail, which seems to have been, at some day, a small road. It is not now all beauty and amenity ; quite the reverse. Barren, stony scopes oc- cur ; solitary, isolated mountains, and table-lands with perpendicular walls that look like fortresses. The walls of some of these are destitute of stones, composed of layers of clay and white, powdery marl, styptic as soda on the tongue. These fortress-like table lands are very peculiar and difficult to explain. They seem not to have been up- lifted, but rather that the contiguous lands have subsided away from them, by some accident leaving them standing alone. They are from ten to thirty feet in perpendicular height, and often quite inaccessible on top. For miles and miles no vegetation save a short crisp grass ; not a drop of water and no animal life. Finally we ride into a moun- tainous district, for which bleakness is no name, ^\ide, flat stones, sometimes extending hundreds of yards, emit a hollow sound under our horses' feet. In the crevices of these stones, that fierce ugliness, the prickly pear, has struck its roots, and strangely enough, flourishes in the unmatched sterility, luxuriating in what would be death to all other vegetation. Its ferocious aspect and the strangeness of its situation add to the grimness of the scene. This thing, living on stones in the most desolate spots of earth, reminds me of the infernal fiends who are * The jaguar is quite common in the uninhabited wilds of Western Texas, and is a very destructive beast, attacking and slaying full-grown horses and cattle He is said to be a dangerous animal to tamper with, and certainly his aspect would indicate it. Ue has a brutal, bull-dog head, short, heavy neck, and his power of spring is tremendous. It is not safe to hunt him except in companies. They often roar very like a lion, and have more resemblance to that animal than to either the cougar or tiger TWO THOUSAiN^D MILES I^S^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 309 said to disport themselves and play games of hell in hissing flames and lakes of liquid fire. It may appropriately be called the Floral Fiend ; for surely it is hideous enough, bristling witli deadly spires, sharj^er than needles, and set off with flame-red phimes, suggestive of the flames below. I dare say if one should run against one of these fiends at night, he would smell an odor of brimstone. A Baxd of Philosophers. While riding along the flank of a mountain in this abode of the accursed, we saw beneath us in a verdureless vale, a company of antelopes walking hither and thither and curiously observing everything. They were not seek- ing food, for there was absolutely nothing of that sort. They would stand on the brink of a precipice, and project their heads as far over as possible, as if studying the dis- mal scenes below ; then they would contemplate the stony mountain sides, gazing at the misshapen masses of rock. We stopped to watch their curious behavior. Said I to the soldiers : " Those fellows are a band of philosophers who are exploring the wilderness for the love of science. See how curiously they inspect everything, from the grim exposure of the ravines to the lonely pebble on the waste. These be the ways of philosophers. They are probably getting up a cosmogony of their own, with which when they return to the plains, they will astonish the learned brethren. And dissertations and counter-dissertations will follow, till at length, perplexed and wearied, the brethren will fall back to the old faith." '' That's so," said Jones Johns ; ''for I always suspects a man to be a fraud that is too smart. He don't believe the half that he tells." '' I'll bet they are a gang of miners," said John Powell; '' running the risk of starvation and wolves to hunt for gold." 310 TWO THOUSAND MILES II^" TEXAS 01^ H0KSE3ACK. *'They might as well be cosmogromers as anything else," said Jones Johns ; " for if they stay here they'll soon get so poor they'll not be fitten for anything else." But, in serious earliest, what brought these festive creatures hither ? It was real enjoyment of the unaccus- tomed scenes. Having touched the border and spied the oddity, a spirit of curiosity and inquiry impelled them to proceed to the centre and explore it — ^like a gang of truant schoolboys on a holiday, wandering iuto all sorts of odd places, and gathering fun from every object. Go on, fes- tive fellows ! I sympathize with you in your love of- na- ture ; and were I as hungry as a wolf, I would not shoot one of you for a league of land. There is more of God in his humblest creatures than the world is wilHng to admit. Seat of Desolation. — The Skeletons in Battle Array. At last, after mid-day, when all were weary, a long and tolerably smooth ascent rose before us, beyond whose crest no loftier region appeared. I said to myself : '•' That surely is the end. From that crest I shall behold the glorious prospect of verdant plain, and pleasing hill and vale." Our horses seemed equally inspired by that crest with no pinnacle beyond. They seemed to say to them selves: *' There be good grass and water beyond that." They urged briskly ahead, growing more and more impa- tient as they drew nearer the crest. We reached it ; and horse and rider turned pale or felt pale at the hideous spectacle that spread out interminably. It is a plain, it is true, but such a plain ! — barren, arid, horrid : occupied by gigantic castles of prickly pear, around which an army of grinning skeletons, with nodding, with- ered plumes, and armed with huge bayonets, are standing sentinel ! Our poor horses looked as if they were pierced TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 311 with grief as thpy beheld this scene, and, lately so spirited, became all at once dull and lethargic. They viewed the grizzly castles and grinning skeletons with profound dis- gust and aversion. Do not imagine that it is a mere fancy — these grinning skeletons with withered plume and bayonet ! It is an army of Spanish Daggers, and so exact is the similitude that fancy is not needed to fill the picture. They stand six to eight and ten feet high, their summits capped with a withered plume of white flowers, and fearful two-edged blades, pointed as keen as needles, project outward from the scaly trunk in every direction. These withered plumes look like the hea^l of a soldier with flowing helmet. One not accustomed to them, riding suddenly upon them on a moonlight night, could hardly fail to be struck with amaze- ment, under the hallucination that he has ridden upon an army in battle array, with their guns levelled at his breast. They bear no foliage — nothing save these terrible swords or daggers, which are as terrible as any weapon of steel ever- manufactured by the murderous art of man. They are stout enough and sharp enough to be thrust easily through a man's body, and their slightly serrated edges, finished with a coat of glittering silica, are sharp as a razor. There is certainly no plant in nature of more forbidding aspect, unless it be its dread congener, the Floral Fiend, which here erects its great buildings twenty and thirty feet in height, with ugly archways beneath, through which a man could ride on horseback. Not a blade of grass is visible. The bare, pale-red earth is everywhere exposed, save where the black or grey rocks spread over the surface. Aridity ! he knows thee not who has not seen this ! Whence do these gigantic plants and castles, full of moisture, obtain their subsistence ? They are the true vegetable chameleons that 2:row fat on lio-ht and air. "Well, well," said John Powell, who had fallen into a 312 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. melancholy ; " what did the Almighty make such a coun- try as this for ? " '^Ah," said I, ''John Powell, this is the country where we shall make our fortunes. Tliis is even better than the sand-prairie. Those grim skeletons are a mint of gold to those who will work them skillfully and indus- triously, as we will. See those great swords that they point up at us. They are a mass of strong hempen cords, from which we may manufacture ropes and sacks without end. See those great heads and plumes ! From them we may distil an ardent spirit so strong that it shall make drunk even those who shall smell it. There on that stony surface, we can erect our factory and distillery ; and though in the wilderness, we can pursue our industry in security. Those terrible thorns and blades, and this wild desolation, will protect us better than a thousand cannons." " But what shall we do for water to drink and to make steam to run our machinery ?" said John Powell. '^ We have but to drill a hole into the caverns beneath us. Listen to the hollow sound they give forth to our horses' feet. There we shall find shady grottoes and bub- bling fountains." "And rattlesnakes by the wagon load," interposed Jones Johns. "Never mind the rattlesnakes if we can make a fortune," said John Powell. " We can smoke them out." " The plan will be to issue stock or shares and appoint a financial agent in New York and London. We shall call it the Great American Rope, Sack and Mescal Company. The shares will sell like hot cakes." " It is grand ! " said John Powell. " It is grand 1 " said Jones Johns. TWO THOUSAiTD MILES IK TEXAS OK HOKSEBACK. 313 Of Him that ate Eed-Ridikg Hood. JSTow I know that I shall have some little boy and girl readers, and I should do wrong if I did not tell them what I did with the old wolf that ate little Red-Riding Hood. We had been riding an hour through this ugly forest, over the hard clay and rock, without seeing a living creature, save two or three lonely molly-cotton-tails that dwelt under the great cactus castles, when we suddenly beheld, about a hundred yards before us, that identical, bad old wolf. Although his head was pointing toward us, he was so in- tently engaged in smelling something on a rock, that he did not notice our approach. When within forty yards of him I levelled my rifle upon him, intending to shoot a ball through his head, but it missed its mark and shattered one of his fore-paws just above the joint. The old fellow rose on his hind-legs and raved and bit at his foot, as if he thought something had caught hold of him by it — not yet having seen us. We rode right upon him before he saw us, and what a glare of wicked fury he then cast upon us ! He tried to run away, but the soldiers drew their pistols, and before he had gone two steps, he fell pierced with bul- lets. In his dying moments he growled fiercely, and would no doubt have torn us to pieces, if he could have laid his strong jaws upon us. And thus died the wicked old wolf who ate up the sweet little Red-Riding Hood, who went to take her grandmamma a basket of fruit and cakes. Do you not think we served him right ? After he had eaten up the little Red-Riding Hood, he fled to this grim and distant region, where he thought he would be safe from the avengers of his sin ; but vengeance pursued him even here, as it will catch all who commit evil deeds. Thus every time the evil-doer does an evil thing, God at that very moment plants a switch to whip his back ; and that switch will grow, and wherever the 14 314 TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS Oi?" HORSEBACK. evil-doer may go after that, that switch will follow him, and at last find his back and whip it welL The old wolf didn't think of this when he ate up'the good little girl; but don't you suppose he did think of it when he lay pierced with bullets, growling his dying growl ? The Mexicans call these big wolves "lobos," and the Texans call them " loafers," which is a corruption of the Mexican word. Their backs are arched, somewhat like the hyena, and they generally carry their heads close to the ground; as if smelling for something ; they are as big as a large, stout dog, and their hair is shaggy and brindled, though sometimes it is quite black. They are terrible on calves and colts, and will attack a grown animal when in force, if they happen to catch one by himself. I have never heard of their attacking a man in Texas, and this is probably because they are never driven to desperation by hunger. We left him to dry up on the bleak stones; for there does not seem to be even a buzzard in this cheerless region to eat him up. What it Has Beej^. — A Jurassic Sea. At three, the fantastic forest and castles thinned out, and grassy lawns appeared, though there is no water. We dismounted, and stripping our horses and hobbling them, gave them liberty. The soldiers reclined on the grass and slept. The conformation of this great region seems to show ■unmistakably that it was once an inland sea, whose south- ern shore was probably at first along the Azoic hills below the San Saba, contracting gradually to the great backbone between McKavett and Kickapoo Springs ; whose western shore extended at least thus far, and whose northern shore may have reached the Ked River. Its eastern shore prob- ably crossed the Colorado above the mouth of the Concho, extending northward to the limit of Texas, and perhaps TWO THOUSAN^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 315 beyond. This immense basin slopes inward from every direction, but its deepest parts are probably along the val- leys of the Concho, not far from its southern border. The altitude of Fort Concho is only one thousand nine hun- dred feet above the sea, while that of the great ridge below Kickapoo Springs, and this on which I stand, must be quite a thousand feet higher. This sea in drying up left enormous deposits of gypsum, great beds and areas of salt and other alkalies, with which all the streams that flow through its ancient bed are more or less impregnated. This sea, as I believe, existed during the Jurassic Age. The geologists who have written of this region, from observa- tions at telescopic distance, or no observations at all, have all assigned it to the Cretaceous ; but my judgment is that there is little or no Cretaceous in it. I have seen no fossils to confirm this judgment ; but this great basin in its gen- eral outlines is totally unlike the Cretaceous as developed in other portions of Texas, or elsewhere. N'or has that formation in any other part of the globe, if this be Creta- ceous, developed such enormous deposits of gypsum and salt. If then it is Cretaceous, it is anomalous and without precedent. But it is not all Jurassic. There are frequent wide scopes of Permian, to the north and west, rich in copper, and occasional spurs of Carboniferous penetrate it from the east and north-east, like that in which true coal is found some miles above Fort Concho.* * This portion of Texas has never been geologically examined, except in a most cursory way ; and as it is not always easy to distinguish Jurassic from Cre- taceous fossils — many of them being similar — it is not strange that this region has been written Cretaceous. The late State Geologist, Prof. Buckley, rode over it in an ambulance, not deviating from the El Paso stage road. In his re port, he seems to support the general view, yet seems to have little confidence in his own opinion. In a letter to the writer of this note, who inquired as to the age of rocks about Kickapoo Springs, he says : " They may be Lower Silurian." There is probably little reason to doubt that our traveller's view in regard to the predominance of Jurassic in this region will be confirmed by careful observations. Gen. Egbert F. Viele, late of the F. S. Army, a thorough geologist, who has seen much of this country, sustained this view in a conversation with the writer in New York. 316 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. Plains. He who has seen the treeless expanses, dead level, or apparently so, over which the Pacific Railroad runs, must remember that the Texas plains are an entirely different thing. They are generally rolling, like the billows of a mighty sea ; or varied with beautiful table-lands, or lofty solitary mounds, or chains of mountains. There is no monotony here. The mind has no chance to grow weary. It has perpetual occupation, mostly beautiful and always interesting. The occasional barren and dismal spots only serve to increase the beauty of the rest. A Voice ik the Wilderness. Arousing my cavalry we journeyed on, and soon rode into a starlight night, which sometimes softened the as- perity of the grim-visaged region, and sometimes veiled it in more hideous mystery. After a few hours a long, low, black line rose against the western horizon, growing higher and higher as we drew nearer. That, said I, must be another of those strange and sudden elevations of the ter- ritory — another round in Jacob's Ladder ; either that or a great wall of stone. "If we do not find water there," said Jones Johns, " what will our poor horses do ? They can now hardly stagger along." " They can sip dew from the grass. The cool night will be kind to them." " And what if there is no grass ? " said John Powell. '^ If we are put afoot in this region, it is death, and it stares us in the face now." " Never mind ; our time is not yet, boys. We will reach the haven." The position was undoubtedly an ugly one. We know not whither we are going, or how long the way ; for we TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 317 had seen enough of the maps of Texas to know that they are totally unreliable in their delineation of this Terra Incognita. The great black line now seemed to have a gentle sway- ing motion at its apex, at times concealing and then re- vealing the white stars that rested upon it. The wind brought an