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from the american review my firjt bay v.itli tuo rangers dy a kentuckiax the scene of ihe following sketch which may be otic ofa series is laid not only in one of the most remarkable countries in the world — for its singular and unexplored scenery — but in a wild and solitary part of it where all the forms of life arc found in a condition much nearer to the savage than the civilized the reader must remember that he is not to be taken to the extreme frontier of texas nearest to mexico and the indians — amid a mongrel population of whites mexicans and savages living in a stale of perpetual feuds in which the knife and rifle are the sole arbitrators — in short where till the stable elements and or ganization of society which afford protec tion in the decorous observances and staid proprieties of civilized life are totally wanting strong men and unregulated passions exhibit their worst and best ex tremes in this atmosphere of license his tory scarcely affords an analagy to the fierceness of the guerilla warfare con stantly raging between the three races — yet fragments of them all under one pre tence and another amalgated in the socie ty of san antonio the mexicans who were greatly in the majority were most in refugees from the other side of the rio grande for political or criminal offen i • s the indians were wretched frag ments of once powerful tribes which bad been cut to pieces in their contests wiih the other two parties and now cowered be tween them begging protection of both and patiently biding their time for secret revenge upon either the whites were hardy and reckless men of every stamp to whom the excitement of adventure — of complicated and incessant peril had be come a necessary moral aliment this morbid passion certainly found abundant gratification here for with the constant liability of attack front without ihey were forever surrounded within the town by natural foes the most faithless and malig nant when it is remembered besides that ihey only numbered fifteen in all and attempted lo domineer with a high hand over as many hundreds of the other two races at home and in addition to defend n line of several hundred miles of fron tier against the invasion of predatcry bands from beyond the bio grande or from the mountains of the indian country and furthermore were compelled to guard against and baffle the treachery of spies lurking around iheir very doors — it may weil be conjectured ihey had their hands full of course to effect all this a very thorough organization was necessary and a troop of rangers numbering g nerally aboul ten men,gre\v out of this necessity it is the period of my note book of daily incidents a few words in general ex platia ion ofthe circumstances of my ar rival itt san antonia determined to make myself familiar with till the phases of life in ihis curious country i had traversed the greatest por tion of it alone but al tha lime the lat ter part of february ';*!') the journey lo va antonio was too perilous to be under taken single ; so that happening to meet wiih an old acquaintance from my native state who was like myself anxious to make the trip i joined him and we un dertook if together he was a brassos planter and owned of course a number of slaves one of these in the effort to make his pscape to mexico had succeed ed in reaching the neighborhood of san antonio when he was arrested by the vi gilant bangers thrown into chains and his owner advertised of tin fact by a spe cial messenger the particular object of my friend taney was lo recover this boy escaping to mexico is a favorite scheme of the slaves of texas and numbers of them annually attempt and some few effect it they have the impression that their condition is very greatly bettered by the change indeed the more spirited of them acquire by contact with the whites hab its ol thought and action which elevate them to decided superiority over the aver age mexican population and if ihey can so ed in reaching thai country they are generally more than a match for the im becile natives several notorious instan ces ol these runaways acquiring in a short time position and rank added to the fact that the mexican population of texas had always exhibited a warm sympathy for ihem and never failed to assist ihem in getting off by every means in their power contributed of late to greatly increase the frequency of these attempts and in the same ratio the vigilance of the planters and bangers to counteract ihem the san antonio route was the only practica ble one across ihe desert plains to the bio grande so that such refugees were ai compelled to pass through it ina word it is the gate of lhat frontier after a journey full of fatigue and danger we were approaching it on the night of the 25th news that the indians were down ind ravaging lhe country had compelled ns to travel after dark with a view of lessening the probabilities of meeting with them it was a very clear night brilliant as only texan moonlight ran be and i felt strongly impressed by the majestic breadth °' tiie plain upon which we had lately e merged from the broken and wooded ground and which lay sheeted in the vast circumference of a becalmed and silvery ocean around us these primeval soli tudes—with all the grandeur on and so lemn silence that they wore when lirst hi said " let there lie light !" and that shining negation burst upon old chaos revealing till forms in its annihilation are wonderfully imposing with the high areh above me its glittering fret-work niched with golden candlesticks and resting upon this broad level base which reflected their bold radiance in misty soft ss i felt as it we crept with our slow pace along the plumb-line of the universe under the full gaze of the infinite host of the carolina watchman bruxer & james ) __ ,. . „ . . f " kezp a check cpox all tom editors c-j proprietors i is safe .. ( new series rvi.er.s do this and liberty < „„„ „„ gen'l harrison ) number 51 of volume i salisbury n c april 19 1845 heaven with their cold keen eyessearch iiiirly upon us the awe one feels upon these sky-boumled prairies is positively op pressive if you do not realize eternity and god's being and omnipresence in such a scene then were you born without a soul or else it has died within yuu after a ride of several hours during which neither of us spoke we observed the monotonous profile of lhe horizon be fore us broken by several objects as we approached they gradually crept up from the darkness and we could distinguish the stjuare outline of mexican houses — very soon we were amongst them — clustered irregularly along the hank of the s.*in an tonio river the gleam and ripple of which now struck upon our senses these hous es were square stone pens thatched with bulrushes and as we passed them looked desolate and d.-irk enough for it was very late to some distance above and below ; the ford they were dotted along without any appearance of regularity while on the opposite side the confusion of black angular masses defined against the sky indicated the location of the main town the river which leaps forth wiih a sud den birth from a cave a few miles above rushes roaring clamorously over the wide rocky bed which constitutes the ford it seemed as it really is a hazardous expe riment to cross it during the night ; but i however.our venturesome impatience was more fortunate than skilful in effecting a passage the bank is by no means steep and we found ourselves in a few paces from the water amidst the low stone and thatched houses in a narrow street ofthe suburbs ; this after a while led us into a * broader one in which the houses on eith er side grew gradually from mere huts to the dignity of one two and three stories of massive stone one of these standing somewhat singu '• lar and taller than the rest my friend paus ! ed before and announced that according to the topographical description of our ' where-abouts with which he had been j furnished this must be the house of the j merchant who had cashed the reward of | fered for the apprehension ofthe boy and ! held him in charge there was a light i glimmering through the door-chinks and j key-hole : we dismounted and thumped lustily and long for admittance ; at last a man in his shirt-sleeves thrust his head i cauliously through the hall-opened