228 WAGGONS, FKEIGHT, Book IL 
want of water (as is often the case in these parts) renders 
it necessary to travel so quickly. Of this likewise I shall 
have occasion to mention a few instances. 
The waggons are very strongly built, and their dura- 
bility is almost inconceivable. They suffer mostly from 
the dryness of the air on reaching the higher regions 
of the West, and for this reason the wheels must 
be watered whenever an opportunity offers. Without 
some unfortunate accident, however, a good teamster 
can take his waggon across the continent without incurring 
any breakage. Nevertheless, a caravan carries with it 
the most important articles of harness and parts of the 
waggon in extra quantities, so that a broken axle, a 
worn-out collar, or a broken chain, &c., can be instantly 
replaced. 
A store of shoes for the mules, which are not always 
shod,, and seldom completely, must likewise be taken ; 
and wheelwrights' tools, shovels and hoes, windlasses, 
levers, crowbars, axes, and hatchets for cutting wood, are 
also indispensable articles. 
The provender consists of flour, bacon, dried beans, 
coffee, and sugar. Spirits are never given on these 
journeys, unless the master or conductor of the caravan is 
induced by great toil or especial privations to unlock his 
holy of holies, and to give his men a portion to refresh 
them. Brandy is only taken as medicine ; but coffee, on 
the contrary, is an indispensable article, and is drunk twice 
a day in large quantities. The refreshing and strengthen- 
ing effect of this drink, under great toils, in heat as well 
as cold, in rain and dry, is extraordinary. The dried 
beans form one chief article of food — the indispensable fri- 
joles of the Mexicans and all the other Spanish Americans ; 
but all depends on the kind of beans and the mode of pre- 
