my eyes saw that it was daybreak, and the band were
preparing to move. Ten minutes later I found myself mounted on a wiry
looking mustang, securely tied, and my horse led at the end of a lariat
by the same Indian who had brought me food the evening previous. Looking
about me, my eyes were soon gladdened by the sight of my wife, mounted
behind an Indian warrior; she saw me at the same instant, and with a cry
of joy strove to break her bonds and rush to my embrace; it was a vain
effort, and only resulted in her receiving a blow from her savage
custodian, which cowed her into silence. My feelings at this juncture
can be better imagined than described; but I could do nothing but endure
as best I might, and hope that a day of reckoning would yet come, in
which I should bitterly avenge all the wrongs I had experienced at the
hands of the brutal savage, called in books, the "noble red man." For
the present, there was nothing but submission and hope.

I now saw to my surprise that we were not alone in our misfortune, many
other captives, principally women and children, were with the party.
From their costume I saw that they must be Mexicans, and at once
concluded that the Indians had been on one of their periodical raids
upon the Mexican frontier, and were on their return when they had
accidentally fallen in with our little party. Evidently but a part of
the band had taken part in our capture, for the attacking party were
less than one hundred in number, while I now counted over four hundred
warriors. The chances of escape seemed more unlikely than ever; and my
heart sank as I observed their formidable array.

I must pass briefly over the incidents of our journey for several days
following. We passed through a widely diversified country, and in spite
of my mental and physical sufferings, I was greatly interested in its
strange scenery. We passed over wide stretches of prairie, dotted here
and there by mottes of timber, rising like islands from the sea-like
plain; we threaded tortuous defiles of the mountains; and crawled,
rather than rode, through terrific _canyons_, whose perpendicular walls
of many colored rock, rising to the height of thousands of feet,
shrouded the narrow pass in majestic gloom. At times we suffered greatly
for food and water; making one stretch of sixty miles across the desert,
and reaching its border in a state or utter exhaustion.

On the seventh day after my recapture we climbed a low mountain range,