A Wild Bull, Of The Fiercest Kind, Which Has Been Caught And
Exasperated In The Same Manner, Is Now Produced; And Both Animals
Are Turned Loose In The Arena Of A Small Amphitheatre.
The mortal
fight begins instantly; and always, at first, to the disadvantage
of Bruin; fatigued, as he is, by
His previous rough riding.
Roused, at length, by the repeated goring of the bull, he seizes
his muzzle with his sharp claws, and clinging to this most
sensitive part, causes him to bellow with rage and agony. In his
heat and fury, the bull lolls out his tongue; this is instantly
clutched by the bear; with a desperate effort he overturns his
huge antagonist; and then dispatches him without difficulty.
Beside this diversion, the travellers were likewise regaled with
bull-fights, in the genuine style of Old Spain; the Californians
being considered the best bull-fighters in the Mexican dominions.
After a considerable sojourn at Monterey, spent in these very
edifying, but not very profitable amusements, the leader of this
vagabond party set out with his comrades, on his return journey.
Instead of retracing their steps through the mountains, they
passed round their southern extremity, and, crossing a range of
low hills, found themselves in the sandy plains south of Ogden's
River; in traversing which, they again suffered, grievously, for
want of water.
In the course of their journey, they encountered a party of
Mexicans in pursuit of a gang of natives, who had been stealing
horses. The savages of this part of California are represented as
extremely poor, and armed only with stone-pointed arrows; it
being the wise policy of the Spaniards not to furnish them with
firearms. As they find it difficult, with their blunt shafts, to
kill the wild game of the mountains, they occasionally supply
themselves with food, by entrapping the Spanish horses. Driving
them stealthily into fastnesses and ravines, they slaughter them
without difficulty, and dry their flesh for provisions. Some they
carry off to trade with distant tribes; and in this way, the
Spanish horses pass from hand to hand among the Indians, until
they even find their way across the Rocky Mountains.
The Mexicans are continually on the alert, to intercept these
marauders; but the Indians are apt to outwit them, and force them
to make long and wild expeditions in pursuit of their stolen
horses.
Two of the Mexican party just mentioned joined the band of
trappers, and proved themselves worthy companions. In the course
of their journey through the country frequented by the poor Root
Diggers, there seems to have been an emulation between them,
which could inflict the greatest outrages upon the natives. The
trappers still considered them in the light of dangerous foes;
and the Mexicans, very probably, charged them with the sin of
horse-stealing; we have no other mode of accounting for the
infamous barbarities of which, according to their own story, they
were guilty; hunting the poor Indians like wild beasts, and
killing them without mercy.
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