CHAPTER ELEVEN.
About a week after the fiesta of Saint John, a small party of ciboleroswas seen crossing the Pecos, at the ford of the "Bosque Redondo." Theparty was only five in number, and consisted of a white man, ahalf-blood, and three pure-bred Indians, having with them a small_atajo_ of pack-mules, and three ox-team carretas. The crouching trotof the Indians, as well as their tilma dresses and sandalled feet,showed that they were "Indios mansos." They were, in fact, the hired_peons_ of Carlos the cibolero--the white man, and chief of the party.
The half-blood--Antonio by name--was "arriero" of the mule-train, whilethe three Indians drove the ox-teams, guiding them across the ford withtheir long goads. Carlos himself was mounted upon his fine black horse,and, muffled in a strong serape, rode in front to pilot the way. Hisbeautiful manga had been left behind, partly to save it from the roughwear of such an expedition, and also that it might not excite thecupidity of the prairie Indians, who, for such a brilliant mantle as itwas, would not hesitate to take his scalp. Besides the manga, theembroidered jacket, the scarlet scarf, and velveteen calzoneros, had allbeen put off, and others of a coarser kind were now worn in their place.
This was an important expedition for Carlos. He carried with him thelargest freight he had ever taken upon the prairies. Besides the threecarretas with four oxen each, the atajo consisted of five pack-mules,all loaded with merchandise--the carretas with bread, pinole, Spanishbeans, Chile peppers; and the packs were made up of serape blankets,coarse woollen cloth, and a few showy trinkets, as also some Spanishknives, with their pointed triangular blades. It was his bold luck onthe day of the fiesta that had enabled him to provide such a stock. Inaddition to his own original onza and the two he had won, the youngranchero, Don Juan, had insisted upon his accepting the loan of fiveothers towards an outfit for this expedition.
The little troop, having safely forded the Pecos, headed towards the"ceja" of the Llano Estacado, that was not far distant from the crossingof Bosque Redondo. A sloping ravine brought them to the top of the"mesa," where a firm level road lay before them--a smooth plain withoutbreak or bush to guide them on their course.
But the cibolero needed no guide. No man knew the Staked Plain betterthan he; and, setting his horse's head in a direction a little south ofeast, the train moved on. He was striking for one of the head branchesof the Red River of Louisiana, where he had heard that for severalseasons past the buffalo had appeared in great numbers. It was a newroute for him--as most of his former expeditions had been made to theupper forks of the Texan rivers Brazos had Colorado. But the plainsaround these rivers were at this time in undisputed possession of thepowerful tribe of Comanches, and their allies, the Kiawas, Lipans, andTonkewas. Hence, these Indians, uninterrupted in their pursuit of thebuffalo, had rendered the latter wild and difficult of approach, and hadalso thinned their numbers. On the waters of the Red River the case wasdifferent. This was hostile ground. The Wacoes, Panes, Osages, andbands from the Cherokee, Kickapoo, and other nations to the east,occasionally hunted there, and sanguinary conflicts occurred among them;so that one party or another often lost their season's hunt by thenecessity of keeping out of each other's range; and the game was thusleft undisturbed. It is a well-known fact that in a neutral or "hostileground" the buffalo, as well as other game, are found in greatestabundance, and are there more easily approached than elsewhere.
With a knowledge of these facts, Carlos the cibolero had determined torisk an expedition to the Red River, whose head-waters have their sourcein the eastern "ceja" of the Llano Estacado, and _not_ in the RockyMountains as laid down upon maps.
Carlos was well armed for hunting the buffalo--so was the half-bloodAntonio--and two of the three peons were also experienced hunters.Their arms consisted of the bow and lance, both weapons being preferableto fire-arms for buffalo-hunting. In one of the carretas, however,might be seen a weapon of another kind--a long brown American rifle.This Carlos kept for other and higher game, and he well knew how to useit. But how came such a weapon into the hands of a Mexican cibolero?Remember Carlos was not of Mexican origin. The weapon was a familyrelic. It had been his father's.
We shall not follow Carlos and his "caravan" through all the details oftheir weary "journeyings" across the desert plain. At one place theymade a "Jornada" of seventy miles without water. But the experiencedCarlos knew how to accomplish this without the loss of a single animal.
He travelled thus. Having given his cattle as much as they would drinkat the last watering-place, he started in the afternoon, and travelleduntil near daybreak. Then a halt of two hours was made, so that theanimals should graze while the dew was still on the grass. Another longmarch followed, continuing until noon, then a rest of three or fourhours brought the cool evening, when a fresh spell of marching broughtthe "Jornada" to its end, far on in the following night. Such is themode of travelling still practised on the desert steppes of Chihuahua,Sonora, and North Mexico.
After several days' travelling the cibolero and his party descended fromthe high "mesa," and, passing down its eastern slope, arrived on atributary of the Red River. Here the scenery assumed a new aspect--theaspect of the "rolling" prairie. Gentle declivities, with soft roundedtops declining into smooth verdant vales, along which meandered streamsof clear and sparkling water. Here and there along the banks stoodgroves of trees, such as the evergreen live-oak, the beautiful "pecan"with its oblong edible nuts, the "overcup" with its odd-looking acorns,the hackberry with its nettle-shaped leaves and sweet fruits, and thesilvery cotton-wood. Along the swells could be seen large treesstanding apart, and at almost equal distances, as though planted for anorchard. Their full leafy tops gave them a fine appearance, and theirlight pinnate leaves, with the long brown legumes hanging from theirbranches, told they were the famous "mezquite" trees--the Americanacacia. The red mulberry could be seen in the creek bottoms, and hereand there the beautiful wild-china-tree with its pretty lilac flowers.The whole surface both of hill and valley was clad in a rich mantle ofshort _buffalo_ grass, which gave it the aspect of a meadow lately mown,and springing into fresh verdure. It was a lovely landscape, and nowonder the wild bulls of the prairies chose it for their favouriterange.
The cibolero had not travelled far through this favoured region until hecame upon the buffalo sign--"roads", "wallows", and "bois de vache;" andnext morning he found himself in the midst of vast herds, roaming aboutlike tame cattle, and browsing at their leisure. So little shy werethey, they scarce deigned to make off at his approach!
Of course he had reached the end of his journey. This was his greatstock-farm. These were his own cattle--as much his as any one else's;and he had nothing more to do but set to killing and curing.
As to his trade with the Indians, that would take place whenever heshould chance to fall in with a party--which he would be certain to doin the course of the season.
Like all men of the prairie, rude trappers as well as Indians, Carloshad an eye for the picturesque, and therefore chose a beautiful spot forhis camp. It was a grassy bottom, through which ran a clear "arroyo" ofsweet water, shaded by pecan, mulberry, and wild-china-trees, and underthe shadow of a mulberry grove his carretas were halted and his tent waspitched.