The Log of a Cowboy | Page 7

run for the water. When the cattle
were once inside the wing we went rapidly, four vaqueros riding
outside the fence to keep the cattle from turning the chute on reaching
swimming water. The leaders were crowding me close when Nigger
breasted the water, and closely followed by several lead cattle, I struck
straight for the American shore. The vaqueros forced every hoof into
the river, following and shouting as far as the midstream, when they
were swimming so nicely, Quarternight called off the men and all
turned their horses back to the Mexican side. On landing opposite the
exit from the ford, our men held the cattle as they came out, in order to
bait the next bunch.
I rested my horse only a few minutes before taking the water again, but
Lovell urged me to take an extra horse across, so as to have a change in
case my black became fagged in swimming. Quarternight was a harsh
segundo, for no sooner had I reached the other bank than he cut off the
second bunch of about four hundred and started them. Turning Nigger
Boy loose behind the brush fence, so as to be out of the way, I galloped
out on my second horse, and meeting the cattle, turned and again took
the lead for the river. My substitute did not swim with the freedom and
ease of the black, and several times cattle swam so near me that I could
lay my hand on their backs. When about halfway over, I heard
shoutings behind me in English, and on looking back saw Nigger Boy
swimming after us. A number of vaqueros attempted to catch him, but
he outswam them and came out with the cattle; the excitement was too
much for him to miss.
Each trip was a repetition of the former, with varying incident. Every
hoof was over in less than two hours. On the last trip, in which there
were about seven hundred head, the horse of one of the Mexican
vaqueros took cramps, it was supposed, at about the middle of the river,
and sank without a moment's warning. A number of us heard the man's
terrified cry, only in time to see horse and rider sink. Every man within
reach turned to the rescue, and a moment later the man rose to the

surface. Fox caught him by the shirt, and, shaking the water out of him,
turned him over to one of the other vaqueros, who towed him back to
their own side. Strange as it may appear, the horse never came to the
surface again, which supported the supposition of cramps.
After a change of clothes for Quarternight and myself, and rather late
dinner for all hands, there yet remained the counting of the herd. The
Mexican corporal and two of his men had come over for the purpose,
and though Lovell and several wealthy rancheros, the sellers of the
cattle, were present, it remained for Flood and the corporal to make the
final count, as between buyer and seller. There was also present a river
guard,--sent out by the United States Custom House, as a matter of
form in the entry papers,--who also insisted on counting. In order to
have a second count on the herd, Lovell ordered The Rebel to count
opposite the government's man. We strung the cattle out, now logy with
water, and after making quite a circle, brought the herd around where
there was quite a bluff bank of the river. The herd handled well, and for
a quarter of an hour we lined them between our four mounted counters.
The only difference in the manner of counting between Flood and the
Mexican corporal was that the American used a tally string tied to the
pommel of his saddle, on which were ten knots, keeping count by
slipping a knot on each even hundred, while the Mexican used ten
small pebbles, shifting a pebble from one hand to the other on hundreds.
"Just a mere difference in nationality," Lovell had me interpret to the
selling dons.
When the count ended only two of the men agreed on numbers, The
Rebel and the corporal making the same thirty-one hundred and
five,--Flood being one under and the Custom House man one over.
Lovell at once accepted the count of Priest and the corporal; and the
delivery, which, as I learned during the interpreting that followed, was
to be sealed with a supper that night in Brownsville, was consummated.
Lovell was compelled to leave us, to make the final payment for the
herd, and we would not see him again for some time. They were all
seated in the vehicle ready to start for town, when the cowman said to
his foreman,--

"Now, Jim, I can't give you any pointers