as far as the banks of the Rio Grande. But
the conduct was not theirs: these tribes, from long intercourse with
whites, have been inducted into a sort of semi-civilisation; and their
hereditary hostility for the pale-face has died out. Pillage and murder
are no longer their trade; it could not have been they who had made the
late foray. It might have been "Wild Cat" with his wicked Seminoles,
now settled on the Texan frontier; but the act was more in keeping with
the character of the mezcal-eating Apaches, who of late years had been
pushing their expeditions far down the river. Even so--it mattered
little; Apaches are but Comanches, or rather Comanches Apaches, and
whether the Indians on whose trail we were standing were one or the
other--whether Apache, Lipan, Comanche, or their allies Caygua, Waco, or
Pawnee-Pict, it mattered not; one and all were alike; one or other of
them, my reflections were bitterly the same. Well understood I the
character of these red men of the south; so far differing from their
kindred of the north--so far different from that ideal type of cold
continence, it has pleased the poet and the writer of romance to ascribe
to them. The reverse of the medal was before my mind's eye; the memory
of many a scene was in my thoughts, of many a tale I had heard,
illustrating the uxorious disposition, the wild unbridled wantonness of
these lords of the southern plains.

Not then did I dwell long on such thoughts; for they had their influence
in urging me onward, and onward I spurred.

There was another reason for our rapid advance: all of us were under the
extreme agony of thirst--literally gasping for water; and thus physical
suffering impelled us to ride forward as fast as our jaded horses could
carry us over the ground.

Timber was at length before our eyes--green foliage--looking all the
fresher and brighter from contrast with the black plain which it
bounded. It was a grove of cottonwoods, skirting a prairie-stream; and
beyond this the fire had not extended.

Wild joyous cries escaped from men and horses, as their eyes rested upon
the limpid stream.

The men galloped over the bank, leaped out of their saddles, and without
a thought of drowning, plunged breast-deep into the water. Some lifted
the crystal liquid in their palms; others, more impatient, bent down,
and ducking their faces in the flood, drank _a la mode du cheval_.

I noticed that the trappers behaved less recklessly than the