IN THE OLD WEST 241 



the wild and barren deserts they traversed — how 

 they escaped the infinite peril they encountered 

 at every step at the hands of the savage inhabit- 

 ants of the country, with whose language they 

 ^vere totally unacquainted — is sufficient puzzle to 

 those who, in the present day, have attempted a 

 journey in the same regions. 



However, it is impossible not to admire the 

 hardihood of these holy pioneers of civilization, 

 who, totally unfitted by their former mode of life 

 for undergoing such hardships as they must have 

 anticipated, threw themselves into the wilderness 

 with fearless and stubborn zeal. 



For the most part, however, they found the 

 Indians exceedingly hospitable and well disposed; 

 and it was not until some time after — when, re- 

 ceiving from the missionary monks glowing, and 

 not always very truthful, accounts of the riches 

 of the country in which they had located them- 

 selves, the governors of Mexico dispatched armed 

 expeditions under adventurous desperadoes to 

 take and retain possession of the said country, 

 with orders to compel the submission of the na- 

 tive tribes, and enforce their obedience to the 

 authority of the whites — that the simple and con- 

 fiding Indians began to see the folly they had 

 committed in permitting the residence amongst 

 them of these superior beings, whom they had 

 first looked upon as more than mortal ; but who, 

 when strong enough to do so, were not long in 