door and demanded who we were the night was very cold and taney had some diffi culty for the chattering of his teeth in making himself understood he succeed ed finally in satisfying the cautious mer chant and the door was thrown open — \\ hen our eyes had recovered from the [ dazzle of a large fire we saw that there were a number of men sleeping on cots j and buffalo robes along the whole length of an extended and narrow room near the head of each man lay a mexican sad dle gleaming with silver mounting and a gaudy colored serape or mexican blanket thrown either over it or the per son ofthe sleeper bid the object which at once arrested my gaze was the figure ! of the negro boy curled up upon the hearth and as he rose to a sitting posture from his sleep the clank and glitter of heavy manacles upon his arms and legs struck me most unpleasantly lie was a young stout athletic-looking fellow and after rubbing his eyes in astonishment receiv ed the quiet and scornful greeting of his master with that stolid heavy look of in : sensibility which always had enraged and made me forget any sympathy for negroes ; in a moment afterwards i was listening and inquiring ofthe merchant with full as much interest as even taney exhibited concerning all the details of his capture and the present circumstances which in sured his safe durance till my friend should call for him in the morning the arrange ments for his close keeping seemed at a glance so perfectly secure that there was no probability of his escaping his chains went of the heaviest cast and he had worn them for months under the eye of the mer chant : he was sleeping in the same room with a half dozen men — the room lit by the blaze of a large fire — its iwo doors massive and well secured by bolt and bar what occasion was there to doubt of his safe keeping ? we could see no possibil ity of any ; and inquiring for the locality of the american tavern which wc had understood was kept in the town we took our leave this street led us info a large square precisely in its centre towered a massive cathedral in the usual century-defying stvle of jesuit architecture all over the world lights in the windows ofa long low.stone building which faced thesquare designated to us the place we were in search of we dismounted and entered a well lighted apartment furnished very much as american bar-rooms usually are and late as it was fully tenanted my first impression was that we had entered amongst a crowd of mexicans but i quick lv saw that their complexions were not at all consistent with their costumes eight or ten very young looking persons evi dently americans or europeans were pro menading the room back and forth puff ing away every man of them most earn estly at a mexican " cigaritta and all dressed in a costume singularly blended of mexican and american tastes most of them wore the " sombrero or mexican hat and the many-hued " serape thrown carelessly over the national suit of cloth the sombrero is a high sugar-loaf crown ed and broad-brimmed hat generally dec orated with a wide band of part-colored beads while the serape is a thick blanket curiously interwoven with angular zig zag figures having a hole in the centre through which the head is thrust this falling down to the waist over the ordina ry american dress and exhibiting the gleam of pistols and knife in the belt un derneath made up a very picturesque cos tume our arrival was not noticed by the ill bred and hard staring manner common in american villages ; but we were greeted with a manly and straight-forward court esy that at once placed us at ease with ourselves and with them indeed i was forthwith irresistibly impressed by the per fect bonkomme yet man-of-the world ex pression which characterized the bearing of these persons there was nothing of familiarity but rather a degree of touch me-not-ism which it would be difficult to give an idea of in words tempering the almost boyish and boisterous frankness with which we were questioned and ban tered upon the incidents of our journey precisely as though we had been old fa miliar friends since time began this pleasant cordiality i have noticed is very apt to be a trait of our frontiersmen of any grade but it was specially agreeable com ing from these men with a certain touch of polish and good taste in it which re minded one strongly of the wild blades and eccentricities of college life indeed if by any magic one could have dropped suddenly into the circle without tho at tendant and explanatory circumstances it would have been the first impression that it was a party of merry-making collegi ates these are the sort of men who are never taken by surprise at any thing — though young their experience embra ces the whole round ofthe passions they are prepared for all that come their personal familiarity with '• imminent pe rils of every stamp and with all the exi gencies and excesses to which the life of humanity is liable gives to their port and regard of all circumstances alike an air of coolness and indifference as if — how ever startling they might be — they came as matters of course which were to be expected and certainly not wondered at this same familiarity with danger gives to their appreciation of the social or ra ther the convivial virtues a high tone — though the habit of self-reliance engen dered in scenes of solitary daring infuses a tinge of individual reserve which cha racterises their open good fellowship i was particularly struck with the youth ful appearance ofthe whole party my impression on glancing around was that there was not a man in the room over twenty-two there was not a single com monplace among them — all were decid edly expressive one way or another ; but i was greatly amused afterwards in re collecting how incongruous my first hasty conceptions were with what i afterwards ascertained to be the true character of each my faith in my own sagacity was no little diminished ! the personage who earliest arrested my notice was the most boyish looking of them all his person though scarce the average height was stout and moulded with remarkable sym metry — his hands and feet were woman ishly delicate while the grecian features were almost severely beautiful in their classic chisseling the rich brunette com plexion and sharp black eye indicative of italian blood would have made the fortune of a city belle the softness of his voice and his caressing manner in creased the attraction of his appearance ; and but for a certain cold flash from those brilliant eyes i should have been entirely in love with him at once i thought him some wild and petted scape-grace from a southern family who had run away from his friends and fallen upon such a locali ty and such society by accident yet as i afterwards learned this man of till oth ers in the room was reputed most dan gerous the quick unscrupulous vindic tiveness of his passions had become pro verbial and the soubriquet of " the bravo had been universally applied to him the man ou whom he seemed to lavish the most attention and who indeed appear ed to be regarded with particular defer ence by all was a slight raw-boned figure with a lean but bold boman face and an expression of modest simplicity that struck me at once as peculiar there was some thing absolutely shrinking and hoydenish in his bearing and i remember feeling some surprise that so unsophiscated easy good-natured looking a personage should be treated with so much respect by men necessarily of so hardy cast as those a round ; yet this individual was the cele brated captain now colonel hays the leader and foremost spirit of the bangers — a mere youth — yet more distinguished for tempered skill and gallantry in the mexican and indian wars than any man who had yet figured in the history of that frontier there was yet another man who specially deceived my preconceptions of his character this was a tall heavy boned heavy-featured gawky irishman who was lolling about with rather an ex cessive expression of abandon and jollity i took him at first for a decided " flat but i soon observed a deep rich current ofthe quaintest and most spicy humor conceiv able under the surface of this careless mannerism indeed fitzgerald the bro ther ofthe unfortunate santa fe prisoner was the finest impersonation of the best and most racy traits of irish wit and irish