DISTANCES AND DIRECTIONS. 57 
a dozen per minute. I do not believe that 
any band of those timorous savages of the 
western prairies would venture to approach 
even asingle man, under such circumstances. 
If, according to an old story of the frontier, an 
jan supposed that a white man fired both 
with his tomahawk and scalping knife, to ac- 
count for the execution done by a brace of 
pistols, thirty-six shots discharged in quick 
succession would certainly overawe them as 
being the effect of some great medicine. 
As we jogged merrily along, I often en- 
deavored to while away the time by cate- 
chising my three companions in relation to 
the topography of the wild region we were 
traversing; but I soon found, that, like the 
Indians, these ignorant rancheros have no 
ideas of distances, except as compared with 
time or with some other distance. They will 
tell you that you may arrive at a given place 
by the time the sun reaches a certain point: 
otherwise, whether it be but half a mile or 
half a day’ s ride to the place inquired for, 
they are as apt to apply esta cerquita (it is 
close by), or esta lejos (it is far off), to the one 
as to the other, just as the impression ay: sie 
to strike them, when compared with some 
other point more or less distant. This often 
proves a source of great annoyance to foreign 
travellers, as I had an opportunity of experi- 
encing before my arrival. In giving direc- 
tions, these people—in fact, the lower classes 
of Mexicans generally—are also in the habit 
of using very odd gesticulations, altogether 
