Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/99

Rh of his best cattle disappearing in the distance marshalled by a company of stealthy savages. The owner was not the man to suffer this robbery with impunity; so alarming nearly the whole district and placing himself at the head of some chosen followers he sallied forth before the dawn of morning in the direction the plunderers had taken. By the middle of the day he had overtaken engaged defeated them, and recovered his missing property; which he brought back in triumph—though several of the Indians were wounded, and two killed in the skirmish.

"Had this been all, we should have had no very great reason to complain; but the Indians—in obedience to the laws of their preordained nature—were revengeful. And though we heard nothing more of them for some time, yet on the very earliest occasion when Father Pablo was absent, they returned in greater numbers, laid a great part of his domain in ruins, and, not content with driving away nearly the whole of his horses and cattle, they carried off his wife and three children in addition. This was a terrible blow to the Padre; for he had been much attached to his wife and family: especially to the youngest, a fine boy,