d
hear singing and rejoicing. The next morning, long before dawn, we
stole away quietly and trotted briskly till noon, when we encountered a
deep and almost impassable ravine. There we were obliged to halt, and
pass the remainder of the day endeavouring to discover a passage. This
occupied us till night-fall, and we had nothing to eat but plums and
berries. Melancholy were our thoughts when we reflected upon the
difficulties we might shortly have to encounter; and gloomy were our
forebodings as we wrapt ourselves in our blankets, half starved and
oppressed with feelings of uncertainty as to our present position and
our future destinies.

The night passed without alarm, but the next morning we were sickened by
a horrible scene which was passing about half a mile from us. A party
of the same Indians, whom we had seen the evening before, were
butchering some of their captives, while several others were busy
cooking the flesh, and many were eating it. We were rooted to the spot
by a thrill of horror we could not overcome; even our horses seemed to
know by instinct that something horrible was acting below, for they
snuffed the air, and with their ears pointed straight forward, trembled
so as to satisfy us that for the present we could not avail ourselves of
their services. Gabriel crept as near as he could to the party, leaving
us to await his return in a terrible state of suspense and anxiety.
When he rejoined us, it appeared our sight had not deceived us. There
were nine more prisoners, who would probably undergo the same fate on
the following day; four, he said, were Comanches, the other five,
Mexican females,--two young girls and three women.

The savages had undoubtedly made an inroad upon San Miguel or Taos, the
two most northern settlements of the Mexicans, not far from the Green
Mountains where we were ourselves going. What could we do? We could
not fight the cannibals, who were at least one hundred in number, and
yet we could not go away and leave men and women of our own colour to a
horrible death, and a tomb in the stomach of these savages. The idea
could not be borne, so we determined to remain and trust to chance or
Providence. After their abominable meal, the savages scattered about
the prairie in every direction, but not breaking up their camp, where
they left their prisoners, under the charge of twelve of their young
warriors.

Many plans did we propose for the rescue of the poor prisoners, but