EL PASO. 
]63 
every comfort their position was susceptible of, con- 
tinued reckless and indifferent, even to the last moment. 
Butler alone was affected. He wept bitterly, and 
excited much sympathy by his youthful appearance, 
being but 21 years of age. His companions begged 
him “ not to cry, as he could die but once ! ” 
The sun was setting when they arrived at the place 
of execution. The assembled spectators formed a 
guard around a small alamo, or poplar tree, which had 
been selected for the gallows. It was fast growing . 
dark, and the busy movements of a large number of 
the associates of the condemned, dividing and collect- 
ing again in small bodies at different points around 
and outside of the party, and then approaching nearer 
to the centre, proved that an attack was meditated, if 
the slightest opportunity should be given. But the 
sentence of the law was carried into effect. 
The entire proceedings were intensely interesting, 
and the scene of a character which none present desired 
ever again to witness. The calm but determined 
citizens on the one side, and the daring companions 
of the condemned wretches on the other, remained 
throughout keenly on the watch: the first for the 
protection of life, and the support of good order in the 
community, the other with the malicious eyes of dis- 
appointed and infuriated demons, who, to rescue their 
companions, would have been willing to sacrifice a 
hundred additional lives. 
All three of the criminals had been connected with 
the Boundary Commission. Wade was an Englishman, 
and had driven one of the teams in my small party. 
He was found to be a desperate villain, and I took the 