gallantry that i have met with the re mainder of the party looked like men of severe or at least decided tempers but such as they were these were the ban gers and this was my first impression of them i announced my wish to captain hays to become one of them and share : the rough and tumble as well as their jol ' lilies with them and risks as well as plea sures 1 was welcomed with frank en thusiasm into the ranks and called for a ; number of bottles of noyau at the bar to commemorate and seal our fellowship these were drank merrily enough — fitz gerald giving an especially rich and ban tering toast before we separated — '* here's i to old kentucky ! may he get the green : out of his eyes and eat his sallad as soon [ as possible in preparation for the close | shooting and tough chawing wc the free j brotherhood of bangers indulge in the ( last phrase i did not fully understand un i til my after experience in dried or jerk ; j ed beef as it is called enlightened me it was past two o'clock before we parted ( for bed ; and with brain dizzied by the ex 1 citement ofthe day the novelty and orig inality ofthe scenes and characters i had j fallen upon it was some time before i got ; to sleep it seemed to me that it had last ed only a few moments when a loud • thumpiug at the door of the hostelry awa | kened me it was a messenger from the j merchant post haste announcing to tan , ey that the body had made his escape ! ; we rose hastility and found that'the day 1 was just breaking the messenger said ' that the negro was off and had taken with j i him a quantity of valuable property ; that i i his chains were left upon the hearth the j ■back door was open a splendid horse the ! ! very finest in the town was gone and a ■i fine silver-mounted saddle with it ; that ! i the picket fence ofthe back yard which > | was set with very heavy posts and they j i very deep in the ground had been torn j ' up to afford him a passage ; that he had j ; taken in addition to the horse and saddle | , several costly " scrapes a brace of pistols | ', and a rifle and was gone evidently and i ; beyond a doubt for the bio grande i : this news created no little confusion and i the bangers were forthwith astir ttfney and myself hurried to tbe house of the j merchant to ascertain for ourselves if these statements could possibly be true ; whatever had been the causeless and pet ' ulent prejudices i had indulged in toward , this boy on the night before for his stupid | looks they gave way now to almost the opposite extreme of admiration for the cunning and resolute skill he had display 1 ed in the manner of his escape ! it ap peared that he must have had his chains filed for some time before in effecting ! which we ascertained he had been assist ; ed by a mexican blacksmith whose shop | bordered upon the back yard the liberty , ; of which he had enjoyed but the prudent daring of his measures had been so consumatc as to elicit ex pressions of astonishment from every body ; he had managed to concetti the fact of his chains being filed from the vigilance i ofthe merchant and had patiently waited his time tj 11 the arrival of his master who ! would take him in charge the next morn ! ing rendered it necessary that decisive steps should be taken he had then — af ter we left him and a sufficient time had elapsed for the inmates ofthe room to get : to sleep again — quietly divested his limbs ofthe chains which he left upon the hearth ; then noiselessly possessing himself of the ; holsters rifle and saddle which last ar ticle was plated with 8100 worth of sil j ver belonging to one of the sleepers he j unfastened the back door and passed out to the stable this was inside the yard ! and enclosed by a high picket fence by a wonderful exertion of strength he had ; torn up a number of the posts sufficient to afford a passage for himself and the splendid horse he had selected from a mong a number of others and reached the street by the back yard in addition he had provided himself with a valise of clothing and provision for several days all of these items belonging to the same person — a rich trader who had lately ar rived from the bio grande the rage and astonishment of this individual on wa king in the morning and finding himself minus to such an extent may be better conceived than told after ascertaining these details for ourselves by personal observation in company with the restless and excited merchant we returned to the front door where greatly to my astonish ment we found hays and several of his bangers already collected ; two of them mounted on swift horses and armed for the pursuit waiting for us in the street we were too inex peri need of course to have thought in our hurry and confusion of this prompt preparation and as there was no time to be lost could not accom pany them one of them i observed was the bravo the other was a swarthy complected handsome looking young fel low named littell he was mounted on the horse of hays the most fleet and best . trained animal in the company all the speed that could be brought to bear was obviously necessarv for overtaking the boy so well mounted as he was and with such a start as he had gained the horse ofthe bravo was also a very game ani mal " fifty dollars for the boy !" shouted taney to them and just as they were bending forward fo apply the quirt and spur the hoarse voice of the enraged tra der rung out from over our shoulders — and fifty dollars more for the horse and saddle they were off at full speed clattering over the stone pavement while sparks flew from lhe iron hoofs of their receding animals it would be a severe chase ever one was aware and lhe possibility of recapturing the boy seemed most prob lematical i could not help in my own heart wishing that what seemed so un likely might not by any accident be brought about ; for apart from all ab stractions the coolness and hiring the fidlow exhibited showed him worthy to be a freeman the day opened bright and pleasently about ten o'clock that morn ing we were all collected grouped in the sunshine in front of johnson's on the square when pistol shooting became the accidental topic growing out of the in spection of my beautiful rifle-barrels hays was said to be a wonderful shot and gave us proof that the report did jus tice to his skill he held one of my pis tols in his hand when observed a chick en-cock some thirty paces oil in the square which was just straightening its neck to crow boys i'll cut that saucy fellow short he observed as he levelled and tired quickly at if ; and sure enough the half e nounced clarion-note of chanticleer was lost in the explosion and fluttered over dead with a ball through its head our exclamations of astonishment and admi ration were interrupted by the voice of one ofthe party hays yonder comes your horse and littell full tilt up the street " yes observed another " he rides very stiff lie looks like a dead man at that moment the panting animal dashed up among us and stopped by the side of his master never in my life did i look upon a more terrible object than this rider with both hands elapsed convulsively a round the high pummel of tiie mexican saddle his eyi;s closed his face ashy and rigid a clotted tide of gore issuing from his side and streaming down the yellow skirt of his buckskin hunting-shirt his reins on the neck of the horse his gun missing his whole figure stiffened ami e rect — he looked indeed a spectre horse man ! a riding corpse ! " he's dead !" ex claimed several in awed low voices as we were recovering from the shock of ibis singular apparition he's warm yet says hays as he placed his hand upon his chalky lingers '• let's take him down lb may not be dead for all we sprang to his assistance and he body at the first effort fell over heavily into our arms i shuddered at the cold earthly weight and that horrid smell of fresh blood which once experienced can never be forgotten we bore him into the bar-room ami laid him upon a bench i observed that his pulse was stiil faintly beating and on the the application of strong restoratives after a harrowing interval of suspense it began to rise we now stripped him and ascer tained that he had received a large mus ket ball just above the ribs and tracing the blue line its track had left half round the body to tiie opposite side we were in duced to hope that