een a prisoner among the "Leperos" of Bexar?

On the ninth day of my wandering, certain unmistakable signs indicated
that I was approaching the verge of the forest: the grass became deeper,
the wood less dense; the undergrowth, too, showed the influence of winds
and currents of air. These, only appreciable by him who has watched with
anxious eyes every little change in the aspect of Nature, became at last
evident to the least observant in the thickened bark and the twisted
branches of the trees, on which the storms of winter were directed.
Shall I own it? My heart grew heavy at these signs, boding, as they
did, another change of scene. And to what? Perhaps the bleak prairie,
stretching away in dreary desolation! Perhaps some such tract of swampy
moor, where forests once had stood, but now, lying in mere waste of
rottenness and corruption; "clearings," as they are called, the little
intervals which hard industry plants amid universal wildness, I could
not hope for, since I had often heard that no settlers ever selected
these places, to which access by water was difficult, and the roads few
and bad. What, then, was to come next? Not the sea-coast,--_that_
must be miles away to the eastward; not the chain of the Rocky
Mountains,--they lay equally far to the west.

While yet revolving these thoughts, I reached the verge of the wood; and
suddenly, and without anything which might apprise me of this singular
change, I found myself standing on the verge of a great bluff of land
overlooking an apparently boundless plain. The sight thus unexpectedly
presented of a vast prairie--for such it was--was overwhelming in its
intense interest. My position, from a height of some seven or eight
hundred feet, gave me an uninterrupted view over miles and miles of
surface. Towards the far west, a ridge of rugged mountains could
be seen; but to the south and east, a low flat horizon bounded the
distance. The surface of this great tract was covered for a short space
by dry cedars, apparently killed by a recent fire; beyond that, a tall,
rank grass grew, through which I could trace something like a road. This
was, as I afterwards learned, a buffalo-trail, these animals frequently
marching in close column when in search of water. The sun was setting as
I looked, and gilded the whole vast picture with its yellow glory; but
as it sunk beneath the horizon, and permitted a clearer view of
the scene, I could perceive that everything--trees, grass, ea