A Buffalo Hunt in Northern Mexico. 



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rear guard ; while the third went always before to spy out the land 

 for which he had eyes of the far reach of an eagle's, good for the 

 unusual in any form, — dust in the valley, smoke on the mountain, or 

 what not. This half-military order of travel, be it remarked, was not 

 affected by the party as a choice or an eccentricity ; it was merely a 

 precaution against the enterprise of ladrones in general, and just then 

 a necessity, as the journey carried across the line of a raid for scalps 

 and plunder, in vigorous execution by a band of Apaches from the 

 region of the Conchas river, of whom more anon. 



To the very door we drove without seeing a soul. I pleased 

 myself thinking how different in the day of the romantic Don Leon- 

 ardo. Then swarthy retainers held the portal in swarms, and, seeing 

 us afar, they would have run to meet us, the effusion of their welcome 

 being but notice in advance of the politer reception in store for us by 