aromatic odor to our nostrils. Tliat, com- rades, said I, is a great belt of forest. There we shall find water and rest. When quite near it, it seemed an enormous mass of black foliage. What manner of gigantic trees are these, wrapped in dense foliage from base to summit? We stood under their limbs, on the brink of a preci- pice which sloped downward into an apparently bottomless gulf. We now observed, first from the fragrance, then from plucking the boughs, that it was a forest of cedars ; wliich seemed to be marching out of the gulf, and yet had not planted their feet upon the firm ground above. Where we stood on the edge of the bluff, these great trees towered a hundred feet above our heads, and half their length ap- peared limbless. We felt our way cautiously down the bluff in utter darkness, completely obscured from each other, and our horses' feet making no sound on the sur- face, strewn thick with the fallen leaves of the cedars ; emerging at last suddenly into the starlight on a broad open plain, without tree or bush. The great cedars, the grandest I ever saw — the grandest that even the eternal angels ever beheld — stopped short at the foot of the de- clivity, not passing an inch beyond. Turning to look up- on them, it was as a solid wall of for-est, extending north and south beyond the vision, the trunks as straight as the line of a plumb, without a branch from fifty to seventy- five feet above the ground. Can I be mistaken that it is the grandest forest in the world ? And to scorn the fer- tile soil, hugging only the stony cliffs of a precipice ! Is 818 TWO THOUSAND MILES IJS" TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. not that odd, especially in view of their rich, resinous wood ? The grass reaches np to our saddles, cool and dripping with dew ; and as our poor horses were greatly jaded, we unbridled them and gave them rope, — we in the mean- time reclining under the great cedars, inhaling their aro- matic fragrance. "Where will we turn up next?" said John Powell. '^On the banks of a mighty, silent river, whose waves once beat upon the top of this cliS ; a river that hur- ried to the ocean, itself an ocean — tbrice grander than the Mississippi." ''How far ?" said John Powell. "This is its valley!" "Joyful! Joyful!" exclaimed Jones Jolms ; "then we shall soon drink. Not a drop in my canteen since Skele- ton Plain, and I have been chewing a bullet these two hours past." In less than half an hour, our horses had garnered their granaries full, and fell to nibbling at tit-bits. It is time to move on, comrades ! We had bridled them and were coiling up the ropes. "Blazes ! what is that ?" said Jones Johns. A deep, tremendous roar from the cliil resounded through the valley, unlike anything I had heard before. Again it broke upon the silence, with modulations or waves of sound, as if the object that made it was swaying to and fro. It was deep, guttural and hoarse, and seemed to tell of strength and ferocity. This came from the cliff just above us. Another responded, deeper and hoarser, a few hundred yards below. Our horses were no less moved than we. " Boys," said T, "it is time to go." We rode away into the valley as silently as skulking wolves, speaking not a word, and often looking back through the darkness. Twice again in quick succession TWO THOUSAN"D MILES IN TEXAS 01^ HORSEBACK. 319 the air trembled with the deep roars, apparently as near as when we first heard it. " Buffalo bulls ! " said John Powell in a suppressed voice. '^ Never !" said I. ^^ That is the voice of some fero- cious beast of prey that is on our tracks. Keep watch to the rear." Passing rapidly on, we were stopped at length on the very brink of the silent river ; on the verge of its waters before we saw it. It was of inky blackness and seemed a dead sea river. Shall we plunge and cross, or shall we stay here and take our chances with those beasts ? I dropped a line in the water and found it ten feet deep at the bank, which is six feet perpendicular above the water. We could not distinctly see the opposite shore, but there also was the appearance of a steep bluff. We concluded we would rather risk the roarers than plunge into such a river in the darkness. We soon found a slope or cut in the bank which ad- mitted our horses to the water. They drank and snorted, and snorted and drank, greatly to our disgust, as wc de- sired things to be as quiet as possible. We staked them on the tall grass, but instead of eating, they immediately laid down and slept. Lighting a match and viewing my watch, it was near midnight. We had travelled over fifty miles since sunrise. We spread our blankets close to the bank, intending to be safe from attack on one side at least. We deemed it not good policy to fall asleep at once, but as the weary moments passed on, and nothing remarkable occurred, we entered the land of Nod. Once during the night we were disturbed by a splash in the water, as if some heavy body had leaped or fallen into it, followed for some moments by a struggling sound; but nothing came of it. We slept on the bank of the mighty Pecos. DIVISION VI. I. A MoKNiNG Bath. WHEN we awoke, the sun was discharging his glory from a lofty altitude. It was a bright, sparkling morning, the *^ sweet south" whispering to us long life and good cheer. How the radiant grasses glistened like a field of diamonds, with their myriads of dew-drops ! I had slept gloriously, and felt like a young lion, as I shook the dew-drops from my flanks. Now compare me here with one who has waked from a debauched night in the cities, languid and feverish ; and which does Nature, who made us, love the more ? If she had a crown to be- stow, upon whose brow would she bestow it ? Nature ! make me pure as thou art pure, and immerse all my heart in love of thee ! Then I know that the crown will await me, and like the humming-bird, I shall taste only of the beautiful, and linger along labyrinths of flowers ! *' I feel that I could eat a wolf," said Jones Johns. " I feel that I could get away with half a buffalo ;" said John Powell. '^ Wouldn't a fat steak in a bowl of gravy, and a pile of hot biscuits, and a pot of hot coffee, and a dish of bacon and beans, and a plate of ham and eggs, and a dish of fried inguns, and a bunch of fresh celery be good this TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS 01^ HOSSEBACK. 321 morning — and a plate of broiled mutton chops and a stewed mackerel swimming in butter ? " said Jones Johns, And his mouth watered, and he spat copiously while he spake. ''Never mind, boys, we shall have all of these when we get to the next post. In the meantime, for break- fast we shall fare well." What a funny river, if it be not a perversion to say funny of what is so great ! Not a tree, nor a twig along its banks ; nothing but grass — grass, which musters in heavy force upon the brink of the steep bank and leans over to kiss the water ; so that the presence of the river can- not be suspected until the voyager is on the verge of tum- bling into it. I said it was silent. So it is ; but still ? Never ! It sweeps by like a courier race-horse on an errand. Toss a stem of grass into it, and it disappears almost as quickly ''as snow-flakes on the river." And all this without the sound of a ripple, or a murmur. The motion of the winged messengers of the deep is described as " smooth gliding without step ;" and so of the mighty Pecos as he sweeps by to pay his tribute to the Bravo. He seems bewitched. I said— "Boys, let us cross the river, and then we shall eat ! " Revisiting the narrow passage which led to the water, I saw a similar passage on the other shore, but a huge cedar log was lodged across it, its ends resting against tlie bank of the river, above and below. Unless we dislodge that log we cannot get our horses across, owing to the steepness of the bank elsewhere and the depth of the water. I said I will go and dislodge that log. Disrobing myself, I lit into the river and sank out of sight. When I returned to the surface, I had been swept many feet out of the line, but being a strong swimmer I shot over the water as freely as a duck. And sure it was cool, like a snow-julep. Nevertheless, I dropped mv line 14' 322 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS 0^ HOKSEBACK. leisurely a hundred feet from shore, and it measured thirty feet in depth ! Crawling over the log, I thought I would stand on the bottom and shove it off from shore ; so let- ting go all hold, I slid downward far over my head, with- out finding anything to stand upon. Kising again to the surface, I grasped the log with both hands, and throwing my body prone on the flood, endeavored to put the mass in motion by vigorously kicking with my heels. At last it moved slowly, then more rapidly, till swaying out in the stream, it glided rapidly away. I swung around with the butt end till it reached the point for my departure, when a few vigorous strokes landed me in fine humor on the eastern shore. I thought of the youth who nightly swam the Hellespont to bask in the sunlight, and the moonlight, and the starlight of his sweetheart's eyes : with this difference, that while he crossed to dally with love, I crossed to dislodge a log. I wonder how Leander transported his clothes on that trip; or did he leave them on shore and interview Hero, naked ? We now saddled up, and while thus engaged, I observed that my companions had fallen quite sedate and contem- plative ; saying nothing, but now and then curiously eying the great rapid river, as if they were mentally saying to it — " You big, ugly thing !" They clearly had a dread of it, akin to superstition. The soldiers then stripped, and we fastened our clothing securely to the horns of our sad- dles, and rolling our guns and ammunition up in the blankets, tied them behind the saddles. '' Now, boys," said I, '"'let us cross one at a time. If we all go together, some confusion may result. I will go first." Taking my horse to the river, spurring him gently, he smelt the water, and trembled and snorted. He reared back to the right and left several times, refusing to take the plunge ; but at last, seeing that he had to do so, he TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS 0:N" HORSEBACK. 323 stuck out his left fore foot into the water, cautiously, as if feeling for bottom ; but not finding any, he lost his bal- ance and tumbled headlong into the current. We sank under the surface, and for a moment everything was con- fusion. I believe we rolled over, but of this I am not sure, for the position was not favorable to taking observations. I was conscious of a very great uproar, and clasped my heels about the horse with all my strength. Kecovering himself, he rose into daylight, and struck out splendidly to the opposite shore, describing a great curve before he reached the landing. He bounded to the high land, and at once shook his skin so prodigiously that my seat was extremely disagreeable, and I bounded off as quick as pos- sible. " Now, Jones Johns ! " I exclaimed across the water. His horse slipped in at once, like a turtle sliding off a rock ; sank out of sight a moment, all save his nose and tail, and bore the soldier bravely across, almost in a direct line. ^' Oo-wee ! she is cold though, I tell you ; " said he as he leaped to the turf. *'I tell you, comrade, you'd better wrap your wool close around you ! " " Now, John Powell ! " His horse commenced acting foolishly at once, smelling and snorting as if he imagined the devil was in the water. Urged by the spur, he reared and flung himself to the right so violently that the soldier was nearly displaced from the saddle. Again he attempted this when brought to the brink, rearing high in the air ; but this time he made a miscalculation. His left hind foot slipped over the precipice, and his body came tumbling after, falling into the river apparently with back down and heels up. For a moment I thought we should have a funeral ; but when the horse righted himself, the soldier was still stick- ing bravely to his back, with both arms around his neck, his mouth full and his eyes blinded with water. Had 324 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. there not been a sense of danger, the picture would have been extremely ludicrous as the soldier emerged to the surface. By this time, they were swept fifty feet down stream, the horse behaving well, but apparently in confu- sion. The soldier, recovering his sight and faculties, gen- tly guided him with the rein, and he came rapidly across, but struck the bank far below the landing. Up along the bank they navigated, the tall grass wiping the soldier's face, until he was deposited safely on shore. ^* Drat your blasted hide of you ! " said he, as he leaped off and looked at his excited and snorting steed ; ^^ that's what you git by being a d — d lunacy. It's the last time I'll ventur in a river on your back ! " Our first care was to examine our ammunition, which to our great satisfaction we found uninjured. Then spreading our clothing on the tall grass to dry, we pro- ceedPedjin primitive nakedness, to prepare breakfast. Pro- curing branches of drifted cedar, we soon had a roaring fire, on which we cooked coffee and buffalo meat. It was eleven o'clock before our clothing was dry enough to put on ; when we rode up the valley some twenty miles, and again halted. The Most Remarkable River in the World. This is the most remarkable river in the world, and flows through the most remarkable country. It rises about latitude 36**, and empties into the Rio Grande about 29° 40'. Thus, its direct course is about four hundred and fifty miles, but so great is its sinuosity that it traverses not less than eighteen hundred miles before reaching its debouchment. In this eccentricity, there is no other river that is its fellow. Meander is a straight line by the side of my Pecos. I drew this picture of his course, which I protest is accurate, or as nearly so as I could make it with- out the aid of engineer's tools. TWO THOUSAND MILES 1^ TEXAS 03^ HORSEBACK. d'<>b And while this is a marvel of crookedness, I believe from others who have travelled along its banks a much greater distance, that it does not tell half the story. And yet, as the picture shows, with all this unprecedented tortuosity of the stream itself, its valley is so straight that one can scarcely perceive that it has a curvature. Another re- markable feature is that it seldom touches the wall of the valley, but pursues its rapid career as near the centre as possible, one to three miles from either side. Its tremen- dous current and the soft, melting soil of the valley, make this the more singular. The rapidity of this river is the strangest thing to one who rides upon its banks. He sees a channel without a stone, and a wide valley as level as a floor, and yet the silent river rushes by him like a charger. The Mississippi, that travels forty-one hundred miles, has no such current as this; not the half of it ; not the fourth of it. It bowls along over the smooth bed six or seven miles an hour ; which is swifter far than any other deep river in the world, except Niagara, after it has been tortured into the chasm between the Falls and Lewiston ; and if it were not so tortuous, it would nearly match that seething, arrowy river. Its tortuosity impedes its impetuosity at least one half, as 1 estimate ; so that if its channel were straight, it would dash along at the rate of twelve to four- teen miles an hour : a force sufficient to tear up the solid strata and cut its way into the fiery nucleus at lasL 326 two thousand miles in texas on horseback. The Cause of it. — The Hand of the Architect. Tlie Pecos rises on the Llano Estacado, and flows over it along its whole course. This is a vast table-land, tilted over toward the south-east. It is said to be five thousand feet above the sea at its upper rim, and one thousand feet at its lower. I can now perceive that the first altitude is probably under-estimated. My Pecos rises near the upper rim and flows over four hundred miles over the great tilted table. This would give it a fall of about ten feet to the mile ; and when it is considered that the aver- age fall of the Mississippi is only about three inches to the mile, it can be readily perceived what an extraordinary creature my Pecos must be, and how vastly more furious he would be, were he not held in check by the extraordi- nary sinuosities through which nature has compelled him to grope his way. This unmatched and unmatchable sinuosity, in so straight a valley, is unaccountable by any natural law that I can think of. The course of an arrow through the air is straight, and water flows in straight lines over smooth surfaces. In this strange land nature works in mysterious ways ; and I can only perceive in this apparent eccen- tricity, the hand of the Architect compelling my Pecos to do his full duty. Were he not restrained by the sinuosi- ties, he would shoot over the great tilted table so rapidly that his volume would not be half what it is. The sinuos- ities are great natural locks that hold him in check and utilize his waters and their fertilizing sediments. The thirsty soil needs all the drink and food he can give it, and therefore the Architect compels him to wander through labyrinths, offering his cooling draughts to millions of acres that would not enjoy him if he dashed over the great taole in a straight line. Its banks are as perpendicular as the walla of an edifice, TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 327 rising six feet above the water, to the level of the valley, composed of mud, which on drying, falls into an impal- pable powder. An animal may wander along its banks half a day without finding a point where he may drink. In- deed, in my twenty miles ride along it I saw but one point on either side where he could do so ; and these were the artificial excavations where we crossed. * His Water. It is the most remarkable fluviatile compound in the world. Jones Johns was very thirsty when we reached the river. He took a rapid and heavy draught, and smacking his lips a moment, said: '^My God! all them buffaloes and wild horses is camped on this river, and their dreen- age has pizened it ! " The first sensation in tlie mouth is a slimy saltness, as if salt had been melted in soapy water ; next a faint sweetness, followed by a distinct bitter, finally winding up with a distinct taste of ley. It is cool and in- odorous, and its disagreeable taste is quite vanquished by holding the nose as you drink. Coffee boiled in it is a villainous decoction. The physician who compounded this great river of physic probably wrote the prescription about thus : 1,000,000 tons Mu. Sod. 400,000 " Sulph. 