to find any thing equalling these natural shrubberies in beauty and
symmetry. In the morning and evening especially, when surrounded by a sort
of veil of light-greyish mist, and with the horizontal beams of the rising
or setting sun gleaming through them, they offer pictures which it is
impossible to get weary of admiring.

Mr Neal was a jovial Kentuckian, and he received us with the greatest
hospitality, only asking in return all the news we could give him from the
States. It is difficult to imagine, without having witnessed it, the
feverish eagerness and curiosity with which all intelligence from their
native country is sought after and listened to by these dwellers in the
desert. Men, women, and children, crowded round us; and though we had
arrived in the afternoon, it was near sunrise before we could escape from
the enquiries by which we were overwhelmed, and retire to the beds that
had been prepared for us.

I had not slept very long when I was roused by our worthy host. He was
going out to catch twenty or thirty oxen, which were wanted for the market
at New Orleans. As the kind of chase which takes place after these animals
is very interesting, and rarely dangerous, we willingly accepted the
invitation to accompany him, and having dressed and breakfasted in all
haste, got upon our mustangs and rode of into the prairie.

The party was half a dozen strong, consisting of Mr Neal, my friend and
myself, and three negroes. What we had to do was to drive the cattle,
which were grazing on the prairie in herds of from thirty to fifty head,
to the house, and then those which were selected for the market were to be
taken with the lasso and sent off to Brazoria.

After riding four or five miles, we came in sight of a drove, splendid