Borgia or Bourbon ever ruled more absolutely over his own domain than
did Don Solomon over the hundreds of square miles which made up his
estate. He owned not only lands and herds but also men and women. The
_peones_ who worked his lands were his possessions as much as were his
horses. He had them beaten when they offended him and their daughters were
his for the taking. He could not sell them, but this restriction did not
apply to the Navajo and Apache slaves whom he captured in war. These were
his to be sold or retained for his own use as he preferred. Adult Indians
were seldom taken prisoner, as they were untameable, but boys and girls
below the age of fifteen were always taken alive, when possible, and were
valued at five hundred _pesos_ each. Don Solomon usually sold the boys, as
he had plenty of _peones_, but he never sold a comely Indian girl.

The Don was a man of proud and irascible temper, but kindly when not
crossed. He had been known to kill a _peon_ in a fit of anger, and then
afterward to bestow all sorts of benefits upon the man's wife and
children.

The life of his home, like that of all the other Mexican gentlemen in his
time, was an easy and pleasant one. He owned a great _adobe_ house, built
about a square courtyard like a fort, and shaded pleasantly by cottonwood
trees. There he dwelt with his numerous family, his _peones_ and his
slaves. In the spring and summer every one worked in the fields, though
not too hard. In the fall the men went east to the great plains to kill a
supply of buffalo meat for the winter, and often after the hunt they
travelled south into Sonora and Chihuahua to trade mustangs and buffalo
hides for woven goods and luxuries.

There was a pleasant social life among the aristocrats of dances and
visits. Marriages, funerals and christenings were occasions of great
ceremony and social importance. Indeed everything done by the Dons was
characterized by much formality and ceremony, the custom of which had been
brought over from Spain. But they were no longer really in touch with
Spanish civilization. They never went back to the mother country. They had
no books save the Bible and a few other religious works, and many of them
never learned to read these. Their lives were made up of fighting, with
the Indians and also among themselves, for there were many feuds; of
hunting and primitive trade; and of venery upon a generous and patriarchal
scale. They were Spanish gentlemen by descent,