1,000,000 " Cin. Lig. 4,000,000 gallons Tinct. amarg. Aqua Pluv. quant, suf. Shake well till dissolved and repeat ad infln. This shows the remarkable region through which it flows: a great natural laboratory, composed mainly of beds and mountains of salt and gypsum. The Nile and My Pecos. The Nile, through all ages, has been considered one of 328 TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. the wonders of the world, in that it flows a thousand miles without a tributary. But my Pecos beats it. I question if during its career of one thousand eight hundred miles, over a region which often does not receive a drop of rain for six months at a time, it has a single tributary that con- stantly discharges into it. On tlie maps there are several long, crooked black marks, called Eio so-and-so, which would lead the unwary to suppose that they are rivers emptying into the Pecos ; but let him visit them, and he will surely find that these black marks with sounding names, are desolate ravines, with abysmal pools here and there, or perhaps a feeble rill witli an enormous channel, sinking after a short distance into burning sands, or disap- pearing under a yawning chasm. The Nile bursts from a grand mountain lake, lifted above the continent, starting on his proud course a warrior full-armed at birth, refreshed as he goes by the melting snows of the Lunar Mountains ; but my Pecos, more worth renown, emerges a puny, sickly infant from a poor ravine, gathers strength as he goes, and cuts his way unaided through one thousand eight hun- dred miles of desert ; and not a snow-clad mountain on his line to offer him an iced julep as he plunges along. Let the Nile strip off his laurels, and place them on the brow of my Pecos. The Nile has his periods of swell, after which he collapses for ten or eleven mouths into a common thing : my Pecos rolls so grandly at all times that he is hardly conscious of a swell when he takes one. The Nile has enriched a nation, that gave letters and civilization to the world ; and my Pecos has enriched a nation that has yet to be. The Soil.— Irrigation and Navigation. The soil of this great valley, composed of the lime, sul- phur and gait sediments of the river, with the accumula- ted rotted matter of the rank grasses, is of course, of amaz- TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 329 ing fertility. There is not one foot of it that is not fer- tility itself. All the crops of Texas would here luxuriate, if supplied with regular moisture, and I know of no valley that may be more easily irrigated. Smooth as a floor, and falling regularly ten feet or more to the mile, there are probably few points on the river from which a ditch would not bring the fertilizing water to the surface three-quarters of a mile below. A ditch ten miles in length and eight feet in depth would flood the valley to a great distance. How easy to construct these with locks so as to irrigate every foot ! Thus, this great valley, now without an in- habitant save vagabond savages, is capable of supporting a nation in itself ; whose products might be borne to the Rio Grande on boats, thence to the navigable water of that river by rafts or teams. A railroad to this valley would make it at once a garden of wealth, receiving in turn a trade which would soon enrich itself. The river is two hundred feet in width, and at no point where I saw it, less than ten to thirty feet in depth. On account of its rapid curves it would require a peculiar steamer to navigate it, but human ingenuity would soon build such a craft. The water is dark and turbid, bearing an immense amount of sediment. I estimate the rich agricultural lands of this remarkable valley at not less than two millions of acres. II. Adam's Curse. — Fantastic Shapes. TURNING west, from the seat of the unborn giant, we rode into a region of disheartening aspect. We had stepped out of Eden into Gehenna. As far as I could sweep with my glass, scarcely a blade of grass, but a dead expanse of naked ground, with Spanish daggers scattered like skirmishers in advance of a battle, fantastic castles of the Floral Fiend, and numerous thickets of sage brush, almost impenetrable from their myriads of spines. Every- thing is armed with points keener than needles. Surely, Adam's curse has fallen heavily upon this abandoned tract : '* Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." And yet this melancholy scene is not devoid of a certain sort of interest. Solitary granitic and porphyritic cones rise fifty to two hundred feet above the plain, some of them pol- ished as smoothly as glass ; then, here and there a great wall of massive basalt rises abruptly, extending hundreds of yards north and south or north-east and south-west. One of these looked so like a giant fortress, that we rode out of our way to stand under its shadow. We supposed it to be two hundred feet high— its walls perfectly perpendicular, and not an atom of soil upon it. It is safe to say that no hu- man being ever trod on this thing's back. The walls of this also were in places polished so smoothly that a fly could scarcely crawl up them. If this is not glacial action, I am not able to comprehend it. I believe therefore that this region has been the scene of great glaciers. Under TWO THOUSAND MILES Iiq" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 331 the walls of this monstrous fortress, a colony of prairie- dogs had built their city, in the barren, waterless waste. Toward sunset we rode upon the wide, desolate chan- nel of a dried up creek, filled with fractured limestone and mounds of white, glittering sand. Following it up a few miles, we found a bright clear pool, into which ran a smart brook. It here met its death, and sank in the depths of sand. There was a little valley of excellent grass, and we took up quarters for the night. With fagots of sage-brush we cooked some coffee, and ate cheese and crackers. III. The Eose in" the Wilderitess. — What it would be. AT daylight resumed our journey, arriving at Fort Stockton after noon, fifty- two miles from the Pecos. It was stepping out of Gehenna again into Eden. Behind us was all aridity, abhorrence and desolation ; before us, green fields, rich gardens, bubbling fountains and all efflorescence. A sweeter surprise it is impossible to con- ceive. We felt like a caravan entering a sweet oasis in the desert, and I never before fully comprehended what these bright oases are. They are life and joy in the midst of death ; they are the glimpses of heaven ; and I suspect that the eastern poets drew from them their rich pictures of the Abode of the Blest. This is a military post of the United States, where six companies of negro cavalry are quartered. The post sits on a majestic hill, three thousand feet above the sea, from the base of which probably a hundred springs burst forth, some of them so large that they are used for baths. These unite and run down a valley as fertile as that of the Pecos, over which it is led by a number of ditches, irrigating three thousand acres, whose crops are enriching the farmers. One of these is said to receive an annual income from his wheat, barley and corn, of ten thousand dollars. The El Paso grape, than which there is none richer, here flourishes abundantly. As I looked upon this magnificent garden in the desert, I said to myself : '' This is what the Pecos would be if it were irrigated ; this is what all the TWO THOUSAND MILES IJ^^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 333 wilderness and desert would be if they had Artesian wells. Who will take the first step to erect the great wilderness into a garden of luxuriance ? Hear it, ye statesmen and law-makers of Texas ! " But bold as this beautiful creek is, it flags and at last fails utterly a few miles from Stockton — drunk up by the arid laud and clime, leaving a lorn chasm of desolation. Suppose it were encouraged and assisted by an Artesian well here and there along its course, and trees planted on its banks to shade it from the devouring sun : it would sing and sparkle along the whole line, ever fresh and abundant, bringing beauty to the land and wealth and happiness to thousands. The population, outside of the military, appears to be about two hundred, all Mexican laborers, except the few American proprietors. The houses are all adobe, except the quarters of the officers, which are of stone. But one tree grows at the post — a cotton -wood fifty feet in height, planted by the officers some years ago. It seems to be say- ing to every one who beholds it : '•' Bring me companions — • you see that we will thrive here." Fruit trees have been lately introduced, and there can be no question that the Stocktonians will soon enjoy the peach and pear at their boards as well as the luscious grape. The annual rainfall here is about fifteen inches, some- times as high as twenty-five, nearly all of which comes during August and September. These showers are at- tended with almost unprecedented discharges of lightning, and frequently the clouds are said to hang over the land for hours at a time, doing nothing whatever but manoeuver- ing and discharging peal after peal of thunder ; finally, near the close of day, separating and leaving a brilliant sunset. The mean winter temperature is about fifty-five, and the summer seventy to seventy-five. The post sur- geon declared it to be so healthy that no one ever dies ex- 334 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. cept from " old age, stupidity or violence, and we are so good a family here that the last rarely occurs." They ob- tain their fuel from the roots of the mesquite, as they do at Concho, and it is abundant. We bought a bushel of corn from the sutler for four dollars, which was an abominable extortion, for we learned afterwards that we might have obtained it from the farm- ers at two dollars and fifty cents. We bought a ham and some coffee from the same worthy, paying fifty cents a pound for each. If that worthy has constituency enough, surely he will grow rich. An old Mexican woman was much more reasonable. She supplied us an excellent din- ner of soup, sweet potatoes, onions, eggs, venison, hash and bread, for fifty cents each. The soup and hash were red-hot with red-pepper, but they were fine nevertheless. I was so much pleased with my meal, that I could scarcely forbear kissing the old lady's pretty daughter, who assisted her in preparing it. IV. Rode to Leon Springs, eight miles, over a cactus and sage brush desolation. This is a stage stand of the El Paso mail line, and the only remarkable feature is a marsh of several hundred acres, filled with salty water, and covered with a coarse, rank, reedy-looking growth. This is a sud- den depression of the earth from eight to ten feet below the level. The water is so salty that it is extremely dis- agreeable to drink, and made villainous coffee, and yet it is all we had. Encamped for the night, feasting on fried ham and buffalo meat. V. Remarkable Region". — A Dolorous Day. FILLINGr our canteens with the salty water, at three o'clock we were on the march, riding south. When day dawned, we saw the most unaccountable country in the world, which steadily grew more unaccountable as we moved on : a lofty, smooth plain, treeless as the ocean, but with innumerable varieties of cactus and thickets of sage brush : ground for the most part without a wisp of grass : isolated mounds of rocks in every direction, shaped like a sugar-loaf, many of them two hundred feet or more in height, and all smooth or polished. These were ejections under the primitive sea, around which the sedimentary deposits have settled, till only their peaks are exposed. But the most peculiar feature is occasional mounds of glit- tering white sand, sometimes piled up forty or fifty feet high, and covering an acre or more. These things gliti^ tered in the sun like snow-banks, and looked so strangely that we rode some distance out of the way to examine the first one. It was composed of pure quartz sand, unmixed with any other substance. So far as we could observe, there was very little of this in the soil, and their appear- ance here is very perplexing. The only way that I can explain them is on the supposition that they may be the remnants of mounds of solid quartz rock that once rose above the plain, similar to the cones of granite and por- phyry that still stand. "Ah," said Jones Johns, contem- plating one of the biggest of these things, ^' that would be 336 TWO THOUSAN"D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. worth fifty thousand dollars in San Antonio. Here it is worth nothing. It is like a great man out of his element. For instance, what would I amount to, turned loose among the heathen niggers of Africa ? And what would Gen. Grant have come to among them niggers ? Great men should live where folks appreciates 'em and there's no sense in this sand being here." No life in this region except prairie-dogs, and they have built under the shadow of the cones, as if seeking shade. Where is the grass that these fellows feed on here, and where the water they drink ? Does not this confirm their subsistence in subterranean forests, and quiet lakes therein ? We rode on, on, and on, over this marvellous country, without a drop of water in it, or even a ravine to tell where water had been. We had been greatly persecuted with thirst all day, the salty stuff in our canteens exciting, instead of allaying it ; and when the last drop was gone our sufferings became great. Our mouths became thick and gummy, and finally feverish. We tried to mend this by chewing bullets, and it did help considerably. Our poor horses suffered terribly, and toward nightfall were so far gone that they moved as heavily as chunks of lead, and reeled like drunken men. It looked as if death was in our faces ; but at ten o'clock a chain of mountains rose out of the darkness close beside us. Our horses immedi- ately freshened up, and actually forcing us to go their own way, at last we heard the babbling of waters, and the next moment our horses had their heads deep in the dear liquid. We dismounted, and it was delicious ! Do not talk of champagne, iced, in goblets of gold : it is nothing to this heaven-born liquid. As I drank, the satisfaction I felt was heavenly. I knew this was Willow Springs, as marked on the maps, fifty-six miles from Leon Springs. The grass was fine. Having hobbled our horses upon it, and eaten heartily of 'jerked beef and crackers, we stretched ourselves on the ground to sleep. TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS 0]Sr HORSEBACK. 