our horses, as they had travelled forty miles
under a hot sun without drawing bit. The honourable judge flatly
refused, although he had a good well, besides a pond, under fence,
covering several acres; his wife, however, reflecting, perhaps, that her
stores were rather short of coffee or salt, entered into a rapid
discussion with her worse half, and by-and-bye that respectable couple
of honourables agreed to sell water to us at twenty-five cents a bucket.

When we dismounted to take the bridles off our horses, the daughters
arrived, and perceiving we had new silk sashes and neckerchiefs and some
fine jewels, they devoured us with their eyes, and one of them, speaking
to her papa, that most hospitable gentleman invited us to enter his
house. By that time we were once more upon our saddles and ready to
start. Roche felt indignant at the meanness of the fellow who had
received our severity-five cents for the water before he invited us into
the house. We refused, and Roche told him that he was an old scoundrel
to sell for money that which even a savage will never refuse to his most
bitter enemy.

The rage of the honourable cannot be depicted: "My rifle!" he
vociferated, "my rifle! for God's sake, Betsey--Juliet, run for
my rifle!"

The judge then went into the house; but, as three pistols were drawn
from our holsters, neither he nor his rifle made their appearance, so we
turned our horses' heads and rode on leisurely to Austin.

In Austin we had a grand opportunity of seeing the Texans under their
true colours. There were three hotels in the town, and every evening,
after five o'clock, almost all of them, not excluding the president of
the republic, the secretaries, judges, ministers, and members of
Congress, were more or less tipsy, and in the quarrels which ensued
hardly a night passed without four or five men being stabbed or shot,
and the riot was continued during the major portion of the night, so
that at nine o'clock in the morning everybody was still in bed. So
buried in silence was the town, that one morning at eight o'clock, I
killed a fine buck grazing quietly before the door of the Capitol. It is
strange that this capital of Texas should have been erected upon the
very northern boundary of the state. Indians have often entered it and
taken scalps not ten steps from the Capitol.

While we were in Austin we made the acquaintance of old Castro, the
chief of the Lepan Indians, an offset of the Comanche tribe. H