and putting on the break and lashing his snorting
horses to a keen run, the skillful Jehu, with a diaboli-
cal leer, would send his coach dashing round precipice
and craggy wall on a thread of chiseled-out road,
swaying and sliding to within a few inches of death,
and dodojino; the overhano-ino; rocks and trees, divinor
in and out of ruts and whirling round on the verge
of chasms where but for the timely cry of " Sit up to
windward," horses, coach, and company would be
hurled into the abyss below. More than once the
thing has happened, when upon a drunken driver, a
slippery road, a fallen tree or boulder unexpectedly
encountered in rounding some sharp turn, was laid
the blame.
At first, between the several towns and camps there were no wagon roads, but only mule trails ; so that among the hills and in the mountains, provisions and other supplies had to be carried to the miners strapped to aparejos upon the backs of mules. Thus "packing" became a large business, and was one of the features of the times. Mules for the purpose were driven up from Sonora and Sinaloa, and Mexi- cans were chiefly employed as vaqueros or muleteers. Making up their cargoes in loads of from two to four hundred p ju ids according to the roads and the ability of the respective animals, each load was evenly bal- anced and firmly lashed on. At sunrise or there- abouts all was ready for the start, when an old horse with a cow-bell at his neck and a boy on his back led off, and the tinkling of this bell the mules would follow day and night. Three or five Mexicans on saddle-mules would follow a train of twenty or fifty mules re-adjusting loads, assisting the fallen, and urging on the whole with loud cries of "upa! mula, arriba ! arriba ! "
The Mexicans are the best vaqueros in the world. They are as familiar with the habits and idiosyncra- sies of the horse and mule as is the Arab of those of the camel, and they sit upon the saddle as if part
