watched them till they had all disappeared in the horizon. And these
noble fellows were Indians; had they been Texans, they would have
murdered us to obtain our horses and rifles.

Two days after, we crossed the Rio Grande, and entered the dreary path
of the mountains In the hostile and Inhospitable country of the Navahoes
and the Crows[16].

[Footnote 16: The Crows are gallant horsemen; but although they have
assumed the manners and customs of the Shoshones, they are of the
Dahcotah breed. There is a great difference between the Shoshone tribes
and the Crows. The latter want that spirit of chivalry so remarkable
among the Comanches, the Arrapahoes, and the Shoshones--that nobility of
feeling which scorns to take an enemy at a disadvantage, I should say
that the Shoshone tribes are the lions and the Crows the tigers of these
deserts.]

We had been travelling eight days on a most awful stony
road, when at last we reached the head waters of the Colorado of the
West, but we were very weak, not having touched any food during the last
five days, except two small rattlesnakes, and a few berries we had
picked up on the way. On the morning we had chased a large grizzly bear,
but to no purpose; our poor horses and ourselves were too exhausted to
follow the animal for any time, and with its disappearance vanished away
all hopes of a dinner.

It was evening before we reached the river, and, by that time, we were
so much maddened with hunger, that we seriously thought of killing one
of our horses. Luckily, at that instant, we espied smoke rising from a
camp of Indians in a small valley. That they were foes we had no doubt;