3.37 The Night of Wolyes. We had not time to close our eyes before plain and mountain began to resound with the howl of lotos, or the big wolves. They gathered nearer and nearer, until we could hear them tripping in the grass all around us. We became alarmed lest they might attack our horses, and going to them with pistol in hand, we staked them to lopes very close to us, and again fell to our blankets. The wolves now seemed to sit on their hunkers in a circle about us, and proceeded to deliver a great serenade. I endeav- ored to interpret their language, and it seemed this, as near as I could make it : Oh, strangers, have you any meat to spare, From your sacks so large and strong ? We smell a good smell on the cool night air, As it comes — as it comes along. It is incense sweet, the smell of that meat ; It is juicy and tender, we know : A buffalo's hump, or a heifer's rump. Or a good fat buck, we trow : We trow — Or a good fat buck, we trow. Oh, bow wow wow, bow wow wow ; Oh, bow, wow, wow, wow, wow ! Behold in us a hungry crew. Who have wandered night and day O'er hill and dale, through ravine and vale. In pursuit of the flying prey. But the buffalo moves ten thousand strong. In fierce and terrible array ; And when we dash that herd among. He drives poor wolf away : Away— He drives poor wolf away ! Oh, bow wow wow, bow wow wow ; Oh, bow, wow, wow, wow, wow 1 15 338 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. And the buck he speeds with the speed of the wind- Jehu ! how he can run ! We pursue for miles, with guiles and wiles. Only to be outdone ! The antelope dwells on the prairies wide, And his eyes like the eagle's are ; The wolf he sees, or he smells us on the breeze, And he bounds o'er the prairies afar: Afar — He bounds o'er the prairies afar ! Oh, bow wow wow, bow wow wow ; Oh, bow, wow, wow, wow, wow ! But, strangers, you have your rifle true, With the deadly si ug and ball ; At whose fiery crack, they halt in their track, And reel, and die, and fall. You have wealth of meat, juicy and sweet. You are happy and fat alway ; You know not the sorrows of the poor lorn wolf. As he howls, as he howls by the way : By the way — As he howls, as he howls by the way. Oh, bow wow wow, bow wow wow ; Oh, bow, wow, wow, we say ! Ye favored ones, be kind to the wolf, And he'll be kind unto you ; And the Father above who made us all, He will mark the good that ye do. From His hands came we, from his hands came ye ; We are brothers in His glorious reign ; So share the blessings He has showered on you, With your poor, lost friend of the plain : Of the plain — Of your poor, lost friend of the plain. Oh, bow wow wow, bow wow wow ; Of your poor, lost friend of the plain. '^ Good gracious ! " said John Powell ; ^' let's give them poor things a bone. They sings like their hearts was TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 339 busting." At length they dropped their serenade and went away one by one ; but their distant cries were in our ears as long as we lay awake. They were probably not half as hungry as they pretended to be, and doubtless much of their vaunted misery was mere put-on. VI. Among the Min"ekals. — " There they are, for a FACT ! " WE slept profoundly until three o'clock, when we journeyed a little west of south under the moon- light. The small brook formed by Willow Springs ran a short distance and sank in the earth. The country as we rode along was exceedingly beautiful : fertile vales and swelling tumuli, all dressed in a carpet of grass as smooth and luxuriant as it is possible to conceive. We thought that something of this was due to the soft moonlight ; but when the sun rose it only disclosed a wider prospect of gracefulness, beauty and fertility. Flocks of deer were feeding in every direction, which raised their heads and gazed at us with more curiosity than fear. Athwart our path in the distance lay a chain of lofty and rugged mountains, some of which disclosed to the glass bright white lines running over them, as if they were decked in ribbons. At ten o'clock we approached these mountains, and finding a splendid spring of pure, cold water, we dis- mounted and turned our horses to the grass, having rid- den, as we supposed, about twenty-eight miles. Here was plenty of mesquite brush and wild cherry. After a feast in which the last of our buffalo meat disap- peared, Jones Johns and myself went on a prospecting tour among the mountains, leaving John Powell with the horses. In the narrow valleys and gorges of the moun- tains, and reaching as- high up their flanks as the soil ex- TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 341 tended, we found forests of cedar, which even excelled those of the bank of Pecos Valley. Thousands of these were a hundred feet in height, three to four feet in diame- ter, without a limb until near the top, and as straight as the mast of a ship. A grateful aromatic odor pervaded the forest. They are perhaps the superbest cedars in the world, and here is enough of them to build a great city. How grand, solemn and silent they are, as we walk on the sleek carpet of fallen leaves — not a sound coming to our ears, save the wind sighing in the boughs far overhead ! Said I : *^ Jones Johns, if you had these forests at Hous- ton, you would be worth a million ; you would scorn your sand- prairies and your sand- banks. You would take to putting on airs, Jones Johns, and your severe republican simplicity would be corrupted and lost. You would want an Empire, Jones Johns, that you might dance attendance around the Emperor, as His Grace, the Duke of the Cedars." " I 'speck I would for a fact," said he, eying the grand forest. *^ I would want a grand lady for a Duke- ess, and I reckon I would entirely forget poor, honest, good Ailsie, the fat washer-girl of Thompson street." These mountains are of granitic and basaltic rocks, and some are masses of white quartz, presenting the ap- pearance of being wrapped in snow. They are literally charged with minerals; hardly one, as far as we saw, that is not traversed with veins of iron, copper, and silver-lead. These veins are from a few inches to thirty feet in width, and are true metallic veins that have been shot up from the central fires. They penetrate granite, basalt and quartz alike, and no doubt came up with these at the time of their upheaval, but they are most common in the gran- ite and quartz. The silver-lead appears very abundant, and masses of it lie scattered along the flanks of the moun- tains, and all of it appears to me rich in silver and lead. 342 TWO THOUSAN-D MILES IN TEXAS OIT HORSEBACK. If this chain of mountains, which I take to be the Sierra Santiago, shall not prove rich in these metals when ex- plored by the mineralogists, I shall be greatly disap- pointed. There are numerous veins of quartz, so frothy and porous as to resemble pumice-stone, but in these I could detect no metal.* Our pleasant occupation of searching for the precious metals, was brought to an untimely close. We had reached the top of a mountain, commanding a wide view, when I saw a party of fifteen or twenty men on horseback, rid- ing slowly across a plain in a course which would bring them near Powell and our horses. Drawing my glass, I could not distinctly make out what they were, but they presented a suspicious appearance. I handed the glass to Johns, telling him to look carefully. In a moment he broke out, as he took the glass from his eyes : **' There they are for a fact ; them's Injuns ! " Believing they might be a party of explorers, I again levelled the glass upon them, just as they had risen in a favorable position on a little eminence. There was no mistake about it this time. They had no dress, but blankets or skins thrown across them ; some had guns, and the bows and quivers of others were distinctly visible. I said : ^* You are right. Let us hasten to John Powell. They will almost surely come to that spring for water." We travelled down the mountain mnch faster than we went up. A few minutes brought us to our horses, which having filled themselves, were lying in the grass. John Powell was not visible. We called him in a low voice, but got no response. Hurrying around we found him snoring in a little thicket, where he had gone to hide, in caee any evil disposed person should pass. * I brought back several specimens of silver -lead and copper from these moun- tains, which competent parties in Austin and St. Louis, who examined them, pro- nounced highly valuable. The lands belong to the State, and there is plenty of water and game. Prospecting parties, taking a little salt and flour along, would fare well. TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 343 Johns seized him by the foot, and giving him a smart jerk, exclaimed : " Bounce up — the Injuns are right on us, thick !" He sprang up like a buck aroused from his lair, grasping his rifle and staring wildly around. We did not stop to explain particulars, but saddled our horses as quickly as we could, struck out into the first opening we saw, and soon buried ourselves in the shadows of the mountains. Suspecting that the Indians might trail us, we moved as fast as the nature of the ground would per- mit, keeping a sharp look-out behind. We were soon in- volved in terrible confusion : stumbling painfully over heaps of boulders, under precipices that hung far above us, in depths that no sun-ray ever penetrated ; squeezing through fissures and chasms so narrow that our knees re- ceived many a wound. One of these led into a wide field of volcanic glass,* swollen into numerous bumps by the boulders below, on which our horses' feet slipped and clanked at a great rate. At last we stopped in a dark for- est of cedar, jammed in a deep depression which seemed to have no outlet except the fissure or rent by whicli we had entered it. We threw ourselves on the carpet of cedar leaves, to rest our horses and determine what next to do. We were on a spot which doubtless no soul had ever seen before — not even an Indian. " Blast them Injuns," said Jones Johns. *^ They have run us into a bear's den at last, and maybe we'll never git outen it. We'd better staid right there and died game, than to starve to death in this black witch-hole." Truly, it did' look like a witch-hole, with the solid, perpendicular walls of basalt rising in every direction around us, their shadows increased by the dark cedar-boughs above our heads. We could scarcely get a glimpse of the sky, and only so much as that by bending our heads far back and looking straight up. * Obsidian. '344 TWO THOUSAl^D MILES IN TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. Before our flight from the springs we had not filled our canteens, which were without a drop of water. It was now after four o'clock, and knowing that if we would get out of this black hole before morning, and thus escape great suffering for both ourselves and horses, we must do ■ so at once, we mounted and rode down the narrow forest. ■It terminated at the entrance to a stony chasm, which seemed to come to an abrupt end a few yards ahead ; but, entering it, it zig-zagged a long distance, bringing us out at last into another forest of cedar. This terminated in a deep canyon, running to the south-west, enclosed between walls of basaltic rock, five or six hundred feet in perpen- dicular height. It was about a half-mile in width, its floor level and thick with grass. It is a grand natural pass for a railway, and perhaps the only one through the moun- tains. We emerged out of the canyon into a beautiful rolling country, green as summer, just as night fell on us. There was no water, but our horses being gi'eatly worried, we stripped them and threw ourselves upon the soft carpet, eating nothing for fear of exciting thirst. We judged we had travelled forty miles since morning. The Indians who had driven us on this terrible jaunt through the recesses of the metallic mountains, were doubt- less a thieving set from Mexico, entering Texas to steal and murder. Had we allowed them to attack us under shelter, I have no doubt we would have punished them .severely, and whipped them ; but I was not on a fighting expedition. Had I been I would have behaved in a very different manner. The wolves made us music as usual, and we heard some strange, unexplained voices during the night ; but we slept grandly. VII. The Lost Creek. — Silver. — The Lioks of the Mountains. AT four A. M. we were in the saddle, without break- fast, journeying south-west — the country a picture of beauty : serene vales, smooth-flowing hills, and occa- sionally solitary rounded mountains, or a group of three or four together — the vales and hills asleep under a ^reen mantle. This is a limestone region, exposing, with the prevailing rock, wherever the strata are broken, red or black shales, with iron and copper pyrites, and masses of selenite transparent as glass. This sometimes appears in layers, two or three feet in thickness, between the lime- stones, and is also scattered on the surface in the vales. I judge the formation to be Permian, x^t nine o'clock we reached a pretty creek, flowing south, bordered on the west by immense rounded tumuli of granite and basaltic crags and precipices — all bare and presenting an extremely bleak and desolate scene. We stopped an hour and ate ham and crackers — all that our commissary now had. Moving down the creek, the bare rocks rose into bare mountains, grey and black, very rugged, and suggestive of witches and '' hell-broth." At last one of these erected its black front across the valley, making a natural dam of solid rock, several hundred feet in height and apparently a mile or more in thickness. The smart brook, which had been singing and bounding all the way over its stony bot- tom, here hushed its merry voice in a dark, silent pool 346 TWO THOUSAIfD MILES 11^ TEXAS 01^ HOESEBACK. against the mountain, with steep banks without a de- pression on either side. What became of the laughing brook ? Engulfed, perhaps forever, in the cavernous depths of the rock. " Men come and go, but we go on forever," cannot be sung of this brook, stranded, cut off and lost in the midst of its singing and laughter. It may be that on the op- posite side of the mountain it burst forth afresh and ran along under the dark precipices, but we did not go to see. We here saw many veins of silver and lead, and de- tached masses were frequent under the mountains. Veins of different colors traversed the mountains in every direc- tion. Our richest specimens of silver were obtained here. Of iron there is practically no end. We saw blocks of it that looked like masses of encrinites compacted together and converted into solid iron. We also saw copper ore. Indeed, it seems to me that there is no important mineral except gold, which these gigantic masses of barren rocks may not furnish in paying quantities ; but it would be a terrible country to the miner. While inspecting the minerals we saw a company of deer entering the valley a half mile above us. As we pined for fresh meat, I walked up the bluff to get a shot. When nearly opposite the deer, I saw a fine buck coming toward me down a ravine into which I was about to descend. Concealing myself behind a rock, I waited for him, and just as he had brought his flank to bear I pulled trigger upon him at a distance of about eighty yards. He sprang into the air, staggered a few steps and dropped dead. Taking his hams, I walked up the ravine to look at an im- mense mass of rock, ribboned with veins, which had at- tracted my attention. It was almost as sleek as glass, and I clambered to the top with difficulty, leaving the hams at the base. While pecking at the scoriaceous veins of quartz, thinking I might have discovered a gold mine, I was TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 347 aroused from my dream of wealth by hearing a quick gut- tural roar, which seemed to come from some object very near me. There was a depression on the top of the rock, and into this I sank, slightly projecting my head over the rim to take observations. The roar was repeated two or three times in quick succession, and immediately there seemed to be several objects roaring all together. The roaring was precisely like that I heard on the Pecos bluff, and I sat still, chock-full of curiosity, mingled with some dread. I had not long to wait. Five splendid animals leaped into the open ravine about two hundred yards above me and walked leisurely along, smelling the ground, and then stood still a moment, their heads erect, gazing to the front and right and left. One of them opened with a roar to which the others immediately responded in concert. ^^ Lions !" said I to myself ; *^ regular African lions, and here will be a battle — five to one ! " They resumed their march down the ravine in open view, till, reaching a large rounded rock about seventy-five yards from me, they leaped nimbly upon it, and there stood gazing in every direction, roaring at times deeply and lashing the air with their tails. The roaring was invariably begun by one, to which the others immediately responded, repeated by each several times in succession. I shrank as deeply as I could into the depression, leaving only my forehead and eyes above the rim and lying quiet as a mouse. I might have killed one at least easily, but as I had not started out on a fighting expedition, I concluded that I would let them alone, if they would do the same with me. Moreover, I desired to study their manners. What magnificent and powerful beasts they were — so precisely like lions that I could dis- tinguish no important difference ! They were tawny like the lion, but of a slightly lighter color, and though with locks long enough, the heads of the males were less shaggy ; the same big head and stiff ears : the same lordly 348 TWO THOUSAiq^D MILES I:N^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. and leonine aspect ; the same long tail, with the tuft at the end. Their roar no one could distinguish from that of the true lion. There were two males and three females, the latter Avith no mane, and much more fussy and restless than their lordly companions.