her arrows, when,
for the first time, I perceived that I was no longer alone. Thirty or
forty well-mounted Indians were quietly looking at me in an approving
manner, as if congratulating me on my success. They were the Comanches
we had been so long seeking for. I made myself known to them, and
claimed the hospitality which a year before had been offered to me by
their chief, "the white raven." They all surrounded me and welcomed me
in the most kind manner. Three of them started to fetch my rifle and to
join my companions, who were some eight or nine miles eastward, while I
followed my new friends to their encampment, which was but a few miles
distant. They had been buffalo hunting, and had just reached the top of
the swell when they perceived me and my victim. Of course, I and my two
friends were well received in the wigwam, though the chief was absent
upon an expedition, and when he returned a few days after, a great feast
was given, during which some of the young men sang a little impromptu
poem, on the subject of my recent chase.

The Comanches are a noble and most powerful nation. They have hundreds
of villages, between which they are wandering all the year round. They
are well armed, and always move in bodies of some hundreds, and even
thousands; all active and skilful horsemen, living principally by the
chase, and feeding occasionally, during their distant excursions, upon
the flesh of the mustang, which, after all, is a delightful food,
especially when fat and young. A great council of the whole tribe is
held once a year, besides which there are quarterly assemblies, where
all important matters are discussed. They have long been hostile to the
Mexicans, but are less so now; their hatred having been concentrated
upon the Yankees and Texans whom they consider as brigands. They do not
apply themselves to the culture of the ground as the Wakoes, yet they
own innumerable herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, which graze in the
northern prairies, and they are indubitably one of the wealthiest people
in the world. They have a great profusion of gold, which they obtain
from the neighbourhood of the San Seba hills, and work it themselves
into bracelets, armlets, diadems, as well as bits for their horses, and
ornaments to their saddles. Like all the Shoshones' tribe, they are most
elegant horsemen, and by dint of caresses and good treatment render the
animals so familiar and attached to them, that I have often seen some of
t