Indians were in those days employed in herding cattle; imagine one of them engaged in such a gentle, pastoral occupation to-day! As soon as the influence of the missionaries began to wane, the Indians ceased herding, and returned to their old trades of murder and rapine.

The United States commissioners to Texas are of the opinion that not only have the Indians been aided and abetted by Mexicans in their stealing from the rancheros of Western Texas, but that Mexicans are directly engaged in the stealing themselves, and that so great has been the loss from these causes since the war, that the number of cattle now grazing west of San Antonio is between two-thirds and three-fourths less than in 1866.

But the stock-raisers, despite the many dangers and vexations which beset them, are a healthy, happy set. Their manners have a tinge of Spanish gravity and courtesy; they are sun-browned, stalwart men, unused to the atmosphere of cities, and in love with the freedom of the plains. Their herds of thousands range at will over the unfenced lands, and only once yearly do the stout rancheros drive them up to be examined, branded, and separated. Ownership is determined by peculiar brands and ear-marks, records of

which are kept in the offices of the county clerks, and published in the newspapers. There is a stock-raisers' association which has decided on rules for mutual protection and aid.

The cattle interest is rather heavily taxed for transportation, and suffers in consequence. In 1872 there were four hundred and fifty thousand cattle driven overland from Western Texas to Kansas, through the Indian Territory, by Bluff Creek and Caldwell, up the famous "Chisholm trail." In 1871 as many as seven hundred thousand were driven across. The general value of "Kansas beeves" is $12 to $13 gold; but after deducting all expenses the average profit on the "drive" is not much more than a fair rate of interest on the money invested. But few cattle are transported by sea; the outlet for the trade by way of Indianola has never been very successful. The Morgan steamships carry perhaps 40,000 beeves yearly that way. The two great shipping points in 1872-3 were Wichita, on a branch of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad, at the junction of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers, and Ellsworth, on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The whole country, at the time of transit, is covered with vast herds which begin to arrive in Kansas early in May and await buyers

there. A stampede is something which baffles description; you must witness it. It is a tempest of horns and tails, a thunder of hoofs, a lightning of wild eyes; I can describe it no better. Merely to see a man on foot is sometimes sufficient to set the average Texan cattle into a frenzy of fear, and a speedy stampede; for the great majority of them have never been approached save by men on horseback. The gathering up of stock is no small task, as a herd of seventy-five thousand cattle will range over an area fifty miles wide by a hundred miles long. Large stock-raisers are always increasing their stock by buying

was not grass enough on the island to maintain them. So he sent men to bring them off. There is probably nothing more sublimely awful in the whole history of cattle-raising than the story of those beasts, from the time they were driven from the island until they had scattered to the four corners of Western Texas. Among these Matagordian cattle which had run wild for years were eight hundred noble and ferocious bulls; and wherever they went they found the country vacant before them. It was as if a menagerie of lions had broken loose in a village. Mr. Maverick never succeeded in keeping any

of the herd together; they all ran madly whenever a man came in sight; and for many a day after, whenever any unbranded and unusually wild cattle were seen about the ranges, they were called "Mavericks." The bulls were finally dispersed among the ranges; but they were long the terror of the land.

The estimated profits of cattle-raising are enormous. Some authenticated instances are worthy especial mention. One man in the vicinity of San Antonio began in 1856 with 150 head of cattle; he now has sixty thousand, and is considered worth $350,000; another, who began by

less as the ocean. The grandeur, the rugged beauty of these mighty table-lands will for many years yet be enjoyed only by the Indian; he makes a good fight there. Southwest from Fort Concho runs a defensive line, dotted with Forts Stockton, Davis, Hultman, and Bliss, the latter opposite El Paso, at the extreme western limit of Texas, and nearly seven hundred miles from San Antonio, at the entrance of the mountain passes of Chihuahua. Service in this department is no child's play; it is a rough and tumultuous school; and to see the general activity, one wonders that more is not actually accomplished; and finally determines that the railroads alone will solve the question. As it is, the thirty-five hundred men in the department, whether officered by Gen. Auger or Gen. Grant, cannot catch and punish the evil-minded Indians. The soldiers are rarely attacked; the alert and logical savage seeks a peaceful prey rather than a fight with men better armed than himself. He rarely, too, encounters the soldiers, because he never advertises his coming, as they often do. He is all eyes and ears: the tiniest cloud of dust on the horizon announces to him the approach of some one; he hears the faintest tremor among the grasses, and knows that it signifies sound afar off; he notes a little imprint on the plain and can decide at once whether or not it is the imprint of a soldier's foot, or a white man's horse. When he mounts a hill, he looks on all sides to see if there is anything stirring on the plain; if there is, he hides until he knows

what it is. It is easy to see that recruits and unpracticed frontiersmen cannot fight such people as these. Very few soldiers get killed; it is mainly the innocent settlers, who have no idea of protecting themselves, who suffer. Since 1866 over three hundred unoffending Texans have. been killed by murderous Indians and Mexicans. Great care is necessary in traversing the plains, even with an escort of soldiers. A gentleman, returning from Fort Clark, once strayed ahead of the main party and was found dead, with arrows sticking in him and minus his scalp. The Indians even hovered around the government commissioners, on their journey from Eagle Pass to Laredo. The Texans should be allowed to take the matter of subduing the Indians and protecting their frontier against the Mexicans into their own hands.

Wonderful land of limitless prairie-of beautiful rivers and strange foliage-land where there is room to breathe full breaths -land beyond which there seem no boundaries-the railroad will yet subdue you! Then there will be no more mystery in the plains-the chaparral thickets-the groves of post oak and pecon--the cypress-bordered streams-the grand ranges-the sunburnished stretches. The stage routes will be forgotten; the now rapidly decaying native Indian tribes will stray into some unexplored nook never to sally forth again. The Rio Grande will no longer be a boundary, and the Sierra Madre's rocky gaps will echo back the sharp accents of the American tongue. All this in a few years!