irst of the Spanish towns, which we reached mid-afternoon of the same
day.

It was with the keenest of emotions that I first made out what I took to
be the mud-wall stockade, or rampart, of this northernmost of the
Spanish settlements. At last I had arrived at the inhabited parts of New
Spain,--I was about to venture into the midst of our secretly, if not
openly, hostile Spanish neighbors. For all I knew, the long-threatened
war might have broken out months past; it might now be raging with
utmost fury. Yet even the thought of this far from improbable situation
did not cause me to waver for an instant. I needs must go on in search
of my lady, though a thousand Spaniards lined the road with guns loaded
and primed to shoot me down.

As we drew near the town gate, one of the tame Indians of the place ran
in with the news of my coming. I stopped, and was in the midst of paying
over the agreed articles to my guides, when a bewhiskered Spanish
corporal and a squad of dragoons came charging out as if to ride me
down. Some held their long lances levelled at my breast; others, who had
rushed off without their lances, flourished the short rifles which they
call _escopettes_; while one man had only his big horse pistol. All,
however, carried their thick leather shields, which it seems the
soldiers in these parts bear as a protection against the arrows of the
savages.

Greatly to my relief, I soon perceived that all this display of weapons
and horsemanship was intended rather as a greeting than a menace. As
they replaced their lances in the sockets and brought their curvetting
mounts to a stand, the corporal saluted me in a most hospitable manner.
At this, having good reasons for concealing what little knowledge of
Spanish I possessed, I demanded, in French, to be taken before the
commanding officer of the place. Whether or not the fellow understood my
words, he sprang off courteously beside me, and made a sign for me to
accompany him into the town. The others took his horse in lead, and
followed us at a few paces.

As we passed the gate, I perceived that what I had taken for a great
stockade of unbaked mud brick was in fact no other than the rear walls
of a continuous row of houses, built in the form of a hollow square, and
with inward-facing doors. The town was thus of itself a most effectual
fortification against the savages of this region, the walls of the
houses extending up above the flat roofs so as to form a convenient