double the capacity of the first, hauled by ten and twelve mules or
oxen. These latter were soon called prairie-schooners, which name
continued to linger until transportation across the plains by wagons was
completely extinguished by the railroads.

Under Mexican rule excessive tariff imposts were instituted, amounting
to about a hundred per cent upon goods brought from the United States,
and for some years, during the administration of Governor Manuel Armijo,
a purely arbitrary duty was demanded of five hundred dollars for every
wagon-load of merchandise brought into the Province, whether great or
small, and regardless of its intrinsic value. As gold and silver were
paid for the articles brought by the traders, they were also required
to pay a heavy duty on the precious metals they took out of the country.
Yankee ingenuity, however, evaded much of these unjust taxes. When the
caravan approached Santa Fe, the freight of three wagons was transferred
to one, and the empty vehicles destroyed by fire; while to avoid paying
the export duty on gold and silver, they had large false axletrees to
some of the wagons, in which the money was concealed, and the examining
officer of the customs, perfectly unconscious of the artifice, passed
them.

The army, in its expeditions against the hostile Indian tribes, always
employed wagons in transporting its provisions and munitions of war,
except in the mountains, where the faithful pack-mule was substituted.
The American freighters, since the occupation of New Mexico by the
United States, until the transcontinental railroad usurped their
vocation, used wagons only; the Mexican nomenclature was soon dropped
and simple English terms adopted: caravan became train, and majordomo,
the person in charge, wagon-master. The latter was supreme. Upon
him rested all the responsibility, and to him the teamsters rendered
absolute obedience. He was necessarily a man of quick perception,
always fertile in expedients in times of emergency, and something of an
engineer; for to know how properly to cross a raging stream or a marshy
slough with an outfit of fifty or sixty wagons required more
than ordinary intelligence. Then in the case of a stampede, great
clear-headedness and coolness were needed to prevent loss of life.

Stampedes were frequently very serious affairs, particularly with a
large mule-train. Notwithstanding the willingness and patient qualities
of that animal, he can act as absurdly as a