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Updated: May 3, 2025
He had known Enrique since the day of his birth. As a five-year-old, and naked as the day he was born, had he not ridden a colt at branding time, twice around the big corral without being thrown? At ten, had he not thrown himself across a gateway and allowed a caballada of over two hundred wild range horses to jump over his prostrate body as they passed in a headlong rush through the gate?
Pompo was saddled and bridled; a lazo was made out of raw-hide ropes; and in less than three days the whole caballada of wild horses eleven in all was shut up in our park. "Now, my friends, I fear I have quite tired you with our adventures. I might relate many more, and perhaps, at some future time, may do so.
We may be too late, for horses can hear each other miles off; and the slightest concussion vibrates afar through the elastic atmosphere of these high plateaux. We reach the caballada. What is Seguin doing? He has torn the blanket from under his saddle, and is muffling the head of his horse! We follow his example, without exchanging a word, for we know this is the only plan to pursue.
They were Kiowas and Comanches both; and had the caravan just about where they wanted it. The corral was completed; the caballada jostled in; the teamsters crawled here and there, to poke their guns through the wheels; in rode the skirmishers, Captain Bent last. The circling Indians pressed closer; and the cannon piece was yet useless, although the men yanked and slashed.
Had it not been for that, I should never have made the start. I was running for the caballada. I was running, too, for my life, and I required no encouragement to induce me to make the best of it. I soon distanced those who had been nearest me at starting; but the swiftest of the Indians were the young men who had formed the lines, and I saw that these were now forging ahead of the others.
In this way a corral was being formed, in shape of an oval, with an opening at the end, for the caballada to enter. That was desperate work. Around and around scurried the Indians, lying low upon their ponies' backs or hanging to the farther side, whooping, shaking their blankets, and launching their arrows and balls.
Then the horse-guard is detailed, and marches off to the caballada, and the Indians, one after another, spread their robes upon the ground, roll themselves in their serapes or blankets, and are soon asleep. For a time I found it impossible to sleep, although wearied with the unaccustomed exercise of the journey. Reclining upon my robe in a half sitting posture, I watch the scene around me.
Shortly after, I was wandering out to the caballada to look after my horse, when the sound of a bugle fell upon my ear. It was the signal for the men to assemble, and I turned back towards the camp. As I re-entered it, Seguin was standing near his tent, with the bugle still in his hand. The hunters were gathering around him.
Reed had not yet returned from the mountains. Nothing had been heard from Mr. Lippincott, or Mr. Grayson, since I left the latter at Sonoma. An authorized agent of Col. Fremont had arrived at the fort the day that I left it, with power to take the caballada of public horses, and to enroll volunteers for the expedition to the south.
A small party of men was in advance. Discovering in a brushy valley two Indians armed with bows and arrows, they were taken prisoners. Learning from them that there was a caballada of horses secreted in one of the canadas, they continued on about ten miles, and found about twenty-five fresh fat horses, belonging to a Californian now among the insurgents below.
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