to our camp, dismounted and set themselves in a half -circle 
in the middle of our camp and proceeded to scrutinize every 
object in the outfit, and to beg this and pretend to swap for 
that* One old scamp had the audacity to nudge me with his 
©Ibow and order me t© bring a pail of agua (water) which 1 did 
not do* W© treated them as coolly as possible, kept our rifles 
within reach, and held such maimer of powwow as we could* Trad- 
ed some matches for some arrows and gave them some bread to eat* 
It appears that they were really trying to find their fin© 
lariats, which we had hidden, and possibly to claim them* We 
watches them so closely that they failed to steal any thing and 
saw them depart at last with feelings of relief* These fellows 
came ©ore nearly up to my notion of what a bad Indian should 
look like than any that I had ever seen. 
We mounted double guard for the night, determined to* 
protect ourselves to the utmost. I think I recognized two of 
the Indians as the same we met on the 25th of July bet?/een the 
Mancos camp and !#& Plata mines* That party of four has doubt- 
less been following ue since that time* They are cowardly 
scamps who would not dar© to steal our stock when they could 
be found out, or harm us personally if it were likely to endanger 
themselves* They know that we sleep and eat and work by our 
needle gun® and move with great caution in consefuense* 
