LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 117 



the remonstrances, when, handing them over to their 

 families, the trappers rode on, driving fifty of the best 

 of the rescued animals before them, which they retained 

 as payment for their services. Messengers were sent 

 on to Albuquerque with intelligence of the proceeding ; 

 and as troops were stationed there, the commandant 

 was applied to, to chastise the insolent whites. 



That warrior, on learning that the trappers numbered 

 less than fifteen, became alarmingly brave, and order- 

 ing out the whole of his disposable force, some two hun- 

 dred dragoons, sallied out to intercept the audacious 

 mountaineers. About noon one day, just as the latter 

 had emerged from a little town between Socorro and 

 Albuquerque, they descried the imposing force of the 

 dragoons winding along a plain ahead. As the trappers 

 advanced, the officer in command halted his men, and 

 sent out a trumpeter to order the former to await his 

 coming. Treating the herald to a roar of laughter, on 

 they went, and, as they approached the soldiers, broke 

 into a trot, ten of the number forming line in front of 

 the packed and loose animals, and, rifle in hand, charg- 

 ing with loud whoops. This was enough for the New 

 Mexicans. Before the enemy were within shooting 

 distance, the gallant fellows turned tail, and splashed 

 into the river, dragging themselves up the opposite 

 bank, like half-drowned rats, and saluted with loud 

 peels of laughter by the victorious mountaineers, who, 

 firing a volley into the air, in token of supreme con- 

 tempt, quietly continued their route up the stream. 



Before reaching the capital of the province, they 



