Vi . PREFACE. 



chronic diseases, which defied every plan of treatment 

 that the sagacity and science of my medical friends conld 

 devise. This morbid condition of my system, which ori- 

 ginated in the familiar miseries of dyspepsia and its kindred 

 infirmities, had finally reduced me to such a state, that, for 

 nearly a twelvemonth, I was not only disqualified for any 

 systematic industry, but so debilitated as rarely to be able 

 to extend my walks beyond the narrow precincts of my 

 chamber. In this hopeless condition, my physicians ad- 

 vised me to take a trip across the Prairies, and, in the 

 change of air and habits which such an adventure would 

 involve, to seek that health which their science had failed 

 to bestow. I accepted their suggestion, and, without hesi- 

 tation, proceeded at once to make the necessary preparations 

 for joining one of those spring Caravans which were annu- 

 ally starting from the United States, for Santa F^. 



The effects of this journey were in the first place to 

 re-establish my health, and, in the second, to beget a pas- 

 sion for Prairie life which I never expect to survive. At 

 the conclusion of the season which followed my first trip, I 

 became interested as a proprietor in the Santa Fe Trade, 

 and continued to be so, to a greater or less extent, for the 

 eight succeeding years. During the whole of the above 

 periods I crossed the Prairies eight difierent times ; and, 

 with the exception of the time thus spent in travelling to 



and fro, the greater part of the nine years of which I speak, 

 were passed in Northern Mexico, 



Having been actively engaged and largely interested in 



the commerce of that country and across the Prairies, 



for so long a period, I feel that I have at least had oppor- 



