478 OLD PONCE. Book III. 
had suddenly been surprised by a band of Apaches at the 
watering-place, and were murdered. Accompanied by 
Messrs. W. and C, I hastened to the spot as fast as 
our horses could carry us ; but before we reached the place 
these people came to meet us : an accident had saved 
them. One of the travellers was suffering from small-pox, 
and his face was greatly disfigured. When the Indians sur- 
rounded the carriage, and looked into it in search of booty, 
they saw this patient ; and such terror seized them, that 
the whole band immediately ran off. Their leader was a 
Mexican renegade of ill repute, called Delgadito, from 
whom these travellers might have expected the worst 
treatment. 
On this occasion I heard several anecdotes characteristic 
of old Ponce. He had taken prisoner a man from Mesilla, 
and the savages made all the preparations to burn him alive. 
Everything was ready for the ceremony, and the men of the 
tribe were busy getting drunk, to heighten their enjoyment 
of the scene ; when, at nightfall, one of the wives of the 
chief came to the prisoner, cut his cords, and aided him to 
escape. Ponce loves spirits above everything. When his 
son died of small-pox, he sold his finest mule to procure a 
large quantity of whisky, observing that his heart was 
heavy, and he must lighten it. To his younger son he 
made a present on this occasion of a whole cask-full : 
"The boy," he said, "takes his brother's death so much 
to heart, that I must cheer him up." 
The water at Cook's Spring is of a good taste, clear, 
and cool ; but the spring lies in a black peaty soil, and the 
footsteps of any animals speedily transform the water into 
mud. This is a difficulty that often happens at the 
watering-places. The next spring we came to, Ojo de 
Vaca, was of the same kind. 
