The presents of the good people of Monterey proved to be a great
acquisition to my father. There were many books, which he appropriated
to himself; being now too aged and infirm to bear the fatigues of Indian
life, he had become fond of retirement and reading. As to Gabriel and
Roche, we became inseparable, and though in some points we were not on
an equality, yet the habit of being constantly together and sharing the
same tent united us like brothers.

As my readers will eventually discover, many daring deeds did we perform
together, and many pleasant days did we pass, both in the northern
cities of Mexico and western prairies of Texas, hunting with the
Comanches, and occasionally unmasking some rascally Texans, who, under
the paint of an Indian, would commit their murders and depredations upon
the remote settlements of their own countrymen.




CHAPTER IX.


In the remarks which I am about to make relative to the Shoshones, I may
as well observe that the same observations will equally apply to the
Comanches, Apaches, and Arrapahoes, as they are but subdivisions and
offsets from the original stock--the Shoshones. The Wakoes, who have not
yet been mentioned, or even seen, by any other travellers, I shall
hereafter describe.

I may as well here observe, that although the Shoshones are always at
peace with the Comanches and Apaches, they had for a long while been at