410 INDIANS. 



peculiarly favourable to the pursued, and the ease with 

 which horsemen can travel anywhere and in any direction 

 renders the ' trailing ' of the ' plains Indian ' a slow and 

 difficult process, of which the success is always more or 

 less doubtful. Besides, the trailers employed by the 

 Government are generally white plainsmen, no more to 

 be compared to Espinosa in trailing than a bull pup to 

 a,n English beagle. 



One or two of Espinosa's exploits will show better 

 than a fuller description to what skill a trailer may attain. 

 I was once sent in pursuit of a band of murdering 

 Comanches, which had been scattered and the trail aban- 

 doned by a company of so-called Texas rangers (a sort of 

 militia in the service of the United States, and resembling 

 the ranger of the Eepublic of Texas in nothing but the 

 name). On the eighth day after the Indians had passed, 

 Espinosa took the trail of a single shod horse ; looking 

 neither to the right nor left, apparently seeing or noting 

 nothing, he silently and patiently plodded on, not a mov- 

 ing animal or bird, not the slightest mark on ground or 

 grass, escaping his wonderful eye. When we were fairly 

 into the rough, rocky Guadalupe Mountains, he stopped, 

 dismounted, and picked up from the foot of a tree the four 

 shoes of the Indian horse. With a grim smile he handed 

 them to me, and informed me that the Indian was going 

 to hide his trail. For six days we journeyed over the 

 roughest mountains, not a man in the whole command 

 being able to discover, sometimes for hours, a single mark 

 or sign by which Espinosa might direct himself. The 

 monotony and apparent objectlessness of this march were 

 extremely trying to my patience, and several times I im- 

 patiently demanded of Espinosa that he would show me 

 what he was following. ' Poco tiempo ' (in a short time) 

 would be his only answer ; but in a longer or shorter time he 

 would (with a quiet twinkle less marked) show me the clear 

 cut footprints of the horse in the soft bank of some 

 mountain brooklet, or, calling my attention, would point 



