+ sa 
STRAIT FOR FOOD. 123 
Carrizal, a distance of nearly a hundred and 
fifty miles, there are no settlements on the 
route, from whence to procure supplies. To 
furnish the party with meat, I engaged twenty 
sheep, to be delivered a few miles on the way, 
which were to be driven along for our daily 
consumption. But the contractor having fail- 
ed, we found ourselves entering the wilderness 
without a morsel of meat. The second day 
our men began to murmur—it was surely 
‘dry living’ upon mere bread and coffee: in 
fact, by the time we entered the ‘ territory’ of 
the Hacienda de Encinillas, spoken of in an- 
other chapter, they were clearly suffering from 
hunger. I was therefore under the necessity 
of sending three Mexican muleteers of our 
party to lazo a beef from a herd which was 
grazing at some distance from where we had 
pitched our camp; being one of those buffalo- 
like droves which run so nearly wild upon 
this extensive domain. It had been custom- 
ary, from time immemorial, for travellers when 
they happened to be distressed for meat, to 
supply their wants out of the wild cattle which 
nominally belonged to this hacienda, reserv- 
ing to themselves the privilege of paying a 
reasonable price afterwards to the proprietor 
for the damage committed. I must say, 
however, that, although I had travelled over 
the same road nine times, I had never before 
resorted to this summary mode of procuring 
food; nor should IL, on the present occasion, 
have deviated from my regular practice, though 
thus partially authorized by a custom of the 
