towns
of the _Upper_ Rio Grande, and the trade is deemed perfectly
legitimate,--at least, there is no help for it as the case stands.

The cibolero goes forth on the plains with a rare escort. Sometimes a
large number of these men, taking their wives and families with them,
travel together just like a tribe of wild Indians. Generally, however,
one or two leaders, with their servants and equipage, form the
expedition. They experience less molestation from the savages than
ordinary travellers. The Comanches and other tribes know their object,
and rather encourage them to come amongst them. Notwithstanding, they
are often cheated and ill-used by these double-faced dealers. Their
mode of transport is the pack-mule, and the "carreta" drawn by mules or
oxen. The carreta is of itself a picture of primitive locomotion. A
pair of block-wheels, cut out of a cotton-wood tree, are joined by a
stout wooden axle. The wheels usually approach nearer to the oval, or
square, than the circular form. A long tongue leads out from the
axle-tree, and upon top of this a square, deep, box-like body is placed.
To this two or more pairs of oxen are attached in the most simple
manner--by lashing a cross-piece of wood to their horns which has
already been made fast to the tongue. The animals have neither yoke nor
harness, and the forward push of the head is the motive power by which
the carreta is propelled. Once in motion, the noise of the wooden axle
is such as to defy description. The cries of a whole family, with
children of all sizes, in bitter agony, can alone represent the concert
of terrible sounds; and we must go to South Mexico to find its horrid
equal in a troop of howling monkeys.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

About a week after the fiesta of Saint John, a small party of ciboleros
was seen crossing the Pecos, at the ford of the "Bosque Redondo." The
party was only five in number, and consisted of a white man, a
half-blood, and three pure-bred Indians, having with them a small
_atajo_ of pack-mules, and three ox-team carretas. The crouching trot
of the Indians, as well as their tilma dresses and sandalled feet,
showed that they were "Indios mansos." They were, in fact, the hired
_peons_ of Carlos the cibolero--the white man, and chief of the party.

The half-blood--Antonio by name--was "arriero" of the mule-train, while
the three Indians drove the ox-teams, guiding them across the ford with
their long goads. Carlos himself w