Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/166

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142
PICTURES OF LIFE IN MEXICO.

effects of his wounds, thus to have the cup of bliss dashed from his lips. He lingered for a while around the scene of his former success incapable of exertion, and careless of what might befall him. Then, summoning all his remaining resolution, he determined to remove to a distant part of the mining regions; there to recommence a career of toil and privation. After two days wearisome travel, therefore, he arrived within the precincts of another settlement, and resumed his labours. This district was less productive than the last, and far more exposed to the attacks of hostile Indians, also; still, he determined to labour on and succeed in his aims, or lose his life in the attempt.

One bright morning he left his humble couch earlier than usual, and had strayed to a considerable distance on the other side of the mountain before he became aware of it. He was abstractedly watching the vapour, as it still lay in shady spots, or was absorbed in others by the heat of the newly-risen sun, when his attention was arrested by seeing, in a slight hollow in the sand before him, the body of a tall, muscular Indian, awfully bruised and mangled, with a mass of congealed and darkened blood around it. The sight at once