collision with a few moments before. They had built no fires, for fear the smoke might betray them to the Comanches, of whose presence in the country they were aware. Our repast was light, simple, and nutritious; such as the southern Indians always carry with them on their expeditions. It consisted merely of dried beef and venison pounded up fine, that it might occupy as little space as possible in their packs, and Mexican wheat, parched and then coarsely ground between two stones. This last we mixed with water from the river and drank. This food is highly nutritious, and easily carried; and the Indians will endure immense hardships, for a long time, on it alone. The necessities of their wild helter-skelter lives have taught them to settle down upon the two articles, of all others, used by man for food-which analytical chemistry has taught us to contain the greatest amount of alimentary matter compressible into the smallest space. It is a curious fact that men will endure a greater amount of fatigue, and for a greater length of time, on this than any other known diet. The hunters, trappers and Indians all agree in asserting this, and my experience goes to confirm it. The meal, which had been dispatched in rather formal silence, being finished, Castro arose, as the politicians say, to define his position. He was a fine-looking fellow, straight as the stem of a palm; his limbs exquisitely developed. There was a light and elegant finish about his whole frame, that I scarcely ever saw approached-an expression of bounding elasticity that cannot be conveyed. His face was after "the high old Roman fashion," his forehead broader and better developed than I ever noticed an Indian's before; and the circlet of eagle's feathers set back upon it, the flash of his large black eye, and the play of his wide, thin nostril, gave to his whole air a fierce alertness, and wild magnanimity, which would have consummated the poet's ideal of nature's tameless chivalry-a nursling of the sun and storms-a knight of the sea-like waving plains quick in the chase and battle as the gray-hawk's arrowy stoop -merciless, strong, and terrible in beauty as the glossy panther. He was much distinguished too, above his tribe, by the richness of his ornaments, which were of pure silver, banded, and hung upon his dusky skin in great profuseness. A large species of rabbit, with very long on the plains for speed.b Tufts of red-stained horse-hair, and scar- "Brodder! the big war-chief," nodding The warriors sprang to their feet at the ears, that far outstrips any other animal conclusion of this oration, and danced, and yelled, and clattered their lances against their shields for a few moments, and then suddenly scattering, every man to his horse, in an incredibly short time they were all mounted, everything in its place, and ready to be off. The Colonel shook hands with the young chief, saying, "Castro is brave-he has fought by my side! The Lipans are like white warriors! Good-bye! Go it, my fine fellow! you are game, and no mistake!" We gave them three cheers, which they answered with the war-whoop, and scurried off at full speed over the plain-and a wild, light-heeled, fierce-hearted crew were they! Antone and Davis galloped along with them for a half-mile, making more fuss and fierce demonstrations than any warrior of them all; but after they had wounded the inoffensive air by a sufficient number of ferocious thrusts at some phantom foe, to convince the Indians how severely they would deal with one of flesh, they wheeled out of the crowd, and came galloping back to us with all the conscious bearing of heroes. We now set out for home-the Texan grumbling that he had been disappointed in a fight!-the Mexicans swaggering about what they would have done that is, Antone and Davis being mouthpieces of the common sentiment !-while the Colo nel and myself jogged along very cosily together he in his usual gossiping mood, and I a good listener! "The Lipans," said he, "were once a formidable nation. They have held a desperate feud with the Comanches since the flood, for all I know; and after we came here to take possession of the country, we found them one of the most unmanageable tribes in it. We had some furious fights with them. Between the Texas rifles and the lances of the Comanches, they had been thinned out amazingly, though they were still so troublesome that the boys got together at last to exterminate them-tear them up, root and branch!and though at the time there was a sort of truce between us, the boys crept on their camp, near Labaca Bay, one morning about daybreak, and firing upon it, then went into a regular wholesale slaughter of men, women and children. They fought like devils as soon as they got their eyes open-for they were sleeping like logs when the Texans fired on them. But it all wouldn't do, and they were killed the whole of them, but these sixty warriors and a few women who made their escape. The Coman He ches got wind of it, and hoping to wreak on this weakened remnant the