HOMEWARD BOUND. 137 
having passed off, nothing more was thought 
of it until eight or ten days after, when every 
unvaccinated member of our company was at- 
tacked by that fell disease, which soon began 
to manifest very malignant features. There 
were no fatal cases, however; yet much ap- 
prehension was felt, lest the disease should 
break out again on the route; but, to our 
great joy, we escaped this second scourge. 
A party that left Santa Fé for Missouri soon 
afterward, was much more unfortunate. On 
the way, several of their men were attacked 
by the small-pox, some of whom died; and 
others: retaining the infection till they ap- 
proached the Missouri frontier, they were com- 
pelled to undergo a ‘quarantine’ in the bor- 
dering prairie, before they were permitted to 
enter the settlements. 
On the 25th of February we set out from 
Santa Fé; but owing to some delays, we did 
not leave San Miguel tillthe 1st of March. As 
the pasturage was yet insufficient for our ani- 
mals, we here provided ourselves with over six 
hundred bushels of corn, to feed them on the 
way. This time our caravan consisted o 
twenty-eight wagons, two small cannons, and 
forty-seven men, including sixteen Mexicans 
and a Comanche Indian who acted in the’ 
capacity of guide.** Two gentlemen of Bal- 
- * Manuel el Comanche was a full Indian, born and bred upon 
the great prairies. Long after having arrived at the state of man- 
hood, he accompanied some Mexican Comancheros to the frontier 
village of San Miguel, where he fell in love with a Mexican girl— 
married her—and has lived in that place, a sober, ‘ civilized’ citizen 
for the last ten or twelve years—endowed with much more good- 
12 
