OCR Text |
Show 218 PER80NAL ADVENTURES cent less. I considered the bargain off, when, casting his eye on a hanrlson1e saddle which I had brought in parts fro1n the lo,ver country, and completed myself, he renewed his proposal, varied now by offering to let me have the animal for ten dollars and the saddle. To this arrangement I consented, on the condition of my approving of the steed, and we forthwith ,vent out to look at him. A trial of his speed· and action having satisfied me, the bargain ,vas concluded in the most formal and legal manner before the Alcalde ; and a paper was drawn up, setting forth the nature of the exchange, and describing the horse, his agenearly, I suppose-his colour, peculiarities, and brand, and that the horse was the property of the seller at the time of the sale. • • My next step was to brand him agmn, on the hind-quarters, 'vith a mark of my own; namely, a cross, seared with a red-hot iron ramrod. These formalities and precautions are very necessary in California, where, horses being valuable, horse-stealing is considered almost a IN CALIFORNIA. 219 national virtue; for, in spite of the severe pains and penalties against the offence, natives and foreigners disregard all notions of property in these animals, and never scruple to appropriate to themselves any they may find, or create an opportunity of catching. The brand, of con rse, renders them easy to be identified, in the event of their being met with again after they have once been taken away; though, in the course of horse-dealing, it is not at all unusual for a man to sell an animal which does not belong to him, and perhaps never did, leaving the unlucky purcha8er to square accounts with the real owner, should the two chance to meet. Halliday, another of our party, likewise succeeded in " making a trade " for a horse, or "swapping" for him, as the Yankees term the act of barter. He gave an epine watch and a few handsome articles of apparel which took the fancy of the Spaniard who made the exchange, and he went away chuckling over his bargain. His animal and mine were put up together in the school-house yard, and he L2 |