vengeance they had been waiting for, upon the tribe, they pressed them so hard that the wretched creatures came to us for protection. They swore to be our fast friends forever, if we would save them from extermination! We drove off the Comanches, and since that time the Lipans have been faithful and very useful to us. It was like a cur licking the hand that beat him; but they knew there was a greater chance of mercy for them, with us, than with their old enemies. Indians hate where their fathers hated hotter than devils. Castro was a youngster thenbut he's got the heart of a white man in him. He saw me in a fight with the Comanches once, and came to me and wanted me to tell him the charm that would make him fight like me. wouldn't believe it when I told him there was no conjuration about it, and wouldn't leave me for six months after, night or day. Every fight we had, he kept by my side, watching every movement I made, thinking I had concealed the spell from him, and determined to find it out. He would go wherever I did, it mattered not what the danger was; and I have frequently been amused to see how closely he would watch me. In the hottest of a fight-instead of attending to his own defence-his eyes would be curiously observing the slightest thing I did, and imitating it then, himself. When he met with Captain Hays of Bexar-who is the most daring and successful ranger we ever had on the frontier-I thought the fellow would go crazy with delight. He almost worships him! and for a year or two, he never left him; and the boys used to say, it was nip and tuck between Jack- -as they call Hays-and Castro, who would do the most foolhardy things. His tribe soon elected him their warchief. And though he never found out the secret of the "spell," as he thought it was, yet in the search for it he became one of the most bold and headlong warriors I have ever known. The boys tell a good story about him! Every rash thing Hays did-and he did a plenty of 'em-Castro would forthwith do something just as rash, and a little more so if possible. He was along with Hays and his party of ten Rangers, on an expedition to the Rio Grande once, and they very unexpectedly came in view of a troop of eighty Mexican cavalry. There seemed to be no chance for it but to fight, great as the difference in number was, or be taken; and such an idea never, for once, entered into Hays' calculations. The Mexican Colonel rode out some distance in advance of his men, and very insolently ordered Hays to surrender. The parties were about three hundred yards apart. Hays coolly turned to his men, and said, "Set still boys, I'll fix that chap!" They were so accustomed to his odd ways that they obeyed, and let him ride on alone, to meet the Mexican offieer. The officer thought he was coming for a parley, and approached him off his guard. It happened that Hays was riding a wild young horse that was not accustomed to firing. He forgot this, though, and, supposing it was his old horse, when he got in about eighty paces of the officer, jerked his rifle suddenly to his face, and tumbled him off. The young horse, desperately frightened, ran off with him, and carried him like a streak clear through the Mexican line. They were so much astonished at the rapidity of the thing, and the fall of their leader, that they did not attempt to interrupt him, and he passed through unhurt. Castro, when he saw this, instantly put spurs to his horse-for he thought it was a bravado feat, and was determined not to be laid in the shade. So all alone he came charging down upon the Mexicans too; but they had by this time somewhat recovered from their stupor, and gave him a little hotter reception than Hays had met-though they were most thoroughly confounded by this new mode of fighting. They closed around Castro, who fought like a wild-cat, and soon unhorsed him, with a half dozen wounds; and, but that the Rangers, just in time, dashed in to his rescue, he would have been cut to pieces. The Mexicans never got over the confusion these two extraordinary sallies produced, and were badly whipped. After they got through tying the prisoners, Hays stumbled upon Castro, lying bruised, bleeding, and almost insensible, under the feet of their horses. He stooped by him, thinking he was mortally wounded, and took his hand affectionately. Castro opened his eyes, and seeing who it was, said, smilingly, as he closed them again," Ah, Capitain Hays! you be too much brave for poor Castro! he no go through the hell like you!" It was a long time before the brave and simple-hearted fellow got over it, and when he did get well, he merely answered the joke that was current about the affair, saying, "The white chief no more shall beat Castro for the laugh." I When we reached home, we found a "My boy," said he, " you are too imprudent! You will get into a row over there, if you go! It's going to be a ticklish evening. The old woman wants a quarrel with me any how, and if there are too many Americans there, she will make that an excuse." "I like that, coming