it had glanced under the flesh and not penetrated tiie chest gradually his pulse heightened and ti color began lo return to his pallid face boys to horse the bravo must in shot this is the work of these cursed mexicahs exclaimed lays as soon as o ir suspense had been relieved somewhat by these favorable symptoms yes d — i them muttered fitzgerald as we sepa rated to tret our horses leaving littell in charge ot johnson that's a mexican ball or it would'nt have been placed so bunglingly let's show em the clean thing with our lilies in a short time we were mounted and collected before the door of the tavern ready to start when johnson came oui bareheaded aud fold us that the wounded man had so far recovered as to be able io speak he could only understand of what he feebly uttered : " the bravo was before me when i go it frotn a thicket !'' this gave us some cue as to how tins had hap pened aud we set olf instantly at full speed i was evident enough that either the negro or his mexican friends had made this murderous attempt from ambuscade to arrest pursuit and whether the bravo had not fallen a positive victim was i ft in painful uncertainty it seemed proba ble that tiie mexicans had a hand in ir from the fact that the ball was too large forthe rifle the boy had taken with him and apparently had been sr-nt from the wide muzzle of a clumsy mexican musket i observed that groups of mexicans with their " scrapes " folded around ihem were standing at every corner ofthe streets as we passed through the town they were grinning ami looking un pleasently cheerful at us as we went by we soon reached the wide level of the extended plain on wliich the town stands and for several hous galloped along its vast monotonous expanse with nothing ahead to relieve the eve after wc were thoroughlv fatigued bv this sameness a dim dark line loomed on the horizon be fore us which as we approached it o pened up into broken irregular mass s ol timber some of them heavy and tall stretching for miles : otbei s low busy and dense ranged like blact shaded islands of ragged aiid angular outlines on either side of the old trail we followed just where it led us wiihin a few paces of the fwaslitteii's^^^u ; m it showtng that i had been dropped suddenly rom the el ofa n um j.j . shot trom the " chaporal or thicket which , was an unusually close one 6f stiff scrub ! by brush we separated to ride around j it and look for the trail of the assassin i on coming together hays announced that i he had found it : both the trampled spot i where a horse had evidently stood for . some time and the single trace ot its flight leading off in the direction ofthe rio gran de after following this for a quarter of i mile another traii ofa single horse lead ing from the main track was observed running parallel with if this was that ofa shod horse and hays exclaimed as soon as lie saw it lla ' the bravo is alter him he'll get him lie was ahead and saw the scoundrel running the sharp experienced eyes of these men at once recognized the trail of their c irarade and tho main features ofthe occurrence we fob i lowed these two trails until nearly sundown at the same headlong r;;;.;it pace we had bel i since starting though they continued on the same general centse with the i road yet they did not lead into it again but diverged in an irregular line dodging around amongst the motts with all the efforts ofa desperate light and chase i was greatly astonished at the skill with which they unerringly traced this de 1 vious trail though we were going at a last _ v lop this hard running bad very greatly faag ed both ourselves and horses wo bad begun t fear that lhe night would close around an 1 prevent ii from following up the cbasc lo any satisfactory termination ; and wide and seem ingly interminable plain too was opening be fore us whose hare undulating surface offered little of either pleasure or encouragement toour perspective suddenly however and most un expectedly one of the men in frpnt v mted while he pointed n ith bis gi\n over ;■• lhe t ight look thai mu i !><• the bravo lie's hi in we looked and the figures of fn i horse ' men were just iivi_,r into view mer the ridge ol an undulation far aw aj ;. ro ;. the plain the figure ofa man heaving in sight amid t those wide s 5 always causes a startle and thrill of expectation and 1 ir lo the feeling produced by the ann • . of *' a strange sail ahead " on shipb ar i du ing a long voyage the eyeglances with careless ference over goal herds of deer buffalo or mus tangs dotted m the distance ; but a glimpse 1 ;" any shape even remotely resembling a brother man makes the pulse leap sharp and fast and lhe blood rush back to the heart ; for i.i tins lawless region it i impossible to conj tcture \\ hcther what should natur tlly be an auspi ; event mav not result in a mortal sti iggie and death to one party or the other thi 1 rte i condition ol things causes strange em tions i r ; it doe seem mosi ■u re an i unnatural thai t 1 outlines which , f all others ought to be m isl agreeable sh uld be | ? i tl un pleasant excitement whih we can look upon thousands and 1 of brutes with a negative feeling ii not t as it companionship 1 i with this while travellii . ■thing the imaginatii n could 1 • int > a 1 es m blance <.;';!.• human f.-i.-.i wt a the most unc imfortable sens ttio .--. 1 1 ■: • is nu ii ia 1 t 1 fear from '.'. ai tn ds bul like ness to yourself 1 verylhing of hate aad treach ery i to be dreaded we instantly headed our hopavs i --. n distant ri lers n ging on to tv s ciab!y at a leisurely gail in n of san antonio as we ne tred i •. - menl made it ;•■nan'sfirst conjecture n is rig it 1 1 aa.-i stopped w ith some fl a of m inner but after a long they start ■• i • that they intended to vt heel and m ik • if bul i sured recognition wa • i lotal cheer vi e increa . i , vo v 7 • tir and ansu us i;i a little n bile m 1 him ri : ; > t hi imultitudtt ol questions th - mai about his feet bel ly of his horse his : '■■'■- ; hind him and iheii yat the distanc -. ■•■tbat tbe bnu o was notb er la i it he was a m 1 of spa with a lean roman face sharp and a vivid expressi n 1 i b i!d kna c iwed by our num .!!.:> whole app sarance was ', d dow n •■ird-t td sneaking 1 ti in to mexi tans in i i peril as tl se sun ng him . ofth bearing at once atti ment " why brat • ." deuce are you doing with ihat sau fellow alive ' vou are the i isl ni in i . have suspecte lof having lhe 3 u '- h -.. b v the joke is that 1 he gave me so mu 1 he's a r _ v • .. 1 t live me 1 very b ickbone i kin i that i .« of you v • . . 1 said ha i don i it re quil • • ' bush we'lltakel i . •?'' ■• 7 tnted jack a - hays v as fat " ; ■i the rascal once " mo laugh by his bold im ■acl of pulling tri ._• andld ni feel dis thi ugh i want y iia hundi i tim s don1 u 1 think i i 1 h ljs but where or when 1 can't rec ■:.'• ct it doesn't matter tl - ■— *■"■• •" 3 ' "' jn|i ■• .. y 1 have n ■'. f>rg tt-a <■zalez,tlie dexte is 1 summer and rut ■r •• ha .' ibis is tl v well v e'll pay bim off all * - lime " he 1 . what you say by the have you seen r beard an thing of l hell he went <-!;' ia very singular style h«t ex plained i 1 bim ihe circumstances tbe ii'*r " already in possession of and ■■* l ' slowly toward a dim * :* tim'.cr md,.n tine a stream on wh rtt th.^ht.tv.v . '****■ch-ia.v.vatl.c-eetthism.rning * . . •;.. •, a - vf our horses on l^^tbeboy'strailonrtatfir.t-ifehean i src fourth p
Object Description
Title | Carolina Watchman |
Masthead | The Carolina Watchman |
Date | 1845-04-19 |
Month | 04 |
Day | 19 |
Year | 1845 |
Volume | 1 |
Issue | 51 |
Technical Metadata | Image was scanned by OCLC at the Preservation Service Center in Bethlehem, PA. Archivial image is an 8-bit greyscale tiff that was scanned from microfilm at 400 dpi. The original file size was |
Creator | Bruner and James "Editors and Proprietors" |
Date Digital | 2008-10-30 |
Publisher | Bruner and James |
Place | United States, North Carolina, Rowan County, Salisbury |
Type | Text |
Source | Microfilm |
Digital Format | JP2 |
Project Subject | State Archives of North Carolina Historic Newspaper Archive |
Description | The April 19, 1845 issue of the Carolina Watchman a weekly and semi weekly newspaper from Salisbury, North Carolina |
Rights | Public |
Language | eng |
OCLC number | 601468799 |
