Chap. IV. WITHOUT WATER, 481 
things in America) was a physician, a man of education, 
who had studied at Paris, possessed a considerable fortune, 
but was not deterred from spending part of it in purchas- 
ing cattle in Texas, and speculating in this article ; he was 
obliged therefore, to make the journey himself, and, like a 
patriarch of old, to travel with his herds over this portion 
of the globe. We depended on his knowledge of the 
road, and, as he had preceded us a few days, we intended 
to follow in his tracks. 
On regaining the plain we observed that the traces of 
some waggons, and the footsteps of cattle, in our line of 
march, suddenly deviated on oue side, and disappeared in 
the grass of the prairie. I was convinced that this was 
the spot where Dr. E. had quitted the beaten road, and 
proceeded direct west ; and perhaps my opinion would 
have been adopted by the commander of our caravan, had 
not a musket, found lying in the road, and the devious 
course of the waggon-tracks in the grass, countenanced the 
other supposition, that the Doctor might have met with 
an accident, and the deviation from the road at this 
spot have been a compulsory one. In this uncertainty, 
I undertook, accompanied by Mr. C, to reconnoitre the 
prairie, and see whether we might not, further on, find 
clearer traces of the Doctor's waggons and animals. We 
rode unsuccessfully for several miles over a grassy plain, 
intersected by small rocky hollows, until the sun, near 
setting, reminded us that it was time to turn back, and 
hasten to rejoin our caravan. The latter had meanwhile 
continued in a direct southerly course, and I had no doubt 
it had already passed the point where the new route was 
said to diverge ; and this was really the case. We con- 
tinued our journey on the old road, and did not reach the 
point where the former rejoins the latter until after four 
2 i 