from you," I said, laughing. "It sounds rather funny to hear you preaching prudence, after what you did yesterday." "Well! well!" said he, with a grin; "but I am in earnest! I have especial reasons for thinking that it will be the safest for all parties that you and Texas shouldn't go there to-night. I wish you would stay; your feet are too sore to dance, any how." This was too true; I was too much used up to enjoy the thing, and felt half disposed not to go, at any rate. But Texas swore bluntly that he would; though the Colonel continued to remonstrate and persuade, he was not to be moved. I thought there was something odd about this excessive anxiety to have us stay behind; but I was too much worried to think about it specially, and threw myself upon my buffalo robe for a nap. I was waked by the glare of a light in my face. On looking up, I saw it was caused by the boy who brought the message from old madam. This boy was a singular animal. The Colonel had told me concerning him-that his parents, who had been frontier people, were both killed while he was quite small, by the Comanches, and he taken prisoner; that after keeping him among them for a year or so, the Indians had brought him back with them on an expedition against this settlement; that the boy, in a very daring style, had jumped down from behind the warrior who had charge of him in the midst of a fight, and made his escape by running to the Rancho of Madam Cavillo, although riddled by half a dozen arrows in the effort; that since, he had lived a sort of jackall-life, from house to house, owned by no one, kicked and cuffed on all sides, mocking and stealing from everybodythe Mexicans hating him because he was white,and the whites-who had ever seen him-taking no interest in him, because of his wild, curious habits and a character for faithlessness. He lived, in a word, "a vagabond upon the face of the earth." The night had set in very dark, and he had built a fire to roast some meat by, which he had pilfered from the Colonel's pork-barrel. It was a sketch for the pen cil of a Cruikshank-that boy with his "unkempt hair-his looped and windowed raggedness," crouching over the flickering blaze, one hand before his face, to protect it from the heat, the other holding a great slice of fat pork to toast on the end of a sharp stick; and in the entire abstraction of his task-his thick and flabby lips fallen upon his chin, and drip ping with saliva-while the dense and gloomy shadows rose and fell, and leaped and danced about him, from the uncertain flame. I watched him for a few minutes, and then called him--" John!" sprang to his feet with a sneaking, guilty look, and endeavored to conceal his theft, until he found it was of no use; then putting an impudent face upon the matter, he broke out into a loud and shrill laugh. He "Ha! ha! old Red-head wanted yer to stay to-night to keep his things from being stealed by his women-did he ? "Snake baked de hoe-cake- Lizard come and stole it.' "Ha! ha! ha! went to sleep, Mr. Frog, did you?" He accompanied this elegant ditty with a Jim Crow sort of shuffle, and psalmody whine through his nose. "What do you mean, you scamp, by his woman wanting to steal his things!" said I-a good deal amused by this cute fashion of getting out of a scrape. "Lor! ain't you hearn yit? Why, he went and tuck her by the hair and dragged her out'en her old dad's house, and he wooled her, and he larruped her, and he stomped her! He licked her nasty, now I tell you! May-be he warn't in a rarin tarin tantrum! and all just because the yaller slut got scairt and swom 'cross the river when the Injuns comed! He's a regular bustin' old devil! When he gits a guine, thar's sumph'en to pay, sure as Lizard come and stole it. He was in the act of bouncing out of the door, with this chorus on his lips-or in his nose, rather-when 1 intercepted him. "Not so fast, my bright boy! I want you to show me how to get across the river. I shall go up to the Rancho!" "Well, won't you tell old Red-head about the hog-meat, and git me licked?" "Never mind about the meat; but if you don't show me right, about getting over that log, I shall have to lick you myself!" "You catch a skunk afore you eat him-don't you?" said he with a saucy grin. The rascal seemed to be a perfect Flibbertigibbet; and, as I knew it would be impossible to find the crossing-place, dark as it was, without his piloting, I propitiated him with a present of tobacco, got my gun and side-arms, a 1 we were off in a minute--he dancing with all sorts of antics before me-flourishing his chunk of meat over his head, between the mouthfulls he tore off from it, mumbling out snatches of curious rhyme-imitations of the wild sounds of the wood and prairie. The night was dark enough anywhere, but when we descended to the last bank of the river, where the timber was very tall and heavy, it was the blackness of darkness; the huge trunks of the cottonwoods themselves could not be distinguished near the ground. The heavy ripple of the deep, rapid