I had rested about an hour ere it grew light enough to continue my journey, and I soon reached the plain, where unfortunately the grass grew very high. I was obliged to mount my horse again, for it was impossible to walk through the grass; and though I was very sorry to do it, I urged the poor creature on, while he continually strove, by hanging his head and shaking his neck, to make me understand it was high time to go to rest. I had continued my journey for two hours without stopping, when the grass grew shorter, my horse every now and then stepped on stones, and I saw a tree or two again. I had probably passed the lowest part of the valley, and as I had found no water in it, there was no prospect of doing so at a greater elevation. I was awfully tired and sleepy, and my horse was quite as bad; I therefore unsaddled under an elm, fastened Czar to the tree by his long lasso, and in ten minutes I was dreaming of cool crystalline water; but for all that woke at daybreak exhausted and feverish, and to my horror missed my horse. I sprang up, surveyed the wide plain, and who can describe my delight when I saw Czar's white coat shining a few hundred yards off over a small mimosa bush, behind which he was enjoying the fresh grass in a hollow. The knot of the lasso had come undone, and thus Czar had been able to look about for more agreeable fodder. I led him nearer my bivouac, and was just going to light my fire, when I saw smoke rising in the west, about three miles from me. I quickly pocketed my flint and steel, saddled, and rode toward the highest part of the ridge which divided the valley in half. When I had nearly reached the top I dismounted and crawled to the highest point, whence I surveyed the valley, and observed an Indian camp, round which some three hundred horses and mules were grazing. I saw through the grass that the various families were sitting at the fires in front of their leathern tents, with the exception of a few children that were playing about. The camp was on the other side of a stream which wound through the valley from the north. Though I longed so for water, I must avoid the neighbourhood of these savages, who might prove very dangerous to me in such an unknown and desolate country. I rode back through the valley in which I had spent the night, and into the mountains on its eastern side; for, if I had followed the valley to reach the river, I must have been noticed by the Indians on my white horse. The road was tiring, as I was frequently obliged to walk, and the heat on these barren hills soon rendered my thirst intolerable.