BUYING A CAPTIVE, ETC. 45 - 
at the time, and very well remember the bus- 
tle and consternation that prevailed. A thou- 
sand volunteers were raised, commanded b 
the governor himself; who ‘hotly pursued’ the 
enemy during their tardy retreat ; but return- 
ed with the usual report—“No les pudimos al- 
canzar,’—we could not overtake them. 
Out of half a dozen Mexican captives that 
happened to be with our new visitors, we only 
met with one who manifested the slightest in- 
clination to abandon Indian life. This was a 
stupid boy about fifteen years of age, who had 
probably been roughly treated on account of 
his laziness. We very soon struck a bargain 
with his owner, paying about the price of a 
mule for the little outcast, whom I sent to his 
family as soon as we reached Chihuahua. 
Notwithstanding the inherent stupidity of my 
protégé, I found him abundantly grateful— 
much to his credit be it ae the little 
service I had been able to render 
We succeeded in purchasing seven mules 
which cost us between ten and twenty dollars 
worth of goods apiece. In Comanche trade 
the main trouble consists in fixing the price 
of the first animal. This being settled by the 
chiefs, it often happens that mule after mule 
is led up and the price received without fur- 
ther cavil. ch owner usually wants a 
general assortment; therefore the price must 
consist of several items, as a blanket, a look- 
ing-glass, an ae a flint, a little tobacco, ver- 
million, beads, ete. 
Our trade with the new batch of Co- 
