13- 
in the camp to which we had tracked them but at noon rode 
boldly down to our camp, dismounted, and set themselves in 
a half-circle in the middle of our camp and proceeded to 
scrutfthize 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 elbow and order me to bring a pail of 
agua or water which I did not do. We treated them as cool¬ 
ly as possible, kept our rifles within reach, and held such 
manner of powwow as we could. Traded some matches for some 
arrows and gave them some bread to eat. It appears that they 
were really trying to find their lariats, and possibly to 
claim them. We watched them so closely that they failed to 
steal anything and saw them depart at last with a feeling of 
relief. These fellows came more nearly up to my notion of 
what a bad Indian should be than any mortals I had here¬ 
tofore seen. 
Mounted double guard for the night, determined to pro¬ 
tect ourselves to the utmost. I think I recognized two of the 
Indians as the same we met on the 25th of July between the 
Mancos camp and La Plata mines. That party of four has doubt¬ 
less been following us since that time and will perhaps be 
lying in wait until we get out of the Southwest. They are 
cowardly scamps who would not dare to steal our stock when 
they could be found out,or harm us personally if it were 
