Tejas and Tamaulipas--things, I have
heard, are bad enough. _Carrai_! here in New Mexico they are ten times
worse. There they have the Comanches and Lipanos. Here we have an
enemy on every side. On the east Caygua and Comanche, on the west the
Apache and Navajo. On the south our country is harassed by the Wolf and
Mezcalero Apaches, on the north by their kindred, the Jicarillas; while,
now and then, it pleases our present allies the Utahs, to ornament their
shields with the scalps of our people, and their wigwams with the
fairest of our women. _Carrambo! senor_! a happy country ours, is it
not?"

The ironically bitter speech was intended for a reflection, rather than
an interrogation, and therefore needed no reply. I made none. "_Puez,
amigo_!" continued the Mexican, "I need hardly tell you that there is
scarce a family on the Rio del Norte--from Taos to El Paso--that has not
good cause to lament this unhappy condition of things; scarce one that
has not personally suffered, from the inroads of the savages. I might
speak of houses pillaged and burnt; of maize-fields laid waste to feed
the horses of the roving marauder; of sheep and cattle driven off to
desert fastnesses; bah! what are all these? What signify such trifling
misfortunes, compared with that other calamity, which almost every
family in the land may lament--the loss of one or more of its members--
wife, daughter, sister, child--borne off into hopeless bandage, to
satisfy the will, or gratify the lust, of a merciless barbarian?"

"A fearful state of affairs!"

"_Ay senor_! Even the bride has been snatched off, from before the
altar--from the arms of the bridegroom fondly clasping, and before he
has had time to caress her! _Ay de mi, cavallero_! Truly can I say
that: it has been my own story."

"Yours?"

"Yes--mine. You ask _me_ for souvenirs. There is one that will cling
to me for life!" The Mexican pointed to his mutilated limb.
"_Carrambo_!" continued he, "that is nothing. There is another wound
here--here in my heart. It was received at the same time; and will last
equally as long--only a thousand times more painful."

These words were accompanied by a gesture. The speaker placed his hand
over his heart, and held it there to the end of his speech--as if to
still the sad sigh, that I could see swelling within his bosom. His
countenance, habitually cheerful--almost comic in its expression--had
assumed an air of concentrated anguish.