138 Audubon's Western Journal 



did not get one I saw, but the straightened circum- 

 stances of the company compelled me to give up 

 the idea. 



August ijth. We passed a large rancho of 

 about a hundred and fifty men and their squaws, 

 for nearly all were Indians, and camped six miles 

 further on; but as night came on thieves came too, 

 whether Mexicans or Apaches I know not, but 

 we have never encountered bolder ones. Hinck- 

 ley, Havens, Sloat, Valentine and Boggs were on 

 guard, all good men, but of no avail, four double 

 barrelled guns and two pistols were taken, one 

 from under Boggs' very eyes — how, no one could 

 tell. We looked for the trail and found it, large 

 feet and small moccasins and barefooted; but the 

 dew was unswept from the grass outside the camp, 

 so the theft must have been earlier in the night: we 

 could recover nothing, though four of our best 

 men went back; so after a fruitless search of some 

 hours we left for Ures, and at three o'clock entered 

 into a series of hills and valleys so beautiful in 

 form and color, so fresh and green that our spring 

 could not equal them. Many of Cole's^ pictures 

 were brought to mind. 



^ Thomas Cole (i 801-1848), an American landscape painter 

 of English birth, was one of the earliest artists to depict the 

 beauties of American scenery ; he was noted for his scenes in 

 the Catskills. His recent death doubtless emphasized his. 

 pictures in Audubon's mind. 



