old times they had an hereditary limited
monarchy, with a broad tinge of mediæval
policy, yet since the advent of the
republicans on their borders in the more
civilised parts of the country, the chiefs
are elected. And I can assure the reader
there is as much chicanery and political
engineering displayed as in the most
civilised societies.

If early to bed and early to rise would
only bring to the practitioner a moiety
of the blessings the couplet ascribes to
it, one would think that our "Digger"
Indian ought to be a happy man. Little
burdened with the world's goods, he is
asleep by the time the sun is down, and is
off again by the break of day.

On the whole, as we sat cheerily round
our sage-brush camp fire that night, we
came to the conclusion that the Indian's
was an enviable existence, and that one
of these days we would turn savage
altogether, after having been half and half
for the last three months. We even
began to begrudge him his life. Congress
had already done that, and put him on
civilised " reserves." " He's a dooced
sight too well off," remarked an honourable
candidate for the legislature, as he
carefully trimmed an inch-square chew of
tobacco. " Happy! I guess he's as happy
as a—-" What simile he would have
compared the felicity of a Digger Indian
to, I know not, for just then a strange
figure rode into camp. He was an Indian,
mounted on a sorry nag, and, as to his
garments, ragged and scanty. Though
none of us could understand much of his
language, yet this knight of the ragged
poncho made himself very much at home,
and, after giving a careless patronising nod
all round, without being asked, finished
the remains of our supper with the utmost
suavity. He might be any age between
fifteen and forty, for it was impossible to
say from his appearance. He did not
appear to be a native of the region, and, after
some difficulty, he made us understand that
he came from somewhere in the Humboldt
country, in the direction of the great Salt
Lake in Utah; and that he had fled from
his tribe for some offence (in which the
cutting of throats appeared to mingle). His
enemies were on his track, and, seeing our
trail, he had resolved to put himself under
our protection ; finally, he was going to
remain with us. Now, though none of us
had much objection to Indians murdering
each other, yet we had no desire to be
the Quixote of this ragged vagabond,
or to embroil ourselves with his countrymen.
We accordingly told him, in that
grandiloquent tone supposed to be necessary
when addressing the savage,* that we were
going to a distant country, to a very
distant country, to the setting of the sun.
Whereupon we were assured that that was
the very place he was in search of! In the
morning he made himself so handy in
getting up our horses (though we were every
now and again troubled with a suspicion
that in a fit of abstraction he might disappear
during the night with our steeds, and
leave us helpless in the desert), and begged
so piteously to go to the "setting sun"
with us, that ordinary humanity prevailed,
and Sancho-Panza (as, with small regard
to the plot of Cervantes, we dubbed him,)
was soon recognised as a member of our
party, sharing in all the honours and
immunities, and doing full justice to the
comestibles. Sancho so ingratiated himself that
before long he became the possessor of a
butcher's knife, a " hickory shirt," and an
old blanket ; and the first day's travel had
not ended before he had paid my horse the
flattering compliment of offering to swop
with me. My companions were most of them
Southern men, and had all a Southerner's
love for the acquisition of a " nigger." They
accordingly began to train Sancho in the
way he should go, more especially in camp
cookery. He was very willing to learn,
but had great difficulty in comprehending
that the frying-pan was not a spittoon,
and that fat pork was not used in civilised
communities to light the fire on wet
mornings. One morning, after travelling
about two miles on our way, he suddenly
recollected that he had left his butcher's
knife at the camp fire, and, lightening his
horse of his blanket, rode back, telling us
that he would overtake us very soon. We
watched him riding over the sage-brush
plain until a rising ground hid him from
our sight. Slowly we jogged along, but still
he never overtook us. We halted long at
midday for him, and camped early; but
this ragged rover of the desert we never
saw again. There were men about that
evening's camp fire who were not
backward in hinting, amid sage winks, that
Sancho had given us the slip with the little
portable property he had acquired ; but
there were others who thought differently.
Getting rather anxious about him, lest he
might have missed our trail, we rode back ;