* While their lords stood quietly looking around, they were uneasily stepping hither and thither, as if inciting them on and eager for adven- ture and blood. They did not see me, for no other rea- son, I suppose, than that I was considerably elevated above them, but they evidently susjoected that there was some- thing uncommon in the vicinity. Presently they leaped from the rock and walked slowly down the ravine. AVhen they reached the point where I had crossed it, they stopped, smelling the ground, and roared at a prodigious rate, with a multitude of short, quick, deep grunts, at the same time lashing the air with their tails. I now expected that they would return on my track, and made up my mind for a battle, but instead of doing so, after a moment or two they continued down the ravine and disappeared behind a ledge of stone. I descended at once from the stone, walked rapidly up the ravine, and clambered out of it at the point where they had leaped into it. Just as I did so I heard a great roaring, which caused me to think that they had seen me and were in pursuit, but nothing further fol- lowed. I concluded they had found the carcass of the deer, and were congratulating themselves on the discovery. I hurried toward the point where the soldiers were, but becoming involved in the mazes of stones, it was quite an hour before I reached it. Eelating my adventure, we saddled up and rode up the valley with the intention of trying the mettle of these powerful animals. Coming to the spot where I had slain the deer, there was not a ves- tige of him except his horns, hoofs and a few fragments of bone. We looked around some time, but discovered nothing, and hallooed, but received no response. The TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 349 beasts had retired to their recesses or quietly watched us from the inaccessible crags. The zoologists say that the lion is not native outside of Asian and African wilds ; but if this is not a lion, pray tell me, ye scientists, what is it ? It is said in the terse Latin that " no like is the same ;"* but it cannot easily be disputed that two " sames" are at least of the same stock. Say what ye choose, I write this down as a true American lion ; for my eyes have carefully seen, and my ears have carefully heard. He is not uncommon in the deep moun- tainous wilds of Western Texas, but is rarely seen, because he does not venture out of them except at night, when like his African and Asiatic kinsman, he goes abroad on his prowling and destructive expeditions. They call him the Mountain or Mexican lion, and he is held as the most dangerous and terrible of all American beasts ; but I have seen none who have ever encountered him in battle. They say that he is fond of horse-flesh and often descends upon the plains, four or five in company, and makes terrible slaughter among the herds, f The Pass.— The Abysmal Creek and Fall of Bruin. We rode back to the place of the death of the brook ; thence turned west, and soon entered a smooth pass that * Nullnm simile est idem. + After my arrival in Presidio del Norte, I made particular inquiry about these animals and was told that they were the Black Tiger-better known in Mexico as the American Lion. Their zoological name is probably Felis discolor. Ihey are much larger than the Jaguar or Felis onca, generally known as the Mexican Lion in Texas, and are also much more ferocious. It is said to be an exceed- ingly easy matter to get a battle out of them, they putting themselves to little or no trouble to avoid it. They have no true mane like the lion, but the hair about the head and neck of the males is long and bristly, and this is always erected when they are excited, producing much of the appearance of a true leonine mane. They are much less common in the Western Texas wilds than the Fehs onm, but I was told that thev are fast multiplying. The Mexicans say they are mi- grating northward from Central America, following the mountain chains, and are never seen out of them. It is probable that it was fortunate for me that I did not fire upon them. 350 TWO TH0USAI5"D MILES IN TEXAS OIT HOESEBACK. opened a long way through the otherwise impracticable mountains, which on either side grew constantly more lofty, desolate and jagged as we rode on. So perfect a roadway is this, that it is impossible not to see in it design of the Architect. He maketh the way smooth into these terrible stones that are rich with his precious metals. In this vale He has walked — the sublime, omnipresent Personal God, and the great hills danced for joy at His presence ! Sub- lime Inconceivable ! how can we address Thee, when in contemplation of Thee, the mind is overwhelmed and lost in a glory of wonder and unspeakable thought ? After two hours, the pass brought us to a creek, with water as bright as dew-drops and so cold that it seemed to issue from iced fountains. Bright, singing little creek, are there snow-clad mountains on your border which repay you with iced juleps for the song you sing them as you go ? Precipitous, walls and black crags, insurmountable to all without wings, here made further advance westward im- possible ; and we turned south down the spai"1vling creek, which now sang along green vales, and now hushed its voice in chasms so dark and deep that we could neither hear nor see it. Sometimes the jutting stones of the mountains pressed us so near the chasms that there was barely passage for our horses, and we dismounted and led them cautiously by the brink. At the mouth of one of the chasms I entered on foot, and walked some distance on the stone floor of the creek. The steep walls towered two hundred feet or more above me, and it was so narrow that I could easily touch both walls at once. The solid rock had been rent in twain to give passage to the creek. Even in this deep pit were numerous metallic veins, from which ores of silver, lead and copper stuck out in chunks. Emerging out of the chasm in the black gorge into which it opened, we had made but little headway, when a black bear, startled by the ringing of our horses' feet upon TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 351 the stones, sprang out of the creek bed and clambered has- tily, but in a lubberly way up the mountain, disappearing in an overhanging thicket of cedar. I threw my bridle to one of the soldiers, and leaping to the ground, crept stealthily in pursuit. I sprang from a projecting rock into the cedars, and there lay Bruin, crouched before me, not ten feet away. Taken by surprise, he reared on his hind le^s, stared at me a second with a strange, intelligent look, and then turned for flight. As he did so, I fired with my rifle, the ball giving him a severe wound on the left shoul- der. As if conscious now that there was no safety in flight, he turned abruptly upon me and began a rapid ad- vance. I stepped back to balaftce myself, and the next moment crushed his skull with a ball, and he fell dead within an arm's length of me. Suppose my gun had missed fire ! I shudder to think of it. Probably with one effort he would have hurled me over the precipice two hundred feet into the stony gorge below, or crushed my head in his mouth. Feeling him and seeing that he was gloriously fat, I called to the soldiers for help, and soon Jones Johns stood beside me. '' Golly I he is a rouser," said he. We judged him to be about five hundred pounds weight. Cutting off a good supply of his choicest parts, we descended into the gorge, leaving the rest for the lions of the moun- tains. Down black gorges, down verdant vales, along dizzy precipices and dark chasms, through sombre forests of cedar, under the shadow of the mountains, we rode and rode : until, while the sun was yet glancing over the flanks and between the crags of the mountains, we came sud- denly to a halt on the banks of a great yellow river, roll- ing rapidly and silently below us. It was the Rio Bravo del Norte, and we stood upon the uttermost soil of Uncle Sam, the rolling plains and mountains of Mexico rising beyond it. We dismounted, hobbled our horses on a little 352 TWO THOUSAN"D MILES 11^ TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. plot of rich grass, kindled a rousing fire of cedar, and soon ate a great bait of delicious, dripping bear-meat and venison, reinforced by liard-tack and washed down with strong, black coffee.* When night fell we slept pro- foundly, paying no attention to the hungry wolves, who came to solicit a share of our stores. * Charles Hallock, Esq., editor of Forest and Stream, in his admirable work on the game birds, fishes and animals of America, " The Sportsman's Gazetteer," ridicules the flesh of the bear— saj'ing they pamper on grasshoppers, grubs and beetles, and are unfit to be eaten. Had he been with me on this trip, he would erase that passage, or at all events, make an exception of the Texas bear. I judge he has never eaten a Texas bear. In Texas they feed mostly on pecans, rich acorns, and golden honey which they gather in the caves. Texas bear meat is simply glorious, whether fresh or baconed. At least, that is the testimony of one who has eaten many a pot of i^ and always with relish. As Texas surpasses every other land, why should not its bears surpass all other bears ? VIII. Perplexity that is Providentially Eelieved. — A KiDE IN Mexico. IN the morning while we ate breakfast we watched sun- rise in the mountains : first, a flood of light, like a pyramid of fire, streaming upward from the east ; then pouring through the crevices and fissures, and at last when the great orb rose to the crest of the mountain, and seemed to rest upon it, a grand outburst of glory all about us. Then we sat on the bank of the river and smoked our pipes, and watched the crystal waters of the creek fading away in the golden-colored Bravo. The air was laden with the fragrance of the cedars. A wilder, more secluded nook than this was never seen. A great perplexity now fell upon us : we were utterly confused and lost, and knew not which way to turn. We desired to reach the Mexican town of Presidio del Norte, but with the lights before us, it was impossible to tell whether it lay below or above us. At last while debating the perplexing question, we heard the tramp of horses' feet above us on the river, and turning, we saw a horse coming toward us, with a black, ragged object on his back bearing a long gun across the saddle. Neither rider nor horse had yet perceived us. ^* Boys, that is an Indian," said I. " No," said Jones Johns, ^' that is a black Mexican. Injuns wears no hats." "Then," said I, "let us capture that fellow and make him show us the way." We concealed ourselves under the bank, and the object rode within thirty 354 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. feet of us, halting when he perceived our smouldering fire, and looking around in a suspicious way. " Now, boys," said I, ** is our time." With that we sprang to our feet and made a dash for the Aztec. He turned his horse to fly, but I brought my gun down upon him and called to him to halt. At the same time the soldiers, who could talk a little Mexican, leveled their guns upon him also, crying amigos ! and adding that if he did not stop he would be shot. He evi- dently believed the threat was in earnest, and seeing little hope of escape with so many rifles upon him, turned and surrendered. His lips were white, and he shook with ex- citement from head to foot. The soldiers explaining to him what we wanted, he grew calm, but shook his head and said he would not take us to Presidio. I told the soldiers to tell him he must do it or be shot — that we were in no mood to be denied so reasonable a request. When he heard this he looked much distressed, as if we had interfered with some prior arrangement ; but finally — '^ Bueno .'" said he, '^ go lo liare.^^ He then pointed up the river, and we mounted our horses and followed him. This old fellow was probably sixty years of age, but there was that about him which indicated infinite tough- ness. He was tall and lean, sharp visaged, had a nose like an eagle's beak, and was of a dark copper color. His eye looked sly and wicked. His dress was entirely of buckskin, except that he had a very dirty, ragged blanket thrown over his shoulders. His shoes were moccasins, and his hat was the common Mexican sombrero, with an enormous rattlesnake in effigy coiled around it. From his hard and weather-beaten appearance I judged he had not slept in a house for years. We asked him what he was doing in this lonely country. ''Hunting," said he, in Spanish. He then asked what we were doing. We told him we were also hunting — hunting Indians, and Jones TWO THOUSAND MILES Iiq^ TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 355 Johns added that we had encountered a flock of them the day before and killed six. At this I observed a nervous shrug of the old fellow's shoulders, and this, in connection with his wild and sinister expression and appearance, left little doubt in my mind that he was a brigand, who lived principally among the Indians and piloted them on their raids into Texas. I thought it likely that he belonged to the party we had lately seen.* He led us up the river several miles, and then rode into it, we following in file. The bottom was sandy, the cur- rent strong, and the water sometimes nearly up to our seats. The Bravo, or Rio Grande, as it is usually called by the Americans, averages where we rode along it about three hundred feet in breadth, and looks inflamed like the Red River, the Canadian and Arkansas, which rise nearly in the same region. I tasted its water and found it sweet and decidedly cold. The old Mexican told us there were many places where it could be forded, but in the moun- tains it was not always easy to get out, on account of the steepness of the banks. It is a grand river, and with dredg- ing could be made navio^able manv hundred miles above its mouth — at least as high up as the mouth of the Pecos. On the Mexican side it was rough and mountainous, the same as on the Texan, with little or no valley, and 'uninhabited. Our guide led us ten or twelve miles over a high rolling prairie, with many mesquite trees, and rich in grass. At last we reached a large road, coming from the heart of Mexico, leading north-east. Here the old Mexican halted and said : " This will take you to Presidio before sunset. I can go no further." I gave him a ten- dollar gold piece, at which he smiled and said : ^* Muchas gracias. senor ; Dies tenga nstedes a sus ma7iosy\ He * When I spoke of this old fellow at Presidio, they said my impreBsion of him was doubtless correct. t " Many thanks, senor ; may God hold you in his hands." 356 TWO THOUSAN^D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. turned and rode away over the prairie in the direction whence we had come. As we rode on, the country was so like West Texas that it would be quite impossible to distinguish them apart, and we could hardly feel ourselves in a foreign land. In the evening, however, we rode into an army of diminutive jackasses with huge piles of mesquite wood, bigger than themselves, fastened to their backs and flanks with cords. By the side of each walked a Mexican boy, frequently pounding him with a club, and yelling — '-'■'burro carajo ! " This scene was totally strange, and only then did I appreciate, that I was in a country over which our flag does not float. We asked the little fellows how far to Presidio, and about a dozen responded, with much sweet- ness of voice : *' Tres millas, senores.''^ They ceased their gabbling and carajos, and tried to behave like little gen- tlemen while we were among them. They were all quite handsome, though illy clad and not shod at all, and were from a reddish-white to a bright yellow color. None of them were black, which causes me to believe that the blackness of many of the Mexicans is of slow growth and the effect of climate. About sunset we rode into the city and asked for a hotel, and were told that there was none in the place. At last, however, we secured a room, with no furniture except two long benches, and a yard for our horses. We bought provender for our horses, and did our own cooking. At night we spread our blankets on the floor, which was the naked, but clean-swept earth. DIVISION VII. I. Presidio Del Norte. — Asses ai^d Goats. AFTER breakfast I walked abroad, leaving the soldiers to their liberty. Presidio has a population of three thousand or less, and is built entirely of one-story adobe houses, all so much alike that they seem to have dropped from the same mould. It is impossible for a place to be more of a oneness than this ; and yet, to the American stranger, it is a place in which he can pass a day or two with interest. It seemed to me as I walked along its streets, that I had slid back into the past at least a thou- sand years. There is nothing whatever of the city of the present age here, either in the architecture or the people ; no bustling commerce, no whirr of machinery, no rattling carriages or rumbling wagons. The diminutive and pa- tient jackass, that can neither be coaxed nor driven out of a slow walk, supplies all the transportation that is needed ; and the people walk leisurely about — not with the appear- ance of having nothing to do, but rather that they have ample time to do it in, and it were as well done a month hence as to-day. They appear contented and even happy, as if well pleased with what the gods have given, and per- fectly willing to leave to them the morrow. I doubt if they have any distinct idea of a verb in the future tense. If to be happy be the aim of our life, I see no reason why 358 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. any one should complain of the Mexicans ; for they seem to fill that condition as completely as any people I ever saw — at least, they do in Presidio. Perhaps they ridicule the restless bustling and aspirations of the Americans, as much as we do their indolent and careless sleepy-head. There are a great many shops here, perhaps more than in an American town of the same population, but the stocks of a great majority of them are so inconsiderable that to supply one jackass load would deplete a whole block. Yet on these small stocks, averaging not more than fifty to one hundred dollars in value, the Mexican merchant will support himself, a large wife and a host of children, and at the same time sustain an excellent credit. Goats are more numerous here than the people, and the air is redolent with their strange, coolish smell. These ani- mals are a very important part of the community ; indeed, without them Presidio would probably dissolve and fall to pieces. It costs nothing to feed them, and they supply the Mexican merchant with abundance of rich milk, and a tender kid for meat whenever desired ; tlius