160 
EVENTS AT 
sionally cross-questioned the witnesses. The prisoners 
were evidently under the impression that nothing 
would be done, believing that, by the mutual under- 
standing between them, they could easily swear them- 
selves out of the difficulty. The examinations were 
conducted with propriety, and the prisoners made to 
keep silence by the resolute demeanor of the citizens 
present. 
In selecting the jury, six were taken from the ’ 
Mexican citizens of Socorro, and six from the Boun- 
dary Commission, as there were no other Americans 
in the place. The presiding magistrate. Justice, Ber- 
thold, was a highly respectable citizen, long resident 
there, of French origin. 
It is doubtful whether in the whole history of trial 
by jury a more remarkable scene than the one here 
presented was ever exhibited. The trial took place 
in one of the adobe or mud-built houses peculiar to the 
country, which was dimly lighted from a single small 
window. Scarcely an individual was present who had 
not the appearance and garb of men who spend their 
lives on the frontier, far from civilization and its soften- 
ing influences. Surrounded as we had been, and now 
were, by hostile Indians, and constantly mingling with 
half civilized and renegade men, it was necessary to go 
constantly armed. No one ventured half a mile from 
home without first putting on his pistols ; and many 
carried them constantly about them, even when within 
their own domicils. But, on the present occasion, cir- 
cumstances rendered it necessary for safety, as well as 
for the purpose of warning the desperate gang who 
were now about to have their deserts, that all should 