stream, was loud and threatening-it seemed to me right at our feet, and I felt all the time as if the next step would take me into it. I was guided only by the sound of the boy's step and his voice, which he took care should be loud enough, and strange enough, too, to wake hollow, screeching, and every other sort of echo, in multiplied reverberations. A huge owl flapped its damp wing close by my ear, and answered him in a hoot so stunningly loud, that my heart fairly jumped again. The boy laughed, and shouted "The Injine says-too-whoo! too-whoo! The old owl says-too-whoo! too-whit! Hunter, watch! he is fooling you! Arrows are keen, as well as wit!" The chorus to this curious snatch was taken up in hootings and screeches, on every side, until it seemed to me that the woods were alive with owls-the gloomy shadows literally torn and quaking with the discord of pipes of every calibre, and the rattle rattle! snap! snap! of angry beaks. The wolves, too, put in as choristers, and the boy led off again— "The red wolf says, whoo!-ooh! whoo! -ah! The Injine says, whoo!-ooh! whoo!-00! His imitations of the voices of the animals were so complete, that they answered him the waves of sound swelling louder, more prolonged, until there was a very tempest of dolors, pouring from a hundred howling, hooting, screeching throats, that was positively infernal. I felt oppressed and restless. There was something awful in these moaning, hideous articulations of the deep night-coming as they did, in multiplied, rebounding echoes, through the wide and foresttangled jaws of darkness! And this imp of the wilds who was leading me! There was nothing in his reckless deviltry, at all calculated to make me feel more comfortable; and when he shouted "Here's the log! look sharp!"-I was altogether doubtful whether he did not intend to play me some elfish trick. It was a perilous passage-almost as bad as Mohammed's Hair Bridge to the Seventh Heaven. It was a single and very slim tree, fallen across the river, and that, too, at very little short of a perpendicu lar angle; and how to pass it, in this Egyptian gloom, rather puzzled me! "You'n got to take it coon-fashionon all fours," said my guide. "Hang close with your claws!" It looked like a hazardous game indeed! crawling through the intense blackness on my hands and knees up that narrow and trembling bridge-above the fierce rush of the deep, fretful current. I made the venture; and you may conceive how foolish I felt, suspended over the mad waters, the laugh of that strange boy commingling with their eager turbulence. I managed to get across, though, at last, and when I looked back, could faintly distinguish his grotesque figure, leaping and swinging above the angry chaos. We climbed the hill and were soon at the Rancho. It would be difficult for an American to realize the characteristics of the odd scene that met my view. Passing through the great gate, I was introduced to the square open court--an area of about a quarter of an acre-the low stone houses, on its four sides, lit by rush-lights and resounding with music. In the middle of the court itself was a great fire, over which was swung a mighty kettle of coffee; near it stood tubs of "chickerones"-and women, with long hair hanging loose upon their shoulders, were snatching "tortilias" from the hot stones as they became done, and heaping them in piles around. There were at least five hundred Mexicans crowding, shouting, and jabbering and feasting, in the open space the men in white cotton shirts, loose trowsers and the "Serape"-the women in striped "rebesos" of the same material thrown like a veil over their heads. Every one-men, women and childrenholding in one hand a tin cup, which was replenished occasionally from the kettle of coffee-and in the other a tortilla and chickerones. The presence of my sprightly guide among them was very suddenly apparent from the increased confusion and hubbub. I elbowed my way through the dense, noisy throng, to a low, long room, from which the sounds of revelry seemed to proceed most obstreperously. I succeeded, after a good deal of trouble in establishing my position just inside the door, and there a most comical scene presented itself. The most conspicuous figures among a crowd of dancers, were the Colonel and old Madame Cavillo. He in a blanket coat-his pantaloons stuck into the tops of the long clumsy boots I had given him-was stamping it, through the Jarabo," (a country dance,) dragging after him the old dame, who flung out with amazing vivacity her lean and slippered shanks: her parchment face wrinkled with affectionate simpers, and her keen little black eyes leering most lovingly at her gay Lothario. I thought she meant to kiss him-she gazed so passionately at him! She looked the Venus of an infernal revel! Close behind this exquisite couple came Texas, bouncing and curveting till his head almost touched the ceiling, dragging after him a thumping Mexican damsel. Davis was there, too, the glass of fashion and the mould of form "the focus of all |