226 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



carries on the pommel of his saddle. They are a wild, 

 dangerous set, these "muleros." Mostly Mexicans, they 

 have very little love for the foreign intruder in— what 

 they still consider— their own country; and when a man 

 is alone on the road, he does well to keep out of their way 

 — for they are exceedingly handy with their long knives, 

 and a murder will not weigh heavily on their consciences. 



More peaceful were the so-called teamsters to look at, 

 mostly Americans or Germans, who passed us with their 

 wagons, each drawn by six or eight oxen. Urging on 

 their slow, powerful animals with an incessant "hi-ho- 

 ah," and with their enormous 20 feet long leather whips, 

 which to swing requires strength and dexterity, they all 

 had a "good morning" or some other kind word for us 

 as they passed by. 



"Gentlemen," too, passed us, mounted on fine horses 

 or mules. They were merchants or their clerks, going 

 perhaps to the nearest postoffice or visiting the mines on 

 business. Some abominable tourists we saw, too; these 

 fellows go about the country and stare at the mines and 

 miners as they would at wild beasts in a menagerie. 



The most pleasant to encounter, often without any 

 arms whatever and their bundles reduced to a minimum, 

 were traveling miners like ourselves, who either were 

 going up to the mountains full of hope or returning from 

 them. Thep stopped with us, chatted for a few minutes 

 and then went on again wishing us "good luck." 



Such was the procession that passed us as we lay that 

 day at noontime in the cooling shade of that old oak- 

 tree, smoking old black clay pipes, and chatting with our 

 friends from Long Bar, who had come to see us off. 



At last at 2 o'clock Kothrock, our man from Nelson 

 Creek, arrived with his team drawn by eight powerful 

 oxen. "We presented ourselves and were accepted at once, 

 with the understanding that our wages should be the 

 same as those paid by others on Nelson Creek at the 

 time of our arrival there. After we had sealed the con- 

 tract by a drink at the "Wisconsin House," we loaded 

 our baggage on the wagon with the exception of our 



