ntieth century. It
was to intercept one of these treasure trains that Amyas Leigh and his
doughty comrades of "Westward Ho!" lay in wait, and the fiction of
Kingsley will better serve to portray the time and place than the facts
as the old historians strung them together.

"Bidding farewell once and forever to the green ocean of the eastern
plains, they have crossed the Cordillera; they have taken a longing
glance at the city of Santa Fe, lying in the midst of rich gardens on
its lofty mountain plateau, and have seen, as was to be expected, that
it was far too large for any attempt of theirs. But they have not
altogether thrown away their time. Their Indian lad has discovered
that a gold-train is going down from Santa Fe toward the Magdalena; and
they are waiting for it beside the miserable rut that serves for a
road, encamped in a forest of oaks which would make them almost fancy
themselves back in Europe were it not for the tree-ferns which form the
undergrowth; and were it not for the deep gorges opening at their very
feet; in which while their brows are swept by the cool breezes of a
temperate zone, they can see far below, dim through their everlasting
vapor bath of rank, hot steam, the mighty forms and gorgeous colors of
the tropic forest.

"... At last, up from beneath there was a sharp crack and a loud cry.
The crack was neither the snapping of a branch, nor the tapping of a
woodpecker; the cry was neither the scream of a parrot, nor the howl of
a monkey.

"'That was a whip's crack,' said Yeo, 'and a woman's wail. They are
close here, lads!'

"'A woman's? Do they drive women in their gangs?' asked Amyas. 'Why
not, the brutes? There they are, sir. Did you see their basnets
glitter?'

"'Men!' said Amyas in a low voice. 'I trust you all not to shoot till
I do. Then give them one arrow, out swords, and at them! Pass the
word along.'

"Up they came, slowly, and all hearts beat loud at their coming.
First, about twenty soldiers, only one half of whom were on foot; the
other half being borne, incredible as it may seem, each in a chair on
the back of a single Indian, while those who marched had consigned
their heaviest armor and their arquebuses into the hands of attendant
slaves, who were each pricked on at will by the pikes of the soldiers
behind them.... Last of this troop came some inferior officer also in
his chair, who as he went slowly up the hill, with his face turned
toward the gang which fo