48 CATCHING AND BREAKING IN OF HORSES IN THE TEXAS. 
any old jackass. The change was so sudden and comical, that we 
all burst into laughter ; although, when I came to reflect on the 
danger I had run, it required all my love of horses to prevent me 
from shooting the brute upon the spot. 
After this, my mustang behaved exceedingly well, cantering 
freely along, and not attempting to play any tricks, until a few 
days afterwards, when having left the remainder of the party a 
couple of hundred yards, the devil by which he was possessed be- 
gan to wake up. The mustangs belonging to the plantation were 
grazing some three-quarters of a mile off; and no sooner did my 
beast catch sight of them, than he com nenced practising every 
species of jump and leap that it is possible for a horse to execute, 
and many of a nature so extraordinary, that I should have thought 
no brute on four legs would have been able to accomplish them. 
He shied, reared, pranced, leaped forwards, backwards, and side- 
ways ; in short, played such infernal pranks, that, although a prac- 
tised rider, I found it no easy matter to keep my seat. I began 
heartily to regret that 1 brought no lasso with me, which would have 
tamed him at once, and that, contrary to Mr. Neal’s advice, I had 
put on my American bit instead of a Mexican one. Without these 
auxiliaries all my horsemanship was useless. The brute galloped 
like a mad creature some five hundred yards, caring nothing for 
my efforts to stop him ; and then, finding himself close to the troop 
of mustangs, he stopped suddenly short, threw his head between 
his fore-legs, and his hind feet into the air, with such vicious vio- 
lence, that I was pitched clean out of the saddle. Before I well 
knew where I was, I had the satisfaction of seeing him put his 
fore-feet on the bridle, pull bit and bridoon out of his mouth, and 
then, with a neigh of exultation, spring into the midst of the herd 
of mustangs. 
I got up out of the long grass in a towering passion. One of the 
negroes who was nearest to me came galloping to my assistance, and 
begged me to let the beast run for awhile, and that, when Anthony 
the huntsman came, he would soon catch him. I was too angry to 
listen to reason, and I ordered him to get off his horse, and let me 
mount. The black begged and prayed me not to ride after the 
brute ; and Mr. Neal, who was some distance off, shouted to me, 
as loud as he could, for heaven’s sake to stop — for I did not know 
what it was to chase a wild horse in a Texican prairie, and that I 
must not fancy myself in the meadows of Louisiana or Florida. I 
paid no attention to all this — I was in too great a rage at the trick 
the beast had played me, and, jumping on the negro’s horse, I gal- 
loped away like mad. 
My rebellious steed was grazing quietly with his companions, 
and he allowed me to come within a couple of hundred paces of 