Description
Title | Carolina Watchman |
Masthead | The Carolina Watchman |
Date | 1845-04-19 |
Month | 04 |
Day | 19 |
Year | 1845 |
Volume | 1 |
Issue | 51 |
Sequence | 1 |
Page | 1 |
Technical Metadata | Image was scanned by OCLC at the Preservation Service Center in Bethlehem, PA. Archivial image is an 8-bit greyscale tiff that was scanned from microfilm at 400 dpi. The original file size was 4805858 Bytes |
FileName | sacw03_051_18450419-img00001.jp2 |
Creator | Bruner and James "Editors and Proprietors" |
Date Digital | 2008-10-30 |
Publisher | Bruner and James |
Place | United States, North Carolina, Rowan County, Salisbury |
Type | Text |
Source | Microfilm |
Digital Format | JP2 |
Project Subject | State Archives of North Carolina Historic Newspaper Archive |
Description | The April 19, 1845 issue of the Carolina Watchman a weekly and semi weekly newspaper from Salisbury, North Carolina |
Rights | Public |
Language | eng |
FullText | from the american review my firjt bay v.itli tuo rangers dy a kentuckiax the scene of ihe following sketch which may be otic ofa series is laid not only in one of the most remarkable countries in the world — for its singular and unexplored scenery — but in a wild and solitary part of it where all the forms of life arc found in a condition much nearer to the savage than the civilized the reader must remember that he is not to be taken to the extreme frontier of texas nearest to mexico and the indians — amid a mongrel population of whites mexicans and savages living in a stale of perpetual feuds in which the knife and rifle are the sole arbitrators — in short where till the stable elements and or ganization of society which afford protec tion in the decorous observances and staid proprieties of civilized life are totally wanting strong men and unregulated passions exhibit their worst and best ex tremes in this atmosphere of license his tory scarcely affords an analagy to the fierceness of the guerilla warfare con stantly raging between the three races — yet fragments of them all under one pre tence and another amalgated in the socie ty of san antonio the mexicans who were greatly in the majority were most in refugees from the other side of the rio grande for political or criminal offen i • s the indians were wretched frag ments of once powerful tribes which bad been cut to pieces in their contests wiih the other two parties and now cowered be tween them begging protection of both and patiently biding their time for secret revenge upon either the whites were hardy and reckless men of every stamp to whom the excitement of adventure — of complicated and incessant peril had be come a necessary moral aliment this morbid passion certainly found abundant gratification here for with the constant liability of attack front without ihey were forever surrounded within the town by natural foes the most faithless and malig nant when it is remembered besides that ihey only numbered fifteen in all and attempted lo domineer with a high hand over as many hundreds of the other two races at home and in addition to defend n line of several hundred miles of fron tier against the invasion of predatcry bands from beyond the bio grande or from the mountains of the indian country and furthermore were compelled to guard against and baffle the treachery of spies lurking around iheir very doors — it may weil be conjectured ihey had their hands full of course to effect all this a very thorough organization was necessary and a troop of rangers numbering g nerally aboul ten men,gre\v out of this necessity it is the period of my note book of daily incidents a few words in general ex platia ion ofthe circumstances of my ar rival itt san antonia determined to make myself familiar with till the phases of life in ihis curious country i had traversed the greatest por tion of it alone but al tha lime the lat ter part of february ';*!') the journey lo va antonio was too perilous to be under taken single ; so that happening to meet wiih an old acquaintance from my native state who was like myself anxious to make the trip i joined him and we un dertook if together he was a brassos planter and owned of course a number of slaves one of these in the effort to make his pscape to mexico had succeed ed in reaching the neighborhood of san antonio when he was arrested by the vi gilant bangers thrown into chains and his owner advertised of tin fact by a spe cial messenger the particular object of my friend taney was lo recover this boy escaping to mexico is a favorite scheme of the slaves of texas and numbers of them annually attempt and some few effect it they have the impression that their condition is very greatly bettered by the change indeed the more spirited of them acquire by contact with the whites hab its ol thought and action which elevate them to decided superiority over the aver age mexican population and if ihey can so ed in reaching thai country they are generally more than a match for the im becile natives several notorious instan ces ol these runaways acquiring in a short time position and rank added to the fact that the mexican population of texas had always exhibited a warm sympathy for ihem and never failed to assist ihem in getting off by every means in their power contributed of late to greatly increase the frequency of these attempts and in the same ratio the vigilance of the planters and bangers to counteract ihem the san antonio route was the only practica ble one across ihe desert plains to the bio grande so that such refugees were ai compelled to pass through it ina word it is the gate of lhat frontier after a journey full of fatigue and danger we were approaching it on the night of the 25th news that the indians were down ind ravaging lhe country had compelled ns to travel after dark with a view of lessening the probabilities of meeting with them it was a very clear night brilliant as only texan moonlight ran be and i felt strongly impressed by the majestic breadth °' tiie plain upon which we had lately e merged from the broken and wooded ground and which lay sheeted in the vast circumference of a becalmed and silvery ocean around us these primeval soli tudes—with all the grandeur on and so lemn silence that they wore when lirst hi said " let there lie light !" and that shining negation burst upon old chaos revealing till forms in its annihilation are wonderfully imposing with the high areh above me its glittering fret-work niched with golden candlesticks and resting upon this broad level base which reflected their bold radiance in misty soft ss i felt as it we crept with our slow pace along the plumb-line of the universe under the full gaze of the infinite host of the carolina watchman bruxer & james ) __ ,. . „ . . f " kezp a check cpox all tom editors c-j proprietors i is safe .. ( new series rvi.er.s do this and liberty < „„„ „„ gen'l harrison ) number 51 of volume i salisbury n c april 19 1845 heaven with their cold keen eyessearch iiiirly upon us the awe one feels upon these sky-boumled prairies is positively op pressive if you do not realize eternity and god's being and omnipresence in such a scene then were you born without a soul or else it has died within yuu after a ride of several hours during which neither of us spoke we observed the monotonous profile of lhe horizon be fore us broken by several objects as we approached they gradually crept up from the darkness and we could distinguish the stjuare outline of mexican houses — very soon we were amongst them — clustered irregularly along the hank of the s.*in an tonio river the gleam and ripple of which now struck upon our senses these hous es were square stone pens thatched with bulrushes and as we passed them looked desolate and d.