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of a better fate than being yoked ;md bound to such lazy, filthy, treacherous brutes as hold over them the dominion of lord and muster. But enough! The bare thought of the latter puts me in a passion; and so to get an even temper once more, let me consign them to oblivious contempt.
You 'will fancy, then, that a year has passed, and that we, having so far escaped with our lives, are now on our return to Upper California, thence to shape our route to Oregon, and then, ho! for the far dis tant land of our childhood.
Little did we dream in that happy mo ment of contemplation, of the terrible ca lamity about to befall us. Little did we think that our hearts, bright with hope and joy, were soon to be clouded with woe un utterable grief inconsolable. And why should we '? We who had been through so many perils, and made so many miracu lous escapes, where death seemed inevita ble why should we now, comparatively safe, already on our return, for a moment harbor the thought that a misfortune, be fore which all we had suffered sunk into insignificance, was impending us? How little does man know his destiny! Poor, blind mortal! what presumption in him to attempt to read the scroll of fate! But let me not anticipate.
It was a bright, warm day in the spring of 1842, that we arrived at Pueblo de los Angelos, where the Great Spanish Trail comes in from Santa Fe. We had been on the move day after day for nearly a month, during which time we had traveled some five hundred miles, and our horses were very much fatigued in consequence. Besides, their shoes being worn out and their feet sore, we resolved to remain here a few days, to have them shod, recruited, and put in a good traveling condition, while our time was to be spent in hunting, and examining the country round about.
Giving our beasts in charge of a respon sible person, with orders to see them well attended to, we set forward with our rifles, and taking the Spanish Trail, which here ran due east and west, we followed it some two miles, and then leaving it to the right, struck off into the mountains known as the Coast Range.
About noon we came to a point where '.he touutry assumed a very rough and wild
appearance. Cliff upon cliff rose one the other, above which, still, a few peaks shot up far heavenward, capped -with ever lasting snows. Tremendous precipices, deep caverns, and wild gorges, could be seen on every hand, full of danger to the unwary explorer.
Making a hak, we were already debating whether to advance or retrace our steps, when, as if to decide and lure us forward, a fine antelope was discovered on a rock above us, not over a hundred yards dis- ' tant, coolly eyeing us from his supposed sale retreat. Scarce a moment elapsed, so quick were the motions of each, ere our pieces, speaking together, told him too late of his error. lie was wounded, this we could see, but not enough to prevent his flight, and he turned and bounded over tha rocks up the steep.
"By heavens! Frank," cried Huntly, with enthusiasm, " here is sport in earnest. Nothing to do but give chase. He must not escape us. Dart you up the mountain, while I, by going round, will perhaps head him off on the other side. At all events, we will soon meet again."
On the impulse of the moment, I sprang forward in one direction and Huntly in another. To the great danger of my neck, I clambered up the steep aclivity, over precipitous rocks, gaping fissures, and through a dense brushwood, and stood at last upon the spot where we had first seen the goat. Here was a small pool of blood, and a bloody trail marked the course ot the animal; and I pressed on again, right ly judging, from the quantity of blood left behind, that he could not hold out any great distance. But the distance proved farther than I had anticipated, and half an hour found me completely out of breath, on the brow of one of the lower ridges, without having come in sight of the ante lope. Here the trail, more bloody than ever, took a downward course, and 1 counted on finding the chase between me and the foot of the hill. At this moment I heard, as I fancied, the shout of my friend; and thinking it one of delight, on being the first to reach the goat, 1 gave an an swering one of joy, and descended rapidly on the red trail.
Within fifty yards of the the valley, I discovered the object of my search, lying
