sleeping in his bed, she was harassed with fears lest some one should come arid take him for the purpose of shooting him.
While I was at the Ranche, Stockton sent'out some of his men to get some cattle at Maxwell's Ranche, which he claimed as his. His instructions were to take the cattle at all hazards, and to capture the men who were supposed to have stolen them, dead or alive. The herders were generally selected for their utter recklessness, and as a rule they cared neither for God nor man, but would shoot down any one who offended them, without pity or remorse. Most of these herders are very young men, and are generally athletic and handsome. Some of them, from their appearance and conversation, appear to have been well reared ; and if asked why they have come to the frontiers to lead such a wild life as this, they will frankly say, that they are trying to make their fortunes, and that they expect to do it in a couple of years. They are usually disappointed in these expectations; and those who do not give up in disgust, and return to civilization, fall into the habits of the country, and soon become as finished desperadoes as those who have been born and brought up there. Some of them, however, engaged in this kind of life because they really like it, and because they feel a certain freedom and unrestraint in roaming about in the open air.
Lawlessness.
Whenever a freight train, either American or Mexican, passed, Stockton would buckle on his belt of six-shooters, and, with a big negro, armed in a similar manner, as his body guard, step out into the road with a roll of brands in one hand and a pistol in the other, and inspect the brands on each head of cattle. Should the brands compare with his, he would take them from the train, and let the freighters make out the best way they could. He has many times stopped and broken up freight trains bound for Sante Fe and the interior, to the infinite injury of the merchants who depend upon the freighters for their goods. The traders, however, appear to be powerless before this and other desperadoes, and the government which takes their taxes, under the plea of affording them protection, ought certainly to do something to prevent them from being at the mercy of men who recognize no laws but their own fierce wills.
