ng a slow walk to any other kind of motion, this animal showed
in all his actions that he knew how to take care of number one, always
selecting his quarters where the water was cool and the grass tender.
But he had a very bad quality for a prairie travelling nag, which was
continually placing his master in some awkward dilemma. One day that we
had stopped to refresh ourselves near a spring, we removed the bridles
from our horses, to allow them to graze a few minutes, but the savant's
cursed beast took precisely that opportunity of giving us a sample of
his estampede. Our English friend had a way, quite peculiar to himself,
of crowding upon his horse all his scientific and culinary instruments.
He had suspended at the pommel of the saddle a thermometer, a rum
calabash, and a coffee-boiler, while behind the saddle hung a store of
pots and cups, frying-pan, a barometer, a sextant, and a long spy-glass.
The nag was grazing, when one of the instruments fell down, at which the
beast commenced kicking, to show his displeasure. The more he kicked,
the greater was the rattling of the cups and pans; the brute was now
quite terrified; we first secured our own steeds, and then watched the
singular and ridiculous movements of this estampedero.

He would make ten leaps, and then stop to give as many kicks, then shake
himself violently and start off full gallop. At every moment, some
article, mathematical or culinary, would get loose, fall down, and be
trampled upon. The sextant was kicked to pieces, the frying-pan and
spy-glass were put out of shape, the thermometer lost its mercury, and
at last, by dint of shaking, rolling, and kicking, the brute got rid of
his entire load and saddle, and then came quietly to us, apparently very
well satisfied with himself and with the damage he had done. It was a
most ludicrous scene, and defies all power of description; so much did
it amuse us, that we could not stop laughing for three or four hours.

The next day, we found many mineral springs, the waters of which were
strongly impregnated with sulphur and iron. We also passed by the bodies
of five white men, probably trappers, horribly mangled, and evidently
murdered by some Texan robbers. Towards evening, we crossed a large
fresh Indian trail, going in the direction of the river Brasos, and,
following it, we soon came up with the tribe of Lepans, of which old
Castro was the chief.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Lepans were themselves going north