saving him from touching his capital invested in commerce. Next to the goat the ass is very numerous, insomuch tliat one can hardly meet a lady promenading the street, but that one or more asses will be found walking by her side. These creatures are also very important factors in society here, costing nothing to take care of them, and performing all the duties that are performed by horse and wagon in Ameri- can communities. If a Mexican merchant has a few goats and a wife to milk them, and an ass and a six-year old boy to drive him, and fifty dollars capital in merchandise, with his frugal habits he should grow rich ; for to the free gifts of the goats, the ass and boy add fuel without cost, and if perchance more is gathered than is needed in the household, he can rapidly increase his capital in merchan- dise by selling fuel to his neighbors who have not an ass TWO THOUSAI^D MILES IN TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 359 and a boy. Thus it may be said that the whole fabric of Presidio rests on goats and asses, and if they were taken away, total disintegration would result. That it is no bad basis to rest upon, is shown by the fact that all are con- tented and happy. People are apt to resemble in many respects the animals they have most to do with, or are most dependent upon, and I am unable to decide whether the Mexicans are more like the ass or the goat ; but they are as thorough a mixture of the two as it is possible to conceive. The Mexicans even say of themselves that they are 7nuy caprote,^ and in Presidio they have a distinct odor of a goat. How THE YixE Flourishes. There are two or three stores here of some size, one kept by a young American who buried himself in this re- mote place to make money, and has succeeded in doing so. He says money is plentiful, and I could hardly compre- hend it until I took a short ride in the valley of the Kio Grande, above the city. It is a field of wealth, two to three miles in breadth, extending many miles, all irrigated by the rich waters of the river. Here they grow^ great crops of corn, wheat and barley, which they sell at high prices, mostly to the contractors who supply the Mexican and U. S. military posts on either side of the river. Here also are great vineyards, as rich as tliose of old Spain, and wine and brandy-making is a principal industry. These latter find their way all over Mexico, and are not uncom- mon on the boards of gentlemen of Western Texas. This wine, which is sold at a dollar a gallon or less, is much like still Catawba, and as for the brandy, it is infinitely prefer- able to that which is usually sold in the United States as French brandy. It is very strong, but there is a peculiar fruity flavor about it that is pleasant, and one can drink it * Very goaty. 360 TWO THOUSAXD MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. with full confidence that there is nothing in it that is spurious. The finest onions in the world also grow here. They are so excellent that one can eat them almost as we do an apple in the United States. There are pear trees here two to three feet in circumference. The rain-fall does not exceed twelve inches a year, and nearly all of it falls in one or two showers, and yet with irrigation they have all these blessings in abundance ! What surpassing glory would be that of Western Texas, if they only had the enterprise of the Mexican tliere to irrigate their valleys, by building a few dams and digging a few ditches ! These people cultivate the ground precisely as the first inhabitants of the world did. They merely scratch the surface with a wooden plow, and sometimes they work whole fields with no other instrument than a hand-hoe. The American merchant at Presidio tells me that he has tried in vain to introduce American implements of tillage : the absurd Mexicans simply laughed at the heavy Ameri- can weapons. Fortunately the soil is a soft, sandy loam, very docile even to their poor implements. They tell me that this city is over two liundred years old and that its history is romantic. It sits in the midst of a vast solitude in every direction, except a narrow strip running a considerable distance up the river. All else is Indians, lions, jaguars, cougars, wolves, et cetera. The Mexican Snob. — How Greatness Feels. After dinner, while smoking my puro, a neatly dressed Mexican gentleman, with something of a sprightly and even distinguished air, entered my apartment. He could speak English tolerably, and asked me if he had the honor to address so-and-so, calling my name ? On assuring him that he had my name right, he gave me his own, and im- mediately proceeded to address me, in what sounded like TWO THOUSAND MILES IJf TEXAS Oi^ HORSEBACK. 361 a set speech. He said that he had long been acquainted with my fame as a soldier, statesman and scholar, and was prond to pay his respects in person. He gave me a warm welcome to Mexico ; assured me that all Mexicans would do the same, wherever I should go in their territory, and expressed the hope that I was pleased with the country as far as I had seen it. The gentlemen of Presidio were anxious to pay their respects to me in pubUc, and if I would do him the honor to appoint the time, he would only be too proud to introduce them to me in the rooms of the Alcalde. He bea'sred that I would accord him that honor and pleasure. I at first thought the man was lunatic, and was about to cut him short in his oratory, when, regarding him more closely, I thought I observed in him a Mexican snob upon whom some one had played a trick. As I had often seen such fellows and been amused at their laughable ways around great men, I concluded to humor the joke, and therefore made a speech to him with considerable dignity, putting on, too, an air of great sapience. I assured him that I felt infinite pleasure in receiving his call. To him who has labored for his country and mankind, there is nothing so sweet as the evidences that his labors have re- ceived recognition ; and it is indeed very sweet to me to know that I have made friends even in foreign lands. It is a great incentive to other work, and the recollection of this recognition and visit from you to-day, sir, will sweeten my future labors. (He bowed with humility.) Horace, in his assurance of immortality, says that even he that drinks of the Danube shall read and praise him. How sweet it must be to him, in the abode of the great spirits whither he has gone, to know that even his imagination could not measure the boundary of kis fame ; for he that drinks of the Rio Grande and the Conchas also reads and praises him ! I fancy, sir, that I feel to-day something of 362 TWO THOUSAND MILES li^ TEXAS OH HORSEBACK. this pleasure which Horace must feel, when I receive the assurance that he who drinks of the Kio Grande and Con- chas knows and esteems me. (Another bow, accompanied with a smile of approbation.) But I should be too vain to receive this honor as entirely personal. No small part of it, I know, sir, is intended for the great republic from which I come. It is an evidence of the mutual friendship that should characterize the relations of the two great American republics. Side by side, in the closest amity, let them be the example by which tyrants shall tremble, and the oppressed of all nations be made happy. (A very low bow.) I then stated that while I had a high appreciation of the honor, I must decline the public reception in the halls of the Alcalde ; that I had particular reasons for de- siring to travel incogjiito and in an exceedingly private way. It would afford me great pleasure to take every citizen of Presidio by the hand, but under the circum- stances, which he would appreciate, I must deny myself the pleasure. We then took each other by the hand, with great cor- diality, he receiving " beatitude past utterance," and I feeling no little ashamed of myself, but suppressing it well. He begged that he might at least have the honor of attending me through the city, to show me the points of interest, and give me such insight as he could into the industries of the people. To this I consented, and we walked out together ; he talking incessantly and appearing the happiest man I had ever seen. I felt myself somewhat distended with pride at being able to bestow such exquisite happiness ; but more than once my pride came near being lost in the sense of the ridiculous. For the first time in my life I felt how greatness feels, and was not displeased with the sensation. ,He led me everywhere, and I could not fail to notice that wherever he saw an unusual assem- blage of men or women, he would find some excuse to TWO THOUSAND MILES I^T TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 363 take me in the midst of it, and his attentions at such places were quite overwhelming. I went round with him a long time, until I grew tired ; but he showed no ten- dency to leave me to my peace. At last his company be- came irksome, and yet I could not make him see it in any genteel or oblique way. His perception of decency was utterly lost in the happiness of being allowed to pay me attentions and show himself off around me. I had made up my mind to tell him that he had been deceived, and that I was simply a very plain citizen, unknown to fame ; but on reflection I thought this would be cruel and hurt his feelings too severely. Finally I got rid of him under the pretence that I had some very important writing to do, and would be happy to see him on another occasion. Thus I felt the annoyance, also, to which great men are subject, and thought it was of the most poignant sort. It is dis- tressing not to be left to one's privacy when one desires it. This man did some writing for the great man of the city, the Alcalde, and had formerly, as he told me, been connected in some way with the Governor of Chihuahua. He had thus had some inkling of greatness, and having no light of his own, was happy to shine by the light of others. He was said to be the happiest of all men when allowed to put on airs at the feet of the great, and be the usher by whom others approached them. He was not without intelligence, and very inoffensive, though some- times said to be supercilious, when around great men, to those whom he considered not rich, and extremely patron- izing to those known to be so. His attentions to me originated from my soldiers, who, probably to raise their own importance, had spread it around that I was a great ex-general and scholar, travelling privately for my health, and that the Commander-in-Chief of the United States had detailed them to accompany me, as a special guard of honor. 364 TWO THOUSAND MILES IJ^ TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. Peestdio at JN'ight. — A Fandango. At night Presidio resounded with the thrumming of guitars, the screeching of accordeons, the braying of asses and the bleating of goats. The whole population seemed bent on music. I was told by an American trader on a visit to the city, that there would be a great fandango, and if I felt curious to see one he would go with me. I felt curious, and at ten o'clock, we walked together into the chaparral, a half mile from the city, and there found a large number of men and women dancing in the open air, to harps and violins. At intervals they would suspend the dancing and give themselves up to eating chile con came — a hash of dried beef, furiously hot with red-pepper — at the numerous booths erected about the lights, or prome- nade in the chaparral. The men were attired but little better than usual, but the women were dressed m pretty costumes of bright red or white, Avhich barely reached their knees, with tight-fitting stockings and slippers. When the dress was red, the stockings were usually white, and vice versa. They invariably wore ornaments of flowers about their heads, and many of them were very pretty. Some- times they would join in little groups and siug to the guitarj the music being ballads or melting songs of love. The country fandangos are said to be innocent, as much as rustic amusements generally are, but in the cities they have apparently been corrupted, and seem to me but a mere convenience for sin. They are said often to end in drunk- enness, debauchery, and sometimes in murder. They are universal throughout Mexico, and wherever the Mexicans are numerous. In cities they are not attended by the bet- ter class of either males or females. There was nothing boisterous in this one as long as 1 remained to see it. 11. Among the Prospectors. — The Ohij^ati Mountain's. AT this point my westward journey terminated, and at early morning I was in the saddle, accompanied by a government contractor to furnish the troops at Fort Davis with flour, and a gentleman from St. Louis inter- ested in some wines, and who was establishing smelting works in Presidio. We crossed into Texas and rode north over a fine stock country, but uninhabited, until we reached the Chinati Mountains, the loftiest and most rugged group I had yet encountered. Their altitude is five thousand feet, and they consist mostly of basaltic rocks, but many of them are capped and partly flanked with Cretaceous rocks, show- ing that they were upheaved at the close of that formation, or during the Tertiary. Wherever a spot with soil can be found in these mountains, there is a magnificent growth of cedar ; enough to tie all the railroads in Texas. After resting at a large spring at the foot of the mountains, we walked into them to see the metallic veins. They were very numerous. Iron seemed without end, and copper was very abundant, and we visited several veins of silver lead, some of them twenty feet wide, of length and depth un- known. The St. Louis gentleman had opened some of these a few feet, and sendins: the ores to St. Louis for analysis, had received the following returns : No. 1. 13 oz. value per ton of ore $16.80 No.7. 15oz. " " 19.30 No.8. 59oz. " " 'i'6.28 N0.9.2OOZ. ♦* " 25.85 366 TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. This is the value of the silver alone, for in this remote region, lead cannot pay for its transportation, and no account is taken of it. Another specimen of ore from a vein which I did not see, was reported by the same chemists,* as follows : Silver per ton of ore $144.80 Lead from same ore 34.25 Specimens of the copper ore were reported by these chemists to yield twenty per cent of metallic copper. All these ores are greatly abundant, yet not more so than I saw in other mountains of Presidio County, and the seeing of them only conGrmed the conviction that I had before, that this region must inevitably develop one of the great- est mineral wealths in the world. The very same rocks in Mexico, just across the Rio Grande in Chihuahua, pour out millions of silver and copper annually, and there is no doubt in my mind that these will do the same. The sole occupants of these mountains, besides the occasional miners, are a few shepherds who herd their flocks along its flanks, and stand guard over them night and day, to save them from the wolves and lions of the mountains. From the latter particularly, the faithful shepherd-dog would be slim protection. Leaving the two gentlemen, I bore again northwest- ward with my soldiers, over a rolling, treeless plain, with ranges of mountains in sight in every direction, until a little before night-fall we reached a fine creek, with noble, irrio^able vallev, flowinsr from the north toward Presidio. This is Providence Creek, and so rich are its lands and beautiful its water that it well deserves its name. Here we liave willow and cotton-wood. The grass is rich, and we lodged upon it for the night. * Chauvenet and Blair, St. Louis. TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. 367 III. Did not sleep well : wolves exceedingly clamorous and bold : rose twice during the night to discharge shot at them and drive them off. Heard the roar of the lion or black jaguar from the cliffs that overlooked our encamp- ment. In the saddle at early dawn. Rode thirty-five miles up the beautiful valley and encamped. Saw many veins of iron and copper crossing the creek bed ; also vems of quartz with indications of gold. Agates and opals abundant ; gathered several of the most beautiful I ever saw. 13 ly. A Supper Lost. — The Boast of the Cowaed. ALTHOUGH we had seen many deer during the day, we had not killed any, and were without fresh meat. After our horses were turned on the grass, I walked up the creek, hoping for a successful shot. Ahout a mile up I reached a point where the creek forks, and saw a num- ber of deer feeding on the plot between the two streams. I crept unobserved up the bed of one of these, and leisurely selecting the one that seemed best, I brought him down at two hundred yards. The others were so aston- ished that they merely jumped at the crack of the rifle, and then stopped to stare around. When they saw me, however, they bounded away post-haste. I took the hams and part of the ribs of the fallen one, and was moving straight down the valley when something impelled me to look back. As I did so I saw two black objects suddenly dip behind the cliff that looked over the valley from the north. I stood still a moment, watclii ng, but saw them no more. I felt at once that I hud been watched by In- dians, who were trying to surround me by stealing down the bed of the two streams, and had left the two on the cliff to watch and signal to them my movements. With this conviction I hurried to the nearest creek, to avoid ex- posing myself on the narrow tongue between the two, and bounded across it almost with the speed of a buck, expect- ing every second to receive a shower of arrows. When in the open valley where nothing could steal upon me unseen, TWO THOUSAND MILES IK^ TEXAS ON HOKSEBACK. 