306 KETURN CARAVANS. 



caravans to the United States is the autumn, 

 and not one has elapsed since the commence- 

 ment of the trade which has not witnessed 

 some departure from Santa Fe with that des- 

 tination. They have also crossed occasion- 

 ally in the spring, but without any regidarity 

 or frequency, and generally in very small par- 

 ties. Even the 'iall companies,' in fact, are 

 small when compared with the outward-bound 

 caravans ; for besides the numbers who re 

 main permanent] y in the country, many of 

 those who trade southward return to the Uni- 

 ted States via Matamoros or some other South- 

 ern port. The return parties of autumn are 

 therefore comparatively small, varying in num- 

 ber from fifty to a hundred men. They leave 

 Santa Fe some four or five weeks after their 

 arrival — generally about the first of Septem- 

 ber. In these companies there are rarely over 

 thirty or forty wagons ; for a large portion of 

 those taken out by the annual caravans are 

 disposed of in the country. 



Some of the traders who go out in the 

 spring, return the ensuing fall, because they 

 have the good fortune to sell off" their stock 

 promptly and to advantage : others are com- 

 pelled to return in the fall to save their credit ; 

 nay, to preserve their homes, which, especially 

 in the earlier periods, have sometimes been 

 mortgaged to secure tlie payment of the mer- 

 chandise tliey carried out with them. In such 

 cases, their goods were not unfrequently sold 

 at great sacrifice, to avoid the penalties which 

 the breaking of their engagements at home 



