LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 107 



own side ; for, with very few exceptions, the mountaineers seldom 

 scruple to abandon their Indian wives, whenever the fancy takes 

 them to change their harems ; and on such occasions the squaws, 

 thus cast aside, wild with jealousy and despair, have been not un- 

 frequently known to take signal vengeance both on their faithless 

 husbands and on the successful beauties who have supplanted 

 them in their affections. There are some honorable exceptions, 

 however, to such cruelty, and many of the mountaineers stick to 

 their red-skinned wives for better and for worse, often suffering 

 them to gain the upper hand in the domestic economy of the lodges, 

 and being ruled by their better halves in all things pertaining to 

 family affairs ; and it may be remarked, that, when once the lady 

 dons the unmentionables, she becomes the veriest termagant that 

 ever henpecked an unfortunate husband. 



Your refined trappers, however,' who, after many years of bach- 

 elor life, incline to take to themselves a better half, often under- 

 take an expedition into the settlements of New Mexico, where not 

 unfrequently they adopt a very "Young Lochinvar" system in 

 procuring the required rib ; and have been known to carry off, vi 

 et armis, from the midst of a fandango in Fernandez, or El Rancho 

 of Taos, some dark-skinned beauty — wdth or without her own con- 

 sent is a matter of unconcern — and bear the ravished fair one 

 across the mountains, where she soon becomes inured to the free 

 and roving life fate has assigned her. 



American women are valued at a low figure in the mountains. 

 They are too fine and " fofarraw." Neither can they make moc- 

 casins, or dress skins ; nor are they so schooled to perfect obedience 

 to their lords and masters as to stand a "lodge-poling," which 

 the western lords of the creation not unfrequently deem it their 

 bounden duty to inflict upon their squaws for some dereliction of 

 domestic duty. 



To return, however, to La Bonte. That worthy thought him- 

 self a lucky man to have lost but one of his wives, and she the 



