448 CHIHUAHUA 
sist ten or twenty times that number ; and as they raise 
none themselves, it may be conceived what inroads 
they make upon the herds of the Mexicans, 
While we were at Chihuahua, the Comanches made 
a great haul near this place. A large train of wagons, 
with one hundred and forty mules, on its way from the 
capital to the fair of San Juan, had just encamped, 
taken the mules from the wagons, and sent them with 
four men to a pool of water a quarter of a mile 
distant. While there a band of Comanches, who lay 
concealed with their horses in a bush near by, sud- 
denly rushed upon them, stampeded the whole caba- 
llada, and succeeded in driving every animal off. The 
herders and teamsters in charge could no nothing to 
save them. The owner raised a large party a day or 
two after, took the trail, and was in pursuit of the rob- 
bers when we passed along. 
A large portion of the population of Saucillo are 
miners who work on their own account, called gambu- 
cinos. These men perambulate the mining regions 
much as our Californians do in “ prospecting,’ when 
they occasionally stumble on a vein which rewards 
them for their labors. This, however, is but seldom ; 
for, possessing no scientific and but little practical 
knowledge, their discoveries are almost purely acci- 
dental. Around the village are heaps of scorie, refuse 
ore, and broken furnaces, the results of the labors of 
these silver hunters. 
November 5th. Before starting this morning, all the 
fire-arms were inspected, and a further supply of am- 
munition served out. I placed the party under the 
orders of Mr. Radziminski, chief engineer, who had 
