194 SAN ANTONIO IN 1868. 



CHAPTER XV. 



San Antonio and Texas in 1868. Horse-stealing. Its punishment. 

 Shoeing and breaking wild ponies. Negroes the best breakers. 

 Mexicans and their mode of life. Part with Billy Breeze. Move to 

 Fredericksburg. Too hot for the dogs. Death of one. Trying the 

 men's courage. Halliday, his history. A real frontiersman. He 



declines to go with us. H has an adventure while on guard. Fort 



Mason. Indians catch and torture a man. Big-foot Wallace. Refuses 

 to go with us. Leave Fort Mason. Fight between horses. A 

 refractory mule. His cure. An over-confident major. Start for Fort 

 Belknap. A plundered waggon. I meet with Indians. I am pursued. 

 Shoot an Indian's horse and escape. Difficult country. 



SAN ANTONIO in 1868 was a very interesting town, still very 

 Mexican in appearance, having two fine plazas, which on 

 market days were full of Mexicans in their picturesque dress. 

 At the stalls you could get a good dinner of "Chile con 

 carne," frijoles, and tortillas, cooked on a brazier, though you 

 could not always be sure what the meat you were eating was, 

 Mexicans not being very particular. 



From the Gulf to this point Texas is very level, but from 

 here the country rises, and the scenery improves, till you pass 



