MY FKIENDS MAKE RACES. 163 



stud I added a little pony, as fine a goer as man ever saw, 

 and as quiet, good-tempered, and sensible, from whose 

 back I intended to shoot the smaller game on either side 

 the line of march. Poor little Charley, as I called him 

 he too had been taught all sorts of false and tricky ac 

 tions, and it was a long time before I could disabuse him 

 of an abominable amble, and reduce him to the natural 

 and shooting pace of a steady walk. For the chestnut 

 horse Taymouth, sound wind and limb, and free from 

 blemish, and fully able to carry me to any hounds in 

 England, I gave the sum of 225 dollars, or 45 English 

 money ; for Sylph, the brown mare, the same sum ; for the 

 bay horse, which was in the best condition, 175 dollars, or 

 35 English ; and for the pony, 40 dollars, or 8 English. 

 After the horses were in my stable, my American 

 friends suggested that I had given more than their value ; 

 but I was quite content, for I well knew that nothing 

 could be better than the action they all possessed ; but as 

 to their facing buffaloes, that I knew I could not expect 

 horses that had never seen them at once to do. In pass 

 ing through the town after these purchases were made, I 

 stopped to see Mr Powell, at what is considered the best 

 hotel, and while treating an acquaintance to drink at the 

 bar, as is the custom of the country, I was intensely as 

 tonished and amused to hear that the gentlemen then 

 and there present had made a match with my horse and 

 mare, Taymouth and Sylph, to run them one against the 

 other for two miles, and that without the slightest refer 

 ence as to whether I would consent to it or not ; betting 

 was considerably brisk. Let it be also borne in mind, 

 that I had pronounced them both in too low condition, 

 that they required nursing, and that I should start for the 

 plains at the earliest possible moment. With consider- 