-irk enough for it was very late to some distance above and below ; the ford they were dotted along without any appearance of regularity while on the opposite side the confusion of black angular masses defined against the sky indicated the location of the main town the river which leaps forth wiih a sud den birth from a cave a few miles above rushes roaring clamorously over the wide rocky bed which constitutes the ford it seemed as it really is a hazardous expe riment to cross it during the night ; but i however.our venturesome impatience was more fortunate than skilful in effecting a passage the bank is by no means steep and we found ourselves in a few paces from the water amidst the low stone and thatched houses in a narrow street ofthe suburbs ; this after a while led us into a * broader one in which the houses on eith er side grew gradually from mere huts to the dignity of one two and three stories of massive stone one of these standing somewhat singu '• lar and taller than the rest my friend paus ! ed before and announced that according to the topographical description of our ' where-abouts with which he had been j furnished this must be the house of the j merchant who had cashed the reward of | fered for the apprehension ofthe boy and ! held him in charge there was a light i glimmering through the door-chinks and j key-hole : we dismounted and thumped lustily and long for admittance ; at last a man in his shirt-sleeves thrust his head i cauliously through the hall-opened door and demanded who we were the night was very cold and taney had some diffi culty for the chattering of his teeth in making himself understood he succeed ed finally in satisfying the cautious mer chant and the door was thrown open — \\ hen our eyes had recovered from the [ dazzle of a large fire we saw that there were a number of men sleeping on cots j and buffalo robes along the whole length of an extended and narrow room near the head of each man lay a mexican sad dle gleaming with silver mounting and a gaudy colored serape or mexican blanket thrown either over it or the per son ofthe sleeper bid the object which at once arrested my gaze was the figure ! of the negro boy curled up upon the hearth and as he rose to a sitting posture from his sleep the clank and glitter of heavy manacles upon his arms and legs struck me most unpleasantly lie was a young stout athletic-looking fellow and after rubbing his eyes in astonishment receiv ed the quiet and scornful greeting of his master with that stolid heavy look of in : sensibility which always had enraged and made me forget any sympathy for negroes ; in a moment afterwards i was listening and inquiring ofthe merchant with full as much interest as even taney exhibited concerning all the details of his capture and the present circumstances which in sured his safe durance till my friend should call for him in the morning the arrange ments for his close keeping seemed at a glance so perfectly secure that there was no probability of his escaping his chains went of the heaviest cast and he had worn them for months under the eye of the mer chant : he was sleeping in the same room with a half dozen men — the room lit by the blaze of a large fire — its iwo doors massive and well secured by bolt and bar what occasion was there to doubt of his safe keeping ? we could see no possibil ity of any ; and inquiring for the locality of the american tavern which wc had understood was kept in the town we took our leave this street led us info a large square precisely in its centre towered a massive cathedral in the usual century-defying stvle of jesuit architecture all over the world lights in the windows ofa long low.stone building which faced thesquare designated to us the place we were in search of we dismounted and entered a well lighted apartment furnished very much as american bar-rooms usually are and late as it was fully tenanted my first impression was that we had entered amongst a crowd of mexicans but i quick lv saw that their complexions were not at all consistent with their costumes eight or ten very young looking persons evi dently americans or europeans were pro menading the room back and forth puff ing away every man of them most earn estly at a mexican " cigaritta and all dressed in a costume singularly blended of mexican and american tastes most of them wore the " sombrero or mexican hat and the many-hued " serape thrown carelessly over the national suit of cloth the sombrero is a high sugar-loaf crown ed and broad-brimmed hat generally dec orated with a wide band of part-colored beads while the serape is a thick blanket curiously interwoven with angular zig zag figures having a hole in the centre through which the head is thrust this falling down to the waist over the ordina ry american dress and exhibiting the gleam of pistols and knife in the belt un derneath made up a very picturesque cos tume our arrival was not noticed by the ill bred and hard staring manner common in american villages ; but we were greeted with a manly and straight-forward court esy that at once placed us at ease with ourselves and with them indeed i was forthwith irresistibly impressed by the per fect bonkomme yet man-of-the world ex pression which characterized the bearing of these persons there was nothing of familiarity but rather a degree of touch me-not-ism which it would be difficult to give an idea of in words tempering the almost boyish and boisterous frankness with which we were questioned and ban tered upon the incidents of our journey precisely as though we had been old fa miliar friends since time began this pleasant cordiality i have noticed is very apt to be a trait of our frontiersmen of any grade but it was specially agreeable com ing from these men with a certain touch of polish and good taste in it which re minded one strongly of the wild blades and eccentricities of college life indeed if by any magic one could have dropped suddenly into the circle without tho at tendant and explanatory circumstances it would have been the first impression that it was a party of merry-making collegi ates these are the sort of men who are never taken by surprise at any thing — though young their experience embra ces the whole round ofthe passions they are prepared for all that come their personal familiarity with '• imminent pe rils of every stamp and with all the exi gencies and excesses to which the life of humanity is liable gives to their port and regard of all circumstances alike an air of coolness and indifference as if — how ever startling they might be — they came as matters of course which were to be expected and certainly not wondered at this same familiarity with danger gives to their appreciation of the social or ra ther the convivial virtues a high tone — though the habit of self-reliance engen dered in scenes of solitary daring infuses a tinge of individual reserve which cha racterises their open good fellowship i was particularly struck with the youth ful appearance ofthe whole party my impression on glancing around was that there was not a man in the room over twenty-two there was not a single com monplace among them — all were decid edly expressive one way or another ; but i was greatly amused afterwards in re collecting how incongruous my first hasty conceptions were with what i afterwards ascertained to be the true character of each my faith in my own sagacity was no little diminished ! the personage who earliest arrested my notice was the most boyish looking of them all his person though scarce the average height was stout and moulded with remarkable sym metry — his hands and feet were woman ishly delicate while the grecian features were almost severely beautiful in their classic chisseling the rich brunette com plexion and sharp black eye indicative of italian blood would have made the fortune of a city belle the softness of his voice and his caressing manner in creased the attraction of his appearance ; and but for a certain cold flash from those brilliant eyes i should have been entirely in love with him at once i thought him some wild and petted scape-grace from a southern family who had run away from his friends and fallen upon such a locali ty and such society by accident yet as i afterwards learned this man of till oth ers in the room was reputed most dan gerous the quick unscrupulous vindic tiveness of his passions had become pro verbial and the soubriquet of " the bravo had been universally applied to him the man ou whom he seemed to lavish the most attention and who indeed appear ed to be regarded with particular defer ence by all was a slight raw-boned figure with a lean but bold boman face and an expression of modest simplicity that struck me at once as peculiar there was some thing absolutely shrinking and hoydenish in his bearing and i remember feeling some surprise that so unsophiscated easy good-natured looking a personage should be treated with so much