IN THE OLD WEST 



this you come all this way. Ah, what rogues you 

 are!" 



He was an Indian, employed at the Mission of 

 San Fernando, distant three days' journey from 

 their present position, and was now searching for 

 a band of horses and mules which had strayed. 

 San Fernando, it appeared, had once before been 

 visited by a party of mountain freebooters, and 

 the Indian therefore divined the object of the pres- 

 ent one. He was, he told them, " un Indio, pero 

 mansito " an Indian, but a tame one ; * " de mas, 

 Christiana " a Christian, moreover (exhibiting 

 a small cross which hung round his neck). There 

 were many people about the Mission, he said, who 

 knew how to fight, and had plenty of arms; and 

 there were enough to " eat up," the " Americanos, 

 san frijoles," without beans, as he facetiously ob- 

 served. For his part, however, he was very 

 friendly to the Americanos; he had once met a 

 man of that nation who was a good sort of fel- 

 low, and who had made him a present of tobacco, 

 of which he was particularly fond. Finding this 

 hint did not take, he said that the horses and 

 mules belonging to the Mission were innumerable 

 " like that," he added, sweeping his hand to all 

 points of the compass over the plain, to intimate 

 that they would cover that extent; and he could 

 point out a large herd grazing nearer at hand 



* The Mexicans call the Indians living near the Missions 

 and engaged in agriculture, mansos, or mansitos, "tame." 



