"_Y a viene, y a viene!_" he cried out, "now, now it's coming! hurrah for the roan!" but, under the rifle of a mountaineer, one of the Californians dashed at it, a lasso whirling round his head, and turning and twisting like a doubling hare, as the horse tried to avoid him, at last threw the open coil over the animal's head, and led him back in triumph to the band. "_Maldito sea aquel Indio_--curse that Indian!" quoth the padre, and turned away. And now our sturdy band--less two who had gone under--were fairly on their way. They passed the body of their comrade who had been killed in the fight before the Mission; the wolves, or Indian dogs, had picked it to the bones; but a mound near by, surmounted by a rude cross, showed where the Californians (seven of whom were killed) had been interred--the pile of stones at the foot of the cross testifying that many an _ave maria_ had already been said by the poor Indians, to save the souls of their slaughtered companions from the pangs of purgatory. For the first few days progress was slow and tedious. The confusion attendant upon driving so large a number of animals over a country without trail or track of any description, was sufficient to prevent speedy traveling; and the mountaineers, desirous of improving the pace, resolved to pursue a course more easterly, and to endeavor to strike the great Spanish Trail, which is the route followed by the New Mexicans in their journeys to and from the towns of Puebla de los Angeles and Santa Fé. This road, however, crosses a long stretch of desert country, destitute alike of grass and water, save at a few points, the regular halting-places of the caravans; and as but little pasture is to be found at these places at any time, there was great reason to fear, if the Santa Fé traders had passed this season, that there would not be sufficient grass to support the numerous cavallada, after the herbage had been laid under contribution by the traders' animals. However, a great saving of time would be effected by taking this trail, although it wound a considerable distance out of the way to avoid the impassable chain of the Sierra Nevada--the gap in those mountains through which the Americans had come being far to the northward, and at this late season probably obstructed by the snow.