369 and too far from either cliff or creek-bed to be killed by arrows, I stopped to observe, but saw nothing. Still I believed Indians were about, and when in camp told the soldiers what I had seen and my suspicions. As we already had fire blazing and coffee boiling, we concluded we would cook some of our meat and then steal away in the dark, which was coming upon us as each of us sat down to roast a big chunk of venison. Ten minutes after this, while I was enjoying a strong cup of black coffee, one of our horses snorted violently. ^•' There they are, boys," said I, " trying to set us afoot. Let's to the rescue ! " Each seized his rifle and ran for the horses, which with heads erect, were staring toward the hills that came down to the valley from the west. As I reached my horse I saw something indistinctly slipping along rapidly toward the shadow of the hills. It might be Indian or it might be wolf — so I raised my gun and fired upon it. John Powell saw the same object or a similar one, and also let fly with his rifle. A few moments afterward we heard a cry or squall like that of a cougar from the hills in the direction we had fired, to which a similar voice immedi- ately responded from a point a little lower down. " Thar now ! " said Jones Johns with a laugh ; '^nothing but a squalling painter to kick up all this muss." "Perhaps so," said I ; '^but let us be on our guard. These painters are sometimes dangerous." *' Ef that was a painter," said John Powell, *^ that I shot at — ef he didn't walk straight up like a man you may get my good eye. Injuns can play painter, but painters can't play Injun." I thought John Powell's reasoning was good, and be- sides, if the object I shot at had not looked suspiciously I would not have shot at it. It did not seem to me prone enough for wolf or ^^ painter." I therefore ordered that 370 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. we take our horses and stake them within a few feet of us, with saddles on ; which was done. We then sat by the fire watching our fat venison, which dripped gravy and sent forth a delicious odor, occasionally turning it on the sticks. *^What is that? Didn't you hear something say ^ ker-flip ? ' " said Jones Johns. I became attentive, and the next moment heard a distinct whirr through the air, as of some diminutive feathered creature passing rapidly overhead. "It is some small night-bird," said I. A second later — "Ah ! " said Jones Johns, jumping up ; "here's your night-bird ! Here it is for a fact ! " An arrow, feathered and painted, had stuck into the ground immediately in front of him, which, had it been aimed a single point higher, would have struck him square in the belly. We all Jumped up at sight of this fearful apparition, and as we did so, others dropped around us in quick succession, all coming from the opposite side of the creek. There was a long stone three or four feet high, lying a few paces from the fire, and I told the soldiers to gather their horses quickly, and let us conceal ourselves behind it. We did so in a moment, and there sat as still as mice. The arrows continued to drop around the fire a few seconds, but ceased when the lurking Indians saw that we had left. We had the mortification of seeing our veni- son take fire and burn- to soot. Everything was silent, and I hoped that the Indians, thinking that they had fright- ened us away, would venture within the light of the fire and give us a chance to return their compliment with our rifles. But they were too sharp for that. Fully a half hour passed, and we heard nothing, not even a stealthy tread, and were debating in a low voice the propriety of mounting and moving on, when an owl broke loose with his wild hoot apparently just across the creek. This was followed by another owl and another, until there TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OX HORSEBACK. 371 was a regular uproar of owl-laughter. This ceased, and then a lonesome wolf projected a melancholy wail over the valley, whicli was answered by another and another until we had a regular wolf serenade again. This ceased, and then a distressed panther began to cry, as if suffering the most terrible misery — responded to at once by another and another, till the air seemed literally burdened with the singular notes. When this ceased, after a short interval of quiet, turkeys gobbled, owls hooted, wolves howled, and panthers squealed and screamed all together, making the most infernal medley I had ever heard. This was followed by several tremendous whoops, and noises that seemed made by slapping the mouth rapidly with the hand while halloo- ing. I thought that we conld creep on these rascals and give them a volley with our Winchesters, but knowing tlieir wily habits, I was afraid they might steal our horses while we were trying to shoot them. But feeling somewhat in- sulted as well as amused by their infernal noises, which they made in derision of us, I told Jones Johns, who had the chest of a bull and the lungs of a steamboat, to break out as loud as he could, with the most unearthly voice that he could make, and that Powell and myself would assist him. He did so, raising undoubtedly the most ungodly sound that ever came from a human tliroat, to which Powell and myself responded with the best that we could do, as soon as he had finished. We kept this up for some time, and if there was less method in our medley, I am satisfied that we raised a greater fuss than the Indians. I have no doubt that for a time at least, they hung their heads in chagrin. It seemed to us from their report that there were about six or seven of tliem. After we had suspended, all was silent for a while, as if the Indians were considering what sort of noise to make next. Finally, a lusty fellow yelled out in a loud voice : " Americanos ! — Carajos I — Cobardes ! " which he repeated 372 TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS OJf HORSEBACK. two or three times. I told Jones Johns to call him a gut in Spanish, and to invite him to call over to see us, as we had something good for him. Johns did so, in an exceed- ingly braggart and provoking style. The Indian responded with some words of very beastly signification, and as I thought that we could tolerably well make out Avhere they stood on the prairie, I ordered a volley, and we all fired at once, two or three times in rapid succession. Profound peace now reigned for a few moments, while the Indians were rapidly changing their base ; for when they again reported themselves, they were evidently about three hundred yards further away, and apparently on the bluff of the valley. They opened with another medley of gobbler, and wolf and panther, mixed with carajos and other dirty Spanish words ; but we paid them no attention. ^^Now, boys," said I, "it is time for us to go off and get some sleep, since we can't get a battle out of those cow- ards." We went to the fire and contemplated with sorrow the soot of our fine venison, but there was a pot of coffee, and we had a great enjoyment of it. By the light of a live coal, I saw that it was after eleven o'clock. We rode up the valley two hours, and then went into a dark nook and slept. The stars w^ere gloriously brilliant, and ere we closed our eyes an extraordinary meteor passed above us. going south, with a great light and a hissing and crack- ling sound. It seemed not very high overhead, and was sloping downward ; so that I have no doubt that another remarkable mass of rock was added to this remarkable region. Its apparent magnitude w^as many times that of the full moon, and it seemed a great ball of fire, with little appearance of a streamer behind it.* * Some of the most remarkable meteoric stones known in the United States, have fallen in Texas. One in Yale College, weighing one thousand six hundred and twentj'-five pounds, came from the Staked Plain , as did one in the Geologi- cal Eooms in Austin, of several hundred pounds weight. It is remarkable that these masses do not fall except in lofty or rugged regions abounding in metals. Has a meteorite ever been known to fall in a low Tertiary country'? Sach an instance is not within my knowledge. y. Departure from Friends. A REIVED at Van Horn's Well, a station of the El Paso and San Antonio Stage Company, inhabited by one or two drivers and their families, and a dozen or so mules, guarded by a small detail of soldiers. I had in- tended to visit the briny lakes on the great plain, and the great forests of pine at the base of its mountains, thence east to the Pecos ; but I saw that my horse was no longer fit for such a journey. A thousand miles of almost con- stant travel, much of it under severe thirst and hunger, had reduced him to a gaunt, skinny frame, with feeble, lack-lustre eyes. He had been failing fast the last few days. He seemed to beg me as I stroked his forehead : *' Pray stop your wanderings, and give me food and rest." The soldiers' horses were not in much better plight than my own. I therefore looked around and succeeded in sell- ing my horse and his equipments for forty dollars, which had cost me one hundred and four. The purchaser im- mediately gave him a tub of barley and treated him to a thorough rubbing ; during which he looked at me reproach- fully, as if he would say : ''Well, sir, this is better than anything you gave me among those rocks, and I would rather stay with this man than you." When the time approached for my departure I went to the soldiers and gave them each fifty dollars. They seemed loth to leave me, to make their Avay back to Fort Concho alone, and said, if I should come this way again and want an escort, '' please call for us, and we will follow you to the jumping- 374 TWO THOUSAND MILES 12!^ TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. off place." I believe both had formed a strong attach- ment for me ; and, certainly, should I again ride over dan- gerous ground with only two attendants, I would choose none before them. Had we become involved in a scrape, they would have fought like tigers, and with the coolness of icebergs. As the stage drove furiously up I took them warmly by the hands and bade them adieu. This point is four thousand feet above the sea — a gradual ascent of one thousand eight hundred feet from Presidio. The Broncos. — The Great Plain. I sat on the seat with the driver to enjoy a wider pros- pect; and no sooner had the men who held the mules taken their hands from the bits, than away they sprang at a lope — sweeping on at the rate of eight miles an hour. These mules are from Mexico, and are called broncos. They are headstrong, furious and ungovernable, and when once under headway they cannot be stopped until they reach their regular stations. If a passenger has occasion to stop by the roadside, the best the driver can do is to rein them out of the road and keep the coach whirling in a circle about him. He must get out and back again, at imminent risk of breaking his bones. Should some of the machinery become disabled by the way, as there could be no stop for repairs, total destruction would most surely follow. They drive from four to six to a coach. We bowl over a great rolling plain, that seems as bound- less as the ocean, with distant mountains in sight; and so we continue to bowl and bowl for hour after hour, the broncos showing no signs of weariness. The road is stone- less and delightfully smooth. This is the great Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain, from which all the great rivers of Texas except the Trinity, Neches, Sabine and San An- tonio, derive their waters. It is a singular looking thing : TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 375 with table-lands resembling great fortifications, sitting here and there upon it. There are no trees, but some thinly scattered brush of mesquite, and the grass is generally abundant and crisp and sweet. This is reputed to be a great desert, inhospitable and deadly ; but the truth is, the soil is rich, filled with marl and gypsum, and it needs nothing but water at the surface to make it a mighty land. How can it be waterless, as is said, when such biUions of tons of water flow from its strata every day ? Beneath it undoubtedly lies a great fountain, which the Artesian well would cause to burst to the top and pour over the fertile ex- panse. There is no region in the world more shamefully misrepresented. It is capable of sustaining millions of cattle, and performing as much for the general good as any equal expanse of territory : not as it now is, but as the hands of man could easily make it. There are some stretches of arid sands, but they are not deep, and the plow would soon mingle them with the marly clays beneath, converting them into lawns of verdure. Stopped at Muerto Springs, thirty miles from Van Horn's Well, where, we changed broncos. This place is buried amid rugged mountains, at an elevation of five thousand one hundred and eighty feet above the sea. It means the springs ''of the Dead," and was formerly called Dead Man's Hole. Here I was shown a specimen of gold- bearing quartz, rich in gold, and was told that it was abundant in the neighborhood. The mountains are filled with quartz veins, which may be seen from the stage-stand, running up their sides like white lines. If the specimen that I saw be truly from this region, there is gold here undoubtedly. Arrayed in White.— The Monarch. A few miles from Muerto a group of remarkable moun- tains appears, whose lofty tops I had beheld from afar off. 376 TWO THOUSAKD MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. At }i distance they look like great cones of white cloud resting upon the horizon. These mountains are seven thousand feet high, and are composed of pure white quartz, which gives them the appearance of being always wrapped in snow. They are beautiful, and to my knowledge their like does not exist in the world, except in other ranges in this same region. They are unnamed and should have beautiful names. The stage-driver called them " the White Ladies ; " but they are too tremendously big to be called ladies. I had an ardent desire to visit these moun- tains, but of course could not. The driver said : " They are full of gold, just like that you saw at Muerto." Why is it that Texas will not appropriate some money, and employ some distinguished scientist to make an explora- tion of this remarkable and wonderful region ? * And yet a few miles further, the monarch of all the region lifts his head higli above all the visible mountains, and grows higher and broader as we approach him ; blue in the distance and grey or black as we draw nearer. He is seven thousand five hundred feet high, or more than a thousand feet higher than the vaunted Mount Washington of New Hampshire. He is the loftiest elevation known east of the Rocky Mountains. From his appearance I judge him to be granitic, and doubt not that he is one of the original foot-stools. ^* They crowned him long ago." He, too, is unnamed. Let him be named after that Texan who shall first teach the Texans to love Nature in Texas, and appreciate their grand State as they * It is held that under the present State constitution it is unlawful to appro- priate money for a geological survey. One of the leading members of the conven- tion that formed the constitution declared in that body : " Geology is a humbug, and I know it to be so ! " It is most remarkable that the people of Texas can be imposed upon by such conceited ignoramuses. But the convention agreed with him, and the result of it is that probably as rich a mineral region as there is on earth, must remain idle and unknown until explored by private enterprise. It seems to be the pride and policy of other communities to make their resources known, but of these latter-day statesmen to hide the resources of Texas. TWO THOUSAND MILES 11^ TEXAS OK HOESEBACK. 377 should ; and there can be no appreciation of it by those who do not love Nature within it. The range or group of mountains in which this giant sits, is really but one gigantic mountain with a multitude of peaks ; their apparent base being at an elevation of at least a thousand feet above the subjacent plains. They are well-timbered with cedar, oaks and some pines. VI. FoKT Davis. — Man's Ikhumakitt. AERIVED at Fort Davis, and here found myself in an evil plight, which for a while greatly stirred up my feelings. I had performed, at each county-seat that I visited on my route, a very important service for a certain corporation, which service the said corporation had vainly tried, even for a high consideration, to get some one else to perform. All who had been approached refused it, say- ing it was worth a man's life to attempt it, unless under escort of a company of soldiers. As it would not much inconvenience me, I agreed to perform the service for a part of my expenses and a right to draw u2:)on the presi- dent for this if I should run short of cash on the trip. At Concho I saw that I should need more money, and drew for the modest sum of three hundred dollars, making the draft returnable at Fort Davis. After paying the costs of this service and settling with my soldiers, I arrived at Fort Davis with hardly a dollar. My first care, therefore, after a night's rest, was to visit the party to whom the draft had been made returnable. I introduced myself and inquired about the draft. ^^ Yes, sir," said he. He then took the draft from a letter and handed it to me without another word, and across the face was written '^ Not accepted," signed by the president of the corporation. There is no language that can express the indignation I felt at that moment. I had performed the dangerous service faith- fully, paying the cost of putting upon record at every county-seat I visited, a long document of some fifty pages TWO THOUSAND MILES IN" TEXAS ON" HORSEBACK. 