MULES LOST IN CROSSING. 



249 



command over themselves^ therefore I thought it 

 most prudent not to run the chance of it, or of 

 waiting two days on the banks of the river, if he 

 chose to be obstinate. It appeared almost a 

 judgment upon him, for the first cargo he put in 

 the cradle after passing over myself and party, 

 the machine canted, and in spite of twenty or 

 thirty lassoes, the cargo was lost. 



A troop of light mules were now driven in the 

 river, my guide told me to be on the look out. 

 About thirty men lined themselves along the 

 banks of the river with lassoes in their hands, 

 and such a scene I never, beheld : the noise and 

 confusion to get them in, the tumbling and strug- 

 gling against the velocity of the current; the 

 lassoes flying in all directions at the mules that 

 were whirled off their legs, some rolled head over 

 heels, others dashed against the rocks till life 

 was nearly extinct, then down the stream they 

 went, and the water was dyed with their blood 

 in all directions. 



I am afraid to say how many were lost, I 



