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Show 150 PERSONAL ADVENTURES ,vas of firRt-rate blood, on the strength of ,vbich illusion I mounted hirn, and, consoling myself with it as well as I could, jogged on very uncomfortably, contriving never to quite lose sight of my better mounted com-pan1• ons. In this manner I accomplished fifty miles, or more, and I ought to speak kindly of the poor beast that carried me, though it was at his own pace. I had not the heart to use switch or spur, when I looked at his spiritless eye, and glanced at his bare ribs, which poked almost through his skin, and showed like so many staves of a barrel. I am sure, if he suffered as 1nuch in carrying n1e as I did in riding him, it was lucky for both that his pace was not what might have been called "fast," for a trot must inevitably have shaken him to pieces, and sawn my unfortunate body in two : it was awful to contemplate what even a moderately quick walk actually did. The pilgrim's purgatory of peas in one's shoes must have been Paradise itself, compared to this slow and excruciating mode of progres- IN CALIFORNIA. 151 sion. I am bound, however, to do the poor animal the justice to say, that if he did not go well, it was not his fault, and that he would have done so, had he been able. l-Ie did his best, and beast or n1an can do no more. As we approached Todos Santos, I stopped to arrange the girth of my blanket, which had become loose, when I observed Doctor Freund ' the German whom I have already mentioned, sitting on a mound of earth by the road-side, holding his huge portmanteau on his knees, and with a countenance expressive of the deepest misery. I saw in a moment ·what was the n1atter; but to load n1y beast with the Doctor's portmanteau, which was cramn1ed to bursting with all sorts of medicines, would have been reducing myself to the same miserable plight. We were, I believed, the only two left in the rear, and there 'vas no alternative but to leave him where he was for a time aR at our next halt it would be easy for o' ne of the best mounted to retrace his steps, and assist the Doctor out of his difficulties. Accordingly, after hinting my intentions, |