UPROARIOUS STAMPEDE. 103 



Our encampment was in a beautiful plain, 

 but without water, of which, however, we had 

 had a good supply at noon. Our cattle, as 

 was the usual custom, after having grazed 

 without for a few hours, were now shut up in 

 the pen of the wagons. Our men were all 

 wrapt in peaceful slumber, except the guard, 

 who kept their silent watch around the en- 

 campment ; when all of a sudden, about the 

 ominous hour of midnight, a tremendous up- 

 roar -was heard, which caused every man to 

 start in terror from his blanket couch, with 

 arms in hand. Some animal, it appeared, 

 had taken fright at a dog, and by a sudden 

 start, set all around him in violent motion; 

 the panic spread simultaneously tliroughout 

 the pen; and a scene of rattle, clash, and 

 'lumbering,' ensued, which far surpassed 

 everything we had yet witnessed. A gene- 

 ral 'stampede' {estampida, as the Mexicans 

 say) was the result. Notwithstanding the 



tightly bound together, wheel 

 to wheel, with ropes or chains, and several 

 stretched across the gaps at the corners of the 

 corral, the oxen soon burst their way out ; and 

 though mostly yoked in pairs, they went 

 scampering over the plains, as though Tarn 

 O' Shanter's ' cutty-sark' Nannie had been at 

 theu: tails. All attempts to stop them were 

 vain ; for it would require ' Auld Clootie' him- 

 self to check the headway of a drove of oxen, 



were 



friffhtened. Early 



followinsT mornins: 



_ *^»w "-o 



ufficient quantity of teams to start 