379 of legal cnp, and here were my thanks and reward ! Here I was left, in a ^Hiowling wilderness," hundreds of miles from ^^ nowhere," ia a small community utterly strange to me, without a dollar to buy bread, or even a horse to bear me out of it, and my credit rendered hopeless by the return upon me of dishonored paper ! I thought it the ghastliest deed within my experience of men, and so I shall always think. What concern had they for me, after I had performed their work and paid for it ? " He is an orano-e that hath been sucked ! Ah, he will be killed ; he will never return from this tour, and this will be so much money saved. 'A penny saved is a penny got.'" Ye spirits, who vex those whose consciences are dead, and whose souls are lost in Mammon, remember not this thing against them when the day of account cometh, and your work begins ! They are ignorant and know not what they do. They damn themselves when they think to make themselves. At that moment I became convinced that the project in which they are engaged must come to an igno- minious failure upon their hands ; for there is but one monument which such sublime notions of integrity and honor as this can erect, and that is a monument of shame and failure. But my position seemed so disastrous that I had little heart even to moralize. What must I do now ? The only thing is to stay here until I can draw upon my own funds, and it will take three weeks to do this. But who will feed and lodge me, a stranger, so long a time, when I am with- out a dollar ? I resolved to visit the commandant of the post, tell him my awkward position, and ask him to put me in good standing with the inn-keeper till such a time. While sitting in the inn, contemplating the probable effect of this appeal to a total stranger, I heard the name of a certain lieutenant mentioned in a group of men who were talking near me. I remembered that I had a slight ac- 380 TWO THOUSAJq"D MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. quaintance with a lieutenant of that name, and asked if his initials were not so and so ? " Yes, sir," said the man ; "that is his name, and he is stationed at this post." I determined to see this officer first, and, calling upon him, he recognized me at once. I told him my distress and asked for a loan of two hundred dollars. " I will sup- ply you, sir, with pleasure," said he. I felt a mountain lifted off my heart. He not only gave me the money, hut introduced me to some ladies of the post and did all he could to make my stay agreeable. Thus did this accom- plished officer do for the sake of humanity and a very slight personal acquaintance, that which those for whom I had performed an arduous and dangerous service, would not do for the sake of honor and in payment of a just debt, but so far as they could, had turned me out to starvation. '^Look upon this picture, and then upon that." I said to the officer : " Well, sir, had I not been so for- tunate as to meet you here, would not my position have been a dreadful one ? " "Oh no," said he ; "you would have had nothing to do but to call upon the commandant as you did upon me, and state your case. Do you suppose tlie officers would have allowed you to be cast adrift in this wilderness and reduced to extremities, right under the shadow of the flag ? No, indeed, sir : they would have come to your relief as readily as I have done." Fort Davis is the county-seat of Presidio county, as well as a military post of the United States. The long document in my possession was to be recorded here also, and I debated within myself a moment as to whether I should use a part of the money I had borrowed from the lieutenant, to pay for this, or leave it undone, and thus put the considerate corporation to the expense of sending here to have it done. I soon made up my mind to return good for evil, and had the big document recorded, paying TWO THOUSAISTD MILES IJT TEXAS 0:N" HORSEBACK. 381 for it out of the lieutenant's money. '* Now look upon this picture, then upon that ! " Would they have done the same for me ? Even the credulous Apella would not believe it. The position of Fort Davis is extremely picturesque and peculiar. It has borrov/ed nothing from any other scenery, but is its own original. It sits in a deep green valley wherein fountains bubble, and the vine, the flowers and the fruits of the field flourish .by irrigation. It is a green spot in the wilderness, and ever a green spot in the memory of all who see it. Mountains in fantastic shapes, like towers and minarets and domes, look upon it from all sides, and in the distance the Monarch and the White Ladies lift their brows into the clouds. The most won- derful scenery in Texas is here displayed, and the moun- tains contain minerals and gems. It sits at an elevation of five thousand feet, and the air is all sweetness, purity and elasticity. He that breathes it rejoices, and seems to feel new life. To those who are sick with the lungs, what place can match this ? For the elevation is sulSicient to give all that is best, and not enough for that rarity that is hurtful. One must be poor in resources who cannot find abundant amusement in so grand and strange a coun- try as this. The necessity of carrying arms and the suspicion that Comanches and Apaches may be about, are only a sort of seasoning that gives zest and vigor to the limbs and courage to the heart. The population is per- haps a hundred, exclusive of the military, and one can find pleasant society. The annual rainfall here is from twelve to twenty inches, most of which falls during July and August. It has been observed that the rainfall has constantly increased for a series of years. The summer temperature is from seventy to seventy-five, and rarely exceeds the latter figure. How delightful "for summer residence ! In winter it is 382 TWO THOUSAND MILES IK TEXAS OK HORSEBACK. sometimes severely cold, during the electrical northers — mercury having once been known to sink to 15° below zero ; but comfortable quarters are readily secured and. mesquite roots are abundant. The usual winter tempera- ture I can hardly distinguish from other portions of Texas ; for though it is dead winter, I take walks with the ladies after sunset and enjoy them greatly. There is a steam flouring-mill here, and considerable quantities of very fine wheat are raised in the Tayah val- ley, a few miles north of this.* * Since my visit Fort Davis has increased in attractions greatly, and now enjoys a weekly newspaper. VII. LiMPiA Canyon. AT noon of the third day, I took the first down-stage and travelled eastward through Limpia Canyon. This is a natural pass through the Apache Mountains, and the only one that is practical to carriages and horsemen. It derives its name from Limpia Creek which passes through the canyon. It is iSfteen miles in length, its greatest breadth about five hundred feet, and it sometimes narrows to fifty feet. On each side rises a black, precipitous wall of basalt, often a thousand feet or more in height. Some- times the creek passes through a canyon within the can- yon, so deep, dark and narrow that one may look from the brink and see no bottom below. The stage sometimes passes on the very edges of these abysses, and the slightest false step would precipitate all to destruction. While rid ing along these, it seemed that my life hung by an ex- ceedingly slender thread, and often I shivered. It is an exceedingly Avild-looking-place, and there is no exit or entrance save by this road. No lizard could climb those dark, glassy walls. I said to the driver : *^ This is cer- tainly a dangerous place. If one should be attacked here, what possible chance of escape ? " " It is the safest place," said he, "this side of San Antonio, No Indians were ever known to enter this canyon. They want a chance to retreat and slip out, like other warriors, and you'll never catch them coming into this trap." These walls, though perpendicular and composed of the same material, are never columnar like the Palisades, but 384 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. are solid, massive stone, without seam or rent. It is one of the greatest outpourings of igneous matter in the world. The canyon is nearly as straight as a bee-line, and seems a mo»t singular freak of nature. Why should this great mass of molten volcanic matter have separated into two long perpendicular w^alls, leaving the deep, smootli vale between ? Did the Almighty command the great hissing fiery mass to separate and stand apart, to make a road for coming man through the mountains, as he commanded the waters of the Dead Sea to open and make a road for Moses ? This little babbling stream could never have cut this vast chasm through this infinitely compacted stone. If it has taken the tremendous Niagara seventy thousand years to pound its way seven miles through seamed and stratified limestone, how long would it take this brook to wear this great chasm, fifteen miles long and often a thou- sand feet deep, through solid basalt ? I estimate thunder- ing Niagara to be at least a million times greater than Limpia, and this basalt at least four times harder than the Niagara limestone ; thus, if these estimates ai*e correct, and Limpia Canyon has been cut by Limpia Creek, it has taken it two thousand eight hundred millions of years to do the job I Reductio ad absurdum ! Barilla Springs. — A Norther on the Staked Plain. The Pass opened on a great plain, which I recognized at once as my old familiar friend, the Llano Estacado. At a short distance we stopped at Barilla Springs, to change broncos and get supper. This place has a singularly lone- some and dejected look, as if it had lost its mother. Look- ing around, I perceived that it had an unusually large cemetery for so diminutive a population. It is accounted as a sort of dead-hole, a place of danger, and these graves TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HOESEBACK. 385 mark the resting place of travellers or employes of the stage company who were slain by Indians. It sits under the shadow of the impenetrable mountains, from whose cliffs the savages may spy out a long way on the plain ; attacking and destroying weak parties, and hiding from strong ones. It was with a feeling of relief that we de- parted from this place, riding out on the great plain in the falling darkness. At eleven o'clock a furious norther suddenly leaped in the window of the stage-coach, and saluted us with a whiff of his frozen breath. Instantly the windows were closed, and I wrapped myself up in overcoat and blankets, but notwithstanding all the weight of wool, I shook and suf- fered terribly. The norther here had full force : it swept hundreds of miles down an inclined plane, without an obstacle to retard its impetuous career. I judged its de- scent to be between forty and fifty miles an hour : an in- cessant, pitiless, frozen torrent of wind. For much of the way we rode athwart this torrent, and it shrieked and howled among the iron and leather fixtures of the coach like a maniac. The broncos, stung with cold, became fu- rious, and dashed over the plain at a break-neck speed, which would have insured our destruction had it been elsewhere than in the plain. Reached Leon Springs at three p. m. where we entered an adobe house and warmed, and drank villainous coffee made of water from the salty lake. 386 TWO THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. VIII. Slept none. Passed Fort Stockton ; passed Escondido Springs : — ^fountains that rise on the great plain and send away a beautiful stream, which wanders a little way and is lost. Reached the lordly, silent Pecos, rolling his tur- bid flood impetuously as of old. Crossed on a pontoon bridge. This is many miles above where I crossed it west- ward bound. Near here is a salt lake on the j)lain, whose shores and bottom are said to be pure granulated salt. IX. Bowled onward and bowled onward, sleeping little or none. It takes one who has the toughness of a light-wood knot to stand this. Passed Fort Concho ; stopped at Ben Ficklen. This is the countv-seat of Tom Green countv — a single county larger than some entire States. Here Ben Ficklen of the ante-bellum California Overland Mail Line built his great company-shops at a cost of over one hun- dred thousand dollars. They stand quite untenanted on the prairie. Here is the great barley farm of Texas, em- bracing several hundred acres, irrigated from the Concho. Yield said to be from fifty to seventy-five bushels per acre. This is sold to government for use of the cavalry at Fort Concho. rv\^0 THOUSAND MILES IN TEXAS ON HORSEBACK. 387 X. Bowled on and bowled on, night after night and day after day, at last reaching San Antonio after five days and five nights of continual travel, prostrated, collasped, and used up : felt that I had been dragged through briars and b€aten with soot bags : felt miserable, intolerable : felt worse than he who coraeth off a drunk. Took iodging at a delightful hotel, and occupied my bed thirty-nine hours in succession. Got enough of good sleep for once.* XL Took stage and rattled north-west. Passed New Braunfels ; passed sparkling Comal, fairy San Marcos, proud-rolling Guadalupe, majestic Colorado, and entered Austin, eighty miles, the capitol of Texas. Had a m.ind to call on Governor Coke, of whom I had heard people speak in the most extravagant praise. If this gentleman does not become President of the United States he will disappoint thousands of admirers. Austin is pretty — built on more hills than Eome, and they are all picturesque. North of here is a wild, romantic country of cedar-covered hills and mountains : in other directions, a prairie that rolls in gigantic undulations. But the Capitol, or State House, is unworthy all this beauty. It looks like an old stone box, and the noble hill on which it stands renders its ugliness the more conspicuous and deformed. The grand State of Texas should have a better thing than that. * When I made this trip on the El Paso stage, the coaches were furnished by Government with a military guard. Afterwards this guard was withdrawn for a time, and the quick result was that the stage was attacked near Mustang Water Holes, the driver killed, and the mails robbed. There were no passengers. All the money in the mails was taken, but checks were let alone. Indians were seen the day previous on the Pecos. This leaves little doubt that they were from Mexico, and knew the value of greenbacks, or that they were attended by white American rascals, which is not unfrequently the case with these Indian raids into Texas. xn. COKCLUSIOK. DID not visit the Governor, as my clothes were too travel- worn and ragged. But jumped on the Texas Central and whirled southward at thirty miles an hour. Arrived in Houston, bronzed and begrimed, and was warmly greeted by many friends, and by none so warmly and cordially as those who had dishonored my draft and turned me out to starve : so warm were they that I could hardly comprehend that they had dishonored my draft. " Ha ! ha ! ha ! old fellow, are you back at last ? Ha ! ha! ha! that was a wonderful trip." And though my hands had grown tough, they could scarcely stand that squeeze. And now I bid him that hath followed me adieu, not without some regret. If it has been as pleasant a task to him to read, as it has been to me to write these wanderings, it is reward enough for me. I have ridden on horseback all over Texas, and have written of the State from a stand- point of knowledge thus obtained, and therefore the title of these presents is not a misnomer. See how unwil- lingly I bid you adieu ; and judge therefrom how glad I shall be to see you again, "if he that write th now may scribble more." TWO THOUSAND MILES IX TEXAS Ois' HORSEBACK. 389 A NOTE ON BUFFALOES. While writing of the American Bison on page 283, I stated that they bring forth two calves at a birth. I gave- this on the authority of one who has seen much more of the buflfalo than I have — not without much doubt of its correctness, which I intended to express in a note in the proper place, but forgot to do so. If the statement is correct, all who have written of the buffalo, as far as I have ob- served, are wrong, and it would be a remarkable exception to the rule in the bos family. It is probable my informant was led into his very firm belief by encountering a phenomenal pair of buffalo twins. Still I will not positively contradict him. His statement may go for what it is worth, with these doubts thrown around it. But even if the buffaloes always produced twins, it would not long delay their inevitable doom. While I write — Dec. 5, 1877 — there are not less than five hundred strangers slaughtering the buffalo in Texas, besides the frontiersman and Indian. It is a con- tinual fusillade upon them, and the great plains are red with their blood. A large part of this slaughter is a mere wantonness. It is to be hoped that the next Texas legislature will pass a law to stop these destroyers. The buffalo must go anyhow, but let us keep him with us as long as we can. 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