hands the life of a white man was not worth an hour's purchase. The newly arrived looked a useful man, and moreover a bold and reckless one. His late exploit not only proved him to be so, but also to be acquainted with the Indians in all their moves. As among our ranks there were a great many green hands, and our numbers were not in excess of the work required of us, the stranger was engaged in spite of his having deserted his late employer. He was known by several of our older hands, and represented to be a first-class hunter, a good teamster, a jovial companion, and an out-andouter at an Indian fight. That he possessed all these requirements could scarcely be doubted, for a more fearless, reckless, good-tempered looking six feet of humanity it would be hard to find.

I was told he was a thorough type of a class which, twenty years ago, was common on the frontier, but which has lately much diminished in numbers-men who were ever ready to stake their last dollar on a turn of the cards, or risk their lives in an Indian fight, however great might be the odds.

Serge would fain have bought his horse, my admiration of the animal having doubtless made my friend partial to it; but although he offered one hundred and fifty dollars down, a very long sum here, it was politely but positively declined.

"No, no," said our new friend; "although I ha'nt got a dime to call my own, I won't part with Dannel. I got him from Old Kentucky, where he was bred by my uncle, when he was a four year old. He's carried me for five, that makes him nine, and he's as good now

yes, and better-than he was the day I first mounted him, except that he's somewhat battered, but a week will put him all straight. His match can't be found nowhere at a quarter race, or to go a distance. He's a fortune to an enterprising young man in the settlements, he jist is. One who had cut his eye teeth could make a good living out of him; and for the Indian country, wall, you may travel from Mexico to Missouri, and you can't find his superior. He aint no darn'd fool; no plaguey Indian can stampede him, I'll tell you, for if they drive him a mile off, he'd come back the very minute he heard my whistle. I'd just as soon turn him loose as not. Well, you may scarce credit me," turn"for you see you are strangers, and don't

ing toward us,

know Dannel."

Upon this he untied the horse, and removing one of the waggon poles to make an opening for him, gave him a slap on the rump. The horse trotted out on the prairie, and ten minutes afterwards he whistled, and true enough the well-trained animal returned and placed his muzzle upon his master's shoulder.

Nothing but kindness could have produced so good an understanding between owner and beast, so that the stranger became a favourite, for it was evident that he must have a good heart.

CHAPTER XI.

A TRAGEDY.

NEXT day, about 9 a.m., we were joined by several Indians, the most miserable specimens of the red-man I had yet seen. Their clothing was of the most filthy and ragged description imaginable, many even being naked from the waist upwards. Their head covering was limited to a conspicuous scalp-lock, into which were twisted several feathers. Their features were fearfully forbidding; retreating foreheads, with remarkably high cheek bones, being the principal characteristics. Very few of them exceeded the height of five feet four inches, and when dismounted their gait was a hobble, not a walk. The most diminutive specimens of calves ever seen on Newmarket Heath might be deemed princely in size in comparison with theirs. I doubt if there was the slightest alteration in the fulness of the leg where the calf is usually found. As I have said their walk was a shuffle, and evidently subjected them to such inconvenience that two miles in an hour would have been a performance far beyond their powers. But awkward and ungainly as they looked upon foot, the moment they were across their horses, the observer was struck with astonishment and admiration at the wonderful revolution their powers had undergone. Every movement of their body was now the perfection of grace, and whether their horses reared, plunged, or bucked, or made

any other effort to unseat their riders, such attempts were simply wasted.

None of our people understood a word these Indians spoke, for they belonged to the redoubtable Camanche tribe, who prided themselves in holding little or no intercourse with white men. In fact, like the Badowin, their hand is against every man, and as may be expected, every man's hand is against them.

They did not long honour us with their presence; in fact, I suppose they had come on a species of reconnaissance to discover our numbers, to learn if we were likely to make a good fight, and if our beasts were worth running the risk of making a night attack for. Their decision, of course, we did not know then. They bid us bon voyage, in evident good temper, but we knew not whether the words were intended as a threat of future warfare or spoken in irony.

Bonté, as was his habit among the Indians, displayed his usual liberality; consequently, beads and tobacco were freely distributed among them, and if these presents had the usual effect of making the heart of the Indian glad, then they should have been supremely happy.

I could not help having a good look at their horses previous to mounting, for it was currently reported that the Camancha think nothing of a forced march of a hundred miles in twenty-four hours without doing their steeds injury, and without a protracted halt during its performance; but it must be remembered that few of these men exceed nine stones in weight, and that they ride without saddles or accoutrements. With the excep

tion of one animal, that bestrode by him we took for the chief, the height of their horses was rather over than under fourteen hands! Although in this respect they resembled the Cossack horse of the Ukrane, in others they looked far better bred, and they appeared to have quite as much bone. Of course, these were all mustangs, but there are two distinct races of mustangs found upon the plains of Mexico and Texas,-as I have been informed by those who have spent their lives in the countries just mentioned, both are equally hardy and enduring, but the one far exceeds the other in speed. All American wild horses are supposed to be descended from the French and Spanish breeds, the swifter animals doubtless being descended from the former. The range of this breed is further to the eastward than that of the other, for while Spain held Mexico and Texas, France had Louisiana. And as the favourite French saddle horse of two centuries ago was that race which at this date looks like a pure bred Arab, the bach de Horas, I am inclined to believe that the eastern mustangs owe their greater speed to superior breeding. We could not mount cavalry on such horses, for we could not find men of such diminutive weight and stature to make a corps, and if we did, they would be unwilling to go without accoutrements, packs, great-coats, &c., thus overweighting these hardy little horses; otherwise, their importation into England might be desirable.

But although fit to mount light cavalry upon, by judicious crossing they might much improve our race of hackneys and light harness horses.

But dismissing the mustangs, I would say a word