54 THE COMANCHEROS. 
Mexican wiseacre. A few days afterwards 
we were overtaken by a party of Comanche- 
ros, or Mexican Comanche traders, when we 
had the satisfaction of learning that we were 
in the right track. 
These men had been trading with the band 
of Comanches we had lately met, and learn- 
ing from them that we had passed on, they had 
hastened to overtake us, so as to obtain our 
protection against the savages, who, after sell- 
ing their animals to the Mexicans, very fre- 
quently take forcible possession of them 
again, before the purchasers have been able to 
reach their homes. These parties of Coman- 
cheros are usually composed of the indigent . 
and rude classes of the frontier villages, who 
collect together, several times - year, and 
launch upon the pesos igcctr few trinkets 
and trumperies of all kin perhaps a 
bag of bread and may-be paler of pinole, 
which they barter away to the savages for 
horses and mules. The entire stock of an 
individual trader very seldom exceeds the 
value of twenty dollars, with which he is con- 
tent to wander about for several months, and 
glad to return home witha mule ortwo, as the 
proceeds of his traffic. 
These Mexican traders had much to tell us 
about the Comanches: saying, that they were 
four or five thousand in number, with per- 
haps a thousand warriors, and that the fiery 
young men had once determined to follow 
and attack us; but that the chiefs and sages 
had deterred them, by stating that our can- 
