122 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



determines on visiting the home of the prong-horned 

 antelope. 



Circumstances had caused me to attach myself to a 

 trader, who, with about twenty teamsters, was en route 

 for Northern Mexico. My duties were to hunt and 

 supply the party with game, a pleasant enough occu- 

 pation, but not without danger, for the greater portion 

 of the country we traversed belonged to the much- 

 dreaded Camanchee, the most reckless race of free- 

 booters and horsemen probably on the face of the 

 earth, who are at war with every one, and prize nothing 

 so much as a white man's scalp. Knowing such to be 

 the case, it behoved me to keep my weather eye open 

 when separated from my newly-formed acquaintances ; 

 but for all my watchfulness I several times had narrow 

 escapes. Still, time fled pleasantly onwards, and as 

 I write this I look back with delight to the happy, 

 free, thoughtless hours passed either in the saddle or 

 watching the movements of the wild animals that knew 

 no bounds to their demesne. The Indians seldom 

 troubled my thoughts, for I had a mare, that I daily 

 rode, handsome as a picture, and as game, fleet, and 

 enduring as any animal I had ever thrown a leg over ; 

 thorough-bred, I believe, and as sagacious as a dog ; 

 also a bat mule, between both of which existed a most 

 extraordinary affection. I had but to go ahead, and the 

 latter was certain to follow ; so if I did not fall into an 

 ambuscade, I knew full well I could distance most Ca- 

 manchee braves till I regained camp, where, behind the 

 waggons backed by the stalwart Missourian teamsters, 

 who knew well the use of their rifles, I would be safe. 

 "Unfortunately the principal of the expedition was a 

 most unpleasant and unpopular person, so that between 