respect by men necessarily of so hardy cast as those a round ; yet this individual was the cele brated captain now colonel hays the leader and foremost spirit of the bangers — a mere youth — yet more distinguished for tempered skill and gallantry in the mexican and indian wars than any man who had yet figured in the history of that frontier there was yet another man who specially deceived my preconceptions of his character this was a tall heavy boned heavy-featured gawky irishman who was lolling about with rather an ex cessive expression of abandon and jollity i took him at first for a decided " flat but i soon observed a deep rich current ofthe quaintest and most spicy humor conceiv able under the surface of this careless mannerism indeed fitzgerald the bro ther ofthe unfortunate santa fe prisoner was the finest impersonation of the best and most racy traits of irish wit and irish gallantry that i have met with the re mainder of the party looked like men of severe or at least decided tempers but such as they were these were the ban gers and this was my first impression of them i announced my wish to captain hays to become one of them and share : the rough and tumble as well as their jol ' lilies with them and risks as well as plea sures 1 was welcomed with frank en thusiasm into the ranks and called for a ; number of bottles of noyau at the bar to commemorate and seal our fellowship these were drank merrily enough — fitz gerald giving an especially rich and ban tering toast before we separated — '* here's i to old kentucky ! may he get the green : out of his eyes and eat his sallad as soon [ as possible in preparation for the close | shooting and tough chawing wc the free j brotherhood of bangers indulge in the ( last phrase i did not fully understand un i til my after experience in dried or jerk ; j ed beef as it is called enlightened me it was past two o'clock before we parted ( for bed ; and with brain dizzied by the ex 1 citement ofthe day the novelty and orig inality ofthe scenes and characters i had j fallen upon it was some time before i got ; to sleep it seemed to me that it had last ed only a few moments when a loud • thumpiug at the door of the hostelry awa | kened me it was a messenger from the j merchant post haste announcing to tan , ey that the body had made his escape ! ; we rose hastility and found that'the day 1 was just breaking the messenger said ' that the negro was off and had taken with j i him a quantity of valuable property ; that i i his chains were left upon the hearth the j ■back door was open a splendid horse the ! ! very finest in the town was gone and a ■i fine silver-mounted saddle with it ; that ! i the picket fence ofthe back yard which > | was set with very heavy posts and they j i very deep in the ground had been torn j ' up to afford him a passage ; that he had j ; taken in addition to the horse and saddle | , several costly " scrapes a brace of pistols | ', and a rifle and was gone evidently and i ; beyond a doubt for the bio grande i : this news created no little confusion and i the bangers were forthwith astir ttfney and myself hurried to tbe house of the j merchant to ascertain for ourselves if these statements could possibly be true ; whatever had been the causeless and pet ' ulent prejudices i had indulged in toward , this boy on the night before for his stupid | looks they gave way now to almost the opposite extreme of admiration for the cunning and resolute skill he had display 1 ed in the manner of his escape ! it ap peared that he must have had his chains filed for some time before in effecting ! which we ascertained he had been assist ; ed by a mexican blacksmith whose shop | bordered upon the back yard the liberty , ; of which he had enjoyed but the prudent daring of his measures had been so consumatc as to elicit ex pressions of astonishment from every body ; he had managed to concetti the fact of his chains being filed from the vigilance i ofthe merchant and had patiently waited his time tj 11 the arrival of his master who ! would take him in charge the next morn ! ing rendered it necessary that decisive steps should be taken he had then — af ter we left him and a sufficient time had elapsed for the inmates ofthe room to get : to sleep again — quietly divested his limbs ofthe chains which he left upon the hearth ; then noiselessly possessing himself of the ; holsters rifle and saddle which last ar ticle was plated with 8100 worth of sil j ver belonging to one of the sleepers he j unfastened the back door and passed out to the stable this was inside the yard ! and enclosed by a high picket fence by a wonderful exertion of strength he had ; torn up a number of the posts sufficient to afford a passage for himself and the splendid horse he had selected from a mong a number of others and reached the street by the back yard in addition he had provided himself with a valise of clothing and provision for several days all of these items belonging to the same person — a rich trader who had lately ar rived from the bio grande the rage and astonishment of this individual on wa king in the morning and finding himself minus to such an extent may be better conceived than told after ascertaining these details for ourselves by personal observation in company with the restless and excited merchant we returned to the front door where greatly to my astonish ment we found hays and several of his bangers already collected ; two of them mounted on swift horses and armed for the pursuit waiting for us in the street we were too inex peri need of course to have thought in our hurry and confusion of this prompt preparation and as there was no time to be lost could not accom pany them one of them i observed was the bravo the other was a swarthy complected handsome looking young fel low named littell he was mounted on the horse of hays the most fleet and best . trained animal in the company all the speed that could be brought to bear was obviously necessarv for overtaking the boy so well mounted as he was and with such a start as he had gained the horse ofthe bravo was also a very game ani mal " fifty dollars for the boy !" shouted taney to them and just as they were bending forward fo apply the quirt and spur the hoarse voice of the enraged tra der rung out from over our shoulders — and fifty dollars more for the horse and saddle they were off at full speed clattering over the stone pavement while sparks flew from lhe iron hoofs of their receding animals it would be a severe chase ever one was aware and lhe possibility of recapturing the boy seemed most prob lematical i could not help in my own heart wishing that what seemed so un likely might not by any accident be brought about ; for apart from all ab stractions the coolness and hiring the fidlow exhibited showed him worthy to be a freeman the day opened bright and pleasently about ten o'clock that morn ing we were all collected grouped in the sunshine in front of johnson's on the square when pistol shooting became the accidental topic growing out of the in spection of my beautiful rifle-barrels hays was said to be a wonderful shot and gave us proof that the report did jus tice to his skill he held one of my pis tols in his hand when observed a chick en-cock some thirty paces oil in the square which was just straightening its neck to crow boys i'll cut that saucy fellow short he observed as he levelled and tired quickly at if ; and sure enough the half e nounced clarion-note of chanticleer was lost in the explosion and fluttered over dead with a ball through its head our exclamations of astonishment and admi ration were interrupted by the voice of one ofthe party hays yonder comes your horse and littell full tilt up the street " yes observed another " he rides very stiff lie looks like a dead man at that moment the panting animal dashed up among us and stopped by the side of his master never in my life did i look upon a more terrible object than this rider with both hands elapsed convulsively a round the high pummel of tiie mexican saddle his eyi;s closed his face ashy and rigid a clotted tide of gore issuing from his side and streaming down the yellow skirt of his buckskin hunting-shirt his reins on the neck of the horse his gun missing his whole figure stiffened ami e rect — he looked indeed a spectre horse man ! a