head and started for the river.  I took the lead, for though cattle are less gregarious by nature than other animals, under pressure of excitement they will follow a leader.  It was about noon and the herd were thirsty, so when we reached the brush chute, all hands started them on a 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.