THE WILD HORSE. 19 



liorses,* browsing peacefully near a herd of about 

 twenty bisons, some of whom were lying in a thicket 

 of cotton plants, whilst the others mounted guard. 

 One might have supposed that we were looking 

 upon the stud of a Avealth}' English horse-breeder. 



The chief of the Red Skins assembled all the 

 best hunters of his tribe, and held a council with 



* The race of wild Lorscs which now exists in America has been intro- 

 duced by Europeans, for it is descended from the horses that mounted 

 the cavalry of Cortez. It is a race of pure blood therefore, for the 

 Spanish horses were descended from the Arabs. In the early ages of 

 colonisation, these animals fetched a high price. Antonio Herrara 

 tells us, that at Chili a horse v/as worth a thousand piastres ; and 

 Garcilesso de la Vega states, that one of these animals was as good as 

 a fortune in Peru, and that a father left one to his son, just as he 

 would bestow upon him three or four thousand piastres. In the begin- 

 ning of the present century, however, the race had increased so mucli 

 in America, that the Spaniards remounted their cavalry with wild 

 horses, worth, on an average, two piastres each. 



At the present day, the wild horse is to be found in innumerable 

 herds on the pampas of Central America, on the sierras of New 

 Mexico, and on the wastes of Texas. As a proof of their immense 

 numbers, Azara declares that during a long drought which prevailed over 

 all the pampas, a thousand carcases were found in a single spot on the 

 banks of the Parana ; they had been attracted thither through thirst, 

 and at the sight of the water they fell into a state of madness, which 

 drove them to attack each other in a species of mortal struggle. 



Among the wild horse.'!, we discover the same difference of skin 

 •which may be noticed among the cultivated animal. They are not 

 large creatures, but they are very strong, and are endowed with a 

 vigour of which Europeans have no idea. They perform the longest 

 journeys without fatigue ; only care must be taken to keep them going 

 all through the day. At night, they may be turned adrift in the 

 forest, but a little before dawn they must be put in harness again, 

 and fed with maize and water. They will then go on all day, without 

 either eating or drinking, until they reach the locality where the camp 

 is to be pitched, when they receive again a feed of water and maize. The 



(' 2 