riding corpse ! " he's dead !" ex claimed several in awed low voices as we were recovering from the shock of ibis singular apparition he's warm yet says hays as he placed his hand upon his chalky lingers '• let's take him down lb may not be dead for all we sprang to his assistance and he body at the first effort fell over heavily into our arms i shuddered at the cold earthly weight and that horrid smell of fresh blood which once experienced can never be forgotten we bore him into the bar-room ami laid him upon a bench i observed that his pulse was stiil faintly beating and on the the application of strong restoratives after a harrowing interval of suspense it began to rise we now stripped him and ascer tained that he had received a large mus ket ball just above the ribs and tracing the blue line its track had left half round the body to tiie opposite side we were in duced to hope that it had glanced under the flesh and not penetrated tiie chest gradually his pulse heightened and ti color began lo return to his pallid face boys to horse the bravo must in shot this is the work of these cursed mexicahs exclaimed lays as soon as o ir suspense had been relieved somewhat by these favorable symptoms yes d — i them muttered fitzgerald as we sepa rated to tret our horses leaving littell in charge ot johnson that's a mexican ball or it would'nt have been placed so bunglingly let's show em the clean thing with our lilies in a short time we were mounted and collected before the door of the tavern ready to start when johnson came oui bareheaded aud fold us that the wounded man had so far recovered as to be able io speak he could only understand of what he feebly uttered : " the bravo was before me when i go it frotn a thicket !'' this gave us some cue as to how tins had hap pened aud we set olf instantly at full speed i was evident enough that either the negro or his mexican friends had made this murderous attempt from ambuscade to arrest pursuit and whether the bravo had not fallen a positive victim was i ft in painful uncertainty it seemed proba ble that tiie mexicans had a hand in ir from the fact that the ball was too large forthe rifle the boy had taken with him and apparently had been sr-nt from the wide muzzle of a clumsy mexican musket i observed that groups of mexicans with their " scrapes " folded around ihem were standing at every corner ofthe streets as we passed through the town they were grinning ami looking un pleasently cheerful at us as we went by we soon reached the wide level of the extended plain on wliich the town stands and for several hous galloped along its vast monotonous expanse with nothing ahead to relieve the eve after wc were thoroughlv fatigued bv this sameness a dim dark line loomed on the horizon be fore us which as we approached it o pened up into broken irregular mass s ol timber some of them heavy and tall stretching for miles : otbei s low busy and dense ranged like blact shaded islands of ragged aiid angular outlines on either side of the old trail we followed just where it led us wiihin a few paces of the fwaslitteii's^^^u ; m it showtng that i had been dropped suddenly rom the el ofa n um j.j . shot trom the " chaporal or thicket which , was an unusually close one 6f stiff scrub ! by brush we separated to ride around j it and look for the trail of the assassin i on coming together hays announced that i he had found it : both the trampled spot i where a horse had evidently stood for . some time and the single trace ot its flight leading off in the direction ofthe rio gran de after following this for a quarter of i mile another traii ofa single horse lead ing from the main track was observed running parallel with if this was that ofa shod horse and hays exclaimed as soon as lie saw it lla ' the bravo is alter him he'll get him lie was ahead and saw the scoundrel running the sharp experienced eyes of these men at once recognized the trail of their c irarade and tho main features ofthe occurrence we fob i lowed these two trails until nearly sundown at the same headlong r;;;.;it pace we had bel i since starting though they continued on the same general centse with the i road yet they did not lead into it again but diverged in an irregular line dodging around amongst the motts with all the efforts ofa desperate light and chase i was greatly astonished at the skill with which they unerringly traced this de 1 vious trail though we were going at a last _ v lop this hard running bad very greatly faag ed both ourselves and horses wo bad begun t fear that lhe night would close around an 1 prevent ii from following up the cbasc lo any satisfactory termination ; and wide and seem ingly interminable plain too was opening be fore us whose hare undulating surface offered little of either pleasure or encouragement toour perspective suddenly however and most un expectedly one of the men in frpnt v mted while he pointed n ith bis gi\n over ;■• lhe t ight look thai mu i !><• the bravo lie's hi in we looked and the figures of fn i horse ' men were just iivi_,r into view mer the ridge ol an undulation far aw aj ;. ro ;. the plain the figure ofa man heaving in sight amid t those wide s 5 always causes a startle and thrill of expectation and 1 ir lo the feeling produced by the ann • . of *' a strange sail ahead " on shipb ar i du ing a long voyage the eyeglances with careless ference over goal herds of deer buffalo or mus tangs dotted m the distance ; but a glimpse 1 ;" any shape even remotely resembling a brother man makes the pulse leap sharp and fast and lhe blood rush back to the heart ; for i.i tins lawless region it i impossible to conj tcture \\ hcther what should natur tlly be an auspi ; event mav not result in a mortal sti iggie and death to one party or the other thi 1 rte i condition ol things causes strange em tions i r ; it doe seem mosi ■u re an i unnatural thai t 1 outlines which , f all others ought to be m isl agreeable sh uld be | ? i tl un pleasant excitement whih we can look upon thousands and 1 of brutes with a negative feeling ii not t as it companionship 1 i with this while travellii . ■thing the imaginatii n could 1 • int > a 1 es m blance <.;';!.• human f.-i.-.i wt a the most unc imfortable sens ttio .--. 1 1 ■: • is nu ii ia 1 t 1 fear from '.'. ai tn ds bul like ness to yourself 1 verylhing of hate aad treach ery i to be dreaded we instantly headed our hopavs i --. n distant ri lers n ging on to tv s ciab!y at a leisurely gail in n of san antonio as we ne tred i •. - menl made it ;•■nan'sfirst conjecture n is rig it 1 1 aa.-i stopped w ith some fl a of m inner but after a long they start ■• i • that they intended to vt heel and m ik • if bul i sured recognition wa • i lotal cheer vi e increa . i , vo v 7 • tir and ansu us i;i a little n bile m 1 him ri : ; > t hi imultitudtt ol questions th - mai about his feet bel ly of his horse his : '■■'■- ; hind him and iheii yat the distanc -. ■•■tbat tbe bnu o was notb er la i it he was a m 1 of spa with a lean roman face sharp and a vivid expressi n 1 i b i!d kna c iwed by our num .!!.:> whole app sarance was ', d dow n •■ird-t td sneaking 1 ti in to mexi tans in i i peril as tl se sun ng him . ofth bearing at once atti ment " why brat • ." deuce are you doing with ihat sau fellow alive ' vou are the i isl ni in i . have suspecte lof having lhe 3 u '- h -.. b v the joke is that 1 he gave me so mu 1 he's a r _ v • .. 1 t live me 1 very b ickbone i kin i that i .« of you v • . . 1 said ha i don i it re quil • • ' bush we'lltakel i . •?'' ■• 7 tnted jack a - hays v as fat " ; ■i the rascal once " mo laugh by his bold im ■acl of pulling tri ._• andld ni feel dis thi ugh i want y iia hundi i tim s don1 u 1 think i i 1 h ljs but where or when 1 can't rec ■:.'• ct it doesn't matter tl - ■— *■"■• •" 3 ' "' jn|i ■• .. y 1 have n ■'. f>rg tt-a <■zalez,tlie dexte is 1 summer and rut ■r •• ha .' ibis is tl v well v e'll pay bim off all * - lime " he 1 . what you say by the have you seen r beard an thing of l hell he went <-!;' ia very singular style h«t ex plained i 1 bim ihe circumstances tbe ii'*r " already in possession of and ■■* l ' slowly toward a dim * :* tim'.cr md,.n tine a stream on wh rtt th.^ht.tv.v . '****■ch-ia.v.vatl.c-eetthism.rning * . . •;.. •, a - vf our horses on l^^tbeboy'strailonrtatfir.t-ifehean i src fourth p |